Bear My Soul (Fire Bears Book 1) (13 page)

“I know you will,” she murmured, baffled at his change in mood.

He jogged back to the engine and hoisted Aaron up to Gage’s waiting arms. Arie and Tate were cheering from the top and hugged Aaron as soon as he reached them. Rory giggled as her boy looked for her in the crowd. He waved as he yelled, “Hi, mommy! Look at me!”

“I see you, baby!”

Cody settled in beside his son and showed him how to toss candy on the edge of the street. He winked at her as the engine pulled away, and her cheeks flushed all over again.

After a few more floats, the parade seemed to be almost done, so she maneuvered through the milling masses, trailing the engine.

Someone bumped her from behind, and a tiny sting, like that of a wasp, pricked the back of her arm.

“Mother fluffer,” she murmured, contorting her arm to try and make sure the bug was gone. A tiny drop of blood smeared across her skin when she brushed it with her finger. What the hell? She looked behind her but saw no familiar faces in the crowd, and no one seemed to be paying attention to her at all.

The hair prickled on the back of her neck as she made her way faster through the throng of onlookers. People were starting to disperse from the edge of the street now, and it was making it harder to get through the maze of bodies on the sidewalk. She was losing sight of the engine up ahead as it made its way steadily down the street. A wave of dizziness took her, and she shuffled her feet faster, bumping into a woman going the opposite direction. Rory spun and got confused. Turned around, she searched for the floats above the heads of the gathered crowd, but the town seemed to stretch and contort in front of her.

“Farfignugen,” she murmured. “Farfig…nugen. That’s a strange word if you say it slow.”

“I’m sorry?” A man beside her said with a confused quirk to his thin brows.

“Isn’t farfignugen a strange word?” she slurred, swaying on her feet and gripping his arm.

“I don’t think it is a word,” he said, then pried her fingers from him and ambled away.

Her head felt like it was lolling about her neck, like a planet around the sun, and she stumbled toward the side of the walkway and held onto the wall of a T-shirt shop. She was going to be sick or faint, and right now, she couldn’t decide which.

Her stomach felt cold, like she’d swallowed shards of ice, and sweat dotted her forehead as she found it increasingly hard to breathe.

“Whoa, there,” an older gentleman with the most alluring shade of silver hair said. He propped her upright and asked, “How much have you had to drink?”

“None.” A headache was building behind her eyes, and she couldn’t see straight anymore. Looking at the crowd made her feel like she was on a looping roller coaster, so instead she looked at the ground and tried to steady herself.

“Well clearly you’ve thrown back a little too much. Let me help you to the side so you don’t get run over.”

“Okay,” she whispered as her tongue began to feel too swollen to talk.

The kind man escorted her to an alleyway, and as her knees began to buckle, she looked up to see Shayna opening the back of a van.

“What are you doing here?” Rory asked, locking her knees and trying to escape the man’s grip.

Shayna mimicked what she said. “God, you are all so boring. That’s exactly what Cody asked yesterday.” Shayna smiled a feline expression as she dragged Rory into the back of the van. “Right before he fucked me.”

“Wha-what?” Rory’s throat had gone dry, and her limbs weren’t working anymore to fight what was happening. Cody wouldn’t. He wouldn’t!

The door slammed closed, and darkness descended over her. Everything was numb but her lips, and even those were beginning to tingle. As the edges of her vision blurred and shattered inward, the kind man took his place behind the steering wheel and twisted in his seat.

“Hi, Rory Dodson. It’s nice to finally make your acquaintance.”

Rory struggled to push air past her tightening vocal chords—struggled to keep her heavy eyelids open for a moment longer because she had to know. “Who-who are you?”

His smile was slow and empty, failing to reach his icy blue eyes. “I’m John Krueger.”

Sleep pulled at Rory like the clawing mud of a swamp, but it was a noise that made her break the surface of darkness. Snarling and roaring filled the old barn that blurred before her when she tried to focus. That wasn’t the noise that lifted gooseflesh across her arms, though. It was all the gunfire.

A glass of water beside her exploded, and tiny shards of glass sliced across the skin of her arm. She didn’t feel it. In confusion, she stared at the welling, red slashes. A few peppered shots finished a volley before the gunfire ceased. She should be terrified, but everything felt surreal, and her body was practically floating. She must be dreaming.

But as she cleared her parched throat and strained her eyes to focus on her surroundings, a man clad in a black, military-looking uniform, complete with helmet and bulletproof vest, ran in front of the open barn doors and into the woods beyond. Men were yelling. Some were screaming in pain. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the mud from her mind.

“She lives,” Krueger said softly from beside her. “I maybe overdid the dose, but surely you can understand. I’m used to dealing with monsters.”

As the cuts in her arm began to burn, Rory looked around in terror. Against a wall of horse stalls, a long table had been set up with rows of horrifying instruments. Krueger leaned against another table, this one old and wooden as opposed to the sterile-looking plastic one that held the torture devices. His arms were crossed over his chest, his crystal blue eyes on her as if he was studying a bug or rodent. He wore a thick Teflon vest over a button-down oxford shirt.

“They aren’t monsters,” she said, her voice barely a hiss. “You are.”

“I know a lot of good, hardworking American people who would disagree with you.”

“You don’t give the American public enough credit.” Her throat felt like she’d swallowed gravel, and she coughed to loosen up her vocal chords.

She wasn’t even tied to the rocking chair she sat in, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t move her arms or legs to escape if she tried. She felt boneless.

“You are about to be a part of history,” Krueger said, pushing off the table and exposing a set of tiny, black remote controls.

A quick count told her there was eight of them. Each had a number taped to it, and a red button in the center.

Krueger followed her gaze. “You’re probably wondering what those are and why you’re here. Rightfully so. This must be quite a detour from what you thought you’d find when you brought your son to the Breck Crew. Each operative is assigned a number.” He lifted up the remote on the end. “Your mate is Operative 647.”

“Don’t touch that,” she begged as he ran his thumb over the red button. She didn’t know what it did, but she knew better than to trust a man like Krueger with a doomsday button. He seemed the type to revel in power too much.

“Would you like in on a secret?”

No. “Yes.”

These little devices are what are going to help me—help us—make history. This is the control, Ms. Dodson. This is what I have that keeps shifters manageable, especially ones with the type of weapons and fight training the Kellers have.” He turned his head toward the barn doors and called out, “Bring them in!”

A horde of men filed in like ants storming from a mound, but Rory was having trouble taking her eyes off the remote in Krueger’s hand. When he finally set it down with a knowing smile, he said, “Focus, Ms. Dodson. I wouldn’t want you to miss the show.” He slid his dead glare toward the men at the other side of the room. “Cody. So glad you could join us.”

With a gasp, Rory’s attention snapped to the hole that was forming in the ranks. In the center, Cody, Boone, and Dade were shoved to their knees. Boone and Dade glared at Krueger with roiling hatred, but Cody’s eyes were on her. Jeans clung to his bare waist, which was heaving with each breath, and a gash across his side was streaming crimson over the ridges of muscle that flexed with ever exhalation. Smears of dirt covered him and his brothers from head to toe, but Cody looked like he’d taken the worst beating out of the three of them. His face was already swelling on the right side, and a gash in his hairline made his gold-green eyes look even brighter surrounded by all that red.

“Are you okay?” His voice came out hoarse as if he hadn’t used it in a long time.

She nodded, which was an improvement, because it meant she was getting feeling back. Her hands began to tingle, as if they were waking up after sleeping on them wrong. And when she looked down, her finger twitched on the arm of the rickety rocking chair. She just needed to buy them more time.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” she rasped out. “What have they ever done to you?”

“Oh, you mean besides taking the single most important thing in my life away from me? My mother died when one of those
things
tried to Turn her. Now, I’m not a stupid man, and I see the value in their abilities to further programs like this one, but surely you can see why my history with these creatures makes me a little…trigger happy. Today is different, though. Today, we’re taking live specimens, which is why you are still breathing, Ms. Dodson. Congratulations on the role you’ve played. Science will be forever in your debt.”

“Fuck science,” she growled out.

Krueger frowned as if he was really taken aback. It was all an act, though. A man as empty as him couldn’t be sincere if his life depended on it. “Do you know how fast they heal? Their regenerative abilities are astounding. It’s what made them viable options for the missions we needed completed where survival rates were almost none. Has Cody told you everything he had to do in the war yet? If he hasn’t, you’ve missed out. He has quite the colorful history in combat.”

“What do you want, Krueger?” Cody said blandly, pulling his eyes to the silver-haired handler.

Dade canted his head and smiled. “You suck at story time, and we have shit to do.”

Rage sank into the deep wrinkles on Krueger’s face. “Oh, do you now? You’re in a rush to be sliced up and studied? Far be it for me to keep you waiting. I only need two, though.”

“Then let her go,” Cody pleaded. “She’s done nothing wrong.”

“Goddammit, Keller,” Krueger yelled explosively. “You were doing so well! How fucking predictable that you beg for her life before your own. You see, this is why your kind was doomed from the first jump in evolution that created you. This is why you are destined to fail as a species. Your survival instincts start circling the drain as soon as you find a mate. It’s pathetic really.” Krueger stared at the black remotes behind him and sighed as if steadying his outburst. He pulled three black remotes and sang, “Eeny meeny miney mo,” to the cruel chuckles of the men with trained weapons on Cody and his brothers.

“No!” she said, clenching her fists and curling her toes. “Cody, the trackers!”

Realization slammed into her mate’s hardened features the second the words left her lips. In one smooth motion, he slid a pocket knife from his jeans and gripped Boone’s neck before slicing deftly. His hands moved so fast, he blurred. Boone gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as Cody shoved his finger in his neck and hooked it around something bloody and no bigger than a pain pill, and all in the span of a second. He turned to Dade as the men above them surged forward and covered them from her view completely.

Rory used every ounce of her strength to push upward and fall against Krueger, who fumbled with the controls as she slammed into his side. One fell to the ground with her, but it wasn’t 647.

Desperate, she pulled up Krueger’s suit pant leg and sank her teeth into his calf until she thought they’d fall from her mouth. Blood flowed against her tongue, gagging her, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t the strength or feeling to get up again, not yet, and this was the best she could do against the man who was trying to steal everything away from her.

Krueger screamed in pain and kicked her shoulder hard. Stars burst in her peripheral vision. “Too late!” he yelled down at her as he pushed the button on one of the remotes.

“Cody!” she shrieked.

Twin yells of agony filled the barn, but she couldn’t see anything—couldn’t tell if it had been her boys who were hurt. Chaos ebbed and flowed as men were knocked to the side by some unseen force.

“Don’t kill the other two. I need them alive!” Krueger commanded.

Boone and Cody were up, fighting, throwing fists as the blade flashed in Cody’s hand, maiming. He slashed upward, cutting clean across a man’s neck. Spinning, he elbowed another in the nose before yanking him over his shoulder and slamming him against another.

“Boone, Change!” Cody bellowed, and his brother’s response was instantaneous.

Two dark-furred grizzlies exploded from them, sending waves of power and raw fury blasting across her skin. Where was Dade?

She searched the ground, and the youngest Keller lay in a crumpled heap between the bears. They were protecting him, but it wouldn’t help at the rate his neck was bleeding. He held it tight, but pain creased his face, and he was gasping for breath.

“It’s the acid,” Krueger murmured with a chilling smile. “I’ve never had the opportunity to see it up close. Usually, I deactivate my pets from farther away. Each capsule can monitor their vitals, when they’re mad or happy. They monitor their endorphins while they are having sex. Cody has had quite the show when he fucks you, Ms. Dodson. I can track where they are to within a few feet, and the best part of all is the kill switch. Detonate the capsule, and acid explodes outward, eroding the artery in the neck. It is laced with medicine that thins the blood and halts clotting. He’ll bleed out before help can even arrive.”

A sob wrenched from Rory’s throat as she crawled toward him. She had to help Dade. Had to stop the red that was flowing from his throat as his brothers fought to protect him.

“Crews are so pathetic,” Krueger said, following behind her. You all have this desire to make sure the others live, no matter the cost to yourself.” The crack of metal on metal as he cocked a gun froze her on the grit-covered ground. His eyes narrowed with determination as his finger rested on the trigger. “I wish one of you would surprise me and try to save your own fucking life.”

Shining metal sailed through the air and Cody’s knife sunk deep into the space between Krueger’s protective vest and his throat.

“Rory, move,” Dade gritted out, crouching now and holding his neck. Red streamed between his fingers, making mud droplets on the ground beneath his feet.

Her throat clogged with terror as she scrambled toward Dade.

“Don’t touch it,” he rasped as she reached him. “It’ll burn you.”

Yanking on her shirt, she cast a baleful glance back at Krueger, who was pulling the knife Dade had thrown slowly from above his collar bone. Cody and Boone were pacing in tight circles around her and Dade, a protective barrier between them and the mercenaries with assault rifles trained. She pulled her shirt off and jammed it against Dade’s neck to try and stanch the flow of blood.

A mechanical sound reverberated from the rafters above them, and Rory looked up in time to see a thick-roped net falling toward them. She screamed and covered Dade’s body with her own as the heavy chords struck her in the back. The towering grizzlies above her slashed with their claws and gnashed their long canines, but it was no use. The edges had been weighted down with boulders, and the men over them used the butts of their guns to force Cody and Boone back into the center of the net.

Fear pounded through Rory as she was struck by Boone’s back leg. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All she knew was that Dade was bleeding against her forearm and his breathing was starting to grow shallow. Something was wrong with Cody’s paw. It was mangled and hanging strangely from his arm. The skin there looked chemically burned, like the injury on Dade’s neck.

This was it. This was where they were going to die.

“Cody,” she cried, warm tears spilling down her face as Krueger lifted his handgun toward her. This was it. This was their goodbye. “I love you.”

Her mate turned toward her, eyes glassy with rage. Arching his neck against the heavy netting, he bellowed a challenging roar.

She pressed against Dade’s neck with her hand. The bear she loved lurched in front of her, his fur-covered body blocking Krueger’s shot. When the weapon cocked a second time, she clung to Cody’s powerful leg, sobbing at how unfair it all was.

She’d only just gotten him back. She’d fallen in love for the first time, only to have what they shared mocked and ripped apart. Aaron would grow up alone.
Aaron.
Who would protect her baby now? Rory closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of Cody’s fur, preparing for the inevitable blast that would rip through the man she loved.

A long, high-pitched roar rattled dust from the rafters, so loud it made Rory wince as her eardrums threatened to burst. The sound was prehistoric and electrified the fine hairs on her body.

“What the fuck was that?” Krueger yelled. A beat of silence followed before he screamed, “Take care of it!”

Cody looked back at Boone as the armed men filed out of the barn. Terror seized her as fire rain down on them the second they made it outside. A few stragglers ran back into the safety of the barn, horror written on their faces and in the whites of their eyes. Thick black smoke billowed in after them, thickening in the air until it was hard to draw a breath without choking on the fumes.