Keeper (Matefinder Next Generation Book 1) (17 page)

“Dad?” I asked but nothing happened. He didn’t look at me, just kept looking at the girl. Shit.

Suddenly a door opened and in walked a tall young man wearing a lab coat. He reeked of fear and I could instantly see he was not the guy in charge, just some lab grunt doing dirty work.

My father pulled on his silver bindings as the man neared. “Let us go! Don’t do this to the peace we have all worked so hard for!”

The guy looked like he was in his early thirties. He chewed his lip nervously and grabbed a large syringe from the table, approaching the cage with the girl in it. She whined restlessly and kicked at the cage door again.

“DON’T touch her!” My father roared and the table nearly tipped over with his thrashing.

The young man suddenly turned on my father, eyes blazing with emotion. “You don’t understand!”

My father’s face fell as if he was caught off guard by the sudden emotion in the young man’s eyes. “Then tell me. What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?”

The young man shook his head. “I’m not allowed to talk to you.”

I instinctively walked toward the young man because I could see the edges of the vision fading away and I didn’t know where they were yet. My mother said she always had a location, a knowing in her visions of where the mate was. As I crouched down low, for the first time since the vision began, I met the girl’s eyes. The second we locked gazes, I knew where they were and the vision faded away.

I came to in the basement with Gavin stroking my hair and Mason looking completely freaked out. Everyone actually looked freaked out, everyone except my mother.

“Did you see him? Is he okay? Where are they?” she bombarded me.

There was still a faint rainbow glow around their heads as the spell wore off. Damn, that was some powerful stinky paste.

“He’s alive,” I assured my mom and then turned to Mason. “Your mate is Alice, she’s alive too, but they are both being held captive and experimented on by human scientists. They’re on a private government-owned farm about two hours from here. I can show you on a map.”

“They’re experimenting on her!” Mason raged and patches of fur broke out on his skin.

“My dad won’t let anything happen to her,” I lied because what the hell could my dad do to protect her while strapped with silver to a damn table? But having Mason worry wouldn’t help anyone.

My mom was the Alpha now, which meant she had a direct link to my mind, she knew it was a lie the second it flew from my lips. I met her eyes and she simply sighed, saying nothing.

Diya looked nervously at her son but Trent simply nodded at my words and pulled out his phone, bringing up a map.

My mother looked murderous. “I’ll assemble the pack.”

*

Two hours later, the entire pack was assembled and my mom had split us in half. One group would stay back and protect the young on the mountain, keep a strong presence in our territory. The other half, about a hundred of us, would rescue all the wolves from captivity on the farm. Max was healing but not near enough to be able to fight. Max and my mother were extremely close and as I saw them huddled now, going over the strategy, my heart panged a little. Why were werewolves seen as dangerous? Sure we could kill, but so could humans. Humans had guns, fire, anger, rage, just like us. But they also had family, friendships, love, and compassion just like us. I hated that it had come to this, to us storming a human farm to get our people back.

My mother turned suddenly and met my eyes then, they burned yellow like the fiery core of the sun.

‘You grew up in a world free of war and I’m grateful for that. But now it’s time to take sides and protect what’s ours.’
Her voice was strong but at the same time defeated. She didn’t like this anymore than I did but she would do what needed to be done to get my dad back and every other wolf that humans had taken, regardless of whose pack they were in.

I nodded, if it was us or them, then I chose us. I just wished I knew why I was choosing, what did they want from us? Why experiment on us? I remembered a story my father told me about the old days when he was captured by a rogue government group. They cut off his finger just to see if it would grow back. It was senseless and awful, but those type of experiments died off when the group broke up.

“Let’s roll out!” My mother’s voice cut through my thoughts as I prepared myself for the first time in my life, to actively seek out and kill humans.

We were parked in a fifteen SUV car caravan a few miles into the woods, south of the farm where they were holding my dad and Mason’s mate. Jax, Trent, Avery, my mom and I all huddled around the back of the car as my mom sent out the scouts with night-vision goggles. My father had befriended the local human militia right after he outed our kind. They taught him many things, one of which was to be prepared for anything. Night-vision goggles, flame throwers, extra water, food for a year. We had it all thanks to the influence of the paranoid preppers and right now I was grateful.

After a few minutes, the scouts came back to report to my mom. They removed the night-vision goggles and their grim expressions told me everything I needed to know.

“How many?” my mom demanded.

The sun would rise soon, we had to do this now or we risked exposure.

“Twenty on the ground with high-powered rifles,” James, one of our wolves, reported.

My mom looked as shocked as I felt. Twenty armed humans?

“Twenty! Jesus. They expected trouble,” my mom wondered aloud.

James looked uncomfortable. “Twenty on the ground, Aurora. There were a dozen in the trees.”

My mom’s expression turned deadly. “This is a government operation. That’s too many men, too much fire power for some rebels. How dare they?! After everything Kai and I have done to please them!” Patches of white fur rippled on her skin as she shook with rage.

I swallowed. “So, are we … does that mean …” I couldn’t say it out loud.

My mom looked at everyone who was now huddled around us.

“Shoot to kill.” The orders flew from her mouth with ease.

A jolt ripped through Gavin and I felt it through our matebond. Complete shock. He had only been a werewolf a few days, of course he would be sympathetic to the humans. Hell, I was sympathetic to the humans but not these humans. Not the humans who steal werewolves away in the middle of the night and keep them in cages like dogs and strapped to tables like lab rats. I stepped inside the circle that had formed around my mother. I felt the need to say something to agree with her because I saw the hesitation on all of their faces.

Pulling back my hair, I showed them the tattoo on my neck. “They don’t see us as equals, instead they marked us like cattle. But we wanted peace so we went along with it. Now we’re branded and we’ve made it easier to identify and capture our kind so they can experiment on us!”

A few wolves roared their agreement with me and I continued. “I know it feels wrong. My entire life my father told me that it was my destiny to do two things, find mates for werewolves and protect humans.”

My mom’s face fell in sadness, and I saw Jaxon nod in agreement. “But now my father, your Alpha, is strapped to a table! Humans are holding him hostage and he did nothing wrong! We have no rights here. Are we going to stand by and let this happen!?”

The pack roared and some of the dominant pack members began to shift, the others strapped on bullet-proof vests and grabbed guns, showing they were with me. Gavin’s eyes were blazing yellow.

‘I have a plan,’
I told my mom and when I looked up she was looking at me with a lopsided grin.

‘What?’

‘You reminded me of myself. That’s all,’
she replied. Well, if that wasn’t a compliment, I don’t know what is. After working out the plan with my mom, I turned to see Gretchen, Muriel, and Saben standing before us. They nodded to my mother who nodded back and then they were off into the woods to take down the magical walls that blocked the pack bonds. My mom gave me a long hug and I tried not to show any emotion. If this plan was going to work, I needed to be calm and alert. Okay, here goes nothing.

*

This was either the stupidest plan I had ever thought of, or the best. The farm was situated on an open property with no fencing on the multiple acres. There was a small farmhouse, which we all agreed would hold nothing for us, and then a huge barn and separate RV garage, which was most likely where they were holding my dad and the rest of the wolves. We were east of Mount Hood, but still well in the range of wild black bear territory. I had convinced my mom, Jax, Gavin, and everyone to allow me to create a diversion while they slipped in and took out the tree snipers and guards. Although my mom’s orders were shoot to kill, she added that if anyone surrendered they were to be unharmed. I was 100% certain I was going to take a bullet tonight, but I was also sure that if we didn’t go with this plan then some of our people were going to die and I was hoping for a zero werewolf death count today. Taking a deep breath, I shook out my fur and readied myself for the upcoming confrontation. I’m coming, Dad, hold on. I actually missed his overbearing voice in my head right now.

Padding forward through the thick trees, I walked the two miles to the farm. How long had it been since my vision? Was the vision in real time or the past or the future? Ugh, it was frustrating and I was kind of glad it was Gavin’s problem now. Tree branches were snapping beneath the weight of my paws and I could see the clearing up ahead, all the lights of the farm house were glowing in the black night. I walked in a slow and calm manner, the way a natural bear would, stopping to sniff things and craning my head to look around as if I smelled food. It wasn’t long before I heard a walkie talkie coming from the trees above me.

“Hey, come in. We’ve got a bear on the property, over.” A gruff male voice said directly above me.

I began to run at the sound of his voice assuming that it would scare a natural bear. Running toward the house full speed, I saw a group of armed men walk out into the light on the porch. The barn was off to my left in the distance and a few guards were positioned around it. All eyes were on me.

“Hey, bear! Back, BEAR!” One of the men on the farm porch yelled and I stilled. I was frozen midway up the freshly manicured lawn, snipers at my ass and these boys right in front of me. I sniffed the air and one of the men pulled out a gun but the guy who had yelled at me, put out a hand to stop him.

“I’ve hunted bear, that won’t kill it, will only piss it off. You asshats probably left the garbage out. BACK, BEAR!” he yelled again and this time I began to retreat. I had to suppress a growl when he said he had hunted bears. It was very, very tempting to hunt him, but I thought better of it with all these guns pointed at my ass.

I was at the back of the house facing the porch and the commotion did exactly what I intended, it brought the guards from the front of the property over to see what the noise was about and all of the tree snipers had their eyes and guns on me. That’s when I heard the signal, a deep wolf’s howl rose into the night, my mother’s wolf. The Alpha telling me to run my big bear butt outta there. I turned back toward the forest and hauled ass, at the same time I heard gun shots, and yelps coming from the trees.

Snipers were dropping to the ground around me as I pounded the forest and tried to steer clear of it. Nope. A sharp pain flared to life in my left hind leg as a bullet sunk into the meat of my thigh and I roared, slowing my run the tiniest bit. The bullet hurt but it was nothing to my big bear. Once I was clear of the drama, I took a right and made my way to the barn around the back, hiding in the thick forest. Hearing the bullets snapping around me, seeing lights flicker on the muzzle of guns and grown men cry out in pain, the smell of hot metal and gun smoke … it made me feel for the veterans of our country. This was war, this was scary and traumatizing and I would never forget the smell of fear and death. Heavy and depressing.

I reached the barn in record time. My bear was fast and saw that the guards were dead or unconscious and a few were on their knees with hands behind their heads, surrendered. The doors were padlocked shut and my mom was searching for the keys on the guard’s belt. Gavin sensed me then and I picked up my speed as he felt my thought through the matebond. He took off running beside me and together we charged the wooden double doors. At the last second, I got up on my hind legs and slammed my front paws onto the doors in tandem with Gavin and they splintered open. My mother shifted from her naked human form to a wolf in seconds and charged in after us.

The inside of the barn had been completely finished with insulation and drywall, and had separate rooms with closed doors. It took a second for me to get my bearings but my mom smelled him. Dad. She took off running and the tall young man was just coming out of a room. Seeing her, he tried to back up but she launched into the air and tackled him to the ground. Her mouth was at his throat in seconds but she didn’t clamp down. He was frozen beneath her, shaking like a leaf, whimpering.

“Please don’t hurt me. You don’t understand,” he whispered.

He was the same guy from the vision, I recognized him. I began to shift from my bear to my human form. My mother kept her mouth hovered over his neck, ready to kill him. When I was completely human, I walked closer to him and stared down at him with a dominant glare.

“You have one chance to keep your life. Tell us what you’re doing here,” I commanded.

He was silent. My mom squeezed her jaws around his neck and he shrieked, small droplets of blood dripped from his neck.

“Okay! Werewolves are the cure for every human disease imaginable. Cancer, ALS, MS, leukemia, anything. Everything!”

My jaw dropped open at his declaration. What did he just say?

My mom’s wolf froze.

“Why not just ask us! Ask for our help instead of stealing us from our homes!” I shouted at him. We would gladly donate blood or plasma or whatever if it meant helping the humans.

A dark expression crossed his face. “In order to fully and permanently heal a human without giving them the lycanthrope virus, we need to drain the wolf of bone marrow and blood, killing them.”

The crunch sound of his neck breaking in my mother’s jaws made me flinch. Before I could say anything, do anything but stare at his limp form and let that information wash over me, I heard my dad.

“Aurora!” He shouted from one of the closed rooms.

Shaken from my shock, I swooped down and grabbed the keys off of the doctor’s lifeless body, my mother’s eyes were yellow, blood dripped from her mouth; she looked feral. This doctor had werewolf blood on his hands and as far I was concerned, he deserved what he got.

“Aurora!” My dad roared again and it jerked us all into action. I grabbed the keys and snagged an extra white lab coat off the counter in the room the doctor had just run out of. Once I was covered up, I followed the sound of my father’s screaming and suddenly Mason was there. My hand was hovered over the door, but before I could even try the key, Mason karate kicked the door down in two hard slams. I gave my cousin a look of pride. I knew the feeling of desperation for your mate when they were in trouble.

My mom was the first one in the room. After assessing there were no immediate threats, she shifted into her human form and I felt the comfortable weight of Gavin’s wolf leaning against my leg lending me moral support. My father, my amazingly strong and invincible father, looked frail and weak and it brought tears to my eyes. His skin was ashy, deep purple circles lined his eyes and he was topless, strapped to the bed with needles and an I.V. in his skin.

‘Avery! Medical!’
My mom roared into all of our heads.

“Dad?” I stepped closer to the bed.

His yellow eyes caught mine and held my gaze for a long time. He was showing me he was strong, he was going to be okay.

“I’m fine, baby girl.” His voice was gruff and weak but the words sent a warmth through my body.

Jaxon and Avery burst into the room but before they could tend to my dad I heard Mason in the corner of the room let out a distressed whimper. Oh crap, I forgot about him and Alice. Avery sidestepped me and knelt down to see what was bothering Mason.

“Help her first, they took more from her. Females have a higher concentration of whatever they want. I heard the doctor talking about it.” My father was unstrapped and sitting up now, drinking some water that my mom got out of Avery’s medical bag.

Jaxon pulled bolt cutters out of nowhere and snapped the cage holding Alice. She was naked and laying half dead, panting in the corner of the large six-foot kennel cage.

“Bastards!” Jaxon growled as he took the silver-caged door off the hinges, not getting burned because of his witch heritage.

Mason took off his t-shirt and threw it over his mate, scooping her up in his arms as Avery expertly threaded an I.V into Alice’s skin and hung some saline. I.V.s really only lasted a couple minutes in our skin before the skin tried to reject and regenerate over the needle, but it would be enough to perk her up I hoped.

“Get her into the SUV,” Avery commanded Mason.

Then Avery turned to my father, flashed a light in his eyes and did a few other things. He swatted her hand away.

“I’m fine. Let’s go before human back-up arrives,” he gently commanded.

“Can you walk?” Avery asked him.

I know it killed him to admit it, but he shook his head.

With a groan, my mom lifted him up, hanging his left arm around her neck, I swooped in to get under his right arm.

My dad’s gaze fell on Gavin’s wolf. “Is that …”

I nodded. “Long story.”

Then he leaned over and smelled my hair. “Why do you smell like a bear?”