Two, their leader, lay to the far left, Four and Five to his right.
Four and Five shared an intense glare, then together looked over at Two, then toward the place they’d just seen multiple males, just like them, arrive and leave.
Five opened his mouth to speak, and Two gave a fierce shake of his head. The last thing they needed was their handlers overhearing their questions and taking it as a question of their authority. Insubordination could get them killed and that part wasn’t a lie.
“We’re not the last,” Four mouthed to him.
Two slashed his hand in a short strike through the air in front of Four, ending his commentary. He knew as well as Four and Five that they were obviously not the last as they’d been told. That meant one of two things; either their intel was bad,or they’d intentionally been lied to. Either way he and his males were in a precarious situation.
~~~
After a round about hike back to the targeted field across from the Gamieyon property, Rance, Dane, Noah, Steve, Dean, Ted, Hugh, and Dillon went in first, in their human forms. They stepped silently, slowly, carefully, as they spread out in a line left and right, from one side of the field to the other. Rance was at the center with several feet between him and each subsequent person with him. Steve was beside him on the right, then Ted, Noah, then Dean on the end. To Rance’s left was Dillon, then Dane, Hugh, and Storm. They advanced as one, taking each step forward in unison, their senses heightened as they watched and waited for anything to indicate they’d found the individuals they were hunting.
Frenzy, Feral, Rage and Fierce waited at the back of the field. Savage and Grim were on the left side of the field, Menace and Harsh on the right, watching and waiting for their sign to rush the field when the time came.
“You know we’re out here like sitting ducks. We shouldn’t be out here like this! This is not a good idea!” Dillon whispered harshly.
Rance, lifted his weapon and aimed it at the male as he glared at him.
Dillon stuttered to a stop.
“Shut. Up,” Rance mouthed.
“I’m just saying, it’s not too late to …”
Rance still aiming his weapon at the male, placed his finger on the trigger.
Movement from Dillon’s peripheral vision caught his attention and he looked to his left, where he found Dane also aiming his weapon at him.
The male lifted both hands into the air to indicate he was done.
Rance pointed to the ground and took a step, everyone walking with him did the same.
Dillon hurriedly took a step to remain in line. He didn’t want to be here, but he didn’t want to be shot, either.
Back inside the tree line at the back of the field, Frenzy’s ear piece crackled to life. “You got four about to go into cardiac arrest. Male two’s blood pressure is about to send him into a fucking stroke. Males four, three and five are having not only blood pressure issues, but their heart rates and oxygen rates indicate extreme anxiety. Especially male three,” Valor’s voice reported.
Frenzy tapped his ear piece to change its mode. “Rance, you got three males out there with heart rates and blood pressure off the charts. Indicates a high level of anxiety — could mean anything, but could also be they’re worried about being indicated as involved in the deaths of their Pride members. Two to your left, one to your right.”
Rance lifted a hand, ever so slightly to indicate he’d heard, but didn’t break stride. They were about two thirds of the way across the field, before Noah raised his hand, bringing the line to a stop. He squatted down, and leaned his body to the left to get a better view of the ground to his right. He raised his head and looked over at Dean, who’d knelt in his place several feet away and was looking at the same spot of ground from the opposite direction. Noah raised his eyebrows in silent question.
Dean gave him a single nod and aimed at the spot they were looking at.
Rance lifted a hand and swirled it in the air indicating they would surround whatever Noah had found. Then he and Steve began moving toward the space Noah had detected an irregularity with, while everyone to his left back tracked and moved up behind Noah and Dean. They all raised their weapons, and simultaneously fired into the ground, around the perimeter of the irregularity.
“Out! Now! Before we fire again, this time we won’t miss!” Rance bellowed.
Chapter 22
Lying perfectly still, hearts thundering, beneath the debris they were hiding under, Two, Four, and Five shared a silent look, before they readied their weapons and prepared to come out firing.
While all this was going on, Frenzy, Savage and their teams all rushed up to stand with weapons drawn, behind and around the area Rance and his people had located. They encircled the entire patch of ground Rance and his shifters were already standing in a half-circle around.
The ground they focused on seemed to roil, decaying leaves, broken branches and dirt shifting and falling to the side as three males sat up seemingly out of the ground, dirt and clay clinging to them, aiming their own weapons at Rance and the other shifters.
“Unh, unh, unnuuhhh! I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Frenzy said from behind them. “Unless you’d like to take bets on which one I’ll shoot in the back first. But then, maybe don’t take that bet, because I’ve got enough of our kind around you, that we’ll just shoot you all at the same time.”
Two’s eyes quickly scanned the group of people in front and to the sides of them, his nose telling him that most of them were Lion shifters, his gaze telling him that just as many were males like him. Two considered his options, knowing full well that Four and Five would do whatever he chose to do. He sighed resignedly, then slowly moved his hands out to his sides, tossed his weapon to the ground, closer to Rance than to himself, then held his hands up higher in the air. Four and Five did exactly the same, less the sigh.
