Page 31

P eterson entered the campsite nearly three hours later. He placed the firewood he had gathered next to the fire and squatted down. His eyes locked on Jayden’s face.

“How long has she been asleep?” he asked.

“She’s been asleep since shortly after you left,” Van said.

“I can’t believe she actually ran,” he murmured.

“I know. She said something strange before she fell asleep.”

“What?”

Van pursed his lips, frowned, and shook his head in bewilderment. “She said she had to leave. That she made a promise.”

“What kind of promise? To whom?”

Van shook his head again, this time in frustration. “I don’t know. She also overheard two shifters saying they were going to kill us.”

Peterson snorted a terse laugh of wry amusement.

“Those two and about a hundred others. I ran a security check about two miles. It was clear.” He shook his head and threw a stick into the fire.

“I can’t believe she was close enough to hear them saying that and not get caught. I swear that woman has a death wish.”

“I agree. We’ve got to get her out of here and back to a place where we can keep her safe, but it’s going to be a few days before she is strong enough to travel.

There’s no way a rescue copter can get to us here.

We’ll need to get her to Hurricane Ridge.

Then we could get her airlifted to Bremerton or Seattle,” Van suggested.

Peterson frowned and waved a hand at Jayden. “You just said it’s going to be a few days before she is strong enough. She needs time to rest and we need to get some food in her stomach. Damn, but I wish we had brought more supplies.”

Van pursed his lips. “You aren’t the only one. We’ll need to build a temporary shelter. My wolf senses rain and we need to keep her warm and dry. I’ll scout the area for materials we can use and start bringing them up once it gets light.”

He nodded. “Why don’t you get some rest? I’ll take the first watch and wake you in a few hours.”

Van nodded, rubbing his arms. “Thanks. I didn’t realize how damn cold it was getting.”

He chuckled and nodded to the pallet where Jayden was curled up. “You can help keep her warm. I’ll give you my jacket when we switch out.”

“I appreciate it,” Van mumbled.

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t kill you or me in the morning when she wakes up and finds out she isn’t alone,” he added as Van slid down next to Jayden.

“It might be worth it—to get warm and to hold her,” Van replied.

He released a low chuckle and placed a few more thick branches on the fire before he turned away from it.

He didn’t want the light to affect his night vision.

While he hadn’t picked up on the shifters they had smelled and Jayden had overheard, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be close.

He sat back with his back against the rocks, drew his legs up, and slid his hands into his pockets to keep them warm.

She can’t get away again , he thought.

It felt strange being close to her again.

The few times they had been together had been far too brief.

He leaned his head back and stared out at the dark forest. Flashes of those times swept through his mind.

Seeing her laugh with the few human children.

The compassion on her face when she looked at her grandparents.

The defiance in her eyes when he tried to steal a cookie from her.

And the look of longing and curiosity when she gave me one.

It had been a long and difficult road to catch her, but it had been worth it. He never imagined that he and Van would find their mate, much less that it would be with a human woman. He also never expected it to be so tough to court her.

She a fighter.

Yes, she is.

I like that.

So do I, my friend. So do I.

Images of what their life would be like kept him warm as the night wore on.

He imagined Jayden picking out what furnishings would go in their new home, riding horses on the ranch he and Van had purchased, exploring the trails and mountains of her people’s new home, and possibly one day having a larger family—if she wanted children.

A smile curved his lips at the thought of a having a little girl with her mother’s hair and attitude running around the house with a toy lance.

We’ve just got to convince her to give us a chance.

“I’m freezing my ass off,” Carter grumbled.

Bishop gritted his teeth to keep from snapping at the warthog. Carter wasn’t the only one who was cold. Between their swim earlier in the day, the temperature drop, and the damn wind, he’d be lucky if his balls didn’t freeze and fall off. The idea sent another wave of shivers through him.

“Why can’t we build a fire?” Carter whined.

He glared at Carter. “Do you want to alert those damn wolves to our location?”

Carter huffed and tucked his hands in his armpits. Bishop suppressed a shudder of distaste. He knew how bad the other man smelled even after their frigid bath in the river. He also knew that Carter wouldn’t be washing his hands before he ate.

If we can find anything.

This mission had gone about as far south as he was willing to go. Their clothes hadn’t fully dried before darkness fell, they were out of food, and he was out of patience. He was having serious second thoughts about capturing this human. She had led them in circles, chasing their tails.

How in the hell had she run circles around them? Every damn time we picked up her trail, it led back to the same spot where we started.

He rubbed his raw hands together, wincing at the cuts on them. They had found where she had been hiding on the cliff. Hell, they had probably been standing right on top of her!

The thought that they had been so close and clueless burned at his pride. He had expected to catch her within a few hours of her escaping. The storm hadn’t helped. Still, she was a damn human! It shouldn’t be this difficult. His fox should have been able to track her.

Their lone break had come when he caught the scent of blood where she had run into the vines.

That had eventually led them to the river.

He didn’t know if she had been crazy enough to swim across or had doubled back.

The scent had ended at the water, but with the water as high as it was and cold, he couldn’t imagine a human female being crazy enough to go in it.

Hell, he wouldn’t have made it if not for Carter grabbing him when the current sucked him under.

“Screw this. Let’s head back,” he growled, rising.

Carter looked up at him with a surprised expression. “What about the boss? What’s she going to say when we come back empty-handed again?”

“We aren’t going to tell her,” he snapped.

“But-but, she told us to not come back without one,” Carter stuttered.

He sneered at the other man and waved his hand. “Do you want to freeze your balls off?”

“Naw. I like my balls,” Carter mumbled, lowering his hands to cup his groin.

Another shudder of distaste swept through Bishop. “We’ll find another way to get the boss some humans—ways that don’t involve freezing to death.”

“I like that idea,” Carter eagerly agreed.

Bishop gritted his teeth and prayed the journey back to civilization went a lot better than their mission had so far. He needed warmth, food, and sleep so he could plan his next move. Maybe Lorne Timberwolf could be of use—if he wasn’t dead.

The hoot of an owl above them drew his attention. He sneered at the creature who was watching them from a nearby branch. He wondered if owl tasted anything like a chicken. His stomach rumbled with hunger and his eyes narrowed.

The owl, possibly sensing it was in peril, took off into the night. His lips curled into a vicious smile. Roasted pork was beginning to sound good right now, so he knew it was definitely time to get the hell back to civilization.

Anchorage, Alaska

“Sir, the report you requested.”

Eric reached out and took the folder his lieutenant was holding out.

With a nod, he dismissed the man and returned to his seat.

After the Nova Principia was compromised, Eric and his crew had retreated to their northern complex.

The move, while always a possibility, had still been an inconvenience and costly.

Neither of which sat well with him. The humans were already an expensive expenditure when he considered the losses he had incurred in human resources, equipment, and political connections.

He opened the report and read through it. As he suspected, Isabella Wyland didn’t appreciate having her toes stepped on. He had suspected she was the one behind the sudden interest in his business.

That still didn’t explain how she knew about the satellite.

He turned to the page on Talon Nightsky. The Director of the SBSI was a shrewd shifter. The documentation said he was a Snow Leopard, but there was something off about the man—and that irritated Eric. He didn’t like it when his gut warned him that not everything was as it appeared.

Turning the page, he studied the last set of satellite images that had been taken.

He spread them out on his desk and stood back.

His eyes moved from the first in the series to the last. The frown creasing his brow deepened as he compared the track of the human female with the map he had on the far wall.

Comprehension dawned and a curse slipped from his lips as he rounded his desk and placed his finger on the last spot he had pinned in blue and the white dot that indicated the cave where the humans had been evacuated from a few months ago.

“Son-of-a-shifter,” he cursed.

He twisted, returning to his desk, and reached for the satellite phone. Staring at the map, he waited for his team leader out in the field to answer. His impatience built when there was no answer.

He tried three more times to connect before he disconnected the phone and dropped it back onto his desk.

It was possible that there was no satellite reception at the moment where his men were.

There was also the possibility that his men had been taken out by the same source that had killed the last teams. He wished he hadn’t been quite so hasty in ordering Hyder’s termination now.

Picking up his desk phone, he punched in the number for the operator.

“How may I direct your call, sir?” the Operator greeted in a pleasant voice.

“Disregard this call,” he stated.

“Yes, sir,” the smooth feminine voice replied without hesitation. “Will there be anything else, sir?”

“No.”

He disconnected the call and lowered the receiver back to its cradle. Sliding his hand into his pocket, he retrieved his cell phone. In seconds, he had typed out an encrypted message and hit the send button.

The definition of insanity was repeating the same actions relentlessly, only to experience the same disastrous outcomes. Two teams had already been lost by him. He wouldn’t risk losing another.

No, this called for an elite group of soldiers. It also called for the most extreme secrecy.

The Knights of the Dii Bellatores, known far and wide as the epitome of excellence in warfare, were the soldiers he knew he could rely on.

They were unrivaled, known for their unwavering loyalty and ruthless tactics when the situation demanded.

There were ten shifters, a diverse group comprising both men and women, each possessing their own unique set of specialized skills.

On his way back to the map, his eyes lingered on the white pin, almost as though he thought it could reveal all the solutions he was looking for. He considered it dispassionately. In certain situations, taking matters into your own hands was the only way to ensure a job gets done.