Driven by Hunger

by Desiree Holt

  Hannah pulled up her knees and rested her forehead on them, beating back the terrible dread creeping over her and squeezing her eyelids shut against the tears that threatened to spill out. Crying wouldn’t do her any good. And maybe she should eat the food. She agreed she needed to keep up her strength but for her own personal agenda, not Mueller’s. She wouldn’t be able to fight back when she needed to if she was too weak.

  Rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hand, she eased herself off the bed and walked over to the desk where the tray sat.

  Rand! Hurry! I need you. I’m so afraid.

  * * * * *

  Rand was just listening to the last of Jesse’s briefing when a sharp pain stabbed his head. He pressed his fingers to his temples and swallowed hard, trying to ease the throbbing that exploded so suddenly. What the hell? He never got headaches. Not even today’s stress and tension would have brought one on, so what was happening to him?

  Rand! Hurry! I’m afraid.

  Was that Hannah’s voice piercing his brain? He’d heard of other shifters who connected psychically with their mates once they’d bonded. Even though he and Hannah had not mated in wolf form would this still work? Was that what was happening?

  He tried to expand his mind, but before he could actually reach her the voice was gone. The connection dissolved into the air. Had he just imagined it?

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  “Rand?”

  Derek’s voice broke his concentration.

  “Yes?” He mentally shook himself. “Are we ready?”

  Jesse nodded. “Everyone’s here.”

  Alexa Farrell and Liane Aquino stood next to their husbands. Rand hadn’t seen them arrive but he was very glad for their presence. They could use all the help they could get. Besides, both women were more familiar with that section of Florida than anyone else in the pack.

  “So we’re heading for Mueller’s.”

  “Right now. You all studied the outside security system plans?”

  There was a murmuring of voices.

  Rand didn’t know how he’d done it, nor was he sure he wanted to know, but Jesse had managed to get diagrams of the locations of the sensors on the security system.

  “Alexa and Liane brought the panel vans with no windows,” Jesse went on, “so let’s load up. I’ve already got the address programmed into the GPS.” He looked at the faces of the crowd, studying each one in turn. “This is going to be very dangerous. You all have to know that.”

  “We live in danger, Jesse,” one of the men spoke up. “Hannah is one of us. We can’t turn our backs on her not matter what.”

  “Then let’s do it. Just remember once you’re out of the van and over the wall there isn’t a lot I can do to help you or back you up.”

  “Understood,” Derek said. “We’re all agreed on this.”

  “Let’s get moving,” Rand prompted, barely able to hang on to his control. As they were loading into the vans, Rand pulled Riesa aside.

  “I have to ask you something.” At the look of anxiety in her eyes he hurriedly said,

  “No, not anything bad. I completely believe you and how you came to be here. That’s what I want to know about.”

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  “Rand, I can’t explain it,” she began.

  He shook his head. “Not that. I swear when we were inside I heard Hannah’s voice in my head.”

  Her expression lightened then became thoughtful. “That’s possible, even if you haven’t communicated that way before. I’ve studied a lot about shifters and I know you all have built-in psychic abilities of one kind or another.”

  “What I want to know,” he told her, “is if you can reach out to someone instead of just waiting to have the images in your dreams. Have you ever done that?”

  “Rarely. It depends on the circumstance. Did you want me to try to contact Hannah?”

  “If you can. Tell her we’re on our way.”

  She gave him a tiny smile. “I don’t promise anything but I’ll do my best.”

  “Thank you. That’s all I can ask.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze before climbing into the van.

  The panel doors were closed on both vehicles, the drivers rolled up the tinted windows, and Rand saw Jesse pick up a comm unit.

  “Ready to roll, Charlie,” he said in a low voice.

  Silently the two vehicles moved out of the cul-de-sac and headed toward the highway.

  * * * * *

  Mueller stood before her, holding out what looked like a fancy hospital gown.

  “I want you to shower,” he told. “Clean every part of your body carefully. It’s very important. You’ll find everything you need in the shower. Don’t make me subject you to inspection to make sure you followed my orders.”

  “Inspection?” She could hardly get the word out. Inside she was shaking so badly she was thankful she was sitting down. Cold fear spread through her body. 76

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  Mueller nodded, then looked at his watch. “You have one hour. We have some further tests to perform and I want to get started as quickly as possible. I’ve lost enough time as it is.”

  He tossed the gown at Hannah and she clutched it to her body.

  “What…what kind of…tests?”

  “Valuable ones.” With no further explanation he turned and left the room, once again locking her in.

  Oh, god, what is he going to do to me? I’d rather kill myself than subject myself to whatever he has in mind.

  Fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she huddled on the bed. Hannah?

  She jerked her head up. Was that a woman’s voice? But where was it coming from?

  She looked frantically around the room. Was this another one of Mueller’s tricks?

  Hannah, I’m here. In your head.

  Hannah shook her head. Surely she was hallucinating. She might be able to communicate with Rand because of their bond, but a stranger?

  My name is Riesa. I dreamed about your capture. I’m with Derek…and Rand. We’re coming for you.

  Coming for her? Really? Her heartbeat stuttered with hope. You probably can’t answer me. We don’t have that connection. But I need you to memorize everything you see and keep those images in your head. But her head hurt unbelievably. Every word of each message pounded into her like a sharp spike. She clutched at her temples, trying to ease the pressure. I know it hurts. Just do your best. A pause. Rand is right here and says he loves you. He loved her? Hannah knew they were destined mates but to have love also? A gift to cherish. For him she could stay strong. Or give it her best shot. Forcing her eyes open, she took in every inch of the room again, trying to send telepathic pictures. Was it 77

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  possible that Rand and Derek and the others could get here in time, before Mueller performed whatever horrific tests he had in mind?

  She had no watch so she had no idea what time it was. The lack of windows made it impossible to tell if it was day or night outside. Okay. She’d take her shower, using every bit of time allotted to her. Then she’d do her best to drag her feet at whatever came next. She just didn’t want them to drug her again. She’d need all her wits about her to get through this and help Rand find her.

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  Chapter Six

  The vans sped through the night, Jesse and Charlie pushing every speed limit. When they reached the appropriate exit from the interstate they flew down the exit ramp and turned onto the two-lane highway that intersected with it. Everyone was silent as Jesse and Charlie followed the directions from the GPS along the twists and turns of the road, climbing up and down the few hills that dotted Central Florida.

  “Five minutes out,” Jesse told his passengers and picked up his comm unit to talk to Charlie.

  Rand stirred restlessly. Riesa had relayed through the comm unit she had connected with Hannah and was trying to read the pictures in her mind. The images were wavering, she told him but she got bit
s and pieces.

  “They had her in a large bedroom with no windows,” she related. “Then two men took her up in an elevator to a really weird-looking type of laboratory.”

  “What are they doing to her?” Rand asked, holding the unit close to his mouth. A murderous rage was building inside him. He couldn’t wait to let his wolf loose and rip someone’s throat out.

  “Right now she’s lying on something that looks like a hospital bed. One of the men who brought her there—a huge man, incredible ugly—is talking to two others. Rand, she’s very frightened.”

  “I know, I know. Try to send her a message that we’re almost there.”

  A moment later her voice came back, very tense. “I tried but I’ve lost the connection. I don’t know what’s happening anymore.”

  Rand pounded his fist on his knee. The erotic lust he now felt almost nonstop for Hannah had turned to a murderous one, driving him to punish the men who’d taken her. “Jesse, how much longer?”

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  “One minute… No, we’re there.”

  They rounded a curve in the hill and there it was, at the top of a steep driveway, a mammoth stone monstrosity that was a testament to the man’s huge fortune and very bad taste. A gated stone wall eight feet high circled the property, its top layered with rolls of concertina barbed wire.

  “Shit.” Jesse spoke into the community. “You getting a look at this, Charlie? Uhhuh. Uh-huh. Okay.” He turned to look at his passengers. “The wall, with the wire, is barely under ten feet. If you don’t clear it you could rip yourselves to shreds.”

  “If we don’t go over it,” Rand told him, “Mueller could perform experiments on Hannah that could not only kill her but probably the rest of us if he got hold of us.”

  “Charlie got the same answer. Okay, we’re moving up the road. Everyone get ready.”

  Mindful of the fact that there would be cameras posted in an estate so heavily guarded and protected, they moved the vans away from the entrance to the estate and parked them in a small copse of very old magnolia trees. Parking so they were well out of sight of the house, they concealed the vans behind the thickest of the trees. Panel doors slid open noiselessly and the men and women stepped out onto the ground. With a total lack of self-consciousness they each removed their clothing, folding it into piles and placing the piles in the vans.

  “Ready?” Derek asked, looking at each person in turn.

  Everyone nodded.

  “Remember to time your attacks on the guards. According to Jesse’s information, they should be making their rounds any minute now in this area. Be ready.”

  The air stirred and shimmered as everyone shifted from human to wolf form. Most of them had the cinnamon pelt of the red wolf, but both Alexa and Liane were silvergray. Riesa had climbed out of the lead van and was watching them with openmouthed amazement. 80

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  Rand wondered if Derek had warned her or not, then realized he must have because she showed no fear at all. He watched Derek walk up to her and rub his head against her. She ran her fingers down his head and neck before holding out her hand for him to lick.

  Come on! Rand tried to signal his friend. We’re losing time. We need to wait for the guards, Derek reminded him. Jesse and Charlie were down in a crouched position, listening for movement behind the wall, but the wolves, with their acute sense of hearing, heard the rumble of the supercharged golf cart first. Everyone lay down, waiting until the vehicle had passed. Derek rose and signaled them and they moved forward.

  Spreading out in a long line, they each gathered their strength, made a running leap at the wall and soared over it, each of them clearing it by at least six inches. Rand watched Derek looking at each wolf who landed and knew he was counting heads. Satisfied that everyone had made it safely, he loped forward, leading them up the hill toward the side of the house.

  As prearranged, three of the pack broke off to seek the guards and put them out of commission. The rest of them gathered with Derek and Rand, picked their way carefully up the slope of the lawn and hurled themselves through the glass of the patio doors. Rand had worried the house might have bulletproof glass, but apparently Mueller was arrogant enough to believe his security system was enough. The moment they broke through the interior alarms went off and two men with guns came running into the room. Two of the pack made short work of them, leaping on them and crushing their necks with powerful jaws. The pack did not believe in killing indiscriminately but people like this were considered lower than vermin. They spread out, looking for others on that floor, found only one and took care of him. Then they soundlessly padded up the stairs to the second floor. Every door was open and led into rooms currently empty. Derek led them up the next flight. When they 81

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  reached the top they heard someone—probably Mueller—screaming, “What’s going on? What the hell is happening? Will someone give me a fucking answer?”

  Alarm bells were ringing everywhere but the wolves plodded ahead, following the sound of the voice.

  “Where the fuck is everyone?” Mueller screamed. “Where the fuck are the guards?

  George, see what the hell is going on out there. And lock the goddamn door behind you. Get me a gun.”

  The moment the door opened even a small amount, the wolves leaped, throwing their combined weight against it. It flew open wider, knocking down the man who’d been opening it. Mueller was on the floor, staring at them, scrabbling backward using his elbows as levers.

  “Don’t shoot them!” he hollered. “Don’t fucking shoot them. I need to capture them.”

  The room appeared to be a state-of-the-art laboratory. Rand cast his eyes around and saw Hannah, stark naked, strapped to a hospital bed against one wall. The rage that welled up in him was uncontrollable. Before Derek could stop him he leaped for Mueller and clamped his jaws on the man’s throat. Blood spurted in a heavy spray. Mueller gave one gurgling death rattle and died, his eyes wide with fear. More guards rushed into the room, guns out, but at the sight of the body on the floor and the pack of wolves in the lab, they turned and ran down the stairs. In moments the slamming of the front door echoed through the house. Rand shifted into human form and went at once to Hannah, releasing her bonds and lifting her into his arms.

  “Little wolf.” He buried his face in her neck. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  She wound her arms around his neck. “I knew you’d come for me. Riesa sent me a message that you love me.”

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  He raised his head, eyes still suspiciously damp. “I do. I know we’ve only been together since yesterday but I’ve known you forever. And I’ve been waiting for you all my life.”

  Derek had moved to his side and now growled at him. Rand knew what that meant. Get the hell out of there. Lifting Hannah in his arms, he raced down two flights of stairs, the pack close on his heels. They started down the driveway but apparently the fleeing men had closed the gate after themselves.

  “Can you shift and jump?” he asked Hannah. “We have to clear a fence. We don’t have the time to search for the code for the gate.”

  “I can do it if you’re with me,” she told him.

  He gave her a brief but hard kiss, then set her on her feet. In seconds they had both shifted again and followed the others down the lawn. Rand was worried that Hannah might not have the strength for the jump but she went soaring in the air right next to him, landing on all fours in the roadway.

  “Come on,” Jesse shouted. “We need to clear out of here so I can call the sheriff.”

  Not even stopping to shift, they piled into the vans. Jesse and Charlie slammed the panel doors and in seconds they were screeching down the road.

  * * * * *

  Jesse snapped his cell phone shut and clipped it back into the holster on his belt. Everyone watched him carefully, Rand and Derek most of all. They knew the deputy had just finished a conversation with his boss who’d
dispatched teams to clean up the mess at Rogan Mueller’s.

  “Well?” Derek asked at last.

  “Funny thing.” His mouth turned up at one corner. “Sheriff says he doesn’t know how they got in there but he thinks the same pack of wolves who attacked the gang that nearly killed Charlie and me a few months ago is the same one who attacked Mueller and his men.”

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  Everyone remembered all too clearly when Jesse and Charlie, members of the sheriff’s gang task force, would have been killed by the gang they were trying to neutralize if Alexa hadn’t found the pack living in an abandoned orange grove and convinced them to help her. Their living arrangements were her payback for that. Derek chuckled. “Imagine that. Did he have any explanation?”

  “Seems they found a huge unlicensed game preserve about two miles away from the house. Lots of illegally imported animals and a lot of them looked as if they’d been genetically altered. And not in a good way.”

  “That’s what Mueller wanted me for.” It was the first time Hannah had said much of anything since they returned to Derek’s. “He explained to me in very arrogant terms how he was going to harvest my eggs, cross them with sperm from animals like jaguars and pumas, then implant them back in my body with genetic enhancements.”

  Alexa had a horrified look on her face. “And they expected you to actually give birth to those monstrosities?”

  “In my wolf form.” She shivered. “The man was crazy.”

  Rand clasped her hand tighter, he hadn’t let go of her since they’d returned from Mueller’s.

  “The sheriff’s confiscated all the records in the house,” Jesse went on. “He’s been in contact with the feds who are getting warrants for all the businesses we found information on, especially the pharmaceuticals company.”

  The two deputies brought everyone up to date on other important details, then both rose.

  “You guys need to get some rest and we need to get out of your hair,” Jesse said. Everyone else stood and shook hands with them.

  “Thanks again,” Derek said, ushering the men and their wives to the front door.

  “Hey, we’ve got an interest in this too,” Charlie pointed out and hugged his wife close to him.