Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
C hristophe
“Tell me again who this motherfucker is,” Chael growls from behind the steering wheel.
His words jar me out of my musings.
It’s only been a couple of hours since I made it back home from spending the night with Ashley. Which means it’s been less than twelve hours since we mate bonded. A fact that has me both elated and hating myself.
“Who?” I question, trying to recall who Chael’s referring to.
We’re in his truck, the three of us—me, Chael, and Chance. I’m in the passenger seat while Chance sits in the backseat.
The alpha of the Nightwolf pack, also my oldest brother, looks over at me, his gaze lingering, even though he’s driving.
He’s been doing that more lately whenever he’s in my presence.
Looking directly at me. I’ve noticed.
“Stanley Levinson,” he says, his voice deep with a hint of suspicion.
That name brings everything back to me. “Right,” I mumble.
Early this morning, not long after getting back from my night with Ashley, Chael and Chance came to my house telling me we had to take a trip to Colorado because they’d found not only a name, but the location of the head guy working with Dr. X.
Stanley Levinson.
The drug dealer we tracked down hadn’t covered all of his tracks before he killed himself. He’d left the partial name of a doctor on one of the prescription pills he had, along with a partial palm print.
I ran some searches through a few databases that I could access, but the human databases were a little more difficult to hack into. Chael took over, and I suppose he went to some human contacts to find the name.
“In there he was just Dr. L,” I say, answering Chael’s question.
I allow the memories to come back to me of my time in that prison. Especially, my time down in the lab, as it was called.
“He often administered the drugs ordered by Dr. X, or talked with him about experiments he wanted to try on us,” I explain, my voice growing lower the more I recall the nasally sound of Dr. L—now known as Stanley Levinson’s—voice.
“If Dr. X wasn’t around, he gave orders to the guards.”
“Orders?” Chael asks, glancing over at me before looking back to the road.
“Turn up the voltage.”
That memory causes me to flinch, which catches Chael’s attention. The space between his eyebrows narrows as he peers over at me.
“Directing his lackeys to tighten the chains on my handcuffs, turn up the voltage of the electric prods they use, dunk our heads again in the buckets of water, hit or punch harder?—”
“Got it,” Chael says sharply.
When I look over at his hands, they’re gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles are turning an abnormal shade of red.
A heavy, weightedness falls over me, and I suspect it has to do with the way Chael’s mood just shifted.
Under ordinary circumstances, my wolf would want to comfort him from whatever’s made his mood go so dark. Yet, the memories continue to assail me. I’ve worked hard to suppress my thoughts about the time I spent down in that lab.
Now that I’m able to put a name to the cruelty, it’s much more difficult to push down.
Against my will, a shaky breath releases from between my lips.
The edges of my periphery start to blur and then turn black. I’m aware of the stirrings of some sort of panic attack. A condition that I can’t afford right now.
I try to shake my head to push away the thoughts.
But it’s not until a heavy hand lands on my right shoulder that I’m able to somewhat snap out of it.
A glance over my shoulder shows Chance leaning forward, staring at me. Our gazes collide. The typical hardness that I’ve always seen in his eyes is there. But this time, it’s accompanied with his keen awareness and something else.
Compassion.
He’s asking, without words, whether or not I’m okay.
My suspicions are confirmed when the hand that still rests on my shoulder squeezes it. I’m brought back to that day when he stopped me from killing. Not because he didn’t want me to have the satisfaction, but because he knew it would change me. And he didn’t want that for me.
Unable to speak, I nod.
Only once I do so does he release his hold on my shoulder and move back to his seat. I look over at Chael who’s staring straight ahead, watching the road. He hasn’t said another word, but I somehow know he, too, was a part of that exchange.
I then remember the bond both of them share. The one that allows them to speak without words since they’re both blood brothers and the alpha and head beta of our pack.
Did Chael say something to Chance?
As soon as the question forms in my mind, I know it to be the case. Chance couldn’t have heard what I said to Chael, and since I’m not facing him, he couldn’t have read my lips.
“We’re almost there,” Chael says into the silence.
* * *
There turns out to be a tiny community of no more than three or four run down cabins, out in the middle of the forest. We’re in the middle of mountains.
Chael had to park the truck about a mile and a half away in a random town and utilize the GPS and our wolf senses to guide us.
“Only about five hundred or so meters away,” he says before pausing. He lifts his head and scents the air.
We’re not in our wolf forms, but I also catch the scent of extra wolves. I turn to tell Chance but he’s already standing on guard, his gaze searching our surroundings.
I shouldn’t be surprised. He was likely the first one of the three of us who picked up on the additional wolf scents in the air.
A few seconds later, wrestling in the bushes and trees a few yards away startles me until I see three white wolves emerge. They’re large and slightly ferocious with their teeth bared and growling.
“About damn time you three showed up,” Chael says, sounding unsurprised.
I squint as the wolf in front barks at Chael. He’s obviously an alpha wolf, not afraid to confront another alpha. However, I get the sense that these wolves aren’t threats.
That is, until all three turn their gazes on me. None of them approach, but they stare as if demanding an explanation.
“Ronan, Montgomery, and Noah,” Chance says, stepping forward, “don’t behave as if you’ve never met our brother.”
Chance’s statement surprises me almost as much as the response from the three wolves.
Suddenly, I know who they are. The three Blackclaw alphas. Also cousins to both Chael and Chance on their mother’s side.
The one in the front dips his head.
“You three know this area better than we do,” Chael says. “Lead the way.”
Soon, all three men shift into their human forms. They’re slightly less intimidating in their human forms.
Not by much, though.
Once the trio changes into clothes they’ve brought for themselves, we’re off for the short walk to the community that once was a small bear shifter community, according to Ronan.
The bear shifters eventually relocated higher up in the mountains, abandoning the cabins, but for years passersby have used them as a temporary place to live. Most humans don’t make it out this far in the deepness of the mountains and woods, which makes it perfect for shifters to use whenever they’re passing through.
Especially lone wolves.
Or the likes of Stanley Levinson.
“Hold,” Chael says and lifts an arm.
Everyone stops when we have the cabins in our sights.
We’re only a few meters away, but there’s enough coverage from the trees to hide our positions. The same might not be true to cover our scents, though. We can’t remain here for too long.
There’s some communication between Chael and Noah, who wants to charge headfirst into the cabin and destroy everything in sight.
I hang back as the pair go back and forth on how to handle this.
Instead of taking sides in the argument, I watch the stillness of the cabin. There’s a small, one-level wooden cabin, who’s back door faces us. The front of the cabin points inward toward the semi-circle that’s created by the other three cabins.
A shift in the wind has an unfamiliar scent hitting my nose.
My entire body tightens.
Wolf!
My wolf’s instincts activate, but before I can shift to protect myself from the incoming dangers, a loud, snarling growl sounds behind me.
A beat later, Chael’s wolf leaps over me, teeth bared as he lands on all four paws just in time to get in between me and the grey wolf who managed to sneak up on me. I watch as Chael effortlessly sinks his teeth into the throat of the wolf.
The wolf’s yelp pierces the air.
All hell breaks out. I don’t wait to watch, instead taking action to shift into my wolf. As soon as I do, another grey wolf tackles me in an attempt to pin me to the ground. I duck my chin in order to protect my neck at the same time I swing with all of my might with my paw.
My perfectly aimed strike allows me to stun the wolf long enough that I’m able to get out from underneath him. I don’t give him time to gather himself or strike back. Instead, I pounce on him, aiming with my incisors at the muscles of his neck.
He thrashes and shakes, working hard to get me off, but my teeth have locked in on the vital arteries. I keep my jaw clamped down until the fight leaves his body.
Only once he goes limp do I release my jaw. The taste of copper fills my mouth. This is my first kill as a wolf, but I don’t pause long enough to let that new awareness sink in.
I search around me for more threats. When none appear, I look for Chael and Chance. Wondering if they’ve been injured, my heart races.
A bark behind me has me spinning to find Chael’s wolf. His mouth and jaw are covered in blood, a sure sign that he’s done even more killing. My wolf surges forward, sniffing and skimming over the length of his body, searching for injuries.
None exist.
Chael is uninjured. I search out Chance and find him not too far away. His wolf is bloody as well but also uninjured. My wolf and I are relieved to see them unhurt.
A sound catches my attention. I turn to face Montgomery. He takes off running, and his two brothers follow right behind.
I start to bring up the rear, but Chance’s wolf nudges me to follow directly behind Chael. He remains behind me, though I know he’s much faster.
One of the Blackclaw brothers yelps, signaling that there’s someone up ahead, in one of the cabins. All five of us head toward the cabin, surrounding it.
I sniff the air and my senses go off. I search for Chael whose eyes are already on me. A short nod tells him that I recognize the scent.
“It’s him,” I say in my head, though he can’t hear me.
My body starts trembling. But not with the same fear I carried every day of those months I was inside of that torture chamber. It’s anxiousness to clamp down around his throat with my incisors.
Chael takes the lead and shifts back into his human form, followed by Chance and then me. The other three are around front. I don’t see them and am unaware if they’ve shifted or not.
I watch, thinking Chael is about to go up the three small stairs to get into the back door. Instead, with a motioning signal, he urges Chance and me to duck, while he picks up a rock and hoists it through one of the windows next to the door.
The rock shatters the glass, and a second later gunfire goes off as bullets fly out of the window. The sound startles my sensitive wolf ears, but I keep my head ducked.
In the meantime, Chael charges up the stairs and through the back door, breaking it down. Wood splinters around him as he bursts through the door. Chance leaps up the three stairs and follows him inside, leaving me to follow behind him.
Inside of the tiny, worn down, rotted wooden cabin a mix of smells assaults me. Human feces and urine, fresh blood, and him .
Levinson
Three white wolves stand over him, growling and sniveling down at his cowering frame.
“Don’t! No,” he pleads.
A growl rips through the room and everyone stops. It takes me much too long to figure out that the growl has come from me. The sound of his voice, begging not to be harmed, pisses me off like no other.
“Shut up, you fucking coward!” Before I know it, I’m grabbing him by the front of his shirt, hoisting him off of the ground. “Isn’t that what you told me when I begged you for mercy?”
His beady eyes widen. He’s seeing me anew, it seems.
“I-I was just doing my job. I only did what I was told. Ah!” He yells in pain, falling to the ground from my right hook.
Neither my human nor my wolf feel any empathy for this piece of trash. This was Dr. X’s right hand. Levinson helped with the torture and treating all of us like lab experiments instead of sentient beings that could feel, think, and had families.
“That’s enough.” Chael’s statement cracks through the charged air around us. He moves in front of me. “Where is he?” Chael demands.
“Who?”
“No,” Chance calls out, wrapping me in his arms from behind in order to stop me from charging forward.
“You fucking know who!” I yell, still struggling to get out of Chance’s hold. An anger that I’ve felt for each and every one of these bastards I’ve encountered wells up inside of me.
All I can think about is the pain they inflicted on all of us. On my mate.
Ashley didn’t get nearly the amount of torture as I did. The women were treated slightly better than the male prisoners. And I did my best to keep her safe.
Rage pulses through every vein of my body. The memories of Ashley crying, fearful of never seeing her sister again play over and over in my mind. The fear I felt for her, for myself.
The moment Chance’s hold on me lessens the smallest amount, I surge forward, my fist connecting with Levinson’s jaw. He’s not a shifter, which makes him weaker than the other opponents. He immediately crumples to the floor again.
“We still need information,” Chael says, moving past me in order to get in between me and Levinson. “Who is Dr. X ?” he asks the groaning man on the floor.
“I don’t know,” he croaks out from what I think must be a fractured jaw.
“Liar!” I charge forward again, but Chael’s hand to my chest stops me. My wolf immediately heeds the warning of his alpha. Yet my temper still flares, waiting for the moment I can rip his throat out.
Levinson, next to Dr. X, was the cruelest out of all of the bastards in that place. He liked to taunt and torture us the most. Seeing him curled up on the floor, in this filthy cabin as if he’s some innocent makes me sick to my stomach.
Chael stoops low, hovering over Levinson. “My brother’s losing his patience,” he asserts calmly, glaring down at the piece of garbage. “Which is unusual. Christophe doesn’t lose his temper easily. Which tells me you really pissed him off. I’m inclined to tell my beta to let him go so that he can have his way with you.”
Chael clamps his massive hand around Levinson’s throat. Strangling sounds pierce the air as he fights for breath.
“The other three men behind me are also pissed because you and Dr. X kidnapped their mate. One thing about us wolf shifters is we don’t appreciate any son of a bitch who tries to separate us from our mate.”
The moment Chael tightens his hold on Levinson’s throat, he starts flailing and flapping his arms and legs, struggling to catch his next breath. Chael doesn’t even flinch.
“Who do you think I should turn you over to first?”
The question comes out calm, but no one misses the threat interwoven in his words.
“Of course, all of that won’t be necessary if you just tell us what we want to know.” He loosens his hold on Levinson.
Fuck that! my wolf screams in my head upon hearing Chael all but say he’ll let this guy go in exchange for some information.
I clamp down on my wolf’s suddenly defiant instinct.
“O-Ohhkayy,” Levinson says. “I’ll talk.”
“Spill all of it,” Chael orders.
“I-I don’t know his real name. No!” he shouts when Chael reaches for him again. “Honestly, I don’t know his real name. We never used our real names, and we didn’t interact without our masks. He said it was for all of our protection.”
“How did you find him?” Ronan asks from over Chael’s shoulder.
“He found me. I came in contact with him on an online forum. It was through a gamer network a bunch of us scientists used to play.”
He pauses and looks at me when I snort in disgust.
“Scientists,” I tut. “You’re not a fucking scientist.”
His eyes broaden as if he’s genuinely offended.
“I’ve got a master’s degree in biology from a top university,” he says as if that means a damn thing. “We were doing good work in that place.”
“Good work?” I yell. “You tortured us!”
“We did no such thing,” he counters. “The experiments we were running in there could have an impact on thousands of lives. It could make us loads of money. I’m talking billions of dollars.”
“That was the purpose of all of this? To make money?” Chael questions.
Levinson nods. “What else would we do it for?” His nonchalant shrug has me cracking my neck in repressed anger.
“I mean Dr. X was more into it than anyone. He was like a madman, but he wasn’t wrong. Do you guys know the strength you all hold? The power. If we could harness it, we could use it to take over entire civilizations and countries.”
“What fucking right do you have to use anything?” Montgomery shouts.
“We have the power!” Levinson shouts, spittle flying out of his mouth. “With the control and manipulation techniques we tested and utilized on those animals, we could build armies that could rip through more than a hundred thousand soldiers with no problem. We wouldn’t even need nuclear bombs.”
“You sick son of a bitch,” I blurt out.
His eyes narrow on me. “I remember you.” A smirk that twists my gut spreads over his face. “Yeah, how’s that training we did on you going? Can you even look that bitch mate of yours in the eye?” A cackling laugh flows out of him. “We knew you two were talking in that fucking cell. We used her picture during your training sessions. God, I wish I was there to see what happened when you saw her in person.”
He actually says the words with reverence and regret. As if he cherishes the thought of seeing my pain. Our pain.
All I see is red.
Chance’s hold on me loosens, allowing me to push his arms away as if he’s no more than a nuisance fly trying to get in between me and my target. One moment I’m standing, looking down at Levinson, and the next my fist is separating a few of his teeth from his gums.
There is no pain in my hand as I batter his face. It doesn’t even occur to me to check to see why Chael and the others aren’t stopping me. My only objective now is to bring Levinson to his demise.
The cracking sound of bones as I pummel his face and body alleviates some of the pain and agony welling up in my chest. But the only thing that I’ll settle for right now is complete and total destruction. Fuck the answers that we were all originally searching for. We’ll find Dr. X another way.
For now, this motherfucker has got to go.
“Christophe,” a voice sounds. It’s low and sounds far away.
I again slam my fist into Levinson’s already bloodied and broken nose.
“Christophe.” This time the voice is accompanied by a tugging on my arm. It takes me seconds to realize that someone is calling me, trying to separate me from Levinson.
I don’t let it deter me, though.
All I can think of is the cackling way he taunted me about my mate. The fact that I still can’t look Ashley in the eyes keeps me up most nights. No, she and I will never be together the way it should be, I’ve accepted that, but the pain of not being able to look at her one time before I’m sent away drives me nearly insane.
“Christophe … he’s dead,” someone that sounds vaguely familiar tells me.
It slows down my movement, but then I strike the bloody mass that used to be Levinson’s face again.
“Mother Moon, we’ll be here all day if he keeps this up,” a voice I suspect belongs to Noah says.
“That’s enough.” A tougher, much harder pull on my arm causes me to miss my next swing at Levinson’s lifeless body.
I stumble backward, nearly falling until my back comes in contact with a hard surface behind me. I jump away from it, spinning around with my guard up and incisors descended until I see who it is.
Chance stands there, calmly watching me. Tension fills his body as if he’s ready to react at any moment, but he doesn’t move.
Slowly, I come out of my haze. My chest heaves up and down while my vision starts to clear. I imagine it must take a while because when I finally come to and am able to fully take in my surroundings all five men are staring at me.
They look at me as if I’m a wolf who’s gone feral.
“You pretty much did,” Montgomery says, making me realize I’d stated my last thought out loud.
I do my best to force myself to swallow to calm down, but my mouth and throat are dry.
I spin to find Levinson’s almost unrecognizable body sprawled in an awkward position. He’s prone in a way that human bodies weren’t meant to bend.
Serves him right, my wolf snarls.
Chael moves in front of me, blocking my view of Levinson. I blink a couple of times, finally seeing that he holds a stack of folders underneath one of his arms.
“We’ve got what we need.” He nods toward the files. “These will lead us to Dr. X. Let’s go.”
With his free hand, he cups my arm to get me moving toward the same door we used to enter.
I hesitate.
“What about …” I trail off, unable to finish my question.
“Ronan, Noah, and Montgomery will take care of it.”
“Damn straight we will,” Noah adds, obviously overhearing our conversation. “This bastard helped kidnap our mate. Only regret is that I wasn’t the one to take him out.” Noah looks me up and down, then smiles.
“Didn’t mind watching him get the shit beat out of him though. Nice job.”
I don’t respond. It would be odd to accept a thank you for beating a man to death. Yet, I don’t feel guilty in the slightest for doing it.
As I exit the house, my gaze immediately searches for Chance. A part of me must wonder what I’ll find in his gaze. I recall back to the day we found and confronted the guard I almost killed. I was set to kill him with my bare hands for the pain he inflicted on Ashley.
It was Chance who stopped me. He knew that once someone crossed that line, there’s no going back.
As I flex my bruised, bloody fingers I know he was right. There is no going back.
But I ask myself if I regret it.
No.
As soon as that thought crosses my mind, I make contact with Chance’s gaze. A heavy breath releases from me when I see the look in his eyes. There’s no recrimination, no shame or even anger.
I blink a couple of times to make sure I’m not imagining things.
Is that pride?
“We need to make it home before nightfall.”
Chael’s words catch my attention, and I turn toward the truck. He’s already behind the steering wheel. Once again, Chance opts to take the backseat, leaving me to sit in the passenger seat next to Chael.
The moment I shut the door behind me, Chael grabs one of my hands, examining it. “Nothing’s broken,” he says, contemplatively. “Still, we’ll have Dr. Drake use some of his herbs to help speed the healing up.”
He releases my hand.
“That won’t be necessary. They’ll be fine in a day or two,” I tell him.
“Dr. Drake will look your wounds over,” Chael replies in a tone that leaves room for no argument.
When I look over at him, his eyes are on mine, almost daring me to refute his orders. I shake my head.
“Sure, Alpha.”
That acquiescence must be what he was looking for because as soon as I give it, he starts the truck and pulls off.