Breaking Free

by Layla Nash

  I took a deep breath. I could just lie to him and promise the world, then go back to my life as hyena queen and forget all about him. We would eventually defeat BadCreek and free whoever remained in the compound, with or without the djinn. But... I hesitated. He was just as stuck as the women and children, and God only knew how long Iskander had been imprisoned by various people bent on taking advantage of him. He’d been waiting to be freed longer than anyone, it seemed. Just a short while in that gray place, no more than an hour, was enough to make me crazy. I couldn’t walk away from him being stuck there for another eternity.

  I nodded and stuck out my hand. “Okay. Send me back and I’ll figure out what happened to Ray. I’ll try to kill him, since I’ve been meaning to do that anyway, but if he’s freed and tries to use that last wish to kill the rest of us, try not to do it, okay? Once he’s out of the way, I’ll free you. Then we’re done and all the debts are repaid.”

  Iskander smiled, a disconcerting display of teeth for a man who looked like a beach bum, and leaned forward to shake my hand. Sparks jumped from his skin to mine, and I shivered. “Deal.”

  Magic billowed up with the smoke, and I sneezed. Before I could do or say anything, the freezing pressure that I remembered from before surrounded me and I couldn’t breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped it all wasn’t some horrible joke and I’d end up in the middle of a BadCreek lab.

  Chapter Twelve

  Nick

  Nick hunted. He chased through the city and the outlying areas, constantly searching. He found traces of her in the forest near BadCreek’s compound, but they quickly faded into nothingness. There were other scents mingled with hers, something older like sandalwood, and they just drove him crazier as he searched.

  He knew she still lived, since he didn’t feel like dying himself, but something was very, very wrong. He felt like one of his limbs had been amputated, while the rest of him was left to carry on. Nick remained in his wolf form, though the wolf himself remained close to taking control, and he only shifted back to human once.

  Kara and Owen found him in the dark part of the forest, far from any roads and humans, When his sister wanted to talk, Nick couldn’t refuse her. At least for the time being. If he never found Lacey... Well. His human side wouldn’t survive long.

  So he shifted back to human to face her, taking the sweatpants Owen threw him so he wasn’t completely naked. Nick couldn’t get his teeth to fit in his mouth right, so the words came out as mangled as his soul felt. “I’m not going back until I find her.”

  “I know,” Kara said. She didn’t get any closer, and for the first time in a very long time, his sister feared him. It broke Nick’s heart the rest of the way, but there wasn’t much he could do about it until he found Lacey. Owen kept himself half in front of Kara, guarding her from the crazy wolf, and Kara leaned against him as she watched her brother. “We just wanted to tell you there’s a cabin near here where you can stay. There’s not much, but you won’t have to sleep rough. And if—I mean, when—you find her, you can take her there to rest.”

  Nick nodded, though he didn’t like the “if” Kara started to say. “Thank you.”

  Owen watched him closely as they started to walk, Kara leading the way, and Nick struggled to stay upright in his human form. He wanted four paws again. He might be missing her scent or a trace of movement that would reveal where Lacey hid. The bear grumbled and trudged along through the tangled undergrowth, periodically lifting his mate to carry her over the rough patches, and eventually glanced at Nick. “Have you found any hint of her?”

  “Not yet, but she’s here. I know she’s here.” Nick felt hopeless in the forest. The farther he got from the trees, the worse he felt. She had to be nearby.

  Kara took a deep breath, squeezing her mate’s hand as she watched Nick. “The hyenas stopped searching. They’ve stopped going after BadCreek. There was something of a... of a coup, I think. We don’t know a lot of what’s going on inside the den, but the wolves are picking up bits and pieces.”

  “Lacey will sort it out,” Nick said. He nodded to himself, clenching his fists and ignoring the burn of cuts and scratches up and down his legs as he got caught in a bramble bush. “Once she’s back, everything will go back to normal.”

  Kara and Owen traded glances, then Kara nodded back. “Right. I’m sure it’s just—they’re just trying to figure out how to handle things until she comes back.”

  They walked in silence for a while, until Owen gestured at a mess of branches and moss and leaves piled around a dead tree. “There it is.”

  Nick blinked as he looked at it; he’d run past that spot multiple times and never stopped to look twice. “Huh.”

  “It’s good, right?” Kara smiled as she showed him the door and a small outhouse around the back, though she didn’t go inside with him after Owen caught her arm. Just in case the crazy wolf felt cornered and lashed out. Nick bristled at the implication that he’d hurt his own sister, but he didn’t feel like fighting a bear, so he let it slide.

  The inside of the cabin was small, dominated by a bed and a small wood-burning stove, and a few shelves of canned food. A rain barrel outside provided water inside via a small tap. Nick frowned in appreciation for the craftsmanship throughout, and ducked into the watery sunlight to nod at the others. “Thank you. This will work.”

  “There are medical supplies under the bed,” Kara said. “And extra sweats and towels in the waterproof bag on the top shelf. The food should last you a while, if you can also hunt. Just…take your time, Nick.”

  But there was an unspoken request, and a hint of tears in her eyes. Nick attempted to smile, though only half his mouth worked. “How long until Kaiser decides to put me down?”

  Kara started to object, but Owen squeezed her to his side and answered anyway. “You’ve got a couple weeks. Just stay out here, get your head right, and when you’re ready, use the satellite phone to call back. One of us will come out here to make sure you’re in the right mind, and then we can go back.”

  He meant well. Nick tried to appreciate that about the young bear. The kid had lived a hard life in a few short years, and still suffered the scars of war. Nick knew what that was like; he’d only recently locked his own demons away. Nick didn’t try to get any closer to shake his hand or hug Kara, not wanting to cause more trouble. “I’m not coming back until I find Lacey.”

  “Nick,” his sister started, and her voice broke. She cleared her throat a couple of times and pulled away from Owen so she could hug Nick, squeezing him tight. “Please. Please don’t die out here. I need you to be here, okay? We need you to be here.”

  “You’re fine.” Nick kissed the top of her head and tried to untangle himself, though the wolf didn’t want to let her go. Protecting Kara had been their best mission, their finest cause, and he didn’t want to give her up. She was pack, she would always be pack, and she was the last good thing in his life. “You’ll be fine, Karolina. The bear will look after you. I trust you with him.”

  And he gave Owen a hard look to make sure the bear took it seriously.

  But Kara held onto him, her fingers digging into his bare shoulders until Nick winced. Her expression grew fierce as she poked him in the chest. “You will come back to me in one piece, do you understand? You have to. You’re going to be an uncle.”

  The whole forest rang with silence. Nick couldn’t move, staring down at his little sister. An uncle. Nick looked at the bear, and Owen nodded, a hint of joy in his eyes mixing with the very real anxiety of protecting a pregnant mate around a dangerous wolf. Nick cleared his throat a couple of times as his vision blurred and he couldn’t quite see her face. “Well. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you,” Kara said. “We didn’t expect it, but here we are. So you will get your shit together, Nikolai, and you will call me in two weeks so you can be there when we find out if we’re having a girl or a boy.”

  Part of Nick still wanted to strangle Owen for sleeping with his little sister and gett
ing her knocked up, but the guarded happiness in Kara was enough to let the bear live. Nick hugged her once more, then pulled free and shooed her back to her mate. “I’ll do my best. But I’m not coming back until I find Lacey.”

  “I know,” Kara said. She leaned against Owen as the bear grumbled.

  It felt like goodbye, although none of them said it as Kara and Owen started walking back toward where the roads would lead them home. Nick remained by the cabin, though he tilted his head back to try and catch a hint of Lacey’s scent. She had to be alive. He wanted to protect his sister—and desperately wanted to know his niece or nephew—but he couldn’t rest until he at least knew what happened to the hyena queen. If her own pack stopped looking, he would continue the search. Everyone deserved to be searched for when they were lost.

  Nick shifted to his wolf form and hunted for traces of her until the sun set and the heavy darkness of a summer night settled over the forest. Only then did he head back to the cabin to rest and eat. He dreamed of her, trapped somewhere.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lacey

  When the pressure finally disappeared, I dropped at least twenty feet into leaves and dirt and branches, landing hard. Everything hurt. Panic and pain rolled through me and the hyena seized control, and we started running. It didn’t matter where. Being trapped in that gray place, unable to leave... It was a nightmare I wouldn’t soon forget.

  My lungs dragged in huge drafts of air as I bolted through the trees, fleeing from something or maybe racing toward something else. I couldn’t tell. I just needed to run.

  Nothing else disturbed the forest, and I wondered if it was the same place that I’d been taken from. What if the djinn dropped me somewhere else and I had to find my way across half the country to reach my pack? I slowed enough to look around and scent the surroundings, uneasy at the thought. It seemed familiar, but I couldn’t be sure.

  I couldn’t find traces of hyenas or any other shifters. Just nothingness.

  My breakneck run slowed eventually and I started to limp, my legs aching at the burst of exertion. I looked around, shaking off the feeling of being pursued, and tried to think rationally. I needed a place to shelter for the night and gather my composure, and figure out what the hell to do next. And food. Food would be good. Clothes. Water.

  The list continued to grow as a clawing hunger ignited in my stomach, and along with it came a sinking feeling that maybe I’d been gone longer than just the hour or so it felt like in the gray place. At least the hyena didn’t mind eating raw rabbit, if we could find one in the oddly still forest.

  A hint of wood smoke finally trickled through the air and made me sneeze, and I started to search for the threat. Wood smoke meant people, and depending on what kind of people they were, I was either in luck or a whole lot of trouble. As much as I searched, though, I couldn’t find a campsite or cabin. Just a gross pile of old branches and leaves that smelled faintly of smoke, as if it burned from the inside.

  I stayed a good distance away as I watched the pile, trying to discern whether it would burst into flame or continue to smolder, when something crunched in the forest behind me. I froze, trying not to breathe, and hoped my hyena form camouflaged me from any hunters or threats.

  At least I didn’t have to wait long. A semi-familiar voice croaked, “Lacey?” and someone ran toward me.

  I bolted, fearing an ambush, but didn’t get far before I recognized the scent. Nick. He stood in the trees—half-dressed and with a wild beard—staring at me as if he feared I’d disappear into thin air. He breathed raggedly and held his hands out, a few fish dangling from a string. “Lacey. You came back.”

  I waited. He looked like he’d been out there for months, not hours. Not days. Months. My throat closed as panic set in. What if I’d been gone for months? What happened to the cackle? How could I just pick up my life again?

  Nick pointed behind him at the tangle of branches. “This is a cabin. I have clothes and food and water. You should come in. When you’re ready. I’ll just leave—I’ll leave clothes out for you. Please come in.”

  A hint of the wolf gleamed in his eyes, and I knew I wasn’t the only one who struggled with control. At least he could still form complete sentences. That was always a good sign. I stepped out of the undergrowth and paced closer, taking a deep breath to see whether he was on something or not. Maybe he’d finally snapped and the bears sent him to the forest to live by himself.

  But he just smelled like Nick, although unwashed and with hints of deer blood and dead fish. Not entirely unappetizing to the hyena, all things considered. All of a sudden, I needed to feel human again before I got lost in the hyena’s thoughts. Then we’d both be crazy and uncontrolled. No good would come of that.

  I shifted and staggered, almost falling as my balance shifted, and Nick jumped forward to catch me. I didn’t mind being naked in public, after growing up in a shifter family where nudity was just a part of life, but being naked around him made me suddenly shy. I tried to walk, to get out of the forest and away from prying eyes—or at least to where he said clothes waited, but grunted as my foot slid in mud and ended up even more tangled. Staying in the hyena form until I was on even ground would have been a much better idea.

  Nick didn’t hesitate and scooped me up, carrying me over the brambles and deadfalls to the squat little cabin. The dead fish, still warm, slapped against my thigh, but the thought of freshly grilled fish made my stomach rumble and my mouth water. Nick shoved the door open and maneuvered me into the small, dark space. He set me down next to a bed, waiting until I could stand on my own, then blew through the cabin like a tornado—tossing clothes at me, then pulling a basin of water from a spigot on the wall and handing it to me with a towel, pouring more water into a glass, grabbing a board and a knife before returning to the door with a wild look in his eyes. “I’ll gut the fish outside. You can clean up.”

  “Thanks,” I said, when nothing else came to mind. My head spun as I tried to keep up with him.

  The wolf stared at me, his eyes flashing gold, and my heartbeat grew loud and slow in my ears as I started to feel cornered. He was just too intense. Nick shook himself and a growl escaped his clenched jaw, but he backed up a few steps. “It’s good to see you. It’s very good to see you.”

  I had so many questions, I almost wanted him to stay. But the cool, clean water called to me instead, as did the comfortable sweats and T-shirt that landed on the bed behind me when he tossed them my way. The cabin creaked and I looked up to see the door shut behind him.

  Nothing seemed to work right as I cleaned up and pulled on the sweats, then found some cheap flip-flops under the bed. I took a deep breath and downed the glass of water, refilling it twice before I finally felt like I could swallow and talk normally. My legs barely held me as I shuffled to where piles of canned food waited near the fire, and debated clawing one open with my bare hands before my stomach ate through my spine. Before I could commit, the door creaked and Nick glanced in, making sure I was dressed before he squeezed through the narrow opening.

  He carried a pile of fish filets on the board, and tossed them onto the heated grill pan on top of the stove, and the heavenly smell of cooking fish filled the cabin. My stomach growled loudly enough he jumped, looking for the threat, then smiled very faintly as he recognized me as the source. Nick handed me a bag of nut and trail mix without a word; I almost broke his hand snatching it from his grip, and managed to inhale it on the three steps back to sit on the bed.

  The trail mix dented the hunger that ripped through me, enough that I could actually breathe again. “Thank you.”

  “It’s almost ready,” he said, flipping some of the fish. “I ate at the river. This is all for you.”

  “How did you know I would be here?” I focused on the fish until my head ached, willing it to be done faster. Woodland sushi had to be just as good as the restaurant stuff, right?

  “I didn’t, not for sure.” Nick frowned as he sprinkled salt and some pepper on the fish, f
lipped it one more time to check the crispy side, and slid three of the filets onto a plate. “But I was hopeful.”

  He handed me the food and all I cared about was eating. Well, eating and not choking on the small bones that still hid inside the filets. The only sound in the cabin was the crackle of cooking fish, the snap of the fire, and the contented hum that Nick made as he fiddled around in the kitchen. I wondered when he’d ask me what happened, where I’d been, but he didn’t press. I had many more questions for him. Breaking the silence meant going back to reality, though, when I could just enjoy the quiet companionship and the first meal I’d really savored in months.

  When I finished all the fish, Nick reached for a can of something from the shelf, but I held out the plate. “No more, thank you. That was very good.”

  “You’re sure?” He eyed me, then held out the can. “I have stew.”

  “No, thank you.” I wanted to smile at the earnest way he offered the food, crouching there by the stove. “What are you doing out here, Nick?”

  He put the can away and added more wood to the fire, frowning as he dumped the dirty dishes into a basin and refilled my glass with fresh water. “Looking for you.”

  “You can’t be serious.” I winced as I shifted my weight on the bed, one of my legs tingling with pins and needles. “How long—how long have I been gone?”

  “A week, I think.” Nick picked up a battered phone on the shelf to check, then nodded. “Eight days.”

  Eight days. And it felt like no more than an hour. I shivered and rubbed my arms, horrified at the thought of being stuck in the in-between place for any longer. The whole world could have changed and you’d never know unless someone dragged you out. I cleared my throat. “What happened with BadCreek? The cackle? Where are my people?”