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“I’d love to see you pull off something like that again,” she sighed wistfully. “They deserve it.”
“What’d you even do with all that stuff, anyway?” Tony asked in his gravelly voice.
“They gave it to the Dawn Chaser refugees so they could settle somewhere away from Denraider’s conquests,” Trina answered as though he should’ve known already.
My chest expanded with pride for the Howling Echo pack. Hugo and Idori clearly trusted them, and now I had more proof they were the good guys.
The memory of humans fleeing the gas station in the valley far below me came to mind. Gage had warned them to leave before the bandits showed up — more than most wolf shifters would do for humans, from my limited knowledge outside of the Ironwood pack.
“I guess that makes sense,” Tony said. “You wouldn’t be hard up for more jobs if you were still sitting fat and pretty from that one.”
Even my wolf was feeling proud of the Howling Echo pack, but his words brought me back to reality.
“We can’t afford anything nearly that risky right now, if that’s why you brought it up,” Gage cautioned.
I deflated, realizing they were about to lose their shot at another job because of me. They’d protected me in spite of allthe problems I’d caused them. Gage probably cursed himself for ever taking me up on our deal.
“Well…” Tony said just as I heard a boot scuff concrete behind me.
I whirled, my hand going for the gun in the back of my pants.
“Stop right there,” a rough voice warned, and I froze, my fingers around the grip of the gun. “Hands up.”
I turned to see a burly man with his hand on the holstered gun at his hip. A bulge where his pants met his boot indicated another weapon. I slowly brought my hands out where he could see them, cursing myself for letting him get the drop on me.
“Whoa, there,” Mr. Guns stepped closer to me. “Hear anything interesting?”
“Maybe.” I cocked my head, meeting the burly man’s eyes, refusing to back down. Inside, my wolf snarled, ready for anything.
From what I could see, he looked human, but that meant he could be a shifter or a witch for all I knew.
He nodded toward the open loading door. “Maybe you’d hear better inside.”
I sighed, realizing Mr. Guns was probably friends with the other two voices I’d overheard. I’d been found out, so there was no point trying to hide anymore. I backed up in front of the open loading bay door.
Chairs scrapped against the concrete floor as five figures rose to their feet at the sight of me and my new friend. Flint, Heath, and Gage were all there, but I scoped out the other two.
Tony turned out to be a wiry looking fellow with curly dirty blond hair and a scar just under his eye like someone had tried to blind him and missed their mark. And Trina, the woman with the musical voice, stood taller and more willowy than anyone else, her pointed ears and cyan blue hair giving her away as one of the fae.
“Well, why don’t you join us, darlin’?” Mr. Guns took a step closer to me, and his nostrils flared. “The name’s Cody, and I happen to think you smell positively divine.”
“She’s ours,” Heath growled.
Gage stalked over to me with a blank expression on his face. Somehow that was scarier than seeing him glare at me.
“That’s funny.” Cody grabbed my wrist and raised it. “I don’t see a pack mark on her wrists, nor a bite mark on her neck. Looks like she’s up for the taking.”
I twisted my wrist free, then grabbed my handy knife, putting it between me and him. Not daring to say anything in case I made this situation worse and guaranteed they didn’t get the job, I glared at him.
Cody chuckled as Gage grabbed my other wrist, pulling me behind him.
“What Heath meant was that she’s our property,” he growled as I bristled. “So keep your paws off her.”
Gage and Cody stood still for a moment, tension radiating from their bodies. Cody’s lips curled back in a snarl as he dropped his eyes.
“Calm down,” Cody growled. “You’re the more dominant wolf here, I get it, I get it. I won’t touch your… property.”
He leaned around Gage as if to catch another look at me.
