by Riley Storm
Because he doesn’t have them?
The realization ripped a new hole inside of her, fresh pain blossoming up as she acknowledged the truth of that statement. Lucien didn’t care about her. If he did, he couldn’t possibly just walk away like this. Not without some extreme reason, and there didn’t seem to be any. No, Alison decided, she was right. Lucien must have been faking it all along.
Like everyone else has. Why are you surprised about this?
Because she’d thought Lucien was different. That was why. She’d let herself believe that he wasn’t like everyone else, that he could see past her flaws and love her for who she was, but now it was obvious she had been looking through rose-colored glasses.
“I guess I was wrong, Bergey,” she said, admitting it out loud. “I guess it’s just back to being you and me.”
Beside her, Bergey rested his flank against her leg and whined quietly, nudging at her hand.
“Good boy.”
A moment later, the whines stopped and Bergey stiffened under her hand.
28
“Doing this without her is madness,” Chief protested.
“I am not involving her in this,” Lucien stated emphatically, looking around the half-circle of shifters one-by-one, waiting until each of them dropped their eyes. “This is our problem, not hers. It’s my problem. If you don’t want to come along, that’s fine, I don’t blame you. It’s risky, there’s no doubt. But if you stay, you stay, and that’s it. Understood?”
There was silence for a good twenty seconds.
“Understood.” Chief seemed to speak for the three of them, because both Lana and Lorik looked up together.
For a moment, Lucien envied the two of them. They were young, and had already found each other, though he doubted either of them realized it. Lorik was so madly in love, he didn’t realize it was more than that, and Lana was so busy trying to pretend like she didn’t care that she couldn’t acknowledge she did. Ahh, youth.
His mind strayed to Alison, and how he wished that things were as simple between the two of them.
Lucien had been strong with his little pack, letting them know what they were going to do, but if he was honest, it was hard for him to feel the same. Yes, Logan was out there, waiting on a rescue long overdue in coming. But inside was Alison. His mate.
“To the warehouse then?” Chief asked when nobody else spoke. “Get ourselves sorted and come up with a plan of attack?”
“Uh, yeah,” Lucien said, looking over his shoulder. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Lucien,” Chief said, his voice hard. “You just snapped at us, saying that we’re going, and we’re going now, without her.”
“Yes, I did,” he agreed, matching Chief’s tone. “Now I’m saying that there’s going to be a delay. You three go to the warehouse. Get us some food, start drawing up maps of the hospital. I will be along in a bit. Got it?”
He dared Chief to challenge him, pushing down the shame at his hope the other shifter would take him up on it, giving Lucien an outlet for all his self-anger.
That wasn’t the person he wanted to be, and everyone knew it. Everyone except Alison, who thought he was the worst sort of scum, he was sure. Couldn’t she see that he’d come to care for her in spite of things? That he had tried not to care about her at first, because he didn’t want to mix business and pleasure, but that she’d won him over anyway? That he was trying his best to keep her safe, of all things? Wasn’t that obvious, or could only he see it?
Something else was clogging her vision. It was the same thing that had reared its head all along. Yet she wouldn’t tell him about it, wouldn’t let him into that private space of hers. She was afraid, that much was obvious, but Lucien didn’t want to push. The harder he pushed, he was learning, the further into her shell she retreated, pulling in the walls after her.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Go on,” he said, looking back through the window of the storm door, seeing Bergey standing there next to his mate, supporting her.
Like I should be.
If only he could figure out the right words to say. The words that would convince her he wasn’t lying, but that would also allow him to keep her safe. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, and Lucien was lost, fumbling his way through situations he’d never been educated on. There was no training for this sort of scenario. He was left to his own, and as usual, Lucien was making a huge mess of it.
Only this time, he wasn’t going to run away. Not without putting up a fight this time. He’d already abandoned Logan. He needed to show Alison he wasn’t going to do the same to her.
Chief hung back as the young not-couple wandered out into the front yard. “Don’t take too long, Lucien. The longer we wait, the worse this is going to be. You know that. Lyken isn’t going to just wait around. He’s going to start beefing up security at the facility even more.”
“I know,” Lucien said, staring straight through the door still, eyes locked on Alison as she talked to the dog. “I know.”
Chief hesitated, clapped him on the shoulder once and then he too was gone.
Pulling the door open, Lucien walked inside, pausing on the threshold.
“Lucien—”
He shook his head, cutting her off. “I’m sorry you’re the one with access, Alison,” he said gravely. “I truly, truly am. I knew from the start that you would think my primary reason for coming to you was for that, once you found out.” He sighed. “It’s why I’ve been trying so hard to come up with another plan. Any other plan, that stood a chance of succeeding. That way, I didn’t have to involve you. Because I never meant to do any of this.”
“Any of what?” she asked quietly.
“I never meant to involve you in this. Hell, I never expected to need the access to the facility. But most importantly, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I tried not to, but I failed.”
Lucien walked into the tiny living room, giving her space, but making the conversation more intimate, letting her know that this meant a lot to him. At least, I hope she picks up on that.
“When I came to your house, it wasn’t out of some sort of perverse plan to get you to trust me, so that you could help me out.” Shaking his head, Lucien let more of his emotions show. “I was dying, Alison, and you were the only person I could go to. I…I didn’t have anyone else,” he added, barely keeping his voice from breaking. “It wasn’t until later, when I started thinking it over, that I realized where they would probably take Logan. I wish it wasn’t there, with every bone in my body. But it is. I stayed with you when I could have left,” he said, falling silent, not sure where else to go.
“Why did you stay?” she asked in a ghostly whisper.
“Why?” Lucien ran fingers through his unruly hair. “Why? Because of you, Alison. Because I enjoy spending time around you. Because I enjoy seeing you smile! Dammit, I can tell you’ve been hurt. And I feel terrible for disappearing on you, without warning, without message. I haven’t gone about things the best of ways, I know that. I can see that, but my family is tearing itself apart before my very eyes, and I haven’t been thinking straight. But I am now.”
There was a sharp intake of breath.
“There is one thing that I’m thinking about most, that I now understand.”
“What’s that?” It didn’t seem possible, but Alison’s voice was somehow quieter. Her eyes were open, staring at him wide.
“You,” he said with quiet gravitas. “I want you. From now on, no more secrets. No more omitted information. Absolutely nothing. I am an open book to you Alison, like I should have been from the start.” He shrugged. “Though you know everything that I can think of at this point. This was the last, the thing I was trying not to reveal, because I wanted to do it another way. A way that wouldn’t involve you, because I knew this was what would happen.”
She nodded. “You knew, and you did it anyway.”
“But I didn’t,” he pleaded. “Can’t you see? I didn’t do it.
I…” he faltered. What more could he say? Lucien had just opened himself to her completely. The ball was in Alison’s court now, and he was at the mercy of her decision. There was nothing more to be said, he’d just be repeating himself.
“Lucien, I’m going to need time,” she said after a torturous minute of silence. “There is so much I need to process. Not just about us, but about you. What you are, where you come from. I need time to think. To truly believe that this world you’re a part of exists.”
He sagged, his heart shooting agony into his body with every beat. “You’re still leaving,” he said, not questioning it.
There was a long pause.
“No,” Alison said at last. “Bergey and I will stay here. It’s safer, like you said. You go where you’re going. The warehouse I assume?”
He nodded. “For now. Tonight we’re going to scout out the facility, come up with a plan of attack. Like you said, Logan has waited long enough.”
Alison nodded slowly. “I’ll be here when you get back,” she promised. “I can’t tell you what my decision will be, but I won’t go anywhere until you return. Maybe we can talk more...”
She shrugged in helpless indecision, and Lucien knew exactly how she felt.
“In the meantime though, I have a lot to think about.”
29
The day had passed with agonizing slowness.
Even now, as they approached the sprawling grounds of the hospital near one edge of town, Lucien couldn’t entirely focus on the mission at hand.
That was dangerous. He knew better. All it would take would be one slip-up and Lyken and his men would round them up and toss them in cells next to Logan. If that happened, their burgeoning rebellion would be dead before it ever truly got off the ground, and their King would be free to pursue his insane plans.
Lucien needed to get locked in already. Alison was safe and sound. She wasn’t going anywhere until he returned, she’d told him that, and the best thing he could do now was execute a successful scouting mission. He would need it, to find the best way to enter the facility without her access.
“We need you to pull it together,” Chief said as he crept past in the darkness.
“I’m fine,” he growled, watching as his team fanned out the closer they got to the perimeter. All of them were dressed in matte-black gear nabbed from the safehouse. It would keep down any reflections and help them blend in with the night, but it didn’t do much for warding off the remaining wetness from the storm.
The rain had stopped, but its effects were still being felt. Boots squelched in mud despite their best efforts to move silently. Droplets of water slowly fell onto their heads when they paused under a branch. Everything was slick, and more than one of them had mistaken a rock for ground and nearly gone down. It wasn’t pretty, but they were almost at the objective now.
Two sides of the hospital were bordered by forest, with only a road separating the actual fenced-off grounds. The third side had office buildings. The fourth led back into town.
The thing was, back when they were building the hospital, House Canis had planned for this. Though there may only be a road between the forest and the fence, on the other side of the fence were acres of mostly flat grassland. Their own defensive tactics were working against him now. Although House Canis wasn’t truly in charge of the design, they wielded a tremendous amount of influence. They knew that, based on the town’s choice of where to put the entire facility, if someone were to attack, they would have to come from the forest side.
So they’d worked the lawns into the design to remove any ability to sneak up close. Lucien had enjoyed working with that during his time as overseer, redoing the security camera system until there were no blind spots. He’d run drills with teams, having them try to infiltrate it any way they could, and then adjusting the security to cover for any exploits found. By now it was airtight, and the only person he’d had to thank for it, was himself.
“Hold at the forest edge,” he rumbled into his throat mike, a bit of technology courtesy of Lorik, who had a fascination with that sort of thing. It subvocalized his voice and then projected the words into the earpiece of the rest of his team, meaning he could speak with barely any sound whatsoever.
The one limitation of the security system was that it could not see into the forest. Lucien had tried to get permission to add IR cameras that would be able to detect body heat, but he’d been turned down. It would be too difficult to justify that to the humans. Their priority was the facility itself, not the perimeter.
Now that allowed him to bring the quartet close enough that, with the aid of binoculars, they could survey much of the perimeter and identify any additional security measures that had been brought in since. It was their sole advantage against a whole host that the other side possessed.
It’ll have to be enough. We can’t get in undetected without the codes, and we’re not using Alison. It’s time we got creative and came up with something new. Something that hasn’t been tried yet.
“What can you see?” he asked, crouching low beside a tall pine, peering through the bushes that delineated the edge of the forest.
Lucien had briefed them on what to expect. Cameras atop poles. Pressure sensors on the ground inside the fence. Guards walking around dressed as nurses or patients.
“Just as you described,” Lana answered, the first to reply. I don’t see any signs of additions anywhere. Two guards, one dressed as a doctor, the other a nurse, pretending to have a smoke outside. Just a little too wary, and not relaxed enough.”
The others chimed in shortly after, saying the same. No changes.
“Either they made no changes,” Lucien said, not seeing anything new himself. “Or everything they did is on the inside. Waiting for us where we can’t see it.”
That made much more sense. Lyken would know that external changes would be detected. He would have access to Lucien’s notes, as did the person sent in his place, though he didn’t know who that was.
“My vote is on internal changes. More guards, things like that,” Lorik said. “Where we can’t see it, and where they know we have to come from. Out here, they can’t do much of anything, they have to guess which direction we’ll come from. Once we’re in the hospital’s lower levels, we’ll have to go for Logan and the others. That’s where they’ll hit us.”
Lucien had to admit, it sounded right. Why waste effort trying to predict where he and his men would strike from, when they could just lay back and let them come? Angrily, he punched the nearby tree trunk, momentarily forgetting the need to be silent.
But he pulled back his hand with a hiss as something sharp sliced deep between his knuckles.
“What the hell was that?” Chief asked, his voice coming loud over the earpiece, indicating he’d spoken the words rather than subvocalized them.
“That,” Lucien said with a growing dread as he stared at the metal and electronics behind the false trunk. “Is a problem. A big problem.”
“What do you mean?”
Lucien whirled as Lorik appeared at his side, crouching down to look at the interior of the trunk.
“Is this entire tree false?” he asked.
Shrugging, Lucien stood up and punched higher up. The tree shuddered, but the trunk didn’t collapse. “Nope.”
Peering into the hollow, Lorik examined the machine, then stood up abruptly. “We need to go. Call the others back Lucien. Call them now!”
“Yeah, I’m getting that impression. “Fall back,” he said into his mic. Then to Lorik, as they both started heading backward. “What is it?”
“It’s a thermal sensor.”
“But…” Lucien’s protest died on his lips.
They hadn’t given him the permission to install them. But he’d also not asked to mount them into trees, where the humans couldn’t see. Obviously, his replacement was no slouch. They’d had six months to upgrade things. Why did he think that they wouldn’t have made any changes to the forest either? Idiot!
A br
anch cracked in the forest to their left as someone stepped on something. Both Lucien and Lorik froze, looking at one another.
“Stay off the branches,” he subvocalized, hoping against hope it was either Lana or Chief who had made the noise.
“Wasn’t me,” Lana replied.
“I’m off to the south,” Chief informed them, reminding Lucien that Chief was way to the right.
If it wasn’t Lana…
“Run!” he hissed, not bothering to hide his voice any longer. They had been found, and the security team was already closing in on them.
Lorik took off, with Lucien hanging back a second, watching the youngster go. As he suspected, a black shape detached from a nearby pool of shadows and went after him.
Not today, Lucien growled to himself, heading off in pursuit. Not today. He’d left too many friends behind before, seen them take the fall when he should have been there helping. Today, at least, he would start to balance those scales.
So intent was the shifter—and it could only be a shifter to keep up with the pace Lorik was blazing—on catching his quarry, he didn’t notice Lucien closing on him from behind. Not until it was too late, at least.
With a grunt, Lucien flung himself forward, landing on the shifter’s back, the two of them going down hard. Expecting the fall, however, Lucien easily tucked into a roll, bounced off the ground and came to his feet, sliding several feet before coming to a halt.
“Pick on someone your own size,” he growled, slashing in and slamming his fist into the unknown guard’s face before continuing out of range.
Spitting blood, the shifter got up, face a mask of rage as he whipped his head around until he saw Lucien. A huge smile split his face, blood running down freely from his mouth. “They’re gonna promote me for bringing you in.”
Lucien, already starting to advance, paused. “I doubt it,” he said with a lazy grin.
“Oh trust me, I—”
Lana dropped out of the tree above him and slammed the man face-first into the ground with a viciousness Lucien hadn’t known she possessed. “Leave him alone, he’s mine,” she hissed, then kicked the guard in the head. Hard.
