“Please,” I whisper. “Please, stop. We don’t know anything.”
“Let her out.”
I blink repeatedly as the whipping stops and the stockade is abruptly opened. The bottom swings down to the platform, crashing against the wooden pallets before I drop to my hands and knees. The man to my right kicks me in the ribs, sending me to my side before I fall off the edge in a heap as pain radiates through every inch of my body.
But I don’t stay there, I can’t.
As quickly as I can, I pull myself along the floor, dragging my bruised and bloody body toward Niko because I have to. I have to get to him, have to touch him. If we’re going to die, I’m going to hold him in my arms while we do, and I don’t give a shit how I make that happen.
I will claw my way through broken glass and crawl over burning coals just so I can hold my soulmate in my arms as we’re sent to the gates of hell.
The room tilts with every pull of my fingers, every scrape of nails against the concrete but I’m finally close enough to reach him. I use every ounce of strength I have left to sit up and tug him into my lap, pulling his battered body against mine until I can see his face, relieved that my omega is still breathing.
“I love you,” I whisper through my tears, pushing his blond hair matted with blood from his face as a few men train their guns on us. I cling to him the best I can as I repeat my words. Whispering them until my throat is dry and hoarse. I need him to know, need Niko to remember what he is to me and how I feel about him. Regardless of what happens to us, he needs to know that. “I love you.”
“What the fuck…”
I look up as the leader of the group walks to the edge of the light, slowly pulling his beretta from the back of his cargo pants as he stops. He holds out one hand, almost as if he’s placatingsomeone or something while he speaks too low for anyone to hear.
I hold Niko tighter as a level of unknown confusion blankets the warehouse, tension filling it as a few men slowly join their leader.
I just want this to be over. I want them to hurry up and kill us or do whatever the hell else they intend to do because I’m done. This is the last time I let anyone make a victim out of me, and it sure as fuck is the last time someone tries to make a corpse out of any more of my mates, either.
I’m fucking done with all of this.
I waited too long. I didn’t follow through, and it got us here. This is my fault. I don’t care what or who these assholes are looking for, I don’t give a shit over the why because this is all on me. I didn’t move us fast enough. I lost sight of why I’m out here to begin with, I got wrapped up in the possibility of a new future and the hope that comes with it and once again, I could lose my mate because of it.
All of that changes now.
One way or another, it changes this very second.
I am fucking done.
Suddenly, the bald guy and his men jump back, making me flinch as they start walking backward in our direction and cocking their guns in front of them.
“That’s a good doggy. It’s okay.”
I frown as they move quicker, weapons raised as they nearly trip over Niko and I, which is when their fear physically manifests in front of me.
Three of the biggest dogs I have ever seen trot forward, their nails tapping the concrete as they bare their teeth in foamy snarls. They have big studded collars with tags but no leashes, so they belong to someone who cares enough to do that, even ifthey’ve seemingly misplaced their pets. I bet if they knew what their pups wandered in on, they’d shit.
Then again, with dogs like these, their owner might have seen worse.
Oh my god, these dogs are fucking huge.
The one in the middle is a doberman, that’s not hard to tell but it’s the only breed I’m familiar with. The other two? I have no idea what they are other than huge and extremely pissed off.
Pissed off and a little bloodthirsty.
“Nice doggy,” the bald guy says as he aims at the doberman. It’s an obvious kill shot, even to someone like me, but he hesitates to take it and I’m not sure why if he’s as scared as he seems to be. “Stay right there, that’s it, stay.”
The dogs aren’t moving.
They haven’t been, not since they backed them up to where Niko and I are. They’ve been standing still outside of the circle, growling and foaming at the mouth but they haven’t moved a muscle. Almost like they’re waiting. For what, that’s something else I don’t know, but that’s what it seems like.
But who the hell would they be waiting for?
As if the universe decided to answer my question, loud, heavy footsteps follow the same path the dogs took, coming right toward us without a fraction of urgency. Slow and steady, confident. Dangerous.
