Chapter 10 Zeke
Zeke
We race to the clearing and shift back, getting dressed to return home. I have many questions about what she told me, but I can see that she’s lost in her head right now.
I figure it’s best to give her time to think about this rather than press her for answers. But I can’t help wondering what she means. Before the fire?
I wrap an arm around her as we walk back to the house, just letting her know that I’m here for her if she needs me. She leans into me, clearly thankful for the company.
When we get back, Nora is in the kitchen baking. “You guys have to try these muffins,” Nora says, one hand resting on her swollen belly and the other holding a plate of bright green pistachio chocolate chip muffins.
Addison takes one and takes a tentative bite before her eyes widen, and she nods her head vigorously while taking another bite.
“The baby is obsessed with pistachios. I don’t know why,” Nora explains with a small eye roll.
She asks what we’ve been up to, and I tell her that we went on a run, that it’s one of the first times Addison has shifted.
Addison is excited as she talks about the details of running around, then she brings up a memory that crossed her mind.
I make eyes at Nora to let her know not to question her right now.
We say good night and head back to the bedroom. As soon as we climb into bed, all I can think about is mating with her earlier. It was spectacular. Better than anything I ever imagined it would be.
And now, after the fact, I get to lie in bed with my mate. And I’ll get to do this every day for the rest of our lives.
However, one thing keeps bothering me. I had a few expectations about what our first time might be like, and I realized not everything went as I thought.
When I entered her, I expected there would be resistance, but I didn’t feel any. It was easy.
A sick feeling grows in my stomach at the idea of it. She was held captive for a long time, and who knows what they did to her.
“Addison, I want to ask you a question. What we did earlier,” I begin, stammering over my words as I cautiously try to broach the subject. “Have you done anything like that with anyone else?”
Addison shakes her head right away. “No... but when I was at the facility, sometimes the doctors would hold my legs open and put things between them. They said it was for data and my health. But they never told me what they were doing.”
A wave of relief washes over me. Even though what she described is horrible, it’s nowhere near as bad as I was thinking. If she confirmed my suspicions, I would be heading over to Axiom and killing every guard in sight, regardless of whether or not I survived.
I relax and grab my laptop from my bedside table and set it down between us. Addison looks at it curiously before I explain what it is. “We could watch a movie before bed?”
Once again, those words don’t seem to mean anything to her because she just wrinkles her eyebrows.
I feel a flicker of excitement knowing that I’m going to get to show her a movie for the first time.
But then there’s the added pressure of having to pick the perfect movie for someone who has never seen one before.
With everything she’s been through, I figure above everything else, laughing could be good. Some levity in her life would go a long way.
She’s mesmerized as I navigate through Netflix and pick out Wayne’s World, one of my favorite comedies.
I turn off the lights and both of us lean back, our eyes on the screen as we watch everything unfold. There’s a lot that Addison doesn’t quite understand, unaware of a lot of the references. I don’t mind answering questions for her when she has them.
We’re halfway through the “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene when I hear the front door slam. A moment later, Declan yells, “I need everyone down here now!”
Addison and I look at each other before tossing the covers aside and running down as quickly as we can. Everyone else is here by the time we’re in the living room. Declan is angry, practically bristling about something.
“What’s going on?” I ask, my hand instinctively reaching for Addison’s to squeeze it. Something in my gut tells me this is about her.
“Aaron reported seeing two armored vans in our territory.” Declan pauses, letting the weight of this sink in. “We need to investigate this. Stop them before they do anything.”
“Addison, Nora, you two need to head over to Tara’s and my house,” Kyran says.
I look at Addison and see the terrified frenzy back in her eyes. Nora strides across the room and stands next to her, reaching out for her hand. Addison flinches away before blinking hurriedly as if realizing she’s somewhere safe.
“Sorry, I’m okay,” Addison says, grabbing Nora’s hand.
“You don’t have anything to worry about. We’re going to stop these assholes,” I say to Addison.
I don’t want to leave her right now. I can feel how afraid she is, and I just want to wrap my arms around her and protect her.
But I have to think about the pack and my family as well.
On top of that, if this is related to Addison, I need to get to the bottom of it.
It’s the only way I can actually protect her.
Nora grabs a couple of things and leads Addison out of the house to walk the short distance to Tara’s. As soon as they’re gone, Declan gives us the plan, telling us where the vans were spotted and how we’ll infiltrate them with the larger group we’re meeting.
We race out of the house, shifting without undressing and ripping our clothes to tatters. It doesn’t take long before we meet a group of other pack members, already shifted, ready to head off and find the vans.
Declan leads the charge with me, Cole, and Kyran not far behind.
We run until we hear the wheels of the armored vans crackling against the gravel road.
Kyran runs out in front of one. The driver tries to veer out of the way as quickly as he can when an oversized, angry bear blocks the path of the road, but he ends up crashing his van into a ditch. The other skids to a stop right behind it.
We hear footsteps on the ground and the clinking of metal from guns. Before they have a chance to raise one weapon and point at Kyran, the rest of us descend upon them.
Everything moves quickly, and the adrenaline in my veins empowers me as I lunge forward and knock over the driver. He falls to the ground, staring up at me with wild terror in his eyes. All I can wonder is if Addison looked at them like this when they held her to a table and electrocuted her.
My teeth sink into his neck with ease, tearing through the straps of the bulletproof vest he wore as if we would be using guns against them. His blood is tangy and metallic on my tongue, and I see how it stains the tip of my nose.
I leave him on the road, blood leaking from his neck and shining in the moonlight.
When I turn around, another man has a gun aimed at me.
He fires, but I manage to roll out of the way in time to avoid it.
Chaos unfolds around us. All I hear is growling, yelping, and gunshots from firing recklessly.
The smell of blood is heavy in the air, and the iron of gunpowder quickly follows it.
I reach out and swipe at the legs of the man who shot at me. He falls to the ground, dropping his gun, and scrambles to try to stand. I bite his ankles, making him scream loud enough that birds fly from the tree top above us.
I don’t waste a moment savoring this even though a part of me would like to. I climb on top of him and bite his neck just like the first one. I leave him limp on the ground before turning around and seeing that most of the fight is over.
Declan’s wolf, a sharp and magnificent white that appears almost luminescent against the moonlight, is dripping in blood. I’m concerned for a moment before he stands tall and proud over one defeated person, and I realize none of it is his.
I scan the battlefield and see that almost all of the men from the vans are dead, with the exception of the one Declan is standing above. We shift back into human form, trying to figure out what’s going on. In everything that happened, we lost two of our pack members.
Cole stays back by the vans with a few others to search through everything.
Any evidence of what they’re doing, orders, etc.
, is useful for us. Some others carry our dead back to their homes so they can be properly mourned, while Declan, Kyran, and I carry our new captive back to the house.
“Let me go, and I swear I’ll tell them you guys weren’t here,” the man pleads with us as we drag him through the dirt.
In almost no time at all, we’re back home, and he’s locked in the basement, covered in dirt and mud from being dragged here.
The three of us put on clothes and prepare for the interrogation.
We know what we’re going in there to find.
There’s no doubt in our mind that he works for Axiom, and we need whatever information we can get.
Kyra and I both follow Declan down the stairs.
The man watches us with wide eyes as he waits for us to speak.
“Unlike you and your companions at Axiom, we actually know kindness,” Declan begins, his face an unmoving stone as he speaks.
“I’m going to offer you a deal you won’t want to refuse.
Tell us everything you know about Axiom and the project you’re working on, and we’ll let you go.
If you lie to us, and we’ll know if you do, I’ll kill you right now. ”
The man nods his head fervently and sits up straighter. “Look, it’s just a job. Ask me anything. I-I have a family.”
“Why are you targeting shifters?” I ask, my arms folded in front of me.
“Because you guys are special. You have abilities and traits that could save humanity. You can heal faster, you can shape shift, and you’re stronger than the average person. By understanding you and trying to bestow these abilities upon the masses, we could be immortal.”
“Is that what they told you in your training video?” Kyran scoffs.
The man doesn’t say anything.
“What happened to all the people at the facility?” Declan asks. His voice is low and icy. “All the people who disappeared.”
“What do you mean?” He wrinkles his brow and tries to read more deeply, then realization dawns on him. “The girl is here then.”
“Answer my question,” Declan demands.
My blood boils at the mention of Addison. Seeing him, someone who very well could have had his hands on her, makes me irate.
“Some of them couldn’t handle the serum. It was too much.” He doesn’t have to give any more details for us to know what he means.
They’ve killed them.
The research that is allegedly for the good of humankind is killing shifters. It could have killed Addison if she hadn’t gotten out when she did.
“Did you hurt her?” I ask before I can think any better of it. “Did you put your hands on my mate and hurt her?”
He blanches, and I can almost smell the fear clinging to him. He opens his mouth like he’s going to refuse, but he swallows hard enough that his Adam’s apple bobs up and down.
“I know what she went through was hard, but every scream had a larger purpose.”
I picture it clearly. Him standing over her with an electric rod, cornering her in a room, and prodding her. Holding her down and injecting her with drugs that slow down her healing abilities, drawing her blood, and trying to use it to make someone else stronger. Weakening her. Holding her captive.
I snap.
I’m seeing red as I propel myself forward, knocking him back onto the ground.
Declan tried to grab me while I was in the air, but he missed.
And once I’m on him, there’s no pulling me back.
My fists crash into his face again and again until nothing but bloody pulp is left on the ground. Even then, I keep punching.
When I finally stop, breathless and covered in another man’s blood, I hear Declan clear his throat behind me. Neither he nor Kyran is angry with me or disturbed by what they’ve seen. Either of them would have done the same thing for their mate.
“If what he’s saying is true, this isn’t the end,” Declan says with a confidence in his voice that has inspired all of us to act time and time again. “They’ll be coming for her, and they’ll be coming for more of us. We need to be proactive. We have to take the fight to them.”