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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
     
QUINN
A tall man wearing a lab coat walks in with a large creature by his side, much like the monster from the woods.
He seems almost delighted to see us as he hurries over and adjusts his glasses like he wants a better look at us. “My, my, what do we have here? Not what I thought I’d find,” the man says as he nears the bars.
“You have taken one of my pack. I know you took her and I followed the trail here and insist that you give them back and let us go,” I say, voice steady. I don’t want to instigate anything if they’re willing to actually let us go—which I greatly have my doubts about. But since we’re not who they’re looking for, I have some hope.
The shifter next to him looks like some kind of combination between a lion—or some kind of big cat—and a canine-type animal. The fangs are smaller than Rowan’s but as it growls at me, I can see a mouthful of sharp, pointed teeth. Its back stands past the man’s hip and he isn’t a small man.
Whatever this thing is, it’s not natural.
“Well, what a sad story,” the man says sarcastically. He leans against the bars before his expression changes. “Oh my. What a beautiful snow leopard and what else do we have here?”
I step in front of him, blocking him from my pack. “They are of no concern to you; they are mine. Now I insist you let us go and tell me where my missing pack member is.”
“Hmm… this whole thing is of concern. What do you think, Raylon?” he asks as he pets the shifter next to him.
He growls at us, tail whipping back and forth.
“I agree,” the man says with a chuckle. “Let me see what my boss happens to think. You cuties just sit tight!”
He turns around and walks out of the room, taking his shifter with him and leaving us alone.
I have put my entire pack in danger over this. I understand that I couldn’t just leave Addie, but now it’s bigger than this. My whole pack could be targeted. “We need out and we need to leave, now.”
I press myself against the bars as Rowan shifts and steps up next to me. “The door out is being opened and closed remotely, but you have to assume there’s a manual override, likely in this room.”
“Ari, can you fit through the bars?” I ask because the bars were clearly made to keep a larger shifter in, not a small one.
Ari trots over to the bars as Ethan whines and because he’s not happy that none of us can hear him, he shifts just to say, “We’re going to die. I’m going to die. I’m going to fucking die.”
“You need to be quiet unless you have something to help us with,” I growl, not able to handle his distractions at this point. We wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for him.
“There,” Rowan says as he points. “There are buttons there. One of them might be to the door.”
Ari stuffs his head between the bars then pushes forward. It’s a tight squeeze but he gets to his shoulders where he wiggles a little before slipping through. Then he shifts into his human form and rushes over. “Um… do I just start hitting them?” he asks, clearly uncertain.
“Any labeled?” I ask.
He shakes his head as he stares down at them. “Nope.”
“Hit away,” I say, not sure what else to do.
The first one he hits makes Rowan jerk back hard. “Fuck!” he yelps as he pulls back and shakes his hands.
“What happened?” I ask as I grab for him anxiously.
“Electric,” he says. “That made the bars electrified.”
“Shit,” Ari says as he quickly turns that one off.
What kind of torture device were they making with this cage? Clearly, they couldn’t control the shifters that’d escaped and planned to use this cell to do so.
“Now I’m scared to just continue hitting buttons,” Ari says.
“You have to try, we have no other choice,” I remind him.
He nods as he anxiously turns back to it. When he hits one that unlocks the door next to me that leads into the room, he turns to me. I know if Trenton were here, he’d rush through the open gate and barge into the facility to look for Addie, but it’s clear at this point we’re outnumbered and underprepared. I need to get my pack members out and safe and then we can figure something out.
“No, it’d be best if we could leave the way we came.” They all seem to understand that means we’re leaving Addie behind, but no one disagrees with me. I will come back alone and get her if I need to, but I’m not putting everyone’s lives in danger over this. I might have already endangered my entire pack.
I shove my phone at Ethan. “Get some video of the room, in case we can use it as evidence of what’s going on.”
He takes the phone and immediately drops it before scooping it back up with shaking hands. The next button Ari presses audibly unlocks the metal door down into the mine.
“Get it open,” I say, and Rowan is immediately on it.
That’s when the room’s door opens, and Ari freezes halfway back to the cell. He lunges back to the panel, locking the door to the cell before rushing toward me.
“Get in, quickly,” I say as I wave for him.
“What do we have here?” the human asks, sounding amused as his shifter lunges for Ari, his claws raking down his side and tail, making Ari cry out as he tries moving through the bars.
I grab Ari’s front end, quickly dragging him the rest of the way through and shoving him to Rowan who is also trying to get Ethan to move faster.
“Oh, my sweet little pack, go fetch me some shifters. Bring me the wolf and the snow leopard back alive. You can kill the others,” the human says.
Rowan shoves Ari toward the hole as I see the shifter he called Raylon near the cage with four others as grotesque and unnatural as he is. I say urgently, “Rowan, I need you to do the biggest favor you’ve ever done for me in your life—rush ahead and get prepared to bury the rock entrance we squeezed through. I’ll hold them off and follow close behind.”
He shakes his head. “No, I can’t leave you.”
I press the flashlight against his chest. “Rowan, please do as I ask, I know what I’m doing. Please have faith in me.”
He hesitates, then gives me a nod and follows after the others.
“Aw, such a brave little shifter,” the human says as I shift to my wolven form and hover over the opening in case I see him go for the lock. He reaches over and presses the cell door’s lock before sliding it open so his shifters can reach me.
“Go along, now. He’s a sassy one, and I like him. He’ll make a good addition to my collection,” he says. I stand my ground, growling as the five monsters move toward me, but I know that I can’t fight them in here, especially if they’re anything like the monster in the woods.
In this room, they could come from all angles but my back, but if I head down the hole into the mine shaft, it’ll force them to come after me one by one. I want to hold them off as long as I can to give my pack members plenty of time to get ahead. As I see the human reach for the panel of buttons, I wait for him to press one before making my decision. The door to the mine shaft had seemed to move slowly before, telling me that I’ll probably have time to make a move.
He presses the button, planning on locking me inside with his shifters, but I drop into the hole, narrowly making it with my lithe body that the others don’t possess. I hear them banging and beating against the metal door as I slide down the steep tunnel before hitting the mine shaft. It’s dark, too dark, my light having gone with Rowan. I have another in my pack, but I don’t dare waste time digging it out. Instead, I follow my nose, keeping myself focused on Rowan’s scent, which is strongest to me. I can also smell Ari’s blood, which makes me anxious.
When I see light bouncing through a small hole, I know I’ve reached the opening. I scramble up the loose rocks and slip through the hole they’ve clearly made smaller. Rowan grabs me and pulls me through before he and Trenton block the rest.
It won’t keep them out, but it might slow them enough to give us time to get out of here.
“Ari, are you alright?” I ask.
“I’m fine… been better. Fine. We have to go,” he says, though I can tell he’s struggling to keep up, but Trenton grabs the scuff of Ari’s neck and starts to run. I take up the rear as I hear the monsters slam against the rocks. The noises they make aren’t natural as they dig and claw at the blockade that is probably falling apart far too quickly.
“When we reach the opening to the elevator shaft, Trenton, you will go through first to the highest beam. I’m going to then have Rowan on the second spot up. I’ll pass Ari to Rowan who will pass him to you, Trenton. Then you can climb through, and Rowan and I can help Ethan, okay?”
“Got it,” Trenton says. “How many are there?”
“Five, but don’t be fooled by the amount of them. They’re not natural. We might be able to take on one or two, but they’re too quick. I don’t think we can handle five.”
No one disagrees with me, which is rather nice. But maybe that’s because that’s the moment we hear them break through the barrier.
“Quinn, since I’m a quicker jumper, how about I go last and you take Ari from me?” Rowan asks.
I hesitate because not only is my alpha side against it, so is the side that wants to protect my mate… but I know he’s right. He can make it up with a leap while I might have to take my time climbing, and even then, I’m not sure I can do it as a wolf.
“Okay,” I say. “Please be careful.”
As we near the shaft up, Trenton stops and sets Ari down before making the jump to the other side. He doesn’t have much room to land and impressively shifts halfway through the jump so when he slams into the beam, he can grab on with his hands. He scrambles his way up and starts climbing as I look at Rowan who gives me a nod of encouragement. The moment Trenton is out of my path, I take a running jump and leap to the other side. When I land, I turn to see Rowan shift to his human form before picking Ari up and holding him out my way. I hate the red that coats Ari’s golden and black leg.
Ethan rushes forward as I hear the noise that spooks him. “They’re coming, they’re coming,” Ethan says as he pushes against Rowan in an attempt to squeeze past him. Rowan, who’d already been leaning forward, slips on the wet opening.
“Dammit, Ethan, calm down,” I growl. I’m well aware they’re coming. I can hear them coming and I need to protect my mate but I also need to help Ari.
I shift to human and hold my hand out. Rowan leans over the edge as I hear them coming and Ari bunches up his legs, prepared to jump.
“They’re coming!” Ethan yells and shoves past Rowan just as Ari makes his jump. The jostling sends Ari’s jump short and he hits the wall which he claws onto desperately. Ethan barrels past Rowan and leaps to the other side, scrambling on next to me before lunging up toward Trenton.
“Ari!” I shout as I try to grab for him just as he loses his grip and starts to plummet down into the darkness. I hear him hit the water but I can’t see it, and there’s no telling what’s down there. Quickly, I shift to my wolven form as panic fills me at the idea that Ari could be hurt or drowning or even dead.
No, no. I need to get him. “Rowan, get the others out and go. Please. Now!”
“No! Dammit, Quinn, don’t!” Rowan shouts, but there’s no way I’d leave a member of my pack behind. There’s no way I could leave Ari behind, especially when I don’t hear any splashes of water or movement from down below.
There’s no easy way down, so I just jump, praying there’s nothing in the water to impale me. I’m immersed in darkness as I hit the water that envelops me as I slide down. My side hits something, making pain spike, but I scramble to grab onto it as I fight to break the surface.
“Ari?”
Silence.
What if he’s under the water? What if I can’t find him? What if he’s unconscious?
I hear Trenton let out a deafening roar, taunting the shifters, trying to get them to follow him, if I had to guess. It tells me that I need to be quiet or I’ll be stuck down here with them.
“Ari?” I call. I shift, knowing I can wave my arms around better as a human. Desperately, I dive down into the dark water, relying only on my sense of touch once under. Panic begins to set in until my hand brushes fur. I latch on and drag Ari toward me. Quickly, I pull him above the water’s surface before stilling because I can hear the monsters above me. As he lies limp against me, I hook an arm around a metal beam and pin myself against it as I realize how cold the water is.
I hear something scrambling against the wet metal above me and look up until debris rains down on us.
“Do you have him?” Rowan asks, and I startle at the words. Why the hell did he stay behind? Where is he?
I can’t see shit in the dark with my human eyes, but I’m afraid to shift back with Ari in my arms, so I just remain still and silent. When it quiets down enough that I feel like we’re safe, I whisper, “Yes. Where are you?”
“Right above you,” he says before I hear him ease into the water. “Come on, we can’t go up now, they’re right above us. There’s a lower level entrance right here.” I feel the nudge of his head before I let him guide me over to the wall. He climbs up before leaning down to me and I hold Ari up to him to gently lift by his scruff. Once he takes him from me, I heave myself up onto the platform before laying Ari down. I press my ear against his chest and let out a big sigh of relief when I realize he’s still breathing.
Shifting back into my wolf form, I pick him up by the scruff of his neck. “He must have hit his head. We need to hide until they’ve at least left the mine shaft we need to be in. We can’t just slip past them when there’s barely any room to move.”
I hate that my pack is split up, but there’s nothing we can do about it, and I know for now, staying down here is best.
“Are you okay?” Rowan asks.
“Fine,” I say, even though my side aches and Ari is hurt.
“I smell blood on you.”
“I’m fine,” I assure him.
“I will murder Ethan for you when I get out. I’m really sorry I didn’t have a better hold of Ari.”
“It’s not your fault, there’s nothing you could have done when he was mid jump. Ethan will be properly disciplined, I assure you. I’m afraid to go too far from the way out. I have no idea if there’s another way out or not. If Ari needs medical attention, and we just keep going farther, I’m not sure what will happen.”
“Okay, just far enough back that we have a head start if we hear them drop down here,” Rowan says.
So we move along the mine shaft until there’s a recess and an opening into what looks like some kind of room.
“We’re going to stop in here, but first, I want us to walk past it for a bit before turning back to it. That way if they’re tracking our scent, they’ll think we possibly went into the room before continuing on and going straight, okay?” I ask. “It’ll give us time to run for the way up, if they pass by.”
Once we’ve done that, we tuck ourselves back in the corner before I lay Ari down.
I give him a nudge with my muzzle, in response, he groans and slowly opens his eyes. “Did you murder that little pencil-dick son of a bitch?” Ari asks.
“Didn’t get the chance to yet, but I will.”
Ari rolls a little before cringing. “Are you leaving him for me to murder?”
“Sure. I’m going to shift back to see if I can help bandage you up. Stay like this.”
He slowly looks around. “Wait… we’re still in the fucking mine?”
“You fell down, we’re on a lower level.”
“Fuck me,” he cries. “Tell Logan. He’ll look all sexy coming to save me. He’ll punch Ethan into next year and look sublime doing it.”
I shift back and open my bag that I’m thankful I never lost in all the frantic shifting. The interior is saturated, but I still pull out my medical box that is thankfully water resistant. Some seems to have leaked in but for the most part, the stuff is fine. The cool air chills my wet body, now that I’m without my fur, but I have to get Ari fixed up before shifting back. I shine the light on his head that’s bleeding but have to part the wet fur to see the cut where he hit his head on the way down. Logan’s going to skin us all alive when I bring Ari back with a scratched leg and concussion. I spray some of the antiseptic on it, especially since he’s just been under the water, then I do my best to tape a bandage to it before turning to his leg that also needs medical attention.
“You doing good?” I ask Ari who nods.
His thigh will need stitches, but the bleeding seems to have slowed so I clean it up and bandage it.
“Rowan, can you walk to the end and see if you hear them still?”
“Of course,” he says before creeping back. I hate sending him off alone, but I also need to realize that he can help too and smothering him solves nothing.
By the time Rowan returns, I’m finishing up with Ari. “I can still hear someone moving above.”
I nod as I shift back to my wolf form, but I’m freezing. I try to curl up around Ari to keep him warm but maybe Rowan would be better since he never shifted to his human form after being in the water, dropping his temperature.
“Can you keep him warm?” I ask. Ari’s quiet, so I’m assuming he’s dozing, and while I’m not positive that’s good for him at the moment, I’m not sure what else to do with him.
He brushes his muzzle against me. “You’re freezing yourself,” he says as he wraps his body around me and tosses his tail over my face.
“Your tail is so dense. I’m suffocating.”
“You’re fine,” he says, and I’ll admit that I love the feeling of his fur against me—even if it’s quite wet. It feels wonderful and I find myself sinking into him as I remain focused on listening. I wish there was a way to get rid of our scent so they couldn’t track us down. The drop into the water might disorient them a bit and keep them from coming down here, especially when they watched Trenton run the other way, but there’s no guarantee.
“I hope Trenton made it away. He could hold his own for a moment, but I don’t think he could make it with those others.”
“I notice you leave out Ethan,” Rowan says.
My hackles rise at just the thought. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for him. I would have gotten everyone out safely, and instead…” I growl.
Rowan licks the side of my face, like he’s trying to reassure me, before freezing with his tongue out. He tries to play it off like he wasn’t just licking me. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I ask playfully.
“Don’t say it.”
“Don’t say anything about you licking me?”
His tail twitches, uncovering my face and revealing how warm he’d really been making me.
“No, no, I’m sorry. Bring your fluff tail back.”
He grumbles something before setting his head on top of mine and his tail over the rest of my face.
“I don’t want to wait too long and chance Ari’s health,” I explain.
“I know. But how will we tell if it’s safe?”
“What if you stay here with him and I’ll run the lower level to see if there’s a different way out?” I ask.
“No. I refuse. You’re not going alone. We stick together no matter what, okay?” Rowan asks.
I nod, but I also know we need to get out before much longer. “Okay. Now that we’ve warmed up a bit, we need to decide. Head up the shaft, which could be a bit tricky but probably assures us the quickest way out, or head deeper into the mine? We have no idea whether or not there even is another exit in the area.”
“I say we take the shaft—”
I hear a noise that stills me and quiets Rowan. Quickly, I slip out of his hold and rise up on four feet as I listen a moment before I hear a splashing noise. Rowan is up in an instant and looks at me. “I hear one.”
“Ari, there’s one of them heading this way, we need you to stay completely quiet.”
Ari stirs a little before forcing himself to sit up. With us tucked in an alcove off the main path, there’s a possibility they’ll move past us, and if they do, we could slip around and head up the elevator shaft. But if they come in here…
“Rowan, your job is getting Ari out. If they walk past this room, we’ll wait until they’re far enough away and head up. If they come in, I’ll distract them, and you get Ari out.”
Rowan hesitates as I knew he would. “But—”
“Listen to me,” I growl.
“Okay.”
We stand completely still in the dark room, not planning on using any light until they pass by us. I can hear them walking down the shaft, their noses sniffing as they move. Thankfully, it seems to only be two compared to the five we’d originally seen, but even just one has already shown how deadly it is.
One slows outside the doorway to the area we’re in, and I hear it sniffing the ground before the other makes a yipping noise and they both dash off.
“Slowly,” I say as I move toward the opening. I can still hear them, but they’re rushing ahead following a trail that will eventually end, and when it does, they’ll head back this way, wondering where we’d gone.
We walk on silent feet, Rowan carrying Ari as we reach the elevator shaft.
“Go,” I say.
He hesitates and I can tell he doesn’t hear what I can, or he wouldn’t have been as likely to listen. Because they’ve turned around and they’re pissed they’ve lost our trail. I turn on the light, knowing he’ll need to be able to see some in order to make it up. It doesn’t matter if they see the light anyway; they know where we’re at.
Rowan jumps to the far beam as I look behind me and see them running straight toward us. I make the jump after Rowan.
“Hurry, Quinn,” he says as he keeps climbing. The issue is that he’s a cat built for climbing, and I most definitely am not.
The first one lunges straight through the opening as I scramble up onto a higher beam, finding it hard to grip onto anything as my paws slip on the wet rusting metal. The smaller one, the one closest to me, bats out with a paw as it yowls at me. The other is huge, and I think it’s the one the human had called Raylon, but it’s hard to tell in here.
I clamber up as the smaller one leaps up next to me and sinks her claws right into my hip, dragging me down. Pain flares into my side as I turn fast and sink my fangs into the side of her face. She jerks back and I scramble onto the next. The larger one is having issues standing on the beams since his body is too big and he’s struggling to even reach me, but she’s having no issues at all. I debate shifting into my human form, but then I’ll have no defense against her, left with just my nails and hands. She leaps onto the beam I’m on, leaving me no way to progress forward without passing her.
I watch her as my brain rushes through the scenarios, not quite sure which one to take. She zeros in on me, wicked fangs shining in the light from my pack, her lip pulled back. She growls at me and strikes out with a paw, her stability much more skilled than mine.
“Quinn!” Rowan cries, but I can’t have him coming down here. I won’t let them take him.
“Go!” I say, but I see him set Ari down in an attempt to come back and help me. I know I need to do something fast before Rowan gets mixed up in this.
I don’t even have to wait because she lunges toward me. I skirt under her and grab her forearm, dragging it down before shoving my weight into her. She’s so fixated on me that she doesn’t seem to take into account how slippery the beam is as I drive into her. Her nails scrabble on the beam before she begins to slip and I fight to find purchase. She grabs for me, trying to hold on as she slides off the side. She flails for me, barely scraping me before her claws sink into the pack on my back.
Her weight yanks me back as I barely manage to hook my front paws on the beam while she tries to hold on. I twist hard and bite her paw, making her draw back enough that her nails slice through the pack and catch my back as she plummets down. I watch as she flails, trying to twist onto her feet in an attempt to grab onto something, but she’s too close to the wall. Instead, she falls toward one of the metal pipes that has twisted away from the wall that once made the elevator shaft. The metal pipe impales her body as the other beast realizes what happened and lets out a horrifying cry. I don’t stay to see if she’s dead or not, because Rowan grabs me in his human arms, dragging me up before lifting me quickly onto the next beam. I scramble onto it as Ari watches me from where he’s hunkered down, eyes wide.
Rowan shifts back to his leopard form and leaps up to grab Ari. I’m not sure if it’s adrenaline or what that gets us out of the elevator shaft because I can hear the larger one scrambling up the sides.
When I look down, pure rage is driving him as he scrambles and slips, long claws digging deep into any crevice that can hold his weight.
The moment we reach the surface, we run. I’m not sure I’ve ever run so hard in my life. I can hear Rowan huffing from around where he has Ari by the neck but in Ari’s condition, there’s no way he could keep up with us. I struggle to keep up with Rowan, but he’s not too much faster than me. When we break through the opening and into the night, we don’t slow. There’s no way to tell where the other monsters might hide.
But as we near the spot we’d left our vehicles, Rowan stills. I slam into him, not expecting the sudden stop. When I look up to see what caused his reaction, I see the monster that’d attacked Rowan and me a couple of weeks ago, the supposed convict, and find that he’s standing over the body of one of the beasts. When he sees us, he steps on the body, like he’s showing us it’s his. Rowan skirts around him before taking off, and when the man doesn’t try to follow Rowan, I start moving past him. For a moment, our eyes lock and I start to question if he’s as much of a monster as I once thought. Sometimes you think something is a monster until realizing that there’s something much worse out there.
I snap my attention away and rush after Rowan.
There’s sudden movement in front of me and I surge forward to protect Rowan and Ari before I realize it’s Trenton.
“It’s me, come on, hurry,” he says as he waves for us.
We rush back to the vehicle as another pulls up. Scott comes running out. “I got your message. Did you get in? Did you see my wife?”
I raise an eyebrow, very close to snapping at him. Instead, I force myself to shift, even though it hurts like hell. “Get in the fucking car and go. We’re not safe here. Get back to my village, and we’ll talk there.”
I pick up Ari, who grabs onto me, before rushing for the car.
“Wait… where’s Ethan?” I ask.
Trenton looks back at me before going for the driver’s door. “The asshole wouldn’t listen to me. When we were attacked, he scooted out, leaving me to deal with them alone, and I assumed he ran to the car but when I got here, I was alone. If he wants to fucking run through the damn forest, he can be my guest. I dealt with the others while he was running with his tail between his legs.”
“Fuck,” I whisper as I pass Ari to Rowan. “Take him back. I’m going to try to find Ethan.”
“No!” Rowan says sharply. “You’re not going anywhere! You’re hurt. Those… things are out there. If he chose to run off, that’s his fucking choice. He knew where the cars were. He nearly got Ari and you and me killed. He could have run into town at this point, you don’t know.”
I don’t know what to do but Trenton tosses me my clothes and shoves me into the car, and I find myself letting him. I’m exhausted, tired, and I ache. But as Trenton starts driving, I second-guess everything because if something happens to Ethan, that’s on me. I get dressed even though the cloth against my back makes it ache.
I call Ethan’s father as Trent drives, which just starts with him screaming at me and ends with me threatening to throw him out of the pack. Dennis eventually quiets down after I tell him how Ethan put Ari’s life in danger and make him promise not to go anywhere near the forest until I can help.
When Trenton pulls up to the hospital ten minutes later, I’m not sure I’ve done the right thing. Even if I was prepared to skin Ethan myself, he’s still pack, and as alpha, it’s my duty to protect him.
“I’ll park the car. Trenton, help Rowan get Ari in. I’m going to call Logan, and then I’ll be right in,” I say.
Rowan looks back at me hesitantly. “Please come straight in. You need to get your back looked at.”
“I will,” I say as I shoo them off. I get into the driver’s seat and call Logan as I head toward the parking lot.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Logan—”
“I heard something’s going on. Is Ari alright?” he asks anxiously.
“He’s been hurt but he’s okay. I can explain the whole thing later. I promise he’s okay. He just hit his head and hurt his leg, so we’re at the hospital right now.”
“I’m headed there.”
After ending the call, I turn out of the parking lot and a flash of white makes me slam on my brakes. The door is quickly yanked at and I look over as Rowan frantically tries to get in. “Hurry up, I’m naked as hell and people are staring at me.”
I’m trying not to grin as I unlock the door. He climbs in while trying to do this very strategic move where he’s trying to cover his groin and ass while sliding through the door.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Well, I one hundred percent knew you wouldn’t listen, and you were going to run off to find Ethan, so I’m going with you.” He gives me a challenging look, like he’s ready for me to fight him on this.
And I will because I want him safe no matter what. “No, you’re staying here.”
“No, I’m going,” he says defiantly. “If I was ever to be… your… m-m… person. That means you have to trust me and have faith in me, and that means I’m going with you.”
I realize he’s right. That I don’t have to do this alone if he’s willing to be by my side. “Okay. I’m sorry about this. It was my job to keep the pack safe and I’ve failed at that.”
“You didn’t fail anything,” he says. “What could you have done differently?”
“I should have gone alone. I should have kept the village safer so nothing happened to Addie. I shouldn’t have brought Ethan along. I shouldn’t have put the whole pack in danger.”
As I drive, I tighten my hands on the steering wheel until Rowan sets his hand on my thigh and squeezes it reassuringly. “So you would have just sat back and done nothing about Addie?”
“No, of course not, but I’d have gone alone.”
“Then who would have opened the hatch if Ari wasn’t there?” he asks.
“I don’t know.”
“Then your pack’s alpha would have been gone. And how do you think the pack would handle their alpha being gone?”
“Some of them would be happy,” I say.
Rowan raises an eyebrow. “Knock it off. You know that’s as big of a lie as I do. You know this pack wouldn’t be where it’s at without you. You need to stop acting like you’re the only one who can do anything when you very clearly have a whole band of members who are more than happy to help. You get so fixated on thinking you need to protect all of them that you won’t let them do anything. You don’t need to shoulder this alone. You can have help.”
I glance over at him before nodding. “I’m afraid I’ll lose even a single one of them. They just all look up to me and expect great things out of me, and what if I can’t do it? What if I fail?”
“Then you have your whole pack beside you, ready to help pick up the pieces when you need it. Okay?”
I nod slowly because he’s right. I need to listen to my mate more often. “Okay. You’re right. I’m being foolish when you’re definitely right. But I’m still terrified of putting them in danger. What if I call them in to help find Ethan and they end up getting hurt? What if I can’t do anything about it?”
“Then you’ll be together as a pack and able to help each other,” Rowan says.
And I know that I need to listen to him. “Okay,” I say. I decide to call Ethan’s father first. He doesn’t answer, so I leave him a voice message that I’m going to get everyone headed there to help find Ethan and to not do anything until we arrive. Almost immediately, my phone beeps, telling me I have a text.
Rowan looks down at it. “It’s Dennis. He said he found Ethan on the drive in.”
A weight lifts off my chest as I take a big breath. “Oh, thank god. Okay. Please text him and tell him that if Ethan is hurt get him into the hospital, otherwise take him straight home and stay locked down with the rest of the pack until we can figure out what’s happening.”
“I will, and you turn around and head back to the hospital,” Rowan says.
“I am,” I say as I make the first turn I can. “Are you hurt at all?”
“Very minor scrapes. So… I’m not… you know… well-versed on shifters but those things are just not natural, and he has a whole pack of them.”
“No, they’re not like anything I’ve ever seen. They’re not right. They’re not normal at all. But if Scott is right that they’re specializing in shifter DNA, are they creating these shifters? Is that possible?” I ask.
Rowan shrugs. “I don’t know.”
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER NINETEEN 
     
ROWAN
When we reach the hospital, I realize that I’m quite naked.
“I want to go in with you, but I don’t have clothes.”
“You can tie my bloody shirt around your waist,” Quinn suggests with a grin. “But honestly, I like you best naked so that’s fine with me as well. Where are your clothes?”
“I ditched them somewhere between the automated door and the accessible parking, yet I don’t see them. I think the staff thought they were the clothes of a madman and pitched them.”
Quinn’s grinning as he reaches into the back seat and grabs a grocery bag before dropping it over my groin. “Perfect.”
I look down at it before raising an eyebrow. “It’s see-through.”
“I never said it was perfect for others, but it’s definitely perfect for me.”
I shake my head at him. “Don’t tempt me when we’re in the parking lot of a hospital we’re about to go into. I guess I’ll shift…”
“That works too. No one will mind too much. This hospital has dealt with our pack for years.”
So as soon as he’s parked, I shift into my leopard form in the passenger seat, which isn’t the easiest, and I end up half falling onto the floor where Quinn gives my ass a smack before getting out. He, at least, seems to be in a better mood, and I suppose I am until I realize that my paw and the door handle don’t get along too well. I paw at it like a fool before accidentally hitting the lock button. Then I try to pull the lock up with my teeth before realizing I’m probably gnawing on Quinn’s car. Thankfully, Quinn opens the door and pulls me after him.
I walk with him inside, scouting for my clothes in the hopes I’ll find them and can shift back and wear them, but they’re nowhere to be seen.
They take him to a room where the nurse gets him all checked in then goes to help him out of his shirt while nervously eyeing me. The moment Quinn grimaces, my desire to protect goes into overdrive and I rush her, planning on putting myself between my mate and the woman who dares hurt him.
“Ignore the fluffball,” Quinn says as he grabs me in a headlock and hauls me back. “He’s fine. If you have a gown or even a paper towel or something, he could shift back.”
She takes that as an excuse to slip out of the room.
“You’re such an evil kitty,” Quinn says.
“She was wounding you!”
“She was not!” he says as he tries to get the shirt off himself, which is surely harder than someone helping.
I shift, since I’m the reason he doesn’t have anyone to help him. When we’d been fleeing, I really hadn’t gotten a look at his back, but now that my adrenaline has calmed down and he’s not coated in fur, I can see the long claw marks that run down his back and am filled with anger. I want to run back and singlehandedly destroy them all for putting him through this pain.
“I’m sorry. I should have sent you up the shaft first,” I say.
He grabs my face in his hands. “Nope. I couldn’t have carried Ari up that. Thank you for protecting my best friend.”
I nod, even though I still feel awful. The nurse comes back in with a doctor this time and holds a gown out to me. “I’m sorry for growling at you,” I say as I quickly put it on.
She waves me off. “I get growled at more than you’d ever imagine, and it’s generally not even shifters.”
I smile at her, glad she’s not mad, and step out of the way as the doctor cleans up Quinn’s back. Every miniscule twitch on Quinn’s body is like a stab in my own heart and I find myself stepping closer and closer to him until I’m hovering over the doctor and breathing down Quinn’s back.
“Rowan, I’m fine,” Quinn says, nearly smashing his head into mine when he looks at me.
“I know,” I say as I glare at the doctor who is giving me the side-eye. It might have to do with me looming over him but I’m not quite sure.
The doctor clears his throat. “How about you take a seat since I’m trying to disinfect the area and you’re hovering over it?” he says, giving me a smile that tells me he wants to hurt what is mine.
“Rowan. Please?” Quinn says, and since his voice is the only thing that’ll snap me out of it, I nod.
I grumble but head over to the seat and decide that I will not look at Quinn or I’ll end up murdering something. After they’re done dealing with the jagged edges from the slice, they suture the deep areas and clean up the other scratches before finally sending him on his way. We head over to Ari’s room where Logan is hovering over him and Trenton is sitting in a chair.
Ari beams at us, clearly feeling better or on some heavy drugs. “Hey! I told Logan you guys are the bestest friends. He said that if you weren’t, he’d crush skulls, but I told him it’s all good. No skull crushing needed.”
I look over at Logan who gives us a soft smile, no sign of malice in his expression, even though he looks like he’s more than capable of crushing skulls. Which is worrisome when he can’t even shift into something large and terrifying like Trenton.
“Thank you, guys. Ari told me how you put yourselves at risk to help him,” Logan says.
“Ari might be a little fiery demon on the inside, but he’s still my closest friend,” Quinn assures Logan. “I’ll do everything I can to keep him safe.”
“I understand.”
“They said that after they get the scans back to make sure my brain is still far superior to everyone else’s, I should be able to get going, especially because I’m acting normal,” Ari says.
“Definitely as cocky as normal,” Quinn says as he slowly sits down in a chair. I can tell he’s stiff, even if he’s bound and determined to act like he’s perfectly fine.
“You guys can head home. I don’t need anything,” Ari says. “I’m sure you have a lot to sort out with the pack, and you’re probably exhausted.”
I know I am. I just want to take Quinn home and pull him into my arms and keep him close. But I know he has to deal with his pack and a bunch of other things first. So I guide him out and tell him I’ll drive.
      
I’m not sure what I expected from his pack when we arrived, but they’re all quiet as they greet Quinn. He explains what happened as Scott watches silently from the sidelines. Quinn leaves no part out, informing his pack of everything that had happened before telling them that each family is to stay as a unit, even inside their household. And those who don’t have a family will get into groups of at least four.
When that’s over, Graham talks to Quinn about what happened before telling him to head home and let him handle everything else until he gets some rest.
“The issue is… we still haven’t solved anything about Addie. We don’t know where she is, if she’s okay… I just…” Quinn hesitates when Graham sets a hand on his shoulder. I look over at Trenton whose expression seems unreadable and feel bad for him. I can only imagine how it feels.
“You’re not going to be able to help her like this. Let me take over for a bit. I will grudgingly work with Scott. But honestly, Quinn, there’s little we can do at the moment. Go rest. It’s getting late anyway. Get some sleep. Once you’re refreshed, we’ll update you on what we know.”
Quinn grudgingly agrees but I still have to pull him after me to get him to go anywhere.
“Do you… I mean, I can go to the cabin… if you’d like,” I say, not quite sure how to invite myself into his house, especially because maybe he doesn’t want me there.
“Is that what you want?” Quinn asks.
“Is that what you want?” I ask.
“If I didn’t feel like I’m dying just a little, I’d like to go back to what we were doing before we got called out,” he says, and my mind flashes to the way he’d pressed his body into me. The way his lips hovered against mine. The way I wanted to draw him in, kiss him, touch him, care for him.
“Remind me again what that was,” I say, toying with him.
Quinn gives me a sly grin. “You know, when you were doing that mating dance on my roof.”
My toying clearly backfired, and I narrow my eyes at him. “I don’t remember such a thing in the slightest. You sure that was me? Couldn’t have been.”
“More than positive, actually. I distinctly remember you just scrambling your way up the wall of my house before schwoop you fell from the roof.”
I’m silent as we walk and pretend that I can’t see Quinn grinning away.
“You know you don’t have to do a mating dance for me, right? You just need to tell me you’re not leaving me,” Quinn says.
It’s like I immediately latch on to his words but in the back of my mind I can’t stop thinking about how I don’t know how much of a choice I really have. Not when Quinn shows me how much he can care about me.
“You’re getting a deer in the headlights look on your face,” Quinn says. “Here’s Donna’s cabin if you want to stay here. I don’t mind.”
I hesitate because that’s definitely not what I want. “Is that what you want?”
“No, but I would never pressure you into doing what I want. I can give you directions to my brother’s and you can stay with him since you shouldn’t be alone anyway—”
“Then I might as well stay with you. Your brother would eat me in my sleep.”
Quinn smiles at me. “He might. You sure?”
“Maybe… maybe I wasn’t done with my mating dance and there were more moves to it.”
His smile widens. “I can’t wait.”
We walk into his house before I realize that I don’t have Talon, but Quinn assures me he’s fine with Kaiya while we get some sleep. He gets cleaned up in the bathroom and then heads straight for his bed. He doesn’t make me up one on the couch, so once I’m done with a shower, I wander into his bedroom while trying to pretend I’m confident enough to look like I know I should be here.
Quinn pulls the cover back a little and watches me to see what I’ll do. I’m immensely pleased as I crawl into the bed next to him, sliding in far too close, but the closer I am the happier I feel.
“I don’t want to hurt your back,” I say.
“I’m fine,” he says as he pushes himself into me. He slides his leg between mine, pressing his thigh against my groin like he’s determined to taunt me. He gives me a small kiss filled with hooded eyes and exhaustion before closing his eyes and cuddling into me.
“I can’t thank you enough for today, Rowan,” he says, voice quiet. “No matter what you decide to do, just know that I appreciate what you’ve done for me and my pack more than you’ll ever know. I could have lost lives today if you weren’t there to help.”
I rub my face against his before realizing how animalistic it is and kiss his forehead instead. “I would do it again and again. I know… I know I haven’t exactly been clear about my intentions… but you have to understand that I’m still uncertain about them. I’m unsure of what I should do or why I should do it. My father isn’t a kind man and he raised me and my brother in a way that made us hate who we were. He… he would treat us poorly any time we’d do anything that reminded him of our shifter side and I’m not sure how long that’ll stick with me. But what I do know is being with you makes me happier than I’ve ever been. It makes me want to get up in the morning. I used to spend so much of my life hating who I was that I began to get confused whether I hated my shifter self, or I hated everything about myself.”
Quinn runs his fingers over the side of my face before letting them slide into my hair. “I’m sorry. It makes me burn with anger that my mate went through all of that.”
“Is that really what I am?” I ask, confused by the word. “I always assumed the whole mate thing was a lie. But I can see now why I never once cared about any of the people I tried dating. It was because I had you out there waiting for me.”
“I don’t know much about it myself. What I do know is that I become really dumb when someone threatens you, looks at you, or you leave for five minutes. I was fretting just when you were in the bathroom.”
I can’t help but grin at him. “What were you going to do? Take on the showerhead?”
“I was. I was going to refuse to clean the tub.”
“Ooh, what a dirty boy,” I say.
Quinn chuckles as he leans into me and tucks his head against my neck. “I’m a very dirty boy.”
“I’d hate to make you mad,” I say as I run my fingers up his arm and feel fully at bliss. This is what it feels like to live. This is what my life should be. How could I ever give that up?
Quinn drifts off to sleep quickly, probably from a mixture of exhaustion and the painkillers he’s on, but I’m left lying awake. I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night, so I assumed I’d be exhausted, but I can’t shut my brain off long enough to find sleep.