He snarled. “Get upstairs. Don’t call that bastard ‘Master’ again and no way will I allow you to be returned to him.”
At one time she would have run from his harsh tone but she knew Shadow now. Beauty held her ground and kept eye contact with him. “It makes sense. You’ll die trying to protect me but they’ll still retrieve me in the end. This is the only way to avoid that.” She glanced at Breeze. “Tell him I’m right. You both need to survive. Those men out there need me alive to get paid. I know the man who used to own me.” She carefully avoided his name. “He just wants me back. The task force will find me the way they did before.”
Breeze’s mouth opened then closed. Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. “What makes you think we’ll lose? I’m so proud of you right now for being brave enough to offer your life for ours but it’s not happening.” Her features tensed. “Now get your ass upstairs and in that bathtub. We’re Species. We fight. No way are we just sending you out there to be returned to a prison.”Beauty’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “You know I’m right.”
“We’re stubborn by nature.” Breeze suddenly grinned. “And we love a good fight.”
“Get upstairs,” Shadow ordered.
She met his gaze. He was still enraged. No amount of talking would change their minds.
“Do it before I tie you up and put you there,” he rasped. “I’ll do anything to protect you, even that.”
She spun and jogged up the stairs. The handgun felt a little better in her hand when she retrieved it from the dresser top. The safety was off and she entered the bathroom. One glance at the bathtub made her turn and go into her bedroom instead. She peeked out the window, looking for signs of the men Master must have sent after her.
She was Species and she’d fight too.
Chapter Sixteen
Shadow fumed. Beauty had dared offer to give herself up to those humans to be returned to the male who had abused her. The idea was insulting and outrageous.
“Calm,” Breeze whispered. “I’m almost choking on the scent of your rage from across the room.”
He didn’t spare her a glance. “She was willing to give up.”
“I heard.” She sighed. “It was sweet.”
He growled. He’d rather face an army of heavily armed humans than allow Beauty to be captured.
“Her heart was in the right place.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Her heart belonged with him.
“Damn, Shadow. Give her a break. She’s putting us before herself. Do you really think she misses the bastard who held her captive? I was there when she was brought to us. There’s no way she wants to go back. It proves how much we matter to her.”
His temper cooled slightly. “They are holding their positions. What are they waiting for?”
“I don’t know but it beats them opening fire on us.”
“They don’t want to risk shooting Beauty if that’s who they are after. That’s why I wanted her in the tub. It might help hide her if they can look for heat signatures. It depends on what they are using. Her size is going to make it easy for them to distinguish her from us if they can see through the walls.”
“Like in the movies?”
“Yes.”
“Working with the task force taught you a lot.”
He didn’t deny it. The technology the task force had at its disposal was impressive. “How many Wild Zone residents are out here?”
“About forty in all.” Breeze paused. “They were specifically told not to venture into this area but I’m hoping the stench of human intruders prompts them to ignore the order.”
“Me too.” A little help would be good but it might just get some of them killed. He didn’t want that. “I wonder what is going on at the gates. Maybe they launched another attack there to keep Security busy.”
“Another attack?”
He grimaced, realizing he hadn’t filled her in on all the information. He told Breeze about Moon being tranquilized. “It had to be a diversion.”
“A good one,” she agreed. “We’re screwed. Security would have ordered all available officers to the gates to assist there. General protocol is to take all the officers assigned to ground patrol to the hot spot while the ones on the walls keep their posts. They wouldn’t dare leave their positions for fear of a wall breach. Somehow the humans got past them.”
“It’s not over.” He refused to lose hope. “There are eight of them but humans are weak. We have a chance.”
“Not a good one,” she whispered. “What the hell though, right? It’s a beautiful day to kill some bad humans. Some of them are going out with me. I figure I’m on borrowed time anyway.” She paused, her voice lowering. “I always figured I’d die at Mercile.”
Shadow hoped the mercenaries would decide it was too risky to rush the cabin. Time wasn’t in their favor. The longer they were on NSO land, the less chance they had of fulfilling their mission. Species officers would eventually swarm the area.
Movement drew him from his musings. Part of a tree trunk separated and took on a human shape. It lunged forward to another tree.
“They are coming.”
“I was about to tell you that. Two of them just darted closer.”
“Don’t shoot until you’re sure you have a target. There’s open space between the cabin and the woods. They’ll be exposed when they attempt to reach us.”
Breeze took an unsteady breath. “I guess I should tell you that I’m not a really good shot. I’m better at fighting with my hands but I’ve passed my training. I won’t shoot my own foot.”
He clenched his teeth. “Shoot them in the feet instead. It will slow them down.”
“I can do that.”
“Avoid chest shots. They’ll be wearing vests. Target their legs or heads. Just get off as many shots as you can.”
“Got it.” Determination sounded in Breeze’s voice.
Shadow took a deep breath, tracking the movements in the woods around them. One human darted closer and he almost reached where the trees had been cut back from the cabin. He was close enough that the black markings of paint on his face were visible. These were definitely not typical humans. Skilled mercenaries.
He wanted to keep them at a distance. He lifted the rifle from the weapons he had laid out, hit a panel of glass, and shattered it with the butt. The sound carried and he watched the human disappear behind the tree trunk.
“We’re well armed,” he bluffed. “Security is on the way. Your time is up. Leave while you can. My people won’t allow you to live.”
Silence. A full minute passed before a male voice responded from the far right, out of his sight.
“Send out Mud. She is the small New Species with brown hair and eyes. We’ll allow you to live if you do.”
Rage gripped him and his heart accelerated. Mud? I’m going to kill the bastard who named her that. He’d assumed they were there for Beauty and now his suspicions were confirmed. It took a lot of effort to get his emotions in check. New Species had been given numbers when they were test subjects but she’d been tagged with a derogatory title.
“Fuck,” Breeze hissed.
Shadow had bad words to say too but calmer ones came out of his mouth. He was careful to speak clearly instead of snarling. “We don’t know who you’re talking about. No one is here by that name.”“Don’t play games, Shadow. We know who you are. It’s you and Mud in there.”
His absorbed that information. They knew his name, which had to mean someone had betrayed the NSO. The tub worked at hiding Beauty’s body temperature if they were using thermal scanning if they were mistaking Breeze for her. The other option was they couldn’t see inside. Their intel hadn’t warned them that another Species female would be present. Either way the humans obviously only expected to come up against him.
“Son of a bitch,” Breeze whispered. “We do have a leak. I’m going to find out who it is and rip off his nuts.”
He softly growled to silence her. They’d deal with that later. Right now they needed to stall for time. He decided to bluff by laughing loud enough for it to carry. “I’m Torrent. You are at the wrong cabin, humans. You paid for bad directions. I hope it cost you a small fortune to get screwed over.”
“Bullshit.” It was another human male who called out. “We’ve got a lock on your signal. You’re Shadow.”
The air in his lungs froze while his brain tried to work fast. How would they have a signal? He would have had to either carry something on his person or inside one of his bags. He mentally went over the list of items he’d packed and what he’d worn on the trip to Reservation. The other bag contained weapons. A dozen possibilities of when he might have been tagged with a tracker filled his head. They were small enough to hide in clothing, his boots, or even on the bags. The only people who’d had access to him or his belongings had been his task force team and the few Species he’d come into contact with at Homeland. Of course anyone could have sneaked inside his room at the dorm. Only Species had access though.
“I’m Torrent,” he repeated. “I don’t know what signal you think you tracked but you’re wrong. Shadow is at another location.”