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Theo
“We have to get her back! Stupid! Should have paid more attention.” I hit my fist on the steering wheel, my foot pressing the gas pedal as far down as I dare. As it is, the speed we are going is on the edge of reckless.
“Hey, ease up a bit! We won’t do her any good if we are a smear on the pavement,” Tristan exclaims, one hand holding the “oh shit” bar.
I let up a little. “Never thought a can of pepper spray would take us down. Always think silver.” I blow out a breath. “I can’t smell anything, still. James is going to have a field day with this, and our window of opportunity is growing smaller by the second. If they shift into their animal forms...”
“What about using their own methods against them? We can get some tear gas, some silver bullets⸺” Tristan starts.
“NO!” I shout, rattling the windows in the truck. “We are not becoming them. We don’t injure innocents, we protect them. And silver against a shifter isn’t an option.” I refuse to become those we hate. The humans used silver against us for centuries, and though we have built up some immunity to it, it still makes us sick and can kill us.
“Theo, it might be our only option. They are a hell of a lot stronger than we thought, obviously trained, and I bet that they will be armed to the teeth. I doubt that they will have your ideals when it comes to fighting,” Tristan responds.
Slowing to turn into the Reserve, I look at him. “You’re probably right, but I don’t like it. If we take this step, then what will we be willing to do next time?”
“I don’t know. But we can’t just go in there and be slaughtered or captured. That won’t help Rebby or the others.”
He has a point. Our animal forms aren’t invincible. We bleed and we can die, especially if they are using silver. Despite what humans think, silver isn’t an immediate death sentence unless it is in the heart or a shot to the head. It is a long painful death that burns as we slowly bleed out. We can’t heal with silver in us.
But if we pick up arms, shoot other shifters⸺what will that mean for shifter relations in the future? If we have a disagreement with another pack, will it be immediate weapons or will we settle it the old way, with a show of dominance in our animal forms or hand-to-hand combat. Gah! This is why I have never fought to be the Alpha. I would rather debate this all in a story then have to deal with real-life applications.
“Good thing neither you nor I have to decide this. It will be James’ call,” I say, putting the truck in park. Taking a deep breath, I step out of the car and face my brother.
“Where is Rebby?” He asks, then sniffs. “And why the hell do you smell like pepper?”
“They had shifters there, in their human form. We couldn’t fight them off, and they took her.” I look at James. “They are strong and trained, and not afraid to use human weapons. They pepper-sprayed us so we couldn’t track them.”
“Damn! We have to find them today, so that we can attack tomorrow!” James pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and walks a little way away from us. “Adam, we need to call in the Elite, and they need to be armed.”
James is quiet for a moment, listening to whatever Adam is saying. “No, we need them here tonight. We have to attack overnight, when they will be at their weakest. The girl knows we don’t know where they are, so if we find them and attack tonight, hopefully we will have an element of surprise.”
I watch as James talks for a few minutes. Who the hell are the Elite? And why have I never heard of them before?
I look over at Tristan but he looks as clueless as I am. As soon as James is off the phone, I launch my questions at him. “Who are the Elite? Who is Adam? I thought I knew all the shifters. And how will we attack if we have no idea where they are?”
James holds his finger up in the universal signal for one minute, then punches another number into his phone. “Tell me you have something...Great. Send me the coordinates and then find out who is funding them.”
James puts the phone back in his pocket then turns to look at us. “The Elite is a group of shifters that we hoped to never have to use. Right before dad died, he saw something.” James looks off in the distance and shakes his head. “I don’t know if it was a vision or the silver that was killing him, but he said we needed to be prepared. One day there would be a fight that we wouldn’t be able to win as shifters alone.”
James turns to look at Tristan and me. “So, I started recruiting soldiers, quietly. I told no one of the plans, and the recruits were each sworn to secrecy. They trained with the human weapons, trained with the human tactical teams to become the best.”
“Why couldn’t you tell me?” I am hurt that my brother has been hiding so much from me. I know I didn’t want to be an Alpha, to run things, but I never thought that so much was hidden.
“No one except those twenty-five men and I knew,” James replies. “Theo, use your brain. The more people that knew, the greater chance of it leaking out. If the humans think anyone is starting a militia, human or shifter, they get nervous. We would have had the human agencies looking over our shoulder, breathing down our necks, and then we would be found out!”
He has a point, but I still don’t fully agree. Where are the checks and balances to keep him or another from using this team for the wrong reasons?
“What about that other call? I’m assuming the Arachnerds had something for you?” I leave the other unit alone. I need to pick and choose which battles to fight right now, and the only thing I care about is getting Rebby back.
“Yes. They found the compound. Don’t ask me how they did it; I don’t want to know what laws they broke to find it. All I know is that it has to do with real estate being bought up at an alarming rate, much of it woods and unusable land.” James sits down. “Now we just wait for the Elite to come.”
“You’re not going to tell us where it is?” Tristan asks, his voice almost a growl. I can see his wolf trying to break through.
“No, I’m not. You two would try to be heros and go in there and get caught, making things worse.” James raises an eyebrow when I try to argue. “No, we sit here and wait. Go in with a plan.”
I start pacing. He is right but I don’t like it. My wolf just wants to run in, rip some throats out, and save Rebby.