by Hawk, Ryanne
This room was brighter, bigger, and filled with more bodies in various states of shifting and experimentation. The closest to her, a liger from the looks of the markings, was cut open down its belly, the skin being pulled apart by metal clamps. Tubes came out from the sides of its flanks, filled with a dark green liquid, and Amara shuddered.
She closed her eyes to stifle the memories, lifted her guns once more, and started firing at two humans at the rear, three more to the sides. Bang. Bang. Bang. Down they fell.
Across the room a door bust off its hinges and a giant bear and sleek black jaguar bolted into the room. They skidded to a stop, Flip crashed into a metal table, and Meat slammed into an enormous computer station that all the lines from the animals filtered into, sending the screens and towers crashing to the ground.
The big beast reared up to his hind paws and slashed at wires, monitors, tubes, and flipped-over empty tables.
Hammer and Maura joined from a side exit, surveyed the room, and began unhooking shifters. Amara hadn’t really allowed herself to look too closely at the cruelty, but now that there were no more humans to take down, she perused the space. A child lay a few feet to her right; at least, she figured it was a child given the bone dimensions of her legs. Her gaze swung to the left and men, women, old and young filled each table.
Hyenas, bunnies, dogs, cats, and various birds of prey lay strapped to tables in various stages of testing. Two large cages lay nestled in the far corner, and as Amara walked closer, she saw that a redheaded woman lay inside, curled in the fetal position and unmoving. Flip came up to the cage and lifted his face, presumably testing the scents because that’s what Amara would have done, and then he opened his mouth and hissed.
In the span of a few heartbeats, Flip changed shape and a naked man crouched next to Amara, frantically picking at the lock with his fingers.
“Flip?” Lucky’s voice called from behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder as the others filed into the house of horrors. Lucky crouched next to his friend and said, “Cole!”
Cole swung his face to stare at Lucky. His sunken cheeks, irrational eyes, and pursed lips told Amara all she needed to know. He was about to go bat-shit crazy.
“Mate,” Cole hissed in a low, frantic voice.
“Okay. We’ll get her out.”
Oliver trotted over to her, rubbing his huge flank against her leg, and cast a quick look into the cage. Then he met Amara’s eyes. She recognized sympathy.
Hammer and Maura joined them beside the cage. Hammer rubbed his mouth with his fingers and Maura licked her finger. Her shirt was wet from bloodshed, but she looked…happy.
“Sister,” she said when she removed the appendage from her lips.
“There’s probably more. We need to find the main lab,” Amara said without preamble.
Maura nodded. “Sounds good to me.” She nudged Hammer and said, “Time for more killing, boss.”
Hammer sent his mate an evil grin, one that promised death and destruction, then he pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek and said to the others helping Cole get the woman out of the cage, “We’re going to find the head honchos. Get her to safety, then take care of the rest. We’re going to need more cars. Someone call our friends at the reservation and see if they can help.”
“On it,” Meat said, slipping on a pair of loose pants. His huge chest was puffed out, the large muscles bulging from exertion. “I’ll stay with him, Lucky.”
Lucky opened his mouth to argue, but snapped his lips closed. He rose to his feet, patted Cole on the shoulder, and backed up to stand with the rest of their small search and kill party.
Hammer cleared his throat and said, “Lead the way, Amara.”
Oliver growled and moved to stand in front of her.
“We don’t have time for stupid challenges, son. Pipe down.”
“It’s okay, Oliver. We’ll go together. You can even go first,” she said on a shaky laugh, and ran her hand through the fur on his back.
He huffed once and turned with all the regal grace of a haughty, majestic tiger, and stalked to the rear door. Then he looked up expectantly at her and she shook her head. “Scary, badass tiger…needs someone to turn the handle.”
Someone behind her laughed under their breath, but Oliver nipped her hand when she reached for the doorknob.
“You’ve got to admit, mate, it’s rather funny.”
She turned the handle, her body tensed and prepared for more war. The door opened and revealed a long, white hallway. The only other door was at the end of the hall. Harsh halogen lighting burned her retinas. Oliver crouched lower and stalked forward, Amara beside him, her sister and Hammer behind them, and Lucky pulling up the rear.
“Where’s Buzz?”
Lucky’s voice floated up to her. “Outside with a handheld computer watching our every move. He’s cut the phone lines and jammed cell towers in this area.”
She brushed off the uneasy feeling coating her body in sweat and told herself it was just the situation. Of being back in a facility like this, and seeing the destruction these scientists caused in the name of knowledge.
Once they reached the door, Amara placed a hand on Oliver and said, “Stand back and wait,” then lifted her foot and, with a powerful thrust, kicked the door in.
They ran inside, guns drawn.
17 Chapter Seventeen
“BT52, a pleasure to see you again,” the man she now knew as Dunstan Octavius the Third, said from behind a small wooden desk. A gorgeous woman sat to his right wearing glasses and pin curls. They didn’t look scared at all.
“The pleasure is all mine,” Amara growled, her finger tightening on the trigger.
He showed his teeth, the large pearly whites big like a picket fence, and clapped his hands in front of him once. Half of Amara explored the room with her other senses, waiting for some kind of attack.
“I’m surprised you are alive after my car bomb.” His thick brows rose at whatever expression was on her face. He continued. “Did you think you were free? We’ve always known where you were.” He shook his head and rose to stand, tsking in a childish and gleeful way.
“How did you know about the van?”
“What, and spoil the surprise?”
Everyone closed their mouths to listen.
“Oh come on, you still don’t know?” Dunstan pressed his fingers to his temples. “For a bunch of gifted animals, you sure aren’t too bright.”
“Where do you think Marcus came from? Have you never wondered why he was so quiet and eager to please and do your bidding?”
Amara reacted on instinct, lifted her gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger. His head snapped back, arms going limp by his sides as blood seeped from the hole in his forehead down his face like red tears. He fell back into the chair and slumped to one side.
Maura whistled. “Nice shot. Let me do the other one.”
“I want to do it,” Hammer said, and in her periphery, she saw his arm raise, gun trained on the babbling women currently crying by the dead man.
“He forced me!” she wailed. “I never wanted this. I like your kind. I wish I were you. You’re strong, powerful, and amazing. Nothing at all like us weak humans. I mean, look at him.” She jerked a hand toward her still comrade. “He’s just…dead. You guys come back from death, but him… he won’t because he’s stupid and arrogant.” Amara watched her closely as little purple sparks highlighted her eyes and her hands were making twisty motions that at first glance seemed random, but then Amara remembered Buzz’s words. She could be a witch.
“Rock, paper, scissors you for her…” Maura said, making Amara roll her eyes.
An exasperated sigh came from Hammer as he lowered his weapon. “Fine. Best of three.”
“Seriously?” Lucky asked. “They don’t seem concerned with the security breech of our prospect.”
Amara’s attention drew down as Oliver’s weight shifted from his front legs to his rear paws, and realization hit her square in the face at the same time as he
launched himself over the small desk and attacked the woman, landing half on the wood top and half in her lap. He roared in her face and the unmistakable scent of urine and shit rode the air.
All voices ceased as Oliver’s roar wound down and he snapped the woman’s neck with one swipe of his paws. It lolled to the side, looking every bit like a broken china doll.
He glanced over his shoulder and stared at them all.
“Buzz kill,” Maura muttered.
Oliver licked his lips with an obscenely long tongue.
Hammer was quiet and then he patted her on the shoulder once before he cleared his throat and said, “Come on, let’s get the hell out of here and see what fuckstorm we’ve got to deal with. Grab their hard drives, files, and anything else that might be important. I doubt this is the only place like this one.”
At the front door, after dodging irate and drugged out shifters, Amara and Oliver marched into the cool evening air.
Amara vibrated, her skin tingled in a myriad of places, and her heart did double time as she inhaled the clean air through her nose.
“How are we going to get them all out of here?” Amara heard Lucky ask. She turned her face and saw he and Hammer sitting on a small rock wall with Maura beside them.
A few feet away, Flip leaned against the brick wall holding a limp woman wrapped in a white sheet reflecting the moonlight. Her head lolled to the side as she lay completely unaware of her rescue, her hair like a flame burning bright in the night. And the news of finding her mate. Boy, when she woke up… Amara shuddered and Oliver stepped closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
The drugs the scientists used had dulled her animal and she imagined a pissed off big cat once the lady woke. She was definitely some kind of cat judging from the musk.
“You good?” he asked quietly.
“I’m glad they’re dead, but no. I’m not good. I will be though.”
He nodded and played with her fingers. “Wanna go on a date when we get home?”
The word home made Amara’s head pound and she raised her free hand to rub her temple where the incessant rumble was the worst.
Did she even have a home anymore? Would her charter welcome her back without the information they sought? A worse thought intruded on her melancholy. How was she supposed to leave Oliver behind, or would he go with her to Britain? Could she ask that of him?
“Those look like heavy thoughts,” Oliver said, interrupting her diatribe. “Care to share?”
A quick burn stung her eyes, but she blinked and forced them to leave her alone. Ever since her capture, she’d been on one rollercoaster of emotions to another. Angry, happy, crying, relieved… for just one day, she’d like to be steady. Balanced.
The only time she felt somewhat normal was when Oliver made her laugh, or stroked her hair, or fucked her senseless, and damn, did she want to do that again soon. His body was made to please hers.
Laughter bubbled up from her stomach and she hunched over.
“She’s delirious,” Maura said. “Look at her. Poor dove is bat-shit crazy. We’d better get her home before she breaks.” Her booted feet came into view and then she slapped Amara’s back with some force a few times.
From anyone else, Amara would have been pissed, but she knew her sister, and she knew she was goading some sense back into her, despite that nugget leaving the building a few hours ago. She’d lost her mind somewhere between the blood-spattered walls and the huge pile of dead bodies. Amara straightened and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. A little grief, a little happiness, a little pain, all rolled into one wet blob.
Hammer snapped his phone closed. “Darius will be here in fifteen minutes with an eighteen wheeler we can load the shifters onto. We’re setting up a…” he closed his gold eyes for a moment and then said, “wake-up house, in Vermont.” He popped his lids open and resumed talking in a low, dangerous voice. “A safe place for our comrades to detox and heal.”
Flash sat away from the group with a white pitbull in between her legs, quietly talking to, and cooing at, the giant beast.
Fifteen minutes later, a huge white truck pulled up to the gate, Buzz and Hammer letting in the caravan. Amara rested on the rock wall and leaned against the bricks, alone for a few minutes, despite Oliver putting up a hissy fit at her request. She needed to decompress and sort through her emotional trauma before she’d be of any real use. He and the others were currently carrying bodies from the labs to the front, laying them out on the grass like corpses.
Buzz worked on a few of the worse ones. While they’d been waiting Lucky had told her about his limited time as a field medic in the service. It made him extremely useful and a calm presence they all needed.
A medium sized man hopped out of the driver’s seat and a tall giant leapt from the passenger side.
She waited.
The driver walked with a surety that bespoke Alpha, and the huge guy stalked with a predator’s gate.
Hammer held out his hand to the man wearing a black skull-cap and hoodie with jeans and sneakers. “Thanks for coming, Darius. We need all the fucking help we can get. It’s brutal.” They shook and parted.
Darius nodded and glanced around. “I rounded up as many blankets and pet bedding as I could find. There is food and bottles of water for those who’ve awoken. It’ll be about a two hour trip northeast to the place we’re setting up for them.”
Hammer lifted his chin. “Thanks. We’ll load up and move out before we get found and arrested.”
The crew stood, dusted off, and got to work just as a dusty station wagon drove up the long drive and stopped next to the idling truck. The door opened, and Amara tensed, along with every other shifter at the site. A mammoth man unfolded from the front seat and stretched his back, tossing his long, waist-length hair over his shoulder. He wore laced tan pants, and a brown leather vest.
Hammer peeled away from their group and marched to the newcomer, holding out his hand. “Thanks for coming, Eagle Day. We could use your assistance.”
“He’s a medicine man and Eagle shifter,” Oliver murmured into her ear.
“I get that vibe,” Amara said and watched the two Alpha’s stalk toward the entrance to hell. The Eagle walked erect, head high, shoulders set, with an innate wisdom and even energy that slid over her skin and made her feel like everything was going to be all right. His head swiveled in her direction, and his direct gaze met hers, seeming to see deep into her soul. He nodded once and then ducked inside the building.
18 Chapter Eighteen
Oliver collapsed beside his mate in the bed of his apartment at the clubhouse and pulled her body close. They hadn’t even removed their clothes as they’d zombie walked through the door.
“I can’t move. We’ll have to have nookie later,” he said to her as sleep claimed his body, making his limbs heavy.
A soft snore answered him and he smiled.
“Love you, baby. Sleep well.”
He felt safe whispering the words out loud, knowing her subconscious would hear him. He was irritated to admit he wasn’t sure how she truly felt about their relationship, or where they were heading. What if she didn’t want to stay? What if she had to go? What would he do?
The heavy thoughts kept playing in his mind like an old movie with no sound. He could only interpret the body language. His gut told him she belonged to him, and his animal had already claimed her. Now all he had to do was convince her to let him love her and that what they had was special.
Bright light danced in front of his eyelids as he blinked against the harsh sun and woke from his deep slumber knowing two things. One, he was happier than he remembered, and two, his mate was gone.
Oliver bolted from bed, eyes alert, fists raised, and heart pounding a little too fast for his liking, just as the bathroom door opened and Amara strolled out, naked and dripping wet.
“Sorry, love. I didn’t mean to worry you. I needed to clean the filth from my body. I woke up covered in grime, blood, and gore. It was bl
oody awful.”
It took a second for her words to penetrate the numb fog of his brain, and then a new awareness swept over him as he stared at her gloriously curved body and leapt to her in one bound, hooking an arm around her waist and bruising her lips with his.
She melted in his arms and satisfaction relaxed his muscles one by one.
“I need you,” she whispered into his mouth.
“Good. I’ve been meaning to show you my awesome tongue bath since I first laid eyes on you and imagined what your juicy thighs would look like squeezing my neck.”
They side-stepped to the bed and Oliver pushed her down onto the soft mattress then dropped to his knees in between her luscious legs.
“So pretty,” he said. “And all mine.” His nails dug into her outer legs as he locked her into place. He lifted his eyes to hers and licked his lips. The daylight made the color of her eyes a smoldering shade of blue and her damp black hair was splayed over her shoulders and framing her perfect breasts.
He inhaled her sweet fragrance, then feasted, making her moan and thrash as he brought her to multiple orgasms over the next hour.
After a large breakfast, the entire Inked Menace crew, minus Flip, sat around the carved wooden table in their chapel. Most of them looked refreshed, and at the very least, clean.
Hammer banged the gavel and all eyes focused on him.
“We rescued seventy-five live shifters and animals last night.” His chin dipped and he drew in a deep breath. “Fifty died.” He clenched his fists. “They had over one hundred and fifty at their facility.” He waited a beat, meeting the eyes of every member, stopping at Amara who sat next to Oliver on the far side of the table to Hammer’s left.
“We owe you a debt.”
Amara shook her head and lifted her hand up, palm out, but Hammer interrupted whatever his mate was going to say.
“The Ruling Council of Elders is in your debt, Amaraynth Delco, for bringing to our attention the mass experimentation done to our kind.”
