Oh, shit, Michael.
A couple of the soldiers had followed the bird’s fall, and turned to run into the trees where he had come down. More shots came, followed by another shriek from the bird. Chogan snarled in anger, but he didn’t have time to waste on emotions.
We need to get to the others.
If the chopper was picking them off from the air, then his plan had failed. It didn’t matter how many soldiers they’d lured away. They would be stronger together. But first they needed to disarm as many of the men as possible.
Something came rushing from behind them, running through the forest with a speed that was surprising for her bulk. Lexie appeared, roaring, her massive jaws filled with huge sharp teeth. Several of the soldiers saw her, and fell back, clambering to safety, as she rose up onto her hind legs and began to swipe at the remaining men. Chogan didn’t know if she’d followed Danny, or had run from the slaughter of the other team, but he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t glad to see her.
Mischa was bleeding from a gunshot wound, but she continued to fight. She moved with supple speed and grace, all teeth and claws. As soon as a soldier lost their weapon, they had no chance against the shifter. She leapt at one. He managed to get a shot off, but she closed her jaws around his arm, and he let go of his weapon. She dropped his arm and he picked himself up, not even attempting to get his weapon back, and ran off into the trees. Mischa barely paused, turning straight to another soldier who lifted his weapon toward her. She was too far away to stop him from getting a clean shot.
No, Mischa, he willed her. Avoid, don’t attack.
The gun went off, a blast of light and sound in the night. She took the bullet in the shoulder and dropped to one side. Lexie rose up on her hind legs right behind the soldier who had just shot Mishca and brought her full body weight down upon him, crushing him to the ground. But Mishca had taken two shots now, and was losing blood, growing weaker by the second. She couldn’t fight any longer.
The number of soldiers had dwindled. A small number still issued a few half-hearted shots at the shifters, while the injured or dead bodies of their comrades lay scattered upon the ground. Others had seen the fight as one they weren’t going to win, and had deserted, taking off into the forest. Those remaining might have noticed the sound of the chopper, and were holding their ground in the hope it was coming to help, or more would be on their way. Chogan didn’t think they would give chase if the shifters fled.
He lifted his muzzle to the sky and howled, grabbing the attention of the others. With a swing of his head, he motioned in the direction of Blake’s team.
Injured and in pain, Mishca began to shift back, quickly taking the form of a naked, beautiful, but hurt woman.
Damn it. Now what? He couldn’t leave her here.
But he obviously wasn’t the only one to have that thought. Lexie lowered herself to the ground, her teeth gently closing around Mishca’s arm, tugging her. The woman lifted her head, dazed, and understood what the giant polar bear was trying to tell her. Finding the last of her strength, she managed to hook an arm around Lexie’s broad neck, and pull herself up onto the bear’s back. Her blood left streaks of red against the white fur. The bear’s back was broad enough for Mischa to be able to lie there, only needing to hold onto clumps of fur on the bear’s shoulders to prevent herself from sliding off.
Leaving only one shifter fallen forever, they ran from the carnage. A couple of shots followed them into the trees, but no men appeared to give chase. Chogan led the way as they ran in the direction of Blake’s team, the thrum of the helicopter growing louder. The automatic gunfire paused for a moment, but then sounded again. They were getting closer. It was important for them to stay under the trees. As long as they had the cover of the canopy of branches, the chopper would lose its advantage.
Chogan stopped suddenly, causing Danny, and Lexie with Mischa still on her back, to pull up short behind him as the chopper headed in their direction. He didn’t want to be spotted, but the silencing of gunfire and the movement of the helicopter worried him. Had the others got through safely? He doubted it.
The chopper passed overhead. The group hadn’t been spotted, for the moment.
They reached the spot where the others had been. Their scents covered the forest floor, intensifying in certain spots where they must have stood and surveyed the military. But there was no sign of Blake or the others on this side of the perimeter.
Chogan broke through the trees into the clearing where the fence was going to be erected, and where the soldiers had held the perimeter not long before.
His heart leapt into his throat. Blake lay in a crumpled heap of fur and blood. He wasn’t moving, and Chogan got no sense of heat or breath from his body. Something, or someone, lay beneath the mass of bloodied fur. His sensitive nose recognized their identity, though her scent had changed since she’d begun her journey as a shifter.
Tala!
It dawned on Chogan that his closest family members lay before him, covered in blood and barely moving.
Were they both dead?
But no, Blake was still in the form of a wolf. He might be seriously hurt, his body’s reserves for healing already depleted due to the gunshots he’d taken only a matter of a week ago, but if he remained in wolf form, he was still alive.
Chogan couldn’t help either Blake or Tala as a wolf. He focused internally, finding the soul of the beast within him, and forced his spirit guide away. He felt an almost physical tearing as the wolf’s spirit left his body. Instantly, the clarity of the world when he was a wolf dimmed. His form began to change, a resounding crack echoing in his head as every bone in his body shattered simultaneously, only to reform once again. Muscles tore only to rebind. He felt them grow like bindweed, twisting and curling around the newly shaped bones. His fur retracted, leaving his nut-brown skin smooth and free from blemishes. Please, shift quicker, he willed, even through the agony of the shift. Hang in there, Blake. Please be okay.
But as his shift began to near its end, before his eyes, Blake too began to turn back to a man. He did so with no sound, no cries of pain, or even moans of discomfort. His body was completely still.
Oh, fuck. God, please no.
The others had understood what was happening. Lexie still had Mishca on her back. Danny prowled restlessly behind them. Across the clearing, he saw some of Blake’s team, Leah and Toby, shifting back.
Where the fuck was Rhys? He was supposed to have been looking after Tala, but instead it looked like he’d just dumped her out in the open, and Blake had stepped in.
Damn it, Blake. Had he made the final sacrifice? Chogan never meant for things to go down like this. It was the sacrifice he was prepared to make, not his cousin. Blake had never wanted any of this to happen, he’d fought against it, but in the end he was the one who’d ended up hurt.
With his shift completed, Chogan got to his feet and ran, naked, toward the body of his cousin. He came to a halt at Blake’s shoulder and dropped to a crouch.
From the opposite side of the clearing, Leah and Toby ran toward him, when they should be running the other way. In their horror, neither of them noticed or cared that the other was naked.
“Is he okay?” Leah cried.
“He stood over Tala,” said Toby, his face pale with worry, his eyes wide. “He took the bullets.”
Chogan reached out and placed his hand against Blake’s broad throat. He held his breath, his stomach in knots, waiting. Could he feel anything? The seconds seemed to stretch out for eternity, every ounce of focus he had alert for the barest movement beneath his fingertips.
There it was! The faintest of pulses, but definitely present. Blake was still alive … barely. Beneath Blake, Tala moaned and tried to move. She was back to being almost fully human, apart from a rash of dark, mottled skin down the side of her face and one arm. The skin had bumps beneath it, like baby’s teeth about to break through. He could only assume the change and slowing of her shift was because Blake’s weight, or perhaps somethin
g more life-threatening, had left her only partly conscious.
He felt a surge of anger toward her. If she hadn’t injected herself with Autumn’s blood, Blake wouldn’t have been put in the position of needing to protect her. She could have run for herself.
In the distance came the now familiar thrum of the chopper. It was coming back, and he suspected the men encased within its metal shell were searching for him.
The rest of the group, most still in their animal forms, had gathered around. Chogan could sense the hesitation in the air, each of them with the same question on their minds. Should they shift back and help, or stay as they were and run? The chopper could be back within minutes. He saw no point in losing anyone else.
“Go,” he told Lexi, still in bear form. “Get Mishca out of here and find her help.” He didn’t know where that help would come from. If they tried to get to a hospital, the doctors would have to report the gunshot wounds to the police. Right away they’d know something was wrong, and if they suspected them to be shifters, they’d probably be shipped right back here again, and this time the military wouldn’t make the same mistake. They’d get the fence up in that time, and keep the whole thing fully guarded. They’d underestimated the shifters, but they wouldn’t do so a second time.
“Run,” he said, raising his voice to a shout. “Get to safety.”
“They’re coming back!” Leah cried, looking up at the sky in the direction the chopper was coming from.
“Go!” he repeated, swiping his arm in the direction of the line of trees. “All of you. Get out of here!”
“But what about you?” asked Leah, her voice frantic.
“I’ll be fine. Now go, or we’re all going to end up dead.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to leave you.”
He forced his tone to be hard. He didn’t want to hurt the girl, but she was better off being emotionally hurt than physically. “You’re just a kid, Leah. Go home, already.”
She blinked back tears, but turned her face from him and ran back toward the cover of the trees to start her shift back to her owl spirit guide. Toby shot Chogan a look he couldn’t quite read—he hoped it wasn’t admiration, he didn’t deserve that from anyone—and then took off after Leah.
Who was left? Garth and Jerome hadn’t hesitated at Chogan’s suggestion to run. They were taking care of each other, and slipped between the trees to head deeper into the forest, away from danger. Harry, still in boar form, snuffled and crashed his way through the bushes. Lexie and Danny ran side by side, still in animal form, with Mischa on Lexie’s back. Rhys was nowhere to be seen.
If he made it out of this alive, Chogan vowed, he would track the other man down and beat seven bells of shit out of him for running.
They’d lost Michael, Julianne, and possibly Mischa. Would Blake die now? With mixed emotions, he watched the others take off into the forest. Both Toby and Leah completed their shifts back to their spirit guides, and lifted into the air. They would be faster that way and would find it easier to avoid capture.
The sound of the chopper faded for the moment. They must be checking out a different part of the perimeter. He’d gotten lucky, but he doubted his luck would last.
He turned his attention back to Blake and Tala. He couldn’t carry both of them. He’d struggle with either of them. Blake was bigger than him, and Tala’s shift made it hard to carry her. He could attempt to knock her out, as they’d initially planned, but then where did that leave Blake?
Tala wasn’t hurt in any way that wasn’t her own doing. Blake was hurt because of Tala. He hated making the decision, but he had to make it, and he wouldn’t put anyone else’s lives in danger because of the stupid choices she had made.
He reached down and wrapped his hands beneath Blake’s arms. He braced his back and then pulled, hauling Blake off Tala.
She let out a groan and rolled to one side. Her chest lifted and fell with a labored breath. He couldn’t just leave her here in the open.
As he picked up Tala, she came around fully, and let out a yell. “Get off me, Chogan! You’re hurting me.”
He clung to her harder. “Shut up, Tala. Blake’s not far from dead and it’s your fault. Stop thinking about yourself for once.”
“I learned that from you.” She cried out as her shift continued, her neck snapping one way and then the next.
He carried her behind a bush and set her down. “Stay here, and keep quiet. I have to get Blake to safety.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re leaving me?”
“I have no other choice. Blake will die if I leave him here, and I can’t carry you both.”
“I can walk!” But even as she tried to get to her feet, both of her legs cracked, her bones reforming, sending her pitching forward.
The chopper grew louder again, and, with it, his sensitive hearing picked up the thud of numerous feet tramping through the forest. The military were coming and it sounded like they’d brought backup.
He had no choice, and he didn’t have time to argue with her. “I’m sorry, Tala. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can.”
“No, you son-of-a-bitch! Don’t you leave me.” She tried to get up again, but another part of her body snapped. She lunged back to the ground with a grunt that was probably a mixture of fear, pain and anger. Chogan had never felt so bad in his life. He hated leaving her, his heart breaking for his cousin. But if he didn’t go now, Blake would almost certainly be dead, and as soon as the soldiers got close enough, they would finish off the job for them both.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
He turned his back on her and ran back to Blake. A mass of blood smeared thick across the middle of Blake’s back. Could a bullet have hit his spine? Chogan knew all about the recommendations not to move people with spinal injuries, but what choice did he have?
“Sorry, Cuz,” he said, but this time as an advanced apology for whatever damage he might be causing. He bent and caught Blake by the arms, lifting him up while he ducked down in order to get his shoulder under Blake’s massive chest, and start to lift him. Chogan was strong himself. Even though he was a slighter build than Blake, he was still lean with hard muscle. Plus he had his extra shifter strength to draw from.
Briefly, he focused in on his wolf. The animal stood ahead of a line of men, all heading toward him. He didn’t have much time. Chogan managed to straighten to standing. Blake flopped over his shoulder, his arms hanging down. He was a dead weight.
Dead, Chogan worried. Are you dead? He prayed Blake was still alive, or all of this would be for nothing. The size of his cousin was worse than his body weight, the awkwardness of running with someone Blake’s size, but he forced his legs to move.
He pushed his legs forward, managing to run at a fast jog across the clearing, leaving the fencing, and his other cousin, behind.
Chapter Nineteen
CHOGAN’S STRENGTH QUICKLY waned as he ran with his cousin hefted over his shoulder. He moved in a strange, half-crouched style, his thighs locked as he took as long a stride as possible, his back bent. Blake’s weight was literally pressing him to the ground.
The military men hadn’t given up their search, and the sound of feet pounding the forest floor, bodies crashing through the undergrowth, grew closer and closer. Even when he diverted his route, and thought he’d lost them for a while, they managed to track him again. He had no place to go, nowhere to hide out. He’d deliberately chosen the cabin for its isolation, and now that isolation was kicking him in the teeth. In his head, he tried to picture the exact location of roads in the local area, but he’d changed direction so many times, he couldn’t even be sure which direction he was heading.
“I won’t give up on you, Cuz,” he muttered under his breath. “I won’t give up on you. I won’t give up on you.”
His body screamed in pain, but he kept going. Just move one leg in front of the other. Surely there would be a road soon? When he hit one, he was bound to come across a car soon enough. He’d stand in the mi
ddle of the road, and force the driver to stop, and then hijack the car. He felt bad for whoever might be driving the vehicle, but these were desperate times and they needed desperate measures.
But still, he ran, and still no road appeared.
Chogan broke through some more bushes and came to a sudden stop, his heart lurching. He’d stopped just in time, his momentum thankfully not carrying him forward, though if he’d been going any faster it would have. He staggered back. A rocky edge dropped down into a ravine below. The way was treacherous, with granite outcroppings and shrubs clinging to the side of the precipice. It was dark, and he couldn’t even see to the bottom, despite his shifter eyesight. He glanced back. Though he couldn’t see them, his wolf’s hearing could still pick up the sound of the men moving through the forest. The soldiers were still coming. It wasn’t worth him using his wolf guide to get their exact location. He’d only be wasting precious time and energy. He couldn’t turn back and he couldn’t go around. His only option was down. The ravine had an incline, not a total drop, though the slant was certainly steep. A track, possibly that of a large animal, meandered down the cliff face. Climbing down was possible, though made even harder because of Blake’s weight caused instability.
How strange to think that he, in the form of a wolf, was always the hunter. Yet now he found himself as the hunted.
Chogan quickly walked along the ridge of the drop, finding the least steep part of the track. Though still treacherous, he could at least stand a chance of walking down here without sliding the whole way to the bottom. He hefted Blake into a more stable position—as stable as a six foot something, two hundred and fifty pound man could ever be—and crouched to lower his center of gravity.
He began the descent, putting out one hand to steady himself along a particularly challenging part, using large embedded boulders and strong trees to help him down the route. He clutched his cousin as hard as he could with the one arm he had free.
The soldiers were gaining on him, he could hear them louder now. Had they reached the top of the ravine? Had he put enough distance between them and himself to make them shooting him an impossibility? He risked glancing back. The top of the ridge was hidden from view by the overhanging boulders and trees. At least he could take comfort in the fact that if he couldn’t see them, they shouldn’t be able to see him.
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