by Ann Gimpel
The bench creaked as Trina sat right next to her, so close the sides of their bodies touched. Noreen opened her mouth to thank the other woman, but she turned deep, dark eyes on Noreen and shook her head slightly. Trina gathered her long, black hair and quickly braided it so it matched Noreen’s.
Julaika sidled over and laid a hand on each of them for the briefest of moments before she withdrew to the far side of the room. A jolt of dizzyingly strong magic shot through Noreen; she caught her breath, awed by its raw power. It shimmied around her and Trina like a live thing. Noreen tried to embrace the spell as Julaika had instructed. It felt like trying to hang onto lightning.
Trina giggled. “The old one is stronger than she looks, eh?” She lowered her voice. “Sara is almost here. Get ready.”
Keys clanked in the metal lock; the cell door sprang open. A tall, imperious Native woman with a blue and green blanket wrapped around her and a long, black skirt stood in the doorway. “Get moving, goddammit,” she growled. “You bring shame on our people every fucking time I have to bail you out of this place.”
Trina gave Noreen a little shove. She rocketed to her feet and loped toward Sara. “I’m sorry, cousin. Truly, I am. I’ll stay away from the hooch. Promise.”
Sara draped an arm around her. “I’ll hold you to it. Here’s your purse. Desk sergeant didn’t want to give it to me, but I insisted. Now get moving. I had a busy afternoon. This wasn’t on my schedule.”
Noreen leaned into Sara and let the other woman lead her down a long linoleum hallway and past the booking desk where McCollum and the desk sergeant sat with their heads together. She caught a glimpse of them out of the corners of her eyes. Fear cut deep and she would have slowed, but Sara pinched her shoulder hard and towed her along. “Told you,” she snapped. “We have to hurry. I’m late for the sweat lodge ceremony.”
“Of course. Sorry.” Noreen matched Sara’s pace. In moments, they marched through the front door and out into late afternoon daylight.
Noreen started to pull away, but Sara said, “Not yet,” and led her several blocks from the stationhouse before finally loosening her hold. “There. I think we pulled it off.” Sara stepped back. “Do you want to come to the reservation?”
“Probably not. I don’t want to get any of you in trouble. Thanks for getting my purse out of there. How’d you get them to give it to you? I’d have thought they’d have given you Trina’s.”
“Illusion. Julaika’s not the only one with magic. Now about the reservation—”
“I couldn’t bother you further. You saved my life as it is.”
“Nonsense. Les and Karl are like family. Come on. There’s magic there that will shield you.”
“Do you think it’s safe for me to call for them?”
“It’d be safer if you were on Cree land.”
Noreen nodded. The reality that she’d really and truly escaped was just setting in. Adrenaline thrummed through her, and she felt like doing a victory dance. “How far?”
“A mile. We can be there in fifteen minutes if you hurry.”
“I’m game.” She broke into a trot. Sara paced her. Noreen wondered what Les and Karl were doing. If she was any judge, they’d found Jed, and everyone would be trying to free her. Oh my God, we need to hurry before anyone gets hurt. Noreen picked up the pace. Sara panted next to her; her own breath burned in her lungs.
“All right.” Sara slowed, sucking air like a bellows. “We just passed through the boundary to Cree land.”
Noreen glanced around her, but didn’t see anything. “How do you know?”
A corner of Sara’s mouth turned upward. “I can feel them, white woman. Call your mates.”
Noreen threw her mind wide open. In seconds Karl’s and Les’ voices pummeled her. Where was she? Was she safe? Noreen thought she heard Jed and Alice in the background. “Yes, I’m all right. I’m—” she cast a glance at Sara, who intuited her question.
“We’re on the southern border of Cree lands between Dancing Deer and Singing Horse streets.”
Noreen relayed the information along with a ten second version of how she’d escaped from the jail.
“Aw, Jesus.” Les sounded near tears. “We’ll be there very soon.”
“Sooner than soon,” Karl seconded. The connection faded.
Sara grinned. “Could you hear them?” Noreen asked.
“Yes. I was mated to Julaika’s brother and another shifter clan mate.”
Noreen remembered what the old woman had told her about Hunters having gotten them. “I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t think they’re dead. I’d feel it here,” Sara tapped her breast bone, “if they were. McCollum and the Hunters, they do something with shifters. Imprison them and suck their magic. It’s how they’re able to sniff us out.”
“Do you think Julaika’s mates are still alive too?”
Sara nodded. “Someday, we’ll be strong enough to find where they are and free them.”
“Jed’s here. Maybe he can help with that.”
The stern look on Sara’s face softened. “Head of the wolf shifter clan?” Noreen nodded. “Hmph. Maybe he can. My mates have been gone so long, I’ve been afraid to let myself hope. More and more, it’s a white man’s world. Even if I wasn’t mated to shifters, no one cares about a squaw’s missing husband.”
Thick foliage off to Noreen’s left rustled menacingly. For one long, heart-stopping moment, she imagined Justin and his cronies leaping out at them. She cast wildly about, but there wasn’t anywhere to hide that didn’t involve moving right toward where the crash of branches was getting louder. She pivoted, intent on flight, but Sara caught her arm.
“You called your mates.” Sara pulled her blanket more firmly around her. “They’re nearly here.”
Wolves, two coyotes, a mountain cat, and a bear dashed from the forest. In a twinkling, the two in the lead shimmered into men. Karl raced to Noreen and scooped her into his arms. Les embraced both of them, pushing his way into their shared embrace. Everyone was laughing and crying all at the same time. Relief to find her mates unharmed made Noreen’s knees weak and brought a lump to her throat. Her eyes flooded with tears.
“I was so afraid you’d try to get me out of jail,” she snuffled. “And that McCollum would get you and send you to wherever Sara’s and Julaika’s mates are.”
Jed strode forward, Alice by his side. She tried to push clothes into his arms, but he shook his head. “There are more important things than me being naked.” He inclined his head toward Sara. “Sister. I heard some of your conversation with Noreen. Do you have any idea where your mates are being held?”
“No. Julaika has more magic than any of us, and even she can’t find them.”
“How long have Hunters held them?” Bron crowded close.
Sara looked skyward. “It will be a year next month.”
Jed exchanged a glance with Bron. His lieutenant nodded grimly. “I can salvage them, but only if we find them quickly. Once a year has passed, my healing magic has less effect.”
Noreen gazed around the clearing and counted ten men, presumably all shifters. Besides Jed, Terin, Bron, and her own mates, there were five others she’d never met before.
Jed stood tall and faced the men. “I’d like to find our Native American clan mates. What do the rest of you want to do? We live by democratic rule.”
“We’re in,” Bron and Terin said with one voice.
Les kissed one of Noreen’s cheeks, Karl the other. “We have to do this,” Les told her. “Go with Sara. You’ll be safe on the reservation. McCollum and the others can’t enter tribal lands.”
“Yes,” Les seconded, his arms still tight around her. “I’m so glad to see you, I’m beside myself, but maybe if we fight back harder, they’ll think twice about waging war on us.”
Noreen started to protest but swallowed the words. She wanted to leave this place with her mates right now and never look back, but Julaika and Sara were the reason she was free. If there was a way to
release their mates from Justin and his Hunter cronies, she wouldn’t stand in the way.
“I’ll help,” one of the strange men cried out. The others chorused, “Me too.”
“Great.” Jed rubbed his hands together; fire blazed from his blue eyes. “It’s a clean sweep. Animal forms, men. We’re going to do a little hunting of our own.”
“I love you.” Noreen kissed first Les and then Karl.
“And we love you,” they told her, kissing her back.
“Soon,” Les said, “we’ll make up for being separated.”
Karl brushed his knuckles over her lips. “That’s a promise, love.” He jogged toward Jed, with Les right behind him.
Alice walked to Noreen and Sara. “Looks like I’m going with you. The car is close. I was tracking the pack with it. Give me a few minutes to round it up, and we’ll drive wherever Sara wants us to go on the reservation.”
“Great.” Noreen hugged her. “Waiting is hard. It will be good to have company.”
Sara inclined her head and held out a hand to Alice. “It is good to meet another shifter mate. Gives me hope we will not die out.”
Alice pumped her hand. “No one is dying out on my watch.” She smiled grimly. “Back in a flash with the car.”
Chapter 13
Les reached for his wolf form and joined the pack. They edged deep into the woods they’d emerged from a few moments before. There would have been more of them, but he hadn’t wanted to wait for Jed to summon anyone else. Neither had Karl. They’d been frantic about getting to Noreen before the Hunter moved her somewhere. As it was, it had taken Jed nearly an hour to gather the other five shifters and join up with them on the outskirts of town.
Jed’s voice sounded in his mind, asking for ideas from all of them.
Karl answered. “Pull up in that grove of fir trees. Les and I spent days trying to find those five Native shifters right after they disappeared.”
Yeah, Les thought. And that was when their trail was fresh. He was still amazed Noreen had managed to free herself. What a stroke of luck the old medicine woman had been in her cell. He bent his haunches beneath him, dug in his front claws, and skittered to a halt. At Jed’s signal, he found his human form. It was easier to talk and plan that way.
“I wanted to get us away from the women,” Jed said gruffly. He turned to Les and Karl. “Fill us in on where you looked for our missing clan brothers.”
After listening for a bit, Jed shook his head. “Tell us where you didn’t look.”
“That’s just it.” Les frowned. “At the time, we thought we looked everywhere.”
“We were even methodical about it,” Karl said.
“Sounds to me like the Hunters were onto you and moved our kin when you got close,” the bear shifter grumbled.
“If that’s true,” Les countered, “why didn’t they ever try to capture us?”
“They probably had their hands full with the five they shanghaied,” Terin muttered.
“Sounds about right,” Bron agreed. “It was bold of them to take so many of us, and much too risky to leave our brothers in one place.”
Jed snapped his fingers. “That’s it. They separated them, which means our pack brothers have to be close to town. It would take too much time to keep two locations secure if they had to travel any distance.”
“But we checked everywhere.” Karl threw his hands into the air.
“Yes.” Les’ eyes narrowed. “We did check everywhere—once. What if our bear brother is right and the Hunters simply moved their captives to a location we’d just visited?”
“Makes sense.” Jed clamped his jaws together so hard his teeth clacked against each other. “How does this sound? We wait till dark, since it won’t be long now, and take our animal forms. We’ll split into five groups. One group will begin at the north end of town, one at the south—”
“We’ll take east and west.” The coyote, bear, and mountain cat shifters spoke over one another. “We’re used to hunting together.”
“I’ll take south,” Terin said. He walked to the sixth wolf shifter. “Will you accompany me, brother?”
“Of course.”
“Karl and I will take north,” Les said.
“Excellent,” Jed went on. “Bron and I will begin in the center of Red Deer and fan outward in circles. If anyone finds something promising, he can alert the rest of us.”
“What exactly are we looking for?” Karl asked. “How many locations?”
“Glad you asked that,” Jed said. “There have to be at least two, and we will not move on either until we’ve located both.”
“You’re afraid once we show our hand, the Hunters will go all out to protect whichever place we’re not at,” the coyote shifter muttered.
Jed shrugged. “It’s what I’d do. Standard warfare tactics.”
“Maybe we could begin our reconnaissance in human form before we lose the light,” Les suggested. “From what Noreen said, the Hunters will be frantic to find her once they discover what happened at the jail. It might divert their attention from what we’re doing.”
“Risky,” Karl noted. “But a good idea. I’m afraid at least that one Hunter, McCollum, knows what Les and I look like. It must have been his scent we caught at the courthouse when we were filling out the paperwork for our passports. I’ll bet he trailed us from there to where we let Noreen off.”
“He’s probably known about us since we tried to find those Native shifters,” Les gritted through clenched teeth. “No matter what happens today, he’s a dead man. I’ll track him from here to Newfoundland if I have to.”
“Know how you feel, bro,” Karl jabbed him with an elbow, “but our mate would miss you.”
“Enough.” Jed clapped his hands together. “Let’s get moving. Report only if you find something. We want to use as little magic as possible. No point in alerting those bastards to our presence any sooner than we have to.”
* * * *
Les crept from shadow to shadow, restless in his wolf form. His sensitive lupine nose examined one scent after another, seeking elusive clues. Karl’s energy pulsed off to one side. They’d been at it for hours; the moon was well on its transit across the sky. He glanced about. They were nearing the center of town. The streets were deserted, but it was still dangerous to remain in a place with so little cover as a wolf. He couldn’t shift. His clothes were back by the Chrysler on the far side of town. Being naked was one step up from being a wolf, but only a small one.
He was just about to join Karl and suggest they call it a night and rejoin their mate when something tickled his nostrils. He tilted his head back and shut his eyes, inhaling deeply. Yes. Something odd, something that shouldn’t be there, bounced sourly between his shifter magic and the scent receptors in his nose.
Karl bumped his flank; Les exchanged glances with him, understanding he’d smelled it too. They turned as a unit, muzzles raised, and padded silently toward the subtle alteration that had alerted Les in the first place. As they got closer, the stink of Hunter magic formed and intensified. Yet there was something beneath it too. Something Hunters had gone to a great deal of trouble to mask with spells.
“We should call Jed.” Karl’s voice brushed the surface of Les’ mind, and he remembered they were to do nothing until they’d found both sites.
“We need more information. What if Jed’s wrong and they’re all here?”
“Agreed on more information, but Jed’s orders were specific,” Karl said.
Les understood his pack mate was right; he withdrew to the lee side of a ratty shed and ducked inside. Karl followed and pulled an invisibility spell about them that would partially mask their presence—and conversation.
“Something’s in the basement of that big, white house across from where we stopped.” Hope speared through Les, followed by a hefty shot of adrenaline. “Maybe it’s our brothers.”
“We didn’t exactly smell them.”
“Close enough. Whatever’s down there has Hunter stam
ped all over it, and why would they go to so much trouble to hide anything else?”
“Who knows what other secrets Hunters have?” Karl muttered.
Les thought about it. “Seems too close to town.”
“What better place to hide something than in plain view. It’s what Jed would call Warcraft. I say we alert the pack.”
“Agreed.” Les extended his mind-voice.
“Any other hits?” Jed asked the pack. When no one responded, he went on. “Work your way slowly toward—”
“I’ve got something,” the coyote sounded excited. “After listening to Les’ description, I realized we passed the same thing a while back.”
“Yes,” the bear broke in. “We circled back to it while you were talking and it’s a definite hit.”
“Your position?” Jed barked.
He sent the nearest pair, which happened to be the mountain cats, to join the coyote and the bear, while he, Bron, Terin, and the other wolf shifter hastened toward Les and Karl. “Listen up.” Jed’s command voice rang in Les’ head and presumably everyone else’s as well. “Get in and out. Kill only if you have to. If we get really lucky, we can spring our kin without laying eyes on any Hunters.”
Les ground his wolf jaws together. He wanted to kill, but the rational part of him understood Jed’s logic. The less damage they did, the better. After all, Hunters could scarcely complain to the authorities that they’d imprisoned shifters and the shifters in question had escaped. It wasn’t illegal to be a shifter—at least not yet. But it was against the law to hold another human against their will.
The other wolves joined him and Karl. They loped toward the big, white house at the end of a dark street. Jed nosed a basement window and then padded around the house, returning to the tight knot they’d formed at the edge of a manicured lawn. The air around him shimmered as he reached for his human form.