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“State your business! Why are you here?” a gruff voice demands.

“For you, of course,” Liam chuckles, his voice carrying a devilish undertone. Suddenly, the guard nearest to the door drops to the ground, a knife lodged in his throat and he gurgles a breath. Chaos erupts, and in the midst of it all, Liam’s laughter echoes through the air. Seizing the moment, I lunge at the guards, crashing through the wall and tackling one.

“She’s upstairs, Dustin!” I call out urgently, my fists connecting with another guard’s face as Dustin blurs past me, effortlessly leaping over my hulking form. Gripping the man’s head between my hands, I twist with a swift motion, snapping his neck before pouncing on another. “Find them!” Liam yells over the noise as I take down the man.

With Liam keeping them busy, I hunt for Dustin and my mate, only to find them upstairs trying to find another way down.

“Clear,” Dustin yells, storming into the room, his gun at the ready and I duck just as he fires at me, not hearing me come through the side door of the room they’re in. He lets out a breath. “Warning next time, I nearly fuck shot you,” Dustin growls.

“We need to go, now!” I growl, shifting back to my human form. Bullets riddled Lycan form, but none had penetrated my organs thankfully, though I can feel some in me, my body healing before I can remove them.

‘Lamby, we got company!’Liam warns through the mindlink.

‘Don’t call me Lamby!’I growl, hating that nickname, I had a stuffed lamb plushie as a kid that I still have, and Liam likes to taunt me for it, like I don’t know if he still has Dustin’s stuffed teddy from when he found Dustin as a kid. I grab Tandi’s hand.

“Move!” I yell at her, not bothering with niceties as I limp down the staircase from the bullet still lodged in my hip grinding against bone.

“You good?” Liam asks, wiping the blood from his knife as he peers up the stairs where I can hear footsteps rushing toward us from some higher up levels.

“They’re from next door, there is a bridge that links the two buildings,” Tandi says, peering up at the roof.

“Fuck, let’s go,” I grunt.

Liam’s eyes drop to us and his eyes widen at the sight of us as he takes us in but wisely says nothing as he jerks his head towards the door. But I see the worry on his face as he glances at the kid in Tandi’s arms.

“Go, I’ll distract them,” Liam announces, racing past us and down the stairs.

“Liam!” I roar after him but he merely waves a hand over his shoulder before disappearing.

“We need to go,” Dustin urges, shoving me out the door first before ushering Tandi and her son out next. Damian hesitates, and I know he wants to help Liam.

“Now Damian, Liam will kill me if I let you run in after him, he can handle himself,” I remind him, and he nods rushing out too.

Bullets whiz past us, as we rush across the parking lot, only to hear someone hit the ground, causing us to glance up at the shooters on the roof. Liam has their attention as he tosses one off the roof. Dustin and I don’t break stride, reaching the car while simultaneously using our bodies to shield Tandi and her son. “Black one,” Dustin tells her, hitting the key fob. I open the rear door, shoving her in, and Dustin jumps in the front. He revs the engine to life as I climb before peeling away from the brothel.

“What about Liam?” Tandi asks, and I growl when I catch her staring out the rear window.

“He’ll be fine, the prick has nine lives, stay down!” I tell her before digging my claws into my shoulder, trying to remove the bullet lodged there.

“Yeah I swear that man was supposed to be a cat,” Dustin chuckles when Tandi shrieks, seeing blood spurt from my shoulder as I remove it. Then, I twist, looking for the one buried in my ribs making them throb.

“You’re bleeding!” she panics.

“Stay down,” I growl, shoving her body back down. “I’ll heal, keep him covered,” I mutter.

“But!”

I glare at her over my shoulder. “Not the time,” I growl as the bullet finally gives way between my fingers, it pops, making me gasp. Before I can say anything else, my vision blurs, and the world tilts and then goes black.

I wake up Goddess only knows how long later with Liam peering over the top of me, his knife digging the bullets out of me. I hear a clink of metal on metal. “Fuck, another,” Liam says to someone.

“Try not to break it,” Dustin says, as my eyes open to see him peering over Liam’s shoulder.

“Fuck, you took some metal,” Liam laughs, and Dustin lets out a breath. Sitting up, I peer around trying to remember what happened, when I’m suddenly on my feet looking for my mate. Dustin wanders to the couch, falling on it.

“Where is she?” I panic.

“Tandi’s in the shower,” Dustin says, pointing to the bathroom door.