"Don't take this lightly, Lola," he said through clenched, rotting teeth. "We're at war. And the only way to protect yourself from our enemies, and from our friends, is through the power of steel and lead,” he said. He then went on to rant about shifters.
Lola looked up at him, already used to his insane rhetoric. Lola couldn’t even listen to him anymore. Her stepbrother was an insane drug addict. He was the absolute last person in the world who should have any power at all, let alone a stockpile of weapons.
Lola had heard him rant more a few times, and frankly she had stopped listening. It was all the same violent, paranoid, angry ideas regurgitated over and over again until none of it made any sense anymore.
So maybe shifters now had the same rights as humans. Ever since the Shifter Equality Act had been passed, not a single shifter had been convicted of a violent crime against a human.
One would think with their superior strength, physique, and other physical abilities, that shifters would be more dangerous than humans. But Lola was beginning to think that maybe it was the other way around.
Shifters had helped bring an end to the world war that had been waged six years ago by the governments of the world. The shifters who had been forcefully recruited into the armies of every nation had come together to diplomatically resolve the differences of each nation.
The world had become a more peaceful place due to shifter involvement in the war. That was why the government had rewarded them with equality. Many nations of the world had even granted them diplomatic immunity. Lola didn't think shifters were perfect, but she knew they were nothing like Justin believed.
Justin grabbed Lola’s arm, lifting her to her feet. "Are you listening to me?" he demanded, his face only inches from hers. She could smell his crystal laced breath and recoiled.
Her heart leapt up into her chest, but she was already so used to this kind of treatment that she barely flinched anymore when he did it.
"Of course I'm listening," she said in a calm voice. "Shifters are evil and we have to protect ourselves from them."
Justin slowly unfurled his fingers from around her bicep and let her go. He squared his shoulders and looked down at her with pursed, dry lips.
"You're lucky I'm protecting you, Lola. You have no idea what it's like out in the real world. Did you know that shifters have taken over the Fate Mountain police department?"
"That's absolutely fucking terrible," Lola said with mock astonishment.
“I’m glad you agree. Sometimes I wonder about you.”
“Why? I love living in a cave where I cut crystal twelve hours a day. Who wouldn’t love that?”
“Shut your smart mouth, little sister. This is about the future. We are at war against the shifters. Our highest calling is to protect our own kind from the blight they’ve caused. And to do that, we need funding.”
“What about the people whose lives we destroy?” she blurted out.
She knew what happened to people who got hooked on crystal. It was an ugly decline. It had happened to her stepfather, and it was happening to Justin as well.
“The humans of Fate Mountain allowed those beasts into their community. They deserve to suffer.”
“Who are you trying to protect, Justin?”
“People like us, Lola,” he said, sweeping his hand across the horizon, dotted with tarp-covered lookouts the group’s sentries used to watch over the land from the treetops. “People who know the truth.”
“That shifters are scum?” she said with as little sarcasm as possible.
All she had left were her subtle, passive-aggressive jabs. Even if she was the only one who knew she was doing it.
“Of course, Lola,” he said, sliding his arm around her shoulder.
He leaned into her ear, his reeking breath blowing through the strands of her thick black hair. “They want our women. Women like you, Lola. But they can’t have you, little sister, because you belong to me.”
He ran his rough hand down her back, over the slick surface of her thin jacket. He grasped her round ass and squeezed, still breathing into her ear. She pressed her eyes closed. This was always the worst. When he did this to her.
Justin had never taken her purity, and he wouldn’t allow anyone else to either. But he touched her far too often. He’d been doing it since Lola was thirteen.
“I’m grateful for your protection, Justin,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. She’d finally learned the right words to say to make him back off.
“Good. I needed the reminder,” he said, slapping her ass in the cold air. “And you need to get back into the lab. There are a few hundred pounds of fresh crystal that need to be cut.”
“And I’m the best one for the job,” she said, knowing what was coming next.
Justin had some kind of crazy notion that cutting the drugs with other ingredients was somehow “women’s work”. That meant that with all of the dozens of men in the group, Lola was the only one who added the mixture of other ingredients that they used to dilute the crystal.
She was also the only one on the mountain who didn’t use the product.
She had only ever taken crystal once. It was the summer she’d turned eighteen. Justin was twenty-eight at the time and had taken her out to a lake party. Lola never got to go to parties. There had been a bonfire and a lot of beer. He’d convinced her to take some crystal in the backseat of his old pickup.
He’d taken way more than her already, and they’d stayed up all night, driving around the mountain. She’d never spent so much time alone with Justin, and she was spun out of her mind. He took her out into the woods. She was wearing cowboy boots and cut off shorts.
That’s when he held her down and masturbated on her chest. Then he slapped her for crying. She’d never taken crystal again. Justin had apologized for what he’d done later, begging her not to tell his father. Raymond had made Justin swear to never touch her.
Justin swore he’d never hurt her again, and he didn’t for a few years. Not until after his father died and the whole operation was passed on to him.
Justin wouldn't give Lola a position in the gang. He said it was because women were not fit to lead, but Lola knew the truth. It was really because she didn't actually support anything that Justin stood for.
She might be able to fake it enough to survive, but everyone knew that if Lola got the chance, she would be out of there as quickly as her feet could take her.
Unfortunately, no one in the camp was allowed to help her. Lola was not allowed to leave by horseback or ATV. She was effectively a prisoner to her brother and his gang.
Lola believed that everyone deserved to live in peace, humans and shifters alike. What she wanted more than anything was a normal family who could have a normal, happy life.
"I was just getting back to the lab now," she said, hefting her gas mask up in front of Justin's face. "I've got a lot of work to do."
"Yes you do, little sister," he said, his eyes sweeping up and down her curvy body. "Better get back to it."
He turned to go and started walking back up the trail toward the cave. Lola sighed behind him as soon as he was out of earshot. All she could hope was that her inner strength would protect her until she finally had the opportunity to escape.
She followed Justin up the trail and pulled the gas mask down over her mouth and nose. Walking into the cave was like walking into some kind of Mad Max nightmare.
There was random chemistry equipment pilfered from pharmacies and created with spare parts. The lab itself was at least two thousand square feet, taking up most of the area of the large cave. Huge tanks of formaldehyde and other chemicals used in the process of creating crystal were stacked along the rocky walls of the cavern.
Huge ventilation hoses poured the toxic fumes further into the massive cave that continued for miles into the mountain.
Justin had chosen this location because it allowed him cover from the prying eyes of the government. He was able to hide his operation under the stony foundation of the side of Fate
Mountain.
It took two days by horseback to arrive at the camp. No one would ever know where they were. It also meant no one would ever come and find her to save her.
Lola continued to the back of the cavern where her workstation was located. There were pounds of processed crystal waiting for her to cut. Part of her believed Justin had her do this job as a punishment. Cutting the drugs only made them more dangerous. It made her feel terrible about herself every day. And that was exactly what Justin wanted.
When she was done with her work for the day, she left the cave and walked to the camp built up in the snowy recesses of the mountain. She had a little tent of her own that actually had a wood floor and wooden walls on three sides. The entrance was covered by a tarp that she pushed back when she entered.
Lola had her own electric heater and single electric cooking eye. She filled her tea kettle with water and turned on the portable little stove. Justin didn't allow any fire at the camp because it would give away their location when the smoke plumed into the air. Everything was on generator power and solar power. All to keep their location a secret.
After she had made herself some tea, she sat on her cot and pulled the heavy wool blankets up over her legs.
Lola had one little secret that she'd been able to keep from Justin since he'd dragged her up to his camp a year ago.
She still had a cell phone. Unfortunately, there was very little cell reception in the camp. She pulled the cell phone out from a secret compartment in her cot and flicked open the screen. Just looking at the modern technology made her feel more connected to other people somehow. She hid it under her blanket and finished drinking her tea. There was no way that she could go to her secret spot and get on the Internet now. There were too many eyes this time of day.
Lola had a hack on her phone that allowed her to get on the Internet without paying for a cell provider. It was something that Justin had actually showed her a long time ago. But when he had ordered her to leave all of her electronics behind, she hadn't listened.
She laid down on her pillow and curled up in the fetal position, feeling too numb to cry. She rested for several hours but couldn't sleep.
When she knew that it was time for the sentries to change guard, she grabbed her phone and crept out of her tent. Most of the men were off somewhere snorting crystal or drinking their bathtub gin. Others kept watch from the lookout towers up in the trees.
Lola scurried around the back of her tent and skirted around the cliff face where the mountain fell off into a sharp drop. There was a thin trail that wrapped around the mountain and up to a higher elevation.
Most of the men never took this trail, but Lola was small and could make it, even in the darkness. She carefully side stepped along the cliff face, terrified in the darkness. If it had been daylight, the sight of the drop probably would have scared her too much.
In the darkness, she could imagine that if she fell, it would only be a few feet. In reality, it was more than a thousand. When she came to the turnoff that led back up around the mountain, she let out a deep sigh and scurried up the trail.
Being able to get on the Internet was worth it.
She sat in her little alcove and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Sure enough, she had cell reception. Three bars, enough to get online.
She brought up her favorite browser and typed Fate Mountain into the search bar. She wanted to know what was going on back home.
A news story came up on the screen talking about Corey Bright. He’d invented a dating website for shifter males and human females called Mate.com. As Lola read on, she became a little bit giddy.
There was a dating website intended for human females and male shifters? Just the idea of getting hooked up with a male shifter made her gleeful with revenge.
Justin would hate that so much. She couldn't help herself as she navigated towards the website. She had to ask herself, once again, why she wasn't just turning in her brother.
But the truth was, Lola suspected that if she did alert the police to their location, a lot of people would die. Police and Justin’s gang alike. Justin would never surrender, and he had stockpiles of weapons.
If it came down to it, he would rather get them all killed than to be captured. As much as Lola wanted to leave the camp, she also didn't want to die in a police shootout.
She was just biding her time until the opportunity to escape presented itself. Once she got to Mate.com, she downloaded the app onto her phone and began filling out the questionnaire.
Once she had finished the questionnaire, she uploaded an old picture from her phone and filled out her profile. Almost as soon as she had entered save on her profile, the app told her that she had a one hundred percent match.
That meant that her fated mate had been found! Lola's heart jumped up into her throat as she scrolled down the page to find her shifter mate.
She hadn't actually believed she’d find someone. It was all just a little vindictive game, she'd been playing in her mind. But now she really had someone. A mate.
But when she saw who it was, she couldn't have been more disappointed. The shifter she'd been matched with had no picture, a blank profile, and his username was literally “redacted”.
She rolled her eyes and groaned, shoving her phone back in her pocket. What a complete waste of time. She couldn't believe that for a brief moment, she’d thought she’d found someone who could help her.
Chapter 3
For a solid month Gauge had been growing out his blond beard and spending every waking minute on the deep web forums. He'd come to the point where Stonewall666 was beginning to trust him.
He’d written several long posts ranting about the evils of shifter corruption. These people believed that the diplomatic peace treaty that the shifters had helped organize was really a cover for taking away human rights.
Gauge himself had been at the peace treaty. Maybe not at the head table of the Great Shifter Council, but he had been there to witness the historic event when he served in the Marine special forces.
The most powerful countries in the world had been moments away from World War III, threatening to nuke each other with their most powerful weapons.
But the shifters who had been forcefully drafted into the war, had gotten together and put an end to it. The Great Shifter Council was able to come together to find a diplomatic resolution to the war.
New trade routes and national boundaries had been set. Agreements had been reached and the war had come to an end.
For all that shifters had done for the world, there were still people like these guys on the internet who hated them.
As far as Gauge was concerned, it was just fear. And that fear was a sign of weakness. Men like the ones he'd been chatting with online for the last month were actually weak and scared.
They had no trust in anyone but themselves. They believed in ‘might makes right’. Gauge was a man that believed that strength was something that should be used in the protection of those who were weaker.
But he had found a way to gain their trust. He knew exactly how extreme they were, so every time he posted, he made his own opinions more and more extreme.
He once boasted that he believed all shifters should be strung up in the town square so that the local humans could throw rocks at them. That had been a hard thing to write. But he knew that in the end, it would help him achieve his goal. He wanted to bring these guys down so they stopped providing dangerous drugs to his community.
Most shifters had nothing against humans. How could they? A great majority of them came from human mothers because there were so few shifter females. For a shifter to hate humans would be like hating his own mother. Or his own mate. Shifters loved humans and wanted to be close to them. That was why the Great Shifter Council had come out to the public in the first place twenty years ago.
Men like the ones who were pouring crystal into Fate Mountain saw shifters as a competition for their women. When in reality, it just wasn't true. For one thing, human m
en and human women were part of the same species. There were no cultural differences. They would understand each other much more easily than a shifter male and a human female. Mating was hard for shifter males. But men like these didn't understand that. They were too weak to see the truth. All they knew was fear.
Gauge continued chatting with user Stonewall666 about how he could be of service to the cause. Gauge was so close. He knew that at any moment, Stonewall666 was going to invite him in.
"I need more men like you in my gang," Stonewall666 typed. "I’ve decided to take you on."
"Anything you need," Gauge said.
“We have one task for you before we will take you into our group," Stonewall666 replied.
"Name it."
"We want you to procure for us fifty pounds of cold medicine," Stonewall666 typed. It was the base ingredient for their drugs.
Fifty pounds of cold medicine was an obscene amount. Gauge couldn't even imagine how many Walgreens he would have to go to in order to get that much.
"Not a problem.”
"Once you have the cold medicine, contact me again, and I will give you a location. My men will meet you and bring you to our camp," Stonewall666 typed.
"Affirmative," Gauge replied.
He shut off the Internet and pushed himself away from his desk, rubbing his eyes. He was going to have to ask Commander Bear if he could get some help in getting cold medicine.
Gauge picked up his cell phone and called Rollo.
“Gauge, what have you got for me?”
“I've made a breakthrough with my internet contact. He offered me entry into his group if I can procure fifty pounds of cold medicine," Gauge said.
"Fifty pounds?" Rollo asked skeptically.
"I know it's a lot."
"I don't know if you could get that much even if you went to every drugstore in Portland," Rollo said.
"That's why I called you, Commander," Gauge said.
"I might be able to work something out,” Rollo replied. “This case is of utmost importance. The drug problem is getting worse every day. I had to arrest a mother in her own home for going on a psychotic rampage. A neighbor called us about the screaming. He had to arrest her and remove the children from the home."