Stepyan snarled and Varian’s ears pricked, his lips rippling in an abortive snarl of his own. He went silent and his ears slanted sideward when he saw who had challenged him. Mack held up a hand to get their attention.
“We have the station. Odyssey are coming.”
Varian’s ears quirked, and he glanced at the cub. “We need to get him back to his father.”
“You cannot take him back to the ground.” Case was adamant, and Varian nodded.
“You have the coordinates already,” he replied, looking at Mack. He indicated the squad at his back. “We will stand between you.”
The cub cocked his head, clearly wondering why they’d have to. Mack dropped a hand to his head and ruffled his fur.
“Cutter was rude,” he explained and I shot him a wide-eyed look.
The cub’s eyes were wider. “And he let her live?”
I glared at him, but Mack cleared his throat and the cub switched his focus.
“I negotiated her free.”
“But if she goes with you...”
“We will stand between them,” Varian finished for him, and then asked, “Will you stand with us?”
The cub paused to study me carefully, before he dipped his chin in assent. “She took me from the enemy and protected my she at great risk to herself.”
He turned back to Mack. “I will protect your she in return.”
Tens sputtered inside my head, and Rohan howled with laughter. I could just imagine the boy shaking as he doubled over with mirth.
“I can still kick your ass,” I reminded him, and he let me feel when he fell off the chair as a new wave of laughter took him. “You are not funny.”
“Cutter, please stop. You’re only encouraging him”. Tens sounded tired. When he spoke next, he addressed Rohan. “Give it a rest, boy. She’s not that funny.”
Rohan sniffed and I heard him climb back on the chair. “Sorry, boss.”
“When you goat-sucking, crack-crawling, sphincter-eaters are done!” I snapped, not meaning to say it out loud.
“Enough!” Mack growled, and the cub turned to me, eyes wide.
My skin flushed red
“I can see why my father might not have let you live,” the boy said, and I ruffled his fur.
“Thanks, kid.”
The human she slapped my hand away. “Mine.”
I smiled at her, careful to keep my teeth covered in the lupar way. “Yours,” I agreed, and she relaxed, although she still eyed me warily.
Mack cleared his throat and we turned toward him.
“We cannot take the cubs with us,” Mack said, his eyes on the wolf Second as Varian, and the cub and his she froze.
“Care to tell me why?” the wolf snarled, and Mack nodded.
“It is a war zone down there. They are safer up here. Once the world has been secured, we will return them. It would be remiss to return them only to have them killed if your ship is overrun.”
“That won’t happen,” Varian argued, and Mack shook his head.
“The arach are coming.”
“Arach?”
“Space-faring—”
“I know what they are!” the Wolf Second spat. “But here?”
“Didn’t Celia tell you?”
“She would have told us if she had known. They were allied with Barangail?” Varian stopped, realization dawning in his eyes. “That scent... I wondered what it was...”
“You didn’t know it?” Mack sounded disbelieving.
Varian glared at him. “Just because I know what a species is, does not mean I know their scent.”
He glanced at the pup. “If the arach are coming, you are better off in space, commanding the other cubs until your father can meet them.”
It was Mack’s turn to look perplexed. Varian caught his expression and gave him a wolfish smile.
“I can smell them on you. They are happy and a little anxious. They need their leader.”
I got the feeling this last was spoken more for the cub’s benefit than ours, and it worked. The cub turned to Mack. “Return me to the others so I may command them.”
Mack gave him a solemn stare. “If that is your wish.”
The cub dipped his chin in a lupar nod. “It is. My father does not need to worry about my safety when he must focus on protecting our people.”
I noticed the possessive way the cub spoke of his father’s crew, and the way the wolves around us stood just a little straighter at hearing him.
“Very well,” Mack agreed, and Tens teleported the youngsters away. When they were gone, he turned back to Varian. “We need to speak to your captain. The arach were based in the mansion. I do not know if they will have descended to secure the mines.”
Varian’s eyes widened in alarm. “We will stand between you,” he repeated, and glanced at me.
Case followed his look and frowned.
“She’s going to need another set of armor,” the assassin observed, and I wanted to ask her whose fault that was.
You’re the one who let yourself get shot...
As if I had a choice.
Next time, run faster, Stepyan suggested.
I rolled my eyes, and Varian curled his lip in a wolf grin.
“I might not be able to hear you,” he said, “but I know your pack speaks with you.”
I shot a glance at Mack. “When you’re ready,” I muttered and he arched his eyebrows.
Varian snorted.
Ignoring me, Mack signaled Varian to move the lupar squad into position, and the wolf second yipped at his people. They slid around us, making the assassins grow tense, and doing nothing to improve how happy I was with the situation.
“Ready,” Varian reported, and Mack’s eyes grew distant.
“When you’re ready, Tens.’
Silver light shimmered around us and we dissolved from the station’s reception area. We reappeared in an office I’d hoped to never see again—with a growl echoing through my ears that I’d never wanted to hear repeated.
Mind you, I had also not wanted to materialize nose to chest with the lupar captain, either.
We moved simultaneously, him to draw his blaster and grab me by the throat, and me to drop below his grasp and roll to one side. This would have worked out a whole lot better if the lupar hadn’t been packed so tight around us.
Tens was swearing a blue streak in my head, and Mack had already cocked his fist. Varian turned to grab the captain—and what penalties that particular maneuver might hold, I didn’t want to know—and things were rapidly going south, when the cub’s voice came over the office intercom.
“Papa!”
That single word was echoed by two shrill yips from the cub’s she, and the captain hesitated. The lupar soldier whose boots I’d fetched up against, reached down and grabbed me by the collar, dragging me behind his back and out of the captain’s reach.
I stayed there, tucked between his armor and the bookcase against the wall, and I waited.
Varian dropped his hands and cleared his throat, and Mack, Case and Stepyan stood as still as stone, their muscles tense as they prepared to defend themselves.
“Papa!” the cub’s voice snapped out again, more an order than an appeal.
The wolf captain looked around as the viewscreen at the end of the office came alive. I watched as his cub moved to center himself in the screen, his she moving to stand beside him. She twined her hand through his and he looked up at his father, his small muzzle curling.
“Did you send them?” the cub demanded, and the wolf captain gave him a startled glance.
It was as if he’d never been spoken to like that before. Instead of the anger I’d expected, he smiled, looking the cub over carefully.
“They hurt you?” he asked, and the cub cocked his head.
“This crew saved me,” he told the captain, “and the Rennet’s World wolves were too busy with their other captives to reach us.”
His voice darkened. “It was only a matter of time.”
&nbs
p; “Other captives?” the captain asked.
“The insect and spider people,” the boy explained. “I do not know what they are called.”
“Vespis and Weavers.” The words were out before I could stop them, and the wolf captain turned.
Well, fuck. I didn’t bother trying to run. The door was on the opposite side of the room and the corridors full of lupar assholes. I had nowhere to go and no way to get there. At least I remembered to keep my head low as he moved the squad member aside.
“You,” he growled, and I hunched, dropping my hand to where my blaster should be.
It wasn’t, of course. The damned thing had been holstered on my armor and the damned asshole assassins had removed it with the rest.
The nearest asshole assassin shot me a dark look. Stepyan...and he wasn’t impressed. I thought about apologizing and then decided I didn’t need to.
“I’m the one who had you teleported unarmed.” That voice was Mack’s and it had the same mild tone he used when he was trying to tell me something but didn’t want to say it out loud.
Man, I wished he’d just spit it out.
“I figured you were less likely to get yourself killed if I brought you down unarmed and unarmored.”
Oh, he had, had he? I went to lift my head and look the wolf captain full in the face, only to discover Rohan perched inside my head controlling the movement centers for the muscles I needed. He snickered when he saw I’d noticed.
“Captain’s orders,” he told he, sounding far too pleased with himself.
The wolf, in the meantime, crouched down in front of me and curled his forefinger under my chin. Rohan eased up enough the wolf could move my head, but I couldn’t wrest back control.
“Pig-sucking bastard,” I muttered, and then gasped. I managed to close my eyes, but couldn’t curl up on myself as fury flashed through the wolf captain’s eyes.
Stepyan chuckled, drawing his attention.
“The crewman keeping her still forgot to close her mouth,” the assassin explained. “She was swearing at him, not you.”
The captain studied him for a long moment, and Stepyan returned his gaze, but somehow respectfully enough to not have his throat torn out. I wondered how the assassin managed it.
“Practice,” he told me, and didn’t tell me when he’d had the time or reason to put that kind of time in. ‘Not your business.”
I wanted to argue that it very much was my business, but the warmth of the wolf’s breath on my cheek had me freezing all over, again.
“You saved my son?” he asked and Rohan released me to I could nod.
“And his she?” Again, a nod seemed safest, and I felt Mack’s approval.
The captain moved his large paws over my ship-suit, searching for weapons.
“And you’re unarmed.”
At his matter-of-fact tone, my eyes snapped open. He caught the look and laughed, straightening up and going back to Mack.
“Why are you really here?”
Mack opened his mouth, and the wolf quickly intervened. “And I do not want to hear that it is to merely to tell me you have my cub and his she. Firstly, because I know you retrieved other lupar, and secondly because you would not have brought her for such a simple mission. You risk her because there is more at stake.”
He paused, and his eyes narrowed in realization. “And that is why you have not brought my cub with you. He is safer on your ship...”
If Mack was surprised by the speed at which the wolf had put two and two together to make four, he didn’t show it. Instead, he closed his mouth and ducked his head. The lupar captain moved over to his desk and sat down behind it, gesturing Mack to take the seat in front. His cub and the boy’s she watched from the screen as Varian moved to stand on his right.
The rest of the squad moved to array themselves equally on either side of the desk, including the one guarding me. Stepyan and Case moved to flank Mack, and I slowly pushed myself upright, wishing I was wearing something more between my skin and the wolves...
...and that I had my blaster and my knife and—
Stepyan tossed me the pouch containing my hacking gear. I caught it and rolled my eyes.
Thanks a lot, Steps.
He looked like he wanted to reply, but couldn’t afford to. Case frowned, but she, too, was silent.
At the same time, I realized Rohan was nowhere to be felt or sensed inside my mind. I glanced at Mack and watched him come to the same conclusion at the same time.
“Your request?” the wolf captain asked, and that lip curl was definitely a smirk.
“This world is in rebellion,” Mack told him, and the captain’s ears pricked.
“We are aware of the loss of several high-powered individuals,” the captain replied, sliding a look at Case and Stepyan, “and of the means of their demise.”
He cocked his head staring at Stepyan. “You threatened my second.”
Stepyan shrugged. “He was useful. We let him live.”
Tension rolled over the wolf captain’s body in a rustle of fur. “Indeed.”
With a flick of his eyes, he focused on Mack. “I sent him to secure the station pending your arrival. The report he sent back before embarking on the elevator was troubling. I did not know how you would reach me with my cub.”
He frowned. “I thought I asked your technician to repair the weakness that allowed your arrival.”
At his words, Varian cleared his throat. “I let them through, Captain. It was... necessary.”
“And we have repaired the access point, again,” the captain explained, looking directly at Mack.
Mack took that as his cue to explain.
“We are assisting in the realignment of this world’s management into a more acceptable form,” he began, and the wolf captain gave a growling snort.
“You have removed the only form of government they had. I do not see how they hope to reach a manageable form, now.”
Mack cocked his head. “What were your plans when you arrived on the planet?” he asked, keeping his voice mild.
The wolf captain dropped his jaw in a slight smile. “At first it was merely to retrieve our heritage and preserve the memories of the warriors of our past.”
“And once you’d seen the planet?”
The wolf’s jaw dropped lower. “We worked to claim it for ourselves.
Mack nodded. “And how far along are you?”
The wolf captain looked over at Stepyan and Case. “Once we take out the last of the current lords’ security forces, we’ll call the rest of the fleet.”
“You sure you don’t want to call them in as reinforcements, now?”
The wolf captain leaned back carefully studying Mack’s face.
“I will consider it. Do you have the number of arach?”
Mack shook his head. “No. I only have our memories. I can have our ship run the footage of what we saw while visiting with Barangail?”
The captain waved his hand, and the view screen flickered to life.
When it cleared, Tens’s face appeared. It was a comical mixture of consternation and relief. “Barangail’s on the move,” he started. No preamble. No ‘how’s your father?’, just right into it.
The wolf captain’s ears pricked. “We need those coordinates. He is the last we need to take down in order to assert our claim on this sector.”
Tens shot Mack a questioning glance. On catching Mack’s subtle nod, he shrank his window and brought up a map of the city.
“So much for needing a fortress,” I muttered.
“Man has no sense of self-preservation,” Mack observed. And I had to agree. Tens, not so much.
“Man had no choice,” he informed us. “Rebels took out his shuttle flight before it cleared atmo so his only chance of reaching the beanstalk was to land it as close to the city center as he could.”
“And then what?”
“Well, as soon as he worked out he wasn’t going to reach the stalk, he decided to take out the rebel leadership as fast as he c
ould.” He cast a glance at Varian. “You must have had a weak point in your network, because he made a beeline for the command center.”
Varian stiffened and glanced at his pack leader. The Hunt Master met his eye and rose from his chair. Looking back at Tens, he growled, “We need teleportation assistance.”
Again, Mack and Tens exchanged glances, and again Mack nodded.
“Granted.”
The Hunt Master looked at Mack. “No bargaining?”
“We offer our assistance,” Mack told him, forestalling any objection by holding up a hand. “You may not need it, but there are others who wish to help.”
Tens switched cameras so the wolf captain could see the force we’d assembled. They were gathered on the dock in front of the Shady Marie.
“They were also prisoners on Rennet’s World,” Mack informed him, “but they all offered their assistance against the arach among you.”
The wolf captain studied them. “There are vespis and weavers among them,” he noted, his voice holding a note of surprise despite what his cub had revealed.
“We rescued them at the same time as we retrieved your pup,” Mack said, and the wolf leader’s eyes narrowed.
"That mission was supposed to have one purpose only,” he rumbled.
“We weren’t going to leave them behind,” Mack declared stepping closer so that it was obvious their heights matched.
The Hunt Master’s gaze dropped from Mack’s face to mine. “Who wasn’t going to leave them behind?” he demanded, and I’d stepped up to him faster than Rohan could lock me down.
“I wasn’t,” I snarled back, “just like I wasn’t going to leave any of the other cubs and children behind when I found yours.”
His ears cocked in surprise. “There were others?”
“Yeah,” I told him. “You wanna see?”
This time he flicked a glance from me to Mack and then to Tens. “I would very much like to see those my son has brought under his protection.”
So, he really was good at guessing. Mack nodded, and Tens shifted cameras once more, this time showing the captain’s son supervising the other youngsters at lunch, his she at his side. Every now and then, his hand shifted to stroke the head of the big black dog walking beside him—and, every now and then, Cascade would lick his face.
Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 Page 23
