by Tunstall,Kit
He didn’t know if she’d gone home, or if she’d gone to Sanctuary, but he hoped she had chosen to continue on to Mal. His friend would keep her safe, since Wyatt had acted impulsively in an attempt to do so that now seemed futile. He could add this rash decision to his long list of things he regretted, right there alongside keeping himself away from Gillian for the last year-and-a-half.
***
Gillian was no soldier, so she had remained at the rear position, following the far more seasoned warriors into battle. She had probably made a ton of mistakes, but none of the three had pointed them out her. She had simply shadowed them as they infiltrated the base, first by stealth, and then by a show of force upon discovery.
She was impressed by how quickly and ruthlessly the three of them dealt with the soldiers sent their way, but she was expecting a confrontation with those things that had attacked her and Wyatt earlier. She doubted even as competent and strong as these three were that they would be able to easily handle that variation of horror that had likely emerged from this very base.
Lex had tapped into their system, and she was quickly scrolling through electronic files. “They have the supersoldiers, as they’re calling them, en route with an ETA of five minutes. They were all out on scouting missions looking for us apparently. Let’s move, people.”
Gillian clutched the submachine gun Mal had given her from his stash back at sanctuary. She’d had a very short, quick tutorial on how to use it, but thankfully it was the weapon equivalent to a plug-and-play peripheral.
Devon had liberated a security pass from one of the superiors they had encountered along the way, and so far it had granted them access to every door. The next one they tried was no exception, and it rumbled open with a loud clanging sound, followed by a hiss. According to the map Lex had downloaded from their mainframe, this should be where they were holding Wyatt.
She abandoned caution in her need to find him, moving through the door just after Malcolm. She ignored Lex’s hissed words for her to hang back, letting out a small cry when she saw Wyatt crouched in a cell. She broke into a run, crossing the last few feet separating them in a matter of seconds.
She reached the cell door, unconsciously yanking on it without realizing it required a key for a moment. “When I get you out of here, Wyatt, I’m probably going to kick your ass before I kiss you.”
He had moved from his crouching position to approach the bars, putting his hand through to take one of hers. “Why don’t you flip that order around, because I could use a kiss right this second.”
The door through which they were holding hands suddenly sprang open, but only a few inches. It was enough to make her rear back from the surprise, but when she recovered, she pulled the bars closer toward her, swinging the door completely open. As Wyatt stepped through, she threw herself into his arms, only vaguely aware of the other three turning their weapons toward the second man in the room. She’d barely been aware of him in her quest to reach Wyatt, and she forced herself to pull away from her mate after only a brief kiss, so she didn’t miss what was happening.
“I’m on your side,” said the older man, sounding irritable.
“We don’t have any proof of that,” said Devon.
“I think he’s telling the truth,” said Wyatt softly, causing his teammates to temporarily freeze before all three looked at him as though they were one cohesive unit. She supposed that was an accurate description, because that’s exactly what they used to be, and old habits wouldn’t fade so quickly.
“You can’t be serious,” said Lex with a scoffing sound.
Wyatt nodded, moving away from her to face his teammates more fully. He grunted his approval when Gillian moved behind him, putting her arms around his waist as she rested her cheek against his back. She couldn’t let him out of her range of touch, at least not yet.
“I’m not kidding. I believe George was dragged into this just as much as we were. He was sold the same gold-plated turd as the rest of us. He’s on our side.”
Gillian peeked around his back, just in time to see Malcolm and Wyatt share a meaningful look before Mal nodded. “I’ll take your word for it then, Wyatt, if you’re prepared to vouch for him.”
Wyatt nodded, moving to a position that was more at attention. He pulled Gillian along for the ride, because she refused to let go. “I take full responsibility for his actions.”
“So be it,” said Malcolm. “We need to get the hell out of here now, because those soldier things are coming back to base, and we’re outnumbered.”
Gillian grasped Wyatt’s hand as he turned to her, reaching for it. She moved quietly and quickly beside him, doing her best to keep up with the rapid pace Mal set. The only other person who seemed to struggle at all was the colonel, and he was clearly wheezing. She shot him a concerned look, asking as they ran, “Are you all right?” Since he was a shifter of some sort, but he was only barely keeping pace with her, she was certain the answer was going to be negative.
“I will be. I just haven’t had a chance to heal yet. I think they broke some ribs.” He started coughing, blood bubbling abruptly out of his mouth. “Maybe punctured a damn lung.” He stopped running, leaning against the wall while gasping and wheezing.
“Hold up,” called Gillian to the group. “The colonel is sick.”
“Just shift and get it over with,” said Malcolm, sounding irritated. “Heal yourself so we can get moving, Wallace.”
Gillian had seen shifters shift before, including Wyatt many times, but she’d never met a hyena-shifter. She averted her eyes politely when the older man stripped off his uniform, but she looked back in time to see the shift to the hyena. She’d never considered hyenas particularly beautiful or graceful, but the colonel was clearly the exception. For being somewhat top-heavy and vicious-looking, there was a wild gracefulness about him that was mesmerizing.
When he shifted back a moment later, she quickly looked away, not wanting to see his intimate human parts. He already looked better by the time she looked at him again as he was donning his uniform, slipping on an olive-green T-shirt over his cammies.
Once the colonel was healed, Malcolm set an absolutely brutal pace, moving so quickly she could barely keep up. She let out a startled cry when Wyatt abruptly turned and lifted her into his arms, tossing her over his shoulder in a motion that was unintentionally rough, simply because he was trying to secure her safely. She didn’t particularly enjoy the position, or the lack of dignity it brought with it, but at least she was no longer slowing them down.
Even with their new rapid pace, they had lost too much time, and they had barely slipped from the base when she heard the whomp whomp whomp sound of a helicopter. She looked up in dismay as the gunship approached, not bothering with landing. It simply hovered near the ground as it had done at Wyatt’s cabin, disgorging its passengers in a blur of moving bodies. Wyatt set her down on her feet, and she counted seven slipping off the helicopter before it lifted into the air and moved deeper into the structure of the base, clearly heading for its own landing pad.
She whimpered as she clutched her gun a little tighter, flipping off the safety to ensure it was ready to shoot, because she was bound to need the bullets inside.
***
Wyatt stepped forward, doing his best to keep Gillian hidden behind him. His teammates were already shifting, but he couldn’t do it. If he surrendered control to the bear, even though he thought his bear was more in control now than it had been the last time he’d shifted a year-and-a-half ago, he might not be able to return, at least not with any shred of himself intact.
It happened quickly. One moment, the newest generation of enhanced soldiers looked fully human, and the next they were that mishmash hybrid of human and shifter, smelling wrong to his nose. He growled at them, and it was strictly a bear sound issuing from him, revealing his bear was closer to the surface than he’d thought.
He tried to suppress the need to shift, moving forward to engage the one that looked like it was a cross betwe
en Homo sapiens and lemur, but far scarier, with viciously sharp claws and fangs that dripped with saliva. However they had enhanced this one, they had clearly gone overboard with their so-called improvements.
It was stronger than it looked, requiring all of his concentration and stamina to withstand the attack. He was abruptly aware of Gillian pressing a gun into his hand, and he was startled that he hadn’t thought to get one from the group as soon as they had opened the doors. He’d been too distracted by having Gillian nearby and defending the colonel.
It felt good to have a familiar weapon in his hand, and he brought it up to press between the enhanced soldier’s eyes as soon as he had an opening. The man-thing hissed at him, trying to jerk away, but not quickly enough to avoid the bullet that smashed through its brain. It dropped to the ground almost immediately, with no time for death throes or other nonsense. It was simply dead, a fact which he confirmed by kicking it before moving on to the next confrontation.
As he fought his way through, accompanied by the shifters at his side, he was proud of himself for maintaining control over the bear. He was accomplishing this goal without needing to shift, so surely that must mean he had finally conquered the beast inside him again. The last few years, since coming under control of the government, had been worse than the few years he’d spent in puberty, first learning how to control shifting, and then how to control his animal side when he was shifted. There had been little control over the last few years, even after escaping, and it was good to have it back.
His tenuous control snapped completely when he heard Gillian cry out. He turned his head to look in her direction, fur bristling in his back, and a low growl escaping him when he saw one of the enhanced soldiers had her pinned to the ground. The monstrosity wasn’t content with trying to kill her though. It was ripping at her pants, clearly wanting to mate with his mate. A roar of rage left him, and as her pants ripped, his clothes burst at the same time when the bear inside him lunged to the surface, no longer willing to be denied or held back.
In his bear form, he charged the human–lion combination, ripping the man from Gillian before unleashing all his rage. He was glad that his human side was blunted, shielding him from most of the effects and actions of his bear, but he witnessed enough in the back of his mind to be both sickened, but also pleased, by his bear’s brutality. The thing had it coming after trying to hurt Gillian. Trying to kill her was bad enough, but to inflict such a horrible fate on her as it had planned was unacceptable. Wyatt let go of the last strands of his control, surrendering completely to the bear as it savaged their enemy.
He was surprised to find he didn’t completely lose awareness of what was happening. The more the military had experimented on him, the less control he’d had over the bear, and by the end, he had practically no memories remaining of the periods he spent shifted in his bear form. That had settled down, and this was more like the shifts of old. His bear was enraged, and Wyatt was making no attempt to rein him in, but he was certain he could if he needed to.
That supposition was tested a moment later when Gillian put her hand on his shoulder, making his bear growl in her direction for a moment before returning its attention to the enhanced soldier.
“I’m pretty sure he’s gone, Wyatt. You can let go now.”
Just like that, at the sound of her voice—soft and gentle, but without a shred of fear—he was able to immediately reassert control over the bear. It happened so quickly that he shifted back without even having planned to do so just yet.
Through human eyes, he looked around and saw three bodies on the ground. Four, when he added the one he was crouched beside. The other three supersoldiers weren’t in sight, and he could only assume they had fled or been recalled when their handlers realized the battle wasn’t going the way they had planned. He had no doubt the government had pumped millions or billions of dollars into the project and would want to ensure they had samples left to continue the experiment, even if that meant pursuing Wyatt’s team another day.
He shuddered at the thought, but got to his feet and reached for Gillian. It was only after she was in his arms, her lips pressed to his, that he gave a thought to all the blood smeared on his body. When he pulled away a moment later, he winced at the sight of her soaked with the enhanced soldier’s blood. “Are you injured?”
She shook her head. “You stopped him before he could do much besides knock me to the ground and rake my side.” She turned slightly to show him her stomach and waist, lifting her shirt a little below her bra line. She winced at the sight, and he flinched in sympathy. It was a nasty, deep wound, and she’d definitely need stitches, but it wasn’t going to be fatal.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Malcolm, taking the lead in spite of Wallace technically being the commanding officer, if they were still following their old protocols.
“That sounds like heaven to me,” said Wyatt, putting his arms around Gillian and pulling her close to him. He didn’t look down at the remains of the soldier he had fought, not needing to brand the image in his mind. He had enough horrific memories already that he didn’t need to acquire any further ones.
The base might have gone into lockdown, because they encountered little resistance as they made their way through, having decided to take George’s suggestion of borrowing the helicopter, since both Lex and George could fly. The few soldiers they encountered were strictly human, and even with guns and training, they weren’t much of a match for the shifters.
Wyatt had remained in human form, sans clothes since he’d lost his during the shift. He’d insisted Gillian continue behind him, though he was poised to shift at a millisecond’s notice, if needed. They didn’t run into a situation that required it, but he still didn’t let out a deep breath of relief until the helicopter was in the air, piloted by Lex’s expert hands. He looked back at the base, which was little more than an outcropping of buildings, since most of Fort Glacier was buried underground. He knew firsthand the horrors that occurred there, and if he could, he would have blown the place right then.
They abandoned the helicopter near the border, certain it was trackable. They made their way on foot from there to a spot where Malcolm and the others had stored the vehicles they’d used to reach Montana. Fortunately, Mal also had extra clothes, so Wyatt was finally able to put on some pants.
They drove to a small hanger in the middle of nowhere, and somehow all fit on the small Cessna waiting there. Gillian had fallen asleep in his arms, and he held her the entire time, first in the vehicle, and then on his lap on the plane. She didn’t wake until Lex landed the plane at their destination a few hours later.
Even after waking, she made no attempt to move off his lap, though she was clearly angry by the sparkle in her eyes. As they moved from the plane to a pair of Land Rovers, he chose the backseat with her sprawled across his lap, hugging her against him. “Let me have it,” he whispered.
She glared up at him. “I should. You have no idea how furious I am with you. You made the wrong decision, but worst of all, you didn’t even ask me or consult me about it. It was my future too, and you had no right to put yourself at risk that way.”
He nodded. “I was trying to protect you, but —”
“You couldn’t protect me from them by turning yourself in. They wouldn’t have stopped looking for me either. I was a loose end.”
He nodded. “I sort of figured that out for myself, though I heard they canceled APBs for us. They were doing that when they arrested me.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Malcolm from the front seat, where he was driving. His contribution to the conversation destroyed any illusion of privacy. “Gillian wasn’t any less a target, but they didn’t want a lot of attention drawn to her. The more people who saw your pictures, both of you, the more people would remember who you were and might ask about what had happened to you, or what your crimes were. They’ll still be coming for her, and for all of us, but we bought some time.”
“Will we be safe at Sanctuary?” as
ked Gillian, her lips trembling.
Malcolm shrugged. “I hope so. I think so anyway, but I have a system of safe houses throughout the world. I want everyone to memorize their coordinates, so you’ll always have somewhere to go if we get separated.”
“Is that safe?” asked Gillian.
Wyatt shook his head. “It’s not ideal that we separate, but it might be necessary sometimes.”
It was her turn to shake her head. “I know that,” she said with an obvious touch of exasperation. “I meant is it safe for us all to know the coordinates? If they got hold of us and tortured us, or had some other means of extraction, they’d know where all the safe houses are.”
“They’re rendezvous points, not the houses themselves,” said Malcolm, sounding unconcerned. “We’d meet up at the coordinates, and then the code will tell everyone where to go. There’s a wait., a delay process for the coding to begin, and then there’s translating required. It’s not one hundred percent secure, but it’s the best choice we have.”
“I’m scared.”
Wyatt stiffened at Gillian’s small confession, pulling her closer. His bear purred in contentment, having moved past the bloodlust from earlier to a far more sated state. It was the first time he’d heard his bear clearly in his mind for a long time, and he felt lucid and in control. “I’m frightened too,” he admitted softly. “It scares me to know they’re out there, and they’ll be coming for us, but I’m going to do whatever I can to keep you safe.”
“The first thing we need to do is disappear, leaving behind who we were and becoming someone else,” said Malcolm matter-of-factly.
Her lower lip wobbled, and tears flooded her eyes. “What about my parents?”
“They’re better off believing you’re dead, Gillian,” said Malcolm, but not unkindly. “It’s safer for them if they don’t know anything other than that.”