Silently he stalked through the trees, listening for sounds that weren't meant to be there. The wind rustled the leaves, water trickled somewhere in the distance, and birds chirped. A squirrel bounded from one tree to another. Seb's pulse picked up, and his muscles tensed as he hunted. The scent drew closer, and he followed it to a thick patch of shrubs. Finger on the trigger, Seb approached as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He spun on his heels, and a three-hundred-pound tiger Therian barreled into his knee head on.
Motherfucker!
Pain exploded through Seb's body as he slammed onto the ground, his helmet cracking against a cluster of rocks, momentarily stunning him. The blow to his head was nothing compared to the electrifying bursts of sheer agony shooting through his leg. He blinked away the tears and sucked in a sharp breath. His lungs burned from the gulps of air he rapidly dragged in. He couldn't black out. Not now. A feral growl got him moving, and his adrenaline spiked. If he stayed on the grou
nd, he was dead. The tiger Therian shook himself off before charging, and Seb was still down. There was no way around it.
Three tranq darts to the neck and a punch across the muzzle, and the tiger Therian was out. Good thing, considering Seb was still seeing stars. His muscles rippled with spasms, and he gritted his teeth. It was as though his ligaments and tendons were being torn from his bone. As if someone had taken a hammer to his kneecap. He cursed his genetics for the thousandth time. Not that it helped.
Seb was always careful out in the field, as careful as someone in his position could be, and although he'd suffered plenty of injuries, it was the first time some asshole had head-butted his knee. If Seb had been a Human, something would have shattered. Instead, it only felt as if it had. The pain was blinding, and he was faintly aware of his partner hauling ass in his direction. Damn it, what now?
"Seb!"
A roar had him rolling onto his side, plowing through the pain and pushing himself onto his good leg, putting all his weight on it. He needed a second to get his bearings, but the tiger Therian speeding toward him wasn't going to give him that chance. Two darts stuck out of its neck, but adrenaline was helping it push through, and with Dom being chased by a third perp, it left Seb to deal with this bastard. One wrong move, and it was over.
Seb readied his rifle, cursing under his breath when the last tiger Therian showed up, barely missing Dom as it leaped from the shrubbery.
"Fucking fuck!" Dom pulled a move worthy of any NFL champ, turning sharply and throwing his gloved hand to the ground to keep from keeling over face-first. He regained his balance and took off toward Seb just as a round of hair-raising roars resounded through the trees. Seb grinned.
Lee was the first one through the trees, his mane providing him protection when one of the perps tried to snap at his neck, getting nothing but a mouthful of fuzzy mane. A second bite was thwarted by Brianna, her slender cougar Therian frame landing on the larger tiger Therian, claws outstretched. The perp's pained roar shook the trees around them.
Peyton and Zoey leaped from the greenery, fangs bare as they each faced off a perp. Zoey was slightly smaller than the three male tiger Therians around her, but she was by no means the least fierce. In fact, Seb was glad he wasn't on the receiving end of her fury. Zoey could take down a Therian twice her size no matter what form they were in, and she wouldn't even break a sweat.
Peyton eclipsed everyone, a gentle giant who stood at seven and a half feet tall and weighed three hundred and twenty pounds. He was the largest Felid Therian in Unit Alpha. Of course, right now, Peyton was anything but gentle. Not when defending his team.
"Get on the ground!" Dom demanded over the roars and hisses, his rifle aimed at one of the tiger Therians circling Peyton. The perp was hesitant to attack Peyton--so not a total idiot.
Realizing they were outmuscled, the three tiger Therian perps submitted, mewing and backing away to flop on the grass. At some point, Dom radioed for backup, and two BearCats pulled up onto the path to their right. Their back doors opened, and Human agents flooded out. Seb left them to round up their perps and get them into the cages. He turned to his Therian teammates.
"Collect your partners and get PSTC."
Lee trotted off, his mane swishing majestically, while Brianna bounced behind him, playfully swatting at his tail. Lee didn't pay her any mind. Zoey whizzed by them, and Lee grunted. He took off after Zoey, unwilling to be left behind in her dust, and Brianna was quick on their heels. Peyton, as usual, wasn't interested in his teammates' shenanigans. He released a huff and leisurely sauntered after them. Dom stayed behind, and Seb braced himself. He knew what was coming.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine," Seb assured him. "Just knocked the wind out of me."
Dom pressed his lips together in a thin line. He wasn't buying it, but Seb was in too much pain to care. With teeth gritted and jaw set, Seb headed in the direction his team had gone. Thankfully Angel hadn't parked the BearCat very far. Instead of fighting the pain, Seb let it wash over him. He'd lived with physical discomfort and pain the majority of his life. It went with being a Pre-First Gen Therian. Granted, this was a hell of a lot worse than his usual bad days, but he wouldn't let his team know the extent of it. He straightened to his full height and rounded his shoulders as he walked.
It wasn't as if they didn't know about the nerve and tissue damage to his leg. He was hardly the only Pre-First Gen at the THIRDS with health issues, but if his leg gave up the ghost, he'd be pulled off Defense, and he'd worked too damned hard to make Team Leader to give it up now.