Page 37 of Connected

Standing still, she stares into the bright blue eyes of the caged black wolf in the back of the room. They growl at each other and the darker wolf takes up a defensive posture—the intrusion of the large silver wolf is not welcomed.

Kat shifts from wolf to human and continuing to stare into the cage she takes a deep breath. “I don’t know if you can understand me, but I needed to say something before I let you go. I’m so sorry for what happened; with your pup, and I wish to God there was something I could do to fix that—I can’t, but I just wanted you to know that—I am sorry.”

Kat shakes her head as a tear trickles down her face as the forlorn look in the wolf’s eyes pierces Kat’s soul. With a sharp intake of breath, she looks up and now stares into the face of a human woman—darker skin and raven hair that hangs straggly around her shoulders.

“Hey,” Kat smiles.

“Hullo…” the woman is apprehensive, and she wipes a trickling stream of tears from her cheek.

“I um… I’m Kat and we’ve come to let you go.”

“I… I am Eloise.” The woman’s mouth is dry from the lack of water and it makes it hard to speak. Her voice cracks and she struggles g with her emotions.

“Hey, Eloise.” The conversation is stilted and awkward. Neither woman can express how she feels properly, but they both know they are connected by the events that unfolded.

Again, QT shuffles awkwardly. Each shifting move he makes sends the other wolves into a frenzy behind them. Hearing the angry growls, Kat reaches for his hand to reassure him.

“Eloise, before I let you go… these other wolves, they’re not gonna be able to shift for a while so they could really do with a pack leader. That can’t be me; I have to go back. I have a pack already and I can’t take them. What I mean is, they can’t come with us because we’re… military and I can’t be responsible for them, but I thought maybe, for a while at least, you might lead them? It might give you some purpose after what happened to know you’re keeping them and their pups safe?”

The woman nods slowly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet but… I am going to stay as a wolf, at least until the moon changes and I know my pup can shift for himself. So yes, I could take care of them for a while—look after them as a pack.”

“Good. I know you’ll make a great pack leader and they’ll need it. Oh, I um… I have a gift for you outside. You deserve it a lot more than I do. The men who did this to you, that brought you here and took your pup, two of them are dead—they were going to do things, repulsive things and one of my pack killed them. But the rest, including the shifter who leads them, are outside. I’ve had them set free, give them a head start—just for the fun of it,” Kat smiles. “I figured you and the others might want some retribution.”

They both smile, and Kat reaches a hand forward unlocking the cage; the woman crawls out, and standing up, she stretches her body. “Thank you. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come here. So, I’m glad you did.”

“Yeah, I guess it worked out for the best.”

The two women wrap their arms around each other’s naked bodies and hold each other tight. Kat wipes the tears from Eloise’s cheek. “All I ask is, you don’t let them touch any of my pack because I will have to defend them if they do. You need to make sure they stay away. Alvarez and his men… you can do whatever the hell you want with them—kill them fast or kill them slowly I don’t care but you must remember, they’re night shifters so they need to be dead before sundown.”

“Oh, they will be, I will take care of it personally” Eloise takes a deep breath. “Kat, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Hey no need to thank me. I just wish we could have done more, that maybe I could have saved your pup. I’ll have to live with the fact and… it won’t be easy.” Kat brushes the tear from her face. “We should go—they guys are waiting and we need to get you all away from before anyone comes looking. And Alvarez like I said he needs to be—”

“Don’t worry, he won’t make it to sundown. I told you, I will take care of him.”

“I’m sure you will. Take care, Eloise.” Kat brushes a kiss against her cheek.

“You too. And Kat… don’t worry, I will take care of these other wolves until they are ready to go back to their lives.”

“Thank you.” Kat takes a deep breath and looks at QT. “All right, so let’s do this then.”

Both Kat and Eloise shift back into their wolf form and the two wolves once again face each other. Luna stands protectively in front of QT as the black wolf walks to the entrance of the room. She howls loudly, calling the others as QT swiftly unlocks the rest of the cages.

Seeing the wolves freed, he watches as they slowly stalk forward, growling. Luna rumbles a snarl and bares her teeth in encouragement for them to turnaround and leave.

One of the larger wolves with a deep brown color fur stops and growls at QT and Luna steps forward. The large silver wolf makes it very clear that the interest is not wanted and with a sniff of the surrounding air, the brown wolf drops her head and submissively skulks to the door.

Suddenly there’s a frenzied rush and with the sound of howls and snarling, they run down the corridor. Then as they hear the noise of snapping barks, Luna and QT hurry outside.

They find the team all bunched together in a tight circle, their guns poised as the posse of wolves prowl around them. Digby and Zak are stripping their clothes in readiness to protect the rest of the team. As Digby looks up he sees QT his hand rested on Luna waiting at the entrance. The wolf tips her head back and lets out a hallowing howl.

Everything stops.

The wolves go silent and as they turnaround, they see Luna slowly stalk towards them. Her menacing size is enough to subdue them and immediately, the black wolf looks at her. Eloise’s wolf takes a long sniff of the air, and then before anyone can say a word, she leads the pack and they disappear into the dense jungle greenery.

They’re gone.

Digby and the rest of the guys breathe a sigh of relief. “Fuck… Hell, that was close. I thought for a minute there they were gonna turn on us.”

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