Broken Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Seven (20 page)

He weaved in and out of trees, trying to run, and listen and smell at the same time. Vadik and Clara would have a better chance to find him with their heightened senses as a wolf, but Owen could still use his years of knowledge of the island, and his seventy-two hunts to his advantage.

The kill shots almost always came from higher ground, which was why Gabriel often headed there. Before the fences had been shut off, chasing the hunter would do no good. The collars weren’t only for shifting. They killed, too.

Everyone knew the rules of the hunt.
Can’t climb the fences, can’t kill the hunter, or you’ll die.
But if a wolf was really smart, they would stay behind the hunter, up-wind, where he couldn’t smell them. Or hide in the cave. Or keep moving. Killing the hunter? That would’ve been certain death.

Until today.

Killing the hunter was the only way they were getting over the fence.

Owen kept running, varying his path so he was never running in a straight line. He could just hear Clara’s heartbeat, wild and heavy, as a wolf. He was much closer to her than he was to Vadik. He couldn’t hear Vadik at all.

She’d be too far ahead of him, soon, and he’d lose her.

All of the sudden, there was another heartbeat. It was faint, and there was too much residual noise to isolate it, but it was there, underneath his pounding footfalls, underneath Clara’s thumping heart.

It had to be the hunter.

The beat increased to a fast
pitter-pitter
, and then slowed without warning. Owen counted the beats.
One, two, three
, then
four-four
. Something had made him concentrate or focus on his body signals.

From off to the north, another burst of gunfire. But not the hunter’s big gun. This was automatic gunfire, and it was much closer than the last burst.

The Rangers?

In the middle of the volleys, a wolf cry split the air and then a man’s loud yelp. A boom of single-shot gunfire tore through the air and in the silence that followed, the wolf loosed a long, piercing howl.

Owen’s muscles pushed him hard, pressing him faster and faster until he couldn’t even really feel his feet touching the ground.

Vadik’s voice replaced the howl. “Hurry! I have him.”

He turned uphill, toward the call of the Russian stranger.

Clara’s wolf bounded out of the bush off to his right and stopped when she saw him. She shimmered back into her human self, the natural fabric of her dress shimmering with her.

He lost his breath when he saw her, whole and safe, and panting against one of the trees, her chest heaving with the effort.

She held out her hand and when his skin slid against hers, he was certain he was dreaming, because he felt like he was soaring above the clouds on a high drugs couldn’t touch.

Her arms slipped around his body and he nearly sobbed with relief to feel the real softness of her chest against his, her hair in his hands. He breathed into her neck, taking in the earthy scent of her.

“Come on,” she said, pulling at his hand. “We have to help Vadik.”

R
AINIER
DUBOIS

R
ain led
the team up the hill, following the scent of the retreating guards. It was too faint, the farther they got into the island, where everything smelled unfamiliar. He held up his hand to halt the group. “We’re going to need someone to shift,” he said, looking from Donovan to Luther. “Or maybe both of you.”

The Kentucky wolf began to disrobe immediately. “Can’t smell them anymore, either?”

He shook his head. “There’re too many wild things to nail the scents down from this distance. But we can’t risk them warning the rest of their people, if they haven’t already.”

Luther stripped off his shirt and handed it to Maggie. “I’d better shift, too. At least, Maggie and I can feel each other. She’ll be able to find me if we all get separated.”

“We can’t follow too close,” Rain said, taking Donovan’s clothes and slinging them over his pack.

“We’ll find them.” Donovan knelt down and in a flash if air, his dark, streaked wolf appeared.

Luther’s pants went through the air to Maggie, and she bent to pick up his shoes and Donovan’s as Luther’s gray wolf sprang out to follow Donovan.

“Let’s go, Alpha Team.” Rain signaled for them to keep moving, and Maggie moved up to jog beside him.

They were still going up the hill, and the terrain was rougher than Rain had expected. The cliffs must have been close, because the ground was suddenly harder.

They jogged forward until they couldn’t see the wolves’ shadows any longer. He was used to the pace of following wolves on a mission, but he didn’t like that it was unplanned. Or that they were civilians.

A loud
crack
sounded from somewhere far across the island. Too far to be where Luther and Donovan were. He held up his hand to halt their progress and listened for another fire.

“That wasn’t an M4,” Banner said.

“It wasn’t auto at all,” Warrick added.

Rain kept his arm in the air, listening for one more second. “How far is that?”

From the back of the group, Brown spoke up. “Sounds like at least a mile. Maybe more. And it echoed back on itself.”

“Was it up at the house?” Rain glanced at Maggie.

She shook her head and pointed off to their right. “The house is that way, straight up the hill on the road, and then back about half a mile.”

Another
crack
had them all freezing. Only a few seconds later,
crack
again.

“That was closer,” Brown said.

The bush around them was low, and the wolves were out of sight. Rain gestured forward and the group began to move through the foliage. The trees thickened as they rounded the crest of the hill. All around them, vision was impaired.

“There.” Maggie started forward at a faster pace. “It’s Luther. Something hurt him. I can feel it.”

“It wasn’t a gunshot, was it?” Rain asked, huffing breaths as he kept up with her pace.

“No,” she puffed back. “Something else.”

Maggie led the way through the trees, winding them slowly toward her mate.

Mate
.

He still couldn’t get over the idea of Maggie mated to a big, bald human-turned-wolf.

For the last several months, she’d been his lifeline to the enforcer team. If Edward Cavanaugh hadn’t been such a monstrous dickwad, Rain would have gone back once Nora was settled. But her father was always going to be looking for her, and Mexico, with their team, was the first place he would’ve started looking.

“This way,” she darted to her left, behind a big tree, and the Rangers all followed, ducking deeper into the forest.

A
chuk-t-t-t-chuk
of automatic gunfire cut into the dark woods around them and Rain instinctively dropped his head low.

But the fire wasn’t at them. Another blast of gunfire and Maggie’s pace increased to a flat-out sprint.

He hauled his ass as fast as he could, and finally saw the bright spray of gunfire in another direction.

Maggie screamed Luther’s name and the wolf came bounding back toward them. He shifted and she dropped his clothes.

“Donovan,” he yelled. “They hit Donovan.”

Rain’s heart tried to shove its way out of his chest, but he kept running. He smelled the acrid, metallic sting of blood and ran toward it.

The Rangers thundered after him.

When they reached Donovan, he’d shifted back to his human form and lay, naked, in a pool of blood and mud and forest floor debris. He pointed into the woods and panted, “There’s one more.”

The scene around his friend was a grisly one. Two guards lay dead, their throats open, and another one was crawling toward the direction Donovan had indicated.

Rain stepped on the guard’s back and looked back at the Kentucky wolf.

“No. Not him. The leader, I think. He shot me.” Donovan turned over and Rain could see chunks of open, red flesh along the man’s white back. “But there’s one still running. Luther took a piece out of his leg, so he won’t get far.”

“Brown, Banner, Warrick, Young.” Rain pointed off toward the interior of the island. “He’s bleeding, you can track him.”

The body under Rain’s foot stopped struggling and he toed the man over. Only when his face came up out of the mud, Rain could see he wasn’t a man at all. He couldn’t have been a day over sixteen. With a lurch in his stomach, he stepped back, away from the dead
boy.

Damn Adrian Rossi. Damn him to hell.

“We’re not leaving you, boss.” Banner bent down to pick up Donovan without missing much of a beat.

Rain waved him off. “No. I’ll stay with Donovan, and we’ll bring up the rear.”

“I’m staying,” Brown said. “We can’t leave you behind, boss.”

“Get the hell out of here, all of you,” Rain snapped. “And to think I was worried about
them
not following orders.”

Banner took off, with Warrick and Young behind him, but Brown still lagged behind.

Rain snapped his fingers and pointed after the rest of the team.

Maggie and Luther panted out of the woods, with Luther pulling on his black t-shirt. She immediately ran to Donovan, kneeling in the bloody mud that surrounded him. “What happened?”

“The Professor stood in front of a gun,” Rain said with a laugh. He threw his duffle on the ground and pulled out one of the woundseal packets.

“Where are the rest of the guys?” Maggie asked.

Rain poured the brown powder on Donovan’s wounds and the thick Southern accent of the injured wolf slurred out curse after curse. Rain nodded after the other Rangers. “They’re going after the last guard.”

“Let me go with them,” Maggie said. “That way, you’ll have Luther with me, and if you need to find us fast, you can.”

She pressed a kiss to Luther’s lips before he could protest and ran after the Rangers.

Rain’s stomach lurched. He hated watching her run off into danger. It didn’t matter how capable she was, Maggie had become like his little sister over the course of this mission. She was like everyone’s little sister.

She was feisty enough, and capable enough, but that would never mean he wanted to see her in harm’s way.

“Help me move him.” He grabbed Donovan under one arm and Luther took the other. “Let’s get him out of all that blood.”

“I’ll put his clothes back on.” Luther grabbed the dangling pants and shirt and boxers from Rain’s pack.

“I’m not dead, guys.” Donovan choked out a laugh. “Yet, anyway.”

“You’re not going to die.” Rain checked the wounds. “Those will keep until we can get you to a hospital.”

“What about them?” Luther pointed to the bodies.

“They’re all so young.” Donovan’s low growl was almost reverent. “I didn’t see it at first, but when we turned them over…”

“I know,” he said. “I thought the same thing.”

Luther pulled Donovan to his feet and helped him step into his boxers and pants.

Rain put his gun on the ground and moved over to where Maggie had dropped the boots. When he looked up, he saw the black barrel of an AK-47, not more than ten inches from his head.

C
LARA ROSSI

C
lara ran next to Owen
, toward the sound of Vadik’s fist meeting the hunter’s face—repeatedly.

“You inhuman piece of shit!” His bare skin glimmered in the moonlight. The magick around him pulsed with his anger. He held the hunter by the front of his shirt collar, shaking him. “Believe me, I’ve seen some messed up shit in my day. But hunting people takes the fucking cake.”

“You’re not people. You’re monsters,” he croaked through bloodied lips and broken teeth.

Owen tensed beside her, and Clara grasped his arm as he lunged. “Why haven’t you killed him yet,” he snarled.

Vadik turned to face them both. His eyes flashed gold and he bared his teeth. Even human, the man was extremely intimidating.

She didn’t think Owen would stop, but he did. To her relief, he backed down from the much bigger man.

Vadik turned back to the hunter. “How do you get out?”

She sucked in a breath and even Owen’s heart slowed just slightly. She hadn’t considered how the hunter would get in and out of the grounds.

“I can shift and rip your arms off one at a time, or you can fucking tell me how to get out of this place.”

“Wait,” the hunter begged. He fumbled at his front shirt pocket. “This key opens a grated door at the top of the cliff on the north side of the grounds. It’s on the ground.”

He snatched the key and dropped the hunter to the ground with a thud. “He’s all yours,” he breathed. “I’m going back for Andrea. Meet me there. Fast.” He turned to run and then stopped. “Be sure and bring his gun. Even if you kill him.”

“Wait. I told you how to get out. You said—” The human’s eyes were wide with fear and his heart thumped erratically in his chest.

As much as she didn’t like death, his was imminent and necessary.

Owen grabbed the hunter’s rifle from the ground, manipulated something on it and raised the muzzle at the hunter. “Bet you never thought your prey would kill you with your own rifle.”

Clara shut her eyes as the crack of the shot cut its way through the quiet of the night, and tore through the hunter’s body with a sickening thud.

She didn’t need to see to know he was dead. Clara slowly opened her eyes again, careful to avoid looking where the hunter had been standing. She’d seen enough death in her lifetime. Another body didn’t need to be added to the multitude of images already swimming in her brain.

“It had to be done. It was him or us.”

She nodded and gulped in a breath. “I know.” She bent to pick up the hunter’s backpack. “Let’s get back to Vadik and Andrea. Do you think Gabriel already got out?”

“Probably.” Owen slung the rifle strap over his back and nodded. “Let’s go. He’s got the key.”

He set the pace and she was glad when they finally slid over the last embankment and down to where Vadik was sitting with Andrea draped in his arms. Clara rushed toward the big Russian and reached for Andrea’s wrist.

Vadik snarled and she pulled her arm back. Tears rolled down his cheeks, but his magick aura was strong, reminding her of the level her father commanded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just. Every touch hurts. I can feel everything she feels. The shot feels like it tore my arm off too. I can feel her dying.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m going numb.”

Clara gasped. “Is it a spell? Like the wolf spell Adrian used to turn you?”

He cocked his head at her, raising his eyebrows, and then nodded. “We’re bonded mates. That’s what she called it.”

Clara’s heart pounded. She’d known there was more. Could feel that something was missing.
Mates.
She wanted that with Owen.

Owen touched Clara’s shoulder and knelt. “She has to shift. Tell her she has to try now that it’s safe. The magick can heal her faster.”

Vadik shook his head and handed Owen the hunter’s key. “She’s almost gone. Please help me get her to the Rangers. They have to be here by now.”

Clara stood. “Let’s go. Can you still carry her?”

He rose from the ground, clutching Andrea’s limp form. The female’s heartbeat was present, but it was very slow.

Owen slung the hunter’s rifle over his shoulder, and Clara scooped up the backpack again.

Vadik followed quietly behind them as Owen led the small group through the trees and up a slight incline. Minutes dragged and Clara couldn’t help but focus on Andrea’s flagging heartbeat. They needed to hurry. The key needed to work.

They stepped out of the trees into the barren clearing that followed the entire length of the hunting ground fence. “I’ve never been up this far. But the cliff edge is just there,” Owen said, pointing to where the fence cornered sharply.

Clara could hear the waves from the ocean and see the glitter of moonlight reflecting on them in the distance. She jogged forward, scanning the fence and the ground. Nothing but sand and chain link. Then she saw the square bit of iron protruding from the sandy soil. A large grate covered a stairwell. “Here,” she shouted, waving them both over from the area they were searching. She felt around in the dark until her fingers found a small round indention and a slot for a key. “This has to be it.”

Owen sank to the ground behind her and followed her hand to the slot. It fit. He turned the key and the glorious sound of pins turning followed quickly after.

She smiled and her heart jumped in her chest. The grate shifted under her hands, sliding open.

Owen turned the key back and pulled it out.

“Can we get out,” Vadik asked from behind them.

Clara nodded. “Yes.” She pushed a little harder, sliding the grate further back.

“I’ll go first,” Owen said, motioning her to return to his side. He pulled the rifle from his shoulder and prepped it for a shot as he descended the stairwell and walked forward. “Come on.”

She followed behind Owen, and Vadik was barely a pace-length behind her. Andrea’s heart still beat. She was one tough lady.

Clara traced her fingers along the wall as they walked. It was pitch black in the tunnel, but she could see a slight glow of natural moonlight ahead where the exit had to be.

Owen sped his pace and they reached the next stairwell. At the top another grate barred their exit.

Clara’s stomach twisted. What if they couldn’t get it open? After all this…what if they still were going to have to climb that damn fence?

Owen slung the rifle over his shoulder and felt around the grate.

“Do you feel anything?” she asked, leaning toward his shoulder.

His hand stopped and he retrieved the key from where he’d been holding between his lips. “Found the key slot. Figures the asshole would have both grates locked.” He slipped the key inside and it turned easily. The grate above his head shifted backward with little effort.

They were free.

O
wen climbed
out onto the hard ground and pulled Clara out of the tunnel after him. He waited for Vadik and took Andrea from the Russian wolf’s arms. “It’ll be easier if I carry her,” he said. “You take the gun.” He shifted the weapon off his shoulder and into the man’s hands and started up the hill as fast as he could manage.

Vadik’s hands fisted around the giant weapon as he ran ahead. It wasn’t made for up-close combat, and the hole it’d blown in the hunter was evidence of the kind of damage it could do.

Or the hole in Andrea’s arm. Owen steeled himself and looked at the carnage near her shoulder, under the bandage. It was a mass of open flesh, muscle, blood. He’d never seen a wound like it.

The hunter must’ve been close to them when he’d shot her. A good portion of the meaty part of her arm was just gone. She needed medical attention, although she might not survive, even with a hospital ten feet away.

“We need to get to the guard station,” Owen said to Clara as she jogged beside him. “There’s a first aid kit. And if I know Rossi, there are more weapons there.”

“What about these?” She pulled at the big metal collar that hung around her neck. “What if we leave the island? Will they still be able to hurt us?”

“We’ll get those off, too.” He tried to sound confident, but the truth was, he wasn’t sure how to get the collars off. He and Gabriel had spent a good portion of their time in between hunts trying to find things to help get the collars off. They didn’t appear to have any seams, and they were damn near indestructible.

Of course, they hadn’t had any tools except the electricity of the fences, and the rocks in their cages. There might be a weapon or tool in the guard station that would do some good.

If the electricity was off, then that would keep the collars from working on the island. But who knew what kind of range they had. Yes, getting the collars off had to be a priority.

And saving Andrea.

Then getting off the island.

Vadik held up his hand and halted them, holding the gun up to his face. “I see someone moving, over there, through the brush.”

“Who is it?” Clara’s hand was on his arm and Owen shifted Andrea’s weight to keep the bloody appendage away.

“It looks like one of the guards.” Vadik pulled in a breath. “I could take him out right now.”

She lunged forward, pulling the gun barrel down toward the ground. “Don’t. Please, don’t!”

Vadik’s anger was etched on his face, even in the moonlight, when he turned around. “What the hell?”

Owen stepped up, putting himself and Andrea in front of Clara. “Hold on, now. It’s probably her brother.”

“How does she know that?” His chest expanded and he took another step. “They can’t all be your brother.”

Clara’s eyebrows pulled together and she jumped around Owen’s barricade. “They are all my brothers. All of them. You can’t kill them.”

Vadik’s jaw dropped and he backed away from her, stumbling on something. His hand went to his mouth. “The guards are your
brothers
?”

Owen started to walk toward the guard station, leaving them to fumble around in their fighting if that was what they had to do. He didn’t care about killing the guards. As long as it wasn’t Rossi, he didn’t care. Getting Andrea to the first aid kit was more important.

“Wait,” Vadik said, catching up with long strides. “You knew this?”

“That’s what Rossi does here. He…breeds.” He spat out the word like the distasteful horror it was. He didn’t like to think about Clara being raised by a man who bred his own army.

Vadik almost kept up, but he would need time to digest the weight of what Rossi was doing on the island. They’d all had to have that moment in the past. Everyone he’d ever seen who made it into the cages and didn’t know what was happening. They all had to hyperventilate, or get angry, or throw up.

It was how normal people responded to the sickness of someone like Adrian Rossi. He’d worked for the man for years before he knew what was really happening on the island. Owen had learned the truth for the first time while wearing that metal collar, just like Vadik.

Up the hill, the black shadow of the guard station still cut into the night, although it was barely lit by the moonlight. How different everything looked without light.

Clara ran ahead and tried the side door. It gave way and opened easily.

Owen sighed in relief and slowed his pace. “Find the first aid kit,” he called out, and she burst into the building.

Vadik took Andrea out of his arms and cooed at her, “Don’t worry, love. You’re going to be just fine.” But the unease in his voice was too obvious. He didn’t believe that any more than Owen did.

For a wolf—in human form or not—to take this long to stop bleeding...

Owen had never seen it before. Of course, he’d only been a wolf for two years, but he’d seen all sorts of superficial flesh wounds heal in a matter of hours. Like Vadik’s. But Andrea’s wound wasn’t healing like a wolf should.

They needed to get her off the island.

“What about your Ranger buddies?” Owen asked, following Vadik into the guard station.

“They’re here on the island.” He laid Andrea on the wood floor and reached for supplies that Clara was handing him. “I heard the gunfire.”

“How were you supposed to find them?”

His jaw worked and he pressed a cloth to Andrea’s wound, tensing himself as she convulsed. “We were supposed to meet them on the beach.”

“So you didn’t have a plan B?”

“We didn’t plan on getting caught, no.” Vadik hissed out a pained groan as he lifted the cloth from Andrea’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Owen asked, moving forward to take something or help.

“She’s my mate.” He pulled open a brown bottle and poured liquid on a new cloth Clara had handed him. “We have a bond that forces me to feel what she feels.”

“A mate, like a wolf thing?”

Clara’s eyes met Owen’s when he said the words out loud.
Mate
. That’s the word he’d been looking for, for twenty-four days, to explain exactly how he felt about her.

Like she was his other half. His mate.

Yes.
That was the word.

“I can feel her emotions, but I also feel her pain.” Vadik sucked in a breath as the disinfected cloth settled on the edge of Andrea’s wound. He groaned and gritted his teeth. “It’s the blessing and the curse of being mates.”