Denise hurried back to the cage. “Okay, little buddy. I owe you for that one.” Without stopping to think of the likelihood of success, she ran to the other side of the room and grabbed one of the lab carts. She sprinted back to the cage and lifted the whole thing onto the cart with an audible grunt.
“Don’t bark,” she ordered the pup, praying it would remain quiet until she reached the facility’s side door. Half-running, she pushed the cart toward her designated exit, wincing every time the wheels squeaked.
By the time she reached the exit, she was panting. But she didn’t stop. Taking a deep breath, she flipped the handle and shoved, wedging the cart into the opening and pushing with her hip to widen the gap enough to get it through.
It was dark outside. There was no armed guard pointing a gun at her. No spotlight shone down as she hustled the cart beyond the trees where the van was waiting. But the reception from her team left a lot to be desired.
Max was standing at the door. “Damn it, Denise, what the hell? You got the dog anyway.”
She ignored his bluster. “It’s a wolf cub. Now help get this in the back.”
“No, you idiot. It won’t fit.”
Her blood heated. If he called her an idiot one more time…
She glared at him. “It will fit. So just open the door and make room.”
“I’m telling you it won’t fit. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”
Maybe because you’re an immature jagoff?
“It’s my van. If it doesn’t fit, I will take the cage and leave you here instead. Now open the door and make room. We don’t have much time. The guards have already noticed the chimps are gone.”
Max swore under his breath, but he finally yanked open the door. The long bed of the van was crowded, but by stacking the cages, they could fit all four inside.
“Go!” She waved him to the passenger side and ran to jump into the driver’s seat.
“This is a bad idea,” Karen said from her crouched position in front of the cages. “The dog is going to get the chimps all riled up.”
Denise fastened her seat belt. “Again, it’s a wolf cub, not a dog. And it’s too late. If you wanted quiet, we should have drugged the chimps.”
That had been a point of contention for the group. To carry off the rescue quickly and efficiently, she had suggested using a small amount of animal tranquilizer. They needed to keep the poor animals from hooting and screeching during the extraction or the guards would come running.
Her arguments had been rejected. According to them, drugging the animals was cruel. The fact that the excitable chimps would get them caught without sedation didn’t seem to matter.
The others, Karen in particular, argued they would be no better than the monsters experimenting on them if they drugged them. Only Max had agreed with Denise, and that was probably because they were dating.
She sighed. I may have to rethink the team’s composition.
Denise was the organizational force behind their little band. She had originally chosen the members of the rescue team according to their degree of commitment to the cause, but that had clearly been a mistake. They needed dispassionate and methodical thinkers if they were going to keep doing this without getting arrested.
“The chimps were being quiet before you brought that damn dog in here,” Karen said with an annoying cluck of her tongue.
Because I drugged them anyway… She couldn’t let the plan fail because members of her team were too soft.
The chimps had been gibbering quietly since they picked them up. They were making more noise now, but it wasn’t the earsplitting screech they would’ve made without the partial sedation she’d secretly administered.
“Listen, we are a democracy—”
Denise’s temples were starting to throb. “Karen, stop yelling. I made an executive decision on the fly to save a life. That’s why we’re doing this after all, isn’t it? We just saved an innocent wolf pup—one that is not even barking right now—so can we argue about this at the next meeting?”
“What good will that do after the fact? It’s not like you listen to anyone else anyway.”
Denise focused on the road ahead, but silently conceded Karen had a point. She’d been doing this on her own for a while before deciding to take on bigger targets. Larger research facilities meant more test animals. Unable to handle the job alone, she’d formed a team. But a lot of the time, she still acted like she was flying solo…
She sighed, turning right onto the highway. “Let’s just wait until we’re in the clear before we continue with this discussion.”
Karen muttered something under her breath that sounded like bitch, but Denise ignored her. Karen was the veterinary technician in their group. She worked at a zoo and had experience treating primates. Denise needed her too much to cut her loose, but maybe she could convince the woman that she could serve their goals better by joining the second team—the one that transported the animals to the nature preserve.
“That reminds me. I need to ask you for a huge favor.” She looked in the rearview mirror, trying to gage Karen’s reaction. “I meant to talk to you about it earlier, but I think it would be a good idea if you went with the chimps to Zambia.”
Karen poked her head between the two seats. “Me? I…I have to work.”
“Can’t you call in sick?”
The vet tech sounded uncertain. “I don’t have enough vacation days.”
“Would it be possible to get some unpaid leave? I can cover you as long as you make sure the animals get where they need to go in good health.”
“Um…”
“I would really appreciate it.”
Karen thumped the seat behind her. “You know what? I’ll do it. I’m going to call my boss now.”
Beside her, Max snorted. No doubt, he’d be using this in an argument later. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d accused her of being manipulative.
Denise didn’t see it that way. She was a problem solver—more concerned with getting results than soothing bruised egos. There weren’t enough hours in the day for that. Besides, Karen always had dark circles under her eyes. An all-expense paid trip to Zambia might be exactly what she needed.
Twenty minutes later, Denise was pulling behind the abandoned gas station on the edge of a tiny no-name town. Parked in a break in the tree line was another vehicle—a truck this time. It was attached to a horse trailer.
They transferred the still-drowsy chimps with a minimum of fuss, something none of the others thought to question.
Even Max didn’t appear to catch on to what she’d done. “You guys are cute, but lazy little bastards, aren’t you?” he asked them before poking her in the ribs too hard. “Now we know why they lost the evolutionary arms race.”
Intent on getting the chimps unloaded as quickly as possible, Denise simply gave him a tight smile. Her teeth were gritted to keep from correcting him on what that term actually meant.
As the others finished up, she changed the plates on the van and added matching decals to the side panels. Once they were in place, the van looked older, like a seventies throwback. A few strategically placed dirt smears cemented the transformation.
Denise studied her work critically and decided it would pass muster in the dark. Even a cop at a checkpoint would most likely fail to recognize the van unless they looked very closely.
Here’s hoping no security feeds caught it in the first place.
The chances of that were slim. Reliance Research was in an isolated corner of Wyoming, a few hours from the Colorado border. The nearest town was ten miles away, a place with a budget too tiny to have traffic cameras. The facility only had a handful that were easily avoided. As the guards had pointed out in their argument, their budget had not gone toward infrastructure or security.
“What are we going to do with the cub?” Max asked. “You’re not planning to send it to Africa, are you?”
“No, of course not. We’ll take it with us, at least until I figure out what to do.”
&
nbsp; Max shuffled his feet. “Oh yeah, about that. I was thinking I could maybe tag along with the chimps or something. The second team probably needs help.”
He looked at Karen—or more precisely at her low-cut sweater and skinny thighs—and shrugged.
Denise’s lips parted. “Oh.”
Blinking hard, she fought to mask her reaction. The sudden lump in her throat made that difficult. “If you think you can help them, knock yourself out. But first, I’d appreciate some help with the pup’s cage. See if you can open it,” she said, handing over the decoder device.
Your voice was steady enough. She hadn’t given herself away. Denise turned, needlessly adjusting the decal one more time as he went to work on the lock.
Why am I even upset? She had just been thinking he was an ass. But he’d been her ass.
Apparently, that was about to change.
After a few minutes, Max called out to her. He’d managed to unlock the cage. Well, at least you’re good for something. Leaving the cage unlocked but fastened with wire, she shut the van doors and casually waved goodbye.
Denise waited until she was a few miles away before letting a few tears slip down her cheeks.
It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. She was used to being on her own. That was the primary reason for dating him in the first place—to stave off loneliness. But it hadn’t exactly been a match made in heaven.
Behind her, the pup yipped, and she snorted, remembering she wasn’t as alone as she thought. “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, kid.”
The little animal yawned as it curled up on the floor for a nap.
Chapter 2
“Son, it’s Douglas.”
Yogi Kane scowled at the road ahead and adjusted his Bluetooth earpiece.
Why was the chief calling him? His mind leapt to the worst-case scenario and he yanked on the steering wheel, pulling his Jeep over to the side of the road.
“Are Sal and Sammy all right?”
He’d talked to his younger sister and brother just yesterday. Everything had been fine, but he knew from experience things could change in an instant.
“Yes, they’re okay. It’s not them.”
He exhaled a pent-up breath. “What’s going on? Is it Connell or Mara?”
The chief’s children were his closest friends. They had stuck with him through his family’s recent troubles, making a show of their friendship and giving him and his siblings their unconditional support. Not everyone in the pack had been so generous.
Douglas paused. “Actually, this is about one of the Averys.”
The Averys. If there was a werewolf equivalent to the Hatfield and McCoy feud, it was the conflict between his family and the Averys. His father had railed and ranted about them for years…
“Yogi, you still there?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m sorry. What’s going on?”
“Do you remember the girl Santiago married? The human named Sheri? She’s missing, presumed dead.”
“That’s fucked up,” Yogi said, wondering where Douglas was going with this.
He only met Sheri once. She was a quiet and timid woman, small in stature. Jessup Avery’s son, Santiago, had taken her as a mate a few years ago. Santiago had died unexpectedly last year while doing another tour as a ranger, but Yogi didn’t know anything about him or his family beyond that.
“They have a baby boy,” Douglas continued.
“They do?”
“We need you to look for them.”
“Me?”
“Logan thinks they’re near you.”
Logan, the Air Elemental and Connell’s mate, had a freaky way of finding things out. Part witch and part force of nature, she could do impossible things—crazy shit Yogi had only seen in superhero movies. And that’s coming from a werewolf.
Yogi had seen proof of Logan’s skill and magic firsthand. If she said he was near Sheri and her kid, then he probably was. Of course, with her powers, she could literally fly anywhere, so why did they need him?
“Is Logan on her way to swoop in to save the day?” Did she need backup? Was Connell unable to help her for some reason?
“She and Connell are somewhere in Eritrea. They can’t drop what they’re doing to come. I’m afraid this is on you.”
Yogi swore under his breath. As comforting as it was that his alpha still had some faith in him after what had happened, he’d literally just left home. If he found Sheri and her kid, he’d end up having to take them to their pack.
So much for escaping…
“Yogi.”
“Where do I go?’
“Logan gave me two places to check. The first should be just a few miles from where you are now.”
Sheri had been dead at least a day by the look of it. Yogi found her small compact off the highway and down a steep embankment. The vehicle had slammed into a tree amid some dense shrubbery, hiding it from the sight of the vehicles passing on the road above.
There was no sign of Oliver, Sheri’s eighteen-month-old son.
The baby had survived the crash. His scent was strong in the trees around the car, but it died abruptly a half mile from it. The trail ended just a few dozen feet from a smaller access road that branched off the highway.
Someone had found Oliver. Whether that person had anything to do with the accident had yet to be determined.
While any road was potentially dangerous, the one Sheri had driven off was well lit with a decent railing along the edge. The lack of skid marks suggested she might have fallen asleep at the wheel—or she’d had no time to react and brake when another car forced her off the road.
Sheri’s car was too much of a mess to know if it had been struck by another vehicle, but there were a few bits of orange plastic on the asphalt. It was the kind that came from a headlight. Two cars had collided on this road, but he couldn’t say when it had happened.
Somehow, Logan had known the baby wouldn’t be here. It was why she’d given him two vague locations, not one. He’d assumed she simply hadn’t been sure of her information, which sometimes happened. But at least he had a second chance to find the kid.
Chapter 3
Denise left the wolf cub in the garage of her rented cabin while she ran out to get supplies. The cabin was on an isolated stretch of Alsop Lake, but it was close enough to town to get most of the food and gear she needed on short notice without having to resort to ordering anything online.
Would a wolf eat dog food? Denise stared at the selection, which was a large one considering the size of the store.
People must love dogs around here. She grabbed a can of each different brand. To be safe, she thought she should probably get some meat too.
Denise shuddered. Though a strict vegetarian when it came to her own meals, she had studied enough biology to know better than to try to impose that kind of diet on an animal. However, just because she was willing to serve meat didn’t mean she had to like it, she acknowledged as she unenthusiastically ordered ground chuck from the butcher.
By the time she returned to her rental, the little wolf had shredded the blankets she’d piled together as a makeshift dog bed.
“Jesus, kiddo, what are you going to do tonight? It’s supposed to get below freezing.”
The cub cocked its head at her and proceeded to stroll to the door leading to the kitchen. It paused as if waiting for her to open it.
“Sorry, little buddy, you have to stay in here.” The cub yipped and whined, scratching at the door. Feeling guilty, Denise took the ground chuck out of her grocery bag and put it in a bowl on the floor next to a plastic basin she’d filled with water. She rearranged the shredded blankets into a nest by the water heater and ducked into the kitchen before the little cub finished eating.
Wolves have thick fur. No matter how cold it got in the garage, the cub would be fine. Denise went to the kitchen, but she couldn’t summon the enthusiasm to prepare dinner for one. Finally settling on a yogurt and a granola bar, she headed for the tiny bedroom to eat in bed.
&
nbsp; “What the hell? How did you get in here?’
The wolf cub snorted and wiggled on the burgundy sleeping bag she’d thrown over the bed.
“Shoo! Get off there,” she said, waving at it. The cub shook itself and curled up, its head resting on her pillow.
Denise grabbed the little animal, cradling it. Realizing it was a boy, she snorted. It was just like a male to cause trouble. She carried him to the garage, fishing out a few of the larger blanket pieces that were still intact. Setting him next to the heater, she wrapped him up.
“Now, stay,” she ordered.
The second her back was turned, the cub shot past her through the crack in the door.
Damn. He moved fast. When she caught up with him, the cub was back on her bed.
“All right, kiddo, you win. I’m too tired to fight you on this. You can stay here with me tonight, but if you eat my face while I sleep, I’m going to be pissed.”
Maybe feeding it meat earlier had been a mistake. What if it now had the taste for raw flesh? Or had it been the right move? If she made sure he was full all the time, maybe he wouldn’t decide she looked like dinner.
“You sleep at the foot of the bed,” she ordered, pointing.
Naturally, the cub ignored her, rolling over on his back and lifting his paws in the air. With a sigh, she picked him up and moved him.
The cub waited until she climbed into bed before pattering over and curling up against her head. “I’m serious. If you eat my face, I will neuter you.”
The cub yipped again, hopefully in agreement. Drained, she passed out with his furry little body warming her cheek.
Mama.
Denise’s eyes flew open. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand and sat up.
“Mama.”
What in the world? Was that a baby? How could that be? She was the only one here.
Another wail. Yes. Somewhere in the night, a baby was crying.
Was she hallucinating? That didn’t make sense. It was too early for her biological clock to explode. There was no reason for her to be dreaming about babies. She had at least another ten years before the decision to procreate became an issue.
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 40