Arctic Bound (34 page)

“Seriously, this can't be all our relationship is based on Vic. I'll hand it to you, you got the moves, but I really want to get to know you.” She said against his lips.

“You will. Let's get out and dry off.”

“I want you to change in front of me.”

“Change?”

She couldn't mean what he thought she meant.

“Yeah, change. I want to see all of your forms.”

Well this wasn't something he was expecting her to ask of him. But if that was what she wanted, he'd do it.

“Right here?”

“Why not here? Just be you. Or are there only certain instances where you turn into your true self?”

She had a point, and that was one of the reasons he was so drawn to her. She allowed him to just be him. Victor pulled himself out of the water and turned to stand in front of her. If he was honest with himself, he was just a tad bit nervous.

“It's going to look painful. It's a bit uncomfortable but other than that I'll be fine.”

She nodded once and then Victor went into his first transformation. That of a huge white wolf. That's when the walls shook with such a force that he almost went into the pool face first.

Nerina jumped from the water, motioning with her hand for him to follow. She didn't hesitate as another blast rocked the mountain.

“Just like dear old dad. He's come at us with almost everything he's got. How he found us, I don't know how, but he did.”

Victor quickly changed back into his human form and as he followed Nerina back to their quarters, he wondered the same thing. Who the hell had given up their location?

Chapter 24

 

People were scattering everywhere. Some were running deeper into the cave, and Victor explained there was a place to hide the women and the children. Which made no sense whatsoever in her book. They needed another entrance. If her father had the ability to take the mountain to the ground, he would.

“You need to get them out. There has to be another exit.” Nerina was strapping up to take the high ground. She had her two sigs, one shotgun, and then her long range modified sniper rifle. Anyone else that was able to shoot a weapon she was giving them guns as well. One of them being Teak.

“You know how to shoot, right?”

“Yeah, Rina. I got this. Just tell me where you want me.”

“You're with me, the rest of you need to take up positions around the opening of the mountain and hold off as many as you can. We don't want them breaching the inside of the den.”

Another blast hit the mountain, loosening the sharp rock embedded into the ceiling as showers of pebbles hit the ground. Victor came back suited up in something that looked strangely like a bulletproof vest, only it went all the way up to his neck.

“Don't I get one?” She asked.

He tossed her a jacket and she grinned pulling it on. It was surprisingly light. Blue and a few men he'd gathered from other Packs were in their Werewolf form and they too wore a sort of armor. It was designed for their changed state. As they made their way through the tunnels, Victor showed her the spot her and Teak could exit through in order to gain a vantage point on the Hunters. It was strategically around the front opening of the den. Nerina knew how her father worked. She'd help him plan a number of ambushes, had even accompanied her uncle on a couple of the raids. Although this wasn't abandoned warehouses that were used as a front for shops, or even the projects. This was a mountain filled with people. Some who could fight, others who could not. She wasn't about to let anything bad happen to them.

Teak and Nerina made their way to a break in the mountain. The ledge was low enough for them to get a straight shot at anyone that tried to make it inside the den, but hidden enough that no one would know their location. Nerina positioned her riffle, setting out enough ammo to take out a dozen armies.

“I want to be down their fighting.” Teak grumbled, plopping down into the dirt next to her.

“Don't worry kid, you're going to see plenty of action up here.”

“Bullshit.”

“Hey!” Nerina snapped. “Watch your mouth.”

Teak laughed.

“You think I'm a child. I'm probably the same age as you.”

Nerina looked back over her shoulder at the boy that looked so much like his mother. He couldn't be more than sixteen if even that.

“Yeah, okay Teak. We don't have time for this.”

“Yeah well,” Teak grabbed her and turned her so suddenly that Nerina didn't have time to anticipate his move. One moment his eyes were playful and the next minute the kid was laying a kiss on her that could rival that of his uncles. Jerking away from him and wiping her mouth she stared wide eyes at the boy. She could see it in his eyes now, the man, lurking just beneath the surface. It was quite the transformation. She'd never noticed it before, but she could see it now. Nerina wasn't sure how to handle the situation.

“I'm almost thirty, Nerina. This time next year, I'll look just like my uncles.”

The hell.

“Well you definitely fooled me.”

“Yeah, well that was the point right. We all thought you were human. To human's I still look like a child, but to my kind, they know. I'm a man.”

“Well, man. Lock that shit down. We have Hunters to shoot.”

Teak nodded his head grinning and lowered himself to the ground next to her. In the clearing below she could see her father's men. She couldn't tell who was an actual human versus a Hunter.

“Can't tell the difference?” Teak asked.

“No, can you?”

“Nope, otherwise we would have pegged you from then jump. Look for the one with silver eyes, they would have just fed.”

Nerina rolled her eyes at him before looking into the scope of her riffle. She didn't see her father anywhere. She saw her uncle and a couple of the guys she worked with in the past. But Roman was nowhere in sight.



 

“I've come for my niece and the Bow.” Nerina's uncle said, stepping into the clearing. Victor could see there were at least a dozen of them in plain sight. There were six Packs here and he knew there would be losses on both side. Victor stood out in the open. He could smell the silver in their bullets. A highly concentrated dose that would be lethal if more than one bullet embedded into their skin.

“You're asking for way too much, Oscar.” Victor said back.

“Am I? Well Nerina belongs with her own kind. You stole the Bow. I think what I'm asking for is right in line and should even the score.”

“I don't see how, considering the Bow rightly belongs to us. The only reason Red had it was to keep it from filth like you.”

“How do you think she got it in the first place? Roman and Red have been in league for centuries. We've just been sitting tight, waiting for the right moment.”

Well that answered one of his questions.

“How did you find us?”

“Oh that was easy. A dog will always stray from its master.”

Oscar turned and when he did, two men stepped forward. Sasha between them. The moment she stepped forward he was immediately relieved and saddened at the same time. Sasha would be a lone wolf now, assuming a Pack member didn't kill her. Her father Eric stepped from the folds of the pack that was still behind him. He'd volunteer to act as a healer should anyone fall during battle.

“Sasha! What have you done?”

“She doesn't belong here father. I did this for the Pack. No harm will come to any of us if you just hand her and the Bow over.” She pleaded with her father. She truly believed what she was saying. She hadn't been harmed yet, but she would be. They would never let this go. Her actions were considered treason, and could result in death if exile was ruled out.

“You don't know what you've done.” Eric said sadly, before turning and walking back toward the others.

“Father, where are you going? What I've done is saved the Pack.”

“No child,” Victor's father said now. “What you did was shame the Pack. Furthermore you've made yourself an outcast. Turning on the Pack is punishable by death. You're dead to us Sasha.”

As if to drive the point home, there was a piercing howl that went up into the darkened sky. Eric's pain could be felt by all. She struggled between the two men trying to get to her father, but the men restrained her.

“Sorry doll, you stay with us. Until they hand over my niece, and the Bow.”

“That's not going to happen, and you know it.”

“Well, then I guess there is nothing more to say.”

“Guess not.” Victor said, turning to head back toward the den.

“Gus, take the mountain down.” Oscar ordered.

Victor heard the sound of the bullet, before he saw it. The man Oscar called Gus was standing in front of what could only be the trigger for a larger explosive that would have indeed taken the mountain down.

How did he not smell the plastics?

But Oscar never got to touch it. He was slumped over in an awkward position just a few inches from the detonation device. Once he went down, another shot rang out. This time it was form Oscar's side. The bullet struck true, hitting Victor square in the shoulder taking him to his knees. He howled in pain as the silver travelled into his blood stream. Shots were flying from both sides now and Blue and his men in their Werewolf form, rushed their enemy without guns, severing limbs from body parts.

Snarls and hisses made up the noise of the forest as man and beast met in the middle. High above the mountain on a ledge, Nerina and Teak were taking out as many men as they could. Others placed in different areas did the same. Colin came to his aid, digging the bullet from his shoulder. It was a hollow tip capped with silver. It allowed the poison to spread into his blood stream. It hurt like a motherfucker. The pain was increasing by the minute. Victor got to his feet zeroing in on Oscar. He couldn't change his form because he was too injured, but he still had most of his strength and he could still take the bastard down.

Oscar was clearing a path through his fellow pack members. He took two down, then three at time with his guns. He bypassed the armor all together, taking nothing but headshots, instantly killing Pack members.

“Oscar!” Victor roared, running straight for him.

Oscar turned, his eyes widening a moment before smiling. Victor made his way over to him in a matter of seconds before both men were facing off.

“You sure you want to do this? It would be a shame to end the next Alpha of Pack Canidae.”

“I'm going to rip your head off with my bare hands and feast on your heart.

Victor didn't wait for more posturing, he attacked. Leaping mid-air to land on Oscar's chest. They both landed on the cold, hard ground with a resounding crack. Oscar's back. But that didn't stop the other man for reaching for his gun. Victor shook the gun from his arm, clamping down hard enough to crack the bones in his wrists. Oscars howled in pain as he tried to free himself from beneath Victor's weight.

“You sound as if you were meant to be a wolf, and not a Hunter.”

“Speak for yourself, dog.”

Victor's claws lengthen and he used them to slice through Oscar's chest until he met bone. The other man screamed and howled as his skin tried to regenerate, but Victor was relentless. He was determined to get to the heart of the man. But Oscar was stronger than he'd given the other man credit for. Oscar somehow reached for a dagger, a silver dagger, and embedded it in the side of Victor's neck taking him down. His eyes were closing of their own accord, and his last thought before he blacked out, was that he never got to tell Nerina how much he loved her.

 



 

Nerina took out as many hunters as she could. But it really wasn't doing much of anything. The ones that were human went down like a rock. The other's that were truly Hunters, well it only slowed their progress.

“This isn't working Teak. We need to get down there.”

“No way, no fucking way, Nerina. Victor wants you up here, out of the way.”

“Well, Victor can suck it. We're going down there. You coming with me or what?”

Teak looked at her, and then down at the battle below. She could see it in his eyes, he wanted in on the fight. He wanted hand-to-hand combat in a bad way.

“Can you change?”

“Of course I can. Just watch your back down there. If something happens to you, my uncle will skin me alive.”

“I will.”

She was a Hunter. The only way she could die was by beheading, and the removal of her heart. She was super strong with fast reflexes and upgraded senses. Nerina didn't even think, she stood, leaping off the cliff. Her body free falling, as her knee almost clipped a jagged edge of the mountain. She was on the ground before she knew it. Landing on her feet like a well-balanced cat. Pain free.

Kick ass!

She only had a moment to revel in her cliff dive, before a Hunter had set it sites on her. This was something she could handle. This was something she could sink her fangs into, literally. And that's just what she did. She fought using her daggers, and her guns, and found that if she shot a Hunter in the eyes directly it would take them down long enough for her to break their necks. Teak in his Werewolf form was close behind and they fought as a team. She would take them down, and he would relieve them of their heads. Blood was everywhere. People on both sides were taking significant hits, and although Nerina knew Victor could hold his own, she still searched for him on the field. When she didn't spot him right away, she grew concerned. It distracted her long enough for a Hunter to tag her with a bullet in the leg. It stung, but that was it. She wasn't a werewolf, so the silver had no effect on her. But that didn't mean she wasn't losing blood, which in turn made her cold, and it made her hungry.

Nerina ripped a piece of cloth from the bottom of her thermal and tied her leg off. A large body in the snow that looked like Victor caught her attention. Limping, she made her way over to where Victor lay almost motionless. His eyes were clothes and his breathing was labored.