by Noah Harris
Nick shifted into a vase again, and sat still, catching his breath and hoping he went undetected. Coming in the window, Nick had seen Jared sitting on the sofa and scribbling furiously on a notepad in front of him. He hadn’t heard him move, so presumably he was still there. He decided to shift to a mouse to have the least chance of cameras seeing him, and then crawled along the back edge of the sofa, just under the flap. Once he revealed himself, they would have only a couple seconds to make a run for it. The cage—once they saw them, they would activate the cage, assuming there were any between here and the east door. Looking at the room now, if he just flew Jared some rope to climb out the window, they would still see him, but the path was shorter and they’d have less distance to run, with fewer obstructions. Examining the window frame, it was all stone. There was nothing to tie a rope to, he wasn’t strong enough in a shifted form to hold the rope, and they would run out of time if he was in human form. Plus, that would assume he could even find a rope. He added ‘learning to be a rope strong enough to hold itself onto a ledge’ to his growing list of things he wanted to be able to do, but this was newbie shifter Nick—so not today.
Stop wasting time, he chided himself, and decided it was time. He was just about to shift into human form when he spotted the tall glass of water from which Jared had been drinking. He scurried up behind Jared on the sofa, jumped his little mouse self into the glass, getting completely soaked and startling Jared in the process, then shifted to human form.
“Nick!” Jared shouted, as he stood there dripping wet.
“We’re running for it!” Nick said quickly, and grabbed him by the hand while heading toward the door. Security would be starting to run upstairs from beneath them by now. Nick estimated twenty seconds, so he started counting backwards from twenty out loud.
“20, 19.” They reached the door and it was, of course, locked. Nick shifted to ether, moved to the other side, shifted back to human and unlocked it.
“17, 16.” Grabbing Jared’s hand, they raced along the circular, upper corridor, away from the stairwell that led up from the security room. Thank God for this old construction, Nick thought, appreciating the pun and knowing that if this were a regular building, security could have boxed them in easily. As they reached the end of the hall, they began the race down the stone steps on the opposite side, which came out not too far from the east service entrance. By the time Nick’s countdown reached zero, it meant the security team was probably reaching the room in which Jared had been detained. He mentally calculated they’d be about fifteen seconds behind them as they neared the bottom of the stairs. They took the corner sharply, and Jared, in stocking feet, slid and fell to his knees. He rose up, and they crashed into some business-attired people, different ones from those Nick had seen earlier. Their faces were alarmed and one said something in French ending in, “Say- cuerr- eet- tay.” Not too hard to figure out that French. Too late saps, they already know!
Nick and Jared were just approaching the final door, and he could see the linen truck, when Nick felt his body begin to burn. He fell to his knees, but had enough strength to keep crawling forward. The cage. They must have them by the exits! He crawled once more, and felt the effect intensify, only two feet or so from the door at this point. He knew if he weren’t wet, he would have hit the floor with a thud like before. The water did seem to help some, though clearly it was not a perfect solution. Jared realized what was happening, and tried to help Nick, but also felt some burning, though less, because of Nick’s own cells. Finally, he seemed to shove Nick across the threshold first, and then Nick felt more energy and reached back, dragging Jared the rest of the way. The delay had allowed security to close the gap on them, and they barely made it to the truck as security scrambled out the side door. Nick turned the key and slammed on the gas, a few wayward towels flew out the open back doors as they pulled away. Security fired a few bullets, and both heard them hitting metal on the back doors.
“You okay?” Nick managed.
Jared nodded his head, still not able to speak, drawing in deep breaths from the hard run. They made it out the front gate, but could see two vehicles starting to follow them. Nick pressed on the gas and made a couple turns.
“Damn it, which way is the airfield,” he said, losing his bearings momentarily before regaining his sense of direction. It had been so much easier from the air. Finally, he was on the ‘autoroute’, and thought he had lost them, when he saw a car and a jeep speeding up about fifty yards behind them. Nick accelerated further.
“Where are we going?” Jared asked.
“Your family’s air hangar,” Nick replied, and Jared rightly deduced that Nick must have gotten Forrester to help him. Jared grabbed the cell from the center console and dialed ahead to the hangar. He had to be patched through from their house staff in Paris, but he had lived here for a while, so while he didn’t know the hangar number, he did know the house number. He let them know they were approaching, and quickly, and that they had some unfriendly enemies on their tail. Air field security was dispatched, and as Nick and Jared’s car reached the gate, it was closed quickly behind them, and armed security faced the incoming vehicles. A short staring contest ensued before Xerxes’ men turned and left. When the vehicle stopped next to the hangar, Jared turned to Nick and they hugged.
“I can’t believe you came for me,” Jared said.
“You didn’t think I would?” Nick kissed him.
“In the United States, sure, but once we took off, I thought that was it. I didn’t think you’d be able to find me.”
“You came for me. I will always come for you. I would never just leave you there.”
They hugged and kissed for a few moments more before the jet staff began coming out of the hangar toward the car. They exited, and Jared was greeted by familiar faces.
“Jared, I’m so glad to see you’re all right,” the pilot said.
Nick and Jared slept curled up together on the plane. Was it possible that maybe now life could become more normal? When they were within an hour of landing, the crew woke them, and Nick called ahead to the ground. Michael confirmed that the team had ensured they weren’t walking into an ambush when they landed. Everything looked clear, as far as they could tell. Now that the intelligence team knew Xerxes and Druje held more power than they knew, their movements would be monitored more closely than before. The likelihood that they could pop up again without warning had been greatly reduced. As they landed, Nick held Jared’s hand.
“I prayed so hard you would be okay. Did they do anything to you?” he asked.
“They didn’t hurt me,” Jared confirmed, and smiled, before remembering the life to which he was returning. “Except by taking my father from me,” he conceded. Jared was so grateful he had Nick, but so conflicted at feeling like the rest of his life would change. He had to watch over the businesses and manage the estate, all things he wasn’t quite ready for or wanting to do, so soon in his life. Perhaps this was part of what drove the bond between Nick and Jared—they could both relate to dealing with things that most others their age didn’t have to, and they both needed to step up to their future and manage it with strength.
Nick was grateful for the training of the pack, and Michael’s support. As he landed, he knew he never would have been able to save Jared if it weren’t for their teachings. It was no longer a decision in his mind; he definitely wanted to complete his initiation into the pack.
***
Notes from the author: Beloved reader, I hope you have enjoyed reading The Secrets Within! I’m already working on part two, I promise not make you wait for long, although the story may be over, there are still things left to do! Please read below and follow the next two steps.
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More books by Noah Harris
Wolf Shifters
Sailing Deep – Military Romance
Fight or Flight
Lone Wulf
No Regrets
Wolf Rising
The Carpenter’s Secret
Dark Romance City of Sinners Series
Darkest Desires
Demon Heat
Wolf Shifters Transgender Books
Trans Shift
Wolf Shifter Westerns
Ride of Your Life
Ride Em Hard
Other Mythical Creatures
Werebear Reckless Spirit
HvZ