Page 14 of Run Free

My chest warmed at the knowledge I pleased her. Shit! I had it bad. This was getting ridiculous. First, I kidnapped her. Then, I stalked her. Now, I was lapping up praise like a damn puppy dog, that she didn’t even own yet. Just the idea that I might have made her happy and took a little stress off her did something weird to me.

I had to get out of there. Instead I found myself saying, “Hey, I’m about done here. Is there something else pressing Clara wants done?”

He raised a curious eye at me and shrugged, then looked around. “You should ask Rick, but he’s been doing a sucky job at running this vector, and Clara’s been too distracted with some personal stuff to notice. See the tiger enclosure, right there?” He pointed to it from where we were standing, and I was pleased to see it was just on the other side of the clinic. “She’s got two special guests temporarily here, and she was hoping to assess that cage before they leave us. We’re currently spending a ton while keeping the pair we were able to save sedated, because she refuses to cage them. So the faster that place gets done, the better.”

I smiled. Clara really was an angel. “I’m on it.” I gathered up the cleaning supplies I’d so far managed to appropriate and quickly got to work on the new project.

The day was long, and hot. I shouldn’t have been here, but I felt good about what I was doing. I had learned Clara was actually in charge of the whole damn project. She was someone important, far too good for the likes of me, but for some reason it made me proud to hear all she was doing.

I continued to lie low, and not cross paths with her. I stopped what I was doing the next morning and watched from afar as she brought out a batch of black-headed spider monkeys and settled them into the cages I’d prepared.

She was wearing dark scrubs this time, and even from a distance I could see signs of exhaustion. I watched as her body stilled and she scented the air. No doubt my smell was still everywhere. She sighed and looked around. Was she searching for me?

With the job complete, she turned to head back to the clinic. I hadn’t seen her leave it even once since she got back, before now. She looked around again and I turned to continue working, hoping she didn’t notice me, while at the same time wanting her to. I caught a quick glimpse of a smile on her face first.

The ducks waddled over and jumped into the watering hole.

“Get out of there,” I told them. “Alfred, Miriam, I’m serious. Damn, you’re nasty! I’m trying to clean that. Shoo.”

Alfred swam over to the side that wouldn’t leave him exposed to any humans. Looking around, he quickly shifted, sitting on the edge of the pool and dangling his feet in the water. “Got your panties in a wad today, wolf?”

Miriam swam over to him and shifted to join him. “Don’t listen to him, Gage. I think what you’re doing here is a good thing.”

I rolled my eyes. “Would you two please just leave me alone?”

“Can’t, we have a problem,” Alfred said, seriously.

I huffed. “What now?”

Alfred and Miriam were an annoying pair of duck shifters, but they had helped me as best they could to survive this place. In some warped way I felt I owed them. Once I had decided I was going to try to help the other shifters by taking the brunt of the owners’ brutality, Alfred had come to sit by my side. He had tried multiple times to steal the keys and help us escape, but the owners had kept them locked up too tightly.

“Well?” I asked.

“Videos. They took videos of you locked in the cage.”

“So?”

“In your most delirious state, you shifted back and forth several times.”

“I did?” I asked, trying to remember. Much of that time was still a blur to me.

“Yeah. You did. I’ve checked the files on the computer and there’re no signs they sent the files out. Everything was done on cheap old personal video cameras that used discs, not even SD cards. They are dated, and two discs appear to be missing,” he said.

“Now don’t freak out, yet,” Miriam said. “It’s possible they’re there and we just haven’t found them. It’s also possible they never existed to begin with.”

Alfred was a gloom and doom type, while Miriam was about the most optimistic person I’d ever met. The two made quite a pair. Apparently this wasn’t their first disaster. They enjoyed flying around and witnessing the recovery process in places like this as well as natural disasters. Kind of like storm chasers, they had a warped sense of reality and liked to be in the middle of all the action and drama.

“Do you have the other discs secured?” I asked. “Have you destroyed them?”

“We know where they are,” Miriam offered.

I sighed. “Come on, show me,” I said.

They both shifted back to their feathers and I followed them to the back of the park. I hesitated and took a deep breath to calm myself as I recognized where we were headed. If there were videos of me shifting, I had to destroy them. Pushing down my fears, I continued forward.

We entered the small, dingy office. I had only seen it from the outside, but it looked much like the horror movie I had envisioned. It was where the owners kept the torture devices. There were tasers and various medieval-looking weapons hanging on the walls. A couple tranquilizer guns were lying on shelves. It made me shiver to think of everything that happened. I didn’t want to remember and have to relive it all over again.

“Where are they?” I snapped at the ducks.

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