Therian Promise(85)

He nodded. “It’s the best option. We need every seat we have for the captives.”

“We only have two vehicles. How will that be enough?”

He finally smiled. “I guess we’ll have to borrow one of their Jeeps.”



Kyle made it sound so simple, but Ava gripped the steering wheel with both hands and reminded herself to breathe. The terrain had seemed treacherous while she was a passenger. Now that she was driving an unfamiliar Jeep filled with frightened strangers, she wasn’t sure she would survive the dangerous descent. But the former captives watched her with a mixture of hope and fear. She couldn’t fail them now. They were counting on her to deliver them safely into the arms of their loved ones and she intended to do just that.

Kyle, in cougar form, darted in and out of the trees, scaling rocks and navigating slopes with agile strength. He looked completely at home in this inhospitable setting. Quinn ran on the other side of the vehicles, his large black jaguar blending with the shadows.

The trail dipped suddenly, pitching the Jeep dangerously to the side. One of the young women in the backseat cried out and the others quickly shushed her.

“It’s all right,” Ava assured them with a smile. “We’ll be on a real road soon.”

Erin led the three-vehicle convoy in Payne’s SUV. Ava drove in the middle and Carissa brought up the end in Quinn’s truck. The pace Erin set stretched the boundaries of Ava comfort zone, but she understood time was of the essence. Payne and Ian were waiting for word that all the captives were safely away before they blew up the lab and made their own escape.

The “real road” was more like a winding dirt trail, but Ava was thrilled to leave the worst of the obstacles behind.

“Where are you taking us?” The speaker, a dark-haired woman in her mid- to late-thirties, sat in the middle of the backseat and appeared to have appointed herself spokesperson for the other three.

“I’m not sure. I doubt they’ll want to keep everyone together, that would be too dangerous.”

“Who organized the escape?” the woman in the passenger seat asked. She was pale and gaunt. Had she been in captivity longer than the others or had her testing been more invasive? “I know no one was looking for me. Everyone thinks I’m dead.”

“There’s no way my family has given up on me,” the outspoken brunette bragged, drawing glares from the others.

“The escape was the combined effort of a variety of cat clans,” Ava replied, hoping to defuse the budding argument. “Oh and Ian. He’s a raptor.”

“How did you find the lab? What will be done with the employees and the people who financed the place? I’ve heard them called ‘the backers’ or something like that.”

Ava wasn’t sure who rattled off the question and she wasn’t sure how much she should share. She knew they were Therians, but she had no idea if she could trust them. Not all the clans were friendly. “It’s probably best if we let one of the others explain. I don’t know what happens next and I don’t want to mislead you.”

“In other words, she’s a grunt. Don’t waste your time.”

That had definitely been the argumentative brunette, but Ava kept her gaze fixed on the road and pretended not to have heard the spiteful comments.

They continued in relative silence for the remainder of the trip. The ex-captives spoke to each other, but none of them attempted to include Ava in the conversation.

Ava didn’t breathe easily until they reached a paved road and even then she found herself checking her rearview mirror far more often than necessary. A deep, rumbling sound drew her attention to her right.

“Was that thunder?” someone asked.

“There’s not a cloud in the sky,” someone else pointed out.

The lab. Ava couldn’t contain her smile. Payne and his friends must have blown up the lab.

“That wasn’t thunder,” the snooty brunette said. “And it looks like our driver knows exactly what it was.”

Before they could pressure her for specifics, Ava followed Erin onto a side street. They drove along a narrow access road that led to a vacant parking lot beside a small lake. A dark blue SUV and two midsized trucks were clustered in one corner of the lot. Ava recognized the SUV as Jake’s but had never seen the trucks before.

She parked beside Erin and left the keys in the ignition, not sure what the men would do with the pilfered vehicle.

A happy squeal guided her gaze back to the SUV in time to see Jake embrace his sister with one arm and his nieces with the other. She had never seen him look so happy. A blinding smile showcased his even white teeth and unshed tears made his eyes shimmer.