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Seth walked over and squeezed her hand. “You can do this. You’ll get Hunter back.”

Neri blinked back the tears and squeezed back. “Thank you, Seth.”

For several silent minutes, they waited for word from Aubrey. Neri closed her eyes and concentrated on the beautiful woman; her reddish-brown locks down to the pretty freckles on her smooth pale skin and kept her image in the forefront of her mind.

“Okay, Neri. Aubrey is ready for you,” Seth said.

Instead of answering, she nodded and with the image on the forefront of her mind as she closed her eyes; she teleported out.

“You did it!” Aubrey excitement at Neri’s success made her lips tip up.

She accepted Aubrey’s hug and without closing her eyes and holding onto Aubrey; she teleported them both back to Kai’s house to round up the group and invade Zahava’s secret building.

“Ready?” Ghost asked.

Neri glanced around and almost all of them had changed from their casual clothes to the black tactical gear typical of raids. Strapped with knives, pistols, and automatic weapons, they had enough ammunition to decimate every shifter in that building.

Reaper walked up to her, and she smiled as he gave her a knife, the same one she used two other times whenever she needed to fight.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“We’ll get him back and we’ll kill them all. It’s the least they deserve.” And Reaper gave her a rare smile and squeezed her shoulder.

Ghost cleared his throat and the entire room fell deadly silent and turned to the boss.

“This is a rescue and kill mission. They have come after us time and time again, always with the element of surprise. But now we have the advantage. The shifters are not as strong or as fast as we are, but they know the lay of the land and we don’t. So, don’t leave your partner’s sight. If you need to chase after them, do so with your partner. Reaper is with Ara, Kai and Gunnar, Axel and Kane, Jade and Noah, Thomas and Isaac, and Xander and Neri are with me. Questions?”

“As long as we get to kill these fuckers, no questions from me,” Axel said.

“Neri, are you ready?” Ghost asked.

She nodded, once. She sheathed her knife and slid it in the back of her jeans before she held out her arms.

Neri!

Frozen when Silas call her, she looked up in time to see Silas jump at her.

You okay, little man?

Silas shook his head.Hunter’s hurt. All I see is black but his body is in pain, around his stomach and back. He’s being poked, like needles. Some are worse. You know hehatesneedles.

I know, little man. We’ll get him back. Go see your mom and we’ll be back soon.

Neri kissed his cheek and almost cried after Frost, her face etched in concern, reached out and squeezed her hand before she pulled Silas to her chest and hugged him close. She had to close her eyes when Xander kissed Frost and Silas, her heart breaking.

Liv hugged her. “You’ll do whatever it takes to get him back. And he’ll be fine.”

Unable to speak through the tightness in her throat, Neri nodded and turned back to the others. Without speaking, she held her arms out and took a deep breath when twelve hands grasped her arm. She didn’t have to close her eyes this time; Hunter’s image etched in her mind.

Hunter, we’re coming.

One second, they were in Kai’s cozy living room and the next, isopropyl alcohol and bleach were prominent. But Neri’s eyes focused on the slumped figure in front of her.

Hunter’s head hung in front of him and he wasn’t conscious. For a long moment, she watched his chest as it moved up and down in incremental movements, which showed he was alive. As her gaze moved down to his chest and stomach, bared from the waist up, there were areas of muscle gouged out of him.

Red. Pure anger, nothing she’d ever felt before surged through her, but before she let out a roar of outrage and fury, Axel put a hand over her mouth and wrapped an arm around her waist, yanking her back into his body.

“It won’t do any good to alert them to our presence, gray eyes. They are on the floor above and with the machines whirring around us is medical equipment, breaking down Hunter’s blood and DNA, we’re masked. But we need to be smart,” Axel whispered.