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CHAPTER 23

G ideon

E very muscle is coiled and ready as I launch myself into the streets of Haven North.

We said we wouldn’t use our wolves unless there was trouble. Vance’s howl means he’s run into something that requires our assistance. But I’m not sure what kind of trouble he could run into in Haven North that he couldn’t easily handle.

The streets aren’t paved near the warehouse, but once I make it to the main part of the city, I have pavement below my paws. It’s been a long time since I’ve run on pavement. The texture gives me a slightly better grip, so I speed up, and I see Jace approaching from my right.

“Any idea what is going on?” Jace asks across our mental link.

“Not yet,” I reply. “I was able to locate Clyde, but now Calla has changed her mind. Caleb got in her head.”

“Great,” Jace answers. “Just what we need. Another one brooding over the mistakes we made in the past. This time, it’s our mate instead of our brother.”

“I didn’t like the idea of coming in here to begin with,” I growl. “But I thought Calla needed it. Happy wife, happy life. Wasn’t that the old saying Dad had on the wall in his office?”

“Last person I want to take advice from ,” Jace says, matching my turn as we round the corner. “He wasn’t much of a husband. Besides, Calla is our mate, not our wife.”

“It’s one and the same these days,” I mutter . “Besides, don’t you think she would look fucking lovely in a white dress? Blushing bride on her wedding day?”

“Haven’t thought about it. You really are hiding it well, if you’re already planning the damn wedding,” Jace chuckles sarcastically. “Vance is up ahead.”

“Knox too. I got his scent.” I rush ahead and skid into the darkness once we get close to Vance.

I find a good vantage point and see Vance near several shops. He’s shifted, growling, and backing away from several peace officers. They appear to be armed with rifles, but they’re not firing them. They’re circling our brother, like they’re trying to corral him. Then I notice the cage sitting nearby.

Jace leans closer, growling into my ear. Knox slides in behind us, but doesn’t say anything.

I shift and turn to my brothers. “I’m going up to the roof so I can see what is going on.”

I pause when I get to the side of the building, because I catch Calla’s scent. I curse under my breath when I see a black streak of onyx—and our mate sitting on our brother’s back. I didn’t want her here. If there’s trouble, she shouldn’t be in the middle of it.

“What the hell, Caleb?” I snarl as he stops near me and Calla hops off his back.

He shifts and meets my glare with one of his own. “I’m not going to let something happen to my brothers because you ordered me to protect our mate,” he snaps. “We should have talked about it before you went running off into the darkness.”

“Now isn’t the time,” I mutter. “Keep her out of sight. I’m going up to the roof.”

I easily scale the building in human form and creep along the roof until I get closer to the action. I shift so I can communicate with Vance.

“What’s the problem, brother?” I ask across our mental link. “You could rip their throats out before they could ever get you into that cage.”

“I picked up a couple of peace officers and shifted to lose them. Then I ran into these guys. But I don’t want to leave a bloodbath if I don’t have to,” Vance transmits. “They think I’m a wild wolf, so I don’t want to shift.”

A smart move. A wild wolf in Haven North is certainly cause for concern, but if they see him shift, they’ll have to die. Right now, they’re just trying to trap him, and he’s doing a good job of keeping them at bay with snaps, growls, and maneuvers that utilize his speed.

“I know what to do,” I say, then shift to human form and hop off the roof beside my brothers. “The peace officers just think he’s a wild wolf. Let’s take them down. Human form. Just knock them out. Don’t kill them.”

Jace shifts and shakes his head. “That’s no fun.”

Knox shifts and nods. “It’s a good plan. Calla, you should stay back. If they see a woman who isn’t afraid of a wolf and a bunch of naked savages, that will be the first thing on their mind when they wake up.”

We’re not as quiet in human form, but the peace officers are distracted. I lead my brothers around the building, and we close in on the uniformed men. I leap forward and catch one in a rear-naked choke. It wouldn’t take much effort to snap his neck, even in human form, but I restrain myself and clutch his carotid artery, just like they taught us in the military.

My brothers do the same thing, utilizing different takedowns. Caleb slides, kicks out a leg, and knocks the peace officer out with an elbow to the skull. Hopefully, he pulled it, so he didn’t fracture the man’s skull.

The peace officer Knox goes after is a woman. He’s gentler when he snatches her around the waist, then he hurls her overhead with a suplex that sends her crashing into the wall behind us. Not only does she squeal before she gets knocked out, but it alerts the other two peace officers.

Jace bursts from the darkness with a punch that could level a hybrid, sending blood flying from the man’s mouth.

“What the hell?” the other peace officer calls out. “Security has been breached! Sound the alarm!”

But there’s nobody to sound it. All of his fellow officers are on the ground, and just when he raises his rifle, Vance shifts and wraps his arm around the man’s neck. It only takes a few seconds for our youngest brother to choke the bastard out.

“We can’t leave them in the streets,” I bark. “Grab them.”

“Back to the warehouse?” Jace asks.

“No.” I shake my head. “I was in the College District. There was a lot of talk about the missing women. Someone might start checking the tunnels.”

“Sorry, guys,” Vance sighs. “I thought I was staying out of sight, but someone noticed me.”

“It’s fine. We handled it. Let’s find somewhere to stash the bodies and get the hell out of here.” I motion to my brothers.

“Wait, aren’t we going to deal with that bastard who sold Calla to the slavers?” Knox questions, glancing at our mate.

“It was foolish,” Calla sighs. “I don’t need revenge, and from what Caleb told me, it won’t help anyway. Not worth the risk.”

“It’ll be light soon,” Jace says, glancing up at the sky. “Let’s find somewhere to hide out before these streets are full of people.”

We gather the fallen peace officers and carry them through Haven North, doing our best to stay out of sight. That’s a lot harder with a large group, and we have to knock out a couple of the peace officers again before we find somewhere to hide out. Calla carries our clothes and drops a few pieces along the way, but retrieves them.

“Over there,” Knox says. “It’s out of the way and looks deserted. If there’s no tunnel, it should be safe.”

“Agreed,” I reply, getting a better grip on the peace officer I’m carrying.

“This is one of the old clinics before everyone in the Middle District started going to Haven North General Hospital,” Calla says, pointing at a tattered sign. “Nobody will look for us here.”

We carry the peace officers inside and look around. There’s some old medical equipment, but the place has been mostly stripped of anything useful. Not that we need it.

“There’s a second level,” Jace calls out, leaning forward. “Let’s put them down here.”

I grunt and nod, as I carry the peace officer over to the stairs. It’s dark, but we can see well enough. Calla’s bracelet gives a little light, but she stumbles a couple of times when we get to the bottom of the stairs.

“Close that door,” I call out, waiting until Caleb complies before flipping on the lights. “There, nobody will see this from outside.”

The lower level hasn’t been completely stripped. There are things I recognize, like MRI machines, CT scanners, dialysis machines, and an old robotic arm they used for surgery. Everything is really old, has signs of damage from the solar flare, and parts have been salvaged out of most of them.

“Wow, I’ve never seen some of this medical equipment,” Calla says, looking around. “Is that an MRI machine? I saw something about that in my journal, but the only working one is at Haven North General Hospital. We didn’t have one at the Academic Medical Center.”

“It’s all from before the Great War,” Knox says. “I guess they scavenged what they could from the ruins, stuck it down here, and took the usable parts.”

“Makes sense,” Caleb mutters. “They probably prioritized the equipment that would let them determine if a woman was fertile or not.”

“Eventually.” I shrug. “Last time we were here, they were just taking their chances.”

We put the peace officers down, and we’re able to salvage some cords, tubes, and pieces of old uniforms to bind them, cover their eyes, gag them, and make sure they won’t go anywhere.

“You know,” Jace says, putting his hands on his hips. “If we put on these uniforms, people might notice us in the daylight, but at night… we could easily get to Clyde’s place. He might even open the door if he thinks the peace officers have come for him.”

“If he sticks around that long,” I grunt, pulling the cords tight around the wrists of the peace officer I subdued. “I heard a lot of talk about the women that returned, and I heard Calla’s name mentioned a few times. I think some people are connecting dots, and once Clyde realizes it, he’ll probably get out of Haven North as quickly as he can.”

“I doubt it,” Caleb says. “He may be supplying the slavers with drugs. He might even be helping them get into Haven North. But he isn’t doing it alone. We’ve seen slavers passing through The Tangle for a while. Before someone Calla’s age, or close to it, would have even been born.”

“That’s why I don’t want to risk it anymore,” Calla sighs. “We should have never even come inside. Let’s leave the peace officers, find the closest tunnel, and get out of here.”

“Having you all to ourselves is certainly tempting,” Jace chuckles. “But it’ll be daylight soon. We should wait until it’s dark again.”

“This is my fucking fault,” Vance says. “I got a little too close and a peace officer spotted me. I heard some people talking about Clyde, and didn’t want to miss it.”

“Anything useful?” Gideon asks.

“Not if we’re leaving,” Vance mutters.

“Since we’ve got some daylight to kill, why don’t we find somewhere to rest,” I suggest, glancing toward the stairs.

“I’ll stay with the peace officers,” Vance says. “Just to make sure they don’t try anything.”

I nod, pat Vance on the back, and head upstairs with the others behind me. Vance has made mistakes before. This one isn’t that bad. But he carries his guilt similar to how Caleb carries his grief. Vance will be fine once we’re in The Tangle again and he has plants to distract him. Until then, it’s best to give him space.

“An entire day with our mate,” Jace chuckles as we get to the top of the stairs. “I don’t know if I need any rest. Not yet, at least.”

I smirk and glance at Calla. Her eyes get wide, but she grins. She might not be ready for bed yet, either. I’m a little tired, but I’m already feeling the itch, especially after I caught the scent of what was happening before I got back to the warehouse.

“Before you guys descend on her like a pack of hungry wolves, I think you should hear what Calla told me,” Caleb says. “It’s important.”

“I’m sure it can wait,” Jace says, taking a step toward Calla.

“I’m as eager as you are, even though I just claimed her,” Caleb growls. “But you still need to listen.”

I calm myself and take a step back, nodding to Calla. There’s nervousness in her eyes. It’s important, but she’s hesitant to share it.

“Go on, Calla,” I say, pulling a chair over and sitting down. “The floor is yours.”

My brothers aren’t as quick to settle, but Knox finally sits down, and Jace tears himself away from our mate with the need raging in his eyes. Caleb just looks stoic.

He’s already heard it and thinks it is more important than claiming, marking, and breeding our mate. Right now, at least.

We should probably hear it too.