Chapter 28
I didn’t quite understand how Sebastien managed the feat, but the soldiers around him obeyed without question. Radios crackled, orders were relayed, and a head count ensued. Within seconds, everyone was awake and accounted for. And then every single one of those uniformed humans was retreating, unit after unit noting current locations as soldiers trotted through the front gates and continued onward into the safety of the encircling forest.
“How?” I asked, staring upward into Sebastien’s hooded eyes. He’d turned off his headlamp so its beam no longer blinded me. But the lowering of my companion’s defenses made him seem less familiar rather than more so, the air infused with secrets we possessed insufficient time to fully talk out.
Rather than answering immediately, Sebastien took my hand and nudged me toward the gates at the heels of the retreating soldiers. Only after we were moving did he speak at long last.
“A little sleight of hand, a bit of body mirroring, and the lieutenant commander was willing to take the threat seriously,” my mate answered. “It didn’t hurt that his superior had been extremely vague about my purpose here on the base. Of course, if the compound fails to blow in a timely manner....”
“Oh, it’ll blow,” I answered as we slipped through the still-open gates and turned off the main path so we could parallel the soldiers while remaining out of sight among the trees. I could barely believe our escape from Dakota’s trap had been so easy. Still, it appeared the agents had evacuated every living being from the base just in the nick of time.
But then Sebastien pulled me to a halt a considerable distance from the compound, reminding me of the other problems that lay between us. My shift, my lie, my inner wolf. Swallowing, I attempted to discern the expression on my companion’s face, finding nothing save shadows to guide me. “Sebastien,” I started, his name like a gulp of hot chocolate on my tongue despite my growing trepidation.
“Ember,” my mate answered, his voice considerably colder and harder than my own. “I need answers. Your brother...?”
“Like me,” I confirmed, tugging on the professor’s hand to get us moving once again. I had no clue how large an area Dakota’s explosion would affect and I refused to risk the professor’s skin to flying shrapnel.
And, okay, so I’ll admit it—I didn’t really want to carry out this conversation fueled by an empty stomach and a sleepless night either. So I tried to follow the sound of retreating soldiers further into the night...
...But my companion stood as solidly as any mountain, refusing to budge until his demands were met. “You’re going to have to give me a little more than that,” Sebastien countered. “Is this a full moon thing? Were you bitten by a wild animal? Can you be harmed by silver? Are there more of you out there? You can’t just drop something like this and expect me to accept it without question. We need to talk.”
“Okay,” I told him, even though Sebastien’s flurry of questions was far from okay. This was precisely why humans weren’t to be alerted to the existence of shifter-kind. Well, the inevitable debriefing was one reason...the other was the danger that would ensue if Sebastien ran back into the arms of SHRITA, desperate to spill his guts.
And maybe that was why I was scanning the surroundings so avidly. Any external danger seemed like a better bet than the rejection hovering behind my companion’s squared shoulders and clenched jaw. Maybe the bomb would explode soon and put us all out of our misery? I could only hope....
Except, in the end, it was my wolf who changed the subject. She froze in place then turned our head to peer deeper into the darkness. There was something out there. Something that hadn’t existed a moment earlier....
Ignoring the human waiting for answers by our side, my inner beast growled long and low within our shared throat. We might have been two-legged at the present moment, but she was quite willing to browbeat the approaching danger with the full force of her ferocious fangs. Gradually, hairs on my arms began to lengthen and my wolf grew more dominant beneath my skin as she prepared to shift.
“What is it?” Sebastien murmured, following our line of sight with entirely human eyes. He’d see nothing, though. I knew because I hadn’t caught a single glimpse of the current hazard either despite the assistance of my inner beast.
But I sensed it. Smelled it. Heard it as the first lupine yip caroled out from within a grove of nearby maples.
We hadn’t made our way out of danger quite yet. Instead, we were entirely surrounded by enemy wolves.
BACK IN THE COMPOUND, Dakota had threatened me and threatened my mate. She’d promised to blow the soldiers sky high at the same time. So how had I forgotten that desperate danger waited in the wings?
Because I saw Sebastien and lost track of everything else, I thought, shivering as an undulating howl joined the original bark, this time located on our opposite flank. Then howl after howl emanated from behind, before, all around until I realized we were thoroughly surrounded by someone else’s pack.
No! I wanted to yell. These foot soldiers have no knowledge of shifter-kind. Leave them alone!
But I didn’t speak because I knew my words wouldn’t sway the other female from her chosen path. Likely nothing short of an overt order from her superior would do the trick...and we had no way of managing such a reversal while government equipment blocked GPS and cell-phone signals from reaching the area around SHRITA’s base.
Beside me, Sebastien whirled, peering through the darkness in search of the animals rending the air with their cries. And as my hand clenched around the coldness left behind by my mate’s fleeting touch, I was able to catch additional hints of the enemies’ passing.
Hairs rose along the back of my neck at the distant crackle of stepped-upon twigs. A faint flicker of reflective eyes winked in and out ten feet deeper in the forest. Then the air around us filled with the scent of wolves, so many that even my inner beast admitted she wouldn’t be able to fight them all off alone.
I expected the enemy to fall upon us with a vengeance. But I should have known better. After all, this was Dakota’s clan, devoted to manipulation and mayhem in equal abundance. Why launch a head-on invasion when she could instead begin with a reign of terror?
Sure enough, the first male to be taken down must have been hidden from his compatriots by a dense line of bushes and trees. Because his shout was short and strangled, the scent of blood the only proof that he hadn’t twisted an ankle by stepping into a hole. One gruff grunt, then the male was gone, his life blood spilled out upon damp forest leaves.
“What was that?” a second soldier called loudly. And as murmurs ran up and down the line of humans, I rose onto the balls of my feet, berating myself for letting the female slip through my grasp earlier in the evening. Why, I wondered, didn’t I kill Dakota when I had the chance?
As if thinking her name had called the female into existence, the other female’s scent rode along the breeze toward me then—asphalt and peppermint and night-softened fur. She was somewhere in front of us. Had likely set up her ambush before even invading the base. The clever enforcer had laid out her bait, had planned for me and Sebastien to drive unwitting humans out of the compound and into her waiting arms. Then she’d sat back and laughed as I walked directly into her trap.
Now the only question was—was it possible to lead those innocent one-bodies back to safety?
Only I had no time to make an offensive move. No time to track Dakota through the darkness and reclaim the opportunity I’d allowed to pass me by in that underground bunker. Instead, Dakota’s quiet words carried as easily as if she’d used a megaphone, turning denial into dread.
“No survivors,” the female bade her wolves. “For the safety of shifter-kind, we won’t leave until every human on this road is verifiably dead. Now get to work.”
The wolves fell upon their two-legged prey with a vengeance. The chirps of crickets and rustles of leaves were replaced by gunshots and shouts, high-pitched shrieks soon giving way to the nauseating scent of gushing arterial
blood. Despite possessing rifles, each soldier had become a sitting duck in the darkness, eyes unable to pick out lupine forms until the moment sharp fangs tore into unprotected throats.
The carnage was invisible and yet far too easy to imagine. Less than fifty feet away from my frozen form, Dakota and her company took advantage of their lupine senses and pressed forward as relentlessly as any tide.
But unlike the clear waters of the ocean, the fluids flowing from the assemblage were red and iron-rich. The harvest they reaped was in blood.
Chapter 29
I couldn’t save the soldiers, but I could join them. Moving my body around in front of my mate’s I raised my firearm and prepared to fight back.
But before I could pick out a single lupine head to target, a dark hand emerged from nowhere and wrested the rifle out of my grasp. “Don’t be an idiot,” Malachi ordered, teeth the only part of his body visible in the darkness.
And, immediately, relief coursed beneath my skin as my cousin’s presence flowed into my lungs like a dose of pure oxygen. Despite Malachi’s owl screeches and frog calls earlier in the evening, I’d somehow assumed that when push came to shove he would bow to his enforcer roots and join Dakota at the slaughter. After all, it was the only way to carry out the role that had pulled him away from Haven at the tender age of fifteen.
But instead, my cousin was here by my side, attempting to usher me backwards away from the battle that raged along the roadway. In the end, it appeared that Malachi’s loyalty remained with his birth pack...which meant it remained with me.
Only, I had no time to indulge in warm fuzzies. Because Sebastien wasn’t willing to let Malachi’s assault go unhindered. Stepping back to the fore, the professor’s shoulders appeared to expand and his height to increase as the professor faced down a male as daunting as any of the nearby wolves. “Don’t touch her,” my mate demanded, the air filling with so much electricity that the particles of oxygen threatened to ignite.
The resulting growls were identical. One shifter who’d spent his adulthood performing unmentionable deeds emitted a threat display bound to make even the strongest werewolf falter. And one human whose life up until this morning had been impacted by nothing more serious than toothless office politics faced down his opponent with equal vigor.
Despite their disparate experiences, both now sounded exactly alike as the rumble deep within their respective chests broke forth from between clenched lips. And each male took a single step forward until I found myself squashed between two hard sets of flexing abs.
At any other moment, the sensation would have been intriguing. As it was, though, the sounds of battle were drawing nearer by the second and that dratted bomb had to be only a few minutes shy of detonation.
So pushing the men apart with all my might, I hoped against hope that neither would be willing to go through me to get to the other. “Sebastien,” I said breathlessly, emphasizing each relationship as the words left my tongue, “this is my cousin. And Malachi, this is my mate.”
FOR ONE AGONIZINGLY long second, I thought the explanation wouldn’t be enough to stave off imminent bloodshed. But then Malachi pursed his lips unhappily and rounded his shoulders as skillfully as he’d done for the sake of the not-quite-cop the day before. “Here,” he said curtly, passing the stolen rifle over to my human partner without even attempting to glare the latter into submission. “You’re in charge of guarding our backs.”
“Agreed,” Sebastien replied. And to my relief, my mate dropped the dominance display as quickly as it had begun, turning instead to peer into the night with rifle at the ready. Meanwhile, my cousin began pulling me in the opposite direction, steps urgent as he rushed me away from the danger behind all of our backs.
I was glad to see my mate and cousin working together as a unit, but something inside me snapped at the notion of leaving those beleaguered soldiers behind without a single attempt to save them. “No,” I told my companions, planting my feet as best I could while such a massive force drew me away from my intended destination. “The humans...”
“...Are as good as dead already,” Malachi countered coldly, not missing a single step as he yanked me further down the path toward the now-silent base. Sebastien didn’t speak, but from the way the latter’s hands settled against my shoulder blades and propelled me forward, I had to assume my mate was in full agreement with my cousin.
Unfortunately, all evidence suggested that both males were right. The sounds of battle were winding down behind us, suggesting that Dakota’s forces would begin circling further afield to mop up survivors at any moment. Survivors like myself...and like my mate.
It was the realization that Sebastien might die if I attempted heroics that forced me to accede to my companions’ wishes at last. And I suspect both males felt my acceptance coursing down our respective tethers because my mate spoke up only a second later. “Do we have a plan?” the human asked, not sounding at all short of breath despite the fact that we’d transitioned from jog to run.
“Dakota will be on your trail momentarily,” my cousin answered, turning his head briefly as we darted through the open front gates and back into the compound we’d so recently left behind. “The only definite way through her defenses is to slip through the gap in the fence where Ember entered.” Then, almost too quietly for me to hear, he added, “Assuming the electricity is powered off and we all fit through, that is.”
Big assumptions. But my inner wolf agreed with Malachi. Two minutes, she murmured, keeping track of the timer’s countdown despite recent events that had thrust similar awareness out of my human head. We didn’t really have time to do anything other than taking the shortest path to our destination. So after one last desperate attempt to come up with a solution that didn’t exist, my wolf and I both ceded to our cousin’s wisdom.
Once committed, I broke into a sprint, pushing my companions into higher gear as we circled around to the western quadrant of the military base and arrowed toward the gully through which deer—and I—had made a multitude of illicit transits already. And it was my urgency that drove all of our feet, so maybe it was also my fault that we were dashing for safety rather than monitoring our surroundings as danger approached.
Whatever the reason, I neither heard nor saw Troy sneaking up behind us. None of us did, not even Sebastien who was darting numerous glances over his shoulder as he brought up the rear.
One moment we were running, the stream of seconds flowing away soundlessly within my wolf’s immaterial head. The next moment, I was being jerked to a halt by a queasiness in my stomach and a sharp ache in my brain. Something was seriously wrong right here among my companions. In fact, as I fought with lungs that were now refusing to inhale a single breath, I almost thought the bomb had gone off and slammed a wave of airborne energy into my gut.
But the night remained still, a barred owl in the distance the only sign of nearby life. Well, that...and the sight that I took in when I turned on my heel to make contact with my mate.
Sebastien wasn’t running any longer. Instead, he was caught in a stranglehold, one of Troy’s arms latched tightly around his windpipe while the other clenched my mate’s hands uselessly behind the latter’s back. The rifle was gone, dropped somewhere in the darkness, and Sebastien’s cheeks mottled purple from his failed efforts to breathe.
Meanwhile, Troy’s eyes had turned as feral as his alpha’s, signaling a volition more bestial than human. The male wasn’t thinking rationally, perhaps was even beyond the point of obeying verbal orders. He was in human skin but his mind was all wolf...and that wolf was looking forward to feasting on human blood.
“Malachi,” I whispered, unable to call more loudly to the cousin who’d already pulled several yards ahead. Because I found my body responding to my mate’s straining struggle, my own lungs heaving and yet finding it impossible to breathe.
“Your cousin can leave,” Troy countered, voice even more ominous for all that it was smooth and apparently civilized. “I have no beef with Malachi. B
ut Dakota wants you and this human dead. I will obey my alpha.”
As the male spoke, muscles corded all up and down his arm as he squeezed Sebastien tighter. And in response, his victim’s hands—which had formerly been clawing at those of his attacker—abruptly went slack. “Run,” my mate mouthed, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
I couldn’t obey, though. Not when my own feet had planted themselves to the earth as my wolf gave up hope. Because if the professor died, was there any reason for us to go on living?
Which, apparently, was just the reaction Troy had been hoping for. His lips spread into a half-crazed smile and the scent on the air turned smug and sharp. “That’s right. Stay there and you’ll be next,” he told me. Then, turning his attention back to Sebastien, teeth lengthened and gaze sharpened as he considered the human slowly losing consciousness within his grip.
Chapter 30
I felt more than saw the motion as Malachi stepped out of the shadows and slid into the space beside me. “Troy,” my cousin said, his voice imbued with disappointment. “What do you think you’re doing?”
And while the tether that bound me to my cousin was just barely tangible beneath my skin, Malachi’s connection to the other male was ten times as obvious even from a distance. The two stood in perfect harmony despite their confrontational situation, Troy’s left hip jutting out to match Malachi’s right while each neck bent in a perfect mirror image of the other. How I had ever thought the two were anything other than pack was beyond me.
Perhaps that’s why Dakota’s underling offered up a reply rather than simply finishing the work he’d come to carry out. “I’m doing my job,” Troy said before pausing long enough to give Sebastien’s throat another eye-popping squeeze. “Or rather,” he added, “I’m doing your job.”
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