Bonded (37 page)

Brandi rattled the
grate. “Peter? You there? Did you hear any of that?”

“Some, but my
human ears aren’t as keen as yours. Fill me in on the details.”

She did and by the
time she was done both she and her wolf were fighting a frenzied
need to escape and find their mate. “I’ve got to get word to Reno
and tell him to get out of Victor’s territory.”

Peter swore.
“Okay. I think Klaus might still be below. Let me see if I can get
his attention.”

Brandi listened to
the sound of furniture being moved about and then heard Peter
calling out. As she waited, she kept glancing nervously at the
door. Any minute now she expected Victor to appear demanding to
know what was going on.

After what seemed
like ages, Peter called to her again. “It’s okay, Klaus has your
friend with him.” Brandi slumped against the wall, relieved to know
that for the moment Reno was safe. “But he says it’s time we make
our move if Victor’s visitors are on their way.”

“Move? Does that
mean he can get me out of here?” She straightened and pressed her
hands tightly against the wall wishing she could talk to Klaus
herself rather than receive the information second hand.

“He has a master
set of keys that should still work. He’s going to get us all out of
here. Word will be sent to our spouses and pups to head into the
mines. There’s a prearranged meeting spot, everyone’s just been
waiting for the signal.”

“And then
what?”

“We sit tight.
Klaus has a plan to rid our pack of the Purists. That’s all we need
to know.”

Brandi clamped her
mouth shut, not at all pleased with the idea of ‘sitting tight,’
however, making sure Reno was safe was her first concern. She’d
deal with the rest later. “So, how’s this going to work?”

“Someone is coming
to unlock the doors. We’ll slip out of the building and head for
the tunnels.”

Brandi made a
small noise of acknowledgement, while glancing at her watch. How
long would it take to get someone up here? Worrying her lip
nervously, she paced the room, hoping Reno would listen to Klaus
and stay below. If he came up his scent would be a red flag to
every Lycan in the town, though how he’d managed to get this far
undetected had her completely puzzled.

She could just
imagine the war of wills that was going on below her. Both men
would be glaring at each other, brows lowered and chins jutted.
Reno would demand the keys, believing that as an Enforcer it was
his job to lead the rescue of the trapped humans. And knowing Klaus
from years past, the Alpha would feel the job was his.

A sound drew her
attention from the confrontation she was imagining. A door was
opening. Now soft footfalls. Someone was unlocking her door. Brandi
tensed, hoping it was a friend but prepared to fight if it wasn’t.
The knob turned and the door cracked open.

“Brandi...?” A
soft voice called out sounding quite young.

She stepped
forward warily in case it was a trap. “That’s me.”

The door swung
completely open and the hallway light revealed a young girl of
about twelve or thirteen. “Hi! I’m Katie. Do you remember me?”

Brandi felt her
eyebrows shoot up. Klaus’ granddaughter? She was certainly older
than the last time she’d seen the youngster which was several years
ago, but still way too young to be involved in a situation as
dangerous as this!

“Sure, I remember
you, but—"She glanced behind the girl thinking Klaus or some other
adult must be there as well.

Katie followed the
direction of her gaze and must have quickly figured out what was on
her mind. “No one’s with me. Gramps and Reno were busy arguing
about who should come up here, so I just grabbed the keys and came
myself!” She rolled her eyes. “No one notices what pups do. Come
on, let’s get Mr. Channing and the others and then we can get out
of here.”

Brandi opened her
mouth to scold, but then thought better of it. She’d let Klaus deal
with the child. Leaving the room, she kept watch while Katie
released Peter and then slipped to the old jail cells in the back.
When everyone was free, they quickly made their way to the front
door.

“Which way?”
Brandi paused, her hand on the door knob. There was no way this
many people could sneak out of the middle of town.

“Just off the
step. There’s an old cellar hatch concealed by the bushes. It’s
unlocked. There’s a tunnel below this building that leads into the
mines. That’s how Gramps and I got here.”

“I never knew
that.” Brandi whispered as she eased the door open and checked if
anyone was outside.

“Me either,” Peter
chimed in.

“Old family
secret,” Katie whispered back, a glint in her eye showing she was
obviously enjoying the ‘adventure’ she was having.

They slipped out
of the building and off the steps. Just as Katie had said, hidden
in the bushes was an old cellar door. As they pushed through the
overgrown shrubs, the hatch silently eased open revealing Klaus’
tense face. “Katherine Marie, I ought to ground you for a
month!”

Katie maintained a
repentant expression for all of about two seconds before a grin
broke out on her face. “But you won’t.”

The older man
growled, but gestured for them to hurry inside. Katie entered
first, followed by Peter and the others. Finally, Brandi stepped in
brushing past her old Alpha and descending into the cool, dark
depths. As she reached the bottom, hands grabbed at her. Her own
automatically moved up in a defensive gesture and found themselves
pressed to a hard muscular chest. She jerked her eyes upward and,
just as Klaus closed the hatch and plunged the cellar into
darkness, she caught a glimpse of Reno’s expression.

Anger. Desire.
Worry fading into relief. They all passed over his face in rapid
succession and underlying it all... Had she seen shades of love?
Her breath caught in her throat as hope bloomed in her chest. Then
his lips crashed down on hers and all thoughts fled.

Reno wasn’t
thinking and he didn’t care. When Brandi stepped down into the
cellar, something had come over him and he hadn’t been able to stop
himself. He needed to hold her, taste her, stake his claim.

His mouth was hard
on hers, demanding a response, and she gave it, melting into him,
opening for him. He tasted her sweetness, inhaled her scent, and
revelled in the way she slid her hands up over his body. A growl
rumbled in his chest. Cupping her lushly curved rear, he pressed
her closer to his throbbing cock, wishing they were alone. She
whimpered and it took all his will-power not to peel her clothes
off. Slowly, reluctantly, he pulled back from the scorching kiss,
damning the darkness that didn’t allow him to see her face.

Physically, she
wanted him and while that pleased him, he wanted more. So many
questions swirled through his head. He wanted to delve into her
mind and know what she’d been thinking that afternoon; if she
really was just a danger junkie looking for the thrill of being
with an Enforcer or if he’d actually meant something to her. Did
she really want to leave Lycan Link or was she being pressured to
go? And most importantly, was she really considering Victor as a
potential mate? Just the thought caused a feeling of panic in him
and he...

Damn, someone was
poking him in the ribs! Turning to snarl, he heard a young voice
speaking beside him.

“Glad to see each
other?” Reno could hear the hint of laughter in Katie’s voice.

Loosening his grip
on Brandi, he felt her pull away and heard her inhale deeply. Then,
as smooth as silk, she addressed her old Alpha, barely any
indication in her tone that she’d just been in a hot clinch with
him. “Klaus, it’s been a while.”

“Good to see you,
too.” There was a definite chuckle underlying Klaus’ words and Reno
grinned as he thought of how Brandi would react to that barely
suppressed laughter. Once again he wished it wasn’t so dark. He’d
love to see the expression on her face.

Klaus made no
direct reference to their embrace though and started to issue
orders. “Follow me. We need to be well into the tunnels before they
discover you’ve left.”

The others started
to move, but Brandi held back. “That won’t work. They’ll track our
scents down here and still find us.”

Reno remembered
the remaining chemical mask in his pocket and pulled it out. “I can
help with that. This is a product Lycan Link has been developing.
There isn’t much left, but it will cover our trail for a while.” He
took a moment to explain how the concoction worked.

“Won’t they just
follow the tunnel along anyway?” Peter asked.

“No. There’s more
than one tunnel, so they won’t know which one to take, will they
Gramps?” Katie’s pride in her grandfather was evident in her
voice.

“That’s right.
Over the years, my family’s created a veritable underground maze;
it's partly a hobby and partly a contingency plan in case
circumstances like these ever arose. Unless a person knows which
tunnels to take, they could be lost underground for weeks,
stumbling around in the dark.”

Reno barely
stifled the distressed sound that rose inside him at the thought of
being lost underground.

“You all right?”
He sensed Brandi looking at him, but thankfully Klaus began leading
them toward the tunnel.

“Get moving. I
need to start spraying the chemical mask behind us.” His tone was
gruffer than he intended and she huffed and moved away. Well,
better that she was in a snit than him having to confess his new
found phobia.

Once they were all
in the tunnel, Klaus shut the door, which was cleverly concealed
behind an old shelf. As it slid into place, Reno felt his breathing
accelerate and forced himself to count each breath. In... Out...
Evenly paced... It wasn’t working. He throat tightened and he gave
a cough trying to relax the muscles.

“The air isn’t
very pleasant, is it?” Brandi commented, obviously thinking that
was his problem.

He grunted in
agreement and tried to concentrate on his job; spritzing the
chemical around the edges of the door. It wasn’t exactly the
recommended application method, but it would have to do.

A faint light
flickered—Klaus was passing out flashlights—and as the illumination
grew into a mellow glow Reno muttered under his breath. “Thank the
Lord.”

Brandi peered at
him over her shoulder. “What was that?”

“Nothing.” He gave
the squishy ball on the bottle of mask an extra firm squeeze. “Just
happy we’re safe in these...er...wonderful tunnels.”

“Oh.” She frowned,
staring at the bottle in his hand. “You know, that looks...” she
paused, sniffed, "and smells sort of like perf—”

“Don’t you dare
say it!” Reno cut her off, scowling. He definitely was going to
have words with the developers of the product. His men were
not
going to go around smelling like flowers!

Before Brandi
could reply, Katie was urging them to keep up.

“You don’t want to
get lost down here, do you?” The girl’s cheery voice echoed
strangely and Reno gave a start when he noticed the others were
several yards ahead.

“You heard her,
get moving.” His hand pressed against Brandi’s back and she hurried
along.

One tunnel lead
into another, each seemingly identical to the last with small
chunks of rock litterin the ground and rough stone walls leaching
trickles of water. Wooden posts and beams provided bracing every
few feet, streaks of rust identifying the presence of nail heads.
Reno wondered how long the struts had been there and how close they
were to rotting away and allowing the ceiling to cave in. It wasn’t
a thought he wanted to dwell on for too long.

Eventually, the
bottle of mask ran out, but based on all the twists and turns
they’d taken so far, Reno decided no one would be able to track
them anymore.

Without that job
to occupy his mind however, he became increasingly aware that they
were deep underground. Tons of soil and rock were over their head
just waiting to crash down and seal them in this hell-hole forever.
Their footsteps echoed down the long passageways and their shadows
loomed on the walls creating menacing shapes. Reno could feel
nervous sweat forming on his skin.

It seemed like
ages, but probably wasn’t, before Klaus called back. “We’re almost
there.”

“How can you
tell?” Brandi asked. “Everything looks the same to me.”

“I’m following the
marks on the wall,” the Alpha explained. “If you didn’t know where
to look, you wouldn’t see them, but I’ve put markers all along the
way. Each tunnel junction has a sign that tells which way to go
depending on your destination.” He lifted his flashlight to
illuminate an arrow mark near the ceiling. “If you’re ever down
here alone, just follow these and you’ll end up in our safe
room.”

“That’s good to
know, isn’t it, Reno?” Brandi glanced back at him.

“Yeah.” He nodded
while muttering under his breath that it would be a cold day in
Hell before he ever set foot in these tunnels again.

“The other tunnels
all lead somewhere too, don’t they Gramps?” Katie boasted.

“Yep. Some lead to
other exits, like this one.” He pointed to the left. “If you see
one ‘x’ then it leads to exit number one, the closest to town. Two
x’s are for one higher up, near the old conveyor. Three would be
the third and so on.”

“This one has a
triangle,” Peter pointed out, peering up at a mark near the
ceiling.

“Triangles are
danger. The tunnels are either unstable or could possibly have pits
you could fall into.” Klaus explained.

“What’s this
circle mean?” Reno reached up and traced the shape, listening
intently as he studied each symbol.

“Circles mean the
tunnel leads nowhere. If you’re in one you end up where you
started, except you won’t realize it.” Katie exclaimed excitedly.
“Gramps designed those ones on purpose so people will just wander
around and around forever.”