Haley

The headlights from the oncoming car reflected off of all the vehicles, and for the first time Haley realized they’d parked between two big SUVs. There was no light this far out in the country, unless someone generated it. She couldn’t see past her hand until the headlights lit up the scene like crazy.

“What now?” she asked as Maximus moved around to the rear of the car, putting himself between the oncoming shifters and her.

“Get somewhere safe,” he replied, his voice taking on the deep thunder of his anger that she’d come to recognize.

“What?” she yelped. “What kind of plan is that?”

“A good one,” a female voice said from behind her. “Come on.” A hand clamped down on her shoulder.

Haley shrieked at the sudden contact and did the only thing she could think of. She planted her rear foot and stepped back, driving her elbow toward the sound of the voice. She never made contact though. The other woman slipped her grip from her shoulder onto her arm, twisted, bent, did something else, and suddenly Haley was pushed face-first into the side of the silver SUV parked next to her car.

“I’m a friend,” the voice said in a calm tone, as if the owner didn’t care about what Haley had just done.

“Oh yeah? I don’t recognize your voice,” she said sarcastically, struggling to get free.

There was a pause, though the grip tightened on her arm, shoving it further up her back until it grew painful. Haley stopped trying to escape.

“Fair point. I am Maximus’s friend. My name is Mila.”

She relaxed. “Like, Pierce and Mila?” she asked, realizing she knew the name from Maximus’s talking about his brothers and their mates—what an interesting word choice for significant other.

“The one and the same.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so?” she said, standing up straight and letting her guard drop, trying to turn around.

After a moment of hesitation Mila let go of her arm and allowed her to face her. Haley eyed the blonde carefully. “What are you doing here?”

The sound of the approaching car grew louder, and Mila swore. Haley’s head jerked around, and she saw the car accelerating right at her! The pair of them dove onto the roof of her car a moment before the vehicle slammed into the back of the silver SUV, sending it careening into her car. The impact flung the two of them off into the darkness.

Haley bounced and rolled several times before coming to a halt. Her skin was ripped and ground away by the gravel in a number of places, but for the most part she knew she was okay.

“Ow,” she groaned, going to sit up. The world spun crazily and she lay back down, taking another few deep breaths as she recovered.

Behind her came the sound of multiple voices, shouting things at each other. Then the sound of car doors slamming, and this time insults began to fly back and forth. She couldn’t make them out, but the tone of voice was obvious enough even to her dazed mind.

There was silence for a moment, which was broken by the sound of glass shattering. She hoped it wasn’t on her car. It had already sustained enough abuse. Then she heard metal shriek as it was torn. Intermixed around all that was the sound of flesh on flesh as fists struck home. Grunts of effort and muted cries of pain.

Something came flying out of the dark, landing on the ground nearby her. Whatever it was ignored her, scrambling to its feet and launching itself back toward the circle of light provided by the headlights of the crashed car. A part of her mind marveled that they still worked after slamming into the SUV.

Footsteps approached, and a face was suddenly illuminated by a cell phone display.

It was Mila.

“Come on, we need to get out of here,” she said, reaching down to help Haley to her feet.

She got up, brushing off debris slowly, gingerly. Her body was going to be quite sore in the morning, that was for sure. Behind her someone roared.

“Maximus,” she said, turning and heading toward the sounds before she realized what she was doing.

“Whoa there,” Mila said, grabbing her arm. “This fight is above our paygrade.”

She hissed in frustration. “There must be something I can do,” she said, taking another step toward Maximus.

The sounds of the fight were furious, and she wanted nothing more than to run to his side, to help him. But she knew better. If she got involved, Haley would be nothing but a liability to him. She was human, and in this fight, she was so severely outclassed it was almost funny.

“What do you suggest?” she said, turning to Mila.

“Let’s get somewhere safe. The boys know what they’re doing. They were meant for this sort of thing,” she said grimly. “If we’re safe, it means they can concentrate on the fight completely, and win it. So let’s do just that. Come on, we have food inside.”

Haley resisted the pull on her arm for a long time, but eventually she gave in and followed the light of Mila’s cellphone toward a building. A soft glow emerged around the doorframe, enough to make it visible, but not enough to light up the ground outside.

“A barn,” she said as the building loomed up in front of them. “You’re living in a barn?”

Mila looked over her shoulder. “Maximus didn’t tell you?”

She snorted. “He said on a farm. But he neglected to mention that it wasn’t the farmhouse, but the barn where you were staying.”

Mila laughed softly. “Well, it’s not all bad. We’ve made it our home, though I suppose we’ll have to leave now that they’ve tracked us here.” She opened the door and gestured for Haley to head inside.

Looking over her shoulder wistfully she paused once more, listening to the fight. It was still raging. She wondered how long it would go on before one side or the other got the upper hand.

“Do you have any guns or anything?” she asked. “We could shoot some of the bad guys.”

“If it were light out, I would agree,” Mila said. “We do have guns. Perfect for taking down shifters. Two problems though. One, they’re in the cars. Two, I dunno about you, but I can’t see well enough in the dark to shoot the right guys or not. Trust me, I hate feeling impotent just as much as you do, but this is the right move.”

Haley almost laughed her off, but at the last second the fear the other woman felt broke through her guard, and washed over her. All of a sudden Haley remembered that this woman’s mate was out there as well, fighting. Of course she would understand how Haley was feeling.

Voices from inside came her way and others appeared, more women. All of them looking anxious and worried, she realized. These must be the mates of the others.

Haley realized fighting it was useless, so she followed Haley inside. “We have to be able to do something,” she muttered, not for the last time.

Her mind kept straying back to the guns that Mila had said were in the cars…