by Anya Nowlan
“Get her!” someone shouted, and she had no doubt that she was the ‘her’ they were intending to get.
Another volley of shots whizzed over her head and Nia eked out a little squeal as she crawled as quickly as she could. Right then, a series of tiny, crackling explosions sounded from the entrance of the lair as the delayed noise grenade went off, sparking small, nearly harmless explosions as well. Along with it, she could hear two shots going off immediately, one after another, and the tone of voices turning from angry to frantic behind her.
Against her better judgement, she stopped for a moment and peeked up, with two more shots screaming over her head, but now from the opposite direction.
Thor, Nia thought, her heart pounding out of her chest.
The voices grew quieter again and then the shooting ceased on both sides. Nia huddled in place, watching the lantern point stubbornly in the direction she was going to move. She knew that Thor was climbing down from his spot now, grabbing his assault rifle and moving in. While they’d agreed that she would run as far and as fast as she could as soon as she’d thrown the grenades, she couldn’t make her move now.
Something in her demanded that she stay, demanded that she make sure that Thor was going to be okay.
You pulled him out of some deep shit once, maybe you need to do it again.
The thought filled her with equal parts dread and expectation, though try as she might, her rational mind could not convince her to get up and continue running. Soon enough, Thor appeared from higher ground, made evident by the sneaking, light steps that she could recognize so easily now.
He might have been almost unnoticeable for most others, but for someone used to looking over her shoulder in a place like the jungles of Borneo, he was just another predator who was too big for his steps.
Nia crouched down lower, finding a sliver through the grass that gave her a muddled view of the entrance, bathed in light thanks to the lantern lying on the ground and shooting its beam over Nia’s head. Thor’s shadow could be briefly seen in the light before it disappeared and then she almost jumped as a violent volley of shots fired and she could see the red and yellow tacks of light that it generated.
She held her breath, hoping that it was Thor doing the shooting. She could hear several voices and then see Thor again, running in the opposite direction this time. Three large men appeared out of the bunker, all of them armed to the teeth, and took chase. Thor spun back for a moment, landing an expert shot and downing one of them, but the other two were not so easy. Nia heaved in a breath as the men opened fire against him and she could see the bullets bite into the tree trunks around him so close that he must have felt the heat coming off of them.
Oh my God, Thor…
The men were getting closer even though Thor was leading them on an arcing path around the bunker, obviously trying to find a way in which he could turn around and get off another shot or two without losing his head in the process. Something stirred within Nia and she could barely think Are you really doing this? before she allowed the shift to take her.
Her body seemed to fold into itself in the dark, her lush features becoming smaller and tighter and feathers sprouted from her back and hands as she shrunk. Her face twisted and contorted, the strong beak of a rhinoceros hornbill replacing her delicate features. Spreading her wings, she took flight, making a beeline at the motion in the distance.
Her eyesight in the darkness was nearly as bad as Thor’s had been after his injury, but she could hear them just fine and that was all that she needed. Extending her clawed feet, she descended upon the first Arctics agent to cross her path, slamming her talons into his head and then arcing her beak down straight into his face.
He screamed out, shallow and raw, and stumbled as he came to a stop, pawing at his head. The hornbill wouldn’t be deterred though and she plucked at his face again, tearing into the frail flesh with her massive and powerful beak. He shot a frenzied volley into the air as he fell straight on his back, Nia letting go at the very last moment and spreading her wings to gain some altitude
She could feel the searing heat of a bullet as it pierced her tail feathers and touched one leg. Nia cringed, trying to ignore it and fly as far as she could with it, but her body control was shot to hell with the loss of the feathers. Her strong wings took her near the same spot she’d been hiding in before and she dove into the cover of grass, the shift taking her when she had touched the ground.
Faintly, she could hear Thor roaring with rage and then someone screaming, someone who was most certainly not the wild, enraged panther shifter.
“Nia!? Nia, was that you!?” Thor yelled a moment later, his steps now completely unhidden as he stomped through the small clearing. “Nia, are you fuckin’ okay?! Answer me!”
He sounded frantic, like he was on the verge of losing his mind. Nia put a hand to the back of her thigh and she felt it come back slick with hot blood. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, willing herself to sound calmer than she was.
“I’m okay! Go get your squad!” she called back.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice sounding close, but she wouldn’t look up to see where he was for fear of him seeing her and coming to her.
If he saw her injury, he might never get to his squad, so she chose to shut up about it and suffer through the damn pain.
“Perfectly,” she said, gritting her teeth as she ripped a wide strip of cloth from her shirt and tied it tightly around her thigh to control the bleeding.
She slumped down on her side, feeling her gut twist and the corners of her vision blur slightly as Thor’s steps carried further away. It could have been a minute, it could have been hours, but when she looked up again, Nia could see the fuzzy form of Thor Dremmons above her, scooping her up in his arms with the guiltiest look on his face that she had ever seen on anyone.
He oozed regret and worry out of every pore and it seemed to beam out of him almost.
“Nia…” he muttered, bringing her close to his chest and kissing the top of her head.
“Did you get them?” she asked, her voice swimming as much as her head was.
“The bad guys? Fuck yes I did,” he growled. “But not fast enough, obviously.”
“No,” she protested. “Your squad!”
“He did,” a low, commanding voice said from behind him. “But don’t worry about it, little lady. You just stay with Thor and don’t you dare close your eyes again, you hear?”
She could faintly see the outlines of several men around her and Thor, but all she could do was nod a little and breathe easier. So they were okay. They’d done it.
If I could only close my eyes for a minute…
“Okay,” she said, forcing her eyes open again and centering her gaze on the strong, stern form of Thor, one hand clutching the fabric of his shirt, grimy and sweaty as it was.
“Good girl,” Thor murmured, squeezing her against him tighter as he set off in a run. “Don’t worry, you’ll be just fine. Just stay with me, honey.”
“Okay,” she muttered again, and the heaviness of sleep wanted to take over her like the thickest, most luxurious blanket she had ever known.
Ten
Thor
Thor sat in the transport with his head in his hands. His eyes still hurt like a bitch at the end of every day and his vision wasn’t as sharp as it had been before the blast that blinded him, as made evident by the several shots he had missed on that night when he bailed out Shifter Squad Nine. It was getting better with every day though, while Thor almost wished it wasn’t.
Frankly, he didn’t feel like he deserved to see a goddamn thing.
“You alright, man?” Ryker asked, making Thor stir out of his morose thoughts.
He looked up from his palms, giving Ryker a bleary-eyed look before dropping his head back in his hands.
“Just fuckin’ peachy.”
The ship rocked going over some of the higher waves near the shore, leaving the small port off of the northern tip of Sabah, Borneo, behind them.
None of the Shifter Squad Nine members had expected to spend a week on the giant island, but that came with the job – you could never be sure what you were getting yourself into before you were there and in the thick of things.
Salty water spritzed on Thor’s back, soaking through the fresh shirt he had pulled on that morning, providing some mild relief to the tormenting heat shining down upon him and the rest of the squad. The boat they were taking was a small local cruiser with an open top and barely enough room for the six of them and their gear. The Firm’s larger transport was waiting in international waters to take them to Singapore for another round of missions across Asia.
“You don’t look ‘peachy’,” Prowler quipped, kicking Thor’s boot with the nose of his own lightly.
Thor snarled in response, his eyes flashing gold and his muscles flexing before he could catch himself. Growling low, he dug his fingers harder into his short hair and closed his eyes, willing himself not to snap and toss Prowler over the side of the boat.
It had happened at least once before and Dice hadn’t been particularly happy for it. Not that Thor currently really gave a shit about what any of his squadmates felt or thought. He had enough on his plate to deal with without their comments and opinions.
“Leave him alone, Prowler,” Dice said, his voice carrying more warning than before. “He’s earned some downtime if he wants it.”
“I don’t need it,” Thor said, not looking up.
Time off was the last thing he needed right now.
After the mission was concluded and the Shifter Squad Nine guys were released from their shackles and binds – with Rio and Price having both managed to kill one of the guards who’d left to keep an eye on them while the rest chased after Thor – Thor’s world had become a blur. He’d found Nia on the ground, bleeding out, and it was like his worst nightmare was coming true once more, just a lot more violently and immediately this time.
Running through the jungle, they’d made their way back to her clan – Thor surprising himself with the fact that he still remembered the way, though he had to thank his beast for that as his conscious mind was far too preoccupied worrying himself sick for Nia to do any actual thinking.
He’d spent two days by her bedside while she wavered in and out of consciousness, the healers of her family working on her tirelessly, cleaning the gruesome wound in her thigh and willing her back to life.
The bullet had grazed an artery but it was the fact that she was a shifter that kept her from bleeding out while they got to her people. It was a small miracle that she was alive.
In the meanwhile, the rest of the squad cleaned out the jungle to the best of their abilities. One of the locals volunteered as a guide and they went through each and every one of The Arctics’ hideouts one by one until they’d covered all of them in a fifty mile radius. There wasn’t a single wolf to be found in the woods and Thor was pretty damn sure that it was because of the massacre they’d orchestrated the night of the rescue.
All of the squad members had sustained minor injuries during the final explosion and the subsequent firefight, save for Thor himself – though he wasn’t exactly in peak condition because of his eyes. Price had burns running up one half of his body from being too close to the explosion, though they were healing nicely. Rio’s wrist had been broken when he refused to go down without a fight and the rest had scrapes, bruises and cuts with the occasional bullet wound thrown in the mix.
It was not enough to stop them from going on patrols, though.
As soon as Nia had come through and it was clear that she was going to live, Thor had gotten up from her bedside and left the camp with the rest of the squad. He couldn’t bear being there any longer. He felt like every second he spent with her took her one step closer to danger and he made no excuses for himself in regards to the night when she got injured.
It was his fault. As it always was.
“You sure you don’t want us to turn around and go back? I bet we could make it back to the camp before she wakes up,” Rio offered mildly, sitting at Thor’s right hand while Ryker was to his left.
Thor didn’t reply, just sat in silence, pressing his lips into a narrow line.
“She’s a brave woman, that one. Did you see the guy she got? We were cleaning up the bodies the next morning. She plucked his eyes straight out before he could get those shots off. She doesn’t mess around,” Ryker said, a note of awe in his voice.
Hearing someone from his squad talk about Nia made Thor’s insides twist and subsequently filled him with pride, as if they were talking about his woman. Hell yes, she was brave. She was the bravest woman he’d ever met.
And another one you let down. Just like Ashley… just like my cub…
His jaw set and he sat up, resting his head back against the thin veneer of cushion behind him. Errant licks of saltwater lapped at him every now and then but he didn’t pay them any heed. Absently, his hand went to his pocket and he found the little bead he’d picked up from the floor several days ago, the one shaped like a hornbill.
Rolling it around in his hand, he couldn’t help but smile a little, though it vanished off his expression as quickly as it had appeared. He still didn’t know why she hadn’t told him about her heritage – in fact none of her clan members seemed very keen on sharing information about their background – but he was not one to judge.
I should have given this back to her, he thought, rubbing his thumb along the golden edge of the bird’s beak. A cat falling for a bird… Most ridiculous story I’ve ever heard.
“I’m fine,” Thor said finally. “Just don’t talk about it anymore. It’s done.”
Rio nodded quietly and Thor didn’t have to open his eyes to know that he was sharing a long, knowing look with Ryker. Ever since those two got their mate and cubs back, it seemed like they were convinced that the only way to heal an injured soul was through the glory and magnificence of love. It was getting really bloody annoying.
“You know what this means, right?” Prowler said after a moment of silence, or as close to it as one could get with twin engines carrying a boat through the ocean waves.
“What?” Price asked.
“She’s just going to get us into more trouble. That’s what always happens when one of these jokers finds a fucking girl to drool over.”
With a roar, Thor’s eyes snapped open and he was on his feet, Rio and Ryker both grabbing onto one arm before he could lunge at Prowler. This time though, Thor wasn’t the one who had to do the honors. By the time he was up on his feet, Dice had already grabbed Prowler by the legs and shoved him backwards over the railing, sending him flying head-first into the welcoming depths of the deep blue sea.
Thor frowned, relaxing slightly while the lion twins broke into loud, boisterous laughter, letting go of him and falling back on their seats.
“Hey Prowler! You liking the refreshing swim?” Rio hooted, waving at Prowler who was spitting up saltwater and coming up for air.
“Why’d you do that?” Thor asked, looking at Dice who was leaning back like nothing had happened, aside from the cocked-browed look he was giving Price at the same time.
“He looked like he needed a little swim is all,” Dice said with a shrug when he was adequately satisfied that Price wasn’t going to do anything stupid to avenge his brother.
“He did, didn’t he?” Thor agreed with a nod, plopping down on the edge of his seat and resuming his moping.
He could only hope that the next missions included a hell of a lot of werewolves looking to get their faces bashed in. A little therapeutic violence had always been the only thing that could take his mind off of the wonders of his fucked up existence.
Eleven
Thor
Two months later…
After two months of nonstop pillaging and plundering, or ‘running missions’ as The Firm liked to refer to it, Thor was getting pretty fucking sick and tired of Asia. Everyone was too short, so the squad always stuck out like a sore thumb, the women kept staring at hi
m like he was some god brought to Earth – being both tall and having those green eyes that were rarely seen in those parts did most of the job for him – and all of the missions seemed to be bullshit on top of a shitstorm.
Nothing seemed to be going right. Despite the fact that there was a small voice in the back of his head telling him that his foul mood had nothing to do with the location he was in or the missions themselves, he found it easier to believe to opposite and continue blaming The Firm and whichever country he was in at the moment for his misfortune.
This time, it was Hong Kong.
Nursing a bottle of Jack Daniels, his poison of choice, and poking at a deep laceration he had received on his shin on the last mission, Thor found his thoughts drifting back to Nia as they always did when he had nothing to adequately distract him.
The squad was cramped up in one of those tiny boxes that the locals called an apartment and there seemed to be barely enough room in the tin can to allow all of them to stand shoulder to shoulder, let alone stretch out. That was another thing that annoyed Thor, though there wasn’t any shortage of those as of late.
They’d gotten back from their previous mission – cleaning out a small drug ring in the east side of Hong Kong – a few hours ago and were supposed to go and do another three hits of a similar caliber over the next night. Currently, it was nine o’clock in the morning, which seemed to signify nighttime for the squad more often than it noted the start of a new day. That was just how things went for soldiers for hire – everything had to be under the cover of darkness, except for sleep, of course.
“I think I’m going to hit the hay,” Price said, having finished peeling off the bandages and exchanging them for new ones on a lower back wound he’d gotten a few days ago.
For some reason, the pilot of the squad seemed to be the least accident prone out of the six of them, yet also seemed to be the one to get hurt the most. Every gift had to be met with an equal and opposite curse, it seemed.