She wrenched her shoulders, one way and then the next, trying to dislodge his grip. When that didn’t work, she kicked out at him, hoping to catch him in the shins.
“Don’t make me do this, Autumn,” he growled at her.
But she had no intention of being taken easily this time. His hand gripped her shoulder and she twisted her neck and lunged down with her mouth, sinking her teeth into his flesh. She bit as hard as she could, the iron taste of blood filling her mouth. Thorne gave a yell of anger and pain, pulling away from her and spinning her around at the same time.
“I didn’t want to have to do this.” Clutching his injured hand to his chest, he pulled back his other fist and punched Autumn in the face. Pain exploded in her cheekbone, one side of the room turning black. She spun round at the blow, colliding with the bank of sinks mounted on the back wall. Her legs gave out from under her and she slid to the floor.
She was only aware of Thorne standing over her, and the overwhelming smell of urine and disinfectant, before the black crept over the rest of her vision and she was present no more.
Chapter Sixteen
CHOGAN TOOK BLAKE, Rhys, Michael and Mischa off to one side. “I know each of you has a strong enough connection to your guides to be able to survey the perimeter. We need to spread out, each of us taking an area of the circle,” he looked toward Blake and Rhys. “Just like we did before.” The two men nodded.
He gave each of them a direction to send their spirit guides in. “Look out for anything that might be a weakness we can use to our advantage. Guards missing, or being distracted. Anything at all.”
“We understand,” said Mischa.
“Okay, do it now. We don’t have much time.”
Chogan closed his eyes briefly, focusing in on his spirit wolf. The animal was tense, and restless, and seemed happy to have something to do. It took off at a run in the direction Chogan had allocated himself. The usual sounds of the forest were subdued, as though the creatures contained within it knew that predators were close by. The animal grew closer, the perimeter just beyond a line of trees. Something else had changed. Different noises interrupted the normally peaceful song of the forest, hammering, the whine of screws being turned, men shouting to one another. Chogan didn’t like it. He urged his wolf on, breaking through the trees and bringing the perimeter into view. His heart sank. They didn’t just have the soldiers and guns to contend with. Behind the soldiers, a huge ten feet tall metal fence was being erected, the top curled with barbed wire.
Shit.
They couldn’t have built the fence the whole way around the perimeter. Not yet anyway. Though this part seemed almost fully complete, other areas surely would be less so. This made their immediate escape plan even more important. While a fence wouldn’t be a problem for those with winged spirit guides, the rest of them would be trapped. Chogan briefly considered sending his wolf farther along the perimeter to check out the rest of the fencing and try to discern if there were any gaps, parts that hadn’t been built yet. But then he remembered he’d sent the others to do just that.
Delegation, he thought, forcing himself to think like Blake. They would report back, and he’d only waste much needed time if he checked things out for himself.
Chogan pulled away from the mind of his wolf, first praising the animal for its help. He brought himself back to the present, taking in the sight of the worried faces standing before him.
“You saw the fence, too,” he said, but it wasn’t really a question.
Blake nodded. “South-west of here. It’s not yet fully erect. It’s a weak spot, but we need to move now. If we wait an hour, they could easily have the fence up.”
“Anywhere else?” Chogan asked, looking around them.
“North-west isn’t up yet either,” said Mishca. “If we move, we’ll make it.”
Blake added, “It’s a positive that the soldiers have been tasked with putting up a fence. It means they’ll be distracted by the build and won’t have all their attention focused on watching out for us.”
Chogan looked toward where the others were milling around the porch. Some of them had gone back inside. If it weren’t for the bruised faces, and the way most spoke together in hushed voices, their heads together to hide their tears, they could have been on some kind of camping trip.
“Everyone!” he called. “We need to ready ourselves now. The time has come for action.”
The level of tension in the compound ratcheted up a notch, but with it came a sense of determination. Backs straightened, shoulders put back, tears wiped from faces.
Chogan waited until everyone had gathered around and then cast his eyes over the group. The new couple, Danny and Lexie, stood apart from everyone else, not quite joining the gathering. They stood face to face, Lexie with her arms folded. From the exasperated expression on Danny’s face, he assumed they were fighting about something. He didn’t want to listen in on their conversation, but considering Danny was in his team, and he needed for the young man to be focused, he felt he owed it to them all to stay on top of whatever was going on.
“I don’t want you to go,” said Lexie. “It’s going to be dangerous. Aren’t we in enough trouble already?”
“I have to. The other men are going. Why should I get special treatment?”
“Fine, but I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not,” Chogan interrupted. “We need to be able to focus, and we can’t worry about you. Danny will be distracted if you are there.”
“But—” she started.
“I understand this is hard, but we need Danny so the rest of you can escape. I’m sure he cares about you, and he wants you to be safe above everything else.”
Danny nodded his agreement. “He’s right, babe.”
Tears filled her eyes. “It’s okay for you,” she said, addressing Chogan. “Everyone you care about is going in the second group. I don’t see you sacrificing someone you love.”
“I’ve already lost people I love,” he said, thinking of Autumn. “And I’m sacrificing myself.”
She turned to her boyfriend again. “Please, Danny. You know I can handle it.” A look Chogan couldn’t quite read passed between them, but Danny shook his head again.
“Lexie,” said Chogan, needing to move on to other things. The clock was ticking and he didn’t have time for this. “I promise I will do everything I can to make sure Danny stays alive.” He turned to the other man and gave him a nod. “But you can handle yourself, I’m sure.”
Danny puffed out. “Course.”
Chogan wondered what form their spirit guides took, and hoped that Lexie would be able to cope with what was coming. He turned his attention to the others.
Leah stood with Toby, a kind of big sister protectiveness radiating from her over the boy. The father and son, Garth and Jerome, respectively, also stood together, Garth’s hand resting protectively on his son’s shoulder. The new woman, Julianne, stood to one side, listening with a grim expression on her face. Harry Bernard, the older man of the group, hung out at the back. Chogan worried about how strong his contact was with his shifter. He tried to cast his mind back and remember if he’d witnessed the older man shift at any point, but no occasion came to mind. Michael, Rhys, and Mischa all stood at the front, Blake by his side.
“Begin your shifts now,” he told them. “Then we separate into groups and go in fast and hard. If you need to hurt someone, hurt them. If you need to kill someone, kill them.” A shocked mutter went up from Harry and Julianne, but this was no time for sensibilities. “Do not think for a minute that those men and women out there won’t take you out with a single shot if you give them a chance.” He looked to see what his words had done, and saw most of the others nodding in agreement. “Blake’s team, you need to be invisible. If you can get past without violence, then do it. My team, we’re going to be the ones making the noise. We want to get their attention to keep it away from the rest.”
The group moved apart, claiming spots beside trees, near
bushes, around the side of the cabin, in order to create a modicum of privacy. The women kept their clothes on, the material falling from their bodies as they changed, but the men held no such qualms and stripped before shifting.
The forest was filled with the sound of bones breaking, moans, and yelps of pain. Chogan gritted his teeth, doing his best to stifle a long, mournful howl of agony. He struggled to concentrate on the progress of those around him. Never had so many shifters morphed at the same time in one place. His shoulders wrenched back, his neck lengthening from between his shoulder blades. He dropped to all fours, his legs shortening and growing thicker in the thigh. His hands and feet cracked and snapped, the normal nails loosening from the nail beds, and dropping to the ground, while claws protruded from beneath. His skin prickled, then seared, as though it were on fire, and he knew the millions of strands of fur had speared his normally smooth skin.
Mentally, his focus sharpened as his wolf guide settled into his skin. His senses grew stronger, picking up the scent of a fox which had urinated against a tree the night before. The track of a squirrel appeared like a neon light trail across the ground. As his wolf ears unfolded from his head, the sounds of the forest sprung to life—insect wings beating against the night air, the scurry of a mouse beneath the exposed root of a tree, the distant bark of a mating fox. And beyond all of those sounds came the thrum of engines, the sound of metal hitting metal. The call of men shouting to one another. Those were the people they were up against.
With the shift complete, the pain died away. Chogan lifted his head, snorting hot air out through his nostrils in a plume in the cold night. Blake, who shifted at the same speed as him, stood in wolf-form at his side. Their amber eyes met with a deep intelligence and understanding. The cousins didn’t often see eye to eye, but when they were as wolf, they couldn’t help but be harmonized. Others were in various states of their shifts. Toby’s shift was complete and he lifted into the air with a couple of beats of his huge, leathery wings and swooped above their heads. Michael also completed his shift, and he rose into the sky with an eagle’s shriek. Leah and Mishca were only seconds behind completing their transformations, the girl’s arms outstretched and elongated, frilled with the soft white feathers of the snowy owl. The ebony skinned woman now sleek with the beautiful patterned fur of the leopard. Garth and Jerome were mid-shift, the father some kind of wild dog, from what Chogan could tell, the son a big cat of the smaller variety—possibly a lynx. Still staying near the back, Harry Bernard had also completed his shift. The older man was a short, stout ball of muscle with lethal tusks protruding from his snout. His hands and feet were now trotters, a small tail wagging from his round behind. A boar, Chogan noted, pleased. They were fast and strong, and one his size was capable of goring a man to death with his tusks. He just needed to get close enough to do so without first being shot. Another bird rose into the air—Leah’s shift was complete—quickly followed by the new woman, Julianne, as an osprey.
Good, he thought. The more bird shifters the better. Aerial attack gave them a huge advantage, as long as they didn’t have the chopper to contend with.
He turned his attention to the young couple, wondering how Lexie would be getting on, and blinked in surprise. From the body of the girl had swelled a beast of epic proportion. Thick white fur covered the massive body. Paws the size of bicycle tires, lethal claws several inches long. She rose onto her hind legs, opened her mouth and roared, revealing white, massive canines. Beside her, Danny, in the shape of a jackal—though a large one at that, as shifters tended to be—was dwarfed.
And to think he’d been worried about the girl’s potential. While she wouldn’t be silent, she was the most powerful creature they had.
The huge polar bear fell to all fours, the huge paws crunching pine needles beneath foot. To show his respect, Chogan trotted up to Lexie and lowered his head. She reached out with a huge black nose, nudging his; cold against cold.
Blake trotted over, doing the same, first to Lexie, and then Chogan. Without needing to be told the group divided into the prearranged teams. With Chogan stood the feline form of Mishca and Danny as a jackal. Above their heads, Michael swooped, glinting eagle eyes taking in a distance farther than Chogan could see. The bird’s lethally curved talons were ready for attack.
Standing at the front of the second group, Blake lowered his head toward Chogan, a sign of respect. Behind Blake stood the massive form of Lexie, and the squat, snuffling figure of Harry. The father and son, a wild dog and a lynx, waited for their next instruction. Above his head was Leah, now perched on the branch of a tree, Toby, silent on his leathery wings, and Julianne, as an osprey. They were a strange group that was for sure. He wished again that Rhys had been able to shift. The big, strong tiger would have been a huge asset to Blake’s group. But hopefully the power of Blake and Lexie, plus the added advantage of three aerial shifters would be enough. He hoped this plan would work, and then Blake would be able to lead the others to safety. He wanted to be strong, to not fear the possibility of death for himself and those he led, but he knew attacking a large group of heavily armed men was all but suicide. He only hoped it would be worth it.
And find Autumn, he willed his cousin silently. Find her, and never take your eyes off her again. Treat her like a queen.
Movement caught his eye. He turned his head toward the cabin’s porch to see Rhys, still in human form, walking from the front door with Tala held in his arms. The young woman was still mid-shift, her back bucking, arms stretching.
Damn, she was still conscious. He should have overseen the plan to render her unconscious in order to make it easier for Rhys to carry her. Why hadn’t Rhys done it himself? The man didn’t seem beyond hurting someone if it was necessary. Surely he didn’t have feelings for Tala, enough to stop him wanting to hurt her, even if it was for her own good? Chogan hesitated. He could do it himself, though he worried that with his strength as a wolf he’d do her some serious harm. He watched Rhys make his way down the porch steps. The man seemed to be coping with Tala for the moment. Perhaps her being unconscious was unnecessary after all. Maybe that’s why Rhys didn’t go ahead with that part of the plan—he’d known he’d be able to manage.
At least her moans of pain had faded for the moment, it was as though she’d come to the conclusion that the noise did not help the pain. Either that or she was simply so exhausted she could no longer bring herself to voice the agony she was surely still going through. Rhys ducked his head back, as one of her arms—or what used to be her arm but now appeared to be a long, black wing—swiped at him.
“Chill out, girl,” he chided Tala in a gentle tone. “I’m only trying to help.”
Whatever Chogan had thought about Rhys previously, he appreciated what the other man was doing for his cousin.
Let us all get out of this alive, he willed.
In the distance, he could still hear the military working to raise the fence they thought would be able to hold the shifters.
We’re shifters, he told himself. We’re powerful. We won’t be hemmed in by a simple fence. More fool them if they think that is all it will take.
He mentally wished the other group well, wishing he could say the words out loud, and then turned and headed in the direction where Mischa had seen the soldiers only partially erecting the fence.
Mishca skulked at his side. Danny ran at a faster pace, darting between trees, snapping at bugs that flew past his head. Above their heads, Michael soared, trying to stay close to the canopy of trees so as not to be spotted. Chogan didn’t think Calvin Thorne had been kidding when he’d threatened the aerial shifters with attack by helicopters.
The night was still and cool. The sounds of the forest surrounded him, together with the crunch of the animals’ paws on the pine needled floor, and the hot pant of his wolf’s breath. He forced himself to take pleasure in the small things in life. He had experienced life on two different levels, in two different forms, something most never would. If today was his day to die, the
n he would accept it and move on to whatever lay waiting for him next with peace at his heart. He only wished he’d had a chance to see Autumn again. He couldn’t bear that watching her being dragged away by Thorne was the last time he’d ever get to see her face.
The group got within sight of the perimeter. The soldiers were slightly further on with their build, but only one more panel of the ten foot fence had been erected, leaving plenty of room to get through for the moment. But theirs wasn’t a plan for escape, Chogan reminded himself. They were there to draw soldiers away from the other group to allow Blake and the rest time to overpower what few soldiers might be remaining.
As Blake had predicted, most of the men appeared to be busy with the fence, using pulleys and levers to hoist the panels of the metal fences up, while huge poles were being driven into the ground, concrete used to solidify them in place. They shouted directions at one another, using hand motions to instruct whether to lift the panels up or down. But a couple of the guards were still in position, watchful, peering into the forest with their hands on their weapons. They were lucky the soldiers didn’t have the shifters’ hearing level, or they surely would have picked up on the commotion in the forest when so many of them had shifted at once. But then that’s what Thorne wanted Autumn for, he thought. To create an army who would have their strengths and supernatural abilities. An army none other could beat.
Above them, Michael alighted silently in a tree, waiting for the signal to attack. Chogan nodded to Danny, nudging his head in the direction of the soldier on the opposite side of the fence. The jackal slunk away, moving like a ghost between the tree trunks to pause behind a group of bushes only a matter of a hundred yards from the perimeter. Chogan turned to Mischa, the powerful leopard important in the attack. She was probably the fastest of all of them, but he was aware that she’d been injured in the attack at the warehouse. He wasn’t sure if she had any residual pain from the injury—he doubted it, as she was shifter after all, and she should have healed fully by now—but he was more worried about any mental scars. She might pause at a critical moment, and not give one hundred percent when needed.
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