Snowbound (Arctic Station Bears Book 1) (6 page)

It had begun. His agent had been successful. Calder watched as Viktor, Liam, and Alanna ran across the common room to the lab where Oliver was screaming in agony. The confusion would perfectly cloak Calder’s experiment in one of the unused labs. He turned the key card over and over in his hand. If only access to such miraculous technology had existed in his own time. He loathed to use it, but sacrifices needed to be made.

Soon the bears would all be dead and the woman would be pregnant with a new, perfect shifter breed with a more potent virus, derived from Calder’s own blood. The female’s progeny would be able to infect humans with a bite or a scratch. And Calder himself would be responsible for the child’s upbringing. The child of nature that would usher in a new age, and who would be alpha to all.

Humanity was a blight upon the Earth. Hours spent in study showed Calder how little they respected the world and each other. But soon that would all change. Soon
they
would change and a dream would be realized.

Donny and the Goldens raced across the common room. There was muffled shouting, then Ben ran across the room as well. There should still be time to check in on the experiment before the need to maintain appearances demanded Calder join the others. Colloidal silver. That was very clever. Calder would congratulate his agent on his job well done later. But first, the experiment. Then the end of humanity.

I
’ve seen Ollie drunk and I’ve seen Ollie sick, but I’ve never seen him like this. He writhed on the floor, and it took the combined might of four burly bear shifters to even attempt to hold him down.

“We’re going to have to bleed him or he’ll die,” Liam said. “Viktor, I need one of the silver kits from the infirmary. Now!” Viktor was gone so quickly it barely registered with me.

“We need to get him on the table,” Liam said. “Grab him where you can, everyone.” Donny, Richie, and Harry helped Liam lift Ollie’s body and set him on the table. Liam tore open Ollie’s shirt at the trunk and sleeves. His veins stood out like a grotesque relief map. “Ollie — Ollie! What happened? Who did this to you?”

“Don’t…know,” Ollie said. His words were a hiss. “Didn’t see. Came from…behind.” Then he started to scream anew.

Viktor rushed in with a plastic container. He nearly tore it in two getting it open, and setting it on the table. He removed a handful of tourniquets. Each man tore the sleeve from his own shirt if necessary, and then began tying on a tourniquet. I looked at my own sleeve. Did I need to —

“No,” Liam said, nearly reading my thoughts. “Try to keep him calm. We’re going to do a blood transfusion.” Liam removed a silver scalpel from the case. “Ollie, buddy. I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt.”

I held Ollie’s head and stroked his hair. “Oliver, it’s me. You’re going to be fine.”

“Allie…,” he said. “I’m…I’m s—sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Shh. You’ll be okay.”

Viktor pulled some tubing out of the case along with silver needles. I was amazed at how adept the men were at finding their own veins and getting themselves prepped.

“Here we go, Ollie,” Liam said. He began making precise cuts with the scalpel at specific points on Oliver’s body. Ollie screamed and blood seemed to explode from the wounds. Each man held one of Ollie’s limbs and inserted a needle into one of his veins located in his wrists and thighs. Blood flowed from the tubing and into Ollie. There was an almost immediate difference. Ollie quieted and began to relax.

I stroked Ollie’s hair and tried to be a calming effect. It really wasn’t my strong suit. “Shh. It’ll be okay, Ollie. Shh.” Eventually he passed out.

“He’s out of the woods,” Liam said. He took Ollie’s pulse. There were sighs and murmurs of relief from the other men.

I knew that silver poisoning was rare among shifters, but it was almost always fatal. Blood types didn’t really matter among shifters of specific species. As long as they shared animals, they could share blood. I’d heard of cases where the blood of one species was used on another, but that was really a last resort — it was almost always just as fatal as the silver itself.

Oliver stirred on the table. “Allie?” his voice was weak.

Tears streamed down my face like opening a floodgate. “Yeah?”

“You should really have some of this blood when I’m done. It’s nice.”

I laughed through my tears. “I have to fight with body hair enough, thank you very much.”

Oliver passed out again. After a while, blood simply flowed from his wounds instead of erupting from them. Liam handed out silver needles and special thread, even to me, and we worked tirelessly and in silence to stitch and dress his wounds while Viktor cleaned up the blood wearing what looked like a hazmat suit.

Ollie improved and started to heal in the days that followed, but tensions were high because the question remained. Who had done this to him?

“We should scrap the project,” Donny said. “Call for support.”

Everyone, save Ollie, was gathered in the common area.

“Shit,” Ben said. “I’m ready to pack up anyone who wants to get gone and jet the fuck out of here.” There were murmurs of agreement.

“We can’t go,” Liam said. “And we can’t call for support. This project is code black. There’s just as much chance that the elders will burn the entire place to the ground, and us along with it, as there is that they would send in assistance. We’re going to have to handle this ourselves.”

Harry Golden finally asked the question that everyone wanted to ask. “Then who could have done it? Who poisoned Ollie? I was with Richie.”

“I was with Calder,” Viktor said.

“And I was with Alanna,” Liam said. All eyes were suddenly on him, then on me.

“Well go ahead, you two!” Ben said.

“Stop screwing around,” Liam said. “It was nothing like that.”

I was actually disappointed to hear those words come out of his mouth, even after everything that had happened. What the hell is wrong with me?

“Ben, that leaves you and Donny. Can you provide for your whereabouts?”

“I was in the kitchen prepping dinner,” Donny said.

Ben looked indignant. “And I was outside having a piss. Do we really suspect each other? Are we
so
sure that we’re alone here?”

“Calder,” Liam said. “I hope you understand, but we may need to confine you for your own protection. You’re too valuable to the project.”

“Understandable with circumstances,” Calder said.

“Everyone else, we’ll split into two groups and search the entire facility top to bottom.”

“You won’t do that without me.” Ollie was suddenly in the entryway. “I’m going to find this fucker.”

“Ollie!” everyone nearly exclaimed in unison. Ben was across the room much faster than a man of his size should have been able to move. The agility of shifters never ceases to amaze me. Ben grabbed Ollie in a bear hug.

“Easy, Ben!” Ollie said.

“You should really be resting,” Liam said.

“I’m fine,” Ollie said. “Besides, no one wants to catch this guy more than I do. I want a little payback.”

“All right then,” Liam said. “Ollie, Alanna, you’re with me. We’ll take the north and east wings. Donny, Viktor, and Ben, you guys take south and west. Harry, you and Richie stay here in the common area with Calder and yell out if anyone you don’t recognize comes through.”

Richie growled. “There won’t be anything left of him by the time you get here.”

“Watch your asses, everyone,” Liam said, and we went.

L
iam could not help but steal glances at Alanna while they searched. He was glad that Ollie had made a nearly complete recovery, but he’d be lying to himself if he said he wouldn’t rather be alone with her. The more he was around her, the more he felt it. He wondered if maybe she felt something for him as well, and then banished the thought. No. He would only wind up hurting her. She couldn’t be his fated mate. He just hadn’t been around any women in awhile. That had to be it. Maybe after the project was over, he might feel differently. It was nice to hear whispers of a part of himself that had never reared its head before.

No
. He felt nothing. He couldn’t. He
wouldn’t.