A second knock had Hiro inhaling deep and releasing the breath before opening the door. “Afternoon, sirs. Can I help you?” His gaze scanned the three. A major, his features carved by granite, clean shaven and expressionless. A pair of soldiers, a pace behind, wearing sunshades and brims pulled low. Idling in the driveway behind his car a dark SUV, engine purring, indicating they wouldn’t be staying long.

“You are Hiro Nakai?” the major asked.

“That’s me. Can I ask why you’re inquiring?” He remained polite but noticed the shorter of the soldiers gripping the haft of the pistol strapped at his waist. The knot in his stomach tightened.

The major pulled off his hat, as did the soldiers, before he said, “We regret to inform you that your nephew, Corporeal Mato Nakai, was grievously injured in the course of his duties.” A flat announcement for the tragic news.

Hiro’s heart stopped. “Mato’s dead?”

“No, not yet. However, his injuries are severe, and the prognosis remains uncertain at this time.”

Not dead but sounded as if he would succumb if Hiro didn’t get to him. “Where is he?”

“He is currently being kept in an intensive care unit.” The major remained stiff and expressionless, whereas the soldiers slid their caps back on.

“I’m surprised you came out here in person to tell me instead of calling.” Hiro wouldn’t have thought the news merited an in-person visit.

“We’ve come to provide escort for you, and the corporal’s sister, that you might be with him during this trying time.” The words lacked any kind of emotion behind them. “Is she home? According to our records, she lives here with you.”

The hairs on the back of Hiro’s neck bristled and a few sprouted on his knuckles. “Since when does the military provide transport to family?”

“Time is of the essence,” the blunt reply. “I don’t think you grasp how badly he is hurt. He could die any minute. I’d think you’d want to be by his side.”

The major threw a guilt trip, but Hiro didn’t fall for it. The behavior was odd. And why did the soldiers have their hands on their holsters?

If they worried about him, then could it be possible Mato had revealed their secret? If he’d been injured badly enough, he might not have been able to control the shift from man to wolf. Around-the-clock care wouldn’t have provided the privacy needed for him to transform. Then again, even if no one saw him shifting, Mato would draw attention when he suddenly experienced a miraculous recovery.

The major wasn’t here out of the kindness of his heart. He’d come for Hiro and—

“What’s going on, Uncle?” His niece, Lin, a young woman attending the local college, emerged from the kitchen holding her latest giant sippy cup. A craze among the young ladies apparently.

“Mato’s been hurt.” He wouldn’t lie to her.

The cup hit the floor with a hard clang, and nothing spilled. Still didn’t justify the price.

“Oh no.” She put her hands to her mouth. “That’s awful.”

“It’s very serious, ma’am, which is why we’re here to provide an escort,” the major stated, and Lin—sweet, dear, innocent Lin—thanked him.

“That is the most amazing thing you could do. Thank you so much. When do we leave?”

“Soon as possible, ma’am.”

“Let me grab a few things and I’ll be ready to go.” Off she trotted in all her naiveness. As for Hiro, he wanted to sigh. Goodbye, comfortable life.

A pleased major slid his hat back on. “Would you like to grab some items too, Mr. Nakai?”

“You know, while I appreciate the offer, I’d rather Lin and I made our own way there. I’d hate to get a bill I can’t afford later.” He uttered a chuckle faker than a sitcom laugh track.

“Civilians can’t access the military base where the private is being treated. You have to come with us.”

“And if I say no?” Might as well start poking in the off chance he’d gauged wrong.

A faint smirk tugged the major’s lips. “I’m not leaving here without you.”

As if a signal, both soldiers pulled their pistols, but they didn’t point them at Hiro.

Lin returned more quickly than expected and gasped. “What’s going on?”

“What’s happening is you’re both going to get in the car and do as you’re told.” The major stepped aside and indicated the waiting SUV. “Don’t listen and the corporal will shoot the young lady.”

“I don’t understand,” whispered Lin, tears welling in her eyes. “Why are you doing this?”

She played dumb, but she knew. This was about their secret. The question now, what should he do? Fight and they’d hurt her. Get into that car and it was likely a one-way trip.

Lin blithely shuffled forward, drawing the gaze of the soldiers, giving Hiro his chance. He shifted, soundlessly, quickly, the tearing of his clothes the only sound, as his linen shirt didn’t have any stretch.

Hiro lunged for the real threat, the soldiers with their guns. Both fired, but only one bullet seared along his back, leaving a furrow in his fur. Hiro hit the soldier and knocked the gun clear, even as the major screamed, “Not the head or you’ll kill it!”

Before Hiro could crunch a throat, the second soldier shot him in the ribs. But that wasn’t what stopped him from chomping down.

“Do you think she can shift faster than an artery jets blood?” the major asked almost casually.

Hiro turned his head to see the knife at her throat. Poor Lin. Eyes brimming. Lips quivering. She might be a wolf, but she’d always been on the gentle side. Would she morph fast enough to heal, or would she freeze in panic and bleed out?

Had he been alone, Hiro would have fought to his last breath. Never would he have willingly gotten into that car. But he had to think of Lin.

To reply, he shifted, his wounds instantly healed. His heart, though? Broken.

“Looks like even old dogs can be taught obedience. Hold out your hands.”

The soldier he’d tackled, with a dirty glare, pulled out some sturdy zip ties and cinched them around Hiro’s wrists, tight enough to dig into flesh. He then did the same to Lin, who winced when they made hers just as tight. Would it make shifting impossible? No, but definitely, more difficult.

“In the car. Now,” the major barked.

Hiro climbed in then Lin, followed by a soldier who kept the muzzle of his weapon pressed into her ribs.

The other soldier sat behind the wheel, while the major took the front passenger seat.

Off they went, driving fast, whisked to a private airfield where a military jet awaited, but Hiro couldn’t have said where they flew to. He didn’t even know how long it took because, once seated and strapped into a harness, which the soldiers locked, they were injected with a sedative.

Despite the futility, Hiro squirmed to avoid the needle. He didn’t want to be asleep. He needed to remain aware.

The only thing that helped his anxiety as the drugs took effect? Knowing the major wanted them alive or they’d be dead already. So long as they lived, they had hope.

Waking to a bumpy landing proved jarring. Hiro had barely blinked the sleep from his eyes when he and a groggy Lin found themselves loaded onto a helicopter for the next leg of their trip.

A few hours later, during which Hiro dozed on and off, the drug still lingering in his system, they landed on the roof of a building that bore no insignia. A place built of concrete, austere but functional, situated in the middle of a thick forest.

“Where are we?” Lin glanced around, the fear rolling from her in thick waves. The place screamed horror movie. It didn’t help his niece still had a gun poking in the ribs. As incentives worked? Pretty damned effective. Hiro could do nothing, as a shot that damaged her heart would kill.

“Welcome to your new home. Follow me.” The major set a brisk pace, taking them from the roof to an elevator that deposited them several levels down, definitely below the earth’s surface. A plain hallway, still under construction, awaited, lined with rectangular openings, of which two held metal doors.

The major marched them to the closest one. A soldier unlocked and opened it.

“Inside.” The pointing seemed really unnecessary.

Lin shuffled in first and whimpered. Braced for the worst, Hiro followed and found himself in a concrete room with a bucket in a far corner, two wool blankets, and nothing else.

The door slammed shut and locked.

“Uncle, what’s going to happen to us? Where’s Mato?”

Poor sweet child. She still thought he was simply injured.

From the ceiling, a deep male tenor replied. “Former Corporal Mato Nakai is dead. Unfortunate turn of events but, in our defense, we didn’t realize his ability to heal when changing from a wolf to a man and vice versa had limits.”

“You killed him?” Lin screeched.

“By accident. We’ll be more cautious in the future. Lucky for us, he had family, and before you try to claim you’re not therianthropes, I should mention Mato already ratted you out. It took removing all his fingernails and teeth, but he ended up mentioning you’re lupine shifters.”

To hear Mato had been tortured to death kicked Hiro in the gut. Not only had his nephew died horrifically, but the same person who callously engineered it now had Lin in his custody. A girl who collapsed to the floor, sobbing.

Hiro clenched his fists. “What do you want with us?”

“The secret to changing into a wolf, of course.”

A lifetime of denial had Hiro struggling to reply. “There is no secret. You’re either born with it or you aren’t.”

“That you know of, but science is advancing in leaps and bounds. I’m sure I don’t need to explain the money to be made in making super soldiers who can’t be hurt.”

“Going to make a magic potion?” Hiro joked.

“Yes.” And General Davidson, the cold bastard behind the voice, meant it. Hiro ended up eventually meeting the sadist who took pleasure in torture. Hiro spent countless days, weeks, months, years…being beaten, shot, cut, and more. Worse than that, Lin suffered too.

After a session, if they allowed, he held his sobbing niece. Held her but refused to lie and say things would be fine. They were royally screwed. No one would be coming to their rescue. The general wouldn’t suddenly grow a conscience and let them leave. This concrete prison would be where they died.

Lin went first. A fragile, gentle soul, one day she simply gave up. Rather than shifting to heal from yet another of the general’s tests, through strength of will alone, she remained human as she bled out. Died rather than live another day.

Her passing crushed Hiro.

I failed her. This guilt led to Hiro taking the same path, but as if sensing he’d given up, the general eased up on the beatings and cuttings. Hiro only had to endure the daily battery of medical tests. A pincushion for blood draws. A piece of meat for carved bio samples. A hamster that had to run and lift weights and do other countless things for measurement. The one thing none of the doctors and their techs did? Talk to him as if he were human.

Still, he listened, heard their muttering, knew when Dr. Levy, the man managing the science part of the project, managed to somehow create a serum that could change people.

Not all for the better.

Hiro learned of the latter only when the general went on a rant, pacing and yelling in front of him. “How many different types of therianthropes exist?”

“I don’t know.”

Slap. Not the answer Davidson wanted.

Hiro licked the blood from his split lip. “It’s the truth. While I’m sure more shapeshifters exist, I’ve never encountered any outside my family.” A line of wolves that would go extinct once Hiro died.

Smack. The answer didn’t please the general, but Hiro didn’t care. Cooperating didn’t improve his life. Struggling made it worse. Nothing he did could bring back his niece and nephew. Nothing could set him free.

Nothing but death.

Since they stopped shooting and cutting him for testing fun, he had to get creative. When he tried to make a noose out of his blanket, they took it away. They padded his cell when he tried to crush his skull. He stopped eating and drinking. Left his trays untouched. When people entered and ordered him to take sustenance, he didn’t reply. He didn’t speak at all. Didn’t move from his lotus-seated position. Stopped doing anything. Willed himself to die.

Predictably, the general came in person to scream at him. They shoved happy pills into his mouth, and when he spat them out, they crushed them into water and poured it down his throat while holding his nostrils pinched shut. Refusing to swallow, he almost managed to drown before they gave up on that course of action. They tried a feeding tube, but he had ways of getting rid of it.

One day, he went to sleep—not by choice, they gassed his chamber—and he woke to realize he wasn’t alone.

A young girl huddled in a corner, hugging her legs.

While a part of him wished to maintain his silence, his curiosity won the better of him.

“Hello.”

The shivering stopped, but the blonde head remained pressed to the knees.

“My name is Hiro. I’m a prisoner like you.”

A tear-streaked face lifted, and he realized, while young, this wasn’t a girl but a young woman, one with watery blue eyes and quivering lips. “I don’t want to be here.”

“Neither do I.”

“They keep hurting me.”

“Me too.” Hiro approached but, rather than sit beside her, chose a spot a pace away in front. He folded his legs and put his hands on his knees. “What’s your name?”

“Tatiana.” And with that one soft word, Hiro suddenly no longer willed himself to die.

Couldn’t because Tatiana needed him to protect her. He’d been given a second chance.

So long as Hiro obeyed, she didn’t get hurt. Hiro took the pain for her, atoning for the fact he’d been unable to protect Lin.

And when rescue unexpectedly happened, by patients who’d managed to thwart the general, Tatiana chose to stay by his side, saying, “I have nowhere to go.”

Initially, Hiro thought the same, but he didn’t count on the wolfish Valkyrie who charged in for the rescue.