by Selina Woods
I sat down on the low wall that ran around the edges of the roof. “But they knew we weren’t inside it. We were chased and almost killed.”
Pierce leaned on the wall beside me, staring at the smoke, and chewed his lower lip. “I will guess that they still don’t have a leader,” he ventured slowly. “Some believe you and your guards are dead, while others lay in wait, hoping to catch you if you weren’t in the penthouse. Which they very nearly did.”
“So, if that’s the case,” Kincaid told me, his eyes narrowed, “they’ll be fighting among themselves. We may have some time.”
Standing, I headed toward the other side of the roof where the old hotel stood a block away. Gazing down, I saw shifters on every corner, watching for the enforcers, as others carried blankets, mattresses, and other things a group of people might need in a cold building. I felt slightly better at seeing for myself they had ample notice to hide if any of the enemy came around.
“All right,” I said on a sigh, turning back to them. “We still need supplies from the restaurant, for now as well as when we travel. The drug dealer I kicked out of town had gas-powered stoves. How might we get our hands on a bunch of them?”
The shifters on guard duty went back to their corners and hunkered low to watch while Pierce, Kincaid, and I walked back to the roof’s door. “When we were driving into the city,” Pierce said slowly, “we passed an old military depot. Remember, Kincaid? It didn’t look like it had been trashed.”
“No, it didn’t.”
“Where?” I asked, trying to remember if I had ever seen it.
“On Old Route Thirty,” Pierce answered. “Maybe we can swing by there on our way out.”
“But that’s going to be guarded,” I replied. “All the main roads in or out of the city are.”
Kincaid shrugged. “So, we kill them. What’s the big deal?”
I laughed as we headed down the stairs. “Food is our number one priority,” I told them as we strode toward Iliana and Hyde. “We won’t get far on an empty stomach. Once we get a big truck, then the four of us head to the Devil’s Headmaster.”
Iliana stood as we approached, and having heard what I’d said, gestured toward the back of the warehouse. “This place has a kitchen and cafeteria, Griffin,” she said, “but no electricity.”
I cursed under my breath. “Could any of these guys know how to rig electricity to the building? It’ll supply heat if we can.”
“While we wait for the truck,” Pierce asked, “why don’t we find out?”
The three of us walked amid the shifters working to make this place safe as well as comfortable, and I luckily happened upon a guy who did indeed know how to hotwire electricity to the building. “I’ll look for the tools I need, boss,” he told me cheerfully. “Shouldn’t take long.”
“Awesome,” I told him with a grin. “Now, with your help, we can have hot food as well as heat tonight.”
I waved Pierce and Kincaid over to Iliana and Hyde and crouched beside her father. “He asleep?” I whispered.
Iliana nodded. “He needs the rest. And food as well as water.”
“How are his wounds?”
“Not bad, considering.”
An hour later, Brand returned with a big box van. Handing me the keys, he said, “I’ll keep working on this place while you get the food.”
“I have a guy getting us some electricity,” I said, “so we’ll have heat and can cook. I’ll take some guys with us to help, and also find containers for water and fuel.”
He laughed. “You must be the luckiest shifter on this planet, Griffin,” he said. “As it happens, I located a pile of empty drums as I fetched this truck.”
“Excellent,” I said. “Pierce and Kincaid saw a military depot; think we can fill them there?”
Brand frowned, thinking. “That one just outside town? I’ve never been there, but maybe it still has fuel tanks in working order.”
“Watch over Hyde, will you?” I asked, beckoning Pierce, Kincaid, and five armed shifters who looked like they needed something to do. “Iliana, let’s go.”
I took the keys from Brand, then led my team to the waiting truck. I got in behind the wheel while Iliana climbed into the cab with me, the others getting inside where they wouldn’t be seen, and rolled the rear door down to close it. Driving away, hoping this old depot would also provide us with water containers and kept a wary eye out for enforcers.
I saw them on street corners, watching the ebb and flow of people around them, but they paid little heed to the box truck driving past them at an average speed. “They’re looking for my SUV,” I told Iliana.
She eyed a pair warily as we passed them by. “As though you wouldn’t know they would be and would find something else.”
“It’s so hard to tell if they got organized.” I mused, driving past streets that had no enforcers standing on them.
“If they were, wouldn’t they be off actively hunting you rather than just standing around?”
I shook my head. I had no answer to that.
We reached the Devil’s Headmaster and I drove down the alley and parked behind it. Hyde’s truck was still there, and we’d take it with us when we left. The rear door rolled up as we jumped down from the cab, and Iliana unlocked the restaurant. Leading the way in, she called over her shoulder, “Empty the freezers, the refrigerators, grab anything you think we might need. There are empty crates and boxes downstairs.”
It took us the remainder of the afternoon to empty the Headmaster of not just its edibles, but cutting tools, plates, pots, pans, utensils. Box after box we carried to the big truck while a shifter, his rifle on his shoulder, stood watch. Iliana found Hyde’s money stash and stuffed the wads into her pockets. We went to the basement and stripped many of the shelves of canned vegetables and meat as well as anything that could enable fifty-plus shifters to survive a cross country journey.
“That’s it,” I said as Iliana and I followed that last crate out.
Iliana stood in the doorway, staring into the dark, silent building. She found me watching her and tried to smile. “I grew up here,” she said quietly. “I’m gonna miss it.”
I gave her a quick kiss. “We need to go.”
She locked the door, then jumped into the cab of Hyde’s truck. Pierce would drive the van, and I spoke to him through the window. “We’re just going to run to the house and get Iliana and Hyde some things they need.”
He frowned. “I don’t like it. We should stay together.”
“Just go on,” I told him. “We’ll be right behind you.”
He started the engine while I walked to the truck and got in. I started it up and drove out of the alley, asking Iliana for directions to their house. “Now we get in, get clothes, a few mementos, and we’re out. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
The house was dark and silent, and though dusk was still an hour away, the neighborhood held no playing children or music or the sounds of people talking. It made me uneasy when no one came or went from the nearby houses, but I parked and got out. “Real quick, Iliana,” I said tersely. “I don’t like this.”
She glanced around. “I don’t, either.”
After she opened the door, I followed her inside and quickly closed and locked it behind us. “Hurry,” I ordered, peering through the curtains and into the silent street.
Iliana ran from room to room, shoving clothes, pictures, sentimental items into a satchel while I stood watch for the approach of anyone. The house was of a single story, but it did have a basement, though Iliana didn’t go down there. After about ten minutes of gathering things, Iliana hurried toward me. “I think I got everything important.”
“Let’s go.”
I reached for the door to unlock and open it when all hell broke loose from behind us. Three male lions burst through the basement door, charging us with roars and fangs bared. There was no time to run or even pull my gun from my waistband and shoot. I had mere seconds to shift and leap in front of Iliana to meet them
head-on.
I expected that I’d be killed. Three against one was not the greatest of odds, but if it gave Iliana time to get to the truck and drive, then I supposed my life was worth it. Mine for hers. All that flashed across my mind in the fraction of a second, then I hit them and went down in a tangle of fangs, manes and raking claws.
I gave as good as I got, biting slashing, tasting blood on my tongue as I threw one attacker aside and charged another as the third leaped atop me to bite into my skull. When the gunshots exploded nearby, and the lion trying to crush my skull screamed in pain and rage before sliding from my back, I thought Pierce and Kincaid had followed after all.
I was wrong.
I caught a rapid glimpse of Iliana aiming the semiautomatic handgun at the lion who, even then, rushed her with fangs bared, and as coolly as though she fired at a motionless target, pulled the trigger three times. The lion collapsed at her feet, instantly dead with the bullets in his head and face.
The lion I still fought tried desperately to escape. He flung me from him with savage strength, tossing me onto my side, and scrambled to his paws. Running in great strides, he bolted for the door. Iliana’s bullets cut him down before he got halfway. He fell with a heavy thud, still skidding across the floor.
I know I gaped. I slowly got to my paws, staring in stunned amazement as Iliana calmly tucked the gun away into the satchel, then just as calmly tossed her hair over her shoulder. “You might want to change back,” she told me. “I don’t know how to drive.”
With that, she headed for the door, taking a moment to kick the dead lion in the face before unlocking and opening the front door.
“I taught her to shoot, obviously,” Hyde said as he carefully ate a beef soup with chunks of potatoes and carrots that the shifters assigned to kitchen duty that night prepared for everyone. “I knew I’d left a gun in the house, but I didn’t know if Iliana knew where it was.”
Only the kitchen was lit, and my former guards ate in small groups, talking and laughing in low voices. Brand, my organizational genius, had the shifters watching on the roof and from windows in shifts while a few on four legs patrolled the immediate vicinity.
The truck was unloaded of only the perishable meats and fish, some of which was refrigerated here for our immediate consumption, and the rest packed into makeshift coolers and reloaded into the box truck for eating while we were headed to Denver.
“Of course, I knew where it was,” Iliana answered. “I grabbed it and shoved it into the satchel.”
“And saved my life.” I picked up her hand and kissed it, grinning.
Kincaid chuckled. “I bet those assholes got a huge surprise.”
“They had me down,” I admitted. “If she hadn’t shot them—”
“Obviously, they know of your attachment to one another,” Pierce commented, “and knew you’d eventually go to the house.”
I frowned. “Does that mean they know we’re trying to get out of the city?”
“Does it matter?” Hyde answered. “As long as they can’t find us, we’re good.”
“And we’ll kill any road guards who try to stop us,” Kincaid went on happily.
Iliana rolled her eyes.
“I’ll feel much better after a decent sleep and food,” Hyde told me. “We can get you mated tomorrow. I’ll be fit to travel the day after.”
I met Brand’s eyes, who nodded. “Perfect,” he said. “That’ll give us tomorrow to get the fuel drums and about four more cars. We kill the guards on the road and hope the depot has some of the rest of the stuff we need.”
“If it doesn’t,” I added, “surely we can find water and fuel along the way.”
Kincaid shook his head. “Towns are scarce; we know. We just drove the straightest route between Denver and here. Water can be found in lakes and rivers, sure. But not fuel.”
I stared into space as I ate my soup. “Is there anywhere here in Detroit we can fill the drums? The car plants, maybe?”
Brand lit up with excitement. “Yes! I bet we can find old pumping stations among them, and fill the drums. The enforcers don’t go there since there’s no one around.”
“We’ll need another box truck,” I said. “We can’t risk the fuel contaminating our food supply.”
“I can get us one,” Brand assured me. “I’ll get it first thing in the morning.”
I gazed around at Iliana, Hyde, Brand, Pierce, and Kincaid. “What are we missing? Anything?”
“Other than stoves to cook with,” Pierce said, “no. And even then, we’re all predators. We can eat our food raw if we must.”
“All right,” I continued. “We send Brand to get another truck, fill it with the drums. We steal a few more cars, Iliana and I get mated, we load up on fuel, and we’re good to go the day after tomorrow.”
“We should leave in the early hours before dawn,” Kincaid suggested. “Most everyone is asleep, even the bad guys.”
“The night stalkers aren’t,” Iliana pointed out. “They’ll be hunting for anything since they don’t have their fixes.”
“They’ll be insane with need,” I added. “We’ll still have to be careful of them. Even here, in this place.”
“They run in small packs,” Brand reminded me. “Our guards will cut them down before they get close.”
“And the sound of gunfire will alert the enforcers,” I told him. “We don’t need that.”
Hyde got slowly, painfully, to his feet, and tottered away from the group toward his mattress. Iliana followed and saw him settled down to sleep through the night. The painkillers would hopefully ensure he did. Iliana returned to sit beside me and take my hand.
“We shifters heal fast,” she murmured. “He’ll be much better by tomorrow.”
I hope so.
Chapter Thirteen
I held Iliana’s hand as we stood in front of a somber Hyde in the middle of the warehouse. Those shifters not on guard duty had assembled behind us as Hyde spoke of vows and mating, of the hope for a future with offspring, and our love for one another.
“These days are imperiled,” he said, “but nothing in life is certain. We embark on a journey toward a better future for all of us, just as you, Griffin, and you, Iliana, head into a new life together. Given your love for each other, we all can find hope, peace, and happiness in the future, and perhaps for all time. May we all learn the lessons from the past and work toward a time when there is no war, no taking of one another’s lives. Just freedom and strength and love.”
Hyde placed his hands on our heads, gazing at us, smiling. “With pride, I now pronounce you mated, and offer my blessings of your union.”
Cheers and whistles abounded from the shifters while Pierce, Brand, and Kincaid slapped me on the back and kissed Iliana on the cheek. Several others did the same, including Freddy, who grinned and was bold enough to give us both quick hugs.
“Congratulations,” Kincaid said, loud enough for nearly everyone in the warehouse to hear. “Now get over to the hotel and do your thing. Make it quick, or be embarrassed when we come to get you.”
Iliana and I both laughed as we headed through the throng, Iliana turning a bright shade of pink. “Nothing like the whole crew knowing what we intend to do, eh?” I asked as we left the warehouse.
“As long as they aren’t watching us,” she replied, “I suppose it’s all right.”
The old hotel had a wedding suite, a big set of rooms, even if the bedding was musty. I checked through the windows and observed the guards on the warehouse roof, and saw nothing moving in the neighborhood. I turned to find Iliana undressing; the sight of her lithe, naked body had my shaft swelling immediately.
We made sweet, passionate love, even if a bit hasty. I lay on my back as Iliana sat on my belly, her arousal wetting my skin. She ran her hands up and down my chest before leaning over to kiss me, her tongue teasing me, heating me, her boobs lightly brushing my flesh.
“I want your babies,” she murmured against my mouth, her lips nibbling mine before ro
aming across my cheeks, my throat.
“I love you,” I whispered against her ear. “I love you so much.”
“We’ll always be together, my love, my Griffin.”
Iliana lifted my member and impaled herself on it, moaning as I slid deeply into her. We struck a sensual rhythm, pleasing one another, sharing our emotions as we kissed and loved, moaning in exquisite pleasure. We climaxed together in harmony with one another, and as I held her for a long time in the sweet languor afterward, my thoughts moved to the future.
And whether we would have one.
The moon had set, and the cold darkness reigned as I led the long column of cars and trucks in the big SUV. We drove with no headlights through the side streets, yet I knew the sound of so many engines would draw attention even at that hour. Heading for the main highway out of town, I wondered if the enforcers might organize quickly enough to try to stop us.
“I don’t see anything moving at all,” Iliana commented, her voice hushed, from the seat beside me.
“That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there,” Kincaid replied.
He, Pierce, and Hyde had rifles and grenades ready while Iliana had her handgun. I glanced in the mirrors, seeing the big trucks loaded with our supplies right behind, and the cars filled with the shifters who craved to escape the fighting and killing. All of them were armed to the teeth and ready to shoot anything that attacked us.
“They may expect us to take this route,” Hyde said.
I stared ahead at the sight directly in front of us. “They do.”
“Shit,” Iliana snapped, gazing through the windshield at the cars and trucks blocking the wide avenue.
“Get those grenades ready,” I growled, prepared to accelerate. “Blast us a hole through them.”
Kincaid went through the moon roof again while Hyde and Pierce rolled the side windows down and leaned out. Iliana did the same, aiming her gun, and I feared she’d get killed doing that. But there was no time to stop her.
“We’re rolling,” I yelled, and floored the pedal.