Page 89 of Their Mate

Edward stepped into my line of sight. “You don’t know that.”

I bared my teeth. “I do.”

Aidan lifted his nose up into the air and swore under his breath. “I smell her too. Pheromones. That’s not just her normal scent—she’s gone into heat.”

I took a step toward the open door.

“Declan.” Logan’s voice snapped like a whip.

Edward moved to block me, rifle angled down, but ready. “This is a trap. You know it.”

“Trap or not, she’s inside,” I growled. My voice was already rough, the wolf too close to the surface.

Aidan’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not charging in there like idiots. The Watch leaves a door open, it’s because they want us to walk right through it. They’ll have firing lanes, guns, traps of their own?—”

“I don’t care.” The words came out dangerously quiet. “She’smine.”

Edward’s jaw tightened. “You think the Watch didn’t factor that into their plan? They’re counting on us losing our heads.”

“She’s not a plan,” I snapped, taking another step. The air pouring out of that doorway was thick with her scent, stronger now, almost dizzying. My skin itched with it and my dick was getting harder by the second.

Logan’s gaze locked on mine, unflinching. “You go in like this, you’ll get us all killed.”

I laughed once, humorlessly. “Then stay out here.”

Aidan swore under his breath. “You’re not thinking straight. This is exactly what they want.”

I was barely listening now. The open door yawned ahead, metal frame cold and wet with condensation. Beyond it, I caught a flicker of movement.

Her.

I knew it was her without seeing her face. Just the tilt of her head, the dark spill of hair against pale skin. And she was bound. My pulse went into overdrive.

“She’sright there,” I bit out, the words scraping my throat.

Edward glanced past me and swore softly. “Damn it. He’s got her in a holding cell, plain as day. This is a trap, Declan.”

“Then I’m springing it.”

Logan’s hand clamped down on my arm, but the wolf was already clawing to get out. My skin burned, muscles bunching tight under the pull of the change. I could feel my control peeling away in strips.

Aidan’s voice was strained. “Declan—look at me. You go in without thinking, you won’t make it two steps before they drop you.”

“Two steps is all I need.”

The scent was a living thing now, wrapping around my throat, my chest. Every instinct screamed to break the distance, to get to her before someone else did. I wasn’t thinking about the Watch’s rifles. I wasn’t thinking about anything except her heartbeat, so close I could almost hear it.

And I wasn’t the only one. The others had caught it too. Aidan’s jaw was locked tight, his shoulders rigid as if he were holding himself back by sheer force of will. Edward shifted on his feet, claws sliding in and out, the low rumble in his chest betraying the struggle under his calm face. Even Logan, always so composed, was having a hard time. The air vibrated with the sound of our collective restraint, every one of us a single breath away from losing it.

Edward muttered something to Logan, too low for me to catch. Logan’s reply was grim: “We can’t hold him much longer.”

They were right. The thin thread keeping me tethered to reason was fraying fast. All I saw was the door. All I wanted was her.

And then I moved. The first step was mine.

The second was my wolf’s.

It ripped through me like a wildfire—bones wrenching, muscles tearing and reshaping, heat flooding my veins. My boots burst at the seams, claws shredding through leather, the sleeves of my jacket splitting like wet paper.