by Susan Hayes
Annie nodded. “Makes sense, but I still think Danny has a point. MUFF aren’t really the gun-toting ty—”
Sergei growled and she stopped midsentence. “You need to stick together and get to that payphone, contact the director, and report what’s happening. Then, give her this message, verbatim. Welcome to my nightmare. No more mister nice guy. And when she asks, tell her I’ll need a helicopter extraction an hour after dawn tomorrow morning. Location will be the campsite we planned to use tonight. She knows where that is.”
Danny blinked at him. “Did you just use Alice Cooper song lyrics in a message to the director?”
“I’m amazed you know who that is, and yes, I did. She’ll know what it means.”
The moose shifter shrugged. “My parents are into classic rock.” Danny carefully stowed the satellite phone in his pack and then stripped. Annie did too, both of them stuffing their clothes into their packs. They’d need them when they reached civilization.
Sergei turned his attention to Tabi and tried not to think about the fact some of his favourite bands were now considered classics. “Tabitha, you need to go, too. You can’t shift, no way to explain a unicorn running through the woods if anyone spots you, but once I distract these assholes, you need to get gone as fast as your two legs can carry you. FUC can pick you up when you get to the parking lot.”
She glared at him. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“Yes, you are. These assholes are after me. It’s imperative you get as far away from me as possible.”
A piercing whistle rang through the trees. The other side was getting ready to move. They were out of time.
“Go! Scatter and run.” He pointed to the trees behind them.
Three seconds later, a bear and a moose charged into the woods, one with a pack in her mouth, the other with his gear dangling from one broad antler. Shots rang out, but both the cadets vanished into the trees unscathed. However, the forest remained empty of unicorns. Dammit.
“I told you to run,” he hissed at Tabi, who hadn’t moved.
“And I told you I’m not going anywhere without you. You’re the one who said I needed to embrace my predator side.” She folded her arms. “This is me being a predator. I’m going to fight, not run.”
“You picked a hell of a time to make that call.” He couldn’t decide if he was more proud, annoyed, or turned on by her choice.
“So, now what?”
He kicked off his boots and dropped his jacket on top of them. There wasn’t time for anything else. “Now you grab my gear and head for those trees, while I deal with these assholes. If anyone comes close to you, shift and run like hell, but try to bring the gear if you can. We’re going to need it.”
“But I want to fight!”
He took her by the shoulders. “You will. But you don’t have the training, Tabi, and I don’t have time to teach you right now. I need to thin their numbers, or we’re not going to make it until reinforcements get here. Take the packs and head towards the sun. I’ll find you. Now go, before they overrun this position!”
Thank Bast’s fluffy tail, she didn’t argue this time. She merely nodded, kissed him hard, and whispered, “Be careful.”
Then she was gone, vanishing into the undergrowth with impressive stealth and speed, especially considering she was belly crawling while carrying both their gear. Once she was safely away, he shifted and bounded in the opposite direction. Gunfire shattered the silence again, and he had to duck and weave as he broke for the cover of the trees.
Despite the danger, it felt good to be in his furry form again, and he loosed a roar as he hit the treeline. Now, the tables would turn. He was in his element, a hunter…
A gun cracked, there was a thwack, a whine, and then his shoulder erupted into white-hot agony. Son of a bitch!
He roared again and bolted deeper into the forest, ignoring the pain that radiated down one foreleg. After the initial jolt, it settled to a low throb, and a quick glance at the injury confirmed it wasn’t serious, just a graze from a ricochet. The bastards had gotten lucky, that’s all. He paused to get his bearings, changing course to circle back behind them. Their luck was about to run out.
12
Stupid tiger telling her to run and hide. First, he was all, be a predator, grr, and now it was run away and oh, take my stuff with you, while I go be a badass.
Tabi grumbled to herself the whole time she was crawling through the mud and snow, pausing often to listen and adjust course so she didn’t cross paths with the assholes trying to shoot them. Sergei might be convinced they were MUFF, but she wasn’t so sure. This wasn’t really their modus operandi. At least, not from what she understood, but there hadn’t been time to explain that to Sergei. Not that he was likely to listen to her, anyway. He hadn’t paid any attention to Danny earlier.
She might only be a librarian, but she’d heard plenty about all the various threats to shifterkind listening to cadets and instructors talk. Since the incident, she’d paid special attention in case someone dropped a hint that might help her figure out which group had kidnapped and experimented on her. All she’d been able to glean was that they were a splinter group working independently.
FUC spent a lot of time hunting down assholes like the ones that had taken her, making the world safer for shifters everywhere. But at the moment, she didn’t feel very fucking safe. If this wasn’t a MUFF operation, then who the hell were these people and why were they after Sergei?
She ducked behind a tree and took a moment to catch her breath, using all her senses to ascertain if she was safe. She couldn’t detect anything. No footsteps, no out of place scents. There were still occasional shots being fired back the way she’d come, but nothing prolonged. She leaned back against the trunk of the tree and thought about Sergei. He was the one they were shooting at, and she’d left him back there. Alone. It didn’t feel right. She’d been scared, sure, but she hadn’t panicked. She should have stayed with him and found a way to help instead of running away like a scared rabbit.
That’s when it dawned on her. As scared as she’d been, she hadn’t shifted. Not so much as a twinge. Holy horseshoes, she hadn’t shifted!
She wanted to squeal with joy and do a happy dance, but she settled for tossing a handful of snow into the air like confetti and whispering, “Yay me!”
She was still trying to wrap her head around it all when the woods behind her exploded in a cacophony of noise. Roars, screams, and gunfire all blended into a bone-chilling concerto. She leapt to her feet, quickly shed her clothes, bundled them into her jacket, and buried the lot beneath the snow. It cost her valuable seconds, but they’d need the contents of those packs later… assuming they survived the next few minutes.
Then, prancing to keep her feet off the frozen snow as much as possible, she did something she’d been too frightened to attempt since her kidnapping. She deliberately shifted forms.
A few seconds later she was standing on four hooves, and she threw her head back to whinny in triumph. She’d done it!
Spinning on her haunches, she charged through the trees and back toward the fighting, feeling more powerful than she’d ever experienced before. If this was what Sergei had meant about embracing her new nature, then she was definitely on board with the idea.
She ducked and weaved through the forest for a few glorious minutes before slowing to a more cautious jog. She wasn’t exactly built for stealth, and she couldn’t spot the enemy if she was running full tilt.
A terrified wail came from over on her left, rising to an ear-piercing shriek and then ending suddenly, followed by another primal roar from Sergei. He’d taken down another one, probably killed him, but all she felt was a wave of relief that he was still alive.
A metallic click caught her attention, and she slowed to a walk as she tried to trace the sound. She caught wind of gunsmoke and aftershave and followed it back to the source. One of them was hiding behind a tree, his back to her, his weapon raised as he tracked something she couldn’
t see. There was only one target he could be aiming for. Sergei.
She closed in silently and lunged the last few metres in a sudden rush, lashing out with one hoof to strike him behind the knee. He toppled and dropped like a sack of grain. She was on him in seconds, grabbing him by one shoulder and tossing him against a nearby tree. There was a meaty thunk as his head hit the trunk. He slithered to the ground and lay still. She snorted, stomped on his gun a few times, and trotted off to find Sergei.
A shot rang out, and a dart thwacked into a nearby tree. She barely had time to spot the red projectile before the air filled with gunfire and she ran like her tail was on fire, dodging through the trees and leaping over fallen logs and other obstacles.
Darts. Not bullets. That fact wandered through her head like a kitten looking for a place to nap. It was an important detail, but she was too high on adrenaline to think clearly at the moment, so she stashed it away for later.
Sergei roared again, this time in pain, and she veered toward the sound. She screamed a battle cry and charged pell-mell through the forest, breaking into a clearing. She spotted Sergei immediately. His beautifully striped coat was streaked with blood. He was moving slower than she’d expected, and she quickly realized why. Tranquillizer darts. He’d been hit with enough of a dose to slow him. If he took another hit, he’d go down.
Someone was speaking into a radio as she entered the fray, and his voice rose when he spotted her. “Holy shit! Primary target spotted. Repeat. Primary target spotted, and she’s shifted to battle form.”
“Headed back, now,” someone responded.
“The bitch must have gotten past me. On my way.”
“I’m getting no answer from Ripper or Flip. I thought this was a routine extraction!” someone else shouted in near panic.
The man in the clearing stared at her, his weapon still pointed at the ground. “Guys, there is nothing routine about this. She’s huge! Way bigger than we were told. Transporting these two is gonna be a major problem.”
Primary target? Her? And who was this asshole to start commenting on her weight? Her vision went red as a wave of pure rage overtook her. She lowered her head and charged. The next few seconds passed in a blur of screams, fury, and bloodshed, though thankfully, the details were already fading as she trotted over to Sergei and nuzzled his injured side.
He bunted her with the broad flat of his head, and the two of them slipped out of the clearing before the others could converge on their companion’s position. They didn’t get more than thirty metres or so before Sergei sat down and uttered a frustrated snarl.
She shifted to her human form and dropped to her knees at his side, her hands deep in his soft fur as she checked his injuries. “We can’t stay here long. How bad is it?”
He shot her a disgruntled look that made her laugh, and before she knew it she was stroking a naked man instead of a tiger. “I’m just a little woozy. That’s all. Don’t know why. I haven’t lost that much blood.”
“Did you happen to miss the fact they’re shooting tranq darts at us?” Now that he was naked, it was a lot easier to see his injuries. He had a few nasty splinters of wood in his shoulder, a graze wound, and a puncture on his hip that was probably where he’d gotten a dose of tranquillizer. It was right over his hipbone, and she suspected that’s what had saved him from getting a full dose.
He gave her a bleary look. “Darts?”
“I don’t think these are MUFF’s people. I heard them saying I was the primary target, and something about transporting us out of here.” She got to her feet again, satisfied that he wasn’t going to bleed out. “I think they’re part of the group that took me the last time. Or at least, they’ve been hired by them. I hate to break it to you, Mister television star, but they’re not here for you.”
“Well, they’re not getting either of us. Doesn’t matter who they are, or who they’re after. We need to finish them.” He struggled to his feet, but it was clear he was in no condition to fight. Not until he’d had time to clear the drugs from his system.
She gave herself permission to take one long, lust inducing look at him before she got back to business. He was a thing of beauty as both man and beast, and later she wanted to get a better look at both forms, but this wasn’t the time. She grabbed his hand and tugged. “We’re not finishing anyone right now.”
He followed her grudgingly, but kept looking back the way they’d come. “My dad taught me you never walked away from a fight until you were the last one standing.”
“And mine taught me that he who hides then runs away, gets to live another day.”
Sergei wrinkled his nose. “You want me to run and hide?”
She pulled him behind a tree and glared up at him. “I want both of us to survive until tomorrow. We’re outnumbered, and you’re not exactly at the top of your game, Mr. Predator. So for now, we’re the hunted, not the hunters.”
Shouts rang out behind them. “They found their friend,” Sergei said.
“What’s left of him.” She tried not to think about the gooey mess she’d made of the man who’d been about to shoot Sergei, focusing instead on how far it was to where she’d hidden their packs. It was too far.
“We need to move faster than this. Naked, terrified, and unarmed really isn’t working for us. Time for Plan B.” She kissed him quickly and stepped back, giving herself enough room to shift.
“What are you doing?”
“Saving both of us. I’ll get us to the gear. After that, you’ll need to point me in the right direction. Get ready to mount up and run, cowboy.” She managed a soft laugh. “And welcome to the other side of the food chain.”
She shifted again and immediately felt her energy flag a little. She was going to need to recharge after this. Hell, they’d both have to, and that meant she had to get them far away from here.
She walked over to a rotting stump and stood beside it. When Sergei didn’t move, she stamped her hoof and whickered.
“Don’t get your tail in a twist, I’m coming.” He shook his head, squared his shoulders and made his way over. He vaulted onto her back, hissing slightly as he landed, his thighs clamping her sides as he tried to avoid crushing the more delicate bits of his anatomy.
She set off, first at a walk, as she got used to the extra weight. She’d never allowed anyone to ride her before, and she had to keep making adjustments to her balance to compensate.
After a few metres, she shifted from a walk to a canter. Sergei whooped, tangling his hands into her mane as they flew through the forest. His thighs gripped her hard, so he could shift his weight forward, his big body low over her neck to avoid the branches whipping overhead.
She spotted tracks in the snow, the footprints too small to be anyone but her own. She was on the right trail! They’d be able to recover their gear and then dash off again.
It only took a few minutes to find the spot, and she slowed to a walk, then stopped in front of the tree, pawing the ground to show him where their stuff was buried. He pulled out the packs, dressed, and then remounted, using more care this time.
“I have to admit, this is not how I imagined my first time riding you bareback would go.”
She snorted and swung her head round to glare at him. She might not be able to speak, but she thought he’d get the point. Now was not the time for sex jokes.
He grinned and patted her neck. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Head in the same direction as before. Try to avoid the snow where you can—no sense leaving them a trail to follow. We’re going to stay far from the main trails. It’ll make it harder for them to guess where we’re going.”
She noted he didn’t tell her where they were going, either. But what the hell, after the day they’d had, what was one more surprise?
13
If it wasn’t for the fact he was woozy and hurting, Sergei would be having the time of his life rocketing through the woods astride what he’d heard one of them call Tabi’s battle form. He grinned. Battle-corn, more like. Yeah. He liked the
sound of that. When they got back to the academy, he’d make sure the legend of the battle-corn was planted. By the time he left, they’d have forgotten about calling her Stabitha.
An ache filled his chest, vague but persistent. He didn’t like the idea of leaving. He’d agreed to this whole insane trip so he could steal a few more days with her, and even though they were running for their damned lives, he wasn’t sorry about the choice he’d made. She was worth it.
His joy in their wild escape faded as he realized that while he had no regrets, Tabi likely had a list of them. She’d come on this trip hoping for a little adventure and romance. Instead, she had risked her life to save his sorry ass from a bunch of cut-rate mercenaries. He was supposed to be helping her, for fuck's sake. Not the other way around.
He leaned to one side to avoid a branch, his reactions slowed by the drugs in his system and his balance fucked up by the two packs he had slung over his shoulders.
It stung him to admit she’d been right about that, too. He was in no condition to fight right now. If his father could see him now, he’d roar in horror. Running and hiding were not the Molotov way. Nor was getting your tail pulled out of the fire by a female, for that matter. Even if she was the most magnificent woman he’d ever met.
By the time they arrived at their destination, they were both more than ready to stop. He hadn’t done a lot of horseback riding in his life, and none of it had been bareback. His legs ached and there were parts of his anatomy that weren't going to be speaking to him for quite some time, but at least the drugs were fading from his system and he could think clearly again.
He dismounted, setting aside the packs as Tabi shifted back to her human form. She looked as wrung out as he felt, and it was the most natural thing in the world to walk over and cuddle her close against his chest. They leaned on each other in silence, and when she started to shiver he scooped her into his arms rather than let her go.