Page 15 of Run Free

They both shifted. “Relax. They’re gone, Gage,” Miriam assured me.

“Over here,” Alfred said, pulling a box down from above the computer desk. He handed it to me. I looked through it and saw my name next to a date on several of them. I groaned. This was really bad.

“Any chance they made copies?”

“We don’t believe so,” Miriam said.

“But it’s always a possibility. I’d fuss at you, but you really weren’t in your right mind,” Alfred pointed out.

“Is this computer disconnected from the internet?” I asked.

Alfred shrugged.

Miriam went into action. She disconnected the network cable, though I noticed the router wasn’t showing activity lights, so was likely not functioning. Certain it was off, I booted up the computer. I needed a password to log on. I tried a few obvious things, but nothing worked.

“Move over. I got this,” Miriam said. I watched as her fingers flew across the keys. She scrunched her face in frustration each time it beeped back at her, but within minutes she was in. “Aha, got it.”

She moved over to hand the controls back to me. “Good job, Miriam,” I praised.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly inserted the oldest date with my name listed on it. We watched, nothing. I fast forwarded here and there noting no major changes, or signs that I was anything but a wolf in a cage.

Day one took several hours just to skim through.

Day two was the first time they’d beat me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see it from a bird’s eye view. I thought at the time it would be the worst thing I ever lived through. I was very wrong.

We were just starting day three, and I was feeling numb and cold, when we heard footsteps just outside the door. Alfred and Miriam immediately changed back to their duck forms.

“Traitors,” I whispered under my breath.

“Gage?” Dave said as he entered the office. He stopped and stared at me, like he was puzzling something out, and then smiled and nodded. “Gage!” he said in a very different voice. “I guess you’re not quite the disappointing coward she pegged you for?”

“Come again?”

“Clara,” he said. “You’re her mate, right? I told you I’m good with faces, I just hadn’t seen yours before. She’s been working on a rather uncanny sketch, though, to deal with her frustrations. Does she even know you’re here?”

“No, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

He sighed. “You really think that’s for the best?”

“What would you know about it?”

“Well, I know that the more time you spend near her, the stronger the bond will become, making it even harder to leave later.”

It angered me that this human would speak so candidly about our kind. “You aren’t even supposed to know about stuff like that,” I reminded him.

Dave laughed. “My family has been watching over shifters since the beginning of history, Gage. You don’t need to fear me.”

“I don’t trust you or your kind,” I told him. “And I don’t like knowing Clara’s here with all of you, either. I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell her you saw me. I don’t need her getting attached. I just can’t leave until I know she’s out of this place and away from you.”

“She was really happy to set the spider monkeys free,” he said, changing the subject. I knew what he was doing, though, and dammit if it didn’t hit me in the feels knowing I’d done something that truly pleased her.

“They aren’t free. They’re living in cages, and I didn’t do it for her,” I said, rather unconvincing even to my own ears.

He laughed. “You aren’t going to find what you’re looking for in those,” he said. “I already had Archie look through them. I’m guessing Alfred tipped Clara off first. Only these have any signs of you shifting,” he said, showing me three additional discs he carried. “What they did to you was horrifying. Only five people have seen these discs, and any one of us would do anything in our power to help make that up to you. I know you don’t trust humans, but we aren’t all like that, Gage.”

“I need the list of five,” I told him trying not to let his words affect me.

He gave me a sad smile and nodded. “Me. Jacob Winthrop who’s the head of this program and human. Archie is a mole shifter that we use for intel. He scoured the videos and remoted in, to check out that computer. No signs that any of this was sent from there. Silas Granger. He’s a gorilla shifter who runs an elite special ops team. His group is investigating the owners. I promise you, no copies have been made. Here,” he said, handing me the discs.

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