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“I hope you don’t need it,” he said. “But I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy.”

“I know.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “I still love you, though.”

They had their snacks up above the cave, by the rock formation, because Sanchez didn’t like the burrow. Being underground made him antsy. But it turned out there was a cozy niche at the bottom of the rock formation that was the perfect place to seduce a wolf, especially one who was full of sandwiches and cookies, and happy because he’d figured out another way to make sure she was safe.

Afterwards, when he was lying on his side, running his fingers lightly down her body and giving her goose bumps, he said, “I don’t want to leave you.”

She took his hand and kissed his fingers. “You can’t stay here watching over me forever. You have work to do. It’s important.”

“Not as important as you.”

“I’ll be fine. I have a whole wolf pack to look after me. And I won’t go anywhere alone. I promise.”

Chapter 31

The fourth day after Sanchez and the team left on their big mission, Madison and Breanna had to go into the post office in town to pick up a load of special-order stuff for the new rec center, that needed to be checked and signed for.

When they got to Switch’s truck, though, they found Dealer leaning against the fender.

“I’m your bodyguard,” he announced. “Sanchez made me promise that while he’s gone, Madison doesn’t set foot off this base without me.”

Well, hell. Madison didn’t know whether to go all squishy inside because Sanchez was still protecting her from afar, or be pissed off because he was assigning guards to her without even mentioning it. She decided to go with squishy.

Breanna said, “Not that we don’t appreciate it, but do you even know how to use that thing?” She tilted her chin at the handgun Dealer was carrying in a shoulder holster.

Dealer was a thief and a con man, not a soldier. Weapons and hand-to-hand combat were not his specialties.

“Of course I do,” he said, looking offended. “I shot Cisco for you that time, didn’t I?”

Madison had heard that story. Something about poison cookies and fake death.

Breanna nodded. “True. And it can’t hurt to have someone help us load the truck.” She added, “Only no stealing when we’re in town. We have a lot to do today, and bailing you out of jail will totally wreck our schedule.”

Dealer gave a mock-pout. “You never let me have any fun.”

Madison and Breanna were both also carrying weapons in their purses, although Madison wasn’t sure she was good enough yet to hit anything with hers, especially if she was nervous and they were, you know. Alive.

Except maybe Henri. She had the feeling she could manage to shoot Henri, if she had to. And if she got some satisfaction out of it, did that really make her a bad person?

They picked up their stuff without incident, Breanna putting Dealer to work immediately on the loading so he wouldn’t get the urge to liberate someone else’s packages from the post office.

It wasn’t until they were halfway back to the Ridge that the trouble started.

One minute they were driving normally along the road, and the next, the truck lurched to the side. Breanna wrestled with the wheel, just barely managing to keep them from running into a ditch. Then there was a repetitive thumping on the back passenger side.

“Flat tire,” Dealer said. “Fuck. Do you know how dirty I’m going to get, changing it?”

“You are such a wuss,” Breanna said.

“Says the little human who probably can’t even lift the spare.” Dealer might not be all muscle like the rest of the guys, and he might not have the combat training. But he was still a shifter wolf, and twice as strong as a human.

With a martyred sigh, Dealer climbed out of the truck and started walking around to get a look at the tire.

Madison, in the shotgun seat, got out too. She’d only taken a couple of steps towards the back of the truck when Dealer, coming around the other way, snapped his head up and yelled, “Back in the truck! It’s a trap!”

But it was too late. Just as Madison saw the metal dart buried in the truck’s tire, the woods erupted with men in camouflage uniforms. The next second, she felt a sting in her arm as something connected.

Looking down, she saw a different kind of dart sticking out of her arm, and her head started to go woozy.