Page 1 of Howl For A Kiss (Rebellious Mates #3)

ONE

ELENA

S now fell in thick curtains across the High Council's headquarters and muffled Elena's footsteps as she crouched at the forest edge.

The imposing stone building loomed against the November sky, its windows glowing like predatory eyes.

Her breath formed crystalline clouds in the frigid air as she surveyed their target through night-vision binoculars.

"Maintenance entrance is clear," she whispered, adjusting the tactical gear strapped across her chest. "Tyler, Maggie, you're with me. First entry in thirty seconds."

Tyler shifted beside her, his blonde hair darkened with melted snow. "Just like old times. Except with more magical traps."

"Your optimism is infectious," Elena muttered, checking the silencer on her pistol. The familiar weight of her hunting knife pressed against her hip, a comfort she'd relied on since childhood. Her father's training echoed in her mind—move like shadow, strike like lightning.

Maggie crouched on Elena's other side, her healer's satchel bulging with ward-breaking supplies. "The protective barriers will take me three minutes to dismantle. Maybe four if they've upgraded the enchantments."

"We don't have four minutes." Elena's gold-ringed pupils dilated as adrenaline surged through her system.

Something primal stirred beneath her skin, an awareness she'd been experiencing more frequently these past few days.

She pushed the sensation down, focusing on the mission.

"Our intel says guard rotation happens every fifteen minutes.

That puts us at twelve minutes maximum before discovery. "

"No pressure." Tyler grinned, but his blue eyes held lethal focus.

Elena raised her hand, her fingers splayed. Five. Four. Three. Two.

They sprinted across the open ground, their boots finding purchase on the icy snow.

Elena's body moved with fluid precision, each movement calculated for maximum efficiency and minimal sound.

The maintenance door materialized from the shadows—a nondescript steel barrier that promised access to the Council's secrets.

Tyler produced lock-picking tools from his vest. "Thirty seconds," he breathed, his fingers working the mechanism with surgical precision.

Elena pressed her back to the wall, scanning the perimeter.

The lock soon clicked open under Tyler's fingers.

They slipped inside quickly, descending into maintenance tunnels that smelled of damp concrete and electrical systems. Elena's flashlight beam cut through absolute darkness, illuminating pipes and ventilation ducts.

Her mental map, memorized from her reconnaissance, guided them through the labyrinthine passages.

"Left here," she directed, her voice barely audible.

The tunnels seemed to stretch endlessly, each turn bringing them deeper into the Council's domain. Elena's skin prickled with unease.

"Archives access is fifty meters ahead," Tyler informed them.

They reached a vertical shaft leading upward. Elena tested the ladder rungs, finding them solid despite their age. "I go first. Maggie, you're second. Tyler covers us."

Elena climbed up the metal ladder rungs, her muscles tensing with nervous anticipation.

At the top, a reinforced door blocked their path to the archives room.

Beyond that door lay the ancient records that could expose the High Council's corruption—evidence of their experiments, their manipulation of ancient bloodlines, and their systematic oppression of their shifter world.

She pressed her ear to the door, listening. Two heartbeats. Two guards, just as predicted.

"Guards confirmed," she whispered down to her team. "Maggie, you're up."

The petite rebel healer ascended quickly. She immediately pressed her palms against the door's surface and closed her eyes in concentration. Magic crackled in the air—a blue-white energy that made Elena's skin tingle with strange resonance.

"The protective ward structure is complex," Maggie murmured. "Multiple layers, blood-locked."

"Can you break it?"

"Give me ninety seconds."

Elena nodded, then caught Tyler's eye as he joined them on the small platform. They communicated through hand signals—a language forged through years of partnership. Tyler would take the guard on the right. Elena would handle the left. Silent takedowns only.

Maggie's magic intensified, weaving through the protective ward's structure like luminous threads. Sweat beaded on her forehead despite the cool air.

Elena's pulse thundered in her ears. The mission balanced on this moment—success meant evidence to rally the rebellion against the High Council. Failure meant death.

"Almost there," Maggie breathed.

The magical barriers shimmered, then collapsed like morning mist.

"Now," Elena hissed.

They burst through the door in choreographed violence, moving like extensions of each other's intent. Elena's knife found her target's throat before he could cry out, while Tyler's hands twisted his guard's neck with lethal efficiency.

The archives room's shelves towered around them like sentinels guarding forbidden knowledge.

Elena's fingers traced along dusty spines until she found what they'd risked everything for—an aged book containing Council records from three centuries ago.

Her tactical bag swallowed the evidence of the Council's systematic corruption.

"This is it," she whispered, her pulse hammering against her throat.

Tyler checked his watch. "Eight minutes elapsed. We need to move."

They retraced their path through the maintenance tunnels, their footsteps barely echoing in the confined space. Elena's skin buzzed with an energy she couldn't name—part adrenaline, part something deeper that made her bones ache.

The maintenance tunnel's exit beckoned ahead, promising escape into the snow-covered forest. Elena's breath misted in the frigid air as they approached the final door.

"Clear," Marcus reported over comms. He and Jake had maintained perimeter watch while Elena's team infiltrated the building.

They emerged onto the headquarters' back lawn, where pristine snow stretched toward the treeline. Elena's boots crunched through the powder as her team formed their escape formation. Freedom lay fifty meters ahead—just a sprint across open ground.

Muzzle flashes erupted from the shadows.

"Contact!" Tyler roared, shoving Elena behind a concrete barrier as bullets whined past their heads.

The ambush exploded around them with lethal precision.

Council guards materialized from concealed positions, their weapons spitting death into the night.

Elena rolled behind cover, her pistol barking as she returned fire.

The ancient record book pressed against her spine—worth more than their lives, but meaningless if they all died here.

"Elena, move!" Tyler's voice cut through the gunfire.

She sprinted toward the next piece of cover, her body moving with fluid grace despite the chaos. Maggie followed, her supplies jingling with each desperate step. Marcus and Jake laid down suppressing fire, their muzzle flashes painting shadows across the snow.

A Council guard rose from behind a snowbank, his rifle tracking Elena's movement. Tyler intercepted the shot meant for her chest.

The bullet punched through his skull with wet finality.

"Tyler!" Elena's scream tore from her throat as her best friend crumpled into the crimson-stained snow.

Rage flooded her system—primal, consuming fury that made her vision blur. The golden rings around her pupils flared as something wild stirred beneath her skin. She emptied her clip into the guard who'd killed Tyler, watching the guard's body jerk with each impact.

"Elena, we have to go!" Maggie grabbed her arm, dragging her from Tyler's cooling corpse.

More guards closed in from all sides. Marcus fell next, his blood painting abstract patterns across the pristine white ground. Jake's final scream echoed across the compound before bullets silenced him forever.

Elena and Maggie sprinted toward the forest's embrace, their breath forming desperate clouds in the frozen air. Pursuit thundered behind them—boots pounding through snow, voices shouting orders, and the mechanical clatter of weapons being reloaded.

The trees swallowed them, branches whipping against their faces as they plunged deeper into the wilderness. Elena's lungs burned with each ragged breath, but the ancient records remained secure against her back. Tyler's sacrifice, Marcus and Jake's deaths—their blood had purchased this evidence.

"This way," Elena gasped, her father's survival training guiding them through the moonlit maze of pine and cedar.

Maggie stumbled beside her, blood seeping through her jacket sleeve.

Elena's heart hammered against her ribs as they fled deeper into the snow-covered wilderness.

Tyler's lifeless blue eyes haunted her mind.

Her best friend, her brother in everything but blood, had died protecting her.

The weight of his sacrifice pressed heavier than the stolen records strapped against her spine.

By the time they reached the rebel safehouse, Elena's composure had crystallized into something brittle and dangerous.

The converted warehouse sat hidden among towering pines, its reinforced windows glowing with warm light against the November darkness.

Home. Safety. Words that meant nothing when Tyler would never walk through those doors again.

Elena stumbled into her small office as grief slammed into her chest like a physical blow. Three rebels died tonight. Marcus, Jake, and Tyler—all gone because she'd underestimated the Council's defenses.

"Thermal tracking," she whispered, the realization cutting deeper than any blade. "They had thermal tracking now."

How could she have been so arrogant? So reckless?

Her father's survival lessons echoed mockingly in her mind—always anticipate the enemy's capabilities, never assume your advantage.

She'd thought stealth would carry them through, the same tactics that had succeeded on smaller missions.

But this wasn't some human operative outpost or Council holding.

This was the Council's primary headquarters, and she'd waltzed in with four rebels like they were raiding a supply closet.

Tears flowed unbidden down her cheeks as rage consumed her rational mind. Her fist connected with the wall, plaster cracking under the impact. The pain felt good—real and immediate in a way that Tyler's death still couldn't penetrate.

"You should've brought more fighters," she snarled at her reflection in the dark window. "Should've covered every angle and every contingency."

A tactical map of the Council's headquarters covered one wall, marked with her careful notations.

Elena swept it to the floor, papers scattering like autumn leaves.

Tyler had helped her plan this mission, his calm voice countering her aggressive instincts.

He'd trusted her judgment and followed her lead straight into that killing field.

Grief and guilt twisted through her system, feeding the volatile energy that had been building beneath her skin for days.

She sat down at her desk and started frantically plotting her revenge against the Council.

She wasn't going to just let them get away with killing the one good thing that happened in her life.

And she sure as hell wasn't going to sit here and pretend that this single tragic event didn't just change the whole course of her life as she knew it.

Before Elena realized, dawn had crept through her office window, finding her still awake and plotting out her perfect revenge strategy.

She'd spent the night planning increasingly aggressive strikes against Council holdings, each scenario more violent than the last. Direct assaults on their outposts.

Assassinations of Council elders. Forget stealth—she wanted them all to burn.

"Elena." Maggie's voice carried concern as the rebel healer approached with two steaming mugs. "You need to rest."

"Rest?" Elena's laugh held no humor. "Tyler's dead because I wasn't aggressive enough. Because I played it safe instead of overwhelming them with force."

Maggie set a mug on Elena's desk, her injured arm moving gingerly. "Tyler's dead because the Council murdered him. Not because of your tactics."

"My tactics got him killed." Elena's blue eyes blazed as she grabbed tactical gear from her weapons cabinet. "I'm calling an emergency meeting. We're hitting three Council outposts simultaneously tomorrow night."

"That's suicide." Maggie stepped between Elena and the door. "You're not thinking clearly."

"I'm thinking perfectly clearly." Elena's voice carried lethal precision. "The Council expects us to retreat and to mourn our losses like good little rebels. Instead, we're going to show them what real aggression looks like."

Several rebels had gathered in the main room, their faces reflecting exhaustion and grief. Elena's presence commanded attention, but her wild-eyed intensity alarmed even her most loyal followers.

"Change of strategy," she announced. "No more stealth operations. No more surgical strikes. We hit them hard and fast with overwhelming force."

Murmurs rippled through the gathered rebels. This wasn't the calculated leader they knew—this was someone consumed by vengeance.

Maggie cleared her throat. "Elena, perhaps we should contact Lena Nightshade. The Silvercrest rebels might have insights about those ancient records we recovered. Logan Cross and Zoe Raymond have experience with Council operations."

Elena's initial instinct was to reject any suggestion that delayed her revenge. But the mention of the ancient records penetrated her rage-clouded thinking. Those records represented Tyler's sacrifice—his death meant nothing if they couldn't decode the Council's secrets.

"Fine." The word emerged harsh and clipped. "Contact Lena. But I want Logan and Zoe here in two days. And I want strike teams ready for deployment the moment we finish analyzing those records."

Maggie nodded, relief evident in her expression. "I'll reach out to their network immediately."

As Elena watched her rebels disperse, Tyler's memory pressed against her consciousness. He'd died believing in their cause and trusting her leadership. She wouldn't honor that sacrifice by retreating into grief—she'd honor it by bringing the Council's corrupt reign to a violent, decisive end.

The ancient record book lay on Elena's desk, its aged pages holding secrets worth dying for. Soon, Logan Cross and Zoe Raymond would help her unlock those mysteries. And then, the Council would learn what happens after they murder someone Elena loved.