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.
Chapter Ten
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!?”
