Lara had bolt cutters and would be responsible for the three cages on the left side of the room. The thought of shifters contained in little cages reminded Mason of the short time she’d been in captivity when Cara had freed her. He shuddered.
Being trapped in a cage wasn’t his idea of a weekend plan. Lara had handled it well, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do the same if it were him locked up.
He checked to make sure his shoes were tied. No room for error. He flexed his hands, eager to press his fingers around a guard’s throat. Anticipation rolled though him like a shockwave.
Darkness settled around them and that meant it was almost go time. Lara wanted to go in the middle of the night, but Cara had made the point that the shifters might be too drugged or sleepy to help with their escape. They wouldn’t be able to carry everyone out, so they were breaking in just after darkness settled over the area.
The laboratory was north of Deep Creek, but not so far that they had a long trip home. They’d parked vehicles at a nearby gas station outside Henredon. They’d rely on the cover of forest and darkness to get away.
Mason scanned the group. Everyone had arrived except Claude and he probably wasn’t going to show. That wolf was a coward. He’d say something to him next time he was around. He and Lara hadn’t wanted Claude to be part of the mission to begin with. He always had his nose in everyone’s business but no conscience about truly helping others.
Good riddance to the busybody.
“You ready?” Lara walked up, her face tense.
Mason rubbed the tight muscles in her neck. If anything happened to her during the break-in, he’d never forgive himself. But he knew better than to ask her not to participate. This was her plan and she’d direct it.
She melted into his hands. She turned and wrapped her arms around him, grasping the back of his neck and holding him close. Her touch lit him up in a way he’d never experienced, before her. He trailed a fingertip up her neck to her chin.
Having a mate was more glorious than he’d ever imagined possible. Now he understood his brother’s crazy behavior around Alicia.
He gazed into Lara’s eyes. “I’m more than ready. You?”
“Yeah.”
“You made a good plan. I think it will work without a hitch.” He smiled at her.
The others milled about around them, waiting on time to go.
“I’ll be happy when the shifters are free,” Lara said. “These humans are despicable.”
“They are. But we’re going to take care of things.”
“Where will they go?” Marco asked.
“We’ll help them get home, wherever that is. First, we break them out. We can handle some visitors at the compound for a few days.” Mason kissed Lara’s shoulder, carefully pushing her hair away.
“It’s time.” Lara pulled away and turned to the group. “Everyone ready?”
Mumbles of assent filled the air, along with the scent of fear mixed with excitement.
Lara motioned everyone close with her dim flashlight and they gathered around her, twigs and leaves crunching underfoot. They’d opted to meet in the woods behind the lab before moving in and Mason could see how that had been a great decision. He could barely see Lara beside him, much less the whole group. Everyone’s dark clothing concealed them well.
Lara pushed her hair up under her beanie.
Mason breathed through his anxiety. Once they started the operation, there’d be no turning back and if the guards had guns, the night could end in tragedy.
He sniffed the air. The scent of gasoline and dust rose from the empty parking lot nearby, and the night insects’ song helped mask their conversation. Derek and Griff were helping but not their spouses. The men didn’t want Amy and Bria to help, and Mason understood, and agreed. If they weren’t trained, they would be a liability. Other than Cara, Lara was the only woman in the operation.
“Everyone know what they’re supposed to do?” Lara asked.
The moon had faded to barely a sliver of crescent and Mason stared at it, a few wispy clouds floating by. It would be a near-new moon on Sunday when they sabotaged the pipeline. That was good. The darker the better and this breakout was like a trial run for a high-stakes game they’d be playing in a couple days.
“I’m good.” Mason hugged Lara from behind. “But I want to get this over with. Those shifters aren’t going to spend another night imprisoned.”
“I know what I’m supposed to do.” Cara pulled out her key.
In the distance, a wolf howled. Not a shifter—Mason could tell by the intonation. Seconds later, another wolf answered. A female.
“It’ll be over in a few minutes if we’re lucky.” Lara clicked off her flashlight. “Let’s hope we are.”
“No luck needed. We’ve got the element of surprise.” Marco spoke up. “I can cut my four locks in less than a minute and shepherd the shifters out the door. Let’s hope none needs medical attention.”
“From what I’ve observed, the shifters should be mobile, unless they’ve tried some new technique on them. I know they’re drawing blood frequently.” Cara sighed. “I feel terrible about all this.”
“Monsters,” Lara mumbled. “I hope the shifters can help us help them.”
“We’ve got some strong people. We’ll carry them if we have to.” Mason grinned.
“We aren’t leaving anyone behind.” Derek tightened his man bun. “Not on my watch.”
Lara motioned everyone to quieten down. “Mason, you and Powell wait on us to get in, then rush the guards. We’ll all be busy freeing the caged shifters. In and out in the shortest possible time.”
Mason nodded, and Powell joined him. They were ready. The men had the most difficult job, and Mason wouldn’t have it any other way. The trickiest part of the whole operation was the risk to those who were tasked with decommissioning the guards, and yet it had to be done.
“Let’s go.” Lara’s voice turned authoritative.
Cara held up the key and ran toward the building.
They had to be quiet as they crossed the parking lot. Hopefully, being on the back side of the lab wouldn’t draw much attention, if any. The building, more like a concrete block, was dark. Everyone’s shoes crunched in the gravel lot as they jogged to the door, but hopefully other noises cancelled out their footsteps.
Cara made it to the door, gave a silent thumbs-up, and slipped her key into the lock. The others held their breath.
Would it work?
She turned the key.
Click.
Mason sighed. Thank the gods.
The door swung open and the stench of fear blasted them. Anger bubbled in Mason’s gut as he charged in after Lara and Cara. No one had the right to cage other people. These shifters weren’t guilty of a crime—they’d been taken against their will. They were nothing more than lab rats, purely because of their heritage. The humans held them to try to better their own stock, nothing more.
That was not right. No one should be singled out because of species.
They pushed inside, and Mason caught a glimpse of the caged shifters. Scampering and scratching sounds, along with a few snores, sounded in the room where all the cages were. His small flashlight shone on the horrors. Animals left in their own stench and unshifted people lying on tatters of blankets, hair a mess and clothes disheveled. The poor creatures.
Horrid.
Did they even have food and water? He couldn’t tell. From the smell, it was clear that the cages hadn’t been cleaned in a while. What on earth were the humans thinking? How could they do such inhumane things?
He had to hurry. The guards would hear the noise and come any minute. He nodded to Powell and they sped to the front room.
Two guards sat at a table, playing cards in hand, just as Cara had said. They hadn’t heard the break-in, so the element of surprise was on the shift
ers’ side. Mason rushed to the larger guard and tackled him, knocking him out of his chair and onto his back on the ground. The guard swung, hitting Mason in the jaw.
Stars filled his vision but he held on to the guard, straddling him on the floor.
He returned the punch, hitting the guard in the nose. A dark stream of blood spattered and the guard clutched his face. Mason yanked him to standing and tugged his arms behind his back. He pulled out the tie wrap from his pocket and cinched it on the guard’s wrists.
“What the fuck are you doing?” the guard yelled. Blood streamed down his face.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Mason bit out the retort. “Keeping people in cages? What the fuck kind of insanity is that?”
The guard sputtered. “It’s my job.”
“Your job sucks.” Mason turned to Powell. “Everything under control?”
Powell nodded. He had the other guard pressed, face-first, onto the table. “Let’s get them to the cages.”
Mason pushed his guard forward, toward the other room. Cara ran up to them, her eyes shining in the half light. “Need help?”
“We got it.” Mason pushed past her, bumping the guard into the doorframe on the way out. “Let’s get them locked up.”
“As soon as the cages are empty.” Cara motioned them into the room.
Powell grunted, and before Mason could react, Powell was on the floor, the guard standing over him, gun pointed.
What the hell had happened?
Cara grabbed the guard from behind and he spun and hit her with the butt of the gun. She fell. The guard, clearly shaken, paused, then fired off two rounds in the room, spinning to take aim at anyone nearby.
“Derek!” Mason shouted. “Help!”
Derek sprinted over and grabbed the guard Mason held, and before the other guard could shoot again, Mason body slammed him, knocking the gun loose and sending it spinning across the floor. He wrestled the guard and held him down.
“Why didn’t you bind his hands?” Mason called to Powell.
“I forgot.” Powell shook. “Everything happened so fast.”
* * *
Pop. Pop.
What the hell? Lara ducked, covering her ears and making herself a small target, her flashlight and bolt cutters falling to the floor.
The gunfire ricocheted in the room like fireflies and Cara yelped. Lara spun to face Cara but she couldn’t see where she went. Her ears rang.
Had Cara been hit? Or Mason?
“Hurry and get those cages clear,” Mason called.
He was okay.
Lara grabbed her bolt cutters and light and turned to the nearest cage, flashlight in her mouth. Cara was right about the cage location, and it was good to know she hadn’t lied.
No time to stop and think. She had to go on muscle memory and get these shifters out of their torture chambers. The guards were subdued but more could be on the way. The gunshots would’ve alerted anyone nearby.
The smells in the room told of horrors. Fear, pain, and loneliness permeated the air. Lara would love to get her hands on the humans who’d done this. She swallowed the anxiety that crept up her throat and went to work.
If she and the others were successful in freeing these shifters, who would be next? Would the scientists try to capture others? The lions would have to be on alert in Deep Creek. Thank goodness Cara had found out the truth. So many shifters could have disappeared without a trace.
The humans were barbarians. Surely not all of them, but the ones they’d run into recently were.
The smell of iron-rich blood flooded the room and Lara winced. Someone was hurt, but it wasn’t her mate. No more shots rang out and she peered through the near darkness, straining to see what had happened.
Time was short. She had to clear the cages so that the guards could be locked up. They weren’t making a peep, so Mason must have them under control now.
Lara finished clipping the bolt on a weredeer’s cage, twisting the metal loose and letting the lock drop to the floor. The deer cowered in the corner of the cage, his human form bent and shaking.
She bit her lip. Would there be more bullets? What about Derek and Powell? She’d heard Cara yelp, but the scent of blood wasn’t familiar.
Please, no more shooting.
None came.
“Let’s go.” She pulled at the man. “We have to get out of here.”
“They’ll shoot us. Didn’t you hear those gunshots?”
“We have to leave.”
“I’m scared.” He pulled away from her reach, into the back of the small cage.
“So am I. Do you want to stay here? I don’t think you have a chance of getting out alive unless you come with me now.”
Around her in the chaos, locks dropped to the ground. No more bullets hit the walls and she thought she heard Derek bearhandling one of the guards. Muffled groans and grunts as fists contacted with flesh. He and Mason and Powell had things under control.
Something metal crashed to the ground across the room and Derek groaned. A tray maybe or piece of equipment had fallen, and the ringing rivaled the gunshot noise that left an echo in her ears.
Hoping they were safe, she guided the weredeer from his cage. Emaciated and thin, he looked like the prisoner he was. How long had he been locked up? Terror wafted off him and mixed with the other stench in the room, and Lara gagged and covered her mouth. She had to complete her task no matter how badly she wanted to run away from the smell.
She shoved the weredeer out the back door where other shifters waited, and headed for another caged prisoner, stopping at a pen with a shifted black bear. Smaller than the bears she was used to, at first, she mistook him for a cub. “Let’s go, buddy.” She clipped the lock and let it fall to the ground.
The bear loped out of the opened cage on its own, and moved toward the back door of the lab. He knew what to do and was clearly wanting to get away from the lab.
“Two cages are empty,” she called.
Mason shoved one of the guards forward.
Lara snipped the lock on her last cage. This one held a creature she didn’t recognize by sight or smell. Maybe she was a mixed breed. In human form, it was impossible to tell what species she was and she didn’t offer a clue.
“Thank you.” The lady scurried out of the cage, bent over from the confined space and moving slowly. “I didn’t think I’d ever get out of here.”
“We need to hurry.” Lara motioned her onward.
“You don’t need to tell me twice.”
Lara caught a glimpse of Mason locking a cage with a lock he’d brought. A guard had been forced into a cage full of bear feces and urine and Lara didn’t feel a bit bad about it. Everyone at the lab deserved to be mired in poop and locked in a small cage.
Too bad the guards wouldn’t be locked away long. As soon as someone came in the morning, they’d be freed and coddled and nothing mentioned about the torture in the lab. The scientists clearly didn’t think the shifters were human or they wouldn’t treat them so barbarically.
Or would they?
Having finished her assignment, she scanned the room to see if anyone needed help but everyone was leaving. Lara made her way out of the building to the parking lot.
Mason kneeled on the ground ahead of her.
Oh gods, was he hurt? She stopped.
No, he was bending over Cara. Doing something... Was he consoling her or holding her?
Blood scented the air and Lara realized it was Cara’s, though she hadn’t recognized it before. She’d been hurt. Was she shot? Lara dropped her bolt cutters and fisted her hands.
Mason lifted Cara and carried her toward the forest, presumably to the rendezvous point. Most would already be there, waiting.
Out of nowhere, one of the freed shifters ran at Mason and Cara, knocking them to the ground. It
was the woman Lara had freed last.
The woman laid into Cara, hitting her and kicking her. Mason rolled to get up.
Lara tackled the shifter, knocking the breath out of her when she fell. The woman sobbed.
“That’s the bitch who locked us up,” she wailed.
“You’re free now.” Lara kept her tone measured. “Cara helped us plan the escape. The scientists are the ones you should be mad at.”
Lara understood the woman. She’d be mad at Cara, too. Hell, she already was. She held the shifter as she cried.
* * *
“Thank the gods it wasn’t worse. She could’ve been killed by that crazy guard.” Mason leaned back on the couch.
“She could’ve,” Lara mumbled.
The shifter who’d attacked Cara was now sleeping at Lara’s house. The woman had been so distraught that one of the lion doctors had to prescribe sleeping medication. No telling what the shifter would need to get back to normal. PTSD was a real possibility.
“What?” He tucked a couch pillow under his back.
“Nothing.”
“Clearly you have an issue with something, so spit it out.” Mason raised his voice a notch. “What’s going on?”
Lara pushed back the tears that threatened. She was mad at Mason and yet she wanted him to hold her. How crazy was that? She wasn’t used to such strong feelings. Contradictory ones at that.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Uh-huh, sure.”
“I mean it.”
“Nothing. Is. Wrong.”
“Let’s start this relationship on the right foot with some honesty.” Mason reached for her hand and she pulled away.
“I’m fine.”
“Do you really think I’m stupid?”
“No.”
“Then tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it. I really have no clue what you’re upset about.”
Ever since she got involved with Mason, she’d been so emotional. She hated this.
Having a mate wasn’t supposed to be so painful. In her mind, she knew her trust issues were related to her past, but her heart shielded itself from her true love.
Claiming His Lioness (Shifter Wars) Page 20