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The guy cast a brief eye over me dismissively, like I was a piece of trash, not a human being. “Whatever, I don’t have time for this. I gotta take the girls to the fight ring. If you damage the girl too badly and Carlos loses money on the transaction, it’s your funeral.”
He strode past, taking a small syringe from his pocket. I heard a yelp of pain as he pushed it into Lily’s neck. Her eyes flared gold and then turned dull. This must be what they used to stop the girls from shifting. I had no idea how it worked, but it was clearly effective.
“Fight back,” Lily whispered as the man dragged her out. I nodded.
I had no choice. If I allowed Brent to hurt me again, I couldn’t help the girls.
From what the other guy had said, Brent wasn’t in control here, so he couldn’t afford to kill me. It wasn’t much protection. He could still do a lot of damage to me, and unlike Lily, I wouldn’t heal quickly, but it might prevent him from exploring his more sadistic excesses.
Tanner
Carlos’s estate was vast, but he relied on electronic surveillance equipment rather than manpower to patrol the perimeter. It was an easy mistake to make. Around here, Carlos was the big cheese. He was arrogant enough to assume there were no major threats. The smaller gangs had been squashed or assimilated, and if he needed to, he could call on other factions within his organization to provide backup.
But backup was several hours away, and no help whatsoever to him right now. By the time he realized there was a problem, it would be too late.
Hacking into Carlos’s security system had been easy. The cameras on this side of the property were now running on a loop, so we could enter without being seen from the internal control room. There were still guards patrolling, but not enough to cause us any problems.
I had 23 angry shifters at my back, all of them more than eager to cause carnage. Once Rufus and the other alphas heard about the shifter fight rings, they sent as many wolves as they could to help. More were still on their way and would provide further backup if needed.
Rufus stood at my shoulder. He was the ranking alpha here by virtue of age and experience, but tonight he was ceding control to me, which I appreciated. I was well aware it went against the grain for him to let me be in charge, but it was the sensible thing to do.
I knew Carlos better than anyone, and I was the only one of us who had been to the property before.
“We need to take out the guards as quickly and as silently as possible. Once someone raises the alarm, things will get messy.” Carlos had a lot of firepower at his disposal and we wouldn’t stand a chance against machine guns and explosives.
Rufus nodded. He quietly directed some of his males to take out the patrolling guards. Two of them shifted and leaped over the security fence effortlessly, moving through the trees like the predators they were; the rest followed in human form, with knives and guns muffled by silencers. My sharp hearing picked up a faint yelp and muffled shriek, then all was quiet.
I remained in human form, even though my wolf was raging to be freed. He wanted to taste blood and sinew and was pissed I was holding him back. A faint whistle told me the exterior guards were now incapacitated.
“Ready?” I asked the guys. They nodded. “Then let’s go find our girl.”
Cole
Aresidual ache lingered, even though I’d mostly healed from the gunshot wound. My wolf hoped we met the fucker who’d shot me. I planned to make sure he regretted ever pulling the trigger.
We ran through the trees, heading toward the main house, which was lit up like a beacon, bright LED spotlights fixed on every available corner. Carlos obviously cared little about his energy bills because he hadn’t bothered installing solar panels. It irritated the fuck out of me, but the sight of a lone guard stepping outside a side door soon focused my mind.
Tanner paused in the shadow of a large tree, the rest of us halting behind him. The guard was barely ten feet away and if he looked hard, he would see us. Lucky for us, the moon wasn’t out tonight and the shadows were deeper than usual.
I’ll take him out.
I needed this. My wolf needed this. We were still struggling with the guilt of allowing our mate to be taken while we lay bleeding on the ground. It was my duty to protect Eva, and I’d failed that day.
Be quick, Tanner replied.
I eased past Rufus and his men. He nodded at me, reading my intention. I took a circuitous route and then waited until the guard was too busy staring at his phone to see me coming. Razor-sharp claws appeared on the ends of my fingers when I partially shifted. Before the guard even knew what hit him, I’d torn out his throat. Blood sprayed everywhere. The man fell to the ground, gurgling helplessly.
Casually killing people wasn’t something I enjoyed, but this man worked for Carlos, and that made him a legitimate target. The door the guard had exited through was still ajar. There was a camera above, but anyone monitoring the feed would see nothing but wide open space. Certainly not the group of shifters heading toward the house with murder on their mind.
I waited until the rest of my group reached us. Tanner spoke a few quiet words into a comms unit and paused while everyone got into position.
“Me, Cole, and Silas will head downstairs. The rest of you clear the remaining guards. If you find Carlos, detain him. We need to know how wide this goes, and he’s the only one with the answers.”
Rufus nodded, his face grim. The alpha from the Misty Falls pack stood at his shoulder, cracking his knuckles. His daughter was one of the missing girls, so this was deeply personal for him.
“Let’s do this,” Tanner said, calm as anything. The yellow glow of his wolf’s eyes was the only clue his control skirted the edge of madness. There was a time when Tanner would have gone feral by now, consumed by blood lust and impossible to stop. But not anymore. He’d learned his lesson.
The door opened wider, and we stepped inside, ready to do battle with the humans who thought they could steal our females.
