by Golden Angel
"We're going to come at them from all four sides," Eli said, gathering everyone to him. "I want to hit them from above first, with guns. James, Fred, and Ginny, that's your position. Fred, you're lead. After the first barrage, we're going to come in from the right and left - that's what they'll be expecting anyway. During that time, our best climbers are going to be coming up from the bottom - that's Umer, Leah, Mai, Van, Prescott, and Jay. Wait for each other to all reach the plateau and come over together; I want it to be a shock."
The shifters Eli had named all nodded, their faces serious. Umer and Jay were gorilla shifter, Leah and Van were panthers, Mai was a particularly nimble tiger, and Prescott was an actual mountain goat. Brady guessed the cat shifters would be using the trees more than the terrain, probably the gorillas too, but he still bet Prescott would be the first to the plateau. The rumor was so far no one had found a terrain Prescott couldn't climb.
It was a good plan, even if Brady and his beast wanted to go barreling in, headfirst... that kind of tactic felt instinctive, but it was also a good way to get killed. A bullet to his head would stop him readily enough, and unlike his sister Bethany, he couldn't retract his head into his turtle shell for some reason. None of the brothers could. A stray though passed through his head, wondering if Bailey could tuck in her limbs and head, the way Bethany could, but he shook that thought away. He needed to stay focused.
Eli split the rest of them into two teams, putting Brady on his. Fred, James, and Ginny headed off into the woods, holding on to their guns, as everyone else got naked.
Shaking himself all over, Brady's beast growled loudly, quieting when Eli's huge white polar bear gave him a look. They needed to be silent if they were going to have any chance of sneaking up on the enemy; especially since both Eli and Brady's white fur would stand out. Everyone else was going to blend in a lot better.
******
"This is shockingly boring," Jesse said as she paced back and forth. She wasn't the only one. Both she and Bailey were getting antsy with waiting.
A few times their shifter hearing had picked up the distant sound of gunfire, but so far none of the fighting had come anywhere near them. Which was a good thing, she reminded herself, even if it was serving to make her more anxious. She didn't want to fight, but if she was going to, she just wanted to get it over with.
"You'll get used to it," Chuck said soothingly. He was really patient for a badger. Not that Jesse knew anything about how patient badgers would be, but for some reason she hadn't pictured a badger as being calm and patient.
Maybe he was just better trained.
"This is way worse than the last time," Bailey muttered. She glanced down the long hall in front of them. Anyone coming down the hall would make a nice target. It made Jesse feel safer, even if she wasn't the best shot in the world. She had a tendency to flinch whenever she pulled the trigger.
"Only because last time you snuck away and went straight into the enemy... and how did that work out for you?" Chuck retorted, sounding amused. "I heard Kasim's lion ended up standing on you." Bailey stuck her tongue out at him.
Jesse looked at them in surprise - she'd been out with Bailey and Bethany and she knew Bailey rabbit was vicious but also tiny. Seeing her look, Bailey shrugged, but looked a little resigned.
"The turtle shell protects me from being crushed," she explained. "I swear, it not a normal turtle shell. It's like, super charged or something. Bethany's and my brother's deflects bullets. I haven't had the chance to test that out yet."
"I'm okay with it if we don't get that chance today," admitted Jesse. "Although, if we're going to, I'd rather have it happen sooner than later."
"Yeah, this waiting thing sucks." Bailey paced some more. "I knew Steele and Bethany stuck me with the shit post."
"It's not a shit post," Jesse argued. She gestured back down the other hall. "The kids are back there."
"I know... sorry. I'm just - Argh! Wound up." Bailey put her hands on her hips and faced down the hall they were guarding, as if daring a bad guy to appear. "I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to the kids. I just hate feeling useless."
Well Jesse could definitely sympathize with that.
******
Coppery blood filled Brady's mouth as he kicked out with his powerful hind legs. The bear he was fighting - that's right, there were freaking shifters mixed in with the humans working for The Company! - let out a loud yelp, forcing it to release its hold on Brady's front right paw. With his paw free, Brady could twist around and sink his own sharp teeth into the bear shifter's neck. More blood poured into his mouth as he tore out the bear's throat with a vicious movement.
He let the bear carcass fall down as he turned and sought another opponent.
The plateau was total chaos. Eli's plan was working about half as well as they'd thought it would. When Ginny, Fred, and James started shooting at the forces there, they'd been taking by surprise. Unfortunately, the shifters in the group had immediately moved to the outside of the gathered soldiers, sniffing the wind, and had immediately picked up on the pincer movement they were trapped in, which meant they were ready as the two teams hit them from both sides.
It also meant the close quarters combat was a lot more even than Brady would have liked. About a third of the assembled forces were shifter, the rest were human and they were all armed with guns and knives. The guns didn't help them too much, but the knives did, especially when they were fighting alongside wolves, bears, and large cats. The good news was, once the fighting really got started, there wasn't any way for the humans to tell who was on whose side - except that Eli and Brady's big, fluffy, white forms stood out.
The knives couldn't pierce Brady's shell but his limbs and head were still vulnerable. Eli's white fur was now matted and streaked with red from all the injuries he was sustaining.
When the gorillas, panthers, tiger, and mountain goat finally made it up to the plateau and joined in the fray, things were already a total mess.
"Back up! We nee-aaaaargh..." Another human went down, courtesy of a wolf, who was immediately attacked by another wolf.
Brady was relying pretty much entirely on his nose to tell him who was who, and he was relieved Steele's forces hadn't opened the doors, since they wouldn't have known who was friend and who was foe. Freaking shifters working for The Company! The species betrayal enraged him.
With a roaring growl, he threw himself at one of the two lions trying to simultaneously attack Eli. These fuckers were going down!
******
Chuck's walkie-talkie crackled, making all three of them jump to attention.
"Ginger Badger, this is Big Bad Bunny, are you there? Over."
As Chuck reached for his Walkie-Talkie, Bailey snatched it before he could even get his hand on it. Looking bemused, the redhead let her take it. It was a good thing he was so chill.
"Big Bad Bunny, this is the Beast of Caerbannog, we're here, over."
"Aren't call signs supposed to be short nicknames?" Jesse muttered under her breath, amused. Bethany had all sorts of cute nicknames for people, so Jesse was pretty sure she was to blame for the unique call signs too. She could only imagine what Bethany would come up with for her.
"They're out of the tunnels and the interior is secure," Bethany said. "Come to the control room and bring Brady's Lady with you. Over."
Dammit. Jesse scowled at Bailey, who just smirked at her.
"Roger, over."
"You two get on my nerves," Jesse muttered as they started jogging down the hallway. Behind them, she could hear Chuck going in the opposite direction, probably to go check on the kids.
She kind of wanted to do that too, but since Bethany had asked for her specifically... well, there had to be reason, didn't there? The sudden thought that something might have happened to Daniel had her moving even faster.
"Whatever you say, Brady's Lady," Bailey said, tauntingly, as she kept pace with Jesse.
It really was like having two sisters of her own, Jesse thought, trying to squash the s
mile that threatened on her face. Yeah, they teased and got on her nerves, but she kind of liked it.
Going down the halls, headed to control, they saw a few signs of the violence - mostly the wounded, a few piles of ripped clothes were someone had changed into their animal without undressing, and a couple of places where blood had dripped down. No bodies though, thankfully. No piles of body parts either.
As soon as they reached the control room - which was where all the monitors for the security system was - Bailey barely slowed enough to get the door open.
"Okay! We're here! What's going on? What happened?" Bailey was full of questions.
So was Jesse, but she let Bailey ask them for her as her eyes darted around the monitors, catching the movement on several of them.
"Holy crap! That's Brady!" She pointed at one of the monitors in question where two wolves were attacking him, darting in and out and nipping at his flanks on either side. "We have to help him!"
Brady's giant bunny was now kicking out at the wolves attacking him; one of them went flying through the air and hit the thick, steel doors protecting the Peak. Even knowing the wolf was an enemy, Jesse couldn't help but wince.
Turning towards them, her smaller body practically engulfed by her mate's as he stood pressed against her back with his arms around her, Bethany turned to look at Bailey and Jesse.
"They're taking care of themselves, we have a bigger problem," Bethany said, her eyes looking haunted. Even though Jesse wanted to argue, the expression on Bethany's face stopped her. Especially since she could see for herself that Brady looked like he was doing just fine. He was already finishing off the second wolf with a spray of blood that made Jesse want to gag a little. As much as she wanted to see him, she turned away from the screens and faced Bethany.
The small blonde was clinging to Steele's arm, which was wrapped like a band around her waist. Despite his granite expression, Jesse could see concern lurking in his dark eyes. Beside him, Kasim, Jordan, and Jacqueline, his three team leaders, also looked solemn. They all showed signs of fighting and Bailey made a small noise of distress as she practically jumped forward to study the wound on Kasim's arm. The big man smiled down at her, obviously amused, but there was worry in his smile too.
Fuck, what the hell was going on?
She met Bethany's gaze.
"What happened?"
"We've lost touch with one of Eli's teams," Bethany said, her voice hollow. "There were three of them out in the woods, making their way to the tunnels. We've been keeping in touch with them ever since their radios came into range. They met some resistance and then..." Her voice faltered.
"One of the teams stopped answering," Steele finished grimly, his arm tightening comfortingly around Bethany. "The team Brock was with. He managed to say something about a traitor and an ambush before the radio went out."
Bailey made a horrified choked noise, and Kasim immediately swept her into a hug. Even though she was taller than her sister, the younger Bunson looked tiny next to Kasim's dark, muscled body. The big man murmured something soothing as he rubbed his hand down Bailey's back. Jesse wrung her hands in front of herself, wishing she had someone to hug too, but she and Jordan weren't that close and... she glanced at the monitors again. The man she really wanted to hug was currently finishing up decimating a small army of shifters and humans with bloody efficiency.
"The other two teams are searching, but they have to do it slowly and with caution because there are still others," Steele said, still grim. "The rest of us can't abandon the inside posts, just in case anyone else needs help or if another team makes an assault on any of the tunnels. We need scouts. You and Bailey are the smallest shifters we have. I know she's fast as hell, and, well, squirrels are also fast as hell in the trees. You two can cover the most ground, find them, and get help, I'm hoping faster than the teams will be able to."
Anxiety knotted Jesse's stomach, but there was no way she could sit back while people were missing. Bailey was already pushing away from Kasim, who was frowning like he wasn't happy with their assignment, but he didn't argue either. He wasn't the only one; Bethany was chewing on her lower lip unhappily as she looked at her youngest sibling, but Bethany's bunny was gigantic. There was no way she could be stealthy going through the forest.
"I'm in," Bailey said.
"Me too," Jesse agreed, pushing away the bile that was rising in the back of her throat. Fear and tension were almost swamping her but... she wanted to do this. It was just scouting and then getting help. It shouldn't be any less safe than being the last line of defense inside.
She could only imagine what a hypocrite her brother was going to think she was... he'd been smugly obnoxious about the training everyone in Steele's pack was required to receive. Everyone learned how to fight, even if they weren't expected to in the case of an assault. Now she was actually going out into the thick of things and he was probably never going to let her hear the end of it, even if she wouldn't actually be fighting. This was only going to bolster his arguments about wanting to become a soldier.
But she couldn't say no.
"So what do we do?"
******
The last of The Company's human men surrendered. There were a few wounded shifters left; too hurt to be threats and Eli obviously wanted them left alive for questioning. Brady wanted to rip their throats out. How could they have betrayed other shifters in this way? It made his beast's blood boil.
A tiny voice in his head pointed out that perhaps they'd been fooled somehow, perhaps they hadn't known, but that didn't help calm him much. He was too furious that Jesse and his sisters had been put in danger. And he hadn't been here.
We're here now, chill, he pushed at his beast. Seeing Eli shifting, Brady took control of his beast and shifted as well, just as the front doors started to open. Mai and Van were pacing back and forth in their shifted forms, glaring at the men kneeling with their hands behind their heads, guarding them while everyone else shifted. Even though Mai was a smaller tiger, she still weighed a little over three hundred pounds and was plenty bloody.
As far as Brady could tell, they hadn't lost anyone although there were quite a few wounded. Prescott was down and unconscious, but still breathing, and Ginny's leg was bloody from ankle to mid-thigh, and those were just the two that were right next to him.
The moment the doors to the Peak were open, people came pouring out, most of them the older generation who worked as medical personnel, but right into the middle was one of the faces he was most hoping to see. Wide blue eyes in a pale face, blonde pony-tail streaming behind her, Bethany came running, calling his name and launching herself at him despite the fact that he was naked and covered in blood and... other things.
Brady hugged her back as she slammed into him. There was something almost desperate about the way she was clinging and he felt his heart start to pound again.
"Bethy? What's wrong?"
"Brock's team is missing and Bailey and Jesse have gone out to look for them."
His beast roared, adrenaline pumping through him as his energy levels flared right back up.
"Jesse's out there?! In the woods??!!" If his sister wasn't clinging around his neck he would have already sprung towards the trees. Bethany thumped the back of his shoulder hard enough to bruise. "OW!"
"I knew it! I knew you liked her! Why the hell is she insisting you two are just friends?" Bethany dropped down in front of him. Since she was wearing all black, none of the blood he'd just smeared her with showed. Off to the side, Steele and Eli were talking, obviously catching each other up on developments. From the coldly furious look on Eli's face, Steele was informing the bear of the missing team.
"Because we are -" Brady cut off, reaching up to block Bethany's hand, since he really didn't need a slap on the side of his head along with the rest of his injuries. They weren't anything major but that didn't mean he wanted to add more pain to them. "And I'm going to fix that as soon as I find her. Where is she? And where's Bailey?"
"They
went out together, they're supposed to find the team and report back," Bethany said, chewing her lower lip. Yeah, Bethany was definitely anxious. Her head swiveled around towards the trees, but then she looked over at Steele, who glanced at her and gave her a significant look...
"How long have they been gone?"
"About twenty minutes," Bethany sounded slightly anguished, and he realized her playful demeanor when she'd smacked him about Jesse had been hiding her very real fears. "Longer than we expected. Jesse is fast in the trees and Bailey is even faster on the ground. They're too small to send radios with..."
Brady cursed. "I'm going after them."
Bethany glanced at her mate, who was coming towards them with Eli. Brady glared at both of them, challenge in every line of his body.
"I'm going after Jesse and Bailey."
"I am too," Eli said, with a nod. "So are Steele and Bethany. Everyone else is going to stay here and be on guard for another assault, just in case. Jordan is going to get everyone inside and the doors closed again. The prisoners can wait till we get back. Brock mentioned a traitor before the radio went down. He or she must be part of Meredith's team." The expression on Eli's face darkened to pure, murderous fury, helped along by the blood liberally smeared across his sculpted jaw and in his golden hair. There was nothing movie star about his looks right now.
It only took a few more moments, although it felt like hours, for Eli to give a last few orders, and then the four of them were shifting and winging away into the woods to the last known position of Meredith's team. They'd pick up the trail from there and hopefully find Bailey and Jesse on the way.
Chapter 11
Scampering through the trees, following Bailey, was an almost surreal experience. Jesse felt the joy of her beast, the thrill of anticipation, the excitement of the hunt... it was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. Her tiger side was definitely coming out and she wasn't sure she approved. It felt like she was changing more and more with everything that happened.
It hadn't been like this the other times she'd come out to the trees. There had been no prey, no hunt. She hadn't really felt any different. Maybe a little more interested in how tasty other animals smelled, but she hadn't been filled with a need to chase them down or anything.
