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“Fuck no, I’m not okay!” He ran toward me, grabbed my hand, and pulled. “We’ve got to go, NOW!” And then we were off, racing through the dark as gunfire shattered the silence of the night. I had no idea where we were going. All I knew was that everything ached, every muscle screamed for me to stop, but adrenaline carried me, giving me the strength I needed to push through.

We ran away from the building, ducking into the alleyway, and back to the wall we started from. And just like before, I slid down onto one knee, allowing him to use my thigh as a step. He jumped and reached the top of the wall, swung his body around, and then reached back down for me, hoisting me up. As I straddled the wall to slide down onto the other side, my eyes caught sight of the glistening red smeared across the top.

Wes had been hit.

I knew it happened. I felt the spray of his blood across my face as we hung suspended between death by firing squad and death by free fall. But we didn’t die. We had made it—miraculously—but he was hurt. I didn’t know how badly, but the way his arm cradled his side, the way the hard lines of his face remained taut, and his eyes winced as he moved, I knew he was hurting bad.

A memory of me straddling Wes inside a truck as I pushed down on his shoulder, blood pouring out of his body, soaking my hands, my clothing, and everything else, sent a small waveof panic through me. He had almost died that night. What was going to happen to him now?

“Let’s go!” he growled at me as he jumped down off the wall. I shook my head as I leaped off, the landing causing my joints to scream out at the impact. “We’ve got to make it the extraction point.” I didn’t respond, but followed closely on his heels as we ran through the Telvian streets.

And then I heard them.

An eerie howl sounded through the night.

Wes stopped running, frozen in time. Standing together, we listened to the demonic sound as several more howls called in the dark. And then my blood ran cold. It couldn’t be…could it?

“What the hell is that?” Wes’s breaths came out sharp and shallow.

“You don’t think…”

Another howl sounded through the night, sending a chill down my spine as my skin prickled with goosebumps. Wes’s eyes landed on mine. It was obvious we were both fearing the same thing. Wes lifted his mini-tab to his lips, speaking into the smartwatch.

“I need that emergency evacnow!”

“Blackhawk on the way,” a male voice reported back. “Ten minutes out.”

Wes scowled, “Make it five! We’ve got hellhounds.” My heart skipped a beat at the affirmation…hellhounds.

We were in deep shit.

Wes didn’t wait for a response before he grabbed my hand and dragged us into the dark. “Listen, we’ve got to make it to the park. It’s the only place where the Blackhawk can land. But there’s no way we’re going to make it before the hellhounds catch up to us. I want you to keep going while I get them off our trail.”

“What? What do you mean, ‘get them off our trail?’” He better not be talking about what I thought he was talking about.

“Those hounds are going to hunt us down. I’m covered in blood—”

“So am I,” I protested.

He closed his eyes and grunted momentarily in pain, gripping his side, before finally breathing in deeply and looking back at me. “Listen to me. I’m going to lead them off. You get to the park. I’ll get another emergency evac.”

Oh no… No, no, no, no.

There was no way in hell I was going to go for this plan. “I’m not going without you. We either go together, or we both lead them off, but I’m not going to the park without you.”

“Shit, Mara, just go to the damn fucking park!” He was furious, but I was finally figuring Wes out. And I knew that anger was Wes’s way of bullying people into what he wanted.

“No! We can both make it.”

He cursed under his breath, grunting low in his throat as he closed his eyes again, taking in sharp breaths. I wasn’t sure if it was frustration at me or the pain that was getting the better of him, but I wasn’t going to back down from this. A second ticked by before he finally opened his eyes and the expression shifted on his face. Our gazes locked. And for the first time in my life, I saw an emotion I had never seen on Wes before…desperation. “Please.Pleasego.”

The plea came out in a breath, and the vulnerability of his distress caused me to feel weak in the knees. But I couldn’t leave him…I wouldn’t. Without thinking about what I was doing, I cupped his face in my hands, my own actions surprising me. Wes and I weren’t like this. Unless we were training in the gym, we didn’t touch each other. But life was moving fast around us, and with death howling at the moon, hunting us down, I didn’t really care. I stared up into his molten hazel eyes as his body stiffened,and for once I thoughtmyeyes were the ones that heldhimcaptive. “I’m not leaving you. You stay, then I stay.”

The look of shock was replaced by something I couldn’t read as his eyes shifted back and forth, flickering in the little light provided by the streetlamp. I didn’t know what he was thinking or what he kept locked away inside himself. But I knew one thing—I owed him my life multiple times over. And abandoning him in an alley at the mercy of hellhounds wasnotgoing to happen.

A sigh of resignation fell from his lips as his shoulders slumped slightly, giving in. “All right. We’ve got to be quick. No stunners this time. Pull out your 9mm and aim to kill. Hellhounds won’t show us any mercy, so we’re going to return the favor.”

I gave one definitive nod before letting him go. I reached for the holster attached to my left hip. Unsnapping the strap, I pulled out the black gun, keeping it pointed to the ground the whole time. Flicking the safety off, I pulled back the slide, listening to the metal glide across itself, and let go. It snapped back into place with a sharptingingsound as its weight caused the gun to jerk in my hand. The bullet slipped into the chamber.