On the Run
“We have to run. Now!” Carson said,, panicked and grabbed Roslyn by the upper arm. He’d been shot back from Adam and slid across the ground hard. He knew that the building was going to blow and felt some odd charge go through him. He’d come to help fight, but so much more had happened.
He was still reeling over the fact of what had just happened, about the young girl who was dead. How her mother had reached into Adam’s chest to pull her life back, and he’d felt it. The pure energy that it took, the pure energy that it was. It pulled at a part of him and made him want to weep. In that second, he realized who these people were and that he himself was one. An Atcuian.
Having met a few of them before, but not realizing his blood was the same until the call a few minutes ago by the mother. By Kyra, a cheetah shifter. He knew he had to be there. It was imperative to help them take that girl’s life back. To let her soul rest. In their minds, he saw how connected they were and how so many events lead up to this night. That was because he’d been near the bears, who were talking with the wolves, he knew to come here. It was all so crazy. A mess of a web, he didn’t envy the two that were sightseers; they’d known.
“Why, what’s going on?” Roslyn asked. He didn’t say anything but she could clearly feel the urgency and started to run with him. They shifted and ran faster. Others darting through the woods and a moment later the ground shook and a bright flash went through the woods. The two of them were lucky they could move rather fast and get out of the way. They didn’t stop, kept going at the blast.
The place that had blown was a facility of hunters that sought out their kind and killed them. A feud that was so long now no one even understood why they kept at it. But Adam, he was a nasty piece of work and was going to take all the shifters out.
So they had gone to the facility to get rid of it like others. Plus to save the life of an Atcuian that they had, and a werewolf that he’d captured. Not to mention others that were trapped and hybrids that had to be destroyed. Like the one he was sure was going to be following him and Roslyn. That hybrid was only gone for the moment in the fighting.
The two of them were tiger shifters, and he was huge. A Siberian that was six hundred pounds of pure muscle. She was smaller a Bengal tiger that was white with dark black stripes. Kind of odd because the stripes on a white tiger were normally kind of brown.
Thank you. She said as they ran through the trees deeper into the woods. Other shifters were breaking off and running. They were the only two really now heading the direction they were. The goal to get out and away. She was following his lead, and didn’t really know where to go out here.
Like we could leave you there with that thing. He growled at her and she kind of shrank back a bit but kept running with him. She was not what he expected from a tigress. When he’d left the others in the hall to go after her with Kiro they really didn’t expect the woman they found. Carson had told Dante he’d get Roslyn and so he had.
The man Jonas who had dragged her back, he was a hybrid that shifted into a tiger. It wasn’t normal, he looked black with orange stripes. His eyes a kind of brown, he’d had her and it was clear he was going to cause her pain. Probably use her too. She hadn’t been fighting him at all, just asking him not to hurt her. Tigresses were normally very temperamental and feisty, she was not. Carson hadn’t hesitated, he’d gone right for them to help her.
Roslyn was soft spoken, both as a human and a tiger. She had been incredibly upset when he’d brought her out of the building and seen the dead. She’d however been relieved when they’d attacked Jonas and took her away from them. Which he was more than glad to do, because the second he saw her the oddest thing had happened to him.
It felt like the very floor below him had dropped away. She was the only one standing in that hall, not the horrible place filling with smoke and death. Just her, and every feature of her face and body was clear as day to him. She made a longing come up in him and a kind of painful feeling as well.
He’d love to have a mate but he couldn’t. Looking at her, kind of felt like love at first sight for him. Which was incredibly dumb, he didn’t believe in that shit, but infatuation yeah. Carson’s mind was lost on a lot of things as they were running from the facility that was in ruin.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the outside world. It smells so good, and the cool air. She sighed into his mind as she spoke. Where are we going?
To get as far away from here as possible. Adam is going to want blood, and any shifter will do right now. Though he’d prefer the Atcuians.
Oh yes, he spoke of them with venom. Said that they were poison on this planet. That I should be lucky I was being given a mate that wasn’t poison like that. But Jonas scares me, I don’t want him as my mate. He makes me feel odd inside. I don’t get the things he wants.
All hybrids are like that, and poison? Are you serious, most think it a privilege to be Atcuian or the mate of one. Though I’m reserving judgment on that. He’d just learned that was his blood, no denying that. Now he understood why his talent was so insanely strong and he could barely touch people or living things sometimes without draining the energy out of them.
Hell he couldn’t live in a house with electricity it went haywire around him. He could hold it for a little bit but then it would build and explode. He could call lightning with the blink of an eye, had done it a couple times in his sleep by accident when he was younger.
I felt so bad when I saw Kyra, and now she had lost her daughter. There were tears in her voice. You are one, aren’t you? It’s why you went over there.
I guess I am didn’t know until then.
Oh, well I’ll reserve judgment too. I like you and them, I can see how real you all are. The love that they have, something I wish to feel, to have. The woman was clearly softhearted. She was still young perhaps twenty two. From what he saw and heard she was to be given to that thing Jonas as a mate.
There was no way she could manage to put up with that. She was an anomaly and one that he found his eye following. He just met her but felt an instant draw to her. He wanted to roll his eyes at himself, they met like twenty minutes ago in a war zone. Calm down Carson.
He was fifty years old, still young for a shifter who could live to be over two hundred. The oldest that he’d ever heard was one that lived to be nearly four, a bear. But they were always the longer lived anyways. Though the Uni, the special shifter, they were thought to be immortal. Well the next time he met Xie or one of the others he was going to have a shit ton of questions.
Where are we going? She asked again and they were now doing a fast lope through the woods rather than a run.
Well you’ll need a place to stay. I know a few tiger shifters that could probably help you. Still young and your temperament is clearly the best that I have ever seen. Carson told her.
Thank you, Migami one of the doctors, she told me that I wasn’t punished because I behaved so well. Roslyn said mentally.
What a relief. He said sarcastically but it was missed on her and her all too innocent outlook. Which it was innocent. Like she hadn’t really seen the bad even with where she lived. You were there your whole life? Carson asked her as they still ran.
Yes, I was raised there. I never knew my parents, was bred the way I was. They did all kinds of tests with me, from blood to talents. Said they hoped when given I gave them children that they could use. Which scared me, I don’t even know how to have a child, and they didn’t inform me. Jonas and his brother found it funny and I never liked the way that they said they’d show me alright. Roslyn said.
That was kind of an awkward statement, but he just let it go. Yeah he was sure they would want to show her a lot of things.
Where’s Jonas’s brother? Do we need to worry about him too? Carson asked.
No Dante killed him, it’s okay. Just Jonas. Roslyn told him.
I have a feeling he is going to be following us.
Most likely, I belong to him. He won’t like that I left. I feel bad that I don’t feel bad.
You don’t belong to him. Carson said to her. They came to a road it was just really gravel but he started to run along it and she followed. No one should ever be told who they have to mate with. Who they have to be with, that is your own choice.
I like you. She said with a smile running with him. She moved a bit closer to him and he could see the way that she was looking around taking it all in. Her scent came to him and smell a lot like strawberries. He also frowned a bit inside, she was close to heat you could smell it.
You’re about to hit heat aren’t you? Carson asked.
Yeah, it would be my first time. I’ve been feeling kind of odd for the past few days. That’s when they told Jonas he could have me. I know he wasn’t going to kill me, but they never did tell me just what he was going to do. Roslyn commented.
Mate with you obviously. He answered, no one could be that dense.
Well yeah, but how do you mate with another? Roslyn asked.
You just do. He said not wanting to have a very awkward conversation with this individual who was clearly sheltered beyond a thought. He slowed as a car came into view. It was parked on the side of the road, though it was really an older truck. She slowed with him and then he shifted going over to it and opening the door. He pulled out some clothes on the seat and started to put them on.
“Here,” Carson said tossing come clothes onto the hood. “I know they are big for you, but we are heading into the city to get away before more north. Unless you have a place that you would like to go.” He said looking at her. She was sitting as a tiger slightly before the truck and not really looking at him until he’d pulled the pants on.
I don’t have anywhere to go. Roslyn said looking at him then.
“Okay, like I said I know some people.” He stood leaning against the door looking at her. He made a gesture toward the clothes. They didn’t really have the time to just sit here.
Could you turn around please? Roslyn asked and he looked confused.
“Uh, why?” He asked looking behind him like he was expecting someone to be there but wasn’t
Well when I shift I won’t have anything on. That’s awkward. He smiled and felt a laugh. Shifters weren’t ones that were much concerned for nudity. They were shifters, turned into animals, clothes didn’t go with. What did she have to be self-conscious about?
She was a very beautiful woman from what he’d seen. When she shifted back there her clothes had torn and fallen away. He wasn’t going to lie, he’d like to see what she looked like without anything on. She was gorgeous as the animal right now, her teal eyes looking at him.
“We’re shifters, nothing to be ashamed of,” Carso told her with a quick smile and her tail swished the ground a bit.
I feel uncomfortable with it. I didn’t look at you here nor back there. Please turn around? She asked and he felt like laughing again, modest. He kind of liked that, too bad she hadn’t looked at him he wouldn’t have cared nor minded. He shrugged and turned around, whatever. This was going to be one interesting trip.
