Predator Code (Tales from Wildhearth #1)

Chapter 37 - Tomorrow's Victims

For a moment, she was transfixed, fear, shock, and amazement all piling together into a paralysing cocktail that rooted her to the spot. The citykin in the carriage looked broken—glassy eyes and vacant stares—not meeting the ferocious gaze of their captors. Young and old, big and small, they formed a dismal cross-section of Wildhearth.

Her eyes widened as a quillkin, barely more than a child, rose from his seat, face pinched with fear and confusion. His mother grabbed for him, but he slipped free, letting out a yowl muffled by the carriage door.

Jett tensed as the nearest wolfkin guard stepped forward, but to her surprise, the grey-coated male used neither claws nor truncheon. He simply took a step forward from his position and gently caught the youngster by the scruff of his neck. The quillkin struggled for a moment, but the guard turned him around, dropping down on his haunches to face the captive. He spoke words Jett couldn't hear and then put both paws on the quillkin's shoulders and directed him back into his seat with a gentleness she found shocking.

The child slumped back in his seat, and as though nothing had happened, the guard straightened up. His eyes flickered down the carriage.

"Down!" Rapid whispered harshly.

Jett bit back a filthy curse as she dropped out of sight, squeezing her body against the door frame, willing herself to become smaller and praying to the Peace and Fire that they hadn't been seen. Heart-testing seconds thumped by, and her pulse hammered in her ears, her tail bristling with tension. Opposite her, Rapid mirrored her movements, his pink eyes wide and one paw already clutching the haft of his axe in readiness.

They waited.

No one came to the door. No voices rose over the rumble of the tram engine. No wolfkin came crashing down upon them. Jett looked back at the others, holding out a paw to stop them from coming any closer; mouthed don't move. When their baffled gazes met hers, she formed the silent word: company.

Slowly she began to unfreeze, the motion returning to her limbs. Staying crouched on all fours, Jett edged backwards, motioning the others to do the same, moving as gently and quietly as possible. The closer they drew to the exit, the quicker she began to shuffle, rising onto two legs and frantically motioning Karno to open the door.

It slid open, and they piled through in a frantic jumble. Only once the door shut again did Jett finally suck in a fortifying gulp of air and slump against the nearest pile of crates, sweeping her headfur back out of her eyes with both paws.

"What happened?" Karno murmured, glancing back to the carriage they'd just vacated.

"Found a prison carriage," Rapid spat.

"What?!"

"He's right," Jett confirmed, straightening up. "That carriage through there, it's filled with citykin...and wolfkin guards."

"By the Peace," Bronco muttered, shaking his big head in frustration. "So now what do we do? The otterkin said we needed to get to the back of the train."

"I haven't figured that out yet!" she snapped back.

Karno peered back through the window in their door, trying to see for himself, but at this distance, there was nothing to find through those tiny slivers of glass. With a snort of annoyance, he gave up and turned to them, brow crunching as he thought.

"They must be fresh from 'relocation,'" Gallant said bitterly. "Makes sense they would ship people on this tram. They couldn't take them all straight to Belforra without raising suspicion."

Jett nodded, still wracking her brain for a solution to the new obstacle. There was no prospect of sneaking through that carriage—the door was the only way in or out. Even if they could somehow turn off the lights, it would be a melee with no guarantees of escape, not to mention alerting the wolfkin to the fact that they had stowaways.