Rise to Submit [Rise of the Changelings, Book 4] (Siren Publishing Epic Romance, ManLove) (31 page)

Ian bucked, holding on tight as Mason used Ian’s body to slam down onto his cock. He wanted his own release. He wanted his seed inside his mate, letting everyone who could scent such subtleties know that Ian was his.

He could feel his eyes shifting, glowing as he suckled at Ian’s neck. The taste was ambrosia. It was like nothing he had ever tasted before. He had bitten Ian once before, but this was different. They were bonding, Ian giving himself so willingly to Mason.

He pulled his canines free, licking at the wound and then threw his head back and shouted with his release.

Ian clung to him, petting Mason through his climax, whispering into Mason’s ear over and over again that he loved him.

Mason held on to Ian, long after the fracturing orgasm had subsided. He never wanted to let the man go.

“You’ll come back to me,” Ian said softly. “I know you won’t leave me alone.”

Mason closed his eyes and prayed the man was right. He prayed all of this was worth it. He hated this war, hated his father, hated Rick’s father for starting it all.

But what he hated the most was departing at first light and leaving the one man who was his entire world behind.

Rick stood in the canyon and stared at the head of each Rebellion group. There were twenty in all, which meant he had roughly two hundred men and women ready to go into battle with him.

But Freedman’s warning rang clear in his mind as he stared at Loki, alpha of the weretigers in Colorado. He hadn’t heard from Freedman yet, and had no clue if the man had succeeded in saving his friend.

Nate had shown up in the wee hours of the morning, Selene at his side. His two top enforcers now stood next to him as Rick glanced around at each and every person. “Our main goal is to free as many changelings as we can from the detention center. This will be a hard-driven fight, and some may lose their lives”

He didn’t know most of the people standing here with him, but he knew a majority of them would stand down when he went after Loki’s traitorous throat. If any interfered, Rick had no doubt Nate and Selene would take them out.

“But there is one problem with our plan,” Rick continued.

The men and women glanced all around at each other and then turned back to Rick. “What is the problem?” a female werecougar asked with hard pride in her voice. “We have plotted and planned, thinking of every possible move our enemy could make.”

Nate and Selene moved closer, stepping close to his flank.

“The problem is that we have a traitor among us. Someone has sold us out to changeling mercenaries.” Rick spat the last two words as if they were a vile thing in his mouth. “It is bad enough that our own species has agreed to kill us for profit, but now one of the head Rebellions has sold us out.”

There were loud growls and yowls all around. The female who had spoken stepped forward. “Tell us who this person is so we can make him or her an example to all who think they can betray us.”

That was what Rick wanted to hear. He needed to know exactly who he had on his side before he attacked. Rick walked through the small gathering and stopped in front of Loki. Rick’s gaze was penetrating. Loki stared right back, his eyes so cold that it could have turned the surrounding area into the Northern Tundra. “You are accusing me of being a traitor?” His words were clipped, offensive, but Rick knew the tone for the act that it was.

“Tell me, Loki. You said you had our backs back in Colorado, yet a truck full of Breed Hunters showed up not less than two minutes after you pulled away. How is that?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Loki snapped.

“Where is Henderson?” Rick snarled his question. “Why has he called and warned us that you sold us out to mercenaries?” Rick prayed that Freedman had found the man. If not, Rick had just outed his source.

Loki gave a long, mocking laugh. “I told you he suffered head injuries. He wasn’t even aware of who you men were when we came to the safe house. Why would he deny his own best friend if he remembered?”

Rick stepped closer, snarling at Loki. “Because he had already found out your plan to hand us over like animals!”

In the blink of an eye, Loki shifted into his tiger form, roaring before leaping onto Rick. His claws were large, thick, and lethal, but Rick had anticipated this move. Before Loki could strike, Rick had shifted, jumping out of the way.

Nate and Selene held the others back, a deadly warning in their eyes.

Loki swatted his massive paw in the air, bending his shoulders to the ground in warning. The man was getting ready to attack. Rick was in his third form, taller than everyone around him, and thicker than even Loki in his beast form. His neck was three times the size of his normal neck, and his claws were just as lethal. Rick bent his body forward, giving a loud roar himself.

Loki’s eyes narrowed as he circled around Rick, his steps measured, his movements calculating. “Are we to be ambushed out here?” Rick asked as his steps matched every one of the tiger’s. “Or are we to be ambushed at the detention center?”

Loki roared.

“You’re a fucking coward!” Rick raced forward, tackling the tiger, both rolling head over heel. Loki’s body was massive, but Rick was determined to kill the changeling who had betrayed them. “You are changeling.” Rick dug his claws deep into the tiger’s shoulder. “You should be proud and stand tall next to us.” Loki rolled over, Rick’s claws slipping free. He stood and then went after the male tiger again. “Instead you come from behind and embed the knife of betrayal into all of our backs.”

Loki used his enormous paws to knock Rick back. He tried to clamp down on Rick’s head, to apply pressure and crush his skull, but Rick’s head was too vast for the planned attack. Loki’s jaws couldn’t open that wide.

But it left his underbelly vulnerable.

Rick sunk both clawed hands into Loki’s soft underflesh, twisting his wrists and using massive strength to pull the tiger’s vital organs free.

Loki collapsed at Rick’s feet, his body unmoving.

Rick stood over him, feeling the bite of betrayal. It shouldn’t amaze him how anyone could betray their own kind, not after the many betrayals he had already witnessed firsthand, but it did.

Rick turned, staring at the other men and women around him. “We need to head out.”

“But this is a setup, an ambush,” one of the men said. “We are walking into our own deaths.”

“Then fucking stay behind,” he snarled. “I’m not letting our brethren suffer any longer just because I know our enemy is waiting on us.” Rick glanced all around him. “There are changelings sitting in the dark somewhere, praying to be rescued, holding out one more day, one more hour, in hopes that they will breathe fresh air once more. Are any of you going to turn your backs and allow them to die with that one last bit of faith residing inside of them?”

The female cougar stepped forward, dropped to one knee, and bowed her head. “I will give my last breath to save all that I can.”

One by one, the others dropped to one knee, bowing their heads, and giving the same pledge. Rick stood there, feeling the pride of his species well up inside of him. For a moment he was too choked to speak. He was witnessing something he had never thought to see—unity among all breeds, a rock-solid commitment to help those who were strangers to them.

Rick made a promise to himself in that solemn moment. He was going to make sure all changelings, no matter what breed, continued to live as one unified species. No longer would there be barriers between them just because they were not the same beast. No longer would he watch them kill each other over land and differences.

“Let us head out and save those who we can,” Rick finally spoke, but not without a hard lump in his throat. “We attack as planned. We drive our enemy back, and we show them that we will not die silently and without a fight.”

Rick turned and made his way back to his vehicle. Dorian was waiting for him, his eyes shining with pride as Rick approached.

“Ready?” he asked.

Rick hated that his mate was coming, but there had been no dissuading the man. He had reminded Rick that he was there from the beginning, and he would be there until the very end. Rick gave a tight nod as he climbed into the driver’s seat. But before Dorian could buckle himself into the passenger’s side, Rick pulled him close and kissed the man, pouring all of his emotions and his fears into that one stroke of their lips. There was so much he wanted to say, to tell his mate, but knew there wasn’t enough time in the world to express how much the man meant to him.

He pulled away and started the Suburban, heading toward the detention center and what could be his death.

About a mile from the center, Rick, along with the other Rebellions, pulled off the side of the road, parking. They would go on foot from here. Trees littered the landscape, but not enough to give them sufficient cover.

The humans would see them coming. Rick knew this. There was no other way to go in. They would storm the place, overrun the humans, and free the men and women trapped behind the cold walls of experimentation.

Rick suited up, along with Dorian. He strapped guns to his thighs, pulled on a shoulder holster, and grabbed the M249 SAW rifle from the back of the truck. Freedman had given it to him. He had given Rick a string of chemical tracer round bullets and told him that the bullets glowed every third round so he could see where his bullets were hitting. He also told Rick they were 5.56 mm. Hell if Rick knew what that meant.

He had been a district manager before all of this, not a soldier. He trusted Freedman, so Rick slammed the hatch closed and walked around the side of his truck.

When everyone was ready, they began their trek. Seeing the group as a whole amazed him. The number of men and women determined to fight for their kind hit Rick hard in his chest. There should have been more, a lot more, but he was grateful for those who had answered his call.

Rick slowed his pace as they drew near. His heart began to thunder behind his chest when he saw the tanks—fucking
tanks
—sitting in all in a row, their guns aimed in the Rebellions’ direction.

“Holy fuck,” Dorian whispered.

Rick turned grabbing Dorian’s arm, stopping him in his tracks. “Get back to the truck!”

Dorian wrenched his arm free, giving Rick a glare made of steel. “If you fight, I fight. I’m not backing down, Rick. I’m at your side, no matter the odds. We’re in this together,”—Dorian’s voice dropped to a whisper—“until the very end.”

Rick grabbed Dorian by the back of his neck, his grip hard, feeling his stomach turn over in knots as his chest constricted. “I can’t watch you die,
gatito
. I’m not strong enough to watch you die.”

“Then I’ll make sure that I don’t.”

Rick smashed his mouth onto Dorian’s, stealing one last kiss. He could feel the tears threatening to spill as he let his mate go.

“Ready?” Nate asked from beside him, and Rick could hear the slight fear in the man’s voice.

Rick nodded. “Ready.”

They were about two hundred yards out. The enemy was silent, unmoving, but Rick knew they were there. He could feel their presence like a disease as it crawled over him.

They moved forward in one solid unit.

Chaos erupted. Humans exploded from the building, through doors, on the roof, from behind the tanks, firing their weapons. Rick pressed the butt of his rifle hard against his shoulder and returned fire as they raced to close the distance. Men and women fell all around him, but they pressed on.

A loud explosion sounded.

A tank had fired.

But Rick kept going, listening to the deafening sound of his rifle fire at the enemy as they stormed the detention center.

It had been a trap. The enemy had been waiting.

Dorian had his gun in his hand, aiming, firing, and then running forward. Rick was both proud and downright terrified. He had to push thoughts of losing his mate aside and focus.

Nate shouldered the AT4 and fired the rocket launcher, the side of the building crumbling. He had just given them their way in.

Rick ran through the smoke and crumbling debris, glancing around and then taking off down one hallway, Dorian, Nate, and Selene right behind him.

Soldiers came at him.

Not guards.

Soldiers.

Rick aimed, firing one round at a time now, watching as the bullet glowed before hitting its mark. Rebellion groups poured in behind him and took off, going after the captured. Rick stayed where he was, holding off as many as he could.

His mind was focused. He was calm. Rick knew what he had to do and kept all other thoughts at bay. He had a purpose, a goal, and he was going to make sure as many left this place as possible.

“Having fun without me?”

Rick was shocked to hear a voice he hadn’t heard in months beside him, but he didn’t lose focus. “How in the hell did you find me, Ross?”

The human who was the first sympathizer to help Rick on his journey laughed. “I keep my ear to the wire.”

Rick smiled and then shot a human who had spun around from a corner.

“But I didn’t come alone,” Ross said. “I brought help.”