by Anna Edwards
Kas’ body deflated before her.
“Not yet. The Council banned me from rescuing him and ordered that you be arrested as an accomplice to your father.”
“A what?” she interrupted, and her mouth fell open. “You can’t be serious. Kas, I wouldn’t. I want what’s happening as little as you do. I just want Zain back.” She reached out and took hold of his hand. “Please, what do you mean by not allowed to rescue him?”
“Don’t worry. I ignored that bit.” Flashes temporarily blinded her. Brayden, Tyler, Teagan, Scott, Emma, Katia, Jessica, and two other men, whom she didn’t recognize, appeared.
“Is she with us?” One of the men asked. He had green skin with brown swirls all over him.
“Isobel, I’d like you to meet Ethern Lennox.”
“Hi.” She waved. “Sorry if this is rude, but what are you?”
Ethern laughed, “I’m a multi-shifter like Selene. This is me in the disguise of a witch.”
“It’s not much of a disguise.”
“No, I guess not.”
“Isobel, this is Hunter Windsor. He’s alpha of the Kansas wolf pack.”
Hunter held his hand out for Isobel to shake it. She did, trembling with nerves. The wolf was massive. She was pretty confident he had muscles on his muscles. He could squash her like a fly with one swat, if he wanted to.
“Nice to meet you,” she stammered. “I hope you’re going to help with getting Zain back. I think everyone will run in the other direction when they see you.”
Hunter threw his head back and let out a howling laugh. Tyler joined him before stopping and looking at the ground.
“Sorry, a force of habit. Hear a wolf, and I have to howl as well. It’s a canine thing.”
“Speak for yourself.” Teagan raised her eyebrow at her lover. “You didn’t hear me open my mouth.”
Tyler frowned at her before wrapping his arm around her waist and bringing her closer to him.
“I’m sure Zain is going to have strong words with me for even asking this of you, but do you want to help us?” Kas asked.
“Hell, yes” She didn’t even need to think about the answer.
“Jessica has a connection to Zain. We know where he is. He’s being held in a secure facility just outside of Helena. It’s guarded by ten large men with rapid firing guns, but they keep a low profile.” The team all stepped in closer to Kas while he spoke. Isobel had to admit he had a commanding presence about him in a situation like this. “That fact is what helps us. Despite the press releases, it seems they don’t want to announce shifters to the larger community, yet. It doesn’t surprise me. Humans are well known for their ability to panic at anything different. It gives us an advantage. Hunter, Brayden, Tyler, Katia, and Scott, I want you five to concentrate on distracting the guards. Ethern, help them out with magic, anything you can do to stop the bullets from finding their target would be advisable.”
“I’ve got just the spell up my sleeve.” Ethern nodded.
“Jessica, I want you to drop me, Emma, Isobel, and Teagan in the thick of it. Right into the same room as Zain. Teagan, Emma, you deal with any guards who appear. Isobel and I will work on getting Zain free and dealing with her father. Jessica, you said you thought Kingsley was with Zain as well?”
“Yes, I sensed him in the room. I don’t know him well enough to get a full reading on him, but I did sense pain from someone else. It felt like the Kingsley I’d met a few times.”
“Pain,” Isobel spluttered and felt her legs weaken.
Kas sighed heavily, “I was going to prepare you in a minute, but I’m afraid our words have necessitated I do it now. Your father called me from Zain’s mobile a little while ago. He made demands for your return and had a chunk of flesh cut from Zain’s abdomen.”
She slapped her hand over her mouth as bile rose promptly to her throat, on hearing those words.
“Our bodies heal quickly. Zain will be alright, but we suspect he may have done the same to Kingsley. Human bodies don’t heal as easily. Unless they’ve administered painkillers to your brother, he’ll be in considerable discomfort.”
“He wouldn’t?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her own father was torturing her brother. It was too much to take in.
“I’m afraid, given what Jessica feels, it is likely to be true.”
She gulped, but it wasn’t enough to keep the bile down this time. She turned and vomited over the crisp white snow.
“How can he do this?” She stood back upright and clutched at her stomach as she continued to dry heave.
Kas brought her into his arms and stroked the top of her head. It made her long for Zain’s touch even more.
“I fear your father has lost his mind. He’s scared of what he doesn’t understand, and instead of asking questions, he’s trying to rid himself of a threat that isn’t even there. He’s going about it all the wrong way and creating more problems.” Kas held his head up high and addressed everyone. “We do not shift when we’re there. Ethern, obviously you’ll be the only one who’ll look differently to a human because your magic’s needed. We don’t allow our claws, fangs, or fur to appear, which would reveal us to be the wild beasts they think we are. We fight as humans. We show them unity as a pack. We do not, under any circumstances, maim or kill them. We can render them unconscious, but we need to show them we’re the better people. Prove that shifters aren’t dangerous animals who will eat them. We’re peaceful and only forced into violence when provoked, which is just human nature, and they can’t deny it. Now, let’s go and get Zain back.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A bright light shone in his eyes, and Zain tried desperately to move his head away from the unwanted intrusion. His stomach hurt where the doctor had cut away a chunk of his flesh.
“His eyes are perfectly human when in this form. There’s no sign of animal traits at all. Bears have a reflective layer lining the back of the eyeball, but I can’t see it. I wonder what he sees? Bear vision is similar to humans’, but their night vision is better. I’ll have to look at it when we move onto the testing in animal form.” The voice speaking was the doctor, Bridgette. He wanted to lash out, but a flick of his wrists told him he was still held in place. “He’s waking.” A chair scraped back, and he opened his eyes.
“Well, that’s interesting to know. Your body heals faster than a human. That would be groundbreaking if we could figure out how it does it and use it in the human medical field. Kingsley has barely stopped bleeding. Your side is scabbed over, and you're awake already.” Isobel’s father hovered over him looking down. He had a smug grin on his face that Zain couldn’t wait to wipe off.
“I didn’t have some sadist cut off one of my fingers.”
“Not yet, at least.” The senator shrugged off the assault on his character with a nonchalance, which had Zain chomping at the bit to bite down onto the man’s fingers and remove them to see how he liked it.
Isobel’s father turned his back to him and carried on talking with the doctor. Zain looked over at Kingsley. He was almost as white as the sheet that was now covering his body up to his chest. His mutilated hand was bandaged, but a patch of red soaked through the gauze where the injury still bled. It probably needed stitches. He needed to get Kingsley out of here before he bled to death. Losing her brother would devastate Isobel. He knew how close they were and doubted she’d ever be able to recover from it, especially knowing it was her father who caused it.
Zain shut his eyes and allowed the tension in his body to float away. He needed to clear his mind if he had any hope of reaching Jessica. He thought he’d felt her surround him during his phase of unconsciousness, but given she hadn’t come when he’d called before, he wasn’t sure.
“Jessica,” he said under his breath. “Please, I need you to hear me. Kingsley is badly hurt. We have to get him out of here. Please.”
He felt a shiver go over his body. The hairs on his arms stood up. He opened his eyes and looked around. Nothing.
“
Jessica?” he whispered again.
He felt his big toe being pulled. There was nobody there, though, when he looked down.
“I’m guessing you’re here but can’t speak to me. You need to get Kas. We have to get Kingsley out of here.”
His toe moved again, twice backward and forward. It was surreal to see his body moving of its own accord. Next, a sense of awareness hit his leg and stroked up it and across his body to his arm where the cuff held him down.
“I can’t break them,” his inner monologue stated.
The touch vanished. He waited for a sign elsewhere, but nothing came. Had he imagined it all?
“Do you have to change all of your body, or is it just one part at a time?” Bridgette asked. He looked at her but kept his mouth shut.
“I thought we weren’t going to have this trouble anymore. Jett, get in here.” The senator called, and the giant of a man appeared with his little guillotine. “Take a toe this time. The big one. That should hurt enough to give this animal a guilty conscience.
Zain growled.
“I think your hopes of winning father of the year have gone completely down the toilet, now.” He stated with a roll of his eyes.
“As long as Isobel still sees me as the loving father I am, then I think we’ll be alright, don’t you?”
“It’ll be over my dead body you’ll ever get near her again.” Zain allowed his sharp canine teeth to sprout in his mouth. A warning sign, which he should probably keep hidden, but was overruled by the idea of this man ever going near the woman he loved again.
“He can do a part at a time!” Bridgette exclaimed with excitement and hurriedly wrote in her notes. “Change your leg into a bear’s,” she demanded.
“Fuck you,” he replied.
“I hope you’re not propositioning other people, Zain Thornton, because the second I get you out of here that’s exactly what I plan to do with you.” Isobel’s voice filled the room. He looked from the doctor to where Isobel, Emma, Teagan, Kas, and Jessica were now standing. Jett grabbed a weapon and held it up ready to fire, but compared to Emma’s, his reflexes were too slow. She pounced on him and disarmed him with relative ease. Jett turned violent at this point and attacked Emma, but despite having had two children only a few months ago, the lioness had him on the floor and incapable of moving in a matter of seconds. Teagan went to the door and locked it from the inside.
“Just in case you decide to call for any more guards. Mind you, the rest of our pack will have them in exactly the same position as this one is in about… probably…” She looked at her watch. “Now.”
“Isobel, are you hurt?” the senator called out, any malevolence in his voice faded as he acted out the role of concerned father. “If these savages have injured you in any way, we’ll make them suffer.”
“They aren’t savages," Isobel spat out and came closer to him. “Father please, what you’re doing is wrong? Zain is the boy you knew from my childhood. He’s not changed in any way just because he came into his bear skin. Kingsley is still your son. Please stop this?” Zain watched as Isobel’s eyes flicked over to her brother and instantly landed on the bloodied bandage. “What did you do?”
The senator stepped forward, took Isobel’s hand, and stroked it.
“What I needed to do to ensure these animals will be eliminated.”
Isobel pulled her hand away from her father and blinked rapidly with shock.
“Please no, Papa. Please, you can’t do this,” Isobel begged, but it was falling on deaf ears. Everyone in the room, bar Zain’s lover, could see this. Her father had his own agenda, and damn anyone who got in his way.
“Isobel. I want you to walk out of this room and don’t look back. I’m going to deal with them, and then we can get on with our lives without the fear of attacks.” Her father pointed to the exit, but she remained rooted to the floor with her eyebrows knitted together.
“Mr. Ross.” Kas stepped forward, and the senator pulled a gun from his pocket and pointed it directly at Zain’s alpha. Kas held his hands out. “Mr. Ross, I’m a polar bear. I don’t move fast unless it’s after a seal. I can assure you I’m not about to attack you.”
“Lies.”
“How do you know they are?” Kas countered.
“You’re animals: wild and unpredictable.”
“And only attack when threatened,” Kas spoke through clenched teeth. “I had hoped we could come to some agreement, which would negate the need for violence, but I see your opinion of us is evidently too low and will never be changed. It’s a shame because I’m sure, for the sake of national security, we could form a great partnership. But clearly you’ve made your decision and will need to deal with the consequences of it. I’ll be leaving here with Zain, Kingsley, and Isobel. It will be their choice to come with me although I doubt Kingsley’s will be vocalized, given the injuries he’s received at your hands. If you choose to come after my pack, then I’ll be forced to show you just what a wild animal can do to protect its own. Do you understand this Mr. Ross?”
“Are you serious?” Isobel’s father still waved the gun around as he looked incredulously at Kas. “I’m not going to be dictated to by a savage. No. What is going to happen is that you’ll all be caged like the beasts you are, and we’ll figure out a cure for these abilities you have. We’ll find every single shifter on this planet and rid them of their disease.”
Kas put his head in his hands.
“Were you bitten by an animal as a child? What has caused this hatred of us?” the polar bear asked.
“I just know what’s wrong and what’s right?”
“And right is torturing your own flesh and blood?” Isobel interrupted. “Kas is right. I’m going with him. I’m taking Kingsley and Zain, and we’re going to leave here. You’re not the man I thought you were. I don’t think I can call you my father anymore. Not if you’re going to do this.” She turned away from her father and toward her brother. At the same time, Zain felt the cuffs at his arms release. He was free, but he didn’t have time to think about it because Isobel’s father jumped for her. Zain was up in an instant and pulled him away from his woman. The gun fired as the senator was thrown across the room. Zain followed the path of the bullet and visibly exhaled when he saw it lodge itself into the chest of the doctor. She looked down shocked and tried to speak, but nothing came out as blood started to flow from her mouth, and she slumped down dead on the floor.
“No!” the senator cried out. “She was the best doctor.” The distressed man fired the gun again at Zain. The bullets were heading straight for him, and he couldn’t move out of their path. He didn’t need to, though, as they never reached him. They stopped mid-air and crumbled to dust. He looked at Jessica, and she smirked at him. Her hands were raised with static energy crackling from them.
“Just a little something I’ve been playing with.” She turned her attention to the gun, and Zain watched it glow red until it was molten, and the senator had to drop it.
“As I said, I’ll be walking out of here with Zain, Isobel, and Kingsley. You’ll leave us alone, or next time I won’t order my pack to refrain from mauling you, like the wild animals you think we are.” Kas loomed over Isobel’s father before walking over to the desk that the doctor had sat at and picked up the paper she’d been writing on, “I think I’ll take this with me, as well.
Isobel let out a whimper and plastered herself to Zain’s side. He held her tightly.
“I want to go,” she breathlessly uttered.
“Jessica.” Zain turned to the witch and asked for her help.
“Wait.” The senator crawled along the floor toward his daughter. Zain stepped in front of her.
“No,” he growled.
“She’s my daughter.”
“She’s my mate,” Zain stated and felt Isobel’s hand tighten in his.
“I’m going with Zain and his family. They’re my family, now.” Isobel looked around him and addressed her father directly. “I no longer have a father. The moment you hur
t my brother and my mate, you ceased to be a part of my life. I’ve wasted many years on you and your idiotic beliefs. I knew what Zain was all those years ago, and I let him walk away from me. I existed as a slave to your cause for too long, but not anymore. I’d heed Kas’ warning. I’d crawl under a rock and hide. I’d stay the hell away from him and his pack because he’s not the only one who’ll reap hell on you if you decide to attack. I’ll destroy you.” Zain could feel Isobel shaking as she spoke. He took a double take when she let out a nervous laugh. “Oh the irony! Zain and I wasted five years because he didn’t want me to have to choose between him and my family. If only we’d known then, you’d already made the decision for us.”
“Isobel, please. You can’t do this. You’re all I have.”
“No, you don’t have me. You have a sham of a marriage, a son who I can almost guarantee will be pissed off with Kas for not ripping your head off, and a daughter who’s going to, one day, give you grandchildren who will be part bear, part human.”
It was Zain’s turn to freeze. The thought of a baby him and Isobel excited him, but he wanted a few more years practicing before the actual event.
“In a few years,” he coughed out. Isobel laughed, despite the stress of the situation.
“In fact, all you have is this building and the research you’ve done on shifters. Teagan?”
“Yes.” The wild dog was sitting on the broad-set Jett. She was poking him with a claw, every now and then, when he tried to throw her and Emma off.
“Tyler’s a computer genius isn’t he?”
“What Tyler doesn’t know about computers isn’t worth knowing.”
“Good. I’m going to need him to find the cloud attached to the computer here and wipe it clean.” Isobel pushed away from Zain’s side and sidestepped her father when he tried to grab her. She went to the computer equipment in the corner and picked up a chair. In an instant, she sent it flying through the screen of the laptop. Zain was impressed. Isobel had always been placid, but she was taking charge now. She was leaving her father with nothing.