by Sarah Noffke
“Well, fuck,” Zephyr said. “They just set us up as the bad guys.” Malcolm and Derek stood in the distance, but their words to Cole were easy for him to hear.
“What do we do now, boss? Just approaching will put Cole on the defense,” Rio said.
“We’re going to have to rely on my influence. Maybe I can knock the brainwashing out of the other two,” he said.
“Or if all else fails then I’ll knock them out,” Rio said with a grin that made his dimple pop onto his cheek.
“Let’s try and avoid that,” Zephyr said, knowing Rio wasn’t being serious. He stepped out from behind the tree, roughly twenty yards from the group.
Cole turned, putting his back to Malcolm and Derek as he did. Zephyr felt the draw of the three werewolves before him, although the connection to the ones brainwashed by Olento Research was diminished slightly. This was Mika’s work and he’d pay.
“I’m not the bad guy,” Zephyr called through the forest, aware that his voice echoed off the trees. “Neither are they, but they’re working for Olento Research because they’re under its control. That’s the place that abducted and made us.”
Cole’s head tilted, his eyes on Zephyr and then Rio at his back. “That’s what they said you’d say,” he said, a strange look on his face. Was it possible that he recognized them? Rio had been the one who broke everyone out of the lab; well, except for Connor. Cole shook his head just then, like shaking off the rational thoughts dawning on him. Everything had been such a blur at the labs, he could be dismissing it.
“Don’t go with them,” Zephyr said, approaching gradually. “Actually, Malcolm and Derek, you should come with us too. Mika has you brainwashed, but I can help you.”
“He said you’d say that,” Derek said, spouting out the phrase, a bit of emotion finally showing in him. Good, that meant he was breaking free, doubting the programming.
“See, he just admitted that he’s working with the mastermind behind this,” Zephyr said to Cole. “Mika Lenna is the man who had us made. He’s evil and they’re trying to take you to him.”
“Who do I believe?” Cole asked out loud, but the question almost seemed like he was talking to himself. Zephyr noticed the trees around him and had the strange impulse of the wolf course through him. The wolf loved being in the woods. It stirred something in it that was so satisfyingly primal it felt like the bliss of breathing. The ease of sleeping. The refreshment of drinking and eating. The wolf appreciated the smallest of things, because in truth the wolf only knew the simple parts of life. It made Zephyr appreciate them.
“Believe your heart,” Zephyr said, flipping the switch inside of him, following the instinct that told him he should. He wasn’t going to hurt the men before them, as the werewolf could do, overpowering them in that form. Instead, he was going to exert his influence. He was the alpha and that power could be displayed in so many ways. The wolf often fights to keep the top ranking position. And sometimes the wolf just struts, baring its teeth.
The three men before him backed up in unison when he looked back at them with his werewolf eyes. He knew they were seeing him in his most primitive form, covered in fur with claws and fangs.
“You three will come with me. I won’t hurt you, but I will force you. The pack belongs together and you all are a part of it,” Zephyr said, each word covered in his intention.
Cole took a step forward, looking suddenly put under a spell.
“Who are you?” he said, his eyes narrowing like he couldn’t see as well suddenly.
“I’m your alpha. I’m here to help you,” he said and then directed his gaze at the men behind Cole. “I’m here to help you as well. You don’t have to return to Olento Research. Mika is using you, but I can offer you refuge. Together we will be stronger. Together we will combat what he’s done to us while also embracing it. Join the pack.” Extending a clawed hand, Zephyr looked out at the three men, noticing how each of their faces shifted slightly. His words were changing them in different ways, breaking down walls.
Rox whistled as she trudged through the forest. She didn’t really mind if she alerted the guards to her presence. It’s not like it mattered. They could have snipers shoot her and it wouldn’t matter. Laughing to herself, she pictured the guards weakly preparing for a five-foot-seven woman in a miniskirt and tank top approaching them. They were probably pushing back their hair and working on their best one-liners. None of them were worried for their safety, as they should be. That’s how it always was, which would make the look on their faces when they assaulted her all the better.
“Damn, motherfucker,” Rox said when her new gladiator heel sunk deep into a pile of mud. Those guards weren’t responsible for the mud but they were sure going to pay.
“Stop where you are,” a man called out when she was only ten yards away.
“Make me,” Rox said, aware that five guns were pointed in her direction. They’d fire. Nothing would happen. It would all be extremely fun and a great story to swap with Zephyr later.
“I’m warning you, if you take another step then we will shoot,” the man in front of the other guard said.
“Be my guest. I can’t kick your ass from back here,” Rox said, now only five yards away.
“Have it your own way,” the man with the black man bun said, a satisfied expression on his face. A too satisfied expression. She’d make that guy pay first.
On the next step, Rox noticed how the leaves in this part of the woods were thicker. She guessed it was because the tree canopy overhead was thicker. That’s probably why they’d decided to set up shop here, less light streaming in to show their position. They didn’t know she had a friend with X-ray vision though. On the next step, Rox felt something different under her foot. She was just about to take a step back when the main guard yelled, “Now!”
Rox’s foot came up, her other one joining it. Then she fell back, feeling something cradle her as she shot straight up in the air. Her vision was obstructed by a blanket of leaves that cloaked her suddenly. Her body was forced into a compressed position suddenly as the net wrapped around her. She struggled to breathe as the impending doom of being locked into a tight space dawned on her. She was trapped. Trapped. Trapped. It was the worst feeling. An old feeling. One that was her greatest weakness. Hadn’t Mika promised this? Hadn’t he promised something much worse than being locked in a breathable net, the last time she saw him? She had to get out of there, she screamed to herself. Working her arm around her body as she swayed back and forth, high up in the air, she reached for the knife tucked into the sheath at her back.
“Don’t waste your time,” the man on the ground said. “The net is made out of material almost as indestructible as you. You’re trapped for good.”
Cole took a step forward and then halted. Everyone froze when the scream cut through the air. Zephyr wanted to turn but kept his eyes on the three men before him. He knew the person making that sound. He knew what this meant and it served to untie him. “Rio,” he said, an expectation in his voice.
“I’m on it, boss,” Rio said and he felt him move away, toward the screaming that seemed to have no end. They couldn’t hurt Rox, so what were the guards doing that was causing her to yell as if there was no end to the sound?
“What’s going on?” Cole said, his eyes on Zephyr and then whatever was at his back.
“The men who took us seem to have gone after one of the members of my team. That’s the people they were going to take you away to. It’s not a safe house but rather the place were you made, changed,” Zephyr said.
“Is that true?” Cole asked, over the screams, Rox’s pleading for help. The sounds were growing distant, like she was growing distant.
“No,” Malcolm said at once. “You belong with us. Come now.”
So he wasn’t convinced yet. The screaming had interrupted Zephyr’s influence. He almost had Malcolm and Derek, but now he realized how strong Mika’s brainwashing was on the men.
“Look
, if I need to use force I will, but you three will come with—”
“BOSS!” Rio’s voice cut Zephyr off. Made his werewolf blood pulse suddenly in his head. This wasn’t good. Without another thought Zephyr spun. In werewolf form he took off, sprinting through the forest, darting around trees easily, the forest a blur of colors around him. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong. Rio’s voice said it all.
Up ahead he saw Rio’s back, straight and rigid. He slowed as he approached, realizing that the screaming was still going on, but had grown too distant for him to hear without using his werewolf senses. When he came around Rio he halted, seeing what he was staring at. Tracks. The tracks from a Jeep that had sped out of the woods; it was loaded heavy on the back end, by the way the tracks looked.
“What happened?” Zephyr asked.
“I ran up and they had her bound and loaded into the Jeep. By the time I got here they were speeding away. That’s when I called you,” Rio said, his words a rush, a result of his anxiety.
“Fuck!” Zephyr said, morphing back into man form. This couldn’t be happening. One of the most important members of his pack was gone. One of the most important people in his life. He’d failed Rox. He’d let them capture her. Now he had to break into Olento Research. And immediately.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Dream Travelers, on average, live one hundred years.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You’re even more incompetent than that guy,” Adelaide said, throwing a finger in Connor’s direction. “Not only did you fail to capture three werewolves who were apparently hanging out in front of you, but you lost our resident hooker.”
“Adds…” Zephyr said, a warning in his voice. This wasn’t the time for jokes like that. He knew it was just her coping mechanism, but still. He couldn’t handle that kind of behavior right now.
“What?!” she yelled. “How could you allow them to take her? Why didn’t you run after them? You’ve got the ability to switch.” She was mad. Madder than he’d ever seen her. This seemed personal for a rare change.
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Rio interjected. “I tried. The vehicle was too fast and running through the mud slowed us down. By the time Zephyr got there, they were already too far away.”
“Do you know what Mika will do with her?” Adelaide said, her voice still elevated.
“He can’t kill her,” Zephyr said, but there was no hope in that statement. There were much worse things than death.
“No, he’ll fucking torture her. She isn’t a wolf like you all,” she said, throwing her arm at the room filled with the pack members all wearing morose expressions. “Rox is a fucking enemy. She’s an FBI agent. She’s a bloody Lucidite. He’s going to do everything to try and destroy her spirit and you fucking let them take her.”
“I didn’t…” Zephyr said, trailing away, his hands pressing to the side of his head. He did let them take her though. If he hadn’t sent Rio at first, if he’d gone after her himself in werewolf form, then she wouldn’t be gone. But he hadn’t wanted to lose the other three werewolves. And now that irony made him sick enough to vomit.
“And after he’s done making her pay for being in opposition to him then he’s going to experiment on her, but not in the nice way like Aiden would do,” Adelaide said.
“I know!” Zephyr boomed, his head filling with heat.
“I’m glad you know, because that should have been you. It should have been anyone but Rox. She’s got no fucking stake in this and yet she continues to put her ass on the line for you all,” Adelaide said, her face red with anger. It was just then that Zephyr realized how much those two girls hid. These girls were more on the same team than his own pack. They were bonded in that they were outsiders and girls trying to prove something in what always felt like a man’s world. There’s no understanding women, but it was easy to understand that there was a bond between these two women that could be stronger than that of the pack’s.
“I’ll get her back. We all will. We were planning on breaking in there. Now we just have to do it sooner rather than later,” Zephyr said.
“Especially now that Mika has three werewolves,” Adelaide said.
“Are you sure that Cole and the others went back to Olento Research?” Connor asked.
“All I know is that they disappeared. Rio and I searched the entire forest and didn’t find anything to suggest otherwise,” Zephyr said. He’d lost his influence the moment he left to rescue Rox. That’s why he’d sent Rio initially, but then he ended up losing both. It filled his mouth with a sour taste.
“All right, well since I’m not as incompetent as you all, I have a strategy for breaking into Olento Research that should work,” Adelaide said, only to be interrupted by a strange coughing fit by Connor.
“Oh, yeah, fine,” she said, throwing a repulsed look in his direction. “Connor kind of helped. But the strategy is going to take some serious finessing to ensure it works for all our purposes. We’re going to need to go over it and practice a ton. Everyone is in on this operation and no one is getting hurt or left behind.”
Zephyr looked at Adelaide, seeing what he’d always seen in the girl, but just now recognizing it for what it was. She was like him, a survivor. She was a warrior, and although she’d pretended not to be, this was a woman who never left her team behind. Everything was wrong presently, but they had everything they needed to make it right.
Hold on, Rox, Zephyr said in his head, in his heart. I’m coming to get you. Hold on, girl.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“The Lucidites hold as a philosophy that it is better for both races if Dream Travelers keep their identity secret.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
Scream after scream after scream filled the space. It hurt Rox’s ears. How could one’s own scream do that to a person? Maybe it was the fact that there was nowhere for it to go but to echo off the stainless steel box. Her voice was raw from screaming and still it was all she could do, feeling the panic well up in her, like a plant’s roots outgrowing its container. The anxiety had to go somewhere. It had to come out. Rox beat her fists and feet against the box, not feeling the pain that one would if they rammed their extremities into metal. And yet, the worst part was that the door didn’t give way. The hinges didn’t budge. There was no way out of this coffin where she’d awoken to find herself.
Mika had thought of everything. That evil, horrible, devilish man had figured out how to do the one thing that should be impossible. He’d figured out how to trap and kill Rox. First he’d trapped her in the net. Once there they’d chloroformed her, like fucking rapists. And then she awoke to find herself in this box, which was only big enough for her to beat her limbs a few inches.
The screaming fear from her childhood rode in on the waves of her panic. Being locked up was by far the worst possible situation for Rox. She could breathe and yet bringing air into her lungs felt like a constant chore, like at any moment the ability would be ripped from her. And the heat radiated around her, making her think she’d soon start twitching from the sweat pouring off of her.
Rox closed her eyes only to hear the screaming in her head, although it had stopped passing through her mouth. Her throat was now parched and her voice aching. She was trapped. And she knew without a doubt that Mika wasn’t going to be civil and open the box to allow her meals or relief. No, he planned for her to die there. This was his way of punishing her. He intended for Rox to die and this was one of the only real ways she could. Mika was going to dehydrate and starve her. He was going to end her the way that those stranded die. He was going to take the basics and keep them just out of her reach. But the stress would be her biggest undoing. It was the stress that had caused her to scream when she knew she should be preserving her energy. The stress was why she couldn’t dream travel to safety. Rox stuck her nose to the tiny holes along the top of the box, sucking in a breath of fresh air from the outside. At
least she could breathe. Even if she felt strangled, at least she really wasn’t. She just had to hold on long enough. Come on, Zephyr, come and get me. Come on, Addy, don’t let me die like this.
Chapter Thirty
“Many of the most influential people in history were Dream Travelers.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
Victory never felt so good. Maybe it was best that Mika had first failed before winning. This felt better. This tasted more delicious than if he’d originally captured the werewolves from the beginning.
He wouldn’t have a Dream Traveler with an impossible gift in his possession if things had gone this way at first. He grinned to himself, enjoying the sound of her screams. When they waned then he’d do other things to her. Not feed her. Not allow her anything she’d enjoy. No, he’d deliver more stress to her. Mika had heard about this GAD-C and knew from the beginning that it would offer an escape to Rox or any of the other Lucidites that he captured. However, one can’t dream travel when under extreme stress. This was a common principle. So know one’s limitations and they will forever be trapped.
He picked up one foot and then set it down softly, instead of loudly, like usually. The werewolves were asleep in their cages. His newest, Cole Cosgrove, hadn’t responded favorably to returning to a lab identical to the one where he’d been changed. He also hadn’t liked the cell he’d been assigned to or the fact that he’d be locked up until his training was complete. However, he’d gone with Derek and Malcolm willingly, so who he was really mad at was himself. Deception was the biggest power play of them all and the one Mika had mastered long ago. Everything is about perception.
Now the werewolves were asleep and tomorrow Cole’s training would start. He’d be hard to train after being deceived, but it wouldn’t be impossible. Now what Mika needed was information on where to get the other werewolves. He needed more. He wanted them all. He couldn’t be stopped now.
