Chapter 11

“Uh…sir?” One of the other marshals held up Jamie’s discarded phone to the director. “There’s a guy on here who says he knows what to do.”

Gladston strode over and took the phone. “No one shoots!” He put it to his ear. “Who is this?”

Duke rolled his eyes. “Not important. He shifted, didn’t he? Jay?”

Gladston raised a brow in surprise at the long-aggrieved tone of the man on the phone. “Yes.”

“He needs to call Alex’s beast.” Duke informed him. “If Alex shifts, he’ll live…probably. We heal almost anything during the shift.”

“Alex is unconscious. How…”

Duke cut him off. “No shit. That’s why I said Jay needs to call his beast for him.” Duke groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, seeking patience with the human. “Problem is, I’m not sure the kid’s dominant enough to do it. Put the phone to his ear, would you?”

Gladston looked at Jamie and shook his head. “He’s lying on Alex at the moment, and the other one is snarling at anyone who gets close to them. I’m not walking over there.”

“Dammit, just get as close as you can and hold out the damn phone!” Duke yelled. “He’ll hear me, and we’re a little pressed for fucking time right now!”

Gladston groaned and nodded. “Alright.” He eased forward, closer to Alex and the two leopards until he was only a few feet away and stopped when both Tara and Jamie turned to growl warningly at him. “Jamie Iverach, I think you can still understand me.” He held out the phone. “The man on the phone says you need to listen to him if you want to save Alex.”

Jamie pulled his lips back over his teeth and huffed out a breath of fear and frustration. He tilted his head and aimed an ear toward the phone until he could hear Duke’s voice.

“Jay, you have to get into his head. You can do this.” Duke assured him though he was of the opinion the kid might not have it in him; he was just too new, but this was their only hope. “He’s your mate. You have the connection to pull the leopard out of him and save his life.” He sighed. “Remember what it felt like when he did it to you and use that. Just…go with your gut. The leopard knows what you need to do. Listen to it and don’t fight it for fuck’sake, not this time.”

Jaime turned away from the director and stood. He moved to stand over Alex’s chest and put his muzzle down to lick up the side of his mate’s jaw and sniff behind his ear. Alex was dying. Jamie could almost feel the life ebbing from his body while he watched and desperation gave him the courage to do what he knew he needed to. He let the ‘other’ mind take over; the leopard that had been pacing and snarling inside him from the moment its mate had been injured. It took away his fear and replaced it with a burning need to save. Jamie’s mind flowed into Alex’s; it was a sluggishly churning maelstrom of thought and emotion that was becoming more faded by the second. At the center of it all was Alex’s leopard. Jay could see it like a separate entity waiting there. It was curled in on itself, waiting for death and Jamie roared his rage. The leopard’s head jerked up, green-rimmed, gold eyes turning to bore into his, and Jay took hold of it in his mind. The leopard fought him. It knew Jamie was its mate, but it also knew he wasn’t an alpha and it fought the change being forced upon it.

Jamie growled and put all his strength into it. He imagined himself wrapping his hands around the cat strongly and he pulled, ripping the massive cat out from inside Alex. Jamie’s eyes snapped open, and he reared back as the change seemed to explode from inside his mate. Alex’s clothes disintegrated as he shifted, and Jamie rolled away with the ferocity of the change. He stood back up and shook himself and his breath caught. Alex lay curled around himself in leopard form; all the beautiful black fur glistening in the overhead lights…gasping, whimpering, and very much alive.

“Alex?” Jamie whispered and lay down. He slunk slowly forward until he could bump one of Alex’s paws with his nose and whined a soft apology for the pain he’d caused him.

Alex’s entire body hurt. The pain went through him in wave after wave, stealing his breath as he lay on the hard ground and tried to gather his thoughts. He smelled Jamie and Tara and then all the humans around them. He felt Jamie touch him and heard his pitiful whine. Alex opened his eyes and rolled his head just enough to see him. He watched Jay stretch his golden muzzle out to him, and Alex licked Jamie’s nose as an absolution. Jay’s emotions washed over him: the fear, the hopelessness and the desperation at having to force the change on Alex.

Jamie sobbed a breath at Alex’s forgiveness and moved to press himself against every inch of his mate he could reach. He purred brokenly and leaned heavily against him. “Alright?”

Alex raised his head up to rest it on Jamie’s head and gave a purr of his own when Tara moved to his other side, pressing him between their warm bodies. “M’ok…I think. Chest hurts.”

“Alex?” Gladston asked softly as he dared to walk a little closer and took a good look at the gold-spotted, black leopard lying where his marshal had been a moment before. The transformation process astonished him. Though he’d seen many shifters, wolf, leopard and even a bear once, he had never seen the actual change occur. Three times in the last five minutes left him reeling a little. “Can you…are you alright now?”

Alex watched his director and gave a short nod of his head. “I need to change back.” He sighed, not wanting to move. He was comfortable nestled between them and their body heat was soothing, but someone needed to speak and he couldn’t do it in cat form.

Duke’s shoulders slumped and he looked over at Albert beside him. “It worked. I can feel it.” He picked the phone back up to his ear. “Director?”

Gladston jumped, having forgotten he was holding the phone and put it to his own ear. “Yes?”

“Tell that stubborn son of a bitch when he gets back here, I’ll be kicking his ass.”

Gladston snorted and lowered the phone, leaving the connection open. “Alex? Whoever this is, he seems to know you well.”

Alex had heard Duke’s comment and laughed inwardly. He eased his aching body up from between the two leopards and looked down at himself. “This is going to be awkward as hell.”

“What?” Jay asked and sat up on his haunches beside him.

“No clothes. Fucking fantastic.” Alex groaned inwardly and closed his eyes. He was mentally and physically exhausted, in pain, and wished they could all slink off somewhere warm and just sleep for a week. He pushed that need aside; there were more important things to worry about, like getting them all out of there alive. He focused his thoughts on his human self, as he had before, and worked to find the energy to make it happen.

“What’s going on now?” Gladston asked as he watched Alex’s feline self just sitting there quietly with the other two leaning against him. He opened his mouth again and stopped when the air began to shimmer around him. “Oh, here we go again.” He turned to the men still standing beside the gurney. “Grab that sheet and toss it over to…to the leopards.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me. Quick.” Gladston smirked. “We’re all about to see far more of Marshal Reese than we’re going to li…oh, good grief.” He groaned with a soft laugh as, between one word and the next, the leopard shifted and was replaced with Alex, kneeling naked on the floor and blushing a deep red over the whole of his body while he watched.

Alex slumped forward with a soft groan and put a hand to his chest. He could feel the now healing wound from the bullet and beneath it a deeper ache that told him the shift hadn’t healed all of the damage but enough. He stared down at his knee in wonder; a blunted, blood-covered silver bullet lay on the concrete beside him. It must have been forced out of his body when he shifted.

“Alex?” Gladston took the sheet, balled it up and tossed it beside him. “Not that I’m sure some of the ladies here aren’t appreciative of the view…”

“Right,” Alex said in a rough voice. He smirked and pulled the sheet over, wrapping it awkwardly around his hips before he got unsteadily to his feet. He swayed and only stayed standing because of Jamie and Tara’s weight against his hips. “Can I…can I have the phone, sir?”

Gladston looked at the phone in his hand, considering and nodded. “In for a penny,” he muttered and handed it into Alex’s shaking hand. “Are you alright?”

Alex nodded. “Chest hurts like hell and…shifting like that…it’s beyond painful. I’ll be fine.” He put the phone to his ear and took a breath. “Duke?”

“You sound like shit, Alex,” Duke said with a relieved laugh. “So, I assume you didn’t just disobey me without having a plan. Care to enlighten me?”

“Basically, I’m trying to broker a peace treaty here,” Alex told him and cleared his throat; he was dying of thirst and his stomach started to clench painfully in a bid for food. “I need you to take the gesin and get out of here. Let me do this. I really need you to trust me right now.”

Duke stared at the building again, wishing he could see inside; wishing he risked going inside but he couldn’t without risking capture himself. “Alright but you had damn well better be back soon…all of you.”

Alex nodded but said nothing and flipped the phone closed. He dropped a hand to Tara’s head for a moment in thanks and then to Jamie’s, letting his fingers slide into the soft fur before he looked at his director. “So.”

“So,” Gladston said back and crossed his arms over his chest. “What now, Marshal Reese?”

Alex took a steadying breath. “You need to let us all go today,” he told Director Gladston soberly. “A show of good faith, sir, just like a hostage negotiation.” He smiled sadly. “Except this time the good guys are the ones holding the hostages.”

Gladston’s head rocked back in surprise. “You expect me to just let the three of you walk out of here?”

“If you want any hope of finding a peaceful solution between…between you and us, yes.” Alex nodded and finally accepted that he was now forever on the other side of the line from his former life. “If we can’t trust you here, then there’s no point in even talking about maybe helping all those poor bastards you have locked away in cages. Is there?”

“Dammit.” Gladston scrubbed both hands through his hair and down his face. Someone would have to stand up if things were going to have a chance to change and lucky him, it looked like it was his day. “I’m gonna have hell to pay for this, but you always were a shrewd negotiator, Alex.” He dropped his arms to his sides and nodded.

“Thank you, sir.” Alex sagged in relief and only barely managed to keep his feet. “As soon as I’m a hundred percent again, sir, I’ll call you. I want to see those shifters saved… if they can be. We owe them that. They’re innocent victims and they deserve better than they’ve been getting.”

Gladston nodded. “You’re right.” He turned to look at the men assembled and raised a hand. “Fall out! Return to headquarters!” He aimed one finger at the man who had shot Alex. “Cuff him and take him away. We’re going to have a little chat later.”

Alex smiled. That was the man who’d taken him on and helped train him; no nonsense and damn pissed when you disappointed him. “Come on, you two. Let’s go…let’s go home.”

“Alex?” Gladston turned back to him and smiled. “In spite of this massive cluster fuck, I’m proud of the way you’ve handled yourself. Demoting you was a mistake. I said it then when they made the decision, and I stand by that now.”

Alex’s jaw opened in surprise as he watched his director walk away and then he chuckled. “Kinda wish he’d thought of that…before I ended up…ended up out here. Shit.” He dropped to a knee and wrapped his arms around the necks of Jamie and Tara. “Just give me a minute and we’ll go.”

“Take your time.” Tara’s rueful voice said in his ear. “No danger here.”

Alex snorted a laugh when Jamie reached around him to swat her with a paw. “Alright, alright. Let’s go.” He got back on his feet in the now mostly empty warehouse and shuffled back to the loading bay door. He held the sheet up with one hand and used Jaime’s warm, furred shoulder to keep him upright with the other. He blinked furiously when the door opened and they stepped into the sunlight. He swayed again and made himself walk to the Taurus they’d borrowed. It took a full second of staring into the driver’s side window to realize that the seat was occupied before his brain actually registered it. “Albert?”

Albert opened the door and climbed out to grin at him. “Duke didn’t think any of you were gonna be in a condition to drive.” He pulled open the back door and took Alex’s arm to steady him. “I was gonna kick your ass for pulling a fast one on me, but it’s kinda hard to be pissed at a guy who looks as bad as you do.” Alex was pasty white, sweating and shaking as Albert pushed him around to the back seat. “Get in, let those two warm you.”

“Albert…thanks.” Alex smiled gratefully at him and then slumped down into the seat. He snorted a laugh while Jamie and Tara climbed in and batted at each other until they’d arranged themselves around him, providing him a breathing, purring warm blanket for the drive.

“Are you really alright?” Jamie asked when Alex’s head dropped wearily to the back seat. He rubbed his whiskered face over Alex’s chest and the healing wound there.

Alex wrapped an arm around Jay’s powerful neck. “Yeah, buddy. I’m gonna be alright…thanks to you.”

“Christ, you look even worse than you sounded,” Duke said with exasperation when Alex staggered into the bar with an arm over Albert’s shoulders. Jamie and Tara both padded into the room behind them, still in leopard form, and he nodded. “Let’s get him up to their room and I’ll have Saska come take a look at him. Come on.” He took Alex’s other arm, seeing that the man was close to out on his feet.

“Why’s he so out of it?” Jamie asked worriedly and bounded ahead of them and up the stairs to wait, watching as they half-carried Alex up the stairs.

“Shifting twice that close together,” Duke told Jay and hitched Alex’s arm higher on his shoulders. “Takes a lot out of you, even as an alpha. Add the injury to that, and I’m surprised he’s even conscious right now…more or less.” He smirked at Alex’s irritated moan. “Move your furry ass,” Duke said when they reached the top and Jamie still stood there. They pulled Alex down the hall and into their room, noting the broken lock on the door with a raised brow before they laid Alex down on the bed. Duke patted the spread. “Up you go, Jay. Tara you too. He needs the touch of his gesin to heal properly. Albert, go grab one of the electric blankets.”

“On it, boss,” Albert left quickly, skirting Tara as she came into the room and hopped up onto the bed beside Alex and Jamie.

“Tara, best you stay like that while you’re warming him,” Duke chuckled. “I don’t think either one of them would appreciate having a naked woman in bed.”

“Shuddup,” Alex mumbled and managed to convince his eyes to open when he felt two warm, furred bodies stretching along his sides. “You said…who’s Saska?”

“Our resident medic,” Duke eased a hip up onto the table while they waited and watched Alex’s traumatized body trembling between the two leopards. “She used to be a doctor before she got outed at a hospital in Quebec. Some gang banger shot up the emergency room, hit her, and she shifted to save her own life.” He shrugged. “She ran to escape…well you know.”

Alex nodded tiredly. “Hoping we can fix that.”

“How?” Duke asked and he really was curious about what Alex knew and wanted.

“You said sub…submissives just need to be bonded to an alpha,” Alex lifted his head enough to look at him. “There’s an awful lot of them in government hands right now: all feral. The feds don’t know any better. They didn’t even know there WAS such a thing as an alpha until today.”

“You think you can ‘Wizard of Oz’ this shit? Click your heels together and everyone plays nice from now on?” Duke shook his head in disgust. “Get a grip, Alex. We run, they hunt us. That’s it. It’s not gonna change because one federal marshal had a fucking change of heart.”

“Maybe…maybe not.” Alex let his head fall back and turned on his side to wrap himself around Jamie while Tara followed and stayed flush to his back. “Someone’s gotta try.”

“Here we go,” Albert said as he strode back into the room with his arms full of blanket. He went to the bed and spread it over the man and two cats and then grabbed the cord trailing from it to plug it into the wall. He straightened and smiled when Jamie blinked blue eyes up at him. “The heat’s good for ya’.”

A small woman with a head of curly, red hair and cool, gray eyes stepped into the room with a bag under her arm and smiled. “Albert. My King. Bugger off, both of you while I tend to my patient.” Her voice was warm and her accent distinctly British.

“Saska, we’ve talked about how you speak to me,” Duke said angrily as he stood.

Saska grinned and nodded. “We have. You talked, I didn’t listen. Not likely to start anytime soon either. Off with the pair of you.”

Alex chuckled into Jamie’s fur and felt his mate’s answering laugh in his head. “I like her.”

Tara licked the back of Alex’s shoulder happily. “Good taste. She’s my alpha.”

“That I am.” Saska said warmly and sat on the side of the bed. She rested a hand in Tara’s fur for a moment, relishing in having her home and safe and then tugged on Alex’s shoulder. “Roll on your back please, love so I can get a look at the damage. Duke said you were shot in the chest?” She tugged the blanket down while Alex moved and bit her bottom lip at the sight of the healing wound over his sternum. “Bollocks. Was it silver?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. Got pushed out when I shifted.”

“Good. Any pain?”

“Some.” Alex said while Saska pressed lightly around the wound and hissed out a breath at a particularly tender spot.

Saska opened her bag and pulled out a small handheld device that looked a bit like a modified tablet and flicked it on. She took a small, short wand out of the bag as well and smiled at his curious look. “Portable sonogram, basically. I get bored when I can’t sleep and tinker things together.”

“She’s brilliant,” Tara supplied with pride and purred up at her alpha.

“On occasion.” Saska placed the wand against his chest and watched her screen carefully. “Hmm.”

Alex worked to stay still. “Is ‘hmm’ good or bad?”

Saska smiled. “Fractured sternum, clearly from the bullet’s entry. It’s weeks ahead of schedule in terms of healing thanks to your shift, but you’re still going to be bloody sore for a week or two.” She watched the image flow over her screen and nodded. “Some deep tissue bruising I should imagine as well.” She turned off the device and slipped it back into her bag. “Try not to do too much for the next week and don’t lift more than you have to.” She patted Jamie under the blanket. “He can manage that for you, I’m sure.”

“I will.” Jamie said firmly. “I’ll keep him in bed if I have to for the whole week.”

Saska laughed. “Nothing terribly acrobatic then, boys.” She sobered and rested her hand over the wound on Alex’s chest. “Thank you for bringing her back to us. Tara’s husband sends his thanks as well.”

Alex opened his eyes in surprise. “Husband? You mean you two aren’t…”

“Oh, blimey, no!” Saska chuckled and patted his chest once. “Not all submissives are mated to their alphas, you know…or more likely you don’t know. Shifter biology lesson first thing when you’re up for it, love. Now, sleep and heal.”

Alex laughed softly and rolled carefully back against Jamie’s furred chest, needing to have his arms around him. “Anytime you wanna shift back,” he said sleepily.

“Working on it,” Jamie said, a little frustrated. He had been trying since the warehouse to no effect, and it was beginning to worry him.

“Don’t worry.” Tara leaned her head up over Alex’s shoulder to bump Jamie’s muzzle with her own. “Takes us subs longer to build up the reserve of energy to shift again. Give it an hour or so.”

“Tara’s right, love.” Saska stood with her bag and smiled at his blue eyes. “He’ll be right as rain in no time, I promise. I’ll send food up in an hour. You’ll all need it by then.”

Jamie watched her leave and gently pulled Alex in with his paws. He tilted his head so he could listen to Alex breath and to his heart beat and shook once, hard. “Fuck.”

“S’ok,” Alex murmured sleepily, still in tune with Jay. “M’good. Gon’be fine.”

“Damn right, you will,” Jamie said fervently. “I’m still waiting for fun time with you and your handcuffs.”

Alex was startled into a laugh and nuzzled his head under Jamie’s chin while he heard Tara’s amused snort in his mind. He drifted slowly off between two purring leopards with a blanket adding more heat to seep into his aching bones and smiled. Alex suddenly didn’t mind just how screwed up his easy life had become over the last week. He knew there were hard days and harder decisions coming, but just then, he was alright with that so long as he had Jay beside him. Alex smiled with Jamie’s gentle touch in his mind as sleep claimed him completely and he dreamed of handcuffs.

The End.

Alex and Jamie will return soon in “Catalyst”

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