Okay, that was a new one to me. I thought I’d heard every sick and depraved reason for Hunters to kill my species, but invincibility through our pelts was a new and sick low.
“Thank you for telling me,” I said gently. “Can I ask you a couple of questions?”
Connery nodded quickly, his adam’s apple bobbing when he swallowed.
“Thank you. Is everyone in your camp human?”
Connery nodded. “Except the dogs, of course.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “But they’re just regular dogs? Not shifters that they’ve caught or anything?”
“I..I don’t think so. I mean, I’ve never heard anything about them being anything but dogs.”
“And do they breed them?”
Connery looked at me in confusion. “Sometimes. I mean, I think all of the ones out there right now came from the same breeding pair, but they’re at my grandparents’ house in town. Why?”
I ignore his question for a moment. “And when they have babies, how many do they have at a time?”
Connery shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t really know but a lot. I mean, I don’t think there’s ever been less than eight. My father sells a lot of them.”
The good news was that large litters virtually always means a biological single species and not shifters.
“That’s very helpful, thank you.” I stared out the window and thought back over the jigsaw puzzle of what we knew. “When the others from your camp were sneaking in at night and looking through the buildings, what were they looking for?”
Connery sighed and buried his face in his hands. “The Shaman and my father have everyone convinced that you’re manufacturing the virus that the government is using to kill everyone. They think that if we can find it and take it to the press, then they can prove the government is corrupt and they’ll be able to take over running things.”
“Running things?” I repeated. “You mean, the entire country?”
Connery nodded, his fearful eyes coming back up to meet mine. “And he thinks once he has enough werewolf skins, he’ll be able to take over other countries, too.”
“There’s one more thing,” Kade said quietly.
Of course, there was. I looked to Connery who shook his head, tears streaming down his face.
“They had a deadline,” Fang spoke up, continuing to rub Connery’s back. “If they didn’t find what they were looking for last night, they will be torching the outbuildings to draw us out. Then, turning the hounds out into the forest in the hopes that they can catch and skin enough of us to get the upper hand and torture the truth out of the rest.”
I blew out the breath I was holding. “When?”
“Dawn tomorrow,” Connery whispered. “I am so sorry.”
Fang drew the shaking Hunter closer to his side while Kade and I exchange horrified looks. Bat crap crazy conspiracy theories are one thing, but the nutjob on the other side of our woods believed that by killing us, he could take over the world.
This was not good.
Julian
Staring at his back as Chuck walked away for the second time in one afternoon, I shook my head like that would somehow help me clear my thoughts. When all it did was make me slightly dizzy, I decided it was a good time to go for the walk that I’d skipped earlier.
Slipping into the woods, I picked my way through the damp leaf litter on the ground, wrinkling my pointy nose at the moisture clinging to my paws. When I brushed against a low-growing juniper, my bushy tail came back dripping and I flicked it in disgust, rethinking whether or not the badly needed solitude was worth walking through the rain-soaked underbrush. I was about to turn around and return to the building to find another way to relax -maybe another hot bath. After all, in my human form I didn’t mind getting wet- when movement ahead of me caught my eye.
The rabbits were on the move again, but this time they weren’t alone.
In addition to the large white wolf that I’d seen casing the human encampment, several of the werewolves in full shift brought up the rear of the hippity-hop group, followed by the huge humanoid rabbit named Pete, and Chuck and Kade. Behind them, two young Omegas followed, bickering in whispers and all of the upright beings were carrying bulging plastic grocery bags.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” the Omega I knew was married to Kade huffed with a growl. “He tried to eat your boyfriendonce!It’s been like two years. When are you going to get the fuck over it?”
The other Omega, the cute little dark haired one who had kissed Kade, therefor pulling us headfirst into drama wasn’t mollified. “I amso sorrythat I’m not over your brute of a husband trying to make my kid an orphan! Howrudeof me!”
