“Almost time.” Bridgford gestured at the clock, and the rest of them hurried to get ready.
Aaron stepped out of the way and let them do their thing.
The clock—surprisingly old fashioned for how new the building was—ticked loudly, to Aaron’s ears, anyway. Archer caught him looking at it and gave him a half-smile. “Stole that from my old offices when we moved here.” He laughed at Aaron’s look of confusion, because who’d bring that with them, of all things. “Sentimental value.”
“If you say so.”
Archer grinned at him this time but soon sobered when Harry’s muffled voice filled the room.
“Hey,” Harry whispered.
Aaron froze. He bit his tongue to stop himself from answering and embarrassing himself and only realised he had his claws out when they scraped against the table top. He sheathed them quickly and hoped no one else had noticed.
“Not sure if you’re hearing this yet,” Harry continued. “But I’m gonna assume you are. We’re just approaching where they told me to meet them. We left Isaac’s guys a couple of streets back.”
Aaron swallowed past the lump in his throat.
“He’s going to be fine,” Archer whispered, glancing down at the scraped table, then at Aaron’s now-clenched hands.
“Sorry about that,” Aaron mumbled, surprised when Archer squeezed his arm before moving over to where Stewart sat at the laptop.
“Can you make it any louder?” Archer asked, but Stewart shook his head.
“That’s as loud as it’ll go. Sorry.”
It was easily loud enough for Aaron; he’d hear everything.
At the moment, Harry’s and Isaac’s footsteps were the only sounds that filled the room. They were soft, quiet against the pavement. Aaron suspected he was the only one that could hear them.
“Almost there.” Harry still spoke in a whisper, and the four SCTF officers leaned closer to the speaker. “We can hear them… sounds like two, maybe three of them chatting. Can’t make out words yet though.”
Only three? If they knew Harry was a shifter, wouldn’t there be more of them? Surely they didn’t expect him to come alone? That wasn’t how packs worked.
“They’ve got guns,” Harry muttered, a few seconds later, voice barely audible now. “We can see them.”
Of course, how had he forgotten that pertinent piece of information? A well-placed bullet would stop Harry in his tracks, no matter how fast he was. And he couldn’t tackle three at once.
But he had Isaac.
“What did he just say?” Archer asked, leaning close.
“They’ve got guns,” Aaron said quietly, then sat down and rested his elbows on the table, head in his hands. No one around seemed shocked by that revelation, the room silent as they all listened.
“Nash,” a voice said, one that Aaron recognised immediately. “And who the fuck is this?”
Aaron nudged Archer, getting his attention. “That’s Blake,” he said. Archer nodded and scribbled something down on a bit of paper.
“Isaac, my beta.” Harry sounded remarkably calm for someone facing three men with guns in what Aaron assumed was a dark alley. But then with Isaac backing him up, why shouldn’t he?
Silence.
Then Blake again. “We’re all armed, so don’t try anything unless you want to test shifter speed against how quickly I can shoot.”
Isaac or not, Aaron felt the colour drain from his face as he imagined three guns now pointed at them both.
“We want to get this done as quickly as possible,” Harry answered.
A slight tremor in his voice, that probably only Aaron and Isaac could detect, but he still sounded calmer than Aaron felt.
