When dawn finally eased over the horizon with a faint, pink glow, she found herself in a relatively clear space around a huge monster of a tree. The trunk was so big around that it had to be hundreds, maybe thousands, of years old. She reached out and ran her gloved hand over the rough surface, then pulled her hand back and tugged off the glove. Protocol be damned, she wanted to feel. The tree’s surface was thick and flaked with heavy layers of bark, with channels so deep running up and down the trunk that she could fit her whole hand into some of them. Hell, she could fist her fingers and still fit her hand into the deepest gaps. She itched to document its existence, to take photographs and notes. But very soon White and the others would discover she was gone, and the cat with her, and they’d come after her. She had no doubt one or more of them was good enough to follow an ordinary trail on the ground, but she was a planetary specialist—an expert at moving through non-Terran environments without leaving a trace.
Sliding the backpack off her shoulders and to the ground, she crouched next to it and dug deep into the main compartment until she found what she was looking for—a tightly-rolled belt and rope contraption that very few people would recognize. It was a tree-climbing harness, and she’d included it in her gear as soon as she’d read about Harp’s massive trees. To be sure, it was the simplest version she owned. Back home, she had an entire closet filled with different kinds of harnesses and equipment. But most of those would have taken up way too much room, and while they might have been safer, she really didn’t need them. The trees in this area provided more than enough traction for the rope. Besides, she told herself, she’d been on the ship for too long. Her legs could use a good workout.
She undid the strap that held her regular rope to her backpack, then tied a small weight bag to the end. Looking up among the dense branches, she picked her target and executed a perfect underhand toss, slinging the weighted rope over the lowest branch and dropping it back down next to her. Moments later, she was hooked up and ascending into the canopy at a steady pace.
Stopping at the first branching, about twenty feet off the ground, Rachel stepped off and removed her climbing harness. She didn’t need it to climb any farther. There were thick branches all along the trunk from this point upward, and she was tall enough to gain hand and footholds with little problem. She looked around and grinned. She loved these trees! Her brother would go nuts for them. Hell, her father would, too, even if his enthusiasm had more to do with research and less with climbing.
Stowing the harness in her pack, she slipped her arms into both shoulder straps, locked the waist belt and sternum strap, and started upward again. She’d find a sturdy branch to rest for a few hours, and then continue her journey. As tempting as it was to travel under cover of night, it simply wasn’t practical. Unless one of Harp’s larger moons decided to make an appearance, it was far too dark for her to travel in speed or safety. And if she traveled through the trees—as she’d speculated the animals must do on this planet—she could cover a lot more ground and outrun her pursuers in short order.
…
Aidan’s ears pricked up as the song of the trees shifted and the breeze of a new morning brought him a familiar scent. His lips pulled back in a fang-baring grin. There were shifters in-bound.
His cousins were a mile or two out, on the other side of the swamp, but that was nothing for a shifter. He raced along the branches high above the steamy depths, changing his trajectory after a while to intersect with Rhodry, who was traveling alone, coming in from the city while the other cousins were arriving from Clanhome.
He and Rhodry met on the highest branches first, rubbing against each other like the huge cats they were, before plunging to the forest floor and shifting to their human forms.
“You scared the shit out of us,” Rhodry growled, giving Aidan a backbreaking hug. “Amanda nearly dropped the twins on the spot.”
Aidan’s smile was so big that it hurt. He was full to bursting with happiness at being alive and free, and having his cousin to back him up. For the first time since his capture, he could admit to himself that he’d been fucking horrified at the specter of being studied, picked apart, and ultimately used as breeding material for whatever nightmare purposes the Earthers had in mind.
“Not hardly! Amanda’s got months before those two will be ready to birth,” he told Rhodry, laughing. “By that time, she’ll be big as a—”
“Christ, don’t say it,” his cousin snapped, slapping his shoulder. “She’ll kill us both.”
Aidan grinned at the shifter, who was closer to him than a brother. As close as Rhodry’s twin boys would be some day. He’d never doubted that his cousin would come when the humans had attacked him, just as he’d been certain that the trees would carry a warning of the invaders and his capture.
“It’s fucking good to see you, cuz.”
“I admit I’m a little disappointed,” Rhodry said, shaking his head. “When I caught sight of that ship, I thought we’d be storming the hatches to peel you out. But here you are instead.”
“Now that’s an interesting story. There’s a woman—”
“There’s always a woman with you,” Rhodry laughed. “What about her?”
“Rachel’s her name, and she’s the one who got me out of there.”
Laughter fled as his cousin asked, “Does she know about us?”
Aidan shook his head. “She doesn’t, but whoever brought that ship here does, and so do at least some of the crew. They meant to capture a shifter but wanted proof. They did their best to force a shift once they had me. Fortunately, it was me they grabbed, not one of the younger ones, so it didn’t work.”
“And the woman? Where was she for all this?”
Aidan shrugged. “Somewhere else in the ship. I don’t know. She wasn’t part of the torture sessions.”
“Torture?” Rhodry snapped the single word, his hackles rising despite his human form.
“Some sort of electrified rod.” He lifted his shirt to display a cluster of circular burn wounds on his side—not yet fully healed because his body had focused on the more dangerous injuries.
“Fuck.”
“It’s not as bad as it could have been. They didn’t seem to want the woman to know about it, and she kept close tabs. She’s a doctor of some kind. It seems they brought her along to provide medical care to their captives, but without telling her the truth of what we are. All she saw was the cat, and that’s what she rescued.”
Rhodry lifted his head, as if scenting the wind. “I want to hear the rest of this, but the others are close. Let’s shift and intercept. You can tell us all at once, then decide what to do with this woman of yours.”
Aidan opened his mouth to deny she was his, but he couldn’t say the words. He frowned. Maybe she was his, but only because he felt responsible for her. He didn’t get involved when it came to women, and any of his cousins would back him up on that. He loved women, and they loved him. But it was all about a good time, nothing more. The image of Rachel as he’d last seen her, glaring fiercely out into the darkness, as if daring the night to defy her, filled his mind. He smiled.
Rhodry snorted loudly. “Right. That’s what I thought. Let’s go. And don’t let anyone else see that mooning look on your face. It’s fucking embarrassing.”
“Fuck you,” Aidan said cheerfully, then shifted and took off before his cousin could say anything else.
The Devlin cousins were waiting when Aidan and Rhodry dropped out of the trees. They’d all pulled on the loose drawstring pants that shifters favored when roaming the Green in human form. Shifters didn’t care about nudity. The shift made clothing a nuisance. But there was a logging camp not far from where they were now, and most norms didn’t share the shifters’ lax attitudes when it came to nudity. Shifters were all fine physical specimens, and the only rule on Harp when it came to sexual congress was consent. Everything else was free and easy. But the logging camps tended to be more conservative than Harp as a whole, and while they had no problem worki
ng with shifters to keep the forest healthy, they didn’t trust them around their women.
Aidan and Rhodry quickly donned the pants their cousin Gabriel threw at them, before they were swept into a round of manly hugs. Aidan especially was pounded on the back until he could feel his bones vibrating, but he didn’t complain. He’d never doubted they’d come for him, and he was as happy to see them as they were him.
“So, tell us the story,” Rhodry said, automatically assuming control. Because Rhodry was more than just his cousin, he was the de Mendoza, clan chief of the most powerful of the mountain clans, the de facto leader of all the clans on Harp. Aidan and the others were Devlins, the largest family in the de Mendoza clan. Rhodry, too, was a Devlin, on his father’s side. The de Mendoza mantle had come from his mother’s line. It was complicated to outsiders, but among the clans, it was clear as a bell.
The Devlins were loyal to Rhodry as their cousin first and their clan chief second. Nothing trumped blood.
“Tell us about the woman,” Gabriel called.
Aidan gave Rhodry a narrow look. “What did you tell him?”
“Ho ho! Aidan’s sweet on her,” someone crowed, and everyone laughed.
“There’s nothing funny about what they did to the Green.” Rhodry’s sober words brought them all back to the reason they were here. “Nor the animals they killed. Aidan?”
Aidan nodded, abruptly as serious as the rest of them. “They were after me. Or, not me, specifically, but a shifter. And more than just one, judging by the number of cages I saw.”
The cousins reacted predictably with curses and questions. Who the hell were these Earthers? And how did they know about shifters?
“I’m not sure who’s behind it, although Rachel thinks she knows. Which is why I have to stick close to her after we deal with the ship.”
There was another, milder round of catcalls, but then one of his cousins asked quietly, “She’s one of them?”
“She came with them,” Aidan admitted. “But she’s not one of them. I’d swear she had no idea what they planned before they started shooting up the forest. Nor when they caged me on their damn ship.”
“How’d they manage that? What weapons do they have?”
“They have two kinds of weapon. One shoots nothing but heavy-duty tranquilizer darts, that’s what they used on me. But the other weapons, the ones they used to create chaos and force me to respond, those were old-fashioned projectile submachine guns. They used those to get me out into the open and didn’t give a damn about the damage they did or what else they killed.”
“The weapon choice indicates prior knowledge of Harp,” Rhodry added.
Aidan nodded. “I made them regret their actions before I went down. I killed three of them outright, and a fourth, their leader, was so badly injured that she’s useless to them.”
“And your woman?” Rhodry asked.
He scowled at him, but said, “She never went along with what they planned. She was screaming her head off for them to stop when they started firing wildly, and again when they kept shooting me with tranqs. Hell, she was whispering promises to me before they even got me on the ship.”
“What kind of promises?” Gabriel asked with a comically obvious leer.
“Fuck you. She promised to help me escape. Which she did, by the way. And now she’s determined to track down whoever it was that planned the mission and hired the crew, including her. She insists he’s on-planet, and I need to get back before she gets tired of waiting and takes off on her own. She’s not a novice when it comes to new environments, but we all know what Harp’s capable of.”
“All right, let’s go,” Rhodry decided. “We’re hitting that ship this morning. They won’t expect it. Aidan, did you get the ramp code?”
He nodded.
“Good. You open the hatch, then shift and join us. The rest of you shift now and stay that way.”
“I have to get Rachel out of there first,” Aidan said quickly. “They lost people capturing me. They’ll kill her for helping me escape.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Rhodry said confidently. “You go ahead and get her out, but I want to debrief before you whisk her away. She’s our best source of intel on the enemy.”
“She’ll be safe at Clanhome,” Gabriel offered.
“She stays with me,” Aidan said. “She can help me hunt the traitor.”
“Whatever you say, cuz,” Gabriel agreed, exchanging an amused look with Rhodry. “All right, lads, see you on the other side.” He shifted in a blur of reddish-gold fur and took to the trees with the others. In minutes, Aidan and Rhodry were alone in the small clearing.
“You like her.”
Aidan shrugged. “She saved my life.”
Rhodry smiled. “Yeah, but it’s more than that. Let’s go.”
Chapter Seven
“You sure you’ve got the right code.”
Aidan looked over at Rhodry, where they stood on a thick branch, high above the clearing where the Earthers’ ship stood buttoned up tight. He didn’t know if the ship’s condition meant they hadn’t yet discovered his escape, or if they had discovered it and were terrified of retribution. They had good reason for the latter. Hell was about to descend upon them.
The rest of the cousins had shifted and lay waiting for the attack to begin, but he and Rhodry remained in their human forms. Aidan, because he’d need fingers to enter the belly hatch access code and to get Rachel safely out of there. And Rhodry because, apparently, he’d become a nervous Nellie in the short time Aidan had been gone. A by-product of his impending fatherhood, perhaps.
Aidan took his eyes off the ship long enough for a quick glance at his cousin. “For the tenth time, I’ve got the code,” he said confidently. “What’s up your ass?”
Rhodry gave him a very unfriendly look. “You mean apart from the fact that one of my favorite cousins was kidnapped by these assholes and about to be cut up in the name of science? And that I’m here instead of back home with my wife who’s pregnant with twins? You mean other than that?”
“One of your favorite cousins? I am the favorite, and you know it.” Aidan turned his gaze back to the ship. “When’s the go-ahead?”
“We’re going in now. They won’t expect a daylight attack.”
“They shouldn’t be expecting an attack from us at all, unless they know about shifters.”
Rhodry nodded. “It sure seems as if someone’s been talking.”
Aidan frowned. “At least some of them knew about it, that’s for sure. But not Rachel. She’s not a part of whatever this is.”
Rhodry slanted a glance at him. “I was right. You like her.”
He scowled. “We’ve been through this before. She has courage, and she saved my life.”
“And she’s quite lovely, I’d imagine.”
Aidan cleared his throat. “That, too. Give the word. Let’s get this done.”
A small smile crossed Rhodry’s face. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll enter the code and go in first. You come in right behind me, and—”
“Good plan, except… I’ll go in first, as we discussed. I know the layout, and you’re way too valuable to risk.”
“That’s not how it works, and you know it. Clansmen lead from the front.”
“Good thing I’m a clansman, then. I have the best chance of making this work, and you know it. And if that doesn’t convince you, then consider Amanda and the twins. She’ll skin me alive if anything happens to you.”
“That’s a low blow, cuz.”
“The best kind. What’s the signal once I’m onboard?”
“Your lead, your choice.”
Aidan thought about it. “I’d say you could wait until the screams start, but the lads might resent missing out on the fun. Let’s go with a hunter’s howl instead.” He grinned. “That way everyone gets to play.”
Rhodry studied him soberly for a long minute, and Aidan thought for sure he was going to push for a revised plan. His cousin was used to leading hunts
, not following. But this one was personal to Aidan. He’d been the one captured and held in a fucking cage. Besides, only he could ensure Rachel’s safety. He’d initially thought to get her out of the ship before any serious bloodshed began. But once he gave the all-clear, his cousins would attack within minutes. She’d be safer in her cabin until the fighting was over.
Also, that way, he could inflict some serious bloodshed of his own.
Rhodry gave a sharp nod. “Right. I’ll have the others ready to go. He gripped Aidan’s shoulder tightly. “You be careful. I’d hate having to choose a new favorite after all this time.”
“Love you, too. Be ready.”
…
Aidan scanned the ship from end to end, his study slow and deliberate. There was no sign of life that he could see. Heavy reentry shutters covered every window, which he’d expected, but there wasn’t even the tiniest flicker of movement from the many sensors mounted on the bristling exterior. If not for the sound of multiple heartbeats emanating from the ship on the very edge of his enhanced hearing, he might have thought it was abandoned. If the Earthers had hoped Aidan’s people would accept the ship’s status at face value and go away, they didn’t know much about shifter abilities. But then, that was why they’d wanted a live sample or six for their research labs, wasn’t it?
He raced across the clearing in human form, happy there was no one watching from the ship to see him crouched low in the long grasses. Once beneath the ship, he straightened, not wasting any time as he strode over to the keypad next to the landing strut. He entered the code Rachel had used during his escape, half expecting it not to work. If the crew was aware of his escape—and it seemed likely they were—they’d naturally suspect Rachel, whether they had proof or not, since she’d made no secret of her feelings regarding his capture, and she’d had easy access to him. Basic security protocols would then have required them to change every code she’d had knowledge of. Even he knew that. And yet, the moment he tapped the final number into the keypad, the hatch opened with a loud hiss of seals, and the ramp deployed with a smooth, nearly silent glide.
Shifter Planet: The Return Page 8
