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Tristan
Theo must have a deathwish, running ahead of our guard, basically thumbing his Alpha nose at them. I watch as they sprint to get ahead of him, their hackles raised as they skid to a stop to face Theo, growling.
I run to catch up with Theo, sending him mental images of him dead, these wolves attacking him. Then I switch to sending images of me cowering, of blood. This adventure...it isn’t what I signed on for. I won’t back down, won’t leave Rebby or those other poor souls to the whims of Arlin and the Master, but I don’t take pleasure in what we are about to do.
Theo sends me images back. Rebby in our arms, safe. Arlin under his paw. I have to laugh at the image of our guards shaking as Theo snarls at them. I don’t think these two have much of a sense of humor or are scared of anything.
I try to focus on the woods, on the serenity that comes with running, being one with nature. The cadence of our paws running through the woods soothes me into a trance, one where all I have to think of is the next foot fall, the next step, until suddenly we reach our assigned location two miles from the compound.
Team 2 are on their bikes, waiting for the signal to come across their radios. Thirty shifters stand behind them in their animal forms, ready to attack. The woods are silent, waiting for the starting gun to go off and the race to begin.
I lock my legs to keep them from trembling; the smells of fear and excitement waft through our gathering. The excitement worries me. This shouldn’t be something that excites you, running into danger, knowing that you more than likely will kill someone.
Then there is no more time to think, just time to act as Team 2 races toward the lower doors and into hell. We stand back as one of the men rides his bike up to the doors and sets a small device on the seam where the lock is set. He quickly rides away as whatever he set there explodes, leaving a gaping, jagged hole in the doors.
Two men shoot forward on their bikes, pushing the doors open. They have guns drawn and I can hear screams from inside, as well as gunfire. The next four men go in on foot, followed by a team of six Elite shifters. Once they are all inside, the two black wolves start forward. One looks over his shoulder at Theo and me, and we enter into the madness.
Emergency lights flicker on and off in the tunnel we find ourselves in. At the end is a set of doors, the glass jagged and broken from gunfire. A man lays on the floor, dead, blood pooling under him. I gag as my feet step into the blood, adding more bloody prints to those already on the floor.
Our guards take their time leading us into the lab and zoo. We can hear the occasional spit of gunfire or screams, but the floor we are on seems empty, for the most part. Through the doors we find a hallway with eight doors down one side and two on the other. Someone has kindly left the doors open for us to be able to look into them.
Peering into one of the smaller rooms, I see a bed with heavy silver chains attached to it; there is nothing else in the room. The door has a small window that would allow the occupant to be viewed without opening the door. I shudder at the thought of so little privacy, of being kept underground in such a small space with no way out.
Theo growls across the hall. Leaving the room I am in, I return to see him staring into one of the large rooms, his hackles raised. Then I smell her. Together we stalk into the empty room. An odd bed sits in the middle of the room, a light centered over it. In a semi-circle around it is a series of machines. I don’t need to be told that this is where they change the humans into shifters. Rebby’s scent is fairly fresh, but the room is empty.
Growling, I try to track her, until my nose hits a wall. I scratch and whine. Shifting, I use my hands to feel for a lever, a seam, something that would make sense, why Rebby’s scent leads us to this wall. But nothing works.
Theo shifts as well, which causes our guards to growl. Clearly, they think we are better protected in our wolf forms.
“Where is she?” Theo growls, his canines longer than a human’s as he fights for control.
“Her trail ends here. But I can’t find anything to say where she went.” I continue looking along the wall for an indentation. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Theo looking at the buttons on the machine behind us.
“Maybe one of these buttons?” His finger hovers over them. The guards growl again, but we both ignore them as Theo pushes a button. The door we had come through swings shut, almost slamming a guard’s nose in it. “They are going to be pissed.”
“You think? Hit it again. Maybe the door will open and let them in.” I suggest. Theo pushes the button and a portion of the wall slides open, right where Rebby’s scent ends. I look at Theo, then down the hall.
“I guess to find the bunnymoth we must go down the rabbit’s hole. Let’s pray that we find what we seek and not a surprise,” Theo says darkly.
“You know, I always hated that book. Never did understand it. Maybe it's because I never did read it. Just watched the movies and that last one... Someone was tripping when they wrote that screenplay.” I follow Theo into the dark tunnel. If it weren’t for our night vision, we would be walking blind.
“Secret passageway. Where do you think we will come out?” Theo asks.
“Probably in a basement with a bunch of these jerks ready to tear our throats out.” A thought hits me and I laugh. “Shifting is new to these guys; they probably will stand in shock when two naked dudes walk in.”
“Their shock, our advantage. Humans are weird about nudity. We all got the same stuff, well, within your own sex. So, what does it matter if you walk around naked?”
“But you don’t like your sister walking around naked. Especially when any guys are around,” I tease.
Theo growls, “That’s different. She is still too young to think about relationships.”
I stop and stare at him, then burst out laughing. “You do know how old she is, right?”
Theo stops and glares. “Of course! I know how old my sister is. She is still too young.”
Laughing so hard my eyes tear up, I ask. “So when will she be old enough to have a relationship?”
Theo is silent for a few minutes. “Never. Good thing you weren’t interested in her. I might have had to kill you.”