As far as I know. Jesus fucking Christ, I’ve heard about your kind. Never thought I’d see the day when I’d lay eyes on one. Sweetheart, get in that elevator, get out of here, and do not come back, y’hear me? You’re exactly what they’re looking for.
What?
I didn’t get any answers, as the lift door was finally sliding open.
“Ms Bruce!”
Go, girl! the wolf urged. Don’t stop for us. We’re fucked now anyway. Get the fuck out.
Is there anyone at home I can contact? Someone who can get you out.
Lone wolf, sweetheart. No one’s coming for me. But…
“Ms Bruce!”
I leapt into the lift, smashing the close door button.
Get word to the Yellowstone Pack. They need to know—
I sprinted out of the lift, running out the doors, never so glad to feel the sun on my skin. Janey called after me, following hot on my heels, even as I lurched over to the lovely landscaped bushes in the car park. My breakfast came hurling up in violent lurches, and only Janey sweeping in to hold my hair kept it from getting matted with it.
“Shit, Shannon, are you OK?”
“Get in the car if you’re coming,” I said. “I need to get home. Stomach bug.”
“Of course. Do you want me to drive?”
I shook my head as I jumped in the driver’s seat, waiting for Janey to slam the door before shoving it into gear. Hollingsworth came running out, waving a hand or something, no doubt with a whole barrage of threats to keep me there. Fuck this, fuck that, and fuck this job.
“That bad, huh?” Janey asked as I careened down the road, only straightening up once we got clear of the gates.
“I said that aloud?”
“You sure did. What the hell happened?”
“I dunno, but I do not want to work at that place. I’ll go back to waitressing at the pub if that’s what it takes, but fuck that place.”
“Oh, thank god!” she said, hanging onto the oh fuck handle. “That guy is creepy. Wanking off cats for a living?”
“I think I’d rather give hand jobs in an alleyway,” I shot back. “Better conversation at least.”
She burst out laughing, and it felt like a cool washcloth on my forehead, cooling me and settling my stomach all at once. Find the pack. Report back. And the Yellowstone Pack… I thought. Ask them about that.
Chapter 12
“Jesus, Shannon, are you OK?”
This should have been exciting, having Jai Heller enter my bedroom for the first time, but as I paced back and forth across the floor, Buster whined nervously. I stopped and tried my best to push reassuring thoughts I didn’t feel at my animals. Jai seemed to realise this was a big moment too, hovering in my doorway, then he strode towards me, his boots clumping across the floor.
“Hey…” His voice was gentle and sweet as he loomed over me, somehow a comforting wall between me and the outside world. “Shannon…” He reached out a hand, slowly, like you would to a spooked animal. “You called, and I raced over here. Gonna have to do some catch up hours to the McElroy’s, but I’m here. Tell me what’s got you scared.”
“Scared?” My head jerked up, and I looked him in the eye. “Not scared. I have to run. This place, the land, it’ll go back to the pack, I guess. Janey’ll need some time to find somewhere else, and then there’s the dogs…”
“Shannon, tell me what's going on.”
“She told me, over and over. We don’t get discovered, we don’t let people know what we are, and if we do, we run. They know. They’ve got a whole lockup full of shifters up on the hill. They’re milking them for sperm, creating this bank, ostensibly to save the animals.” I waved my arms in the air vaguely. “For what, I have no fucking idea.” I looked up at Jai as if seeing him for the first time, the dirt stains on his shirt and his boots, the look of concern on his face. His brows kept creasing and then smoothing a little, his eyes tracking my movements. “God, you guys have gotta get out too. That has to be why they’re here. Why Harvest Grove? Why in that fucking prison? Jesus, they’re gonna come for you too.”
“Shannon…”
He put his arms out like he was going to sweep me up into them, but I wouldn’t, couldn’t let that happen. I ducked under them, going to the bag I had half packed, and pawed through, looking for my phone.
“Where is it?” I muttered, hating the way my voice rose. “Where the fuck is it?”
“Shannon.”
I heard the whip in his voice, felt it lash down across my skin, soft as a feather, sharp as a knife. His hand wrapped around my wrist, stilling me until it was just him, me, and my madly beating heartbeat.
Go…go…go…go… it thudded, the impulses Nan had spent so long ingraining in me beating like a drum. But they were met by an equal and opposite force—Jai. His grip was gentle as he turned me around, pulling me close until my face was buried in his chest. My arms went around him as I rested my cheek on the hard muscle, smelling sun warmed cotton, earth, and him. I was ashamed of how good it felt when he stroked his hand through my hair, just doing that over and over, until my breathing evened out.
“Are you OK? Did they hurt you?”
I felt like I was losing something when he peeled me off him, holding me still as I wavered on my feet. I felt like I’d had a big cry or something, scoured clean by tears. I shook my head. “No, not really.”
“Tell me about not really. Tell me what happened.”
He directed me out my balcony doors to sit on the old wicker chairs there, dragging his over until it was up against mine. I sat down, seeing he was about to help me do it, like I was a child. I frowned as he sat across from me, his grin showing me just how much that mattered. When he settled, he took my hands in his and rubbed them slowly, that feeling and the sun on my skin helping dispel the omniscient chill I’d only just noticed.
“Tell me from the start,” he said. “Tell me everything.”
So I did.
It seemed surreal to describe what I did in the bright sunlight, but the words came, vomiting forth much like my breakfast, until my voice and my heart broke upon them.
“They wanted me to…”
“I know, love.”
“And it would have been…”
“But you didn’t. That was so fucking brave, Shan. I know what you and your nan thought about sticking your head up.”
I remembered my lurching run from the place and felt anything but.
“He’s still in there. They all are. Every fucking day, they’re taking semen samples, and for what? Why would they go to all this trouble? You should see the place. It’s worth a bloody fortune. Someone with real deep pockets is bankrolling that place, and for what? Why would they want shifter semen?”
“Especially as a whole bunch of us give it away for free,” he said with a smirk, but that died a quick death when I shot a look at him. “I’m gonna have to tell the alphas about this, you know that, right?”
“Of course. You’re going to need to mobilise the pack. The alphas were right. If they find out what you are… Do you have to take wolf form?” I asked. “They seem to like hunting down your animal forms. Your instincts overrule your human brains, and you fall into traps.”