by Amelia Jade
Even as she thought those thoughts, something else welled up within her. Something that was both a part of her, and not a part of her. It was angry, and it charged her ideas like a crazed animal, knocking them aside.
Tell Gabriel he was right?! Fuck that shit. No way. You can beat this. We can beat this.
And suddenly the heat was gone. One giant blaze of heat that dried up all the mud and water around her in a circle five feet wide. It knocked the other women back away from her, the assembled group of them crying out in surprise.
But the rain continued to fall, and this time it didn’t hiss and burst into steam upon contact. It coated her, soothed her, and was dragged deep into her skin.
Stephanie hadn’t realized she wasn’t breathing until a huge breath tore through her system. She arched violently, her dried and desiccated muscle tissues screaming in protest. A piercing cry ripped from her throat, weakened fibers there tearing and becoming inflamed.
“She’s cooling down!” a voice shouted in relief.
“Her bear will be coming along at any time. Be ready for anything. She’s not passed out; who knows how this will go down,” another voice said.
She couldn’t make out who was speaking. It didn’t matter though.
My bear. Right. Focus. Something I need to know about that.
The pain in her body began to subside as more and more water was carried into her system, and things began to slowly heal themselves.
I was supposed to remember…
A foreign presence entered her mind.
It was difficult to describe what it felt like. Another entity, located within her skull, within the sanctum of her head. Foreign. Alien. Yet familiar at the same time. But most of all, it was feeling one overwhelming urge.
Before she could stop herself, Stephanie felt her body roll onto its side. Although her muscles weren’t happy with it, they didn’t seem to respond to her, continuing on their path. A path that saw her coming closer to Gabriel.
Stephanie tried to resist, but the other entity in her head was strong. It pushed her desires away, and focused on its own. Once more a heat enveloped her, but this was different. This wasn’t painful, it was…arousing?
Oh fuck. She realized now where it was taking her body. Not for Gabriel, but for what he had hanging between his legs.
This is not going to happen. I am not going to fuck him in the middle of this battlefield! Absolutely not. No way. No how.
But the entity—her bear, she needed to start thinking about it for what it was—had other intentions. Images of her straddling him flashed through her mind, his thick cock sliding deep inside of her as she began to bounce up and down, her hands dragging up her sides and pushing her fingers through her hair as she rode him hard.
No.
With all of her might, Stephanie focused her broken, torn mind, and tried to repair the damage done to it by the entry of her bear. She knitted together imaginary edges, sealed gaping tears, and all the while she tightened the theoretical space around her bear, pulling the walls in closer with each hole she repaired. Tighter.
Tighter.
Smaller.
Come on, she urged as her hand reached out and touched his leg.
Gabriel frowned and batted her hand away as it slid up the inside of his pants and groped for what she knew was underneath.
Her hand made contact with his cock, and the power of her bear surged, straining at the bonds of her makeshift prison around it. In her mind, Stephanie saw some of her stitches and patches start to give, and she threw every bit of energy she had into the bonds, tightening them.
There was only one more patch to go. Her one mental hand stretched out behind her, and squeezing a mental grip around the ball she’d formed, holding it together, her left hand began to pinch the final bit of fabric tight, closing it.
The bear roared as it suddenly realized what she’d been doing while it’d been distracted with Gabriel, and charged.
“Too late,” she said, and with a grin, slipped out through the hole, sealing it behind her.
The bear hit the wall, but she used her mind to harden everything into a shell, the soft fabric of her mind becoming a wall. She reinforced the wall with rebar and braces, and then wrapped thick wire around the whole thing.
Her bear charged at it repeatedly, but it was no use. It was trapped.
Stephanie opened her eyes, gasping for breath at the exertion required to keep it there.
“Holy shit,” she muttered to herself.
“I knew you liked it, but do you think you could let go?” a voice came from above her. “People are watching.”
Stephanie twisted her head to the right, where she saw Gabriel lying on his back still.
And her hand between his legs, pressed up against his dick.
“Oh, right,” she said meekly and yanked it back.
“Later,” he told her with a wink.
Feeling the animal within her rise to the idea, she smiled. “You had better believe it. You’d best be healed by then, mister. Trust me, you’re going to need to be.”
Gabriel had the good graces to blush and look away at her blatantly sexual remark. “I think I can manage that.”
“Good,” she said, sitting up. “Okay, let’s do this.” Stephanie put her hands in the mud at her sides, and pushed herself to her feet.
Or tried to. The muscles in her arms flexed, and she shot up and over her feet, landing face-first in the mud.
Sputtering, she thrashed and rolled around.
“Easy!” a voice said, pressing down on her upper chest and holding her still, powerful muscles working to keep her down.
Stephanie took a deep, calming breath, and relaxed.
“Good,” Allix said, appearing above her as the rain washed mud from her face. “Now, try it again, but slower, and with less effort. Remember, the shifter DNA is making its way through your body. You’re going to be stronger. Faster. More agile. So you need to adapt. And quickly, if you want to move forward with this insane plan of yours.”
The grin on her face told Stephanie that Allix was still on board with the plan.
Okay. One more time, she said to herself, and rose to her feet more cautiously.
“The muscle memory will come fairly swiftly. Just remember to start slow, and don’t do anything too quick until you get the hang of it all.”
“Right,” she said.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Okay. You can do this.
She turned to survey the five other Turned women, and a grin pulled her teeth back, making it more of a snarl. “Let’s go get them.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Stephanie
Following the humans was easy.
It took her time to get up to speed with the others, but the other women were patient. They used the time to tell Stephanie their names, and a bit about them. By the time she mastered the art of running with her newfound strength—or at least, mastered it enough to keep up a good pace—she knew them all.
Allix of course, and Nina, Peyton, Mia, who she’d spoken to briefly earlier, and Charlotte. Together it seemed they’d formed a bit of a sisterhood. A group within the shifters as a whole, who had something in common that nobody else did.
Nobody except Stephanie.
They talked and chatted, using short words and sentences as they ran, and before long she actually felt part of their group. They were so welcoming and nice, and Stephanie found herself liking them all immediately.
For her own part she responded mostly in grunts and smiles, most of her concentration going to running.
The trail they followed had been blazed by dozens of vehicles that hadn’t cared about being secretive or hiding their presence. The strength of the humans was in numbers, not staying hidden. In this case, that worked against them.
Mia was in the lead when she raised a hand, signaling the others to slow, and eventually stop. The other women were looking around, nodding as if they understood.
Not wanting to break the silen
ce that seemed to have fallen over them, she crept over to them and gently tapped Nina on the shoulder. When the other woman turned to look at her, she raised her arms and shrugged her shoulders in a “what the hell is going on” gesture.
Nina smiled. “Open your ears. Listen,” she said softly.
Stephanie frowned, and then focused her ears, trying to get them to “open” as Nina said.
Her eyes went wide as noise assaulted her from every side. She could hear the others breathing as if they were gasping for breath. Birds chirping assaulted her like trumpets blaring, and her own heartbeat was suddenly audible.
Groaning as quietly as she could under the sudden onslaught, Stephanie fell to one knee, trying to shut it out.
“No,” Charlotte said, suddenly by her side, her voice so soft she could barely make it out. “Let it in. Let your senses adapt. The shifter in you will fine-tune it, but you need to hear it all, to let your brain sort out what levels it should be at, and what you need to hear, and not hear.”
Stephanie nodded through the pain, and stopped trying to deafen herself. She took deep, steadying breaths, and to her surprise, the noise seemed to dull rather rapidly.
No, that wasn’t right. All the sounds were still there, but they no longer hurt. It wasn’t like her head was being pounded on anymore.
“This is amazing,” she said, shocked at how quickly her body adapted.
“Welcome to being a shifter,” Peyton said, her lips barely moving, but yet sounding like she was right beside her. “Just wait until the first time you get hurt. You’re going to marvel at how fast you heal.”
Stephanie smiled, though she didn’t find herself actually looking forward to the experience.
“Their camp is just over there,” Allix said, pointing slightly to the left of the direction of the path they were following.
Stephanie nodded.
The motion died as she realized the others were looking at her.
“What?” she asked, trying to be as quiet as they were.
“What’s the plan?” Charlotte asked.
Plan. Plan. What’s the plan? Why were they asking her?
Because you’re the one who came up with this harebrained idea in the first place! They got you here… what the hell did you plan on doing once that happened?
Overhead, the storm that they’d outrun caught up with them, and water began to dribble down through the canopy, soaking them anew.
The rain. That was it.
“Come on!” The others followed her as she took off in the direction of the human camp.
They got to the edge of a clearing just as the first sleeting waves hammered into the humans encamped there. As she’d expected, they didn’t deal with it nearly as well as the shifters did. Here and there men dashed for cover, all of them with arms concealing their faces, trying their best to peer through the veritable wall of water washing down.
Stephanie led the others through the perimeter as carefully as she could. It was slow going, and more than once they almost got caught. But soon enough they were inside. There were humans everywhere.
She very carefully did not laugh at the fact that she had to consider them humans now, something that she was no longer.
Finding where the men were locked up was supposed to be the hard part. But as it turned out, spotlights blazed into existence over the center of the camp, and loud roars could be heard from nearby.
So much for difficulty in finding them.
The six women crept closer, sticking to shadows between vehicles as best they could, avoiding the tented area to the north where the vast majority of men were currently headed. In minutes the camp was mostly empty, minus several men walking through in pairs, on what looked like patrol.
They were easy enough to avoid, however, and they slipped past the most recent pair and between two armored vehicles.
That was when disaster struck.
“Hey!”
Stephanie froze as a figure emerged from ahead of them.
“Who are you?” a voice questioned as the figure came close enough to make out details.
She hesitated.
That’s it, I’ve killed us, and the men. We’re all dead. Good job Stephanie, you bumbling fool!
But the man didn’t follow up his question. Focusing on him, she saw his eyes traveling up and down her body appreciatively.
Looking down, Stephanie had to try not to laugh. She’d totally forgotten the effect of the rain on her and her fellows. Reaching behind her, she grabbed for the nearest arm, and then yanked a surprised Mia to the front next to her.
“The boys sent us over,” she said demurely, sticking her chest—and nipples made hard by the cold rain—out at the man.
His eyes widened a noticeable fraction as Mia caught on and did the same, then took it a step further by sidling up to him.
“But we’re awful cold. Is there anywhere we can get out of this water…and perhaps these clothes?” she said playfully.
Every human military camp had…followers. It was just a law of nature. Now, would they normally be out in the cold like this, wearing the simple outfits they were? Unlikely.
But this man was clearly overwhelmed as the other girls came close, tugging shirts down and biting lips as they pleaded with him to let them get warm.
Eventually the man had no choice. He had to succumb; it was just too much skin and promise of sexual activities for him to say no. So Stephanie felt kind of bad when she slugged him in the back of the head, careful not to use all her strength.
The man hit the ground and lay still. She felt for a pulse and sighed in relief when it came back strong. Thank goodness.
“Under here,” Allix hissed, and together they rolled him under the vehicle itself, onto his back, so he wouldn’t drown as the ground was quickly becoming saturated.
“Now what?” Peyton asked as they approached a row of cages, clearly reinforced to hold shifters. There were a lot more than five cages. A quick count revealed nearly two dozen of them.
Obviously they were hoping to take several more captives than they did. Interesting.
But Stephanie didn’t have time for that.
“We need to get the men out, but also find a way to ensure that peace is made with the humans,” she said aloud. “The first part is easy. The second, I really don’t know.”
Nina spoke up. “I think I have one.”
The group gathered around as the plan began to take shape.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Gabriel
“They should be back by now,” he muttered, getting up from his bed and beginning to pace.
“Lie down,” a light, yet firm voice said from the doorway.
He spun.
“Commandant Grigory!” he said, saluting the commanding officer of all the Green Bearets.
The commandant came in, and a woman who could have been in her late forties, but who Gabriel knew to be nearly twice that age, followed him in. There was a subtle, but noticeable link between the two. They didn’t look at each other, but they knew where each other was going, and their hands instinctively clasped each other in a way that was born from many years of practice.
“Miss Grigory,” he said, saluting the mate of the commandant.
“Hello Gabriel,” Lora Grigory said with a smile. “Good to see you again.”
“And you, ma’am. It’s been too long.”
“I know, I’ve been rather busy though,” she said.
Commandant Alexander Grigory snorted. “Spending all my money on the stores in Cadia, she means.”
A pointy elbow caught him in the ribs and he guffawed loudly.
“I am, in fact, on the Advisory Council to King Daxxton Ryker,” she said, mentioning the ruler of Cadia and his closest subordinates.
Gabriel nodded, having known that already, but going along with the little by play between the long-mated pair.
“What brings you here?” he asked out of curiosity.
They were back at Base Camp. A harness ha
d been rigged up to carry Gabriel from one of the dragons. A number of the most wounded had been transported back that way. Those who were more mobile, but couldn’t keep up, had ridden the gryphons or Pegasi back.
It had been almost a full day by now. The human camp hadn’t been more than six hours away. By all rights, unless things had gone wrong, Stephanie and the others should have returned home.
He was beginning to worry.
Commandant Grigory began to speak in answer to his question, drawing Gabriel back to the present and his room.
“I thought you would like to know that two hours ago, we received a message from a human military commander. He didn’t leave a name, but said that apparently a mistake had been made, and that the men they had taken were going to be released, under the condition that no reprisals were to be taken against him and his men.”
“What?” Gabriel asked, sitting down heavily on the bed in shock. “How in the hell?”
“How in the hell indeed,” Lora responded. “We wanted to know your thoughts on it. This was apparently Stephanie’s plan, so we’d hoped you might know what she’d said or done to accomplish this.”
Gabriel just shook his head. “Stephanie is a lot of things, ma’am. Stubborn, strong-willed, smart—”
“And I think you were going to add beautiful to that list as well, as the very next thing, correct?” a voice said from the hallway.
Commandant Grigory stood aside as Stephanie, still soaking wet from the rain, entered the room, a broad smile on her face.
“Stephanie!” he cried and shuffled forward to throw his arms around her. “I was getting worried.”
She smiled up at him, gently cupping his cheek before drawing him in for a kiss.
“I told you I had a plan. That I would get them back. Didn’t you trust me?”
He smiled. “I did, but that will never stop me from worrying for your safety, my love.”
“Good boy,” she said, kissing him again.
“For what?” he asked, confused.
