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CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
     
QUINN
I can hear the pitter-patter of feet outside my house telling me that Rowan has arrived. Instead of coming to the door like a normal man, I can hear him rustling around. And then I hear a noise above me.
Is he climbing the side of my house? What the hell?
There’s a flash of white outside the window as the leopard plummets off my roof and into my yard before skittering off.
I pull open the door and look out at Talon who sees me and gleefully lopes over to me. He’s probably excited to see a sensible person.
“I can hear you hiding in the bush, Rowan,” I say as I walk out onto my porch and peer off the edge.
The bush rustles before a very naked human Rowan crawls out. “This is… beyond humiliating,” he says.
“What? That I could hear you trotting around my house? Peering through my windows? Trying to climb on my roof? You literally tried to climb onto my roof instead of just walking up to the door and hitting the doorbell.”
He glances down at his arm that has a few scratches on it. “Sometimes my mind is a bit… foggy in this form. Is yours like that?”
“Rarely. It’s probably just your animal side rejoicing in its freedom, but did you seriously try climbing my roof?” I ask as I glance up to see how far it is off the ground.
Rowan seems horribly embarrassed as he rubs at his face. “I vaguely remember… something like that before missing the top and plummeting straight down into your thornbush. In my mind I’m like ‘Yeah, this is sexy. So sexy. I bet the alpha will be impressed by my climbing. Watch me climb!’ and then there’s this rational part of my brain that’s like ‘What the fuck are you doing? Just go ring the doorbell and ask if he wants to have a beer.’”
I’m fighting a laugh so hard. “So what side did you go with?” I ask with a horribly amused grin.
He waves at his arm that has a bunch of nicks from the thornbush. “The… side that climbs houses, clearly. Were you impressed?”
I can’t hold back my laugh any longer. “Since all I saw of it was you plummeting to the ground… not much, but it was still a cute effort.”
Rowan starts laughing as he slowly stands up. “I don’t even know where my clothes are. I feel like I lost them somewhere around the children’s playground which horrifies me greatly.”
He seems quite distraught over this which amuses me even more. “First off, the children are all locked up tight. Second, they’re used to seeing people without clothes on all the time. If you’re not raised thinking it’s strange, then it’s not. How else would we shift? Into our clothes? That’d be quite expensive repairing clothes every time you shredded through them.”
“Perhaps. But I’m still horrified.”
I point at my house. “Come inside, if you want. Through the front door like a normal person if you’d like. But if you want to parade around the roof while doing some type of mating dance, I won’t say I’m opposed to it.”
He looks embarrassed and I find myself loving it. “Nope. Didn’t happen that way. At all. Do you have more clothes for me?”
“I’m running out of my brother’s clothes, but I’ll see what I can find of mine that’ll fit you.” I lead him into the house and go into my bedroom which he follows me into. I walk up to the dresser while risking a glance at him. I know if I just stepped into him, he’d take me into his arms, but do I want him to?
No, that’s a stupid question. Of course I want him to. I want him to more than anything, but I don’t know how much more I can put myself through before I become so attached I won’t be able to handle it when he leaves to go back to his human life. Sex will do nothing but make me ache more when he leaves.
I grab some sweats and a shirt before standing up and finding Rowan ridiculously close to me. He had to have moved into my space, but I don’t mind it one bit. No, I want to lean into him. Feel him… touch him.
His mouth hovers dangerously close to mine, his lips slightly parted as I breathe him in.
Mate.
This is the scent of my mate. This is my mate.
I lean into him. “I-I found clothes for you,” I say into his ear. He tips his neck back, like he’s offering it to me. My mate is offering himself to me and I want to claim him as mine. “Rowan.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, even though he makes no move to step back. Instead, he pushes into me and my hand slides over his bare side and dips down the curve of his back as he tips my chin up.
“I don’t want to do this if you’re just going to run off when you get afraid or sick of living this life,” I say defiantly even though my body is telling me it doesn’t care. My body just wants him now more than it’s ever wanted anything.
“I know,” he says, but neither of us push away and I don’t let go of my hold on him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“If you’re going to, then walk away,” I urge.
“But I also want to touch you.”
My grip on his bare back tightens as I push myself against him and just as his lips barely brush mine, my phone rings.
I’m torn out of the spell and push away from him before grabbing it. I can’t tell if I’m thankful for it or if I want to murder the person on the other end. “Hello?”
“Alpha, it’s Ethan. I’m on camera duty and I think I saw Addie step out of her house alone, and now I don’t see her on any of the cameras. I don’t know if something happened or I’m just seeing things.”
“Shit, okay,” I say as I look over at Rowan who is quickly putting my clothes on. They’re snug on him but fit him well enough until we find where he shed his. “I’m sorry, I have to go. Addie snuck out of her house and I need to make sure she’s okay and made it back. You can wait for me, if you want?”
“I’ll go with you,” he says without hesitation. “I’m going to swing by the playground and get my shoes, though. Where do I meet you?”
“It’s on the way, come on,” I say as I toss him a pair of cheap sandals he can cram his feet into until we find his shoes. As we rush toward Addie’s place, I give Trenton a call.
“Hello?” he asks.
“Trenton, Ethan just called and told me he saw Addie outside alone on a security camera. Can you check if she’s back in her room?”
“What the hell?” he asks. “She wouldn’t just leave. She knows we’re under orders.” Then I hear him call out, “Addie, where are you?”
Rowan rushes over to gather his clothes. Instead of changing them, he just puts the shoes on and tosses the others closer to the road to pick up later before following me toward Trenton’s house.
I can hear Trenton storming about through the phone. “What the hell? She wouldn’t just sneak out. She’s always so damn strict about everything. ‘You can’t do this. You can’t do that.’”
I know he’s right. It just doesn’t sound like Addie. I could expect this from maybe Sophia, but not her. “Get your neighbor to stick with you and start tracking her. I’m going to call Sophia and Layla. Maybe she went to one of their places.”
After hanging up with Trenton, I head toward the location Ethan last saw Addie as Rowan grabs my arm. “What do you need me to do? I can get Talon on their trail, but you’re probably already on top of it.”
I hesitate. “I guess just help me out here. Oh, can you call Graham and ask him to go to Ethan?”
“Yeah, of course,” he says, so I give him Graham’s number before I call Sophia’s parents. They tell me they haven’t seen Addie and Sophia confirms it. Then I call Layla who says the same thing. By the time I’m at the location Ethan had mentioned, I have half the pack already heading over.
“Where the fuck is she?” Trenton roars as he pushes someone out of his way and grabs the front of my shirt. “Where is she?”
“Calm down, Trenton. We don’t know why she stepped out yet or for what.”
He’s in a rage as he starts waving something around. “We know why. That fucking dickhead Ethan asked her to meet him. I’m going to fucking kill him,” he says as he shoves an iPad at me. “It’s Addie’s and it’s connected to her phone. Even if she took her phone it shows the message right here.”
I hesitate as I take the iPad from him and look at what’s causing his accusations.
Ethan: Why don’t you come see me? I miss seeing you since they put this stupid lockdown into effect.
Addie: I don’t know. We’re not supposed to go out. I don’t want to get caught. Alpha is already upset with my brother.
Ethan: It’s fine. I’m on the security cameras and can watch from here. You’re fine. Literally nothing is going on. This whole thing is a joke. My dad said Quinn thinks he’s losing control, what with your brother going against him and everything. He just did this to scare everyone into listening. Come on, I’ll be with you.
Addie: Okay. Where do I meet you?
Ethan: Security room in the town hall.
“I’m going to fucking kill him! I’m going to kill him the moment I see that lying dick,” Trenton growls, acting more animalistic by the minute.
I put a hand up to stop him from doing anything and he smacks it away. I grab him by his neck and shove him back. “Don’t you dare smack me,” I growl as I push into him. “I understand you’re angry; I would be too. But if you go in like this, you’re going to attack him—”
“Of course I’m going to fucking attack him!”
I bristle with anger that my packmate would dare provoke me like this.
“Please. Stop,” Kaiya says as she rushes up. “Let me see the iPad.”
Trenton grudgingly gives it to her, seeing as she’s one of the few people who can reason with him.
I take my clothes off and toss them before shifting and catching Addie’s scent. Without waiting for anyone else, I follow it toward the town hall before it veers sharply off to the right. She was still alone at this point, so she must have turned away from the town hall of her own volition, but why? Her trail heads out to the road sign welcoming tourists to our village. The scent goes a little farther from the road where another smell joins it, like they knew exactly where our security cameras would lose sight of her, and then her scent just disappears. In its place is the smell of a vehicle I don’t recognize.
Rowan steps up beside me and sets a hand on my back, like he wants to offer some reassurance. “What do you smell?”
“She came out this way. I think… I think she lay down here. See the way the grass is crushed? Maybe she fell here.”
“But if someone shot her—”
“What?” Trenton yells as he shoves Rowan back from me.
I growl as I spin on him and nip at him for daring to touch Rowan. Trenton puts his hands up and steps back. “Tell him what I said before I bite him.”
“He said that she walked alone to this point where she lay down in the grass for some reason. I just was going to say that if someone shot her, there would be the smell of blood or someone would have heard the noise,” Rowan says.
“You can hear him?” Trenton asks.
“Which leads me to believe she was possibly tranqed, which means we’re not looking for an escaped prisoner, we’re looking for someone with authority. Someone who is watching our village.”
“Like Scott said. They were looking for someone,” Rowan says.
I shift back into my human form and Rowan hands me my clothes, which I put on. “I’m going to have a word with Ethan,” I say as I head toward the security room with Trenton and Rowan on my tail.
Quickly, I rush toward the security room where Graham is standing with Ethan. Graham says, “We can’t really tell why she left her house when she knew she wasn’t supposed to.”
Trenton tries to lunge past me to get at Ethan, a young jackal shifter of nineteen, but before Trenton can reach him, he slams into the arm I’ve put up. Even though he could blow right by it, he takes a step back, respecting my space for once.
“I’m handling it,” I say before turning to look at the young shifter. “Ethan, tell me what you saw and tell me everything that happened this evening.”
He averts his eyes, instantly telling me of his guilt. “Well, I was on security and I was watching the cameras when I saw her wander out around here. Then… I thought I’d just watch her since I didn’t really have a way to contact her, but she disappeared, so I immediately called you.”
“Do you have any idea why she might have been out?” I ask, voice level.
Ethan’s sweating now as he refuses to look up at me. “N-No.”
I step into his space and he scrambles up from his chair before bowing his head.
“W-We were going to meet. W-We used to hang out a lot before the lockdown… I thought it’d be fine. I didn’t know she’d wander out of the village. It’s not my fault she just dashed out of the village! I called the moment I saw her disappear off the path.”
The door behind me opens and Ethan’s father Dennis rushes in. “What is going on?”
“I would like to ask the same thing,” I say. “Your son talked Addie into leaving her room during a lockdown to come visit him. He happens to think this lockdown is a joke and strangely, he seems to have heard from his father that it’s in effect because my spot as alpha is being threatened?” I ask before stepping into his space. “Are you threatening my position and spreading falsehoods?”
Dennis is quiet as he turns to his son. “Ethan?”
Ethan looks truly panicked now. “I talked her into meeting me! You’re always talking about how it’s bullshit having an alpha like him. I thought you were right. I didn’t think anything would happen!”
I’m seething as I stare at them but before I can do anything, I watch as Rowan takes Dennis’s head and just smacks it against the wall. Why? I’m not sure I know, but I do get some weird sense of satisfaction out of it that makes me rather pleased.
“Who the fuck do you think you—” Dennis is cut short by my look.
“I will deal with the two of you later. For right now, we need to figure out what happened to Addie. Graham, help Trenton see if you guys can track anything down. Get our best trackers on it. I’m going to call Scott.”
I step outside with Rowan and watch the others rush off to get things started.
“I’m sorry about the whole head smashing thing in there. I have no idea what came over me,” Rowan says as he stares at his hand like it deceived him. “He was just… the way he was looking at you made me want to bash heads.”
“The issue with shifters is that there aren’t many places for them to go so they end up going somewhere like my village whether they want to or not. Dennis, for example, wants his own pack he can control and manipulate, same with Trenton. But instead, they’re stuck with my pack living their days wishing they were alpha.”
“Then tell them to fuck off. If they dare go against you—”
“You’re acting possessive again,” I say as I give his cheek a pat. “Only my mate can be possessive over me and what I do.”
Rowan stares at me for a long moment before sighing and turning his head.
I pull out my phone and make a call. “Scott, one of my pack members has gone missing. Young woman of seventeen, bear shifter. She went out after lockdown and someone knew our security blind spots and pulled her into them before placing her into a vehicle and taking her.”
“No one saw anything?” he asks.
“Nothing that can help.”
“Fuck! I told you they were watching your pack,” Scott says. “I told you.”
Anger spikes inside me. “Yes, you told me a couple of hours ago which didn’t give me much time to do a whole lot about it. Maybe I should have forced everyone into the same room with each other, but I thought as long as they stayed inside their homes, they’d be fine. But now one of mine is missing and I need her back.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Once I’m done talking to Scott, Rowan and I join the others, but there’s not much we can do until Scott shows up. He enters the town hall where Rowan, Ari, Logan, Graham, Trenton, Kaiya, and I are all waiting. Trenton is prepared to murder the next thing that looks at him, but Kaiya tries to keep him calm.
Scott looks between us before focusing on me. “I think the ones who took her are the ones who came to collect the woman the other day. I was told they were with the prison, but I don’t think they are. I tried following one of their vehicles, which went straight into the prison where I lost them, but what kind of prison has a crew like that?”
I have to agree. What’s happening seems extremely odd. “So you think the area they’re working out of is on prison grounds?”
“Yes. But there has to be a way into it,” Scott says.
“Then we call the fucking police. The feds! Someone! And tell them they took my sister,” Trenton yells before slamming his fists down on the table.
“I will, but that guarantees nothing. Shifters go missing all the time and it gets tossed to the wayside,” I tell Trenton.
“So, these two convicts had to have escaped somehow,” Scott says. “Doing some digging, I was able to compile the video clips the ‘prison’ used to get us to the tracking location I’d sent you two out on the first day. But backtracking, the first image of the man involved was not scaling over the prison gate but emerging from the forest.” Scott directs the screen toward us.
There’s an extremely fuzzy video of a naked man walking out of the forest alone. The video is too grainy to make out much of anything, making it hard to discern any features of the man.
“You’re positive that’s the man?” I ask.
He shrugs. “No, I’m not, but it’s what I’ve got. This was recorded four hours after the reported ‘prison break.’”
Rowan leans forward to get a better look at the screen. “Which means he’s within a four-hour trek of his escape route.”
“Correct.”
Scott pulls out a map that’s all scribbled up. “I’ve run my drone back and forth in the area, but with the density of the trees, I can’t find anything. But a straight run from the prison to here would be around, I don’t know… two hours? I don’t know how fast he could move as an animal.”
“Either way, it means he was around this area when he got out,” I say as I wave to the west side of the prison on the map.
“Correct. If he escaped from the east side of the prison, he probably would have headed toward the industrial area, but instead, he chose to take the forest route, so I assume he escaped from the west side.”
“Where is the woman who was with him?” I ask. “Do you have any footage of her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she was hiding or maybe she’d moved on.”
“Interesting,” I say. “Okay. So what I’m going to do is go to this spot. I’m going to try to track his trail to where he escaped from. While I have my doubts there will still be a security issue allowing me to get inside from where they escaped, there’s a possibility I’ll be able to gain some information from it. Scott, I want you to put out an alert that Addie is missing. The fact that she’s a kid will help our case and get the media on our side. Graham, I need you to stay and protect the pack. The rest of you will help him.”
Rowan gives me an extremely stubborn look. “I’m not leaving you,” he says defiantly. “There’s absolutely no way I’d leave you to just wander off and get killed alone.”
I’m instantly against the idea of Rowan going and putting himself in danger because I need to protect him. “I’ll be fine. I’m quick and quiet. I’ll be okay.”
“I’m going too,” Trenton says, his expression just daring me to say no. “I will get my sister back no matter what happens.”
I hesitate long enough that Graham jumps in. “Someone else can watch the pack, I’ll go too.”
“No, Graham, I need you to stay here. I can’t have all my best fighters with me if something happens here.” I notice Ari’s mouth open. “You too. And yes, Kaiya, you too. I need you three here to protect the pack. I’ll take Trenton and Rowan with me if they truly want to go. But if someone comes back for the pack, we can’t leave them alone and vulnerable. Okay? Please, I need you guys to stay back for them.”
Ari folds his arms over his chest. “I’m little as hell, I can’t fight, I have no use here, but I could be useful for you, Quinn. I can slip through small spaces. You need me,” Ari says, face filled with determination.
I glance at Graham, wanting his take on it. Graham nods and says, “Okay. Kaiya and I can handle this. Ari’s right. He’d be better off helping you if you were to find a location.”
“If you need me for something, let me know,” Scott says.
“Okay, Scott, while I’m gone, you will listen to Graham. Please don’t make this difficult,” I say while giving him the look. I’m not sure if humans don’t “get” the look or if he’s too dumb to get it but he’d better figure it out.
He holds his hands up. “As long as you promise that if you find something… you look for my wife,” he says.
“Fine,” I say before turning to the others. “Get what you need, we’re heading out. But those of you going with me, I need you to be aware that we don’t know what we’re going up against. There are things out in this world that are much scarier than the monster in the forest.”
“We understand,” Ari says.
“I’m not letting you go alone,” Rowan says, determined.
“I’ll go up against the fucking army to get my sister back and win,” Trenton growls.
I nod at my pack, oddly proud to be the leader of such a dedicated group of people. “Then let’s go.”
We get what we need and climb into my car, but before Ari can slam the door shut, Ethan grabs it. “I’m going too.”
“No, you’re not,” I say as I start the car.
“This is my fault. I want to go and make things right. I’m an adult and I can help,” he says as he climbs over Ari, who is refusing to move, and sits down between Ari and Trenton. Trenton towers over the young man who looks to be second-guessing things.
Trenton pats him on the back so hard that Ethan’s body surges forward. “Let him come. If something’s risky, we’ll send him out alone like he did with my sister,” Trenton growls.
“I’m going to help,” Ethan decides, and whether or not it’s a good idea, I know having the jackal by my side could make a difference.
“Alright,” I say as I start driving. “All of you have until the end of the car ride to change your minds. We don’t know what we’re up against.”
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
     
ROWAN
When we arrive at the road the security camera from a nearby store had been pointed at that captured the image of the man, we all pile out of the vehicle. Quinn gives everyone one last chance to back out, but everyone seems determined… well, almost everyone, if you can call Ethan’s paling face determined. They all step into the edge of the forest and Quinn shifts first before Ari sets him up with a small backpack. I don’t know why it annoys me how familiar they are with each other. It’s such a stupid and irrational thing to worry about when Ari is clearly helping and we have much much bigger things to worry about. It’s like my brain still just doesn’t get that it’s not helping.
Until Ari smacks Quinn’s furry ass and I nearly toss Ari into next year. He’s small enough to. Instead, I let out a growl and everyone turns to look at me.
“Um… it’s… I tripped… on a stone.” No one seems to believe me.
Then the others start stripping and I realize that if I don’t want to be the only one stripping alone, I need to as well. It’s still awkward as hell, but no one even looks my way no matter how much I feel like they’re going to stare at me as I change.
Their shifts are all fluent and mine is torturous and painful, but I guess if I shifted as much as them, I’d be used to it. The moment I’m on four feet, Quinn rubs up against me, making me lean into him, and then he’s off, and I find myself gloating that he’s rubbing on me and not any of them.
I want to chase after him and make him rub all over me, and I’m not even sure I’d care that there’s an audience.
I sigh and realize that I don’t need to make a fool of myself.
“The trail is old. I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to follow it,” Quinn says as he moves back and forth, checking the area. I try to figure out what he’s smelling, but I either don’t have the nose for it or am not practiced enough because there are just too many overwhelming scents. So many more than when I’m a human.
But I do know about tracking, especially tracking prints to help Talon. So I follow Quinn while trying to piece together the spots where there are prints or clear breakage of the foliage where the convict had pushed his way through. I keep moving as Quinn picks up speed before hesitating.
“I lost it.”
The group of them start sniffing as I notice a human footprint about ten feet from them. It’s getting dark, but my eyesight seems to excel in the dim light of dusk.
“This might be it?” I ask, and Quinn trots over to me before sniffing.
“Ah, good catch.”
“Who exactly is this guy and what’s his role here?” Trenton asks as he eyes me like he wouldn’t mind crushing my body with his massive jaws. “You seem awfully… chummy with him.”
Quinn glances back at Trenton before continuing on. “Rowan’s here to help us find your sister. Do we really need any other excuse for his existence?” Quinn asks.
“You’re sure you can trust him? Seems like since he came around a lot of people have been nosing into our village. You sure he’s not who told them how to find my sister? Or maybe where the security cameras don’t reach?”
Quinn turns to look at the massive bear that is easily seven times his weight. “Trenton, if you have an issue with what I’m doing and who I’m including, you can go wait in the car.” Quinn’s hackles are raised and I’m surprised it irritated him so much, but I also feel this weird sense of thrill over my mate defending me.
My…
Mate?
Oh no, no, no. Why would I think that? Nope. No…
Or… yes?
Fuck.
I shake my head, dispelling thoughts that I don’t really need answered at this very moment, and keep moving forward, knowing I have to stay focused.
“Trenton, bears have a better sense of smell than pretty much every other animal. Now use it and help me track,” Quinn urges.
The tracking is slow going. Quinn seems to be the best at staying focused on a scent, but when he finally gets Trenton to focus, he shows how good he really is at it. We start moving along a little faster, which is needed when we have no idea where that monster is out here. But the forest is hundreds of miles of land and the likelihood that he’s in the area is slim. Even though the female convict is in custody, it doesn’t mean we’re safe.
“I smell the other one with him here,” Trenton says. “They must have been moving together when they ran.”
Ethan jumps and his tail shoots up into the air. “I heard something.”
Quinn hesitates. “You actually heard something or like a bird something?”
His eyes are wide as he wildly looks around. “It was huge. It’s going to kill us. We’re going to die,” Ethan says as he starts pacing.
“Ethan, do you want to go back? You can go back if you want. We’re not keeping you locked in here,” Quinn says.
Ethan shrinks back down at a noise that’s definitely not from anything large.
Quinn shakes his head. “It was just a squirrel. Please stay focused or head back and have your father pick you up.”
Ethan nods but continues to jump and start at every noise as we continue with the trail. Why he was insistent on helping, I’m not sure, unless he really does care for Addie that much and is upset this happened to her.
That’s when I start to notice a stone patch of land where weeds are growing up through it. It’s clearly old and overtaken by weeds or eroded away in areas, but it seems to have once been a road or something.
“What’s this?” I ask as Trenton steps up onto the rocky path.
“Looks like they came down this trail,” Trenton says, and we start moving along it.
“Was it an old road?” Ethan asks.
Quinn shakes his head. “No… I think this was part of the old mining trail.”
“I thought that was in Elmsburg,” Trenton says as he leads the way.
“Yeah, that’s where the tourist side is, but the coal mines ran for miles through this area. They were owned by a man called Winsford. He bought up a lot of this land for mining, including where our village is, which is why it’s called Winsford Village. The guy who owned the town when we moved in had inherited it from the original Winsford. This is the newer part of the forest. It was originally cleared for the mines, but when the mines were closed down, the area regrew,” Quinn explains.
“Did you grow up in this area?” I ask curiously.
“No, I grew up in New York City, actually. Graham and I relocated out here as teenagers.”
“My great-grandfather worked the mine,” Trenton says. “Shifters were expendable, so they put them on jobs that were more likely to end in death. My grandfather would talk about how his father had to drag the coal up these steep slopes and they treated him like an animal just because he was large and could pull more than the other guys.”
“I didn’t know that,” Ari says. “I’m so thankful our pack doesn’t have to get caught up in such an unforgiving world.”
We reach the mouth of the mine that was clearly boarded up at one point. There are a lot of “Danger—Do not Cross” signs that have nearly rusted away to nothing. But the boards that once kept the mouth shut to nosy teenagers and hikers have been broken. I look them over curiously. “The boards are recently broken. They don’t show the weathering the other parts do.”
Quinn shifts and shrugs his pack off before examining the opening. “There’s hair here too. They came through here.”
“We aren’t going in there, are we?” Ethan asks, but with Quinn in his human form, he can’t hear him. And seeing as Quinn can’t hear anything any of them are saying except me, Trenton takes a step toward Ethan.
“Addie is missing because of you. If Quinn wants you to go in alone then you’d better go in alone or I will tear you limb from limb.”
Ethan looks around in terror, hoping someone will come to his rescue as he cowers lower and lower to the ground. I don’t blame him. If Trenton came running after me while spewing threats, I’m not sure I’d disagree with anything he had to say. He could tell me the grass is purple and I’d name off all the purples I could think of. But I also don’t blame Trenton. If I were close to my brother, and this same thing had happened, I’d have threatened some people too.
Unless Trenton said something mean to Quinn. Then I’d destroy him.
“What are you flicking your tail about?” Ari asks as he leaps up and grabs my tail with his mouth.
“What are you doing?”
“Why are you so floofy?” he asks as he tugs on my tail.
I turn and bat at him. “I’m not floofy.”
“You’re really floofy,” Quinn says as he walks around a bit before he can get his phone to work.
“If Quinn says it, it’s true,” Ari says, like he’s having trouble breaking the news to me.
I bat at him again and he jumps away. “You’re such an instigator.”
He makes a noise that tells me he’s extremely pleased with himself. “I’m just a wee little sweetheart,” he says, which is the most suspicious thing I’ve ever heard out of anyone, especially this mischievous ocelot. He leaps up onto my back, startling me. “So floofy! I can’t even see my paws, they sink in so deep.” He seems to be doing a little dance on my back.
I do a full-body shake, thankfully getting him off me, but he doesn’t seem deterred.
Quinn finishes up then puts the backpack on again and shifts. I notice the backpack has a light on the front of it since the cave will have no light to see by. “Okay, so I’ve sent Scott our location. There’s also a GPS tracker that’s showing our coordinates that my brother and Scott can both access, but once we go into the mine, we’re going to lose all connection. Everyone still good? We have no idea what we’re going to find in here or how far we’ll have to go.”
“Quick question… will you be able to get us out?” I ask.
“Don’t trust my nose?” Quinn teasingly asks.
I eye the dark hole that seems like a mouth eager to eat me up. “I’m not sure what I do or don’t trust, I just know I don’t want to live the rest of my days in a mine shaft.”
“We’ll be fine,” Quinn says. “I’m quite confident that at least one of us will be able to smell our way out. Now, is everyone ready? If anyone would like to turn back, now is your last chance.”
Silence.
Ethan doesn’t make a peep even though he’s eyeing the mine opening with a lot of hesitation. I wouldn’t consider myself a timid guy and even I am eyeing it suspiciously.
“Then let’s go.”
Quinn doesn’t have to even crouch to slip through the hole, but Trenton has to shift to his human form to fit through. I step up to Quinn as my eyes slowly adjust.
“How safe do you think this is?” I ask.
“A ten.”
“Oh… pretty safe then.”
“Out of a hundred,” he says, voice teasing. “I promise I won’t put you guys in danger. So hang back with the others, I’ll take the lead.”
My whole body despises the idea of Quinn putting himself in danger and I quickly slip ahead of him, defiant and stubborn as long as my mate is safe.
Dammit, why am I using that word again?
He grabs my tail and yanks me back. “No, you’re still not used to your body, you could make a mistake.”
“Why does everyone keep grabbing my tail?” I ask as I wrap it around myself and hold it in my mouth to keep anyone from touching it. “Mine.”
“My good god, you’re adorable,” Quinn says as he stares at me while walking along the old mine cart rails, which can’t be safe either.
“You two are disgusting and I hate hearing both of you, so please don’t ever talk again,” Trenton says.
Ari gallops up beside me. “Trenton, you’re just jealous that absolutely no one would ever want to look at you.”
“Says the man who literally had never dated anyone before Logan because your nose was too far up our alpha’s ass,” Trenton says.
“I liked it up there.” Ari slips under Quinn, which just trips Quinn when he stumbles over Ari. “See? Safety,” he says as his head gets whacked by Quinn’s paw and Quinn steps on his foot.
I hiss at him without thinking. Then am horrified I hissed at him and try to pretend nothing happened at all. I just merrily move along praying… begging no one will say anything.
“He’s got it bad,” Ari says as he recovers from his trampling. “He’s either a bit crazy or he’s got the love sickness bad.”
“Ari the Instigator,” Quinn says. “You’re right, Rowan. He is an instigator.”
Ari makes a noise that I assume is ocelot for being pleased with himself.
The mine is completely dark; the small sliver of light that’d leaked in from where we’d come in through is now gone. The only light now comes from Quinn’s pack. While it doesn’t brighten up the whole mine, it aids our night vision to the point that we can see much farther than I could as a human.
“I’m not one to get spooked by scary stories, but this could be one for the campfire,” I say.
“Just remember your teeth are massive and you can jump like fifty feet,” Quinn says.
“Where am I jumping to?” I ask as I look up at the ceiling that’s too close for comfort. I can’t imagine how Trenton feels about it.
“And you have furry balls of steel to help,” Ari says.
“Quinn, I’d prefer it if Ari didn’t talk about my balls,” I say as I suck my tail down.
“So would we all,” Trenton growls. “Can’t I just eat him? He’d be such a delicious snack.”
Quinn looks back at us. “If anyone ever gets to eat him, it’s me. I’ve dealt with him the longest.”
Ari prances a little. “Oh my. Now wouldn’t Logan and Rowan be a tad jealous if you ate me right up?”
“Not listening,” Quinn says. He hangs a right and we pass an old mine cart left behind after a good century of disuse. It looks like it’s been stopped next to a huge metal contraption. “We’ve got some… bad news, folks.”
“Don’t tell me we’re going down,” I say as I walk up next to him. It looks like some kind of elevator shaft that the workers would take up and down to get to different levels. At one point, it appears like there’d been two elevators, seeing as one still sits level with us. The other seems to be missing, or on a lower level.
Quinn is currently looking down into the large hole that the elevator would have run through. Far at the bottom, past two lower levels, I can see a pool of water. The metal framework still rests along the wall, rusting and wet, even though the elevator itself is long gone, probably suffering a watery death. Quinn shifts into his human form and grabs his flashlight before shining it along the wall.
“They clearly came up this way. I can see more hair on the bars and look here where nails dug into the rust,” I say.
Quinn shines the light along the shaft wall. “Looks like they were one floor lower than us. They were able to climb up it, but the question is, can we climb down it?” Quinn says as everyone shifts back, so I take it that this is a cue for me to shift too. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to just standing around naked with people. Trenton goes over to the elevator but he can’t even get the front gate open and I’d rather take my chances descending a wall than climb into that death trap that could potentially drop us two floors before sinking into a watery death.
Quinn leans against the bars. “I know Rowan can do it but can the rest of us?”
“I can?” I ask.
“I’ve seen you scale a rock wall.”
“You have?” I ask before vaguely remembering something like that. Must have been when I lost myself to my leopard side.
“Rowan, hold my flashlight, I’ll go first. If I don’t think it’s safe, we’ll come back with better gear,” Quinn decides.
I put my arm in front of him to keep him from just popping over the edge. I don’t want him away from me for even just one moment. “Hold up, how are you going to get out and what if you fall?”
“It’s not like it’s a sheer surface. There are a lot of metal ledges and bars to hang on to that make up the framework of the elevator shaft. I’m going to jump from that metal beam down to that one and so on until I reach the lower level. The hardest part will just be the jump from one side to the other, but I think I can make it. If not, there’s water to stop my fall and I’ll just climb up.”
I don’t like this one bit. Not one bit at all. “I’ll go first.”
“No,” he says. “I’m just trying to decide if it’s easier as a wolf or a human. I can jump farther as a wolf.”
He shifts and slips between the narrow bars and onto the first arm of the metal beam as I anxiously watch him. All I can envision is him slipping and falling down into the unknown water below and I won’t be able to do anything to help him. “It’s slippery, so be careful when you come down,” Quinn warns us.
I feel unreasonably anxious though Quinn has assured me it’s fine. He easily walks around the edge, eyes the beam below and jumps. I think I hold my breath the entire time as he makes his way down. I’m anxious he’s going to slip and fall. Once he’s level with the opening, he has to jump from the right side to the left, but there’s not a lot of room to stand, so when he gets ready, he has to spring from a standstill. He lands, feet scrabbling a little before he finds purchase and slips inside. He must shift back because he says, “It’s slick, so I understand if you guys don’t want to go. Ari, do you think you can jump this far? And what about you, Ethan?”
“If I can’t, I’ll just cling onto Rowan’s back like a monkey,” Ari says.
“You aren’t a monkey. Rowan, can you get him through the last jump if he doesn’t think he can make it?”
“Yeah,” I say, probably more confident than I should be. I just know I want to be next to Quinn and if that means dragging a nosy ocelot after me, then so be it.
Trenton slips past me without waiting and climbs through as a human, then descends as far as he can in that form before making the move to shift. Thankfully, the old beam supports his weight and he’s far more agile than his lumbering body makes him out to be as he jumps from one side to the other.
“Go ahead,” I tell Ethan, who I’m sure doesn’t want to be left alone up here.
He’s terrified, but scrambles down it in his jackal form before reaching the end bar.
Ari shifts before his ears perk up. I shift at the same time and hear him say, “Did you hear that?”
I listen closely.
“What are you hearing? Is someone coming?” Quinn asks worriedly.
Ari anxiously looks back the way we came. “I… I don’t know. I think there’s something up here with us.”
“Ethan, jump,” Quinn orders.
Ethan shakes his head. “I can’t make it. I don’t think I can make it.” He paces the bar nervously, making a whining noise.
Ari skitters down quickly. “Come on, Ethan, I hear something.”
I look back in the direction we came from as I realize that the noise is echoing all around me. I can’t tell what the noise is, but Ari’s right, there’s something in here with us, and I fear it’s the monster from before.
Quickly, I jump down to the second-to-last beam I need to be on because Ethan and Ari are taking up the last.
“I’m going if you’re not.” Ari sizes up the jump before making it easily.
“I can’t believe my sister would even look at a weak animal like you,” Trenton growls, but it’s definitely not helping the situation any because Ethan doesn’t make the jump.
The noise is getting louder, so I know I have to take my chance. I jump onto the edge of the beam, the only area left for me. It’s small but I land fine, although I seem to startle Ethan whose foot slips. He barely catches himself as I grab the scruff of his neck in my mouth and make the jump to Quinn with ease. Even I’m shocked by how easy it is, but I want to get to Quinn more than anything. But the issue is Ethan’s body gets in the way of my landing.
My front feet make it, even though I slam Ethan into the side of the wall, but Quinn and Trenton are there in human form to drag us both up.
“Everyone okay?” Quinn asks as his fingers sink into my fur. I press into him, happy to feel him beside me again.
“Fine, but you know it’s going to be hell to get everyone up,” I say.
“I know,” he says. “We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Right now, I want us to move. We don’t want to get blocked in here with that thing, but our only option is forward. I’m going to keep the light off until we get far enough from the open shaft. Stick close to me, use your senses, and do not step down until your foot is on solid ground, understand? I know he can follow sounds but sounds and echoes are different down here and we’re just going to hope he isn’t as good at scent tracking as us.”
We all agree with him and he kills the light before shifting. I step up beside him and feel my shoulder bump into his. He brushes the side of his muzzle against my face and it feels strangely intimate, even though I don’t really understand the language of shifter cues and gestures.
The lower level is wet, water dripping from the ceiling and resting in puddles on the floor. The darkness just adds to it, but Quinn doesn’t make us go long in complete darkness before he turns the light back on. The first thing I notice is how much the tunnel is narrowing down.
“Trenton, you might be too fat to fit,” Ari helpfully supplies.
“And you might be too little to amount to anything,” Trenton quips.
Ari hisses at him. “Quinn! Kick him out of the pack.”
“You did start it,” Quinn says as he takes a right.
“How far do you think these go?” I ask.
“Too far,” Ethan says. When I look back at him, I see that he’s trying to suck his body up to Trenton’s but Trenton looks ready to kill him every time he does.
He slips ahead and tries to take his chances with me but I don’t want anyone touching me but Quinn. Quinn seems to feel the same way because he does something with his body language that makes Ethan back off. I kind of feel bad after that because really, he wasn’t doing anything wrong… then I remember we’re in this whole mess because of him and brush away the thought.
We walk for what has to be an hour before Quinn slows down. “Looks like the trail has collapsed, but they clearly came through here.”
I look at the rock and rubble and see a very tight squeeze at the top. “Maybe through the top?”
“Looks like it. I wonder if more rock fell in place after they moved through. Do you think it’s safe?” Ari asks.
Quinn scales the side of the rock before reaching the top and peering through the hole. “Looks like the path continues on. If it’s held up for this many years, I’m sure it’s not going to collapse now, but I’ll only continue if everyone feels alright with it.”
“Yes, let’s keep going,” Trenton says as he shifts into his human form so he can fit.
“Don’t scrape your ding dong off on the way up,” Ari says helpfully, even though Trenton can’t hear him. “Or do. It’s not like anyone will ever want to procreate with you.”
Trenton climbs through the hole at the top without waiting for anyone else to answer whether they’re prepared to go through. Quinn looks back at me and even though I hate every moment of this and despise the idea of climbing through that, I know that I’ll follow him anywhere, even through a tiny fucking hole into a pitch-black tunnel that will likely lead to our deaths.
He slips through and I climb up after him. Not too long after, Ari and Ethan come through. This side of the tunnel seems more unfinished. Maybe after seeing that it was unsteady, they closed it down for operation, but it still continues on deep underground. Trenton has to move in his human form since it’s too tight for his bear. And then when we hit an end, Quinn looks up.
“It goes up from here.”
“Does that make sense?” I ask as I look up.
“Almost appears more like a natural crevice than a manmade one. I wonder if this is just part of the actual area. It’s at enough of a slant that I think we can make it.”
He jumps up and keeps moving, so we follow him up a jagged uprise until we reach the top.
“My question is, do the guards or whoever not know how they escaped? Or why hasn’t this been closed off? Maybe it’s closed off at the top; I’m not sure,” Quinn says.
“If they don’t have shifters to sniff their exit out, they might not know how they escaped. But that’s just an assumption,” I say.
“Here’s the top,” Quinn says. “I can hear movement above us. Maybe a basement that this accidentally connected up with? But again, why wasn’t it covered up?”
He shifts into his human form and feels along whatever’s above him. “It feels like a door or a metal sheet. Can you guys help me push it up?”
Trenton and I shift and push against it and after some heavy lifting, it does slide open, letting dim light leak in. Quinn climbs in first as I nervously watch. “Looks like a metal cell of some sort.”
I follow after him before reaching back to help pull Ari in. Ethan is next before I hear a clearly mechanical sound and look back as the metal door we’d just “pushed” open automatically closes, locking Trenton on the other side.
“Well, that fucking explains why it’s not blockaded,” Quinn says.
“What the fuck?” Ethan asks as he dives on top of the sealed covering that Trenton is beating against.
I pull Quinn’s flashlight off him as I shine it around and realize that we are locked in a large metal cage with thick bars.
“Oh my god. This was to capture the ones that got loose, right?” I ask. “Maybe since they have the female, they were hoping the other one would come back for her and they’d lock him in here.”
Quinn quickly looks over at me. “Fuck. If this was built to keep them locked—” His expression changes as he cocks his head toward the door. “Shit, someone’s coming. I want all of you shifted and in the back—I don’t want them to see your faces in case there isn’t a security camera in here.”
I hesitate, not wanting to leave Quinn up front alone when he should be in the back with the rest of us, but we all know he can’t communicate with them in his wolf form.
Slowly, the door opens, and I question what kind of mess we’ve found ourselves in.