by Selena Scott
"No, she stays here," Anton growled. "But we go."
"No," AJ's glare for him could have burned the hair off a peach. "I'm going. Just for a few days, Dad. Nothing to worry about."
Brett shifted on his feet, tugged a little at his collar. "You, uh, weren't gonna tell me?"
AJ raised an eyebrow. "I'm 25, Dad. I was gonna text you from the road."
"Alright," he tugged at his collar again. "Well, uh, travel safe then."
His look was so uncomfortable, so out of his depth, that AJ's tender heart had to take pity on him. She crossed the yard and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Just a camping trip. I'll see you in a few days, okay?"
He nodded, still unsure, obviously picking up on the tense vibe of the group.
"You come in for coffee!" Ilya commanded, wading through the group. "Your daughter is like my daughter. So we should be like brothers now." Ilya slapped Brett on the back hard enough to send the man stumbling forward a foot, but it also seemed to knock some of the discomfort out of him.
"Um. Alright. Coffee."
Katya, thrilled to have something to do besides fret over her sons, turned to Brett as well. "You have good English? You like crosswords? Come."
The three of them turned and tromped into the house, leaving the younger generation standing there looking after them.
"Huh," Danil said. "AJ, thank your dad for making that a hell of a lot easier than it could have been."
Anton scowled. "He should have made it harder. You don't come with us."
AJ whirled, her eyes narrowed and her hair covering one eye. "You don't get to tell me what to do and I'm coming if I have to rent a car myself. So shut the hell up, Malashovik. Because I don't think I can take 20 hours of your grumpy bitching."
With that, she turned and marched into the van, buckling herself in for good measure.
Anton clapped his mouth shut. Usually she was sweet as pie. And amenable, too. He rarely saw her that fired up. He savagely ignored the delicious tug in his gut. Why did he like it when she yelled at him? God, he was a sick bastard. He slid into the seat next to her. Half because he knew it would further piss her off and half because he wanted an excuse to feel the heat of her arm for the foreseeable future. She grimaced at him and turned to the window. He'd take it.
Maxim deftly squashed the argument between Dora and Danil by snatching the car keys out of her hand. "I drive," he said. "I drive a firetruck for a living. I drive the passenger van." Besides, he needed the distraction. He'd barely slept since he'd met the little blue-haired witch at the bar the other night. First he'd thought of her as a mermaid because of the hair. But he was pretty sure she'd put a hex on him. Yup. She'd sexed him up real nice, cursed him, and abandoned him cold. Hadn't even left her name for balm. He slammed the door closed behind him and tried not to growl.
The rest of the crew piled into the van as well. And they were off.
Twenty hours and a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches later, Glory spun in a slow circle in a patch of sun, her hair like a streak of fire in the air. She was home. On the edge of her very own woods. The group had agreed to split up for the time being. Dora and Danil went to speak with the woman who'd called the tip in. Maxim, AJ, and Anton were headed to the place where Glory had been originally captured by Navuka. And Emin and Glory were headed to home base. The cave where she'd been raised.
Her mother shouldn't be far from there. And Glory could barely wait. She vibrated with energy as she tugged Emin into the woods after her. It would take much longer in her human form, two hours when it could have taken less than 20 minutes in her tiger form. But she'd seen the logic that it was wiser to act like she wasn't a tiger right about now. Not when they had no idea how closely Navuka was watching the woods.
Still, it took about everything she had not to sprint ahead. She settled for pointing every little thing out to Emin.
"Look! That's where I learned how to pounce. My mother would hide behind that rock there and I'd have to figure out how to sneak up on her. And look! That was always my favorite tree branch to nap on. It's got just the right curve, you know? And that glint through the trees? That's a lake that has the best tasting fish you'll ever find in your life."
The bubbling thrill of being back at home and showing it to the man she loved carried Glory all the way through the two-hour hike to the middle of the forest. It wasn't until they were about a quarter mile from her home cave that something in Glory's stomach started to drop.
There were no signs that a tiger was living in the woods right now. There were no scratch marks on the trees. And Glory could smell a lot more small game than usual. Rabbits and squirrels, and there were even deer nearby. That wasn't a good sign. She fell silent as they softly approached the cave, set back far into a craggy hill, covered over mostly with brush.
"Mom?" Glory softly called through the trees. She already knew. If her mother had been there, tiger form or not, she would have literally smelled them a mile away. She would have known her daughter had returned long before she'd heard her voice.
But Glory pushed forward anyways. Emin took her hand. He knew it, too. Glory pushed the overgrown brush aside and stepped into a cave that hadn't been occupied in months.
There was a film of dirt over everything. All of the little things they'd added to make their tiger lives more comfortable, leaf beds, water bowls, blankets woven from grasses, were scattered and picked apart by scavengers. Glory carefully stepped through the wreckage, crouched so that she could walk to the back of the cave.
She found what she was looking for. Etchings on the wall. That she'd made as a little girl. A mural of her life. The letters and words from when her mother had taught her to read. Scratched drawings of tigers and hawks and butterflies. Her name, a hundred times, just for the joy of it.
"You made art here," Emin said, sliding his hand across her shoulders, drawing her close as tears spilled over her cheeks.
"She's not here," Glory said, biting back a soft sob. "She hasn't been for months."
"I know, kvietka," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple. His heart ached for her. For the fear and dismay she felt.
"Where is she?"
"I do not know. But it is possible the others have learned something. We go back now."
"Yes," she nodded, seeing the sense in it, clinging to the logic like a lifeline. "We'll go back."
He led her away from the wreckage of her former home. And he ached to shift, just as he knew that she did as well. He needed the primal beat of it. The simpler, instinctive synthesis of pain and frustration. But it was too risky. They didn't know what lurked in the woods and they couldn't risk it. So they walked side by side, his hand like a warm hug over hers.
"Emin, what does 'kvietka' mean?" she asked eventually, when the edge of the woods lightened their horizon, and they were almost back to where they'd parked the van.
He looked around, knelt and plucked a small purple blossom from where it crept up a mossy log. One of summer's last soldiers before the first snow came and wiped it all away. He held it out to her, placed it in her hand like a gift. "It means flower."
She tucked it behind her ear and followed her love back to civilization.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
An hour later, all of them were huddled around a campfire. They'd set up the tents and their sleeping bags. Maxim was in the process of cooking sausages over the fire.
Dora, meanwhile, was pouring a medicinal dose of whiskey in a cup for each person. Emin had just finished telling them all what they'd found at Glory's home cave.
"Well. Danil and I found some shit out today," Dora said, handing Glory a glass and making sure she tipped it back first. She plunked down in Danil's lap and looked positively wrecked at the news she had to deliver.
Danil stroked a hand over his wife’s back and took over. Sometimes there was too much burden on his Dora. She was strong and sure and tough. But still, sometimes there was too much burden.
"Ms. Gunderson," Danil started, taking ov
er for Dora. "This is the woman who called in the tip in the first place. She says that she's spent a lot of time in the woods. And I believe her. She's very, uh, woodsy."
"He means she's a flippin’ hippy," Dora clarified. "With the ratty hair and B.O. to prove it."
"I know her," Glory said, her eyes still watering from the sting of the whiskey. "She walks in the woods often. I used to see her a lot. But I never knew she'd see me."
"Well, she did. Your mother, too. She knew there were at least two tigers living here. And she knew when you were gone and the number dwindled to one. And," Danil braced himself for the hard part, "she noticed when about seven months ago, the other tiger disappeared as well."
"Seven months ago was when Glory escaped Navuka," Emin said, his eyes narrowing.
"And they realize they need new tiger shifter to torture," Anton filled in the blanks from across the fire. "So they come back here and take her.”
Glory stiffened beside Emin, turning her face into his shoulder. It was too much to imagine that happening to her mother.
"We found some things, too," AJ said, glancing between Anton and Maxim. They both nodded for her to go on.
"We explored where Glory had said she was originally captured. And there wasn't much there to see. But about a mile away, Anton caught the scent; there's a cinder block building.”
"A lab?" Dora asked.
"I think no," Anton replied. "It was too small. Smelled different."
"We could smell an animal in there, though. A lot like Glory." Maxim paused, flipped the food on the fire. "We think they might be holding your mother there."
Glory gripped Emin's hand. "Holding her? Why?"
Dora stood up to pace. "Lots of possibilities. They could have realized that they didn't want the hassle of transporting her to Spokane, the way they did with you. And that was right around the time you destroyed the lab there, Glorious. So maybe they legitimately don't have another place to keep the shifters they are working on. Or maybe they're doing a different kind of experiment now and they don't need all that equipment that they used to."
"Or they knew Glory would come back for her mother." Emin's voice was dark and pained.
"They were right, then. In that case," Glory said, standing as well.
"You think it's a trap?" Maxim asked Emin. "To get Glory?"
"It makes sense," Danil said. "They obviously have a vested interest in the shifters they've already performed experiments on." His eyes flicked over the white in Anton's hair. It wasn't lost on any of them that Navuka was operating in the same part of the world where Anton was currently living. They all knew they were biding their time before they came after him. The Malashoviks were just hoping to destroy the organization before that ever happened.
Glory stepped away from the fire, stripped the shirt off her body and was reaching for the button of her pants before Emin was on his feet, taking her by the shoulders.
"What are you doing, kvietka?"
She looked up at him, her eyes blurry with frantic panic. "I'm shifting. I can't free my mother in my human form." She said it as if it were obvious.
"Kvietka, we can't go now."
She pulled away from him. It was the first time she'd ever done that and it tore at him. "What are you talking about? They just told us that my mother is locked in a cement room not three miles from here. What do you mean we can't go to her?"
"He's right." If it had been anyone but AJ who had come up to Glory at that moment, she might have been able to use her panicked rage to brush them off. But as it was, AJ stood in her baggy clothes, her hair like a slick of shiny brass in the moonlight. And her face was so kind. "It's late. We're all tired. We haven't made any sort of plan of attack. We'll make mistakes if we go tonight. One of us could get hurt or killed. Or captured." She picked up Glory's shirt from the ground, slipped it over her friend’s head. "I know what it's like to miss your mother, Glory. I would do anything to have the opportunity you have, to get her back. Don't mess it up by letting your fear lead you. Let us help you."
Glory's eyes filled. But she gave a little nod and bent down to grip the smaller woman in a huge bear hug. "My mother can be your mother, too," she told AJ.
AJ smiled and led her back to the fire.
They ate and planned and strategized and argued. In the end, no one was crazy about the plan. But it was the best they had. And, Emin thought, the only real chance. Once Navuka got wind that they'd returned for Glory's mother, well. He just didn't think they would get another chance. He tried his best to enjoy the night breeze that filtered through the tent where he lay, tangled with Glory. He was grateful for the warm bedding that Dora had thought to pack for all of them. They knew it wasn't a good idea for any of them to shift tonight. So they were all sleeping in human form.
He curled into Glory who planted a kiss on his shoulder. He wished he could tire her out the way he did when they were alone. But alas, they were all only separated by thin canvas and night air.
"Do you think this will work?" Dora whispered to Danil, where they were similarly curled up one tent away.
"I don't know, ptuska," he absently kissed at her hair, and then, catching her scent, purposefully kissed along her ear. Took her earlobe in his teeth.
She swatted him away. "I'm not an exhibitionist."
He blinked at her in disbelief. "Wife of mine, you fucked me in the coat closet of the bar not two weeks ago."
"That was different!" she insisted. "Your brothers are five feet away. It's just creepy."
Because he agreed, he merely nipped at the sensitive skin of her neck before dragging her over top of him and pulling their covers even tighter. He was warm and content. But he knew it couldn't last. They were storming the castle tomorrow. So to speak. He had never had any wish to go to war. But if he had to, his brothers at his side was the only way he would do it.
The two of them drifted off to sleep while Maxim and Anton argued in fast Belarusian.
"You're the one who is too big for this damn tent in the first place. So you sleep on the ground out here."
Maxim shrugged his shoulders. He knew he pretty much filled the two-person tent to its max on his own. "I told you, I don't mind cuddling."
"Christos," Anton threw his arms up in the air and paced away. "Fine, I’ll sleep outside."
AJ unzipped her one-person tent and crawled out, jamming on her boots. "I told you that you weren't both gonna fit in that tent."
She grabbed her pillow and walked over to the two-person tent. "I'm smaller, so I'll share the two-person tent with one of you and whichever of you two giants can take my one-person tent. That way we all fit and none of us has to sleep outside."
Without waiting for either of them to agree, AJ slid into the bigger tent, kicking off her boots and zipping up the door to keep out the cold. Her heart beat a mile a minute.
Anton scowled at the zipped door. He swallowed against the tightening in his chest. She'd looked frustrated, but not disgusted, at the idea of sleeping so close to him. Or Maxim. Anton's heart iced over.
"Well, now I really don't mind cuddling," Maxim grinned as he stepped toward the two-person tent. Anton's hand flashed out, gripped his brother by the scruff of his neck. No. Fucking. Way.
Maxim quirked an eyebrow, intrigued by what he saw in his brother's eyes. He looked back at the door that AJ had just zipped closed and then back at Anton. Lifting his hands in obvious surrender, Maxim let his large, obnoxious grin spread over his face as he backed slowly away.
Anton just growled and turned away. Maxim was making this a big deal, but it didn't have to be. He waited for his brother to zip his idiotic, grinning face into the one-person tent before he took a step toward where AJ laid.
Woof.
He blew out a long breath. This was pathetic. And annoying. He wasn't going to sleep well if he slept in the other tent and had to wonder about Maxim cuddling up to his gi- AJ all night. And he wasn't going to sleep well with AJ sleeping six inches from him either.
He
clung to that annoyance as he briskly unzipped the tent, kicked off his shoes and slid in, zipping it after him. It was dark inside, the blue canvas making the light of the moon even eerier.
She was just a shadow under her blanket. He saw, with a tight little jerk in his stomach, that she'd pushed herself just about as far to one side of the tight space as she possibly could have. He knew why. It was because of the way he'd scared her a few months ago. He'd almost kissed the ever loving life out of her before he'd yanked himself back. She'd acted like he'd held a knife to her throat.
Well. She didn't have to worry about that. He knew how to keep his hands to himself. With the exception of that one time, he'd been doing it for ten fucking years. He yanked his shirt off over his head, decided sleeping with his jeans on was the best course of action, and pulled the blanket up over him.
She stirred a little, shivering, and he realized that their bedding was just two big blankets. One underneath them and one over top of them. Great.
Fucking great.
His cock stirred against his leg and he mirrored her pose and turned to face the wall. It was safer that way.
He slammed his eyes closed and tried to make his breaths even, his thoughts long and syrupy, the way they were before he slid into sleep.
"Anton?" she asked quietly and he felt her roll over. Her movement caused the covers to pull slightly against his skin and every cell in his body went on high alert.
He considered ignoring her, for his own sanity, but instead he just grunted to show he was listening.
"You'll be safe tomorrow, right?"
He furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"
She paused and he knew she was biting her bottom lip back there. He just fucking knew it.
He stayed facing the canvas of the tent, knowing how close she would be if he turned. Inches. Her scent already filled the small tent. There was only so much he could be expected to take.
But if she didn't answer his question in the next ten seconds, he couldn't be held responsible.
"I mean, I know you have a lot of personal stake wrapped up in this. Because it involves Navuka.”
