Primal Instinct

by Ally Parker

  This place is hell and any who entered suffer. Crouching, she looked around helplessly. “How... what do you want me to do?”

  The woman’s eyes closed, her breath panting out in short, snappy gasps. Kenzie placed her poker on the floor and cautiously reached out, laying a hand on the woman’s arm. Flaming amber eyes shot open and stared at Kenzie. “Kill me.”

  “What?” She shook her head. “I… I.” Could she kill another person when her own life wasn’t on the line? The female tensed, her body bowing off the bed. The woman screamed, and Kenzie whipped her arm out of the way. She watched in horror as the woman contorted and her body spasmed. Bones crunched, and fur receded. Her muzzle melted back into the finer features on a human.

  “Kenzie!” Milly’s tiny voice rose over the screams. The kid had seen enough horrors for one lifetime. She shot out her hand, holding Milly in place. “Don’t move; I’m coming to you.”

  The victim’s stomach inflated, her body relaxed, and the woman let out a deep sigh. For as long as Kenzie lived, she would always remember that moment. Kenzie blew out a breath. No one should have to suffer through that kind of misery. “It’s over, you’re going be okay. Let’s get you out of these cuffs.”

  She brushed the woman’s hair away from her brow, and her head lolled to the side. Glazed, vacant eyes stared up at her. Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth in stark contrast to the woman’s ashen skin.

  Kenzie pressed her fingers down on the woman’s neck and checked for a pulse.

  Nothing.

  Growls vibrated through the air nearby, reminding her they weren’t safe. She looked down the hall and saw a man gunning toward them, a wolf hot on his heels. Her gaze drifted back to the dead woman and jumped back to her sister and Milly hovering at the corner. It didn’t feel right just leaving the woman there all alone, strapped to a cold, hard trolley. None of this feels right.

  Kenzie jumped over the bed and gathered Milly in her arms. The guard caught sight of them and began to shoot. Milly screamed and buried her head against Kenzie’s neck. Farther down the hall a green-and-white exit sign shone like a halo. Finally! A way out of this hellhole. “This way.”

  They ran toward the exit. Hazarding a glance behind her, Kenzie saw the guard run past, and the wolf launch through the air and land on the man’s back. His mouth opened wide, wrapping around the guard’s neck. Damn, even for a creature, the wolf was massive. They better get gone before the wolf set his sights on them. Running toward freedom, she pushed open the door and slipped in. “Move it.”

  Kenzie spun to hold the door open for Ava. Only she wasn’t there. Her sister stood, hackles raised, facing a huge male wolf. The creature stepped over his kill and approached.

  “Ava,” she hissed. “Come on.” Please.

  Ignoring her, Ava backed up, and, at the last moment, dashed into the stairwell. Kenzie slammed the door, and a second later a thud hit the door.

  As fast as she could manage, she ran up the flights of stairs, Ava beside her. Her lungs burned. She had to fight to stay upright. Rounding the next level, a white door came into view, and she lurched for the handle. Easing out from behind the opening, eerie silence greeted them. Her vision spun, and she shook her head. Keep it together.

  The room was empty besides row after row of boxes littering the edges. Ava peeked her head out, sniffing the air. When she didn’t growl, Kenzie figured the coast was clear. With care, they ran across the carpet and exited into another corridor that curved around a courtyard.

  Her steps faltered in front of the outdoor area. “I’ve been here before.”

  A wave of coldness chilled her core, and she shivered. Her skin ached, and fire licked from her wound up to her neck. Ignore it. Freedom was so close. She took a step toward the double door, and the room blurred. Her steps faltered, and Milly seemed to weigh ten tons as she hustled through the opening.

  Weakness rolled down her body, and she prayed her strength wouldn’t fail.

  Jaxx nodded. “If the doctor is still here, we’ll find her.”

  Doctor Marie LeRoy was a wanted woman. He looked down to his hands. She had been the human to witness his unsanctioned change. Because of his actions, the humans knew of their existence and had taken things to the next level, wanting to recreate their own weres.

  “Saint, they have Lucas’s mate and child. Has anyone seen them?”

  Saint growled. “I know. They tortured Leila to gain Lucas’s cooperation.”

  “Fuck!” Those sick sons of bitches. It seemed humans didn’t need a curse to lose their humanity. Saint flicked his head toward the door. “Go, search for them. I have enough men to look for the doctor.”

  Jaxx nodded and turned down the hall. Lucas stood like a statue, his muzzle lifted, and drew in an audible sniff. He howled and tore off down the hall. Jaxx raced beside him. He sniffed, trying to pick up on the scent that had Lucas all hot and bothered, but only smelled the vanilla of his mate. A maze of tunnels later, and they approached a bloodied hall. Two dead guards lay on the floor. He drew in a breath and could smell Slater’s blood. He’d trained with him often enough to know the were’s scent anywhere. A metal trolley with a deceased female lay on its side.

  He shook his head; so many innocent lives wasted. The council was going to have a fucking field day with this place.

  A green sign marked the exit, and he yanked it open.

  Vanilla carried along the air, and his wolf itched to shift. Jaxx beat back the urge. He didn’t want to scare his female, and she’d best like him human. Throwing a burst of strength behind the movement, he ran up the flight of stairs two at a time. The damn scent of vanilla teased his senses, and he knew he was on the right track. Just a little farther, and she would surely be in his sights. Slater’s scent filled the stairwell too, and Jaxx ran faster. What if the male thought to hurt his female?

  They jogged up two flights of stairs where the sweet, feminine smell lingered. Jerking the door handle back, they stepped into a deserted room. Following the scent trail, they entered into a lobby. Large windows exposed a courtyard. Even with the electricity cut, his eyes could make out his female, Milly, and a female were. He growled. From the labored breathing of his female, she was injured. She wavered on the spot with Milly in her arms.

  Had she been injured? His wolf growled. Why did his mate have Milly in her arms? Lucas howled and launched from his position. His female glanced back, and her eyes widened. She shot forward, running towards the exit. He needed to reach Lucas before he attacked his one hope for the future. Jaxx lurched forward, running through the courtyard. His boots pounded on the path. As a human he was fast, but no match for their animal’s speed.

  He needed to shift, damn it. “Lucas! No.”

  Launching into the air, Jaxx propelled his arms forward. Fur shot from his pores. The familiar tingle shimmied along his bones, reshaping him from human to wolf. A snout shot out from his face, and all scents intensified. Claws popped from his nail beds as his paws hit the path. Power surged through him, and his enhanced vision honed onto the hindquarters of Lucas. He shook off the remainder of his tattered clothes, and with long strides glided effortlessly toward his charge.

  “I can’t let you hurt the woman,” he growled through their link.

  Lucas’s focus remained in the direction of Milly. “She has my daughter.”

  He said it as if it was enough to justify the attack, and in any other case it would have been. However, there was no way he was going to stand by and let his mate be injured. He needed to believe his destined mate could never be twisted enough to hurt a child. “The female is mine.”

  Lucas kept gunning forward. “I don’t give two shits. She has Milly.”

  His female had darted from sight minutes ago; nothing but their scent lingered. Lucas growled and ran faster.

  “Lucas, I won’t let you hurt her.”

  Silence filled their link.

  “Lucas!”

  Lucas snarled, and his head dipped low. He ran straight tow
ard the glass doors. A heartbeat later, glass shattered and rained down around them. Jaxx prepared his body and launched himself through the gaping hole. His body soared through the air, his paws hit Lucas’s. They both tumbled across the tiles and smacked into a wall. Lucas jumped up and shook his body. Jaxx threw himself at Lucas and gave him a warning nip. “We will get Milly back, but I can’t let you attack. Do you hear me?”

  His only response was a low growl. Lucas’s ears flattened, and his lip quivered with vibration.

  “You don’t want to do this, Lucas,” Jaxx warned. He prepared his body for the attack even as he attempted to reason with him. “They won’t leave the premises. Remember, we have Lucian and Mason manning the perimeter.” He didn’t want to hurt his protégé, but if push came to shove he would knock him on his ass.

  Feet scuffed on the tiles. Flynn, in his human form, hurried out from the exit with an unconscious Leila in his arms. “Lucas, I’m sorry, lad. I had no choice but to change the lass.”

  Lucas’s wild gaze shot to Flynn. The were whined and raced toward his mate. Her body hung lifeless in Flynn’s arms. Jaxx followed and could clearly see the bite marks littering her body. Her condition must have been serious for Flynn to bite her.

  Flynn spared Lucas a brief glance but continued toward the exit. “We need to get the lass outta here. She needs somewhere safe to gather her strength for the change.”

  Lucas whined, his gaze darting from Leila to the last place he’d seen his daughter.

  “Go with her, Lucas. I swear I’ll get Milly back.”

  “No matter what?”

  “I swear it.”

  Lucas hurried after Flynn. Jaxx shot forward and darted through the lobby and out of the main entrance, just in time to see the front gate opened wide and the flash of taillights take off from the drive. Damn it, his mate had escaped. He saw Slater’s brown-and-black form dart out from behind the shrubs and take off behind them. His frustration bubbled out, and he growled. Dipping his head, Jaxx took off, prepared to hunt her to the end of the earth.

  “Slater, what the fuck? Why did you allow them clear passage?”

  Jaxx’s claws clipped on the pavement as he rounded the corner in pursuit. A dust cloud obscured his vision and momentarily clogged his senses.

  “The female were attacked me. Since she isn’t pack I couldn’t tell her I was the cavalry sent for rescue. She was prepared to die to keep me away from the human and child, and I wasn’t willing to kill her.”

  Jaxx puffed out a breath of air. That bit of information made him curious. Why would a were protect one of the doctors?

  “I thought I could gain more information if I followed. Smart. And if his head was in the game and not on his mate, he might have thought of it himself. Silence filled their connection, and Jaxx could envision Slater darting in-between the shadows as he followed them. “Shit! There’s too much traffic for me to keep tailing them.”

  Jaxx cursed. A sinking feeling settled into his stomach. The key to his humanity was slipping through his fingers. He shook his head and swore there would be no place safe for her to hide. There would have to be information on her back at the facility. All he had to do was find it.

  “I’ll meet you back at Delmac.” Dirt sprayed behind him as he raced back toward the building. He would tear through every room in the place if he had to. His wolf was on the edge of a downward slide, and he would do anything to prevent it. The female should have never made it to a car, let alone past the gates. Weren’t Lucian and Mason guarding the area? Worry morphed into something darker; a craving for blood sat in the back of his throat.

  He snapped and snarled. Lucian raced toward him from the shadows, his dark fur melding with the darkness. Anger, hot and heavy, fumed under his skin at the mere sight of him. “Where the fuck were you? Both you and Mason were meant to be manning the area. No one was meant to make it past the gates.”

  “Hold the hell up.” Lucian’s ears pulled back in a fuck-you kinda way. “I had the small problem of half a dozen soldier shooting at my ass.”

  Jaxx curled his lip, his muscles tensed.

  “You need your pound of flesh, come and get it, beta.”

  Jaxx stepped forward, retribution on his breath. The moon knew he wanted to tear the male a new one. Old memories prickled. In another life he would have been forced to teach Lucian a lesson or suffer the lesson himself. He shook his head. No. He wasn’t his father. Sucking in a breath, his shoulders heaved. He needed to focus. His female was out there, alone and unprotected. The thoughts of his mate needing him gave him the control, and he stormed past Lucian.

  Entering the mouth of the hell, he wondered where he should start. He thought back to a time long before joining Saint’s pack when he was nothing more than flesh and bones to the Outlaws. His father, who was also his alpha, had been more than disappointed with him. That happened when you weren’t a cold-blooded killer. One lesson he remembered painfully well was how to track. To successfully track your prey, you need to start at the beginning. The ground-out words rang in his head, and for the first time, he thought the hell his father put him through might have been worth something.

  He made his way across the lobby and into the stairwell. The locked room he’d found his mate in seemed an odd place for a doctor, considering there were two weres contained with her. A tentacle of hope bloomed. Maybe things weren’t as they seemed. Backtracking through the maze, he weaved through the halls and sent an update to Saint. His alpha was predictably not happy with the news. “I’m hunting for further information now.”

  It was the only consolation he could offer. He approached the room that had changed his life and paused. Tilting his head, he noticed a second door farther down the hall. Slowly, he crept closer his senses stretching out, searching for hidden danger. He found none. A security sensor flashed. He backed up and shouldered the door. The wood cracked, and an opening splintered big enough for him to squeeze through.

  He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. Strong floral perfume stole his breath. No signs of anything living or dead hit his senses. Walking in the room, he padded past a table and stood in front of a video recorder sitting on a tripod. In the corner of the room, an old-school box television stood with a DVD player underneath. A red blinking light flickered, indicating a camera was still recording.

  Interesting. Jaxx morphed back into his human form and turned the television on. Straight away, the picture filled with half a dozen dead bodies. Bodies he recognized all too well from the other room. His heart pounded, and his mouth went dry. Holy shit! The doctor been taping all her experiments? He backed up, and his naked ass knocked a clipboard and remote off the table. He picked the items up, and with shaky hands rewound the footage. With a sick fascination, he watched his mate be stalked and bitten at the hands of Lucas. Jaxx growled.

  Shit! With the full moon burning across the night, it wouldn’t take long for her DNA to warp and the change to take hold. Would she survive the transformation? Saint needed to be updated, and he needed to find his female. He took comfort knowing his mate wasn’t some heartless bitch, as the lab coat suggested. She was simply a victim who somehow ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  “Mackenzie Sutton,” a female tsked, and Jaxx repeated the name, tasting it on his lips. Smiling, he glanced down, and for the first time noticed her name written at the top of the clipboard he was holding. He flipped through the pages and wanted to howl with victory.

  He’d be seeing Mackenzie Sutton very soon.

  7

  Kenzie’s body shivered, and she looked into the rear-view mirror to check again that no one followed them. A faint sheen of perspiration covered her body. Every inch of her ached, and she struggled to move. The pasty complexion and dark circles swallowing her eyes made her look like death. She gripped the wheel tighter on the SUV she’d acquired and gunned it down the highway.

  Shaking her head to clear the fog clouding her vision, a seed of dread took root. In the two-hour drive, her body ha
d secreted an overload of hormones that kept her pumped and on edge. It wasn’t until they had passed Hot Spring Park over an hour ago that her adrenaline ebbed enough for her to realize her condition was worsening.

  She was going to become a werewolf. She knew it deep in her bones, and they had to get somewhere safe before it happened. Her gaze shot to the rear-view mirror. Ava took up most of the room in the back seat, and Milly had curled up and fallen asleep against her. If only her sister could talk. She might be able to get some answers. “Ava, can you change back?”

  After a moment, Ava whined. Kenzie’s shoulders slumped. Answers would have to wait. “It’s okay.”

  Where could they go? She would have to stash them somewhere and alert the authorities. Going back to save Milly’s parents in a facility armed with guards and wolves wasn’t possible. An army needed to swarm that place, and she’d report it on the road well out of Delmac’s reach. When she knew they were safe, she’d figure something out for Milly.

  They’d need money. She had a small stash hidden back at her apartment. If she could get her hands on it, they’d have a chance to get away. Ava was with her, and whatever the future held, they’d face it together. First, they needed to gather supplies. Then maybe they could head up the coast and find a nice hidey-hole where no guards or wolves could find them. Her thoughts drifted back to the moments before they left the compound, when two wolves had been chasing them.

  She had seen the promise of death in their eyes. They’d barely escaped, and if it wasn’t for Ava protecting them they’d probably be dinner. The outside of the facility had been just as chaotic as underground. Bullets had been flying, wolves chased the guards, and screams rent the air. She shivered at the memory. If she never saw those creatures—both human and animal alike—again, it would be too soon.

  Kenzie slowed the vehicle as they approached her neighborhood. Though the chances of anyone making it to their home were slim, it didn’t stop the instinct that screamed for her to be cautious. She did a drive-by twice, and satisfied no one was lying in wait, she parked the car across the street. Turning, she faced her sister. “You wait here with Milly. I’ll go and grab some supplies, and we’ll be out of here in no time.”