“Good for him,” Heidi said, putting her gaze back on the ceiling.
She was damned if she did let Diane Crane study her wolf side and damned dead if she didn’t. Now she just had to decide which she preferred before her final freak-out hit.
She knew how to survive suffering and loss. She knew how to do what she had to in order to get by until bad circumstances changed for the better.
What she didn’t know was how to deal with a crazy, cuckoo scientist.
The food they gave her contained a mild sedative. Heidi felt it changing her cells after the first bite. If it hadn’t been for the nanos getting rid of most of its effects, she would definitely have been unconscious every night until dawn. Instead, she woke fully when she heard someone moaning in the room. After she determined it wasn’t her making the awful sounds, she looked around in the dark to see who it was. The moaning sounded female. Was someone now in one of the other cages?
“Hello,” she said, trying to see.
She heard more moaning and then some swearing in what she unfortunately now recognized as Russian. “Katarina? Is that you?” she asked, sorely disappointed in not keeping her safe from Travis.
“Nyet. Never speak that cursed name to me.”
Heidi stood and walked away from her cot to peer through the bars of her prison. The voice was more youthful than she’d first realized, but still seemed very familiar. She wondered if all Russians sounded like Katarina, or if all the Russian female werewolves sounded the same when they were upset.
There was a shuffling in the cage next to hers. Then a loud thump as the person fell instead of standing. More swearing and complaining followed that maneuver.
“How badly are you hurt?” Heidi asked.
She could hear the person straining to climb back into bed.
“You American?” the voice asked.
“Yes. My name is Heidi. Who are you?”
There was silence for a long while. “I am Yana. You do not smell like normal wolf. What are you?”
Heidi turned away to think. Was Yana a trap to get her to talk? She had no idea how devious Diane Crane was. All she was sure about was the scientist’s mental instability. For telling her own story, she decided to stick with truths that didn’t require revelations.
“The woman who had us brought here is a scientist. She’s doing experiments on me. I’m sorry to have to tell you this when you’re hurting, but I thought you’d want to know the truth right away.”
Another vicious stream of Russian accompanied something being lobbed at the bars of the cage. The sound echoed in the silent room. Heidi winced and wondered if they were being monitored. If so, she wondered if anyone would come check on the noise.
She sighed at the futile direction of her thoughts. “I haven’t been able to escape. How badly are you hurt, Yana?”
Again, there was a long silence. Finally, she heard the woman draw in a breath.
“Broken leg. Maybe cracked ribs. It is hard to breathe.”
“Can you still shift?” Heidi asked.
“Da.”
“Take off your clothes and put them on the bed so you won’t lose them. Shift three times fairly quickly. Rest for five minutes or so after the third shift, then repeat for at least two more. It won’t heal the broken leg completely, but you should be able to stand on it without falling. The cracked ribs will be gone when you’re done.”
“You are Healer, yes?”
Heidi nodded in the dark. “For what it’s worth… yes, I’m a Healer.”
“Did you kiss handsome bastard too?”
Heidi thought of Travis shooting Ryan with a dart and hoped he was okay. “No. But I know him. The bastard’s name is Travis. I went willingly with him because he was going to kill someone I loved if I didn’t.”
“Honorable reason,” Yana said.
“The person I saved didn’t think what I did was so honorable,” Heidi said, going back to her cot. She perched on the side and listened to the rustle of clothes being removed in the dark. “Why did you say what you did when I called you Katarina?”
“Bad story,” Yana said tightly.
Heidi smelled a wolf at the same time she felt the energy change. It was something she’d discovered in her healing work. Wolves and humans shared some traits, but they were different on many levels, the most obvious being smell.
When she heard a human woman huffing and puffing at the effort shifting cost her, Heidi stared at the ceiling and tried hard to ignore her empathetic urges. It was awful not being able to see. The room had no windows so there was no light at all.
Talk about using her instincts. She’d just given healing advice to a faceless woman with an accent. “You’re not an Alpha, are you, Yana?”
“If Alpha, bastard would be dead and I would not be in cage,” Yana said.
There was silence and then Heidi heard an animal panting in the dark. She hoped Travis had at least left his new victim some water. She asked no more questions, merely waited until the woman finished doing as she’d recommended.
“Better now?” she asked softly.
Yana grunted in reply. “I will live to see tomorrow—need sleep now.”
Thinking that was a good idea for both of them, Heidi closed her eyes and at least let her mind escape her prison.
12
Heidi woke the next morning and immediately looked into the cages around her. There was no sign of Yana. Had she dreamed her? She took care of morning business and then spent her time pacing the cage. In the last few days, her life had become an endless cycle of waiting for Diane Crane’s mutated thugs to come collect her for testing.
It had only taken one feeble rebellion attempt against them to learn that bears—even the non-shifting ones—were stronger than wolves.
Her mouth dropped open when the thugs arrived dragging an unconscious woman between them. They tossed her face up onto the cot in the cage immediately next to hers. She stared in fascination at what could easily have passed for a younger version of Katarina.
“Is she okay? What happened to her?” Heidi asked.
They left without answering and without even glancing her way. She stared at the woman and thought about what they were both going through. She suddenly understood Brandi’s fierce need to stop scientists like the Crane siblings. There was no reasoning with someone who had no sense of wrongdoing. Her blood boiled every time she remembered the wicked scientist laughing at some painful procedure she’d questioned.
For the first time in her life, Heidi found herself actually contemplating someone’s death. Her wolf was in complete agreement. The Healing side could not see redemption for someone as loathsome as Diane Crane. How many other people had she hurt? How many others had she unwillingly turned into creatures they were never meant to be?
She would ask about what happened to Yana and tell the woman if she could. The truly mad scientist was egotistical enough to answer anyone who showed any interest in her work.
But what was going to happen to her? If she didn’t do something soon, that same scientist was going to kill her and cut her open.
With Ariel’s warnings about fluid exchanges ringing in her ears, she was pretty sure her death would provide Diane Crane the secrets she was looking for about making werewolves. Since dying would provide access to her genetics in a way even her nanos couldn’t avoid, escaping her current prison was the only solution she could sanely contemplate.
With no idea how to accomplish such a feat on her own, Heidi fell to her cot and put her face in her hands.
“Think. I have to think.”
Ryan turned when he heard Brandi open her phone to take a call.
“Yeah. We’re on a farm outside Ottawa. Your sister’s a one trick pony in her evil science. There’s a platoon of bear hybrids guarding a fence surrounding the main building. It has to be her inside.”
There was murmuring through the line, but Ryan couldn’t pick up what was being said by the person Brandi was talking to. His mind was busy looking
at the building and trying to visualize Heidi still being alive and well inside it.
“We’re outnumbered and outgunned, so reinforcements would be appreciated. Waiting will work so long as we don’t see counter-indications. Yes, we brought the werewolf Heidi’s attached to with us. No, he’s not going to do anything dumb. How are the kids doing?”
Ryan snorted about her reassurances about him, glad Brandi had been the one making the promises. He wasn’t promising anyone a damn thing. He felt Gareth’s probing stare and met his understanding gaze. At least there was some meager support for him there. Neither of the agents had been happy about him tagging along and had made no secret of it.
The answers of whoever was on the phone must have been positive because Brandi flipped the phone closed after another minute of talking and grunted. She looked directly at Gareth to relay her information.
“Kids are fine. Sheldon’s sending help. The kids are insisting Fallon and Lars come. Cheeky little shits are giving Grandpa orders now, but I’m not going to mind having the cat men along to help us. Their panther senses might come in handy. If nothing else, they’ll be comic relief.”
Gareth chuckled and ran a worried hand through his hair. “How long before help arrives?”
Brandi looked away and frowned. “Two days to get enough help to battle this number of hybrids. One of those two days will be dealing with Sheldon’s counterpart in Canada. He’s hoping there might be additional resources there. Freaking mad scientists apparently have a bloody network around the world.”
Gareth nodded. “Can you think of any reason we might have to attempt a rescue before then?”
Brandi looked off into the trees. “I wish I could say no, but one does come to mind.”
Ryan turned and gave her his full attention. What else was Heidi hiding from him?
Gareth lifted an eyebrow. “Going to share the problem or just keep dwelling on it?”
“Heidi can do something to herself which allows her to touch silver. She wouldn’t tell me or Ariel how she did it, but something she said to Ariel has had me obsessing over the process. She said she could talk to her nanos and that they listened to her. If that’s true, she might have the ability to genetically alter her DNA enough to make her captors believe she’s just human.”
Gareth straightened as he thought it through. “So you think Heidi might be faking out whoever has her?”
Brandi nodded. “Our girl’s not a fighter, but she’s not stupid either. She’ll be looking for a peaceful solution to getting her ass out of there safely. But if they’ve got others captured too, empathy is going to slow Heidi down. I can’t predict what will happen if she gets invested enough to put herself on the line again.”
“Right. She’d want to heal them,” Ryan said, seeing the logic.
Brandi nodded. “It’s truly who she is inside. Ariel and I have tried to make that okay for her, but she still has a lot of doubts. Outside of her healing skills, Heidi’s had a much harder time accepting that our werewolf reality is permanent.”
“What will happen if they do believe Heidi’s human?” Ryan asked.
Looks were exchanged between the agents. That’s how he knew without being told. She’d be of no value if those holding her truly thought Heidi wasn’t a werewolf. Travis had been sent to capture a female of breeding age. He’d heard Travis brag about his assignment.
“Let me get in and see what’s going on,” Ryan said. “My presence will provide a distraction for you—give them something unexpected to deal with. Maybe I can buy time enough for your reinforcements to get here before you have to act. If they know anything about werewolves, her mate showing up won’t shock them too much.”
Brandi glared at the suggestion. “If Travis is in there, he’ll kill you without hesitation, mate or not. Hell, he almost did kill you. He’s fully invested in his plan working. You know that, Ryan. You heard what he said.”
“And I’m invested in rescuing Heidi whatever it takes,” Ryan said sharply. “If I lose her, I might as well be dead. She’s the only reason I got over losing my first mate. I’d rather be in there suffering what she’s suffering. Anything is better than waiting around for help we don’t know for sure is coming.”
Gareth shook his head. “No. Going in there is a bad idea. Let’s wait a day at least. Maybe Sheldon will come through sooner. He doesn’t want anything to happen to Heidi any more than we do.”
Ryan stared hard at his Beta and then looked away. Neither Gareth or Brandi wanted to hear about his instincts. The agents were mentally in their own little cloak and dagger world. But he knew he had to get in there—had to see that she was okay. His instincts were shouting at him that he was running out of time.
Strapped to the gurney again, Heidi fought down the panic of not knowing what was going to happen to her today. Eva was going to have to do all the non-energy work treatments after this was over. She wasn’t going to be able to even look at needles or scalpels without flinching.
Yesterday Diane Crane had sliced her leg open without numbing the area first and dug out a tissue sample while she squirmed on the table and swore over the pain it caused. It had taken her most of the evening to heal the incision. Her distress reminded her of her promise to herself.
She turned her head until she could look at her torturer. “What did you do to Yana this morning? She was unconscious when they brought her back to her cage.”
Diane shrugged as she frowned. “I attempted to inseminate her, but her body immediately killed the sperm. Selective breeding is practiced by many species. I didn’t realize it extended to werewolves. Randall’s notes mentioned that one or two scientists had been successful with that sort of thing. Apparently they did so by weakening the wolf DNA first. Since I want a fully capable werewolf infant, that tactic will not work for me. Guess I’ll just have to get one the old fashioned way.”
Heidi forgot the fear for herself. “You’re going to have Travis steal a child for you, aren’t you?” Numb on the inside, she listened to Diane Crane laugh at her accusation.
“Stealing is such a harsh word. How about if I make sure he takes one from a family who already has a bunch of little puppies?”
Heidi turned her face away. Her expression might be calm, but her blood was boiling again. Nanos scrambled under her skin. Her wolf was close to breaking free. Was her animal strong enough to take down Diane Crane?
A needle being jabbed into her arm jerked her attention back to the present. It was withdrawn before she could utter a painful complaint. There had been no time to calm herself, no time to hide what she was.
Damn it.
The secret she’d been successfully hiding had just gotten revealed because she hadn’t been able to control her emotions.
Humming, Diane Crane walked to a giant microscope. She deposited blood from the syringe on a slide and then started looking at it.
“Oh look, I’ve found your wolf genes. They’re certainly busy and active today. Did I make you angry enough to call your other side out? I distinctly recall Agent Jenkins going all wolfie on me when I shot her mate. Of course I was aiming for her, but as usual, I was a fraction off my target. Hundreds of hours of shooting and I still can’t hit what’s in my gun sights. Guess I’ll have to settle for being a brilliant intellectual instead.”
Heidi panicked and her tongue went along for the ride. “Why do you want to create more of me? Don’t you realize that my conversion didn’t make my life any better? It’s taken me months just to adjust to thinking of myself as a werewolf. I still can’t shift without incredible pain. I never chose for this to happen to me. All I wanted was to be normal and happy.”
Diane turned from her workbench and crossed her arms. “Do you know how much countries are willing to pay for a serum that will turn normal soldiers into killers with animal instincts? I don’t even have to make fully shifting werewolves. I can do what my brother Sheldon does and make mutated super humans… only for the other side. That’s only fair, right? I’ll make enough mon
ey from that to collect my bear specimens again and continue my studies. Voluntary hibernation will completely reform space travel, you know. Who needs cryogenics when they can morph into a bear and just sleep for months?”
“All this is for stupid space travel? I can’t believe you’re killing people for something so dumb,” Heidi said as she rolled her eyes.
“Stop. You sound just like my parents. This planet we live on is dying and some of us would like to survive. In fact, we deserve to survive. That means we have to find somewhere else to go and we need a way to get there safely,” Diane exclaimed.
Heidi shut up then because really—how could you argue with such warped logic? Hadn’t the crazy woman ever heard of ecological efforts, reducing your carbon footprint, and all the ways people were working to save the earth’s environment?
Someone with Diane Crane’s kind of smarts could have found a zillion ways to clean things up and reverse the damage mankind had done to the planet. But no—her warped brain and horrifying ego had decided turning normal people into animals made more sense.
The woman was nuts. Completely. Utterly. Nuts. Which all meant Heidi was out of luck because there was no chance of the crazy woman changing her mind. That meant there was only one thing left to do.
Heidi’s wolf emerged as she shifted. Her animal slipped from the bonds that had held her human form to the bed. Diane Crane’s delighted laughter and mad clapping baffled her into stopping long enough to stare in disbelief at the scientist’s fearless reaction to seeing her wolf.
She finally shook off her surprise and jumped down from the examining table to head straight for Diane Crane. The urge to rip out the scientist’s throat surged stronger with every step. She bared her fangs and prepared to leap.
“Magnificent,” Diane declared with glee. “Now Vincent—before she attacks me.”
Mid-leap something hit her hip. When the sting registered in her wolf’s mind, Heidi knew exactly what it was. Too late, she realized she should have been scanning the room for other people. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that a guard had been watching them all along.
Heidi: Nano Wolves 3 Page 9