by Kali Argent
Still, he remained wary. “Who are you?”
“Sergeant Michael Dominguez.”
Cade narrowed his eyes, growing more confused by the second. The rank meant nothing to him. Dominguez could be Coalition, Revenant, former United States military, or none of the above.
The sergeant smirked. “You’re trying to decide if you should trust me.”
Not true. Cade instinctively distrusted him. He was more so trying to work out if killing him would be considered justified. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I already told you, amigo.”
“Right. Try again.” Damn it, he didn’t have time for this shit. “Why did you help me?”
“There’s no time,” he said, echoing Cade’s thoughts. “I can explain later.”
“You can explain now, or I can put a bullet in your head. Your choice, friend.”
Dominguez considered him for a moment, then dipped his head curtly. “I’m the one who left the cage unlocked so the she-wolf could escape.”
He said it as if he thought the information would soften Cade toward him. He was mistaken. In fact, he was deadly mistaken, because there was no possible way he could know that Cade or the rest of the team had any connection to Mackenna. Not unless they’d been watching her.
If they’d been watching her, watching the Revenant, the Hunters had known they were coming. Dominguez hadn’t helped Mackenna escape. He had intentionally set her free.
It all made sense now. How easily they’d been able to access the service road. The lack of resistance at the edge of the forest. Hell, the Hunters had probably been the ones stealing from the grocers, making them responsible for the Coalition patrols at the hospital. They’d dangled the worm and lured them in, but how?
No one except members of the Revenant knew about the plan. Even Dr. Lancaster hadn’t been privy to all the details until just hours before they’d set out for the camp. Cade knew his team. He trusted them.
“You won’t blindly trust someone just because they claim to be Revenant, but you trust your friends.”
Mackenna’s words rang in his ears, bringing with them sudden and infuriating clarity. “Seth Barnes.”
He’d been such an idiot. Barnes had appeared at the hospital two days after Mackenna. He’d claimed to be coming from a safe house in Wyoming, and not a single person had questioned him, but they should have.
They’d searched for him for days when he’d gone missing. They’d even started making plans to check some of the ARC controlled towns near the safe house for him, and the bastard was probably right there in the forest with them. Cade hoped he was the one to find him.
Dominguez stiffened at the name, and the smile slid off his face as he jerked his arm up to take aim. He was fast, moving with a fluidity that only came from years of training.
Cade was faster.
The shot reverberated through the trees, and the bullet found its mark, snapping the sergeant’s head back and dropping him to the ground. Before he’d even finished falling, Cade had the two-way radio off his belt. They were supposed to be for emergencies only since, by their very function, they drew too much attention, but the need for stealth didn’t matter anymore.
“They know we’re here!” he yelled into the handset as he darted off into the trees. “They knew we were coming. Fall back! Everyone get the hell out of there!”
His words echoed close by, followed by a burst of static. Changing directions, he ran east, calling out for anyone in the area.
“Cade!” Bleeding from a gash on her forehead, Thea scrambled up a slight incline toward him, three males following in her wake.
Another voice called his name as well, this one from the opposite direction. A moment later, Rhys emerged through the trees with Luca, both of them leading a group of seven captives. They, too, looked the worse for wear, which was probably why neither of them realized they were marching straight into danger until it was too late.
Their only warning was a metallic click, just a small noise on the edge of hearing. Luca yelled for everyone to get down, but frightened people never made the best listeners. So, it was two of the male captives who took the brunt of the attack as noxious fog assaulted the group from both sides.
The shrieks were haunting, but Cade could do nothing as he watched the skin literally melt from the men’s faces. Cursing, Rhys grabbed the nearest female and tackled her to the ground, but he wasn’t quick enough, and he screamed in agony as the aerosol swept over his back. The gas ate away his shirt within seconds, and huge, white blisters erupted across his skin a moment later.
“Rhys!”
“No!” Cade’s heart hammered up into his throat when the female dropped her radio and started running toward her mate. “Thea, stop!”
It was too late.
She was halfway to Rhys when she suddenly collapsed to the ground, crying out as she clutched at her right leg. The metal clamp was no ordinary bear trap. With deep, jagged grooves and long, pin-like spikes, it had been designed to hurt, to incapacitate.
“Shit.” Cade made his way to her, careful of every step. “Mendez, stop moving.” The spikes had pierced clear through her boots, and rivers of blood flowed down her leg, making the leather wet and shiny. “Mendez! Stop moving. Look at me. Look at me, Thea.”
He had to say her name three more times before she finally unscrewed her eyes and stared up at him. The pain in her gaze was profound, as well as the anger, but there were no tears.
“I’m going to get you out, but you have to be still,” he told her, placing his hands on the springs to either side of the jaws. “This is going to hurt, but when I open the trap, I need you to pull your foot free. Got it?”
She clenched her jaw and nodded.
“On three. One. Two.” He applied all of his weight to his hands, pushing down on the springs.
Thea let out a very cat-like screech as the jaws opened, prying the spiked teeth from her leg. Once free, she twisted to the side and jerked back, pulling her foot from the trap just before it snapped closed again.
“You didn’t say three,” she panted as she sprawled on her back in the dirt. She turned her head to the side, her gaze fixed on her mate. “Rhys?”
“He’ll be okay,” Luca called as he helped the werewolf to his feet. “We need to get the fuck out of here.” He urged the surviving captives to stay behind him as they trudged over to the rest of the group. “Has anyone heard from O’Malley or Webber?”
Both Cade and Thea shook their heads. He also hadn’t seen Lynk since the shifter had disappeared to deal with the sniper.
Rhys collapsed onto the ground beside his mate. “Hey, angel.” His voice was rough with pain, but he gave her a wan smile. “Come here often?”
“Idiot,” Thea muttered, but she arched her neck to press a kiss to his cheek. “How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?”
In answer to her question, the rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire rose up in the distance, only short volleys at first but rapidly increasing in volume and intensity. The cavalry had arrived.
“Come on.” Cade offered his hand to Thea. “On your feet, soldier.”
Keeping his gun hand free, he hooked his arm around her waist, supporting as much of her weight as she’d allow while Luca and a couple of the captives worked to get Rhys on his feet. They had a lot of ground to cover and not much time to do it.
“Here,” a familiar voice said. Jogging up to them, Lynk nudged one of the males out of the way and slipped under Rhys’ arm to prop him up. “Man, you look like shit.”
Rhys chuckled weakly. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a dick?”
“Frequently.” There was a small cut on Lynk’s jaw, no bigger than shaving nick, but he appeared otherwise uninjured.
“The Hunters?” Cade asked.
“We’re clear,” was all he said.
As predicted, the trek through the woods took twice as long as it should have. Partly, because of their wounded comrades, and partly because they had to pause to de
tonate additional traps along the way. Electrified nets. Trenches filled with steel pikes. Spring-loaded spike strips that whipped around trees like bungee cords.
Throughout it all, Cade couldn’t stop thinking of Mackenna. Was she safe? Had she made it back to the vans? Or was she still at the ski resort? He couldn’t wait to hold her in his arms again, and once he had her there, he was never letting her go.
“That’s far enough.” Stepping out from behind a tree, Seth Barnes walked onto the path with a handgun held out in front of him.
If Cade hadn’t been so enraged to see him, he would have laughed. Did the idiot really plan to take them all on with a single gun? Even if he shot one of them, he’d be dead before he could pull the trigger again.
“Barnes?” Thea growled at him. “We thought you were dead. What the hell are you doing?”
“He’s a Hunter.” Cade trained his gun between Barnes’ eyes. “They planned this.”
“Not a very good plan,” Lynk commented. “Sounds like they’re getting their asses handed to them by the Coalition.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” Barnes thrust his gun at them several times, his eyes wide and crazed. “They weren’t supposed to come. No one has ever—”
He stopped talking when several guttural growls rose up from behind Cade. Clearly, his team had heard and interpreted the words the same way he had.
This wasn’t the first time the Hunters had played this game. He wondered how many others had marched willingly to their deaths. Other Revenant teams. Shifter tribes. Werewolf packs. Anyone wanting to help right a terrible wrong, but instead, had been lured in and systematically slaughtered.
How many captives had “escaped?” How many of them had found safety, only to come right back to try to end the suffering? The Hunters hardly had to work for it anymore. Instead of blowing up towns and invoking the wrath of the ARC, they could simply bring Gemini to them.
“You talk too much.” A pair of glowing green eyes appeared in the darkness behind Barnes just before Deidra stepped into the moonlight.
With a fierce roar, she lifted her foot and kicked out, connecting solidly with the guy’s back. Barnes’ jerked, his arms flailing as he stumbled forward. Cade wrapped his finger around the trigger of his gun, prepared to fire, but he never got the chance.
With huge eyes and a nearly silent scream, Barnes’ staggered right into the strange, incandescent wire like the one Cade had tripped earlier. The metal sliced through his neck, smoking as it cauterized the flesh and separated his head from the rest of his body.
Deidra wrinkled her nose as she ducked under the wire and nudged the severed head aside with her boot. “Oh, that’s not right.” Her left pant leg was soaked with blood from a gash on her thigh, but the wound appeared mostly healed already. “Can we please get the hell out of this death forest now?”
No one argued.
The gunfire finally came to a halt just as they began the final climb up the slope to the service road, and an orange haze illuminated the sky in the distance. Eventually, those flames would spread, engulfing everything in their path. Cade hoped to be long gone by the time that happened.
Webber met them at the base of the hill. He, too, appeared uninjured, and he seemed in good spirits as he helped some of the captives climb the embankment. Once they reached the top, Deke rushed forward to offer his assistance, leaving Cade free to jog ahead. He saw Roux, the doctor, and a few other captives, but he didn’t see the one person he was looking for.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
“Cade?” Jumping out of the back of the nearest van, Mackenna sprinted to him and jumped into his arms. “Are you okay?”
He clutched her close, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent. “I am now.” She was safe, right there in his arms, and nothing else mattered. “Let’s go home.”
She laughed as she snuggled into him. “Where is that exactly?”
“No idea.”
And he didn’t care. Whether it was the hospital, Olympus, or a cave up in the mountains, the location wasn’t important.
Wherever she was, that was his home.
Chapter Twenty
Olympus.
It had taken them four days and two stops, but they’d finally reached the safe haven located within the Olympic National Forest. Mackenna didn’t know what she had expected, but a lake resort with single cottages, shared cabins, and a big, elegant lodge certainly hadn’t been it.
Reaching out blindly, she patted around on the bench seat in the back of the SUV until she found Cade’s hand. “Everything is so green.”
Cade chuckled and squeezed her fingers.
Of the fourteen captives held at the Hunters’ compound, ten of them had survived. Bruised, battered, and traumatized, it would take time for them to heal, both physically and emotionally, but they were free. Unfortunately, most of them had been too weak to make the journey to Washington. They’d stayed behind with Dr. Lancaster at the hospital, at least until they were well enough to be moved.
Thea, Rhys, and Deidra had also volunteered to stay at the safe house, just in case the ARC came snooping around again. Mackenna would miss them, but it wasn’t as if she’d never see them again.
While she still had issues with the Coalition and their barbaric treatment of humans, she did owe them her gratitude. It had taken longer than she’d anticipate for them to put together a strike force, but they hadn’t hesitated to help her. Armed to the teeth, they’d charged into the Hunter compound, and they’d kicked some serious ass.
She’d only seen a little of the firefight before she’d slipped out of the back of one of the SUVs and disappeared into the forest. Witnessing the shock and fear on the Hunters’ faces, however, had been incredible, something she would never forget.
The only blight on her happiness was learning of the part she’d unwittingly played in almost getting everyone killed. When Cade had reluctantly told her about how Hunters had been luring Gemini to them, how she had simply been the latest bait, the guilt had been overwhelming.
Once she’d had time to think about it, however, she’d eventually accepted that it hadn’t been her fault. If anything, they’d dangled the wrong carrot this time. Clearly, they hadn’t expected their bait to bite back.
Roux twisted around to stare at her between the gap in the front seat. “It’s the first time I’m seeing it, too. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
She had never seen anything so beautiful, and she didn’t just mean the scenery. Deke drove them past a well-maintained playground filled with children. Even through her closed window, she could hear their laughter, and it made her smile. A couple of the little ones playing in the sandbox couldn’t have been more than two. She wondered if they had been born right there in the haven.
“It’s amazing. There are so many people.”
She’d heard the stories about Olympus for weeks. On the rare occasions when she’d let herself believe it was real, she’d always envisioned it as a primitive camp with a hundred or so residents. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Everywhere she looked, she saw Gemini and humans, young and old, families and friends. Couples held hands on the street. Mothers rocked their children on their porches. She even witnessed two people out walking their dogs.
“At last report,” Deke said from behind the wheel, “there were eight hundred and nineteen full-time residents.”
Following the winding road that led to the main lodge, they passed a general store, a diner, and even a small movie theater. It only had one screen, and the movie title on the marquee had been popular over a decade ago, but it was still pretty cool.
The morning sun peeked through the cloud cover, its rays glistening over the lake behind the lodge. Despite the cold, a number of boats could be seen on the water, as well as a dozen or so people fishing from the banks.
It was, in essence, paradise. The people there weren’t just surviving, they were truly living.
“So, m
ost of us will be in the single rooms in the main lodge here.” Deke pointed at the rustic building through the windshield ahead of them. “They try to reserve the cottages and inns for the families, but even the single rooms have en suites and full-sized kitchens.”
“How is this place even possible?” It was the first time Cade had spoken since they’d entered the haven, and he sounded just as awed as Mackenna felt. “How has the Coalition not found it?”
“Everything is pretty off the grid here.” Deke shrugged as he pulled into one of the parking spaces outside the lodge. “The electricity is solar and wind powered, but there are backup generators in case of emergencies. They fish and hunt. There are greenhouses a couple of miles from here where they grow a few different crops, and there’s even a farm across the lake where they raise chickens and dairy cows.”
“What about the things they can’t make or grow themselves?” Specifically, Mackenna wondered about things like medicine, fuel for the generators, and toilet paper. “Is there coffee?”
Deke chuckled as they all climbed out of the SUV. “Yes, there’s coffee. Some of the Gemini here own businesses in the city. They set aside what’s needed, leverage returned and damaged goods, and order extra when possible.”
“And the Coalition doesn’t suspect anything?”
Mackenna understood her mate’s skepticism, but unlike him, she was less interested in how things worked, and just amazed that they actually did.
“They know the system and how to make it work for the benefit of everyone. They’re careful, and there haven’t been any problems so far.” Deke wrapped his arm around Roux and started walking toward the entrance of the lodge. “Come on, I’ll show you your room.”
Taking Cade’s hand, Mackenna fell into step beside Roux. “So, there are over eight hundred people here…”
Deke’s brow furrowed, but he nodded. “That’s right.”
“So, if I wanted to find someone, how would I go about doing that?”
~
As lunchtime neared, Deke led his mate down a narrow dirt path to one of the small cottages nestled within a grove of evergreens. Anxiety permeated the air around her, and she’d been chewing on her lip for so long, it had turned red and puffy.
