Primal Instinct

by Ally Parker

  “No. He scratched her up some. But no bites. It was odd finding a human alone, deep in the woods. Seb and I intervened in the attack. The whole thing was a bust. Xavier escaped, fleeing south.”

  Saint’s eyes opened to see Linkin wince. “She assumed I was a vampire.”

  “Do you have the human contained?”

  Both Seb and Linkin grimaced. “During the battle, she managed to leg it out of there.”

  For hell’s sake. Why was life always trying to screw him over?

  Seb cleared his throat and threw him a lifeline. “I tailed her back to her car and got her plate.”

  At least something was finally in their favor. He returned his attention back to Linkin. “Can you run a search through the DMV?” As a police officer, Linkin certainly brought value to the pack.

  Linkin nodded. “On it. You want me to investigate if anything shows up?”

  “Yeah, take some men and make quiet inquiries.”

  Slater, the biggest of the weres, ran a meaty palm over his shaved head and his lips pulled tight at the edges. “Are weres on lock-down?”

  Linkin’s lip curled into a sneer, and Dominic’s eyes flashed to the amber of his wolf. Their reactions already told them how little they liked the idea. The three weres held their breath, waiting for his answer. While the council hadn’t passed out such a directive, it didn’t seem like a bad proposal. He rubbed his chin while he contemplated the option. On one hand, it would keep the weres of his pack safe and sound, but on the other, it would be a form of torture to segregate them from the pack. They already faced ridicule and exclusion from some members of the shifter community.

  He looked at each of their faces. These weres were pack, and that meant family. It was his duty to keep them protected, even if it meant making hard decisions his men would be pissed about. Saint sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “At this time, council has given no such order. But for your safety, you are to be accompanied by a shifter during your rounds and any other time you decide to leave the compound.”

  Slater’s chair squealed along the rock floor as he stood. “This is ridiculous! I don’t need a fucking babysitter.”

  He expected such a reaction, hell, even understood it. But as alpha it was his responsibility to take care of his pack, not to be their best friend. Saint watched Slater’s eyes glow and snap shut, clearly fighting for control. His wolf growled. On a human level, Saint knew Slater’s antics weren’t a challenge. Keeping his voice level, he briefly locked gazes with the men. “This matter is not up for debate. The choice is yours; stay in the safety of the compound or buddy up. Understood?”

  Linkin’s clawed tips retracted, a mask of calm dropped over Dominic, and Slater sucked in a few more breaths before finally taking his seat. Hayden reached over, resting her hand on top of Slater’s. At her touch, his muscles visibly unclenched. Each of them nodded his agreement, and while he knew they weren’t happy about his call, they would follow orders for the good of the pack. Hayden leaned forward, her large, gray eyes filled with so much emotion, so expressive. “What’s going on with our prisoner?”

  Quinn’s growl echoed around the room.

  Hayden’s blond hair fanned out as she faced Quinn. “No offense, Quinn.”

  “Offense taken,” he growled.

  Saint held up his hand before Quinn’s emotions could get him into trouble. “For the moment, Sasha stays put. When she calms down, we’ll revisit the situation. Everyone is to steer clear of her.”

  Quinn opened his mouth to interrupt, and Saint shot him a look that snapped his lips closed. “Quinn will be granted rights to take care of her needs.”

  Addressing the room he said, “As long as nobody else has anything to add, we’re finished here.”

  The snapshot of Jaxx’s escapades a few months ago popped into his mind, and he decided now was as good a time as any to give the pack a heads up. “Before you go, I wanted to remind everyone to be on guard. No shifting in public, and, for Pete’s sake, if you’re going to create a were, make sure you follow protocol.”

  He certainly didn’t need any more reasons for the council to be breathing down his neck. As far as the council was concerned, Lucas’s change was legit. All it would take was for Ryker to let the photo slip, though, and they’d be on his doorstep—and it wouldn’t be only Jaxx’s future put into jeopardy.

  When Kenzie got home, to her surprise she collapsed and passed out on the sofa, and didn’t wake until the afternoon sun pierced through the kitchen window and beamed into her face. A can of soup and a shower later, she felt nearly human. Human. She huffed. Only a day earlier, it was the only species she’d known to walk the earth. Now… her world had been blown to smithereens. Vampires and probably werewolves were real and roamed the woods, lying in wait for unsuspecting humans to stumble upon them.

  She should report what she’d seen to someone. Maybe the police? The FBI? She shook her head. That would only draw attention to herself, and being so close to freedom, she couldn’t afford such a risk. Not to mention, if she waltzed into a precinct talking tales of vampires and werewolves, it would score her a one-way ticket to a padded cell. At least half a dozen times, she’d stared down to the bandage on her arm hiding the claw marks to prove to herself she hadn’t imagined the whole thing.

  Her body started to shake. Moving from her mattress on the floor, she walked through the poky, sparse living room and across to the kitchen. Turning on the faucet, the pipes groaned. Could vampires really change shape? Maybe that’s why the wolf’s eyes glowed? Her cell rang, and she snatched the phone from the bench. An unknown number appeared, and she couldn’t help but groan. “Yes?”

  “How’s my partner in crime doing?” Kali’s voice floated down the line as smooth as polished stone.

  Kenzie’s shoulders slumped, and her grip on her cell tightened. “What do you want?”

  “Isn’t that a loaded question? I bet if we work together, we might both get what we want. For now, I’ll settle for an update.”

  Kenzie reached over and grabbed a hand towel from the wire rail and dried her face. “That’s nice. I want to talk to my sister and make sure she is okay.”

  “That’s not how this arrangement is going to work.”

  She clenched her fist, scrunching up the towel. “Today it is.” Images of her sister, bruised and battered, bombarded her mind, and it took all of her control not to sob. “Without my sister alive, all of you lose the power to control me, and I won’t be telling you a damn thing until I know she’s alive.”

  A slow click of a clock ticking filled the line. “You hear that? Time’s running out. I will indulge you this once because I’m feeling generous, but don’t make the mistake of crossing me, Mackenzie. You won’t like the consequences.”

  Seconds panned out before the croak of her sister’s voice filtered to her. “Kenz, is that you?”

  Tears welled in her eyes, and she dashed them away. “Are you okay? I’ve been so worried about you.”

  “Very touching.” Kali’s voice echoed as if she was walking through a tunnel. “You heard your sister is still alive… for the moment. Tell me what I want to know.”

  God, she missed her sister, missed their life, as shitty as it had been. But at least they’d been together. The small snatches in time were never enough. When it was Ava who paid the price, Kenzie learned to beat her longing and fear into a box to deal with later. “There isn’t much to tell. The place is shut up tight. I couldn’t get a visual from the street.”

  A rumble rolled through the line. “How disappointing,” Kali drawled the words out.

  She tossed the towel on the bench, silently cursing. As much as she wanted to use today’s events as an excuse not to be able to do this mission, she got the impression her safety wasn’t a priority, not to mention the fact she would sound completely insane. “I can tell you the security is amped up. Some guy came out of there, and I caught a glimpse of a pin-coded control panel on the inside.”

  “What did t
he male look like?”

  Desperation laced Kali’s words, and Kenzie paused for a second to wonder what was so damn special about the place and the people in it. Other than the fact monsters lurked in the nearby woods. “He was some big biker; he seemed pretty run of the mill to me.”

  She could have mentioned how built he was, or how the stubble shading his angular features made him more tempting than sin. Or the way his muscles flexed as he maneuvered the bike would capture most women hook, line, and sinker. Details seemed to matter to Kali; it brought Kenzie a small amount of pleasure to keep them to herself. “I plan to go back there tomorrow and play the damsel in distress when my car breaks down.”

  “Hmm, that idea may have merit. I’ll give you an opportunity to try again after the change.”

  Change? Changing handlers? Changing location? What the hell did she mean? “Change?”

  Kali’s voice flatlined. “The doctor is calling you in. You’re to be my first, and I’m sure you’ll survive. I’ve been told you’re the strongest. After all, it’s why you’re out there and your sister is the leash to keep you under control, and not the other way around. You were stronger, smarter, and passed the trials; she didn’t.”

  Her heart rate picked up a notch. Kali wasn’t making sense. “I’ll be your first what? Why would the doctor want me pulled from a job?”

  Clipped knocks came from the door. Her gaze flicked to the beat-up barrier, and her stomach churned. No one knew she was in this run-down dump. No one but William and the doctor.

  “Answer it,” Kali demanded.

  She swallowed hard and dropped the phone, backing away from the door. Her alarm bells were going off like fireworks. Hell, nothing had been right since she had seen William kill two deformed people in cold blood. Kenzie started to think her version of freedom and the doctor’s version were two very different things. If they wanted to kill her, she wasn’t going to make it easy.

  Backing up, Kenzie kicked into gear. She turned and ran as the door burst open, then slammed against the wall. Tossing a glance over her shoulder, she saw three men muscle their way into her apartment. They were dressed in black from their war paint down to their boots. Each man packed a variety of weapons in holsters snug against their hips. She yelped and launched toward her room. If she made it to the fire escape, she could get away. Her peripheral vision caught a short, stocky man holding up a sheet of paper. “She’s the one.”

  That didn’t sound good. Kenzie gripped a glass off the coffee table and threw it. Glass exploded, and she didn’t stick around to see if it hit its mark. Gripping the top of a chair, she flung it down behind her. Someone grunted the noise too close for comfort. Lunging for the bedroom door, she slammed it shut and popped the lock. A second clicked by and a heavy thud slammed into the barrier, straining the wood in its frame.

  Another blow and the door creaked, a hairline fracture shooting down the panel. Rushing to the window, she fumbled with the latch. Her panic cranked up a notch, and she wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and yanked up on the frame. Come on.

  She pushed the panel as the door burst open. Working fast, she threw one leg over the ledge. Smelling freedom on the breeze, she slipped the other leg over the sill.

  Firm, unyielding hands yanked her back into the room. She screamed and struggled to break free. “Get your hands off me.”

  “Davis, watch out,” one of the men yelled.

  Her forearm connected with soft tissue. Davis grunted, and his grip loosened.

  “Bitch,” Davis snarled. He tightened his grip into a bruising hold.

  Another set of hands pinned her arms to her sides, and undiluted fear, thick and potent, choked her. They pushed her to the ground, and her back bounced on the floor.

  “Don’t!” She thrashed her head, snapping and clawing at them like some wild animal. “Help!” she yelled.

  “Fuck!” A hand slapped over her mouth, hard. “Stanley, hold her steady!”

  Bulky muscles flexed, and Stanley—a man with a puckered scar running from his brow to his hairline—crawled on top of her, pinning her arms with his thighs. He used his other hand to grip her chin, holding her head motionless. She stared into his camouflaged face and wondered if it was the last thing she would ever see.

  “Damn it, stab her already.”

  Something sharp pierced her neck, and she screamed, the noise muffled against the palm pressed to her mouth. Despite the odds seeming impossible, her self-preservation forced her gaze around the room, searching for a way out. Her muscles started to relax, moments passed, and escape that seconds ago seemed imperative didn’t seem so important. Her mind fogged, and her body began to feel heavy, each movement sluggish. The vise-like holds on her loosened a fraction. Darkness edged her vision.

  “Let’s get out of here. The serum won’t last forever, and I want her locked and docked before it wears off.”

  Her eyes fell closed as if someone had tied a weight to her lids. When she finally peeled them open, she was sitting in the backseat of a car.

  “Jerry, you’re driving.”

  Stanley sat to her right, and Davis to her left. Flutters bounced in her gut. Something was wrong. “Where are you taking me?”

  Jerry’s dark-brown eyes looked up at her from the rearview mirror. “Your new home.”

  Jerry’s words made no sense. A home housed a family, and a family was where you belonged. She didn’t have a home. Her only family, Ava, was gone. And she sure didn’t have a place to belong. “Huh?”

  Her head lolled forward. Time passed in a blink, but surely had to have been hours. The last Kenzie remembered, daylight shone outside. Now, looking out the window, she saw the full moon hanging in the diamond-crusted sky. Prickles stabbed at her head, and she frowned. What the hell happened? Where am I? Out of the corner of her eyes, she glanced at the burly outlines of Davis and Stanley. She struggled to remain calm as she remembered what had happened.

  Restraints bit into her wrists, and she worked to concentrate on the murky memories. A graphic encore of the afternoon played in her mind, and she sucked in a strangled breath. The weight of her captor’s gaze sat heavily on her shoulders, and she forced each muscle to relax and keep her breathing steady. Fighting against three men was plain stupid. Her best bet was to bide her time and catch the men unaware. The longer they thought she was a docile, obedient zombie, the better for her. She let her head flop to the side, and her lazy grin must have given Stanley the reassurance he needed. The male stared at her, his lip curled into a sneer, and he looked back out the window. The car turned down a dark street and veered onto a dirt road.

  Ahead, bright floodlights dotted down a perimeter, and they passed a large sign for Delmac Enterprises pinned along the fence, marking out a large boundary. A soft glow illuminated the ground where the trees failed to cover. Waves of thick fog rolled in, each wisp licking at the brick pillars guarding the entrance. Jerry lined up the sedan so that the speaker aligned with the back door. The window wound down, and Davis leaned forward, bracing his arm on the door rest. From Kenzie’s vantage point, tall trees blocked the full moon, enveloping the area in shadows.

  Clicking sounded over the intercom, and a stern voice cracked over the speaker. “Delmac Enterprises—state your business.”

  Davis cleared his throat and leaned forward. “This is unit 357. We have the candidate in custody.”

  Unit 357? Candidate? What the hell is going on here?

  Moments passed, and the gate opened, granting passage for the car to continue down the drive. Large cedar trees created a canopy overhead that thinned and gave way to a fancy garden sitting central in the circular drive. Jerry steered the car to the left and parked next to the other vehicles. He killed the engine and looked into the mirror. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Stanley reached over, yanking on Kenzie’s bound wrists like a leash. The plastic bit into her wrists, and she ground her teeth together to stop her cry of pain. Men like Stanley had no regard for people like her. To him, she wa
s nothing more than a job, a slab of meat to be taken to slaughter. Dragging her across the leather seats, he pulled her stumbling out of the car. Her bindings pinched her skin, and she winced. Stanley’s fingers laced around her chin, tilting her head to meet his assessing gaze. “Is there a problem?”

  Had she blown her cover? Her pulse jumped. Damn it, she hated being backed into a corner. Tamping down her breathing, she continued to look into his frosted eyes. She kept her lips sealed, too afraid to say anything in case she blew her cover. His eyes narrowed, and his grip tightened. After a moment he released her face and slid his hands down to her bindings.

  Stanley glanced toward Davis. “How long did the doc say that shit would last?”

  Davis grunted and shrugged his shoulders. “A couple of hours, why? You think she’s comin’ around?”

  Stanley eyed her again, and she did her best to appear docile and willing. It was a struggle.

  “Maybe. Let’s just get her to the holding cell.”

  The three men escorted her toward a gray building. She focused on the crunch of gravel under her feet and thought of ways she could escape. Each and every idea ended up with her dead. The guards led her to a courtyard, a large area at the entrance of the facility with covered tables scatted in the area. Low lighting feathered the tables, leaving plenty of dark shadows for danger to lurk. A bunch of people milled outside, talking softly.

  “Thank you all for coming.”

  A feminine voice snagged her attention. She would recognize that tone anywhere. The woman stood in a pool of light, her dark hair pulled into a severe bun. A crisp white lab coat fluttered with the wind, billowing an air of confidence, like she was used to addressing large groups of people.

  The doctor.

  “My name is Doctor LeRoy. I wanted to take a moment to welcome you all. Your participation in this study is invaluable. You have no idea how many lives this trial could impact.”