by K. F. Breene
Charles’ heart sank as the male started to cry.
Charles crossed to Ann’s cage, reaching through to clasp her hand. Electricity coursed through the contact as his heart surged, mirroring what he felt through the link. He looked down at the keypad as Jonas walked past him, checking the person in each cage, making his way to the door at the other end of the room.
They all heard a loud boom, the door being kicked open, before Jonas shouted, “Surprise, fuckers!” Rapid gunfire echoed through the room.
“I need the code!” Charles shouted at the shifter.
“Try 6-5-7-2.”
Charles inputted the numbers. A small red light accompanied a beep. “Wrong one.”
The furthest cage swung open as the shifter—Jason—yelled through sobs, “Try 3-2-9-0.”
Charles inputted the numbers. Another beep sounded, this time accompanied with a little green light. Metal clicked. The door popped open.
Charles ripped the cage door open and grabbed Ann around the middle, pulling her toward him. He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her to his chest before putting his hands on her cheeks and kissing her sweet lips.
“Be my mate, Ann,” Charles heard himself saying, everything else blocked out by the joy of touching her again. Of holding her. Of knowing she was safe. “I’ll do whatever you want. Live in a suburb, raise a French poodle named Buttercup, have a litter of fuzzy babies, only play with your breasts. Anything.”
“How about taking me on a date?” she asked with tears in her eyes.
“Only if I get a happy ending.”
“God, you’re a jerk.”
He hugged her again, rocking back and forth, so damn happy to have her back.
“We’re not done yet, kids. We still gotta get out of here with a bunch of mongrels.” Jonas passed by the other way as shifters were helped out of their cages.
“And here I thought he’d be happy to see me.” Ann scoffed with a smile.
* * *
Ann changed into her animal form, as did the others; faster and more agile that way since they had no guns or clothes.
They headed out the way Charles had come in, stepping over two guards lying dead on the ground. Not one person flinched, but a couple of the shifters who’d been in the lab for a long time gave them a bite as they passed by. If they’d been in human form, it would’ve been a kick.
The group jogged down the corridor, the coyote that had hung around the cabin leading. The woman from the last cell, limping and missing clumps of fur, ran right next to him.
Gunfire sounded in echoes, ricocheting along the walls.
“We’re probably going to run right into that,” Charles muttered.
“Can’t we go out the side?” Jonas asked.
“No. They have that gas around the side. It’s been constant since Ann and I’ve been here. We should stick to the road with all the shifters or they’ll just end up in traps again.”
Another blast of gunfire, much louder now, had them slowing down. The coyote trotted to the side of the wall and stopped at the corner, looking back. Charles crept up beside him and peeked around the corner. “Jameson!”
“Come on,” Ann heard.
Charles stepped to one side and waved everyone on, winking at Ann as she passed. She hated that she couldn’t feel him when she was a shifter.
At the end of that corridor they found Jameson and seven others, all with guns.
“What’s up?” Charles asked, stopping near Jameson.
“Silent alarm.” Jameson glanced at the shifters, nodding at Ann. “Good to have you guys.”
Ann gave a feline huff in acknowledgment.
“I like when she’s an animal. It’s quieter,” Jonas said.
“She’s not deaf, bro. You’ll pay for all these comments.” Charles winked at Ann again. His grin melted off his face as he looked at Jameson. “The cops showed up?”
“No, actually.” A single shot fired from the enemy, hitting the far corner. “It looks like a private security company. I suspect this crowd wouldn’t want the cops poking their noses into what they have going on in here.”
“Explaining human experimentation might get dicey.” Charles shook his head. “Where’s Paulie?”
“These guys came in the side. He’s probably dealing with his own problems in the front.” Jameson looked back down the corridor, obviously thinking of other ways they could go around this.
“Fuck it. Let’s get the ball rolling.” Jonas stepped toward the corner, flush to the wall. He spun into the corridor and lit them up, spraying bullets as he moved his gun back and forth. Charles stepped up beside him and threw something, pulling Jonas back as something clanged on the floor down the hallway.
“Fire in the hole!” Charles yelled, pushing everyone back.
Yelling erupted down the corridor before a huge blast rocked the building. A couple ceiling tiles dropped down around them. A crack formed in the wall.
“Nice.” Jonas gave a rare smile.
Shaking his head, Jameson looked around the corner quickly before pulling back. He looked around again, leaving his head out in the open a little longer. He stepped out slowly.
“That was a moan,” Jameson said, jogging out of sight. Charles took off with him.
Ann ran around, catching up with Charles quickly. Down the way a jagged hole gaped within the wall, showing a dark room with various silver vats inside. Debris littered the ground. Around a fractured corner lay two men.
“Let’s go. Careful, though. We don’t know where they are now.” Jameson started at a jog, not taking his own advice. He ran down the corridor, staying close to the wall. More gunshots sounded, but they were distant.
As Jameson turned left at the next corridor, the coyote barked. He stopped in the middle, stepping the other way while looking back. Charles stopped next to him, looking at Jameson. “This guy has been around here for a while. He knows where he’s going.”
Jameson took out his map, tracing a path with his finger. His hard gaze hit Charles. “You sure?”
“You think he wants to get caught in this place?” Charles beckoned Jameson forward. “Let’s go.”
They followed the coyote through twists and turns, wandering through areas that must’ve been staff quarters and offices, including a break room and kitchen. They didn’t see a soul: most of the lights had been off, only turning on when the group ran through. The way was obviously longer, but ten times safer, which meant it was faster. The coyote just wanted to get out of there. Ann didn’t blame him.
The route led them back down a main drag, this hallway wider than the others, with staff pictures on the walls and cheery signs welcoming all employees. Bodies littered the ground, all in gray or black uniforms, many large, and all bleeding.
Jameson, retaking the lead with Charles and Jonas, slowed down, tiptoeing over the bodies still gripping their guns. A blast sounded somewhere outside, shaking the glass of the sliding glass door twenty feet in front of them. Another sounded. Red sparklers floated by the door before popping with a series of bangs.
“Sasha,” Charles said with a sigh.
Another loud bang sounded to their right. Gunfire.
Jameson staggered left, his body turning and firing his gun even as he slumped back against the wall.
Faster than thought, Charles had something near his mouth before he was throwing. Jonas fired his gun as the object flew down an intersecting corridor.
“Fire in the hole,” Charles shouted, grabbing Jameson and throwing him over his shoulder lurching out of harm’s way.
A huge blast shook the building. One of the glass doors shattered.
“Clear the way. We need to get him out of here!” Charles yelled at the other Watch members.
Three people stepped into the intersecting area of the corridors, guns ready. Ann loped ahead, only to hear Charles say, “Not you, Ann. Shifters need to stay back. We don’t know what’s going on with the gas outside.”
The three must’ve found emptiness, because one stayed th
ere while the other two ran out through the main doors.
With green-red mist, sizzling and popping, the coyote turned into a skinny man, face grim. He stepped up to Charles quickly. “Put him down. I was a nurse in the emergency ward. I can help.”
Jonas and Charles worked together to get Jameson to the ground as carefully as they possibly could. A moment later, Stefan was running through the glass door, dressed in leathers with a terrifying look of rage painting his face. Paulie was right behind him, guns out.
“What happened?” Stefan demanded, doing a quick sweep with his dark gaze before bending to Jameson.
“Gunshot. We don’t know how bad,” Jonas said as he ripped Jameson’s shirt down the front and gently pulled it back. On the left side of his torso blood oozed down his skin.
“Lift him up a little,” the skinny man said. “I need to see if there is an exit wound.”
“We just need him good enough to get him to the bottom of the mountain,” Stefan said in a commanding tone. “Tim brought his medical staff, assuming some of the shifters would need it.”
“Some will. But he’ll need it more,” the man said, nodding with the blood pouring down Jameson’s back. “Exit wound, looks clean. There’s nothing lodged inside. We need cloth to apply pressure to both wounds to slow the blood before you move him out of here. Hopefully that bullet missed the vital organs. If so, he heals fast enough to get out of harm’s way.”
Stefan didn’t even have to utter the command. Four people stepped up, each strong enough to take him on their own, but working together in order to avoid jarring him.
Jameson’s face had gone deathly pale. He grimaced as they moved him, clearly in pain.
“Charles, Jonas, get the shifters out of here.” Stefan’s hard gaze landed on Ann. He winked. “Glad you made it.”
“What’s going on outside?” Charles asked, gesturing for Ann and everyone to head toward the door.
“Paulie took care of the security trying to get in through the front. We’ll have to alter and hide memories for those who lived. Some came in the side gates, though. Not many of those will be alive by the look of it. I have people on all the exits and Sasha has a concealment spell on the building for now. Once Jameson is patched up…” Stefan moved slightly. His mouth turned into a thin line. He took a deep breath, obviously worried for his friend. “Once he’s patched up, he’ll want access to this place before we blow it up, or whatever we’re going to do. We’ve started to gather scientists and other personnel now. I understand they don’t know about us, just shifters…”
“That’s right,” Charles answered. “But Ann’s got my blood and DNA inside her. They would’ve found it, and they would’ve been suspicious. The trail of breadcrumbs was there. If they had more time, who knows what they would’ve uncovered…”
“The trail of breadcrumbs to both shifters and our kind has always been there.” Stefan looked around at the walls, his face grim. “But at least we have some time.”
Charles glanced at Ann. “Do you want me to come back after I take them to Tim?”
Stefan glanced at Ann, then back at Charles. “No. Take Ann home. We can wrap it up here.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
They moved out in a tightly packed horde. Jonas walked in front of those carrying Jameson with Charles walking between Jameson and the shifters. As they stepped out into the daylight, Ann couldn’t help a jolt of surprise at the mayhem. Bodies and broken glass littered the entranceway and outside the gates. Cars had been pulled off to the side in defensive positions, men probably using them to hide behind as bullets zinged past. People were seated in clusters, tied up and gagged.
Paulie caught sight of their group and stepped out from beside the guard booth. His gaze snagged on Jameson before he whipped around. “Get some more SUVs or vans up here! We got a few more to transport!”
A couple large men with grim expressions and many tattoos jogged toward the parking lot.
“Gunshot wound?” Paulie asked Jonas as he walked forward.
“Yeah. Sounds like it went right through him, but we gotta stop the blood. You have many casualties?” Jonas looked at the fallen men around them as three vehicles pulled up, all with the uniforms of the enemy guards.
“Some. We’ve moved them all down the mountain. I hit the guards that showed up pretty hard with magic, not to mention we had bigger weapons. We didn’t take many losses compared to their side.”
Jonas nodded as the first large van stopped beside them. He turned to help get Jameson loaded up as Charles gestured at the second and third vans. He motioned to the shifters. “Get in. Let’s get moving.”
It took no time at all to get everyone organized and on the way. Paulie called ahead on his walkie-talkie, making sure the road was clear as they sped down the mountain. At the bottom awaited a well-organized area with tents and water stations. Various shifters were tending to the wounded.
Charles was out as soon as the van stopped, walking ahead quickly to help get Jameson situated. All the shifters climbed out of the car as well, Ann’s pack shepherding the strangers toward the tents.
Ann let her magic course through her, changing into her human form. Not worried about nudity, she found Tim striding out of the large tent in the middle of the makeshift camp. When he saw her, his step faltered. He grabbed her roughly and squeezed her into his chest.
“Thank God you’re okay.” He held her at arm’s length and looked deeply into her eyes. “You are okay…?”
“Yes. I think all our guys are good. They’ll probably have nightmares, but it could’ve been worse. We have others with us—the ones who’ve been in that place a while. They need special handling.”
Tim’s brows furrowed. He gave a curt nod, a trace of disgust on his features. He was probably imagining what they’d been through. Unfortunately, the reality wouldn’t ease his mind. “Without question. We’ll get them taken care of.”
Ann felt a pulse of possession through the blood link a moment before she heard, “Ann. Ready?”
She stepped away from Tim, turning toward Charles as he strode up. A hard gaze hit Tim as Charles’ arm fell around her shoulders. “Everything good?”
“How’s Jameson?” Ann asked, trying to hide her pleasure at the unmistakable claim Charles was putting on her. It was something a shifter would’ve done with his mate if another male was too close.
Tim respectfully took a step back.
Charles’ muscles relaxed as he said, “They have him on an IV. He’s lost a lot of blood, but they think that’s the extent of it. He’ll be okay.” He took a deep breath before sticking out his hand to Tim. “Thanks for setting this up. You probably saved his life. A lot of lives.”
Tim nodded in a matter-of-fact sort of way, his gaze staying on Charles. “You guys helped us out. This was the least we could do.”
“Am I needed?” Ann asked, weariness tugging at her features.
Tim looked at her then. He was all alpha though, hiding any feelings he might still have had for her. He’d always been an awesome guy, and now he was proving it. “No. You’ve been through hell. Get some rest.”
Ann nodded and let Charles lead her away.
Epilogue
Ann waited impatiently on Sasha’s couch, sipping a glass of wine. It had been two weeks since she’d been freed from the lab. In that time, they’d segregated out the scientists who had experimented on shifters, the executives who knew about it, and everyone else. Those who knew nothing got to go about their lives. The others were pumped for information. After that… Ann had no idea what happened to them. Tim and Stefan were being very tight-lipped about it, and Sasha didn’t want to know. She suspected it was probably bad. Ann had to agree.
Not knowing was probably better.
Jameson survived. The bullet had missed all the vital organs, but by the time he got worked on he had nearly bled out. It took him a week to recuperate enough to head to the lab and start handing out orders. He wanted tech looked at, the traps analyzed, and a
ll sorts of things that would make Stefan’s clan the most knowledgeable and high-tech in the country, possibly the world.
As far as the press went, though, a strange gas leak caught fire and blew the place up. Sasha rigged a spell to fool the eye into believing that story until they really could blow it up, which would happen as soon as Jameson had everything he wanted.
And here sat Ann, waiting for Charles to pick her up for their first date. She’d seen him every day since the lab, but that was just for sex, cuddling and banter. Tonight was the real thing.
“He keeps asking me to be his mate,” Ann said, her sip turning into a gulp.
“That’s what you wanted, though, right?” Sasha asked in a calm voice.
“Yes. Obviously. But… he came around awfully fast, you know? It was like—no, no, no, I want to be a slut! Wait, yes, let’s get married, have babies, and become Sasha and Stefan.”
“You did sex him up pretty good.”
“That’s just it. If it’s just sex, that’s bad, because he gets bored easily.”
“You also connected on a really deep level, made him feel okay about cuddling, which he really never does, got taken by an enemy… You forced the man to grow up, that’s all. Well… mostly grow up. I don’t know if he’ll ever be mature.”
Ann finished her glass of wine, and went for a second. Her nerves were frayed.
“I’m jealous about the date, though,” Sasha said, rocking back and forth in her rocking chair. “The number of romance novels and rom-coms he’s watched to try and get into yours and my pants… this date is probably going to be way over the top in a good way. Wait—don’t you know how he really feels about you? The blood link is solid now, right?”
“Yeah but… I don’t know. Maybe he’s just temporarily confused…”
“You’re just being an idiot girl with low self-esteem. You can feel that he loves you. So he loves you. Trust me, Charles would fake love about as fast as he would fake an orgasm. Not gonna happen.”
“He hasn’t said it, though.”
“Neither have you,” Sasha reasoned.