Shifter Planet: The Return
Page 31
And he lost all reason.
Launching himself through the open window, he roared with a fury that had every shifter in the city jolting up in alarm.
The coward screamed and ran for the door to the stairs, dropping the gun in his terror, his cries reaching a fever pitch when Rhodry’s paw caught the back of his leg, ripping into muscle and tendon. The man went down, and a rumbling cough sounded from Rhodry’s throat, the satisfied growl of a hunter. The cat liked nothing better than to toy with its prey before the kill. He pounced again as Wolfrum crawled to the door, the man sobbing in relief when he managed to drag it open, only to shriek in agony as Rhodry’s claws raked down his back and buttocks, digging into flesh. He prowled closer, ignoring Wolfrum’s pleas, bunching his muscles for a final attack, and… Amanda’s soft cry had him spinning in mid-leap, the need to respond to her pain more powerful than any instinct he possessed. This was his mate, his sons. Nothing was more important than that.
He shifted to human, aware of Wolfrum falling down the stairs in a bid to escape, but he didn’t care. Wolfrum could wait. He wouldn’t make it off the block, much less the planet. Every shifter in the city was closing on his location. Harp held no sanctuary for Guy Wolfrum.
Rhodry spun in an instant, then raced over and skidded to his knees next to Amanda, wrapping her in his arms. “What do I do?” he asked, fear tinging the question with the growl of a cat.
It was Elise who answered. “Can you carry her to”—Rhodry gathered Amanda in his arms and stood—“the bedroom, please. I’ll get my bag.”
“It’s the babies,” Amanda said softly.
His lungs seized up as every breath in his body fled. It was too soon. Shifter babies matured early, but not this early. If she went into labor now… He held her closer, willing his body to lend her some of his strength, to take the pain. And he forced himself to keep moving, to carry her into their bedroom with the big bed where they’d made love just a few hours earlier because Amanda had joked that sex was good for her.
Rhodry knew about birthing. He’d waited plenty of times while cousins or cousins’ wives gave birth, standing down the hall or in the garden while the woman cried in pain. But those were nothing compared to this. This was Amanda, the woman who made his heart beat, who put the breath in his lungs.
“I’m okay,” she reassured him, touching his cheek as he laid her down on the bed. “Don’t cry.” He stared as her fingers came away wet, aware for the first time that he’d been crying. “We’re okay. Your sons were just angry.”
Rhodry froze, then placed a hand over her abdomen and listened. The rush of relief was so strong that he nearly started crying again. He looked up and met Amanda’s smile with a grin of his own. “They’re pissed as hell.”
She nodded. “They knew you were coming and wanted you to hurry.” She laughed just as Elise rushed into the room.
“I’ll examine her,” Elise was saying briskly. “You go…” Her voice trailed off as she registered her daughter’s laughter and the smiles all around.
“It’s okay, Mom,” Amanda said, sounding tired but nothing else. “It was my back, not the babies.”
Elise stared then seemed to sag in place. But only for an instant. Her head came up, and she said, “We need to get your doctor over here. You,” she said, pointing at Rhodry, “put on some damn clothes.”
Rhodry bit back a grin. He was naked, but then, shifters were always naked. He glanced down and met his wife’s laughing eyes. The laughter disappeared a moment later. “You need to check on Cullen,” she said urgently. “Wolfrum must have tranqed him. You know he’d never have let that bastard up here, otherwise.”
Rhodry stood at once. “I’ll be right back, acushla.” Striding to the closet, he yanked on a pair of pants. Chances were he’d be shifting in the next few minutes, but if Cullen was injured, he might be concealed on a side street, and nudity was frowned on in the city. He’d no sooner hit the street below the stairs than a familiar scent hit his awareness, his nostrils flaring to take it in and “taste” it. He relaxed minutely, recognizing Cullen, but then he frowned. His cousin’s scent wasn’t quite right. He rolled it over the back of his throat. Amanda was right. Cullen had been dosed with something.
A moment later, he found him, just beginning to sit up, one hand to his head. Rhodry felt Cullen’s energy change and knew he was about to shift. He knelt next to him quickly.
“Amanda’s fine,” he said immediately, knowing what was driving his cousin. “And Wolfrum’s got every shifter in the city on his tail by now.”
“I’m sorry, Rhodi. No excuse. But that bastard came around the corner shooting two guns at once. He hit me with a half dozen tranqs. You’re sure about Amanda and the twins?”
Rhodry grinned. “Amanda’s pissed and my sons want to join the hunt.”
“Tell the bairns the hunt is on, and they’ve got company,” a third voice chimed in.
Rhodry didn’t even turn around at the sound of his cousin Gabriel’s voice.
“The Devlins are here now,” Gabe said. “We’ll trap the bastard, don’t worry.”
“I wasn’t,” Rhodry said, turning. “I’ll be staying here with Amanda.”
“Understood. What do we do with the coward when we catch him?”
“Keep him alive. After today, he belongs to the clans, but I’ll let Cristobal reach that decision on his own.”
Gabriel snorted a harsh laugh. “He damn well will. I’ll keep you informed.”
Rhodry scented the change in the air as Cullen shifted, heard the nearly silent slide of giant paws as his cousin stood. He looked up and met Rhodry’s eyes, then raced to follow Gabe down the street. The hunt was well and truly on.
Chapter Nineteen
Somewhere in the Green, near Ciudad Vaquero, “the city”
Aidan ran without thinking. It was second nature for him to move swiftly through the Green, his body swerving and jumping without conscious thought. He could have traveled much faster on his own, but he had to admit that Rachel was far more skilled, more determined than he’d expected, even after all they’d survived together. He’d set a punishing pace and had kept waiting for her to demand he slow down. But she was tough. She’d not only kept up, she’d done it without a single complaint, not even on the two occasions when she’d fallen and sustained significant injuries. She’d simply bandaged her bloody leg the first time and insisted they keep going. The second had been an injury to her hand that he was sure included a broken finger or two. She’d barely slowed, binding them together on the move and signaling him to keep running, that she’d catch up. He hadn’t, of course. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight, and not only because Cristobal wanted her to testify. He’d told her she mattered to him, and she did. More than he wanted to admit.
But now…the closer they got to the city, the more convinced he was that something major was going on. The trees were no longer blaring an alarm, the way they had earlier. They were whispering of a hunt, instead. All around him, the smaller animals were digging deep into their burrows, and even the predators—the ones who feared only each other and shifters—were racing for cover.
He raised the “volume” on the part of his shifter brain that heard the song of the Green. Most times it was background noise, a steady hum of information that his brain processed without conscious input from him. But now, he was listening, because there was a feeling to the Green, a sense of vengeance that he’d never before detected.
Shifters were moving through the trees, herding prey before them, and their hunt was heading directly for him and Rachel.
…
Rachel raced next to Aidan, his arm around her waist lending her speed like she’d never have managed on her own. It was terrifying. It was exhilarating. Turning and weaving to avoid trees, rocks, vines, and every other kind of obstacle in a forest filled with them. Aidan seemed to have a sixth sense, flowing around and through the dense growth like those rapids she’d seen foaming around rocks in the Leeward Stream.
“Rachel.”
His voice broke into the almost meditative state she’d adopted to keep up with him. She braked to a stop, and stood there, swaying, as she blinked up at him, forcing her brain into this new mode.
“You okay?” he asked and took hold of her upper arm to steady her.
She nodded, then licked her lips, and said, “Is something wrong?”
He pulled her off the animal trail they’d been following and under the branches of one of the biggest trees she’d ever seen, even in the Green. The branches hung low to the ground, doing a good job of hiding them from anything looking down from above, but still left them a good line-of-sight all around. She’d noticed that about Aidan. He always thought tactically.
Deep in her heart of hearts, she wondered if she was nothing more than one of those tactical considerations. Keep the Earth girl happy. Keep her satisfied and sated. She’s a witness to Wolfrum’s atrocity, to the fleet’s immorality—at least the part of fleet that funded Wolfrum. Assuming they had. But if not them, then some other Earth-based organization. Either way, it was in Harp’s interest for Aidan to gain her loyalty, even her love, so she’d testify on Harp’s behalf.
The bitch of it was… Harp already had her loyalty and her love. And so did Aidan. And she was a fool.
“Are you listening?” Aidan’s voice betrayed impatience, which told her she’d zoned out again.
“Yes, sorry. I’m listening.”
He studied her for a moment, staring into her eyes. “We’re almost there,” he assured her. “Only a little farther.”
She nodded. She already knew they were close.
“But something’s going on,” he continued. “I know this part of the Green nearly as well as the forests of Clanhome. And something’s not right. Or it’s very right. I can’t tell from down here. I need to go up, and you need to hide.”
“Hide from what?”
“That’s what I don’t know. You can shelter here on the ground or climb up a ways. Either way, you’ll be safe, because it seems every animal in the forest is running away from whatever’s coming.”
Aidan looked like he expected her to argue, but he should have known better by now. These were his forests. If he said there was danger coming, she believed him. “I’ll climb,” she said and skimmed her hand up the thick trunk, looking for fingerholds.
“Let’s do this the easy way.” He cupped his hands and held them low, offering her a boost into the tree. Without a word, she put her foot in his hands and her hand on his shoulder, barely reacting when he tossed her up through the lower branches to a sturdy, straight roosting spot.
She looked down in time to catch his shift. No matter how many times she saw it, it was still beautiful and magical, and faster than her eye could see. One moment there was a gorgeous man, and the next a magnificent cat was leaping through the branches to land next to her, his golden eyes revealing the sheer joy he felt in this form, the freedom. Seeing it, she felt guilty that he’d had to remain human to get them both to the city.
She stroked a hand over his big head, digging her fingers into his fur like she knew he liked. Aidan twisted his head to push into her hand and made a short, purring noise.
She laughed. “Go,” she told him. “I’ll wait here.”
He lifted his head to rub his cheek against hers, whiskers scratching her skin, and then he was gone, winding up into the tree so easily, it was as if he had no bones to contend with.
Rachel sighed and settled as comfortably as she could in the vee of the big tree, using her pack as a pillow. Another thing she’d learned in her years of wilderness experience—you had to take your sleep when you could. If Aidan said it was safe, then it was safe. She closed her eyes and slept.
…
Aidan climbed as high as he dared, which was pretty damn high. He and Rhodry had always loved racing through the trees, competing against each other. He slowed and finally stopped, reminding himself that this wasn’t a fun romp through the Green. Lifting his nose to the wind, he drew in the scents of the forest, turning his head when he caught one that was very familiar. Cullen. He immediately set off along the tree road on an intersect course.
As he drew closer, he wasn’t surprised to detect several other familiar scents. Gabriel, Santino, and the rest of the cousins had arrived, but what were they doing out here? He gave a coughing roar to let them know he was coming in, then dropped down to find Cullen already shifted and waiting for him on the ground with the fierce gleam of rage in his eye.
Something had happened to bring that furious spark to his cousin’s eye. Cullen was one of the biggest Devlins, but he was an amiable man, and most people never saw the hunter side of him. In point of fact, Cullen’s hunting skills rivaled even those of Rhodry and Aidan. Once the scent of prey was in his nose, he was deadly and single-minded in pursuit.
Aidan made the final jump, shifting between the tree and the ground. “Cousin,” he said, clasping arms with Cullen. “Talk to me.”
“We’re after Wolfrum. We’ve got him corralled, and we’re just toying with him now. Wearing him out before the game really starts.”
“Amanda?” he asked sharply.
“Fine, though the bastard went after her and the twins.” He spat disgustedly. “What kind of man does that?”
“Not much of one. Where’s Rhodry?” Aidan was surprised his cousin wasn’t leading the hunt.
“With Amanda. Our newest cousins didn’t like Wolfrum scaring their mum. They got a mite pissed off and gave her a fright. But she’s all right now.”
“Good for them. Let’s bring them a reward, shall we?” he added grimly.
Cullen nodded. “That’s the plan. You want in?”
“Oh hell, yes. Those bastards locked me in a cage.”
Cullen grinned. “Heard they had plans for you. Glad to see you in once piece.”
“Very funny,” Aidan grumbled. “Listen, I’ve got Rachel waiting about a mile in—”
“Rachel. That’s the Earther who got you out of that cage?”
“The same. She’s also our best witness against Wolfrum, proof of what he intended. Let’s drive him in her direction, let her talk to him, make him think he has a chance. We still don’t know his escape route. Maybe he’ll let it slip.”
“You willing to risk her life on that? If he knows she betrayed him…”
“He’ll never get close to her,” Aidan growled. “But it’s her decision. Keep driving him the way you are. I’ll talk to Rachel. If she wants a chat, she’ll be in his way. If not, then the rest of us will play.”
…
Rachel woke all at once, her heart pounding as instinct kicked in, her brain trying to process what had woken her. Where was the danger? The tree was trembling beneath her, as if some enormous creature had… Well, fuck.
She twisted around to glare at Aidan, who was sitting on the branch next to her like a giant house cat, licking his paws one at a time. “That wasn’t funny.”
He shifted in a whirlwind of gold sparks. “Better me than a banshee scout, or worse. Sleeping like that…it wasn’t smart.”
She wanted to tell him where he could shove his lectures on smart. She’d woken, hadn’t she? But she wasn’t going to argue. He’d only win. “What’d you find out?” she asked. “Who’s out there?”
“Half of clan Devlin, for one. Wolfrum went after Amanda—
”
“Is she hurt?” Rachel demanded.
“She’s fine, and Wolfrum’s on the run.”
“I’m surprised he survived.”
“Rhodry was more worried about Amanda than chasing Wolfrum, but the cousins arrived soon after, and they’ve been on the bastard’s tail for the better part of two days. They’ve been holding back, having some fun with him, but also hoping to discover his escape plan. He has to have one. If we can learn that, we might know who paid him.”
“The shuttle my crew arrived in was FTL capable,” she said. “So was the second one. If they’d managed to capture any shifters, they could have simply left the planet the same way they arrived. Although, my guess is they were supposed to have rendezvoused with a faster transport back to Earth, or whatever their final destination.”
“Yeah, but we now know that Wolfrum wasn’t on either of those two ships.”
She frowned. “If things had gone smoothly, no one would have known he was involved. There’d have been no reason for him to leave Harp.”
“Not right away, maybe. But he couldn’t enjoy his millions if he was stuck on Harp.”
Rachel thought about it. “Even if he has an ally off-planet, his plan failed. I can’t see anyone risking much to save him. Certainly not right away. So, he has to hide, wait, and hope his ally still sees enough of a future here to bail his ass out. But the Green isn’t a very friendly hiding place. So, where does he go in the meantime?”
“That’s where you come in.”
“Me?”
“Wolfrum has to know he’s being hunted, but he doesn’t know he’s already caught. If one of us confronts him, he’ll know that his scheme—hell, his life—is over. But if you show up instead…”
“He might think I’m running from the same fuck-up, maybe even looking for him. You think he’ll talk to me.”
Aidan gave a little shrug. “It’s worth a shot. But only if you’re willing. And you won’t be alone. We’ll all be there. He just won’t know it.”
Rachel stood on the broad branch, pulling her backpack up with her. It was too far to the ground to jump. She’d have to climb. She checked her weapons, and turned to begin her descent, but Aidan’s hand on her arm stopped her.