by Lisa Kessler
She winced, blinking her eyes open. “Are you all right?”
I shook my head. “I should be asking you that. Where are you hit?”
“Right leg.” She pulled herself to a sitting position, gasping and clenching her teeth. “I’d ask for your shirt, but…” She gave me a once-over. “…you don’t even have on pants.”
“Clothes are the least of my worries at the moment.” I sobered and handed her the gun. “I think the wolves are on the move. Until they get here, shoot first and ask questions later. I need to check on Vance.”
I got up, blinking until the world stopped spinning. My father spit poisonous words as I passed by, but didn’t get up. As I approached Vance’s body, my stomach twisted into a knot. He hadn’t moved.
As I knelt beside him, three men rushed from the woods. Werewolves. The Pack doctor came to my side and opened his bag. He glanced my way. “His pulse is weak and thready. Can you hear it?”
I nodded. “What can I do?”
He handed me a compress. “When I pull out the blade, I need you to apply pressure to the wound.”
“I’m ready.” Blackness teased the edge of my vision, but I willed myself to stay awake.
The doctor eased the blade free, and I stanched the bleeding. Jason dug into his bag and brought out a syringe. “He needs to shift back. I’m a doctor, not a vet. I don’t know enough about feline anatomy to treat him like this.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure why he was explaining himself.
“This is risky. He could bleed out while he goes through the change.”
Now I understood. “Vance is tough. If this is the only way to survive, he will.”
“Hope you’re right.” He took the sheath off the needle. “This dose of adrenaline should get things moving. We’ll do our best to control the bleeding.”
I glanced over my shoulder to check on Isabelle. Luke Reynolds and his twin brother were hooking Isabelle’s arms over their shoulders. They hauled her up to her feet as Asher and Gage approached from the woods. Gage kept his rifle aimed at my father.
The doctor plunged the needle into Vance’s chest and pressed the plunger down. Vance’s entire body tensed, tremors running from head to tail. I did my best to keep pressure on the wound as his bones contorted and joints popped.
Silently, I willed him to fight.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Isabelle
Luke and Logan helped me to the back of the building and eased me down onto the steps. My leg throbbed, blood soaking through my pants. The only good news was finding an exit wound, and since I hadn’t bled out yet, the bullet must not have hit a major artery. I’d heal.
Asher and Gage aimed their guns at Antonio, and a few feet away, Jason and Sebastian were doing their best to save Vance. I’d never watched anyone shift before. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but seeing it was a new level of grotesque. His body writhed on the ground, his skin swallowing the black fur, his sharp teeth retracting as his head cracked and reshaped.
I shifted my focus to Sebastian. His back was still oozing from a set of deep gashes, and a chunk of flesh was missing right between his shoulder blades, probably from a bite. I glanced up at Luke. “You’ve got to get Jason to look at Sebastian’s back. He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Are you okay here?” Concern lined Luke’s face.
“Yeah.” I lifted my gun. “Armed and ready—just don’t ask me to run.”
Satisfied, Luke and Logan headed over to the Pack doctor. I moved my leg and sucked in a pained breath. Wait a sec. I frowned. Why did I smell—
Before I could finish the thought, armed human guards burst from the back door. Asher and Gage turned their firepower in the direction of the new danger, and behind them, jaguars encroached, coming out of the trees.
“Behind you!” I fired off one shot but was too far away for any accuracy with my handgun.
While Gage and Asher turned around to protect themselves, Antonio scrambled to his feet. I lined up the sights on my Glock, readying to fire, when cold steel jammed into my back.
“Pull that trigger and you’re dead,” one of the human guards grunted.
Antonio raised his gun. “Tell them to drop their weapons, Sebastian, or your woman dies.”
Sebastian spun around, snapped up the knife that had been buried in his friend and sent it sailing, nailing his target in the neck.
Antonio Severino dropped the pistol and sank to the ground. He gurgled, “Shoot her.”
Sebastian was already on the move. “Touch her and I’ll hunt your families down. You’ll never be safe from me. Never.”
The barrel left my back. I pulled in a shaky breath as Sebastian approached, his eyes locked on the guards behind me. “As you can see, I’ll be signing your paychecks now. Wait for me inside the building.”
Following his orders, the humans retreated. The jaguars took cover in the shadows of the forest, and an unsettling silence fell over the compound as Antonio Severino’s blood seeped into the soil of his precious empire.
Sebastian called to them, his voice weary but strong. “The Hunt is over, and Nero is dead.”
He sat on the steps beside me and whispered, “I think I need…” Sebastian slumped against me, his body sliding down to my lap.
“Jason!” I shouted.
He turned around. “Be right there!”
Luke and Logan took over the compression on Vance’s wound, and Jason brought his bag to me. I tipped my head toward Sebastian. “His back is all torn up.”
Jason came around behind him. “That was some throw he made.”
I stared at Antonio’s lifeless body. “And that was after he was dizzy from blood loss.”
Jason started cleaning the gouge, and Sebastian growled. “Fuck.”
“Welcome back.” Jason pressed a gauze pad to the wound. “Never thought there’d be a day I’d be thanking you.”
Sebastian winced. “Likewise.”
“You’re going to need some stitches.”
Sebastian nodded. “That would be preferable to bleeding to death.”
Jason chuckled, taking out his needle and thread. “I think Vance is going to make it. The blade missed his heart. If he’d been in human form when Antonio stabbed him, he would’ve been dead.” He finished the first stitch. “You were right, he’s tough.”
I stroked Sebastian’s hair back from his forehead. “You saved my life tonight.”
He grunted. “You should have been on your way to Reno.”
“Don’t be an ass.” I rolled my eyes. “This is the part when you’re supposed to say I saved your life, too.”
He was quiet for a second, his voice sobered. “I may have doomed us all.”
“Your father was bluffing.”
He shook his head. “There are a select few in the government who know shifters exist. My father was a master at silencing any weak links. I don’t have the contacts he did. Without him, I’m not sure how to be certain no one exposes us to the world.”
Jason’s eyes lifted to meet mine. “We need to call Adam. His uncle might be able to help.”
“This goes beyond General Sloan.” Sebastian rubbed his forehead.
Jason finished the stitches and tied them off. Sebastian sat up, his dark eyes on mine. “I’m an assassin, not a politician. I don’t know how to contain this.”
Jason pulled out his phone. “General Sloan is a good starting point.” He updated Adam and then went to work on my leg.
To Sebastian’s credit, he held my hand without flinching even though I squeezed the shit out of him as Jason cleaned the wound.
By the time Jason had me patched up, the sky was beginning to lighten, and I could barely keep my eyes open. Sebastian was alert, still watching the trees for any signs of jaguars. Someone had brought him clothes while I was in and out of consciousness. They were too tight, but at least he wouldn’t freeze to death.
Death. I nudged Sebastian. “Where’s Vance?”
He looked down at me, his expressio
n softening. “He’s inside the main building, resting. Asher is with him. He’ll alert the doctor when Vance wakes up.”
“So he’s going to be all right?”
“We won’t know for certain until he comes to, but I think he will be.”
I frowned, scanning the area. There was only a stain in the dirt where his father’s body had been. “Where’s Antonio?”
Tension rose in Sebastian’s shoulders, but it was the only outward reaction; his voice was cold and distant. “His body is inside.” He met my eyes, his battered hand cupping my face. “I’m going to ask the doctor to take you and Vance back to Reno to heal.”
I shook my head without pulling away from his touch. “You’re injured, too. I’ll stay with you.”
“You don’t understand.” The blood loss had left circles around his eyes, and concern lined his brow. “If I can’t keep the Senate committee quiet about this, you can’t be anywhere near me. All it would take is a loose-lipped anonymous source to tell the media about our defense contract work with shifters, and we’ll all be hunted. It’s more important than ever for you to stay away from me.” He paused, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I love you, Isabelle. Let me protect you.”
His words made sense, and he was probably right, but I didn’t give a flying fuck.
“You can’t do this alone.”
He started to bend down to kiss my forehead and winced, straightening his back again. “Damn it.”
I scooted to sit up and turned his chin toward me. “I realized something tonight when the others were trying to force me to go back to Reno without you.”
His eyes searched mine. “What’s that?”
“I love you.” I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. “I didn’t think I’d ever say those words again after my dad vanished, but that doesn’t make them any less true. And before you start making excuses, this has nothing to do with the wolf or the instincts…”
“How can you be so sure?” He raised a brow.
A smile flirted at the corner of my lips. “Because my wolf has loved you from the moment we touched. I’ve been fighting her ever since.”
“So you finally surrendered?” His eyes sparkled as the sun peeked over the horizon.
“No.” I shook my head. “But tonight I realized there isn’t another person I’d be more willing to walk into hell with than you.”
I leaned in, my lips caressing his. His arms wrapped around me, and my heart fluttered as I opened my eyes, resting my forehead on his. “Whatever happens, I’ll have your back.”
“And I’ll have yours.” He started to kiss me again when Jason cleared his throat. “You both need to get inside and rest. I just got word that General Sloan will be here in two hours. Until then, we can clean this up.”
“Thank you,” Sebastian said as he helped me up, bearing most of my weight.
Together we hobbled through the doors like wounded soldiers.
…
I woke up disoriented and…alone. I sat up, dangling my legs over the side of the bed as coherent memories returned. I was in the underground dormitory.
Where the hell was Sebastian?
I stood up, wincing when I tried to put weight on my injured leg. There had to be a crutch or something I could brace myself with. I scanned the room. No crutches, but there was a push broom in the corner. Not optimal, but better than nothing. I hopped over and gripped the handle. After a few tries, I finally figured a way to use my enhanced upper body strength to stay upright, using the broom as a makeshift cane.
Sebastian’s scent lingered in the hallway. I tracked it to the elevator. Inside I hit the button for the ground floor and waited. When it opened into the main lobby, Sebastian and a military man in full dress uniform turned my way.
I limped out and offered my hand. “You must be General Sloan.”
He nodded, shaking my hand. “You can call me Miller.”
He was definitely a werewolf. Adam’s uncle. They had the same facial structure, although his eyes were lighter and his hair was gray.
I glanced at Sebastian. “What did I miss?”
Sebastian retrieved a chair and set it down behind me.
“Thanks.” I sat down, leaning the broom against the arm of the chair. “So?”
The general answered before Sebastian. “We need to destroy the building and all the records.”
I blinked, frowning. “What about all the shifters who live here?”
“Most have fled.” Sebastian crossed his arms. “Without my father, some opted for freedom. Others were loyalists and won’t work with me.”
I shifted my attention back to the general. “What good will it do to burn everything here?”
He didn’t hesitate. “It will keep any footage or research documents from being pilfered and sold to the highest bidder.”
“And what about the records you have back in the Pentagon or wherever you work?”
“They’re classified. And even if someone nosed around, without any proof, no one is going to believe shifters are real.” He glanced around the area. “Without this facility, there’s no way to verify anything. It’ll be a dead end.”
Sebastian didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t contradict the general, either.
I sighed. “I guess we need to be sure the building is empty first.”
“Gage, Luke, and Logan are already in the process.” Sebastian dropped his arms to his sides. “I’m going to search my father’s files for anything worth keeping, and then we’ll be ready.”
I stared at the industrial walls around us and shook my head. “This doesn’t look like it’s going to burn.”
“That’s why we’re going to blow it up. We have charges stored in the ammunitions building.”
I frowned, looking over at the general. “How are you going to explain an explosion that destroys classified government research?”
He cleared his throat and replied, “Natural gas leak. It’ll also explain why the building was empty. We evacuated, but before we could find the break in the gas line, a spark brought the whole thing down.”
Could work. I glanced at Sebastian. “Sounds like you’ve got this all planned.” He didn’t make eye contact, and I sighed. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Sebastian’s dark eyes met mine. “Dr. Ayers is waiting out front to take you back to Reno with him.”
“No. You don’t get to order me around.” My heart pounded like a drum in my ears. “I’ll see this through with you.”
“I appreciate your loyalty, but you’d be in the way.” General Sloan crossed his arms. “Sebastian is riding back with me to D.C. to meet with Senator Hanson. We’ll be discussing classified documents. You can’t be there.”
Sebastian knelt beside my chair. “If our meeting isn’t successful, and I’m revealed as a shifter, I can’t let that spotlight fall on you, Isabelle. I—”
“Don’t.” I stood up and reached for the damned broom. “Don’t say those words and then walk out on me.”
I held my head high as I hobbled down the hallway for the front doors. Sebastian was close behind, wisely giving me a little space. As soon as I stepped outside, he caught my arm. “Isabelle.”
I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. My stomach tied in knots, my chest hurt, and goddamn it, I was not going to cry.
He took my chin and gently turned my head until I grudgingly met his eyes. “I’m not walking out on you. I’m protecting you.”
“Just like my father!” My throat closed, strangling my voice for a second.
“I wish I didn’t have to do this.” He searched my face, regret in his eyes. “I want nothing more than to ride off into the sunset with you and start a new chapter of my life, but there won’t be one if I can’t keep a lid on my father’s research.”
“Who will watch your back?”
A crooked smile tugged at his lips. “You are a treasure. I don’t deserve you.”
I gave his shoulder a halfhearted shove. “Stop being charming and answer me.”
“I swear I will be with you as soon as I can.” He caught my hand, his fingers lacing with mine. “There is nowhere I would rather be.”
“Still doesn’t answer my question.” What could he say? I didn’t know, but I needed the reassurance. Anxiety constricted my chest.
“I don’t need anyone to watch my back. I’ve never had a partner until you, and I’ve returned from countless dangerous missions for years.” He lifted my hand to his lips. “This isn’t like it was with your father. I’ll find a way to contact you every day.”
Now that I liked. I nodded slowly and whispered, “Making me fall in love with you and then dying would be a dick move.”
The sound of his laughter buoyed my spirit. He kissed me, whispering, “I love you, Isabelle. Be safe for me.”
Jason jogged up with a crutch, bless him, and Sebastian went back into the building to lay down the charges. There were a million ways the plan could fail—the fire crew could find evidence of the explosives or the charred remains of Antonio Severino’s body, and those were just a couple of scenarios—but as I limped over to the car, I did my best to silence the doubts.
I wasn’t eighteen anymore, and this wasn’t good-bye forever.
Or so I hoped.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sebastian
Once Isabelle was in the car, I went up to the second floor. The eerie silence made the marble hall feel more like a tomb than the headquarters of Nero. I opened the door to the reception area for my father’s office and half expected Natasha to greet me.
I had no idea where she might be now. She hadn’t been among the dead jaguars.
After collecting myself, I threw open the second door leading to my father’s office. In spite of my efforts to steel the emotions churning inside me, when I stepped into the room, my gut lurched. My father’s body had been unceremoniously dumped on the floor, the knife still protruding from his neck.
I knelt beside him, my hands trembling. “I couldn’t let you kill her.” I ground my teeth together. His corpse wasn’t going to absolve me of what I’d done. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, you coldhearted bastard.”
