Baine
He’d known deep inside that someday he’d have to talk about the things he and Daegan had seen and done in the pursuit of shutting these groups down. But he never expected it to be because they were coming after them, or to stop a war from starting. The memories lashed at his soul carving deep gauges that he wasn’t sure any amount of time would allow to scab over. There were only so many times you could relive something before it became a permanent open sore that festered and rotted away at you.
“The DOA, what can you tell us about them?” Sypher asked as he entered the living room where Baine stood alone waiting for them.
Baine smiled sadly, “Can we wait for Soren, so we don’t have to explain this more than once?”
“Where did he go?” Daegan questioned. “You let him run away, seriously?”
Baine grunted, “He didn’t come in, he went to check on his animals. He said he’d be back in a minute to hear everything. I couldn’t really stop him, and to be honest I didn’t think to try. I was so lost in my head for a few minutes that it didn’t register what he said until he’d already walked off.”
He’d barely finished speaking before Soren walked back in the room with a scowl, “I’m a man of my word. I said I’d be back and I am.”
Baine sucked in a breath as he saw Soren in the light of the room, he was even more beautiful than he’d realized if he wasn’t careful he was going to have to excuse himself and go take a cold shower. His mouth was watering to get a taste of the edible man in front of him. He smelled like the night sky, woodsy and some exotic smell that was all his own. It made him hunger to lick every inch of the gorgeous god standing only feet away. He’d happily drop to his knees in supplication and while he was there, he could think of a few other things he’d love to do.
“Dude, seriously,” Daegan growled. “Calm the fuck down, before you start dry humping him like a dog in heat.”
Baine could feel his face burn in embarrassment as he glared at his best friend. “Really? You really want to go there with me? All the shit I have on you, would you like me to tell your mate some of the stories I have locked away?”
“Nope, sorry. Forget I said a word,” he replied with a blush of his own.
“If you two assclowns are done with the jokes, can we please get on to explaining things.” Soren bit out caustically as he moved to sit in one of the armchairs.
“Yeah, so.” Daegan began before sighing and dropping onto the couch next to Sypher. “They were or are I guess I should say, some of the evilest people I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. They built this group around the idea that humans were the chosen ones. That God had sent down a decree that they should ‘purify the nations of the paranormal parasites’ that infested it, that’s their mantra.”
Baine jumped in when Daegan stopped to take a breath, “We were up for the next assignment and were sent in. At the time we knew next to nothing of this group. They were barely on our radar. We were only supposed to attend one of their rallies and learn what we could. Much to our surprise, it was like falling down the rabbit hole to your ultimate destruction. That really turned into an eighteen-month assignment. We worked our way in and learned as much as we could, did things we’d rather never speak of again and saw things that to this day wake me up in cold sweats.”
“What was their plan?” Sypher asked gently as he pulled Daegan into his side to provide what comfort he could.
“Ultimately to destroy all shifters from the face of the planet, one creature at a time if necessary. They were patient, they had the resources to make this a long game. I guess in hindsight that should have been a clue, but we never saw any sign that there was a bigger group then what we’d infiltrated already.” Baine whispered into the silent room. “They had blueprints on buildings, schools, homes and almost anywhere else that shifters had been known to congregate. They knew there would be some human losses, but they didn’t care. If they consorted with the ‘creatures’ then they deserved what they’d get was their thought process.”
“Kids and babies were included. They didn’t care. They did practice runs or mock drills if you will of some of the places they were planning on hitting. One was a shifter run school. Shifter kids from all the packs in the surrounding areas went there. Kids between the ages of five and eighteen and they didn’t care.” Daegan added. “That was when we knew no matter what happened we couldn't wait any longer to take them down. We didn’t know when they’d hit, but we couldn’t let it happen.”
Baine nodded, “We were trusted lieutenants by this point, so we had a bit more access and freedom to roam. We gathered everything we could get, took pictures of documents, taped conversations, basically anything and everything that we thought would aid in the takedown we had. We passed it on to our handler and then waited. We didn’t know how long it would take for them to plan the takedown, but we knew we couldn’t leave. We had to be there, to make sure nothing happened before they came in.”
Daegan swallowed audibly as their eyes met and they both remembered that final night, the one that almost destroyed them both. “We were out of time,” Daegan whispered so softly Baine wasn’t sure everyone could hear him. “They’d found a teenager and his mom, broken down on the side of the road. I...”
“They were shifters.” Baine jumped in when Daegan faltered, “Don’t know how The DOA knew what they were, but they did. They dragged them back to the warehouse headquarters we were all at. The kid couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, still struggling to learn control over his animal. The mother, she fought like nothing I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t enough. By the time we’d arrived it was too late, they’d… she’d….”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything,” Soren assured them.
“The boy was in the corner, he was so fierce even if he was shaking and growling. He’d shifted to his wolf form, bits of his clothes still hanging from his limbs and around his neck where they’d gotten stuck. The woman was bloody, mutilated and thankfully free from the pain and degradation.” Daegan took a deep breath, “We came in just as they were turning their attention back to him. We intercepted them as best we could, but we were outnumbered eight to one. We tried to get the kid to escape, but he was stubborn as hell and refused. I don’t know if we’d have made it out of there without him, to be honest.”
Sypher growled deep, “How did you get out?”
“We didn’t.” They both replied in unison.