Shifter's Revenge (Alpha Lineage) (3 page)

Or that the damage she did could be undone. There wasn’t one cell in her body that could live without Maddox for the rest of her life.

After sitting in the room for about an hour, Gavin was getting frustrated with her non-answers. “Kera you have to work with us.” Gavin paced the small room. “We can’t do this without knowing who you were with.”

Kera shook her head. “I’m not giving that information up. You can torture me. I’ve been through the worse.”

Gavin’s eyes widened in shock. He pulled up the seat across from her and sat down. “You’re telling me these people tortured you?”

“No.”

“You said you’ve been through torture.”

“It wasn’t the people I’m protecting. It was rogue members.”

Gavin leaned back in his chair. “Members of what?”

“I can’t say.” Kera retorted coolly. She couldn’t give away Andrew and the others without outing Maddox and Jason. “It’s being handled.”

Gavin looked back at the one sided glass and nodded. He stood up and put his hands on the table. “You have to give me something Kera.” He threatened. “I can’t help you if we don’t know what we are dealing with.”

Kera stood up
, emotions breaking out of the cage she put them in. She placed her hands on the table, just as he had done, and smiled. “You’re dealing with me.” She reached out and pressed her hand on Gavin’s chest and pushed him backwards. His back hit the wall and she raised her hands and slammed them back on the table. It buckled beneath her sheer force. The legs broke off her end of the table and it shot up on the other side. The chair Gavin had been sitting in was caught by the buckle of the metal and it shot out toward him.

Kera jumped over the crumpled mess
and grabbed the chair out of thin air and stopped the forward projection. She paused and waited.

Gavin opened his eyes and looked at the leg of the chair that was going right for his face.

“I’m not crazy. I just need help.”

The door behind her burst open. Kera turned and used the chair as a shield.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” She yelled.

Guns were pointed at her everywhere from her head to the toes on her feet. Her heart skipped a beat. Could she survive a gunshot? Her eyes widened as more people poured into the small room. More guns were trained on her.

She wouldn’t beg. She wondered if they would kill her or just tranquilize her.

Gavin stepped in front of her, his body a shield. “Out.”

Gavin turned to her when the men wouldn’t lower their weapons. He put a hand
the wall on either side of her head and leaned in close. “Amazing.” He whispered.

Kera watched his eyes light up as the clouds of adrenaline started to wear off. He was sharp. She could tell
that much. Kera turned her face to the side, “I think now is a good time to tell me exactly what you want from me.”

His breath pushed against her face, sending chills across her skin.

Kera shut her eyes to fight the growing need for Maddox. She had let their distance go on for too long. Maybe she could get out now and make it back before dark. She didn’t care if they made love in Jason’s house or in the back yard. She needed his touch. Her reaction to being this close to Gavin felt like she was betraying Maddox. Blood was rushing through her veins causing her breath to quicken.

“
Answers.” Gavin mumbled. His hands slid down the wall beside her and griped her biceps firmly.

She looked up at him. “Don’t try and
make
me do anything.”

He shook his head. “The only reason you are still
safe is because I’m standing in front of you. I’m going to bring you with me when I turn around so no one gets trigger happy.”

“Wouldn’t a tranquilizer dart just stick me?”

Gavin laughed. “We didn’t load these with darts Kera.” He started turning her around so her back was to his chest. “Trust me.”

K
era’s stomach bottomed out. She had no way out of this without hurting someone. She ran through her mind a few possibilities but came up with nothing but a sick feeling. Her skin grew cold. If she only knew what she was capable of. If she only had someone to rely on. Her back tensed when Gavin’s arms came around her. He pulled her to his chest gently. She wondered if he knew even an ounce of her strength. If he knew that Maddox was insurmountably stronger than her.

Why hadn’t she told him her plan? She started to doubt her sanity. She had been tortured. Andrew took what little bravado she had and choked it out of her. Then she turned around and put herself in the same position willingly! What a stupid plan. They had made no promises to return her. She didn’t know what she was doing here or what they wanted from her.

“Slowly.” Gavin murmured as he began to turn her around to face the guns.

Kera’s eyes began to water. She sucked in a breath of shock. Her throat tightened. Her senses re
vved up tenfold. Each heartbeat pounded in her ears. Every breath mixed with hers. Sweat and fear surrounded her making it hard to breathe. The memory of her first change flashed in her mind.

Her face contorted and Kera groaned at the fresh pain. Even with her eyes shut she felt the reaction. Tensions rose. The air began to still around her. Her teeth elongated in her mouth as her jaw grew.

“Get away from her.” A man yelled out with fear.

“No,” Gavin responded
calmly even thought Kera could practically taste his fear on her tongue. “Stand down.”

“She’s a fucking werewolf.”

Gavin’s arms loosened, he strained to look at Kera without putting her in harm. She relaxed for a moment and opened her eyes.

The crowed had thinned. Some men too afraid to stand and fight her. Her body strained as she tried to reverse the shift. She sucked in a breath and threw her will into it.

In the next moment, the beast inside of her bucked and stretched. Her body moved with it, pushing Gavin against the wall. “Don’t let them hurt me.” Kera growled her voice a cross between the beast and her human self. With the last amount of strength she had, Kera begged. “She’s afraid.”

Fang came to the forefront in full force. She didn’t have the mind to keep her clothing. It shredded as her body contorted. Kera kept her eyes open, watching for signs that the men would shoot her.

Gavin moved quickly, blocking her again with his body. She whimpered as the final transition sucked the rest of her energy. That’s when she blacked out.

Gavin felt like he was in some kind of dream. He backed up a few steps from where Kera had stood. Now, in her place, was a massive black cat. It stared at him, heckles raised, waiting for a chance to strike. He put his hands up in surrender.

“Kera?” he shook his head, wondering what that had come out like a question. He had seen the whole thing, touched her during most of it. “Can you… turn back?”

A growl emitted from deep within her chest. Her body tensed and behind him, his father’s men began to lose their patience.

“Get back Gavin.”

“No.”

“You have no idea if she is aware of what she is doing.” He spoke calmly now, realizing that his voice was irritating the beast in the room. “Back up and we will shut the door. She can stay in here until she turns back.”

Gavin looked behind him, only one man remained. The one his father paid the most to keep him safe. “Don’t hurt her.”

Donavan
inclined his head. He backed away slowly, still with his gun trained on Kera.

Gavin wondered if Donavan
would shoot right through him if the panther attacked or if his father’s money was enough for the guard to die in his place. He didn’t think on it for too long, the panther hunched her shoulders and growled. Gavin’s head snapped forward and he slowly backed to the door.

She charged just as Donavan shut the door. The sound of her hit
ting it echoed through the hall. They waited for what felt like eternity for her to bust through and claim their lives, but just as Gavin had hoped, she didn’t.

“That was something.” Gavin murmured.

Donavan laughed, incredulously. “That was a nightmare. She really did that… turned into a panther right in front of us.”

Gavin nodded. “She also saved my life.”

“No.” Donavan whispered hollowly. “She almost took your life. Twice. Just to show she could.”

He looked back at his father’s body guard. “Why would she come with us willingly just to kill us? She neede
d someone to protect her father
and
she was tortured. You heard her. There is a war going on that we don’t know about. On our soil. If she is afraid don’t you think there is some benefit for us to get her on our side? We’ll protect her father. We’ll find out what else is out there and find a way to protect ourselves.”

Donavan smirked. “I know a little about what is out there Gavin and she doesn’t even make the icing on the cake. Imagine something that can kill you with a touch. That can send animals after you with their mind. There are things out there that can mess with the weather and shake the earth. I’ve been covering up things like that since I started working for your father.”

Gavin watched as this man before him told him things he wished his father had confirmed. It answered so many questions from his child hood. About his mother. About his experiences.

Anger began to pour into him. He was sick of being left in the dark, being told that he didn’t know what he saw. Apparently he hadn’
t, but his father had. Gavin felt like he had been betrayed. He had relied on his father to groom him to take over his role as the secretary of defense. Now how was he going to do that when he had only a limited knowledge of what was out there?

“Just wait Donavan.” Gavin spoke through clinched teeth. “That girl will be on my team in no time.”

His body guard chuckled and turned his back on him. Gavin clinched his fist and let him go. There wasn’t anything else he needed to say to him anyway.

Heading the opposite way, Gavin opened the door adjoined to Kera’s. He nodded at the few men who stayed back, protected by the wall as a barrier.
He could see the black cat lying under the table out of view. Her tail was visible as was her head. She looked around the room in leisure, like a house cat.

“Watch this Gavin.” The tech guy waived him over.

When he went over, he watched a rapid rewind of when he and Kera were sitting at the table. The tech guy pressed play and he watched their encounter from another angle. He could see more than he had being in the situation.

He couldn’t believe it, but he was seriously attracted to this girl.
He watched her stand, push him back, slam her hands on the table and jump across it to catch the chair that aimed straight for his face. He put his hand across the spot in his chest and felt it already bruise.

The camera in the hall showed Donavan bringing back five soldiers. They posted around the door.  He narrowed his eyes at the new set of guns they brought with them. This time, they were tranquilizers.

Gavin rushed out into the hall. “What are you doing?”

The men ignored him.

Donavan came to stand before him. “We can’t leave her unattended in there. We have business to handle. I’ve received orders to find this war she spoke about. We have to start now.”

His heart began to race. Of course Donavan was right.

Kera paced the room she was in. The bars around her cage made her nervous. She didn’t remember what happened after she first shifted and blacked out. Her memories were choppy at best after Fang had taken over. She had never felt the full force of animal instinct like that. It still burned inside of her. She could feel the other half of her like she had never before.

Sights and sounds were
different. Instinct determined not what they were, but if they were a threat. The hair along her spine rose as the door opened. A man walked in. It took her a moment to push past the urge to attack the bars of the cage before she realized it was Gavin.

The scent of blood hit her hard. Her stomach rumbled and the urge to hunt took over. After he tossed the piece of meat through the bars Fang took over again and the next few hours went by in a haze.

Her dreams were strange. They were her memories yet not entirely. As she slept in the body of a beast of prey, she remembered things differently. Not clouded by the inhibitions of humans. She remembered her first shift. In her dream it was a freedom that she had been aching for since birth. The cage doors had been ripped open by sudden terror and a taste of magick. Her blood pounded and she was shocked at the pain of transformation. Magick had been so strong in the air that the freedom she experienced was short lived. Her cage was secured again but she stayed at the forefront unwilling to hide so far beneath the surface. The wind rushed against her second skin as she propelled forward toward her mother. Even though her other half wouldn’t believe it, she could scent her mother through the forest. She longed to see her. She wanted to run with her in the form she had been given.

Her mother had caged her but she couldn’t be angry now that she had set her free.

The scent of blood filled her nose and she took over. She growled at the second scent she picked up. It was furious anger and bloodlust of another being she hadn’t yet encountered. When she reached the wreckage she jumped on top and peered inside.

Her grief was sudden and crushing. She slipped in and out of consciousness with her other half unsure of how to bond with or comfort part of her mind she had never touched or communicated with. She could feel the wetness on her face and knew this was expression of pain they shared.

More memories came and went. Moments she struggled to run free and others where she was able to take over and do just that. She watched from behind the eyes of her other half and learned the world she had been sheltered from for so long.

She felt pride when she was able to slip free and fend off an animal who tried to kill them.

Her senses came alert when her other half began to fight for the forefront. She wouldn’t be ignored any longer. Instead she allowed some space in her thoughts for her other half. Visions of Maddox began to take over. Kera purred as her desire for him meld her fractured psyche and somehow bonded them together. She felt the instinct and yet she knew his name. She remembered his skin against hers and felt the shock from Fang that she hadn’t been there to experience it.

Only half asleep Kera let the memories from directly after she had been killed by Andrew play out in her mind. She l
et her emotions sweep over her reliving the fear, anger and helplessness that she felt when she had woken up. She let herself remember the longing she had to be whole. She showed Fang the love she had for her father and how much it hurt to not be able to show him what she could do. Fang stroked her mind in comfort a silent apology for being absent and afraid.

In a rush of heat through her veins she slowly relished the memory of Maddox asking to be her mate. She whispered the words he gave her in her mind as she recalled his touch against her skin and the moment he pushed inside of her. She stretched lazily as her heart pounded in memory of the combination of pain and pleasure her body experienced with him
making love to her.

Emotions of interest and raw lust filled her body. Anger and jealousy also blended into the mix. Guilt ate at her the next moment and she whispered apologies in her mind. She gave promises to herself she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to keep. Promises that there would be a next time for herself to mate with Maddox again as a whole and not a fractured being.

Fear clawed at her insides and urged her to wake fully. Fang began to pace the room with agitated steps. Her throat vibrated as she growled deep in her chest. Thoughts of moments that she spent with Maddox in the woods hunting rushed through her more clearly than they had been in the actual moment. She realized that she had always been aware but forcibly separate beings. She spent the rest of the night reconciling those two halves of herself and dealing with the exhausting emotions that coursed through her during that time.

When Gavin returned with another piece of meat it was second nature to her to recall the time she spent in interrogation with him and the moments afterward when Fang tried to protect herself. He slipped the meat through the bars and backed away a few steps when she calmly went to retrieve it.

“Kera?” He murmured softly.

She looked up from her meal but didn’t stop eating.

Hope flicked in the depths of his brown and green eyes. “You should know that I’ve been briefed on what we know so far about your kind.”

She let her head tilt to the side in a human like manner signaling that she was listening.

His interest piqued and he sat down on the floor outside of her cage. “It seems we have come into contact with supernatural beings before. I read case files of women who could talk to animals and send them on missions to attack people. Some man in Arizona was able to stir the wind into tornados to disable an entire troupe of men who were trying to follow a lead and question him on his criminal activity. The deaths of those men were never reported as murder but they were. The body count is rising, Kera and I can’t seem to believe that there isn’t someone that could help us against these people. You said that your friends would never hurt you but that there is another group who would. I want to help you. Ideally I would like to meet these friends of yours and be given the chance to invite them to our side. We aren’t looking for exposure and mass hysteria. We want to be armed with the knowledge that we need before sending men on missions that could kill them.”

Her stomach cramped around her meal as she listened to his plea. It wasn’t something she could give him without first talking to Maddox and bringing the request to Jason. She didn’t have that kind of authority. In fact she wasn’t even sure she could guarantee her own service since she was too far in with the pack. She thought about her mother and father and they way they made decisions together. Even though they didn’t always agree with each other neither of them made an important decision without talking about it first.

Kera lowered her head to her paws and shut her eyes in thought. She didn’t know her next move. She needed to figure a way out of this before things got out of hand.

“I brought you some clothes.” Gavin said, his voice shifting from hopeful to one of resignation. “If you change your mind about sitting in that cage for another day let me know.”

Kera didn’t open her eyes as he put the clothes he brought just outside her cage. After all she had been through mentally she couldn’t find the strength to shift back just yet. When the door shut marking his exit she let herself fall into a deep sleep.

The door behind her opened and pulled her out of her sleep with a jolt. Gavin returned with the man he called Donavan. He hadn’t spoken much but this time he walked right up to her. He knelt and picked up the pile of clothes Gavin had left outside her cage and focused his hard brown stare on her.

“Kera Conway?” He pa
ssed the set of black clothes through the bars. “This has gone on too long. Get your clothes on and let’s go. We need your help.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and tilted her head to Gavin for an explanation.

“There’s a hostage situation at a high school football game. A group of kids came in with guns and started firing into the stands. We’ve surrounded the area but they won’t let the hostages go.” Gavin locked eyes with her. “They’ve asked for a helicopter during negotiation. We think you could fly in on it and disable them before they even know what is going on.”

Shock filled her veins.
She hadn’t had a chance to figure things out yet. Her mind was still exhausted from being overworked with her mental exercises to become closer to Fang. She had new emotions coursing through her that put her on edge. She wasn’t used to fighting the urges of an animal and deciding what to do in the moment.

Fang sensed her unease and the hair along her spin picked up.

Donavan slammed his hand against the bar. “This is happening now or we will stop being nice and letting you do whatever you want. People are in danger. We’ve heard the reports from where you were staying. We know who your roommate was and who you were dating. Your father still isn’t talking but I’m guessing if we go down there and start asking questions, we’ll find out who was involved in the disappearances of over twenty people with ties to the community. One of which was your uncle.”

Her time was up
and everything was out of her hands. She couldn’t dig her feet into the ground any longer. She began to shift. Her body ached with the change, bones popping and cracking, her skin pulled tight and her muscles shifted and displaced to other parts of her body. Her teeth changed, her eyes watered. It was only a few minutes but felt like forever. “Turn around.” She whispered hoarsely.

Gavin and Donavan did what she asked even though she knew there were cameras everywhere. She pulled on the clothes quickly and pushed her hair out of her face.

“Let me out of here.” She put her hands on the bars and waited politely.

Gavin turned around first, rushing to the door with the key. “God, it’s good to see you again.” He murmured. His hazel eyes shot up to hers, “I thought you were stuck or something.”

“We’ll brief you on the helicopter.” Donavan pulled open the door after the lock snapped open. “If you want a shower you better hurry. Come on.” He grabbed her arm and began to tug her along.

Kera pulled back and watched the large man’s eyes widen as he stumbled. “Lead the way, but don’t touch me.”
He nodded and closed his hand into a fist. His anger was a tangible thing. She could see in his eyes the distrust and hate he had for her. “You have to understand that this is new for me too. I don’t know if it was the right decision to agree to come with you but I want to help if I can. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if people die and I could have stopped it.” The words were true and came from some urge deep inside of her.

Donavan’s expression didn’t change but the scent of his anger lessened a fraction. He gave her a curt nod and turned on his heels expecting her to follow.

They stopped in a small room outside where she had been held. Kera stepped inside and took stock of the contents. It looked like someone stocked the room with clothing of all sizes. There were unopened packs of socks and rows of shoes. To the right was a small bed and on the left was an open door leading to the bathroom. From the reflection in the mirror she could see a shower with soap and shampoo. Her body suddenly remembered that she hadn’t used the bathroom in all the time she had been there. The urge hit her quickly and she turned to the men behind her.

Donavan spoke before she had a chance to tell them to leave so she could take care of business.
“Grab some shoes and any other clothing you would feel comfortable in. I don’t want you to go in there unarmed because they have guns. Have you ever shot before?”

Her eyes widened and s
he shook her head. “I don’t have any experience with this stuff. Like you said, I worked as a waitress for years before I went to college in Colorado. I almost died a few times because I didn’t know how to protect myself.” She turned to Donavan and bit her lip. “If I do this and make it out alive. Will you train me?”

Her question threw him
and she wondered why that had stumbled out of her mouth. “If that’s what you want.” He hedged softly. “I can teach you what I know. It would be a much better partnership than you sitting in a cage.”

“If you get her killed….”

Donavan put his hand up and Gavin stopped mid sentence. “I’ll go with her and use the drop down rope if she needs me. You won’t be alone.” His eyes had softened to her somewhat but she could still see the hate in the brown depths. This time she also scented pain along with it. Something told her that her instincts were what caused her to ask him to train her. He was strong and it wouldn’t help her if she wasn’t trained by the best no matter what he thought of her. 

After hesitating for a moment Kera nodded and the men left the room and shut the door behind them. She walked up and locked the door and stripped out of the clothes they had given her. She rushed to the bathroom and used the toilet as the water warmed. She scrubbed her hair and her body to get the smells from the cage off her. She didn’t know what had been locked in there before her but it had left a scent behind that she didn’t like. The only scent she wanted on her was Maddox’s.

She did her best to find clothes and shoes that fit her. Once she was dressed she browsed the weapons and found a short knife that she could conceal easily at her hip. Her hands shook as she tried to fasten it to something.