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“No. The choppers hold ten to twelve and it’ll be faster. I’d rather know everyone was safe.” Payne nodded. “Get on the horn and let Lettie know we have hungry people coming in, and that we’ll need to put them up. Make sure she knows we are to extend every courtesy and kindness to these folks. They’ve been put through a wringer. Payne, I’m putting you in charge of these people. I want you on the first chopper out.”
“I’d like to contact the Resistance.”
“As soon as you’re back at the manor, you are welcome to call anyone you like. Personally, if you have one, I’d call your mate.”
Payne chuckled. “I have to admit, that was going to be my first call.”
Shaw had found the keys while Payne and Cullen were talking and started unlocking cells. He and the rest of the unit, including Salem, were helping people up the stairs.
Payne stopped next to him. “She is human, you know.”
“I do, and it gets better. She’s with the SPU, although for how much longer I don’t know.”
“No wonder she looked like she knew what she was doing.”
“Yes. She’s relatively new to the whole shifter, vampire, Shadow League thing, though.”
“She seems to be taking it well.”
Cullen nodded, proud of the fact that Payne had noticed. “She is. She’s also all kinds of smart and I think she’ll be a real asset in the fight that’s coming.”
“Do you want me to tell Colby it was you and your pack that saved us?”
“You can tell Colby he’s lucky I don’t want his smirking face on a platter. I’m not sure he didn’t arrange my whole meeting with Salem just to draw me in.”
“So you are in?”
“I haven’t much choice now, have I?”
“Probably not, but I’m not sure you ever did. I don’t think you could have just taken your pack and faded into the Aleutian Range.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“I lived so far off the grid, I didn’t think anyone could find me, but they did. They almost killed me, not to mention my brother and his mate. Before they’re done, if we don’t defeat them, there won’t be anyone with free will left.”
Cullen nodded. “I fear you are right.”
He followed Payne up the stairs and out into the sunlight. He was sure there was a metaphor to be found there, but he was just too fucking tired to care. He watched as Salem and his men helped people on board, trying to keep those who seemed to be related in some way together. There was power in numbers—power in the pack.
Salem ducked under the chopper’s rotors as they began to whirl and raised her hand to those on board.
“In case you missed it,” said Salem, “those bastards need to be stopped.”
“Yeah. I got that. Let’s go home and make sure these people are cared for. Then you, me and the rest of the unit are going to take nice long showers, and you and I are going for a buggy ride.”
“What about Reynolds?”
“He was waiting to inform me of what was going on in my back yard. He can bloody well wait for me to bring him up-to-speed.”
Without thinking, Cullen wrapped his arm around her. When she didn’t pull away or disengage, it made him oddly happy. When she wrapped her arm around his waist, he thought the day was turning out not to be too bad after all.
CHAPTER 12
CULLEN
When they arrived at Ghost Moon Manor, Cullen’s time was taken up dealing with those who had been held prisoner and coordinating their return with the Resistance. They ran into a snag when two of the females refused to be returned to their origin clan—a snow leopard and a tigress. Lucian Hendrix, the alpha of the Baihu clan, was not going to be happy about the tigress, but he would just have to learn to live with it.
He felt her presence before he heard her laughter. The prisoners seemed more at home with her than anyone else—partly because like them, she was new and not a part of the pack, which would not be true for long.
