The scent that Rebecca caught from inside the compound, behind the stink bombs, surprisingly wasn’t the fetid or disgusting smell she’d expected. The place was well aired, she discovered as she ducked inside behind Walker and Broderick, the halls lit, the hum of fans audible. They obviously had a generator somewhere.
The stairs and corridors beyond the entrance were too small for a Kodiak, so Rebecca morphed into her human form. Broderick and Walker kept on as she shifted, and she was running after them as soon as she remembered how to use two feet instead of four.
Walker was still tracking Joanne. He and Broderick kept tossing smoke and flash bombs as they needed, Rebecca trying to hold her breath as she dashed after them on bare feet.
They found Joanne on the next level down, having found a staircase that wound through the entire place. Broderick kicked in the door Walker pointed to, and Walker rolled in another flash grenade, in case Joanne was guarded. Screams and wails came from inside.
Rebecca lifted her head as soon as the flash cleared, ran inside the room, and stopped in astonishment. Instead of the dank cell she pictured, like the one in which Walker had imprisoned her, she stood in what could be a hospital room.
Two beds, one occupied, filled the space, along with machines that beeped, hummed, and ran a drip into the young Shifter lying with his leg in a hard plastic splint, not the makeshift one Walker had told her and Broderick about. The machines weren’t as large and complicated as what Rebecca had seen in human hospitals, but they looked as though they got the job done.
The young man in the bed—a Lupine, not much older than Scott—had his arm over his eyes, yelling that he couldn’t see. A human woman was draped over him, whimpering. She wasn’t Joanne—Joanne sat in the chair next to the bed, coughing and shaking her head, her eyes jammed shut.
Broderick didn’t wait. He charged in, grabbed Joanne, and hauled her up. “It’s me,” he said quickly when she started to fight.
Joanne clutched Broderick’s jacket, unsteady on her feet. “Broderick?” She laid her head against him, sighing in relief. “Broderick.”
“Two minutes,” Walker said, counting down the time to exit. “We go.”
Instead of leaving, though, Walker strode to the bed and started checking the young Shifter. He did it competently, even with the young man squirming and crying out.
“Is that Tevis?” Rebecca asked. “The one you helped in the bar?”
“Yes.” Walker ran his hand down Tevis’s splinted leg. “He’s been well cared for.” He sounded as surprised as Rebecca.
“Who is that?” Tevis yelled, trying to pry open his eyes.
The human woman lifted her head, also blinking in temporary blindness. “Leave us alone!”
“It’s all right,” Tevis said to her. “I won’t let them hurt you.”
Not that Tevis was in any shape to leap from the bed and fight anyone. Even sitting up was going to give him trouble.
“I’m glad you found someone better for you,” Walker told him, then he strode back out, Rebecca following.
“Wait!” Tevis shouted. “Is that you, Walter? What the fuck?”
Walker ignored him, making the signal for the others to follow him again. “One minute, thirty.”
“No, not yet,” Joanne said, still clinging to Broderick. “Nancy’s here. We can’t go without her.”
Walker snapped around. “What? Where?”
“Two doors down. I saw her, but they wouldn’t let me out of Tevis’s room.”
“Two doors which way?”
Joanne tried to look around, eyes screwed up, but she clearly still couldn’t see. “To the left.”
Walker was already moving, Broderick and Joanne behind him. Rebecca paused long enough to grab a sweat jacket, probably Tevis’s, and shrug it on.
The door two down from Tevis’s was locked, but Broderick easily kicked it in. These doors hadn’t been reinforced to withstand Shifters.
They found another hospital room inside, this one with one bed and more machines. Walker didn’t bother with a flash grenade this time, but the Shifter man in the bed—Feline by the look of him—was gray-faced and only groaned when he saw them dash in.
The woman sitting by the Shifter’s bedside, her hand firmly locked around the Feline’s broad one, looked around in shock, then sprang to her feet.
“Jo-Jo?”
“Nance.” Joanne began to cry, rushing forward to her sister. “Oh, Nance I’ve been so scared for you.”
Nancy pulled away as Joanne tried to hug her. Rebecca noted that the Shifter in the bed hadn’t released her hand.
“Jo-Jo, what are you doing here?” Nancy asked, her voice cracking. “How did you find me?” She peered fearfully at Walker, Broderick, and Rebecca.
“These are friends,” Joanne said quickly. “It’s all right. They’ll get you home.”
“Forty-five seconds,” Walker said.
“Let’s go,” Rebecca said. “Run away now, have reunion later.”
Nancy jerked away from Joanne. “No. I can’t leave him.”
“Yes, you can,” Joanne said, reaching for her again. “I came here with a hurt Shifter, but they already found another woman to take care of him. I get it—Shifters need physical contact to heal. They’ll bring in someone else for him.”
“No, you don’t get it.” Nancy again broke away, never loosening the ill Shifter’s hand. “This is Aleck. He needs me.”
“Thirty seconds,” Walker said.
Broderick growled. “Joanne, we need to go.”
“Nance,” Joanne implored.
Nancy shook her head. She looked much like Joanne, though her hair was a shade darker. Her hair was clean and brushed, shining in the lamplight. She’d been able to bathe, apparently, and her clothes, a tight sweater and skirt, were likewise clean, as were her glitter-studded red sneakers.
“Twenty seconds,” Walker said, his tone sharper.
“Would you stop doing that?” Broderick snapped.
“No.” Walker’s mouth was a grim line. “Broderick, take Joanne out. Now. No more time.”
Broderick didn’t argue. He walked forward, seized Joanne, and firmly turned her around with him. She protested, and Nancy looked worried but stayed in place.
“They’ll do what they need to,” Broderick said to Joanne as he propelled her out the door. “Walker might be human, but he’s trained for this.”
Broderick didn’t stop as he talked. His voice faded as he took Joanne down the hall.
“My mission is to find you and get you home,” Walker said to Nancy. “That’s what I’m doing, with or without your cooperation.”
Nancy’s eyes widened, and she backed to the bed. Aleck, who’d not said a word during the encounter, finally lifted his head.
“Mine,” he said clearly.
“She’s human,” Walker told him. “You’re a Collarless Shifter. You don’t own anyone.”
Rebecca clutched the edges of the jacket she’d taken and moved to Walker’s side. Aleck wasn’t clamping down on Nancy’s hand to keep her from running away—they were clinging to each other. Terrified of being torn apart.
Aleck wore no Collar at all, not even a fake one, but his color wasn’t good. He was suffering from something, though Rebecca had no idea what. Shifters didn’t get sick. Hurt, yes, and occasionally there was a malady that could kill them, but that occurrence was rare.
Aleck’s scent wasn’t quite right for a Feline. Not that Rebecca knew much about Felines, despite being neighbors with them for the last twenty years.
“What’s wrong with him?” Rebecca asked Nancy.
At the same moment, Walker said, “Time.” Meaning they were out of it.
Another voice sounded at the door. “He’s starting to go feral,” a male Shifter said. “That’s what’s wrong with him. But I’m not going to let that happen.”
“Shit,” Walker whispered.
They’d planned several contingencies for their exit strategy, including what happened if th
ey were trapped by the compound’s Shifters. Rebecca ripped off the jacket, let her bear fill the room, and ran straight at the open door and the Shifter standing there.
The next moment she found herself looking down the rune-covered blade of a Sword of the Guardian, its tip nestled right against her heart.
Chapter Sixteen
For a few moments, Walker couldn’t see anything beyond the bulk of bear until Rebecca slowly, slowly became a human woman again. The lush flesh of her back and buttocks beckoned his eye, and Walker had a hell of a time taking his gaze from them to assess the situation.
A Shifter in human form stood in the corridor, the point of the huge sword in his hand touching Rebecca’s chest, right between her breasts. The tip brushed her skin but didn’t break it.
Feline, Walker’s thoughts went. No Collar. Blue eyes. Guardian? Or did he steal the sword?
“Who are you?” Walker asked.
“You’re in my house,” the Feline answered, never taking his gaze, or the sword, from Rebecca. “My territory. Who are you?”
For the first time tonight, Walker didn’t have a ready answer. He’d come up with plans for most circumstances, but not for meeting what looked like a Guardian with no Collar in an underground compound in the middle of South Texas.
Guardians weren’t leaders. Granted, they were high in the pecking order, but they took orders from the leader of their pride, pack, or clan. They served to not only send Shifters to the Summerland, but to fight at the leader’s side and protect the weaker members of the community.
In the Austin Shiftertown, the Guardian, Sean, was also a tracker, meaning he investigated problems and generally kept an eye on things both within and without Shiftertown. He was also the leader’s younger brother.
Guardians were chosen by the Goddess—apparently—in a mystical ceremony on the occasion of the previous Guardian’s death. The new Guardian immediately took up his sword and sent the former Guardian to dust.
“Who’s leader here?” Walker asked, Rebecca remaining mute.
The Feline shook his head. “You’re out of your depth, human. Who are you, Ursine?” The tip of the sword moved a little, making the barest scratch on Rebecca’s skin. “Not many Kodiaks around here. You must be from the Austin Shiftertown. The Kodiak there is Ronan. That means you’re the female called Rebecca, who lives with him but is not his mate. Ronan’s mate is a human, and you’ve taken in cubs not your own to raise.”
Rebecca’s chest lifted with her breath, her face tightening as the Guardian rattled off his perfect guesses. “I didn’t know they let Shifters without Collars access the Guardian Network,” she said, keeping her voice light.
“The Guardian Network has nothing to do with Collars,” the Feline said. His eyes were a strange shade of blue, one Walker had never seen before on a Shifter. Light, clear, but at the same time possessing a dark intensity. “Guardians and the Network existed long before the humans discovered Shifters. Now, tell me why you’ve broken into my compound.”
“To rescue the people you kidnapped,” Rebecca said steadily, while Walker waited, ready to attack. “What did you think?”
The Feline’s expression didn’t change. He had interesting hair as well—it was buzzed short and very light blond but crossed with soot-black streaks. “No one here is kidnapped,” he said. “They come because they want to be here.”
“Oh, right, one big happy family,” Rebecca said. “You forced a groupie here—several of them, in fact—so they could hold Shifters’ hands and help them heal. The one who came with Tevis of the broken leg wasn’t here by choice.”
“No, she wanted to come. Begged to, from what I was told.” The Guardian sounded unimpressed, his sword never wavering. “They all do. They’re looking for what they can’t find in the human world—people who need them and take care of them.”
“Which you provide, of course,” Rebecca said. “And if they want to leave, you let them go?”
“Yes.” His eyes were rock steady, his mouth in a flat line.
“Good,” Walker said, hand on the Taser in his jacket pocket. “Then we’ll take Nancy and be gone.”
The Guardian’s voice hardened. “Nancy stays.”
“Does she want to?” Walker asked. “Or did you make her think she wants to?”
Anger flickered across his face. “If you take Aleck’s mate from him, he’ll deteriorate and die, and I’ll have to send him to dust. She’s keeping him alive.”
“His mate?” Walker wasn’t that surprised, given how Aleck and Nancy had held on to each other. He’d seen Ronan and Elizabeth do that; Tiger and Carly as well.
Nancy answered, her voice faint but resolute. “He mated us, Sun and Moon. I’m not leaving Aleck. Tell Jo-Jo I’m sorry.”
“Fair enough,” Walker said. “But you might have called your sister and told her. Saved us all a lot of trouble.”
“No calls,” the Guardian said, taking back the conversation. “No phones work here. No contact with the outside world.”
Of course not. Contact from here meant risk of exposure. Going to the roadhouse also meant risk, but the Shifters would have to somehow find mates to breed cubs. Walker had seen very few female Shifters at the roadhouse, and likely not many more lived here. The disproportion of males to females had been even greater in the wild.
Once these Shifters convinced a groupie to come here, Walker reflected, if she stayed and disappeared from the world, well, she was only a groupie. As had happened with Nancy, the police wouldn’t be in a hurry to look for a woman who probably had simply holed up with a Shifter.
But Walker and Rebecca weren’t groupies—Walker was from Shifter Bureau, and Rebecca was a powerful Shifter from a powerful Shiftertown. This Guardian couldn’t afford to let them go, which meant that Walker and Rebecca were in deep shit. Broderick might have made it out—they’d know eventually.
Walker had been trained to fight, not negotiate, but he’d learned in the big, bad world that sometimes words could save a lot of bloodshed and unnecessary death.
“Can you tell us your name?” he asked. “Easier to talk about my fate if I can say a name.”
“I don’t know yours,” the Guardian said. He cast a disparaging look at what was left of Walker’s face makeup. “And that groupie shit isn’t going to fly. Who are you?”
“Walker Danielson. Major, US Army.” Walker paused after he snapped this off. “Friend to Shifters.”
“You must be.” The Guardian returned his stern blue gaze to Rebecca. “She’s not afraid of you. In fact, she’s drawn to you. You’re a pair.”
Rebecca’s cheeks grew red. “Hey, now, that’s none of your business.”
“I regret the circumstances,” the Guardian said, his tone unchanged. “You should be mated. But I can’t let you go.”
A promise to never tell anyone about him and his compound would be laughed at. Neither Walker nor Rebecca could keep such a secret, and the Guardian knew it. Broderick certainly wouldn’t.
“You’re compromised,” Walker told him. “Accept it, and bug out. By the time I can rain hell down upon here, you could be long gone.”
The Guardian flicked a glance at Walker that was almost amused, but his sword remained at Rebecca’s chest. “I like it here. It took me a long time to build this refuge.”
“How are you not feral?” Rebecca asked him. “The un-Collared Shifters that were found in Mexico went feral—they sequestered females, kept cubs locked in a basement. Disgusting stuff.”
The Guardian’s voice was rich and full. “If you’re referring to the feral who calls himself Miguel—he was born Scottish. He was an idiot, and I hope he’s either dead or about to be. He wanted to live wild, as though he hadn’t had an apartment in Glasgow before Shifters were exposed. I want Shifters to stay in the wild too, but that’s no reason to live in our own excrement.”
“You have pretty good tech,” Walker said, glancing at the equipment around Aleck.
“We do,” the Guardian said impatientl
y. “Stop trying to condescend to me, Major. You suck at it.”
That was true. The Guardian wasn’t a Shifter desperate and beaten, ready to go out fighting. He was an alpha, had a clear grasp of each scenario that could happen from here on out, and had no qualms about killing Walker and Rebecca to keep himself and this compound safe.
“No matter what you do, you’ll have to move from this place,” Walker said. “If Rebecca and I go missing, there will be a hunt.”
“I know that. Also for the other Shifter and his girlfriend my men have already caught on the perimeter. Your Shifter friends will find your bodies, many miles from here. Rebecca and the Lupine will be the victims of Shifter hunters. Humans sometimes get caught in the crossfire.”
True, if they were found far enough away, and these Shifters covered their tracks well, no one would trace them back here.
“So, that’s our choice?” Rebecca asked. “Die or move in?”
“You’d never leave your clan and cubs,” the Guardian said. “The pull to them would overwhelm you, in the end. Even your mate couldn’t keep you here.”
“I don’t know,” Rebecca said, making a careful shrug. “I’m something of a loner.”
The Guardian gave a short laugh. “No, you’re not. Bears live far apart in the wild, true, but they don’t cut off all contact. And you’ve been changed by captivity. Being with others sustains you. You’ve learned how to love, and you can’t be ripped away from that now. I know this, because it’s what happened to me.”
His voice went somber, his eyes seeming darker, or maybe that was a trick of the light.
“In that case,” Walker broke in. “Turn yourself in, take the Collar, stay with your people.”
More laughter, but that didn’t mean his hand softened on the sword. “Screw you. You still don’t get it, human. This place is proof that Shifters don’t need Collars or containment to keep from turning violent or going feral. We just need each other.”
“Nice,” Walker said. “What about him?” He jerked his thumb at Aleck.
The Guardian shrugged. “It happens. But he’s going to pull through, I swear to the Goddess.”