by Leia Stone
Max simply nodded. I didn’t think he was going to argue. Max was physically stronger than my mother and almost as strong as my dad. If the Walker nearly killed him then my mom’s plan was a good idea for the entire pack.
I’m not sure what made me do what I did in that next moment, instinct maybe. My bear. I bent down, put one arm under Max’s neck and another under his knees. Then I stood and lifted him with ease. He was heavy as hell, don’t get me wrong, my muscles flexed with the weight of him but I wasn’t straining.
My mom, Gavin, and Jaxon just stared at me.
“I guess I’m strong,” I offered, to ease the awkwardness.
My mother nodded, one eyebrow raised, and led the way back home.
“For the record, this is weird,” Max said in my arms and I chuckled, but inside I was kind of freaking out. If I had the strength of a bear while in human form … Okay, think about that later. I might need to talk to Anna, my dad’s strongest wolf. She had the gift of extreme strength and she would be able to help me figure out what this meant.
After getting back to the house, we saw that Mason and Avery were outside waiting. Emma was there too and they had already cleaned up the Luna mess and buried her in the backyard at the base of my mother’s favorite tree. I was grateful because seeing her like that was awful and I couldn’t imagine my mother having to bury her. The pack doctor took Max from me and then my mother was all business.
“Mason, come down to the basement, please. Your parents will meet us down there,” she said.
Meeting your mate was a huge deal in werewolf culture, I wasn’t surprised my mom called in Aunt Diya and Uncle Trent. They would be thrilled.
Avery pulled me aside as the others went down to the basement.
Her eyes were lined with worry, her fingernails had dirt underneath them and I knew she must have helped bury Luna.
“Hey,” I said, not sure what to say.
She sighed. “Are you okay? I mean, holy shit. A couple days ago we were in a club talking about witches’ wine and now you’re a bear, you found your mate, and your cat got killed by a monster.”
I gave a tearful laugh. “I miss my dad, and I don’t think everyone understands what this monster is capable of.” I leaned in close to her to whisper. “He can’t be killed by normal means, and I’m not even sure that Gavin or I can kill him.” Because if I was being honest, it felt like now that I had taken Gavin’s life path, I may have also taken on the half Walker. Or not. Either way, it left us no idea how to kill this bastard.
Her eyes widened but she nodded as if she expected that. “We’ll figure it out.”
I gave her a tight hug and then went to meet my mom in the basement.
*
Mason and I sat on the couch in the basement as my mother, Gavin, Aunt Diya, and Uncle Trent stood over us. My mom approached me with the jar of stinky paste and we all held our breath and flinched.
“God awful. What’s in that?!” I exclaimed as she spun off the top and indicated I reach inside. I was afraid that smell would never come off me. Was Gavin snickering? Bastard.
Jaxon and Avery came down the stairs just in time and plugged their nose. My mom rolled her eyes.
“Probably some deer piss, it helps give clarity in spells to things that are hidden.” Her reply made my hand freeze in mid-air. Deer piss! Oh, hell no.
“I need your help finding your father.” My mother’s tone was loving and demanding at the same time.
“And my mate,” Mason growled. Oh yeah, that too.
Fine. I dipped my hand in the thick paste and frowned at the sticky gelatinous fluid. Rubbing it up and down my arms like Gretchen said to, I was about to ask my mom what to do when all of a sudden the room became a little hazy. I swallowed hard and blinked my eyes rapidly unsure of what I was seeing. Each person in the room had a stunning, colorful aura around their body, it glowed, each uniquely about three feet off their body.
“I think there’s drugs in this,” I exclaimed as my mom’s eyes widened.
How else was I seeing rainbows around everyone?
“Okay. Touch Mason and just let the vision flow. Like I taught you,” my mother encouraged.
As I looked at her, I scanned her aura. Her colors were beautiful, vibrant reds, greens, and a deep indigo blue, but over her heart was a brown blob. I instinctively knew this was over the loss of Luna and missing my father.
“Anya?” My mom’s voice brought me back.
I shook my head. “Sorry, I think Gretchen put too much clarity in this stuff.”
“It’s not drugs, it’s the spell. Hurry before it wears off.” My mom’s words were insistent so I forced myself to focus.
Shaking my head, I finally turned to Mason and reached for his hand. I took both of his hands in mine and I sat there stupidly staring at his aura waiting for a vision to take me. Nothing happened as we sat there in silence for a few moments. I was about to complain when Gavin stepped forward and placed a hand on my back, tingles radiated down my spine and then I was pulled into a vision. It felt like I was riding a roller coaster and then bam! The roller coaster lurched to a stop and I watched a scene unfold before me. It was frightening and I couldn’t blame Gavin for backing out of it but I stayed with it.
My father was strapped to a medical gurney with silver chains, as puffs of smoke flared up from his sizzling skin. I could smell the burning flesh as if I was right in the room. His attention was focused on a girl in a silver cage. She was Mason’s mate, I just knew it. These visions didn’t come with too many words they came with knowing. Her name was Alice and she was Mason’s mate, I was 150% sure. She had long dirty blonde hair that was tinged red with blood, and a feral look in her eyes. Her foot snaked out as she kicked the door of the cage but recoiled when her foot burned.
“I’m going to get us out of here. Don’t panic.” My father’s words floated over to her and she fought back tears but nodded. I knew from my mom that he couldn’t hear me and that I couldn’t help him but I had to know for myself.
“Dad?” I asked but nothing happened. He didn’t look at me, just kept looking at the girl. Shit.
Suddenly a door opened and in walked a tall young man wearing a lab coat. He reeked of fear and I could instantly see he was not the guy in charge, just some lab grunt doing dirty work.
My father pulled on his silver bindings as the man neared. “Let us go! Don’t do this to the peace we have all worked so hard for!”
The guy looked like he was in his early thirties. He chewed his lip nervously and grabbed a large syringe from the table, approaching the cage with the girl in it. She whined restlessly and kicked at the cage door again.
“DON’T touch her!” My father roared and the table nearly tipped over with his thrashing.
The young man suddenly turned on my father, eyes blazing with emotion. “You don’t understand!”
My father’s face fell as if he was caught off guard by the sudden emotion in the young man’s eyes. “Then tell me. What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?”
The young man shook his head. “I’m not allowed to talk to you.”
I instinctively walked toward the young man because I could see the edges of the vision fading away and I didn’t know where they were yet. My mother said she always had a location, a knowing in her visions of where the mate was. As I crouched down low, for the first time since the vision began, I met the girl’s eyes. The second we locked gazes, I knew where they were and the vision faded away.
I came to in the basement with Gavin stroking my hair and Mason looking completely freaked out. Everyone actually looked freaked out, everyone except my mother.
“Did you see him? Is he okay? Where are they?” she bombarded me.
There was still a faint rainbow glow around their heads as the spell wore off. Damn, that was some powerful stinky paste.
“He’s alive,” I assured my mom and then turned to Mason. “Your mate is Alice, she’s alive too, but they are both being held captive and experimente
d on by human scientists. They’re on a private government-owned farm about two hours from here. I can show you on a map.”
“They’re experimenting on her!” Mason raged and patches of fur broke out on his skin.
“My dad won’t let anything happen to her,” I lied because what the hell could my dad do to protect her while strapped with silver to a damn table? But having Mason worry wouldn’t help anyone.
My mom was the Alpha now, which meant she had a direct link to my mind, she knew it was a lie the second it flew from my lips. I met her eyes and she simply sighed, saying nothing.
Diya looked nervously at her son but Trent simply nodded at my words and pulled out his phone, bringing up a map.
My mother looked murderous. “I’ll assemble the pack.”
*
Two hours later, the entire pack was assembled and my mom had split us in half. One group would stay back and protect the young on the mountain, keep a strong presence in our territory. The other half, about a hundred of us, would rescue all the wolves from captivity on the farm. Max was healing but not near enough to be able to fight. Max and my mother were extremely close and as I saw them huddled now, going over the strategy, my heart panged a little. Why were werewolves seen as dangerous? Sure we could kill, but so could humans. Humans had guns, fire, anger, rage, just like us. But they also had family, friendships, love, and compassion just like us. I hated that it had come to this, to us storming a human farm to get our people back.
My mother turned suddenly and met my eyes then, they burned yellow like the fiery core of the sun.
‘You grew up in a world free of war and I’m grateful for that. But now it’s time to take sides and protect what’s ours.’ Her voice was strong but at the same time defeated. She didn’t like this anymore than I did but she would do what needed to be done to get my dad back and every other wolf that humans had taken, regardless of whose pack they were in.
I nodded, if it was us or them, then I chose us. I just wished I knew why I was choosing, what did they want from us? Why experiment on us? I remembered a story my father told me about the old days when he was captured by a rogue government group. They cut off his finger just to see if it would grow back. It was senseless and awful, but those type of experiments died off when the group broke up.
“Let’s roll out!” My mother’s voice cut through my thoughts as I prepared myself for the first time in my life, to actively seek out and kill humans.
Chapter Ten
We were parked in a fifteen SUV car caravan a few miles into the woods, south of the farm where they were holding my dad and Mason’s mate. Jax, Trent, Avery, my mom and I all huddled around the back of the car as my mom sent out the scouts with night-vision goggles. My father had befriended the local human militia right after he outed our kind. They taught him many things, one of which was to be prepared for anything. Night-vision goggles, flame throwers, extra water, food for a year. We had it all thanks to the influence of the paranoid preppers and right now I was grateful.
After a few minutes, the scouts came back to report to my mom. They removed the night-vision goggles and their grim expressions told me everything I needed to know.
“How many?” my mom demanded.
The sun would rise soon, we had to do this now or we risked exposure.
“Twenty on the ground with high-powered rifles,” James, one of our wolves, reported.
My mom looked as shocked as I felt. Twenty armed humans?
“Twenty! Jesus. They expected trouble,” my mom wondered aloud.
James looked uncomfortable. “Twenty on the ground, Aurora. There were a dozen in the trees.”
My mom’s expression turned deadly. “This is a government operation. That’s too many men, too much fire power for some rebels. How dare they?! After everything Kai and I have done to please them!” Patches of white fur rippled on her skin as she shook with rage.
I swallowed. “So, are we … does that mean …” I couldn’t say it out loud.
My mom looked at everyone who was now huddled around us.
“Shoot to kill.” The orders flew from her mouth with ease.
A jolt ripped through Gavin and I felt it through our matebond. Complete shock. He had only been a werewolf a few days, of course he would be sympathetic to the humans. Hell, I was sympathetic to the humans but not these humans. Not the humans who steal werewolves away in the middle of the night and keep them in cages like dogs and strapped to tables like lab rats. I stepped inside the circle that had formed around my mother. I felt the need to say something to agree with her because I saw the hesitation on all of their faces.
Pulling back my hair, I showed them the tattoo on my neck. “They don’t see us as equals, instead they marked us like cattle. But we wanted peace so we went along with it. Now we’re branded and we’ve made it easier to identify and capture our kind so they can experiment on us!”
A few wolves roared their agreement with me and I continued. “I know it feels wrong. My entire life my father told me that it was my destiny to do two things, find mates for werewolves and protect humans.”
My mom’s face fell in sadness, and I saw Jaxon nod in agreement. “But now my father, your Alpha, is strapped to a table! Humans are holding him hostage and he did nothing wrong! We have no rights here. Are we going to stand by and let this happen!?”
The pack roared and some of the dominant pack members began to shift, the others strapped on bullet-proof vests and grabbed guns, showing they were with me. Gavin’s eyes were blazing yellow.
‘I have a plan,’ I told my mom and when I looked up she was looking at me with a lopsided grin.
‘What?’
‘You reminded me of myself. That’s all,’ she replied. Well, if that wasn’t a compliment, I don’t know what is. After working out the plan with my mom, I turned to see Gretchen, Muriel, and Saben standing before us. They nodded to my mother who nodded back and then they were off into the woods to take down the magical walls that blocked the pack bonds. My mom gave me a long hug and I tried not to show any emotion. If this plan was going to work, I needed to be calm and alert. Okay, here goes nothing.
*
This was either the stupidest plan I had ever thought of, or the best. The farm was situated on an open property with no fencing on the multiple acres. There was a small farmhouse, which we all agreed would hold nothing for us, and then a huge barn and separate RV garage, which was most likely where they were holding my dad and the rest of the wolves. We were east of Mount Hood, but still well in the range of wild black bear territory. I had convinced my mom, Jax, Gavin, and everyone to allow me to create a diversion while they slipped in and took out the tree snipers and guards. Although my mom’s orders were shoot to kill, she added that if anyone surrendered they were to be unharmed. I was 100% certain I was going to take a bullet tonight, but I was also sure that if we didn’t go with this plan then some of our people were going to die and I was hoping for a zero werewolf death count today. Taking a deep breath, I shook out my fur and readied myself for the upcoming confrontation. I’m coming, Dad, hold on. I actually missed his overbearing voice in my head right now.
Padding forward through the thick trees, I walked the two miles to the farm. How long had it been since my vision? Was the vision in real time or the past or the future? Ugh, it was frustrating and I was kind of glad it was Gavin’s problem now. Tree branches were snapping beneath the weight of my paws and I could see the clearing up ahead, all the lights of the farm house were glowing in the black night. I walked in a slow and calm manner, the way a natural bear would, stopping to sniff things and craning my head to look around as if I smelled food. It wasn’t long before I heard a walkie talkie coming from the trees above me.
“Hey, come in. We’ve got a bear on the property, over.” A gruff male voice said directly above me.
I began to run at the sound of his voice assuming that it would scare a natural bear. Running toward the house full speed, I saw a group of armed men walk out
into the light on the porch. The barn was off to my left in the distance and a few guards were positioned around it. All eyes were on me.
“Hey, bear! Back, BEAR!” One of the men on the farm porch yelled and I stilled. I was frozen midway up the freshly manicured lawn, snipers at my ass and these boys right in front of me. I sniffed the air and one of the men pulled out a gun but the guy who had yelled at me, put out a hand to stop him.
“I’ve hunted bear, that won’t kill it, will only piss it off. You asshats probably left the garbage out. BACK, BEAR!” he yelled again and this time I began to retreat. I had to suppress a growl when he said he had hunted bears. It was very, very tempting to hunt him, but I thought better of it with all these guns pointed at my ass.
I was at the back of the house facing the porch and the commotion did exactly what I intended, it brought the guards from the front of the property over to see what the noise was about and all of the tree snipers had their eyes and guns on me. That’s when I heard the signal, a deep wolf’s howl rose into the night, my mother’s wolf. The Alpha telling me to run my big bear butt outta there. I turned back toward the forest and hauled ass, at the same time I heard gun shots, and yelps coming from the trees.
Snipers were dropping to the ground around me as I pounded the forest and tried to steer clear of it. Nope. A sharp pain flared to life in my left hind leg as a bullet sunk into the meat of my thigh and I roared, slowing my run the tiniest bit. The bullet hurt but it was nothing to my big bear. Once I was clear of the drama, I took a right and made my way to the barn around the back, hiding in the thick forest. Hearing the bullets snapping around me, seeing lights flicker on the muzzle of guns and grown men cry out in pain, the smell of hot metal and gun smoke … it made me feel for the veterans of our country. This was war, this was scary and traumatizing and I would never forget the smell of fear and death. Heavy and depressing.
I reached the barn in record time. My bear was fast and saw that the guards were dead or unconscious and a few were on their knees with hands behind their heads, surrendered. The doors were padlocked shut and my mom was searching for the keys on the guard’s belt. Gavin sensed me then and I picked up my speed as he felt my thought through the matebond. He took off running beside me and together we charged the wooden double doors. At the last second, I got up on my hind legs and slammed my front paws onto the doors in tandem with Gavin and they splintered open. My mother shifted from her naked human form to a wolf in seconds and charged in after us.