by Riley Storm
He glanced around the corner for what felt like the hundredth time, but it was still clear. Luck was still on their side. Showing Haley the open wall panel, he had her go first. Slowly. If someone was out there, they wouldn’t immediately raise an alarm for her. Hopefully.
Nobody shouted or made any sort of commotion, however, and Haley pulled open the wall and disappeared, motioning frantically for him to follow. Kincaid took a deep breath, and then in three long strides crossed the hallway, not breathing until the panel clicked shut behind them.
“Kincaid, listen,” Haley began, stopping when his finger pressed against her lips.
“No time. Need to move and move now. Once we’re out of danger, then you can say everything. Let’s go.”
He wasn’t trying to be harsh, but speed and silence were of the essence now. The secret passages weren’t really secret to anyone who lived there. Anyone of a certain age knew of them, and the guards even monitored them from time to time as well. Just because the two of them had made it out of the main hallways didn’t preclude them from running face-first into a guard.
Taking the lead, Kincaid guided them through a maze of passageways that he knew would have left Haley lost in seconds if she had to find her own way out. His memory was rusty, and they got turned around several times due to bad errors, but the more he walked it, the more the layout came back to him. Eventually, he took them down a side route, barely used even for the hidden passages.
“This next part is going to be the riskiest,” he said. “If we run into anyone, I’m going to have to fight them. I need you to be ready for that, and not to scream or make any noise.”
The lighting in the hallway was dimmer than even their jail cells, but his vision revealed the look of distaste he was receiving.
“If there was another way, I would do it,” he said, not happy to have a decision he was already unimpressed with questioned. “But if we can’t make it at least to the outer forests without being spotted, we’re doomed.”
Haley bit her lip but then nodded. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Kincaid thought quickly. “Maybe. If there isn’t a guard nearby, or if there is, then after I deal with him, if we can head across the open lawns hand in hand, acting all in love with one another, it would throw off anyone who happens to see us walking. Can you stomach that?”
“Is this like the restaurant all over again? Are you just looking for an excuse to hold my hand and kiss me?”
Something came over him in the moment, and before Kincaid could stop himself, he was stepping forward. Closer to Haley. His hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her free of the ground, pinning her to the wall while he covered her mouth with his. Haley gasped in surprise, but she didn’t stop him, instead melting into the kiss, parting her lips for him.
Fingernails dug into the skin at the back of his neck, sending shivers down his spine as she grabbed at his head and pulled it in tight. For a second, his own eyes flew open in surprise at his actions, but he quickly shut them, not wanting to ruin the moment. The electricity between them was intense, and Kincaid doubted he was the only one caught off guard.
Eventually, he stepped back, lowering her to the floor. He hated having to do so, but they still had to escape from the house, and the raging bloodflow between his legs wasn’t going to make a nearly impossible task any easier. Kincaid needed to be able to think.
“Ready?” he asked hoarsely, still struggling for breath.
Haley could only nod, gesturing at the door. Her eyes never strayed from him, watching him closely, filled with…honestly, he wasn’t sure. A mixture of anger, shock, and arousal? He really couldn’t tell. Regardless, they had to go, now.
Easing open the door, cringing at the squeaks that sounded like trumpets to his ears, Kincaid crept out into the evening. Behind him Haley hissed, and he cursed himself. The cold didn’t bother him of course, but she would be freezing. Anyone would notice that and realize she wasn’t a shifter, but a human. That wouldn’t immediately scrap their plans, but it would certainly bring more attention to them than he’d like.
Nearby ground crunched underfoot.
Kincaid froze, halfway out the doorway. The old passageway was no longer in use, and mostly covered over with hedges, while also being slightly recessed into the ground. It had been the best option he’d had for actually exiting the house, but now it appeared his luck had run out. He was going to have to right someone.
“Kincaid?”
Fuck. Someone had spotted him.
Gesturing frantically at Haley, he prepared to have her make a run for it, while he pounced on the unsuspecting guard. Then the voice associated itself with a face in his memory. He knew the guard.
Whoever it was, they were coming closer, the nearly frozen ground crunching underfoot.
“Kincaid is that you?” It was Kirell, Captain of House Ursa, and head of its guards.
Kincaid was good, but he wasn’t sure about his ability to sneak up on the man. Not on his home turf. Then he frowned to himself. What were the odds that Kirell was running the nightshift that night?
Not only that, but he was patrolling outside in the exact location that was perfect for Kincaid’s escape, based on the direction he had to go to get to the SUV.
“Here,” he said quietly, saying a silent prayer and hoping he was interpreting things right.
Crouched low, he eased back into a bush as Kirell came forward, emerging into the tiny little clearing between the doorway and the bushes. If they were going to be betrayed, this was it.
“Oh, get out of the bushes,” Kirell said, eyes spotting him immediately. “I’m here to help.”
“The Queen sent you?”
Kirell snorted. “No. She simply suggested this area would be a beautiful place to take a walk tonight, and that since I might be out here for a while, I should bring some extra clothes. You know, just in case. Here.” He shoved a bag full of sweaters at Kincaid, and a smaller one he tossed at Haley.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Just help me find some proof, any proof, that will lead to whoever the remaining traitors are. I’ve not been able to find a single shred of evidence. You’re my best hope. I can’t fail at my job, Kincaid.”
He nodded, knowing exactly where the other shifter was coming from. “I’ll do my best,” he promised.
“Now get the hell out of here. I couldn’t change the guards on the outer perimeter, not without them knowing anything, but I do know their schedule,” Kirell said, glancing at the watch on his right wrist. “In about seven minutes, they will be directly between you and your escape. Then you’ve got twenty minutes to make it from the edge of the lawns to the SUV. So, don’t delay.”
Then he was gone, heading into the House via the door Kincaid and Haley had just emerged from, pulling it shut behind him.
“Come on, let’s go,” Kincaid said, reaching out for Haley’s hand. “We’ve got seven minutes to walk across the lawns to the forest edge. Then we have a run in front of us. Be prepared.”
Haley took his hand and together, they stepped out into the light around the house. With every step, he tensed slightly, expecting a shout to ring out, but it was far from rare for mates pairs to go for late-night strolls, and generally they preferred to be unchallenged about any…activities…that might occur while out and about.
“This is taking too long,” Haley whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder. “We’re never going to make it.”
They were barely halfway across the lawns when the seven minutes was up, and the twenty-minute countdown began. After that, the border guards would be back in range of this particular area, and would spot, or worse, scent them. Kincaid knew that once they were under the cover of the forest, they would have to change tactics.
“Just keep going,” he urged.
Haley was not going to like his lead. Not one bit, he suspected.
Another six minutes passed before they reached the cover of the trees. Kincaid breathed a
sigh of relief. “We’re going to have to run,” he said.
“How far is it?”
“Two miles.”
Haley gaped at him. “I won’t make it three miles in—” she did some quick math, “fourteen minutes. Are you crazy?”
“I know. So…you’re going to have to hold on.”
He tossed the bag of sweats to her and even before she grabbed them, he was pushing the change through his body as fast as he could. Pain seared across his vision, worse than usual. Every second mattered, and he felt his body wrench itself into unnatural positions as it altered.
“Get onnn,” he said, the words becoming deeper and twisted as his skull cracked and shifted, the snout emerging from the previous flatness of his face.
Haley backed away as he grew tremendously in size. White fur sprouted down his spine and then wrapped around to encase him in its protective warmth. Fingers became claws and his hands tripled in size.
As gallantly as he could manage once the pain faded, Kincaid dropped his forelegs to the ground in a mock bow, holding out one of them toward Haley to act as a sort of bridge or ladder. Hopefully.
The only way for them to make it to the border in time would be for her to hop on and hold tight to his fur as he charged through the forest. The noise would surely bring someone to investigate, but he hoped to be long gone by the time anyone realized just what the hell had happened there.
He’d not had time to explain the plan to her, and now that seemed to be backfiring as she stood staring at him, taking slow, tiny steps backward. Away from him.
No. Stop it. Get on! We have to run.
Gently, slowly, he lifted his paw from the ground, turned it over and did his best to beckon her forward.
“Y-y-you want me to get on?” she asked, her voice cracking.
Repressing the desire to express his frustration, he nodded. Slowly. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off even more. There simply wasn’t time. Haley took a tentative step forward, then another.
“Y-you’re sure I’m safe?” she asked.
Kincaid lifted his giant head up and down some more, trying to smile, but keeping his teeth hidden.
“This is crazy,” Haley stated.
This time, he shook his head. It was, in fact, perfectly fine. She was in no danger from him. The other shifters on the property though, he couldn’t speak for them. Kincaid didn’t know a lot of them, not after being gone for so long. Many of them were newer, and a lot of those he’d grown up with were dead, killed in the uprising that had shaken his House to its core.
At long last, Haley took in a deep breath, approached him, and with a swiftness that surprised Kincaid, scrambled up his fur and onto his back, seating herself with her legs astride him as best she could, gripping his fur tight with both hands.
Not wasting any time, he got to his feet and started off. He moved slowly at first, giving Haley a chance to get used to the motion. She had the bag of clothing looped around one wrist, but both her hands were plunged deep into his fur, tiny fingers holding on as hard as she could.
Here we go, he thought to himself, ratcheting up the speed a little. Above him, Haley grunted—something he wasn’t going to inform her he’d heard—but then she settled in once more. The initial fear she’d felt was gone, and now he could sense her buckling in. Her legs squeezed tighter and he felt her hunch over him more, streamlining their approach.
Kincaid started to pour on the speed. Most normal bears couldn’t keep up the pace for this long, but then again, a shifter bear wasn’t anything like a modern-day bear, except in general shape and genealogy. He was bigger, faster, stronger, and far deadlier than any predator that walked the earth.
“Is this all you’ve got?” Haley growled fiercely into one of his ears. “We’re never going to make it if you’re plodding along like a turtle.”
Reconciling the tone with the Haley he knew took a few seconds in his mind, but when it did, he shot forward, hurtling through the forest at full speed. He dodged trees, leaped over bushes and plowed right through any shrub he deemed wouldn’t hurt Haley.
At one point, a thick tree-limb loomed across their path, but Kincaid just lowered his head and they went right through it, his powerful form leaving nothing but kindling in their wake.
He heard a startled yip from Haley, but she quieted herself down quickly. That was one thing he had to give her credit for. She was breaking the rules, something she was so adamantly against, for reasons he’d yet to discover. But when she committed to something, she committed.
They reached the edge of the forest with perhaps a minute or two to spare, and the stone wall loomed up in front of them. The ten-foot high construct spanned the entire property, running for miles upon miles, and it was now their final barrier to freedom, to clearing their names from this insane plot they’d been accused of masterminding.
“Kincaid,” Haley said as he didn’t slow down.
Instead, he sped up.
“Kincaid?”
He lowered his head and accelerated to sprint-mode. It wasn’t as impressive as it might have been if he’d not just run two miles, but it still would have caught anyone off guard to see a bear that size moving at over fifty miles per hour in a short dash.
“Kincaid!” Haley shrieked as he reached the wall and leaped over it.
They cleared it and landed on the far side with a heavy crash as he scrambled to keep himself upright. Haley somehow held on through it all, only sliding off when he came to a halt and indicated he needed her to get off.
Reaching into himself, he triggered the reaction once more, and his body returned to human proportions. Although in a hurry, his system was exhausted from the run, and he didn’t push it. The pain was enough, and he grunted several times as it lashed out at him while his body reshaped itself.
Eventually, it passed and Kincaid stood hunched over in his human form, breathing heavily. Steam curled up from his skin in the cold air as he bled the excess heat from his naked body.
“As interesting as that sight is,” Haley said wryly, walking up to him. “What’s the plan now?”
“We go to a safe house,” he said between breaths, trying to straighten out. She was right, they weren’t safe yet. Someone would have heard their passage, and they needed to go before they got closer.
“Right. Um. How?”
“We drive?”
“What?”
“That SUV Kaelyn was talking about, the one her guard so conveniently forgot about,” he explained, starting to walk toward where he assumed it was parked. “That was for us.”
“Oh. Right. Well, in that case, here,” she said, tossing the bag of clothes at him. “I know how much you hate driving naked, so put those on first.”
He snatched them out of mid-air and stuck his tongue out at her. They weren’t safe, and they had a long journey ahead of them to prove their innocence, but Kincaid was sure of one thing.
It was going to be a lot better with Haley at his side.
26
Kincaid turned off the road and into an apartment complex that had seen better days.
“Did you say safehouse or crackhouse?” she asked, looking around at the rundown walkups and the four-story building in the center of it all. “Because I must have misheard you.”
He parked in front of one of the units. “We’ll be safe here. I disabled the GPS tracker before we left, and this isn’t one of House Ursa’s. This is one of mine. I set it up a long time ago…just in case. Nobody knows about it.”
“Is it even still here?” she asked, wondering just what he’d needed to set this up for. What had Kincaid been involved in, in a past life?
“Yes. Now stop making a scene. We need to get inside. The rest of this place isn’t the greatest, and I’d really rather not have to deal with any of the locals getting an eye on you.”
Haley blinked. “Me? What do you mean?”
“You’re obviously not from around here,” he said, glancing at her up and down. “You sort of stand
out. Your clothing, hair, mannerisms. It makes you a target. Come on.”
Without asking, he took her hand and guided her toward one of the walkups, down the lane and across from where he’d parked. Haley didn’t protest. After the moment they’d shared in the hallway, holding his hand no longer seemed like a big deal. If anything, she was worried about what might happen next between them.
Things were starting to confuse her, that was for sure. First, she was accused of turning against her employer, betraying them by working with the enemy. Then she broke the law—though that was a gray area, since nobody who’d arrested her was actually the police—and finally, she’d engaged in a passionate and blood-boiling makeout session with the guy who, for all she knew, could still be a criminal!
Now they were on the run, in an area she would never have visited on her own. It was confusing on so many levels that it threatened to make her head spin. Factor in the bit about him being able to change into a massive polar bear, and they had the makings of one hell of a made-for-tv documentary.
If they could not only survive but escape detection and somehow expose the real enemy... Oh yeah, an enemy that could be related to a mage. A magic user. Forgot about that little tidbit of information. As if the day couldn’t get any worse, or more confusing, they just had to throw that in!
She waited while Kincaid slipped a brick out of the wall and took a key from it, fiddling with the locks, then pushing the door open.
“Careful,” he said. “The door’s heavier than it seems.”
She pushed on it, trying to hold it open as she entered after him, only to find herself sliding back across the tiled entry. “Holy shit, what the hell is this thing made out of?” she asked, ducking out of the way as it closed with a solid thump.
“Solid steel plate armor,” he answered casually.
“Well, okay then. Is this entire thing encased in that?”
Kincaid—still barefoot after losing his clothes during the transition, she realized as she doffed her own—walked into the house and toward another door. “No, just underneath the floor to protect the basement. The rest of the house is kind of a shell.”