Chapter Eight

 

Axel double checked the supplies in his backpack, making sure that the vials of fairytassel sage poison were safely packed. He had already checked a half-dozen times, and he knew that one more check wasn’t going to make much of a difference. But his nerves were more on edge now than they’d ever been, and checking his bag for the zillionth time somehow made him feel better.

He was standing near the tunnel entrance with Whisper, who seemed about a thousand times calmer than he felt. The fact that she was acting so calm only irritated him, which set his nerves more on edge. He felt as though he should be stepping up to lead and take charge on this mission, but right now she was acting like more of a leader than him.

Get it together, Ax, he chided himself.

But he hadn’t had it together for several days now. He’d been in a weird mood ever since Violet had confronted him outside of Bear Hollow Brews, accusing him of dating Whisper in secret. Axel had exploded in anger, telling Violet off for the last time. At least, he hoped it was the last time. Violet had been annoyingly persistent in her quest to date him, but even she seemed to have backed off after he’d lost his temper. He’d told her once again that he didn’t want to date her, and then he’d told her that she wasn’t welcome around the bar until she stopped her ridiculous game of trying to trick him into spending hours and hours with her every night. He was sorry for the loss of her parents. Truly, he was. But he didn’t like the way she was using their deaths as a tool to manipulate him.

Violet seemed to have gotten the message. She hadn’t been around the bar since then, and Axel almost felt bad. He had never forbidden a shifter from coming to the bar before, but he felt that his hand had been forced. He’d had to take drastic action, and it seemed it had worked. Violet had given up, and was leaving him alone.

So why did Axel still feel so unsettled?

He had a feeling that his uneasy feelings had a lot to do with Whisper. His best friend’s little sister had slowly become so much more to him. He had meant it when he said she was even closer of a friend to him than Oskar now. And he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a rush of desire when he’d hugged her and kissed her head outside the bar before Violet stormed over. But what was he supposed to do with his newfound feelings for Whisper? If he told her how much he wanted her, and she didn’t want him back, things would get so awkward. And he couldn’t allow awkwardness now. They needed to be on top of their game to finish this fairytassel sage mission and stop the Gilt Hollow soldiers.

“Got everything?” Whisper asked, breaking into his thoughts. She was watching him check his bag with an expression somewhere between amused and annoyed. Feeling slightly embarrassed, he zipped his bag shut and stood up.

“It’s all in there. It’s important to be sure, though.”

“Mmmhmm.” She didn’t have to say more than that. They both knew he was a ball of nerves right now. But she didn’t know that it was because of her, and not the mission.

“Come on. Let’s get this show on the road.” Axel stood tall and took charge. He would lead this thing. He would show Whisper how comfortable he was being on the front lines of the resistance. And maybe, just maybe, he’d manage to impress her a little bit.

Whisper followed him without another word as he began pushing away the brush that hid the tunnel’s entrance from view. Axel felt a rush of excitement fill him as he caught a first glimpse of the door handle for the tunnel’s entrance. He’d heard so much about this tunnel, and he had been eager to see it for himself. The tunnel had been built over the course of years by the shifters who lived in Gilt Hollow and worked for the Gilt Hollow resistance. It hadn’t been easy, and many had said it could never be done. The tunnel had to cross deep in the earth, underneath the Golden Claw River. The naysayers had underestimated the superhuman strength and determination of shifters, because a little less than a year ago, the tunnel had been completed. Over the last winter, the tunnel had been used to secretly bring emergency food supplies to the Bear Hollow shifters. Now, it would be used to bring fairytassel sage poison to the shifters living in Gilt Hollow.

After looking around one more time to make sure no one had followed them, Axel turned the handle and opened the door to the tunnel. He motioned Whisper inside, then checked one more time to make sure no one was around before closing the door behind him. Once again, he was being overly cautious. But the last thing he wanted was for some Gilt Hollow soldier to see him and follow him into the tunnel. If that happened, Axel would be forced to fight and kill the soldier right here in the middle of this tiny space.

And it was a tiny space. There wasn’t enough room for two people to walk side by side, at least not comfortably. The narrow walls seemed to close in on Axel, and he took a few deep breaths to remind himself that the tunnel was safe. The shifters from Gilt Hollow had made dozens of trips back and forth through here and had lived to tell about it. They also had a few experts on their side who had checked the tunnel and determined it was strong and stable. Still, walking in an underground space this small, knowing that a river raged above you, wasn’t exactly Axel’s idea of fun.

Whisper must have been nervous, too, because she slowed her pace and felt along the walls as though checking for weak spots. Not that it would have mattered much if they found one. Within a minute or two, they were deep enough in the tunnel that escape would have been impossible. They had no choice but to trudge on and hope that everything worked out.

But to Axel’s surprise, the trip across the tunnel went much faster than expected. Before he knew it, they had reached the door on the other side that led into the Gilt Hollow forest.

“You ready?” he asked Whisper. She nodded at him, her face looking strange in the long shadows cast by his headlamp.

“Okay, then let’s do this. Remember the plan. Exit the tunnel and get away from the entrance as quickly as possible. There should be a path within a few yards of the tunnel. We follow that path to the east, staying within the trees lining the path so that no patrolling soldiers see us. Otto or another of the Gilt Hollow shifters will be watching for us, and will reveal themselves when we get close to them. Until then, we keep walking.”

Whisper nodded, a nervous expression still plastered across her face. “And if a soldier does see us, we run like hell.”

“Yup. We have to avoid being caught at all costs. Even if it means we have to ditch the fairytassel sage poison. We can always make more poison, but if the soldiers catch us over here, they’ll kill us.”

Axel tried to sound calmer than he felt. He’d been in dangerous situations before, but this time was different. This time it wasn’t just his life he was worried about, it was Whisper’s life too. If the soldiers caught them, she would be killed. And he couldn’t bear the thought of that. He would protect her at all costs, even if it meant using himself as a distraction to draw the soldiers away from her. He would happily sacrifice himself a hundred times over for her sake, and he hoped that if they came across soldiers an attempt at distraction would work. More than that, he hoped he wouldn’t have to find out.

The penalty for Bear Hollow citizens coming to Gilt Hollow without authorization had always been death, and the Gilt Hollow soldiers had proven time after time that they weren’t afraid to enforce that penalty. Axel would rather not give them another chance to prove it tonight.

“Ready?” he asked, his hand already on the handle for the tunnel door that would lead them out into Gilt Hollow.

“Ready,” Whisper confirmed.

Axel turned the door handle and pushed. A rush of cool night air hit him, and he instantly felt awake. He hadn’t realized how stuffy the air in the tunnel had been until the fresh air hit him, and he gulped in several lungfulls of it. Beside him, he could hear Whisper doing the same thing. Even as he was breathing in deeply, he was covering the outside of the tunnel door. He had turned his headlamp off, as had Whisper, and as soon as the door was hidden by brush again, they would sneak away from here. The less time spent by the door the better. He didn’t want to lead any soldiers to this spot.

Thankfully, the forest seemed quiet. When he was satisfied that the tunnel entrance was sufficiently hidden, he motioned to Whisper and they walked away from the tunnel. They quickly found the path that Otto had mentioned to them. After crossing the path so that they were on the opposite side from the river, which gave them more room to run if someone from Gilt Hollow saw them, they started walking east. They stayed just off the path and in the trees, and Axel let Whisper go ahead of him so that he could keep an eye on her. If they were attacked from the rear, he wanted to be the one who had to fend off the attack. He always acted protective of his friends, but tonight his protective instincts toward Whisper seemed to be in overdrive mode.

He had a bad feeling that they would run across unexpected trouble tonight. He didn’t know where that feeling was coming from, as he had never been the superstitious type. But he couldn’t shake it, and he kept a sharp eye out for any sign of soldiers.

The two of them had been walking about fifteen minutes when he heard a soft whistle in the woods ahead, and a smile broke across his face.

“That’ll be them,” he whispered before answering back in a soft whistle of his own, to acknowledge that he had heard the whistle. A few moments later, a dark figure emerged from the forest to his right.

“It’s me, Otto,” the figure said, before pulling back the black ski mask he’d been wearing. “Damn, is it good to see your face.”

Otto pulled Axel into a big hug, slapping him on the back a few times for emphasis. He gave Whisper a gentler but still robust hug, and then motioned behind him. “Come on. Leo is here, too, and he has food for you guys, if you’re hungry.”

Axel grinned and nodded. He was hungry, because he’d been far too nervous to eat any dinner tonight. The only thing he’d put in his stomach was a pint of beer before he closed the bar early so that he and Whisper could complete this mission. But even if he hadn’t been hungry, he wouldn’t have turned down a chance to eat food from Gilt Hollow. The shifters here had access to rich, expensive food that everyone in Bear Hollow could only dream of. Over the winter, Axel had enjoyed indulging in the delicacies that the shifters from Gilt Hollow had brought across the tunnel. But once the weather had warmed and the threat of starvation had been over, the shifters had decided that sneaking back and forth across the tunnel every week was too dangerous. Axel understood, of course. But damn it if he hadn’t missed indulging in tender steaks, expensive cheeses, and sweet cakes.

He was going to indulge tonight. He glanced at Whisper and saw that she looked just as excited as he felt. She met his eyes and grinned, then licked her lips for emphasis. Axel chuckled. His apprehension from earlier disappeared as he followed Otto deeper into the forest. He’d been so worked up about everything that could go wrong, but at this point it seemed like they were going to get away with this. Otto had told him that the Gilt Hollow soldiers patrolled the main paths frequently, but rarely strayed into the woods. That would have required too much effort on the soldiers’ part, and luckily for the shifters, the soldiers tended to be lazy.

When Axel saw the spread of food that Otto and Leo had brought along for them, he definitely forgot all of his worries about the soldiers. Otto had provided steak, just as Axel had hoped. There was also bread, cheese, backed potatoes, wine and a giant cake.

“Wow. An entire cake?” Whisper asked.

Otto shrugged. “I asked the kitchen for one. Told them I was hankering for a good chocolate cake and they obliged.”

“But won’t they be suspicious when there are no leftovers?” Whisper was already reaching for a giant chunk of cheese.

Otto laughed. “Naw. They wouldn’t be that surprised by a shifter supposedly eating a whole cake in one sitting. They’re used to our giant shifter appetites.”

“Well in that case, let’s eat this entire cake,” Axel said to Whisper with a wink. She winked back and took a huge bite of cheese. But Axel didn’t dig in. Not quite yet. First, he wanted to take care of business.

“Here are all the vials of the poison,” he told Otto as he began unpacking them. “They aren’t labeled, just in case they’re found by someone from Gilt Hollow, so be careful that they don’t get misplaced or put somewhere that someone could accidentally ingest the liquid. This stuff is potent, or so I’m told. Supposedly, just a few drops can be enough to kill a grown man. Of course, we didn’t do any field tests on this round. It’s kind of hard to find volunteers to test a poison.”

Otto smiled. “That’s alright. We’ll do our own round of field tests on the Gilt Hollow soldiers.”

Axel nodded. “Just be careful, seriously. Don’t let this stuff get anywhere it’s not supposed to be.”

“We’ll be careful,” Otto promised as he loaded the vials into his own bag that he’d brought with him. And with any luck this will be the last Shifter Games ever held.”

Axel felt a swell of hope in his chest. “You really think they’ll stop the Games after this?”

Leo shrugged and spoke up. “They’ll at least have to postpone them indefinitely. People are already on edge about the Games. After a bunch of soldiers die, no one is going to want to come to the Games again for a long time. They’ll be afraid that there’s no security, and they’ll be right. With soldiers dying in the middle of the event, who is going to believe that anyone at the Games is safe?”

“But there will be a time that they restart the Games, even after losing the soldiers,” Otto said. “Unless we can first overthrow the Gilt Hollow regime. That’s the goal here. Disable the Games for a long period of time by taking out the soldiers, which will also cause the Gilt Hollow citizens to worry that the nobles have lost control and can’t keep the city safe. During this time of unrest, when there are no Games, a weakened army, and a general distrust of the Emperor, we’ll make our move. If all goes as planned, this will be the best chance we’ve ever had to take down Gilt Hollow.”

“Well, good luck,” Axel said, grabbing Whisper’s bag and passing over the vials of poison from there as well. “All of us in Bear Hollow are ready to help however we can.”

“We appreciate that,” Otto said. “I’m excited that you’ve all decided to form your own branch of the resistance force. The shifters have never been so united and so strong. I have a good feeling that change is coming soon.”

Axel smiled in agreement as he handed over the last of the vials, and then he began to dig into the food, just as Whisper was already doing. Whisper hadn’t said anything as the poison was discussed, but she had a worried crease in her forehead. Axel knew she wasn’t so convinced that this plan was going to be the magic turning point for the shifters. There were still too many things that could go wrong and prevent the shifters from ever getting the poison to the soldiers, but what was the point of telling Otto and Leo that? Otto and Leo knew better than anyone how risky and fragile this plan was. They would do their best, and if it didn’t work they’d try again or try something else.

For the rest of the time that Axel and Whisper ate, they exchanged news and gossip with Otto and Leo. The two Gilt Hollow shifters were eager to hear of everything going on back in Bear Hollow, and Axel and Whisper wanted to know how things in general were going for the Gilt Hollow shifters. It was good to catch up with friends from across the river, and chances to do that were few and far between these days. Axel dreamed of the day that the Gilt Hollow regime was gone and he could freely visit with all his friends, but until that happened he would treasure moments like these. All too soon, Axel and Whisper had finished eating and Otto was looking nervously at his watch.

“Leo and I need to get back. The shifters are being watched quite carefully these days, and if anyone realizes we’ve been gone for so long this late at night, they’re going to get suspicious.”

“Alright,” Axel said with a reluctant sigh. “Let us help you clean all this up.”

It didn’t take long to clean up the plates from the food. Axel and Whisper had eaten just about everything, so it was simply a matter of stacking the plates and putting them back in the bags Otto and Leo had used to bring out the food. Once everything was cleaned up, the shifters bid each other goodbye, with promises on both sides to keep sending updates back and forth about how the resistance forces were doing. Of course, the biggest update that everyone in Bear Hollow would be waiting for was news on whether the poison had worked as planned during the next Shifter Games event.

Otto and Leo left the little forest hideout first, and Axel and Whisper promised to wait about ten minutes before leaving as well. Fewer shifters moving through the forest at one time meant less chance of the soldiers realizing that shifters were out and about, plotting against Gilt Hollow.

Axel was fine waiting a few minutes to walk back to the tunnel, anyway. He stretched out beneath the trees and sighed. “Damn. I am way too full. I haven’t eaten that much in one sitting in ages.”

“Glutton,” Whisper said accusingly as she stretched out beside him. Axel turned his head to raise an eyebrow at her.

“You’re one to talk. I’m pretty sure you ate about the same amount I did.”

“Pfft, nonsense. You ate more than your fair share.”

Axel gave her a playful punch in the arm and she giggled. He savored the delightful sound, then both of them lay quiet for a few minutes, staring up at the stars that twinkled between the trees’ branches. Axel thought they probably would be safe to start walking back to the tunnel, but he didn’t want to rush things. He was enjoying lying by Whisper in the quiet, nighttime forest. It would have been better if it was the Bear Hollow forest, of course, but they weren’t really in that much danger here. They were far off the path, and no Gilt Hollow soldiers were likely to come by and disturb them.

“You were awfully quiet tonight,” he observed as he squinted at a large, abnormally bright star that had caught his eye.

“Yeah. I was thinking a lot, I guess. I don’t want to be a downer, but it’s hard not worry about this plan. There are so many things that could go wrong, and if things go wrong we’re going to be paying the price over in Bear Hollow. Raids will get even crazier, and more lives will be lost.”

Axel sighed. “You sound like Violet now.”

Whisper bristled slightly beside him at the accusation, but she didn’t sound angry when she spoke. “Well, maybe she has a little bit of a point, as much as I hate to admit it.”

“She has a point, yes. But we all know the risks. It’s not like anyone expects everything to go perfectly. We’re just hoping for things to go well enough that no shifters get killed and we significantly weaken Gilt Hollow’s leaders.”

“I know. And obviously I wouldn’t be here on this mission if I didn’t believe the risks were worth it. It’s just…” Whisper trailed off and didn’t complete her sentence, forcing Axel to prompt her.

“It’s just what?”

“It’s just that I want a normal life. With a lifemate and cubs and happiness that isn’t constantly threatened.”

Axel’s eyes widened slightly, but he continued to look up at the stars instead of at Whisper. He had never heard her talk like that before, with such a sad wistfulness in her voice. He wanted to lean over and promise to give her all of that. He wanted to kiss her and tell her that perhaps, just perhaps, he might be her lifemate. But that was crazy talk. He had no reason to think they were lifemates other than the fact that lately he was insanely attracted to her. And that wasn’t enough, was it? Surely, if they were destined to be together forever, he would have had some hint of that before the last few weeks. He must just be overthinking things because the craziness with Violet had him thinking about whether he would ever actually find his lifemate.

Suddenly, Axel didn’t want to sit around in the Gilt Hollow forest anymore.

“Come on,” he said, jumping to his feet. “Let’s get out of here.”

Whisper sat up much more slowly, brushing leaves and dried grass from her pants as she did. “Are you sure it’s safe? Have we waited long enough for the others to get ahead of us?”

“I’m sure. Those guys are halfway home by now. It’s time for us to get home, too. And for all the talk about heavy patrols, I don’t think this forest is being patrolled that heavily. I haven’t seen or heard anything to indicate a patrol is nearby. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Axel offered his hand to Whisper to help her stand, not knowing how wrong his overly confident words would turn out to be.