“Exit the vehicle,” he commands aggressively.
“Is there a problem officer?” Ares asks calmly, keeping his hands in plain sight, but not making to get out just yet.
There might only be one, but there’s usually cameras in the car, Ares. We can’t just kill him and run,I warn, since of all of us, he has the least experience in situations like this.
“I said get out of the vehicle.” The officer doesn’t back down, and reluctantly, Ares follows the order. “Hands on the hood.”
“Was I speeding?” he asks, trying to get a sense of what’s going on.
“Few abandoned cars a few towns over were called in,” he states, glancing inside the truck. “Bloodbath not far away and witness reports identify your truck fleeing the scene.”
He starts to pull a pair of handcuffs out and I panic. If they think Ares killed those feebs, there’s no way he’ll even see a trial date. He’ll get tossed in lock up and the biased system will make sure he never walks out of there alive.
“You animals just can’t help yourselves, can you?” he sneers. “Should stay in the wilds where you belong.”
“Wait!” Rin exclaims, shoving her door open.
I wrap my hand around her upper arm, hissing, “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Trust me, okay?We can’t let him take Ares.”
Peeling my fingers off of her one by one, she slips from my grasp. Every step away from me she takes is another punch to the gut, and when I share a look with Cole, I see the same terror reflected back at me. Our family can be put together by one human, but it can also be torn apart by one just as easily, and we’re helpless to stop it.
And they call us monsters.
“Officer, please,” Rin starts, keeping her steps slow and deliberate.
“You’re human,” he states, surprised and standing straighter before his eyes widen. “The daughter, right? One of the cars found at the scene was reportedly chasing after the shifter that abducted her.” He draws his gun. “Get in the cruiser, ma’am, we’ll take care of things from here.” He grabs the radio on his chest to call for backup when she interrupts him.
“You don’t understand, that’s not it at all,” she exclaims, fear bleeding into her tone along with her frustration.
She proceeds to give him the entire story, starting from the first day and ending with being attacked by the vamps. Naturally, she glosses over the bit where we abducted a mage, spinning everything onto fleeing her father. By the time she’s done, he’s lowered his gun, but doesn’t look convinced.
“You’ll need to come to the station while we get this worked out,” he reluctantly agrees. “But you’re riding with me.” She nods, thanking him effusively, not that he sees it. His gaze stays locked on Ares as he gets back in the truck, like he’s waiting for him to attack at any second.
The officer gives Ares precise directions to the station and tells him to leave first so that he can follow directly behind in case Ares thinks to try something stupid like making a break for it. The entire trip is made in absolute silence, the three of us straining with the urge to shift from the stress. Our mate, not with us where she belongs, but sitting next to that asshole. Still, he did back down and agree to hear her out, so I should be grateful.
But I’m so sick of being grateful for basic human decency.
When we’re close to pulling into the station parking lot, I glance at Ian with fear. We’re never going to be able to explain him away. So, as carefully as I can so as not to draw the officer’s attention to my movements, I slide forward and brace a knee on the center console. Groping behind me, I yank Ian to the floor, flip the back of the seat down, and lift the bottom up. The storage compartment only has some emergency equipment in it, but it’s hell trying to toss him in with only one arm and trying to keep my head steady so I don’t look suspicious.
I just barely get it back in place and give my thighs a break before we pull into the parking lot, because gods know how many cameras are out here. None of us move before we’re told, being absolutely compliant.
We’re all ushered into the building, disdain clearly aimed at us from several directions. There is no innocent until proven guilty for shifters. When you have the power to tear a man’s head from his shoulders, it’s assumed that brutality is a part of our personality. But just as humans are capable of great good or evil, so are we.
It’s laughable, really, since they’re the reason the world went to shit and we became what we are.
The three of us are shoved into a room and Rin another, the door locking behind the man. Cole swipes a shaky hand down his face as Ares starts pacing, but I grab them both and drag them down with me onto the floor. There are only two chairs, one across from the other, and a table. So instead, we sit with our backs against the wall, side by side.
Least amount of threatening as possible. No agitated pacing, no quick movements. We don’t want to look guilty and nervous.
“Of course I’m fucking nervous!”Cole shouts and I put a reassuring hand on his knee.
All hopes of calming down go out the window when an insanely high pitched noise nearly shatters our eardrums, forcing us to press our hands over our ears in an attempt to muffle the sound.
“Fuck! It feels like my ears are bleeding,”Ares groans, face pinched in pain.
I grit my teeth.Likely so we can’t listen in to whatever they’re saying.
