Page 47 of Into the Fire: After

Not knives.

Helicopter.

Nineteen

Caine

Hiltlookedtome,barely contained rage in his eyes. “Bark. Make her step down and approach Corporal Winters.”

I looked to Taryn, wavering precariously on the rooftop’s edge. Then off to the distance, where a helicopter was growing from a pinprick ever larger.

My brain warred with itself. I’d never use my bark on Taryn, ever. But there she stood, clearly ready to throw herself off a damn skyscraper to avoid capture. I couldn’t bear the thought of her in chains, but I couldn’t bear the thought of her crumpled on the street below.

Maybe we’d get the upper hand back. If I forced her to step down, then she was still alive, and we still had a chance. Our ticket out of here was growing ever nearer. Maybe we’d actually get out.

Or maybe we wouldn’t.

If I made her step down, made her surrender, it would be my fault that she ended up in chains. If I didn’t, it would be me who’d killed her.

I stood there, frozen. Lin at my side, I felt through the bond, was in much the same predicament.

Doc hummed in disapproval. “Last chance for any of you to obey me.Now.”

Where the fuck was Sevrin? He’d given us his name. Helped me bar the door, for all the use it had been.

He was on our side. He’d help us. I had to believe that we’d walk away from this.

I pressed my lips together, hoping I wasn’t making the worst mistake of my life in remaining quiet.

Doc shook his head, and he pulled back the hammer.

A pop sounded from behind us. I flinched. A guard collapsed beside me. Another pop, enough to make my ears ring, and a second body fell.

Prentiss Hilt lay crumpled on the ground, red spreading around him.

Dammit. I’d wanted to be the one who ended him.

“Grab her and let’s go!” Sevrin shouted as he ran to wave down the chopper.

I launched myself forward, reaching out my hand to Taryn, who I only then noticed was pale and shaky as she stood there. My stomach clenched. “You’re okay, sunshine. Come on.”

She blinked, disoriented. Her scent bloomed, consuming me.

Heat spike.

Whatever lucidity had sustained her the last few minutes had all be evaporated.

“‘Ssa trick,” she murmured, looking around the rooftop. “Know’ts you, asshat.”

Then she teetered backward.

In that moment, there was no debilitating fear of heights. There was no thought to the possibility that, starved and weakened as I was, her bodyweight may just pull us both over the side. There was only instinct, my inner wolf leaping forward to either save his omega or die with her.

I wrapped both arms around her too-thin waist, clinging to her as I tried to steady us both. I braced my foot on the inner edge of the ledge, using it as an anchor to pull ourselves back toward the safety of the roof. A strong grip closed on my shoulders and pulled, giving Taryn and me the final leverage needed to land clumsily onto safe ground.

Lin reached down, trying to help us up, but Taryn—near-death apparently forgotten—nuzzled into my chest and neck. “Alpha,” she purred as she moved to straddle me. “Need your knot, Alpha.”

“Fucking hell,” I gritted out as her perfume wrapped around me, coaxing my wolf to the surface. Now was absolutelynotthe fucking time.