Gripp pointed up the nearby hill.
“I’ll take the lead. Youngest kids right behind me. I need you to bring up the rear and warn me if anyone’s coming. Keep your eyes peeled, and have a good look around yourself every few minutes to make sure we aren’t being tailed.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Got it.”
Gripp organized the kids into a line, encouraging them to stick together and letting them know the plan. He told a couple of the older ones to watch the rear with April, then set off up the nearby hill.
His ears were extremely sensitive as he read the wind for any sound or scent. He wasn’t sure April could cover them … she wasn’t a soldier or a shifter … but he had little choice. Hopefully, having a few of the kids acting as backup would help.
Gripp raised his head, letting the mixed scent of the breeze rush across his face. So far, no danger, no ambush. He kept jogging up the hill with the kids close behind.
They barely made any noise, and he was proud of them, but he knew they were still making enough noise to be tracked. They couldn’t help it. There was just no way to move a large group of kids in absolute silence.
He hurried to make it to the top of the hill, encouraging the kids to move quickly and quietly. Even though he couldn’t smell or hear anything unusual, his instincts were beginning to go bananas.
Something’s not right.
They had barely gone another few paces when Gripp heard a low whistle. The kids moved immediately, getting into a circle facing outwards. Gripp hurried around, tightening the ranks and making sure the younger kids were behind the older ones. He and April paced the perimeter.
“There,” April said, pointing into the trees. Gripp nodded. He could see multiple targets coming in, not just the one April had spotted.
He shifted, roaring as his panther shape took control of his body. Power expressed as savagery flooded through him, and as his roar echoed through the wood, all that could hear him feared him.
Around the circle, some of the children shifted into animals. When he’d drawn them out of the compound, none of them had said they were shifters. He was surprised. The shifter kids probably could have gotten out of the mine by themselves.
Maybe they stayed to protect the others.
“Ready?” April cried. Gripp glanced back to see several kids lining up big rocks and pointy sticks. They’d use anything they could find as a weapon.
Almost half of the kids were shifters. He saw cats and wolves, as well as other shapes he couldn’t make out in the gathering dark.
The trees rustled nearby. Gripp coiled his body into a tight spring and growled under his breath.
The brush in front of him burst open, and men ran out, yelling and waving their guns. April yelled, “Now!” as the bad guys fired wildly into the night, and Gripp charged the enemy in the front line.
Immediately, the soldiers screamed as they were taken down by shifter kids. As he tore out the throat of one guy, he spun and dropped to look behind him.
The kids who couldn’t shift were closing their defensive ring and defending themselves brutally with rocks. So far, the outer ring was doing its best, and few were getting through to the more vulnerable kids in the center.
Gripp spun and leapt from his haunches, mauling a guy on the chest as he sprang between opponents. He looked at April and saw her spinning through the fray, slashing with her arms and delivering devastating kicks to her enemies. She was cutting an impressive line through the bad guys.
As Gripp turned to feint to the side, he saw a young wolf cub get cracked in the head with a gun. As the guy aimed his gun to finish the job, Gripp jumped on his back, tearing with all his strength and ripping great furrows up his sides with his massive claws.
Gripp rode the guy down to the ground, seeing carnage all around him. The bad guys had the advantage, and they were pushing the line back.
Not on my watch!
Gripp dodged through the brush and dark shadows, cutting in and out at the last moment so he could slash at the legs of the advancing men. He heard April let out a war cry, and then he saw she was doing the same thing … charging around the circle in the opposite direction.
With both of them fully focused on demolishing the oncoming line, a couple of the bigger kid shifters … a wolf and a bear … made short work of the soldiers threatening the younger kids.
When Gripp finally stopped, he shifted immediately, making sure there were no enemies coming. With his chest heaving and sweat cooling on his skin, he looked back at the kids to see if they were all right.
At the side of the circle, Gripp noticed April staring at him. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like she was checking him out.
Don’t be a fool. Now is not the time.
His panther growled in protest. It was always the perfect time to mate.