Page 197 of Red Rooster

Scarlet’s brows raised another notch. “Sasha? We’re here for the girl. And her angry Marine.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t expected that.

Scarlet smiled a little. “You gonna get in my way?”

Fulk didn’t know. “You broke my window,” he said to stall.

Scarlet’s smile stretched. “Word has it it’s not your window anymore. Or did you invite the Institute in?”

He didn’t get a chance to answer. A howl shivered through the air: Annabel’s.

Any other time, Fulk would have never turned his back on Will Scarlet. But now, with his mate calling him, he turned and bolted. He heard Scarlet behind him, running too, and didn’t care.

The gallery T’d into the main hallway, and at the intersection, another Lincoln green-clad wolf darted past, headed for the main staircase – and the cacophony that floated up from it. Fulk hung a hard left and followed, falling in beside the second wolf.

Who was Rob Locksley.

The man glanced over and managed a double take, even as he was running. “Le Strange?”

“Get your people out, and stay out of my way,” Fulk snapped.

They pulled up at the railing, gazes drawn down, all the way to the massive foyer where a fresh batch of guards had finally arrived from the barracks and were pouring in through the front doors.

“Ah, shit.”

~*~

It was those cuffs, Rooster knew. He didn’t know what they were made of, or how they did it, but they sapped Red’s energy, and her power. She’d had just enough juice for one forceful show, but in the aftermath, she crumpled.

Rooster caught her around the waist with his free arm and towed her toward the door – toward the light that poured in across polished floors, a beacon drawing them out of his place.

He pushed everything – the clang of sword meeting sword; the curses and hurried movements of the others – from his mind save leaving. Getting Red to safety.

They staggered out of the room that looked like a library into a soaring space with a grand staircase and a marble inlay floor. The foyer.

He heard the thud of boots just seconds before he saw an incoming wall of black-clad armed guards.

Almost. They’d almost made it out. So close.

Rooster tightened his arm around Red, pulled her into his side. “Stay with me,” he said, and trained his sights on the leading guard.

The guard who took his next step, then stiffened, then collapsed to the floor.

With an arrow sticking out of his neck.

Rooster glanced up wildly, and found Rob and Will standing on the balcony above, fresh arrows nocked.

He couldn’t help it; he laughed.