Shifter's Revenge (Alpha Lineage) (4 page)

A soft knock at the door caused a fresh wave of nerves to wash over her. She unlocked it and
Gavin walked in. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. “So this boyfriend of yours, Maddox,” He started. “Is he like you?”

Kera stopped fumbling with the knife and just slid it into her pocket. Hearing him say Maddox’s name made her heart squeeze in her chest. She ignored the question and headed out the door. Donavan was waiting, talking into a cell phone. “Where is my phone?”

Gavin pulled it out of his pocket. “He’s called you every day.”

Kera reached for it but he pulled back. “I want to call my father and Maddox before we go. If I die out there then I want them
to know that it was my choice and that they didn’t do anything to cause it. I know how it feels to be responsible for death. I won’t wish that on them.”

“You aren’t going to die Kera. There will be all types of
law enforcement teams out there.” He turned the phone around in his hands and Kera narrowed her eyes at him.

“You wouldn’t be so sure if it was you going out there.” She reached out and snatched the phone out of his hand so quickly the moment of his hands continued before he realized the phone was gone.

His shock was replaced by a smirk. “I’m not like you.” He pushed past her and Donavan motioned for her to follow as he ended the call he was on. Kera heard most of it and felt the fear churn in her stomach. Those boys had guns. She was to go in unarmed and disable them without shifting. The man on the other end of the phone had mentioned that the camera crews were all contained outside of the arena and the cell phones of the hostages were tossed to the field at the request of the men who held them. It was a situation that was able to secure her identity and her unnatural abilities.

“You won’t get signal down here
with a normal cell phone.” Donavan said as he continued down the hall. “You have until the helicopter is ready for takeoff.”

In the elevator Kera searched through her texts with a shaky hand. Some were from her father and because she couldn’t yet handle what Maddox had to say she read those first. He was worried about her which wasn’t a surprise. What was is that no one had contacted him about her wellbeing. They had moved him from the house to a secure location to keep him safe like she had asked. 

Once they reached the roof Kera’s wet hair whipped around her face and stung her skin. She tried to hold it back but didn’t have a tie. A female officer walked hesitantly up to her and pulled one off her wrist.

She pocketed her phone and took it from her shaking fingers. She hated that these people were afraid of her. Instead of lashing out she smiled.
“Thank you.”

The officer’s smile was small and unsure. She nodded
and went back to her post.

Kera didn’t waste any time. She ignored the
remaining texts, voicemails and missed calls and dialed her father. Speed dial number one just as Maddox had programmed into her phone. It rang only once before her father answered.

“Kera.” He whispered breathlessly. “Are you ok? I’m so sorry. They wouldn’t let me see you. I tried getting a hold of my father’s buddy and he said it wasn’t something he could be involved in other than the initial communication.”

“Where are you dad?”

He hesitated for a moment. “Don’t worry Kera. They have brought me some place. Said that you wanted to be sure I was safe. What’s going on?”

Kera closed her eyes tight. “I’m going to help them do a few things dad. It’s dangerous but I will be saving lives.”

“Maddox doesn’t know.” He whispered. “He is going out of his mind without you. I had no idea his feelings for you were so strong Kera. If I did I would have never told you without talking to him first. I thought they were crazy.”

“Did you hear me?” She asked him.

Her father hesitated. “I’m trying to tell you not to do anything dangerous Kera. Call Maddox. Have him take you out of there.”

Tears slipped down her face. “I’m calling him now.”

She said goodbye to her father just as the Helicopter started up. Instead of calling Maddox, she sent him a text.

I’m fine. I love you. I’ll be home soon. Don’t worry about me.

She hit send and hated herself for it. She was just going to have to make sure she came out of this alive.

“Let’s go.” Donavan yelled over the wind and engines.

Gavin turned to her, having stood next to her this whole time. “Be careful.”
His voice bled with jealousy.

Kera nodded
, ignoring the realization that Gavin may want something more from this arrangement than he originally asked. She jogged to the open side door and jumped into a seat. She belted herself in and had to stop messing with it so Donavan could undo the mess and strap her in right. He smirked at her like it was just another day in the life. She tried to take some of his calm for herself but it only made her wonder what he had seen in his life to make this a day to smile about.

They took off and Kera rocked side to side with the motion.
Everything was happening so fast and her nerves couldn’t seem to catch up. She kept her eyes open and her hands clinched in her lap. If she tried to grab on to anything she was sure she would end up taking the thing down.

After twenty minutes of flight they hovered over the football stadium. Kera looked down and sucked in a breath. Her hand covered her mouth. There were already casualties.
Indignation welled up inside of her and the tug of instinct to protect bore forcibly down on her. She felt her eyes shift and willed it to stop at that. For once Fang agreed and let the partial shift remain just at her eyes. Families had been torn apart by these stupid kids trying to make a statement about something they didn’t have anything to do with. She had heard Donavan saying that they claimed injustice from the legal system. Yelled things about cop brutality and that people shouldn’t be caged like animals.

She picked up on th
e three boys and zeroed in on them. They were dressed in jeans and hoodie’s and were holding two weapons each. Other weapons littered the ground and were probably void of ammo.

Anger whipped through her sharp and fast. How dare they?

She fumbled for the latch on the straps holding her in. If they lowered the helicopter she could jump down and take care of this.

A hand covered her knee
calming her but only a little. When Donavan looked into her eyes he flinched back in shock. He didn’t let that detour him though instead he held out a lump of black fabric. Kera questioned him with her eyes.

“To cover your face.” He helped her put the fabric over her head. It covered her hair, mouth and neck. He adjusted the position so her eyes were the only thing left uncovered. “You’ll slide down the rope. If they try and shoot they won’t hit you because you’ll be going too fast.”

Kera nodded and watched as he tossed the rope out of the side door. She pushed down the fear and grabbed hold of the anger inside of her and the rope. He held out gloves to her but she shook her head. She wasn’t letting go of this rope until she reached the ground.

Off in the distance she heard a loud beep and then a voice that echoed around the arena below.
“We are sending in an unarmed agent to secure the helicopter for you to board.” A man with a megaphone called from the roof of the box seats. He wore a SWAT vest and hard helmet.

With that announcement the boys raised their guns and pointed them at the group of hostages. “No tricks.” One of them screamed. The rage and apathy in his voice reminded her of Andrew.

Air rushed over her as they began to drop in altitude. When the rope was only a few feet from the ground, Kera stepped out on the ledge and dropped. The skin on her hands abraded with the speed she let herself fall. The rope whipped around her legs, threatening to tangle her up and slow her decent. She hooked her ankles together and suddenly the rope had reached its end. She landed on one knee and looked up at the boys twenty yards from her.

One turned to hold the gun on her, the others kept theirs trained on the hostages. With the next intake of breath, Kera smelled the blood and death. She tried not to look up in the stands or at the stains on the field. She raised her hands in surrender and began to walk to them.
“I am unarmed.” She called out in her raspy voice.

The perpetrators looked at each other and relaxed, laughing, murmuring about the army sending in a girl to get them out of this. Their confidence rose. The gun that was pointed at her went back to the hostages. “She’s coming with us.” One of them said to the others.

They all seemed to agree. Kera watched their movements. They smelled of drugs and alcohol. She wasn’t experienced enough to know which drugs, but them being high would make her job all that much easier. She picked up the pace and stopped a few feet from them.

“You ready?” she asked.

They looked around at the SWAT teams that were surrounding the stadium. One of them flipped them off with a finger high in the air. “No government.” He called out. “Fuck you and your rules.”

As if that was her green light, Kera shot to action. She kicked one of the discarded guns and it flew against the speakers back. He dropped his gun and crumpled to the ground. Just as she had hoped, the other two turned to her, leaving the hostages safe from stray bullets. Kera ran forward, grabbed both of their guns and tossed them behind her. She made quick work disarming them and couldn’t help but press her palms into each of their chests with such force the
y crashed against the wall. 

It was silent for a moment before someone started clapping.

Kera turned to the stands and wide eyes greeted her. An old man looked right at her as he clapped. Everyone joined in, some through tears of relief. Some hooted as others called out for vengeance.

“
Finish them off.” A woman screamed. “They killed my son.”

Kera choked up. SWAT began to pour out of the
entrance to the field. Kera took one last look at the boys to make sure they were out, and then she turned and ran. She jumped ten feet in the air and grabbed onto the rope. Ignoring the pain in her hands from the way down, she climbed her way up the rope and let Donavan help her into her seat.

“You did
well.” He murmured. “I don’t think anyone recorded that but we’ll have to watch over the next few months so we can erase what they just saw.”

Kera nodded
after she took off the mask covering her face. She pulled out her phone and blood from her hands coated the screen. With shaky hands she wiped it on her pants and read the text from Maddox.

Come home NOW.

The room quieted as she
entered. Everyone turned to her some wary and some in awe. She didn’t like it. She had gone straight from the helicopter to a shower and washed away the memories of the blood and the pain from that field. Her hair was tied up in a knot using the band the female officer had given to her. She wore a pair of black cargo pants paired with a black shirt. She had found undergarments with the tags still on and scented Gavin on them. It made her uncomfortable that he had bought them for her.

Her mind was with Maddox. His scent. His touch. His ranting that she was sure she would be the center of when she finally made it back to him.

Kera walked into the mess hall, stomach growling. She tried to ignore the whispers but a few of them pissed her off. She glared at a few who murmured about her being a risk that needed to be locked away or put down. They cringed in their seats, obviously afraid of her.

Donavan shot up from his seat
moving fast for someone so tall and muscular. “Kera.” He called out to her. “Come.”

She followed him to the line and everyone stepped back to let her go ahead of them. He handed her a tray and began piling it with one of everything.

“We don’t have any raw steak out here.”

The man behind the counter cleared his throat. “That was for you?”

Kera looked up at him, his dark eyes piercing her. He had tattoos crawling up his neck and covering his arms. “Easier to digest as a cat.” She told him.

His eyes narrowed. “Don’t let the other female officers hear you say that.”

Smiling Kera paused and let her eyes change. She growled low in her throat and winked.

He froze, mesmerized for a moment, and then smiled. “That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
A wave of lust came off of him and Kera shrunk back, Fang almost jumping to the forefront to defend the connection she had with Maddox.

“She has a boyfriend
, Zach.” Gavin walked up behind her and grabbed a French fry off her plate.

Zach’s look darkened
and he gave her an easy smile which disappeared when he saw the pained look on her face. “You want a real man instead of this joke you know where to find me.”

Kera opened her mouth to protest but Gavin wound his arm around her waist and pulled her away from the line. She brought her tray along with her and sat between Gavin and Donavan.

“You realize that I’m not going to break up with my boyfriend right?” she asked Gavin before she even picked up her fork.

He grabbed some food from her tray and shook his head. “Maddox Howell may be rich but he’s not connected enough to really advance your career.”
Gavin’s good looks couldn’t get him anywhere with her. She knew what she wanted.