by Cecilia Lane
Filled with a new respect, Rylee snapped her attention back to the mobile lab and ran for the door. The dragons were creating a loud, fiery show, and she needed to finish her mission and get out.
She hated what she was about to do, but she couldn’t let any of the samples she collected fall into anyone’s hands but her own. Not when she didn’t know who she could trust, or where they would end up. If she was right and Delano was on some mad witch hunt to end supernatural lives, her work could be used to help perfect methods of slaughter. He might still have access to her reported findings, but he’d need to acquire more samples to continue any study into harm. She needed to make his goal as difficult as possible.
She tore open the fridge, then snapped open the tops of sealed containers. Blood she’d been trusted to draw dribbled onto the floor, one tube after another. Hair and cheek swabs followed, all in one giant mess.
She searched through the cabinets until she found bottles of peroxide and alcohol. Those, too, were dumped over the puddle of blood. She didn’t know if she could make the whole lab go up in smoke, but the samples would still be ruined if she failed.
The door flung open and heavy steps thumped up the three stairs to the inside. Rylee froze, the bottle of alcohol in hand. She knew who those footfalls belonged to even before she turned around.
Peter approached slowly, a sick grin on his face and his hands raised to convey some sense of calm. “I told Brant to keep a better eye on you. There was no chance you’d flip so easily.”
Her mind flashed back to that awful night. He approached her then the same way. His outstretched hands were meant to calm—and to catch. The slimy smile on his face was meant to entice but only elicited fear. Pure terror dumped into her veins and kept her frozen in panic as he approached.
Slowly. Steadily. Like a snake slithering near to its prey.
He couldn’t be allowed to touch her again. She’d rather die than let his fingers bruise her skin. He did enough damage to shake her to her core. Just as she was breaking through the choppy waves and sucking in a fresh breath, he threatened to drag her under again.
“By all means, keep destroying those. We have more stashed away. You barely touched the surface of what we already know.” He looked thoughtful. “The concentration of blood cells in the vampire’s sample was new, though. We’re hoping to snag one on this trip.”
This trip? Her panic was crushed by a wave of queasiness. This wasn’t the first time they’d hunted supernaturals. She should have known the other man in Cole’s tent wasn’t just someone who broke some rules.
“What are you going to do to him?”
“The bear?” Peter shrugged. “Depends on how cooperative he is. If he doesn’t listen, he might just be sold off for ring fights. Our wolf needed to be broken, but now he’s a good dog. He’s been used to map the entire enclave. Prior to this, pain tolerance and advanced healing were studied. We know what we’re dealing with inside the barrier.”
“Why are you telling me this? You’re admitting to torturing someone.” She already knew the answer, but Peter was a talker. If she could keep him distracted, maybe she could find a way around him. There was an exit at the back, but the spilled blood and chemical mixture was a fall hazard she couldn’t risk in the precious seconds she had before he was on her. No, the best choice was the front of the trailer and a door without an emergency latch to break open.
Failure was not an option. She couldn’t leave Cole or that other shifter to whatever fate waited for them at Delano’s hands or Peter’s research. Neither deserved to be hurt or used. She’d burn the entire camp to the ground before she let them destroy any more innocent lives. The entire population of Bearden needed protecting. They didn’t deserve death simply for being different.
“Because you’re not getting out of this.” He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and lightly brushed his knuckles over her jaw. “We had some good times back in school, didn’t we? You’d be a good fit for my team.”
She recoiled away from his touch. Air rushed in and out of her lungs. Too fast. She focused on slowing her breathing. She didn’t need to hyperventilate or lose herself in a full-blown panic attack. Clawing to keep her sanity, she took a step back. “Don’t touch me,” she hissed.
Peter smirked. “I forgot you like to put up a fight. Brant says we might find a use for you when we bring in the other animals. That’s what you like now, isn’t it? Fucking the beasts?”
Another roar shook the mobile lab. Peter jerked his attention skyward, even though he couldn’t see anything through the ceiling.
Rylee took her chance. Something terrible was taking place in Bearden and she couldn’t let Peter stand in her way of aiding even one person.
She snatched up the nearest microscope, wrapping both hands around the neck. Peter let his attention fall back to her just as she raised the base and slammed it into his cheek with a sickening crunch. Years of fear and anxiety and anger and questions of why her and what she could have done to prevent it went into the blow. And when the microscope fell from her hands, a fraction of the weight he tied around her neck fell with it.
Peter crumpled to the ground with a thud and she jumped over his body. She didn’t glance behind her. She couldn’t, no matter how much she wanted to witness his pain and suffering. Her escape was more important than her satisfaction.
Chapter 23
Cole paced the cage in his mind, not wanting to drag the chains along with him and bring down the attention of the guards. Rylee told lies about him, but she also brought him a message from his clan. Did she truly mean to wash her hands of him and Bearden to save her reputation? Giving him the means of freeing himself might be her way of absolving herself of the lies.
“Who was that?” Jacob asked.
“No one,” Cole answered.
Or had she simply decided the lies were the easiest way to get back into Delano’s camp to pass him the lock picks? Cole didn’t think she was capable of hurting anyone. Delano, though, was suited to causing pain, and she’d placed herself within his grasp.
An hour passed and Cole was no closer to figuring out the woman’s motives. Nor was he any closer to freeing himself. Too much noise would alert the guards and he couldn’t let the lock picks or note be found.
We’re coming.
But when?
The first roar drew confusion from the guards. They poked their heads through the flap, quickly scanned Cole and Jacob’s cages, then ducked right back outside.
Then the shouting began.
Cole grinned wildly. Delano and his bastards might have plans to capture Bearden, but they wouldn’t find an easy fight. His people knew what it meant to be driven to survive. Their ancestors sacrificed themselves to make the safety of the enclaves. No one would give up their homes or lives without first painting their claws and fangs with blood, despite what Jacob predicted.
The ratcheting sound of gunfire dropped him to his ass. He dragged out the lock picks from the pocket of his jeans and tried to fit the first pick into the keyhole of a shackle on his wrist.
“What do you have there?” Jacob asked from across the tent. His chains clanked as he rose from his bed of dirt and crawled toward the bars.
“Gonna get us out of here,” Cole muttered. He twisted his hands around and again tried to fit the pick to the keyhole. The silver shackles burned his already irritated skin and he grit his teeth against the rubbing, scuffing pain. He had no time for that.
“Fuck!” The pick snapped and fell uselessly to the ground.
He should have practiced more with Leah. But oh, no. He thought he was a big shot the one time he got the cuffs off his wrist and hadn’t bothered with it since. He was paying for that mistake now.
Another roar sounded overhead. Both he and Jacob looked up, then back down to the other.
“Pass them here,” Jacob insisted.
“I can get it,” Cole grunted. He switched from trying to twist at his wrists to releasing his ankles. If he could do one, he
could do the next and he didn’t need to fight his limits to reach the keyhole on the shackles around his ankles.
“Before the dragons set this place on fire? Or before you break them all?”
Cole hesitated. Jacob was right. It was only a matter of time before the fires above reached the ground.
But could he trust the man? He’d been held captive, beaten, and broken. He saw his entire pack murdered. He had every reason to hate the men outside their cages and zero reason to trust Cole. He could easily free himself and run or try to curry special favors by throwing Cole under the bus.
Rylee’s presence in the camp decided for him. She had to know there was no safety with Delano in control. She was caught in Cole’s den. She’d be lined up with the rest of his clan if Delano wanted to break him as he broke Jacob. He needed to guarantee she was safe and he couldn’t do that stuck behind bars with only broken lock picks as a reminder of her.
Cole stuffed the pick in his hand back into the little packet and tossed it across the tent. It landed just outside of Jacob’s cage and the wolf dove for it, straining to stretch his arm through the bars. His fingers brushed against the leather, then dragged it close enough to snatch up.
“Hurry,” Cole urged, glancing toward the tent flap. Gunfire and shouting still sounded outside. Rylee would be in the middle of all that noise and activity.
“This will go faster if you stay quiet,” Jacob muttered. He worked deftly. One solid twist on each ankle freed his legs. He changed picks and twisted his wrists until those shackles, too, clattered to the bare ground.
Jacob’s eyes glowed gold as he twisted his wrists and rolled his shoulders.
“You’re good with those,” Cole said. He wanted to keep Jacob’s attention. He’d be harder to leave behind if Jacob was in an active conversation.
“Didn’t exactly lead a good life before it all went to shit.” He knelt at the door to his cage and fumbled with two picks. He wiggled and nudged them together almost tenderly, and planted an ear close to the lock to listen while he worked.
Something inside clinked, and the door swung open. Jacob was on his feet and out of the cage fast enough that he blurred.
The tent flaps rustled and Rylee burst inside, cheeks red from exertion.
Cole’s bear roared with relief at the sight of her. She was here. She was safe. Delano hadn’t used her for target practice.
“We have to go—”
Jacob struck quickly, wrapping his hand around her throat and cutting her words off entirely. Her eyes went wide and rolled between him and the other shifter.
Cole rushed the bars of his cage. His hands slapped around the metal, shackles on his hands and feet clanking together with the motion. “Let her go!”
Jacob’s hand tightened and Rylee wheezed. “She’s with them.”
“She’s also the one that brought us the fucking picks. Let. Her. Go!” Locked away as he was, Cole still called on his bear to lace his words with power. It was a trickle, at best, nothing near the force he could manage when not bound by silver. He had no link to Jacob to compel him to listen. But it made his words serious.
Jacob’s eyes flickered from the glowing gold of his wolf to the deep green of his human side. He blinked. And released Rylee.
Rylee sagged and drew in a shaky breath. She slunk away from Jacob, taking a place in the corner furthest from the man. Fear wafted off her and Cole moved down the cage to put himself in her eye line.
“Rylee. Rylee, listen to me. Jacob is not going to hurt you. He’s going to get me out of here.” Cole shot a dirty look toward Jacob. “Open the fucking cage!”
Jacob dropped to his knees and played with the door, but Cole already put his attention back on Rylee. Her breath evened out and panic slowly subsided, but it didn’t quite disappear. Under that acrid scent that made him want to wring Jacob’s neck was something sharper and familiar. Blood and chemicals. She smelled like her lab.
“There,” Jacob announced. The door banged open, and he hurried forward, poking and prodding at the shackles on Cole’s wrists, then ankles.
Cole shoved Jacob aside as soon as he was free and crossed to Rylee in three long steps.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to betray you, but it was the only way I could get inside the camp. I had to destroy the samples, but even that was all for nothing because this isn’t the first time your people have been hunted down and used for terrible things.”
He cupped her cheeks and captured her lips in a rough kiss full of clashing tongues and teeth. He wanted to possess her, show her she belonged to him and with him. His bear rumbled in the back of his head and the noise spilled out of his chest. Contentment. That was what she gave him, even in the middle of a war zone. She was everything good in the world.
Immediately, the nerves that clouded the air around her faded to nothing. She relaxed into him, hands skimming up his chest and wrapping around his neck.
There was only one reason why he felt the pain of her betrayal so deeply. She’d found her way past the walls around his heart and made a space for herself. She might not be ready to say the words, but he’d wait.
She was a flighty little thing that he had to coax into staying still, but she was his mate. He’d be a patient hunter, a patient lover, because he couldn’t imagine living without her. He’d had a glimpse of a life with her and a life without, and he vastly preferred her with him.
All they needed to do was survive the night and kick out the damn occupying force intent on killing him and his people. Easy.
Jacob’s agitation intruded and Cole pulled back from Rylee with a tiny bite of her lower lip.
Rylee rubbed her throat and eyed Jacob nervously. She tensed with his movement, following him as he stuffed the set of lock picks into a pocket and approached the entrance. “We need to go,” she told Cole, still keeping her eyes on Jacob.
“You’re right. You need to go.” He glanced toward Jacob, who nodded with unspoken agreement. They had business to finish that she didn’t need to witness. “I need to get back to Bearden. I can help them. You should leave while you can. I’ll come for you.”
If he survived. The words were heavy even in their silence.
“No.” She shook her head and repeated the word. “No. I’m staying with you.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Jacob growled. He parted the tent flaps slightly and swiveled his head to check the sides. “We don’t have anyone here. Those dragons are distractions. We need to go while they’re still in the sky. If I’m to die today, I want it with blood on my teeth.”
Cole’s bear raked at his insides. Rylee needed to be safe, and what better way to guarantee that than by his side. There was no reasoning with the beast that anywhere else would be safer for her at that moment.
Gritting his teeth against the feeling of tearing himself in half, he found her big blue eyes on him. “There’s going to be fighting and probably killing. Will you run if I say so?” Without hesitation, she nodded.
His bear roared and settled into the role of guardian. Rylee would survive and they would protect their people. She was their mate and deserved that protection. She belonged in Bearden and in their den.
Cole grabbed her wrist and whirled, shoving Jacob out of the tent.
The three ducked down and ran between rows of tents. Small groups of soldiers were still firing up at the dragons in the air. The beasts wheeled around and threw jets of flame over the heads of the little humans, but no fire burned on the ground.
Good, Cole thought briefly. No matter which way the night ended, the shifters couldn’t be said to have burned a camp of innocent people. Dragons above without a ruined camp below would show restraint.
They neared a bus sitting in the middle of the camp and the door banged open. A man wobbled down the steps, tripping over his own feet and nearly missing the handrail to keep himself upright.
Cole snarled when he recognized Peter fucking Glasser. His face had seen better days. Pain and blood filled Pete
r’s scent. Not enough. He needed more of both.
Peter held a hand to his head. “Rylee,” he slurred, pointing a shaking finger at her.
Rylee stiffened right before Jacob again ghosted behind his target and grabbed Peter by the nape of his neck. Jacob’s mouth twisted into a murderous look, with fangs slipping over his lips. “This one was there. He collected my pack after they were killed and cut them to pieces.”
Cole nodded. As much as he wanted to be the one to do it for Rylee, Jacob had hold of the man. His capture, his kill.
Rylee sucked in a breath and turned into his chest as Jacob snapped Peter’s neck.
A gun fired from behind them, then another. Two bullets struck the side of the bus above their heads. Cole pushed Rylee in front of him and around the bus with Jacob hot on their heels. It was a reminder of where they were and how dangerous it was to stop moving.
They made their way through the rest of the camp without much resistance. Most of the vehicles were gone. Vanished down the mountains and back toward human civilization or infiltrating enclave territory, Cole didn’t know.
A boom sounded in the distance, followed by another. He turned at the noise. Smoke rose in the direction of Bearden. They were running out of time.
Jacob opened and closed his fists in agitation. “I can hotwire a truck.”
“No time,” Cole growled, already tugging his shirt over his head. It’d be quicker to run straight there and avoid any traps on the road. He kicked off his boots and stuffed his shirt into Rylee’s hands. “You think you can hang on tight?”
She nodded, and he jerked his chin at Jacob. “Shift. We’re running.”
He’d barely thrown his jeans to Rylee when his bear shoved forward. The shift wasn’t pretty or easy. His beast wanted blood and the quickest path to that was tearing through the puny human cage that held him.