Page 40 of The Rabbit's Foot
“You should go.”
But he couldn’t leave Alp, not like this. “I’ll stay. I can go out tonight, after dark.”
“No, this has to be done.” Alp sighed. “It’s weird. We just found each other, but I realize our lives aren’t our own yet. We have too many others depending on us doing the right thing here.” He sat up and scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “Go. I’ll be okay.”
Mal stood, peering down. He hated this. His mate needed him desperately, but was telling him to go help others.
“You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met.” He kissed Alp’s head. “And I love you so fucking much.”
Alp smiled. “I love you too. I’ll see you when you get back.”
A quick kiss, and then Mal was headed for the motorcycle to find out what awaited them.Maker, let it end soon so I can go off with Alp.
* * *
Mal got off the bike, then dragged it down into the woods near when he’d been when he found Alp. The memories of the man who would become his mate, lying on his side, panting in the dirt and grass, assailed him, and he had to bite back a howl. He undressed, folded his clothes, and slipped them into the pack he’d brought. Once he was satisfied everything was safe, he shifted and plunged into the woods.
When he came upon the clearing where he’d found Alp, he was surprised to find the men’s bodies had been feasted on much more than he thought. Large chunks of flesh were torn out, and their stomachs and hearts appeared to have been devoured. One of them seemed to have become a chew toy for a bear, as his skull was cracked open and slivers of bone dotted the ground around what had been his head. Mal didn’t bother to check if it had eaten the brains, because honestly? He no longer cared about dead men. He was more interested in the soon-to-be-dead men.
He inhaled sharply, letting the scents of the surrounding area wash over him. Mixed in with the death also came life. New animals, born recently, were in the forest with their parents, learning to hunt or forage, he was certain. He wondered briefly if they’d used the men’s bodies as an easy food source.
The sharp tang of chemicals was still present, but had diminished from the last time he’d seen the men. That probably explained why the animals had taken to eating the flesh, which was usually pretty putrid. Humans were, by and large, not all that appetizing. Mal turned in the direction he knew Alp had come from. Though the scent was long gone, the trail was clear. The men had forced their way through, and the broken branches were a testament to their need to get him back.
Mal took off at a trot, headed back the way he believed they’d come, letting the smells wash over him. Thanks to the chemicals, he at least had an idea of what he was looking for. He rushed up a cliff, then down into a gulley. The area was pretty impassable if you weren’t a shifter. He wondered where the road was, because no way would humans have been able to kidnap and carry all the shifters Alp had seen through the dense undergrowth.
He ran in ever-widening circles for nearly an hour before the acrid smell was carried to him by the wind. His mind screamed poison. Fear. Death. Mal knew he’d found the spot. He moved quickly toward the area when he caught sight of the first camera. Mounted high up in the tree, it scanned the vicinity. Keeping an eye on the trees, Mal spotted sixteen more, which he evaded with careful timing. Whoever was here didn’t want anyone sneaking up on them.
He crept up a hill and stretched out on the hard-packed earth. There, in a small clearing, Mal discovered a strange structure with what appeared to be a high-tech keypad. It was too small to be used for anything. Barely large enough for a shack, it seemed to be the source of the overpowering smells, but that made no sense.
He moved closer, needing to know what was going on there. Then he saw tire tracks that started from and ended near the building. Just… stopped. As if whatever had driven there had simply vanished. Not one thing about this area made any sense to Mal. He decided to go back up to the hill and watch, to see if there was something else at work here. He climbed up to the highest point where he could still keep an eye out and lay there, amid the dirt and leaves, swishing his tail to keep the bugs off him.
It was just over an hour when his patience was rewarded. A pickup truck, shiny and black, came in from the forest side. It was a pretty treacherous path, but one the driver seemed familiar with, as he dodged trees and boulders to come to a stop near the building. He reached out and tapped a few buttons on the pad, then sat there as though he was waiting for—
The ground rumbled, not in a natural way, but one that sounded mechanical. As Mal watched, the forest floor opened up and a long ramp disappeared into the darkness. The truck rolled forward, until it reached the ramp, then started a descent into the bowels of the earth. Once it disappeared from view, the ramp closed, and Mal could see the seams where the doorway was.
Mal had to decide if he should continue waiting or plunge in after the truck. For the old him, it would have been no question, but Mal had a mate. A man who was waiting on him to come home. Even though he desperately wanted to know what was beneath the ground, he stayed where he was.
Less than ten minutes later, the door opened again, and the truck he’d seen reappeared, only this time it carried six humans. The sun had long since vanished from the horizon, and Mal could sense Alp was going nuts, but he’d come too far to turn back without knowing more.
Over the next two hours, the truck returned, filled with new humans, and every time it departed, it had others in the seats. He counted thirty men and women. He snuck closer, and when the truck left again, he could hear them discussing the tests they’d done today. One of them laughed when he talked about how the shifter yowled when they removed his eyes. It took everything in Mal to stop himself from rushing forward and ripping out the man’s throat.
That would come later, he vowed.
When the truck reappeared the last time, totally empty except for the driver, Mal hurried back to his bike. He shifted, dressed, and was on the road in under two minutes, excitement and disgust roiling in his belly over what he’d found and what he’d heard. He’d just pulled into the motel parking lot when the door to their room flew open and Alp dashed out, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Where were you?” he whimpered, his hands all over Mal.
“I’m sorry, little one. I hadn’t intended on being gone this long, but I found out a lot of things. I need to talk to Damon.” He bent and kissed Alp, letting his sweet scent wash away the revulsion. “Come with me, please. You can hear what I found, and maybe you can fill in some gaps.” He took two steps, then stopped. What if this was too much for Alp to hear? “It’s not pleasant.”
“I’d be surprised if it was,” Alp bitched.
“You don’t need to hear it, if you’d rather not.”
“Let’s just get this over with!”
They returned to the room, and Mal couldn’t help but notice that Alp never stopped touching him.
“I’m okay, little one, I promise.”
