Haley

She awoke to Maximus gently shaking her shoulders.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he said. “It’s time to go.”

There was affection in his voice, but also a firmness that indicated this wasn’t the time to play around or pretend to fall back asleep. It cut through her bleary eyes and she sat up.

“Right. How long was I asleep for?”

“Four hours,” he replied, glancing out the window, pulling the blinds back just enough to see.

“Yikes, okay, I’m up,” she said, shooting to her feet and then regretting moving so fast a moment later as vertigo caught up with her.

Haley shook it off after a moment and donned her clothes once more. They were where they’d been thrown by Maximus hours and hours before. They’d had much of the afternoon and evening to kill, and both of them had been perfectly content with the idea of spending it in bed. Together. Apparently she’d worked hard, and had fallen asleep after the…third…or had it been the fourth time? She couldn’t remember.

Five minutes later she was cleaned up a bit, dressed, and just finishing re-doing the bun she often kept her hair in. It wasn’t the prettiest look she felt, but it kept her hair out of the way at times where she could ill afford it. Although their escape from the city would hopefully be a smooth, easy thing, Haley was prepared just in case.

“Okay, let’s do this,” she said, heading for the front door.

Maximus’s hand grabbed her shoulder, bringing her to a halt. “No. Out the back.”

“But the car is out front?”

“Yes, but we don’t want anyone who may be watching to see us emerging. The driveway is on the far side of the house from the door. We might be able to sneak in and get a head start before they even realize we’re on the move.”

She felt a cold chill descend over her. “You think we’re being watched?”

“I have no idea. But the Institute has proven far more competent than any villain has a right to be, and I don’t intend to start underestimating them now.”

There was an unspoken again attached to that sentence. Maximus hadn’t given the Institute enough credit, and as a result he’d ended up their prisoner. Not wanting to repeat the experience, or to subject her to it, he was taking every precaution to ensure they got out of the city safely. So Haley didn’t argue when he said they were going out the back way.

“Same place you were taking me to yesterday?” she asked as they crept up to the side of the car. She hadn’t yet unlocked it or anything, preferring to wait until the absolute last second. Anyone would see the lights flashing or the interior lights turning on.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, here we go.”

She hit the button and they both practically dove into the car. The key slid into the ignition and she fired it up. A split second later they were in reverse. She didn’t screech the tires, not wanting to alert any more people than possible, but Haley did go as fast as she could otherwise. In minutes they were out of the suburbs and heading out of town. Maximus, despite not knowing how to drive, seemed to be fairly good with directions. He’d never consulted a map as far as she could tell, but he was still quite positive of where they were going.

“How do you know they got out okay?” she asked, hoping he could help ease her fear of what they might find at their destination. That all his brothers had been snatched up already and they were driving into a trap.

“I don’t know for sure,” he admitted. “But there was no mention of anyone else on the news or by the police. All they’re looking for is me. I think if they’d gotten them, they might have reported that to try and goad me into action, to get me angry enough to make a mistake.”

“I never thought of it that way,” she said, gripping the wheel a little tighter.

Maximus looked over at her, then reached out and stroked her shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” he reassured her. “Trust me.”

“I do,” she said firmly. “But I don’t trust the Institute. From what you’ve told me about their plans to breed you out of existence…I can’t help but be worried about what they might do.”

The shifter fell silent for a moment. “You can’t help that. But we’ll be okay. You get us there. I’ll take care of any problems that come up along the way.”

Haley nodded, trying to concentrate on the drive and ignore her mind. One thing kept cropping up over and over again though, and no matter how she tried, she couldn’t leave it unasked.

“What if your brothers aren’t there?” she asked gently.

“They will be.”

“And if they aren’t?” she repeated, forcing him to address the question.

“Assuming we don’t drive into a trap and get caught ourselves?” he asked rhetorically. “We stick around Longhorne until I can get my shot.”

“Your shot?”

“At their leader. Reashallow.”

Haley glanced over at Maximus. Something in his voice had tugged at her. He sounded almost…resigned. Resigned to what though? One look at his face and she all of a sudden knew exactly what.

“You’re going to kill him,” she said, her tone just shy of accusing. Just.

“I have to, Haley.” There was no remorse in his voice.

“There are prisons. Courts and laws that will deal with him once it’s revealed. You don’t have to dispatch some sort of vigilante justice,” she argued angrily. “You don’t need to kill any more.”

“Come on, Haley. Think about this. Think about what this guy has done. He’s got enough sway with the military and its allies he was able to get a foreign nation’s forces to blockade an entire shifter territory. That’s a huge amount of men. He then assembled another military force to be ready to take out my home. All fifteen thousand of us. On top of that, he has this city’s police force bought and paid for as if it were nothing. Do you really suspect a man with that much power, that many connections, will ever go to jail?”

She looked away unhappily. He was right. This man, Reashallow, would never see the inside of a jail cell. Not with the corruption that ran rampant in her government. He would pay his lawyers and then go free, the whole thing swept under the carpet.

“I have to kill him,” Maximus continued. “Otherwise he’ll just start again. But next time he won’t hold back. He’ll probably just find a way to roll the military right over us, cutting us down with bullets just to have his way. He won’t make a distinction. Men. Women. Children. They’ll all be gunned down as they flee for their lives. Think about it, Haley. If I kill him, I will stop this. It will end. Thousands of shifters will be saved. If the cost of that is my conscience, to put more blood on hands already stained with it, then I accept that burden. I won’t ask anyone else to do it.”

His voice hardened as he spoke, and for the first time Haley saw the animal buried within him. Brown eyes gleamed with feral intensity, and he set his shoulders, staring straight ahead, as if daring Reashallow to appear in front of them.

“I don’t want to do it,” he added in a much softer voice. “But I don’t see another way.”

Haley didn’t speak. She didn’t want to agree with him, to tell him that he was right, even though she believed it deep down. Killing was abhorrent and to be avoided at all costs. So even though he was doing the logical thing, she still couldn’t agree from a moral standpoint. Instead of arguing for or against, she simply didn’t say anything at all.

“I’ll be here for you, one way or another,” she told him. “That’s all I can offer.”

He smiled, tight-lipped. “That’s more than I could hope for. I promise, Haley Salvannah, if there is another way, if another option presents itself, I will take it. But I cannot endanger my species by trusting him to your flawed prison system.”

“I understand.” Her voice carried with it a tone that indicated she wished to change the subject.

“Take your next left,” he directed. Haley wasn’t sure if he picked up on her hint, or he’d just had to say this anyway, but regardless she was thankful for the distraction.

“Is it far?” she asked.

“Not really. Maybe another twenty minutes or so, depending on if we run into any trouble.”

She fell silent, guiding the car down the roads as indicated. Despite it being completely dark outside, Maximus seemed to know instinctively where he was. Haley was just about to ask him how he did that, but when she glanced over to speak to him, she saw his entire body language had changed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked instantly.

“Look forward,” he commanded as she started to look behind them. “Try to act normal.”

“Are we being followed?” she asked, her stomach sinking.

“I’m not sure. Next right.”

She slowed, taking the vehicle through the turn. Her eyes kept flicking to the mirror, trying to look behind her without making it obvious. There were no lights from behind them, so she wondered how they might tell she was turning around, but it didn’t cost her anything to follow Maximus’s direction, so she did.

“I don’t see any lights. How can you tell?”

“When you hit your brakes, I’ve thought I’ve seen the reflection of light on metal a few times.” His voice was distracted, his voice elsewhere as he examined the mirror on his door.

“How could they have found us?” she asked. “We got rid of the pair that were tailing me.”

Maximus pulled his attention back to her for a moment as he considered the question. “Unless they were the pair designed to be seen.”

She frowned, thinking it over. “You mean there was someone else following us as well? Someone that was much less visible, and that once we got rid of the two in the red pickup, we wouldn’t be looking for?”

“Exactly. We assumed we’d gotten rid of our tail, when in reality, we didn’t even know there was another one at all.”

“Well that sucks,” she said angrily. “What do we do now?”

Her heart was beginning to race. The Institute had found them. They were being followed. A fight was going to break out soon. Could Maximus win this time? What if there were more than two? All those questions and more flooded her mind, giving life to the dark clouds of fear that slipped their tendrils into her body. She pulled a hand from the wheel, wiping it on her jeans to try and dry it, before repeating the process with the other.

“You’ll be okay,” Maximus said, still peering intently into the reflection. “I have a plan.”

“You do?” she asked, latching on to the confidence in his voice, trying hard not to look at him as her savior.

“Yes. Here’s what we’re going to do…”