“Look man, it is simple. Our wolves can feel our mates when they get close and the wolf will claw at you and drive you insane if they can’t get to our mate. An insane wolf has to be put down. It feels like someone has knives just tearing at your insides but you never bleed. Slow torture that never lets up unless the wolf is asleep. And with our mate so close trust me, the fucker isn’t resting anytime soon.”
“So you have a magical wolf stuck inside you shredding your guts out right now?”
“Well, no not right now, but only because I swore to him we would get our mate but we had to plan first. He is more in favor of rush in and save her and damn the enemies.”
“Do you hear what you are saying? How do you expect me to buy this story? Have you any idea how unbelievable it is? I mean, think about it, what if I came to you and said I was a wolf, oh wait, you would buy that. Why are you shaking your head?”
“I would not buy that because I would know you were lying. One, I can smell a lie and two you don’t smell like a wolf.”
“Alright, for the sake of argument what if I came to you and told you I was an alien from another planet and expected you to buy my story. I mean, sure I saw the wolf, but damn man, I had just woke up, maybe I am drugged and don’t know it. What if I hit my head and I am dreaming?”
“Well if you smelled like Rimier and his bunch I would buy the alien story. I mean, they smell nothing like humans. But you my brother smell one hundred percent human.”
“And — back up.” Jeffery closed his eyes and rubbed them before looking back at the man he would have trusted with his life just hours ago. Hell they had saved each other’s lives more than once but this story was pushing his limits on what he could believe and accept. “Are you trying to tell me you know some aliens also? What the fuck? Has the planet been invaded? Wait, answer me this, are humans the largest race on Earth at the moment or were we taken over and we don’t know it yet?”
“Fucker, forget the aliens, they have nothing to do with this. Focus man, this isn’t like you and frankly you are starting to worry me. The man I trust to watch my back takes information in and processes it then proceeds to figure out the best way to open a can of whoop ass on someone and how to dispose of the bodies after wards. Work with me here.”
“I can’t forget the aliens. I swore an oath to defend our country against all enemies both foreign and domestic and you are telling me we have aliens— wait, you swore the same damn oath so why aren’t you defending the country from them? Unless, are they in our country?”
“Because they are not our enemies. Forget them. I can’t think of a reason you would ever meet them anyway. Look at me. I am the same man who took a bullet for your sorry ass in Guam. I would do it again if it meant saving your life. Focus on that if you can’t focus on anything else.”
“You are asking me to believe the impossible.”
“Mother fucker we do the impossible every morning before most people even wake up. We are the impossible. Hell it is in our job description.”
“Wolves aren’t.” Jeffery pointed out.
“Aren’t what?”
“In our job description. At no time during our training did anyone mention shifters or wolves or magic or aliens. Hell, we need better training.” His eyes widened as he stared at Samson before asking, “How many more of you people, things, shifters, whatever you are, are there?”
“On Earth or in the organization?”
Jeffery closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened them back. “Let’s start small, how many of you people, things, whatever you call yourself do we have? We being the organization.”
Samson shrugged, “As far as I know we have four in our organization.”
“Why? I mean what made you people, uh, what the hell do you want to be called?”
“Well, my parents named me Samson and since that is what you have been calling me for the last few years I am fine with you continuing to call my by my name. If you suddenly find that name too hard you can go back to calling me Caveno like you did in the early days… but that could blow our cover.”
“The fuck? That is not what I meant.”
Samson shrugged again before he grinned at his partner. “Yeah, I know but you made it too easy. We don’t get offended very much if you call us people. I mean, we aren’t going to rip your head off while you sleep or anything.”
“So you people have four people in our organization. Why?”
Samson eyed his partner a moment before he went back to his explanation. “We, our organization, spends our time focusing on what? I mean the main thing we go after, human trafficking. The chances of us getting a mission on an organization trafficking our females is rare, I would have said non-existent until this morning. You see, we, you and I, have never gotten close enough to the compound for me to smell shifter female in the air. The only time we got close was when we rigged those cameras to watch the compound and even then I never scented the right type of female. But our people see females as so precious because ours are so rare that even if we did not see trafficking as wrong we would still get our hackles up over females being mistreated.” He took a deep breath, this next part was going to be a tough sell. “Our females have to be twenty-one and not one day younger to mate. Any younger and the wolf is stripped, killed maybe, I don’t understand that part. The fact is, any of our females sold into bondage would become human the first time she was used. But the lines we have tapped on this compound tell us what about these people? They don’t care what happens to the female but she better stay a complete virgin until the auction. I thought maybe they were bringing in doctors to determine the innocence of the females, some kind of medical exam or something. But knowing they have at least one female in that compound who is a shifter opens up a whole new ball game. One whiff is all any male shifter would need to know our females. And that same whiff would tell them if the female was over twenty-one or underage.”
“I gotta call bullshit on that.”
“Jeffery, my brother in arms, I don’t give a flying monkey’s ass if you call bull shit or you shit a bull. My wolf says our mate is in that compound and come hell or high water we will be taking the compound down and getting my mate. Now my question to you is simple. Will you help me or do I have to kill you?”
“Yeah yeah, right. Look do you have any, wait a minute, you’re serious? You would kill me?”
“Jeffery, my people have a fairly common saying, that I admit I never understood until today. ‘What would you do for your mate?’ And depending on who answers, you could hear anything from destroy the world to watch the world burn. The question should be, ‘what wouldn’t you do for your mate?’ I found out today the answer to that is ‘nothing’, there is literally nothing I can think of I would not do for my mate.”
“Dude, you haven’t even met her. She could be hideous or a bitch, oh, well I guess she would be a literal bitch to your people but I mean, she could be a fucking shrew. Don’t you think you should meet her first and then, quit shaking your damn head and let me finish.”
“Have you listened to what I told you? She could be a shrew, or hideous, though I have never seen a hideous shifter but that is beside the point. I can tell you for a fact she will not be a shrew because that would drive me to drink and slowly destroy who I am. Whatever faults she has, and I’m not saying she is perfect, will be far outweighed by whatever she is that completes me. A true-mating is never wrong. We may argue, hell we may fight, our wolves may go at each other from time to time like—”
Not fight mate. She lose. Get hurt. Not fight. Play. Chase. Mate. Not fight. Fighting for humans.
“You have the weirdest fucking look on your face. What did you just now think of? Maybe how crazy you sound?” Jeffery snorted.
“Ah, no, my wolf says they will not fight as wolves because she would get hurt. He said fighting is for humans. They would play, chase and fuck but not fight.”
“And you don’t think that is weird, your inner wolf is talking about fucking
your mate?”
“He is me and I am him, how could knowing we would have our mate weird me out? We are the same, yet different. Without him I do not exist without me he does not exist. He literally is me. Just sometimes a little smarter apparently with his fighting for humans comment. Now, will you help me? I have bled for you and you for me, I am asking you to save my life one more time. Will you stand by my side while we watch the world burn or not?”
“Oh well, you didn’t say we would be burning shit down. Count me in. But for the record I would like to point out, we don’t stand an ice-cube’s chance in hell of getting back out alive.”
“Oh but I have an ace in the hole my friend. Pay attention cause I am going to say it one more time. There is nothing we won’t do for our mates. But getting killed would not help my mate. So the key is, don’t get killed. Now, in four more minutes I am going to make a phone call and that phone call should bring the fury of the gods down on this place if the tales are true.”
“See, now you have gone too far. Shifters, aliens, treasured mates, insane wolves, and now gods. I was coming over to your side till you threw in gods.”
“What? Oh, no, what the fuck do you think I am, crazy? I don’t have the power to call down gods. Are you insane?” Samson stared at Jeffery in disbelief.
“Me? Insane? Yeah, probably. I mean, how else to explain today?”
“Alright alright don’t get your panties in a wad. We have teams who go after females when they find them held captive and they rescue them, usually by leaving a lot of dead behind. Well, not exactly behind but they are more the kill them all let god sort them out then destroy the evidence type teams. Now I know people who know people and I called one of them today. Seems they already have a team headed this way, or at least that is what it sounded like. If they have a team headed this way we need them. They will be the team we can’t get our boss to send. And they won’t care if it starts a war with Mexico unlike our bosses.”
“So you have a backup team? Why the hell didn’t you say so to begin with. I thought this was a suicide mission we were going on.” Jeffery made a shooing motion with his hand before saying, “Well call man, get us some help. I am tired of watching them cart female after female away while we sit here twiddling our thumbs.”
Samson smiled as he turned his phone on but before he could make the call he heard Jeffery mutter, “I knew I shoulda asked for Hendrix this go round. But no, I had to go all in and—” Samson could not stop the look of horror from taking over his face as his gaze shot toward his partner.
“What? Did you forget the number? Have the phone on this whole time and someone was on the other line?” Jeffery’s face paled as he thought of the implications.
“Oh ye gods man, Hendrix.” Samson whispered.
“What about him, I thought you liked the man?”
“He runs these types of missions.”
“Yeah, and your point? You are starting to weird me out. I mean, more than before and that takes some doing.”
“One day he could be where we are and he would make a phone call, probably kill his partner first, make the call for help, and holy shit, he would call his Alpha before he called anyone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Hendrix is one of you werewolf people?”
“Do not fucking call us werewolves. Would you like me to call you ape-man? We are shifters. We don’t turn into half man half wolf. What the actual fuck man?”
“Okay, whatever, so Hendrix calling his Alpha would be bad? Who did you call?”
“You know, I have only ever met one man who scared me so bad I had nightmares for months and that is Hendrix’s Alpha. He kept my sister safe most of my life so I have met him, briefly, and you will never meet anyone who scares you as bad as him. He is one scary mother you never want to meet. I called my Alpha of course. It is his job to arrange things like this rescue. Well, not exactly his job, he doesn’t have the experience, but he knows people who do. Besides, I can’t start a potential war with another country without his knowledge. Unless the government backs us, which they are not on this mission, so far.”
“So what would you do if our boss called today and said they were ready to move?”
“I would stall them of course, we can’t have humans going in and fucking things up. Hold on, let me make this call.”
Chapter Fifteen
Nicole rocked Sammy and Chris on the bed while she tried to think of a way out of the prison cell. According to the other girl there was no way out and no way to fight the ones in charge. No amount of charm would work and supposedly the other girl would get a beating if they did try anything.
Drew’s voice kept playing in her head and the shock and terror warred with anger and a deep wrenching pain. The man she had fallen in love with not only betrayed her love but destroyed her family. She prayed the G man as Chris called him would come. Chris said he had asked for the location on the phone to be turned on and for Chris not to hang up. He promised he would find them and she had to believe he would. Her dad said the man was one of honor and a wolf with honor never broke his word. If he said he would kill you then you would die, if he said he would save you then you just waited for him to arrive.
“Do you think he is really coming?” Chris whispered.
“He told you he would come. He will come. Dad said everything he found out about the man told of honor like no other. That is why daddy was going to take you and Sammy to him.” Nicole whispered back.
“When do you think he is coming?” the tears, never far from the surface since the entire ordeal started, fell from her brother’s eyes. She didn’t have a free hand to wipe them away so she drew him closer to her.
“I don’t know sweetheart. Soon I hope. We have to stay strong and brave.”
“I don’t feel brave. I want mommy.” Great hiccuping sobs forced their way up.
“Shhh hush now. Everything will be okay. We have to stay strong. Please don’t wake Sammy. Maybe if we are quiet and good they will leave us alone for now. Can you be my brave little soldier?”
“No, I don’t wanna. I want mommy and daddy. Why did they hurt them? Why did they take us away?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Nicole stroked his arm where she could reach. Bitter regret swamped her as she realized everything was her fault. If she had gone to Alaska with the family when her dad brought it up. If she had not insisted on being human and putting the danger behind her. If and if and if. She knew in her heart she would never forgive herself and when Chris and Sammy got old enough to understand they wouldn’t forgive her either. She should have had sex with Drew months ago, no not with Drew, with someone, anyone and then she could have been happy and safe anywhere. She could have even gone to Alaska with her family and lived outside the territory in perfect safety. Well, she amended, in whatever kind of safety humans had from day to day. Why hadn’t she thought of that sooner?
Her thoughts turned to Drew and she wondered if everything had been a lie. Had he ever loved her? Did he date her and get close to her family to win their trust so he could arrange for this to happen? She made herself a silent vow. If G man came, and got them out, she would ask him to track down Drew and kill him, slowly. And then she would find the first attractive male and lose her wolf. But, only if G man would let her brother and sister live in his territory and let her visit them whenever she wanted.
She thought she had been prepared to lose her family in exchange for love, safety and happily ever after but she had been kidding herself. Or maybe deep down she knew she wouldn’t lose them, they would just be far from her. She knew her dad had hoped they would eventually move to Alaska to be close to the family. But thanks to her selfishness not only had they all lost both parents but unimaginable horror waited for them at the hands of the killers. Or whoever bought them. She shuddered and when she started softly singing a nursery rhyme she didn’t even try to stop the tears. She knew deep in her heart nothing would ever be right in her world again and she didn’t deserve to have
her brother and sister love her anymore. If her voice broke over and over during the song, well, no one heard her but Chris and soon he fell into a cry induced sleep again.
She woke hours later to the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and she braced herself. Then she heard the shuffling gait of the little boy from before. The two from earlier came with three trays of food and again slid them under the door. As soon as the boy had slid the second tray under the cell door the girl hit him and shoved him down. He didn’t say a word, not even a cry, just picked himself back up and shuffled down the hall again. The three inside the cell stared in horror. Nicole was glad Sammy at least didn’t understand what was happening.
“Why did you do that?” Nicole’s harsh whisper broke the silence seconds before Sammy started crying for their mom again.
“You need to teach her to shut-up. They won’t like her crying all the time. And I told you about touching the slave. They are for using and hitting and making them hurt, not for cuddling.” The girl’s lip curled up in disgust. “You better be glad no one wants to see you right now. Since they have possible buyers for all of you they don’t want to mess you up. Well, not more than you already are. Oh yeah, congratulations, they got a auction fixed up for all the new meat. Three days, you got three days to teach her to shut-up and to learn not to touch the slave. If I get hurt because you can’t learn, well guess who helps the new meat get all cleaned up pretty for the buyers? That’s right, me. Do what I tell you or else.” With that the girl turned and walked out of sight.
Nicole looked at the food on the trays. Two of the trays had almost decent food while the third looked worse than earlier. Table scraps not fit to eat. She certainly wasn’t going to feed that to either of her siblings. They didn’t deserve this, if anyone was going to eat the scraps it would be her. She handed one tray to Chris and drew Sammy a little closer. Feeding her was harder than earlier since she wouldn’t stop crying long enough to eat anything. She finally gave up and put the tray to the side. She hoped she could get her calmed down enough to eat so the food didn’t go to waste. She couldn’t bring herself to eat any of the decent food, especially not knowing eating it would leave nothing but scraps for Sammy. It seemed hours before she finally got her sister to eat most of the food on the tray. She was exhausted from trying to be strong but it was some hours before the two little ones fell into a sleep broken only by the sobbing hiccups of the cries that had racked their bodies. She sang till she was hoarse then sang some more.
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