Brandi

by Donna McDonald

  As promised, boating out to the island took no time at all. Brandi cut the engine more than a mile out and trolled in quietly, docking next to some trees hanging over the water. They planked from the barge to the shore and jumped the last bit of distance to dry land.

  “You weren’t kidding. You really can drive a boat,” Gareth commented.

  Brandi laughed. “Why do you say it like that? Did you think I was lying?”

  “No… just exaggerating your skills like everyone else I’ve ever met.”

  Snickering, Brandi shook her head. “When I was training, they said my missions were going to be in a lot of places surrounded by water. After all the years I got stuck in deserts in the military, I didn’t want to be anywhere ever again that I couldn’t get myself out when I chose to leave. There’s not much in the way of transportation I can’t manage. I don’t like feeling trapped.”

  The three of them walked quietly through towering spruces and firs. The air was silent—too silent. Where were the birds? Where were the squirrels and rabbits? Her skin prickled and her wolf went more on alert than she’d already been up to that point.

  Finally, they came to the facility. It was a large building and looked a lot like Feldspar. There was no fence, but two armed guards stood outside of it.

  Brandi stopped walking and stopped Gareth and Fallon. “We need to split up temporarily and search the surrounding area. I’m going to watch this entrance while the two of you take a look around. Make it fast and let’s meet back here in ten or fifteen to discuss what’s next.”

  Fallon nodded and headed off in one direction, staying in the wood line. Brandi turned and found Gareth looking uneasy. “What is it?”

  “I don’t like leaving you alone. Something’s not right here.”

  “I know. There are no birds and no animals making noise. The only sound is the wind in the trees. I smell a lot of strange things, but can’t really identify them yet. You need to get a grip, Gareth. We have things to do and worrying won’t get them done.”

  Gareth swung his gaze to hers. “You understand this is torture for me, don’t you?”

  Brandi sighed and reluctantly nodded. “Yes. Probably because I made you talk about the past, but you know I’m not as defenseless as your mate was. I’m a fully trained agent. So stop worrying. We need to know if there are any other entrances. We need to know what’s going on around the facility.”

  Gareth nodded and looked in the direction he had to go. Brandi was right, but he still didn’t like leaving her. “Okay. We’ll play by your rules for the moment. Be careful while I’m gone. Know that people are going to die if anything happens to you.”

  “Go,” Brandi ordered, ignoring his passionate declaration. “Be back here in ten. You’ve wasted five minutes whining.”

  When Gareth growled at her chastising, the hairs rose on the back of her neck, but her mysteriously appearing fangs stayed out of sight. She watched him turn, and in a blink of an eye, he had morphed into a very large dark gray wolf trotting away on all fours. The sight of silver streaks decorating the sides of his head and throat made her smile. Her wolf whined in longing to chase after him.

  “I know. Later we’ll all get to play,” she promised, rubbing her midsection where she felt her inner animal the most.

  She turned her full attention back to the facility and wondered if somehow Diane Crane had known they were coming. Her thoughts were on that when she heard the distinct sound of a gun’s safety being clicked off.

  “Don’t turn around yet. Just keep looking forward and put your hands in the air. You go for the gun in the back of your pants and I swear I’ll shoot you.”

  Brandi sniffed. The something strange she’d been smelling since they landed on the island was now standing right behind her. Gareth was going to be pissed when he found out she’d been caught off-guard a mere two minutes after his warning. Obviously, she was going to have to start paying more attention to the man’s instincts.

  “Are you afraid for me to see what Diane Crane has turned you into?” Brandi asked. “I came here to stop her, you know… and rescue her victims if I could.”

  “That’s a great story. Who exactly are you?”

  Brandi knew to ignore his bravado—plus she could smell his discomfort. “I’m Agent Brandi Jenkins. I work for a better-left-unnamed federal research and rescue organization led by Diane Crane’s brother. He’s the one who sent us here to stop his sister from making bear hybrids.”

  “Hybrids? Is that what they call us? You’re not human either though… not completely. What kind of hybrid creature are you?” he demanded.

  Brandi didn’t hesitate. “Wolf. I’m a wolf hybrid.” It sounded a bit nicer and more scientific than saying she had been turned into a werewolf.

  “Take your gun out of your pants and toss it. Then you can turn around for the rest of our conversation,” he ordered.

  Brandi pulled her gun out with one finger and tossed it on the ground beside her.

  Hands up, she swiveled slowly so she wouldn’t alarm him. The biggest and hairiest bearded man she’d ever seen was facing her. His hair was four inches or more below his shoulders. A full beard covered most of his face. He was over seven feet tall and had a glare that would freeze nearly anyone in place.

  And in his hands was a tranquilizing gun.

  She wanted to laugh, but sardonic humor about his pitiful weapon would not serve her purpose well. He probably had no idea yet that he could do far more damage with his bare hands than the tranquilizer gun would ever do to anyone.

  Brandi stayed unmoving while the man looked her over. He finally made a decision. She knew what it was when he put the safety back on before shoving the tranq gun into the waist of his ragged jeans. They were strained to the limit on his bulked up body.

  “I’m Jonathan Clark—calling me Jon is fine. My wife, Susan, is a prisoner in that facility, as well as are some of our friends. As crazy as I feel saying this, Diane Crane turned Susan into a bear. I can still talk to my wife telepathically, even though she’s now an animal. Susan says she can’t change back to normal. She wants me to run away and save myself, but I can’t leave her. I just can’t.”

  Brandi lowered her hands. “No, of course you can’t. Your wife may believe she can’t change back, but that’s not necessarily true, Jon. We need to find her alpha leader—assuming bears have one. He or she can order your wife to change back into a human. Her bear side will have to comply no matter how much it doesn’t want to. The inclination to obey the strongest and smartest of your kind seems to be an innate part of animal law.”

  “Are you saying Susan’s situation might not be permanent?” Jon asked.

  Brandi saw how hopeful he was and shrugged lightly. “I can’t say for sure. I’m not a scientist. I can only tell you that’s how it worked for me. My alpha ordered me and another woman to change back to our human forms. We were compelled to do what she said. How long has your wife been a full bear?”

  “Three days. We were both given the same drugs. Susan changed completely. I didn’t. I just have strange inclinations and about a hundred times more body hair than I used to have.”

  Brandi nodded again. “Just to let you know… there’s a panther and a wolf with me. They’re looking around. Don’t freak when they show up. Let me explain you. Mind if I put my gun back too?”

  When he shrugged, Brandi bent and retrieved her weapon.

  “I watched the three of you leave the boat and followed you here. I couldn’t tell who was in charge—you or the silver-haired guy.” Jon lifted his chin. “What you’re seeing is the only way in or out of that place which is way bigger inside than it looks out here. Susan busted out of her cage three days ago and caused quite a ruckus. I bent the bars of my cage to get out while she was fighting with our keepers. They tranquilized her before I could get involved. There are others, but I had no time to look for keys to release them. I figured looking for help was better than letting them put me back into a cage.”

  “
You did the right thing getting away, Jon. And you did find help,” Brandi assured him.

  “When they came looking for me I hid in the cellar of one of the old houses here. I pulled out some hair and put some on the trees near the water. I wanted them to think I tried to swim out. I knew that wasn’t possible because they flew us in here by helicopter. I hear them still coming and going all the time. I pray to God it isn’t with more people.”

  Brandi nodded and looked back the building. “They were probably just dropping off shipping supplies. It takes a lot to keep a place like this going. Tell me what it’s like inside.”

  “The lab part is like you’d imagine it would be. They have a lot of tables where they work on us and a lot of equipment. The part where they keep us locked up is just a bunch of cages in rows. There are no bath or toilet facilities in any of them. We were treated like animals long before we became ones. They called it immersion into our new life.”

  “Has anyone else become a full bear?”

  “Others were in the changing process when I left, but I never saw anyone get as far as Susan. Two have died mid-shift. Susan suffered a long time before her shift was completed. I could only watch from my cage, unable to help. I can understand her not wanting to do the process I saw in reverse.”

  “Changing doesn’t feel good, but it does get easier,” Brandi said firmly, trying to encourage him to be positive about his wife’s abilities. If they didn’t have nanos to help, she imagined it would be horrendous. “Is Diane Crane in the facility?”

  “Yes,” Jon answered coldly. “She keeps close tabs on everything being done. I’m not a violent man, but I will kill her if I ever get the chance, Agent Jenkins. For what she has done, she deserves to die.”

  “Her brother who sent us here wants to talk with her first. Apparently, this shit runs in their family. Her brother Randall Crane was the one who changed me. I was in Alaska investigating the abduction and scientific abuse of the gray wolves in that area. Someone killed Randall before I could, but he won’t be doing any more experimenting. My goal is to make sure Diane’s work ends here as well.”

  “Susan and I were part of an environmental group trying to figure out a better way to live on this planet. One of our members owned three hundred acres of land in a remote area forty miles outside Boulder, Colorado. We’d set up an Eco village and basically went off all power and water grids. People called us a hippie commune. Maybe we were to some extent. We jointly raised our children. We farmed and sold what we didn’t use for money, which bought supplies to help us handle the Colorado winters. Susan made jewelry from the rocks and stones where we lived and sold it for extra cash. It was a good life. We needed very little from regular civilization.”

  “How did Diane Crane get hold of you?” Brandi asked.

  “One day a bunch of masked gunmen all in black came and just rounded us up. They had machine guns and we didn’t have any weapons to fight back. Thank God none of our children were home at the time. The teacher in our group had taken the kids on a field trip. That was months ago now—or at least I think it’s been that long.”

  “Let me guess the rest. You woke up in cages or strapped to gurneys. Scientists poked and prodded and hooked you up to IVs without telling you what they were doing.”

  “Yes. And they starved us to get us to eat. All the food was drugged with something. We lost our sense of time being sedated so often. I don’t know what day it is or where this place exists. Where exactly are we, Agent Jenkins?”

  “Sugar Island. It’s a tiny water locked land mass just off the Maine coast. And from my records, it looks like you’ve been here about seven months.”

  “Maine. That’s a long damn way from Colorado. After seven months, I hope Linda still has the kids. There were nine of them. She would have her hands full taking care of them all.”

  Brandi’s jaw hardened at the sincerity of Jonathan Clarke’s concern. He rubbed his forehead, obviously shocked at finding he was most of a country away from where he’d been living. And the loss of time… that was even worse.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t bring any rations with me to feed you. Frankly, I wasn’t planning to be here long. This place is getting shut down today—one way or the other.”

  “That’s all I care about. I’ve grown accustomed to being hungry and dirty. I have no dignity left. I just want my wife back… no matter what the circumstances.”

  Brandi nodded. “What did you used to do for a living—before you went off-grid to do the Henry David Thoreau thing?”

  “I was a realtor. Susan was a library technician. We both loved camping. It was our favorite vacation and we were planet conscious about it. The Eco village was the perfect extension of all we loved… until this happened.”

  She saw Fallon come running up and held up her hand to indicate there was no issue. “He’s an escaped experiment subject. His name is Jon. They still have his wife.”

  Fallon nodded. “I found no other entrances or people. Where is Gareth?”

  “He should be back shortly,” Brandi said. She looked at the facility. “Did you happen to see an air vent on the top of the building?”

  “I saw several all around. Some were on top of the building. Some were along the back side. I would say they need many vents if they now have a bunch of trapped animals in cages,” Fallon declared.

  Brandi nodded. “I’m thinking we might pump some rapid freeze gas into them. It would put all the test subjects to sleep with the cold, but maybe it would do the same to some scientists too.”

  “I like the idea of everyone sleeping when we go in. Much less bloodshed,” Fallon declared.

  Brandi nodded again, turned her head, and looked to the woods. “That’s Gareth coming now. He’s headed back at full gallop.” She turned back to be confronted by Fallon’s lifted eyebrow. “What? Don’t you hear him coming with those super sensitive ears of yours?”

  “I hear some creature running full out. This far away, I can only guess it’s Gareth. How do you know for sure it is him?”

  Brandi ran a hand through her hair. “We’ve been together for a few months. That’s the only explanation I have for how I know, but trust me, that’s Gareth returning.”

  Fallon snorted. “Do you avoid the truth because the obvious explanation would be too complicated for you? Or because you don’t want the reality of your relationship with Gareth to be true?”

  “Quit dancing and spit out your opinion, Fallon. I can see you’re dying to enlighten me about something.”

  “Gareth is your natural mate, elskling. I think you would know him no matter what his form,” Fallon declared softly. He looked at Jon. “I heard you say you want your wife even though she is now a bear. Does her animal form change her woman’s soul?”

  Brandi watched Jon’s eyes go soft.

  “No. She talks to me in my head. Susan is still the same on the inside. It’s like she’s just trapped in what she has become.”

  “Then let’s free her before we cannot,” Fallon declared, clapping his hand on the giant man’s shoulder.

  Jon was nodding just as Gareth trotted up behind her. She turned to watch him change smoothly from the wolf to the silver-templed man she couldn’t seem to resist. Even now she wanted to skip to him and get a hug. What the hell was wrong with her? This was no time for hugging.

  “Everything okay here?” Gareth asked, looking from Brandi to the stranger.

  Brandi put a hand on his arm. “This is Jonathan Clark. Danger Brain Diane has turned his wife into a bear. Things are worse than Sheldon suspected.”

  Gareth nodded as he put out a hand. Jon stared at it before reluctantly lifting his own to take it.

  “I saw you change easily. There was no struggle. You are not like us,” Jon declared.

  “No,” Gareth admitted. “Science didn’t make me. Nature did.”

  “Are you saying there are already people in the world who are both human and animal?” Jon asked softly, letting his hand drop.

  “Yes. It’
s more complicated than I can explain. All that’s important is science shouldn’t be used to force nature’s hand. It’s Sheldon Crane’s primary goal to see that doesn’t happen, though Brandi here might not agree with my view of his work.”

  “Correct. I do not agree,” Brandi confirmed, “but I am in favor of dealing with the Crane I know over the one in that facility. Danger Brain Diane is going to be out of the experimenting business today.”

  Gareth snorted. “That sounds pretty confident. What scheme did you come up with while I was gone?”

  She quickly told Gareth about her plan.

  Chapter 16

  “We have enough freeze gas for approximately half the facility’s space. If Jon can tell us the location of the captives, maybe we can target the gas more towards the lab end and catch the scientists instead.”