Cry of the Pride

by Lacey Thorn

  The wind rushed over her. There was a crispness to the air that she’d never scented before. There was a pop in her ears, and the sounds around her amplified to a crescendo, but they almost immediately quieted down. She felt the earth under her feet, the cool wet of the snow.

  In that moment, she felt invincible. So she ran with abandon, feeling completely one with her tiger. She ran…until fire lanced into her side and her legs dropped from beneath her. Until her face was buried in the cool wetness she’d enjoyed a moment ago.

  “Well, well, well. I knew you had a beast inside you.”

  Blane’s words washed over her, and she wanted to roar with anger. She wanted to snap her jaws and bite his head off.

  “I knew it would be in our best interests to hack into a few of the cameras here. I have a few people who take…pride…in finding ways around these paltry security measures your kind sets up.” He bent to her. “Surprised to see me? Did you think I was in Chicago?” His cackle filled the air. “A little bait and switch and here I am just in time for you to waltz right into my plans. I told you you’d be the key to me getting back what’s mine. Now, let’s get you trussed up, so I can be ready when your brother comes to rescue you. Once I have him, Amia will be mine again, and I’ll have two white tiger skins to decorate my cabin floor.”

  Sick bastard. She really wanted him dead. Soon.

  “Wyatt, make sure everyone’s ready. Tell Kellan to get up here. I want Amia this time. No excuses.”

  “Yes, sir, Marcus. Kellan’s heading this way now. We’ll get Amia and remind her where her place is.” The other man moved off before Lyra got a good look at him.

  “Now the only question is, should I kill you now or let you watch me gut your brother first?”

  He was close and overconfident. She already felt the effects of the drug he’d hit her with wearing off. Just a few more minutes and she’d be able attack the sick bastard and show him she was much more than bait.

  “Y’all know you’re on private property here?” A large male stepped into the clearing. He had blond hair and a pretty genuine-sounding Southern accent.

  Blane jerked around, and several of his men reached for guns.

  “Fucking hell, Daniel.” Another man stepped forward, this one with dark-red hair. He sported a beard the same shade as his hair and a lovely Irish brogue. His gaze flicked her way, and she swore he winked at her. They had to be the two men who’d been on their way to join her brother and his group.“This death wish of yours will get us killed one day.”

  “We’re in luck then, Murphy.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Today is a great day to die.”

  Before anyone could say another word a roar rocked the woods, and Lyra took pleasure in the way several of Blane’s men seemed to shake in their boots. She knew that roar, and the mouth it had launched from. Aleksy.

  As if his name were some sort of release, she felt her mate with her thoughts and realized that when her beast had shut out the voices, she’d also shut out Aleksy. She felt her mate’s fear and anger. She’d hurt him, and despite the fact it had been unintentional, his pain was like a punch to her heart.

  Aleksy, I’m here. I’m safe.

  Lyra, I’m on my way.

  She felt their connection fall into place and let him see everything around her. Another roar rocked the woods. This time, she echoed it, surging to her feet and locking her gaze on the man who planned to kill her. When he looked her way, she was ready for him. Whoever Daniel was, he was right. Today was a great day to die. Starting with Marcus Blane.

  * * * *

  “Where’s Lyra?” Aleksy asked as soon as he saw Reno and Amia. Something was off. He felt as if a barrier had come up between him and Lyra. He’d had the sense she felt overwhelmed then…nothing.

  Reno glanced up. “She headed upstairs after Tony told us Blane was spotted in Chicago. Said she was going to nap while she waited for you.”

  “I should probably let her sleep for a bit then.” Aleksy wondered if that was why he’d felt a disconnect between them. Maybe, she’d asked her beast to eliminate the noise so she could rest. She was still recovering, and he’d been sexually demanding since she’d first awoken. Maybe, it was her animal’s way of telling him to back off and let Lyra rest. It made as much sense as anything else. Everything with them was different than anything he’d heard about other matings, so it was hard to tell what their “normal” was yet.

  “Are you okay?” Reno asked, and Aleksy realized his worry was showing.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Going antsy without her, huh.” Reno put his arm around his mate. “I know the feeling.”

  “The feeling’s mutual,” Amia assured them. “I’m sure Lyra feels the same.”

  Aleksy wasn’t sure how she felt other than confused. She’d had so much thrown at her. Kidnapped, beaten, stabbed and left for dead. Their mating. Gaining the ability to hear. Learning she had a brother. Discovering she was a shifter. She’d had little time to think much less process everything that was happening. As much as he wanted to charge upstairs and hold her, she needed rest more than she needed him.

  “So I heard the two of you met when Amia rescued you?” Aleksy prompted.

  “Yeah,” Reno admitted. “Blane had his men take me from a parking lot when I went to check them out. I was cocky, arrogant. Thought I could handle the situation. They knocked me out cold. Woke up with my naked ass chained to a wall. They beat the hell out of me and fired questions I refused to answer. When they finally left, I was pretty bad off. Next thing I knew, Amia was there. One look at her and I knew there was something between us. So I took her.”

  Amia laughed. “Kidnapped me.”

  “You regret it?” Reno challenged.

  She leaned in. “I’ll never regret finding you or loving you.”

  “That makes two of us,” Reno murmured, and Aleksy felt as if he were a voyeur as he witnessed the love between them.

  “I met Reno when I rescued him. Lyra met you when you rescued her. I spoke with Lyra for a bit, and I got the impression she and I had some similarities in how we dealt with emotion. By choice, I was a loner before I met my mate. People around me had a tendency to die. Marcus’ way of reminding me he was in charge. Reno was the first person to make me want to take a chance again, and that terrified the hell out of me. He made me want to do more than go through the motions. He made me want to live.”

  Aleksy soaked in what Amia said, hoping she was right. He wanted to be the person Lyra wanted in her life. He wanted her to love him as he loved her. He wanted her to live with him. Maybe, he should go upstairs and check on her? Maybe, he could hold her without things taking a sexual turn?

  “We’ve got a problem,” Tony said as he charged into the room then held up his hand. “Give me a few seconds. Nathan’s getting everyone headed this way now. I’d like to go over this once.”

  “It’s Marcus, isn’t it?” Amia said, rising to her feet.

  Tony didn’t voice a reply, but the answer was all over his face. Aleksy fought the impulse to rush to his mate. He needed to know what was going on first.

  Zane and Orsai entered first.

  “Murph just called,” Zane told Reno

  “Are they here?” Reno had stood when his mate did, and he tugged her closer as he spoke.

  “Said they’d be here anytime,” Zane replied as Vic and Gideon walked in, followed closely by Calloway.

  “Nathan said he’d be here in a minute. He wanted to check something,” Calloway offered.

  “Did I hear you say Murphy and Daniel were here?” Vic asked.

  “Should be here anytime,” Zane answered.

  Tony waved it off. “Happy to hear you have two more joining us. I just got a phone call.”

  “What call?” Aleksy demanded. “What’s going on?”

  “Blane isn’t in Chicago. He sent a decoy group, and our guys fell for it.” Tony looked pissed.

  “You sure they fell for it?” Vic asked.


  “If you’re asking me if one of our group could be working with the hunters, I’d like to say no,” Tony responded. “But I’m not naïve. I know they have people keeping track of us from the inside. Hell, some of their spies are shifters.”

  “We’ve always known there were those who hid among us,” Orsai agreed. “I believe my nephew’s pride learned that with the betrayal of Nix.”

  “Who’s Nix?” Aleksy asked.

  “A shifter I led straight to the pride,” Gideon answered.

  “He would have found us one way or another,” Reno countered. “And we would have taken him in because he’s one of us.”

  “You might have questioned more if he hadn’t come with me,” Gideon challenged.

  “Thanks to you, we knew to watch him,” Vic stated, giving her mate a quelling look. “Nix gets the blame for what he did. No one else. Besides, he failed, and unless he can reach out from the grave, he’s no longer a threat.”

  “Hate to interrupt, but we might have a problem,” Nathan said as he jogged into the room.

  Just then, the lights flickered and the alarm chime sounded.

  “Think that’s Murphy and Daniel?” Calloway asked.

  “Or Marcus?” Amia countered.

  “More importantly,” Nathan interjected. “Lyra’s gone. I just went to your room, Aleksy. She wasn’t there. I’ve searched this whole place. She’s not in the building, and I don’t see her on the video feed.”

  “Did you see anyone else on the monitors?” Tony asked.

  “Shadows, just out of camera range. A lot of them,” Nathan answered, and Aleksy felt as if his world had tilted.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Aleksy’s growl resonated through the room. “Where the hell is Lyra? I need to find her. Now.”

  “We’ll find her,” Reno vowed.

  “You searched the whole bunker?” Aleksy demanded of Nathan.

  “She’s not here,” Nathan confirmed.

  “I’m going out to find her,” Aleksy declared.

  “Not alone,” Tony said. “You’re the strongest shifter I’ve ever met, but even you aren’t invincible. And if those shadows are Blane and his men, what a feather it would be if he took you down.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Aleksy grunted.

  “The hell it doesn’t,” Tony raged. “He could kill you, Aleksy!”

  “If Lyra is out there…if he gets to her and kills her…I’m dead anyway.”

  Zane’s phone rang, the tone exceptionally loud in the silence that filled the room after Aleksy’s statement. He figured every mated shifter in the room understood exactly what he meant, because they would all feel the same in his shoes.

  “It’s Murphy. ”

  Zane swiped his thumb across his phone then put it on speaker, so the caller spoke to the whole room.

  “Murph. You’ve got the room buddy. What’s up?”

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” an Irish brogue filled the room. “It’s hunter-palooza out here. This whole area is crawling with them.”

  “Fuck!” Aleksy growled. “How close are you?”

  “Close enough that I could easily knock on your fucking door,” Murphy snapped. “We’ve got problems here. They have numbers, lots of them, and a lovely, little white tiger they’ve given something to.”

  Aleksy lost his mind in that moment. “Is she alive?” The question came out with a roar.

  “Yes. For now.”

  “Y’all know you’re on private property here?” another voice said, carrying through the phone in a deep, rich tone with a Southern accent.

  “Ah, fuck! We need to do something. Soon! He’s going to get us both killed.”

  The sound became muffled as if Murphy had tucked the phone in a pocket or something. They heard the crunch of snow underfoot then Murphy spoke again.

  “Fucking hell, Daniel. This death wish of yours will get us killed one day.”

  “We’re in luck then, Murphy.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Today is a great day to die.”

  Aleksy bolted. He threw open the door, a roar launching from his throat as he ripped his shirt over his head.

  Aleksy, I’m here. I’m safe.

  Lyra, I’m on my way.

  The connection between them locked firmly into place, and he was flooded with her senses. He saw, felt and smelled where she was and knew what was happening. He let loose another roar, a primal call to his mate, and she echoed it, the dulcet sounds of her beast snaking in to wrap around his heart, so that it beat just a little faster.

  He was already mid-shift when the woods exploded with gunshots and roars. He didn’t wait for anyone else. He tore through the trees hell bent on getting to his mate. He pushed through the boundary of Tony’s cameras, crossing the road and leaping through the tree line that edged it, landing in utter chaos.

  Shifters and hunters fought, the smell of blood ripe in the air. Aleksy had no clue where all the shifters had come from or why. He only hoped he wasn’t forced to put any of them down because they’d chosen the opposite side.

  He waded through the melee, heeding the call of his mate, and found her in the thick of battle, blood dripping from her muzzle. She was fierce and sexy and beautiful. And standing over a body.

  Blane?

  No. This is the one who jumped in front of Blane when I lunged for him.

  Who are all these other shifters?

  My guess is they’re with the two who stepped out to help me. One of them was shot, multiple times. He fell just inside the trees there.

  She swiveled her head around.

  The other one took off after Blane. I’m not sure where they went.

  Before they said more they were interrupted by the others joining them. The hunters fled. With Blane gone, it didn’t look as if any of them wanted to stay. That or they hadn’t been prepared for the number of shifters who’d joined the fray. Aleksy was still curious about that.

  Reno joined them, his white tiger larger than Lyra’s. He bumped Lyra’s shoulder gently with his head, a greeting that wasn’t lost on Aleksy. His mate responded, and he felt the bond forming between the siblings and couldn’t curb the twinge of jealousy that filled him.

  Lyra turned her head toward him, butting him with her nose then rubbing the side of her face against him.

  Kellan, Reno said, his voice sounding in Aleksy’s head.

  He stepped in front of Blane when I went for him, Lyra told them. Who is he?

  Kellan is Blane’s right-hand man. He took pleasure in torturing and killing shifters. I was one of the ones he captured. Took me out in a hotel parking lot when I was too damn cocky and stupid. Woke up chained to a wall with Kellan and some others beating the hell out of me. He…hurt my mate. I wish I’d been the one to rip his throat out.

  “Reno!” Amia’s voice caught all their attentions and had them moving from Kellan’s fallen form toward her. She was squatted beside the body of another man. He was pale, blood staining him, eyes closed either in slumber or death. “It’s Daniel. He’s hurt, Reno. Badly. We’ve got to get him out of here.”

  Reno roared in rage. Aleksy felt it pulsing through the other man. Zane was the first to join them, immediately shifting and assessing Daniel.

  “We need to get him back to the bunker. Uncle Orsai can help us stabilize him. Jesus, I’m not sure he’ll make it back to Oklahoma like this.”

  “We can’t lose him,” Amia whispered. “If we lose him, we’ll lose her, too.”

  “Are you sure we haven’t already lost her?” Zane argued.

  “Go,” Aleksy urged. “We’ll take care of things here.”

  Zane scooped Daniel into his arms, unconcerned by their nudity or the blood that coated Daniel. Amia walked at his side, hovering and trying to help. A motorbike came barreling toward them, stopping inches from Zane. Vic was astride.

  “Jump on, Zane. I’ll get you there. Tony’s headed back to get stuff ready. He said he’s used to taking care of Aleksy, so he has pl
enty of supplies.”

  “Round everyone up,” Zane ordered as he mounted the bike behind Vic, Daniel draped precariously in his arms. “We need to know who all these shifters are, and why they showed up here.”

  Aleksy was in the same boat there. He’d already planned on trying to get them all back to the bunker. He had a feeling it might not be him or Reno the others listened to, though. He suspected Lyra might have reached a few more people than they thought when she’d sent out her SOS. Tony had put the idea in his head when he’d said Lyra could project. If Tony was correct, Lyra might have contacted more than Aleksy and Tah when she’d been tortured by Blane and his men. Or maybe, she’d projected earlier than that when an alpha shifter had appeared with a message to come to him.

  Lyra, I need you to do something for me.

  Anything.

  His heart flipped at her easy response. He didn’t deserve her, but he planned to spend the rest of his days proving otherwise.

  Call out to the other shifters. Ask them to come to the bunker. Show them where. Tell them you’ll take them to him.

  What?

  Trust me, love.

  She’s the key, Reno whispered, turning his head toward Aleksy.

  Key?

  Call them, love. We’ll know more once we’ve talked to them.

  I’ll head back now, Reno said. I want to check on Daniel and call Tah to let him know what’s going on here. And we need to find Murphy. Soon.

  Aleksy looked around. The area was littered with bodies. The dead would need to be gathered and disposed of. He figured he could count on Calloway and Gideon to help with that. Maybe Nathan, as well. The more hands, the quicker they’d get it all taken care of.

  Send the message then follow Reno back to the house. You should be there when they begin arriving. I’ll meet you as soon as I get this cleaned up.