Prisoner (Werewolf Marines) (16 page)

Guadalupe returned the plum to Amber. DJ was
unsurprised to see Amber turn it over with the hole side down, then
drop a napkin over it.

The last person at the table, a tall black
man with a shaved head, seemed unperturbed. He extended a lanky arm
and gave DJ a pleasant smile and a firm handshake. “I’m Ty Roberts.
I guess it doesn’t matter now if I say I was CIA. My story’s a lot
like Guadalupe’s, except I was wounded by a terrorist car bomb. My
power is clairvoyance— I can see things going on miles away and
behind closed doors. But it gives me such bad migraines that I
can’t use it for long. And this’ll sound weird, but my scent name’s
Sidewalk.”

“Actually, that’s one of the less weird
things I’ve heard recently.” DJ turned to address the whole table.
“Shall we shift?” When everyone looked blank, he added, “To catch
each other’s scents, so our scent names make sense?”

Emmett looked startled, then guilty. To the
others, he said, “It’s a wolf tradition. Let’s do it.”

The others got up and shifted, leaving DJ
standing alone. Though he was the one who’d made the suggestion, it
was hard to get used to the idea of shifting in public, under the
eyes of one-bodies. He tried to focus on the pack, but the black
wolf kept drawing his attention.

DJ wished he’d inquired about the strange
wolf, rather than waiting for someone to explain. He could ask Echo
or Charlie now, but it felt wrong to talk to a one-body about a
wolf— even an animal, if he was an animal— right in front of the
wolf.

He made sure his mental shields were raised
to full strength, then shifted.

Green.

Lechon hadn’t shifted to scent Echo, but her
scent was the one that captured his attention. He inhaled deeply,
taking it in to experience it with all his senses. Soft emerald
moss lining a forest floor. Shining dewdrops on fresh-cut grass.
Tiny new leaves unfurling at dawn.

Now that he knew what to focus on, he could
tell that it was a human scent. But the usual markers— sweat and
musk and flesh— were a little different, a little more… Lechon
sniffed again… A little more delicate, maybe.

Charlie’s scent was also delicate, but it
wasn’t the same as Echo’s. If Echo’s was green, Charlie’s was
orange-brown. Thick layers of fallen leaves on damp earth.

Lechon pulled himself away from the sisters
to scent the pack. They were sniffing at him too, though the
strange black wolf hung back.

Since Lechon couldn’t touch Sangria as a
human, he made sure to butt his head against her side and give her
a nice long nuzzle in greeting. Her tawny wolf smelled tangy,
bittersweet. Dry red wine and nearly-ripe raspberries, with a touch
of citrus.

The scent of Campfire’s sleek gray wolf
reminded DJ of how people described his own: burning wood,
charcoal, and ash. And something fresh, like country air.

Oak’s heavyset brown wolf smelled of old
wood, Sidewalk’s smallish gray wolf of sun-warmed concrete. Lechon
touched noses with Mechanic’s black-tipped gray wolf, and inhaled
her scent of hot metal, old leather, and engine oil.

Then he found himself face to face with the
black wolf. Lechon took a sniff, catching the sulfur-and-smoke odor
of a struck match. The black wolf stiffened, and Lechon felt
another powerful shove at the pack sense.

Lechon bristled. How dare that wolf try to
exert dominance during a peaceful pack introduction! He lowered his
shields, meaning to give the wolf a shaming slap of
disapproval.

Raw emotion roared through the pack sense.
Grief tore at him, ripping his heart open with the knowledge that a
precious thing was gone forever. There was a hole inside him that
could never again be filled. He’d lost everything that made his
life matter, and he’d never get it back.

Then, following the grief, a tide of rage,
hot as blood. If he couldn’t have what he wanted, what he needed,
he’d kill the people who’d taken it from him. He’d kill everyone
who had what he’d lost. He’d—

Someone grabbed him, sending him tumbling
backward. He whipped around, teeth bared, ready to rip out his
attacker’s throat.

Cut grass. New leaves.

Echo.

Lechon forced his shields back up. The
punishing emotional onslaught vanished, leaving him disoriented. He
shifted. DJ knelt behind an overturned table, with Echo’s arms
clasped tight around his chest.

All hell had broken loose. People were
yelling. Wolves were snarling. Chairs and tables were flying. Some
people had fled the cafeteria already, others were bolting, and
still yet others were trapped in corners or hiding under tables.
Lights flashed. Sirens screamed.

Calm washed over DJ like cooling water. He
was the still point around which everything else moved. Unhurried
and unafraid, he examined the scene.

Ty had returned to his human form and was
throwing chairs and tables, his pleasant face contorted in
irrational rage. Push was punching the walls, screaming a shrill,
wordless battle cry. Each blow smashed a hole in the concrete and
sent cracks radiating outward like a spider web. The black wolf was
tearing around the cafeteria, howling and snapping at anyone within
reach.

Emmett and Amber were pursuing the black
wolf, Emmett in human form and Amber as a wolf. Guadalupe was on
the floor, stealthily wriggling her way toward Push. Two security
guards were firing tranquilizer guns. A dart bounced off the table
shielding DJ and Echo.

“What the fuck is going on?” DJ asked.

“Ty and Push and Match went berserk,” Echo
said tersely.

A stray dart hit Emmett. He stopped short,
plucked it out, then collapsed.

“Great. There goes any chance of the alpha
shutting this down. Fucking moron.” Echo grabbed DJ’s shoulder, her
blue eyes intent on the scene. “You take Match— the black wolf. It
won’t matter if he bites you, right?”

“He’s a—” DJ started to ask, then caught
himself. Obviously he was a werewolf. “No.”

One of the flying tables hit a guard. She
went down and stayed down, her dart gun skittering across the
floor.

“Try not to hurt him,” Echo said.

She plunged into the fray, making a beeline
for the fallen guard’s tranquilizer gun. Darts were still
flying.

“Cease fire!” DJ yelled at the top of his
lungs, wishing Echo had given him more notice that she was going
out. “Cease fire!”

He grabbed a fallen chair to use as a shield
and bolted out. To his relief, the second guard had indeed ceased
shooting, so DJ didn’t have to worry about friendly fire.

Push knelt and slammed her fist into the
floor. A shockwave sent a crack shooting outward to the guard who
was still standing. He staggered, off-balance, as the floor
shattered beneath his feet. The black wolf leaped at him and took
him down.

DJ tackled Match, yanking him off before his
fangs could close over the guard’s throat. The wolf snarled and
struggled in his arms, but DJ was easily able to control him.

If he’d wanted to kill the wolf, DJ could
have broken his neck. But he wasn’t sure how to incapacitate a wolf
without harming him, other than hanging on to him. DJ hung on and
looked up to see how Echo was doing.

She’d gotten the tranquilizer gun and was
firing at Ty, who was still hurling chairs. Push was down with a
dart in her arm. DJ couldn’t do anything while he was occupied with
an armful of raging, snapping wolf.

DJ turned to the security guard. “Tranquilize
the wolf I’m holding!”

The guard sat up, then stared down at his
right wrist. “He bit me.”

Oh, shit,
DJ thought.

The guard was a young man with black hair in
a buzz cut. He could have been a Marine. The bite wound was minor.
It was even odds whether he’d be dead by the end of the day.

“Pick up your gun and fire!” DJ ordered.
“Now!”

The guard snatched up his gun. A dart hit
Match’s side. A few moments later, he went limp in DJ’s arms.

DJ put the wolf down and looked up. Ty was
sprawled on the floor. Echo seemed unhurt. She took a quick glance
at DJ, then ran out the door. Amber became a woman and went to join
Guadalupe.

The peace and clarity of combat faded,
leaving nothing behind but a bone-deep weariness.

DJ sat down beside the guard and took the gun
out of his hands. “What’s your name?”

“Justin. Justin Graham.”

“I’m DJ Torres. Thanks for shooting the wolf.
That was a big help.”

Justin lifted his bleeding wrist, turning it
back and forth as if he hoped that getting the right angle would
make the wound disappear. “I was too off-balance to get the shot. I
should’ve clubbed him with the gun. I don’t know why I didn’t think
of it.”

“He was on top of you before you got a
chance.”

“I should’ve dropped the gun and gotten him
in a headlock, like you did.”

“Forget what you maybe should have done.
Seriously. I’m shaking it out of your head, okay?” DJ caught him by
the shoulders and gave him a gentle shake. “Do you know what’s
going to happen?”

“We all know. You become a wolf, or you die.
Fifty-fifty chance if you’re not already dying. They tell us in
case we want to volunteer.”

DJ had to unclench his jaw to speak again.
Shoving down his fury, he said, “You have to feel inside yourself,
find the part of you that’s the wolf, and be the wolf. Once you
become a wolf the first time, the change is complete. After that,
it’s easy to switch between bodies. But doing it for the first time
will be the hardest thing you ever do. You’ll have to give it your
all.”

Justin took a deep breath. “I can do
that.”

“My best friend was wounded in Afghanistan,”
DJ said. “I bit him to save his life, and then I talked him through
the change. He made it. You will too.”

Justin looked up, over DJ’s shoulder. Echo
had come up so quietly that DJ hadn’t heard her.

“I saw Match bite you, and I called it in to
the hospital,” she said to Justin. “The medics are on their
way.”

“Where’s Charlie?” DJ asked. “She’s okay,
right?”

Echo nodded. “I carried her out before I
tackled you.”

“Um…” DJ wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to
know, but he had to ask. “What was I doing? I didn’t hurt anyone,
did I?”

Unexpectedly, Justin was the one to reply.
“You just sat there and howled. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh. Good.” DJ still couldn’t figure out how
he’d even perceived the fucked up made wolves’ pack sense, let
alone been overwhelmed by it. Maybe it was the power of mass
craziness.

A team of medics ran up and had Justin lie
down on a gurney. He caught at DJ’s arm. “Can you come with
me?”

DJ remembered Roy sprawled on the sand. Roy
clutching DJ’s hand, his expression as urgent as if he had
something he desperately needed to say. Blood spilling out of his
mouth every time he tried to talk.

I can’t do this again
, DJ thought.
I can’t.

Justin had put on the mask you wore when you
were scared to death and determined not to show it. He reminded DJ
more than ever of a Marine. A new one, a recruit in boot camp or a
fucking new guy on the first day of his first deployment.

If the fucking new guy was lucky, someone
more experienced would take him under his wing, like Roy had done
for DJ. DJ’s fucking new guy days were six years gone. He could
take on Justin, and teach him what he needed to survive.

“Of course I’ll stay with you,” DJ said. “I’m
a Marine. We never leave anyone behind.”

“I’m just a security guard,” Justin said, but
his desperate grip relaxed.

“You and I fought together,” DJ said. “Close
enough.”

DJ and Echo walked beside the gurney as the
medics rolled it out. Justin told DJ he could sense the wolf inside
him, which DJ took as a good sign.

Mr. Dowling intercepted them in the corridor.
“Echo, come with me. I want your report.” He glanced at DJ. “Or if
you prefer, you could stay with him and report later.”

Echo froze, then said, “I can stay if you
want.”

DJ wasn’t sure if she was speaking to Justin
or him. Justin made a ‘take off’ gesture, and Echo’s shoulders
sagged with relief. Then she turned to DJ, her eyebrows rising in
inquiry.

Much as DJ wanted to say, “Please don’t leave
me alone with this,” he too waved her on. Justin was the one whose
life was in danger, and he didn’t want her. Not to mention that
Echo clearly didn’t want to stay. But as DJ watched her walking
away with Mr. Dowling, he felt abandoned. Left behind.

In the hospital, DJ was pushed aside as a
medical team, overseen by Dr. Semple, stuck Justin full of needles
and attached him to a bunch of machines. Justin was tense but calm
as he answered the medics’ questions about how he felt. But he kept
his gaze fixed on DJ like Justin was drowning in the ocean and DJ
was the rescue helo.

DJ had heard how excruciating it was to have
your body pulled apart and rebuilt, fiber by fiber from the inside
out. But Roy was the only person he’d ever watched go through the
change, and though DJ had seen his muscles seizing up, Roy had been
hurt so badly already that he had barely seemed to notice.

First Justin simply reported that he was
getting muscle cramps. Then his body locked into a spasm so intense
that his back lifted off the bed, arching like a bridge.

DJ pushed his way to Justin’s side and caught
his desperately grasping hand. “Find your wolf, Justin! The pain
will stop as soon as you change.”

Justin’s hand clenched over his. “I can feel
it, I just can’t
do
it.”

“Yes, you can!”

DJ searched his memory for what had helped
Roy. It had all happened so fast. One minute he’d been coaching him
like he was coaching Justin, and the next minute Roy was passing
out. Dying. Frantic, not knowing what else to do, DJ had hit him in
the face. And then a gigantic white wolf lay panting on the sand,
his fur soaked through with blood.