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Kryder then disappeared back inside the vehicle.
Grant watched as his people responded. The firing could no doubt be heard throughout Savage. It was war and the cacophony almost busted his eardrums. He removed his headset and listened through the room’s speakers.
Ryan and his staff sat at various desks and keyboards. He stood at the back of the room, itching to be on the front lines. Adrenaline spiked in his veins.
Everything about their set-up was working.
He kept looking for a way to improve their situation, but his admin team had created all the right precautions. Their line held.
Suddenly, he felt a hand clap over his mouth and a sharp blade enter his back, not deep but enough to make him freeze in pain.
Kryder’s voice shot into his head. Hold steady, asshole, or you’ll die in a puddle right here without your people even remotely aware of it.
The pain was all but unbearable as Kryder withdrew the blade. Kryder had his arm around his neck, the blade now pressing against the skin of his lower back. He saw the room through a soft glow. Shit. Kryder had pulled him inside an invisibility spell.
Now, look to your right.
Slowly grant shifted and saw that the spell included a team of five men each armed with assault rifles. They stood in a row against the wall.
Come quietly and I’ll let them live. Make the smallest fuss and this room will be a broken-up place of blood and monitors. Your fucking choice.
Grant had planned for a dozen scenarios, but he hadn’t considered this one. If Natalie had been here, either her wolf or with a quick dip into the future, she could have shown Grant the trap he’d just fallen into.
He took one final glance at the monitors and saw that Kryder still appeared to be in the Jeep.
I see what you’re wondering. I have a double. He does quite well at a distance. But I also have a terrific fae that I keep chained up. She showed me what to do. BTW, too bad your fae deserted you. She could have told you all about your weak spots. But then you were always too much of a lone-wolf. So, what’s it going to be, Grant? Do we leave quietly? Or do I shoot up your friends then drag your ass out of here? Either way, you’re coming with me.
Why take me at all?
Haven’t you guessed? I need your woman. She’s got the gift I require for all my future plans. The fae I’ve got just isn’t sharp enough.
For a moment, Grant considered what he should do. If he left with Kryder without disrupting the kidnapping, he’d be putting Natalie in danger. But the reality of losing so many of his pack within the next few seconds, made his decision for him.
Let’s go.
Kryder had trained his own men equally as well. Two of them pivoted to take the lead, two fell in beside Grant on either side and the rest took up the rear.
Kryder chose the route that led back through the sandpit and the underground tunnel. Grant wondered what he’d find, as in dead bodies on the ground, although it was unlikely. The monitors would have shown an attack.
Instead, the small team of warriors at the exit stood facing outward and watching the empty pine forest opposite the road.
Once past the compound’s team, Kryder’s group lifted into levitation and rose steadily into the air. Almost at the same time, Kryder’s force on the ground began to retreat.
Grant heard his wolves raise a shout of triumph, unaware that the enemy had just kidnapped their alpha.
~ ~ ~
After having settled into the cottage Agnes assigned her, Natalie had gone to the chapel to think things through. She’d spent the past couple of hours, sitting in the front pew, her thoughts turned inward.
Her iridescent wolf lay on the carpet a few feet in front of her, but stretched out on her belly toward her, muzzle on paws. Every once in a while, she’d lift her head as though listening to the sounds outside the building but would soon revert to her head-down position. Her eyes, however, remained fixed on Natalie.
Several times, she had the sense that Grant reached out to her but fell short of telepathy. Of course, she wondered if she was imagining it.
She sighed. Renee had challenged her to examine her fears, so she’d taken the time to do just that. She’d been looking hard at what she feared most.
It didn’t take her long to understand that what she’d really feared was losing Grant. Though, given the way he’d so easily dismissed her, what she feared might have already happened. Worse, she hadn’t put up the smallest fight to hold her ground at the compound.
When had she become the kind of person that didn’t live full-out? When had she started holding back so fiercely, as though her life depended on it?
