by Dia Cole
“To what end? It’s just a matter of time before Tasha goes after the child.” Gabe let out a harsh breath no doubt reliving the horror of his past.
I grimaced. Our vicious ruler tolerated no other Alpha females in her territory. Not even her own offspring. It was common knowledge that the only reason Mira lived was because it gave Tasha leverage over the powerful Alpha male she still desired. “That must be why Nathan wants us to go to Sanctuary instead of Winterhaven.”
Gabe let out a noncommittal noise. “Tasha will torture us if we return without Nathan.” He rubbed his eye patch.
Tasha would probably torture us anyway. When bored there was nothing she liked better than to inflict pain on anyone around her. I dared voice the dangerous idea that had been worming its way into my mind. “What if we didn’t go back?” Tasha would have her hands too full dealing with the chaos of the apocalypse to worry about two missing Enforcers. We could make a fresh start. One where I wasn’t forced to brutalize and kill Tasha’s enemies. One filled with a beautiful human female who didn’t fear me. I glanced back at Havana who’d rested her forehead against the glass of the window. What’s she thinking about?
Gabe gave me a sideways look. “And what would happen to your mother, brothers, and their children if Tasha found out you’d slipped her leash?”
The bitch will kill them all. I let out a heavy sigh. Even though they’d washed their hands of me a long time ago, I still cared for my family. “So what’s the plan then?”
“We head to the lodge at Sanctuary. When Nathan meets us, we’ll have to convince him to give his child to Havana.” Seeing my sharp look he added, “She was the little girl’s nanny. Anyway, then we bring him and Mason back to the settlement as ordered.”
I laughed. “And how exactly are we going to convince an Alpha to give up his babe?”
“If he wants his child to survive, he’ll see reason.” Gabe took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s the child’s only hope. Tasha will never let her live—surely Nathan realizes that.” The catch in his voice told me he was thinking about another babe. One that hadn’t survived Tasha’s ruthlessness.
“But how will the females survive on their own?” My chest tightened as I glanced back at Havana. She was on the phone again. I wondered who she was calling.
“We'll find them somewhere safe to hole up, get them supplies, and hope like hell Tasha never finds them.”
“Right,” I said, a hollow feeling in my gut. I could only imagine what Tasha would do to Havana if she were to find her protecting Mira. The sheer fact the human woman had a romantic relationship with Nathan would be enough to earn her a painful death at Tasha’s hand. Or mine. I flinched imagining Tasha ordering me to kill Havana. I can’t let that happen. White-knuckling the steering wheel, I stopped at a light.
A commotion across the street caught my attention. Near the crosswalk, a mob of people surrounded a homeless-looking woman. She shouted at them and rammed them with her shopping cart. The largest male in the mob tackled her to the ground where the rest of them piled on top of her. Bile rose in my mouth. “Ah, hell.”
Gabe turned on the radio to muffle the homeless woman’s heart-wrenching screams. “This town will fall by morning. We don’t want to be here when it does.”
I glanced back to see if Havana had seen the grisly sight, but thankfully she was still on her phone.
Deciding that Havana’s safety was my only priority, I slammed my foot on the accelerator and burned rubber until we got to the interstate.
6
Havana
We’d been traveling for at least three hours. First Liam cut south to the interstate, and then he took it north until we ended in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The past forty minutes, we’d barely crept forward an inch. It wasn’t as if we could even pull off and wait it out at a rest stop. This far north of town there was nothing around us but open desert dotted by the occasional cactus and sagebrush.
I’d used the time to repeatedly call Sydney, Donna, and Max. No one had picked up. Filled with helpless frustration, I surfed the web reading horrifying story after story of people dying and coming back to life only to kill others. Feeling sick to my stomach, I left Sydney another message. “Syd, I hope you’re okay. I’m headed up to Nathan’s place in the mountains with some friends of his.” I looked at the time. “Shit, by now you’re probably at the airport. Please, please avoid anyone who has gotten the flu vaccine and if people start acting weird, get the hell away from them. I love you, girl. Call me as soon as you can.” I ended the call with a sigh.
“You’re worried about her?” Mason asked, studying me with his deep blue eyes.
“Yeah. Don’t you have any family to worry about? A wife or girlfriend?” I tried to act like I wasn’t fishing for info on his relationship status.
He smiled. “No. I haven’t had time for romantic relationships in years.”
“Oh,” I said, happily surprised that the doctor was single. I could almost hear the ghost of my mom chortling in my mind. He’s quite a catch, Vana. Reel that fish in. “What about parents? Siblings?”
A shadow crossed his face. “No. I…I'm estranged from my family.”
I could tell it was a sensitive subject for him so I switched topics. “Did you grow up overseas?”
He chuckled. “Did my accent give me away?” In response to my weak smile, he said, “Yes, although I was born in the States, my adoptive parents raised me in England. I came back to locate my birth family,” he paused, “and never left.”
“Don’t you miss home?” I’d never been out of the country. Hell, I’d never been out of Arizona, but England looked fascinating from what I’d seen in movies and books.
“Yes, I do.” Mason sighed and ran a hand through his tousled blond hair.
“Winterhaven is his home now,” Liam said, giving Mason a long look in the rearview mirror.
“Is it near Sunridge?” I asked naming the popular ski resort town in the mountains where I assumed we were heading.
Liam shook his head. “No. It’s far north of the resort, deep in the San Angelo mountain range. It’s pretty isolated.”
“Never heard of it,” I said apologetically.
“That’s a good thing,” Gabriel muttered.
“Is that where we’re going?”
Gabriel twisted around in his seat. “No, we’re headed to Sanctuary. It’s a lodge about ten miles from Sunridge.”
“Sanctuary. It sounds like a BDSM club name,” I said with a weak laugh.
“You’d know,” Gabriel sneered.
“Yeah, I would,” I replied not about to let his cutting words bother me. I’d been on the receiving end of judgment for years. I was used to it. “What about your family? Assuming you weren’t just abandoned on the street when your parents realized what an ass you were.”
In the driver’s seat, Liam stiffened.
A cold mask settled across Gabriel’s face. “They’re dead.”
It was my turn to feel like a jerk. “Oh. Sorry. My parents are dead too. Well, my mom anyway. I never knew my dad.” I clamped my mouth shut. No one wants to hear your life story, Vana.
“Is Syd your sister?” Mason asked in a gentle voice.
I shook my head. “No. I was an only child. Sydney’s my best friend and roommate.”
Mason gave me a reassuring smile. “I’m sure she’ll hear your message and call you soon.”
“I hope so,” I said, looking down at the phone in my hand. Trying to keep the anxiety at bay, I said, “So how do you all know Nathan?”
The vibe in the car flipped as if I’d turned a switch. All three guys pressed their lips together and turned their attention to the surrounding cars. You’d think I’d asked them how much money they made in a year.
Liam broke the awkward silence. “We're all from Winterhaven and we work with Nathan occasionally. Well, at least Gabriel and I do.”
“Oh.” I let out a relieved breath. Given how weird they’d acted, I almost expected them to admit
to being ex-lovers. They must work for the same company. I didn’t know much about Nathan’s job other than it kept him incredibly busy and involved a lot of travel. That’s why he’d hired me to care for Mira. He often needed an overnight nanny during his business trips. God, I hoped Mira was okay. I hadn’t seen the little girl since the breakup. My throat closed up as I envisioned her scared and alone with those…things attacking her.
Mason made a soothing sound and brushed a lock of my hair from off my face. “You need to relax, Havana.”
I rolled my eyes at him. Right. Like that'll happen. The world was ending and I was just supposed to be all Zen about it.
“What the fuck is the holdup?” Gabriel said, slamming his hand against the dash in a very un-Zen-like fashion. “We need to keep moving.”
Liam opened his door, letting a cold rush of air into the vehicle. Seeming immune to the chill, he stepped out and peered at the line of cars ahead of us. As if he could see anything in the darkness. After a minute he slid back into his seat. “A semi overturned about a mile down the interstate.”
My mouth dropped open. “You couldn’t possibly have seen that. It's pitch-black out there.”
“I have excellent night vision.” He caught my eye through the rearview mirror. “And right now I’m really enjoying the view.” He lowered his gaze to my legs.
I couldn’t help laughing. The big guy was endearing as hell.
Gabriel looked at his watch again. “We can’t waste time out here.”
He needs a chill pill. “Why are you so worried about the time? Are you late for a date or something?”
He twisted around, his single dark eye pinning me to the seat. “Every hour we sit here, more infected are dying and reanimating. And trust me, princess, we don’t want to be trapped on the interstate when the people around us start dying.”
I swallowed hard.
Liam made a scoffing sound. “Ignore him. Gabe is always doom and gloom.”
Gabriel glared at Liam. “Shut your hole, put the hazards on, and pull out onto the shoulder.”
Liam batted his eyelashes at Gabriel. “I’m waiting for the magic word.”
“Please,” Gabriel ground out through clenched teeth.
“Now was that so hard?” Liam said, cranking the steering wheel.
It was clear through their interactions that the two men were friends. That was strange because they seemed like polar opposites. Despite his intimidating size, Liam was warm and friendly. Gabriel, on the other hand, could give snow frostbite.
Loose gravel crunched under the tires as Liam drove forward. We passed dozens of other cars, some honking at us in obvious irritation.
A few minutes later, Liam was forced to stop due to a Jeep blocking our path. Several dozen yards away, an overturned tractor-trailer was engulfed in flames. The semi must’ve been traveling north when the driver crashed into the concrete median blocking traffic from both directions. The orange glow from the smoldering fire illuminated two guys approaching the semi.
Gabriel cursed. “Fucking idiots. What do they think they’re doing?”
As if answering his question, one of the guys, who looked like he hadn’t seen the other side of seventeen yelled, “The driver is still alive.”
Using a crowbar, the older guy, a potbellied man in a hunting cap, pried open the semi door.
Flames roared from the vehicle and a broad-shouldered woman stumbled from the truck. Fire covered her from her bald, blistered head to her charred cowboy boots. Impossibly, she lurched forward.
“Drop and roll,” the fat guy shouted to her as he tried to beat the flames out with his jacket.
The truck driver snarled and tackled her would-be savior to the ground.
I felt the blood leave my face. “Oh hell!” The truck driver is one of them.
The fat guy screamed as he caught fire and the truck driver snapped her jaws around his throat.
Gabriel cursed. “No good deed goes unpunished.”
The teenager stood in shock for a second and shouted, “Dad!” He rushed over in a futile attempt to pry the burning woman off his father. When that didn’t work, he retrieved the crowbar and swung it at the woman’s head.
The sickening crunch of metal against bone made me gasp.
Oh, God. I held my hand to my mouth as bile climbed the back of my throat.
The woman released the neck of the fat guy and rolled to her feet. Even with her skull partially crushed and fire consuming her body, she charged the teenager.
“Get back!” he screamed, swinging the crowbar like a bat. He backed up a step before realizing he was trapped between her and the burning semi.
In the distance, the fat guy stirred and slowly stumbled to his feet. Ignoring the fact that his shirtsleeve was ablaze, he gnashed his teeth and lurched over to where his son was barely holding off the advancing truck driver.
The people in the surrounding cars watched in shocked horror. None of them made any attempt to help.
“And so it begins,” Gabriel announced in a dark voice.
“Someone needs to help the kid!” I cried, fumbling with my seat belt. I could at least distract the zombies so the teenager could get away.
“Mason, make sure she stays in her seat,” Gabriel barked. “Liam, take care of it. Shoot them in the head, apparently body shots don’t do shit.” He shot Mason a withering look and gave Liam a handgun with a silencer attached.
I stared at him in shock. What kind of guy carries a gun with a silencer?
The kind you don’t want to be stuck in a car with, my subconscious answered.
With a quick nod, Liam took the weapon and stepped out of the vehicle.
Mason rebuckled my seat belt. “There’s nothing to worry about. This is what Liam does.”
“What? Kill zombies?” I gasped.
Mason flashed me an enigmatic smile as we watched Liam step around the Jeep and fire two shots. The two burning figures collapsed to the ground unmoving. As the teenager stared at the smoldering corpses with a dazed look on his face, Liam shouted, “Is the Jeep yours?”
“My dad’s,” the teenager answered his voice cracking.
“I’m going to move it,” Liam said, walking around toward the back of the Jeep. With a quick push, he shoved the vehicle out of our path. Then as if he hadn’t just killed two people and moved a several-thousand-pound vehicle with his bare hands, Liam marched back to the SUV and slid into the driver’s seat.
“Oh my God!” It was too much. People dying and coming back as zombies. Being in a car with a bunch of strange men who carried guns. I struggled to catch my breath.
Mason gathered me in his arms. “Shh. It’s okay. The young man is unharmed. Just breathe.” He smelled like rain. The fresh clean scent filled my senses, calming me with every breath.
I laid my face against his chest, feeling uncharacteristically drawn to him. Although I was usually the last person who trusted strangers, there was something about Mason that made me feel safe and protected. I definitely couldn’t say the same for Gabriel.
The dark-haired man scowled over at me. “Happy now, princess. We stopped it this time, but you see what happens. All it takes is one infected. They attack and kill another person who reanimates and together they attack and kill more people. The entire world will be in anarchy by sunrise and within a week the majority of the population will be infected. The world you knew is gone.”
Mason shot Gabriel a hard look. “Bloody hell, lighten up, mate. Can’t you see she’s hyperventilating?”
Gabriel sniffed and turned back around.
Numbness overtook me as Liam looked at me in the rearview mirror. In the dim light it looked like his eyes were glowing again.
My breathing grew choppier. Is he even human?
“Are you okay?” Liam asked, looking back at me with concern.
“She’ll be fine,” Mason said in a soothing voice. “Havana is a strong, courageous woman.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said unable
to stop my body from trembling.
“I know you were going to try to save that boy. That takes courage.”
“Or stupidity,” Gabriel muttered from the front seat. “Let’s get moving.”
Liam slowly drove us past the smoldering bodies and wreckage. The traumatized expression on the teenage boy’s face stayed with me. Is this what the world is coming to?
The sound of a siren rang out in the distance.
“Step on it,” Gabriel ordered.
Liam hit the gas and we sped off into the night.
7
Gabriel
The woman has to go. I twisted around to see that Havana had fallen asleep curled in Mason’s arms. The doctor stroked her long dark hair with a look of naked possession on his face.
Next to me, Liam let out a low rumbling growl. My fellow Enforcer watched the rearview mirror more than the road. In all the years I’d known him, I’d never seen him react like this to a female.
She’s dangerous.
The effect she had on these males was unprecedented. And they weren’t alone.
Just breathing the air tinged with her exotic musk tightened areas low in my body that I’d been denying for years. The fact that my lust would awaken for this female defied reason. Who was she? I replayed the conversation I’d had with Nathan before we embarked on this mission.
Hours earlier, the Alpha male was just pulling out of his driveway when Liam, Mason, and I pulled up to his estate near the foothills. I’d jumped out of the SUV and jogged over to Nathan’s expensive sports car.
The Alpha male rolled his window down and glared at me. “I’m on my way to a dinner party. What do you want?”
Most Lykos males would piss themselves when visited by two of the deadliest Enforcers in the territory. Not Nathan. Instead the male eyed me with a look of annoyance on his face.
“Tasha wants us to bring you home.”
“This is my home,” he said, baring his teeth in challenge.
I sighed. This won't be easy. But then when is dealing with Alphas ever easy? Thankfully, the strongest of us were rare as hell. Our faction only counted Tasha, her son, Tyberius, and Nathan among their ranks. Knowing that any more mention of Tasha was sure to meet with further resistance, I tried for another angle. “The Council has ordered all Lykos back to their factions.”