Marcus had been so intent on finding Craig, he did not stop to think of the danger the females could be in by coming with Gammon. Fortunately Gammon had considered the situation, and when they caught up he saw the females were surrounded by Gammon's men and their own mates. Trina, true to form, was covered with weapons. How she managed to get all those on her having just come back from the airport from an overseas flight caused him to do a double take, and ask.
"Oh, I rented a locker and stashed everything while we were gone. I am not going into battle without weapons."
Marcus glared a Jaden, who shrugged, "Usually ends up in a battle bro, usually just happens that way."
Marcus took in more of Jaden's appearance as they jogged south, he had been crying, his face still wet from his tears, some deaths hit harder than others, and Craig's death was going to hit Jaden hardest of all.
Jaden kept glancing over at Marcus as they headed south. Finally, face wooden, voice hoarse with emotion he said. "I still feel him. I can't reach him, but I can still feel the bond. Can the others in the pack still feel him? Or has the bond weakened so much they can no longer feel him? Is Craig so far gone only the Alpha and Beta bond still exist?"
As the deep sigh left Marcus' mouth he just shook his head. He had deliberately fallen back to speak with Jaded. The Seekers, in wolf form, were well ahead of everyone as they tracked the scent. The Enforcers in human form tried to get a line on the direction the scent was going from the Seekers. Doc was running with the Enforcers, because just this once, he might be in time.
Now he let a little more distance open up between his Enforcers and the others. "No, by the time everyone had reached the bird I was the only one who could still feel him. None of the others could feel him anymore, not the least bit. That you can still feel him is surprising, maybe it is because of your history together. This is the weakest I have ever felt a bond get. Concentrate for a while and see if it seems to fluctuate. I can't figure it out. I haven't mentioned it to the others. I don't know what it means, at all. One minute he is almost gone, the next the link seems firmer, then back to almost nothing."
"No, I don't, wait," Jaden almost stopped in his struggle to figure out what he was feeling. "I don't know Marcus, it doesn't really feel much different to me, weak, almost gone," as Jaden stumbled in his jog he shot an incredulous look toward Marcus, "mated? No, he would have told someone, he wouldn't have, no, I don't know Marcus, it is like the link is fluctuating. For a minute there it was like a mated link." Jaden shook his head and picked up speed. "We have to find him."
The rambling that had taken Craig all night to accomplish, took the Seekers less than three hours. Well back in the trees, before the tree line gave way to scrub brush, the Seekers got their first whiff of the fight that had happened hours earlier. The wind, blowing directly toward them, gave them some clues as to what to expect. What they did not expect was the scents assailing their noses that went beyond the fight. They began to curse, and to plan, and to curse some more.
When Marcus finally made it to the tree line, and looked out upon the desert in the distance, and to the prison which was clearly no longer abandoned, he began to curse. Breathing deeply the others joined him. For on the wind, the scent of a battle fought, with much blood shed told a tale, but the battle could not hide the scent of underage females drifting on the wind. Subtle, but unmistakable, the scent of fear, anger, and anguish. And in the distance, rising from the prison yard, a helicopter, barely discernible, lifted up and flew south.
Somewhere in front of them lay their pack-mate, fighting for his life, either on this side of the fence or beyond the fence. And in that prison they all could see in the distance, the one abandoned long ago, somewhere inside that fence were females. And each male and female looking out upon the sight would bet those females were not inside that prison fence by choice.
Stepping more carefully now that they could smell Craig, uncertain as to what lay ahead, the men began the painstaking search for their pack-mate. It was Gammon, standing back with his Sentinels guarding the four females, who first noticed the cameras in the trees. Stealth was no longer needed, whoever was around were not going to be surprised by their arrival. The men, knowing this, rushed forward to find Craig, barely alive, brutally savaged, almost unrecognizable. The men spread out to guard him. As Doc leaned down to better evaluate him the sudden rise of a golden wolf, eyes full of flames, startled him. As he yelped he fell backwards causing the other men to jerk around in anticipation of an attack.
Seeing Doc, flat on his ass, scooting away from Craig, with no threat visible caused Marcus to start swearing. Jaden, who had fallen to his knees beside his best friend on the other side was also scooting away, hands thrown up in front of himself as though for protection.
"What the hell? Is he booby-trapped? Did they put a bomb on him, what the hell is that?" Marcus demanded when he too saw the golden shadowy wolf, eyes full of flames resting above Craig.
The men heard crashing noises coming from the tree line and startled shouts from Gammon, his Sentinels, and three of the females. The fourth female, had seen the golden wolf rise and was running as fast as she could toward the men surrounding Craig. Disbelief and fear on her face she shouted for the men to back up, back away.
As Casey ran she went over everything in her head she could remember about the sight she had just seen. No one had golden wolves, they did not exist anymore. Had not existed for centuries, the curse saw to that. But what she had just witnessed, could not be denied. Somehow, the man laying on the ground dying, was mated to a wolf-witch hybrid. Had to be mated, if any of the packs around her had a hybrid, she would have felt them before now. And if he was mated, and his mate had not met his pack, her wolf would kill them if they got too close. Shit, shit, shit, what was she going to tell them?
Sliding to a stop next to Craig, Casey dropped to her knees and slowly offered her hand and began speaking. The men around her, barely keeping watch for danger, darted looks at Craig, Casey and back to Marcus. But Marcus was as much in the dark as the rest of his pack. All the men saw the golden wolf, eyes full of flame, slowly fade back into Craig.
Finally Casey turned to look at Doc. "Slowly, come over here, just you, we don't want to overwhelm her. She understands you are going to help her mate, but go slow." She heard mutters coming from the Sentinels and Seekers spread out around them, but Marcus was the one to put into words what everyone was asking.
"Back up, what mate, what was that? What are, no, you know what, just start talking. Doc, see what you can do. Casey, come here, now." Marcus was beyond diplomacy, beyond the niceties of social politeness. He had just witnessed something never before seen or spoken of and Casey had come flying down the hill like she knew exactly what was going on, it was time he got some answers.
#
CHAPTER TEN
Time to Run
Time to Run
The men gathered around the security feed, cursing. The intruder from earlier apparently did have friends. They had figured him for a Seeker, but who, and from what pack, had not been known. They had savaged him too badly to identify him after he changed back from wolf.
As Ben watched the feed he began to worry. He saw the females, the twins the boss had talked about, surrounded by other males. If they had more time he could have gotten the Elite Squad and had the intruders taken out and saved the females. But Ben did not have time to get the Squad together and to the prison before the shifters outside the walls found the dead one. It would not take long after they found the dead one for them to turn their attention to the prison and the males inside. They would lose the females, they would die, the humans might have a chance but no one really cared about the humans.
Even if he could have gotten the Squad he did not want the Squad to know where the prison was, had never told them. The Squad saved the females, occasionally rewarded with a female, ones obviously unsuited to a life in the media limelight, and the boss took care of getting the females to the appropriate location.
Ben was suddenly glad the boss had more than one safe haven for the females.
The shifters inside were not fighters. They were business men, sons of business men and future politicians. They had no problem ganging up on one lone wolf and taking him out, but to try to fight what had come to their area would get them all killed. He saw Enforcers, Sentinels, and what would undoubtedly prove to be Seekers. The human workers had no weapons, but neither did the shifter males. Weapons were not allowed, just in case. After all, no one had even imagined Seekers finding the prison and linking it to hidden females. The females were kept inside early in the mornings and late in the evenings, when the air hung heavy and the scents lingered. The plan was to keep their scents from lingering in the air.
Ben had thought the entire idea was pointless. The prison was far from any kind of civilization, at the edge of the desert, where the foothills began. The possibility of anyone showing up at the prison had been such a remote one Ben had disregarded the idea almost entirely. But, looking at the security feed, Ben found himself calculating how long it would take to leave.
Seeing the intruders slowly moving through the woods, coming closer to the scrub brush and the fence surrounding the prison showed Ben they did not have much time. He was calling the boss as he started giving the orders to flee the prison. Though not the Alpha of the men, he was the designated leader, and as long as the instructions made sense, the men would follow him. Fleeing the prison made sense.
A couple of the men rushed to alert the humans that terrorists had found the prison and they needed to leave immediately. They were to proceed to a rally point where the boss would determine their fates. Not that they knew that bit of information, no need to create problems. The boss would probably move them all to another location and they would keep doing what they had been doing. The humans were quick to respond and within minutes of the alert they were piling into the vans with small personal items. They had been trained not to leave any identification behind that could help terrorists find them later and the men could only hope they followed the training. They did not have time to check behind the humans.
While Ben rushed back to the medical wing to inform Frank and the girls what was happening the other men alerted the other females to the pending attack and rushed them toward the heli-pads. Most of the operation went smoothly, The other girls were still riding the wave of terror from finding a dead man in Julie's room. They were more than happy to leave the prison behind and quickly loaded onto one of the helicopters. A few of the men went with them, but not all the men could fit on the first helicopter, the remaining men would be riding in the second helicopter with Frank and the other four girls.
When Ben explained to Frank and the girls what was going on he got his first real shock of the day. Allison and Dawn refused to leave. They not only refused to leave, they demanded Julie and Kate be left behind also. Frank protested leaving Kate behind. One man, Adam, had stayed in the security room to monitor the feed after grabbing his bag with his personal items. He came running into the medical room, carrying his bag. The other men were already waiting at the helicopter.
"Oh shit, Ben, we gotta go, we gotta go now, man. That is Gammon out there, did you hear me? 'Kill you first, ask questions later Gammon'. Adam was almost panting in fear.
Frank, turning his head, scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous, everyone knows Gammon doesn't bother with questions. Furthermore, he lives in Alaska and he never leaves his compound. The High Council has been watching him for years. He never leaves, I am telling you whoever you saw, it was not Gammon."
Adam's eyebrows shot up, "Do you know another shifter, who could double as a mountain, who also takes Sentinels with him? I am telling you, I saw a picture of him once, that is Gammon out there at the edge of the woods." The tangy smell of fear was beginning to waft through the room and this time the smell was not coming from the girls.
Ben decided to make a call he might regret later. "Grab the girls, let's go." Turning to Allison and Dawn he demanded they follow Adam out to the helicopter. When they refused he grabbed Allison and told Adam to grab Dawn. As they picked up the girls, kicking and screaming he turned to Frank. "Leave Julie, she is no good to us in this state, if you are going to grab your mate you better do it now. Let's go."
Racing from the room, Ben and Adam made it to the helicopter and buckled the girls into seats. He told the guys already seated to watch them as he made one last dash back into the prison to help Frank. With a wary eye toward the back fence, he couldn't see anyone coming yet, he dashed inside. When he reached medical he found Julie screaming, Kate still unconscious, half on and half off the bed, and Frank laying unconscious on the floor bleeding from his nose and mouth.
Ben, eyes wide, began slowly backing away, trying to think what infectious disease caused bleeding from the nose and mouth, and what the chances were that he had been infected. He could not remember touching any of the blood surrounding Kate. But Frank had clearly succumbed to whatever had struck Kate. He struggled to remember if he had ever heard of any disease that could do what he was seeing. Giving up he took one last look at Frank and the two girls, and turning he raced from the room and back to the helicopter. He had no idea what he would tell the others but he did know they needed to get in the air immediately if they did not want to be caught by Gammon. Frank was right, Gammon had a reputation of kill first and don't even bother with the questions.
The men looked at him as he came flying back to the helicopter alone but he jumped on and screamed for the pilot to "Go, Go now!" as he frantically buckled himself in his seat.
Attention off of her for the moment, no one noticed Allison slowly unbuckling her seat belt. She might not know what was going on but she was not going to leave Kate and Julie behind. If Kate had a mate around, and he was hurt, she needed to find him and help him if she could. If her suspicious were correct, that mate had friends and those friends were the ones these males were running from now. Any friend of Kate's mate, would be friends of hers. She was not stupid, as good as Kate was, she would have true-mated with an honorable male. An honorable male meant his friends would be honorable males. She intended to be with males who had honor.
When the helicopter began to rise into the air, the males, so caught up with getting information from Ben were not watching her. She glanced at Dawn and found Dawn had been watching her and like her had slowly unfastened her seat belt harness. The helicopter had just cleared the fence and was steadily rising when Allison lunged for and cleared the door. Dawn had tried to follow but Allison heard her scream and Adam curse just as she started falling. As she hit the ground she realized, too late, the helicopter had been much higher than she realized. Both legs snapped and she screamed as pain shot through her. The last sounds she heard before blackness claimed her were Dawn's screams as the helicopter continued south.
***
When Allison regained consciousness her legs felt as though they had fire sizzling though them. They were broken, the pain unbearable, and standing was not going to be an option. As she looked around she realized she did not know how long she had blacked out, but she was going to have to get inside. Taking stock of where she was she began to pull herself toward the gates of the prison she could see in the distance. Tears streaming down her face she pulled herself forward. Time seemed to stand still as she pulled forward and rested, pull and rest, chanting to herself, Must save Kate, find her mate.
It was long moments before she realized she was rhyming and trying to pull herself forward in time with her chant. She wouldn't give up. Her legs might be broken, but she was finally free of the ones who killed her family and kidnapped her. If Kate could bond her life to a dying man to try and save his life, she could survive her broken legs to save Kate. Somewhere in the security section of the prison must be a phone. She did not know who she could call for help, but she was determined to figure it out. The pain was so great she forgot all about the intruders the men abandoned the prison to avoid. If she had remembered, she would have started sc
reaming.
#
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Truth
The Truth
Casey was backed into a corner, figuratively speaking. She knew of the curse Miranda had placed upon the shifters. She knew the shifters were ignorant of the curse. She had watched Trey's pack over the years, and learned much about how the shifters handled the consequences of the curse. They had, over the last few decades, figured out the females needed safety and security to produce other females. Well, some of the shifter world had figured it out, some refused to face the truth. The information Casey had would not change the curse, nor would it help the shifter world struggle back from the edge of extinction, they had to do that on their own. But how much to tell them was the dilemma Casey faced.
She had seen the golden one, they had all seen the golden one. But apparently the curse Miranda had placed upon the shifters had worked as well as she meant it to work. The shifters around her had no idea what they had seen, they did not remember witches. Now Casey had to decide how much she could tell them. It wasn't like she could continue to hide the information. If Craig lived, he would find his mate, and the truth would be out. If Craig died, it was a high possibility his mate would live for vengeance. If that happened, she would seek out his pack, she would, oh gods there was no end to what a tormented witch could do. One only had to look at the mess the shifter world was in now because of one heart-broken witch to know Craig dying would be the worst thing in the world that could possibly happen.
Kate (Safe Haven Wolves Book 3) Page 6
