Autumn Rising (19 page)

“You sure about that? You sure this isn’t another one of his traps?”

Thorne
leaned forward. “Look. I’ve seen what Vivian is capable of. She turned one of my men for no reason whatsoever. Just for the fun of it. That guy’s got a baby daughter, and now he’s some kind of freak!”

“Freak?” Peter spat.

But Autumn thought she knew what Thorne had been trying to say. “He’s not saying shifters are freaks, Peter. This soldier ended up like Tala, stuck in this mid- shift. I think that’s what he meant when he used the term freak.”

Thorne nodded, eyes downcast. “It was, and I’m sorry. It w
asn’t meant to be derogatory. I’m just angry.”

Peter gave a strange growl, as if he didn’t believe what was being said.

Except Autumn had seen Thorne’s reactions, both when Vivian ordered the deaths of those people, and when his man had been turned. She didn’t think for one minute that Thorne wasn’t capable of killing when he needed to—she’d witnessed him doing so firsthand—but Thorne was also the biggest insider they had, and knew more about this project and its possible weaknesses than anyone. If he was willing to switch sides, they should use him to their advantage.

“So we’re supposed to believe you’ve just switched sides?” Peter said. “After you come in and shoot our friends—other shifters! Some of them died!”

“My soldiers were never meant to shoot to kill. They were ordered not to. You were only supposed to be frightened. But then we got in there and that woman had injected Autumn’s blood, and was in that changing body, and my men got frightened. They overreacted, ‘cause, unlike you, they are only human.”

“And what about all the shifters left at the cabin? If they tried to escape, would that order not to shoot to kill still stand?”

Thorne looked away again. “No, I’m sorry. But that isn’t my order. That’s Vivian’s. If your friends try to escape, they will be shot dead.”

“And you’re all right with that?”

“I only want to protect my country. I believe you took the same oaths I did.”

“Yeah, until those same people tried to make shifters the enemy, and turned us into some crazy experiment.”

Thorne settled back in his seat. “If you want to stop Vivian, I don’t see what other choice you have but to trust me.”

Chapter Twenty-one

MIA MISSED PETER. She felt like a part of
her
was missing, and found herself constantly watching out for him, hoping to see him walking toward her, with that adorable smile she’d come to love on his face. She had never physically missed someone before, and she felt his absence as a physical ache, as if someone had removed a limb.

Lakota
Wolfcollar had kept her busy by getting her to go home to home, telling people what was happening in the city and what could possibly be spreading across the rest of the country. Each household was instructed to spread the word to another five households, with the plan being that within a day, most of the reservation would be aware of what was happening.

Though not all of the N
ative Americans living on the reservation were shifters—far from it—a higher percentage existed here than in the city. This resulted in almost every household having someone who had a close tie to a shifter, whether that was a brother, or sister, a parent, a child, or a lover. Because the culture had always been embraced, they didn’t need to worry about the fear factor of exposing shifters here, as had happened initially in the city.

She left another home, trying not to feel sad at the squalid conditions of the trailer home of a couple with a young child—a boy—who were trying to make ends meet in a place where there were few to no jobs. Despite the obvious poverty of the home, they’d been furious at what was happening in the city, and she left them promising to spread the word and do everything they could.

Mia stepped out onto the street, planning to head into the property opposite, but something stopped her. Someone was heading down the street toward her, a figure in the distance. She frowned. Something was wrong with the person. They walked with a limp, dragging one foot. Long hair at first made her think it was a woman, but the build was too big, as well as the obvious other difference which became apparent as soon as he was close enough. Her eyes widened in surprise. Was the person naked?

With a jolt, she suddenly recognized who it was. “Chogan?”

She broke into a run, heading down the street toward him.

Upon reaching him, she fell in to walk at his side.
Chogan barely seemed to acknowledge her presence. His shoulders were hunched, his head hung so his long hair fell over his chest. He was breathing heavily. The blood of old wounds encrusted his body. She placed her hand on his bare back, the heat of his skin burning her palm, and he flinched at the contact.

“
Oh, my God, Chogan. What happened? Are you okay?”

He didn’t speak, but shook his head.

She quickly pulled off the jacket she was wearing and dropped it around his shoulders, though possibly that wasn’t the area he’d most have wanted covered. She couldn’t worry about his modesty right now—he didn’t exactly seem bothered. She needed to get him to his uncle.

It was a s
trange sight, the petite woman guiding the far larger, naked man down the street. She could feel people staring at them, muttering to each other from their porches. A couple of people ran down from their homes, trying to offer help, but until she knew what was going on, she didn’t want anyone else involved. She waved them away, giving a shake of her head to indicate she didn’t need their help.

“I’ll take you to your uncle,” she told him.

He shook his head. “Not yet. I need to go to my house first. At least get some clothes before I see him.”

“Won’t your uncle have some clothes you can borrow?”

“Yes, but ...” he seemed to struggle with his words. “Please, Mia. I need to get myself together first. I have something I need to tell him. Something important.”

Concern made her catch her breath
as they continued to walk down the street. “What is it? What’s happened? Do you know if Autumn is all right?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since Calvin Thorne took her away at the cabin.”

“You haven’t seen Peter either, then?”

“Peter? I
sn’t he here with you? I thought you were together.”

“He went to try to find
Autumn. I’ve not heard from him since.”

Chogan nodded toward a small, whitewashed home. A couple of motorbikes broken down into pieces sat in the front yard.
They walked together, Mia still feeling like she was somehow holding Chogan up. Perhaps he was drawing from her mental strength rather than physical. But she was desperate to know what had gone down at the cabin. If something terrible had happened, Peter or Autumn might have been involved. Her stomach twisted itself into knots in her anxiety.

“So what’s happened?” S
he felt like she was on the verge of begging now.

“Please. I can’t have this conversation like this.”

The tone of his voice made her stomach sink, but she pressed her lips together to prevent any more questions leaping from her mouth. She wanted to grab him and shake him until he’d told her everything, but she’d learned in her job that people would talk when they were ready to.

Chogan
reached up to a ledge above the door and fished down a spare key, then used it to open the front door. Without bothering to invite her in, Chogan went into the house. He didn’t shut the door in her face, so she stepped through and stood awkwardly in the hall.

“Just wait here one minute,
” he told her.

C
hogan disappeared down the hall into what she assumed was a bedroom. She waited, anxiously. The house was surprisingly tidy, considering the junk in the front yard. The place was simply decorated, but she noticed it was missing any personal artifacts. Only one family photograph hung on the wall, one that depicted a much younger Chogan, with Blake one side of him, and Tala the other. The three of them grinned at whoever was taking the picture, all looking carefree and happy in a way she’d never seen—not that she’d spent much time with them.

Chogan reappeared wearing light blue jeans, threaded at the thigh, and a close fitting black t-shirt. His long hair had been pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He’d washed the blood from his face, but the sad, haunted expression in his dark eyes hadn’t changed. That expression frightened her more than the blood ever could.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

She wanted to ask him again what had happened. What events had caused him to manage to escape from the cabin, and bring no one else with him? What had happened to the others?

But now she was scared to hear the answer.

With her heart pounding, she followed Chogan from the house
. He didn’t bother to lock the door behind him, letting it slam shut. They walked the couple of blocks to his uncle’s house in silence, though a couple of people shouted to him, waving to welcome him home. He barely even responded, just a slight lift of his chin to acknowledge he’d heard. The cloud of despair lingered around him, pulling Mia into its cold embrace. She didn’t even know what was wrong yet, but already her heart felt heavier, her stomach in knots.

Mia wasn’t even sure if Lakota was in. He’d been working on the same thing she had, trying to spread the word about the government crackdown on all shifters and those associated with shifters. But when Chogan pushed the front door open, the old Native American stepped out of the kitchen to see who was entering. His eyes widened at the sight of his nephew.

“Chogan!” He hurried forward to embrace his nephew.

“Uncle.” But Chogan displayed no joy in seeing his family member.

“Where are the others? Blake? Tala?”

“Come,” Chogan said, guiding his uncle
into the living room. “You need to sit down.”

“What is it, Chogan?” His voice
was anxious, his eyes filled with nervous intensity. “Has something happened to them? Tell me?”

“Sit down, Uncle. Please.”

Lakota dropped into what Mia had come to think of as ‘his chair,’ a beat-up, threadbare, combat green La-Z-Boy. Chogan sat down on the couch opposite, his elbows on his knees, his fingers resting lightly on his forehead as if sheltering his eyes from the sun, when in fact it was more likely he was hiding.

He lift
ed his head, his eyes settling on his uncle’s face. Mia lurked in the background, anxiously nibbling on her nails, and trying to will herself not to pace.

“I’m so sorry, Uncle,
I don’t know how to tell you this—”

“Just tell me!”

“Blake didn’t make it.”

Lakota frowned. “
He didn’t make it? What are you telling me, Chogan?”

“He died, Uncle. I’m so sorry. He
was protecting Tala, and he was shot. I tried to carry him, but I ran out of strength. I left him, there, in the forest.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”

Lakota’s eyes filled with tears. “No, not Blake. He’s strong. He’s always been strong.”

“He was. Right to the end.”

A tear spilled down the old man’s creased face. He didn’t bother to wipe it away. “What of Tala?
Please, give me better news of my daughter.”

“She tried to turn herself into a shifter. It went wrong.”

“I know this already.”

C
hogan turned to Mia.

She nodded. “We told him what happened.”

“Please, where is she? Is she at least safe?”

“I don’t know.
I had to leave her near the cabin. She was caught in a mid-shift and was fighting us. The man who was supposed to be taking care of her left her in the middle of a clearing while we were being attacked. Blake threw himself over her so she wouldn’t be hurt, and took the bullets himself.”

Lakota took a moment, staring down at the floor, perhaps picturing these events in his mind.

“So she wasn’t hurt when you left her,” he said, the hope he was clinging to evident in his voice.

“No, except for the shift.”

“So she might still be there, where you left her?”

“No, I heard the soldiers find her.”

“Did you hear any shots? Any signs that they were harming her?” His voice choked. “I can’t believe you didn’t go back for her. She was closer than a cousin to you. She was more like a sister!”

Chogan’s
eyes welled with tears at his uncle’s accusations. “Don’t you think I’ve gone over my choices time and time in my head? Wondering if I made the right decision. But Tala was the way she was because she kidnapped Autumn, beat her, and injected herself with Autumn’s blood. She made her choices, Uncle! She did what she did to herself. But Blake was innocent. All he ever did was try to protect others—Autumn and Tala. He deserved a chance. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do more. I wanted to, but if I hadn’t shifted to wolf when I did, I wouldn’t be here telling you all of this now.”

Mia watched on in despair. Was Blake really dead? She just couldn’t imagine it; the larger than life man who always seemed to take up so much space when he entered the room. Her heart broke for
Autumn. She would be crushed when she heard the news. Blake was the first man Mia had ever seen Autumn connect with. The first man she imagined she could love.

The sorrow in the room was heartbreaking, but something else worried her. She felt like she was looking at two broken men, men who previously she would only have equated with authority and strength. And with Blake gone, and Peter God-knows where, she only had these men left to help.
A war was going on, and the people needed someone to lead them.

Though urgency pressed upon her, she knew she needed to give the two men time. She couldn’t give them much, but at least a little privacy in their grief was needed.

Mia slipped away and went to the kitchen, busying herself by brewing coffee and scrabbling through cupboards and the refrigerator to make up some sandwiches. It seemed like such a trivial thing to do considering the circumstances, but it was in her nature to feed the soul. She dragged out the preparation, wanting to give them as much time as she could without going crazy. She added cream and sugar to a small tray with the coffee mugs, found a packet of chips and scattered them onto plates beside the ham sandwiches which she’d cut into small triangles.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she muttered to herself.

She was putting off knowing what she needed to be done.

Feeling like an idiot, she carried the tray into the room and placed it down on the coffee table between the two men. Neither spoke, the pain they suffered too great for niceties.

“You need your strength,” she said, speaking to them both.

No reaction.

She was horribly nervous, though she struggled to understand why. They were just men, and she was a woman who had been in far harder situations than this. She’d needed to make bereaved and worried families focus before in order to get information from them, she didn’t know why this was any different. She guessed it was because she worried they would tell her to shut up and get the hell out. What would she do then?

Mia crouched to bring herself level with the two men. She cleared her throat.

“I know you’re both hurting, and I can’t even imagine your pain, but you need to try to put your pain to one side for the moment. There will be time for grief, it will always be waiting for you, but you need to think about all of the people who are in danger—your people.”