Mutts Like Me (The Awakening Series Book 1)

by Keri Armstrong

  Those Awakened bastards really are arrogant.

  I pushed open the door and entered a hanger-like room, gasping first from the sheer size of it, and then almost screaming from shock.

  I ran toward the dragon. “Clara? Is that you?”

  Marti? Stop!

  I skidded in my tracks as her voice went through my head. I could see they were keeping her in her dragon form somehow, doing god knows what with her in the process.

  She projected an image into my head of the immense collar at her neck and a force field around it, keeping her in place.

  Over there. She gestured with her massive head.

  Another panel. I smirked.

  “I got this,” I said, swinging the rod like a pro. My arms felt the shock from my wrists up through the shoulder, but didn’t stop until the field fell and she could switch back.

  She looked like death warmed over but there was resolve in those eyes as she slid free from the chains. “They took my fire,” she said, wobbling a little on her feet.

  I ran to steady her. “You are still a badass. I know those teeth aren’t just for show. Not to mention the barbed tail and talons.”

  Her small grin gave me hope. “Good point.”

  Heavy, running footsteps echoed in the hallway beyond.

  “Look out,” she called as she shifted back the same time some of the guards poured in. She bit the first one with such force she almost cut him in half.

  His screams of pain and surprise hurt my eardrums even without my wolf-sensitive hearing. I pulled out the gun Laurent had given me and started shooting at the others.

  Look for the rest of our friends. I got this.

  I hesitated only for a second before going to see what I would find behind door number two.

  It was a room similar to the one where I’d been held, only instead of an upright chamber, there was a still figure lying on the bed, tubes running from his arms into the bedside IVs.

  I ran to him, screaming his name.

  Toshio was strapped to the bed, and no matter how much I shook him he wouldn’t awake. I snatched at the tubes running into his arms and ripped everything out, no time for gentleness as I threw them aside and slapped at his face.

  “Come on Toshi, wake up. Wake up, you bastard!” Tears fell from my face onto his. “What did they do to you?”

  After an eternity, he finally stirred, and then slowly opened his eyes.

  “Toshio,” I exhaled, hugging him around his shoulders.

  “Marti?” His voice came out weak, groggy.

  “Yes, it’s me. Are you okay? What did they do to you?” I held his head between my palms.

  “Just sedated me, I think. They were afraid I would try something stupid.”

  And speaking of stupid...we didn’t have time for this tender reunion. We had to get out of here.

  His eyes cleared a bit, seeming to come to the same realization.

  “What are you doing here, Marti?” He suddenly sat up and then clutched his head. “You shouldn’t have come back,” he snapped.

  I frowned. “Of course I came back.”

  “Why?” He tried to stand, and I had to help him. “You only put yourself in danger,” he said.

  “I came back for you, you idiot.” I momentarily debated if I should just drop his ass and leave him lying on the floor.

  “You shouldn’t bother.”

  Now he really deserved a nice smack on the head but, before I had a chance to respond, he cut me off. “Come with me, I know where they’re keeping Cass and Alex.”

  I helped him out of the bed, neither of us really caring that he only wore a hospital gown that gaped in the back. We slowly passed the first room, but there were no sounds coming from the inside. I hoped Clara really did take care of them. Right now, we needed to get the others while we had a fighting chance.

  We left the labs and ran down yet another corridor as Toshio seemed to be gathering strength. We entered a tunnel that he informed me connected this building to another.

  We continued running, his bare feet and my boots slapping against the tile we came to a fork in our path.

  There were three big guys looking at us from within one of the paths.

  “Shit,” Toshio mumbled. “Shift,” he ordered.

  “I can’t,” I replied, panicking. Those were the biggest people I ever saw in my entire life, real live mountains.

  They started running toward us, shouting.

  “What do you mean you can’t shift?”

  “I’m under a spell on me because they put a tracker in me,” I explained as fast as possible.

  Toshio paled. “And you couldn’t mention that earlier?”

  “Hey, it didn’t come up!”

  “What are you waiting for then? Run.” He pulled me in the opposite direction.

  We were fast, but they were faster, and once they shifted, it was game over. I never saw werewolves that humongous. They were three times normal size and had canines big as my forearm.

  “Go,” Toshio yelled. “Help the others. I’ll slow them down.”

  “How? By offering yourself as dessert?”

  “Marti,” he growled, the hospital gown falling off as he shifted.

  Despite what he told me, I turned around and started to shoot at them.

  Unfortunately, that only pissed them off.

  The beasts circled Toshi, trapping him in place and I could see they meant to kill him. I ran forward, desperate to help somehow, and got knocked down from behind. I only saw a flash of white cloth sail over me as the newcomer yelled.

  “That’s my son!”

  The wolves just continued to move in toward Toshio.

  His father pulled a syringe from lab coat and went for the wolf closest to Toshi. He managed to knock it out before the others left their prey and jumped him instead.

  This was Toshi’s opening. He managed to rip the throat from another one before it even realized he was going to attack.

  The last one turned out to be a bigger challenge. I could see Toshio’s dad was fading fast, but still trying to help. I ran forward as Toshio leapt onto its back, trying to get his teeth into its neck. The larger beast whirled, knocking him off its back and into the wall.

  “Hey, over here, asshole!” I tried to draw the wolf’s attention.

  Blood dripped from the fangs that grinned at me.

  Oh shit.

  Toshio yelped and sped across the tile as the wolf leaped at me. The distraction gave me enough time to twist so that I was only bitten on the shoulder and not the neck.

  Still hurt like a bitch though.

  From this angle, I could see Toshio’s father crawling toward us with another syringe. I prayed he was going to use it on the wolf and not his son.

  I kicked up and knocked both Toshio and the wolf off me, and while they scrambled, I grabbed the needle from his dad’s hand and jumped the wolf, jabbing it into the back of its neck.

  And nothing happened.

  The wolf jerked around, snapping at the syringe to pull it loose, giving Toshio another chance to go for the jugular.

  I screamed as he got bitten in the process.

  “Plunger,” Toshio’s dad croaked.

  It took a second before I realized the implication.

  Shit.

  Fortunately, Toshio was faster. He shifted in an instant and jumped the wolf who was close to knocking the needle free.

  He fell on top of it, knocking in the plunger and the damned beast finally went down.

  I ran over and helped him back up.

  “Toshi, must—” his dad whispered.

  Toshio’s face paled even further before hardening as he looked at his dad who was torn and bleeding on the floor.

  “Son, please...must tell you.” He coughed, blood spattering. “I’m sorry, for making you...”

  Toshio bent down. “Don’t speak, let me get you out of here.”

  “It’s too late, but I have to tell you something.” His fading voice was adamant.

&
nbsp; I stood, helpless as Toshio’s torment and inner struggle played across his face.

  He finally moved to place his ear next to his dad’s mouth and said, “I’m listening.”

  The choked, whispered words that came out then were in a language I didn’t understand but guessed was Japanese.

  From the look on Toshi’s face, they words were significant.

  I gasped when he grabbed his father and shook him, responding harshly in the same language.

  His dad’s eyes started to lose focus as his breathing labored, and after a last rattling breath, they went blank.

  “Goddamn, you. Don’t you dare die right now,” Toshi yelled in English, shaking the older man.

  But it was too late.

  I hesitantly placed a hand on Toshio’s shoulder. I wanted to give him more time to say goodbye, but time was not on our side.

  “Toshi, come on. We have to go.” I said pulling him with me.

  He wiped his palms across his eyes and nodded grimly. He straightened, and without looking back, he started took my hand and started to jog.

  “This way.” He gestured toward a metal staircase. We ran up two flights of stairs and then paused and hid in an office when we heard running footsteps. As we knelt behind a desk, a thousand questions battled in my mind.

  What had his father said? How were the others doing? I still had this sinking feeling that things were too easy, that maybe we were being played like the last time.

  Then suddenly, through it all, I heard Sunjoo.

  Who is this male? What is he to you?

  ‘Good god, not now! Pay attention to the battle and get us out of here!’

  I felt his pride as he answered, I will.

  A second later there was a loud bang and I had to smile. Sunjoo had dropped one of the homemade grenades that Laurent had given out to the crew.

  When the footsteps we’d heard ran past the room we’d used, we crept back out into the hall.

  The observation room was our end goal.

  The door was locked, but I remembered my stolen card and swiped the lock pad, praying it would work.

  Thank god it did.

  We entered another area that also resembled a hospital room; only in this case, there were three beds with people strapped down in two of them.

  Cass and Alex were in worse shape than Toshio had been. We quickly unhooked everything but couldn’t revive them.

  “No, no, no. I am not going to lose you too, do you hear me?” he yelled at his best friends.

  We jerked up when the door opened, ready for battle, only to see Clara running in, carrying a cat version of Wes. “I sensed you in here,” she explained. “I don’t know what they did to him, but I can’t feel his pulse at all.”

  Toshio was raving. He was half mad he gestured toward the empty bed. “Put him there.”

  She carefully placed Wes on the mattress as if she didn’t want to disturb his sleep.

  “Guard the door,” he ordered before shifting back to his Kitsune form.

  There wasn’t room for Clara to shift, but she nodded and stood at the door. I went to stand beside her, and pulled another gun from my backpack. “Do you know how to use one of these?”

  She nodded. We stood alert, attention torn between listening for more trouble and watching Toshio.

  He jumped onto Alex’s chest and spread over him.

  One of his tails started to glow. A bright, electric blue that transformed into pure energy, flaring upwards before descending into Alex.

  Chills covered my skin as I realized what he was doing. He was curing Alex by sacrificing his own life energy.

  Oh, Toshio, no!

  But I couldn’t say the words. Alex was his cousin. Even from just our short time together, I knew Toshio would die before he’d let anything to either Alex or his friends.

  He repeated the same process with Cassandra and Wes. I nearly did protest then, but knew it wouldn’t change anything.

  As Toshio finished with Weston, Alex suddenly jerked up and opened his eyes, calling out for Cassandra before he noticed all of us in the room.

  Toshio shifted back and staggered, smacking against a wall, I ran to help him stay upright. His gray face looked like death itself.

  Alex helped Cassandra when she came to, and Clara helped Wes. He was able to shift back but opted for staying in his feline form.

  As the building began to shake, we knew our party needed to retreat.

  A weakened Toshio said he knew another way out. He led the way as the group huddled together, Clara and I hovering over them on each side.

  “Do you smell that?” Alex asked lifting his head a bit, after a while.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “We should hurry. The dragons are burning everything to the ground.”

  “Good,” Cassandra said, face hard.

  As we neared a set of metal double doors, Caleb and Anjelica burst through and ran toward us.

  “What are you still doing here, didn’t you hear the signal?” Caleb shouted.

  “Yes, I did, but we were a bit preoccupied at that moment,” I snapped. “Can you do your mojo now?”

  Anjelica murmured something and a vital part of me that had been missing fell into place.

  My wolf was back.

  We started running again, hearing a couple of more booms along the way. The last one was really close. Plaster fell from the ceiling, kicking dust into the air as it crashed. I coughed as some particles went into my throat, but kept running.

  Clara and Caleb were guarding us in the front while Anjelica stayed in the back.

  We had just cleared the doorway to the outside when a huge man who, for the life of me, looked like he’d just stepped out of an ancient Egyptian painting appeared before us.

  He smiled and there was a collective gasp behind me. As I stared up and up into those long dark eyes, my insides went cold.

  This must be one of the Awakened.

  It was crystal clear to me then that I had only seen their henchmen before now. The power and sheer otherness that emanated from him was like nothing I’d ever seen or felt in my life.

  Anjelica screamed and we all turned toward. I ran to help her but it was too late. Blood poured through her mouth, eyes, and ears as she just dropped to the ground. Dead.

  My head started to pound immediately.

  “Marti, get out of there,” I heard someone shouting but I couldn’t move. It was as if I’d been paralyzed.

  Of course, they had magic on their side, too.

  My ears were ringing, and my head felt like it could explode any minute. I whimpered, completely powerless.

  The others started to fall one by one as the ancient being laughed. Clara, being the last target, was caught mid-shift but managed to stab at the Awakened with her tail before she fell. It caught him by surprise and that was enough for one of Sunjoo’s parents to send a fireball right at the bastard’s head.

  The spell broke and Clara recovered enough to finish the job.

  We managed to get out into the field without being ambushed again. But once there, it was pure chaos.

  We shifted quickly and engaged in battle.

  The remaining soldiers put up a hell of a fight. My ears hurt and my bones felt the shock as a seriously loud explosion split the air. I watched in horror as something large fell from the sky, and felt the collective dismay of the dragons.

  Oh no...

  That moment of distraction cost me. A bear smacked right into my side, knocking me down.

  Son of a... you have got to be kidding me. I thought I already took care of these bastards?

  I jumped back on my feet, dodging another massive paw. I came at him from the other side and managed to bite him in the leg, before Cassandra joined in. Together we managed to topple the beast and then go for the kill.

  After what felt like years of rage, blood, guts, and gore, we won. Our little band of mutts had managed to take out the facility this time, but at a great cost.

  Even though the few Awakened tha
t had been there had fled early on with some of their minions, there’d been losses on both sides.

  Most of us remaining had shifted back, and stood huddled wearing the ubiquitous sweats we’d brought for the occasion, as we tallied the cost.

  Twelve wolves were down, Anjelica was gone, and Toshio’s father (though I’m not sure he could count as our side but he did try to save Toshio at the end)

  Hardest for me, though, was the dragon that fell.

  Clara.

  I found her lying on the ground with Sunjoo’s parents hunkered over her.

  Her mother was my best friend. His mother’s grief projected through our little group. I didn’t keep my promise to keep her safe.

  I understood the feeling, and could only nod. Sunjoo curled his tail around me and I let him. I felt his own deep grief, as well as his wish to shift to be human with me but he didn’t feel it was appropriate at this time.

  I leaned into his massive form for a moment, allowing the heat to ease some of the ache in my body. There was no need for words among the four of us. Beyond the dragon telepathy, we were united in our sorrow.

  We stood silently together until the sound of footsteps caught my attention. As Toshio and Laurent came toward us, I searched Toshi’s face for some clue as to how he was feeling.

  Sunjoo’s tail tightened around me, squeezing me closer. I sighed and gave his scales a little pat.

  He released me but his sadness went through me as he did. After an instant, our connection was severed.

  I blinked in surprise, simultaneously relieved and somehow, at a loss. There was no time to examine what any of that meant, as Laurent began to speak.

  “We found a bunch of files in one of the offices, and I only got a chance to glance at them but, it looks like the Awakened are preparing an upscale attack against all of us. Soon.”

  Great, shit just kept piling up.

  “I will go through them on my way there,” he added, looking at Toshio.

  I waited for more but nothing came. “On your way where?” I asked impatiently.

  He shared another look with Toshio before turning to me. “I have some business to attend, but I’ll keep in touch,” he said, giving me a half hug before leaving.