by Riley Storm
Standing up, she sauntered over and past Lucien, meeting his gaze the entire way. “What?”
“Nothing,” Lucien said, throwing up his hands. “Nothing at all. I heard nothing.”
Lana nodded sharply. “Good. Let’s go, they’re—oof!”
Spinning, Lucien saw Lana go down under another guard. He cursed. They were closing in on their position, the sound of the fighting drawing them in. Racing over to the wrestling pair, he hauled the guard off Lana’s back and tossed him ten feet in the air.
“I thought you said it was time to go?” he asked, helping Lana up and shoving her forward as they ran.
Behind them, the guard got to his feet and whistled loudly. All around them came answering noises. The noose was drawing tighter, and they were still in the middle of it.
“Shall we run faster?” Lana asked, not waiting for an answer before she accelerated to full speed, darting through the forest, little more than a blur to the naked observer.
Lucien waited several seconds, making sure to step on several loud sticks, making what he hoped was enough noise to cover for Lana as she made good her escape. Then he took off in the opposite direction, leading the pursuit away.
His earpiece buzzed with Lorik’s voice. “Lucien. Where are you?”
“Ensuring you get away safely. Once you’re sure you weren’t pursued, get back to the safehouse. Chief’s in charge. I’ll meet up with you later.” He paused for breath, hurdling a large rock, only to land, take two steps and vault himself over a tree trunk suspended three feet off the ground by its branches.
Behind him, the sounds of people chasing him were growing louder as the guards gave up all pretense of secrecy and came on hard.
“You idiot,” Chief snarled. “I hate you.”
“You’ll be fine,” Lucien assured him. “You can lead them as well as I can.”
“But I don’t want to,” Chief complained. “That’s the difference. You get your ass back to the safehouse and take the kids off my hands, understand?”
“We are not kids!” Lorik protested.
Lana wisely remained quiet.
“See you back at the safehouse,” Lucien said. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to focus on evading these guys. They seem intent on catching me for some reason.”
He put his head down and ran, ignoring the responses that came through his ear. The forest stretched on ahead of him, which was the main reason Lucien had altered his direction. If he’d kept going straight, or headed left, he’d have encountered buildings, paved roads, etc., once the forest ended. Things that would make his escape difficult.
But this way, to the south, was nothing but forest for miles. As long as he kept ahead of his pursuers, he would be fine. And if they gave him a few seconds to shift, then he could well and truly lose them. It was his best option among a number of bad ones.
A few minutes later, his earpiece snarled with sound. “We’re clear,” Chief announced in a heavy voice, obviously unhappy about being forced to leave Lucien behind. “No pursuit that we could detect. Heading for the rendezvous. We’ll wait for you there for an hour, then head back to the safehouse.”
Lucien reached up and double-tapped his throat-mic, too focused on breathing to acknowledge vocally. The pursuit sounded like it was falling back. It was the smart move to do. He’d eluded their noose by choosing a direction they hadn’t anticipated, and moving fast, exploiting the hole before it closed.
Unless they’d managed to injure him, the chances of any of them catching Lucien were less than slim and closer to none. He was in fine health, although his reserves of strength were still lower than he’d like, but three days of recovery had gone a long way. Enough that he could keep the pursuit up until they gave up.
I hope.
He ran on, through open fields and meadows, across streams and even darting through a freshly-tilled crop field before ducking back into the forest. Overhead, the moon rose high, mostly obscured by the clouds from the thunderstorm that had passed through earlier.
The undergrowth of the forest was far from dry, and his clothing had picked up plenty of water, now plastered to his skin by a mixture of that and his own sweat, but now wasn’t the time to quit. There was less pursuit with every passing mile, and Lucien was almost positive he was down to one solitary shifter. It was impossible to tell of course, but his ears were quite good.
He ran, and ran, slowly curving to the left, hoping to bring himself back around to Plymouth Falls. Lucien gambled that his followers were more intent on catching him than paying attention to where he was going. If he had to run straight away from town, he would never make the rendezvous. The last thing he needed was Alison thinking he wasn’t going to come back to her.
Not again.
Putting his head down, Lucien ran onward, listening for the faint sounds of his sole remaining pursuer, wondering if they would ever give up.
30
“Well this is boring, Bergey,” she complained, lying on the couch, her dog curled up between her and the back of it, head resting on her stomach contentedly.
The dog’s eyes looked at her expectantly.
“Tell me again why I don’t have any friends? Why do I content myself with being alone?” She scratched the boxer’s head. “Not that you’re not my friend. But one that can talk back to me, you know?”
Bergey got up onto his front paws and pulled himself in closer to Alison, before casually plopping down half his weight onto her chest.
“Ack!” she cried, struggling for breath under the sudden weight. “I said you’re my friend!”
Bergey made some noises and rolled over awkwardly to expose his belly expectantly.
“Oh, you want belly rubs do you?” she half-cooed. “Fine, fine.” Reaching down between his front paws, she started scratching his belly.
If it had been possible, Bergey would have turned to liquid as he sank deep into the hollow between her and the back of the couch, in doggy bliss at the attention.
“But seriously, Bergs,” she muttered. “I sure could use someone to talk to.”
She paused her hand in sudden thought. “Say…”
Bergey’s head came up as much as it could from his position.
“You’re not secretly a shifter too, are you?” she asked, watching the dog carefully for a response.
Big ol’ Bergey eyes just stared back at her. After a few seconds, he wiggled his stomach expectantly.
“Oh okay,” she said with a half-sigh of relief and resumed petting her overgrown puppy. “Just had to make sure, you know? Because if you’re secretly a human in there, and I’m telling you all my secrets, well…” she paused, shuddering at some of the memories of hers Bergey had been present for. “Well, let’s just say I’m very sorry for what you’ve had to put up with.”
The boxer just wooffed softly and shook himself back and forth.
“Right, right. Good boy.”
Bergey was a good boy, but that was just it. He was a dog. Not a person, not a friend. Alison didn’t really have any of those. A serial loner, she just didn’t trust people. She always had reasons to avoid even the casual work get-togethers that she was invited to. Always an excuse.
Even Kim, her sole “work friend”, was just that. A work friend. They had never hung out after hours. Ever. Not because Kim never asked, but because Alison always had some excuse ready. Bergey was sick. She was sick. Had to work late. Be up early for work. Her mother was in from out of town. Plans with other people. There was always something.
“I couldn’t tell any of them about this anyway I guess, could I, Bergster?” she asked, staring up at the ceiling while relaxing. “That would certainly be an interesting phone call. “Hello, I was wondering if you had time to discuss the politics of your local werewolf pack and who you feel should be elected leader? What’s that? Hello? Hello?” She rolled her eyes. “You know that’s how it would go.”
Not that Alison would ever spill Lucien’s secret. That, she understood, was something that absol
utely had to be kept under wraps. Even her relatively unexposed mind could think up all sorts of horrible things that would happen if people knew what he and his family were.
The government would want to do experiments on them. The religious extremists of all sorts would claim they were unholy and want to eliminate them in whatever method was currently in vogue. Then there would be the fanatics that would try to become one, probably starting up all sorts of cults based around worshipping the lord of the wolf shifters or whatever.
“Things would be a mess. No wonder he was so reluctant to tell me the truth.”
Another thought entered her mind as she returned once again to the subject of the day: Lucien. If he was using her simply for her access code, then why was it he’d revealed to her such a tremendous, world-changing secret? What would have possessed him to do such a thing?
Alison found she didn’t have an answer to that. There were dozens of questions in her life she didn’t have the answer for. Questions for which that she longed to have someone, a mentor, to look up to.
“Thanks for nothing, Mother. And you too, Father, I guess. You bastard.”
In Alison’s mind, she didn’t have a mom or dad. Those were the people she longed to turn to in times like this, but they weren’t there for her. Never had been.
“I guess like always, Bergey, it’s just you and me. We’ve got to find our way through this. Rely on ourselves, don’t you think?”
Bergey responded with a gentle head-butt.
“I’ll take that as a laugh,” she said, unable to stop herself from smiling at the cute animal.
She was quiet for a time, lost in thoughts, until a cold nose on her stomach brought her back to the present with a yelp as Bergey wormed his snout under her shirt, a prime reminder that she was still supposed to be petting him.
“What do you think of Lucien?” she asked, wondering just what she expected to happen from talking to the dog. “He seems sincere, but I don’t know how I can trust him.”
Bergey, to her surprise, barked excitedly and sat up, tongue lolling out of his mouth.
Alison stared at the dog. “This must be a coincidence.”
Bergey made another noise, then climbed on top of her completely and settled down in her lap. “Okay, okay, I get it,” she laughed. “Your point is taken. You like him.”
But could she trust him? That was the question that had been dominating her thoughts all afternoon, evening and into the night now.
Alison had extended trust. Not just trust, but her body as well, she’d given that to him. Then she’d found out he wasn’t just there for her, but for because he needed something from her.
“I don’t know, Bergey. Could he have been telling me the truth when he said he wished I was someone else? Or am I just opening myself up to more hurt if I trust him?”
The dog didn’t reply, which was to be expected. Alison was on her own here, she had a big girl decision to make, and so far, she was doing a terrible job at it. In part, that was because she wanted Lucien to be telling the truth. She liked him. A lot.
Not just him either. Being around his friends made her actually feel welcome, relaxed. Like she belonged among them. Among his pack, she thought with a laugh, wondering if that was how he thought of it as well. Was this his wolf pack?
“Why are adult decisions so hard?” she complained to the empty room. “Why can’t the decisions just be obvious, laid out for us? This is ridiculous. I thought being an adult meant you were supposed to understand these sorts of decisions, Bergey. Not become even more confused by them in some sort of never-ending loop.” She heaved a sigh. “Do all adults feel like they’re running around, having no idea what they’re doing? Or is it just me?”
Bergey’s ears perked up, and then the dog sat up and got down off the couch, positioning himself protectively between Alison and the back door. A few moments later, she heard the sound of people back there, and saw the motion-activated light go on. Nervously, she waited, hoping it was Lucien and the others. If someone had found them, there was little she could do but hope they weren’t feeling malicious. It was a gut-punch, to know how helpless she was before the shifters, but Lucien had assured her they weren’t in the habit of hurting humans.
Yet. If this maniac wins control though, then who knows what will happen?
Just another reason for her to support Lucien and his men in their quest to right the ship of his House, as he called it. What was the name? Canis, right. House Canis.
“Just us,” Chief said as he came in, peeling off his muddy boots and jacket and tossing them on hooks.
Lorik and Lana followed after, the trio stripping down to their underwear before pulling on the gray sweatpants and shirts that Alison was fast learning were their normal wear. She noted the muscles of the men—more so Chief than Lorik—but despite the general visual appeal, they didn’t do a thing for her. Not like—
“Where’s Lucien?” she asked quietly, realizing the three of them were all alone.
“Parking the van,” Chief said, tossing a thumb in the direction of the driveway.
“Van? Since when do we have a van?” she asked.
“We bought one earlier. I guess Lucien was tired of driving around,” Chief explained.
“How much money do you guys have? You just went out and bought a van?” she exclaimed.
“We have cash reserves,” Lana said, piping in. “Every shifter does, just in case. You never know. It’s enough for this kind of thing. The real money is probably locked down by now.”
Alison wondered what the “real” money was. Just how wealthy were these shifters? Lucien had made it clear they had money, but she’d thought that meant they weren’t going to be forced to steal food to eat. But it was turning out perhaps he’d meant it the other way. The polite way of saying they were filthy rich.
A moment later, a bedraggled figure entered the back door. Despite her reservations about everything, Alison felt herself dragged toward the door, her feet moving her body across the room without permission, Bergey at her side.
“You’re okay?” she asked, reaching him, helping pull his black form-fitting shirt off. “You’re cut!”
“Just branches,” he said. “I had to go for a run through a forest. Fast.”
“They found you?” she gasped, looking back at Chief. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Chief just shrugged.
“They chased us, yes,” Lucien said, putting a calming hand on her arm.
Alison did her best to ignore the flow of warmth that ran down her arm where his fingers made contact. She was not going to focus on that. Not right now.
“You got away, I take it. Did they follow you? Should we be leaving?”
Lucien shook his head. “No, they didn’t follow us. I led them off on a chase while the others got away.”
He swayed slightly. Alison looked closer, inspecting him. His skin was as white as a sheet, the pupils of his eyes dilated, unfocused.
“How’s your energy?” she asked quietly, knowing he was probably still recovering from his near-death experience, even with his fancy shifter healing skills.
“Low, but I’m okay.” He smiled down at her. “It’s been a long time since I’ve run like that. That last one was persistent. Followed me for nearly ten miles.”
“Much longer and we would have left your ass behind,” Chief piped up from the living room, where he was now lounging in Alison’s vacated spot.
“Left him behind?” she asked.
“At the warehouse, our rendezvous. We were only staying there for an hour. Somebody didn’t want you to be on your own for much longer,” Chief teased.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lucien shoot a glance at the other shifter, but it just slid off Chief, who grinned and then turned to engage in low conversation with Lorik.
“I’m going to box him up around the ears,” Lucien growled under his breath. “Sorry about that.”
Alison smiled despite herself. “Don’t be.”
> “Does that mean…?” Lucien didn’t finish the question, but she could see the hope blossom in his eyes.
Dammit, now you’ve gone and made him think you’ve made a decision.
“No,” she said. “I need more time, Lucien. This is all just too much. I don’t know what to think, okay?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, his shoulders drooping slightly. “Yeah, I get it. I’m going to go get some food, replenish my energy.”
She nodded without speaking, stepping aside to let him pass before going and reclaiming some of her spot on the couch next to Chief. Bergey followed and presented his head to the shifter for scratching as if it was a gift.
“Thanks for not leaving him,” she said quietly.
Chief shrugged. “Don’t go making an idol out of me. I’m not. If he’d been five minutes later, we would have left him.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Orders are orders. You follow them when your leader gives them. Besides, I knew why he gave them.” Chief looked at her.
“You do?” she asked.
“Of course. He was worried about you. Worried that something might happen to you. So he wanted to ensure that if he couldn’t be here protecting you, someone was. Can’t you see that?”
Alison started to respond, then stopped.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly.
Between them, the silence lengthened.
31
“Well then, clearly you don’t know Lucien well enough,” Chief drawled, keeping his voice low.
The house was small, and though they were separated from the kitchen by a wall, if they talked much louder she was certain Lucien would hear them.
“And you do?” she challenged.
“Of course I do,” Chief said derisively. “I grew up with him, we’ve known each other since childhood.”
“I didn’t know that,” she said sheepishly, twisting the skin on her wrist in nervousness.
Chief looked down at her, eyes shadowed as they blocked the light, but serious enough. “Did you ever ask?”
