Hidden (Society Book 4) Read online

  The Human sighed. “You see this young man right here.” He pointed to the wolf who had knocked at her door. He had bound his leg with cloth from his shirt. Now he stood next to the Human. He was nothing but a traitor, not just to the baby, but to his own kind. He worked for the Humans, probably thought that it earnt him a fortune as well as a place worthy in this world, but he was nothing. “See the girl next to him?”

  Cathy nodded. The girl they had pretended was injured.

  “She’s actually his sister. You see …” He smiled. “His actual girlfriend, and this is the funny part, she works for you. Pretty little thing, not too bright. Walks with a limp? Maybe you know her?”

  Cathy fought with her gaze—fought to let her emotions spread out across her face so that the Human wouldn’t see that he had hit the nail right on centre. She clenched herself, keeping her muscles tight, but the Human could tell. He laughed.

  “Always the nice ones, isn’t it? The quiet ones that fuck us right over.”

  “She is just a nurse. She doesn’t know what she is talking about.”

  “Yes, she is, isn’t she? Well, it seems your Tammy had quite a story.” He leaned forward to hook the tip of the gun under Cathy’s chin. “Oh, don’t look so startled, she didn’t betray you. No … the stupid girl thought it would be great pillow talk with our friend Benson right here. You know how it goes? Little kiss, little cuddle, boy tells girl he loves her, girl opens her legs, and then after, when she has given over intimately, she lies there and yaps and yaps on. Normally we aren’t interested in that kind of moment, but see now, this one was different. So I know you have a baby here and I know that he is special.”

  “He is just wolf.”

  “Yes. That’s what you told the silly girl, isn’t it? But his eyes. She described them and you know, I've done enough research on your kind to know what that means. You’ve got yourself a diamond there. He’s the fucking jewel of your kind. He’s a mix-breed. Do you know how rare that is? How much he is worth?”

  Cathy swallowed. She could be sick. “You would sell the child?”

  He shook his head. “Oh no, no, no. You misunderstand me. It is a fool who let’s go of such a valuable thing. Do you know what he could teach us? The bloods of Others don’t mix, but something in his has, and he has made it this far. They’re like half-breeds, they don’t normally make it past a few days of their creation. Usually mix-breeds die in the womb, but this one didn’t. Which tells me there is something unusual about this child.”

  Science. That was what they wanted him for? To study him? To keep him like a lab rat so that they could study him. That was worse than just selling him. What Others suffered in the name of Human science. It was disgusting.

  A branch cracked behind the Human, somewhere in the shadows cast down from the trees. They all turned to see Malcolm emerge. Cathy was relieved to see him. More relieved than she even dared to admit. The Human backed up from Cathy and moved to the newcomer. “Can I help you? Are you lost?”

  “I have come for my friend here,” he said, pointing to Cathy.

  The Human smiled. “Cathy is busy.”

  Malcolm didn’t falter, didn’t step back. He showed no moment of backing down from the Human, but the Human did raise his gun this time and aimed it at Malcolm. “Do you know who I am?”

  The Human gave a slow nod. “Yes. That is why I know that you have no business here. I suggest you do the smart thing and leave. Whatever business you have with your friend Cathy here, can wait until tomorrow. Assuming she does as she is told, or I can't promise she’ll make it.”

  The deep, feral roar that came from behind them made them all turn again as the sound of paws pounding against the hard earth echoed around them. A flash of gold and orange fur leapt from the shadows and landed against the Human who had held the gun to Cathy’s side. A tiger. It was magnificent in all its glory, but not as big as a real tiger. No, this was a shifter, and it sank his teeth down into the Human’s hand and ripped the flesh away, knocking the gun to the ground. The man screamed, the sound loud and guttural as the bone was exposed where it had once been covered with flesh. He was silenced when the tiger leapt at him and slashed a paw through his throat, sending blood and skin everywhere as the Human fell down in a lifeless lump. One of the other Humans had picked up the gun and he aimed it at the tiger. The tiger spun on himself and then rose up on his hind legs. He was so tall. His big paws came down against the Human’s shoulders. Together, the Human and the tiger rolled. Snarls and growls and screams mingled together in a loud blur of noise, and then, just as fast, it was silent and the Human was dead, his throat torn away.

  The young man, Benson, lifted a bat and swung it at the tiger, catching it in the side and knocking it down with an almighty whack. The tiger rolled and he went for the second blow, but the tiger spun and regained itself, slashing out and sending the bat bouncing across the earth and away from them. The man ripped off his shirt, his shift beginning. He unsheathed thick, dark claws and howled as his teeth began to emerge from his shifting jaws. The tiger raced towards him and the man almost welcomed him with open arms as the two met in the middle with a smash and then tumbled to the ground. The tiger was unyielding as they fought, howls and growls echoing all around as the two slashed at each other. The magnificent tiger wrapped his paws around the man and held him tightly. The man screamed and bucked to free himself, and as he got loose, he twisted wrongly and the tiger came down on him with jaws wide open. The sound of lightning cracking through the air ricocheted through the trees, sending night animals scampering for cover. The man clutched at himself, his screams giving way to gurgling as silvery lines spread under his skin, a network of poisoned veins. He clutched at his abdomen. Cathy stood with one of the guns in her outstretched hand. She stood almost frozen, the only movement in her body was as she panted, watching the young man writhe and scream on the ground until he died.

  “You fucking shit,” came a cry, as the girl suddenly brought herself mentally around and lunged for Cathy. Cathy raised the gun again, eyes unblinking as she went to squeeze the trigger a second time, but the tiger came to her side, his teeth bared, snarling. Blood dripped from his fur—it marred his beautiful face. The girl didn’t stop and the tiger leapt for her, slamming his paws down against her chest and, in turn, against the ground. She screamed under the tiger’s hold as he pressed his paw down against her throat. The girl pounded at the side of the tiger’s neck trying to push him off. She tried to lift her feet between them, but the tiger moved.

  “Perhaps it would be a good time for you both to go home.” It was Malcolm’s voice that made them turn. He stood behind the suited Human, a clawed hand around the man’s neck. He leaned into him, pressing himself against the Human’s back and peering out at the girl over the man’s shoulder. The Human showed no fear as he stared. He was staring right at Cathy, his eyes almost dripping with hatred for her. “You will not get this baby. Not today, or tomorrow. I suggest you take your little pet here and leave while you can.”

  “I won’t be the last,” the Human spat. “You know that. You can't keep a mix-breed child quiet. People will come.”

  “And people will be sent away.” He released the Human and pushed him forward. The Human had nowhere to go; between Cathy with the gun and the tiger, one move and he was fucked and he knew it. Still, he leaned down and picked up the bat that Benson had held, casting a moment’s glance down at him. “He was fucking useless anyway.” He pointed the bat at the girl. “And you.”

  She bucked under the tiger’s hold and he let her go because her target was no longer Cathy, it was the suited Human. She jumped up, eyes filled with rage—they had shifted. Her mouth was almost changed too, her snout poking out from the face of a girl. The suited Human aimed the bat for her, but the tiger lashed out and took her down in one movement. She rolled onto her back, slashing for him, but the tiger bit down on her throat, properly this time, and he ripped. Her eyes went wide, and her screams became nothing but a strangled gurgle from
deep inside her as she clutched at her neck, and then her life was gone.

  The Human lifted the bat towards the tiger as the tiger set his eyes on him. Cathy moved, and Malcolm came forward. The Human swung the bat and it caught the animal in the jaw with a crack. The tiger yelped and growled, but it didn’t stop him. He was on the Human in seconds and the man was on the ground with the bat up. The tiger pounced at the Human, landing right on him and holding him down. His paws wrapped around the Human’s head, and his long teeth came down into the man’s face. He bucked and screamed and kicked as the tiger closed his jaw around his head. Blood spurted out from where teeth sank in, until the tiger pressed harder and the skull cracked under the animal’s jaws.

  They were all dead. All gone.

  Chapter Ten

  A change is as good as a rest? Isn’t that how the saying went? It crossed Cathy’s mind as she stood outside and stared at the new day just beginning. It was a new day for her and a new beginning. The swaddled bundle in her arms fussed softly against her. He was two months old and, god, what a start he had already had in his short life. She stroked his face tenderly as Jeff came outside to stand behind her. He rested his chin on her shoulder and peered down at Sebastian. “Do you think we’re doing the right thing?” she asked.

  “Keeping him?”

  She nodded slightly, nervous at what he might say.

  She felt his cheeks rise in a smile against her face. “I think it’s the best thing we did.” He pressed her gently against him and breathed in the clear morning air as they stared out to the world below—a new world, miles away from where they once were. A new start in the hills.

  What a mess it had all been. Such carnage. So many dead and for what? Power? Greed? The insanity of the Human condition? Cathy still didn’t know how to process what had happened that night. She had stood there, amidst all of the bodies and the blood and the death and what she had felt was relief—relief that it was them dead and not her and the baby or Jeff. Three Humans and two shifters, slaughtered. Of course, the Humans cared little for the lives of Others that had been lost, but the three Humans? It was as if the Others had committed genocide. They had paraded around the body of Stephen Davies like it was some god damn trophy. They’d used him like he was their Guy Fawkes. It was sickening. It was the start of a shift in the world, though. Maybe that was what Sebastian was, the symbol of change.

  Cathy couldn’t help the pangs of guilt for Stephen, though. One man—one boy, a brother, a son, an heir. He had lost everything for the sake of loving his family. He had sacrificed bigger than any of them. He had sacrificed his life. She thought about him daily and knew that she would for a long time.

  Stephen Davies, the name of a hero hailed a murderer.

  He wasn’t dead, though. That was where the Humans were idiots, but still Cathy felt for Malcolm, as hardened by his position as he was, he had still lost his son. Maybe not to death, but to the world.

  Stephen as he was, did not exist any longer. He was the name whispered on the mouths of both Humans and Others. “Do you remember that man, Stephen?” they’d all say. “The one who went crazy and just murdered everyone?”

  The truth about Stephen, though, was only known by three people: Cathy, Jeff and Malcolm. But even they did not know the true whereabouts of him, for now he was called Nick Mason. The fugitive bundled on the bus to Exile. It was a daring plan—brave, or maybe stupid. Time would tell. But he couldn’t take the blame for the deaths of all of those in the clinic and those on the land around. Their cunning plan. Even Cathy and Jeff were dead on paper. A new start for them. But they did not need new names, new identities. They had just taken off with the money Malcolm had gifted them. They had promised him that they would take care of the baby, until it was a new world where he would be welcomed. Maybe one day that would happen. Maybe one day, Others would stand up against the oppression and show the Humans the truth—Humans were weak.

  They had faked Stephen’s death—a bid to save his life. Fed his blood into the body of a Human and then burnt it. All tests would confirm it was him. His tracer was all over the bodies in the woods. There was no other choice. If he stayed, if he went back home, the Human authorities would want his head and so they had given it to them or at least they thought. Jeff and Malcolm had used one of the patient’s bodies, claimed it was Stephen. Claimed he had come, got into a fight and that was it—so many dead at his hand. That was what they told everyone at least.

  Cathy hoped with all her heart, that wherever he was now, he would survive.

  The End

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