by Amelia Jade
They were mostly washed away by the pain from his broken body, and the relief as he gasped, able to breathe at last. His lungs worked furiously, sucking down air as fast as they could, replenishing it within his body.
The world began to stop spinning, revealing something else to Connor.
Great, I can see without getting dizzy again, but now I’m fucking hallucinating.
He was so ready for the day to be over.
His eyes were telling him that a massive light-brown bear was currently ripping Flint to shreds, knocking his blows aside as easily as Flint had done to Connor just a few seconds earlier.
Flint screamed as the powerful jaws latched onto his arm. The bear shook its head, and the arm came with it. The screams increased in pitch, until mercifully the man passed out. Connor watched as the bear tossed the severed limb aside and ripped out the flesh from his throat, the blood fountaining down the deceased man’s body.
Then it stepped back and unleashed a roar so loud it made Connor wince in pain.
Shit.
He wasn’t hallucinating.
“Maddy?” he asked carefully, looking around the bear to see if he could find her. His voice sounding pained even to his own ears.
The bear turned, eyes blazing almost red with rage.
“Shit.” This time he spoke aloud.
Connor closed his eyes and called forth his own bear. The animal didn’t protest, despite the pain they were both in. Connor knew that it was hurting just as much as he did. The pain of wounds sustained transferred between the entities. Even though his bear wasn’t truly intelligent, it was a tangible thing inside him. It could communicate with emotions and the simplest of thoughts.
Connor expressed his thankfulness, appreciative that the animal had come just then—even if it had no choice, it could still be unhappy about it. But the beast knew it was needed, so it surged forth, massive furred limbs ripping apart his human skin as he blurred and then dropped to all fours. His bear was gigantic, larger than the one across from him.
Where is Maddy?
The other bear stopped at the sight of one of its own, pausing just long enough for Connor to breathe a sigh of relief.
Then it charged.
Oh fuck. This is going to hurt.
He hurled his bear forward, the entire room shaking as the two titanic beasts collided. Belatedly he remembered that they were in a room suspended above the club. It was the creaking of the floor that reminded him.
Dammit.
The single dull thought echoed through his mind as metal shrieked under the load, reaching a fever pitch just before it gave way.
The two bears dropped twenty feet to the ground below, landing in a tangled pile. Connor quickly rolled away, trying to focus through the haze of agony that washed over him.
The light-brown bear roared in pain. He glanced over to see its rear leg bent awkwardly beneath it. Not broken, but wrenched. The beast trumpeted again, this sound decidedly less anger-filled, and more of a bleating noise. It looked over at him.
Connor froze as he made contact with it. He would recognize those eyes anywhere.
Maddy.
The thought focused his mind instantly. Connor forced his bear away as fast as he could, the quickness of his shift tearing at his mind slightly, but he ignored the pain. It was just one more bit of hurt on top of all the others he was feeling.
“Maddy?” he asked once he could form human words again, looking at the other bear in disbelief.
The bear growled.
“Madison Rychel,” he said, standing up, looking down at it.
Although the bear was bigger than he was, it wasn’t taller. Connor used his position emphatically.
“You need to take control of your bear. Look into your mind, and envision a cage around it.”
The bear’s growl grew louder.
“You can imagine that cage to be as plush and comfortable for it as you want. But you have to make it go into the cage. It won’t go on its own. You have to be forceful with it, to make it do as you command. You are the boss, not it.”
The growl was so loud it was vibrating the ground underneath him. Connor didn’t approach, but he wasn’t worried. With a sprained hind leg, the bear wasn’t going anywhere.
“Take command, Madison,” he said forcefully, using her full name again. “Don’t let it push you aside.”
The bear snapped at him.
A thought occurred to him, based on something he had heard her say before.
“A shifter who cannot control her bear is an outcast.” He paused. “They don’t fit in.” He delivered the last line with as much emphasis on the point as he could.
The bear’s head, which had begun to droop, snapped up at him. Even on three legs it lunged after him, but Connor stood his ground. It limped closer, but he only smiled.
The bear was shrinking. It snapped and snarled, growled and roared as it closed the distance, but it didn’t matter.
By the time it got to him, all that remained was a ghostly pale Maddy, who took one look at him with her gorgeous brown eyes and promptly fell into his arms, unconscious.
He knelt down, holding her tightly as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
It was then that he noticed the crowd around them for the first time.
Of course. It’s night, and this is a club. Connor felt like an idiot as he saw the horrified stares of so many people, people who wouldn’t know what it was they had just seen.
A shocked-looking Deanna finally pushed her way through the crowd.
“Are you okay?” she asked frantically as she came to his side.
“Yes,” he replied, nodding sharply. “But we might not be for long.”
“We?” Deanna asked.
Setting his jaw, Connor nodded. “Flint was the traitor,” he said at last.
“Holy shit.” She grinned humorlessly. “I always did hate that bastard.”
“He was with them from the start,” Connor said hastily. “That means the Agency knows everything.”
Deanna’s face went as white as a sheet. “Oh God,” she whispered.
He nodded. “Get everyone out of here,” he commanded as Maddy began to come around.
“But where will we go?”
“Those without family, go to ground. Everyone should have their own safe house ready. Get to it. Those without,” he paused, then gave her an address.
“What’s there?” she asked, frowning in confusion.
“A place I set up a few weeks ago, when I began to suspect there was someone feeding the Agency information,” he said.
She nodded and took off, pulling a phone from her purse.
Maddy groaned in his arms.
“Come on Maddy,” he said, giving her a shake. “We need to go.”
She blinked, her dazed look so innocent that it brought a smile to his face, despite everything that was going on.
“You look like shit,” she muttered.
“You took us for a rather big fall,” he replied instantly with a laugh. “You ain’t looking so hot yourself.”
Maddy smiled. “Kiss me,” she said, no give in her voice.
He gladly obliged, ignoring the need for them to run, letting himself bask in the moment for a few moments.
“We need to go,” she said, her voice already steadying as they broke apart, pre-empting him from saying the same thing.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “No idea how long until the Agency gets here. Time to split.”
Maddy got to her feet gingerly, favoring her leg while looking around. The crowd of people was still staring at them.
“Place is closed!” she shouted, her voice strong and clear, startling even him. Connor looked at her wonderingly, amazed at the change in her personality. He smiled.
Nobody moved.
Maddy growled menacingly and took a step toward the nearest edge of the crowd.
People turned and began to flee. In seconds the entire bar was following. It took only a few minutes, and then they were th
e last ones.
“Time to go,” he announced, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the front. “We’ll go with them, try and escape in the chaos.”
Maddy nodded, testing her leg which already seemed to be healing, and they took off, quickly catching up with the last stragglers, and then losing themselves amidst the bigger group of people in the parking lot out front.
“Come on!” he shouted suddenly over the noise, pulling her through the crowd, away from the road.
He had seen three familiar-looking black SUVs pull up in front.
The Agency was there. They had gotten out just in time. They fled into the darkness of the night, her hand wrapped in his.
Chapter Eighteen
Madison
He led her down a set of stairs behind the building. The door opened into the basement, revealing about a dozen faces. There were more than she expected.
“Why are so many of you here?” Connor asked, obviously thinking the same thing. To her knowledge, the Underground only had roughly two dozen or so people who knew any sort of detail about it. That meant with the addition of her and Connor, and given the fact that the rest of his team wasn’t due back yet, there was over half the people present.
“The Agency knew of our safehouses,” a familiar looking woman said, stepping forward. “Even mine,” she said, unhappy with herself. “I only shared it with one person. I thought it was safe.”
“Flint,” Maddy said.
The woman nodded.
“Maddy, this is Deanna. You probably saw her around the club. She was Flint’s de facto number two.”
The two exchanged greetings.
“Now that you’re here, Connor, I can tell what I was telling the others,” Deanna said.
Maddy frowned at her voice. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good news.
“What did you say?” Connor asked, his hand gripping hers a little tighter. He had heard it too.
“I told them about Flint.”
Maddy nodded. They deserved to know.
“Then I told them that we should all head for Genesis Valley.”
Maddy’s head came upright.
“No,” she said aloud, firmly, over the top of Connor’s agreement.
The entire room turned to stare at her.
“We have to go,” Deanna said. “The Agency knows who we are. For those of us who have families, they know who those are.”
Maddy shook her head. “Tell your families to get to Genesis Valley. To leave tonight. I doubt the Agency cares, as none of them are shifters. The local authorities can get away with a lot when it comes to shifters, due to the prejudices so many still have against you.”
She frowned. “I guess I have to say ‘against us’ now, don’t I?” she said, looking up at Connor.
The big man smiled, squeezing her hand to let her know he was there to support her. They needed to talk about how the hell she had managed to manifest a bear, but right then, it didn’t matter. They had to look after the safety of others.
She had to look after them. Everyone was looking at her now. Maddy gathered her courage, and continued speaking. “Regardless of what the authorities can do to shifters, they can’t let the wholesale disappearance of human families go unnoticed. Too many questions would be asked, and I bet that government agencies not bought off by them would look into the sudden disappearance of dozens of normal humans. So, tell your families to leave, but I would not worry. The Agency just wants shifters for what we contain inside of us. Nothing more.”
Maddy gazed out and across the crowd. “We were dealt a big blow today,” she said, noticing how she had used the word we without meaning to. But it was true; she was a part of them now. There was no escaping that fact. “Our leader, as it turns out, was actually an Agent all along. He formed us from the ground up as a tool for the Agency.”
She pulled her lips back in a snarl. “Well, today that tool turned on its owner, and now we are free. Free to act how we wish, and more importantly, how we need to. No longer will our actions benefit the Agency. They will benefit those who need us. The innocent shifters of King City.”
“You want us to go back to doing what we were doing?” Deanna asked incredulously.
“No,” she said firmly, standing tall. “I want us to start new. Start fresh.” She smiled. “Start better. I firmly believe that with the knowledge that all of you have, and with the backing of the shifters in Genesis Valley, that we can build this up into something more. Something that no longer jumps whenever the Agency is mentioned. I say we are done sneaking around. I say we take the fight to them!”
She knew her cheeks were burning, inflamed by the passionate speech that she had just delivered. A speech she was still trying to convince herself she had delivered.
To her absolute shock, the people cheered. Even Deanna was looking at her strangely.
“Who will lead us?” From the back of the room, Andre stepped forward.
Maddy gasped. “What happened to you?” she said.
He was badly beaten, and had a large gash on his arm that was stitched together, though it still leaked blood.
“Flint,” he spat. “He knew as soon as Milos and I got back. We managed to escape him, but we ran into a hit team at our safe house. Barely got out with our lives.” He shook his head. “That new gunk they put on their knives is going to be a game changer.”
“This is why we need to fight back,” Maddy said, seizing on the moment. “These two would be strung up somewhere right now, their blood pumping for as long as the Agency could make it, just so they can turn it into a vial of million-dollar serum.”
Angry rumbles sounded throughout the room.
“Let Maddy lead us,” a voice said from the back of the room.
Bodies parted, revealing a man lying on a couch, swathed in bandages and missing an eye. It took Maddy a handful of seconds to recognize him.
“Milos,” she whispered, appalled at the damage that had been done.
Then his words sunk in.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
But Deanna nodded. “Yes, that is a great idea. I’m no leader,” she said. “I’ll help you as I did Flint, but I couldn’t do your job. You have the fire, the passion, the inner strength—and now somehow the outer strength—to do this.” She smiled wryly as Maddy acknowledged the last point.
Her? Lead the Underground?
“I—” she began, then fell silent as Connor squeezed her hand.
She looked up at him, meeting his gaze.
How did I ever think that he looked creepy with those blue eyes? I could look into them for hours. Forever.
He smiled at her, and dipped his head ever so slightly. It wasn’t much, but she knew that it meant he believed she could do it.
“Maddy!” Someone else in the crowd shouted, and as if the spell was broken, the group broke apart. Some went to make phone calls, others came up to her to congratulate her, offering whatever kind of help they could.
After half an hour, she finally managed to extricate herself from them.
“What did I just do?” she asked, resting her head on Connor’s chest, listening to his heartbeat, clear as day with her newfound hearing.
“You just made yourself our leader,” he chuckled, her head bouncing up and down slightly with the movement.
She looked around, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
“Hey,” Connor said, the bass of his voice rumbling through her.
She looked up at him.
“You can do this,” he said. “I know it. Deep down, I think you know it too.” He smiled. “This is where you belong.”
Maddy shivered at hearing those words. She did belong. This is where she fit, the place she had been looking for, for a long time.
“I belong,” she whispered.
Chapter Nineteen
Connor
“How is your father?” he asked as she returned to the kitchen.
Maddy smiled her beautiful smile, looking happier than ever. She had finally b
een able to contact her father, now that he was safe in Genesis Valley. It was something she had been worrying about a lot. More than she had been willing to admit, even to him.
“He’s good,” she said happily, sitting at the table. “He’s got a job at that Lionshead Mining Consortium, the one you work for. Doing some sort of research for them, I guess. We didn’t talk too much about that. He was, ah, a little more interested in knowing about me, and what I can do now,” she said awkwardly.
Connor smiled. She would get over that part of it. He could tell.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said softly, meaning every word of it.
“Connor?” she asked as they ate breakfast the next morning.
The Underground had scattered overnight, dispersing to several other safe houses Connor and his team had set up without Flint knowing. There were still several people in the unit, but as it turned out, Connor had secured all three floors of the sixty-year-old storefront building for their use. The pair of them had had no trouble finding some privacy the night before to renew their relationship. He smiled at the memory of it.
“Mmm?” he replied around a mouthful of bacon and egg.
“I’m a shifter now,” she said with a grin. “And I think I was always supposed to be this way.”
He returned the smile, careful not to let the bits of bacon in his mouth show. “You certainly seem both more confident and happier,” he admitted after swallowing his mouthful.
“I feel…normal,” she said slowly. “I think. I mean, I don’t feel normal using how I used to feel as the ‘normal’ to compare it to. I feel normal as in, this is how I think everyone else usually feels. As if I’m finally who and what I’m supposed to be. As if I’d been denying a part of me somehow.” She shrugged. “Not that I ever could turn into a bear before, but it’s like taking the two serums unlocked something within me.”
He nodded. They had discussed how she had taken the two types of serums. The one that bonded with the shifter DNA that had lain latent in her, and the one that bonded with the active human DNA. It had formed something within her that had allowed her bear to come to life.
