by Olivia Gayle
Davis’ voice came over the speakers. “Um, guys, you’d better hurry. A helicopter is heading toward them, and there’s activity on the ground.”
Marshall cursed. “How far away are we?”
“Thirteen miles if we take roads, but only about five if you go overland.”
Well, that settled that for Aidan. “Stop the car.”
Marcus pulled off the road and everyone got out. Aidan was already changing as he spilled out of the car, leaping down the embankment and landing on all fours as a bear. He didn’t pause for a second, running as fast as he could through the trees. Marcus stayed in the car, taking off as the three other men headed out into the forest. Julian, now in panther form, kept pace with him, and the Brahm… Aidan saw that he hadn’t shifted but was keeping pace perfectly well as a two-legged human.
So be it.
His nails dug into the ground, giving him all the traction he needed to keep a steady pace. Aidan could feel the bear getting winded, a rarity for them, but he didn’t care. The wind was from the side, helpful in that their presence wouldn’t be known to the camp first, but useless when it came to finding his mate.
It did, however, bring with it another scent. Aidan slowed, smelling the air, but Marshall identified the newcomer first. “If Derek’s here,” he murmured, voice carrying over the sound of running, “then they have Eleanor too.”
The other bear’s scent came from their west, and Aidan could almost smell his trajectory. His stepfather would reach the camp before they did, and Aidan had no doubt he’d attack outright. Part of him realized they could use the distraction, but he also knew Derek, while deadly in his own right, wasn’t thinking clearly. His mate was in danger and he needed to get her back.
Aidan’s bear clawed at his mind, showing a similar desperation. Yeah, pot, meet kettle.
Marshall pulled ahead even as beside them, Julian fell back. Whether from exhaustion or part of a plan, Aidan didn’t know, but he kept up his pace, wanting only to get to the compound. His imagine was going into overdrive, imagining her dead, dying, or worse.
The bear roared, lengthening its stride, desperate to get to its mate.
Ahead of them, the tree line abruptly ended. Marshall was stopped beside a tree, surveying the scene. Whoever chose this place either wasn’t expecting to be discovered, or was cocky enough not to care. Traps were a foregone conclusion, but Aidan didn’t care. He barreled past his father and into the open, trampling the tall grasses surrounding the compound.
Aidan could see the buildings, hear Derek’s bear roaring from somewhere amidst them, and didn’t waste a second. When two wolves came around the corner, he waded in the middle of them, slapping them out of his way. He had to find Ever; that was all that mattered. Aidan trusted both his father and Marcus to have his back. He wasn’t sure Julian wouldn’t try to take a shot at him while his back was turned, but at the moment he didn’t care. This close to the buildings, he could smell her. Her scent was faint but there; he just had to find the trail. He could smell his mother too, but Derek could get her.
The three buildings were circled up like wagons, their entrances all facing an inner courtyard. The moment Aidan hit that, shifters poured out of the buildings, many already in animal form but several still human and wielding guns.
Those were his first targets.
He mowed through the animals and took out two of the guns before he hit his first real obstacle. A grizzly bear shifter broadsided him, knocking Aidan into the side of one metal building. The blow dented the outer wall but didn’t deter Aidan himself, who roared and launched himself at the other bear, tearing at the beast’s face. He scored a lucky blow, raking his claws across the face and taking out one eye. The creature howled in pain and Aidan took advantage, clubbing him along the side of the head with one paw.
That managed to daze the other creature, and Aidan pushed past him into the first building. Immediately, he knew Ever wasn’t there; her scent was nowhere inside, but there were chairs and the oddest altar Aidan had ever seen.
Whatever. He wasn’t there to judge decor, but to find his mate.
He pushed back through the door just as Julian came onto the scene. Two wolves came at Aidan but the black werepanther blocked their path, engaging them as Aidan headed straight for the next building. In the distance, he could hear the whirring of helicopter blades, but it wasn’t in the direction his nose was leading him so he ignored it.
The door opened just as he got within a few yards, and two humans emerged with guns. Aidan felt the bullets penetrate the bear’s thick hide and roared in pain, but didn’t stop his charge, barreling into them and knocking both men back. One immediately shifted into a hyena and attacked while the other man pulled out a handgun from his belt. Immediately sensing the still-human shifter was his biggest threat, he swiped the gun out of the other man’s hands just as the gun went off. There was a snikt and the tink of something definitely not-bullet hitting the metal wall, but the gun was knocked out of reach.
Now the human shifted, growing into another black bear, and the fight was on. Aidan knew he had the right building; Ever’s scent seemed to hover in the air, as did the smell of her blood, making him wild with need to get to her. The hyena bore the brunt of his rage, but a blow from the black bear almost knocked Aidan onto the ground. The two took advantage of his weakened state, tearing out chunks of fur and skin from around his collar, and Aidan realized he needed to focus on the fight, not simply on getting to his mate.
Easier said than done.
The hyena was quicker on its feet, darting in and out of the fight. His attacks would bleed Aidan out, weakening him even as he focused on the black bear. So he shifted targets, slamming down onto the hyena as it moved in for another bite. He pinned it to the floor by its neck, trying to ignore the bear’s teeth roughly shaking his shoulder. The hyena clawed at Aidan’s underbelly desperately, but Aidan raised one paw and swiped sideways, breaking the creature’s neck.
He then turned his attention back to the other bear, who seemed to realize that, without the hyena, he was outclassed. He turned and made a run for the door but Aidan knocked him down with a lunge. The black bear tried to shake him off, scrambling wildly beneath him, but Aidan’s animal was much larger, and much angrier. He tore at the nape of the other bear’s neck, ripping through fat and muscle, until he came to the spinal column and snapped it with one bite.
The bear wasn’t dead when Aidan rolled off him, but he would be soon. Either way, he was incapacitated, and that was all Aidan cared about. There was nobody else left inside the building that his nose could detect, so he shifted back into human form and picked up the handgun he’d swiped off the bear earlier. It was an air-powered tranquilizer gun, with two more nodules inside containing a milky concoction. Aidan had no idea what it did, but he kept it with him as he ran down the hall.
Ever’s scent was close; she’d definitely come this way, and when he came to a doorway he slammed against it. When it didn’t budge on the first try, he tried again, and a third time, before the metal reinforced door finally gave way and he was inside.
Blood soaked the floor. Ever’s blood. His mate laid there, eyes sightless, staring up at the ceiling, as the girl with her sobbed, and Aidan’s world came to an abrupt end.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Ever?” Her name came off his lips like a moan, and he fell to his knees. That’s when he saw her lips part slightly, and her chest rise as she took in a breath.
He’d never felt relief like what flooded his body now.
The other woman, whom Aidan immediately recognized both from sight and smell as Sonya Jackson, seemed to notice him then. “You can’t take her,” she snarled, and launched herself at Aidan. She stayed human, but her hands were elongated claws that ripped through his skin like a hot knife through butter.
Pain blossomed at her touch and he grabbed the girl’s wrists. She was strong, and he could see the muscles in her face and neck twitch as if they wanted to Change, but nothing
happened. His touch however sent the girl into an absolute frenzy; she kicked at him, struggling to get away. The tears on her face, so like his mate’s despite the bruises, tore at Aidan’s heart. “I’m here to help.”
She struck out at his knee, then angled her foot upward toward his groin. He managed to block her, but she was relentless. Those nails, unlike any animal he’d ever seen, told him what she was: a chimera, like his father. He knew, were she at full strength, he probably wouldn’t stand a chance.
On the ground, Ever moaned, and Aidan’s temper snapped. “She’s dying, I have to help her now!”
That seemed to mollify the other girl, who stopped her struggles. Aidan took a chance and let her go, and she skittered away from him. He’d deal with her later, but for now he needed to help his mate.
Sonya stared at Aidan with wide, suspicious eyes. “You’re here to rescue us? Ever said someone would come after her…”
“I’m her mate. Of course I’d come.”
The other girl didn’t seem to believe him; her suspicious glare didn’t change one bit, but Aidan didn’t care. She didn’t attack as he knelt beside Ever, who weakly lolled her head sideways to look at him. A tiny smile tipped her lips even as her body shuddered. “I knew you’d come.”
Her words were breathless, but the relief and sureness in her eyes were what did him in. He took her good hand and squeezed, trying not to show his own terror at her condition. “Managed to knock a few heads on my way in too.”
She looked terrible. Blood slicked the floor around her where she’d moved; her arm was obviously broken, the skin purple around the break. Puncture marks marred her perfect skin there, as well as on her shoulder and legs. She’d obviously been bitten, but the marks weren’t healing.
If the Change had come over her, they’d already be closing, which meant it hadn’t grabbed hold. She was dying.
His hands fluttered over her, helplessness filling him. Leaning down, he licked over the puncture wounds on her shoulder, and heard Ever’s hiss of pain. Behind him, Sonya came alive again. “What are you doing to her?”
He didn’t reply, keeping his gaze on Ever’s face. She was dazed, eyes feverishly bright. Aidan squeezed her good hand. “I need to bite you,” he murmured, and wondered from her blank expression if she understood. “It’s the only way I can help.”
Behind him, Sonya came alive again. “You need to what?”
“If I don’t, she dies.” Saying the words only drilled that point home, and he knew it might already be too late. “The Change didn’t take from the others, but I’m her mate. I can do it.”
“Don’t you fucking touch my sister!”
There would be no help from that quarter. He didn’t have time to explain this to her; Ever’s eyes rolled up into her head, her back bowing up off the ground as she began seizing. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, allowing his fangs to elongate, and bit her forearm.
“You son of a bitch!”
Sonya yelled at him but didn’t attack as he repeated the move on any piece of unmarred skin he could find. He hated the taste of her blood; what might have been a turn-on in the bedroom was sickening in their present situation. This was all he could do, and it probably wouldn’t be enough.
Somewhere nearby, something inhuman roared, the sound shaking the walls. Sonya’s head snapped sideways at the sound but Aidan ignored it, all of his attention focused on his mate.
A shadow fell across the doorway, and Sonya scrambled backwards towards Aidan and Ever. He snarled, covering Ever with his body, but the newcomer was Derek in human form. The man had Eleanor in his arms, cradling his mate to his chest.
“You okay?” Aidan asked, his attention torn between the other man and Ever.
“They got me with one of those darts. Can’t shift.” Derek took in the scene, looking quickly between the two sisters. His eyes narrowed at Sonya’s clawed hands, aimed directly at him in protection, then turned to Aidan. “We have a problem.”
Aidan ran his hand along Ever’s forehead. “I’m not leaving her.”
“You need to get them out of here now. Your father, he’s…”
A wave of power flowed through the air, cutting the other man off. Outside, something howled, a trumpeted call to hunt, and every hair on Aidan’s body stood on end. He felt the pull, the command, the raw desire to kill.
Judging from the look in the older man’s eyes, Derek felt it too. “We have to get them out of here,” he said, backing out and looking down the hallway where he’d appeared.
“It’s too late for that.” He looked at his mother, passed out in the other man’s arms. “Can you wake her up?”
“No, they must have given her more of what I got. I can’t rouse her.”
“Even when she wakes up, she won’t be at full strength.” Sonya’s voice wobbled; she stared at the far wall, as if she could see through it. Sounds of a fight, screams and other horrible sounds, came through the metal walls, and he could see her face grow white.
Derek looked at the other girl, then back at Aidan. “We have to go, now.”
Aidan shook his head slowly. “If you run, he’ll chase you. He’ll kill both of you.” He looked down at Ever. The seizing that had bowed her back before had eased; she was unconscious now, but the wounds he’d given her still flowed freely. They still weren’t healing, and helplessness filled him again.
“What is that?” Sonya whispered behind them as that howl rent the air again.
“That’s my father.” He exchanged a look with Derek. “If he comes in here, do anything he says. He needs to be in command; anything other than perfect submission will be dealt with as a threat.” Aidan looked down at Ever. “Take care of them for me.”
Muscles in Derek’s jaw ticked, but nodded his head once. He knew what was at stake, perhaps even more than Aidan. The man had, after all, effectively stolen the Brahm’s woman—only at that moment did Aidan wonder if there were repercussions he didn’t know about.
“Stay with your sister,” he told Sonya, then slipped out the door. It tore him to leave his mate vulnerable like this, but if he couldn’t deal with his father, it would all be in vain anyway. Behind him, he heard Derek shut the door, and hoped the man could keep the others safe.
The door leading outside was gone, and Aidan moved through it slowly, hunching low to seem smaller. A dark, hulking figure stood in the center of the buildings, its back to Aidan. Surrounding him were the corpses of their attackers; at least thirty bodies littered the ground. Blood soaked every surface; limbs had been removed and cast far off from their parent bodies. Next to the entrance, a head lolled in the grass, obviously thrown there right before Aidan came out. He recognized the bear shifter that had attacked him earlier.
Aidan swallowed back the bile rising in his throat and focused on his father.
Marshall Tucker didn’t move, but Aidan knew his presence had been detected. The Brahm had Shifted, but the form he’d taken was a monstrous amalgamation of several animals. His body was vaguely humanoid, covered in hair, except for the scaled tail. Spines jutted from his backbone, and his hands were like Sonya’s talons only much larger and deadlier. A dark mane of fur shrouded his shoulders and neck, his ears long and pointed, but when he turned slowly Aidan saw his face was still flat and grotesquely misshapen.
Julian lay against one of the buildings, hand over his bleeding belly. He was in human form, bloody but alive. They exchanged brief glances before Julian dropped his eyes to the ground as the Brahm’s power washed over him again. Aidan immediately followed suit, dropping his eyes so he wasn’t looking at his father. He sank to his knees and tilted his head to the side in a submissive gesture. “I’m not trying to hurt you,” he murmured, keeping his voice quiet and his body as relaxed as he could as the creature that was his father took a step in his direction.
The growl that rumbled from Marshall’s throat was so low that Aidan felt it more than heard it. He immediately closed his mouth, keeping his eyes on the ground.
“You smel
l of what’s mine, like them.” Grass crunched, and Aidan instinctively looked up to see his father stalking toward him. Green eyes, almost glowing in the shadows of the dark face, stared at Aidan. There was no recognition in that alien gaze. “You smell of my mate.”
Oh, fuck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aidan dropped his eyes again, falling down onto his hands and knees, but his father was faster. Claws wrapped around his neck, lifting Aidan up off the ground. His first thought was to grab at the hand, try to stop the choking, but he stayed his hand, knowing any move against his father would be construed as an attack.
He had a good idea what would happen then.
The Brahm leaned forward, smelling the side of Aidan’s head. “You’re my get,” he said in a guttural voice, his grip on Aidan’s throat not lessening in the slightest. Aidan nodded, and the Brahm grunted. “Why would you touch what’s mine?”
“She defended her sister.” Words were tough to get out through the hand on his throat, but he tried. “She marked me, but I didn’t hurt her, I swear.”
The wide, flat nostrils flared. “You smell of truth.”
Aidan’s feet again touched ground, and the grip around his throat loosened. He regulated his breathing, keeping his eyes down, until his father spoke again. “I wish to see my mate.”
Chills spread down Aidan’s spine. “She’s inside with my mate,” he said, trying to figure out the situation. “She’s been traumatized, she needs time to heal.” He gestured at his father’s form. “If she sees you like this…”
The beast that was Marshall leaned down until he was face to face with his son, cutting Aidan off. His breath smelled of the wild, earth and blood. “She. Is. Mine.”
Someone chuckled nearby. “Oh, the sweet irony. It always comes down to mates for us boys, doesn’t it?”
The wiry hair atop the Brahm’s head stood up at the sound, and he let go of Aidan to look at Julian. The other man was struggling to his feet, still holding his belly. The wound there was bad, bleeding through the werepanther’s fingers, but he still stared boldly at them.
