Gunnar Read online

  My breath caught as I focused my scope straight at him. The moon shone bright enough that I could make out his features. Hell, if I wanted to, if I had the laser sight, I probably could have gotten a shot off. Maybe that would have been for the best. A bullet straight between the eyes might be something he’d beg for if he knew it was an option.

  My heart thundered in my chest as I watched him sleep. A week’s worth of grime covered his face. His hair might have been blond, but it was matted with dirt and blood. He had a deep gash over his right eye. On a normal man, it might have been a mortal wound. On a wolf shifter like him, he’d probably heal by morning.

  He was big. Huge, actually. Even lying down, his long legs stretched almost to the opposite side of the cell. How tall would that make him, I wondered. Six and a half feet, at least. Though his face looked gaunt from malnutrition, he had striking, broad cheekbones and a generous mouth. It curved up as he slept as if he were dreaming of something pleasant. I found myself hoping he was. Poor fucker. It was probably the only time he ever got peace. Yes. A quick bullet in the brain from my rifle would bring him mercy he probably didn’t deserve. He was still a shifter, after all.

  His eyes snapped open and my world seemed to shift on its axis. In a tiny instant, he found my gaze. His eyes went from cold blue to glinting silver as his wolf stirred.

  “Shit,” I muttered, crawling backward, commando-style.

  He lifted his head. Agony etched deep lines in his brow. He tried to sit up, but his legs didn’t seem to work right.

  “Gunnar!” A whisper cut through the stillness. “They’re back for you!”

  He looked straight at me. There could be no doubt. I crouched about fifteen yards away, but he saw me. His agonized expression turned to solemn acceptance as two pairs of booted feet entered his cell. He groaned as arms reached down. The chains binding his wrists and ankles scraped against the ground as they hauled him to his feet. He didn’t scream. He didn’t beg. He just put one bloodied foot in front of the other as they led him out into the night.

  Sweat trickled down my back as I held the rifle steady. I could have ended it. One breath. One beat. One squeeze of the trigger and I could have put the man out of his misery. What then? The guards would have easily tracked where the shot came from. I had the advantage of surprise, but two full-blooded shifters on my scent and I wouldn’t make it ten feet.

  I should have gone. I’d seen enough, hadn’t I? I promised Melanie I’d only wanted to see if any new prisoners had been brought in since the last time we ran recon. Now I knew. They had. It didn’t prove anything conclusive, of course, but it was a lead. We’d heard rumors Birch Haven College had been liberated last year. We heard they’d captured one of the resistance fighters who’d been responsible. If that were true...if this man had been there the day the college had been set free, I had to talk to him. I had to know what happened.

  I took to the shadows again, slinging my rifle over my shoulder. It should be safe now for a while. The patrols had passed. This part of the woods would stay quiet for at least an hour. Plenty of time for me to dive back into the tunnels and head back home. I could even be back before Vera and the others woke. Melanie would know where I’d gone, of course. For now, she covered for me with Vera. But, the day would come when we’d have to have a serious conversation.

  I leaned against a tall oak tree, letting the rough bark scrape my back. Once, a long time ago, I’d heard these woods had been teeming with Pack members. No one knew why they’d mostly cleared out. Maybe it was so the Alpha could keep the regular members of the Pack from seeing what went on here. This wasn’t a normal prison camp, if there was such a thing. Only the worst of the worst were sent here to die.

  Gunnar. Was that his name? His cellmate had shouted out a warning. Even now, I could still see the shadow of the other man’s legs. He’d fallen asleep himself. The cellblocks were laid out in a straight row. On the other side of him, I saw two more sets of feet. The man on the far end, second from the last, wasn’t moving. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen him move at all since I started watching. Dread skittered up my spine. If he was already dead, why did they leave him in there like that?

  My heart stopped as I heard the crunch of bone and grunts of pain toward the center of the compound. Gunnar. Could he be the one?

  I don’t know what compelled me to stay there that night. But, the man was going to die; of that I was sure. I had hoped to go back and tell the others what I saw so we could make a plan together. I knew now with stone-cold certainty that I might not get another chance. Strong as he looked, that shifter might not survive the night.

  They kept him for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes. Such a short amount of time, but it had to have seemed an eternity to him. His cell door opened with a clang. Chains scraped against the ground as they threw him back in and shut the door. I flattened myself to the ground so I could see through the six-inch gap in the wall.

  Gunnar’s face had changed shape. He seemed caught between man and wolf. His nose was broken and his lip split. He let out a great, heaving sigh. I watched his chest rise and fall with his erratic breaths that rattled.

  Shit. He was dying. I knew that sound.

  I don’t remember moving. Before I knew what was happening, I’d crawled on my elbows to within five feet of Gunnar’s cell. God. It was even worse up close. They’d caved his chest in. The fingers on his right hand bent back at wrong angles. As I watched, the skin rippled as his body tried to heal.

  Don’t die. I said it over and over again in my mind. Don’t die until I have a chance to find out for sure.

  I edged closer, crawling on my belly. I shut my eyes and stopped breathing. I was no shifter. I couldn’t sense the Pack. But, I could hear if they were on the move.

  Gunnar’s eyes snapped open, flashing silver and widening. I froze. As he tried to focus, his smile took on a dream-like quality. He probably didn’t know what was real. It felt like I didn’t.

  Then, reality slammed straight into me as his fingers closed around my wrist. Even in his weakened state, he moved faster than I could see. His grip tightened, cutting off the blood flow to my fingers. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was stare into those piercing silver eyes.

  When his fangs came out, I tried not to scream.

  Three

  Gunnar

  I tried to die. This time, it felt so close. I floated away, carried on a cloud. That should have been my first clue it wasn’t real. If it were that easy, everyone in this place would have gladly gone.

  Heat slammed into my chest along with heart-pounding desire. Every sense came sharply into focus. The sky was no longer black; I could see the blue bands of light even in the middle of the night. Her sweet, intoxicating scent wrapped around me, warming my cold places, easing my pain.

  Her.

  My eyes burst open, my vision tunneled to a single pinpoint of light. When it expanded, sable eyes stared back at me. Her breath brushed my cheek. My inner wolf sprang awake. The urge to shift bubbled from my core.

  Mine. Mine. Mine!

  I rolled to my belly and pushed myself to the opening at the bottom of the wall. I couldn’t see all of her. She strained against me. It was only then I realized I had a hold of her. Delicate bones, smooth, pale skin, a flash of metal.

  “Who are you?” My voice ripped from my ragged throat.

  She shook her head. Digging her heels into the dirt, she tried to loosen my grip on her wrist. Instinct told me to let go. I wouldn’t hurt her. I would never hurt her. But, she was terrified.

  “Let go of me,” she whispered.

  God. Her voice was raspy, dark and sultry. I shivered with desire.

  “Who are you?” I said again. She moved. She stopped trying to pull away and crouched low, almost lying on her belly like I was. From this vantage point, I could see all of her. She had a mass of thick, dark hair, deepest brown, or maybe even black. Her brown eyes blinked with a mixture of fear and curiosity. With the pad of my thumb, I
felt the frenetic pulse in her wrist.

  I didn’t mean to do it. Until that moment, I never realized I could. But, I closed my eyes, took a breath and slowed my own pulse. Two beats. Three. Then her pulse slowed to match mine. It was then she started pulling away again.

  “Tell me who you are!” she demanded. She had all the fire and fury in those dark eyes. It stirred my blood, reawakening the pain from Maestro’s last visit. I didn’t care. At that moment, I might have endured it all again just for a few more minutes with her.

  “Gunnar,” I said simply. “Gunnar Cole. Your turn.”

  Again she shook her head no. “Let me go. I have to go. The patrols are coming back.”

  My heart jumped. As much as I wanted to keep touching her, the thought of the Pack patrols getting anywhere near her sent ice shooting through my veins. No. I’d die before I let them hurt her. Fuck. I’d die anyway. Trapped in pain and dragonsteel, what the hell could I do about any of it?

  The answer slammed into me. I could let her go. I loosened my grip. She slid her wrist out of my fingers.

  She didn’t run. At first, she didn’t even move. She just kept staring at me with those beautiful, inquisitive brown eyes. Whatever effect her touch had on me, she seemed similarly stunned by it.

  I sensed the others before she did. “Go!” I whispered. “They can’t find you!”

  She stayed frozen to her spot, her eyes flicking over me.

  Dammit. “Who are you?” I asked for the third time.

  Finally, she blinked and started to crawl backward. More than anything, I wanted to tell her to wait. I wanted to touch her again. “Dammit,” I yelled in the loudest whisper I dared. “Tell me who the hell you are.”

  She stopped and tilted her head so she could see me through the gap again. “I can’t do that,” she answered. “Just...don’t die yet, Gunnar Cole.”

  Voices rose to the east as the Pack patrols drew near. The girl vaulted to her feet. She wore black combat boots covered in dirt. She had a rifle slung across her back. It jostled as she broke into a run.

  The Pack was close. I didn’t know who the hell she was, but she was just human. If the wolves scented her, they’d be on her in seconds. I gathered my leg chains. They might kill me, but if I could distract the patrol away from her, it might be all the time she needed. Would I do it? Would I risk another beating for a woman who wouldn’t even tell me her name?

  I never had to make the choice. The impossible happened right before my eyes. Five seconds before the Pack patrols would have had her in their line of sight, the girl dropped straight through the ground and disappeared.

  It was a trick of the light or my battered brain. It had to be. Human girls couldn’t just vanish into thin air.

  Tonight’s patrol consisted of three Pack members. I didn’t know their names but recognized their scents. They joked and laughed as their heavy boots trudged over the ground a few feet from the cells. One of them stopped right in front of Finn’s cell, turned toward it and took a piss.

  Finn growled. I put a hand under the wall, gripping the ground. Keep still, I wanted to shout. There was no point riling any of them tonight. I, for one, didn’t know if I could survive it. Up until ten minutes ago, that wouldn’t have mattered. Now though, the girl’s scent still hung in the air, a lingering echo that sent that same shiver of desire through me.

  Mine.

  The guards moved on. Finn’s chains rattled as he scooted closer to the wall. “Fucking Pack sheep,” he said. “Without these chains I’d lay all three of them out.”

  “Sure you would,” I said, smiling. “But they’re not worth the trouble.”

  “You still breathing, man?” Finn asked. His hand came under the wall and he pumped his fist against the ground.

  “Still doing my thing,” I said. I coiled into myself to stave off the round of coughs I felt coming. If I gave in to it, I was sure my ribs would break again.

  “We were worried,” Finn said. “Maestro hasn’t pulled that shit for a while. I don’t like it. Something’s coming.”

  I pressed my head against the cement wall. “Something’s always coming.”

  “No, not like this. Jones heard ‘em talking after they pulled you out. You notice Maestro’s the only one working us over lately? When’s the last time anyone’s seen Buzzy or Legs?”

  Pack interrogators got their names from whatever particular torture preferences were. Buzzy became Buzzy on account of the way most of us felt when he was done with us. Legs was more obvious. He liked to break them.

  “I don’t know,” I answered, defeated. I couldn’t think about any of that now. I could only think about the girl. But, Finn said nothing about her.

  “Well, Rackham said Jones thinks they’re scared. The Alpha’s pissed because the others weren’t getting any results.”

  “Results?”

  Finn went quiet. That alone would have given me pause. His incessant chatter gave me comfort most nights. After a full minute went by without his answer, I leaned closer to the wall between us.

  “Finn! What are you talking about?”

  Finn let out a sigh. “You, Gunnar. Rackham says Jones heard them say you’ve held out longer than anybody ever has.”

  “Lucky me. Does that mean I get a medal?”

  “Don’t joke. You know exactly what it means. Rackham says Jones heard them talking about the Alpha coming down here himself. Maybe as early as next week.”

  My heart went stone cold. If the Alpha were indeed coming to Camp Hell, it could only mean one thing. Subjugation.

  The Chief Pack’s Alpha exerted total control over members of his pack. They worked like spokes on a wheel with him at the hub. He controlled his top, most trusted generals to keep his territories under control. The pull of the Pack was the thing everyone here feared. It’s what I, Jagger, Liam, Mac and Payne had broken away from all those years ago. We lived underground. We fought where we could. If I could only break these chains, I’d make a run for it. I’d find a way to get Finn, Jones and Rackham the hell out of here too.

  “Is it cold down there?” Finn asked. His mind wandered like that, jumping from one thing to the next. He constantly asked me about the caves. I’d never confirmed nor denied their existence to him. But, he knew. The wolves of Mammoth Forest had grown to legendary status all throughout Kentucky. It’s the last thing we wanted.

  “It’s not so cold.” It was as close as I would come to admitting anything to him. It was the only way I could protect the friends I’d left behind and the ones I had beside me.

  “What will you do if the Alpha does come?” he asked.

  “I don’t want to think about that right now. Jesus, Finn. Are you going to just sit there and not mention what just happened?”

  He moved again, rattling his chains. “What happened?”

  Was he playing dumb? Had Buzzy hit him harder in the head the last time he questioned him than I realized?

  I moved to the corner of my cell, bracing my back against the wall. “Finn, the girl. Who the hell was she?”

  Finn went quiet for a beat. I leaned down so I could see him through the gap. Finn’s hair hung in long, thin strings. It might have been dark at some point, but now he had thick patches of white running through it.

  “You didn’t see the woman outside just now?” I lowered my voice even further. Even mentioning her to Finn felt like a betrayal. But, my heart still thundered inside my chest. My flesh still burned where I’d touched her, no matter how briefly.

  Finn’s soft laughter infuriated me. “Yeah. I see her sometimes too. For me, she’s tall and blonde with tits that don’t quit. Sometimes she’s wearing a metal bustier like she’s some kind of Viking shield maiden. Yeah, I like that the best. Sometimes, she’s a mermaid. Though, I always wondered how the hell that would work. Like is there a slit or something...or do you have to wait until she’s got legs to…”

  “Finn!” I banged my chains against the wall. “Stay with me, man. That’s not what I’m talking about.
She was real. I touched her. She was right outside. She talked to me.”

  “Oh, that’s a good one then, brother. Hold on to that for a while.”

  Fuck. He still thought I was talking about some dream. Was I? Was she? I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision. Was the whole thing some pain-fueled vision? It felt so real. I could still smell her. I raised my hand to my face. I’d touched her with it. She’d tried to pull away. On the back of my wrist, I had two faint lines where she’d dug her nails into me.

  I moved, ready to slide that hand beneath the wall and show Finn so I could prove it to him. In the end, I decided against it. She was mine. Whether she was real or not, I would protect her.

  “You’re right,” I said. “That was a good one.”

  Finn cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to tell you this, man. After everything you’ve been through. But, if it were me I’d want to know. You need to get ready. Jones says the Alpha is coming. It’s no joke. If Maestro can’t get you to tell them anything about your resistance operation, the Alpha’s ready to move to subjugate you. I’m sorry. I really am.”

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I slouched against the wall. Subjugation. If it were true, it meant I would betray everyone and everything I loved. It meant it was time to die.

  Four

  Jett

  I tried to slip in while the rest of the girls slept. I should have known that plan would never work. Vera stood by the campfire, her eyes practically glowing with the same heat. She crossed her arms in front of her, standing stock still. As I adjusted the rifle on my back I moved toward the fire, stretching my hands out to warm them.

  Vera struck like a snake. She got between me and the fire and shoved me back hard. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”