Kalen Read online

  Kalen could tell the man had already seen the syringes in the twins’ hands.

  He put himself between his mate and her brothers and raised a dark brow. “Is there any reason you two idiots are holding syringes? If you plan to inject us with something, be prepared for a fight. I will not go down easily.” He backed toward his mate. “Back your way through the door, love.”

  “No one plans to inject you with anything, asshole,” Randy said, practically snarling the words. He held up the syringe. “It’s empty. See?”

  Cameron followed suit, showing that his syringe was also empty. “We just injected ourselves.”

  “With what?”

  Their sister stepped forward, her blue eyes filled with fear. She was blonde like her brothers, but that was where the resemblance stopped. A great deal shorter than her siblings, she stood staring at them, biting her lip, her eyes filled with fear. “What have you done?”

  “We’ve injected ourselves with what we hope is the serum that will make us like your husband,” Cameron said as he started to pant. “I’m afraid it’s already taking affect.”

  “Yeah,” Randy agreed, “and if it works, that means I’ll be on even ground with your asshole husband and I can beat the shit out of him the next time he calls me Junior.” He bared his teeth in what he probably thought looked like a grin, but with his pain, it looked more like a grimace. “Though, I’d rather shoot his dumb ass.”

  “You shouldn’t have used yourself as a test subject, my brother.”

  Stepping forward, Dimitri caught Cameron as he keeled over unconscious.

  “Bite me, dog boy.” Those were the last words Randy said before he fell over in a dead faint.

  Dimitri looked down at him and grinned. “Next time it will be me calling him dog boy.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The two men were out longer than anyone expected. Maybe the serum worked differently on everyone. Ally bit her thumb as she watched the two men finally beginning to stir. At least they were still alive. That was something.

  Their sister, Charity, had sat with them the entire time. Tears ran down her face as she rocked back and forth. “How could they do this to me, the big jerks?” She slapped them both on the arm, then took each of their hands in one of hers.

  Ally shook her head. The woman had alternated between crying over and smacking her brothers for the last two and a half hours. When they woke up, they would no doubt want to know where all of their bruises came from.

  Randy came to, first. At least she was pretty sure it was Randy. “Hi there, little sis.” He smiled up at her.

  “Don’t you little sis me, you creep!” She smacked him on the arm again.

  “Ow!” Reaching over with his free hand, he rubbed his bicep. “How many times have you hit me there? That hurt like hell.”

  “Not enough, you big dummy!” She smacked him again. “How could you two do that? What do you think Mom would have said if you’d both just killed yourselves? How could you be so stupid?”

  “We did it for you,” Cameron said as he sat up, rubbing his head. “My head hurts.” He looked at Randy. “Does your head hurt?”

  Charity reached over and smacked Randy upside the head. “It does now.”

  “Ow, dammit! Stop that!” Randy said, rubbing the back of his head.

  Ally wanted to laugh, she really did. This family was a bunch of cut-ups. There was no doubt that they loved each other, though.

  The woman turned to her other brother. “And don’t give me that we-did-it-for-you crap either.” She poked him in the chest. “You two did this for you. Don’t think I haven’t known how much you wanted to be weres, you jerks.” She glared at them. “I appreciate the fact that you wanted to go first, but you could have at least waited until I got here.” Tears streamed down her face. “What if the worst had happened?” She smacked them both again. “I hate you guys sometimes.” Standing, she ran from the room, her mate hot on her heels.

  “Boy, I didn’t think she cared that much,” Randy said as he stood. He looked around. “How long do you think it’ll be before we change?”

  Cameron stood, rubbing his stomach. “I think I’m going to change any minute.” He spun around. “Do I have a tail yet?”

  “No, you idiot.” Randy gave him a dirty look. “Don’t you dare change before I do.”

  “I might not have a choice. They said it hurts like hell if you try to hold it back.”

  “Pain is just a weakness leaving your body. Deal with it.”

  Ally left the room. She couldn’t watch the two retired Rangers go through the pain of conversion. She didn’t think she could take it. Besides, when she rubbed her stomach she could feel the change coming upon her again.

  At least the shifts came farther apart now that she didn’t fight it, but it still sucked that she couldn’t choose when she wanted to change. Milly could choose already. It must have had something to do with her age.

  Rushing back to their room, she slammed the door behind her and started to undress.

  Kalen opened the door and stuck his head in. “You okay?”

  She shook her head. “It’s coming again. Why can’t I choose when I change, like Milly can?” She envied the older woman’s ability. She’d even proven it in the middle of the kitchen after the men left to talk about the MacDonald brothers’ arrival.

  “You will, baby.” He entered the room, closing the door behind him. “I thought maybe you ran off because you couldn’t stand the thought of watching them change.”

  “That was part of it.”

  “Don’t fight it, Ally.”

  “I wasn’t planning to.” She smiled at him. “I just came up here because I’m not in the habit of undressing in front of strange men.”

  Kalen grinned. “I remember.”

  Heat and pain engulfed Ally as she thought of her wolf. She thought of growing hair all over her body, her face elongating into a muzzle and the sensation of her hands changing to paws with the nails growing long.

  Before she knew it, she was a wolf looking up at Kalen. He grinned down at her as he began to strip.

  What are you doing?

  “I plan to join you as a wolf and show you why it’s wonderful to be a were.”

  How do you plan to do that? If you’re going to show me how to run free in the woods, we’ve already done that. She watched as he shifted his shape, then lowered his head to watch her with his keen wolf eyes.

  What I plan to show you, I plan to do right here. Kalen moved closer and Ally backed away.

  I am not doing that as a wolf.

  Kalen chuckled. Wanna bet?

  Two hours later, Ally watched as the men readied to leave. With the twins and their brother-in-law there were twelve men ready to invade the laboratory where they thought Dr. Thornton held the pureblood were. She wished there were more.

  “Don’t worry, little sister.” Kalen’s brother Galen leaned down to press a kiss against her forehead. “I’ll take care of him.” He glanced over at his brother. “God only knows he can’t tie his shoes without me.”

  “I heard that,” Kalen called over his shoulder. “Don’t make me treat you the same way Randy treats his brother.”

  Galen chuckled. “See? He’ll do as I say. It’s in the way he tries to act tough.”

  Smiling, Ally backed away as the men loaded their guns into their vehicles. Kalen jogged back to her and pressed a kiss against her lips. “You’ll be safe here, Ally. No one but the people here has ever been to this safe house, and half of them had to be carted in blindfolded to keep it secret.” He held her close and she took a deep breath. She loved the way he smelled of soap, citrus and man.

  “Be safe,” she whispered against his neck.

  “You, too.” He smiled down at her. “Remember, go into the house, lock all of the doors and windows, then make your way to the bolt hole and lock yourself in there as well. The house could burn down around you and you’d be safe.”

  “Okay.”

  He turned t
o leave and it was all she could do to keep herself from following him and begging him to stay. When had she grown so attached to him?

  It was just yesterday that they’d met, wasn’t it? How could she go from being Independent Ally who answered to no one to this scared quivering crybaby who couldn’t seem to function without her man?

  She took a deep breath and went back into the house. “Now, we wait, huh?” She looked around at the other women left with her. The only one of them allowed to go was Carly, and that was only because they needed her to help her mate take out the video cameras.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I don’t believe they had this lab here all this time and we missed it,” Randy said as they looked out over the compound.

  “Of course we missed it,” Bastien replied. “Who would have thought to look for a testing lab on a cow farm?”

  “Why not?” Cameron asked, looking through his sight. “They could test all they wanted and no one would even give the trucks going in and out of here a second glance, especially when most of them were legitimate milk haulers.”

  Bastien shook his head. “It just galls me to think that this damned thing has been here and we’ve overlooked it for two years.”

  Dimitri settled next to Cameron. “What do you see, my brother?” He squinted down into the clearing. “I can see nothing with only my eyes.”

  “Then you should have grabbed some NVG from out of the truck. I know a werewolf’s sight is better than a human’s after dark, but these things rock.” Randy threw his brother-in-law a pair of night vision goggles he pulled from his pack. “Here, take one of my pairs.” He shook his head. “Babysitting. Why am I always fucking babysitting?”

  With a grin, Dimitri pulled the strap over his head, fitting the pair to his face. “Strange how these fit me when your head is so much larger than mine.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Can you two stop your bickering long enough to get the damned job done?”

  “Probably not,” Cameron answered for his brother. “Randy lives to give Dimitri a hard time. He’d probably lighten up if our bother by marriage would stop calling him Junior.”

  “How many guards do you see down there?” Kyle asked.

  “I don’t see any guards. I see a lot of cowhands though, which is strange considering they should all be at home this time of night.” He paused. “Nope, wait a minute. That cowhand has an Uzi. How interesting.”

  “Are we sure we’re in the right place?” Kalen asked. The last thing he wanted to do was kill a bunch of innocent farmers.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Randy looked up and stared at him as though he was as dumb as a bag of hammers. “Somehow, I don’t think milk cows respond well to Uzis. Does anyone have any other idea why they’d be carrying them?”

  “Okay,” Randy said with a grin. “I’m going down to make a target of myself. “Please pull me out if I get hit.” He stood and checked his weapons. “If someone shoots at me, you’ll know we’re in the right place.”

  “Don’t get yourself killed, bro.” Cameron didn’t look up, but still stared through his sight.

  “Cry for me if I do, will ya?”

  “Riiiiight,” Cameron replied as Randy started down the hill.

  Bastien looked over at Carly. “Shall we?”

  “I don’t know if it will work when we don’t know where they are,” Carly replied.

  “We have to give it a try.” Taking his mate’s hand, Bastien closed his eyes. Carly followed suit closing her fingers around Bastien’s hand.

  After a minute, sparks arced up over six different light posts surrounding the barn closest to them.

  “That must be where they’re at.” Cameron stayed still, still staring through his sight. “Oh, no you don’t, asshole.” He squeezed the trigger on his rifle and two seconds later a sentry dropped to the ground. Once he took one out, others came running. Randy, lower on the hill, was an easy target.

  Cameron fired off shot after shot and one at a time the gun-toting farmhands fell to their deaths. “I think that’s got them all.” He looked away from his sight and grinned.

  Standing, he picked up his gun and slung it over his shoulder before bending down to retrieve his bi-pod.

  “Not all of them, my brother,” Dimitri said. “There are always more inside.”

  “Damn… You’re right.” He grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m the best.”

  “Yes, you are,” Dimitri agreed. “Just so long as you can keep your beast at bay.”

  Cameron shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t. Believe me, when I tell you I have killed many men with my bare hands. It’s not something that will deter me.”

  “Perhaps,” Dimitri said with a nod. “But have you ripped their throats out with your teeth?”

  Kalen chuckled as the color drained from the retired Ranger’s face.

  “Hmm…” his brother-in-law said. “I thought perhaps you hadn’t.”

  “Sonofabitch!” Cameron swore. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “That is what I am here for, my brother.” Dimitri slapped Cameron on his shoulder. “Where you and your twin are good with weapons, I am good with my teeth.” He smiled, baring his teeth. “Do not worry, my brother. I shall protect you both if the need to change overwhelms you.”

  “You know, Dimitri, I’ve always told Randy that deep down, you’re a nice guy.”

  Dimitri smiled. “He knows, Cam. Believe me, or he would have tried to kill me for sleeping with your sister by now.”

  Cameron grinned. “Don’t think he hasn’t thought about it.”

  “Time to move in,” Bastien said. “And it’s time for silence. Use the common communication channel now.”

  “This is going to be so cool,” Cameron said.

  It would be more cool if you would use it.

  Cameron grinned at Dimitri. Awesome way to communicate.

  Only if your enemies do not know how to do so.

  Cameron turned to him with a frown. What’s to say they don’t know how?

  Bastien nudged Cameron on the shoulder and pointed to the man who just walked out of the barn, weapon raised as he talked into his radio. By the fact that they are still using radios.

  Oh. Good point. Cameron looked around. I hope you sent your wife back to the cars, Alpha.

  I have. Bastien gave him a scowl. Do you think I’m crazy enough to bring her down here into this mess? Now, be quiet until there is something of importance to say.

  Yes, sir.

  They all made their way down to the compound without being seen. Randy, already in position, awaited their arrival. He watched the gun-toting farmhand as they all made their descent into the pasture next to the barn.

  When the last man reached the fence, Randy pounced on his target and took him out using a chokehold. He dropped the man after he lost consciousness and utilized the man’s belt and shoelaces to secure him.

  Good job, Randy. Bastien slapped him on the shoulder. I always knew you two were a good asset—human or were, I’m glad you’re on our side.

  Of course we are. Randy frowned at the man he’d just overtaken. When our government can turn against its own people the way it has, it’s time to fight back.

  I don’t think it’s your government doing this. I think it’s a few rogue generals who have sanctioned it.

  It doesn’t matter. The secretary of defense should know where every dime is going. If he doesn’t, then it’s time to replace him. He paused for a moment, looking grim. And if he does, perhaps it’s time for a forced retirement.

  Now, don’t even go there, Randy. You are not targeting the secretary of defense.

  Randy gave his brother a blank look. I never said I was.

  Bastien carefully led the way into the barn. The entrance to their lab has to be in here somewhere. The question is, where.

  At that moment, a noise caught their attention. “Move, move, move,” Randy hissed, forgetting to use the mental form of communication as they all s
cattered in several directions. A moment later, a trough moved to the side and two men emerged from below the floor.

  “Whaddya think, Hawkins?” One of them said, his gun to his shoulder as he peered around the interior of the barn.

  “I think you’d better shut up before you give our position away again, now move it, Riley.”

  “I don’t know about this whole situation, Hawk. I mean, what are we guarding down there that’s so important? One lousy prisoner can’t be that valuable that they had to build a special prison for him just so nobody can find him.”

  Kalen heard the sound of flesh meeting flesh as he assumed Hawkins punched Riley to get him to be quiet.

  “I said, shut up,” Hawkins reiterated.

  Riley mumbled something he couldn’t quite catch. He might have, had the two men been fifty feet closer.

  The men continued to move closer to their position and Kalen wondered how many more men they would have to kill before they found out what was below their feet.

  When the two men got even with the stalls they hid in, both Dimitri and Bastien attacked, knocking the two men to the ground and bashing their heads into the hard cement floor.

  With the two men unconscious, Bastien and Dimitri tied them up using their own articles of clothing. They sure were resourceful. He’d give them that.

  “Let’s go. Now that we know how to get in there, we’ll go down. There’s nothing like having the element of surprise.”

  After moving the trough aside, the men found their way down a darkened staircase. When they reached the bottom, they followed a long hall, encountering no one.

  “Where is everyone?” Kyle whispered. “I feel like I’m in some sort of ghost town or something.”

  “You’re lucky you’re not one of the ghosts in it,” Galen grumbled, and Kalen couldn’t have agreed more. Though he knew now was not the time to pick up where they’d left off, he and Galen were still of a mind to beat the shit out of Kyle again.

  “Shut up, you three.” Kalen wanted to snarl, to tell them to stop bickering. A man’s life could very well depend on their answers and their attention. “We’re here to save a man, not bicker like children.”