by Laura Wright
“Hiss?” the male called out.
“Yeah.”
All around the room, shifters stirred in their cages. Without being able to see all that well, Hiss could only guess they were at the doors of their cages, waiting for the sign to emerge.
“I knew we could trust you,” Blade said when Hiss and Parish reached him. Lena and Bayon were on the opposite side, gathering the shifters together.
“A promise is a promise,” Hiss told him.
The male clapped his shoulder. “We’ve been waiting. I almost lost those keys to Peter. Had to cut a hole in my mattress.”
A sudden smattering of gunfire erupted on the floor above.
“Get down!” Parish commanded, brandishing his weapon and heading for the stairwell.
Everyone except the Hunters did as they were instructed. For several seconds, Parish listened at the door. Waited. When there was no second round of gunfire, he turned back.
“We’ve got to get out of here now.” He signaled to Hiss and the others to bring the shifters to him. “I know all of you are pumas, and you’ll want to fight. But I also know you’ve been through it, and might not have your normal strength. Whatever you can do is appreciated. We’re glad to have more fighters beside us.”
A hum of understanding and agreement went through the group of males and females. And as they made their way up the stairs to the first floor and the lobby and the waiting vans just outside, a solid readiness blanketed them too.
That is, until they pulled back the last locked door and came face to face with a small militia of armed guards. For several seconds, no one moved. The shifters watched the guards, and vice versa. Until Hiss saw that one of them had Rosalie in a headlock, a Glock to her temple.
Without Parish’s consent, he sprang forward, taking out one guard with his fists and another with the butt of his gun. He had to get to Rosalie. She, of all of them, needed to live through this raid. She’d already sacrificed enough to their enemies’ cause. Behind him he heard Parish give the signal and the Hunters and escaping Pantera converged on the guards. Shots peppered the air, along with the sounds of bones cracking and blood spattering and Pantera snarling.
Spotting Hiss’s approach, the guard who had Rosalie starting dragging her backward, toward the lobby. Hiss followed. Not happening, asshole. She’s coming home with me.
“Back off, animal,” the guard warned him, pressing the gun harder against Rosalie’s temple. “Or do you want her brains splattered all over you?”
Rosalie’s eyes were pinned on Hiss. And in that moment, it was like the old days. When Hunters communicated through sight, both in their male and female forms, and as cats. She was telling him not to back off. To keep coming, and when she signaled—
There it was! As Hiss rushed the male, Rosalie propelled her body forward, then slammed her elbow back into his stomach. The guard’s gun discharged, sending a bullet into the ceiling.
“Drop it,” Hiss growled, taking him to the ground.
“Fuck you, animal,” the guard spat back, jerking his hand up, trying to aim the gun at Hiss’s head.
Hiss closed his hand around the man’s fist, and in under five seconds, he had the gun in his possession and had tossed it to Rosalie. Just as a fist slammed into his face, he heard a shot. The guard beneath him went limp.
“There was a breeze on that bullet,” he said dryly to Rosalie as he climbed to his feet.
For the first time, she faced him. Really looked at him. And as a battle raged around them, as the lab’s unwilling subjects started to spill out into the lobby and head for the doors, she continued to stare.
“I’m so sorry, Rosa,” he said. “I have nothing else but that to give you. I know it’s not much. Not enough.”
“It’s something,” she said finally.
He nodded, the pain in his body a mere pinch compared to the pain in his heart—or her eyes. In seeking vengeance for his family, he’d broken someone else’s, and he would spend his life making up for it.
“Let’s go back in,” she said.
“No, I’ll go,” he told her. “You take the ones we rescued.”
“You sure?”
He nodded. “I’ll help Parish.”
“See you back at the van,” she said before taking off with the group of humans.
Heading in the opposite direction, Hiss found Parish and Bayon and Lena among the bodies of the guards. They were herding Pantera, humans and children toward the door.
“Where’s Hakan?” Hiss demanded. He hadn’t seen the male pass by when he was with Rosalie.
“He was just here,” Bayon said. “But he spotted a guard making for the stairwell. Went after him.”
“I’m going to check it out. See if he needs backup.”
Parish nodded. “We need to get these people out of here before the human police arrive. Use one of the cars, if you have to. We’ll meet you back home?”
It was a split second only between them. A question to be answered. A question of trust. Maybe a question for possible forgiveness as well.
Are you coming back? Are you coming home?
Hiss nodded, then took off. Covered in blood and bruises, he hit the stairwell. Gun drawn, he listened for sounds. Nothing. It felt like how night always felt in the Sub. Hakan, where the hell are you? Maybe the Hunter had followed the guard all the way up to the roof.
He took the steps two at a time until he reached the door. He opened it gingerly in case something was on the other side. But all he found was pre-dawn sky, a cloud-covered moon, an empty roof.
Cold air rushed over his hot, sweaty, pained skin. He stalked across the tiles to the parapet and looked out. The vans were moving now. Each going in a different direction. He’d have to grab a car. He heard the sirens wailing. In minutes, cops would be all over this place. Hakan must’ve gotten out.
“You are a very good fighter, Hiss.”
The voice stopped him. Cold. Stunned. He whirled around. Not ten feet away a woman stood, bracketed by two guards. They looked fresh, as if they hadn’t been in the battle. Hiss’s eyes moved over her. Tall, slender, with dark hair pulled up in a knot atop her head.
“I didn’t imagine it,” he called out.
His mother’s green eyes warmed in the hazy moonlight. “No, my son.”
Those two words wrapped around him and squeezed. Goddess, how many times had he wished to hear his mother’s voice? He started toward her, was about to urge her to take his hand, to come with him—to escape—when he stopped. When he realized… “You’re not captive here, are you?”
She shook her head.
His gut seized.
“I’m a guest,” she said. “Of Christopher’s.”
Hiss knew that name. Stanton Locke’s boss. The big boss. The benefactor. The one who ran this freak show.
“You’re a guest of the monster who runs this place?” he called. What the hell was happening?
“Don’t call him that!”
He stared at her.
“He’s your father, Hiss.” Her face warmed. “Don’t you want to know him?”
Cold sickness assaulted him. What was she saying? Father? That couldn’t be true. That would mean he was a hybrid. No.
No. He was full-blooded Pantera.
“It’s true,” she told him. “I wanted so badly to have a child, and well, your father and I… When I met Christopher it was only to become pregnant. To find a way to become pregnant. He is a genius in the field of medical research, and has unlimited resources. I was going to be inseminated, you see, then return to the Wildlands. But once we were together…” Her face lit up. Actually lit up with happiness. “I couldn’t walk away from him then and I can’t walk away from him now.”
Pure unadulterated ire ripped into Hiss, killing the cold sickness. She was serious in her madness. “The asshole who had my blood drained? Who kept human and Pantera prisoners? Who tortured and experimented and brought pain to god knows how many living creatures?” The sirens were drawing closer. And
yet she wasn’t moving. Why wasn’t she running? Why wasn’t she afraid? “That is my biological father.”
“He needs it to live,” she explained, as if what she was saying was sane and moralistically okay. “He can’t survive without it. Now that he doesn’t have your sister…”
“Reny,” he breathed. Goddess, could he ever tell her this truth? He could barely stomach it himself.
“I regret using Reny. But Christopher was so ill. He needed blood, and mine was too strong, too powerful.”
Hiss stared at the vile creature before him. The creature he’d built up to be a virtual saint in his mind.
“I can’t believe I mourned you. And all this time you were fucking around with a sociopath, giving no thought to your true family.”
Her face fell.
“The elders,” he ground out. “They told me you and Dad and Reny died in a fire.”
“Your Pantera father did,” she said. “The elders must’ve believed that we all perished that way. Or chose to ignore the possibility that we hadn’t.” She took a step forward. “Hiss don’t go.”
For one tiny, ridiculous second he believed she meant that in the way a true mother would’ve meant it. But as the police cars screeched to a stop at the curb down below, and a helicopter made its way toward the roof, he realized she was scared for Christopher. The man’s blood donor was running—and his many others had already escaped. How was he to stay alive?
“Go fuck yourself,” he ground out, then turned and leapt from the building to the roof next door, then to the roof of the Chauncey.
He never looked back until he was down the stairs and out on the streets. He’d never look back again. It was all forward. The future, and hope for forgiveness.
Coming out of the alley behind the hotel, he jerked to a stop when a car pulled up in front of him. The window went down and Hakan gave him a wry smile.
“Funny meeting you here, Hunter,” he said dryly.
Hiss felt his guts uncurl a bit. “Damn, brother, I looked everywhere for you.”
“Well, you found me. Or I found you.” He knocked his head in the direction of the passenger side. “Need a ride?”
Hiss slipped into the car, and the moment he slammed the door shut, the Hunter took off into the night. He didn’t say much until they were on the road toward home.
“You feel like talking?” Hakan asked.
“Ran into my mother. On the roof of the lab.”
Hakan’s head came around so fast he nearly hit another car. “What? I thought she was dead.”
“So did I. Turns out she’s not only alive, but Christopher’s mate.” He inhaled sharply. “She was serving up her children’s blood to that…” He couldn’t even finish.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Hakan said, dropping a hand on Hiss’s shoulder.
“So am I,” Hiss returned, staring out the window at the coming dawn. “For being such a blind fool for so goddamned long. That ends today.”
***
Gia’s puma had found something it loved in the Wildlands: the bayou. The warm water mixed with the cool morning air made the cat feel at peace. And after last night, and the many months of cage-dwelling, she craved peace. She didn’t think the water where she was swimming now was the same water that Hiss had told her of. She hadn’t seen any of those lilies, and there had been no feeling of control over her cat.
Hiss.
She tried not to allow her mind to go there. Think of him. Wonder about his safety. She was too pissed.
Her ears pricked up, catching the sound of something coming toward the bayou. She didn’t think it was the guards. They hadn’t been around since last night. But maybe it was Hiss. Maybe he was back.
Her cat stalked out of the bayou, stood on the shore and shook. But the sound that met her ears next was a shriek. A woman’s shriek. She sniffed the air just as a human woman emerged. She was very pretty, with long, black curls and big brown eyes. She was wiping water from her face and sort of laughing.
“That’s some spray,” she said. “You could beat Keira’s record. And not even Parish can do that.”
Gia shifted into her female form and grabbed the towel she’d left on the tree branch. Wrapping it around herself, she stepped forward. “Who are you?” she asked.
“Oh, sorry,” the woman apologized, shaking her head. “I’m Ashe. Raphael is my mate.”
“But…you’re human,” she stuttered.
Ashe grinned. “I am. And we have a daughter. Soyala.”
Gia was fascinated. “Is that common here? Human/puma matings?”
“Becoming more so,” Ashe told her. “I’m afraid the human world is encroaching on us.”
“I pray that doesn’t happen in my Wetlands.” Then realizing what she’d said, Gia backed up a little. “I didn’t mean the matings. Just the human world as a whole. It’s how I was taken and brought to the lab. Dealing with humans.”
Ashe’s face grew sympathetic. “I’m so sorry about what you’ve had to go through. I’m glad you’re here. We want you to feel at home. Raphael and I.”
“Thank you.”
“And Hiss wanted to make sure—”
“Hiss asked you to check on me, didn’t he?” Gia interrupted. Unbelievable. “He has a conversation with you, but writes me a note.”
“He actually asked Raphael, but I get it.” Ashe grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I appreciate you coming here.”
“Men are weird and great and a total pain the ass sometimes.” Ashe gestured to the water. “But it looks like you’re enjoying your time without him.”
“I’m a water Hunter back home. For my sect. My cat is drawn to it.”
“Right.” Ashe was staring at her.
“What?”
“Well…aren’t you curious? About where he is? What he’s doing? Why he left in the middle of the night?” She shrugged. “I can’t get a thing out of Raph, and he’s usually so forthcoming. Bastard.”
Gia wasn’t always taken with humans, especially after what had been done to her, but she couldn’t help liking this one. She was incredible charming. “I know where Hiss is.”
“You do?”
She nodded. “And I know what he’s doing. He’s with the Hunters, in Baton Rogue, trying to get the lab cleared out, the shifters and children out.” She exhaled heavily, refusing to think he was anything but okay. It wasn’t her way to worry and pine and hope. “I’m not surprised by his desire to go with them. We all have to do what we have to do.”
Ashe regarded her. “And what are you going to do?”
“Go home,” Gia said, her chest tightening a little. “I spoke with my family this morning. They were so happy, so emotional, so relieved. They’d feared the worst. I didn’t give them a ton of details. I thought that would be better to do in person. But they begged me to come home.”
“Of course they did,” Ashe said.
“I really like your Wildlands. It’s a wonderful place. For many reasons.” She smiled softly, knowingly. “But nothing compares to my home. To my Wetlands.”
“I understand,” Ashe said. “To be honest, there’s not all that much out in the human world for me. But I still feel the connection. The pull. I still wonder about family I don’t know.”
“You should pursue that,” Gia told her. “Knowledge, information, those are good things. Whether you want to act on them or not.”
“You’re very…decided, you know that?”
Gia laughed. “I think the word you’re looking for is opinionated.”
Ashe shrugged. “Maybe. Whatever it is, whatever it’s called, it’s refreshing. Can I sit with you awhile? Raphael is with Soyala this morning at Headquarters. It’d be nice to have some big girl time.”
“Be my guest. Of course,” she amended on a laugh, “I’m kind of your guest, but…”
Ashe dissolved into laughter. “The only thing we’re missing right now is cocktails.”
“I make a mean margarita,” Gia told her.
Slamming her hands together, prayer-style, Ashe cried, “Don’t go!”
Laughter bubbled within Gia again. “In the absence of tequila, we have the magic of the bayou. You like to swim?”
“Not sure how that dark, creature-infested water is going to give me a buzz, but okay. I’m more of a swimming pool chick myself.”
“You’ll love it,” Gia told her with a wicked grin.
“I don’t have a suit.”
Gia dropped her towel. “Neither do I.”
At first, Ashe looked a little startled. Then she laughed. “Oh, god. Okay.” She started to strip. “But if one of the Hunters or Suits or god forbid, Geeks sees me naked, I’m blaming you.”
“Good thing I won’t be around for long,” Gia called merrily over her shoulder as she headed for the water.
CHAPTER 9
The morning sun was high in the cloudless blue sky as Hiss left Suit Headquarters and headed for the cottage. For Gia. He’d been back in the Wildlands only short time, meeting with Raphael and Parish, debriefing the mission and where they all went from here.
A new day had dawned in so many ways. Both in and out of the Wildlands. Headquarters was now packed to the gills with captives from the lab—Pantera, human and hybrid. And each was welcome to decide where they wanted to be. The Pantera would help regardless.
For Hiss, the new day brought an end to the charges he faced. After Rosalie had gone to Raphael and told him how Hiss had saved her life, and the lives of so many, the decision to keep him captive was revoked. There was no doubt that Hiss was relieved, even grateful for this. But all that had happened, from years previous to just a few hours ago on the roof of that lab, still weighed heavily on him. He felt like his Pantera brothers and sisters would forgive him in time—some already had—but there would always be a cloud over his sun here.
Reny would need to hear the truth from him. He couldn’t imagine how she would take the news of their mother’s treachery. But right now, he had to see Gia. Had to hold her. Look in her eyes and know he was home.
He spotted the cottage in the distance, smelled the warm earthy scent of the bayou, and his insides liquefied. Goddess, he needed her. Like air to the lungs.