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.
