Series: Shifter Ops Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
“She needs a bodyguard?” Declan asks. “She’s got all sorts of animals eating out of her hand. Like a fecking Disney princess.”
“I’m better with prey animals, actually,” Allison says. “I make them feel safe.” There’s a squeaking noise, and a mouse peeks out of her sundress pocket. She lifts it out and sets it carefully down on the ground, so it can disappear through a crack in the ground beside the empty house.
“And what happens when there’s a threat?” I eye Fiona. “You shoot them?”
She gives me an empty grin that shows all her teeth. “Fuck around and find out.”
Gravel crunches behind me. Laurie’s rolled the bus up to where we stand.
“Is that your bus? Looks like something out of Scooby Doo.” Allison sounds delighted.
Fiona’s expression is skeptical. “Why does it have a tree?”
“For Christmas,” Declan says.
“Ah,” Fiona says, as if this makes sense.
I give a weary nod. “All right. Come on, Snow White. Let’s get this freak show on the road.”
“Shotgun!” Fiona and Declan shout at the same time and scramble for the front side passenger door.
I let them fight it out and head around to take the keys from Laurie. A few seconds later, there’s a pained yip, and then Fiona opens the door to hop into the seat beside me. She settles the shotgun at her side and holds out a hand. “GPS?”
“Thanks.” I hand my phone to her. “He hasn’t sent the coordinates….”
“Don’t worry. I know where we’re going.”
I adjust the rearview mirror. Laurie settles in the backseat next to a growling Declan.
Allison climbs in, holding a backpack with a faded floral pattern, and settles in the middle seat. “Hi there,” she greets Laurie in her soft voice.
He pales even more than normal.
“What’s in this?” Allison opens a pistachio-colored mini fridge that’s secured to the floor beside her. It’s full of old fashioned milk bottles, filled with a white liquid.
“M-m-milk?”
Declan takes a bottle and gives it a test shake. “Probably eggnog.”
“I wouldn’t drink that,” I warn.
“Ah, why not? Just a wee thimbleful wouldn't hurt.”
“No,” Laurie and I shout at the same time.
“Fine.” Declan puts the bottle back and hauls out his silver flask. “Not like I need the liquor diluted.”
Drunk Declan. That’s just what we need.
I put the bus in gear and hit the gas. The bus engine coughs a little but then settles into a loud and rhythmic purr. It might just get us all the way to Taos.
“So how have you guys been?” I ask Fiona carefully. Her scent is a little more apparent in close quarters, earthy and a little peppery. It’s still not clear what her animal is or if she’s a hybrid like me. A mutt.
It’s been a while since we met her and Allison when they were newly rescued from the shifter slavers. Both Declan and Laurie were interested in getting to know them better, but they needed time and space to process the horrors they’d been through.
Maybe Declan and Laurie needed time to process too.
“Pretty good. We stayed with the Tucson pack for a while. Sheridan taught us how to bartend.” Fiona shrugs. “We pick up shifts at Eclipse and Fight Club when we need money.”
“Sheridan’s mated to Trey who runs Fight Club. Have you ever worked one of those nights?”
“No,” Fiona says casually, but her scent flares spicy red. Cayenne pepper with hints of habañero. It tickles my sensitive nose until I have to fight to hold back my sneeze. A scent of anger… with underlying fear? “We don’t work the fights.”
“That’s our job,” I say. “We run the books.” You’d think being surrounded by giant, adrenaline crazed shifters would be freaky after my time in the Data X cages. But it’s the opposite. Being around shifters, especially strong, fight-focused ones, makes my animal feel safe. If I had to guess, I’d say Declan and Laurie feel the same way.
“Did you ever think of joining the Tucson pack?” Allison asks. Her voice is soft, but I hear it clearly from the middle seat.
“No. You?”
“No.” Fiona’s scent is red hot now, and her voice is flat. She’s seriously pissed.
“Garrett offered, but…” Allison trails off. Her floral scent is faded, like a dried flower left pressed in a book’s pages for too many years.
“Same.” I clear my throat. We ride in silence for another ten miles. Declan and Laurie stare out opposite windows. No one wants to say the truth: when Data X took us, experimented on us, they didn’t just steal years of our lives, our sense of security, pieces of our sanity. They stole from us the chance to be a part of a pack.
Because when you’re too different, too weird, you don’t fit in with anyone.
Fiona
The road stretches before us, smooth and dry. For the first three hours, the landscape was brown desert, rocks and the occasional ranch. After we hit New Mexico, things got more interesting, with mountain ranges contouring the views. The ride hasn’t been that bad. There’s a spring digging into my ass, but the bus is cool. If we have to, we can flatten the seats and sleep in here. Allison and I have had a worse time roughing it, for sure.