Matebranded, p.15
Matebranded, page 15
There were setbacks, of course. The pair of us huddled together in one bed like feral animals. But Julius had tweaked our arrangements and I’d continued to improve.
The last paragraph, only two-thirds of the way through the notebook, had made me cry when I reached it. “This study is over. I cannot experiment on my daughters.”
The plural—daughters—had filled me with such love for Julius that I’d considered leaving his office and rushing back to the oil rig to squeeze him tight even though my father very rarely stood still for hugs.
But Gabi had taught me better than that. “You won’t often get a second chance at a covert search. Better make your first chance count.”
So I’d put the notebook back on the shelf and dug deeper. The hiding place I eventually found wasn’t a wall safe or a hidden desk compartment but rather a hollowed out space inside a decorative ceiling beam. There, I found further information about my so-called childhood—the experiment had very much continued after the original notebook ended—along with data on my parents’ capture, imprisonment, refusal to use their matebrand, and eventual demise.
Yes, my parents really were dead. Yes, Vega had also been right—the pair had been taken rather than leaving their homes willingly.
Taken by this man who called himself my father.
“I’ve been a pawn,” I said now, my voice as rusty as if days rather than seconds had passed since my last words. Meanwhile, I did what I should have done from the beginning—I trusted the man who’d shown himself worthy of trust.
Because no matter how queasy the matebrand made me, Orion had looked out for my best interests during our entire acquaintance. Yes, he’d withheld information I hadn’t been ready to deal with. Yes, he’d thrust my own guilt at me in an effort to save my life.
But the worst I could say about Orion was that he’d underestimated me and mollycoddled me...and didn’t I go to great lengths for everyone to do just that?
Now, I needed him to back me up, and that required an understanding of everything I understood. So I took the throttled-down thread of a mate bond and wrenched it all the way open. I let Orion see what I’d kept hidden for the last day, even if that also meant he saw the feelings I wasn’t quite ready to share.
I could only hope he’d pay attention to the relevant bits, the bits about Julius. I could only hope he’d understand what I needed next and would find a way to make it happen.
“A pawn to the wolves,” Julius agreed, unaware of what was passing between me and Orion. “So leave them to their battles. They...”
“A pawn to the Council,” I interrupted. “The Council who set up this supposed hit on Celeste to force me to choose between my sister and shifters I’ve known for only a day or two. But Celeste isn’t really in danger, is she? Because she’s your daughter. Your real daughter. And once you make it clear your ploy has failed, the gunman will miraculously disappear.”
Until then, of course, Celeste would live in terror. I know she wasn’t in on this, was being forced into a world she’d chosen to have no part of.
But I couldn’t let that knowledge impact my decision. Not when I weighed Celeste’s fear against the safety of shifter children I’d already put through hell once.
So when Orion sent a single word down the mate bond—“Now?”—I nodded. And I didn’t flinch as he took Julius to the ground with a knee in the middle of the older man’s back.
The helicopters were close enough that I could tell they were military-grade troop carriers. Were they here to clean up the mess left behind after Julius lured me off the oil rig? If so, I had a gut feeling their guns would be loaded with bullets instead of with tranquilizer darts.
There was no time to deal with Julius, but I had to make the time. Because Celeste was terrified and the sooner her father reached the mainland, the sooner she could soothe herself with a bubble bath and a pint of chocolate ice cream. I refused to completely ignore my sister’s mental health in favor of shifters. I was determined to save them both.
So I clutched cold, wet ladder rungs and pushed myself to climb faster, leaving Orion binding Julius down below even as the helicopters advanced.
On the deck, it became clear I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the incoming aerial danger. Wolves and two-legged shifters bounded in various directions, preparing for an invasion. It didn’t seem to matter that, between them, they had fewer than half a dozen knives and handguns and no backup weapons other than their teeth.
They also had me. Or they would have my full support after I dealt with Julius.
To that end, I searched until I discerned a back that looked familiar. “Prince!” I yelled in his general direction.
The wind had picked up and it tried to carry my words out into the Gulf of Mexico. Surely this couldn’t be blowback from the helicopter rotors already? I forced myself not to turn and look over my shoulder. Looking wouldn’t slow the enemy’s approach.
Luckily, Prince had shifter ears. He swiveled to face me, eyes narrowing. “Thought you were locked up.”
I shrugged rather than explaining. And I hoped Orion’s friendship with Prince was as solid as he’d promised since I was about to beg a favor. “I need you to get in a boat, take Julius back to shore, then dump him somewhere.”
“Dump his body?”
Apparently, Orion and his friend had talked while I wasn’t present. Because Prince’s teeth glinted sharp now, as if he was looking forward to the idea of attacking Julius lupine.
That couldn’t happen. Not if I wanted Celeste freed quickly. “No.” I shook my head. “Julius has to be able to walk and talk when you leave him. And he should get access to a cell phone sooner rather than later.”
“Too bad. Where is he now?”
I pointed, then Prince was striding away and I realized I hadn’t asked him to vouch for me with the other alphas. Which was a problem since none of the rest trusted Orion, let alone me. And if those helicopters represented the cleanup effort I thought they might, then whoever was in charge here on the oil rig needed to listen to the information I was about to relay.
I spun, searching for the faces of the alphas I’d only met once. Neither was visible, but someone else was.
“Vega!” I yelled at the woman who’d drawn a knife on me not so very long ago, who’d made me feel like her niece in the kitchen then had walked out when I asked for the most relevant facts.
When the older woman turned to face me, her eyes were squinty with annoyance. She was ready to dismiss me as irrelevant.
So I manipulated her in the only way I knew how to—I used the honorific I hoped would win what I needed won. “Aunt! Please!”
She started to turn away, but something in my face must have changed her mind. Could she see how words I’d initially meant as manipulation had tasted real on my tongue? Could she see how relief had coursed through me when I realized I did have a connection here after all?
Whatever the reason, my aunt strode toward me, her body language suggesting she was willing to give me a few seconds to get my point across but no more than that.
So I spoke as fast as I could, sharing what I’d guessed about the tactics of the forces in the oncoming helicopters. I ended with a request that Vega send all of the shifters on the deck into the housing block, then have everyone sneak out the back and scatter while staying out of sight.
“Where will you be while we do all this?” Vega demanded. She wasn’t sold. Not that I blamed her. She had no reason to trust me.
But I lacked time for further explanation. Because the helicopters were within sniper range now. And while we didn’t have long-range rifles, they very much did.
The first shot missed its target, but the second bullet struck the arm of a teenager who’d been one of the first to shift. The boy shrieked in a way I suspected his friends would make fun of for decades...assuming they all survived the next few hours.
I had to prevent the rest of the shifters from being cornered like the vermin the attack force thought they were. I opened my mouth to beg.
And, to my surprise, Vega didn’t require additional persuasion. “I’m trusting you for your mother’s sake,” she yelled over the roar of the rotors. “But if you’re lying, I will end you.”
Despite the harshness of her words, she must have used her pack bond to delegate orders at the same moment. Because shifters who’d been heading for cover changed direction and streamed toward the housing block instead. Someone helped the teenager back to his feet so he could join the flow.
Then I was seeing not through my own eyes but through Orion’s also. Prince gunned the engine of the motor boat, Julius bound and gagged beside him. The pair receded from view while Orion watched to ensure they evaded the helicopters. They were going to make it…
Someone pushed me hard while a female voice hissed: “Try not to be an idiot.”
I bristled, then realized a bullet had pinged off the deck inches from me. Vega and I were the only ones left out in the open. My legs abruptly remembered how to move and three strides later I was pressed up against a rusty upright on the other side of the open space that yawned in front of the housing block.
Meanwhile, Vega’s gaze met mine from what would have felt like too close proximity for humans but was probably a perfectly appropriate distance for werewolves. Peering into her eyes, I tried to guess whether she’d ordered her pack mates to flee the housing block after going into it. Whether, even if she had passed that order along, they’d found enough time to escape what was about to happen.
Sure enough, across the oil-rig deck, a window shattered by sniper fire. Then a drone flew straight into the housing block through that small, jagged hole.
It wasn’t long before I smelled the faintest whiff of tear gas oozing back out the opening. The tactics could have been taken directly out of Gabi’s playbook.
“Was anyone still in there?” I asked the woman who’d saved me from being shot but who might not have believed me when I said this would be the Council’s first move. She might have decided to have her pack hole up inside instead of using the facility as a decoy. She might have…
Vega’s rough head shake cut off my worries while also doubling as a farewell. Without another word, she was gone, heading not into the housing block but around one side where I suspected she’d sent her pack into hiding.
And my shoulders might have relaxed if a line hadn’t dropped from one of the helicopters at that point. A familiar figure clambered down into the space between where I sheltered and the tear-gassed housing block.
I knew that figure as well as I knew every other person I’d once considered family. I knew she’d leap the last ten feet and land crouched on the deck, scanning her surroundings. I knew she’d have one hand on a pistol and the other steadying herself, ready to push off the deck and move in any direction.
I knew because she’d trained me in a very similar scenario. As I’d suspected, Gabi hadn’t been relieved of duty. Why would she be when the entire Council was in on everything that had happened?
Instead, my former mentor was leading the attack.
Chapter 28
Here’s the thing about being a student. You don’t just learn your lessons; you learn your teacher also.
So I wasn’t surprised when Gabi ignored the fact she’d plainly seen at least two of us flee away from the housing block. She’d assume our weaker members were still in there, clawing at their eyes in response to the tear gas. She’d go straight for that chink in our armor and twist it to her advantage.
When Gabi pulled a gas mask out of her backpack, I grinned, my teeth as sharp as Prince’s had been when I last saw him. She was playing right into my hands.
I didn’t expect more lines to descend from the hovering helicopters however. Didn’t expect half a dozen soldiers to climb down and join my teacher there on the oil-rig deck. Usually, Gabi preferred to work solo. She and six armed companions would be a much tougher takedown.
If the attack force grew larger…
I’d been ignoring the tattoos on my arm ever since my freak-out yesterday. But now they twisted a reminder and I decided not to be an idiot. This was the moment to use every weapon in my arsenal, no holding back.
So I clarified my intentions. Gritted my teeth. Then stared up at the helicopters and spoke loaded words under my breath.
“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
The tattoos writhed just as I’d expected them to, but I hadn’t expected the scabs from yesterday to break open. I hadn’t expected the skin to sting as if I’d poured rubbing alcohol over it. If our enemies had been wolves, the ensuing scent of blood would have been a problem. But the mild seepage gave human operatives no advantage and I was well able to ignore the pain.
For one long moment, though, I thought making myself bleed was the only response I was going to get for my efforts. Then mist began coalescing midway between the oil-rig deck and the helicopters. First just a thin veil through which blue sky was still clearly visible. Then a fog so dense the landscape around me descended into twilight.
In other words, a low-lying cloud hovered above us. Just like I’d said.
No one in the helicopters could see down now. They couldn’t use their sniper rifles against us without risking hitting their own. Meanwhile, descending through the cloud would be a risk I suspected they wouldn’t take except under dire circumstances.
The fog was well above my head and I held out hope that no one already on the oil rig would notice it. No such luck. Gabi paused at the door of the housing block and lifted her wrist to her mouth. I was too far away to hear what she said, but lipreading had been among the skills on my childhood syllabus. And Gabi’s were the exact lips I’d learned to read.
“Situation go,” she was saying. “Hold tight until my command.”
So that was alright. It was exactly what I wanted, actually.
I watched as Gabi donned her gas mask, opened the door, and slipped inside as soundlessly as any werewolf. Behind her, five of the soldiers filed inside also, the door easing shut behind them.
Only one soldier remained in view, guarding the exit. He was deeply alert as he scanned the seemingly empty deck, but he wouldn’t be hard to neutralize.
My plan was going to work.
“Get everyone onto the boats,” I sent down the mate bond to Orion.
Or tried to. Our connection was oddly muffled. As if the literal clouds I’d created above us were being replicated within our non-tangible connection.
To my surprise, though, another voice came through loud and clear inside my head. “Now you’re giving me orders?”
I jumped, my head twisting from side to side to see where the sound had come from. Had Vega come back so quickly?
No, that was her voice but she wasn’t physically present. Instead, the words really had been inside me, just the way I heard Orion down the mate bond.
“Aunt Vega?” I asked tentatively in the same manner.
“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.”
Along with her childish retort came the certainty that she was even now mobilizing her pack to work their way down the ladder. I heard nothing. Saw nothing. But I felt the swoop of terror in Vega’s gut when the teenager who’d been shot lost his one-handed grip halfway down and someone else just barely managed to catch him. I felt her triumph as one of her pack mates set foot on the first boat, others soon following.
Was this what it felt like to be part of a shifter clan? The experience was unsettling...and deeply warming. It was also supremely odd to be sharing this moment with someone who hadn’t even been willing to tell me her name before yesterday.
Shaking my head, I got back to work. Because it wouldn’t take Gabi long to clear the entire housing block, not with five others working alongside her. Not long enough for all of us to get down that ladder and into boats.
So I needed to continue making up for the mistake that had caged all these shifters months ago. I needed to cut off the attack force’s head.
I didn’t whisper another proverb, but the cloud sent down a tendril to encompass me anyway the moment I moved out of the cover of the upright I’d been pressed up against. Shielded by the fog, I eased the long way around the outside of the open area, working my way toward the visible guard.
I expected Vega to have stopped paying attention to me while she oversaw her pack’s evacuation. Instead, I got the distinct impression she’d left them at the top of the ladder and turned back in my direction. That she was mirroring my actions so she could come around toward the guard from the other side.
My aunt didn’t have cloud cover to hide within, but a hint down whatever bond connected us suggested she was lupine now. Her paws were soundless. As we neared our joint destination, I barely caught the flicker of movement between two rusty uprights even though I knew exactly where to look. The guard had no chance.
We converged on him from the right and left at the exact same moment. Our connection meant we each knew what the other was up to. Our shifter speed meant the human didn’t have time to yell before my hand covered his mouth and my aunt’s jaws clenched shut around his windpipe.
Vega released his throat and fell to the ground at the same moment the guard’s body went limp. “Nice,” I sent toward her. It took skill to knock out an opponent without leaving more than a scratch on him. No wonder her tongue-lolling expression looked so smug.
I had the guard bound, gagged, and rolled into the shadows along the housing-block wall before my aunt came to her feet, naked and human with the gas mask she’d taken off the guard clutched in one fist. “Thanks,” I told her silently, holding out my hand.
But she didn’t pass over the item that would allow one of us to enter the housing block and start picking off enemies. Instead, she slid the mask down over her own face then began tightening the straps on either side.
