by Cecilia Lane
The cage door rolled upward while Ronnie kept talking up the crowd. Nolan wanted to cover his ears and hunch in on himself rather than face the full force of noise that waited outside his tiny world. But a shuffle behind him showed Mara’s guard hadn’t completely disappeared. The sparked end of a prod was ready to drive him forward if he didn’t go willingly.
Nolan stepped into the ring and spun to get his bearings. The buzz of electrified fencing ran all around him, from floor to rafters. Gates like the one he exited held snarling men behind the bars. How many he’d need to fight was still a mystery. He could feel his bear unfurling inside him, ready to rip into the challengers.
For Becca.
Human faces cheered and yelled safely behind the barrier. Feet stomped an unholy beat against the floor. He hated them, every last one. This place, this monstrosity they called entertainment, it was all their doing. Their bloodlust and desire for power over others created a void that hunters were ready to fill. Why shouldn’t they make a quick buck off the blood of creatures they planned to kill anyway?
A long, low snarl rattled through him before he could stop it. Those that heard it only cheered harder. They were the true animals. The real monsters. He’d give anything to tear them to shreds.
Given a single, tiny opening and he would. He’d rip them up and dance on their mangled corpses if he could get Becca free.
His first opponent stepped out of the shadows. Nolan had several inches on him, but there was no mistaking the madness in his eyes. Though he kept to his human shape, he was more animal than man.
Nolan almost felt sorry for the wretched creature. He didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter 24
Becca hugged her knees and listened to the swell of cheers in the distance. She couldn’t hear the smack of flesh on flesh or smell the fur of changes, but she could imagine the ducked blows and grunts when a punch connected. Brawls between animals and men weren’t uncommon in the shifter world. Bearden was no exception. She’d even seen Nolan fight before.
Was it a fair fight? One on one? Or was he up against an entire pack and simply being used as slaughter to give the crowd a taste for blood?
The uncertainty made her sick to her stomach. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not ever again. The last few weeks, circling their connection, had been the best in, well… ever.
An animal roared over the screams of the crowd. Pain or triumph?
“Won’t be long now. Your man won’t last in there,” someone whispered as the cheering reached a fever pitch.
Further down the row, another voice joined in, “Need someone else to have your back, pretty girl? Get on your knees and earn my loyalty.” That earned a laugh and more than a few calls for the same.
“Shut up.” Becca’s fox rose up just enough to add a wimpy growl to her voice. Not enough to make the others back off.
“Not so tough without the bear, are you?”
She’d tried to stay strong all day. She thought she did a fair job at faking it, too. But without Nolan in the cage with her, all her fears surged back into focus. She had to listen to disgusting words thrown at her, hear the bloodthirsty crowd, and wait for her turn to be hunted. It was too much.
She dug her fingers into her knees and swallowed back her whimper. She would not lose her shit in front of the monsters around her. Nolan wouldn’t want her to be weak. He’d want her to stand tall and face whatever happened on her feet. “Big talk for boys who know their tiny peckers will be handed to them by the end of the night.”
Then the power blew out.
Howls rose in the darkness and lifted the fine hairs on her body. The electric buzz that’d sunk deep into her very being disappeared and left behind an annoyingly quiet sensation.
“Touch it,” someone urged.
“You first.”
“It has to be a trick.”
“Stay in your cages and we won’t shoot you full of holes!” The voice came from above and cracked with fear.
The threat only gave the prisoners pause for a second.
“You’re all a bunch of fucking pussies,” another shifter growled. It was deeper than one she’d heard before. “Waste your time fretting. I’m getting the women.”
Motherfuck. The tone left no doubt what he meant. It was bad enough being locked up by psycho hunters. Being treated to violence at the hands of some maddened creature wasn’t something Becca planned to stick around for.
“You can have the women. I want the girl. Tight and untouched, that’s what I want.”
Across the row, Becca met Kate’s eyes. Maybe Mara’s betrayal had afforded her safety. But the darkness of the barn and the souls of the men around them wouldn’t keep that promise.
The first cage door swung open on nearly silent hinges. The shifter inside took a cautious step out.
And nothing happened.
Becca rolled her eyes upward. Guns were pointed at the cages below, but none were taking careful aim. The humans didn’t have the advantage of night vision like the animals they kept locked up.
The realization rolled through the rest of the prisoners. Their sacrificial lamb went unharmed. They were back on top of the food chain.
Almost as one, the cage doors swung open and vicious beasts stepped into the night.
There was no cohesive movement to overthrow their captors and no loyalty to one another. Days and weeks, maybe even months or years, of being regarded as nothing more than a tool to fight on command turned up the hatred inside a person. The rage that followed didn’t demand a specific target. Any solid body of flesh would do.
One misstep, one instinctive shove, and the freed shifters turned into a violent brawl. The sharp scent of blood filled the air and raised the hackles of her fox.
Without any light to aid them, the guards fired indiscriminately into the cages below. Bullets of silver found homes in flesh. Some fell, but more scaled the railing and sank fangs and claws into soft human flesh.
Becca jumped to her feet and pushed open the door to her cage. The instinct to protect forced her body to move. She couldn’t leave the children to the violent fate at the hands of shifters with no humanity left in them. She couldn’t let Kate suffer. None of them were fighters. Hell, she wasn’t either, but she couldn’t just leave them like she left Jacob.
She dodged a swiped claw and jumped over a still body to reach the cage across from her own. A quick tug pulled the door open. She latched on to the nearest hand. Joy’s. The girl wouldn’t move. “We have to go. Now!”
“You’re not going anywhere until I’ve had my fill.”
A feline hiss sounded from the back of the cage. Kate lifted her lips and showed fangs. Becca jumped inside and pulled the door shut behind her. She tried to hold it closed, to give her and Kate and the children some protection, but it was hopeless. The monster yanked the door open and stared at them with a hungry expression. Scars twisted his lips unnaturally and spread down his chin and neck, like he’d survived multiple attempts of others ripping out his throat.
Becca cast a look around for a tool, something left behind, anything she could use to defend herself and the others. Like a gift from the all the gods in the sky, a knife from a guard clattered to the floor just behind the monster blocking the cage door.
She dove for the space between his legs, but he was a fighter. He brought his knee up before she managed to tuck herself down and shoved a boot against her chest. She fell to the ground with a grunt.
“You’re not all talk. I like that,” he said, licking his lips.
A sleek lioness pounced before Becca could thaw limbs frozen with fear, toppling the man to the ground. Her tail swished in the air as the beast went for his throat.
Becca didn’t wait. She pulled on Joy’s hand and motioned for Kate to follow.
Kate held Jack close to her chest and dashed out of the cage on her heels. She called over her shoulder as they ran for the barn opening. “Mara! Hurry!”
Mara? Becca found a sliver of respect for the woman. E
verything she’d done had been to keep her family safe. That she threw herself between Kate and danger wasn’t a surprise.
The shriek of a hurt feline drove a spike through her heart. A glance behind her showed the lioness surrounded by a group of wolves and bears. Blood wet her side. She swiped at them, daring them on to distraction. Allowing her family the time they needed to escape.
They spilled out into the darkness. Power had been cut to all the buildings in sight, and it wasn’t just the barn in chaos. Humans grouped together and fought their way out of the other building. Someone, maybe several someones, drove them into the night with the fear of death and agony.
The night held no respite for them. Becca and Kate weren’t the only ones to turn away from the madness inside the barn. Other shifters fought outside, forcing them to keep to the side of the building.
Bullets and screams ripped through the darkness. Joy whimpered just behind her, but Becca tugged on her hand. She had to keep moving. Stopping would just make them all easier targets.
Flashes of memory consumed her as they ran. Instead of the baying of hounds, she had the roars of beasts. Guns fired just the same. Panted breaths shot up noise to the left and right. One escape mirrored another, but the desperation to survive was the same.
Joy stumbled and Becca didn’t skip a beat. She swung the girl up into her arms and kept her legs moving. There was no other choice. If they stayed behind, they would be mauled.
They reached a stream, and she turned into it. The water would wash away their scents if they could keep going. She ignored the chill that iced her toes through her shoes.
Slowly, the sounds and smells resolved into just the four of them. No steps followed them. No branches snapped in the surrounding woods. The crack of weaponry and the roars of fighting stayed in the distance.
Becca pushed out on the other side of the stream and let Joy slip to the ground. She bounced on her toes and stared in the direction of the barn and fighting ring. Her fox pushed her back into the madness and fighting. Every foot she stepped away tore her a little further apart.
She fought the feeling. She was doing the right thing by getting the family to safety.
Nolan was back there. Mara, too. As much as Mara deserved her fate, she had given them the distraction to get out of the barn.
Becca weighed her options. She could run. She could get the family to freedom and let the dice fall. Then, just like before, she could wonder if she might have made a difference if she chose to go back.
It wasn’t just the knowledge of what happened to Jacob after she escaped or an unwillingness to feel that guilt again. There was nothing so simple as leaving behind someone who should be punished for their sins. Mara had committed crimes against shifters, but she’d also tried to save her family.
And Nolan. Most importantly, Nolan. He’d only been dragged into the whole mess because of her. By the Broken, he overwhelmed every other desire in her heart. Safety didn’t matter without him. Life didn’t matter without him. She couldn’t leave him behind. She had to help.
If they died, then they died together.
“Stay here for a full five minutes,” she urged. Kate tried to cut in, but Becca plowed over her words. “You’ll hear if anyone sneaks up on you, but I should be able to draw them away if they’re here. Find a road and follow that to the nearest town, but don’t let yourselves be seen. Get into a motel and take out your trackers and move again. Bearden isn’t far from here and they’ll keep you safe.”
Kate wrapped a hand around her wrist and held her steady. “You can’t leave us.”
Becca turned, her fox growling at that loss of connection to where Nolan was. They faced the wrong direction and delayed by talking to the wrong people. She pushed the beast down. It wasn’t Kate’s fault.
“I have to. And you need to get those kids to safety. We both have places we need to be. Find Bearden, Kate. Be safe and well.”
“If you see Mara…” Kate chewed on her cheeks and turned her face into the night. She found whatever she was looking for and her eyes flared brightly when she met Becca’s gaze again. “Save her if you can. She did everything she could to keep us safe. Whatever she needs to do to make it right, let it happen while she’s still alive.”
Fox raking her insides, Becca nodded.
Chapter 25
Nolan ducked the slash of a knife and stepped behind the hunter trying to gut him. A quick grab around his neck and a jerk of his hands ended the man’s life. Nolan, more bear than man with bloodlust coursing through him, lifted his head and roared into the night.
Each hunter that died was righting the hurts done to Becca. Every body that fell with a ripped throat or broken neck felt like justice. Hunters were a plague on the supernatural world, and those that sought to use them as depraved entertainment were the worst of all.
Other escaped fighters echoed him in shouting challenges and triumphs. But the enemy wasn’t ready to be put down so easily. A renewed rat-tat-tat of bullets ripped through the darkness from a strand of trees.
Nolan strayed to the right, using the massive bodies of shifted creatures as a barrier between him and the hunters firing on the crowd. The cut power and quieted voltage in the ring was a blessing and a curse. Freedom was within the grasp of the captives if they were willing to pay for it with blood. Not one of them refused.
The fighters carved through the onlookers they’d driven into the night until the ground was slick with blood. But six against however many was a fight doomed to fail unless they turned the battle in their favor.
Most of the fighters walked a fine line between sanity and the maw of madness and lashed out at anything that moved. Too many claws swung for him after the initial burst into the night.
Creatures from the barn, some shifted and others looking human except for the wild gleam in their eyes, rushed to take the hunters from behind. The humans fired weapons they kept on them and took down a fair number of the beasts.
Nolan circled around and pushed his way into the cluster of hunters hiding in the trees. It was easy to blend in while he stayed to his human shape. The undercover work made him a harder target to track. He slipped between those who thought he was on their side and struck while the hunters focused on the larger, snarling creatures at their front.
With the rush of battle in his ears and dead hunters at his feet, he got his first glimpse of fighters chasing the weaker among them into the night. Fuck. Their rage and need for blood weren’t focused solely on the humans. Someone would need to track them down, maybe put them out of their misery. They’d decimate the natural order of things. Apex predators with a taste for blood wouldn’t allow their natural kin to remain in their territory. They wouldn’t allow humans nearby. They’d need to be handled before they ranged too far and an innocent got hurt.
And they could easily be chasing Becca. His bear ripped at his middle to put on some speed, let the fur fly, and find their mate.
A new crack of gunfire jerked Nolan’s attention back toward the barn. On the second floor, a rifle poked through a broken window and shot into the crowd below without a care if humans were caught in the middle or not. As he watched, the weapon jerked skyward, then toppled to the ground, followed closely by the mangled body of a hunter.
A large bear pressed his paws against the frame and pushed. Hard. Wood tore away and left a gaping hole in the barn. With a roar, the massive beast sprang from the broken side of the building and landed with a thud.
Nolan met the beast’s eyes from across the yard. He was scarred all along his jaw and down his neck, where deep wounds from fights left their mark. There was nothing left in the beast’s eyes. No sign of intelligence or empathy. The monster just wanted to kill.
And Nolan was in his sights.
His bear shoved forward at the challenge. He’d been close to the surface since they were thrown into that damned arena, held in check for the slaughter, but now… now was the time to be set free.
The shift ripped through him faster a
nd more violent than ever before. In a flash of agonized pain, his muscles and bones tore and broke to reform the fighter underneath. Nolan was pushed roughly aside to make way for a beast capable of taking on the scarred threat.
Even that didn’t stop the scarred bear. They were both shifters, both captives of hunters, shared a common enemy that still wanted to kill them, but the animal wanted Nolan’s blood.
He wasn’t the only one. With the hunters fleeing or dying, more of the captives turned on one another. A snarl at his side showed a wolf crouching down for an attack, with a lion shaking the last of a death rattle from a bear just behind.
The scarred bear flung himself into a running attack, huge claws digging into the dirt and sending clods flying under his paws.
A flash of red fury streaked across Nolan’s vision before he could brace himself for the scarred bear’s charge.
Becca, his Becca, rushed straight for the scarred bear. Equal parts pride, astonishment, and concern dumped into his veins.
The fox was tiny compared to both bears, but that didn’t stop her from leaping onto the other one’s back and sinking her teeth into the thick fur of his neck.
The scarred bear shook his head and sent Becca flying. She hit the ground with a squeak, then jumped right back to her feet and flew for him again.
Nolan knocked the surprise out of his head. He turned and raked claws down the back of the crouching wolf, then hip-checked a lion trying to sneak into the battle.
Then he was on the scarred bear.
They rose on their hind legs and pounded each other with their paws, trying to leave long, bleeding wounds. The metallic scent of it drove Nolan’s bear wild and pumped more adrenaline into their system. They were alive and they would stay alive.
For Becca.
