by Meg Ripley
“Hank, Leona,” Kevin continued, “we’d like to officially invite you to become one of us. We’re all here in your honor, and we’d be extremely privileged to induct you tonight.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Hudson said, wondering just how he was going to get out of this without offending anyone. A request like this wasn’t one the pride would’ve taken lightly, after all. “Leona and I have been discussing this wonderful opportunity almost constantly. It’s an incredible honor, and I can’t tell you how flattered we are that you would extend your circle to include us when you’ve known us for such a short amount of time.”
Leona nodded and smiled at his side, but he could detect the waves of anxiety that radiated from her.
“That being said, I’m afraid we can’t accept tonight.” A heavy silence filled the room, and Hudson could feel the suspicion rising. “You see, my wife isn’t feeling all that well, and I really do need to get her home.” He felt Leona slump a little against him. Nothing overly dramatic, but just enough to make his story seem feasible.
Kevin frowned. “I don’t think you understand. This isn’t an option. We can’t just have you accept an invitation into the fold and then reject it.”
“Not rejecting, just postponing,” Hudson corrected softly. “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll get on home. Then we can meet up with you another time and get this done.” He moved toward the door, bringing Leona with him.
“No.” Kevin made a small gesture, and the other male members of the pride closed in around them. One, whom Hudson recognized as Chris, reached out to grab him. He blocked him easily enough, swinging his arm to the side, but not before another shifter had snatched Leona.
His momentary panic didn’t last long. He hadn’t yet seen her combat, but she could hold her own. Leona thrust her elbows back into the man’s gut, then rammed her head back as he bent forward, sending him reeling away with a bloody nose.
“Dear, we don’t need to make such a show of this,” Kim said. She’d come up next to her husband, her glow of excitement replaced by worry. “We can do it another time. I don’t mind putting another meeting together.”
Kevin glared at his wife. “Stay out of this. We’ve got business to take care of.”
Hudson felt his inner lion awaken at the threat of the crowd around him, and he was tempted to shift right then and there. But someone attacked him from behind, throwing him forward. Hudson stumbled, grabbing someone else nearby for balance. His shirt must have lifted at just the wrong angle.
“He’s got a gun!”
Someone snatched it from the back of his waistband, but Hudson wasn’t ready to give up the fight yet. More men fell on him, pinning his arms and taking him to the floor. He fought back, but there was only so much one man could do when he was so outnumbered. He heard Leona’s grunts as she was experiencing the same, and the shriek of indignance as someone discovered she was armed as well.
Something thumped the back of his head and the world went dark.
His head throbbed as he peeled his eyes open. His stomach churned, but he clenched his teeth against it as he tried to take in his surroundings. They’d thrown them in a room that looked like some sort of storage area with concrete walls and a solid door. There weren’t any windows, and he could easily surmise they were in a basement. A single bulb burned overhead.
Leona’s weight was heavy against his shoulder. Hudson instinctively reached out to check her for injuries, but his hands were bound. “Leona. Wake up.”
She stirred, her head lolling to the side. Her eyes opened partway, making her look even more cranky than she normally did when she woke up in the morning. “What the hell happened?”
“Do you remember anything from upstairs?” he asked. Hudson could remember it far too clearly, but he knew they needed to keep talking. It would help them regain consciousness, and they needed to get clear-headed if they were going to get out of this.
“Shit. Yeah. I think so. I just can’t believe they turned on us that fast.” She experimented with the ropes at her wrists and made a face of disgust at them before lifting her foot and peeling off her shoe. A small folding knife fell to the floor.
“Clever girl,” Hudson said proudly as he picked it up. The blade was sharp, and he sliced through the rope easily before handing the knife to Leona so she could return the favor. “I knew there was a chance this could go badly, but I didn’t think they’d react so harshly.”
“That must mean they either know who we really are, or they’re afraid we’ve found out who they are. How long have we been down here?”
Hudson automatically reached for his cell phone, but it was gone. Not a surprise. “No telling. Doesn’t feel very long.”
Leona got to her feet slowly, stretching her muscles and assessing her body. It looked like a waste of time, but Hudson understood what she was doing. She had to figure out just what she was capable of before she attempted an escape. “Have you looked at the lock yet?”
“I just woke up.” He followed her to the door. The small hole in the simple handle indicated a typical indoor lock. “Interesting that they’d have the knob on that way. I’d guess that means they had someone in here before, but it must not have been anyone who knew what they were doing.”
She was busy checking out the rest of the door. “It might not have been that at all. I’ve seen locking knobs on rooms like this before, just because that was what was available. Given how inept they seem at this weapons trafficking ordeal, I’d guess they weren’t quite prepared for this.”
“Made them paranoid enough not to want to let us go, though,” Hudson remarked. “We either need something long and slim to undo the lock, or something we can pry the hinges off with.”
“Yeah.” Leona’s response was absent-minded as she tilted her head at the door. “You think you can break this down? Maybe in your other form?”
“Possibly, but I’d rather not give them a heads-up that we’re getting out when they hear me crashing against the wood. Better to sneak out if possible. Help me look.” He turned to the shelves that took up two of the walls of the room and began sorting through boxes of old Christmas decorations.
She joined him, systematically starting on the other end of the shelves and looking thoroughly through each container. “Did you hear the way the women reacted when things went down?”
“What do you mean?” He wasn’t interested in the pride’s dynamics at the moment, more absorbed with getting out of their makeshift prison than anything. His mind was constantly working through alternate plans. If they couldn’t break down the door, they’d need to catch their opportunity when someone came to check on them. If they shifted and busted through the door that way, they’d need to be prepared for a flood of members to come rushing in to subdue them again. If they were taken down a second time, they might not simply be knocked unconscious the next time.
“I mean, they acted like they had no idea what was happening. Kim looked embarrassed at her husband’s actions. It was the women who were so freaked out about us being armed. Most of them ran out of the room.” She flung a string of heart-shaped decorative lights to the side.
“What’s your point?”
“They don’t know what the guys are doing. The men were quick enough to jump in and keep us from leaving, even though it was perfectly reasonable that we might not want to go through the induction tonight. My guess is that they understood their secret was on the line, but the ladies didn’t have a clue.”
Hudson stopped what he was doing to look at her. “Does it really even matter now? I mean, we know they’re involved in illegal activities. We know they’re supporting terrorism, even if they don’t know it. And whether or not they admit it, guys are always looking for a fight. They were probably happy to jump in just because they never get the chance for that sort of action. Granted, it wasn’t exactly a fair fight, but they won’t think about that until tomorrow.”
“I think it matters, because it means it’s not the entire pride that’s inv
olved. Ah!” she held up a Christmas ornament hook in the older style that was essentially a piece of bent wire. Leona straightened it and took it to the door. She poked the wire into the hole in the brass knob, searching for the tiny release button.
Hudson wasn’t about to walk out into the clubhouse with little more than a tiny knife to protect them. He returned to the boxes he’d gone through, taking out a steel section of hollow tubing that was used as the center support for an artificial Christmas tree. Bits of tinsel were still stuck to it as he braced it over his shoulder like a baseball bat.
The click of victory was loud in the concrete room. Leona looked at him over her shoulder to be sure he was ready before slowly turning the knob. She pressed her ear to the door, listening for anyone outside before easing it open.
They found themselves in a larger basement room. It was mostly dark, but the light over the stairs illuminated a man who’d been stationed on guard duty. He looked uncertain as he shifted his pistol from one hand to the other, glancing up the stairs frequently. Hudson cussed silently in his head. This man wasn’t a trained soldier. He was someone who’d gotten caught up in something much bigger than himself, something he didn’t know how to handle. But he was also someone who would alert the rest of the pride as soon as he realized something was wrong.
Hudson raced forward on silent feet, swinging the tree pole over his head and bringing it down hard on the man’s skull. The dull thud vibrated through the metal as the guard fell. Leona caught him before he hit the floor and began dragging him backwards. Hudson understood what she was doing, and he joined her in stowing the unconscious man in the same storage closet they’d just escaped from. As extra security, Leona wrapped him in a length of garland that she tied expertly around his wrists and feet.
“Christmas in July,” Hudson whispered with a smile. “Let’s see what else we can find.”
The clubhouse seemed eerily quiet at first, but he knew they wouldn’t have just abandoned their prisoners and left them in the care of a solitary guard. The two of them slowly made their way up the stairs to the industrial kitchen, fully equipped with stainless steel counters and massive appliances. Like the basement, the light had been left on over the sink but the rest of it was dark.
Voices emanated from the common area where the party had been held. They were low and concerned. Hudson crouched near the doorway to listen with Leona right behind him.
“I don’t like this, Kevin. We need to figure out what to do.”
“I told you, I’m doing that!” the Alpha snapped. “I can’t exactly work a miracle!”
“Everyone, just stay calm.” This voice was Sean, and Hudson could easily imagine him in his Hawaiian shirt, gesturing downward with his palm to ease the assembly. “We’ve already taken one large step in explaining that the Talbotts were infiltrators from the other pride. As far as anyone knows, we acted against them for the safety of our own pride.”
“I still say we should’ve let everyone know what we’ve been doing, and a long time ago, too. I know we agreed to keep the weapons a secret when we first got into this, thinking it was safer that way. But we’re putting everyone’s lives on the line and they don’t even know it.”
“No one’s life is on the line,” Kevin retorted. “We’ve been making a shit ton of money on those weapons, money that we desperately needed. What the rest of them don’t know won’t hurt them. After all, they’re not the ones making midnight deliveries.”
Another worried voice piped up. “The Talbotts could be cops. Why else would they come in here with guns? And why would they refuse to join the pride?”
Sean let out a derisive laugh. “They’re not cops. They had guns, but they didn’t have any identification. Have you really ever seen a cop go anywhere without a badge? I don’t think so.”
“Then who are they?” the worried voice pressed. “And why would they come here?”
“Maybe you should ask my nosey wife who thinks it’s her job to welcome everyone to the neighborhood and treat them like her new best friends. I don’t fucking know!” Kevin was swiftly losing his temper, showing the side of him that had probably gotten him into this mess in the first place. “Damn it, I don’t know who these people are. I don’t know why they brought the guns in here or why they even agreed to come if they didn’t want to be one of us. I also don’t know why Kim had to invite them to begin with, so don’t ask me.”
“Well, you did tell her we needed to recruit more members,” Sean commented.
The resulting noise that resounded from the room indicated he’d earned a smack for his honesty.
“Let’s just go find out who they are,” one of the unidentified voices suggested. “They can’t do anything to us down there, and they’re still outnumbered.”
“Maybe we can take the woman out first and question her,” another proposed.
Hudson glanced behind him. The room was dim, but he could see the determination on Leona’s face when she nodded. They didn’t need to shift to speak telepathically. She understood, and she was just as ready as he was. She slipped backwards into the darkness, away from the door.
Footsteps pounded closer. Hudson calculated their distance, knowing that timing was key. He gripped the tree pole in his hands and glanced at the kitchen. There room was too full, and if he shifted, his lion wouldn’t have any space to move. The erstwhile decoration was his best bet.
He pounced when the first figure came through the doorway and reached for the light switch. He never got a chance to touch it as Hudson clouted him across the face with the pipe. The man reeled backwards, taking a secondary member down with him as he grabbed out for balance.
“You!” Kevin roared. He launched himself at Hudson, prepared for an assault from the steel tube. He blocked it with his hand and forearm and cast it away. The Alpha was more dangerous than he looked in his chinos and polo. He launched a series of punches to Hudson’s face, several rights and a left. Hudson staggered back but caught the next uppercut and shoved the man backwards.
A strange sound entered Hudson’s ears, and he turned just in time to see Leona on top of the counter. She ran down the length of it, her legs strong and quick, a knife flashing in her grip as she leapt off the end, just past the pot rack on the ceiling and onto Kevin’s back. She buried the knife in his shoulder. Blood spurted out from the wound, soaking into his shirt as he sank toward the ground.
Sean took advantage of Hudson’s distraction, crashing into him with a strong shoulder. Hudson retaliated, bringing his knee up between the other man’s legs. A sharp crack sounded from somewhere, but Hudson didn’t have time to register the noise for what it was. He felt the air leave Sean’s lungs as he doubled forward in pain, leaving the perfect opportunity. Hudson grabbed his head and twisted. The snap sent him to the floor, dead.
When he looked up to find his next victim, Hudson saw the three remaining men near the fridge. One of them held a pistol—Hudson’s pistol—at arm’s length. Leona was on the floor near Kevin, and there was far more blood than what should’ve come from the Alpha’s knife wound.
Red rage filled Hudson’s eyes. He could no longer control his inner beast as he understood that someone had hurt his mate. His anger thundered from his chest, his skull cracking as his face formed a muzzle around his roar. He charged forward, his paws manifesting just as they hit the ground. He felt his claws scrape against the hard floor of the kitchen, heard the rush of his blood in his ears, noted the air rushing through the individual fibers of his mane as he tucked in and made his final leap.
The man’s neck snapped in Hudson’s jaws, sending the pistol falling to the ground. The other men didn’t bother sticking around to continue the fight. It was over.
13
“There’s more than enough evidence to get the guilty parties locked away for a long time,” Drake said approvingly. He, Flint, and Garrison had arrived to help sort out the remains of the pride. “The two of you did a good job.”
“Thank you,” Leona replied, feeling a
certain sense of relief at hearing him say that. She’d understood that Drake’s opinion counted for a lot, and there were many parts of the mission that felt completely botched to her.
“They’re going to need some help getting back on their feet now that Kevin is going to jail and Sean is dead,” Hudson remarked from beside her. “Although honestly, I think a few of them are happy about it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know they didn’t have the best leadership.”
“I can think of a few that probably aren’t happy,” Leona murmured. She detached herself from the rest of the Force, where they’d gathered the remains of the pride at the clubhouse. Leona hated that the other shifters had to visit the scene of the crime like this, but it was the biggest place available to gather everyone together.
Kim was standing in the corner of the living room, not far from where her husband had stood just the night before and announced that the “Talbotts” would be joining them. She had her hands folded in front of her, her fingers nervously sliding over each other.
“Are you holding up okay?” Leona asked gently.
“I should ask you the same, since you were the one who got shot,” she replied with a brittle smile.
She gestured vaguely at her shoulder, where the wound was already almost healed. “I’ve already had a leg blown off, so this is nothing.” It might’ve been a much bigger deal if the shifter had been a better shot.
“I should’ve known you weren’t just a typical woman,” Kim said, her eyes flicking up to watch the soldiers organizing the remaining shifters. “Then again, I also should’ve known my husband was doing something illegal. I can’t believe he was that stupid, and I can’t believe I was so foolish.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Leona advised. “It sounds like most of the pride had no idea, but it was all going to come out in the end. None of this was your fault.”
“I like to think I’m going to believe that someday.” Kim’s fingers shook as she pressed them to her forehead. “It’s just all so crazy.”