Blood Instinct (16 page)

The female lycan lowered her gaze, her lower lip trembling, her eyes awash with tears – eyes that eventually locked on Sophia’s as she cried with her.

And seemingly wanting a feminine touch more than anything else right then, Zeena fell into her arms, Sophia gently stroking her hair, reminding herself just how lucky she was to have her sisters.

J
ask hadn’t expected
to find Zeena being comforted in Sophia’s arms when he emerged from the room. Not that he wouldn’t have expected Sophia to offer it – he just wouldn’t have expected Zeena to accept it.

The scene reminded him of Ellen – always there for the pack, always there to step into Jask’s boots when he wasn’t around. Because she would have been there by Zeena’s side too. Whatever else was going on, she would have been there.

But as much as he loved Sophia, he’d never envisaged her being able to fulfil that role. As much as she’d been accepted into the pack, being seen as the alpha female was too significant a long shot – Jask’s mate or not.

At that moment though, it no longer seemed like such an impossibility.

All the times he’d felt frustration coiling in his chest at Sophia’s immaturity, her outbursts, her strops and defiance, her quick mouth and equally quick temper, faded away. It was as if she had matured before his eyes into something she once was long before he knew her; someone she’d been destined to be.

Zeena met his gaze, her face scrunching up in agony again.

Keeping a grip on Sophia, she pulled her up with her, brushing past Jask as she stumbled into the containment room.

But Sophia wasn’t Ellen. And this was the moment he dreaded the difference.

Feeling that surge of panic as he teetered on the prospect of losing her, he blocked her way.

Sophia’s gaze locked on his as if desperately trying to read why he was stopping her. She wasn’t the only one who turned mute when it mattered most though.

But as Zeena’s screams from within the cell forced Jask’s eyes shut for a moment, Sophia pushed past him to join her.

He stepped out into the corridor. He cupped his hands over his face. Because if Sophia was going to continue to grow with his pack, then she was going to have to see what truly lay beneath.

What lay beneath them all. What lay beneath him.

It wasn’t the way he would have chosen – not that there was an easy way to reveal their lycanthropy. But he’d soon know if she was ever going to look at him the same way again; if she could see beyond what would forever be imprinted on her mind after confronting a morphed lycan for the very first time.

Less than a minute later, he felt the rush of a breeze as Sophia swept past him, all but running back up the corridor.

His heart plummeted. Threatened to smash into irreparable fragments on the floor.

He glanced at Corbin to be met with a nod – he could handle the rest of it from there.

As Sophia turned the keys and tugged back the bolts on the door, Jask pursued her through the door, up the corridor, up the next set of steps and across the entrance hall.

She yanked open the door to the courtyard and took a sharp right around the corner of the outbuilding.

Stepping into the cool night air, he gave her a moment of privacy as he heard her throwing up. Throwing up to the point she was dry retching.

He leaned back against the wall for support, his chest aching at her clear repulsion. But he knew he had to face her. He’d brought her there, and he had to deal with the aftermath.

He heard the squeak of the outside tap, the flow of water hitting soil.

When all fell silent, he stepped around the corner to see her back to him, her arms wrapped around herself, her head lowered.

He felt sick to his gut, his heart breaking at what he thought he would see in her eyes when she turned around again.

Fear.

Disgust.

Maybe even one defining conclusion: that the myth, the propaganda, was right. That beneath the human-like exterior, lycans were nothing but freaks of nature.

Sensing his presence, she turned her head slightly. But she didn’t need to look to know it was him – she had developed a second sense for him as much as he had for her.

She looked ahead again. Her arms fell loosely to her sides but her hands remained clenched.

‘Is that how it is?’ she asked. ‘For you all? Is that how you look when it happens?’

‘Our morphing is as unique as individual body shapes. But, yes, basically.’ He hesitated. ‘Not quite the beautiful majestic wolf that legends dictate in order to make picture books prettier and our condition more palatable. Except for alphas. Alphas have more of the characteristics – and it strengthens with practice.’

He held his breath as she turned to face him fully.

But there was no repulsion in her eyes, no fear either as she raked her gaze slowly over him. ‘I couldn’t have done it – what you did. What you did for Quinn.’

‘I had no choice.’

She closed the gap between them, reinforcing her lack of fear.

And as she wrapped her arms around him, his breath snagged. He wrapped one arm around the small of her back, the other on the back of her head, holding her so close he could have melded their bodies together, his throat clogged with relief-fuelled tears.

But too soon she pulled back, her troubled brown eyes searching his.

‘Is that what I’m inciting in you, Jask? By us being together, is that what I’m doing to you? Could I
kill
you?’

‘It’s different for alphas.’

‘How?’

Her eyes were damp as they held his, but they were equally unrelenting in her need for answers.

‘There’s no risk of morphing killing me. It’s painful. It’s unpleasant. But I’m safe with it. It’s what we do. Alphas can eventually learn to cope without the dose. The dose holds me back from morphing involuntarily, but I can still make it happen if I choose.’

‘Is this why you brought me here?’

‘I wasn’t going to. But it would be unfair not to broach this now. It would be unfair for you not to have the full picture. For you to know whether you’ll be able to see beyond it.’

She exhaled tersely. ‘Jask, you can show me all the morphed lycans you want – it won’t change how I feel about you.
Nothing
would make me love you less.’

A
s a tear trickled
down his cheek, her heart broke a little more.

She cupped his jaw, kissing him once and then twice on the lips.

He reached out without hesitation, both his hands sliding back through her hair as he reciprocated, the strength she felt exuding from him a contrast to the vulnerability in his eyes that made him all the more enchanting.

But she wasn’t having him feel that self-doubt. She stroked his cheek and gazed deep into his eyes, needing him to believe her. ‘I don’t think I could love you more right now. How could I not? What you did in there…’

‘Is my job as this pack’s alpha.’

‘I know it was more than that. And the more I discover about you, the more I find to love. And I despise myself for, only a week ago, turning the corner of this very building and giving you such a despicable mouthful about what you are. I feel so much shame – even more so having seen what I just did.’

He broke a smile. ‘You certainly had a lot to say for yourself.’

‘How did you tolerate it, Jask?’

‘Because I needed you alive. And because maybe I
can
lick my own balls.’

She laughed amidst her embarrassment – not only because he’d thrown her previous accusation back at her, but because he’d remembered it. ‘That was the only reason?’

He smiled, first a closed-lip smile, then he gave her a flash of his canines. ‘As you well know, I’ve always liked a challenge.’

‘Well, you’ve certainly got those in droves taking me on.’

He placed his fingers under her chin and gazed into her eyes. ‘And now maybe you’ll understand why I love
you
regardless.’

She almost relented. Looking him in the eyes, she almost said that she was willing to reconsider Leila’s offer. But the words snagged in her throat. Words that remained snagged as she heard the vibration of his phone.

She saw his reluctance to respond. ‘Get it,’ she said.

The message echoed down the phone as he answered.

‘Jask,’ she heard Kane say. ‘We’ve got one.’

T
hey’d certainly picked
a place for maximum visibility.

Jask headed through the storage yard, scanning the vampires on lookout on top of the containers.

Kane stood outside one, exhaling a steady stream of smoke into the night air. He cast his cigarette to the ground as Jask drew level and opened the door for him to enter.

Eden stood at three crates shoved together to create a makeshift table, a black uniform and helmet laid out on the surface.

‘What have we got?’ Jask asked as Kane closed the door behind him.

‘It’s as bad as I thought,’ Eden said. ‘When I said they’d ploughed extra funds into the technology, that’s an understatement. Compared with what they send us out in, it’s streets ahead. The uniform looks flexible, it looks delicate, but it’s impenetrable. If we
have
got a superhuman army on our tail, we’ve basically got bodies of steel behind steel.’

It was the last news any of them needed.

‘You brought one down though,’ Jask said.

‘But it took some coordination – me distracting them and getting them into position and Kane being such a good shot.’ He flipped the uniform over. ‘But I was right about the weak spots. We used my glove theory to capture this one, but we know for sure now that there are weak points behind the knees and under the arms.’

‘So that’s where we strike.’

‘Unfortunately the uniform comes with a few other additions too,’ Eden said. ‘It has the standard protective silver-plated collar but it’s also lined with silver particles throughout. They may be tiny, but I’m guessing they’re enough to cause you guys a problem should they manage to pin you to a surface somewhere. And if any of your pack scratch through it, Jask, we’re talking serious burns.’

Eden reached for the helmet.

‘The helmet is modified too, as I suspected. It has all the heat sensors, mapping skills, motion sensors, et cetera of the original, but this little beauty can even detect through walls. They basically have complete three-sixty vision across a thirty-foot radius at least. There’s absolutely no hiding from these guys. As for the armoury,’ he said, lifting the gun from the table, ‘we’re talking garlic-infused bullets, silver-infused bullets’—he glanced knowingly at Kane—‘hemlock-infused bullets.’

‘And for the cherry on the cake,’ Kane said, ‘we can’t even smell them coming.’

‘
Scent-proof
clothing?’ Jask asked.

‘I don’t know how the fuck they’ve done it, but it’s no wonder your pack didn’t stand a chance,’ Eden declared. ‘Sirius is playing dirty, Jask. He’s playing to win.’

‘Distance attacks,’ Kane said. ‘We can’t risk getting close to them. But that’s going to make hitting those sweet spots even tougher.’

Jask reached for the glove, his fingers tingling even just touching it. He dropped it instantly, looking back from Eden to Kane. ‘Is the one you caught still alive?’

Kane cocked his head back towards the door, then led Jask two containers down and pulled the door open.

The soldier stood in his skintight bodysuit, the added layer worn beneath the uniform, his hands and ankles manacled to the chair that was screwed into the ground.

Jask’s hands tightened to fists, knowing this might very well be one of the soldiers who’d invaded his compound. Who’d stolen his young.

‘Once I’m convinced he’s not chipped, we’ll relocate him back to the bunker for questioning,’ Eden said.

‘Where’s he likely to have it?’ Jask asked.

‘Could be anywhere.’ Eden folded his arms. ‘It’ll be better for him if he tells me.’

The soldier’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenching.

Eden shrugged. ‘But no more than a centimetre below the skin’s surface.’ He looked at Jask for effect. ‘You ever seen the state of a field after an excavation for treasure?’

‘Fuck you,’ the soldier snapped.

Jask stepped up to him but not close enough to give him the satisfaction of entering what would inevitably be spitting distance. He glared deep into the soldier’s eyes, but he said nothing. At that point, he had nothing to say.

He turned around and made his way back outside.

‘Skulk around all you want,’ the soldier called after them. ‘All you third-species mutants are fucking dead. Blackthorn is finished.’

And he laughed. A laugh that grated through every inch of Jask.

Kane slammed the door before stepping alongside him, Eden close behind.

‘We need to know where they’re based,’ Jask said.

‘I can get back in my uniform,’ Eden said. ‘I reckon I can tune into whatever frequency they’re on and try and find out what orders they’re under.’

‘You can do that?’

‘If the system’s what it’s always been. I disconnected it to get Leila out but I should be able to reinstate it.’

‘You’ve done that before?’

‘Countless times. Sex god
and
geek: it’s what makes me so irresistible.’ He flipped a mint over in his mouth. ‘Oh, and I suggest we stay off communications anywhere near them. That lessens the chances of them tuning into our frequencies too.’

‘Are you sure the bunker will be safe?’ Jask asked.

‘I’d take him down there now. Bugs or not, nothing but supersonic frequencies can pass through those depths. I don’t want to risk leaving a trail, though.’

‘We need to find that base.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Kane said. ‘I’ll get what we need to know out of him soon enough.’

T
he corrugated metal
door to the compound was open. The corridor ahead lay empty.

Rob led his team down to the outer room before making his way through the tunnel and out into the quadrant.

It was unsettlingly still beyond, the breeze whipping through the grass, the windows of the abandoned hotel glinting darkly.

The last time they’d stormed this place, they’d sent the lycans running in all directions. They’d broken in with meticulous precision and speed, having spent two days solid working as a team to know what they were going to do and where.

And they’d executed their plan perfectly. They’d rounded up as many of the vulnerable as they could, using them to fend off those who retaliated, whilst other pack members had tried to get the young across the green and into the outhouse.

Leaving the first half of his team to open fire, he’d led the rest in pursuit of the young he’d been sent to collect.

It had been the perfect plan. It had also generated the ultimate rush, like nothing he’d ever known – hearing their screams, their protests; having the pack running with their tails between their legs as they’d fought hard to defend their runts.

It had been futile – but the pack hadn’t given up easily.

He’d taken hold of one of the lycans trying to protect the young, dragging the young male kicking and screaming past one door and then the next, until he’d almost walked past the altar inside.

It had been too apt. Too apt not to leave the calling card for when Jask got back.

He’d started the beating, relishing every blow. At first, the young male had stared back at him in silent defiance, but Rob had ensured that didn’t last long. Because one thing he couldn’t tolerate was defiance. He couldn’t tolerate defiance any more than he could tolerate arrogance – and that lycan had both of those in droves.

Once he’d made his point, his foot and fist having pounded the lycan enough for his own sating, his own entertainment, Rob had walked away, leaving his team to finish the job.

He’d walked away to the sound of flesh being pounded as he’d made his way back up the corridor, hearing the lycan’s eventual cries for mercy just as he’d reached the last door.

And he’d smiled to himself – because they all broke in the end.

Now Rob stared down at the mounds of earth lined up on the quadrant green – thirty in total. ‘Aww, looks like lycans have funerals too. How sweet.’

Through his helmet, his visor, he scanned the windows again.

‘Pay your respects to one of them,’ he said, glancing back at Maloney, who stood beside him.

‘Sir?’ Maloney’s voice echoed back down the speaker in his helmet.

‘One of the little ones,’ he responded. ‘Whip it out, boy – you’re not usually so reluctant.’

Rob looked back up at the windows. If there was anyone watching, this would evoke a reaction.

He listened to the sound of Maloney urinating on the small grave, waiting to see if anything happened, but the compound remained perfectly still. Perfectly silent. Abandoned, just as Sirius had advised him.

But they had to be somewhere. He only needed one – just one – to get the information he needed.

He gave the signal for his team to split up – to head into the building, the grounds at the back.

Rob headed across the quadrant, motioning for two of his men to check out the pool area on his way past it to the tunnel.

His team spread out to scope the courtyard, a couple more following him into the outbuilding. He pushed open the heavy door, scanning the entrance within. The room directly ahead lay empty, the corridor running parallel to his right the same.

He headed down the steps he’d dragged one of the young up, kicking and screaming in the bag he’d bound her in, her arms and legs flailing for freedom as she’d struggled in a way that was admirable for such a little kid.

He peered into each room he passed before progressing on to the next. He was getting the same message after message through his speaker. All clear.

He stepped up to the iron door at the end, and ran his fingers down the edge of it. The door to the cells. The cells where they had tried to run with the young.

Except now it was sealed.