by Fel Fern
“Ryan?” Nathan asked, looking into his eyes. “I’m sorry for not telling you earlier. I never got the chance.”
Too pissed off to speak, Ryan stared at the bars preventing them from returning to the outside world. If they were back in the cabin, he would have shifted and gone for a run to cool off his head. They didn’t have that luxury. Nathan didn’t betray him, and Ryan was at fault too, for falling into Kayden and Tanner’s trap.
Desperation moved people into doing stupid things, he knew that now. Besides, Sergio had reached out to Nathan at the last minute. They left Blue River in a hurry, intent on going through with Kayden and Tanner’s foolish plans. If Nathan did tell him, Ryan knew he wouldn’t have listened anyway, and Nathan would have still followed him to whatever end.
Ryan was the lucky one. For some strange reason, fate decided to give him such a wonderful and caring mate. Fuck, but he nearly screwed it all up.
“I’m still mad at you,” Ryan finally said.
Nathan wrapped his arms around him and sniffed. Ryan couldn’t help but pull his mate into a hug.
“No more lies between us,” Ryan told Nathan.
Nathan sighed and glared at him. “This relationship thing works both ways too. We make the important decisions together.”
Ryan cracked a smile. “I see that now. If we somehow manage to get ourselves out of here—”
“We will. So will Allie and the others,” Nathan injected, but his mate was wise enough to keep his voice down.
“Do you trust Sergio that much?” he asked.
“It’s not just Sergio. Noel and Kian will be there too.”
“That’s true.” Ryan thought about his brother and how Noel would react. The first thing Noel would probably do was punch the living daylights out of him, but Ryan didn’t care if it meant breaking out of this miserable hellhole. Besides, he didn’t think Allie could last any longer. They needed to get her to a healer too, one that healed both bodies and minds.
What the two guards said bothered him immensely though. Kayden and Tanner seemed to have one piece of information right at least. The scientists planned on conducting some experiment on Allie and her cell mates. That didn’t sit well with Ryan.
“We need to sit tight. I don’t know what the others planned, but they’ll come,” Nathan said in a reassuring voice.
“If they take Allie, all bets are off,” Ryan said quietly.
“Okay,” Nathan said. “I understand.”
Chapter Ten
They said nothing for a few seconds. Ryan didn’t know how much time had passed. There were no windows in their cells or the other cells from the look of it. Well, he supposed they were underground after all. What a horrible place to die in, but Nathan was right. He couldn’t lose hope because Noel was coming with allies.
Ryan didn’t think sleep would come, but exhaustion and hunger eventually ate at his defenses. He fell asleep next to Nathan. Ryan dreamed of good things, of not lying next to Nathan’s warm body in some dirty cell, but in a comfy king-size bed. It would be their bed and in their home. Fuck, Ryan had plenty to make up for, a lot of things to live for.
Before, his sole priority was to care for his family and his pack. He would have died in his miserable cell, spirit too broken to fix without Nathan. Now, things were different. Ryan had to live for Nathan. He’d help get Allie and the others out. Once they were back in the daylight world, he’d begin building a future with Nathan, one filled with love and laughter, not darkness and misery.
The things the guards hinted at, at what the scientists did to mated pairs, made him seethe in fury. Mating was sacred among shifters. To use their special bonds for some science experiment, to take it apart and see how it worked, didn’t help his temper.
The sound of footsteps woke him. Ryan opened his eyes to slits and found Nathan was still curled up beside him. There were four guards, including the same two who patrolled the corridors earlier. They had tasers out and the paralyzing darts, but the captives they dragged out no longer had any fight in them.
Seeing Allie, he rose to his feet. He felt Nathan wake and groggily stand.
“Where are you taking them?” Ryan demanded. Screw staying quiet and obedient. He gripped the bars of the cell and repeated the question.
“Shut the fuck up and mind your own business animal,” warned one of the guards.
In the opposite cell, he noticed Kayden and Tanner were up as well. Fear and anger were on the brothers’ faces, and he understood why. Along with Allie, Ken was being hauled to his feet.
“What are you going to do with them?” Tanner demanded.
“You shut up too,” said another guard.
“Fresh meat,” muttered another, “can’t keep their mouths shut.”
“That’s my brother,” Kayden yelled.
“Oh yeah? Boo hoo. None of us care. Don’t worry, you’re going to join him soon. The scientists are eager to test their latest batch on these miserable souls.”
“What’s taking so long?” a reedy new voice added, and Ryan saw a thin and balding man in a white lab coat. Was this one of the scientists who worked for Alpine Industries, the bane of their existence?
“Just a couple of mouthy animals, Dr. Williams,” said one of the guards.
“Hurry it up. We don’t have all day. We have a couple of experiments to run,” said Williams.
Ryan ground his teeth and tried the bars. Nothing happened. The metal wouldn’t budge and pain seared his palms lightly, probably because of the silver mixed in.
“You want to test these drugs on them? These half-dead shifters won’t give you any good results, will they?” Nathan finally spoke up beside his shoulder.
Ryan shot Nathan a warning look. What was his mate doing?
“You’re a lively specimen,” Williams observed, looking Nathan up and down. The bastard gave Ryan a contemplative look. “I’ve heard we’ve caught a mated pair. How wonderful. You both look like you’ll last longer than the rest.”
Ryan’s stomach twisted into knots at the mention of others. How many mated shifters did these fuckers cut up open? At least he finally caught onto Nathan’s plan. Nathan was clearly shifting the scientist’s attention from Allie and the others to them, but was that such a hot idea? He sure as hell didn’t want to lose Nathan either, but if Noel and Sergio were coming, all they had to do was hold on until the cavalry arrived, right?
He glared at the scientist. Ryan knew what role he needed to play. If they were going for the good shifter bad shifter act, then he had to play his role of protective mate to the hilt.
“Take us. Use us instead of them.”
“Like hell,” Ryan growled out the words. Part of him refused to let Nathan go under the knife, but what choice did they have.
“Hmm, what are these other captives to you?” Williams asked.
“Does it matter? Some of them are friends, brothers, sisters, lovers and family,” Nathan stated.
“Noble wolf. Death comes to all of us in the end,” Williams said with a chuckle.
There was more than scientific curiosity behind those horned-rimmed glasses, Ryan realized. Cruelty lingered there, and a sadistic streak. This fucker enjoyed ripping and cutting into another human being.
“A mated pair versus half a dozen shifter doesn’t balance the odds,” Williams mused. Ryan’s heart sank. Did Nathan’s plan fail?
“Take us too,” Tanner surprised them all by saying.
The scientist looked to the brothers. “You’re not a mated pair.”
“We’re brothers and both hawk shifters. We also share a special bond. Granted it's not as special as mate bond, but we can communicate mentally, making us different from normal shifter siblings,” Kayden insisted.
Whether that was a lie or truth, Ryan was uncertain. For a second, he met Kayden’s gaze across the bars. They came to a silent understanding. Despite Ryan not forgiving the brothers, they understood each other perfectly. They were doing this for Ken and Allie.
“Don’t
do it, Kayden,” whispered Ken. It was the first lively sign Ryan saw from the thin hawk shifter.
Allie’s panicked gaze met his and he knew she didn’t want him to do this for her sake either. He shook his head. Ryan wished he could tell her everything would be all right, that they had a plan, but he wasn’t certain himself.
Williams considered Kayden for a moment. “Very well. It matters little to us. Eventually, we’ll use up our stable of specimens. Guards, put the captives back and take these four instead.”
Nathan gripped his hand and Ryan gave him a look he hoped was convincing. They would get the fuck out of here even if it cost him his life. Ryan didn’t fight the guards as they opened his cell and nudged Nathan and him out. Kayden and Tanner were brought out as well. Dr. Williams went on ahead.
They were marched past the corridor and into a room. They passed more cells, and Ryan noticed each cell was filled with shifters. Most looked like they’d been there longer than others and they sat around their cells with hopeless eyes.
Even if Kayden and Tanner never betrayed them, how could they get Allie and Ken out of here and leave all the others behind?
For the first time in his life, Ryan prayed to the God he never believed in and hoped his brother would arrive in time.
* * * *
It felt like an eternity as they passed all the holding cells and were marched up a flight of stairs. Nathan shivered. If Kian and his old pack weren’t taken in by the Darkfall wolves, they would be shoved in one of these cells and left to rot. Not that his situation was any better, but he knew he had to act.
He hadn’t known Ryan that long, but he knew enough. His brave and powerful mate was a protector. If Allie died, that would be a blow Ryan would never recover from, and Nathan couldn’t have that. If possible, he wanted everyone to live past this. Baiting Williams was a risk they had to take, but he was regretting it somewhat now. What if Sergio arrived too late? Would Nathan and Ryan never see tomorrow?
Past the stairs, they passed white-washed walls and cheerless concrete floors and ceiling. They passed several rooms, but the glass walls showed Nathan the horrors they contained. Shifters were restrained, prodded and shoved inside giant tanks. It all looked like scenes from some horror sci-fi movie, but the screams were real enough.
He halted once or twice, making the guards shove their tasers at him, but no electricity zapped through his skin. He guessed they didn’t want to damage him before the scientists got to work on him. Finally, they stopped in front of a door that simply read Product Testing Room.
They were ushered in and a chill formed over Nathan’s skin. The room didn’t look as monstrous as the others. Four scientists were inside, and they all looked busy, reading off charts or looking at tablets. Half of the room contained equipment while the other half was dominated by tiled walls and floors. Chains hung from the ceiling of that half. There was a drain on the left side of the floor where Nathan guessed blood was washed off.
“Ah good, these the subjects, Reeve?” asked one of the scientists, who didn’t even look up from his computer screen.
“I thought Dr. Williams mentioned a disposable batch, these subjects look healthy,” another commented.
“These are volunteers,” Reeve answered. Reeve said the word “volunteers” as if it disgusted him.
“It matters little. We’ll do this one by one. Take the first one,” said the scientist dismissively.
“Which of you martyrs want to go first?” one of his guards hissed in their ears.
Noticing Ryan was about to step up, Nathan nearly lost his cool composure, but Kayden beat Nathan to it.
“I’ll go,” Kayden said, looking at both Ryan and Nathan. “I’m sorry for deceiving you. That doesn’t mean much, but if you were in our shoes, you’d do the same.”
“Like hell I would,” Ryan replied tersely.
“Shut up,” the guard next to him commanded, using his taser for emphasis.
Ryan grunted when the guard shoved the taser up his ribs, but Ryan didn’t fall unconsciousness or was rendered paralyzed. It took more to take a huge shifter like his mate down. Nathan silently swore under his breath. He didn’t like seeing his mate hurt, but it was his fault they were here.
He thought satisfaction would fill him seeing the man who betrayed them in pain. It didn’t. Seeing Kayden, any shifter, restrained like an animal and injected with a clear fluid grated on his nerves. To his right, Tanner fought and screamed, but that only earned Tanner more blows and bruises. The guards had to taser him twice until Tanner hung limply in their arms.
The first seconds, nothing happened. Kayden hung limp in his restraints.
“Well, that’s disappointing,” muttered one of the scientists.
Nathan didn’t bother reading the guy’s name tag. Names wouldn’t help because each person who worked in this lab was a monster. Tremors ran up and down Kayden’s body and Kayden suddenly jerked. A scream of agony tore from Kayden’s lips, making the scientist nod in satisfaction.
“That one next,” said the scientist, pointing past him and to Ryan.
“No!” Nathan protested, groaning when a guard slammed a fist into his ribs.
Ryan didn’t struggle. The guards chained his mate up next to Kayden, stretching Ryan’s massive frame up. The restraints would hold, Nathan knew. Alpine Industries ran their operations like an efficient factory, making sure no hitch would go in place.
Nathan tensed when the same scientist took a syringe from a case. There were numbers labeled on each of them. Nathan met Ryan’s gaze in misery. God. He never wanted this to happen. Kayden hadn’t stopped screaming, and Nathan didn’t think he could stand watching the same thing happen to Ryan.
“Get the fuck away from him,” Nathan shouted.
“I said keep your mouth shut.” The guard beside him whacked him with his baton, driving the air from his lungs. Nathan heaved, eyes watering as he fell on his knees.
“Stay down, dog,” said the guard.
Ryan growled in his restraints. To his horror, Nathan watched the scientist push the needle into the side of Ryan’s neck.
Ryan’s eyes bulged, and he grew deathly silent. His heart hammered against his chest. Nathan instantly sought Ryan’s wolf using their metaphysical mate bonds and found Ryan’s wolf out of control. The dominant beast surged inside Ryan, eager to be free and Nathan understood they were forcing the change on his mate.
Nathan desperately held on to his mate’s wolf. It was hard. Ryan’s beast bucked and fought, but in the end, the soothing energy Nathan sent toward Ryan through their bonds won. With a tired snarl, Ryan’s head drooped.
“Interesting,” murmured the scientist, fingers excitedly tapping on his tablet. “Bring this one’s mate here.”
Nathan was dragged to his feet, and Nathan concluded the scientists were most likely going to test the limits of their mating bond. Did they understand how it hurt more seeing his mate suffer than receiving pain himself?
It was then the alarms began to sound. Outside the room, Nathan heard the distinctive sound of a gunshot followed by snarls and howls of fury. Nathan knew Sergio didn’t just come to the fight with claws and teeth. The Alpha of the Darkfall pack would use anything, including heavy ammunition to free the captives and take down this facility.
“What are you grinning at?” questioned the guard holding him. The man shook him. “What do you know?”
Tanner used that moment to elbow the guard in the ribs, making the guard drop the gun. Nathan easily grabbed the gun with both hands. His wrists might be still restrained, but he knew how to use a gun.
Once he found the trigger, he didn’t hesitate. He shot at the guard holding Tanner, making the man yelp. Trusting Tanner would know what to do, Nathan used the gun on his own guard, shooting the man in the leg. Once the guard fell down, Nathan fumbled for the keys. Finding it on the guard’s belt, he freed his wrist.
“Evacuate the testing room immediately,” one of the guards was telling the scientists.
&n
bsp; “We’re not done. I’m sure it’s only a minor incident,” said the scientist who inserted the syringe into Ryan and Kayden.
Minor incident his ass. Nathan shot him next, hitting the man squarely in the left leg. The scientist yelped, and Nathan hurried to his mate.
“Don’t miss, baby,” Ryan had the gall to tease.
“You’re clearly fine,” Nathan muttered.
That wasn’t exactly true. He could sense Ryan’s beast lingering on the surface, eager to be set free. This time, Nathan wouldn’t stop Ryan. Aiming the gun at the restraints on Ryan’s head, Nathan fired. He missed the first time but managed on the third time. Freed, Ryan let out a howl of triumph and shifted. The other guards were fumbling for their guns, but a werewolf shot through the door and a second followed.
Outside the glass windows, chaos reigned. More wolves poured through the corridor, followed by avian shifters and other breeds. From the corner of his eye, he saw Tanner helping his still screaming brother down.
He had no clue what the scientists injected into Kayden, but despite their betrayal, he hoped Kayden would recover. One of the wolves who came to their rescue shifted, revealing a Darkfall wolf he recognized.
“Nathan, thank God we got to you,” Raul said.
Ryan was by his side and snarled at Raul in warning. Nathan gripped a handful of his mate’s fur and told Ryan, “He’s a friend. Raul’s mated to one of my good friends, Logan.”
Ryan calmed down at that. Raul chuckled.
“Glad to see you’ve found your mate. We don’t have time. The human bastards set the base to blow in case they were infiltrated. Get the fuck out of here,” Raul suggested.
“We can’t yet. We need to get a couple of captives out.”
“The reports were unclear. How many are there?”
“I don’t know the numbers, but from what I saw, we must have passed by at least a hundred captives,” Nathan replied.
At that, Raul swore.
“Lead us,” Raul said.
“Wait, we’re coming with you,” Tanner interjected.
