Page 22 of Forest Reed (Seals on Fraiser Mountain #8)

Forest

Gunfire cracked off the dam face, stone chips spraying like angry hornets. I dropped behind a concrete pillar, returning fire, every shot thunderous in the tight space. The roar of the spillway below was deafening, water surging like a beast straining at its cage.

Zoe was on my left, moving low, fast, her Glock barking in sharp bursts. She wasn’t just holding her ground—she was pushing them back, fierce and unflinching.

“Cover me!” he shouted, not looking up.

“Already doing it,” Zoe snapped, leaning around the pillar and dropping a wolf that had crept too close.

I shifted, putting myself between Jason and the advancing line. My rifle barked, one shot—two—then a third. Three bodies hit the gravel, but more shadows pressed forward, relentless.

The comm crackled in my ear. Lane’s voice, ragged with static. “We’re three minutes out—”

“Too late,” I growled.

One of North’s men tossed something metal across the ground. It clinked once, twice—

“Grenade!” I roared.

Zoe dove, grabbed Jason’s arm, yanking him sideways as the blast tore the air apart. Concrete shuddered, smoke and dust choking the space. My ears rang, chest heaving, but I was still upright. Barely.

The timer blinked through the haze. 0:51.

Jason coughed, swore, wiped blood from his temple. “Almost there—just keep them off me!”

The wolves regrouped, firing into the smoke. Bullets screamed past, one slamming into the pillar inches from my head.

Zoe’s eyes met mine through the haze—fierce, wild, alive. “We don’t let him win.”

I nodded once, chambered another round, and rose into the storm.

The fight was ours. Or the flood would be.