Tane's Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifter's on the Run Book 1) (11 page)

“I was out exploring not watching where I was going and tripped over a downed tree branch. I crashed down on my side and hit my face pretty hard. I think it might leave a mark.”

“Let me tend to it. Maybe it won’t leave a mark.”

Leza took her over to the stream washing her face before asking if she had anything to put on the scratches back at her camp site.

“I have a few things I can use. Do you think it will help?”

“I do. If you treat the scratches, I don’t think they will leave a scar.”

Amy gave her a smile. “Thank you, Leza. I haven’t had a friend in a while.”

“I could come talk to your parents; tell them it might be time to take you back to the city.”

“No!” Amy’s eyes clouded over in panic as her hand clutched at Leza’s arm. “Thank you but they really need this time.”

“If you’re sure.” Leza took a deep breath noting the change in Amy’s scent. Something about the smell plagued her. “Amy, where are you camped?”

The girl lifted her hand and let it flutter off in a general direction. Leza came closer and drew her into her arms holding her. The teen broke down and cried.

“Amy, how can I help you?”

“I’m fine, Leza. I think I just feel silly about tripping. I should have known better. I have to go; they’ll be looking for me.”

“Your parents?”

“Yeah them.” Amy disengaged from Leza and gave her a watery smile before walking away.

Leza watched her disappear before collecting the things she brought with her. Amy wasn’t her responsibility, she reasoned. The teen was here with her parents and she had no right to interfere with their lives and how they raised their child.

She tried to convince herself that everything was all right but her new senses weren’t buying it for a moment. Before they left she would check in on Amy and make sure everything was all right. Maybe she really had fallen. Her animal scratched her up calling her fool. Unfortunately, she agreed with her animal.

The smell of bacon hit her nose as she walked into camp. “You couldn’t wait for me?”

“We’ve decided females take too long washing up. What did you do? I can do it in three minutes flat,” Jay challenged her.

“Who wants to rush through washing? Think of warm water sluicing over your skin. Your shoulders relaxing. The feel of shampoo on your scalp as you clean your hair. The water making your skin sensitive.”

Jay looked around. “Is she serious?” he asked Tane.

“I think she is,” he responded.

“And this is why males don’t understand females. Give me a military female any day who knows how to take an appropriate shower.” Jay shook his head.

Leza laughed at him. “Jay, I hope your mate loves to linger in the shower. Something tells me you will quickly become a shower man.”

“Not if I’m paying the water bill.”

All right then. She walked into the camper keeping her laughter to herself. She really liked her pragmatic military male family.

She took some eggs out, cooking them to go with the bacon. She checked to see that she had the makings for French toast and decided to make that tomorrow.

Tane came in and helped her carry food outside. They took a seat and she watched them eat as she pushed her food from side to side.

“What’s wrong?” Dai asked her.

“I met a teen yesterday, her name is Amy. I met her at the lake. She was there again this morning. Something I can’t put my finger on is bothering me about her.”

“Do you think she’s a spy?” Jay stopped eating to stare at her.

“Really, Jay? I don’t think she’s a spy but something is off. Before we leave I want to check out her camp site just to make sure she’s ok.”

The males all grinned at her.

“What are you all smiling about?”

“We’re rubbing off on you. When something doesn’t seem right don’t ignore it. We can go after breakfast if you want or we could wait until tomorrow.”

She wanted to say there wasn’t a rush but her animal was prowling inside of her and her gut said Amy needed help.

“I’d like to go soon. Tane, if it’s not too much trouble I’d like to clean up our campsite first, just in case.”

That made all the males stop before they looked backed at their plates making short work of their food.

“Eat,” Tane gave her an order. “We treat this just like an op. You eat because we don’t know the next time we will get a chance to and you need your strength.”

She nodded knowing he wasn’t giving her a suggestion. If she was going to be part of the team then she was going to have to follow the same rules. She popped some bacon in her mouth not tasting it but getting it down. Soon she finished with her meal and stood to help with the cleanup of the camp site.

“Where did Tane and Dai go?” she asked Jay.

“They are going to pack up the site where the two you spent last night.”

She nodded and took some of the dishes into the camper. Was it silly to want to be ready to flee? Common sense told her she was over exaggerating the situation. She would find Amy and she would be sitting outside with her parents laughing about how she fell that morning.

Unfortunately, she didn’t believe that. The smell that had been bothering her since this morning finally made sense. It had combined with the smell of Tane and it had thrown her off. She smelled semen on Amy and it was from more than one man. That little girl was in trouble.

Tane and Dai came back having disassembled their camp from the prior night.

“We checked the campsite. It’s secure. We also took some time to expand our search. We came across several do not disturb signs as well as traps that weren’t for animals. Someone is hiding out here and I want to know if it has anything to do with Leza’s teen.

She would have protested calling Amy her teen, but she had already taken her welfare to heart. She wouldn’t let anyone hurt that young girl again.

She had a knife strapped to her leg, but Tane refused to give her a gun until she knew how to shoot one. Flexing her fingers, she followed closely behind him. Her claws were probably the best weapon she would have in hand to hand combat.

They were walking in the direction where Tane and Dai found the traps set up. Tane held his hand up stopping her. Dai and Jay fanned out. Tane dropped to the ground and carefully started clearing off the debris on it. Soon a rope trap came into view.

“How did you see it?” she whispered.

“I’m trained to see it,” he replied before standing and walking around a tree. His knees bent and he shot off the ground catching a lower branch. Swinging his legs around, he grasped the branch with them and pulled his body up.

He gave her a smile before he climbed higher into the tree and began to take apart the trap. She looked up and realized that the trap was visible that far up. Who would be walking with their heads tilted up? The rope fell from the trees making it safe for them to pass.

Tane came down jumping from the low branch. “It was a crude trap, but they may get more sophisticated as we get closer.”

She swallowed and followed him. The sound of her feet loud in the quiet of the woods. There were no birds chirping, she didn’t even see anything crawling across the trees. It was as if the insects and wildlife deserted the area knowing the more vicious hunter was coming out to play.

Taking a deep breath, she searched for Dai and Jay. They were nowhere to be seen having blended seamlessly into the background. Her eyes focused again on Tane as he lifted his hand telling her to stop.

He walked back to her. “What do you see?”

She looked ahead of them not seeing anything out of the ordinary. They were surrounded by trees. There was debris, old leaves, sticks and some downed tree branches covering the worn path that they were walking.

“I see a path?” She gave a shrug not knowing what he was looking for.

“Look again, Leza. Do you see anything out of place? Something that makes your animal want to take caution?”

She looked around again reminding herself that Amy’s life could depend on what she saw. One day it may be their lives depending on the new skills she was learning.

This time she took in the details, not how tall the tree was but how the bark covered it and what it looked like. She looked at the ground seeing the different debris on it. None of it was manmade as if the area had never been explored before. Her animal snorted, not believing that.

There was grass but in some spots it looked like it had been walked on but not repeatedly as if someone was trying to hide the fact that they had come this way. Then she saw it, a hint of metal in the grass. The sun made it sparkle but if you weren’t looking for it you would never see it.

“There’s a trap by the tree over there. A piece of metal is sticking out. There’s more. Someone has used this path more than once, but they try to never step in the same spot so there will be no groves in the dirt.”

“Very good, Leza. Now I need you to tell me if Amy came this way.”

Leza took in a deep breath Amy’s scent flooding her senses. “She was here not that long ago.”

“All right, first the trap.” Tane went over and sprung the trap that clamped closed with a loud noise.”

“That was an animal trap?”

“Yes, but I think it was intended for ankles, not paws.”

“Who are these people?”

“Someone who doesn’t want to be found, but I’m willing to bet not for the same reason we don’t want to be found.”

She heard a scream and tried to take off but Tane grabbed her around the waist lifting from the ground.

She whispered furious at him. “They’re hurting her; I can hear her cry of pain.”

“You won’t do her or anyone else any good if you run in there. We’ll get them and get her out alive, but we have to be smart about it.”

She knew he was right. They already found two traps. What if there were more? She couldn’t help Amy if she was dead. Her fingers ached with the need to change. Thoughts of clawing the males until they were dead entered her mind causing her to gulp on the liquid caught in her throat.

Blood lust they called it. The need to rip something apart. They did it for joy or so the doctors told her. You’re no longer human they taunted her. You’re a monster; all you want to do is kill humans. We will never let you roam the earth again. You’re a weapon.

She didn’t want to kill Amy, although she had wanted to kill the doctors. Vivid scenes of them dying slowly haunted her dreams at night. Her fingers would turn to claws as she dragged them down their chest. She would torture them before she pulled their still beating heart out their chest.

“Monster,” she whispered to herself. The image of a heart in her hand plagued her; the taste of blood was in her mouth.
We will do it again,
her animal assured her.

Her feet faltered for a minute because it wasn’t a dream. It happened once when she was able to break loose. All she wanted to do was run and get away from there but they trapped her. Called her monster while laughing at her. They thought they had her contained but her animal was stronger than they realized and she got her hands on him. A guard who lived to torture her. Her fingers had turned to claws while her body remained human. No, she shook her head, it was just a dream.

“Leza?” Tane’s voice brought her out of the nightmare that could paralyze her in seconds.

“I’m here. Where are Dai and Jay?”

“They’re in position one on either side of their camp. Is that Amy?”

Amy was tied up in the middle of camp. Two husky males were towering over her.

One reached down and hit her, knocking her off her knees onto her side.

“I said who helped you?” His voice came out low and mean.

“I don’t know. It was a stranger who saw me and offered to patch me up. Then she left. That’s all I know, I swear.”

“Idiot,” the other man kicked her. “How many times have I told you that I will kill anyone who helps you? The only help you get is from us and only if you preform adequately.”

“Mark, I think our little Amy needs a lesson.” The man who hit her spoke to the other one.

“I agree, Leonard. Tonight we hunt down this good Samaritan and kill her before our Little Amy. We’ll leave her body here as a warning. I’m ready to move on anyway. Soon it will be time to replace Amy; she’s getting a bit old.”

“Just kill me now and leave the innocent woman alone.” Leza could hear the tiredness in Amy’s voice. She wanted to go home, and she believed this was the only way to get there.

Leza turned wild eyes to Tane.

“We will rescue her,” he whispered in her ear before he made a bird call. There was a response. A light came into his eyes, one that said these two wouldn’t make it out alive.

There was a snarl out in the woods. It sounded like a panther, followed by the sound of a wolf cry. She shouldn’t know these sounds but you couldn’t live in the facility without getting to know the sounds wild animals made. They kept them all around. Sometimes she wondered if those animals were actually animals, or humans turned into them.

Tane placed his finger over his mouth before gesturing towards her knife. He stepped back taking off his clothes swiftly. She got one look at his body before he began to change. He shrank into himself, bone cracking, muscle reshaping. In a blink of an eye a sleek wolf stood before her.

He sniffed the environment before giving a howl. After he received two back, he crouched down and made his way towards the camp.

Her breath caught at how majestic his wolf was. He was a gray wolf but bigger than natural wolves. He reminded her of a small pony.

The two males in the clearing stopped beating on Amy to listen.

“Was that a wolf?”

“Don’t be silly, Leonard. The only thing prowling this camp site is on two legs.”

“Then tell me, Mark. What are we hearing?”

“Some snotty nosed teens trying to scare us. Probably the woman who helped Amy. I say we catch them and have some real fun.”

“What if they’re boys?”

“It’s all the same with a bag over their heads.” The two males laughed. Mark broke away going into their camper.”

A sleek black panther came from the woods running at Leonard. He took him down before the man could make a sound.