by Anya Nowlan
While there had been enough firepower upstairs, the fact that The Arctics hadn’t planned on the audacity of Shifter Squad Nine trying to disrupt things from the inside was currently playing in the squad’s favor. It wasn’t going to be that way for long, though.
We still need to get out of here.
“What are our options?” Dice asked, only to be answered by the eerie, chilling laughter of Prowler.
He still fucking hated that sound, like he was seconds from being mauled by some faceless demon every time Prowler laughed his ominous laughter.
“I think you guys are going to be fine,” he said.
“You’re going to have to give us more details here,” Ryker called, shifting the limp form of Rowen a bit on his shoulder so he could get a better grip on his gun.
“Did someone call for an airlift?!” Price’s voice chimed in on the headset, causing the rest of the squad to share confused looks among themselves.
The very distinct sound of helicopter blades whirring close by caught everyone’s attention and when Dice spun around to look out of the floor to ceiling windows, his face broke into a wide smile. So what if his squad was insane, at least they were effective as hell.
Hovering between the two towers, Price waved at them from the pilot’s seat of an assault helicopter. It obviously wasn’t The Firm’s and Dice had no fucking clue where he got it from, but he wasn’t about to argue with results.
“Step back,” Price said, and all of them ducked behind the other side of the elevator as Price aimed the twin mounted railguns at the windows.
The sound was absolutely deafening as countless heavy-duty bullets tore through the reinforced glass, embedding themselves in the steel and concrete fixtures. The glass shattered and Price moved the helicopter in a way that he covered the path of entry that The Arctics’ guards had taken as well, pushing them back for a moment. There were more than ten men in full riot gear and it didn’t take much to realize that pure force of will wasn’t going to be enough to deal with those guys.
“Come on! Everybody get on!” Dice yelled, rounding behind the elevator shaft that stood in the middle of the large, open-spaced room, giving them a second more of cover.
Price kept the helicopter as close to the building as he could, but it still left a considerable distance between the safety of the chopper and the certain death of staying where they were, or plummeting down to the ground. The blades of the helicopter cut into the room and even Dice had to admit that there was some precision flying at play here.
No sane pilot would have taken the chopper so close to the building that the blades were cutting into it, knowing that the wind could knock it out of place and kill anyone unlucky enough to be in the path of the inevitable explosion. Luckily, sanity wasn’t in high order in Shifter Squad Nine anyway.
“Duck down,” Dice hissed as Price swung the chopper closer, so close in fact that if they’d stood up straight, they would have risked losing their heads.
“Dice! I-“Meredith started, horror gleaming in her eyes as she saw the endless drop down and the jump that seemed to be impossible to cover.
“You’re going to have to,” he said, feeling the heat of a bullet whir past him as the werewolves opened fire.
Without a further word, he grabbed hold of Meredith’s hips and practically threw her into the helicopter. She fell on her hands and feet, grabbing hold of a seat and her feet managing to stay on the rail before clambering in. Dice breathed out a sigh of relief, taking the rifle from Ryker and dropping low to return fire.
That feeling of intense calmness still floated about him, like nothing in the world could faze him. With a chopper practically inside the Etihad Tower, a pack of werewolves out to kill them and with his mate running for her life, he needed all the calm he could get.
“Get in,” he yelled, just as Rio took the leap next.
The helicopter was fighting with the wind, bobbing up and down as Rowen was tossed in. Ryker was a beast of a man and that was probably the only reason Rowen didn’t end up as flat as a pancake on the tiles in front of the building. Rio tugged the man in and Ryker jumped in next, grunting as he almost came short because the chopper got thrown further from the building.
Price opened up another volley of gunfire on the werewolves as Dice ran out of ammo, the werebear growling under his breath. A big part of him wanted to tear through every last one of those wolves and make sure that they could never hurt anyone like they had Meredith ever again. But at that moment, there were more important things to worry about – like the safety of his mate and his child.
“Everybody, get out. We meet up at the loft,” he said into his headset, unsure if anyone could even hear him over the whine of the helicopter engine.
The werewolves broke through a moment later and Dice tossed aside his gun. Price couldn’t hold the helicopter close any longer and Dice had to take a running start to try and make the jump. With bullets whizzing past him, some embedding in the helicopter, and the distance seeming to grow larger by the moment, Dice let out a roar.
The helicopter and the outreached hands of Rio and Ryker seemed to grow smaller as another gust of wind threw the chopper off, Dice falling past the safety of the fuselage. For a harrowing second, he thought it was all over, but he managed to grab hold of the skid with one hand. Gritting his teeth, he held on for dear life as Price immediately dipped out and down, taking no more chances with getting hit by the gunfire.
Looking up, Dice grabbed hold of the skid with his other hand as well, hanging from the helicopter high above Abu Dhabi. He could hear laughter from above him as Etihad Tower was left far behind, Rio’s grinning face appearing over the side and reaching down a hand for him.
“Hey, Slicey, you wanna come up or are you enjoying the scenery too much?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Do you want to change places?” Dice asked, taking the outreached hand regardless.
He was yanked up and soon enough, the fuselage door was closed behind him. There were several gaping holes in it from where the bullets had torn into it. Considering that it was an assault helicopter, probably some derivative of the Blackhawk used by The Arctics, that just went to show what kind of firepower The Arctics had been using to try and stop them. Dice had to thank his lucky stars that the wound in his shoulder was from a regular handgun.
“Dice!” Meredith gasped, throwing her arms around his neck as he took a seat next to her.
He grunted in pain but pulled her into his lap immediately, nuzzling his face into her neck. He squeezed his hands around her waist, loving the feeling of actually being able to touch her again. For a moment, they were safe. That had to count for something.
“Hey, we’d love to give you two some privacy, but we don’t have a lot of options here,” Rio said with a chuckle.
“Cut the lip,” Dice said, though there wasn’t any bite left in his words.
He couldn’t be annoyed when he was looking into Meredith’s gorgeous blue eyes. She grinned back at him, running her hands down his cheeks and chin.
“I’m-… I’m so sorry,” she said, barely audible over the roar of the helicopter as it put distance between itself and the Etihad Towers.
Dice knew that they were going to have to ditch the chopper and get out fast, but that thought only occupied a part of his senses at the moment. Far more of his attention was being lavished on Meredith and the fact that she was really, truly there with him. It still felt unreal.
“Sorry for what?” he asked.
“For getting you guys into that. For all of it.”
“I made the call,” Dice said sternly, looking at Ryker and Rio, who seemed to be studying him with some interest now.
He hadn’t explained his reasoning yet and by the looks on the faces of his men, it became very clear that he was going to have to as soon as he could. The connection with Prowler and Thor had cut out because of the distance and Dice had to hope that the two of them could make it out in time as well. He was sure they would – Thor was
a deadly stalker at the worst of times, and damn near unbeatable at the best, and Prowler had been a good distance away from the main action to begin with.
I’ll wait until I have them all in one place, he thought, though Dice was sure that it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation one way or another.
What the fuck was he going to tell The Firm was another matter on top of that.
“Spade’s going to lose his mind,” Rio commented mildly, as if reading Dice’s thoughts.
“He sure will,” Ryker confirmed with a chuckle, but that seemed to please both of the lion twins.
“Price,” Rio said, leaning into the cockpit and tapping the pilot on the shoulder. “Where the fuck did you come from anyway?”
“I figured you idiots were going to get yourselves killed, so I went and found some means of transportation,” Price said with a nonchalant shrug, flashing a smile over his shoulder.
All four of the squad members were still dressed in their fancy suits, though each and every one of them seemed to be bleeding from at least one wound. They looked like the most ragtag bunch of suave party-crashers ever. Shame that Spade was unlikely to enjoy the visual, though.
Spade, Dice thought darkly, hugging Meredith closer to him.
He kissed her on the cheek and she responded by scruffing her hand through his short hair. The momentary joy of being safe for a few minutes seemed to be wearing off as quickly as it had appeared and the gravity of their situation dawned on Dice as he remembered what Meredith had told him before.
Glancing down at the prone body of Julian Rowen, sprawled out on the floor of the fuselage, Dice frowned.
“You said we needed to get this guy because our child is in danger. What did you mean by that?” Dice asked, keeping his voice low and the words only between them, looking at Meredith.
Her lip quivered again but she obviously forced down her emotions, taking a deep breath. Nodding slowly, she looked at Rowen as well and pure loathing flashed in her gaze. Dice had never seen her really, truly despise someone, or be angry at all, really. Seeing her like this was unsettling, but also oddly soothing.
A mother bear, he thought idly.
“They brought me in to question me about us, Dice. They’ve been holding me in a compound with some other prisoners, some who are mothers as well. The Arctics figured out that I wasn’t making notes on everything and Rowen apparently owns the compound I was being kept at. He’s like a contractor for The Arctics, like some twisted undertaker. He does stuff that even The Arctics themselves can’t stomach.”
“Like?” Rio piped in, arching an inquisitive brow.
“Like killing babies.”
Even though there was no such thing as quiet in the helicopter with its massive engine and the blades screaming above, everything seemed to get still for a moment. Ryker’s expression became clouded and the look he gave the unconscious man on the floor spoke volumes, but the one he gave Meredith and Dice was one of even more realization.
Dice hadn’t told his squad about the baby. Frankly, he didn’t trust any of them with information that could be directly harmful in the hands of the enemy. Right there and then though, he knew he was going to have to tell them everything. There was no way he could do this all alone.
“I think I should have tossed him out of the window when I had a chance,” Ryker said.
“We can still push him out, you know,” Rio replied lightly.
“No,” Dice said decisively, his tone stern. “We need him. After we’re done with him, then we kill him.”
And I won’t make it painless.
Seventeen
Meredith
She sat quietly on the couch in the loft occupied by Shifter Squad Nine. It was spacious and lavish and even in the darkness of the night, she could see the lights of Etihad Towers in the distance, serving as a stark reminder of what they’d all gone through.
It had taken hours for them to get to the loft, grabbing and ditching several cars along the way. They’d flown out of Abu Dhabi to leave the helicopter and by some luck had made it back into town without getting tailed. When they arrived at the loft, Thor and Prowler were already there, waiting for them.
It was Thor who seemed to be the most bemused by the situation, but Meredith had chosen to ignore his snide glances at her and the air of knowing that seemed to drift about him.
“So that’s the story,” Dice concluded, standing up while the others were seated or leaning back, listening to his tale so far. “Meredith gave birth to our son.”
“Dean,” she interrupted, saying his name.
It sent a jolt of pain through her, but the look in Dice’s eyes made it settle a bit. Only then did she realize that she hadn’t told him the name yet, but Dice would certainly understand the meaning of it. He dipped his head slightly, exhaling.
“Dean. The Arctics have him and Spade knew about it. We were supposed to just observe today, yes, but I knew something was wrong,” Dice explained.
“During my conversation with the scientists – Pasterne and Arville – they told me that they’d recreated my experiments. I’ve been working on a regeneration drug-“
“Not like those fuckers need any extra help tearing the world apart,” Prowler growled, annoyed as usual at the antics of his own kind.
“As I was saying, I’ve been working on a regeneration drug, but I had been concealing some of my work so they wouldn’t be able to make me obsolete. I guess I didn’t work smart enough, because they’ve recreated my trials. Rowen told me he wanted to give me a chance to ‘come clean,’ to tell him about what I knew about you guys, essentially. Since I didn’t take the chance, he was having me sent back so I could watch them kill Dean, and then they’d get rid of me.”
Tears choked her words, but she pushed through them, adamant about sharing all the information she had with the squad. She could see that Dice didn’t trust them all and from what she had seen, they were all scary in their own right. But Shifter Squad Nine was nowhere near as horrifying as The Arctics were.
“They were going to kill you after they’d killed your kid right in front of you? That’s messed up,” Ryker said, his deep voice seeming to sum up the thoughts of the rest of the squad as well, with some caveats.
Thor being the main one, most likely.
Meredith bit her lip, willing her tears down so she could finish. She nodded, finding solace in Dice’s gaze. He was still bleeding from the wound in his shoulder – most of them were, in fact. It seemed like the collective decision of Shifter Squad Nine was to make sure that not a single chair, couch or surface that could be leaned on would remain without a spot of blood on it.
Men, she thought with a hint of amusement.
“I didn’t mean to get you guys in trouble but when I saw Dice… I guess I’m not as good at hiding my true intentions as I thought I was.”
“So you won’t make a great spy. That’s fine,” Dice said with a chuckle, striding over and taking a seat next to her.
His arm looped around her lower back and she fell against him eagerly, her body responding far before her mind could catch up. The rational part of her knew that she was not supposed to be showing any kind of weakness around these men, these predators – Dice had made it clear enough that they would take any weakness and abuse it if they got the chance.
But again, they didn’t have shit on The Arctics. Any kind of misplaced cruelty they could direct her way would pale compared to what Meredith had seen and gone through already.
“We’re telling you all of this so you would know. So you could maybe understand why I set your lives in danger. I will be forever indebted to you for helping me get Meredith out of there and I’m grateful that we all made it out alive.”
Dice paused for a moment and a silence fell on the gathered men, Rio and Ryker exchanging a look that spoke volumes between them, while Thor simply stared with idle interest at Dice and Meredith. The werewolf twins were leaning back casually, the only two who had come out of the mission mostly unscathed.<
br />
How Price had gotten hold of that helicopter was going to be a story to tell the grandkids one day, Meredith imagined.
If we ever get to have any.
“So what’s next?” Rio asked, cocking a brow.
“Yeah, what’s next, Slicey?” Prowler echoed with a grin.
Meredith could feel the way Dice pricked up a bit at that nickname, but he nodded quietly and relaxed.
“The transport is supposed to come in tonight and pick you guys up. I will take Rowen and Meredith and leave before they do. I assume they might be a little bit early because of that.”
Meredith followed the direction Dice was pointing at, only to look at the gently smoking Etihad Tower number one in the distance. She grinned to herself.
Serves them right.
“Not exactly the kind of low-key mission Spade was hoping for, I imagine.”
“He’s been blowing up our comm lines for a while now, you know. Someone should talk to him,” Prowler noted absently.
“Fuck him,” came the joint rebuttal to that comment, with at least three distinct voices joining in – Dice’s being one of them.
“I don’t think we’re going to leave,” Ryker said, exchanging another one of those looks with Rio.
Rio nodded, confirming what his brother had said. Meredith frowned, glancing from Dice to his squad. It didn’t take a psychologist to realize that while these men worked together, they were far from a team – at least for now. But with what Rio and Ryker were saying, she had to wonder if she was maybe misreading the situation.
Slipping her hand into Dice’s, she gave it a squeeze, feeling his warmth spread through her. Though it was hot as hell in Abu Dhabi, she still felt like she’d just stepped out of the freezer – or the Arctic, as one might put it.
“I think we want to help you get your kid back, Dice,” Ryker said, grinning slightly as he fished out one of his trademark cigars and popped it between his lips.
No one said a word as he lit it up, taking a long drag from it.