by Kali Argent
“You should probably try to eat something. I think they’re making pancakes in the kitchen. If you don’t like that, there’s cereal.” He tried to picture the contents of the pantry. “I think I saw some oatmeal.”
Her face blanched, and she shook her head adamantly. “No oatmeal.”
It was a pretty intense reaction to some rolled oats. There was a story there, but Cade bit his tongue and refrained from asking. “Okay, no oatmeal. How are we feeling about those pancakes?”
“With syrup?”
Cade grinned at her hopeful tone. “Of course.” He had no idea if syrup would be included with breakfast, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. “You rest. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He glanced over his shoulder at the black screen of the television mounted on the wall. “There’s no cable or anything like that, but there’s a box of DVDs in the cabinet. Do you want to take a look?”
“Maybe later.”
“Okay.” He patted her hand gently as he rose from the bed. “I’ll be back.”
Walking away from her was harder than it should have been, but he forced himself to keep going and not look back.
He didn’t know how the Revenant had found the small rural hospital or the qualified people to staff it, but it was one of the better safe houses he’d seen. The hotel in Kansas City had been spacious and comfortable, but it had been too exposed in the middle of the city. The medical equipment had been rudimentary at best—bandages, aspirin, iodine. Anyone suffering from serious illness or injury rarely survived.
From what he’d seen, the hospital was well stocked and highly operational. Even better, they had an actual doctor in full-time residence, as well as a couple of nurses. He didn’t know if they’d worked at the hospital before the Purge, or if they’d gravitated there along the way, but the refugees were lucky to have them.
Currently, there were sixteen residents staying at the hospital. The patient rooms provided relative comfort and privacy. Hot water flowed from the showers, and the kitchen was often replenished with supply runs from an adjacent town. Even better, the isolated location offered everyone a chance to venture outside with only minimal risk of exposure or discovery.
Of course, it wasn’t permanent. Everyone there was just passing through, using their time at the hospital to rest and gain strength before starting the next leg of their journey. Some of them would travel to other safe houses, while others would head directly to the haven rumored to be in Washington.
Cade had never seen Olympus, but everyone talked about it like it was some magical Eden. The only permanent settlement in North America where Gemini and humans lived in safety and harmony.
“Hey,” Roux greeted when he entered the kitchen through the double, swinging doors. “How is she?”
“Tired. Traumatized.” His stomach rumbled, and his mouth watered at the scents wafting through the room. “I think she’ll be okay, though.”
“Did you find out anything about where she came from?”
“A Hunter camp. She didn’t give a location, but I’m guessing it’s not far from where we found her.”
Roux nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense. I doubt she could have traveled too far with all those injuries.” Her contemplative expression morphed into pure disgust. “I fucking hate Hunters. They give humans a bad name.”
Cade hated them as well, but the depravity they inflicted on the world had nothing to do with being human. Gemini had proven themselves just as capable of cruelty, a fact he’d experienced firsthand. What he was beginning to understand, however, was that there was still a lot of good in the world, and just like evil, it didn’t discriminate when it came to race or creed.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, sure.” Roux led him over to a long table set up like a buffet that contained silver dishes filled with pancakes, sausages, and even fresh fruit. “What’s up?”
“Did you feel drawn to Deke before you found out you were his mate?”
“Not right at first, but the way we met was a lot different. I thought he was trying to kill me.”
Cade remembered that night in Trinity Grove well. It had seemed like the worst possible thing that could have happened to them, being captured and held against their will, but honestly, it had probably saved their lives.
“I did trust him a lot faster than I probably should have, and I remember feeling safe with him. Which, as you know, made no sense at the time.” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I want to protect her,” Cade admitted. “I mean, I don’t even know her, but even being away from her right now is hard.”
“Maybe it’s different with werewolves. I mean, vampires can hear their mate’s thoughts. Deke said that shifter mates have this kind of glow to them. There’s no one-size-fits-all with this.” Her hand came to rest on his forearm, and she squeezed gently. “What I’m trying to say is that whatever you’re feeling is okay. Have you talked to her about it?”
“Not yet.” He couldn’t avoid it forever, but he needed to wrap his head around it first before they dived into that conversation. “I never thought I’d be someone’s mate. Hell, I don’t even know what that means.”
“Well, first, you’re not just her mate. It’s not a one-way street, Cade. She’s your mate, too.”
Cade blinked. He opened his mouth. Closed it. Shook his head. He didn’t know why that hadn’t occurred to him. It should have. Upon further examination, he realized just how true that statement was. Mackenna was his. He’d felt it from the first moment he’d set eyes on her.
He’d lost so many people, let down everyone he’d ever cared about. Having someone else depend on him was terrifying. This time had to be different. He had to do better, less selfish, more proactive.
This time, he couldn’t fail.
Chapter Five
Night had fallen.
They’d spent the past thirty-six hours scouting the shifter camp in the far western part of the state, learning every movement, every weakness. They still weren’t prepared, but they were out of time. It was now or never.
If they had any hope of rescuing Abby and freeing the other captives, they had to move. Normally, it would be Captain Deke Collins who led the charge, but this time, only one of them knew anything about the white-coated shifters beyond the forest.
Lieutenant Lynk Foster crept through the densely packed trees that surrounded the settlement, his pale coat gleaming in the moonlight. An albino tiger in the middle of rural Colorado would raise quite the commotion under different circumstances, but they were so isolated, there wouldn’t be anyone to see him.
He wasn’t the only one who’d taken to his animal form. A panther moved like a shadow through the forest, his inky coat the perfect camouflage in the darkness. To the east, a puma ghosted over the forest floor, her tail swishing with agitation.
Thea’s sable coat wasn’t as detectable as Lynk’s white fur, but she didn’t exactly blend into the night like Deke, either. Still, all three of them had an advantage over those who couldn’t shift. The vampires and werewolves had scattered amongst the trees, moving almost soundlessly toward their target.
None, however, were more noticeable than the humans. While they tried to move stealthily, their footfalls sounded like thunder to anyone with supernatural hearing. They were also slow, a little clumsy, and every one of them breathed like a wounded rhino.
Yet, strength came in numbers, and right then, they needed as many trained and willing soldiers as they could get. Lynk hoped it wouldn’t come to a fight. In a perfect scenario, they’d find the captives, free them, and be halfway back to the safe house before the shifter clan realized anything was amiss.
He hoped, but he didn’t count on it.
The Ikande family of lion shifters had been regarded for decades as royalty in the paranormal world. A large pride comprised of multiple generations, they had once lorded over a territory that stretched from the coast of California all the way to the cornfields of Kansas. Bef
ore the Purge, their wealth and might had attracted a dedicated following, but like everything else, it couldn’t last forever.
When the world had gone to hell, so had the sovereignty of the Ikandes. With the rise of a militarized paranormal government like the Coalition, shifters didn’t have much need for a king. The name still commanded respect in certain circles, and there were still those who remained loyal to the family, but the once great lion pack had since fallen from grace.
Adding to their troubles, the pride’s numbers had fallen dramatically in recent years. Obsessed with the purity of race and lineage, the Ikandes were now suffering the effects from more than a century of inbreeding. They had fewer fertile females now, which meant fewer babies born within the camp. Only a third of pregnancies made it to term, and for the offspring that survived, all were thought to inherit the albino mutation. Nearly half were born blind, deaf, or both.
They called them ghost walkers.
Eventually, the Ikandes had been forced to adapt or risk the extinction of their bloodline. At first, they’d tried breeding with other shifters, and while more of those pregnancies were carried to term, they still hadn’t produced acceptable results.
Lynk was living proof of that. Not only had he failed to escape being born a white shifter, but he’d shifted into a tiger—like his mother—rather than a lion. He still didn’t know which Ikande prince had fathered him, and he didn’t care. He could only be grateful that his mother had been smart enough and brave enough to take him and run like hell.
Realizing that producing lion cubs was something of a gamble with other shifters, the Ikandes had then turned to humans. They were ideal, a blank slate, and readily accessible. Kidnapping, buying, selling, and trading human women for the sole purpose of breeding them, however, tended to be frowned upon.
Well, it had been until the formation of the Allied Races Coalition. Now, Gemini across the world carried out horrible injustices against human without any fear of retribution or consequence. It was encouraged for them to own humans like pets, to force them into servitude, or to use them like breathing blood bags. Some communities were better than others, but those places were few and far between.
As he neared the edge of the tree line, Lynk dragged his attention back to the present and the task at hand. The Ikande settlement reminded him of those summer camps he’d seen in movies. Two rows of log cabins faced each other along a narrow, dirt path, each one identical from the other. Behind the far row, atop a grassy hill, a larger, more lavish cabin looked down over the kingdom.
At the very end of the path was their target, the biggest building in the settlement with scores of large windows that reflected the moonlight.
Just about every person in the camp had been seen coming and going from it at some point, leading them to theorize the building was probably some kind of community center. Maybe a place for the shifters to gather and share a meal or host important meetings.
It was also their target since it was the most likely place to be housing the abducted females.
Lynk crouched lower to the ground, sticking to the shadows as he watched a pair of Wardens patrol the area around the building. If they stuck to their pattern, they’d make a circle around the perimeter, then go their separate ways along the back of the rows of cabins. At that point, Lynk and his team would have approximately seven minutes to get inside the building, find the captives, and retreat back to the forest.
As anticipated, the guards crossed paths, nodded at each other, then rounded the building in opposite directions. So far, so good. Now, they just had to creep down the hill, enter through an undoubtedly locked door, and pray they didn’t trip an alarm.
Piece of cake.
Rising to his feet, Lynk swished his tail and chuffed. Time to move.
In their cat forms, he, Thea, and Deke were the fastest and most agile. Still, they needed someone with opposable thumbs to pick a lock, and that duty fell to Miles Irati.
Lynk understood why Deke had steadfastly refused to allow his mate to come along, and the fight that had accompanied the decision had been entertaining to watch. If Lynk had a mate, he wouldn’t have allowed her anywhere near the camp, no matter how capable she was. However, Roux was the best lockpick he’d ever seen, and with her left behind at the safe house, he could only hope the vampire proved to be as skilled as he claimed to be.
A team of six remained behind in the forest to provide backup and help with extraction while the rest of them started down the slope toward the camp. Since every second counted, Miles hurried ahead of the rest of them as planned, his vampire speed making him little more than a blur through the night.
Which meant, he was the first one to encounter the unexpected security measure.
Lynk realized something was wrong when the vampire came to an abrupt stop forty yards from the backdoor. Then came the click, the pressurized hiss, and he let loose a roar of warning as understanding dawned.
Miles’ whispered curse was the last thing he heard before the explosion.
Chapter Six
A day of rest and a belly full of food had done wonders for Mackenna’s injuries. The scrapes, bruises, and lacerations had completely healed by nightfall. Her hands and feet—along with a few patches of skin on her arms and legs—were still red and shiny, but they no longer contained blisters that oozed. Even better, the pain had subsided to manageable levels, which meant she no longer needed the pain medication.
She’d been grateful for the respite, especially in the beginning, but she hated the groggy feeling that accompanied the relief. It reminded her too much of how she’d felt after one of her sessions on the surgical table back at the Hunter compound.
To her amazement, Cade had spent the entire day in her room, venturing out only for food or to find the doctor when he’d thought she’d been in too much pain. They’d watched old movies from the collection of DVDs, and Cade had caught her up on everything she’d missed during her captivity.
She was pretty sure she’d received a muted version of the truth, but she appreciated that he hadn’t overwhelmed her with details. To survive in their new reality, she would eventually need to know everything. For the moment, however, she had a decent understanding of how the world had changed.
He hadn’t asked her any more questions about the Hunters, but she knew that couldn’t last forever. If the Revenant really were the heroes and protectors Cade described them as, they were the best hope at freeing the other Gemini trapped within the compound. Maybe it was selfish of her not to volunteer the information, but the trauma of it was too fresh, too raw, and it still hadn’t really sunk in that she was safe.
Besides, from the conversations she’d overheard during the day, most of the team was off somewhere else on another rescue mission. Not the best excuse, but it did buy her a little time.
“Who’s Abby?”
She’d heard the name several times, always spoken in hushed tones outside the closed door of her room. Cade hadn’t mentioned her directly, but she got the sense the female was someone important to him.
Looking up from the book he’d been reading, Cade studied her, but he didn’t answer right away. Finally, he sighed, marked his page, and set the book aside.
“The short answer is she’s a friend who’s being held by a group of shifters.”
Mackenna nodded. “And the long answer?”
“Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She waved her hand around the room and shrugged. “What else do I have to do?”
“Okay.” Moving to the edge of the chair, he bent forward, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. “So, I guess it all started a little over six months ago.”
He told her about being captured by Coalition guards while trying to steal food from a grocer in a small Pennsylvania town called Trinity Grove. While he skimmed over most of the details about his time there, she could sense the conflicting emotions about the ordeal.
“Let’s just say I didn’t react well w
hen I found out Roux was mated to Deke.”
Mackenna tilted her head. “Deke?”
“Deke Collins. He’s a shifter. You’ll meet him later.” He waved his hand. “Anyway, that’s how I met Abby. Roux was having some get together thing at the house where she was living with Deke. I didn’t want to be there, but well, when Roux wants something, she usually gets it.”
She’d met the female exactly once, and she felt confident in her confirmation of that assessment. “I’m sure that must have been very upsetting.”
“You think you’re teasing, but I had some pretty strong opinions back then, and I wasn’t shy about voicing them. We fought. She broke my nose.”
“Did you deserve it?” She guessed he probably had, but it felt rude to say so out loud.
“I did.” He smiled fondly at the memory.
Men. “So, did you meet Abby before or after Roux broke your nose?”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Okay, smartass, do you want to hear the story or not?”
Widening her eyes innocently, she made a show of locking her lips and tossing away the pretend key.
“Anyway,” he continued around a chuckle. “Like I said, that’s where I met Abby. I walked out onto the back deck, and she was just sitting there.” His tone took on a different quality now, sad, but…more. Almost like grief. “I couldn’t breathe at first. I couldn’t do anything except just stand there and stare at her.”
He was clearly hurting, and Mackenna didn’t want to be insensitive, but she was finding it increasingly difficult to rein in her jealousy. There was no desire in his scent, however, nothing to indicate that Abby was any more than what he’d said she was—a friend. Still, she didn’t like it.
“Is she really that pretty?”
“She’s beautiful.” He said it simply, just a statement of fact, the way one might describe a classic car. “It was like looking at a ghost.” Lost in the memory, he didn’t even seem to realize he was still speaking out loud. “I thought I was looking at my sister. I thought she was Maddy.”