A Forbidden Love (9 page)

The change in the air had been gradual.

Jamie sat with Heidi and Kyle in a row on the bed, staring at the locked door. If they shifted, it would be no match for the three of them. They could easily break through, but they'd still have to take care of the dozen armed fanatics on the other side. It would be a suicide mission.

While he sat and tried to come up with some sort of a plan to keep his team – and mostly Alison – from any fallout from today's cluster-fuck, what had seemed like a hopeless situation started to change. He felt the change, a presence. It was faint at first but then the sensation grew until he could identify it: Alison.

She was here.

He felt her near the cell, exchanging words with someone outside. If he could feel her through the door, he was certain she could feel him, too. She had come here for him.

His optimism was short-lived as she passed by his cell. She was moving ahead, probably to confront the rest of the Sons who were further down the corridor tending to the prisoners. How would she be able to explain her presence? If they found out why she was really here... He dreaded to think of what would happen.

Jamie tried to listen to the conversation that took place in the other cell after Alison opened the door, but the walls were too thick even for his keen sense of hearing. All he heard were indistinct mumbles.

He couldn't stay still any longer and got up, pacing the room restlessly.

"You okay, Boss?" Heidi asked, her eyes wide with concern.

She was a sweet girl, loyal to a fault.

"Fine." Jamie paused, listening for any sign of trouble next door, but there was none.

Still, Alison was upset – he could feel it. So he started pacing again.

"Aidan," Heidi whispered behind Jamie.

Had Alison brought him here? Or had he come in after her on his own accord?

"Heidi, I respect your wish for privacy, but if there's anything you can feel that'll help us, please share," Jamie said.

"What?" Kyle wondered aloud.

Jamie shot him a strict look in an attempt to keep him quiet. There was no time to explain.

"He's here," Heidi said, looking up at Jamie. "We'll be okay."

"Is he alone?" Jamie wondered. He knew he was able to communicate with Alison telepathically, but only when they were in the same room together. Perhaps Heidi and Aidan's bond was stronger because they'd been an item for longer.

Heidi closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate, hard. "No. I think the Alliance pick-up has arrived early."

"Shit, really? That's awesome," Kyle exclaimed.

"Get ready," Heidi said.

Jamie cleared his mind, as much as possible with Alison's fear leaching through the wall separating them, and prepared himself. Beside him, Kyle quickly took off his T-shirt.

"What? I don't want to ruin it. They don't sell these anymore," he justified when Jamie gave him a questioning look.

"Five... Four... Three..." Heidi gestured the rest of the countdown.

For the first time since Heidi's rescue, Jamie let the beast out. Ordinarily, he dreaded it. His bear form had always felt painfully incomplete, so he avoided shifting unless a situation absolutely demanded it. Now things were different.

The tickle that traveled the length of his body as brown fur started to break through his skin actually felt pleasant. A burn in his muscles signaled growth. Within a split second, he'd torn through his clothes.

Beside him, Kyle had transformed into his slightly smaller black bear form and Heidi stood on all fours, her razor sharp teeth exposed as she growled at the door. On her signal, they charged ahead, breaking through the door.

Alison. I'm coming.

Jamie lashed out at one of the two armed guards in the hallway, as Heidi and Kyle took on the other. At almost the same moment, a group of bears in varying shades of brown led by Aidan's huge bear form charged through the door coming from the stairwell.

Jamie didn't recognize anyone else, but gladly handed over his slightly bruised prisoner to one of the strangers who had arrived as part of the Alliance Council transport.

"The rest are in there," Jamie said, while leading the way. He had to get to Alison before any of the others did.

"The girl is one of ours," Aidan remarked behind him, giving Jamie pause.

Aidan knew?

Jamie cleared his mind and charged ahead, breaking into a run before crashing through the door.

"What the-" a Sons member on the other side of the door exclaimed.

Two of them carried the wounded guy they'd held prisoner on an improvised stretcher, so they couldn't react without dropping their comrade. The others were scrambling for their weapons.

Jamie went straight for Alison's brother, pinning him to the ground under the immense weight of his paws. Behind him, Aidan, Kyle and Heidi also charged in and neutralized some more of the intruders, growling, biting, and slapping weapons out of their hands, but making sure not to harm them too badly. The Alliance backup did the same until, after just minutes, they had disarmed and surrounded all of the Sons members in the room.

Most of them hadn't even fought back. The element of surprise was a powerful thing indeed.

In the center stood an unarmed man who hadn't been engaged so far: Lee Campbell.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Aidan snapped at him.

He didn't reply, but he suddenly looked utterly defeated. Gone was the smug prisoner who had taunted Jamie and the others during every interrogation. He'd lost. It seemed as though the man had aged ten years in a span of seconds.

Next to Campbell stood Alison, shivering visibly. Jamie let go of Gareth and stepped up to her. She wobbled slightly, and seemed dangerously close to losing her balance as she looked down at him.

Are you okay?
Jamie stretched his paw out in her direction, just in case she needed to steady herself.

I don't know,
she responded, pressing her lips together tightly. This was a lot to take in. As much as Jamie and she had shared over the past couple of days, he hadn’t transformed in front of her before.

She looked over at Gareth and her dad and tears started to stream down her face.

"I fucking knew it!" Gareth hissed at Alison, attempting to get up. Heidi pushed him back down with her front paws. "You filthy whore!"

"Watch it," Campbell interjected.

"No, Dad! Enough! While you've been rotting away in this building, your favorite over there has been screwing the enemy!" Gareth groaned as Heidi shifted more of her weight onto his upper torso.

"That can't be. Alison, tell him he's wrong. Whatever you did, you were just doing your job, right?"

Jamie glanced around the room at everyone. Despite being in animal form, their expressions were clear as day. Surprise. Shock. Anger. This was bad.

"That's enough. Let's get them out of here." Jamie attempted to regain control of the situation.

"The girl has been informing for us. She brought me in to coordinate the rescue," Aidan explained.

A few bears Jamie had never seen before exchanged looks, as though they weren't quite convinced by Aidan's words, but nobody argued back.

Heidi jumped into action first, nudging Gareth up and snapping at him when he tried to turn around.

"You're going to pay for this," Gareth growled, while he was forced out of the door.

Reluctantly, Kyle followed suit and got his prisoner up as well, herding him out the room behind Heidi.

One after the other, the guys from the Alliance Council secured the Sons members, using heavy cable-ties as stand-in handcuffs and placing cloth bags over their heads. Jamie stayed behind with Alison and watched them as they led prisoner after prisoner from the room.

When the room was largely empty, a familiar human face entered. Adrian Blacke, wearing one of his trademark black three-piece suits. No doubt he thought his outfits made him look more authoritative.

"I don't have to tell you that we expect a detailed report of what went wrong here," he said to Jamie.

Blacke turned and scrutinized Alison from head to toe. "I suppose thanks are in order for your role in the rescue."

She nodded, but didn't say a word.

"I probably don't need to tell you that what you've seen here today is strictly confidential. Your loyalty will be rewarded. Similarly, if we find that you've breached that confidentiality, there will be consequences."

Jamie glared at Blacke, but quickly reined in his distaste for the man when he turned to face Jamie. "You'll monitor the situation, Abbott. And that report. Monday at the latest, understand?"

Jamie nodded. "Yes, sir."

Blacke stared at him a bit too long for comfort. Aidan and Heidi knowing about Alison were fine, but enough. Even if they disapproved, they wouldn't say a word. Kyle would probably remain loyal as well, but Blacke was dangerous. Jamie had to make sure he never found out the truth about him and Alison.

Who the hell was that?
Alison wondered.

Alliance council member,
Jamie responded.
Uptight bastard.

They watched as Adrian Blacke left the room again, leaving the two of them alone. His footsteps faded as he walked down the hall, and back up the stairs where he had originally come from.

I'm sorry it turned out like this,
Jamie thought.

No. I'm sorry. I have to conclude that Gareth followed me and I led him right to you.
Alison turned to face Jamie again. Her eyes were still moist from crying earlier, causing her lashes to stick together.

He wanted to hold her, tell her it was all going to be okay. But it wasn't. She'd lost her family today.

Jamie listened for any sounds, but the basement was completely quiet. They were on their own for now.

I'm equally responsible. He could have found this place by following me as well,
Jamie thought.

Are they going to hurt them?
Alison wondered.

Jamie had no answer. He and his team had never tortured the prisoners, just used basic interrogation techniques to encourage them to talk. Unfortunately Jamie had no way of knowing the lengths Blacke would go to if he thought it could help him extract information.

I'm sorry.
Jamie closed his eyes and transformed back into his human self. He wrapped his arms around Alison, who melted into his embrace.

What had started off as an impossible situation for his team had been turned around into a victory. But Alison's loss made it feel hollow.

"I'm so glad you're okay. All morning I've felt like I had this black cloud following me around. Like something terrible was going to happen to you," Alison whispered.

"Really sorry about your dad and brother," Jamie responded, caressing her hair.

She didn't respond straightaway.

"I guess now we're even, huh? A brother for a brother."

Alison's inner turmoil tugged at Jamie's heart. He'd never wanted to get even. All he'd wished for, even after finding out her identity, was to make her happy. Right now that was clearly an impossibility, but maybe one day he'd get another chance.

"Let's go," she mumbled. "You ought to wear something, or people will talk."

Jamie forced a smile. "Don't worry. Nudity isn't as much of a taboo among shifters as it is among humans."

"Uh-huh." Alison wrapped her arms around herself and followed Jamie out of the room.

With a bit of luck, Blacke and his people would have already left, leaving Jamie free to deal only with his own team.

Alison caught up with Jamie as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Nudity might not be a big deal for him and his people, but if she kept watching his naked behind for much longer, her physical reaction to him would definitely make things awkward in front of the others.

"Aidan knows," Jamie remarked, as he glanced over at her.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I had to tell him, or he would have never trusted me," Alison explained.

Jamie rested his hand on her shoulder. His hand felt so warm, almost feverish as it burned into her through her clothes. "That's fine. Don't worry about it."

Alison closed her eyes for a moment. She’d felt so torn between the two aspects of herself when everything went down that it had brought tears to her eyes. Deep down she knew she'd done the right thing, but it didn’t make things much easier. She took another few steps with Jamie following closely behind.

"Did you know he's with the girl, what's her name? The one Gareth abducted," Alison remarked.

"Heidi? Yeah, I had guessed as much, though neither of them were willing to openly talk about it."

"Why's that?" Alison paused at the top of the stairs, nervous about facing everyone again, so their ongoing conversation was a convenient excuse to delay the inevitable.

"He's a bear, she's a wolf. It's complicated."

"Funny. I would have never thought you guys had issues like that within your ranks."

Jamie smiled at her. "We're a complicated bunch. Anyway – let’s go in."

Alison took a deep breath.
Here goes nothing.

Jamie pushed the door open and Alison flinched at the horrible noise it made.