Chapter 23 - Kenzie

It had been hours. Fucking hours since Grayson left with his crew of wolves to track down the hunters. I'd heard nothing. No one had. There wasn't a single peep about what was going on with my mate, and I was climbing the damn walls.

Something wasn't right. I just knew it, and it sounded like the baby did, too.

He needs you. Get Senna, Willow. Find him.

It was still such a shock that this little voice in my head could tell what was going on and that the baby seemed to know what she was talking about. Telepathic and perceptive? That was a hell of a combination.

But I was past fighting it. This was the situation, and I wanted Grayson back home where he belonged. I needed to move—now.

As I rushed out of my room and down to the main entryway, the scent of the forest flooded the compound, along with the stench of sweat, gasoline, and blood. My heart drop-kicked against my ribs, and I sprinted down the steps to find the Alphas struggling to pull each other through the threshold, a few other wolves straggling in behind them.

"What the fuck happened?" I went up to Rowan, who was helping to bring in an unconscious Alder.

Before he could answer, the pounding of steps thundered behind me, and I turned over my shoulder to see Senna and Kit running toward us.

"Jet!"

Senna ran to him, and Kaiden smiled weakly as he helped our adoptive father to stand. Kit was right on Senna's heels, her hands reaching for my brother.

"I'm fine. I'll heal. It's just a dislocated ankle. Nothing to worry about, Senna." Jet put his weight on his good foot, and Senna replaced Kaiden, slipping his arm over her shoulder.

"He was incredible, Senna. Kept so many wolves from getting killed." Said wolves rushed inside the compound as best as they could while several more came down from upstairs, scooping their partners into their arms. "But the hunters…"

Kaiden looked down at the floor, and after helping Rowan to lay Alder down on the floor so that Forrest could look him over, I quickly took up a spot on my brother's other side. He was genuinely shaken, and his scent was a chaotic mix of latent fear and fresh anger.

"They were so well organized. It wasn't like some sloppy poachers looking to take down a few wolves. And…and they seemed to know about shifters. They spoke about testing us. Well, one, anyway. They were happy enough to try and kill the rest of us. We lost several and only just managed to get away."

My heartbeat was furious, and that little voice of my child was an insistent scream for action.

"I'm thrilled you're back," I looked between Jet and Kaiden, "both of you, but where the fuck is Grayson?"

They traded glances with each other, unwilling to look me in the eyes.

"Where is he?!"

Cade was the last to enter from outside, and he stalked inside in wolf form before gradually shifting back into his human body. He stood there in the entryway, naked and catching his breath. I rushed up to him.

"Where the fuck is my mate?" I growled, and then it hit me. "Dammit, where's Brooks?"

The other Alphas looked around, shock reverberating through their scents. Jet pushed off of Senna and walked over to me.

"Shit. He was right behind me, but…"

"What?!"

I knew I was screaming, but I really didn't give a fuck at present. My mate and one of his best friends in the world were missing. And I also knew exactly what had happened. Those fucking hunters had snagged them.

"Nabbed." Cade finished shaking off the remnants of his wolf, and he walked over with Rowan coming up right behind him with a jacket. "They got Grayson after he'd killed one of theirs, but Brooks was snatched when he went back for the asshole without regrouping."

In a flash, I gripped the collar of Cade's borrowed coat, yanking him forward as I snarled.

"That asshole is my mate." I shoved Cade away. "Dammit!"

I began pacing around the room, and the Alphas filled in the silence of the hall, talking over each other.

Kaiden's voice cut through the buzz in my brain.

"Brooks got captured, too? Fucking hell. I told him we needed to regroup. The hunters were too prepared for us. But they'd talked about testing Grayson. They weren't going to kill him."

"Not yet, at least," Cade offered. "I'm happy to go back out and help find them again. Those fuckers will taste delicious."

"Ugh, disgusting. But you can't expect to be enough. We'll need more than just an Alpha," Rowan gestured to himself, "or two if we want to defeat them this time."

"What do you suggest?" Kaiden asked, and I abruptly stopped pacing, scanning over the room.

Jet and Alder were out. They were too hurt. And I wasn't about to separate Kaiden from his mate, so he was a no-go as well. Senna and Willow. The baby had told me to get them. I could bring Rowan and Cade as well. With Senna's magic and the two deadliest wolves with me, this could work.

"I'm not hurt, but I don't think you're going to be able to find volunteers this time around."

But Kaiden wasn't going, so I walked up to him, putting his hands in Kit's. "You're staying. I have a better idea."

***

It didn't take long to get everyone ready to go back out. Rowan and Cade had shifted into wolf form and stood at the ready near the door. Willow had reluctantly agreed to come along, and she was loading up a bag of potentially useful items for Senna to carry.

Willow and I were going to shift as well, but I wanted to wait until we were all set to leave, which was about now, actually.

"Let's go. And remember, we're going quietly. I don't want our approach blown, so stick to the shadows and move slowly."

The crew around me nodded, and I knew that Jet and Kaiden would have done the same if they had been here. As it was, Kaiden was helping Forrest tend to the injured wolves, including Jet and Alder.

As I began to shift, a hand came down on my shoulder. When I spun around, I was face to face with Choal, who'd healed well since his tussle with Kaiden. However, he was still sporting slashes from going out with him just a few hours ago.

"Choal, what are you doing? You should be in the infirmary with Forrest."

He shook his head. "I'm fine. Grayson saved my life with his mercy. I intend to make sure he stays alive, too."

I was touched, and I rolled my lips between my teeth before nodding. "Okay."

Turning to the rest of the wolves, I met their eyes. "We're getting them back. No excuses. Nothing short of success. Got me?"

They grumbled in agreement, and once I was sure they were all ready, I shifted into my wolf. Senna would be riding me since I'd agreed to take the position at the back. I was still pregnant, after all. She hopped on, bundled up for the cooler night outside, and we were off.

***

Crossing through the forest following Cade and Rowan's lead was a slow progression, and as much as I knew that's what we needed to do, I was anxious and chomping at the bit. My paws ached slightly for carrying Senna for this long, but worse was the growing tension in my spine.

Grayson was out there. He was getting experimented on or something by those fucking hunters, and I had no idea how long they were going to keep that going. All I could do right now was hope for the damn best, and that sucked.

I need him back. I need my mate.

The instinctual call for him was so intense now that I'd shifted, and while it was never weak, being in this form, having my wolf's thoughts so very loud in my skull now, was forcing me to face a few things I'd been putting off.

We'd connected again the other night, and I…I was realizing the depths of my feelings and how easily that profound bond had been renewed.

Rowan stopped, and when I looked between him and Cade, they seemed to have a silent conversation. Before I could pad over and ask what was up, they barked quietly, getting us all to circle down around the hill we were approaching.

I was stuck following them for a few minutes before I finally realized what they'd done. We were right on the camp, a set of metal doors built into the underside of the hill, and we'd nearly made the same mistake as the others.

There you are, you fuckers.

Senna gripped my fur, and I looked back over my shoulder. "That's it. I…I recognize it from my vision."

I did my best to nod in wolf form. We'd agreed that we couldn't shift back into human form. It was too dangerous, and we were more vulnerable that way. Still, fingers were required when it came to opening doors and shit.

"Okay, going with the plan. I'll pretend to be lost. When the door gets opened, rush in while I freeze them."

I slunk off into the shadows, the other wolves with me doing the same. Choal was right nearby, and Rowan and Cade were across from me, so we could approach the door from both sides.

When we were in position, Senna rushed up to the door, making herself look worse for wear as she approached. After pounding on the metal a few times, someone finally opened it just a crack.

"Hello, I'm so sorry. I'm lost. I've been wandering around in these woods for like an hour. Do you have a telephone I could use?" Senna held up her cell. "Mine's dead."

The guy at the door smelled wrong, still human but coated in so many layers of something vaguely chemical. It dulled his usual scent, and I had to guess that the stuff was what they used to make themselves harder to track.

Crafty little monsters, aren't they?

After he hesitated for a moment, scanning around the area for any sign of us and failing to spot us, he held open the door for Senna.

"Make it quick."

"Thank you so much."

As she smiled, Senna waited just long enough for the guy to get the door wide enough for us to fit and then stopped time on him.

We rushed out of the shadows and slipped inside as quickly and silently as we could, Senna pulling off her bag and putting it in my mouth. When we were around a corner out of sight, I could hear Senna unfreeze the man and step inside. I wasn't sure where he was going to take her, but Senna had been instructed to call Kit and give her coded details about what she saw.

I had a different mission.

Pulling off into the first abandoned room we could find, our group nosed the door shut, and then all of us shifted back into human form. The bag I'd grabbed had several changes of clothes for us, and we slipped on the generic, vaguely militaristic options I'd packed.

We didn't speak for fear of giving ourselves away, so in the dark room, we silently got dressed while I gave the bag with the remaining supplies to Willow. Once we were ready, I cracked open the door and checked the hallway.

"Clear."

All of us hurried out, and I sucked in the biggest breath I could to scent the air for any indication of Grayson. But there was nothing.

"Dammit. I can't smell him." I clenched my jaw, furious. "We need to just check the damn—wait."

Go that way. I can hear him. So much pain.

The Alphas looked at me like I'd lost my damn mind, but Willow stepped forward.

Lowering her voice, Willow whispered. "Can you hear her?"

I nodded. "Yeah. This way. And…I think we'll need those supplies."

Her eyes flared, but she quickly schooled her expression, and we were navigating the hallways in the next second. I listened to that voice, following my child's instructions toward her father.

The entire building was a huge maze, a deeply underground cement maze with many doors. If I didn't have this guidance, there was no way we would have found him. And something about the place felt…off.

"This place is fucking wrong." Cade stifled a growl, and I could see how ruffled he was.

I knew the guy didn't appreciate being closed in, and I wasn't a fan of this kind of "compound" either, but there was something different about it. It was so damn quiet, and it seemed way too big to just be a handmade bunker. It was professional, military-like, but no one here was wearing uniforms or looked like they were actually part of the human army.

Militia? What are these hunters?

"It's the absence. There's so much of it here." Rowan whispered, his accented voice making my hair stand on end. "I can…sense it. So much death. So much pain and anguish has been created within these walls."

I had to ignore that for now. There was no time to dwell on the fact that my stomach was on edge from being in here or that my baby agreed with Rowan, also sensing the blood this place was responsible for spilling.

"We need to find Gray and get out of here. Now."

Moving quicker, I listened when the baby told me to pause or hide, avoiding several rounds of stalking humans. I heeded her words as she told me where to go, and before long, we arrived at another door. This one was labeled "Extraction Chamber."

I really don't like that.

The door was locked as I pulled on the handle, but it was easy enough to give it more force and just break the knob. When I pushed the thing open and stepped inside, I nearly fell to my knees.

Grayson was strapped down to a table, various tubes and electrodes running all over his body. He was barely conscious, and the entire space was filled to the brim with strange medical equipment and devices that I didn't recognize.

"We'll keep watch. Get him off there." Rowan nodded at me, and I returned the gesture, grabbing Willow's hand and running to Gray's side.

Willow and I worked as fast as we could to pull out the IV lines that fed Gods-knew-what into Grayson's veins. The straps holding him down looked like something out of a mental health institution, and my fingers trembled as I got them off of him. I pulled the electrodes away, and Willow reached into her bag.

"He's been drugged. I need to rouse him if we're going to get him out of here." She pulled out a vile and a sterile needle that she'd packed in a hard case. "Here you go, Grayson."

She injected him with whatever that stuff was, and within a few seconds, Gray jerked away on the exam table. His eyes went wild, searching the room frantically as he surged up. I held out my hands, steadying him.

"Hey, hey. It's us. It's me. We're here to get you out of this place."

He met my eyes, and tears immediately welled to the surface. Gray wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his chest. When he leaned back, Grayson looked panicked and began to scramble to get off the table.

"Kenz, it's so much worse than we realized. It's torture. There are other wolves. I saw them when I was brought in. These humans…they're doing something to us. Kenzie, it's wrong ."

I put my hands on either side of his face. "You're safe now. Okay? We're getting out of here."

Cade cleared his throat, and I turned to see him stepping in from the hall. "We need to move."

"Kenzie, they can't keep doing this." Grayson sounded so weird, so… terrified .

"There's some pretty weird shit, MacKenzie. I'll tell you that." Willow added, but then Rowan came over too, grabbing Grayson and helping me get him to his feet.

"We don't have time. And as much as it pains me to say it, we can't be noticed."

My heart broke even as the words left my mouth. I wanted these hunters to pay, but if we didn't go now, we'd all be dead.

Cade and Rowan met my eyes in turn, nodding. Willow looked upset, clearly wishing to do more, and Gray was already losing strength.

"I know, Willow. I'm not saying never. I'm just saying not now."

After a moment, she relented, and I hauled Gray up on my shoulder, with Rowan taking his other side. And we got the fuck out of that horrendous place.