Three Days Later"CPI leadership is here, sir," the secretary said. I didn't give either Juan or the secretary time to tell us he wasn't in the office. I pushed in behind the startled older woman. Taryk, Saint, and Asher moved in with me. "Thanks. Get out." I didn't bother to turn and see if she obeyed. "Juan, Juan, Juan. You shouldn't have been such a complete asshole," Taryk said as he wandered into the room. After he'd made a full circle, he came back to my side and gave me a nod. "What the fuck are you doing here, Rans - ""It's Mr. Kolefni to you, you little fuckbite. Where's your bitch of a wife? She still in heat?"Juan's face developed a purplish undertone. "I'll take that as a yes. Get her in here. Chop, chop," I clapped my hands loudly. "We don't have all day."Juan hit a button on his phone. "Ferria. My office. Now.""I'm busy, Juan," she sounded winded. I raised an eyebrow at him. A smirk lifting the corner of my mouth. The purple color increased.
I plunged through the air, tossing and turning every which way but up. The ground was rapidly reaching up to greet me. "Shit, shit, shit," I screamed it to absolutely no one. No one else had been stupid enough to get kicked off a flying helicopter by a psychopath. "Calm your mind." The words whispered through my brain.Great, now I get to go actual crazy. This has been the best worst day ever!A laugh sounded. "You are not crazy. You are, however, about to die, so I suggest you follow my instructions," the voice called again. Whoever my strange voice belonged to, he had one of the sexiest accents I'd ever heard.Something about the voice itself was familiar, but I had no idea what or why. Pushing that all from my mind, I tried to do my deep breathing exercises. Failed. I tried to just breathe like a normal human. Failed at that, too.The cold wind blasted my face, making it almost impossible to breathe. It ripped tears from my eyes, and made my nose feel li
"What the fuck do you mean I'm a wolf?" I asked Taryk through our mental connection as he got in the van's front passenger seat. "Just what I said. You're a wolf this time."No freaking way! I looked down at my feet. Definitely not big cat paws. I tried to speak. It certainly sounded like a dog trying to tell its owner that he was an idiot. "Atlas, what the fuck is going on?" I asked."Come back to the lab. I forgot to mention some things about your medical chart in all of the ruckus surrounding Kiema," Dr. Atlas said. "Any word on her, Xander?" I asked. "Not yet, Ransom." His voice was flat, almost devoid of any humanity whatsoever. We were all feeling her loss. Like the sunshine had gone out of our lives, we were living in the shadows. The only thing that got me out of bed was taking over my father's company. That brought a smile to my face, but it had nothing to do with joy. Retribution was enough on that end for me. Within minutes, we were back at the lab i
Two days later"Wh - "A hand slapped over my mouth. "Do not make a sound. They've found us," Lukas breathed against my ear. Fuck. It was bad enough that I'd been stuck in this stupid place for the last two days without anyone telling me what was going on. But now Lukas loomed over me, his usually open and happy face dark and closed. I nodded. All I'd been told was that we were waiting for Reece. Who apparently wasn't part of Iron Serpent. Yeah, I'd believe that crap when I saw it. I pushed myself up from the cot I was sleeping on. Luxury conditions, this. I shoved my legs into my pants. Standing up behind Lukas, I tapped his back when I was ready to move. He reached around and grabbed my hand, interlacing our fingers. He opened the flap of the tent. It was pitch black outside. To the far side of the camp, I could hear dogs braying and sniffling around. Arcs of light from flashlights zoomed over the low hanging mist in the sky, setting up a lightshow the likes of
Three days laterMidnight. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Another day of fucking disappointments."T, you got a call from an unknown," Xander said over the warehouse comm system. He didn't sound tired at all. "Tracing it?" I asked. He snorted. "Yeah, up your ass, man. Who you think you're talking to? You can come here and take it." He disconnected.I pushed up from my desk on the first floor. The other offices were dark. The guys had all gone up to their various beds already. I couldn't bring myself to leave. It felt like I was failing her. Just like I'd failed...I cut the thought off. No need getting all emotional about it. Emotion clouded the brain, made it ten times harder to complete the task at hand. This was one of the single most important tasks of my life. I wasn't going to let emotion stop me from saving Kiema. I stepped through the elevator doors and right into nerd central. Every gaming console, computer system or peripheral hardware accessory, not to
"Xander, how's everything? Every...thing good on that end?" I asked as Lukas crept back out under the rock that hid our current hiding spot. "It's good, sweets. All good."I closed my eyes, they were burning with the need to cry. I just didn't have enough moisture to spare. "Good. Any idea on when Taryk should be getting here?""You're only about an hour away, Kiema. He'll move heaven and earth to get to you as fast as possible."I wiped my hand under my nose. "Thanks for picking up the phone. I know it's really late.""I was up already. We..." he cleared his throat, "I've been looking for you. You're a hard woman to find."That they had been looking for me, that he and Taryk answered my phone call in the middle of the fucking night, not only healed my heart, it melted it. These men were mine. All of them. I wasn't going to share. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt them. They were mine. I laughed, the sound like glass in my throat. I was so fucking thirsty. "Well, when H
"Pull over here, Atlas. If I'm gone more than twenty minutes, you back up and get the fuck out. Send in the security team," I said as I lowered my ski mask.Atlas nodded. I wasn't sure I trusted him to do what I asked in this case, but I knew he wouldn't add to the body count. I shut the door as quietly as I could. I turned from the big military vehicle. Kiema was out here in this mess somewhere. I pushed the emotion, the stress, away. Focused only on the mission. Get in. Get her out. Get home.Everything else could wait. Would wait. I took two deep breaths and pushed away from the truck. Slinking down into the waist-high grass, I pulled my thermal imaging glasses down over my eyes. A grouping of bright yellows and reds appeared off to the far left. "I found the camp," I let everyone know. A single click sounded in my ear. I smiled. Xander knew what he was doing when it came to covert work. I guess those video games weren't complete trash. "Her last position sh
"Again!" I punched my gloved hands together, lifted them to guard my face. Taryk and Atlas had been silent since telling us they were headed back here. The waiting was driving me insane. If I'd still had wings, I would've gone after her myself. Not been stuck in here, no matter what Kiema said. She was mine. I should've been the one to go get her. To save her from the horrors since she'd been taken from the cabin.Saint rushed me, his gloved hands up and ready. I stepped out of the way. His fist glanced off my ribs.I had a longer reach, but Saint was faster than a demon. He slid to the side as I returned the blow. The edge of my glove brushed against the end of his nose. He raised his knee, slammed it into my side. I inhaled the pain with a grunt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him bouncing on his feet. He didn't go for the kill shot. The bastard.I bit back the begging I'd been sending to Gaia every night since Kiema had been gone. I needed the escape. I needed