Gunnar Read online

  Gathering my chains, I backed into a corner off the cell. Could I get them around my neck? I scanned the top of the cage in the dark. Was there a hook, a ledge? Anything I could brace it on? The walls were smooth. The metal loop in the wall kept the chains taut. I had enough slack to move against the wall, but not enough to wrap it around my neck.

  One horrible night, I’d heard Finn try to bash his own head against the wall. It was early in my stay here. I’d tried to reason with him. Now, I understood the desperation he felt better than anyone. I tried it again, hitting the wall harder than the night before. I’m not proud. But shifters have heads harder than concrete. It made my ears ring, but little more. Besides, even if I’d cracked my own skull, it wouldn’t be enough to kill me, and I healed too quickly.

  “Shit,” I whispered as I felt sticky, warm blood pour down the back of my neck.

  “Knock it off. You’re no good to me unconscious!” Jett’s whisper hit me like a thunderbolt. Her eyes glinted in the gap in the wall where she crouched low to peer in at me.

  With my ringing ears, I’d never even heard her approach. Was this the Alpha sending her to me again? Twice in a row, she’d appeared after I drove him out of my head. My pulse rocketed and I scrambled closer to the wall to get to her.

  “What the hell are you doing here? The guards just left. They’re going to find you!”

  Jett’s white teeth gleamed in the darkness as she smiled. “I’m smarter than I look. You let me worry about the guards. You made a deal with me. I came to collect.”

  Letting out a sigh, I pressed my head against the wall. Jett crouched beneath the opposite wall, too far for me to reach her. As the throbbing in my head began to subside, I craved her touch, knowing instinctively that it would soothe me.

  “Come here,” I said. “I can’t hear you very well.”

  “That’s your own fault.”

  “Yeah, it is. I still want you to come closer. I will not risk the guards hearing either one of us.”

  Jett disappeared. A few seconds later, her hand slid beneath the wall close to me. Still out of my reach, but close enough I could hear her heart beating. It had been a lie. She could have stayed a hundred yards away and my wolf ears would have picked up every whispered word. I had the sense she knew that but chose to get close to me anyway.

  “So, tell me what I need to know,” she said. “You made me a promise. I want to know about Birch Haven. What happened there?”

  Snorting, I shifted my weight and slid lower so she could see my face. “You know what that place was? What they did to girls like you there?”

  “That’s not what I asked you. Is it still standing?”

  I don’t know why I hesitated. She was right; I had made her a promise. But, when I told her everything I knew, she might not have a reason to stay. Of course, that was better for her. Safer. And yet, my need to stay close to her burned through me.

  “I don’t know,” I finally answered. “That’s the truth. But yes, I was there. There was a battle. That’s when I got captured.”

  Jett let out a choked sob. “The women. Tell me what happened to the women. Did you see?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut trying to conjure up my last few minutes of freedom before the Alpha’s guards captured me. “It was chaos. But yes, they got away. I don’t know how many. Dozens. Fifty, sixty, maybe more. They broke through the gates and ran into the woods. Some got out on foot. Others were in vans.”

  “You saw that?” Jett was openly sobbing now and my heart broke. More than anything, I wanted to pull her into my arms. I wanted to inhale the sweet scent of her hair as she leaned against my chest.

  “Yes,” I said. “I saw that.” There was more. I could tell her how Mac and Payne and I waited by the riverbank. Mac had someone working with him on the inside. His sister Lena had been there. I was pretty sure she was one of the ones who’d gotten out along with Mac’s mate, Eve. There were others, but I couldn’t see their faces in my mind as clearly. The Alpha’s bodyguard had hit me hard, cracking my jaw. I rounded on him and killed him. Payne had gotten hurt badly. At first I feared he was dead. But, as the Alpha’s other guards overtook me, Payne locked eyes with me. He was alive. Thank God, he was alive.

  “I saw a fire,” I said. “I don’t know who set it. It could have been my people, or one of the girls. Hell, it might even have been the Pack. They swarmed the place. I told you. It was chaos.” I was careful not to say or think anything the Alpha didn’t already know.

  “But, they got out,” Jett said, her voice taking on a dreamlike quality. What I wouldn’t give to see her face full on. For now, it was enough that I could feel her rapid pulse beating in time with mine. I don’t think she was aware of it. She hung on my words. For a moment, she had a trancelike quality as if she were trying to picture what I’d told her.

  “You were from there,” I said. Horror filled my heart. It would make sense of why Jett cared so much about what happened to Birch Haven. She knew what it was because she’d seen it firsthand. Rage rose within me, squeezing my heart. Had she been marked by one of the Alpha’s men? Had she been touched against her will or hurt? My vision darkened. Jett’s eyes flicked to mine and I knew she could see my wolf shining within. I’m told they are silver, though I’ve never seen them myself.

  Jett’s hand disappeared. I heard something crinkle, like stiff paper. She slid a tattered rectangle under the wall. “Tell me if you recognize her.”

  I took the paper from her, letting my fingers brush hers. Again, that electric spark shot from her heart to mine. She pulled away as if touching me burned her. Slowly, I picked up the photograph and squinted into the darkness. It was one of those cheesy class photographs on a blue background with an American flag in the corner. A pretty, light-skinned African-American girl smiled back at me. A mass of beautiful braids framed her face and inquisitive dark eyes. In this picture, she couldn’t be much more than fifteen or sixteen.

  “Who is she?” I asked.

  Jett hesitated, then finally answered. “Her name was Jasmine.”

  “She was at Birch Haven?” I asked.

  “Yes. I need to know if she was one of the ones who got out.”

  I slid the photograph back to her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know. I didn’t get out. The Pack caught me during the battle. I don’t know what happened after I got separated from my…”

  I stopped myself from saying the rest of it. I couldn’t reveal the final truth to this girl. There was still the very real possibility she was working for the Pack. Though my heart and instinct told me no, I couldn’t risk betraying Mac and the others.

  I dropped my head and closed my eyes. In twenty-four hours, it wouldn’t matter anymore. If I was still alive when the Alpha got here for real, my mind would no longer be my own.

  When I opened my eyes, Jett’s hand lay flat on the ground, still covering this Jasmine’s photograph. I reached for her with snake-like speed, circling my fingers around her wrists. Jett clenched her fists and tried to pull away.

  “I’ve held up my end,” I said, my voice dropping an octave. “Time to hold up yours.”

  Jett froze. “One in a million shot.”

  “I’ll hold still,” I said with a bitter laugh. Jett put her other hand under the wall. In it, she held her nine millimeter. I’d have to lie flat on my belly, sliding as close to the gap as I could. She had a silencer twisted on the end, but the shot would still make plenty of noise. The same shot that would free me from subjugation might put her at even greater risk. Every protective instinct in me flared hot. Could I do that to her? Would my freedom be worth her safety?

  Voices rose on the other side of the camp. Finn’s scream was so loud it reached me just as if he were still in the cell next to me. My head grew foggy and started to buzz. Beneath all of that though, that familiar pull started dead center in my chest. My limbs went slack and it got hard to breathe.

  “They’re coming,” Jett said. “Shit.”

  “It’s the Pack,” I shouted. Ther
e could be no doubt. My wolf eyes flared; a red haze seeped into my vision. This was bad. This was very bad.

  “There’s no time,” I said, all hope leaching out of me. “You have to run. If they find you here…”

  But Jett was already on her feet. I strained to see what was happening. From my vantage point and the few inches of clearance under the wall, I saw her booted feet begin to run. Then, she slid to a stop.

  “Hey! You!” Oh, God. It was Lowell. With a high, bright moon at his back, Lowell’s shadow fell across Jett. He’d come alone, but it wouldn’t matter. He was only a beta, but he was still ten times stronger than Jett, at least. She planted her feet wide and aimed her weapon at him. Her bullet would be no match for his shifter speed. She fired anyway. I couldn’t see if she’d hit him.

  Lowell muttered something unintelligible and lurched forward, his gait all wrong. She’d hit him. Holy fuck, she’d hit him. How in the hell had she been fast enough to get a shot off? He dropped to his knees, blood pouring from a wound in his shoulder.

  Fuck. It would only be enough to stun him for a moment. To kill him, she’d have to hit him in the frontal lobe at close range. Even then, it might not have been enough.

  Lowell clutched the wound on his chest. His eyes went from red to pale yellow. Then, he fell forward face first and started to twitch. He wasn’t dead, but something was wrong. Shifters don’t go down like that from gunshots to the shoulder.

  More shuffling. Jett was on the move, but I couldn’t see her. Further away, something worse was coming. I caught their scent moving fast. There was no time. The Pack was on its way.

  Metal scraped at the door. Keys jangled then dropped to the ground. Jett swore. Then, the cell door swung wide and she stepped inside.

  “Come on,” she said. “We’re out of time.”

  “What are you doing? Jesus! You gotta get out of here.”

  Jett held a ring of keys in her hand. She stood before me, chest heaving.

  “Lowell!” A shout filled the air. “You back there, man?” It was Henny and he wasn’t alone.

  Jett tossed the keys to me. “Hurry up if you want me to help you.”

  “Help me? Woman, have you lost your damn mind? They’re going to tear you up!”

  “Then you better get moving.”

  With shaking fingers, I unlocked the dragonsteel chains. They fell to the ground. The constant burn I’d felt around my ankles and wrists stopped at once. The relief of it nearly drove me to the ground. Jett’s hand on my arm made me stop.

  “Come on!” she said. “We’ve got to move.”

  I rose slowly and took two steps forward. Then, it was as if a sledgehammer hit me in the chest.

  Stop! You will not move!

  The voice inside my head drove out all reason. It was him. It was the Alpha. He was moving fast. My body wanted to obey; my mind was chaos.

  “Gunnar!” Jett shook me.

  “No,” I said, clamping my hands over my ears. We wouldn’t be fast enough. He would catch us. He would make me submit. Too strong. Too many. It was over.

  “I can’t,” I said. “I won’t. You have to do it. Now.” I took Jett’s hand and pulled the gun up, centering it on my forehead. “Pull the trigger. Don’t let them turn me.”

  Jett locked eyes with me. Hers burned with fury. Her breasts heaved with measured breaths. Her fingers trembled on the trigger.

  “Now!” I pleaded as the Pack drew nearer. “You swore it.”

  A tear fell down Jett’s cheeks. She bit her lip then slowly lowered the gun. She held out her hand to me.

  “I know another way,” she said. “But you’ve got to run.”

  “No, do it. For the love of God. Do it! I won’t be one of them. I can’t. You don’t understand.”

  “I understand more than you realize,” she said. She gave me a little half smile that tore at my heart. Then, she turned and ran out of the cell. “Follow me if you want a second chance. Or stay here and be one of them.”

  Nine

  Jett

  The guard wasn’t dead. He twitched on the ground as his central nervous system short-circuited. It wouldn’t last. If I’d shot him in the head, it probably would have killed him, but even then it wouldn’t have been instantaneous. There was no help for it now. He couldn’t move, but he could still see.

  “Turn him!” I yelled to Gunnar. “At least cover his eyes.”

  Gunnar staggered forward. For a second, I thought he was having his own mental issues. Or, maybe having dragonsteel around him for that long did something to his body. As I started toward the woods and looked back, he recovered. His wolf eyes flashed deadly silver as he stood over the guard. Lowell made a choked sound as he tried to get control of his limbs. He might never be able to again. The neurotoxin lacing my bullet might wear off a bit, but it would never leave his system.

  “Why isn’t he getting up?” Gunnar shouted.

  I went to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “No time now. They’re coming. Even I can feel it.”

  Gunnar blinked rapidly. His color wasn’t good. When he turned to face me, my breath caught. This was the first time I’d seen him full on, not peering under a six-inch gap in some hole in the wall.

  Gunnar Cole was the biggest shifter I’d ever seen. That should have alarmed me maybe, but instead, heat coiled through me. I felt his heart beating almost as if it were inside my own head. Vera and the others had asked me one question I couldn’t answer, until now. As Gunnar stood before me, his muscled chest heaving, glistening with perspiration, I saw the tattoo.

  It was just another rumor whispered through the woods. A fairytale we couldn’t risk believing. Resistance fighters would rise up and take down the Pack. We would know them by the mark they bore.

  Gunnar’s eyes rolled back in his head. His knees buckled. I shook him once, hard, and his eyes snapped open again. “Turn him,” I said. “So he can’t see which way we go.”

  Gunnar stepped away from me and crouched over Lowell’s twitching form. White foam spilled from Lowell’s mouth. Gunnar moved with such fierce quickness, it took my breath from me. He curved his arms around Lowell’s head and snapped his neck, killing him instantly.

  Gunnar turned to me, eyes blazing. “Now he can’t see anything at all.”

  My mouth hanging open, I nodded. “This way,” I said. I took a faltering step backward, then turned and ran toward the woods. With each step, a million things ran through my mind. This was crazy. Gunnar clearly wasn’t at full strength, but I’d just watched him kill a shifter with his bare hands. He probably hadn’t let his own wolf out in weeks, maybe months. I knew enough to understand that could make him unstable. And yet, as shouts reached us from the south side of the camp, none of it mattered. The Pack had arrived. If Gunnar stayed, they would turn him or kill him. I just couldn’t let that happen.

  “Don’t turn on me,” I said as Gunnar reached my side. He could easily outrun me even in human form. If he went wolf, he could zip out of here at top speed and all I’d see would be a blur of gray. He didn’t though. He stayed beside me.

  Gunnar let out a low growl as the shouts from the camp grew louder. “Lowell!”

  They hadn’t found him yet. The moment they did, we’d be in deeper shit than we already were. Gunnar had been in that camp for weeks. The Pack knew his scent. What in the ever-loving hell was I doing?

  “This way,” I shouted. We’d reached the camouflaged trapdoor leading to the nearest tunnel. I kicked it aside and launched myself into the ground. Gunnar was close behind. He pushed the leaves and branches back over the hole. The tunnel had been built by shifters, for sure. I had maybe a foot and a half of clearance around me as I started to crawl. As I looked back, Gunnar barely had enough room to move. But move he did.

  I clicked on the mini Maglite I had clipped to my shoulder. I knew Gunnar wouldn’t need it. His wolf eyes glinted silver. Down and down we went until the tunnel finally forked. At first, the ground shook as footsteps pounded overhead. It had stunned me at fi
rst how far vibrations carried through the ground. It felt like our pursuers were right on top of us. But, I knew they were probably fifty yards away and hopefully headed in the other direction.

  “Which way?” Gunnar asked. The tunnel branched left and right, or we could go straight ahead. Gunnar wedged himself into the space beside me. My skin prickled. Being this close to him ignited something preternatural in me.

  “Right,” I said. “About two hundred yards there’s an opening. We come up near the riverbank. If it hasn’t been moved, there’s a kayak. The river rushes fast. We can be miles away in no time.”

  He hesitated, considering my words. His nostrils flared as he tilted his head and tried to catch the scent of whatever was moving above us. My plan would actually take us closer to the Pack patrols, at least for a few minutes. I was right; I knew I was. And yet, Gunnar didn’t trust me. If I had time to be rational, I probably wouldn’t have blamed him. But, the thought of the Pack catching him right now made me more afraid for him than I was for myself.

  “Gunnar!” I shouted in his face. “We have to move.” I didn’t wait for his say-so. I dove right and kept on going. Dirt and loose rock showered down as Gunnar made the decision to follow me. Though we moved incredibly fast, time seemed to stand still. I’d never been claustrophobic in the tunnels before. Tonight, I felt like the world was closing in around me.

  Thunder shook the ground as groups of heavy footsteps merged above us. This would be the most dangerous part. I looked back. Gunnar’s eyes glinted like diamonds in the dark. They lit up the space around him. As he reached forward with his hands, his claws came out.

  “No!” I whispered. “Gunnar, no. Stay with me.” If he shifted into his wolf now, we’d be well and truly fucked. There was chaos and disorder above us. That was a good sign. It meant they hadn’t caught Gunnar’s scent.

  “Don’t give them any help!” I said. Gunnar’s eyes dimmed, turning human again. I clicked off the Maglite, pitching us in total darkness. It didn’t matter. I knew the way and we were almost there.