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“Where is the equipment we came for? How long will it take to send a message?” Damon asked me, trying to help focus my dominance.
“It’s portable. I’ll grab it, and we can take it back to the farm. Can you take care of him?”
Damon’s eyes flashed briefly, but he nodded, knowing what I was asking. It was a big ask, but Damon stepped up for me, and for Maia. “Consider it done.”
I looked over my shoulder and my gaze landed on Lexie and Maia, standing huddled together with Leif shadowing them. My beast surged to the surface, but my rage focused in a way it never had before. Protect. Defend. I needed to get them out of here. Get them safe and get them allies. But I couldn’t do it alone.
“Leif, I need you with me. Gramps may have barricaded the entrance, and the equipment is heavy. Dio, take this box and get the girls back to the helicopter. Tell Matt to get the chopper prepped for take-off. Damon will be right behind you. If Leif and I don’t follow in five minutes, or anyone arrives, take off without us. We’ll make our own way home. Go now.”
I passed the box to Dio, then turned without giving my brother another glance, trusting everyone to do their jobs. It also didn’t pass my notice that I’d just referred to Maia and Lexie’s farm as home. Not this place. There was nothing left for me here.
I barrelled down the hallway towards my gramps’ room. Leif’s pounding steps followed me and my brother’s wild cackle haunted me until it cut off abruptly. Whatever Damon had done was a mercy at this point.
A thick layer of dust coated everything in the room, as if nobody had been in here since the day he died. I raced over to his antique wardrobe, threw open the door, and yanked out the clothes that were still inside in my haste. I pushed the secret latch he had shown me and the back panel slid back to reveal a metal door.
I turned the handle and yanked it open, but it got stuck part-way. Clearly, no one had used it in a long time.
I put my shoulder into it, but it wouldn’t budge. “Here, let me,” Leif said as he yanked me out of the way. He braced his legs in a crouch and threw his weight at the door once, twice and, on the third time, it swung open with a loud groan.
Leif stepped back, and I was down the stairs in seconds, leaping the last few. The room below was bare except for two metal contraptions that were all closed up into box shapes. Last time I had seen them, they had been open and set-up with lights glowing in the dim room, but this worked for us.
I grabbed the nearest one, and an envelope slipped out from underneath, landing on the floor. I flipped it over with my foot and saw it had my name on it in my gramps’ handwriting. I snatched it up too, gesturing Leif towards the other box with a nod of my head before I was hauling ass back up the stairs.
I faintly heard the helicopter rotors start and was halfway through the door when Leif yelled, “Wait.”
I froze and looked over my shoulder. He was holding a military uniform, covered in medals. He had picked it up from the pile of clothes I had yanked out and dropped. “Is this your gramps’ uniform?” He asked.
I nodded, and he threw it over his shoulder. “For Maia,” he said.
I swallowed hard, and headed back for the door, silently sending out thanks to the universe that Maia had stumbled across Leif and his mates. They were good alphas and would take care of her.
We barrelled out the rarely used front door, at the opposite side of the house. There was no way I was going back out through the kitchen. The change in direction worked in our favor as we startled two betas who were spying around the corner of the house. I glimpsed a long column of dust coming down the main road in the distance at the same moment the two betas spun and noticed us.
“Stay and fight, or run?” Leif yelled.
“Run,” I shouted over my shoulder, already charging at the two terrified betas. I barked, and both men froze, dropping to their knees. I didn’t have time to do more than knock them down before we had to run full pelt towards the helicopter.
Damon was hanging out the door, roaring at us to hurry. I could see Lexie’s worried face hovering behind him. We both gave a last burst of speed, hurled our boxes onto the floor, and hauled ourselves up as the helicopter lifted off the ground. Gunfire erupted behind us as I rolled to my feet.
I fought my need to grab Lexie and pull her into my arms when she stepped towards me as the chopper lurched forward. I couldn’t be near her right now. So many emotions were coursing through me that my alpha beast was straining to get out.
He wanted to rend anyone who threatened Maia or Lexie into tiny pieces. Then he wanted to pull Lexie toward us so hard she couldn’t refuse, so he could make her submit and finally claim her right here on the floor of the chopper. He didn’t particularly care if anyone was watching. Having her here in danger was sending his instincts into overdrive. I refused to screw up what was building between us by jumping her like a crazed animal.
I froze in place, locking my arms and legs, until Dio intervened and pulled her into a seat, strapping her in. I forced my limbs to step past them and into the cockpit while Damon slid the door closed.
I checked Leif was helping Maia strap in before I glanced back down to the farm one last time. A convoy of army trucks had pulled into the front yard, and two imposing men in suits stepped out of the leading truck.
More men piled out of the back and started splashing gasoline from jerry cans against the farmhouse before others stepped up and lit it up. Flames quickly leaped up the side walls. They didn’t even bother checking if anyone was still inside. It seemed it wasn’t my brother’s destiny to live out this day, and any bargaining chip he thought he had was long gone.
If my gramps had any more secrets hidden in that house, they were gone now too.
I tried to get a closer look at the two men intently watching us disappear before we veered away. They didn’t look like any military men I had ever seen.
“Who in the hell are they?” I asked Damon gruffly, as his head came over my shoulder to get a better look at the men below us, too. We weren’t completely out of danger yet. I was panting as I tried to catch my breath and still the shaking in my arms and legs from my sprint to the chopper carrying the heavy metal box, but I still heard Damon’s sharp intake of breath.
“The big guy was Ronan’s dad,” Damon said, his voice flat.
“And the other guy?”
