Be Were (Southern Shifters) (10 page)

Although, knowing that almost wasn't enough. She'd gone straight for the jugular so to speak. "Niki, please," he said. He took hold of her arm and pulled her away from his groin. "Niki,
we have to go right now."

She looked at him with confusion. "Calder is the only bear shifter I've met but you don't smell anything like him."

"I do not want to know about you sniffing other males. You're asking for trouble." His words came out on a rough snarl. "As for the bear, I don't know what to tell you. No one I know of can scent it. I think instinctively other shifters know something isn't quite right, but they just chalk it up to the DNA cocktail that conceived Bhric and I."

"It's hard to describe," Niki said. "I get a sense you have an extra reserve of unleashed power. Something wild inside you that you keep reigned in."

He had something wild inside him all right and if they didn't go now she'd be bent over the hood experiencing it first hand. Fire licked through him. He couldn't get the image of her face in his crotch out of his head.

A sound in the woods caught both their attention. A strange combination of a bird call and cat yowl. Thank fuck for Bhric right now.

"Time to go, babe. We're being summoned."

Chapter Eleven

Niki inhaled. "Oh shit. We need to move fast." She took off running in the direction of the warehouse with Dean right behind her. She knew he'd be by her side, so she focused her attention on the pine trees in front of her, dodging them with practiced precision.

She could shift, but they weren't that far away from the building and she preferred to be in her human form when they captured the wolves. Before Dean and Bhric killed them, she wanted to find out what they knew.

Together they navigated the narrow trail they'd used in her escape. She scented all three shifters and the wolves who lived in this area. Beyond that she only identified ordinary wildlife evident in this region. There were no signs of any other shifters.

Not that there would be. If
her family had betrayed her, they had the skills to keep their presence completely hidden. So then why did the hair on her nape stand on end the closer she got to the compound?

When she got close, she spied the hulking form of a shifter she scented as Bhric. Now she understood why he and Dean were so much larger than other shifters. Bears were massive. She picked up another nearby form and guessed it was Greer. She didn't see the bear, but he had to be close.

Then she saw what she'd smelled back at the car. The warehouse she'd been held in was on fire. She skidded to a stop, open mouthed. Orange flames shot from all of the windows and lit up the compound. Shit. It wasn't just the one building. Every building within view was in the same condition. But where were the wolves?

"Don't worry, Niki. They're coming. That had a decent surveillance system so by now they've been alerted we set their compound is on fire." Bhric spoke as if he'd read her mind.

"This is going to bring the humans too," she said.

"Doubtful at this point. This placed is isolated enough that it will take quite a while for anyone miles away to notice a fire, if ever. It's possible these buildings will burn to the ground without notice."

She pursed her lips.
Maybe
. Goddess, she hated that word. Yes or no, black or white. Never maybe. "You're being foolish. All of you. There might have been evidence in one of those buildings."

"Evidence of what?"

Dean shoved Bhric out of the way and stood next to Niki. "She's right. As usual your rash actions are going to screw up everything."

The shifters behind Bhric snarled. "Is there something you're not telling us?" Bhric asked.

"Niki doesn't believe these wolves were able to mastermind her kidnapping on their own."

"They were just pawns," Niki said.

"Pawns? For what?" Bhric's shifters moved closer when a howl pierced the night air alarmingly close.

"Looks like we'll have to chat later." Bhric began shifting and Niki watched with utter fascination mixed with a little horror as the magic overtook him. She took a step back. Seeing him at a distance was one thing. Up close and in her space he'd grown larger than any shifter she'd ever encountered, with the exception of Calder. With light and dark fur he represented both wolf and jaguar. How many animals were in his DNA?

Niki snarled. With this many animals shifting at once, it pulled on her to follow suit. One or more of them was more alpha than she was used to.

"Damn it, Bhric. You're fucking this up." Dean grabbed her by the fur covered wrist and pulled her away from the shifters. "Focus, Niki. Look at me. Do. Not. Shift." The compulsion to obey overwhelmed her, pulling her in two directions.

More ear splitting howls grabbed their attention. "Something's wrong," she said, her voice harsh from fighting her shift.

Dean faced Bhric and his friends. "Go. Hurry." He wrapped his hands around both of her arms and held fast while the three shifters disappeared into the night.

"Dean, what are you doing? You've got to let me go."

"No."

Niki hissed. She bared her long, sharp cat teeth. "Do not manhandle me." Without warning, she leapt on him, sending him staggering backward.

"Dammit, Niki. You aren't going to charge into a fire. Seriously, never going to happen. Whatever is going on, Bhric can handle it."

The noise from inside the warehouse kicked up as snarls and screams tore through the night. "They're going to get killed. I can help."

"Trust me, babe. If I didn't think they could handle this, you and I would be crashing through there now. Don't forget he's got that darn bear with him. The odds are so far in his favor it's ridiculous.

"Fuck," she said. "I'm going to want to kill you for this."

"I know. We can figure that out later."

Before she could respond, the building several thousand yards away exploded. A flash of light brighter than the midday sun lit up the sky and temporarily blinded her. The blast was so strong, it knocked them both off their feet. Heat roared in the air around them, followed by debris from the building.

"Shit." She felt Dean pull her underneath him, a growl warning her not to argue with him. Niki took shallow breaths, trying to fight her rising panic. Somewhere along the line she'd lost complete control and the world around her had gone to shit.

"Dean, where is Bhric?" He didn't answer, but she heard his heart beat faster. They both scrambled to their feet. Thick, black smoke billowed around them making visibility almost impossible.

"Can't see a fucking thing," he said. He ripped a piece of his shirt off and handed it to her. "Put this over your nose and mouth."

No argument from her. Her eyes were watering and her throat was starting to hurt. She grabbed the scrap and held it over her face. If those shifters weren't dead, she was going to kick every single one of their asses for this crap.

Start a fire. Fucking brilliant.

Next to her Dean started growling.

"What is—"

The deep roar of a bear boomed through the empty night, vibrating the air around her, followed by the deep cry of two wild cats. Moments later, three animals crashed through the brush and skidded to a stop in front of them. Niki sighed in relief as each one shifted back to human.

"We've got to go
now
. All the wolves are dead. That explosion is going to draw a damned crowd."

Niki lifted the covering from her mouth. "Ya think, Captain Fucking Obvious?" She whirled around and ran for the vehicles. What a cluster. Sirens went off in the distance, making her pick up speed. She had no clue if the men were behind her and she no longer cared. Every last one of them deserved to be left behind.

At the vehicles, they threw on clothes in a flash and when Dean jumped into the driver's seat, Niki didn't argue. The anger inside her had gone way past simmer to rolling boil. She'd needed those asshole wolves to help her pinpoint who in her family had reactivated the old protocols. She'd started her life as an experiment before finally gaining her freedom only a few short years ago. The last thing she'd wanted now is to become one again. Her child wouldn't either.

These shifters didn't understand shit. They thought they had problems with their mixed-breed politics and peace treaties? Try a twelve by twelve cell with round the clock monitoring and a nonstop barrage of tests at three hour intervals, for years on end. Or the hours of training, that at twelve years old, had left her in so much pain even her hair follicles ached. Until their sadistic benefactor had died, they lived in hell.

Now the game had changed again. Apparently the idea of her bearing a child had been too great a lure for someone still in their midst. Niki planned to do anything and everything it took to prevent the program from starting over. And her only source of intel on the culprit had just gone up in flames.

Chapter Twelve

Dean took another swig of whiskey and savored the burn going all the way down. Since they'd returned from their fiasco of a mission, he'd already made his way through three-quarters of a bottle of Jack and still he wanted to strangle his brother.

He'd sat uncaring when Niki had laid into Bhric and his merry band of assholes. All he could see, hell, all he could feel, was the heat of the flames and the gut-wrenching screams from his memories.

His mother and father burning alive with no chance of rescue. The fire had started in the middle of the night and by the time they'd woken, the house had been fully involved, including all of the bedrooms.

Bhric had fought with everything he had to try to get to them. While Dean had been unable to do a damn thing with his leg broken in three places, thanks to being thrown from the upstairs window. After his brother had rescued him, his repeated attempts to get to their parents had resulted in severe third-degree burns on more than half his body.

"What is wrong with you?" Niki asked. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

He didn't look up. He'd never wanted to relive that night, let alone share it with anyone. He did however want Niki's arms wrapped around him, helping him forget. Except he'd never forget. And she had no desire to comfort him. Instead her anger fed the rage.

"Nothing to say. The wolves are dead, that's all that matters."

"All that matters?"

From his peripheral vision he saw her standing next to him with her hand on her hip, practically vibrating with emotion. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he needed to get her away from him before he did something crazy. He curled his hand around the edge of his seat and tried not to think about throwing the table across the room.

"All that matters?" she repeated, her voice rising several octaves. "What kind of bullshit is that? We talked about this. You know there's way more to this than a pack of low-life shifters. What the hell?"

"This isn't a good time." He tried to warn her as he took another swig of the cheap liquor that did little for him. With his metabolism, it would take two to three bottles in a short time to get him drunk.

"Not. A. Good. Time? Are you fucking kidding me?"

Something inside him snapped. He turned and faced her rage with his own. "Jesus Christ, Niki. I need five fucking minutes to get my shit together after that disaster back there and you can't give me that? What the hell is wrong with
me
? What the hell is wrong with you? I know perfectly well how fucked up this situation is. Take a look around at where you are. You're in a broken down barroom full of dumbass shifters who can't get their heads out of my dickhead of a brother's ass."

Growls erupted around them all of which he ignored. He didn't give a shit what they thought. "All that matters here are the constant power struggles and who comes out on top. They don't care about us. As far as they're concerned we're simply a means to an end. Another way to gain power amongst shifters."

"You just don't get it," she yelled. "Your egos are so huge you think you're impervious to any real danger. Well, fuck that. You assholes want to sit around here and lord over your bars and your land and whatever the hell else you think is important, you go right the fuck ahead. This isn't about politics or someone's hierarchal rank, you dipshits. This is about cruelty and evil, the likes of which none of you are smart enough to understand. So you can take your bullshit and shove it right up your hybrid asses."

She shoved past him hard enough that he landed back in his seat. The raw pain mixed with violent anger in her voice sliced him open and made him bleed. Somewhere in his brain he knew he should go after her, but he couldn't. Instead he embraced the pain her words nursed. He was half-drunk, angry and bitter with no business being around someone like her.

"That was a dick move, even for you."

At the sound of Bhric's voice, his control snapped. He picked up the whiskey bottle and hurtled it across the room until it slammed into the wall and shattered into a million shards. The table was next. He grabbed the rough edge and hurtled it against the nearby stairs.

His brother was suddenly up in his face, shoving him back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What I should have done a long time ago." He pulled back and then shoved his fist in Bhric's face. Dean followed him forward and violently unleashed every moment of pent up rage he'd withheld in the past. On his third swing at Bhric's face, his feet slipped out from under him and they both went down hard. "You fucking asshole," he said as he got in a couple more strikes to his head before Bhric twisted and rolled from underneath him.

"I'm not doing this never-ending cycle bullshit with you. She was pregnant and you didn't tell me until she went missing. You were hiding her from me." The all-consuming rage burned out of control inside him. He ripped at his brother's leather jacket and with the extended claws of the cat, ripped it to shreds along with a few pieces of his flesh. "What were you planning to do you bastard?"

"Fuck you. I was watching out for her. Something you obviously weren't doing." Bhric shoved him hard, sending him crashing into a nearby table.

Dean grabbed a chair and flung it at his brother's head. It nicked his cheek before he ducked out of the way. The three men in the room charged toward him.

"No. Stay the fuck out of it," Bhric said. "He wants a fight, no problem. This has been coming for a very long time."

Dean charged, grabbed his brother around the waist and slammed him to the ground again. Not that he'd ever stay down. Bhric wrapped his arm around Dean's neck and squeezed. He grabbed his arm and pulled, fighting for air. "What would your precious crew think of you if they knew about Brenda? Do they believe your lies about loyalty and brotherhood? Cause you don't know shit about that anymore."

"Fuck you and your high horse, Dean. I'm sick of paying for one mistake." With a hard elbow to Bhric's gut, he pried free from his hold. He grabbed him by his neck, and slammed him into the opposite wall.

"One mistake? What the hell about that shit out there tonight? You started a mother fucking fire. A. FUCKING. FIRE." His entire body trembled with rage.

"It was a tactical move. Had to get those assholes where we wanted them."

"Yeah, how'd that work out for you? Niki was right fucking there and she could have been hurt." He wrapped his hand around Bhric's neck and pulled him forward. "She could have died. Were you ready to watch someone else burn alive?" Out of control, he slammed him back against the wall and squeezed. The thought of anything happening to his mate drove him insane. He'd already lost his parents and then Bhric had turned on him. No way would he lose her too. She might be feisty and hard headed but she was his.
His.

For some reason Bhric stopped fighting him. His eyes widened and his face turned bright red from the lack of oxygen. He didn't even grab at his hands.

"Enough, Dean. I ain't going to let you kill him."

This from the bear who'd been spending time with his mate. He could be next.

"Mine." He roared.

"I'm still not going to let you kill him." Calder wrenched his arm away from Bhric's neck and shoved him away. "Just let him go. That's all I want here."

Dean saw red. His body contorted and changed, ripping his clothes and turning him into the true beast he was. He crouched down and dug his claws into the thick wood of the bar floor, ready to pounce on the bear the minute he moved.

"Dean," Niki shouted.

His gaze shot to the woman standing at the base of the stairs. Her clothes still filthy from the fire and her face white from shock. His mate. The cat roared in his head, a vicious sound that was a cross between the dominant cat and the bear waiting to be unleashed.
Protect the mate.

Then he saw the blood.