by Golden Angel
There was no way to get inside and save the skunk shifters without a full-on assault, so the best they could do was engage the maximum amount of people and hope the captives could hold on until they could be rescued. With the guards changing shifts right now, the number of people inside with the captives should be at its lowest.
Screams.
Snarls.
Shots fired.
Howls.
Some of the guards shifted when they realized they were under attack. Fucking assholes, betraying their own kind. Now that the fight was started, Brock shifted before literally vaulting over the heads of two of Raoul's soldiers to take on the grizzly bear that had just shifted in front of them. The bear let out a noise of shock that would have been almost comical if not for the situation. His bugaboo was thrilled to be let out, doing what it did best.
Bunny paws weren't good for grappling like bear paws, but the bear was even more shocked when he wrapped his arms around Brock and hit nothing but turtle shell underneath the fluffy fur. Snarling, Brock bunched his back paws and kicked.
The bear's claws scraped over Brock's shell as the other creature went flying, hitting the wall behind him with a solid thud. The bear whimpered, shuddered, and went still. Probably not dead, but knocked unconscious was good enough for now, especially because two of Eli's men went hurrying over to secure the shifter.
As usual, Eli wanted prisoners. Raoul’s men were armed with both silver bullets and tranqs.
Turning, Brock bounded into the fray, ready to take down more of the bad guys, his bugaboo feeling savage.
He was just glad Doc had to stay back until they had a clear path inside. It meant he could wreak havoc without having to worry about whether or not she was safe.
******
Although Doc understood why she was being held back, she didn't like it and neither did her puma. They both wanted to battle.
She couldn't really complain though because she wasn't exactly alone. Eli and Kasim were right by her side, along with Kasim's squad, Dr. Tran, Dr. Phil, Jesse, Bethany, Bailey, and the petite and beautiful Pudu deer-jaguar shifter hybrid Jesse had met the last time she'd been at Lakewood, Kiara. She was now in training to be a field medic and had been allowed to come along. All of them were shifters who could cause mayhem and murder, just like Doc.
But that wasn't their job.
They were focused on getting into the building, not on the battle around it.
And despite the fact she was a puma, Dr. Phil a polar bear, and Dr. Tran a tiger, none of them were planning on shifting unless they absolutely had to. It was a lot easier to carry their medical supplies with actual hands. That was why they'd have Kasim's team and the hybrid shifters with them.
She was pretty sure Eli would be going in with them as well, although he hadn't specifically stated so. Even though he wanted to be where he could see everything going on, his feelings of responsibility to shifters as a whole ran deep. Especially since finding out how heavily involved his own brother was with The Company... possibly even in charge of it.
"There," Kasim said suddenly, his hand coming up to point at a space clearing up in front of the building. "Let's go. Doctors, stay in the center of us. Jesse and Bailey, you're the scouts—do not engage, come back to let us know if you find more guards."
Jesse nodded but Bailey didn't say anything before she shifted and took off, a small white blur heading through the combatants and to the entrance. Doc couldn't see Jesse because the rest of them had already started to move. Although Kasim shifted, Eli stayed in human form, but like Doc thought he would, he came with them.
She saw a glimpse of one of the Bunson brothers fighting as they hurried through the melee, but she wasn't sure whether or not it was Brock. There were too many people on all sides, grappling and fighting—for the most part no one was shooting anymore because it was nearly impossible to hit the correct target with the way everyone was moving and bunched together. The risk of friendly fire was incredibly high.
Which also made it safe for her group as they went through, following Bailey and Jesse into the building. Seeing their trajectory, a few of the bad guys tried to come and intercept them but were easily dealt with by Kasim and his team. Not many seemed to want to take on a lion that weighed half a ton.
The entrance they used led straight into a hallway which was basically empty. Those in human form—or who were human—checked each of the rooms as they passed them, just in case. When they reached the end of the hallway, Jesse's squirrel was coming back down one of the cross halls, moving quickly but she didn't look panicked.
She chittered at them as she passed, not at all interested in the direction she'd just come from which probably meant it was the wrong one. They turned down the hall she was now headed down, and Bailey appeared at the end of it before taking off again.
The two of them were very small; hopefully they'd go unnoticed.
The sounds of the violence outside were muffled but audible to Doc's ears and she could only hope Brock and the others were doing okay.
When the screaming started, it took her a moment to realize it wasn't coming from outside... it was coming from down the hall.
Kasim let out a growl, bounding forward as Bethany shifted and leapt after him. Everyone else broke into a run following them, hitting the double doors at the end of the hallway and right into hell.
******
Seeing Kasim's team go by, Brock knew Doc would be right at the center. Protected. He ferociously tore out the throat of a bad guy wolf shifter who looked like he was about to move toward them.
Protect! Kill! Protect! Kill!
Yeah, his bugaboo was more than a little riled up, but Brock was right there with him.
He could see Brady taking on several wolf shifters who were trying to work together to bring him down, the same way wolves would with a larger animal in the wild. Brock was about to jump over and help when an actual freaking moose shifter suddenly ran through, using his very large rack to toss the wolves in the air. Probably one of Thor's herd—Doc had told him that Thor had a few moose, elk, and other deer mixed in with his reindeer. And Brock definitely didn't remember any moose at Lakewood.
Turning, he realized they were winning. The bad guys were either dying or beginning to surrender.
Which meant he had no qualms about turning and heading into the building, only a few minutes after Eli, Kasim, Doc, and the others. He wanted to help in there.
Plus, if there was another Dr. Montgomery situation, maybe they'd actually get to kill the doctors this time. Right now Dr. Montgomery was actually helping with saving smaller shifters who were dying from the diseases which ravaged them. It was the only reason he wasn't dead. But if there were more doctors doing experiments... well, Eli only needed one, right? Dr. Montgomery was using the research he'd done on the Bunsons to save the small shifters, so they didn't need more like him.
Kill!
Exactly.
Unsurprisingly, he felt a presence at his back as he hopped over to the door, and he immediately knew it was Brady. Another large white shadow came up out of the darkness—Brice.
Since Brady was the oldest, and the unofficial leader, Brock inwardly sighed and let him go in first. It was his mate in there after all. Following right behind him, Brock knew Brice would take up the rear position and guard their backs. Not that their backs needed a ton of guarding—their turtle shells were pretty much impervious to just about everything. Even silver bullets only dinged them.
They heard the screaming as soon as they got inside... and began running towards the sound. Down the hall, to the right, and down that hall and straight through double doors that were barely big enough for them to squeeze their big, furry bodies through... and right into another battle that was raging.
The room was huge and filled with lab equipment. There were bodes everywhere—on the beds, on the floor… children were screaming in the corner where they were being guarded by some unarmed, grim-faced adults, Jesse's squirrel, and the tinie
st deer he'd ever seen. The coppery smell of blood was thick, and underneath it was an even nastier smell… something sick and unnatural, like an infected wound left to putrefy. There were shifters battling all over the room, not just Eli and Kasim and Kasim's team, but another polar bear which must be Dr. Phil, a tiger that had to be Dr. Tran, and a very pretty puma whom he immediately recognized.
She was bleeding down her flank as the panther she was fighting lunged at her again... and Brock's bugaboo went berserk.
Launching himself at the panther with an almighty roar, the shifter saw him coming and tried to change course to avoid him to no avail. Brock’s much larger body slammed into the cat and it went sprawling across the room and slammed into the wall. Very much like the bear shifter he’d kicked earlier. Unlike the bear shifter though, Brock’s bugaboo wasn’t in the mood to give this fucker any mercy.
He followed after it, landing on top of it and crushing it under his weight before raking his claws over its body.
The shifter had already gone still, but that didn’t stop Brock from doing it again. Just to make sure. It was going to be a bloody, messy corpse by the time his bugaboo was done with it. The only thing that stopped him from completely shredding it was looking up to see Doc had already turned back into human form and was tiredly limping over to what must be the huddle of skunk shifters in the corner, her bag in her hand.
Crazy woman! Didn’t she see the fight still going on around her? Brock ignored the fact that no one was paying any attention to her—the bad guys were all losing to Eli and the others and they knew it. Hopping off the destroyed body of the panther shifter, Brock bounded after her, ignoring the way his fluffy paws squished as he went.
His underside was covered in blood, but that was okay. Once he turned back into a human he’d be able to wash it off easily enough.
******
Ouch… ouch… Damn but her hip hurt. Shifting twice in such a short amount of time wasn’t doing her any favors either, it used up energy which could have gone to helping her heal… but she couldn’t check over the injured skunk shifters in puma form. Inside her head her cat was sulking a little at not being able to finish out the battle, but she also understood the cubs needed to be looked after.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Brock hopping alongside her, literally guarding her body by keeping his large, fluffy, blood-stained bulk between her and the rest of the room. Not that it was probably even really necessary. Bailey and Jesse were wreaking havoc in the manner only tiny predator shifters who were hard to see and impossible to catch could, and with the addition of the Bunson brothers the tide had shifted for the rest of the fighters.
Which was good. When they’d come into the room, the workers and guards had already started killing the captives. A lot of them were drugged but had still been trying to fight back. She had a feeling they’d all been herded into this room together once the attack had started to make it both easier to guard them and easier to kill them all at once. Bastards.
“Hello, it’s okay, I’m here to help,” she said soothingly as she approached. Kiara—who was seriously ridiculously cute in her pudu deer form as long as her mouth was closed, and her sharp jaguar teeth weren’t showing—trotted over to rub her head against Doc’s bare leg. The adults who had put themselves between the children and the violence relaxed slightly.
Kiara had been helping them after all, and if she thought Doc was okay…
“Is anyone injured?” Doc asked, setting down her bag and pretending there totally wasn’t a battle winding down behind her. Or a massive, bunny-bear hybrid. The skunks seemed more than a little unnerved by Brock’s close presence.
Seeing her pulling bandages out of her bag helped to break the ice a little, especially when Kiara shifted back into human form and began helping her. Doc did her best not to notice how gorgeous and petite Kiara was... no point in comparing herself even if she did feel awkwardly large next to the graceful deer shifter. The adults with defensive wounds moved forward, looking relieved although still a bit wary. Doc didn’t blame them, she doubted they would be very trusting of anyone right now.
The sounds of fighting abruptly cut off, which she took to mean the bad guys had all surrendered rather than fight to the death. Ignoring it, she focused on the people in front of her, trying to get as much information out of them as she could.
There was an older man who seemed to be the leader, probably in his fifties with salt and pepper hair that really did look kind of like a skunk’s, and he stayed right beside each person as she treated them, answering her questions. He introduced himself as Riggs.
"They killed everyone they were running experiments on," he said, sounding tired and sad. "Those whom the experiments didn’t kill… well, they were already dead when the soldiers herded us in here. I—we—don't know exactly what they were trying to do. I do know it wasn't working. They were angry. They kept saying 'it' could be done but they never talked about exactly what 'it' was."
Doc knew. She glanced at Kiara, who was bandaging the scrapes on a woman's hand. They had been trying to replicate Dr. Montgomery's work—and it sounded like they'd failed, which was good. The doctor had kept a lot of his research and data in his head. It was the reason he was still alive, since his work could save lives and so Eli let him continue to live as long as he continued to help. She wasn't surprised The Company was trying to reproduce his results, or that they were failing.
The man was insane and utterly lacking in morals, but apparently he was also a genius. One who would remain locked up for the rest of his life... and he didn't get second chances. Any attempt at escape or a rescue, and there was an immediate kill order.
"So no one here has been injected with anything or used in their experiments?" she asked.
"No," Riggs said, but there was an odd note in his voice which made her frown at him and when she looked up, she saw his eyes flicking over towards a pile of crates about ten yards away.
Frowning, she turned and looked at the crates. There was a tiny space between two of them on the bottom—resting less than half a foot apart—and in that dark little nook she saw something move. Her puma, which had been pacing but mostly relaxed since the fighting stopped, immediately went on alert for danger.
"What's over there?" Doc asked, her voice a little sharp. Were the skunk shifters seriously trying to hide something dangerous from them?
"It's nothing," Riggs said as Doc got up. He made a move to grab her, but there was suddenly a very large, bloody, fluffy bunny right next to her growling and the man fell back with a startled shriek. Doc ignored him, totally focused on whatever was behind those crates.
As she slowly moved closer, Brock came beside her, making disgruntled unhappy noises... but she quickly realized whatever she'd seen move wasn't behind the crates like she'd originally thought. No, she wasn't seeing the movement of something larger that needed the crates to hide, she was seeing something tiny that actually fit into that narrow space between the crates.
"What the..." Her voice trailed off as she knelt down a few feet away.
Brock's big bunny-bear also seemed to have realized whatever was over here was unlikely to be a real threat to either of them.
"You should stay away from it," Riggs said, almost sounding desperate. "It's dangerous."
"Shut him up please, dear," she murmured at Brock. The bunny-bear turned around and snarled, hopping closer to the skunks who immediately shrank back and quieted down.
Sill ignoring them, Doc crouched down even further, trying to make herself as small as possible.
"Hello," she said softly, reaching out her hand across the space between her and the crates. "Can you come out?"
To her utter horror, a baby skunk came out of the dark space, crying with tiny little noises that should have melted the hardest of hearts. It was so unused to walking on four legs, it fell forward, bumping its nose before continuing forward cautiously.
"Doctor! Don't—argh!" Whatever Riggs was about to say was abruptly
cut off, but just his voice made the baby skunk cringe and look like it was about to run back into its safe space.
"Come here baby," she whispered, her eyes filling up with tears at the sight of the frightened, helpless child. Shifters weren't supposed to be able to shift this young. He or she must have been so absolutely terrified that the shift forced itself for protection. "You're safe, I promise you; I will keep you safe."
The baby skunk made another crying sound and managed to come forward, reaching her hand and tentatively rubbing against it. Doc crooned, petting the frightened baby, coaxing it closer until she could scoop it up in her arms. It snuggled in against her, whining and squirming to try to get closer to her. Her puma was instantly smitten with the funny little creature, recognizing a wayward soul in need of protection and love.
Absolutely furious, she whirled around and glared at Riggs—who was currently being held by the throat with the bloody hand of her incredibly sexy and amazing boyfriend. Nope, definitely no Prince Charming. He was definitely the Beast, and she loved him for it.
Yup, she said the L-word to herself in her head and this might not be the best time for that, but she had to admit she really liked seeing Riggs being strangled right now.
Cradling the baby skunk against her chest, she stalked closer to Riggs, who was clawing at Brock's hand.
"You let a child go unprotected?! What the hell is wrong with you?" she snapped. Immediately, the skunk started shivering, and she stroked its back, trying to hold onto her temper. Her puma was torn between wanting to rip off Riggs' face and reassuring the baby.
"Something's wrong with her," Riggs managed to gasp out. "They did something to her."
Doc barely managed to keep herself from kicking him in the nuts. "She's a child! You ass!"
To her utter fury, Riggs didn't even look a little bit repentant. Some of the other skunk shifters looked a little ashamed though, when she turned her glare on them. They blushed or looked away, unable to meet her gaze.
"You should all be ashamed of yourselves," she hissed at them. "How old is she? Where are her parents?"
