Mated to the Pride: A Military Shifter Reverse Harem Romance

by Jade Alters

  Right on cue, I heard the sound of the TV buzzing into life. I couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like a newscaster’s voice. Hopefully, that’d keep Hale-or-Preston sufficiently distracted while I made my escape. At least they wouldn’t be expecting this. If they were, I wouldn’t stand a chance of getting by them.

  I stowed the test away in the bathroom cabinet, not wanting anybody to walk in on it by accident. Tying my hair up into a quick topknot, I slipped out into the empty corridor. The shower was running, and the TV still blaring. With my footsteps light, it wasn’t too difficult to make my way to the back door and quietly unlatch it. Only when I was outside did I let out my breath, but the next breath in was exactly as calming and restorative as I had hoped. With the sun beaming down on me and that breeze lifting the loose strands of my hair, I felt like I might be able to handle this. At least, I’d find a way.

  After all, I did have one lucky factor I hadn’t considered yet. Every single one of the North men would make an excellent father. Blake’s stern strength and quiet kindness would help keep any unruly child on the right path. By contrast, it wasn’t hard to picture Hale pitching up the world’s biggest and coolest pillow fort — or Stone reading a nightly bedtime story, complete with enthusiastic character voices and sound effects. Preston’s thoughtfulness and individuality would set a perfect example for a child to follow their own path, and be mindful of their choices.

  My heart throbbed. At the center of all this, no matter how much I panicked or paced, was a new life. Already, I knew that the options of terminating the pregnancy or giving the baby up for adoption were completely out of the question. Though I’d only just learned it existed, I already felt a deep connection between us which I had no intention of severing.

  I just wondered which other connections I’d be severing in the process.

  I looked over my shoulder as I reached the woods, wanting to make sure I kept the cabin in sight. I didn’t want to go out far. After all, I knew what we were here for. Occasionally I still had startling moments in otherwise pleasant dreams when armed men broke into the cabin to hurt us. Even the memory of it was intense enough that I lifted my hand to my stomach, feeling instinctively protective.

  My stomach flipped. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was scary to know that my entire life would now be pivoting to something new — that part of my old identity would fade away to be replaced by a whole new name; Mom.

  Wait. What was that?

  I froze, hearing a rustling in the trees. It sounded too heavy and deliberate and focused to belong to the breeze, but now that I had stopped in my tracks, the only sound I could hear was the birdsong around me. Then, a beat later, a fluttering as those birds took off into the afternoon air.

  Silence again. I could practically hear my heart beating. Just as I had convinced myself that I was hearing things, I heard a branch snap a couple of meters away. As my head whipped around to identify the source, I felt movement behind me — but when I tried to scream, it was too late. A gloved hand had already clamped down hard over my mouth, dragging me backward into the bushes and much, much further away from the cabin and the North men than I had ever hoped to be.

  Blake

  Alarm bells started ringing the moment she didn’t answer a knock on her door. No matter how down or unwell she had been over the past few weeks, Jessica had never been unresponsive — never hidden away from us. We hoped that she had just fallen asleep, but she had been a pretty light sleeper before.

  I frowned, poised in front of her door. Down the hallway, a group of three uneasy North men looked back at me. The tension had been sharp enough when we had just decided to tell her the truth this evening; now, this silence behind the door was more than we were equipped for.

  “Should we go in?” Preston suggested. “Is that invasive? Shit.”

  I knocked again, a little louder this time. “Jessica. Are you okay in there? We’re worried about you.”

  When she didn’t answer this time, I decided it was time. I glanced at Hale to be sure, waiting for his approving nod before I tried to open the door. It swayed open with almost no pressure at all — and showed us an entirely empty room behind it.

  Stone didn’t wait a second to start looking around the cabin. “Jess?”

  “She said she was going for a nap,” insisted Preston. “I swear that’s what she said.”

  “She couldn’t have gone far,” I said, comforting myself as much as him. It was true, after all. She didn’t have a vehicle or shifter speed; if she had left the cabin, it was impossible for her to be out of our range. She wouldn’t be unsafe for long — not on our watch.

  Now it just remained to be seen why she’d left in the first place. Frankly, that almost concerned me more than the fact of her absence. Whatever had been off about her for the past few weeks had either gotten badly worse, or morphed into something much more dangerous. Should we have revealed the truth to her sooner? I wasn’t sure. I still wasn’t convinced that it would make things better and not worse, but we had to try.

  “Scent outside,” Stone called. Without waiting, we all followed him outside. I could feel a sense of dread mounting between all four of us — not least because Jessica’s scent wasn’t the only one we detected on the wind.

  “Alright,” I said. “Stating the obvious, but spread out. Find a trace. We follow as soon as we’ve got a firm direction. Use whichever form is most suited; this is no time to be shy about it.”

  “Just don’t scare her,” Stone pointed out, and I nodded my approval.

  “Right. Four lions sprinting at her full speed is not going to help the situation, so let’s bear that in mind. Otherwise, just stay in contact. We’ve trained for worse.”

  There was no time to waste on a long monologue, and we all knew it. As much as we’d like to believe Jessica was somewhere safe out here, the reality was that there was no safe place in these woods. Over the days and weeks, the traces of their overconfident brethren’s corpses had stopped scaring them so much. While they hadn’t tried attacking the cabin again just yet, they seemed to sense we were getting close. Seemed to be circling in to try and intimidate us.

  It would be easy for Jessica to walk too far from the perimeter of the cabin without realizing it. Last week, Hale had spotted them within sight of the walls, and—

  “Here,” Preston called. I followed the sound of his voice, shifting to whip through the dense shrubbery and old tree-stumps that peppered the ground here. As soon as we were all there, he sensed us and nodded down at some scuffed footprints in the dusty dirt. “Looks like a struggle. I’m pretty sure that’s her footprint over there, leading up to it.”

  Is there a scent? I asked

  Over here. Hale tossed his head, drawing our attention to a fresh pathway that had been hacked unceremoniously through the undergrowth. Same iron they use for their weapons. Hint of her perfume. This is it.

  Go ahead, I directed — but the order was unnecessary. Already, all four of us knew what to do. Preston joined us in his paws, running at full speed through this hacked-up walkway through the woods. Figured that they wouldn’t respect the nature around them any more than they respected human life.

  Or shifter life, for that matter.

  It didn’t take long to realize that Hale was exactly right. The metallic tang of their weapons grew stronger at every hacked branch, and every time the breeze blew back our way, it carried a hint of Jessica with it. We were heading the right way.

  We’re coming, Jessica.

  We slowed to a quieter pace as a group, falling back into the thick woodlands to avoid being seen. A minute later, we heard voices. Heads lowered, the deep sandy color of our bodies kept us coolly camouflaged against the dirt and dust — blended in by shadow. We would have to be careful, but with luck they wouldn’t see us until we were right up close. Until we could overtake them in a heartbeat, and make sure nothing happened to Jessica in the interim.

  It was difficult to know, in the heat of the moment
, whether I’d made the wrong decision in bringing her here. This clearly wasn’t a safe environment, as much as we had tried to make it one for her sake. Of course, if we hadn’t hired her, we may never have met her, and the thought of that alternative was a sharp stone under my paw — but I also couldn’t bear the guilt of having endangered her like this. If anything had happened to her…

  Hey, Hale said, pressing in. Gone was the lighthearted teasing of his usual in-mind interruptions. Now, he was all business. You’re beating yourself up. I’m not looking; I can just tell. We’ve got this, okay? We’re going to find her.

  We have to. I tossed my head, slowing my pace as the scent got closer and closer. We had reached a part of the woods we hadn’t scooped out yet, with the trees packed in close together and the floor thick with discarded leaves and needles. Visibility was low here. They’d picked a good spot.

  Alright — standard formation. Ears open. You all know the drill.

  At my command, the four of us fell into our places like the well-practiced unit we were, neatly diverging off in our separate directions without the need to hesitate or ask questions. Most of the time, this made our paramilitary work a lot easier. Right now? It just might save our One Mate’s life.

  We heard their voices as background humming at first — sharp arhythmic buzzing that sounded like nothing in particular. As we got close enough to make out individual words, the pitch changed. Another voice.

  Her voice.

  Easy, I said, warning myself as much as the rest of them. Hold formation. Don’t rush in.

  I can see a campfire, said Preston. Surrounded by a thicket of trees. Pretty large fire.

  Space for… what? Ten men? I asked.

  No, many more. This could be their main encampment.

  Stone flashed in with agreement. Agreed. I’m beginning to see defences. Palisade walls. Preston’s right; this is their base.

  If they were correct, then this was a fight we weren’t properly prepared for. There was a reason we hadn’t just run out and explored these woods quickly and without care; we had to be methodical and well-informed so that we could stand on the best possible footing for the inevitable fight. Right now, their decision to take Jessica had backed us into a corner. We only had half of the picture here, and the limited amount of equipment we had brought with us when we ran out.

  We were going to have to think on our paws, but we had no other choice.

  Anyone hazard a guess as to which side they’re keeping her? I asked.

  We fell into each other’s minds, quickly comparing the clues we all had. With our information shared, we knew that her voice was loudest for Hale — that they must be keeping her on the far side of the encampment.

  I’ll close in on this side, he confirmed. Follow in.

  Copy. We’ll move in closer. Just keep your distance, I reminded them all. We don’t have the firepower to back us up if this goes south. Got to even the playing field first.

  Most of the time, working jobs like these was just second nature to us. We dealt with some of the most dangerous and amoral individuals the government could send us to meet, so engaging the enemy was never a moral hardship. Right now, though? I could feel that all four of us had hearts pumping full of angry, protective mate’s blood — that the hate we felt for these assholes, whatever their number, had somehow intensified. They were extremists putting the country at risk, yes, but those crimes felt somewhat distant right now. It was secondary to the fact that they had put Jessica in danger. Treated her like some kind of bait or prize.

  I hear her, Hale said. Listen.

  We all shifted our minds to share his headspace, quickly latching onto the frantic sound of Jessica’s voice.

  “I swear, I don’t know!”

  “Don’t fuck around with me, girl.” This voice belonged to an older man — hard and gravelly, and as southern as they come. “If you’ve been living there, you know something about ‘em. Let’s start off simple. You know their names.”

  “I don’t!” she insisted. “That was always part of the job. No names. No codenames. Total discretion. I swear, I don’t know anything!”

  I felt my lion’s powerful muscles tighten, tense at the sound of her desperation and bravery. We knew she was made of tough stuff, of course, but to hear her fight to protect our identity like that, even in great danger, was stirring. Even if a big part of me wished she’d just come out with the truth to protect herself.

  Soon enough, these bastards wouldn’t be alive to repeat our names anyway.

  A beat later, I had to abandon the train of thought to focus elsewhere. As the interrogation continued, I heard a quiet disturbance of the leaves ahead of me. A sentry — off-guard and unaware for now, but he wouldn’t be for long.

  I’ve got guards, said Stone.

  One here too, I confirmed. Take it easy, everyone. Take them out quiet, but only if they get too close. We don’t want chaos just yet.

  Still, no matter what I said, it felt like chaos was close at hand. I could feel that familiar spark of adrenaline in my veins, edging me on towards the oblivious armed guard.

  They’d taken her away from us. Now, they’d see what we could take in return.

  Stone

  Now that I could hear her voice, I could feel anger rippling closer and closer to my surface. Before long, I wouldn’t be able to control myself. Even now, only Blake’s authority over me prevented the thread from snapping. I wanted to run into that place and tear them limb from limb — any of them that had touched her or tried to scare her.

  Blake knew what he was talking about, though — and he was right. If we just stormed in there all guns blazing, we’d be outnumbered and outgunned and outmaneuvered within moments. We had to wait until they were off-guard; we had to separate them and pick them off in small numbers. In other words, this wasn’t the time to let our emotions get the best of us.

  I paused as one of the guards drew near. He still had no idea I was there; his weapon was slung over his shoulder as though he had never even thought about having to use it, and his thoughts seemed to be occupied elsewhere. He seemed innocent enough — but he was old enough to know better than to fight for an ideology like this.

  I part-shifted back to human form, retaining only the sharp claws of my left hand. Silently approaching from behind the cover of a tree, I slipped up behind him and slit his throat.

  One down.

  Mine’s approaching, said Preston. Any minute now.

  This part, at least, was a dance we’d taken part in many times. Granted, we were usually better appraised of what lay inside the encampment walls and how we’d deal with it once we got there — but right now, the process was the same. It felt like muscle memory at this point, barely worth thinking through.

  That left a lot of space for my mind to run wild, thinking of all the terrible ways they might treat her in pursuit of information. I cared about Jess from the moment we met, but ever since we slept together, it had stacked up to something much more intense. It was as though that act of love had confirmed every suspicion, I had about who she was, and what we could be together. It felt like we’d been together for decades in those few short moments.

  I gritted my teeth, covering the body of the guard in case another should come by. We were here for her now. Maybe she didn’t know it yet, but the ordeal was coming to an end.

  Guard out on my side, said Blake. Hale?

  Clear for me.

  And here, Preston added.

  Alright, said Blake. Move in closer for observation and bunker down. We’ll wait until nightfall, unless she’s in imminent danger.

  I’d follow my alpha’s orders, of course, but the thought of waiting just within her reach for hours as darkness fell, hurt me. I couldn’t imagine how frightened she must be down there, trying to hold up the front that she didn’t know what they were asking her. Every now and again they came back to the spot they were keeping her, and they’d try again — pushing and pressing in various different ways to try and get
her to talk.

  So far, they hadn’t touched her. For their own sake, they’d better hope it stayed that way.

  Once night had finally fallen, the glow from the campfire was the only thing to illuminate our surroundings. It cast long, flickering finger-like shadows through the trees and the palisade walls. Eerie-looking, but shadows had always been our friends. Tonight was no different. As the night sentry finally took over, I stirred from my position in the tree. It was nearly time. I could feel it in my joints, watching the casual arrogance of those nighttime guards — expecting nothing, and prepared for nothing.

  Human form, said Blake. Arm up and shoot to kill. We don’t have the intel or the backup to handle this situation if things turn out bad. Everybody prepared?

  I felt our collective readiness. It filled up my limbs like electricity as I shifted back into human form, stretching my shoulders and my arms. A moment later, I had my pistol in hand. Heart pounding, I waited for the signal to come.

  It felt like a lifetime before Blake finally said those words.

  Alright. Move in.

  Our movements sometimes felt like an out-of-body experience. We trained so carefully that when it came to performing a task, all of our physical movements were second nature, and we could dedicate the bulk of our thinking to strategy. As such, when I reached the thinning lines of the trees outside the encampment, it felt almost like I was watching myself — distant, somehow. When I reached the guard on the gate, there was no fear to prickle at the base of my spine. Nothing but the cool understanding of what I had to do — and the hot, raw anger that motivated all of us.

  After a split second of action, the first guard was down. To my right, I saw Preston flooring another on the other side. At the front of the encampment, where the palisades parted, Hale and Blake would be closing in.