The Breed: Nora's Choice (21 page)

“…not
unless they’ve had a patrol here every night waiting…”

“…
there’s no way, there’s not enough of them to watch the docks full time for
months, and our intel in the other agencies is highly trusted, they haven’t
informed the other embassies, haven’t asked anyone for help…”

“….
There’s only five of them right now, the other brother’s gone off to the
Charleston embassy, we should have stayed and fought them…”

“…
there
was
only five of them…”

“…
what does that mean?...”

“…You’ve
all heard the rumors about the experiment that escaped right?...”

Suddenly
the room was quiet enough to hear the men breathing shallowly. They were all
rapt with attention to hear the truth behind the rumors, and if he was honest
with himself, he was curious to hear the stories they had concocted about him
as well.

“…I
thought they just made up an escape to scare us, I never thought that was
real…”

“…It’s
not…”

“…It
is
, they found the corpse and brought it back to show us…”

“…
That could have been anything…”

“…Well
he did escape and he’s not dead because somehow the Breed got a hold of him and
he’s working for them, we just saw him… it… that creature…”

“…There’s
no way, they would have told us...”

“…
well I’m goddamn telling you now, those freaks told us it was the escaped
experiment, and that
thing
wasn’t like any Breed wolf we’ve faced in the
past. It was bigger than I’ve ever seen them get and its eyes were glowing
red….”

“…
those eyes…”

Quinn
could almost feel the men shiver at the thought of him, and it was delicious.
Their cruelty and morbid lack of feeling for human life had brought them into
this situation; in a twisted way he felt as though he had become the reaper,
chosen by all those who had died at the Hunters hands, to avenge them.

They
had created their own demise.

“Well
someone needs to inform the captain of this,” the Hunters words were followed
by the scraping of chairs.

“…You’re
an idiot if you think he doesn’t already know. I’m not getting involved in
this…”

“…I’d
rather be an idiot than a coward…”

Quinn
fell back into the shadows and watched as two men left the room, their heads
bent together as they whispered. The rest of the Hunters stayed inside
continuing their discussion on whether or not “the experiment” actually
existed.

He
was becoming more and more used to his new title.

Silently
he stalked behind his prey, waiting for them to be far enough away from the men
in the room that the noise from the attack wouldn’t alert them.

Just
as they were about to reach the bottom of the stairs he struck.

Letting
out some of the festering anger he carried inside he swung out catching one of
the Hunters in the side of the throat, crushing his trachea immediately, and
sending him crashing to the floor so hard you could hear his ribs snap from the
impact.

It
happened so fast the second Hunter had barely turned around before claws dug in
to his lower jaw.

The
man’s eyes sprung open with surprise and horror. He clawed out at Quinn,
digging his finger nails into the fur of his forearms, but it did absolutely
nothing to help him.

            Quinn let
out a low growl that rumbled through his chest and pulled the human towards
him, until their eyes were mere inches apart.

            The smell
of rancid fear invaded his nostrils as the Hunter began to quiver. Cocking his
head to the side, he looked down at him in disgust. When their enemies were
drugged and restrained these men showed no mercy, they were more heartless than
any living creature with a soul should have the ability to be, yet his eyes
dared to beg for leniency.

Urine
dripped down the man’s leg as Quinn increased the pressure on his lower jaw
until it cracked beneath his claws like an egg shell.

He
thought about leaving the bastard to die a slow agonizing death from bleeding
out, it was no more than he deserved, but even
the monster
couldn’t be
that cruel.  Snapping his neck like a chicken bone he ended the Hunters
suffering.

Now
he needed to clear out the infestation of them at the back of the hallway, and
he didn’t have time to wait around and hope they all came out single file; he
would have to attack the entire room, no matter how many of them there were.

No
time like the present
, he thought as he rolled his shoulders
and stretched his finger tips, as he marched back.

Ripping
the door off the hinges he took them by surprise. There were twelve of them,
and one of him.

They
almost stood a chance, he smiled to himself.

            Remy found
herself being drawn to the defense building like a moth to flame. She had been
up studying late for her nursing classes in the morning with Nora, but the
feeling of someone being in dire need had overwhelmed her.

            She wasn’t
sure if it was a part of her healing gift, or a gift all its own, but she had
always been far more in tuned to things than other people. It was easy for her
to see past the emotional barriers that others put up, and to be able to see
the truth of who they were inside.

            It soon
became apparent to her that Nora was the reason she had been pulled in this
direction.

            Since the
moment she had first met her, Remy could feel that the girls’ soul was carrying
a deep darkness. The weight of it so heavy it would have drown an average
person, but Nora had a warrior’s spirit, and she had fought where others would
have crumbled.

            Remy had an
immense respect for her, and considered herself lucky to have had the
opportunity to become her friend.

            Tonight,
however, it was apparent that the fiery warrior was suffering. Quinn must have
been very far away or he would have felt his mates misery and come running.

            What Remy
found when she entered Nora’s apartment was something straight out of a horror
film.

            She had
followed the sound of running water to the bathroom and found her naked,
covered in blood and soaking wet under the spray of the water.

            “Shit!” she
hurried to shut the faucet off and attempted to pull her friend out.

            Her lips
and veins were blue from the constant frigid water beating down on her, and it
was obvious that the blood she was covered in was her own, caused by raw angry
self inflicted scratch marks. Her beautiful face was puffy from crying and
covered in finger nail gouges and running mascara.

            Nora had
passed out at some point during her ordeal, and her dead weight was too much
for Remy to carry on her own.

            Her gift
was useless in this moment. The most she could do was heal her now tiny
scratches, but even that was quickly being taken care of by Nora’s Breed blood.

            Instead she
pulled out towels to dry her friend off, and when she still hadn’t woken,
pillows and a blanket off of her bed to at least make her more comfortable. She
vowed to stand guard over her friends sleeping form until either Memphis or
Quinn showed up.

            For a
moment she thought about calling Tessa. She
was
Nora’s best friend, but
after imagining the colossal panic this situation would send her into, she
thought better of it. Some people just simply could not handle the idea of
their loved ones suffering, and Tessa was absolutely one of those people. She
would lose her mind over seeing her best friend like this.

            Quietly
Remy sat watching the cuts slowly healing on Nora’s face, when she finally
began to stir.

            Her eyes
were red and raw from crying and it took her several blinks to realize the
situation that she was in.

            “Tequila,”
she finally sighed, tilting her head back against the cool tiles and looking
anywhere but at Remy.

            “Excuse
me?” What the hell was she talking about?

            “Bring the
bottle from the kitchen. We both know you’re not leaving until we talk about
what happened to me, and I’ve already had one hell of a night, so if we have to
talk about it, I’m gonna need booze to get through it,” Nora rubbed her head
and continued to shutter her gaze.

            “Don’t you
even want to get out of the tub?” Remy was astounded by this entire situation.

            “Fuck it,”
Nora shrugged, finally looking at her, “while you’re at it, bring the spinach
and artichoke dip that’s in the fridge, I’m starved.”

            The next
hour and a half consisted of the strangest bonding experience Remy could ever
have imagined.

            Nora had
stayed completely naked, covering herself with only a towel, and had made a
nest of blankets and pillows inside the bath tub. The girls took turns eating
the chips and dip then passing the bottle of tequila back and forth to take
long drinks.

            All the
while Nora put on a monotone voice and told her the story of what had happened
between her and Memphis’ son.

            By the end
of the story she realized she hadn’t passed the bottle back in a long time, and
was instead clutching it to her breast, barely keeping tears back. There was no
way in hell Tessa would have made it even half way through this story.

            “So… so did
he….”
Rape you?
She couldn’t even finish the question. It was too
difficult to even say out loud, so instead she raised the bottle to her lips
and took another deep pull on it.

            Nora looked
away again and rubbed her hands roughly along her jaw line.

            “You don’t
have to tell me,” Remy rushed to say, she didn’t want to ruin their friendship
by pushing her too far.

In
all honesty she didn’t really want to hear the answer anyway.

            “No, he
didn’t,” she finally responded in that same hollowed voice, “if he had known
Memphis was on the way I’m sure he would have, but with the way everything
played out, Memphis and his pack showed up before he could actually rape me.”

            Remy tried
to be happy about this, but it was still hard to swallow. She hadn’t been
raped,
well whoopty fucking do
. The girl had still been held captive,
beaten and tortured for hours, all with the knowledge that everyone she loved
was dead.

            What the
fuck did you say to that?

            Remy hit
the bottle one more time, harder than ever.

            “You don’t
have to say anything,” Nora correctly interpreted the look of panic passing
over her features, “honestly there’s nothing to say that I haven’t heard or
told myself before. No cheesy motivational quote that I haven’t engraved into
my brain. Just the fact that you listened to me is enough.”

            Nodding her
head she looked down at her hands. Being able to heal someone’s physical wound
did absolutely nothing for the mental ones that they carried. She wished she
could do something to heal Nora. “Just listening,” didn’t seem like enough to
her.

            “I think
this is all because of your bond with Quinn,” she finally spoke, treading
softly on the subject.

            “Of course
it is,” she snorted angrily, “every time I get near that bastard this happens.”

            “Oh, I
don’t mean that
he’s
causing your attacks, because you’re definitely the
one who’s causing them. It’s just because you’ve finally bonded to your mate,”
she threw caution to the wind and listened to her intuitions. After all, they
had never been wrong before.

            “Excuse
me?” Nora’s spicy temper flared to life.

            “Every time
you have an attack, it’s when?” she asked, ready to solve this puzzle for good.

            “After
we’re intimate,” she snapped.

            “No,” Remy
corrected, “after he leaves when you’ve been intimate. Think about it: if
you’re intimate and he leaves, massive heart wrenching attack; but if you’re
intimate and he stays, you’re just like every other normal couple.”

            Nora’s nose
wrinkled and she pulled the towel tighter around her shoulders. You could
almost visibly see the wheels turning in her mind.

            Remy knew
she was right, she just needed to convince
her
of it.

            “How does
that even make sense?” she shook her head.

            “You’ve
accepted that he’s your mate. In your heart you know that’s the truth, and
knowing that and being with him brings up strong emotions for you, because of
what you went through. So whenever you’re together it pulls out all these
deeply rooted insecurities and fears. When he stays, he soothes them, even if
you don’t consciously notice it. When he leaves, it sends you into a panic.
You’re left alone and vulnerable with all your feelings wide open, and it
throws you into an attack.

            Nora’s eyes
grew wide and she shook her head slowly, “it can’t be.”

            “But it
is,” she replied simply; the answer was so clean and uncomplicated that it was
almost unbelievable, “and now, that your feelings are stronger for him, so are
your fears and worries, and so your attacks also become stronger.”

            Her
intuitions were never wrong. This
was
the answer.

~

            Quinn’s
breath heaved in and out of his lungs as he stood in the middle of the silent
room, his fur matted down with a mixture of blood, both the Hunters and his
own.

            There had been
twelve of them when he entered the room. They had put up a good fight, wounding
him several times, but with his strength, pain tolerance, and most of all his
furious anger, they hadn’t stood a chance.

            He took a
moment to calm his heart rate. The coppery tang of blood saturated his nostrils
and he breathed it in deeply.

            Very few
events in life gave you a feeling as powerful as being covered in the blood of
your enemies as you stood victorious over their corpses.

            He savored
the sensation for as long as he dared, then headed to the main level of the
freighter. Once that was cleared he would head to the upper deck and finally
gain complete control of the ship.

            He knew the
others would be pissed off and worried for him, no one wanted to have to tell Tessa
and Nora that he had died on this mission, but he had complete confidence in
himself. This is what he had done before he had come to the Breed; go in
stealthily and alone, then take down an entire group of unsuspecting Hunters.

            Working
with a team was still much harder of a concept for him to understand. To earn
his place in the Breed he would do it, but he still was fully confident he
would always be able to function perfectly alone.

            If there
was anything he knew he could do right in this world, experience had taught him
that this was it.

            The first
three rooms of the main floor held empty bunkers for the crew and appeared to
hold nothing of value or importance.

            As he came
along to the fourth room he could smell the stench of humans and readied
himself.

            The low
beat of angry music met his ears and he smiled. Someone was listening to head
phones.

            Peering
into the door from the shadows he saw one Hunter leaned onto a bunk bed, his
back to the doorway with head phones blaring, and another shutting the door to
the bathroom inside.

            Creeping
along he made his way to the man on the bed and silently snapped his neck. The
music continued to play in his ear buds even as his head twisted at a morbid
angle on his neck.

            The Hunter
in the bathroom was next. It took hardly any force at all to break the lock and
push the door wide open.

            “What the
fuck!” he screamed, whipping around.

            Quinn
slashed at him with his claws, tearing open the side of his face.

            The Hunter
lunged away quickly enough to avoid making the wound fatal, but with his pants
around his ankles’ and no weapon in sight, he didn’t have a prayer of walking
out alive.

            Out of
desperation he grabbed the wooden handle of the toilet plunger and swung
wildly. The make shift weapon cracked in half when it hit Quinn’s bicep.

            He snatched
the broken handle before it hit the ground, then thrusting upward, speared the
splintered wood through the Hunters neck and into the wall behind him.

            Blood
bubbled from his lips and a gurgling sound escaped him as his body hung
heavily, being supported only by the spike in the wall.

            He left the
corpse hanging as a grotesque warning to anyone unfortunate to cross his path
and moved his way down to the end of the hall.

            The last of
the rooms were empty of Hunters, but he did find what appeared to be an
operations room. Maps with multi colored tacks were hung along the walls, book
cases were filled with dusty leather bound tombs, and there was a filing
cabinet he couldn’t wait to get his hands.

            Jackpot.

            Now all he
had to do was clear the upper deck, and he was home free.

            Silently he
made his way up the stairs and to the final floor of the ship. It appeared to
be completely devoted to the captain’s quarters and the ‘bridge’, that held the
wheel mast.