42. Wyatt
FORTY-TWO
WYATT
“Get them.” The voice screamed again.
I turned to look at the female human holding onto my arm. She screamed the words again, but this time it sounded like they were in a different language. I tilted my head and squinted, trying to figure out what she was telling me to do.
My biceps were growing, and the hair on my arms had been joined by fur. I was going fully wild, if I wasn’t already there.
Human thoughts still ran through my mind, but my language comprehension and ability to speak was gone. Soon, complex thoughts would be replaced by primal ones. If the progression to wild continued, all I would want to do is eat, fuck, and sleep – and maybe not in that order.
The human with the red, pointy claws shoved me toward the human with the yellow hair.
I paused. She would satisfy the first two of my cravings, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to wrap my hand around her skinny neck.
A zap shot through me like a giant bee had stung my ass. The red-clawed woman was holding a cattle prod in one hand.
Confused. I’m so confused.
I dropped to my knees as another jolt hit me, this time in the head. It was so hard that my teeth chattered. Reaching to the back of my skull, I felt something foreign there, something metallic.
“No,” I screamed, but it came out as a grunt. I didn’t want this foreign metal attached to my body. I clawed at it like an animal in a trap. If it had been on an extremity, I would’ve chewed off whatever leg or arm to get the alloy off of me.
The yellow-haired girl was making sounds. Another human female was on the ground behind her. It would be easy to kill them both.
ZAP.
I rubbed my skull. Red Claw pointed to the girls. If I killed them, would she stop hurting me?
I stepped toward the humans, but a competitor stepped in front of them. A female of my own kind. Was she going to kill the humans before I could? I wasn’t the sharing kind, and was looking forward to a hearty meal.
She bared her teeth at me. She wasn’t going to attack them, she was protecting them.
My skull ached and then another jolt of pain surged through my body. I would kill everyone in that room to make it stop.
The yellow-haired girl had water running down her face and was wailing like a wounded animal. She kept jingling a gold metal handcuff in front of me and wailing.
“Argh.” I dropped to my knees again. My head felt like it was on fire. I needed to make it stop. I lunged forward and smacked their protector out of the way. She was strong, but I was stronger. Stronger than I’d ever been. I could smash through the concrete wall and disappear into the woods forever.
I stopped and stared out the door, down the long, narrow hallway. It would be easy to get away.
But the searing pain returned.
Turning back to the humans, I picked the yellow-haired one. She was the stronger of the two, and might put up a fight. As soon as she was out of the way, the other one, cowering like a cornered rabbit – her neck would snap like a… I was failing to find a comparison, the only thing coming to my mind...
Stick.
It took two steps to reach the yellow-haired girl, but for some reason I couldn’t bring my hands to her throat. I rested them on her shoulders, but a familiar smell made me ease up my grip. I tilted my head and stared at her, but the claw lady pressed the button on her control.
I wouldn’t have cared if the person in front of me was my own mother; I would’ve squeezed the life out of her to make the pain stop. But I couldn’t seem to operate my hands. Something was stopping me from hurting her, something deep inside me that I couldn’t control.
The freakish one of my kind ran at me, but I swatted it away. He was weak.
While I watched the creature try to stand, I was rammed into the wall. The concrete building shook. A crack splintered up the blocks from the impact. It hurt, but not as much as the zap thing.
It took a few seconds to get to my feet and when I did, I saw that it was another one of my kind. A big one – one that looked and smelled to be almost as wild as me. This one was a real threat. I glanced to the red-clawed woman and she drew one of her fingers across her neck. I remembered this gesture from my human life. She wanted me to kill him.
I lowered into a crouch and used my powerful thighs to launch myself at the creature. He did the same. Our bodies slammed into each other. He grabbed me and I grabbed him.
He fought the same as me. Did I know him?
We tussled on the ground. As hard as I tried, the other guy was just as strong. He managed to pick me up and wrap his arms around me in a standing wrestling move – one that I’d used in the past; one that I knew I couldn’t extract myself from.
The creature was making sounds. I knew that they were words, but I couldn’t understand them. He could’ve crushed me, and I waited for that to come. But instead, he just held onto me. I struggled, but knew I couldn’t get free.
The metal piece on my head got hot and I knew that another zap was coming.
This one was the worst. I couldn’t stand. My legs buckled beneath me. But the other sasquatch held me up.
The female that I’d tossed aside had put the humans in the corner, and like a bear protecting its kill, stood in front of them.
Red Claw screamed and I knew that another bolt was coming.
Instead of reaching behind me to fight the other sasquatch, I tapped at the metal on my head. As though my aggressor understood, he released one of my arms to pry the plate from my skull. It hurt, and the crunching sound of pieces of my skull coming off with the metal made me want to vomit.
The woman kept pressing the button on the box in her hand, but the metal piece glowed red and hot on the floor.
The room came into focus, and the foreign language that everyone had been speaking started to make sense. It was English, and I understood it.
I turned to face the sasquatch that had saved my skull. Even though I was still very wild, I recognized the familiar gaze of the sasquatch in front of me. If I’d been more human, tears would’ve blurred my vision.
“Jax,” I managed to croak. “You’re back.”
He pointed to the red-clawed woman. A man had joined her. The memories flooded back to me.
Carders. Implant. Dead hybrids. Joe.
HARPER.
In the corner of the room, Harper sat stunned with Fiona and Savannah. Her shoulders were red from where I’d had my hands only moments before.
“Harper.” I rushed to her.
“Stay away.” Fiona held up her hand. “Deal with them first.”
Jax gripped each of the Carders in his hands. “Should I do to them what they were trying to get you to do to her?” There was a sparkle in his eye. “I’d love to snap—”
“No,” I barked. “They don’t deserve an easy death. Tie them up.”
Joe helped Jax and me tie up the masterminds of the hybrid army.
“Where are all the others? The hybrids that they were keeping in here?” I asked.
Gunfire and explosions rocked the building. “I brought backup.” Jax winked.
The door opened and I rushed to put myself between whoever was coming through that door and Harper. Fiona may have taken on a protector role, but that didn’t stop my primal urge to do whatever it took to keep the woman I loved safe.
But it wasn’t a hybrid – I could identify their smell now. And it wasn’t one of the South Americans, or one of my crew – I knew our smells intimately. Whoever was coming through the door smelled crisp, like freshly fallen snow. And female.
Everyone in the room, including Fiona, gasped as a beautiful woman with long, white hair stepped into the room. Her eyes were the color of glacier water, and her lashes long and furry like an arctic fox’s pelt. She must have been almost seven feet tall and was pale as a ghost. And she seemed to be smiling at Jax.
Jax cleared his throat. “This is Ekaterina, but I call her Kat.” Was Jax blushing? His cheeks were growing redder by the second as he introduced the mysterious woman. “As soon as we got your message, Kat rallied her community, and we came to help. We outnumber them now. It won’t be long before we round up all the science freaks.”
I nodded firmly. “No killing, though. Just tie them up until we can properly deal with them. It’s not their fault they were following shitty orders.”
The news was good. The hybrid threat had been mitigated and Seattle was safe. But I was still in shock by the creature that stood in front of me. I’d never seen one in real life. “You’re a…”
“Yeti,” Joe whispered in awe, finishing my sentence.
“Fiancée.” A wry smile spread across Jax’s face as he strode across the room, dropping the Yeti woman into a dramatic kiss.
She giggled, and when he brought her back to a standing position, held up her hand. “It’s nice to meet you all. Jax has told me all about you. Especially this one.” She smiled at Harper.
The group of stunned humans and Fiona all raised their hands and waved in response.
“Now, what are we going to do with these pieces of trash?” I nudged the bound Carders with my foot. They had finally stopped struggling against the ties, seemingly accepting of their fate.
“I’ve got just the thing for them.” Joe opened a pill bottle and handed it to me. “This should do the trick.”