Saved by Wolves (Shifters Meet Their Mate Book 1) (22 page)

She shook her head. “Jackson before me.”

Jackson huffed at her, but she crossed her arms. “I’m not going until you do. Let Quinn help you.”

He huffed again and backed up, then ran at the fence, legs stretching, and jumped. Drops of blood sprayed the air, but he made it over in one piece. The tiger followed on his heels. Kirra sighed in relief and stepped forward, into Quinn’s arms. Blinding light suddenly seared her eyes, making her pause and squint to the right.

“Freeze!”

The shout came from one of three massive jeeps that were barreling down on them, mounted spotlights beaming. They bristled with armed men. At least half of them had weapons trained on her, Quinn, and Lash. The rest aimed at the fence. Kirra risked a glance out of the corner of her eye and saw Daisy and Francesca were nowhere to be seen. Thank goodness.

A lean man got out of the passenger side of the lead vehicle and stared at her, smoothing down his crisply ironed uniform and tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves. Just the sight of him sent a flash of fury and fear through her. Lokston.

“So you’re the one behind the fireworks tonight,” he said, casting a negligent glance at the fire surging all around. Somehow it had spread from the main building to several of the others. If the firefighters didn’t arrive soon, there’d be nothing left but cracked concrete and charred wood. “I should have known. You and your sister were always more trouble than you were worth.”

“You should have left us alone,” Kirra said.

“You know we couldn’t do that. And really, you had to expect we’d find you after your sister was in the hospital. Such an elementary mistake. One might think you wanted to be found.”

Hospital? Mistake? Of course. The missing link clicked in place. Francesca had broken her leg when a kid on a bike had run into her, and she’d landed at a bad angle, under the bike. She’d been rushed to the hospital, and they must have run blood tests on her.

Blackstone monitored blood banks. They’d always known that. It wasn’t a stretch to think they’d tapped into hospital labs all across the country. Kirra wanted to kick herself. They should have pulled up stakes and moved right after the accident.

Her sight grew dim. All she could see was the smirk playing on Lokston’s lips. Taunting her. Kirra reached back to grab her gun. A hand blocked her, and she turned to snap at Lash, who’d snuck up behind her. He shook his head at her, trying to signal something with his eyes, and took the gun himself.

Lokston’s gaze, which had merely skimmed over the others at first, went back to Lash, and his brow furrowed.

“You look familiar, but you’re not one of the...” His brow cleared. “You’re Vincent’s boy, aren’t you? Look exactly like him. Won’t he be interested that you’re sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Lash’s face went slack, and Kirra almost felt sorry for him. She had no idea who her father was—saint or sinner—but at least she had no illusions to be crushed. Up until Lokston recognized him, she was sure Lash still believed his father was innocent. Betrayal was a hard thing to accept.

Steely-eyed determination washed away the confusion, and Lash stepped forward, the fingers of his free hand morphing into razor-sharp claws, drawing Lokston’s attention. The gun rode at the small of his back. “Whatever sick deal you have with my father is over.” He flicked his eyes at Quinn, his lips thinned, and he looked back at Lokston. His next words came out rough. “Cats do not betray their own. You’re done.”

Lokston shrugged a shoulder and smiled. “I don’t think so, boy. As I told her lovely sister, we were planning to leave this facility anyway. You did us a favor—we’ll be able to collect millions in insurance, and it’ll all go toward the other facilities. I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that, as you’ll be spending a lot of time there.” He nodded at the soldiers who’d lined up on either side of him, waiting for orders. “Bring her in.” He looked at Kirra. “You resist and my men will have no problem turning your friends into swiss cheese.”

Against every fiber of her being, but not knowing what else to do, Kirra raised her hands and waited as the soldiers approached.

“Run!” Lash yelled, leaping straight for Lokston, gun extended, face shifting as he attacked.

They opened fire, and bullets whizzed.

Something slammed into her from the side, twisting her body, and Kirra waited for pain to hit, thinking she’d been shot. Then she was flying through the air, head down. Razor-wire flashed by inches from her fingertips.

They landed with a bone-rattling thud, but Quinn didn’t let up. From her position, Kirra saw Jackson and Kelvin pacing them. Bullets hit the ground, kicking up clods of dirt around them, then they were in the cover of the trees.

Shuddering to a halt, Quinn dropped her to the ground by a large oak. “Stay behind the tree,” he ordered.

Marcus was by her side in an instant, running his hands over her. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. They’ll be right behind us, though.” She wanted to ask about Lash, but was afraid of the answer. He’d headed straight into the bullets...

“Shift,” Quinn said. “It’ll be faster that way.” He disappeared deeper into the woods, following his brother.

Marcus tore off his clothes and shifted. It was the fastest shift she’d ever seen. Finished, he stood and waited while she climbed onto his broad back. Kirra wrapped her arms loosely around his thick neck and gripped his sides with her knees for balance.

She felt his muscles bunch under her, and with a powerful heave, he ran. Kirra buried her face in his warm, soft fur and let weeks’ worth of tears flow.

M
arcus dug his claws into the loose earth of a hillside and surged up its side, fighting to keep his balance. Kirra wasn’t heavy, but having her arms locked around his neck and her feet bumping against his sides with every step made running awkward. When he’d dreamed of having her wrapped around him for hours, he’d been picturing something else entirely.

“I haven’t heard anything for at least an hour,” Kirra whispered in his ear. “Do you think we lost them?”

He did, and the others must have thought so, too, as they had already pulled up at the side of a stream at the base of the hill. Kirra slid off his back and went the last few steps on her own, a bit wobbly on her feet.

Seeing Quinn had already shifted back to human form, Marcus did as well. It would have been easier to stay in Wolf form, but if decisions were being made, he wanted to have a say.

A pair of sweatpants hit him in the face while he was still crouching, getting his breath. “You might want to put those on,” Ash advised. “Humans are weird about nakedness.” At Marcus’s questioning look, he said, “I grabbed the packs on the way out. Figured we might need the supplies.”

“How are the others?” Marcus asked.

As if in answer, two eagles and a hawk swooped down and circled around his head, dipping their wings in a greeting before winging off to the west.

“They’re not coming with us?” Marcus asked, watching them glide away.

“No, they want to get home to their clan. The Bear went too. And I can’t blame them. They were kept captive for years.” Ash leaned against a young sapling that bowed under his weight and let his head drop back. “Others escaped as well. I’m not sure how many. At least two human women—I told them to come with me, but they ran the other way.” He ran a hand over his face. “They were terrified. I can’t believe we didn’t see it. All those disappearances...”

Dressed, Marcus claimed a flat rock as a seat. “There’s been a huge exodus of people going to Europe. We thought they were just a few more who didn’t bother to tell people—” Marcus cut himself off and shook his head. “No, that’s just an excuse. I don’t know about you, but I just didn’t pay attention. I was wrapped up in my own life and my own problems. It didn’t affect me directly, so I didn’t notice or care.”

Quinn, dressed in a pair of pants that smelled of Jackson, interrupted. “They planned it that way. They always took people who wouldn’t be missed—people with no family, troubled teens who’d already threatened to run away, or in our case, the whole family, so it looked as if we’d just moved.”

“We’ll have to make a list of everyone who’s moved or gone missing in the last ten—”

“Fifteen years,” Kirra corrected him, sinking down to sit at his side. She’d been talking to her sister, but was drawn over by their discussion. “There were shifters there when I was, remember?”

“Fifteen years.” The number was mind boggling. It made him sick to think about it. “We’ll make a list and try to track everyone down.”

“It’s not just from around here,” Quinn said. “From what I heard, they took shifters from all over the country, especially those living illegally in human lands. We’ll have to alert everyone.”

“What about the human government?” Ash asked. “Surely this is illegal even for them. Can’t we get them shut down and thrown in jail?”

Kirra shook her head and leaned heavily into Marcus’s side. He wrapped his arm around her. “Francesca and I tried that. Twice. We felt so guilty about leaving people behind—especially all the other kids they were experimenting on—that we went to the police when we first escaped, and then the FBI about five years ago. Both times they took our statement, but treated us as if we were crazy. We didn’t try a third time because we were afraid they’d institutionalize us. Plus, both times we went, we had to move and change identities because within weeks, Lokston’s men came sniffing around. They’re plugged into the law enforcement network somehow.”

Ash and Quinn kept debating what they should do. Jackson was lying beside the water. His sides heaved with each breath, and his eyes were closed, but he looked okay. He was healing quickly. Marcus hadn’t scented fresh blood for miles. Francesca rested with her back against a large boulder, leg propped up on a smaller rock. Kelvin, still in tiger form, bracketed her on one side while the computer hard drive was on the other. Faint lines creased her face, and Marcus wasn’t sure if they were from the stress of imprisonment, pain from her leg, or the focus that had to be required to carry a heavy object for miles using only her mind. Maybe all three.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“Francesca? She’s a lot stronger than she looks. She’ll be fine.” Kirra paused and looked down, studying her hands. “Marcus, did you see what happened to Lash? Did he...”

“He didn’t make it.”

“How did...”

“It was quick,” he said. There was no way he’d describe the dozens of bullets that had shredded Lash’s body.

Kirra gave a short nod, looking up, not really at him, but at something in the distance. “That’s what I thought.” Tears clouded her gentle eyes and her voice came out choked. “He died for me.”

And for that Marcus would always be thankful. It went a long way to washing away the animosity he had toward Lash and his previous actions. But he didn’t want Kirra feeling responsible for his death. “I don’t think he did it for you,” he said. “At least not only for you. He was feeling angry and betrayed by his father and wanted to right a wrong. He killed the leader before he went down.”

“Lokston? He killed Lokston?”

“I saw him go down.” With a slash across his face and another one across his belly. Again, he decided to keep the gory details to himself.

Kirra just nodded again. “I’ll have to tell Francesca,” she said.

“Kirra, what’s wrong? It’s terrible that Lash died, but he did kind of help trigger events. And everything else is good news, right? We got your sister, freed a bunch of others, and destroyed their building.”

“Yeah, but what now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Blackstone is still operating, which means there are still labs out there, which means there are probably still files on Francesca and me. We’ve moved so many times and been so many people over the years... I’m tired. I really don’t want to move to a new city and start over again.”

She was thinking of leaving? For some reason, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind.

“Stay here,” he blurted out. “With us—the pack.” With me.

She gave his arm a squeeze. “That’s sweet, but you know it’ll never happen. Your alpha voted to turn me over to the lab. And your sister hates me.”

“Serena hates anyone who’s not a Wolf, and even some of us aren’t immune. After we tell everyone what happened, you’ll be a hero.”

“But what would we do? I make my living on the internet—you guys don’t have electricity, never mind an internet connection. Plus, where exactly would we live? In the barracks you pointed out?”

With me, he wanted to yell. Live with me. Be my mate. Fear held his tongue, though, and he waited too long. Squeezing his upper arm a final time, she got to her feet. “I’m going to check on Jackson and Francesca.”

“Wow, you really blew that,” Quinn said.

Marcus looked up and saw he and Ash were staring at him, pity and amusement on their faces.

He watched Kirra lean over Jackson, checking his wounds. “I know,” he said.

––––––––

J
ackson left the meeting hall and took a deep breath of fresh air, consciously trying to let go of the frustration that had been building in him for hours. Inside, the debate still raged, as it had for the last three days.

After they’d made it back to Blue’s Hollow, with Francesca, Quinn, and Kelvin, but minus Lash, the community exploded. Vincent called foul play and swore they must have killed Lash to get back at him. Half the Cats backed him up and wanted all of them handed over for “justice.” The rest of them seemed to believe the tigers’ story, though, and called for an accounting from their alpha, demanding to know what had happened to the other missing people. He brushed aside their questions at first, then turned on them, asking if they wanted to challenge him. None of the Cats were strong enough to take him on, and all ended up bending their heads to him.

The morning of the second day, the eagles winged their way in to tell their story. Unfortunately, they didn’t know exactly how they’d been selected for capture, so they couldn’t back up the tigers’ claims. They did get the other alphas to agree that looking into all missing persons was a priority.