Safe On Base

by Sandra R Neeley

  Riley watched them go, then pulled up idling on the highway just in front of the trailer park. He paused only long enough for Richie and Lazarus to jump in the truck, then he was off in the same direction Roman and Lucas had gone.

  “Ya’ll be ready, no idea what we’ll find when we get there,” Riley said with a growl in his voice.

  “Been ready,” Richie said. “Fuckers better not touch Kaiser or Renata,” he rumbled.

  “I’m just killing people. Fuck ‘em. They come after a male just minding his own business. I’m killing ‘em,” Lazarus said simply. “They hurt any of them, I just kill ‘em slower,” he said, shrugging.

  Chapter 14

  Basilio moved silently out of his house, locked it behind him and shifted. His Gorilla knew every inch of his home. He often roamed it in his beast form. He moved quickly off the porch and down the front steps, hurrying over to the pond, where he silently slipped into the water and submerged himself, to just eye level, keeping an eye on his home and his mate hidden safely away inside.

  He watched as two males, fully shifted — both Gorillas, but neither of them Silverbacks, emerged from the trees two acres behind his house. Almost at the same time, he saw five more males emerge from the tree line almost an equal distance from the front of his house. They were shifted also, two of them were Silverbacks — one of them huge, about the same size as Basilio and obviously older — the other a little smaller, more the same size as the other Gorillas.

  He watched as the largest Silverback, the one that he figured must be Erick Konrad, signaled for the four with him in the front to stay back while he approached the house. The two behind the house took up defensive positions on either side of the yard behind the home. Basilio growled low and deadly as he watched the males approach his home. His eyes scanned the tree lines and saw no one else. This was what he needed to know, the whole reason he’d gone into the water was to watch undetected to see what exactly he was up against. Now that he knew, he moved quietly to the edge of the pond and walked up and out of it, a rumble in his chest announcing his presence as he emerged dripping from the pond.

  The largest Silverback, Erick, was moving toward Basilio’s home when he caught the sound, and then movement out of the corner of his eye and turned toward Basilio. He seemed surprised at first, then adjusted his path toward Basilio. Both groups of males began to move toward Basilio as they followed their Prime. Basilio’s Gorilla was going nuts in his mind. He wanted to charge toward Erick’s Gorilla, tear him apart and start working his way through the rest of them. Basilio thought about being smarter than that. But what was he going to do? Ask them to wait until his uncle and friends arrived. He hardly thought they'd do that. Besides, he felt a need deep down in his bones to kill these fuckers personally.

  This male coming toward him, Erick, was without a doubt the one that had abused his mate. And that fucker needed to die. Basilio’s Gorilla pulled back his lips, displaying his sharp teeth and fangs. He pounded on his chest, letting loose a roar that made a couple of the smaller Gorillas advancing toward him stop in their tracks.

  No mercy, his Gorilla thought at him.

  No mercy, he answered. Basilio handed control over to his Gorilla and launched himself at Erick at the same time Erick launched himself at Basilio.

  They slashed, punched, and bit each other in battle relentlessly. At one point Basilio had the upper hand, then a few minutes later Erick did. Basilio sent his Gorilla an image of Renata at Erick’s mercy and it drove him over the edge into a rage, taking back control.

  When Erick felt himself losing ground, he emitted a call to his males to join in. The first two stayed reasonably close to the house, not advancing any further. The four remaining from the first group, those that had arrived with Erick, started toward Basilio. One of them broke away from the others and charged him where he still fought Erick. Basilio saw him coming and braced for impact but refused to let go of Erick.

  Only impact never occurred. In fact, of the three remaining males that had begun to move toward him, two had actually taken a few steps back leaving the smaller Silverback standing alone, and the other, the one that charged toward him had disappeared from Basilio’s view altogether. There was an inordinate amount of snarling going on around him but Basilio didn’t even notice, he was so focused on Erick. Erick threw all his weight against Basilio, and Basilio used it against him, letting the momentum carry through and help Basilio toss him over his shoulders and onto his back on the ground. Basilio went with him, landing on the male, no pause in the attack at all, even when Basilio’s eyes focused on a Tiger, a huge Tiger, standing on a Gorilla, tearing him to shreds as the Gorilla tried unsuccessfully to get away from the Tiger.

  Basilio didn’t stop to think about it. All he knew was there was a three-legged Tiger helping him. The only three-legged Tiger he knew of was his Uncle Roman’s friend, Travis. Basilio took heart that at least he had someone to watch his back. It gave him a renewed energy as he snarled and attacked Erick again.

  Then he heard it. The call of a pissed off Silverback Gorilla, loud and terrifying, accompanied by the roar of a Bear — both headed his way. Uncle Roman had arrived.

  Of the Gorillas nearest him, two turned at the sound of the advancing new players and started toward where the incoming beasts sounded their warning battle cries. The two behind Basilio’s house moved in closer to those moving to intercept Roman and Lucas, planning on making a united front. The remaining Silverback snarled and moved toward Basilio and Erick, where the battle raged on. Basilio heard a roar behind himself and managed to glimpse the Tiger standing near him and Erick, dripping blood, and snarling a deadly warning to the Silverback that had decided to help his Prime in the fight.

  The Tiger took one lunge toward the lone Silverback, taunting him, trying to lure him into a fight, but the Silverback hung back, watching Basilio and Erick battling to the death, yet not willing to risk his own hide with the Tiger.

  Basilio and Erick were still grappling for control, and at one point, Erick was able to get one hand up and around Basilio’s neck, squeezing as hard as he could. Basilio managed to turn his head toward that arm enough to get his mouth near it. He opened as wide as he could and bit down on Erick’s bicep, causing the male to scream in pain.

  It was at just that point that Roman’s Silverback and Lucas’s Kodiak Bear came barreling out of the tree line snarling and foaming at the mouth, attacking the two Gorillas closest to them. The remaining two Gorillas joined in attempting to save their friends. Basilio and Erick continued to slash and rip each other, and Travis stood watch to insure that none of the Gorillas aided Erick.

  Somewhere in the middle of it all, three very large Panthers, two golden and one black, roared into the thick of the battle. Basilio had no idea how long the battle raged. All that he knew was that his Gorilla had lost all sense of humanity. All he saw were flashes of his female beneath this male, enduring his assault, enduring all he’d put her through and it kept him in a full rage. Basilio’s Gorilla had slipped into savagery, and until he realized the male beneath him was finally dead, there was no way anybody, Roman included, was going to even try to stop him.

  At one point, Basilio was pounding on Erick’s unmoving chest, trying to get the male to fight back, when he realized that a group of males stood watching him. They’d shifted back, and were nude, all were bleeding, one a little more than the rest, and they had one male on his knees before them, also nude and bleeding. Basilio looked down at Erick still in his Silverback form, unresponsive though Basilio’d been trying to rouse him to beat him again. He realized Erick was dead. Still filled with so much rage and vengeance, he focused on the only other living Gorilla that had come uninvited to his home this night to take his mate.

  Basilio’s Gorilla charged, growling as viciously as he could, knuckling on his fists as he ran toward the male, every muscle in his body rippling with the power his beast contained.

  Riley and Roman had been standing behind the male, controlling him, s
ubduing him since he’d surrendered when he realized he was likely going to be killed.

  When Basilio charged, it was clear Basilio’s Gorilla was completely disconnected from Basilio and out for vengeance. Roman raised his eyebrows and glanced at Riley. Riley glanced at Roman, then both looked at Basilio barreling down on the lone surviving Gorilla. He was the smaller Silverback Basilio had seen arrive with Erick.

  “Oh fuck,” Riley said.

  “Step aside,” Roman yelled, moving away from the male as quickly as he could. Richie and Lazarus went with him, Lucas and Riley and Travis went the other direction.

  Basilio focused solely on the lone male, now standing to shift and meet him and didn’t even notice his friends moving aside as he attacked. His feet left the ground and his body soared through the air, making contact with the smaller Silverback and gripping his head in both hands as his massive body twisted in the air, spinning and taking the male’s head off his shoulders.

  Riley and his males stood there watching as the Gorilla’s body remained standing, headless before finally dropping in a bloody heap exactly where it’d been standing before Basilio decapitated it.

  Basilio landed on the ground, rolling on impact rather than smashing into the ground. He jumped to his feet roaring and smashing the head onto the ground, spinning and looking for another target.

  Roman raised his hands in the air. “Basilio!” he said urgently, trying to calm his nephew down. “They’re gone. That’s it. He was the last one.”

  Basilio whirled around, focusing on Roman, his eyes narrowing.

  “They’re all dead. They’re gone. Your mate is safe,” Roman said.

  Basilio looked around at the bodies. The pieces, the blood. His chest heaved. He ground his teeth together, and took a step toward his home, then stopped, looking back around his property again.

  “We’ll help you clean it up,” Riley said.

  Basilio glanced over to Riley.

  “Yeah, it’ll go quick with all of us helping,” Lucas commented.

  “You alright?” Roman asked him. “You in there?” he asked.

  Basilio was still breathing heavy, and he was cut and bleeding in various places on his body, but he was beginning to come back to himself.

  “You can’t go see your woman like that,” Roman said. “She don’t need to see this either,” Roman indicated the body parts.

  Basilio took a deep breath, held it for a minute then did it again. Slowly he began to regain more and more control. A few minutes later, he was able to shift back, though his eyes were still wild and his jaw still clenched.

  “You good?” Roman asked.

  Basilio gave a single nod. He took a moment meeting the eyes of the men who stood around him. Some more injured than others and nodded. “I owe each of you,” he said, his voice gravelly and his words choppy.

  “No, you don’t. It’s what family does,” Riley said. “Told you already, you’re Roman’s family. Makes you our family.”

  Basilio stalked toward Travis who’d had his back before the others had arrived.

  Travis saw him coming, and though he kept a hand on Riley’s shoulder to keep his balance, he straightened and raised his chin.

  “You kept me from being mauled from behind. I will never, ever forget that. I am always here for you, no matter what the need is,” Basilio said, holding out his hand to shake Travis’s.

  Travis nodded one single time and put his hand in Basilio’s. Then Basilio turned and looked at Roman, Riley and the rest of the Pride. “Everybody okay?” Basilio asked.

  “Yeah, more or less,” Lazarus answered, leaning on Lucas, and holding his stomach with one hand.

  “You need a hospital,” Basilio said. “I’ll pay for your medical care.”

  “Naw, he just needs Alex,” Riley said.

  “In more ways than one,” Richie added.

  “You ain’t lying,” Travis added.

  “Yeah, like you have any room to talk, old man,” Lazarus snapped at Travis.

  “Alex?” Basilio asked.

  “His mate. She’s had to doctor him before. Saved his damn life once. Still won’t mate the woman,” Lucas said.

  “Somebody call Alex and get him to her, the rest of you… let’s get this cleaned up and buried, so Basilio can go to his woman. If she sees this, she’ll never look at her home the same way,” Riley said.

  “I’m gonna have to run back to the truck for a cell phone,” Lucas said, sitting Lazarus on the ground.

  “You can use the house phone,” Basilio said, walking toward his home.

  Lucas started to follow, and stepped over the head that Basilio had removed from the last Gorilla’s body. “At least we don’t have to figure out what to do with the only survivor,” he said.

  Richie nodded. “Did take care of that problem, didn’t he? What’d he say his name was?”

  “Spence or some shit. I can still hear him, whining like a damn baby, ‘Please don’t kill me, my name is Spence, I beg for mercy,’” Lazarus said, still holding his stomach.

  “I think he said Spencer,” Roman corrected.

  “Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. They all came here with the same thought in mind. Kill Basilio, take Kaiser back to become Prime, and Lord knows what they were going to do with Renata. They didn’t want to die they shouldn't have come after Basilio and his family,” Travis said.

  “True,” Riley agreed, dragging bodies toward the tree line furthest from the house out behind the barn. “I’ll be back in a minute with your prosthetic, Travis. Where’d you leave it?”

  “Other side of the barn. Came in from the back,” Travis answered.

  “What a coincidence. Exactly where I’m dragging these fuckers. I’ll be right back,” Riley said, walking off into the darkness.

  Basilio disarmed the alarm in his home. Lucas followed him inside and he pointed out the phone in the kitchen. “There’s the phone. I’m going to let Renata know everything is okay, but not to come out yet.”

  “Alright. I’m gonna call Alex, she’s a veterinarian. She’ll sew him up. I’m going to tell her to come pick him up. He just needs stitches. Then head back out to help bury everything,” Lucas said.

  Basilio was moving toward the staircase but he stopped on hearing the word bury. He walked back into the kitchen and took a key off a hook hanging beside a bulletin board there. “Here, this is the key to the tractor. It’ll make burying much easier. Has a front loader on it for digging deep,” he said, holding it out to Lucas. “I’ll be back out soon as I let Renata know it’s safe, but to stay inside the safe room until I come for her.”

  “Alright. Do what you got to,” Lucas said, dialing Alex’s number.

  Basilio hurried up the stairs and into his bedroom. He went into the closet and called out to Renata. “Do not open the door, Renata, you hear me, honey? Everything is fine. There’s no more threat. Uncle Roman and Riley and all his Pride are here. We took care of it. You’re safe, but please stay in there for a little while. It’s not pretty out here at the moment. Okay?”

  “Are you hurt?” she asked, her voice muffled by the thickness of the walls in the safe room.

  “No. I’m fine. I’ll come back in a little while for you, okay?” he asked.

  “Okay,” she answered.

  “Love you,” he said, then turned and headed back downstairs, catching the end of Lucas’s phone call.

  “Naw, he ain’t dying. It’s not as bad as last time, but he could use some stitches,” Lucas said.

  “I know. You’re right. He’s a jackass, but he can’t help how he is. It’s probably the reason he’s survived all this time. And he’s been wandering lost since you left.”

  There was a pause while Lucas listened to Alex on the other end of the call.

  Then, “Yeah, I know. I appreciate it. We’ll be here for a few more hours at least. I can bring him to you if you want…”

  Another pause.

  Then, “Alright then, we’ll see you in a bit. Just honk the horn at
the gate and I’ll bring him out to you. Thanks, Alex.”

  Lucas hung up and looked at Basilio waiting for him. “Lazarus better treat that woman right. She could just let his stubborn ass bleed out,” Lucas said.

  “You said she’s a vet? Shouldn’t we get him a doctor?” Basilio asked.

  “No, she can handle it. And I knew a doctor that once said, he’d go to any vet over a human doctor because a vet’s patients can’t tell ‘em where it hurts, they have to figure it out. Makes them more attuned to their patients. And this female is very attuned to her patients. Slept on the floor of Lazarus’s bedroom for more than a week when he almost died. She’s awesome. We call her when we need a doctor for injuries because you never know who’s gonna shift into their beast without planning to if the injury is bad enough. Regular things like the flu or the measles, we go to the regular doctor,” Lucas explained. Then he walked over toward Basilio and tossed the key in his hand up and caught it before tossing it up again. “You going to let me drive the tractor?” Lucas asked.

  “Sure thing. You came to help me protect mine. You can drive it whenever you want,” Basilio answered.

  “Hell yeah, let’s get to it,” Lucas said as they headed outside.

  An hour and half later they stood at the edge of a very, very deep hole they’d dug, filled, then covered up again. It was almost five acres from the house and practically touching the tree line that ran behind the barn.

  Basilio stood there, looking down at the fresh earth that was the only indication there had ever been a hole there. “Such a senseless waste,” he mumbled.

  “No, do not even go there. You didn’t ask for this,” Riley said.

  “Riley’s right,” Roman added. “They brought this to your house. They were going to take your family from you, subject them to abuse and unspoken horrors. You were content to mind your own and live in peace. They did this to themselves.”