by Riley Storm
“I doubt it,” Lucien spat. Not if they knew the truth about me. That I ran. “Besides, Logan said he had a plan.”
So it was a bit of a white lie. Logan had never explicitly said those words. But neither had he said he didn’t have one, which therefore meant he had at least some sort of idea of how to proceed. And if that was what it took to get Lorik and the other kids to help him out, then so be it. Lucien didn’t like lying, but desperate times did call for desperate measures.
Lorik was busy thinking. “So you were at the warehouse last night, with Logan?”
“Yes. There were nine of us,” he repeated, counting the seconds as they passed by.
“So, how come only you’re here right now? Why can’t any of the others help you?”
Shit.
Lucien could see that Lorik was starting to grow antsy again, his eyes darting around. He had clued in to the fact that none of the others were there. Only Lucien. Right now, he knew Lorik was trying to decide if Lucien had escaped…or been let go, just to repeat the process elsewhere.
“They can’t help, because Lyken took them all down,” he said quietly.
“How are you here?” Lorik asked, losing much of the youth as he straightened, flinging his words accusatorily.
“I’m here because Logan told me to get out. So that at least someone might remain free to rescue him. Which is what I intend to do.”
The other shifter shook his head. “You ran away, that’s what you’re telling me. You ran, like a coward.”
Lucien closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. He didn’t try to use force on Lorik, he needed to keep all his strength reserves available to him.
“I got jumped outside the warehouse and made my way across town with a uranium blade in my shoulder,” he growled, pulling his shirt down to reveal the ugly puckered wound. “I nearly bled out before I finally healed enough to stop it. It’s the next day and I’m out here trying to get help to go back after them because there quite simply is no time to waste. So do it, call me a coward one more time. I dare you.”
The challenge was clear. Either accept what he was saying, or they were going to throw down then and there. Lucien desperately hoped that wouldn’t happen, because he doubted Lorik was the pseudo-alpha here, the leader of however many shifters were hiding out in Granted Holdings. That was the man he would need to fight, if it came to it.
Lorik quivered in rage at the treatment, and for a long moment, Lucien thought he’d erred, that the youth was possessed of sterner stuff. If he was, they would go at it right here in the parking lot, and though Lucien thought his odds at winning were slightly above fifty percent, if he had to fight again, he’d be broken in seconds.
“I ran so that I can do exactly what I’m doing now,” he added when Lorik didn’t immediately respond either way.
“Which is what?”
“Find allies and go after my friends,” Lucien snarled. “After the man who is going to lead us all.”
Lorik sighed heavily, coming to a decision. “You had better not be lying,” he said and motioned for Lucien to follow.
They went across the street and stopped at the roll-up door labelled Granted Holdings. Lorik banged on it several times in a one-two-one pattern, then waited. There was a long enough pause that Lucien started to wonder if they were going to be let in, then the door went up.
“What are you doing bringing him here?” someone snarled before the door was past his waist.
“Ask me yourself,” Lucien shot back. “If you have the balls.”
He didn’t know for certain that this person was the leader of these refugees, but the condescending tone certainly seemed to lean that way. And he didn’t like it one bit. Leaders should respect their followers. Accept loyalty, not demand it, and most certainly not rule out of fear.
A shifter slightly shorter than Lorik but a little bulkier—and not entirely muscle—strolled out of the shadows of the inner warehouse and came to a stop several feet in front of Lucien.
“What do you want?”
“Your help,” he said plainly, and repeated his story yet again about Logan and the others leaving the Manor and their desire for change. “Now Logan is imprisoned, and I can’t do this alone. I want you to come with me and help get him out so he can lead us.”
Lucien fell quiet, letting the other man absorb his words. He didn’t wait for long.
“No. Piss off. You’re a coward who ran away. I don’t know Logan. I don’t know you. We’re happy where we are. I don’t need some House Canis bitch who couldn’t stay out of prison telling me what to do. I’m in charge here.”
Lucien smiled grimly. “I really think you should reconsider,” he said, dropping his voice. “Really, really think you should.” With each word, his voice grew quieter, forcing the other shifter to sway in closer to try and hear.
Then he offered up a quick prayer that his shoulder wouldn’t open again, and punched the uppity wannabe-alpha square in the jaw.
8
“Hey!” Lorik shouted in surprise, but Lucien ignored him.
His focus was on the asshole in front of him. The “leader” reeled backward in surprise and Lucien went right in after him. He wasn’t going to be able to win a straight-up fight, so he had to keep up his momentum.
Following up his initial punch, he ducked below a counter-swing, only narrowly missing as his weakened body took longer to respond than he was used to. Lashing out with his left arm, he hissed in pain as the skin pulled at the knife wound, opening it open again even as his fist went home into the midsection of his opponent.
Lucien got up and pivoted on his left foot, kicking out with his right, catching the other shifter in the chest, sending him stumbling backward into a pile of heavy machinery in the middle of the warehouse floor.
The movement also left his vision spinning as he stumbled forward, eager to finish the fight. Thankfully, they were fighting in human form, because Lucien didn’t think he had the energy to shift, let alone fight after doing so. He was weaker than he’d expected. That first blow had been with everything he had, and only sheer surprise had allowed it to work.
Surprise, and his quickly-deepening suspicion that Lorik was a prime example of the followers this jerk had surrounded himself with. Outcasts, young, and weak. Or to translate: shifters he could bully into following him. Lorik hated that.
“Well don’t just stand there, get him!” the bully shouted at Lorik, who cringed at the idea.
“Stay out of this, Lorik,” Lucien countered, trying not to wheeze in exhaustion as he danced away from a combination of punches. “This is a Challenge, not a fight.”
A Challenge was the right any wolf shifter had to challenge any other wolf shifter at any point in time for leadership. If Lucien won, then the others in this ragtag outfit would look to him as the alpha, and take orders from him, not this jacked-up dickbag.
“I’m sorry Lowwen,” Lorik said quietly and backed away.
Lowwen. Now his enemy had a name. Lucien closed and connected with another punch. This one drew blood as Lowwen turned and spat to the side, the red-tinged saliva splattered at Lorik’s feet.
It was quickly becoming obvious that Lucien outclassed Lowwen. Unfortunately, he was also weak and slow. If he’d been healthy, the fight would already have been over. He could see a dozen ways to end it, but all of them required him to be able to take a punch, and Lucien had doubts about how his body would handle that. Even now he could feel it screaming for energy, for him to stop. What few reserves he’d accumulated in the past few hours were gone, exhausted in the less than ninety seconds of fighting.
Lowwen came hurtling in like a berserker, and Lucien abruptly saw his chance. There was no time to waste. Ducking low, he charged forward, giving it every last bit of strength he had. His weakened shoulder drove hard into Lowwen’s midsection. He picked the shifter up and continued to charge ahead, until he altered the angle of his momentum and used every last shred of power he possessed to drive the othe
r man into the ground.
Wincing at the sickening crunch Lowwen’s head made as it hit the concrete floor of the warehouse, Lucien stood up. It was over, but he wasn’t celebrating. In fact, he was doing his best to stay on his feet as dizziness swept through his system at the expenditure of so much of his remaining energy.
“Is he going to be okay?” Lorik asked, coming up to stand next to him, looking down at Lowwen’s sprawled-out body.
“Should be,” Lucien said tightly. “He’s thick-headed enough, I doubt it did more than tickle really.”
“Okay.”
Lucien wobbled over to a nearby rolling chair that sat at a desk piled high with all sorts of random pieces of equipment and paper, clearly a catch-all zone for whoever worked there. He plunked his ass down into the chair, very carefully not letting himself pass out.
“You okay? I didn’t think he hit you,” Lorik asked, coming over to stand nearby.
“Told you. Stabbed with a uranium blade. Nearly bled out. Can’t recover from that in a day, Lorik.”
The youngster took that information in, and as he did, his face filled with newfound respect. “You’re in that bad of condition, and you still fought Lowwen? Why?”
“I told you,” he said with a sigh. “Because my friends need me. I need your help, to help them. And besides, Lowwen needs to learn how to be a real leader. Bullying is how you become a tyrant. Logan could show him how to truly get others to follow you. It would be good for him.”
“Maybe,” Lorik said uncertainly. “Maybe.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
He swiveled the chair to see another figure standing in the doorway. Tall, fit…and female? That had Lucien’s attention.
“This is the last of our merry band,” Lorik said. “Lucien, meet Lana.”
The obvious adoration in Lorik’s voice was unmistakable, and a quick glance showed him the truth of it as Lana walked into the warehouse. She was young, possibly even more so than Lorik, but she had something neither of the other two possessed. She was a female shifter.
Female shifters were rare. The DNA often didn’t take. When it did, more often than not it produced unwanted results. Not with Lana, however. She was too young for Lucien, but he could see what Lorik appreciated in her. The long swing of her ponytail, the power of her build. The young male was beyond infatuated.
Lucien’s eyes swayed over to Lowwen. Now it made more sense.
“Who are you and what did you do to Low?”
“I knocked him out because he was an ass,” Lucien said plainly. “And because I need your help. You follow me. I’m in charge now.”
It was stronger than he wanted to be, but Lucien suspected it would be necessary with Lana. It was clear she’d chosen to come with Lowwen, and Lorik had followed along like a lovesick puppy dog. What he didn’t understand, was what Lana saw in him.
“Hah. Good. He’d been getting way too cocky lately, ever since we set up shop here really. Treated Lorik like garbage. I didn’t like that.”
Ah. There it was. Lana had come with Lowwen, but somehow, at some point, she’d seen his true nature, and realized Lorik was better. Lowwen, predictably, would not have liked that, and so he’d become more demanding. The harder he squeezed, the more Lana slipped through his fingers.
Now he had that sorted, it was time to start showing them that he was in charge. For the third time, he repeated his story about Logan and his goal to rescue him along with the others. Hopefully, it was the last time he’d have to say it.
“Yeah, I’m on board,” Lana said confidently. Lorik looked at her quickly then nodded. “Me too.”
“What about him?” Lucien asked, pointing at Lowwen, who was still out cold.
“I’ll make sure he sees the light,” Lana said confidently. “He’s not that bad. I’ll sweet-talk him.”
Lucien hid a snicker, wondering just who had really been in charge here. “Sounds good. Best of luck.”
“Yeah.” Lana rolled her shoulders. “What is it you need from us?”
“I need you to scout out a facility for me. The one where I’m assuming they took Logan and the others. If we’re going to go in and bust them out, I need to know what sort of additional security measures they’ve taken.”
“Sounds like you already have a bit of an idea,” Lorik said, speaking up.
“A little,” he admitted, hoping Lana would see the intelligence burning in the young man’s eyes.
Now is not the time to play cupid.
“What facility?”
“There’s a secret interrogation and holding facility built underneath Plymouth Falls’ mental illness institute,” he explained, not for one moment doubting his decision to tell them about the Canis facility.
“How the hell do you know that?” Lana asked.
“House Canis has a number of facilities around Plymouth Falls. Do you really think we conduct business on the grounds of Moonshadow Manor when we expect there to be possible hostilities? Come on now,” he chided the youngsters. “This shouldn’t be that surprising.”
“Maybe not,” Lorik agreed. “But how do you know about this place? It’s not like those locations are exactly public knowledge to anyone outside of the Title Holders.”
Lucien nodded. The Title Holders were the ruling group of any shifter House. Of course, they would know, but even then, many of them had their own projects ongoing. Plymouth Falls was far more invested by the various shifter families than any of the humans would ever suspect. Then again, they would have to realize it was a major hub for paranormal creatures of all sorts to understand why. And that information was highly guarded.
“I know,” he explained. “Because I used to be the administrator behind it. Until six months ago, when I was yanked back to the Manor and basically put under arrest for suspicion of not being a believer in the King’s crazy scheme.”
The pair of them just nodded. They understood. In fact, they had left the manor before he did, for the same reasons. Yes, they knew how he was feeling.
“I’d do it myself,” he explained, “but too many people there know me. They don’t know you.” He glared at both of them sternly. “No being a hero. I’ll tell you what I know of for security. Your job is to corroborate that, and to see what other systems they’ve put in place. From a distance. That’s all. Whatever you can find out, is what you can find out.”
Lana spoke up first. “And if we do that, and if we find out the information you need. What happens next?”
“Next? Next, I hope that they left me a way in without realizing it. So I can get in, free the others and get out. If they didn’t do that, then we grab the current admin and use him to get the codes we need.”
Lana seemed satisfied, but Lorik wasn’t.
“What if neither of those works?” he asked.
Lucien bit his lip. “If neither of those works, I have a backup. But I really, really don’t want to use that option.”
9
“Alison? Alison, there’s something blocking the door.”
Standing behind the chair she’d wedged under the handle, Alison gripped the baseball bat tightly. “You’re damn right there is. Who is it?” she snapped.
The person attempting to get through her front door stopped. She thought she heard what might have been a sigh, but it was too muffled to be certain.
“It’s me, Alison. Lucien.”
“Lucien doesn’t have a key,” she snapped. “How did you unlock the door?
This time, she did hear a sigh. “You leave the spare key hidden in the garden under the rock. You never changed it. Now, will you please open the door and let me in?”
“Why?” she countered hotly. “So you can just bleed on my carpet and then leave again? What makes you think I want you in here? In fact, what makes you think you can just use the key to come and go whenever you want?”
“I am not doing this through the door,” Lucien said firmly.
Alison cursed. She didn’t want him doing it through the doo
r either. The last thing her neighbors needed was to overhear anything about last night. If they realized she’d let him stay and hadn’t called the cops, they would summon the Sherriff’s office in a heartbeat.
Nosey old hags.
She didn’t get along with them very well.
“Fine. But keep your stuff on.”
She pulled the chair out and set it aside, backing up as the door opened and Lucien entered, his big frame immediately making her already small house feel smaller.
“Keep my stuff on?” His eyes darted over to the nearby chair, making the connection with it to the door. “What is going on here?”
Alison just gaped at him, unable to form words for a half minute. When they did arrive, though, they came fast and furious.
“Are you serious right now?” she all but howled at him. “Seriously, is there any way you’re actually this blind? You show up at my door, half dead and covered in blood. I try to do the right thing and call 911, but no, you don’t want that. For some dumbass reason, I actually listen to you, and don’t do it. In the morning, your first thoughts are “feed me.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe you. You ruin my carpet, pass out on my floor, and, and, and just stroll back into my life after six months of absolutely no contact, and you cannot fathom for a second why I might not be okay with you using the spare key to enter my house at your own leisure? Can you seriously not understand that?!”
Lucien stiffened as she spoke until by the end, he was little more than a statue. “I told you I’ll get your carpet fixed,” he said tightly.
But Alison wasn’t done. “Have you lost your mind, Lucien? Where have you been? We were…were…I don’t know what the hell we were, but we were something! You left me without any reason, any explanation, not even a goodbye. Six months isn’t four days. Did you really think you could up and waltz back into my life and that everything would just go back to how it was? That I wouldn’t be furious at you?”
Lucien opened his mouth to respond, but she shoved a finger into the air violently, stopping him. “Then, on top of all that, what do you do today? You up and disappear again, without warning, without explanation. Nothing at all. You just left the house, walked out, and then back in.”