Page 6 of Gunnar

Torin scoops it up with a grin. “I’ll take a look.”

I ignore him.

The man sets a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We’ll be in contact.”

She shrugs him off at once. “Take me somewhere else. Anywhere else. Please!”

Her voice breaks on the last word, and it gets me right in the chest.

The boss steps away sharply and gets back into the SUV, slamming the door behind him.

The injured men are already being hauled into the rear seats. One leaves a dark smear across the door.

Engines start.

The convoy pulls out, tires crunching over gravel and broken rifles.

I don’t watch them leave.

I’m watching her.

Her chin lifts.

She doesn’t retreat.

Good.

I step closer.

Close enough to see the pulse beating at the base of her throat.

The scent of her fills my lungs.

She thinks she’s being abandoned.

She thinks she can leave. That this is temporary.

She has no idea what she is to me.

Mate.

The word settles into my bones like it’s always been there, waiting.

She can fight me.

She can hate me.

It won’t change what she is.

Mine.

2

Alexandria

Six hours earlier

By the time I reach the fifty-seventh and final floor of the building, faint streaks of dawn are cutting across the far edge of the sky, just visible between the high-rises.