THE JUMP

DIMITRI

The HALO jump was insane.

Dimitri had done a lot of crazy shit in thirty-four years. Smuggled weapons across three continents. Run protection rackets that made enemies of men who killed for sport. Built an empire on blood and violence.

But jumping out of a plane at 25,000 feet? That was a new level of insanity.

"Remember!" Anya's voice through the comm. Steady. Professional. "Arch your back! Arms and legs spread! Track toward me if you drift!"

Right. Easy. Just fall through five miles of air and hope gravity was feeling generous.

The door opened. Wind roared. Cold that stabbed through layers of gear. Below, Alaska. Endless. Frozen. Beautiful and deadly.

"Go!" Anya jumped. Disappeared into darkness.

Dimitri followed.

The world fell away. Wind so loud it deafened. His stomach somewhere near his throat. Adrenaline singing through his veins.

This was flying. This was freedom. This was...

Fucking terrifying.

He arched. Felt the wind catch him. Stabilize his descent. Through the darkness, he saw Anya's silhouette. Below. Ahead. Leading them down.

The bond hummed. Even here, even falling through frozen air, he felt her. Felt her focus. Her fear buried under professional calm. Her love wrapping around him like armor.

His mate. His Luna. His everything.

The ground rushed up. Mountains. Snow. Trees that looked like toothpicks from this height.

The altimeter on his wrist showed numbers dropping. 10,000 feet. 8,000. 6,000.

He could see details now. Individual trees. The facility glowing in the distance. Lights against darkness.

3,000 feet.

2,000.

Now.

He pulled.

The chute deployed. Hard. Violent. His harness bit into his shoulders and thighs. But he was slowing. Floating now instead of falling.

Below, Anya's chute. White against the darkness. Behind him, Alexei and Nikolai. They'd made it. All of them.

Then Alexei's chute twisted.

Dimitri watched in horror as his brother started spinning. Accelerating. The chute tangled. Failing.

"Alexei!" Through the comm. Through the bond, not mate bond, but pack bond, blood bond. "Deploy reserve!"

Alexei was fighting. Dimitri could see him reaching. Trying to cut away the main chute. Trying to,

The main chute released. Alexei in free fall again. 1,000 feet.

He pulled his reserve.

It deployed. Barely. Not enough. Not...

Alexei hit the ground hard.

Dimitri landed twenty seconds later. Unclipped. Ran. The bond pulling him toward his brother, hurt, bleeding, possibly dying.

Anya was already there. Checking vitals. Her hands steady even as her face showed terror.

"How bad?" Dimitri demanded. Dropped beside them. His brother, younger, stupider, brave beyond reason, lay bleeding in the snow.

"Bad," Anya said. "Broken ribs. Internal bleeding. He needs..."

"I'm fine." Alexei's eyes opened. Focused. "Just... give me a minute."

"You're not fine. You need a hospital." Anya looked at Dimitri. At Nikolai. "We split up. Nikolai stays. Gets him stable. We continue."

The words hit like bullets.

Split up. Leave his brother. The brother who'd followed him into every fight. Who'd built the Bratva beside him. Who'd never, not once, abandoned him.

"No," Dimitri said.

"Dimitri..."

"I said no. We don't leave pack behind."

"Your brother is bleeding out. My sister is being prepped for the hybrid program. We don't have time to..."

"I don't care!" The words came out harsher than he meant. Alpha rage mixing with fear. "I'm not leaving him."

Anya stared at him. The bond pulled. He felt her desperation. Her need to save her sister. Felt it war against his need to protect his brother.

Impossible choice. The kind that destroyed people.

"Dimitri." Alexei's voice. Weak. "Go. That's... that's an order."

"You don't give me orders."

"I do when you're... being stupid." A weak smile. "She's pack too. Her sister... is pack by extension. You go. You save her. Nikolai... stays with me. We'll be fine."

Lie. Dimitri felt it. Alexei wasn't fine. Might never be fine. Might die here in the snow while Dimitri ran toward another fight.

But the bond was pulling. Pulling him toward Anya. Toward the decision she needed him to make.

Choose her. Choose the mate over the brother.

Choose the future over the past.

He pressed his forehead to Alexei's. "Don't you fucking die. Understand? I'll kill you myself if you die."

"Deal."

Dimitri stood. Looked at Nikolai. "Keep him alive."

"Always, brother."

Then he was running. Leaving his brother bleeding. Following his mate into hell.

The guilt would come later. The what-ifs and second-guessing. Right now, he just ran.

Anya ran beside him. Silent. He felt her through the bond, grateful, guilty, desperate. Feeling the same impossible weight.

"He'll be okay," she said. Not believing it. Just needing to say it.

"I know."

They hit the facility perimeter. Anya placed charges with movements too smooth to be anything but trained. Breached clean. Alarms screaming.

Inside, corridors. Sterile. Deadly. Every corner could hide enemies.

Dimitri followed her. Let her take point. She was trained for this. Had done solo infiltrations in worse places. He was backup. Muscle. The alpha who'd kill anything between her and her goal.

The first guards appeared. Anya dropped three before Dimitri fired twice. Clean. Efficient.

Professional.

"Keep moving!"

They ran. Through the facility. Following some internal map Anya carried. Blueprint memorized. Routes planned.

The bond pulled. Tight. Getting tighter. She was approaching something. Something important.

Then she stopped. Checked her phone. Her face went white.

"What is it?"

She showed him. Photo. Dr. Chen, the therapist, supposedly dead, standing over Katya.

Message: COME ALONE OR SHE DIES.

Trap. Obviously. Painfully obvious.

"We go together," Dimitri said.

"Dimitri..."

"Together." He grabbed her arm. Made her look at him. "I'm not letting you walk into a trap alone. I've already left one family member behind tonight. I'm not leaving two."

The bond sang. She felt his certainty. His absolute refusal to let her face this alone.

"Okay," she whispered. "Together."

They moved toward medical. Room 7. Where Dr. Chen waited. Where Katya should be.

Should be.

Dimitri felt the wrongness before they reached the door. Felt it through his alpha senses, the way predators know when prey is too easy, too exposed.

"Wait," he said. "Something's wrong."

"I know. But we don't have a choice."

She kicked the door open. Went in fast. Dimitri right behind her. Gun up. Ready.

Inside...

Dr. Chen. Smiling. Standing over an empty chair. No Katya. Just a recording playing. Screams.

Terror. The sounds designed to break an omega's heart.

"Hello, Agent Volkov," Dr. Chen said. "Surprise."

Anya's gun came up. Centered on Chen's face. "Where is she?"

"Your sister? Safe. For now. This was never about her."

"Explain."

"This whole thing...the extraction, the chase, the facility...it's a test. Testing you. Testing whether you'd choose family or mission. Whether the great Agent Volkov could be broken."

Dimitri felt Anya's rage through the bond. Felt her finger tighten on the trigger.

"Don't," he said quietly. "Not yet. Let her talk."

"Smart alpha." Dr. Chen's smile widened. "Your mate is furious. I can see it. The way she's vibrating. The way she wants to put a bullet in my brain. But she won't. Because she needs to know where Katya really is."

"Tell me."

"Or what? You'll shoot me? I'm already dead, Agent Volkov. Officially. My records show I died three years ago. You think killing me changes anything?"

Dimitri moved. Fast. Grabbed Dr. Chen by the throat. Slammed her against the wall. "She asked you a question. Answer it."

Dr. Chen choked. Gasped. But still smiled.

"Building... C. Basement level. Real medical wing. That's where... the hybrid program is. That's where... Katya is."

Dimitri dropped her. "How do we get there?"

"You don't. It's a fortress. Thirty guards. Biometric locks. You'd never..." She stopped. Stared past them. At the doorway. "Oh. Oh fuck."

Dimitri turned.

Nikolai stood there. Bloodied. Exhausted. Rifle in hand. "Miss me?"

"How..." Dimitri started. "Alexei..."

"Stable. PMC arrived early. They're securing him. Extracting him." Nikolai stepped into the room.

"Which means I'm free to help you fuck some people up."

Relief. Pure. Overwhelming. His brother would live. The PMC had come through.

"Building C," Anya said. "That's where Katya really is."

"Then let's go get her." Nikolai looked at Dr. Chen. "What about her?"

"Leave her," Anya said. Cold. Final. "She's not worth the bullet."

They left. Dr. Chen screaming behind them. Screaming that they'd never make it. That Building C was impossible. That they'd all die trying.

Maybe. But they'd die together.

They hit the corridor at a run. Building C was 200 meters away. Connected by an enclosed walkway. Glass and steel. Completely exposed.

"That's a kill corridor," Nikolai said. "They'll cut us down before we're halfway."

"Then we don't walk." Anya pulled out her tablet. Pulled up facility schematics. "There. Ventilation system. Runs under the walkway. Connects to Building C basement."

"The vents?" Dimitri looked at her. "We're not going to fit in..."

"I will." Nikolai was already moving. Checking the vent access. "It's tight. But I've done worse."

"Nikolai..."

"You two create a diversion. Draw the guards. I crawl through. Pop out in Building C. Find Katya." He looked at Anya. "Where will she be?"

"Basement level. Medical wing. Room... fuck, I don't know. I don't have Building C blueprints."

"Then I check every room until I find her." Nikolai smiled. Feral. "Simple."

"That's suicide."

"Probably. But what else is new?" He started unscrewing the vent cover. "Give me ten minutes. Then hit them loud. Make them think you're breaching the walkway. While they're focused on you, I'll grab the girl and exfil through the same vent."

It was insane. The vents were barely two feet across. One wrong turn, one moment of panic, and Nikolai would be trapped. Die slow.

But it was also their only shot.

"Ten minutes," Dimitri said. "Then we go loud."

"Make it memorable, brother." Nikolai disappeared into the vent. The cover screwed back into place. Gone.

Dimitri and Anya stood in the corridor. Alone now. Two people against however many guards Building C held.

"You know we're probably going to die," Dimitri said.

"I know."

"And you're okay with that?"

"No. But I'm okay dying with you." She looked at him. Let the bond carry what words couldn't. "I love you, Dimitri Volkov. Alpha. Pakhan. Mate."

"I love you too, Anya Volkov. Luna. Operative. Pain in my ass."

She laughed. Broken. Beautiful. "Let's go save my sister."

They moved to the walkway entrance. Ten minutes. They had to give Nikolai ten minutes.

Anya placed charges. C4. Enough to blow the entrance clean off. "When this goes, every guard in Building C will come running."

"Good. More targets."

She looked at him. Really looked. "You don't have to do this. You could run. Take your brothers. Disappear."

"I could." He touched her face. "But I won't. Because you're mine. And I protect what's mine. Always."

The bond flared. Hot. Perfect. Complete.

Eight minutes.

They waited. Dimitri checked his rifle. Spare mags. Grenades. Everything he'd need to fight through hell.

Anya was doing the same. Professional. Calm. The operator mask firmly in place.

But he felt her through the bond. Felt her terror. Her love. Her desperate hope that maybe, maybe, they could save Katya.

Five minutes.

"Dimitri," she said quietly. "If we don't make it. If I die here..."

"Don't."

"...I want you to know. These past days. Being pack. Being yours. It's been the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Anya..."

"I mean it. I was a weapon. Just a tool. And you made me a person. Made me family. Thank you."

He pulled her close. Kissed her. Hard. Claiming. "We're not dying. Not today. Not here.

Understand?"

"Okay."

Three minutes.

One minute.

"Now," Anya said.

She triggered the charges.

The entrance exploded. Spectacular. Loud. The walkway shook. Glass shattered. Alarms screaming.

They went in.

Guards poured out of Building C. Twenty. Thirty. More. Armed. Trained. Ready.

Dimitri and Anya opened fire.

The walkway became hell. Muzzle flash and cordite. Screaming. The wet sound of bullets hitting flesh.

Dimitri dropped five. Six. Eight. Anya matching him kill for kill. Professional. Efficient. Terrifying.

But there were too many. Way too many.

A round grazed his shoulder. Another hit his vest, body armor held but fuck, it hurt. Anya took one to the thigh. Went down. Got back up. Kept firing.

They were going to lose. Going to die here. But they'd given Nikolai his ten minutes. Had drawn every guard away from the basement.

Had done their job.

Then Dimitri's comm crackled.

"Got her." Nikolai's voice. Strained. Urgent. "I've got Katya. Exfiling now. But you need to move. They're locking down the building. You've got maybe two minutes before..."

Explosion. Huge. Building C shook. The walkway cracked. Began to collapse.

"What the fuck was that?" Dimitri demanded.

"Me." Nikolai sounded way too pleased. "Found their C4 storage. Thought I'd make an exit. You're welcome."

The walkway was coming down. Guards scrambling. Retreating. The fight forgotten as the building burned.

"Move!" Anya grabbed Dimitri. They ran back. Away from the collapsing walkway. Away from Building C going up in flames.

They made it to Building A. Collapsed against the wall. Breathing hard. Bleeding. Alive.

Dimitri's comm: "I'm out. Heading to extraction point alpha. Katya's hurt but alive. Where are you?"

"Building A. Main entrance. Coming to you."

"Copy. See you soon, brother."

Anya was crying. Silently. Tears streaming down her face. "He got her. He got my sister."

"I know."

"She's alive."

"I know."

She grabbed him. Kissed him. Desperate. Grateful. Pouring everything through the bond, love and relief and joy.

Then her phone buzzed.

She pulled back. Checked it. Her face went white.

"What?" Dimitri asked. Dread pooling in his gut.

She showed him.

Message from an unknown number:

CONGRATULATIONS. YOU PASSED THE TEST. YOUR SISTER IS SAFE. BUT NOW THE REAL GAME BEGINS. MEET ME AT THE COORDINATES BELOW IN 24 HOURS. COME ALONE. OR EVERYONE YOU LOVE DIES. - ELEANOR

Below it, GPS coordinates. Somewhere in Alaska. Remote. Isolated.

The final confrontation.

Dimitri looked at Anya. At his mate. His Luna. The woman who'd become his whole world.

"Together?" he asked.

"Together," she agreed.

Because that's what pack meant. What mates meant. What love meant.

You faced the end together.

Or not at all.