by Haley Weir
“I know.”
Brock sat beside his friend and practically inhaled the food on his plate. Sapphire said goodbye and then he was off to work for the day. The door to the station opened and the guys waved at him as he headed for the bunkhouse. Dorian laid across his cot with an arm draped over his eyes when Brock entered the room. “Jenny and Des have made amends. Maybe it’s time you do that with Anders and Michael.”
“Dezzy and I are having some problems.”
Dorian sat up quickly, glaring at Brock as though he had offended him in some way. “What did you do? Destiny is a sweet girl. Please tell me you didn’t hurt her.”
“After all the years you’ve known me, how dare you say something like that?” Brock pulled on his work boots and tied up the laces. Dorian threw a fresh shirt at him from the laundry and scowled at the concrete floor.
“Because I know you can’t stand for something to go right in your life before you start messing things up,” Dorian accused. “It’s hard for you to feel loved, I get that. Your old man was a piece of work who beat it into you and Michael that you weren’t worthy of anything, but that’s not true. Destiny cares about you, Brock.”
He threw a pillow at Dorian, cutting off his unwanted spew of bad advice. “I didn’t do anything wrong! She’s the one that did this to us, not me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t have time to sit here and tell you the entire story,” Brock barked. “If you want answers, maybe you’ll have better luck getting them out of Destiny than I did.” He pulled on the rest of his gear and joined the other guys downstairs. All day his phone lit up with text messages, voice mails, emails, and missed calls. Eventually, Brock just turned the power off and focused on keeping Haden Springs safe.
Most of the day was slow. So when Dorian got a call from the sheriff saying that first responders were needed up in the mountains, he volunteered to go with. But there was no smoke or anything to indicate that anything serious had happened when they arrived. Dorian and Brock looked around at the still forest. “Something ain’t right here, man. We have to get Lucas out of here.”
Dorian went back to the ambulance to tell his partner to go back to the station while Brock listened for any sign of life. No beers twittered from the tops of the trees. Rays of sunlight broke through the canopy and lit up patches of foliage, but there was no rustling in the underbrush. Dorian returned to his side a moment later.
“Sheriff isn’t picking up the phone,” he announced.
Brock had spent enough time in the mountains and forest with Corey to know where the pressure mines were located, but they were nowhere near that area. He dug into his pocket to retrieve his phone and waited for the stupid hunk of technology to power up again. Brock ignored all of the notifications and dialed Corey’s number.
“Where the f—”
“Listen, I need you out to the west end of the forest right now,” he cut in. “Dorian and I are out here. Something is wrong.”
“Damn, I’m on my way. Did you take the mountain path or the one headed toward the quarry near the lake?”
Brock rattled off their coordinates and made Dorian stay within sight until Corey arrived. When the jaguar shifter showed up, the animosity between him and Dorian was palpable. Brock stepped between them to keep the males from taking shots at one another. “Enough of that! We have a situation.”
“It’s Hydra’s men. I can smell them.”
Dorian looked accusingly at Corey and shook his head. “I can’t believe you trust this asshole, Brock. He damn near killed all of us because he was too stupid to realize what he was doing was wrong. Now we’re supposed to forgive him because he helped you?”
Corey clenched his jaw.
Brock pinned his friend with a harsh look. “You don’t have to forgive him for anything. All you have to do is work with him so we make it out of this alive.”
“We’re outnumbered,” Corey grumbled. “Ten to three.”
“And you know this how?” Dorian wasn’t backing down. “I’m not inclined to trust a man like you. For all I know, you could have set this whole thing up.”
“Dorian!” Brock shoved his friend hard against his chest. “Get your head on straight. Sheriff Stevens might be in danger. You want his blood on your hands?”
Chapter Fifteen
They made their way deeper into the forest. Corey’s senses were amplified out in the forest. There was so much to take in now that his abilities weren’t being suppressed. He led the two bears to an alcove that split into four tunnels. Something strange threw off his sense of smell. “They must know I’m helping you track them. There are too many smells right now, I can’t identify them anymore.”
He saw the disappointment on Dorian’s face, but Brock looked just as puzzled as he did. “Do you think they want us to split up?”
“Yes, I think that’s their intention. Ten men, four tunnels...there’s only three of us. I’m guessing they expected you to call in the rest of your friends.”
“My friends aren’t exactly friendly toward me at the moment,” Brock complained.
Corey went a few feet down each tunnel to see if the smells thinned out, but the cave walls were coated in animal pheromones. “We should check each passage.”
“Yeah, but we do it together. Come on.” Brock chose a random tunnel. They walked several yards down the passage and then Dorian pulled Brock to a stop. The bears looked down at the ground, so Corey followed their gaze to find a tripwire. “Think we’re going the right way or the wrong way?”
“Doesn’t matter. Wait here,” Corey said, but he didn’t wait for their response. He stepped over the wire and followed the tunnel to a dead-end. When he returned, Brock grabbed him by the front of his shirt and tossed him against the wall.
“Don’t ever do something stupid like that again.”
He shook the stars out of his eyes and glared up at the annoying man. “They expected us to trigger an explosion and cause the tunnels to collapse. I went alone because unlike you two, I’m expendable.”
“And what makes you say that?” Brock snapped. “Because I know one person in particular who would like to argue that statement, Corey.”
Corey climbed to his feet and shoved past Brock. He didn’t like his sister being used against him. And though he may not have remembered much, he knew enough to understand that Destiny would always choose her mate over an estranged brother. Corey was fine with that, so long as she was safe.
Again, he didn’t wait for their permission to check the other three tunnels. Brock wanted to bash his head in, but Corey ignored the glowering neanderthal and pointed to the correct passage. “This is the only one that leads out of here that doesn’t involve headed back the way we came in.”
The entire walk through the tunnel, Corey listened as Dorian tried to convince Brock to leave him behind. Brock was decent enough to argue on his behalf, but he hated being the reason that his sister’s mate was isolated from his friends. Though bears didn’t tend to have packs, they often found family where they could. And Brock’s friends were the closest thing to family he had, beside his brother Michael.
In many ways, Corey knew that Michael respected him more than he did his younger brother. Their strained relationship was something that often weighed on Brock’s mind. Corey heard enough of the man’s complaints to make him feel as if he were part of their family feud.
He caught the scent of the soldiers as they exited the tunnel. Brock clapped him on the shoulder, but Dorian continued to glare. The three of them stepped right into a camp a moment later. “It’s a decoy,” he announced. “They wouldn’t give up their real location so easily. The soldiers must use this place to hold hostages.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because it’s what I would do,” Corey admitted. “It’s what I was trained to do.” He heard the sound of approaching footsteps and lifted his hands.
Brock and Dorian cast him a look, but it quickly faded when seven red dots appeared
on his clothes. Brock cursed out loud. Dorian spun in a circle, eyes scanning the trees in search of the marksmen. “Where the hell are they?”
Four men appeared from the tree line. They drug two male hostages along with them, their identities concealed by the burlap sacks over their heads. Corey recognized the four soldiers before they introduced themselves.
“Harken Maverick, Victor Neese, Logan Vetti, and Dominic Salvator,” he whispered to Brock and Dorian. “They’re contract hunters and mercenaries more than anything. Not long before Hydra dispatched my crew and I to Haden Springs, he started to breed different species of his own creation. So far, the only thing to come from it was a freakish Frankenstein’s Monster sort of werewolf and bear shifter hybrid. These men were part of a different team, ordered to round up shapeshifters.”
“Commander Reed,” Logan Vetti said in a singsong voice. “Pleasure to see you again. I hear the prodigal son has finally gained some of his memories back.”
Brock went stiff beside Corey, but the bear was smart enough to hold his tongue. Maverick pulled the sacks off of the hostages. Patrick and the town sheriff knelt side by side on the damp ground. “We brought some insurance, as you can see.”
“What do you want?” Brock asked.
“Your brother.” Logan’s voice was cold, empty of emotion. “And his sister.”
Corey felt that coil deep inside of her body. The rise and fall of his chest quickened. “You can’t have her,” he snarled. “And if you think Michael Adair will be an easy target, then you’ve been set up to fail.”
“Look, Brock was an adequate test subject, but Hydra found something in your notes that intrigued him beyond belief. A shifter who can maintain a human form while they tap into the full potential of their abilities is extremely rare...you know this.”
Corey shook his head. “No deal. Let the humans go and we fight. Whoever comes out on top makes their demands. Unless...you’re scared.”
“I’ve taken down freaks bigger than the three of you,” Logan bragged. “I’m not afraid of anything. Not even your father.”
One of the dots on his chest wavered and Corey smiled wickedly. Brock and Dorian watched him closely, most likely waiting for the moment he betrayed them. But Corey knew he had shaken the hunters. He could smell the fear in their sweat as they aimed their weapons at him.
One last look at Patrick and then Corey mouthed the words “I’m sorry.” The battle-hardened retired marine gave him an answering nod. He had always treated the older man like he was a worthless grunt not worthy of respect, but deep inside, Corey had always cared about Patrick.
Corey moved so quickly that Patrick didn’t know what had happened until he was on his back with a blade pressed to his throat. “You don’t get to interrogate me. I am your commander and the privilege of calling my judgment into question is reserved to our employer only. Step out of line and you’ll wish you had died in that house fire like Vanessa,” he barked. “Watch yourself. You’re a tracker and nothing more.”
“The great prodigy, right? That’s what you are. My god, Corey, you might be younger than I am, but I’ve heard the tales of your missions.”
“Forget what you heard.”
“Can you forget all of that?” Patrick asked. “You were only eighteen when they snatched you up and forced you into special ops. The things you must have seen… Do you ever think that this sponsor of ours is only out to eclipse your abilities and intelligence by mutating these freaks in some laboratory? Super soldiers like you would be old news if the government buys up all those beasts.”
Corey had needed that push, that inspiration to question his existence. Patrick had been the only person who saw past the facade that he wore each day. He owed it to the man to stand up against his oppressors and fight for something much greater than himself. Corey tapped into the part of himself that he feared the most and felt the change overcome him. He leapt through the air and attacked the first solder.
The bears sprang into action, shifting and dashing away from the bullets that pelted the ground. Logan pulled back on the hammer of his rifle and fired a single shot, killing the last of Corey’s old team and the only mentor he ever had.
“I’ll save him if you let us walk out of here without further incident,” Anders had offered over Patrick’s bleeding body. Sapphire White knelt beside her mate, trying to save a man who had tried to kill her.
“What makes you think that he means anything to me?”
“Because I heard you tell Sapphire that he was the father you never had. I heard the fondness in your voice when you described watching your first baseball game with Patrick and when he helped you leave the military,” Anders growled. “You love him. Even if you love no one else in this world, you love Patrick as a father.”
“Save him. And then get out of my sight.”
Honestly, Corey didn’t know how many of those memories had been fabricated, but for a long time they were the only happy things he could look back on. Now that Patrick had been gunned down brutally, his only hope of having a future was with the bears and his sister. Corey tore through as many of the soldiers as he could.
His black pelt glistened in the sunlight, sharp teeth dripping as he slashed out with his claws. Logan grabbed the sheriff and attempted to retreat, but Corey pounced. He knocked the hunter to the ground and clamped his jaw around his throat. Logan thrashed on the ground.
Brock roared loudly and Corey was forced to release his prey when a knife flashed in his peripheral vision. Logan rolled to his feet and clutched a hand to his neck. Blood seeped between his fingers, but the wound wasn’t lethal.
What a pity, Corey thought as he circled around the man who tried to kill Destiny. But before he could strike, more bullets sprayed the area. Dorian bucked two soldiers off of his back. Brock fought off another three. Corey’s eyes darted left and right. He jumped in front of Dorian, taking three shots to his side.
The change forced him back into his human form, but the fever tore through him with a vengeance. He felt the bullets push through his shifting skin before they dropped to the ground. The sheriff scampered into the cave. Brock lifted Corey into his arms as Dorian picked up a rifle and covered them as they made their escape.
“Water,” he gasped. “I need water.”
They carried him toward the lake. Brock walked right into the water with Dorian on his heels, all three shifters feeling the effects of their change. Sheriff Stevens leaned against a nearby tree, pale faced and no doubt in shock.
“We should get you back to town so Anders can take a look at those wounds.”
Corey cracked open one of his eyelids and stared at Brock as if he had gone made. “Can you guarantee that I’ll walk out of there with all my limbs intact?”
“I don’t see what choice you have.”
“Fine,” he said hesitantly. “But…just a few more seconds. My entire body is killing me. You two are used to it, I’m not.” Corey laughed to himself as he imagined two lazy bears and a jaguar floating in a lake. “I bet the sheriff is thinking he’s gone absolutely insane after seeing us shift like that. Can he be trusted to keep quiet?”
“He’s more trustworthy to me than you are.”
Corey closed his eyes.
Brock splashed water at Dorian. “He just saved your life, fur-face! Be a little more grateful.” Corey felt himself being lifted out of the water before he was jostled by the giant bear who carried him back to the trail.
Dorian helped the sheriff remain calm as they made their way to town by foot.
Chapter Sixteen
The jaguar was taken to Michael’s loft where Anders was waiting. Brock collapsed in the doorway, exhausted from the lengthy trek back to town while suffering through the effects of shifting. Michael walked over and rolled Corey’s unconscious body over with his foot. “You’re going to get blood stains on my floor.”
He cocked his head and then flashed his brother a rude gesture while trying to pull himself off the floor. “We’ve had a long day
.”
“Mind telling me why you’re here instead of at a hospital?”
“We tried,” Brock muttered. “But seeing the doctors...its triggering for us. I carried him here hoping you might be able to help or phone Anders. Dorian got the sheriff home safely. He’s in shock, but I’m hoping he’ll pull through.”
“Why was the sheriff in danger?”
“Logan’s unit captured him and used him to bait Dorian with a fake call to send out first responders,” he explained between gasps. “The sheriff didn’t pick up the phone, so I called Corey hoping he could help us out, seeing as he used to be one of them.”
Michael tossed Corey over his shoulder and laid him on the enormous bed near the back of the open loft. “Was it an ambush?”
“No. It was a hostage negotiation. Logan wanted you and Destiny in exchange for Corey’s old mentor Patrick and Sheriff Stevens. Corey refused.”
“That was foolish,” Michael retorted. “He’s new to all of this. You should have called me. It would have been less risky for me to go than to have one of you lose control and go on a rampage through town.”
“Yeah, right. We would have been stuck there waiting while you took your time answering the phone.” Brock scuffled over to the couch and flopped his half-naked body onto the finely crafted furniture that squeaked in protest of the sudden weight. “And I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a second where I was afraid of losing my head.”
“How close was it?”
“If we had stayed there for another second, I would have gone over the edge,” he admitted. “Corey getting shot was what snapped me out of that mindset, but it was too close for my comfort. I think I need some time away.”
“Why? Haden Springs is your home.”
“It is. And it always will be, but Destiny and I are having some problems. I need to get away and think things through.” Brock reached over to the cocktail table and finished the half-empty glass of bourbon. “You’re always telling me to think before I do something stupid so I can decide if it’s worth the risk or not.”
