Page 49 of New Nebraska Heat

That icy bitch Monique was standing there, her mouth agape.

She and all the other female staff from my station fixed bulging eyes on their boss’s cock.

I was going to fucking strangle Dagger. But first, I had to find Serenity.

Hunter

Dying embers left a bitter tang on the night air as the redheaded paramedic and I eased Dagger onto the ambulance floor’s outer lip, letting him take some strain off his legs. He cursed at the pain from the angry scarlet patches under his shredded jeans, but his following groan carried intense shame.

With good fucking reason. Not only had he abused his police authority to lie and takemySerenity on some half-assed night tour, no doubt trying to impress her with his master of the mean streets routine, but the fucking moron had then unwittingly delivered Serenity into the bloodthirsty grasp of that psycho, Conrad. All of Bryce’s and my efforts to protect her, down the drain in one go.

Serenity had to be in a living nightmare right now. There wasn’t time to waste. But the paramedic had insisted we get Dagger to the ambulance. Fuck that, let the badass cop walk it off during our urgently needed search. We had to get after her!

Bryce, who’d at last pulled on his grass-stained pants and was now buttoning his shirt, was of the same mind. “We need to chasethose bastards down.” He gripped my shoulder so hard his fingertips dug into my skin through my shirt. “Right now. We—”

“Completely agreed,” Dagger panted out, rattling a bottle of shifter-strength painkillers he’d asked the paramedic for. “But I need to chew on a few of these first so I can walk. Give me a few seconds.”

We didn’t have a few seconds. I seethed as Dagger hurriedly shook half the pills into his stupid, smoke-stained face, much to the paramedic’s protests about potency and dosages.

Not that I wasn’t relieved my twin hadn’t burned alive, or that I wouldn’t have helped him in a heartbeat if I could’ve, but now that he was safe from the inferno, I had a compelling urge to smash his head through every—

No use. His skull’s almost as thick as yours.

Oh fuck. I recognized that snarling voice in my head. No, it couldn’t be…

Think again, brainiac.

Shit. Somehow, my jaguar had broken free of the cage I’d corralled him into. Now he roamed free within my mind and body, his fury at Serenity’s capture and Dagger’s recklessness hammering primal blood around my brain and making his salty opinions extra loud.

After so long apart, with him stuffed away inside my consciousness, silent and tiny, he felt like an invader rather than an extension of myself. Even his voice seemed to have a new quality, deeper and raspier than my own.

I thumped the ambulance door with my fist. Goddammit! My jaguar was an extremely unwelcome addition to this ongoing crisis.

How the hell had he gotten free?

Adrenaline, motherfucker. You needed me,my jaguar snarled.

Bullshit. Get back where I put you.

His presence dug claws into my skull.Let’s put you in a cage you filthy traitor.

Watch it, I’m the boss here. You—

Boss? Ha! Some boss. You let our idiot brother lose our mate.

Mate? My retort died away. Dagger hadn’t delivered my girlfriend straight into Conrad’s salivating jaws.

He’d delivered my mate.

Holy shit. Dagger’s near death had loosened the lock on my jaguar’s pen, but what had torn open the door was the news of Serenity’s kidnapping. He’d come out to rescue my mate.

I knew she was special.

To think, a mate of my own. What I thought would never happen finally had, but it was bittersweet given her predicament.

Serenity, you are mine and I am yours. You’re my mate. My human mate.

Our human mate, dickhead. And what are you waiting for? Get after her!