Just to Survive - 1. Just to Survive

Tyrel paced the confines of his cage; fifteen paces from one steel barred wall to the other. He was pretty sure today was his fourth day trapped and from what he had overheard the day before, it might very well be his last. If only they knew that he understood every word that they had spoken since he’d first woken up.

He couldn’t believe he had been so stupid; he knew better than to let his inner animal free in the middle of the summer. There were too many people that spent their summer months in the mountains; too many chances to be spotted and reported, which would only lead to questions and an all-out hunt. Unfortunately, his cat’s desire to roam had gotten the best of him and commonsense had fled out the window. Now he was paying the price. He just counted his lucky stars that they had been using tranquilizer darts and not bullets.

The memory assaulted him, eliciting a roar from his very depths, the sound echoing in the otherwise silent room. The feel of the dart puncturing his skin was a feeling he wasn’t likely to forget anytime soon. Fear had swamped him and sent adrenaline coursing through his body from the moment the dart had entered his skin. Those two things combined had sent him racing off into the forest, which, looking back on it now, probably hadn’t been the wisest course of action. The quickening of his heart beat had just allowed the drug to spread through his system even faster than it otherwise would have.

He hadn’t gone very far when his legs became heavy, making it impossible to run. Moving had become a chore but he had pushed through, searching for somewhere to hide from those who were after him. The further he went, the more sluggish he became until he stumbled, his legs gave out, and he crashed to the forest floor. The last thing he remembered before waking up in the cage was seeing the uniformed human walking towards him from the trees with a gun in his hand.

Tyrel was pulled from his reverie when he heard the squeal of rusty door hinges. He paused in his pacing and faced the sound of approaching footsteps, inhaling deeply. Two of the approaching scents were ones that he’d gotten used to over the last few days, but the third was new and smelled like … He inhaled deeper, thinking he’d gotten it wrong, but it was still there, mixed with a new human scent.

The distinct smell of canine.

Not sure what to make of the new scent, he backed to the far end of the cage and waited for the newcomer to show himself. He didn’t have to wait long before the three men stepped around a stack of crates and into his line of vision. He immediately dismissed the two men he knew and focused on the new guy, and he wasn’t the only one who was focused.

Dark brown eyes locked onto his and Tyrel couldn’t look away, even found himself moving towards the other side of the cage as though something was calling to him. He stopped a foot from the bars that separated him from the man who instinct told him could be his savior.

“Hey! You shouldn’t be that close to his cage.”

The voice shook him out of his trance and he backed a couple feet away, even as the brown gaze left his and glared at the man who had spoken.

“I know it is policy that you accompany me, but I would appreciate it if you kept quiet.” The tone of the guy’s voice made it clear that he was not asking and that anything other than obedience wouldn’t be tolerated.

Tyrel would have laughed at the stricken look on the zoo employee’s face if he had been in human form, since he couldn’t do that he let out a little huff. He wished he had stayed quiet when the man’s head immediately whipped around and pinned him in place with that stare. He started talking, and Tyrel cocked his head to the side as he tried to make sense of what this stranger was saying.

“I raised Leo from the time he was a cub. He’s been around me nearly every day from the time he was born. He won’t hurt me.”

What the hell was this guy trying to pull? Tyrel inhaled, getting a good whiff of the guy’s scent but he still smelled the same canine undertones he had smelled earlier. As though he had no qualms in the world about being in close proximity to a tiger, the guy even went so far as to put his hand through the bars of Tyrel’s cage.

Tyrel stared at him for a moment; sure he had to be kidding. He wasn’t about to step forward to be petted. He turned his head to look at the two guys and saw the widened eyes and the frozen stance. They were probably expecting him to rip the guy’s arm off.

“Don’t pay any attention to them, Leo, look at me.” The guy’s voice held that same authority he had used with the two zoo workers and Tyrel found himself obeying it.

He saw the man’s lips moving but it took a moment before he realized the guy was speaking to him, low enough that the two men watching couldn’t hear him, but Tyrel could hear him loud and clear.

“I know you have no reason to trust me, but you don’t have a choice right now. I’m your only way out of this, and we have to hurry. There’s others on their way who are going to want to put you right back into a cage.” The guy paused in his speaking and looked towards the two men, offering them a smile before turning his attention back to Tyrel.

With a last glance at the two men, he huffed in resignation and approached the man’s hand, one step at a time. His head lowered and his jaw hung open, showing his sharp teeth in a reminder that he could easily take the guy’s hand off if this was some kind of a trick. Not that he would, but this man didn’t need to know that. Tyrel wasn’t sure what the guy had planned until he reached up and scratched under Tyrel’s chin like he was a damned housecat. What was even more humiliating was that it felt good and he had to struggle not to roll onto his back and offer his belly to be scratched.

“So,” the man stood and turned to once more face the two guys, “I’ve already given the police report and proof of ownership to your boss and signed all of the paperwork he gave me. Why don’t we go ahead and get him loaded. I want to be on the road as soon as possible.”

Tyrel watched one of the men disappear only to come back with another tranquilizer gun. He bared his teeth and snarled as he backed away. His progress was halted when his ass hit the bars on the far side of the cage. He kept snarling as he crouched down, making as small a target as possible, though there was little doubt they would miss at such close range.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” His savior stalked over to the two men and ripped the gun out of the guy’s hand.

“It’s procedure. That tiger is dangerous and has to be tranqed before we can open his cage and move him.”

Tyrel watched the byplay and stopped snarling once the zoo workers no longer had the gun. He’d had no desire to be tranqed again. He didn’t know what the guy had planned for him, but combining the scent of canine as well as the man seeming to know something about him, he would much rather go with him. Plus, if he was telling the truth, Tyrel definitely didn’t want to go with whoever else was coming for him. He might even be able to escape from the other guy if necessary; there was little chance of the opportunity presenting itself where he was now.

“Shows what the hell you know. I’ll be right back and I’ll take your damn tranq gun with me so that you’re not tempted to do anything stupid.”

The man stormed off, back the way he had originally come in. Tyrel heard the same screeching noise that had announced their arrival and kept a wary gaze on the two men who had wanted to tranq him. For all he knew they had another gun somewhere. It seemed like forever but in reality it was probably only a couple of minutes before he heard the metal door open followed by footsteps.

When the guy reappeared, Tyrel huffed. The man had to be kidding him. Did he really expect Tyrel to agree to be collared and led out on a chain? He glanced once more at the two guys before deciding it was the lesser of two evils. In an effort to keep his pride, he’d just have to keep his head high as he walked by the man’s side. To show his acceptance he moved over to the door of his cage and sat, tail swishing on the ground.

“Unlock the damn cage.” Whoever this guy was, he certainly got people to do his bidding in a hurry.

Within moments one of the men removed the lock before fleeing back to what he wrongly assumed was a safe distance. If Tyrel had wanted to hurt him it would have only taken a couple of seconds to reach the frightened man. Instead of focusing on him, he focused on the man currently opening the cage door and stepping inside.

“Sorry about this Leo.” The guy kept his tone comforting and Tyrel wanted to roll his eyes, instead he tilted his head to the side. “I promise it won’t be for long.”

Tyrel huffed and moved forward until he was directly in front of the man. This close to him, the doggish scent was nearly overpowering, confirming for Tyrel that the man was most likely some type of canine shifter. Wolf maybe. He allowed the guy to put the heavy leather collar around his neck and heard the distinct click of a lock. He huffed again and stepped back to look up at the guy with an expression that he hoped gave the impression that he was not impressed.

“Hey, just be glad I didn’t let them tranq you.”

Tyrel tolerated the man reaching out to scratch behind his ears before hooking the chain into place with another lock. He waited for the guy to step back and then stood and followed the guy out of the cage. God it felt good to be out of there, though he was sincerely hoping he wasn’t putting his faith in the wrong man. At that point, he didn’t have much choice. He noticed the two guys give them a wide birth and allowed his jaw to drop open to show his fangs as they passed. After keeping him locked in a cage for days, he really kind of enjoyed their discomfort at having him pass by them with nothing separating him from them.

He stayed close by the man’s side; he couldn’t exactly pull away further than the damn leash allowed him anyways, and winced at the sound of the metal door opening again. Now that he was closer to it, the creak of metal was too much for his sensitive ears. He followed the guy through the door and relished the first caress of sunlight on his body. He stretched, his movements graceful even as his claws dug into the soil beneath his feet, glad to be free. The clink of the chain reminded him that he wasn’t free yet, but hopefully he would be soon. Freedom was something he definitely wouldn’t take for granted again.

A tug on the chain made him look open and he shook his massive head in disbelief. A horse trailer? Seriously? Sure, it looked to have been reinforced, but still. He ignored his doubts and followed the guy into the open back of the trailer, the twigs of straw poking into the pads on his feet. Relief flooded him when the man reached down and unlocked the lock securing the collar on his neck. He shook his big body and sat, watching as the man stepped out of the trailer and secured the door, the lock sounding really loud to him.

He really hoped he hadn’t just exchanged one cage for another. All he could do now was wait and see. Before long he heard a truck start up and moments later the trailer lurched, nearly knocking him from his feet. He settled down in the straw and waited.

***

Tyrel woke as the trailer eased to a stop. He couldn’t believe that he had fallen asleep, but the vibration of the road combined with his exhaustion had lulled him to sleep. He had barely slept at the damn zoo, too anxious about what was happening. As tired as he’d been, he hadn’t trusted those around him and so what little sleep he’d managed to get had been restless, with him waking up at the slightest sound.

Even now he wasn’t sure what was going on but he would bide his time and wait for the perfect opportunity to present itself. He stood and stretched as he heard the truck shut off followed by the sound of a door opening. The crunch of footsteps approaching the door of the trailer drew his gaze to the door and he waited patiently for the door to swing open. He was startled when it opened and a set of sweats were tossed towards him.

“I don’t know what size you are, so those are going to have to do. I’ll give you privacy to change and then we need to figure out what you’re going to do.” The guy smiled at him before turning and walking away.

Tyrel debated changing forms for a brief moment, wary of a trap, but in the end his desire to be back in human form was stronger than his fear and he allowed the change to overtake him. Pain shot through his body as bone and muscle started to contort back into human limbs. He’d stayed in his animal form far longer than he ever had before and his body protested the change, but he persevered until he stood on two legs, sweat covering his body from the strain.

He grabbed the offered clothes from the straw and pulled them on. They were extremely big on him and he pulled the drawstring on the pants as tight as it would go before tying a knot to keep them from falling off his hips. He wished he had shoes, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He walked towards the door of the trailer, his muscles protesting every movement.

He peered cautiously out the door and saw the guy who had rescued him standing a half dozen or so yards away, a cell phone pressed to his ear. From the way he stiffened, Tyrel doubted the news was good. He eased out of the trailer, mindful of his aching body and headed to the edge of the treeline. He must have been out of it for a while if the way his bladder was protesting. He waited until he was in the privacy of the trees and relieved himself, though why he was modest now he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like he’d had privacy to relieve himself at the stupid zoo.

Tyrel finished up and made sure the drawstring on his borrowed pants was pulled tight before venturing back towards the truck and trailer. Not sure what else to do, he leaned against the trailer and waited for the man to finish up his call. When he finally hung up, he pocketed the phone and turned to Tyrel, a grim expression on his face.

“Well, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you.” The man walked over but before he could speak again, Tyrel held up his hand to stop further speech.

“Before we get into that, who are you?”

That was the question that was on his mind at the moment. He had no clue who this guy was, yet he had come to his rescue and managed to get him out of the zoo without anyone the wiser as to what he was. For that alone he owed the guy a hell of a lot of gratitude, but first thing was first, he wanted to know who his savior was.

“Forgive me. I’m Jerry Martin.” Jerry held out his hand and Tyrel straightened up and grasped it in his. “If my information is correct, which it usually is, you’re Tyrel Lewis.”

“Yeah, how did you …?” Tyrel thought better of completing that sentence. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

“The same way I knew you had been captured and taken to the zoo until someone came forth to claim you.” Jerry released his hand and raked his fingers through his hair. “I have my sources, only this time, I wish they had found out some better news for you.”

“Do I even want to know?” Tyrel really didn’t like the sound of that. Jerry had already told him that there were other people that were going to be coming for him, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know all the details.

“Probably not, but you have a decision to make, and in order to make an informed choice, you need to know what we found out.” Jerry pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket and tapped one out before offering the pack to Tyrel.

“No thanks, I quit years ago.” Tyrel looked around for a spot to sit. He spotted a tree stump and moved towards it. Only once he was seated did he turn his attention back to Jerry. “Go ahead and tell me.”

“First off, how much do you know about our kind?” Jerry stuffed the pack back into his shirt pocket before digging a lighter out of his jeans and lighting up.

“Our kind? I’m a Tiger; you’re a canine of some sort if my nose didn’t deceive me. That’s two entirely different kinds of animal.” Though at this point, why it mattered, Tyrel wasn’t sure. He just wanted to find out what the hell was going on so he could go home. If he could go home he would never shift again and to hell with his Tiger getting restless.

“Shifters, weres, whatever you’ve described yourself as over the years. And for the record, I’m a Timberwolf.” Jerry took a long drag and blew the smoke out of his nose.

“I don’t really know much. I’ve managed to look some stuff up online, but I’ve never even met another shifter before now. At least not that I know of.” Which was why he was still alone after so many years. He’d realized when he was fourteen that he was gay and that it might be harder for him to find someone to spend the rest of his life with. On the night of his twenty-first birthday he had decided it would be next to impossible to find someone. That was the first night he shifted into a White Tiger. He’d been scared out of his mind but hadn’t had anyone he could confide in.

“What about your parents? They never talked to you about it?” The anger in Jerry’s voice told Tyrel exactly what the older man thought of that.

“Dad died when I was nineteen, so I don’t know if he ever knew. I never really knew my mom. My dad was a one night stand for her and Dad said that when I was two, she stopped by, handed me to him, and told him that I was his. She left without looking back.” Tyrel shrugged. It still hurt to know his mom hadn’t wanted him, but he’d long ago accepted the fact that his dad was the only parent he would ever have. They’d done okay, but it still sucked.

“That makes a bit more sense then. Most shifters know what to expect well before their first change. I would suspect that your shifter genes probably came from your mom, but I can’t be sure. That’s really neither here nor there though, and not important to what is going on at the moment.” Jerry took a final drag off his cigarette before crushing it beneath his foot.

“Generally, certain kinds of shifters tend to congregate together. Usually with a wolf shifter, like me, there will be quite a few other wolf shifters. Even though we are part human, we still have the pack mentality of our animals, so we need those relationships to keep our animals happy. Same goes for other shifters that their animal has a pack mentality. Tigers such as yourself are generally more of a loner, so it’s not surprising you haven’t really had the drive to search out other shifters.”

Jerry walked over to the back of the truck and reached in and pulled out a couple of bottled waters. He tossed one to Tyrel before uncapping his bottle and taking a long drink. Tyrel followed suit, grateful for the cool water to quench his thirst.

“Anyways,” Jerry continued as though he’d never stopped, “nobody knows how long shifters have been around. The furthest we’ve been able to trace it back is a couple hundred years. About twenty years ago, we were forced to go even deeper into hiding than we already were. The government had found out about us and started making plans to try and find out what caused the mutation. Back then they saw us as dangerous animals that needed to be studied before being put down, and they still think that way.”

“What? Why? What the hell did our kind ever do to deserve that?” Tyrel’s fist clenched around his water bottle and his claws started to poke out of his fingertips as the anger welled up inside him. He forced himself to calm down and his claws retracted. He stared in bewilderment at his fingers. That had never happened to him before; he hadn’t even known that a partial shift was possible. He shook himself free of his thoughts and focused once more on Jerry. “Matter of fact, how did they even find out about shifters?”

“That’s where it gets a bit tricky. Shifters have a built in defense mechanism, I guess to keep others from finding out about them. If a shifter dies while in animal form, they immediately revert back to their human form. Ironically, it was that defense mechanism that led to the government finding out about us.” Jerry finished his water and tossed the bottle into the back of the truck.

Tyrel watched him take a couple of deep breaths and hated that he hadn’t known any of this before. How could he have though? He’d had nobody to talk to about it, nobody that he could find out all of this from.

“There was a bear shifter, a grizzly. He was out in the woods, in an area where other grizzlies were known to be, so I guess he figured he would be safe from detection. Which would make sense. Unfortunately, it was also an area that someone had decided to poach. Probably wanting a nice bear skin rug for in front of their fireplace.” Jerry’s hands clenched into fists at his sides and his mouth tightened into a straight line. “A poacher shot him. We heal quickly, but sometimes it’s not as quick as it needs to be. He was shot in the lungs and the poacher tracked him. Only, when the poacher found him, he was dead, and it wasn’t a bear that was lying there dead.”

“Son of a bitch!” Tyrel shot up off the tree stump as realization shot through him. That could have so easily been him, luckily they’d been using tranquilizer darts, but what if they hadn’t been? If they’d been using bullets … He swallowed hard and wrapped his arms around him to stop the shaking that had suddenly started.

“Pretty much. From what I understand, the Fish and Game Department had known about poachers being in the area and were on patrol. They heard the shot and headed towards it, met the guy coming out of the trees with a rifle. He swore up and down that he only had the gun for protection, but the Fish and Game took him into custody. During the investigation they found the body and when questioned, the guy swore up and down he’d shot at a bear. Evidence supported his story, bear tracks that abruptly stopped at the body, the guy having been shot through the lungs; everything matched up except the fact that it was man that was dead, not a bear.”

“So how did that lead to them finding out about shifters?” Tyrel felt horrible for the shifter that had died, but knew there had to be more to the story than that. “And how did you find out about it?”

“There are people that can find information that the government doesn’t want to be known. I know such a person.” Jerry pulled his cigarette pack out and lit up another one; Tyrel’s fingers twitched at the desire to feel a smoke between his fingers. “Fish and Game reported it as a murder and the government somehow became involved, probably because grizzlies are a protected species. To put a long story short, they did a lot of testing and found a gene, or chromosome, or something that was a characteristic of an actual grizzly. I don’t understand the science behind it, but that’s what I know. For once the government actually managed to put two and two together and come up with four.”

“So, what you’re telling me is that I’m going to have to be a lot more careful from now on.” Tyrel understood that much, and having heard what could happen, he didn’t care if he never shifted into his Tiger again.

“Actually, what I’m telling you is a lot worse than that.”

The matter of fact way Jerry spoke sent shivers down his spine. Tyrel knew he wasn’t going to like what was coming next and sat back down, uncertain whether or not his shaking legs would continue to support him. He forced himself to ask the question, even though he was terrified of the answer.

“What exactly are you telling me then?”

“There’s no easy way to tell you this, but …” Jerry took a drag off his cigarette, “you can’t go home. They know about you.”

“How? I parked a good three miles away from where I was camping and hiked deep into the forest. How could they possibly know I’m a shifter?” In his gut, he knew that Jerry was right even if he didn’t want to admit it.

“They do the same thing I do. They watch for reports of wild animals being captured well away from their normal territory, especially if the animal shows up on a different continent than they are found. While I came to get you, two of my pack members went to the area you were captured. They looked like any other couple going on a camping trip, but no sooner had they pulled into the parking area than they were questioned and sent on their way. The government team had already evacuated all campers in the area and when your truck remained in the lot …”

Jerry didn’t need to finish the sentence, Tyrel understood. When he didn’t evacuate with everyone else, they knew he was the Tiger. Even if Tyrel had wanted to move, he wasn’t sure he could have. The way Jerry was staring at him kept him pinned to his spot on the tree stump. This had definitely just gone from bad to worse and he was sure there was even more to come.

“The government formed a special team to locate shifters and bring them in. When my people got there, that team was going through your truck. My guys memorized your license plate and looked up your address then went to your home. There were even more government people there, staking out your place.” Jerry put out his cigarette and moved towards Tyrel. He crouched down in front of him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m really sorry Tyrel, but if you go home they’re going to take you in. They’ve managed to beat us to four shifters in the last year. The way they typically operate is that they’ll put out a report that you were killed by a wild animal. If anyone comes forward to claim your stuff, they’ll put a spin on it that they have to be tested to ensure they’re the next of kin. If they’re found to have the extra gene they’ll be captured. Is there anyone that might come forward? Anyone we need to try and get to before they do?”

“No, there’s no one.” Tyrel choked back the fear that had enveloped him. He never would have thought he would be grateful that he had no one. He seriously doubted his mother would come forward, but even if she would, he didn’t know any way to warn her. He hadn’t seen her since she had dropped him off with his dad and would have no idea where to begin to look for her. He turned tortured eyes to Jerry. “What am I going to do?”

“I know this is a lot to take in, but you have options. For the last fifteen years I have run a sanctuary for our kind. Of course, no one knows it’s a shifter sanctuary.” There was understanding in Jerry’s eyes and it was nearly enough to completely do Tyrel in. “At first glance it looks like any other sanctuary, but there’s a lot of acres where our kind can allow their animal to be free. I want to take you there when I return. I know it’s a lot to take in and you don’t know me, but I’m probably the only chance you have at keeping out of their clutches.”

“Why? Why would you put yourself at risk for me?” Tyrel didn’t understand everything that was happening. He definitely understood the danger he was in, but he still couldn’t believe that this man, who was a virtual stranger to him, would risk his own neck to help him.

“It’s what we do. While we can’t save everyone they go for, we try to save as many as we can and offer them safety. Think of it like witness protection. The downside is, you’ll have to leave everything you know behind. You’ll be provided with a completely new identity.”

“You can do that?” Tyrel wasn’t sure why he was so surprised, he’d already found out that things weren’t as he had thought. He wasn’t alone, he wasn’t a freak, and there were more of his kind out there.

“We can do that and a lot more. Once we get you to safety we’ll provide you with food, clothes, and shelter. My people weren’t able to get any of your stuff because the government team was already there. How I managed to get to you before them I don’t know.” Jerry straightened up and stepped back a few feet. “I understand you need time to take it all in. I’m going to go crash in the cab of the truck for a little bit. Think about what you want to do and when I wake up we’ll go from there.”

Tyrel sighed and watched Jerry walk away. Yeah, he definitely had a lot to think about, and none of it was really good. The way he saw it, he had two choices. He could go home and be captured, tested on, and then from the sounds of it, killed. He could take off before Jerry woke up and take his chances on his own. The only other choice was to go with a guy he’d barely met and hope for the best. No matter what he chose to do, his life had changed; there was no way around it. In reality, there was really only one choice to make; he only hoped he wouldn’t regret it.

With nothing else to do, he decided to go for a walk and relish what little freedom he had left. After Jerry woke up, no matter how it turned out, he’d never be truly free again.