Bound to the Prime (Bound to the Pack, #3) (11 page)

Not really able to think about it I reacted to her request on reflex, reaching inside myself to tap into that special energy reserve. The one that enhanced my abilities, the one that
healed.

Clarity flooded into me, along with strength.

I could see my sister, still breathing and looking at me with fear in her eyes. Troy was slowly getting up on his knees, alive as well though clearly injured somewhere. Jen lay beneath me, eyelids fluttering as I took her energy into myself, repairing the damage the bullets had caused.

A footstep fell beside me and I felt the cold barrel of a gun at the base of my head. “All that shooting and we didn’t kill
any
of them?” The man above me called out.

“Fight them...” Jen’s voice was soft was she looked up at me.

It was time.

I
looked up into his face and saw the destruction about to be unleashed a moment before it started. Liam stood with a quickness too fast to follow, sending a painful jolt through my injured shoulder. I’d been shot! Assholes!

The pain passed quickly and I smiled grimly, my hurt was nothing compared to what was about to be delivered to the hunters. They all looked on, dumbfounded, as Liam held the closest man by his neck in a single hand. His feet dangled well above the snowy ground.

His rifle dropped to the ground as he brought both hands up to Liam’s wrist in a vain attempt to free himself. Liam didn’t even seem to notice, he simply used the man as a living shield between us and the hunter’s friends.

A deep, menacing growl began in Liam’s chest as I felt a sudden surge of exhaustion, he was drawing deeply from my energy. I fought past the waves of tiredness, thankful for the adrenaline still flooding throughout my body, and kept my eyes on him, alert for any sudden problems.

The hunters began moving, attempting to get around for a clear shot at Liam, but most were still further down the hill. With his free hand Liam unbuttoned his pants, then reached up and tore off his shirt.

I heard my gasp echoed by Kris nearby, Liam’s back was
riddled
with bullet holes and covered in blood. Just before the shock set into my mind I saw his wounds knitting together right before my eyes.

Cuts stitched closed quickly, holes grew smaller and began pushing out the bullets that had caused them. The soft patter from the dozens of bullets falling to the ground caused the hunters to stop in their tracks and look on, wide eyed in rising terror.

“How...” Kris sounded just as frightened as the hunters looked. Her own injuries were forgotten as she watched her brother recover from what should have been an excessively fatal onslaught of bullets.

“What.” Troy spoke, his voice catching in his panic. “What
are
you?!”

“Furious.” Liam’s voice was guttural, enraged, primal as his shift began. Casually clenching his fist brought the sound of a breaking neck, followed by the sound of the hunter’s body dropping to the ground.

A few shots rang out, some hitting their target but getting healed out immediately. The sound of continued gunfire was soon washed out by the sounds of his shift. Louder than any of the other shifts I had heard, it nearly felt and sounded like an avalanche.

Once the shift was completed, a behemoth stood over me.

Screams of primal fear filled the silence after the transformation, fight or flight taking control of every last hunter. Some dropped their weapons and ran off in
any
direction that was ‘away’ while others shot at Liam ineffectually, the bullets weren’t even able to penetrate his thick fur.

A fading scream from above caught my attention and I looked quickly, unsure what I would find. What I found was nothing, the space Troy had been in was now empty. From the sound of it he had gone over the edge.

“Holy shit...” Kristen’s eyes were moving frantically, trying to take everything in at once. I wasn’t sure if her comment was about Troy’s fall or Liam’s presence.

I felt energy returning to me as Liam stopped drawing upon it; no longer needing the extra boost. He turned an enormous eye towards me, verifying I was still alright. Seeing that I was, he looked to Kris who simply stared back open mouthed.

“Go,” I spoke, drawing his attention back to me. “Go get them love, we’ll be fine.”

The low rumble of his growl shook the earth around us, vibrating through the rocks, flesh, and bone. It was a sound so powerful it was a physical force. Lips peeled back in a snarl he turned back to the hunters still in the immediate area.

More of them decided that flight was the better option, though it was far too late for any of them. Liam sprang into motion, leaping the distance to them in one easy pounce. Several screams cut off abruptly as he landed among, or on, the largest grouping of hunters.

None returned to their feet.

Throwing back his head Liam let out a long howl that reverberated back from the mine in echoes. The few remaining hunters turned and, abandoning any shred of dignity, fled ahead of the crashing wall of sound. It did none of them the slightest bit of good.

Liam was a force of nature as he began his pursuit, his massive legs covering ground rapidly. What took the hunters several dozen steps to cover was crossed in a few quick strides. In less than a minute all of the hunters within sight were down and unmoving.

Liam’s ears swiveled as he listened for the few that had fled earlier, his muzzle lifted as he tested the air for their scents. A second monstrous howl sounded from him a moment before he charged off into the forest after his prey.

Left alone with Kris at the crest of the mine overlook the sudden silence felt out of place. Looking to her I saw her staring in disbelief at where Liam had been originally standing, at the huge impressions of his paw prints. She seemed to be in a state of shock, her wounds forgotten.

“Kris?” I stood slowly, wincing at the flare of pain from my shoulder. “Are you alright? Kris?”

She seemed to come out of her shock, blinking and shaking her head to clear it. A sharp intake of breath said she was aware of her injuries again as I made my way over to her.

“Are you going to be ok?” I sat beside her on the slope, not caring about the cold snow beneath me.

I helped her slowly remove her clothes to see her wounds more clearly. Her hands tested the injuries tenderly while she looked them over with a critical eye. Seemingly satisfied with the results she nodded. “I’ll be fine, I was lucky the bullets didn’t hit anything important.”

“That looks awful,” I said. There was a gash along her right side several inches long.

“Yeah, hurts like hell obviously. The bullet caught a rib and rode it around.” She grimaced as she applied some pressure to the wound and managed to remove the offending bit of metal. “Could have been much worse though.” She held the bullet up before her eyes a moment before dropping it.

We both looked up as a scream and crash sounded in the distance, Liam must have caught up with more of them. Kris took in a slow, steadying breath before turning back to me. She opened her mouth to speak, but her eyes fell on my shoulder and widened.

“Oh shit! You were hit!” She leaned towards me and began taking off my jacket. “Let me have a look at it.”

I hissed in pain as she began prodding my wound, but let her get on with it. Soon enough it was over and I began to breathe more easily.

“Looks like you had some luck yourself, the bullet went clean through. Missing your bones too. She picked up her shirt and began tearing it into strips.” I’ll bind yours if you bind mine?” Before long our wounds were dressed as best as we could manage and we felt considerably better.

The sounds of something large moving through the trees announced Liam well before he came into view. Blood matted his fur in several places but, by the way he moved, it was clear it wasn’t his. I stood and helped Kris up as he approached, letting her lean on me to keep weight off of her injured leg.

“We’ll both be fine.” Kris said as he got closer. “Go after Troy, make sure this is over.” Liam looked from her to me, clearly reluctant to leave us.

“It’s just her and I here now.” I gestured down the slope at the destruction he had wrought. “You took care of the rest, we’re safe here.” He stepped closer and I reached up, placing my free hand on his muzzle. “Be careful.”

He looked at me with enormous eyes and I could feel the love behind them before he walked over to the ledge where Troy had disappeared. Circling the area he sniffed at the ground for a bit before looking back at Kris and I. With obvious reluctance he turned away and hopped over the edge.

“Go get him, love.”

T
he wind whistled in my ears as I dropped over the side of the hill, leaving my sister and my mate behind. I wasn’t comfortable doing so, it had taken longer than I’d have liked to track down all of the hunters and I greatly disliked the idea of leaving them alone even longer.

The ground quickly approached and I landed heavily at the base of the steep slope. Troy had slid down it since the jump would have killed him, I barely noticed the impact.

I tested the air for his scent, easily picking up on it even though I needn’t have bothered. He was injured and a light trail of blood pointed the way across the pristine white snow.

The path he had left in that snow was an even clearer sign.

The sight of his path made me realize that I was going to have to do a lot of doubling back to clear over my own trail once this was all over. The paw prints I left behind were quite... distinctive.

Looking up I could see the edge I had jumped from well above me. I forced my worry down, I wouldn’t be able to rid myself of it completely of course, but I needed to focus on the task at hand. Troy liked to fight dirty and I’d need to keep alert for anything out of the ordinary.

Slowly I moved forward to stalk my prey. He had made no attempt to hide his path and it set my nerves on edge. Was he just trying to run? Did he think we’d be too injured to follow? Was all of this just some elaborate trap?

I cautiously made my way away from his trail while still keeping it in view, it seemed a prudent decision. His course seemed to be angling towards the far edge of the mine. I paused and examined the area, nothing that most of the human machines were clustered by that location. The cliff on that edge of the mine dwarfed the one I had lept down, and the only way out of this pit seemed to be a ramp to one side.

Troy seemed to be avoiding that entirely.

Why was he intentionally trapping himself? The more I thought about it, the less sense it made to me. Perhaps it was nothing more sinister than his insanity leading him astray, but I wasn’t willing to count on that.

I began moving again, cautiously closing the distance to the machinery. They seemed to be vehicles of some sort, large enough that my own size seemed small in comparison. I had already grown accustomed to being larger than life and felt oddly uncomfortable around these oversized trucks.

Once I reached the cluster of vehicles it became more difficult to keep sight of his trail and I relied heavily on my sense of smell. There was an overwhelming stench of machinery but, hidden within it, was the unmistakable scent of Troy.

I kept low and wave between the vehicles, making my way closer. Leaping atop them would be far swifter, but until I had a better idea of what was going on it was best to stay alert.

The sudden roar of one of the machines starting up startled me and I twisted around, heart racing from the abrupt noise and looking for the source. A moment later another engine started, then another. Soon it seemed they were all running, the ground pulsating in response to the vibrations that they caused.

I passed between two of the behemoths, alert and attempting to concentrate on everything at once. This focus saved my life, barely.

Movement to the side caught my eye a moment before an ear splitting crash caused the vehicle to my right to leap towards me in an attempt to crush me against its counterpart to my left.

I jumped straight up reflexively and thought I would clear the mess in time, but I hadn’t been quick enough.

My leap ended abruptly as searing pain rolled over me, my hind leg trapped momentarily and crushed between the vehicles. I was able to tug it free as the machines rocked apart, but it was too late to prevent serious damage.

Involuntary howls of pain escaped me as I found my footing, my right hind leg hung limply, the bones shattered. Looking down I saw a third vehicle driven by a grinning Troy. He had rammed it into the others in a nearly successful attempt on my life.

He began to back up, possibly for another try at dislodging me from my perch, but I wouldn’t give him the opportunity. Steeling myself I lept onto the retreating vehicle, yelping as the impact jarred my wounded leg.

Troy’s grin slid from his face as he watched me in fear from behind the metal and glass cage he was encased in. The vehicle sped up as he steered it to an open space leading to the high cliff at the back of the dig site. Whatever he was thinking I wouldn’t give him time to act upon it.

I would free him from his cage.

I rammed my shoulders against it, all of my considerable weight and strength behind it. Claws and teeth followed, cracking glass and bending metal. Troy’s eyes widened in fear at the onslaught.

The cage had clearly been designed to keep the driver safe, but not from an unrelenting determined cascade of violence. Metal gave way, patches of glass fell, and I was soon able to reach Troy in some places. He dodged around inside, but to no avail and he was soon bleeding from several wounds.

Giving it up as a lost cause, he lept out of the vehicle and landed heavily on the ground below. I rode the vehicle as it slowed to a stop a short distance from the cliff face before stepping gingerly down from it.

My hind leg was agony, but having three working ones made it relatively easy to move and I was soon looming above his prone form. Face down in snow his body shook with what I could only assume was crying. I stepped down heavily on his legs and heard the satisfying snaps of the bones breaking, eye for an eye.