“Hayden and I aren’t good together.” When had Mila become so proficient at lying? Was it before or after Vance forced his way into her life and her bed? Her mother would wash her mouth out with soap for lying. Then her mother would tell her Hayden was too good for her.
“I didn’t even think you’d noticed anything between us.”
“Sure, I did. His eyes follow you everywhere, and you sneak glances when he’s not looking. I wouldn’t give up on him so easily, not if you like him.”
“Doesn’t matter how much I like him. If I can’t blood-bond him, what’s the sense?” She looked at her friend and realized what a stupid thing that had been to say. “I’m so sorry, Anna! I forgot you never blood-bonded Blade! That was so insensitive of me!”
“What do you mean? We blood-bonded. That night is when this little one was conceived,” she said, patting her baby bump. “Almost four months ago.”
That made no sense. Blade had his shifter abilities. “How in the hell did Blade keep his abilities after blood-bonding? He’s a strong shifter. I’ve seen him shift, he’s fast, almost as fast as Damien.”
“Genetic manipulation on my end. I injected his code into the genes affected by the blood-bond so when the copying occurred during the process, it copied his information back onto itself.”
“Brilliant.” Mila stopped dead in her tracks.
“What’s wrong.”
“You just gave me an idea. I’ll need to access the origination virus, though. Do you think I could get access to it?”
“How did you know we—” Anna bit her lip. “Very sneaky, Mila. Now you discovered two secrets. We have a sample of the origination virus, and I’m easily tricked. Never tell me any deep dark secrets. I can’t promise I won’t be tricked into revealing them.”
Deep, dark secrets. . . yeah, Mila had her share.
“The origination virus might hold the key to creating the vaccination that will stop this shifter virus once and for all.”
They talked on their way back to their shack. Mila had trouble calling it a lab now that they had a real building, with insulation, a concrete foundation, and even windows near completion. In a few days, the shifters would move all their equipment over. Anna and she would have to start packing up and getting everything ready to move, even though it wasn’t far, they had to do it properly or risk damaging expensive equipment.
When Mila had asked how the pack could afford all the equipment, some of which cost tens of thousands of dollars, Anna had merely looked toward Kate, Little Miss Hacker. Mila understood immediately and said nothing more.
“You really think you have the answer?” Anna asked, linking arms.
She did, she really did, but she didn’t want to say for sure and give everyone false hope. Anna needed to know because they’d have to work together on this. “Let’s keep it quiet for now until I’m sure.”
“Understood.”
At least she’d have the answer to one problem. As for Hayden, there was no answer there. Or was there? Could Anna do to Mila what she’d done to herself, to allow a blood-bond between her and Hayden without compromising his abilities? This was definitely a discussion worth having.
“We can talk later,” Anna whispered, as she slipped her arm from Mila’s. Mila looked over to see what had scared her off.
A few feet shy of Damien’s door stood Hayden, looking tired but well. He stood taller as his eyes locked with hers. Mila’s heart raced, and her legs itched to run toward him. Holding back, forcing herself not to move was torturous. Everything in her wanted to run to him, to tell him about everything that had happened since he had left, to make sure he was okay, to even blurt out that with Anna’s help, she could protect him, if he wanted to blood-bond.
She couldn’t do it. Any of it. The words got stuck in her throat, because she didn’t know if she could protect him. Heck, she didn’t even know how he felt about her. He had left without saying goodbye after all.
She wasn’t even sure what had happened after he had claimed her except she had fled Aloe’s house, without her coat, her bra wasn’t adjusted quite right, and she was sore in all the right places. Except she hadn’t merely walked away; she had run from Hayden, tears threatening to stream down her face, because she didn’t have the guts to tell him she was weak.
Then it seemed like every shifter in camp had surrounded him, accusing him of being a traitor until Damien had broken it up. She had done nothing to help Hayden, because she was an emotional mess. No, he didn’t need a broken shifter in his life adding to his problems. He needed a strong shifter.
Mila’s eyes remained locked with Hayden’s a moment longer. He glanced away as Frank said something to him before entering Damien’s house. After Frank entered, Hayden’s mouth opened, as if he wanted to say something to Mila from across the compound. Then he shook his head and walked inside Damien’s home and out of her life without a single word.
Chapter Ten
HAYDEN
“This is what happens when you get a woman in your life, Hayden,” Frank said as they waited at Damien’s door. Frank knocked again. “Doors close.”
“They’re entitled to privacy.”
“That’s what bedrooms are for.”
Hayden snickered. Damien and Tess weren’t exactly the bedroom types, from what he had heard and seen.
“Maybe he’s out,” Frank said, getting impatient.
“Then the door would be unlocked.”
“That’s another thing. Since when did he add a lock?”
“Since Ian attacked Tess.”
That shut Frank up fast, though he wasn’t sure what was eating at Frank all of a sudden. Little things like closed doors and locks never bothered the guard before.
High notes in the wind caught Hayden’s attention. He glanced to the left. There stood Mila and Anna walking arm and arm. His girl looked happy, relaxed. Much better than when he had seen her last, running from Aloe’s house, a shaken look on her face and her hair mussed from how he had held her while he had pounded into her from behind. God, those few minutes with her had been the most exhilarating, soul-quenching of his life. Until she’d run from him.
‘Sex is just sex,’ Frank had said. He was wrong, so very wrong. Hayden had hurt Mila. He had promised to let her set the pace and then not a few hours later he had hauled her down to Aloe’s, stripped her, and plowed into her. It wasn’t what she had deserved, especially not for their first time.
He’d let hormones get the best of him. If she hadn’t smelled so damn delicious. . . no, this wasn’t her fault. It was no one’s fault. Or maybe it was, but they’d share the blame together. Hell. How had the situation gone downhill so fast? Two weeks away from her, playing everything over and over in his mind, and he still didn’t have an answer as to how he had misread her like that. The bottom line, it didn’t matter if she had agreed, she hadn’t been ready for him.
Seeing her happy and carefree, talking with Anna, her voice and step light and carefree. . . That’s not how she looked when she had ran from him. He had destroyed a good thing, all because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.
As Anna headed off toward the cookhouse, Mila looked in his direction and froze. Never had he seen such trepidation in her. She had probably thought he wasn’t coming back. At one point he had considered just that.
Mila fit in really well here, and she deserved a pack that would care about her, make her happy. He had a sinking feeling if he didn’t leave the pack, she would. And then what? Return to her pack where clearly she didn’t want to be? No, he wouldn’t let it come to that. He’d leave if he had to. Damien, Callen, Frank, and Pryce would understand. Blade certainly wouldn’t object, as Anna wouldn’t have to look at him and be reminded of Drake daily.
“You coming?” Frank asked.
Hayden glanced to see Tess had let them in. When he faced Mila he almost called out to her, but this wasn’t the time or place, and she didn’t look as if she wanted to speak to him. Hayden entered the house and was about to t
urn back when Tess closed the door behind him and gave him a big hug. It was nice to see someone had missed him, but this was not the woman he wanted wrapping her arms around him. His Mila. . . What had he done to her?
“Welcome back, guys,” Tess said as she headed into the kitchen. One whiff and Hayden recoiled.
“Smells like she’s cooking dirty laundry in there,” Frank whispered at his side.
“I heard that!” Tess shouted form the kitchen.
Hayden chuckled. “You forgot she has her shifter abilities back.”
“I liked you better when you were human, Tess,” Frank shot back.
“I so want to swear at you right now,” she said.
“Then do it,” Frank said. “Holding in those emotion doesn’t help anyone.”
“Please, don’t encourage her,” Damien said, coming down the stairs.
“To swear or to cook?” Hayden asked.
Damien quickly glanced to make sure Tess wasn’t watching, then mouthed the word ‘either’.
“You don’t need to be here for this, Frank,” Damien said, taking a seat.
“Not staying. Just letting you know we scented several males on our way in. Sector 15E. Heading south apparently. We lost the trail.”
Damien leaned forward. “Damn. One of the patrols picked up a group of four in 13G. Let Callen know to get the other patrol to 15E and determine if it’s the same scent at least. I’m hoping it’s one small group passing through and nothing more. Then get some rest. You’re looking a bit weary.”
After Frank left, Hayden briefed Damien on the government officials he had met and what they had said.
“They actually threatened to torch the whole area?” Damien thrust his hands through his hair.
“The humans are scared, and they have every right to be. Only a handful survived the first attack.”
“First?” Damien asked as his frown deepened.
Hayden had left out the worst part, still unsure how to tell Damien that Drake had released the virus into another small town, this one closer to Boulder. “Farview, Colorado. A small town of two thousand. Gone. Already contained. No survivors and no news reports either. The government’s keep a lid on this to prevent wide-scale panic.”
“Hell.” Damien sat back and drank for a minute, staring off toward the kitchen, but not focused on anything, not even Tess, where his eyes tended to wander. “I never thought Drake would go this far.”
Telling Damien, just as he had told Mr. Sloan from the Department of Shifter Affairs, that his brother and Ravirez were behind HEV, the Human Eradication Virus as Drake called it, had been surprisingly hard. Too many lives depended on him being honest with the government and hoping they’d believe him enough to work with Damien and not officially— or even unofficially— label all shifters as enemies of the state.
Though it hadn’t always been an amicable relationship, shifters and humans in the U.S. had managed to co-exist for two hundred years. The majority of shifters isolating themselves in the woods away from human population centers helped, but mostly no one had the stomach for a civil war that would decimate entire towns. The U.S. Government had no real way of knowing who was a shifter and who wasn’t. Only shifters could tell the difference, through smell, and sometimes eye color that changed at night or with emotions, like with Callen and often Damien. At night, his own eyes sometimes mimicked the color of the person he was with.
“I told Sloan about Drake. The government’s giving us one shot to save ourselves, Damien. We give them Drake, or they send troops in and kill everyone they find in the woods west of Boulder for a hundred miles. On top of that, they’ll make it not only legal but a civic duty for humans to kill shifters on sight, not just here but everywhere in the country.
“We have no choice but to go in and get him,” Damien said.
“If we invade, we’re going to start a shifter war that we can’t win. And Drake will still manage to escape.”
“Not if we do it right.”
“You’re fooling yourself. It doesn’t matter how we approach this, if we go in after Drake with dozens of wolves, it will end badly, for everyone.”
“We get Liam involved. I don’t care how much he’s sworn he’s staying out of this, he’ll have no choice. His pack will be wiped out, too. With both of our pack joining forces, we’ll decimate Drake.”
Damien was mad, worse than Hayden had seen him in a long time. And Hayden understood his anger, shared it even. Once the government moved in, wolf shifters everywhere would be up against thousands of troops. Assault from the air. Crop dusters sprinkling SEV like they were dousing a forest fire.
As much as it still pained Hayden to think about it, they needed to hand Drake over. But a shifter war wasn’t the way. Drake would escape. Hayden was conflicted, for the first in a long time, he truly didn’t know what to do, or how to advise. Stall, he needed to stall for time, to think this through.
“This is what we’re going to do, Hayden. Go to Liam, fill him in, and tell him I want him on my side when we go up against Drake. Or at the very least, his promise to stay out of it if he refuses to join me. Emphasize that we know he doesn’t want to be part of a shifter war, but we have to hand Drake over somehow, so I’m open to suggestions. Otherwise, I’m going in. If Liam doesn’t join us, then he needs to stay out of it completely, and not side with Drake.
“We have to appeal to Drake,” Hayden said.
“No.”
“A war won’t work.”
“Then find a way to turn him over.”
“He’s. . . Hell, Damien. He deserves a chance.”
Damien opened his mouth, then shut it. “Those are our choices.”
Hayden was on overload. He needed to figure this out, escape, to get out of here and find Mila. He could think when she was around. Things became clearer when she was nearby. She could help him make sense of this.
“This is not up for discussion. Callen and I will start devising a plan.”
“You’re not listening to me, Damien.” His alpha rarely listened to him when it came to Drake. Always keeping him out of high-level meetings when Drake was invited, getting rid of him as if he was the weakest of shifters, pushing him aside as if he had no worth. No wonder half the wolves in this pack didn’t respect him.
This was his brother. Hayden knew Drake would be waiting for this attack, he’d expect it. Part of Hayden couldn’t accept that Drake had callously sent that virus into two towns, killing thousands of innocents humans, including children. Drake was a lot of things, and Hayden was sure he had taken many human lives over the years, but always strategically and in a way that he could justify to himself even if not to others.
This had been straight-up mass murder. That wasn’t like Drake. Damien would turn him over to the government, without questioning him, without seeking the truth.
“I am listening, Hayden, and what I’m hearing is that you don’t think I know what I’m doing. Your judgment is skewed because you’re trying to protect him. You forget where your loyalty lays.”
Hayden couldn’t contain the growl that escaped him as he sprang to his feet. The need to run, to fight, to do something other than to sit here and debate a losing position with his alpha overwhelmed him. His wolf felt threatened, but to growl at his alpha was unheard of. Damien shot him a look, with a growl of his own as he too rose, knocking over his chair in the process.
Both shifters stared at each other. Damien’s eyes changed to a dark blue and Hayden felt his bones sliding in his back as his wolf tried to force a shift.
A crash came from the kitchen. Glass shattering. They both turned to Tess, who looked pale and nervous as her eyes bounced from shifter to shifter. They’d shocked or scared her with their growls, or both.
“Hayden,” Tess said, her voice a whisper. She was scared, worried for him.
Hayden had to fight his own wolf before he could lower his eyes to appease Damien, but he managed it finally, for Tess more than for Damien. He wasn’t happy with his alpha, but
he didn’t want to scare Tess. In all the years he had known Damien, fought by his side, backed him up in everything, even when he disagreed with him, he had never once knowingly defied or challenged Damien, and he wasn’t sure why he had this time.
Damien too looked like he was at a loss, but he couldn’t, wouldn’t do anything in the way of an apology. As alpha, he didn’t need to. Damien folded his arms over his chest. “You leave for Liam in the morning, and don’t return until he’s on our side.”
* * *
MILA
Mila considered taking the afternoon off and heading out with Tess as she accompanied the middle schoolers on a fun-day. They were taking trays from the cookhouse and heading up to one of the smaller hills to go sledding. Mila had cringed when she heard that. The hill was a narrow strip of land that had been cleared as a fire break years ago and still had its share of stumps, not to mention being surrounded by trees on both sides. And these kids didn’t have helmets. Granted, pre-adolescent shifters had better reflexes than their human counterparts, but they’d be on make-shift sleds that they wouldn’t have any control over. Tess said this was the spot all the parents took the kids for decades, with no major injuries. Even so, Tess said they’d welcome having a doctor along.
Short of buying helmets for the kids—which she’d definitely suggest to Damien—Mila realized the best way of protecting those kids was to continue working on the shifter virus. That meant staying in camp, where Hayden would have no trouble finding her. Except he didn’t. Anna returned from the cookhouse with an extra coffee for Mila. She reported seeing Hayden leaving Damien’s house and heading down the trail that led toward his cabin.
That was that then. One sniff would have been more than enough for Hayden to know she was close by, but he hadn’t bothered to come to see her. If he could put what happened behind them, then Mila would do the same. She had no choice, really.
“Explain your theory of how LSOV will help you create a vaccine,” Anna said, as she sipped her coffee.
Hayden’s Haven Page 16