Chapter Seventeen #2
The command Arlo gave—because there was little doubt in Soren’s mind that it was a command—was sharp, firm, and fierce enough to promise punishment if either of them even thought to disobey him, not that they would. They’d promised to do exactly what he said when he said it.
“Who brings four extra people and no vehicle for transporting the contents of a unit?” the tiger to the left, the biggest of the trio, declared. “You’ll need a lot more than the bodies you’ve brought if you plan on dragging me out of here in chains.”
“More like they’ll wind up shredded if they try it,” the one on the right declared.
The tigers looked to have mirrored Arlo and Bash’s positioning, aside from the one in the center, whose eyes appeared shrewd and cold.
“Ease down,” he snapped, “and think a minute, both of you. The council would have sent more than two rhinos, and a trio of timid smelling beasts, if they intended to drag you back,” Arlo declared.
The tigers who flanked him said nothing, but as Soren watched, their stances eased just a little. If anything, the rigid set of their shoulders relaxed a fraction, while the one to the left began to worry the seam of his jeans, his fingers taking up a restless stream of motion.
“If you’re truly here for the contents of that unit, then we’ll leave you to it, but if you’re here for something more, out with it already so we can all get on with our night,” the middle tiger said.
He sounded older, his voice lacking the same stern gruffness as the other two, though it was no less commanding.
“We’re here to determine why there are suddenly tigers in Cookietown,” Arlo announced in a measured way, as if considering every word he spoke.
“’Cause we were hired to protect this facility,” the center tiger declared.
“The owner is a member of my wife’s family and reached out to us to keep his business secure.
Nothing more, nothing less. Considering the reputation of this town for being welcoming to shifters of all kinds who wish to live in harmony, I see no reason for anyone to be sent to determine our intentions. ”
“I think we all know why there is a need for assurances,” Arlo grumbled, his gaze moving between the three tigers, assessing.
The middle one inclined his head, the only hint that he concurred with Arlo’s statement.
“Tigers are known for being solitary,” Bash said, the deep, rolling bass of his tone sounding downright scary to Soren’s ears. “Which makes it suspicious as hell, the three of you being here.”
Yet when Soren looked at Romy, the smaller rhino didn’t seem the least bit shaken by hearing his mate sound that way.
“Solitary except in family units,” the center tiger said, leaving it at that.
Daddy, ask him what one of them was doing chained by a fiery bringer of death, Soren asked, feeling braver now that it seemed like talking, rather than fighting, was the course the confrontation was taking, at least for now.
Arlington’s jaw twitched before he finally gave a curt nod.
“Is that for protection, or because one of you sold their souls to the council, and wound up leashed to a ‘being’ hell-bent on burning everything in its path?” The icy cold tone he used rivaled Bash’s.
The fidgety tiger let out a hiss, claws popping out of the ends of his fingers to slash a hole in his jeans.
“Ohh, I think I’ve hit a nerve,” Bash rumbled, a small grin creasing his lips as the center tiger shot a hand out to prevent the one to the right from charging. Eyes locked, fierce looks passed between them before the younger tiger finally backed down—somewhat.
“The next time you mock what my brothers went through, I’ll slash you to ribbons and face my father’s wrath afterwards,” he declared. “Stolen from us, used and abused by the fuckers, it is only through the goddesses' grace we got one of them back alive.”
“And the other?” Arlo asked, his voice only marginally less icy.
“Burned to death at the hands of the demon beast I killed,” the fidgety one declared. “I just wish I could have done it before he torched my brother. Neither of us signed up to be that bastard’s pets, though it was a far better fate than the torment and experimentation they subjected others to.”
Victim. He’s a victim too. Soren could see it now.
“And you expect us to believe that keeping you as pets was the only use he had for you?” Arlo questioned in a way Soren sensed he wasn’t quite ready to believe them.
“Pets is what he called us,” the fidgety one said.
“But if someone were to treat a real pet the way he treated us, they’d find themselves behind bars.
We were pets in the same way an attack dog guarding a drug den is considered a pet.
We had one purpose. Keep anyone from getting their hands on him until he completed his missions. ”
Arlo’s large body was rigid with the tension as he asked, “And did you?”
“Not without torment to force our compliance, and even then, we only fulfilled our roles until we could sink fangs and claws into him ourselves.”
Arlo
“You speak the truth,” Arlo stated aloud when his senses no longer detected any threat to them. “One of my mates bore witness to the atrocities that took place when the fire creature came to his homelands. Another visited us, who stunk of venomous death and proved extremely difficult to kill.”
“This is sufficient reason for you to understand why I keep my two remaining sons close,” the center tiger declared. “I will not allow them to share in their brother’s fate.”
“And how were you captured in the first place?” Bash asked, a deep furrow between his brows appearing as he searched for answers.
“The same way most cats find themselves trapped, no matter their size or the ferocity of their breed. Curiosity can be a cruel and unforgiving mistress.”
“Then forgive my curiosity when I ask for specifics on what lured them to the fire creature in the first place,” Arlo persisted.
“It was not the flames that drew me,” the fidgety one declared.
“It was the scent of my mate, who the creature had already captured and held. No perfect trap has ever been constructed better than the one that plays to the mating instinct. One's need to bond with a mate or mates is the perfect storm. I became ensnared in a net of hooks and metal. Had I remained silent, my brother might have been able to avoid sharing my fate. There was a substance on the hooks that both burned and contained a paralytic agent. To my utter shame, I couldn’t do anything when it felt like my blood was on fire. In his haste to come to my aid and free me from the trap I’d gotten caught in, he found himself in one of his own. ”
“And what of the mate you claim they used as the bait to lure you in the first place?” Arlo asked gruffly, his own mate's fate so easily could have been different.
“We recovered him,” the older tiger declared, “though we fear his mind may never be the same. Without being certain which council members we could trust and which had gone rogue, we’ve kept silent on our dealings with the being of flames out of fear that the second one would come to extract vengeance for what happened to the first.”
Arlo shared a look with Bash, who looked grim.
“We’d have done the same in your shoes,” Bash admitted. “Were you able to determine how they knew it was your mate to trap them and use them in such a way?”
The fidgety one ran a hand through his short, reddish-gold hair, revealing the remains of several shiny scars along the side of his neck.
“I do not think they knew which of our mates they were taking, as long as the results proved favorable.” It appeared he couldn’t stop digging claws into the now shredded leg of his jeans.
All the signs of trauma and captivity were there, from the way he’d inched steadily closer to his father’s side to each restless movement that screamed of distress and an attempt to self sooth.
“At the time, we did not recognize that the gathering was designed both to recruit and to log observations about the ones in attendance. My brother, Lennox, and I attended hoping to meet other tigers outside of our ambush. The council sponsored the event. A council we had not yet learned to fear and distrust. My mate was not the only one taken captive, though I would not discover that until I was already a prisoner, too. In the compound where they held us, there were other mates of other species that had been at gatherings, including a grizzly bear, an eagle, a seal and three wolves.”
“We did not dare attempt to free them in our haste to retrieve Saber’s mate,” Morrison, who’d been the first guard they’d encountered when Taggart had come alone, declared, a look of frustration and shame on his face when he said it.
“By the time I returned with more members of our ambush, they’d abandoned the facility with no sign of where the others were transported to.
There was no evidence that they’d slaughtered anyone, and the mess they left behind suggested that their departure was a hasty one.
My take is that it happened right after they realized that my brother and I had snuck in and retrieved his mate. ”
“Having been inside one of their facilities before, you were lucky to have gotten out undetected with one.” Bash’s shrewd gaze never left the tiger.
“I can’t say that I’d have tried for more either, if silence, and not a full-on frontal assault, was the means you were using,” Arlo declared, thoughtfully studying the trio. “It remains odd that you should wind up here, at the heart of the resistance against the rogue council.”
“I doubt it is a coincidence that this facility is being targeted the way it’s been,” the elder tiger said. “I believe there is something very specific here that someone is after. Before our arrival, there were three very particular, very targeted attempts on units in this part of the facility.”
“That’s the real reason you were so fierce and growly when you approached me, isn’t it?” Taggart asked with only the slightest bit of hesitation in his voice. “I’ve visited this storage unit many times before and never had a member of security approach me the way you did.”
“It is,” Morrison admitted. “Every unit targeted so far contains computer and electronics components much like the ones you were removing. I feared that perhaps they’d decided to try a ruse by sending someone unexpected in to retrieve what they were after.
It set off warning bells, and I reacted harshly.
For that, you have my apologies. My job is to keep this place safe, not harass the customers, as my father and uncle pointed out to me. ”
“No, I get it,” Taggart offered, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “And I appreciate it.”
“After hearing what you just shared about the contents of the units that have been targeted, I share your belief that whoever is responsible is looking for something specific,” Arlo admitted as he reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet before fishing out one of the cards he and Bash had taken to carrying since they’d become tasked with gathering information about the rogue council.
“If you catch them at it, please detain them and contact us immediately. We have a few questions we’d like to ask. ”
The elder tiger nodded and held out his hand, accepting the card and glancing down at the information printed on the front before tucking it into his pocket.
“You’re the group that’s been trying to put an end to them,” the elder tiger declared. “Good to know.”
“We’ll leave you to your rounds,” Bash said. “Though a word of caution, some of them have come at us from above. The things they create are also poisonous if ingested.”
“Good to know,” the elder tiger declared, tipping his head back. “But as for the skies, you’ll notice, we’ve got that first part covered.”
When Arlo looked up, it was to see the shadow shape of a fourth big cat on the roof, peering down at them, a grim reminder of how stealthy those Bengals could be.
Silently, Taggart secured his unit, keeping hold of the handful of things he’d pulled out while they’d waited to see if the tigers would engage, while in the back of Arlo’s mind, there was a nagging worry that it could be his boy’s unit the thieves where actively searching for.
What could Taggart have—or know—that they’d keep targeting a place for? And what did that mean for his boy’s safety?