Jace

by Alisa Woods

  “It’s much bigger than that,” Owen said, a grim look drawing down his already deathly pale face. “This isn’t just about the Army, although they definitely want to create some kind of super soldier. They’re working on a universal serum, I think—something that can take all the shifter abilities and amp them up, like dialing it up to eleven or some damn thing. I don’t really know. All I know is that I’ve been trapped here for over a year, praying to God that I die before I inadvertently give them whatever it is they want.”

  Jace’s stomach was doing flips—not only because they needed to get out of here, and fast, but because no matter what he did, his friend had already suffered more than anyone should. “Owen, man, if I had any idea… I would’ve come for you sooner. They told me you were all dead.”

  He nodded, but it was weak, almost a dazed motion. “I figured. At first, I thought for sure someone would come for us. But then time dragged on, and I knew… we were dead, as far as the world was concerned. And would be dead for real soon.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Jace whispered, running his hand through his hair. His chest was tight with the guilt about all of this. “I still don’t understand—why did they take you, but not me?”

  “It all started with him.” Owen lifted his chin to point to the medical bay. “Colonel Wilding. He wasn’t our CO, but he was behind the whole thing, setting it up. It was a ruse from the start—they wanted an excuse to bring us all into the program. You, me, Wyatt, Anthony—all shifters, all on one patrol. Funny it didn’t even occur to us that was strange, huh? The IED was already planted. They sent us to drive over the damn thing, knowing we were shifters, and it probably wouldn’t kill us. Colonel Wilding himself called in the artillery and blew up the village.”

  “What?” Jace gasped. “But they told me… they said that I…” Jace swallowed, just now realizing what Owen was saying—that Jace didn’t actually kill all those people in the village. “They told me an animal killed everyone. Said it was the most powerful shifter they’d ever seen… that it was me. I didn’t remember anything, and I had no reason to think—”

  “They lied to you,” Owen said. Of course, that was obvious now. “I don’t know why they’d make up a story like that, but these guys are covering up all kinds of shit. If I had to guess, Colonel Wilding must’ve come in for some trouble with targeting that village. Maybe they said it was friendly fire something. I don’t know. I’ve been locked up here ever since. But he’s just enough of a bastard to try to pin everything on you, the one shifter he couldn’t catch.”

  “Catch?” Jace asked. “Owen, what happened back there? I really don’t remember any of it.”

  Owen shook his head. “Not much of a surprise your memory’s shot, given how much they had to tranq you to even slow you down. When you didn’t show up with the rest of us in the program, I thought they just killed you outright. When the IED went off, I was thrown from the Jeep, but you shifted right away, and your wolf went nuts. He took off running toward the village. I chased after, but you were freaking fast, man! By the time I caught up, you were trying to save those villagers. The place had already been bombed, and everything was on fire, a regular inferno. Your wolf dove through those walls of fire, trying to save all those people, like there was nothing to it. Then the troopers swooped in. I thought they were there to help, but then they started shooting at us. I shifted human and tried to explain, but they just took me down with a tranq. Last thing I remember, they were going after you. That crazy wolf of yours just kept trying to save the villagers. If you would’ve run, I doubt they could’ve caught you. Wyatt and Anthony didn’t see none of it, but I saw you in action. I thought for sure you got away.”

  Jace glanced at the other cages. “Are they here?”

  Owen sighed. “Nope. Dead.”

  “Shit.” It was like finding out he had lost them all over again.

  “These people are straight-up murderers.” Owen’s growl finally came out, angry and bitter. “We figured you either escaped or got killed, too. No way had I figured they would just let you go and come back stateside.” He shook his head. “But now you’re here, just like me, in the end. It’s all fucked up, man.”

  Jace was reeling from the story, but calm was settling deep inside his chest. His wolf was stirring with the memories, and for the first time in a year, that simple fact didn’t terrify him.

  He glanced at Piper—she had a shine in her eyes that probably reflected the amazement in his.

  She gave him a small smile. “You see? You really need to listen to me. I know what I’m talking about.” She meant what she said earlier, about him being a good man—words he never would have believed if Owen hadn’t seen it all with his own eyes. Jace still had a hard time wrapping his mind around it.

  He didn’t kill those people. It was like a shockwave going through his system, working things loose, reshaping his thoughts, lightening the burden. He had been carrying a rock the size of Mt. Hood, and someone had finally told him he could set it down.

  “I don’t know what you guys think…” Jace drew in a deep breath and let it out slow. “But I think we should get the fuck out of here. Now.”

  Piper smiled and reached through the bars to him, grasping his arm and squeezing. “You can shift. I know you can—I saw you. And we need you, Jace. We need your wolf.”

  Jace frowned. He had almost shifted in the chair; it was at least possible. He just wasn’t sure what would happen after that. He’d blacked out before, in the village, and every time since, whenever he couldn’t control himself…

  “I don’t know if I can control it, Piper,” he said quietly. “I’ve only shifted a few times since Afghanistan. And I never remember it, I just see the damage afterward. Jaxson’s had to tranq me a couple times…”

  The gleam in her eyes didn’t dim. “Things are different now. You know the truth.”

  Owen had straightened up. “What is she saying? Did they not give you the inhibitor? Holy shit—”

  “No, they did,” Jace cut him off by holding up a hand. They needed to keep this quiet. “It’s just that, for me, I don’t think it’s enough. I think my wolf might still be able to come out and cause some problems.” He grimaced. “I’m just not sure how big of a problem that’s going to be. Or if it’ll help. We still need a plan.”

  Piper’s smile tempered into a devious look that perked up his wolf, almost like he was drawn to her more dangerous side. The side that probably had experience breaking out of secret prisons. “They use key cards. That’s all I need. You shift, get me a card, and keep them occupied with your badass self. I’ll do the rest.”

  He grinned and pulled her close, reaching through the bars to quickly kiss her again. He loved that she believed in him, but the idea of shifting was tying his stomach in knots. “I don’t know…”

  “Remember how I said you need to listen to me?” she asked, playfully. “Well, you need to listen to me now. You can do this. Because even when you were completely out of your mind, you were trying to save people. I told you—you’re good to the core, Jace River. You can’t help it.”

  “Heads up,” Owen said quietly.

  Jace looked up—one of the paramilitary thugs was headed their way, key card in hand.

  Piper reached through the bars to kiss him fiercely. “Do it,” she whispered.

  Jace stepped back from the bars. The guard was coming straight for his cell. Jace closed his eyes briefly—could he really do this? If it all went south, at least Piper was safe in her cage. The others, too. The guards would take him out first—that would be the idea, anyway, as he distracted them—and if he died in a fiery blaze of bullets, at least he would’ve done all he could. Nothing could make up for leaving Owen in this horror show for a year… except breaking him free. And saving his brothers and Piper and all the others from the same fate.

  That was something worth dying for.

  Jace opened his eyes just as the guard swiped his key card across the door to his cell.

  He glance
d at Piper. “Tell my brothers.” He wanted them to know the truth about him—she would know what to do.

  Then he closed his eyes and summoned his wolf.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Piper watched as Jace shifted, her mouth dropping open in awe.

  It was fast, over in an instant, but in that split second of time, the man she had fallen in love with transformed from a sexy ex-Army Specialist to the most magnificent beast she had ever seen. He was huge. Jace had said his wolf was twice the size of a normal one, but that wasn’t even close. The wolf stood as tall as the guard who had just swiped open his cage—he could stare the guard in the face, eye to eye. Only the guard’s face was slack with shock. Jace’s black fur was ragged and bristled out, his fangs bared with drool dripping to the floor in fat drops. A growl started low inside the beast’s chest and slowly rumbled up from the depths.

  It reached a peak just as the wolf lunged.

  The guard was so immobilized by the sight of this enormous creature coming for him that he barely got an arm up to defend himself—and it was the one holding the key card. The wolf clamped his jaws on the guard’s arm and shook it. The card went flying, and the man finally screamed as his arm was shredded. The monster wolf barely fit through the narrow door of his cell, and as he surged through, he sent a shudder through the rest of his cage and Piper’s as well. He rampaged out into the open space of the hangar between the cells and storage bins, heading straight for the medical suites at the far end. Shouts erupted, and more screams rang out as Jace’s wolf disarmed the panic-stricken guards by clamping down on their gun-wielding arms and tossing them like rag dolls against the cages. Piper was momentarily mesmerized by the insane amount of power in Jace’s wolf form, the snarling fury of it… but she had a job to do in these precious few seconds he was buying them.

  She rushed to the front of her cage and thrust her arm through the bars—the key card was just out of reach! Dammit. She yanked off her boot and used that to extend her reach, just barely nabbing the card and sliding it toward her. Jace’s wolf had drawn everyone’s attention—the few guards who had been loitering near the cages on her side of the hangar had quickly rushed toward the melee of people trying to contain the oversized beast. He was surrounded by a dozen of them now, and several shots rang out across the metal-and-concrete confines of the hangar.

  Piper wrenched away from watching him, hurrying to do her part. She quickly swiped open her own door but left it just slightly ajar. Then she rushed to Owen and passed him the card.

  “Keep passing it down,” she said breathlessly, “and keep it quiet. We need to all spring at once. The last one in the line gives the signal—then we all go. Do it fast, Owen.” She glanced back at Jace’s wolf fighting off attacks from all sides but still moving. “He doesn’t have much time.”

  Owen dashed to unlock his own door and sprinted to the far side of his cell to pass the key card and the message along. There was a long line of cells in Owen’s direction. Piper couldn’t bridge the gap of Jace’s cage next to hers—they would have to liberate those prisoners, as well as the others on the far side of the hangar, separately. But an initial rush of a dozen or so prisoners on the loose should be enough to cause panic… and give them a fighting chance.

  If only Jace could hold out that long.

  She hurried back to the door of her cell, now slightly ajar, and gripped the bars as she watched Jace’s wolf fight for his life—and theirs.

  Piper’s heart beat loudly in her chest, one steady pound at a time. Jace was getting hit—some of those shots had to find their target—but he was taking them out as well. The guards with guns fared the worst. Their screams as they were slammed against the concrete floor or steel-barred cages echoed throughout the hangar. Several scrambled to get larger rifles. Piper prayed they only held tranq darts… a prayer answered by the whooshing sound they made when they fired. But tranq darts were ineffective against Jace’s wolf, just as they had been in Afghanistan… at least so far. The beast charged the men trying to pump more darts into him, scattering them and causing even more panic. He really was a spectacle to behold. She understood why Jace would think such a beast was made for destruction only. But she knew better. Even in this fight, he wasn’t killing people—just disabling them, tearing into their arms and knocking them unconscious so they could no longer shoot at him.

  Still… shot after shot rang out. A hot tear coursed down Piper’s face as she waited, trembling at the door, trapped by this plan of hers to have most of the prisoners free before the guards were aware. She glanced nervously at Owen in the cage next door. He shook his head. Not yet. She gripped the bars of the cage harder and gritted her teeth.

  She didn’t know how much longer she could stand to wait.

  If only Jace would just kill the men—tear out their throats, so they couldn’t keep coming back for more. Pumping more bullets into his body. He was enormous—and his hide must be amazingly thick to keep going this long—but he was still taking an enormous beating.

  Jace’s good nature was going to get him killed.

  Her father and Agent Smith cowered in one of the medical suites, hiding behind the gurneys. The shifters who were strapped down were struggling to free themselves.

  Jace must’ve noticed them struggling, too. He lunged toward the trapped prisoners—or maybe he was going after her father—right when a shout came from the cages. All at once, the doors flung open, and a dozen burly shifter men raced out. Piper burst from her cage as well and sprinted across the open floor as fast as her human legs would carry her. She couldn’t shift, just like the other prisoners, but she was heading straight for Jace, determined to get him out of the fight—he’d already taken too many hits. A quick glance behind her showed one of the prisoners staying behind with the key card, rapidly running between the cages and liberating the rest.

  The hangar was in complete chaos.

  The guards had scattered, no longer focused on containing Jace’s wolf, now that the prisoners were roaming free. They were vastly outnumbered, and while most of the prisoners couldn’t shift, they made up for it with pent-up rage—a full on melee broke out.

  Her father stood, paralyzed with fear, watching as Jace’s wolf used his razor-sharp claws to shred the bindings holding the prisoners down. Piper arrived at his side just in time to see her father snap out of his daze and draw his pistol.

  Piper shrieked, “Watch out!”

  But Jace’s wolf was intent on his task and didn’t seem to hear her.

  Her father fired, nearly point-blank, and Jace’s beast was thrown back by the force of it. He slumped below the gurney, ripping the last shreds of the bindings free. Her father scurried around the metal bed, obviously planning to pump the rest of his bullets into Jace’s fallen body, but Piper blocked her father’s way. She didn’t have claws to rake across his face, but she managed to take him by surprise, scratching at his face with her human hands… and more importantly, she knocked the gun free. It tumbled across the floor. Her father snarled at her and shoved her aside. Then he shifted and lunged at Jace, taking him on, wolf to wolf. Jace was injured—several spots were matted dark with blood on his chest and arms and legs. That was the only reason her father had any chance at all.

  But it didn’t matter—Jace’s wolf howled in rage and rolled her father’s wolf form easily. Jace’s beast quickly had him pinned, with his massive jaws clamped around her father’s throat.

  Piper hesitated… her father deserved to die for the things he had done. To her. To Noah. To who knew how many innocent shifters. All because he wanted more power and prestige. He was a terrible, terrible man. But Jace didn’t deserve to be a murderer. She knew how much that would weigh on him, and no matter how much her father deserved it. Piper didn’t want Jace to be the one who carried that burden for the rest of his life.

  Jace was hesitating, growling and drooling all over her father’s neck pinched tight by his fangs. Piper wished she could shift so she could hear his thoughts… but it was obviou
s he was in turmoil. She slowly approached the giant, snarling beast with her hands up. The chaos around them dimmed. She didn’t know where Noah or Owen or either of Jace’s brothers were—the entire world telescoped down to just her and Jace and her father’s life held in the balance.

  Jace’s wolf hadn’t heard her before—when she warned him—and she wasn’t sure if the wolf was in control or Jace was. Or if he would even recognize her words. But she spoke softly as she edged toward him, reaching out a hand. “You don’t have to kill him.” If he could understand her words, he was probably the only one who could hear her over his own snarls and her father’s pathetic whimpering and begging for his life.

  Jace’s wolf growled at her—not a warning or a threat. Somehow she knew it was a rebuttal—he wanted to end it, right here, right now.

  Jaxson appeared out of nowhere with a tranquilizer gun. He pointed it at Jace’s neck.

  “No!” Piper shouted, turning and holding both hands out to stop him. She moved her body between Jaxson’s tranq gun and Jace’s wolf. He was already injured, already had who knew how many darts in him. He might not survive another.

  “Piper, you don’t understand,” Jaxson said, but his voice carried heartbreak. “He’s not himself. I have to stop him. He would want this.”

  “He’s not a wild animal,” Piper said, harshly. “He’s your brother! And he’ll listen to me. I know he will.”

  Jared appeared at his brother’s side, carrying a pistol, but not pointing it at anyone. He quickly scanned the situation. “Let her try, Jaxson. His beast won’t harm her.”

  “You don’t know that,” Jaxson hissed at his brother. But he hesitated a long moment, then slowly lowered the muzzle of the tranq gun.

  Piper turned back to Jace and reached out to the flank of his wolf. “I know you would never hurt me,” she whispered to him. His jaws were still tight around her father’s neck—his face was turning red. “But you don’t have to do this, Jace. The Colonel can never hurt me again. You’ve stopped him. He’s not going to hurt anyone again. You don’t need to take his life to stop him.”