Omega's Run (26 page)

We’d found three by the time the last batch had arrived. Two were in that last batch and it had gotten a little hairy in subduing them. The whole thing had been time consuming, but it worked and it had all been Ava’s idea. That wasn’t what had the boys in the back looking at her in such a different light though.

No, what really did it was how she went about getting the information that we’d needed to bring us to our present point. When securing a member of wolf-kind, extra efforts were needed. We had shackles, designed and made expressly to confine our kind. Extremely heavy and thick, the inside coated with silver. Even I would have been hard pressed to break free quickly and none of the plants had anywhere near my level of strength.

They’d been sitting on the floor against the back wall to William’s shop, their buddy’s body lying beside them, while most of us had been trying to figure out how to go about getting information out of them. While
we’d
been working on
that
, Ava had suddenly heaved herself a deep sigh, and fed up with the pack’s arguing back and forth on the matter, had pushed away from the wall.

She marched right over to the first man in the line, pulled her pistol and chambered a non-silver round, pressed the barrel to the guy’s left knee and pulled the trigger. With no one around for easily a mile in any direction, she’d let him howl in pain while the rest of us clapped our hands over our ears to try to blot out the mind numbing shriek.

“Now,” she’d said, leaning down to the guy’s eye level as his knee slowly started to heal. She pressed the gun to his left knee and gave him the most evil smile I had ever seen before and said in the sweetest tone of voice, “Are you going to give us any useful information, or am I going to have to ventilate all of your joints for you, one after another?”

The guy she’d shot had just glared at her but the only woman of the five of them immediately started spilling her guts. Mathias had moved from Indiana, a piece of information that had royally pissed me off at first. Luckily it turned out he’d moved
closer
to where we were. He was rumored to be traveling to another Red Cross facility, this one located near Denver, Colorado. We had two days before any of them were supposed to check in with their handlers so if we wanted to attack, it would have to be fast.

Worked for most of us.

Then came the arguing over who was going to be a part of the attack team hitting the facility in Colorado. Ava had given us the location of several other Red Cross facilities that were being used to hide Hunter activities. Apparently not every facility was an active Hunter front at all times. They tended to move around with only a small few being permanent installations.

We were sending teams to three different locations, the other two teams were made up of volunteers from amongst the local members of the pack and they had been given detailed instructions by Ava on what they were to do.

Attacking Mathias was a job I wanted, no matter what anyone said, and Ava was right there with me. There was no chance in hell that William was going to pass up the opportunity to go after the old bastard and if William was going, then Chloe wouldn’t be left behind; no matter what anyone did or said. With both Alphas going, Markus was a sure thing; no fucking way was the Pack’s Arbiter going to get left behind. As for Craig? He was just the kind of musclebound idiot that we needed on our team when things got rough. He had former military experience and a decent tactical head on his shoulders when his temper didn’t get in the way. I wasn’t terribly familiar with him myself, but Markus had vouched for him, so that was good enough for the Alphas.

Bringing Sharon along had been seen by Chloe as a chance to let the former Beta regain some of herself. Sharon had once been captured by Hunters, and was apparently subjected to some crazy experiments herself, but she had refused to ever speak of them no matter how many times Declan had asked her in the past. Of course, we’d always figured it as torture, not experimentation; now we knew different. Chloe had figured that the chance to really strike back at the hunters would be good for the old bitch. I wasn’t sure I agreed, but nobody could talk her out of it, and when William caved to her demand the rest of them followed suit.

As the Alphas willed it.

I turned onto Sherman St, and parked the truck across the street and down the block from the entrance into the Red Cross.

“Ok, look chuckleheads,” Ava said, turning once again in her seat. She paused for a moment and glanced at me. “Can they hear me?” she asked and pointed out the back window at William’s grey sedan parked behind us. He tapped the horn once a moment later and I grinned at her.

“That answer your question?”

“Yeah, yeah, you guys are great eavesdroppers, don’t act all smug. The upstairs is usually staffed with normal volunteers and employees. As it’s after business hours, we won’t need to worry about that. Keep in mind that the American Red Cross may be a front for the Hunters, but it also really is a legitimate enterprise at the same time. They do a lot of good for people that need it, so if we can avoid causing any damage upstairs it would be greatly appreciated.”

We all nodded silently and William tapped the horn once again. Ava stared at him through the window for a moment before she just sighed and shook her head. “Seriously never going to get used to that,” she muttered and William tapped the horn again, causing me to grin like an idiot as she growled and glared at him through the window. I didn’t look back at him but I’m pretty sure he had an ear to ear shit eating grin on his face.

“You know, your brother’s a really immature character,” she added, turning to look at me and I grinned again, nodding.

“I’ve been telling him that for forty years now. He just doesn’t seem to want to grow up. I think he’s got a bit of a Peter Pan complex or something.”

“That is our Alpha that you’re insulting,” Markus growled and I had an instinctive moment where I found myself wanting to apologize to the Arbiter when he spoke up again. “Just because he wants to act like a twelve year old doesn’t mean we don’t afford him some respect.” Craig burst out laughing and my mouth dropped open. I don’t think I’d honestly ever heard Markus make a joke about the Alpha before. Of course, the previous Alpha had been my father, so I guess it’s doubtful that he would have made any kind of jokes where I could have heard him, anyway. Declan had never had much of a sense of humor.

“Yeah well, tell him to keep it up with the horn, might as well just let them know we’re here. You don’t think that won’t be investigated?” We all sobered up quickly at the thought, the silence stretching.

Ava sighed, “Alright, kids,” she said, finally. “Enough with the fun and games. It’s important to keep things light but time to focus. I’m not used to working with you people.” Craig started to open his mouth but she held up a hand to stall him. “And by ‘you people’, I don’t mean wolf-kind, though that’s true enough as it is. I mean you.” She pointed at Craig. “And you.” Markus. “And them,” she finished, pointing through the window at William’s car.

“I’m used to working with
my
team. People that I’ve known for a long time and fought and trained with. I know what they’re going to do under different circumstances. I know how they’ll react and I know what they’re capable of.” She frowned. “Or I thought I did, at least. Right now the only person in there I think I can count on is my man Mason. He’s in the communications hub and he’ll help keep the alarm muted for as long as possible.”

“I still can’t imagine how you managed that one.” Markus muttered. It’d been bugging me for a while too. Before we’d started out she had borrowed Chloe’s phone and made a call, but she’d walked far enough away that none of us had been able to hear her.

“And you’ll just have to learn to live with that, Sweetheart.” She shot him a smug little grin. “Girl’s gotta have some secrets. Anyway, when we get in there just follow my lead, and please, try not to get yourselves killed.”

We all nodded and as one piled out of the truck. Craig handed Ava her canvas armory and we quickly made our way across the street, stopping against the side of the building.

“That wasn’t funny,” William muttered to me as we made our way around the corner of the building.

“Are you kidding?” I shot back in a quiet undertone. “It was fuckin’ hilarious. Only thing funnier is looking at the bunch of us right now. Good thing it’s three in the morning, if there were any people out on the street right now, someone would’ve already called the cops.

Of the lot of us, only Ava looked remotely like a person that should even be out in public. The males were all wearing loose pants and jackets with no shoes, while Sharon and Chloe wore light sundresses, their bare feet padding silently across the ground. Ava in her boots, cargo pants, and shirt with her jacket over it looked downright formal next to us.

Around the side of the building was a small metal door with no knob but a deadbolt. Pulling a knife from her pocket Ava slid it into the small gap between the door and the frame and with a quick twist of her wrist the door popped open.

“You have got to be shitting me,” Craig muttered, staring wide eyed at the door. “That kind of crap only ever works in movies.”

“I wouldn’t shit you,” she muttered in a saccharine sweet tone of voice. “You’re my favorite turd.”

“The latch is taped open, genius,” I scolded him. “Ava’s inside man, helping us out.” He shut his mouth, lips pressed into a thin line and I could tell I’d upset him. Oh well, suck it up buttercup, time to move on. We didn’t have time to deal with Craig acting like a yokel when we needed speed and stealth.

The inside was dark, all the lights out and as soon as the door closed behind us, Ava pulled a small flashlight from somewhere inside that Joe Rocket jacket of hers and turned it on. The beam was plenty bright for such a small light, and even though the rest of us hadn’t needed it, Ava still did.

The thought rose, unbidden for a moment, and I considered it, startled that it had even occurred to me as my body moved on autopilot, following behind the scent of jasmine and gun-oil. Wait;
still?
As in there was a possibility in my mind that Ava might one day join me as wolf-kind? I nearly scoffed at the very idea, but aware of our situation, I was able to keep myself silent and simply shove the idea to the back of my mind, focusing on the dangerous task ahead.

Ava stopped outside an elevator and turned to look at us. “I’m not positive we’ll all fit,” she muttered, eyeing us all. I looked at the elevator doors. It wasn’t a small elevator. One human woman and six wolf-kind should fit just fine.

“How long does it take you guys to change into a more combat ready form?” she asked, and suddenly I understood her concern. If all six of us went hybrid we would seriously tax the amount of available space in the elevator.

“Only a few seconds, but of all of us I believe William is the fastest. Fucker always was quick.”

“You’re just slow,” William muttered and I could hear the grin in his voice even though he was behind me. “And actually, you didn’t get a chance to see her before, but Chloe is a natural Alpha. Her change is even faster than mine.”

I had to admit, I was impressed by that. I had seen as much when she didn’t change immediately on her first full moon, but I hadn’t seen any more of her after that until I had been sentenced and branded, and we hadn’t exactly been showing off transformations at the time.

“So what I’m hearing,” Ava cut in. “Is that you four,” she pointed at me, Markus, Craig, and Sharon. “Should get your game faces on and you two can change on the fly. Close enough?”

I grunted and nodded. “For government work.” She shot me a grin.

“Alright, people. Get pretty.” As one we all started shedding clothes, even William and Chloe. Once we were all naked, Ava watched with a kind of horrified fascination as four of us began to change. Her eyes were centered on me and somehow I felt a pang that she would see the monster underneath my skin that had always been here. The beast she’d spent most of her life fighting.

I was already tall to her but as I changed I grew and she seemed to shrink before my eyes, getting smaller until my head touched the ceiling and I was forced to hunch over slightly. There was a sickening sound of bones breaking and reforming, an almost liquid sloshing noise as my internal organs shifted and moved inside my body. My knees suddenly cracked loudly and bent backwards as my feet grew longer and I stood up on the balls, heels in the air. Lastly my arms lengthened as thick short fur sprouted along my body and my face pushed out into a short snout, mouth filled with two rows of wickedly curved teeth.

I knew my eyes had taken on an amber gleam and I growled as my senses grew even stronger, a low rumbling deep in my barrel sized chest. In hybrid form I was just over eight feet tall and just as massively muscled as in my human shape. Throughout it all I never once took my eyes from Ava’s and I didn’t see the fear or revulsion that I expected. I sniffed lightly at the air and all I could smell was jasmine and gun-oil. There was no fear in her scent as she stared at me and I resisted the urge to yip with pure joy at that realization.

“Come on little doggies,” she said in a sing-song voice. “We’ve got damage to do.” And with that she pressed the button to open the elevator doors.

I was in the far back in the corner as the largest of our group with Markus and Sharon next to and in front of me respectively. Craig stood closest to the doors with the still human William and Chloe standing with Ava by the bank of buttons. Beneath the buttons for the floors above us Ava used her knife to pry open a small, locked panel, to reveal another set of buttons that any of the regular staff and volunteers that frequented the building would likely never have found.

The line went down seven floors and Sharon whined slightly, her ears lying flat to her head as she saw the ascending row of numbers. I was sure she had her own memories of a place like this, and I couldn’t say I wasn’t feeling a bit of trepidation myself. Psycho Doc Helen was all too fresh in my mind at the moment but I pushed it down and growled quietly, a reassuring sound that seemed to calm her some. Ava glanced back at me once before she nodded and pressed
B7.