“Have you ever been tased?”
Chapter Thirteen
Sirens began to sound throughout the complex.
“What’s that for?” Jason asked, jumping to his feet.
“If I had to guess, I’d say they discovered their missing wolves,” Uriel said grimly.
“Great,” Jason moaned. “Great. It’s over. They’ll find us and make us go back there, or worse. We’ll end up in some federal research lab getting poked and prodded and dissected until we’re dead. Good call, Uriel. Sending Forest into the snake pit was a good goddamn idea.”
“Nobody’s dying,” Uriel snapped. “Stay put for a second and wake the wolves. I’ll be right back.”
Uriel crept to the barrier of bushes that had kept them hidden for an hour. The four soldiers were still standing in a line across the gate, now with their guns at the ready. Probably not silver, Uriel told himself, but his stomach clenched all the same. He always felt sick in the moments prior to bloodshed. Before he’d lost Michael, he could slay a hundred violent villagers without blinking an eye. The night that Michael died in his arms had changed him. He knew the price of violence, the inevitable blowback. He would rather not interact with these threats at all. All he wanted was to be left in peace, but these damned humans and their infernal curiosity just wouldn’t leave him and his kind be.
Uriel slipped back to the group and told them the plan. Jason, predictably, objected and told him every reason why it would fail. Bianca, equally predictable, stood at attention until he was finished, then bowed to show her agreement. The other wolves followed her example. Gomer looked unsure.
“You two have questions?” Uriel asked.
“Yeah. You gonna pay for my funeral?” Jason asked.
“I won’t, but the government will. Only thing better than a live werewolf to research is a dead one to dissect. Gomer? Questions?”
“Where do we go once we’re out?”
“Good question. Liking the attitude. You and these wolves are going to run as fast as you can into the forest. You need to disappear into the northern woods. Find the Astris tribe, Bianca will get you in. Once you’re there and safe, the leaders will discuss getting you all home to your packs, or helping you transition if you happened to be human before.”
“You’re talking like you aren’t coming,” Gomer stuttered.
“I’ll follow you as soon as I have Forest. Everybody understand the plan? Good. On my mark.” Uriel turned around to face the bushes. He indulged in a moment of pity for the soldiers on the other side. He was sure they hadn’t signed up for this.
“Only kill if you have to,” he said over his shoulder. “We aren’t interested in their deaths. We are only interested in our freedom. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Gomer and Jason said in unison.
The wolves nodded their consent. Uriel blew out a breath and pulled his gun from his holster. Time to get the party started.
FOREST STOOD IN THE center of the room, trembling violently. Bodies were scattered around him. He couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive, but they were certainly unconscious. He hadn’t meant to. He’d blacked out. The officer had asked him the ominous question, and then all at once, his perception shifted. Electricity had coursed through his body, forcing him to shift into his were-form. Then... his mind was blank. There was only darkness in his memory after that point, and now he was here. Surrounded by the aftermath of his violent outburst with blood under his claws. He took several deep breaths and forced himself to shift back. The clothes he’d been wearing were torn beyond repair. He had to think. What would Uriel do?
He stripped out of the rags of his goon uniform quickly, laying the key card and gun carefully on the desk. He locked the office door— “Should have done that first,” he muttered angrily at himself—and began checking pulses. The body nearest him was beyond saving. He whispered an apology and moved on to the next. Weak pulse, shallow breathing. Not much blood, but a large, purple head wound. Forest stripped this one out of his uniform and put it on, mumbling heartfelt apologies the whole time. He didn’t know what he was doing, exactly, but he knew he couldn’t stick around to find out what the reaction would be.
He checked the rest of them briefly. They were all damaged, and two of them were dead. Shock tried to creep over his brain, and he pushed it aside. He could deal with the emotional fallout later. Right now, he had to get out of here. He grabbed his gun and key card and unlocked the door. He opened it silently, checking the hallway. It was empty. He crept out of the office and closed the door carefully, looking around for an unobtrusive exit.
The back door was just around the corner, and he made a beeline for it. He pushed through, and was immediately stopped by another soldier.
“What’s the problem?” the soldier asked.
“Something happened in the office,” Forest told him. “I can’t get in, and nobody’s answering their radios.”
“Shit.” The soldier pushed past him into the building, and Forest took off in a flat run. He ducked into the hidden alley nearest the office and fled through the zoo to where, he hoped, Uriel and the others were still waiting.
URIEL FIRED A SHOT across at the barrels of the guns, knocking two of them from the soldiers’ hands. The wolves burst from the bushes, charging the soldiers. Shots fired, but the remaining soldiers were quickly disarmed by ferocious, snapping jaws on all sides. Gomer snuck around behind the fray, slipping the heavy deadbolt out of the gate and swiping his key card. The gate rolled open, and Jason followed Gomer out. They made it to the trees, then whistled.
The wolves sped off out of the zoo, leaving mayhem in their wake. Uriel checked from his hidden position. They’d left the soldiers alive, as he’d asked. He was relieved. Unnecessary death was a weight he would rather not bear. Now he would need to find Forest. He hesitated, torn between waiting for him and running to rescue him, and decided to compromise. He jogged along the hidden path, retracing their steps from before. The sirens continued, sending all of the animals into frenzies, rendering his ears utterly useless for scouting. He turned a corner and smashed directly into a soldier, sending the man flying to his back.
Uriel drew his gun.
“Stop!” the soldier said.
“Forest?”
“Yeah. Wardrobe malfunction.”
Uriel yanked him to his feet and looked deep into his eyes. Forest burned with guilt. He was certain Uriel could see the blood on his hands.
“We’ll talk about it,” Uriel promised. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They raced back up the path, leaping through the bushes without checking the status of the soldiers first. One was on his knees, coaxing the gate closed. He shouted at them as they passed, squeezing through the opening at the last second. They heard gunfire behind them, but Uriel gripped Forest’s hand and yanked him along at top speed, ducking into the trees with bark exploding around them from the bullets raining through the air. The wolves left them an obvious trail. Too obvious for Uriel’s tastes. He made a mental note to cover stealth tactics once he caught up with them.
They ran until the sound of sirens faded into the distance, then they ran some more. The sirens were soon replaced by the sound of helicopters, and they stuck to the heavy underbrush, keeping to the shadows. The sun had risen high, illuminating all but the most thickly overgrown areas, significantly slowing their pace. Forest was straining to keep up. Uriel urged him on, physically and verbally, but there was only so much to be done. Forest’s systems were strained to their outermost limits, and he absolutely had to stop and rest.
“Here,” Uriel said. A thicket blocked the entrance to an abandoned cave wedged between two massive boulders. They pushed through, and Uriel took some time to rearrange the disturbed flora to hide the intrusion. Forest collapsed on the cool floor, gasping for breath.
“You gonna make it?” Uriel asked.
“Yeah,” Forest gasped. “Sure. Just... gotta... rest a minute.”
“You got it. A literal
minute, probably. Sounds like the helicopters are looping around for another pass.”
“Think they would nuke the woods?”
“I doubt it. They’ll want evidence. If we’d killed some of theirs they might. Humans are trigger-happy about revenge, but we were careful to leave the soldiers alive.”
Uriel watched Forest’s face as he talked, and his heart sank as he watched Forest go pale. He didn’t say anything. It was up to Forest to come clean.
Blood thundered in Forest’s ears and he thought his heart would burst from his chest. They were all going to die, and it would be his fault. He couldn’t fix this. Uriel might be able to do something. Forest opened his mouth to tell him then shut it again. What if Uriel sent him away? He would be right to. Forest had single-handedly put their entire species in danger. He could bear it, he decided. If that’s what Uriel thought was best, he would force himself to bear it. He probably wouldn’t live long enough to waste away from a broken heart anyway.
“I need to tell you something,” he said finally, choking on the words.
“Go ahead,” Uriel said quietly.
Forest’s throat closed, and he swallowed against it. He opened his mouth, but he couldn’t force the words out. His mind was screaming that he was about to lose everything. Uriel would kill him if he knew; he’d spend the rest of his short life watching the one person he cared about in the world turn on him. His hands shook with the effort to burst through the wall of fear.
“I, um... I think the helicopters are gone.”
He watched as disappointment fell across Uriel’s face, and he wished he could take it back. He wished he’d been strong enough to say what needed to be said, but he just wasn’t. He couldn’t go down like that. If he was killed by Animus, or the Feds, or the military, he could resign himself to that. But not Uriel. Never Uriel. He couldn’t bear it.
“Let’s get moving,” Uriel told him.
Uriel shoved his anger aside. There was no time for it. Forest had shown his character to be lacking, and while that crushed him, he wouldn’t leave him behind. Forest carried his child, and until that child was born, Forest was his responsibility. After that, though... Uriel shook his head. He would have to deal with that when the time came, assuming they lived that long. He needed to know who Forest killed and how many people saw him shift and lived to tell about it. It was vital information. Uriel would have to find another way to get it out of him since he was so reluctant to simply speak honestly.
They ran until nightfall, following the trail the wolves had left. Helicopters filled the air around the zoo, searching in ever-widening circles, but they stayed ahead of the search pattern and out of sight. They would have to continue their journey through the night if they had any hope of disappearing for good. Uriel didn’t say a word to Forest for hours. He was busy contemplating the problem from all angles, deciding on what to say.
Forest felt the distance in his bones, and it pressed on his heart. Time and time again he nearly stopped Uriel to confess to his crime, and time and time again he lost his nerve. Finally Uriel came to a halt on his own, sniffing the air.
“They’re close,” he told Forest. “Within a mile.”
All those people... If Uriel didn’t kill him, they surely would. Forest panicked and grabbed Uriel’s elbow as he tried to keep walking.
“Uriel, wait.”
“Yes?” His voice was cold as ice, and Forest nearly lost his nerve again. He had to do it now, any later would be certain death. He had to trust that Uriel would show him mercy. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat as tears sprang into his eyes.
“I killed someone,” he whispered.
“Who?” It was less a question than a statement, and Forest flinched away from the steely anger in his voice.
“Um... a soldier and an officer.”
“An officer. Okay. What else?”
“There were five other people there...soldiers... I hurt them.”
“But you didn’t kill them?”
“No,” Forest said quickly. “I left five alive. Unconscious, but alive.” Uriel walked away from him, passing a hand over his face and through his hair. He stood with one hand on his hip, staring at the ground. “Uriel? Please say something.”
Chapter Fourteen
“How much TV do you watch?” Uriel asked quietly.
“W-what?”
“How much. TV. Do you watch?” Uriel repeated.
“What does that have to do with—?”
“Answer me!”
“I-I don’t know? Not a lot, I guess?”
“When a villain kills someone, and there are witnesses, what is the first thing that villain does?”
“Um...I, I don’t...”
“Kill the witnesses!” Uriel snapped. “You shouldn’t have killed anybody, let’s get that straight right now, but you left five...five! People alive who know your human face, who know you can shift, and who know that you are deadly dangerous. Five people. And they’re looking for you, in these woods, where my entire clan waits somewhere for me to come rescue them. And what will I bring them? A fugitive from the human law. A murderer. Their very destruction, on two legs.”
Forest stared at his shoes. Uriel was absolutely right. Forest couldn’t put so many people in danger.
“I’ll go,” he said quietly. “I’ll turn myself in.”
“The hell you will,” Uriel snarled.
“What?”
“You aren’t going anywhere near them, not with my seed in your belly. You fucked up, Forest. Badly.”
Uriel took a deep breath and relaxed his tone.
“But you aren’t the first. You won’t be the last. And while you’re carrying my child, you’re under my protection.”
“I’m carrying...your...”
Uriel’s eyes widened as he realized that he’d neglected to tell Forest what he’d learned. Forest pitched forward in a faint, and Uriel caught him an instant before he hit the ground, pulling him up into his arms to cradle him like a child.
“Sorry,” he said lamely, knowing that Forest couldn’t hear. “I’m an idiot.”
He carried Forest through the woods, half-dreading the reunion with the others. He and Forest desperately needed time to sort all of this out; unfortunately, time was the one thing they didn’t have. He could smell his group, just over the next hill.
Forest flinched and moaned. “What happened?”
“You fainted,” Uriel told him as he set him on his feet.
“Oh. You said I was pregnant.”
“Yeah, I said that. You are.”
“Oh.”
They walked in silence for a bit.
“We’re nearly there,” Uriel told him. “I won’t tell them what happened, not yet. First I need to decide what to do about it. I’ll need a sounding board. You’re going to have to help me unless you want me to tell the others.”
It sounded like a threat in Forest’s ears, and his first instinct was to lash out and tell Uriel to do whatever the hell he wanted. He clenched his fists then released them, getting control of his temper.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll be your sounding board.”
“Who’s there?” Jason’s voice asked from mere feet away.
“Uriel and Forest.”
Bushes parted to reveal eight werewolves in various forms. The drugs from the food had begun to wear off, and the wolves were attempting to shift. Bianca had managed to shift part of the way, so that her wolf body extended at the paws into vicious-looking claws. A few of the others had transformed into their full were-forms, while one small grey werewolf was utterly focused on pushing beyond the werewolf and into her human form. She shifted in a shuddering mirage, like waves of humanity washing over her beastly form. Forest stared, half-terrified, half-awestruck.
“Looks like you’re all making progress,” Uriel said. “Good.”
“Yeah. So what happened? Are we safe?”
Guilt punched Forest in the gut, and he looked away.
“Safe enough
for now,” Uriel told him. “But we need to keep walking. Everybody get into your most comfortable form and follow me. Forest, with me. Jason and Gomer, bring up the rear.”
“Aw, come on, I almost had it!” the little grey wolf whined.
“We’ll rest when the sun comes up, and you can try again then,” Uriel told her firmly. “Single file, stick together. We don’t need to lose anybody now.”
“But where are we going?” a male werewolf in mid-shift asked.
“We’re going to find my tribe. They were instructed to settle deep in the northern woods six months ago.”
“Six months? That’s too long. How do you know they’ll still be there?”
“Because they wouldn’t dare disobey him,” Bianca chimed in. “He’s Uriel.”
“And I’m Roy, what does his name have to do with anything?”
“Fall in line, march!” Uriel snapped.
Forest glanced over his shoulder as they marched. Bianca was whispering furiously to Roy; whose eyes grew wider with every word. He glanced nervously at the back of Uriel’s head while Bianca educated him.
“Why are they afraid of you?” Forest asked.
“Fear and respect are similar,” Uriel said vaguely.
“Yeah, but... Roy doesn’t look respectful. He looks terrified.”
Uriel clenched his jaw and straightened his shoulders.
“I’ve lived a long time, Forest. I’ve done many things that would strike terror in the heart of a new wolf, like Roy. Or you.”
“But not an old wolf, like Bianca. Why? What makes new wolves so different from old ones?”
“New wolves still view the world through human eyes. They have no context for the violent acts we wolves may be required to participate in.”
Forest’s first instinct was to argue that violence was never required, that it was always a choice; but the memory of blacking out and coming to in a room full of bodies was burned into his brain. There had been no choice. There had only been instinct. The only choice he’d had was whether to kill the rest or leave them alive. He’d made his choice; he hadn’t so much as considered the other option. Perhaps that was what Uriel meant. It would never have occurred to his human brain to take five lives, because he had never been faced with a decision that could have such cataclysmic consequences before. He hoped he never would again. Having the fate of a species rest on one’s unwitting shoulders was just too much to bear.
Wild Ride: An M/M Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 55
