by Anya Nowlan
He spilled his seed within her and every little twitch and buck of his body was like nectar to her. It felt so… right.
Finally, spent, they fell on top of the covers, with Meredith sprawled out over Dice’s chest. It rose and fell deeply and she could hear his heart thudding wildly. It was pure music to her.
“This doesn’t happen anywhere near enough,” she said after a long while, lifting her head to peer into the eyes of the man she loved.
“I’m going to change that.”
Every fiber in her body hoped that he would.
Twenty
Dice
Dice was still completely taken aback by the fact that almost all of the squad was in the armored vehicle with him now.
Scratch that.
Not the squad. His squad.
Because that’s what they had become the moment that those men stuck their necks out for him. Dice knew damn well that there would have been ways for these seasoned warriors to get out of the firefight in Etihad Towers in a way that would have at least given them a plausible excuse and a chance to distance themselves from him, but they hadn’t taken it. Every one of them had gone to bat for him and his mate and that was the kind of thing that a bear would never forget.
Even if they are all batshit insane, he thought with mild amusement, checking his gun for the umpteenth time.
“You antsy, boss?” Prowler asked, grinning his jackal smile as he drove the car.
It was the dead of night and the truck they had managed to secure was the single best way to get into Rowen’s little compound, it seemed. Not too surprisingly, the suave and sophisticated werewolf hadn’t held up under interrogation too well and Prowler had gotten what he wanted from the guy without more than a few broken fingers and missing teeth on Rowen’s side.
He was stashed in a bunker about a half an hour drive away from the compound, left in the dust of the desert. While Julian Rowen didn’t make for much of a safety net against whatever was going to befall them in the compound, at least it saved them from having to drag his sorry ass along with them and giving him a chance to stir trouble.
Dice snarled under his breath, remembering the way the man had looked at them first when he’d come to, almost laughing in their faces. The fucker had expected the cavalry to be right around the corner, ready to rescue him the moment he woke up.
Well, that hadn’t been true.
“Wouldn’t you be?” Dice finally replied, snapping back into the moment.
He also made a mental note to, if at all possible, snap Rowen’s neck when he had the next opportunity. If for no other reason than holding Meredith hostage in his little castle of evil, though Dice was rather certain he wasn’t going to be at a loss for motives by the time dawn rolled around.
“I guess I would,” Prowler said with surprising candor, his expression suddenly serious. “That’s fucked up what they’re doing with the kids. It just isn’t right.”
“You can say that again,” Dice agreed, glancing at the hacker werewolf with some surprise.
It had been a major miracle that the squad had decided to come and help him and Meredith on this mission. Frankly, Dice had expected all of them to take the easy way out, like Thor had – even though he still remembered the way Thor had saved his life with that well-aimed bullet in Etihad Tower number one.
His brow furrowed slightly as he pondered this conundrum for the umpteenth time. Either the twins were planning something, or they actually gave a shit about another shifter’s child’s wellbeing. While it would have been no surprise with normal, socially functioning shifters – as kids were by far the most important things in most sifters’ lives, second to maybe only their mates – then Dice wouldn’t have expected that kind of kindness from a group of men he’d titled psychopaths the first time he’d met them. The feeling had only grown stronger over the time he’d spent together with them.
Shaking his head, Dice banged his fist on the partition wall that separated the front of the vehicle from the back.
“We’re almost there. Get ready!” he called, receiving a dull thud from the other side in response.
The compound was coming into view now. It was hidden within the long, sweeping yellow dunes of the desert, shaded black and gray in the cover of darkness, but apparently otherwise being the same color of the sand during daytime to avoid detection by airplanes. Only a few errant lights seemed to blink around it – guard towers, as Rowen had assured them. The compound itself didn’t have more than a few windows.
No one in there deserved sunlight, apparently.
The plan itself was simple. Get in, get out, try not to die. That was about it.
It was the execution of said plan that got Dice worrying. That, and the fact that nestled between Rio, Ryker and Price, sat Meredith.
He’d tried to reason in every way possible with her to stay back and wait for them, but she’d refused.
Dammit, I love her stubborn ass, he thought with a private grin, loading his gun now that the vehicle was slowing down as it approached the checkpoint in front of the compound.
A guard walked up to them, apparently thinking nothing odd about the vehicle. It was used for The Arctics’ business in the compound often enough, according to Rowen. The moment that Prowler rolled down the window to pass his security pass, swiped from Rowen, to the man, the guard seemed to freeze in place, eyeing Prowler.
Even in the darkness of the night, Dice could see the guard’s eyes flash gold and then realization dawn on his expression.
Shit.
Before the man could take a step, Dice had whipped his gun around, shoved the barrel past Prowler and out of the window, and blown the guy’s head straight off his shoulders.
“Drive!” he hissed, pulling the gun back as Prowler gave him a wide-eyed look, followed by a grin.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” he whooped, slamming down on the gas and slamming through the gates of the compound.
They’d been going for a quiet, understated entrance. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work.
“We’re going in hot!” Dice yelled, banging his fist on the partition again.
He could almost imagine the excited looks the guys must have been passing between one another, and the worry that had to be painted on Meredith’s expression.
Whatever happens, I’m keeping her safe, he thought, his keen eyes taking in the mayhem the compound was being thrown into.
Suddenly, the courtyard was flooded with lights and the three guard towers all seemed to burst into life. Dice could see a door opening in the side of the building, so well-hidden that he would have never found the goddamn thing if it hadn’t been thrown wide by the troops running out.
Gunshots were ringing out around them and Prowler laughed his chilling laugh as he drove the truck straight into one of the guard towers, making the thing shudder and shake violently. It creaked precariously, the sound of snapping metal being all too clear for the delicate hearing of shifters.
“Get out!” Dice roared, and he flung himself out of the truck, praying that the rest of the squad followed his lead.
Prowler jumped out from the other side and Dice was halfway to the back of the truck, dodging gunfire, when he saw the doors open and Ryker exit first. The big werelion had a bazooka mounted on his shoulder and true to form, he was smoking one of those damn cigars, grinning like it was Christmas and he got to raid Santa’s sack.
Aiming the bazooka at the next guard tower while the rest of the squad and Meredith piled out to either side of the truck, Ryker paused for a moment and then let the rocket fly. The whine was almost as deafening as the explosion that followed it, but the tower went up in a shower of flames and sparks.
“That’s how we play!” the man called triumphantly, with Dice having to work double-time to gun down the werewolves getting too good with their aim and threatening to blow the engineer’s head off before he was done celebrating.
“I thought Rio wanted to play with the big guns,” Dice commented, gritt
ing his teeth as he shot a werewolf scrambling down the quickly deteriorating remains of the tower the truck had piled into.
“We share on occasion,” Ryker said with a wink, tossing the bazooka off his shoulder and grabbing his rifle instead. “But he’s busy as is,” Ryker commented, nodding toward the third tower.
Dice barely had enough time to understand what was going on, before it went up in a shower of flames. Rio had taken Price and blown through at least six Arctics’ guards that had the distinctly unfortunate luck of getting stuck in their path, before throwing two grenades at the same time up into the watchtower. The sight of Rio and Price running away while the explosion rocked the ground behind them, throwing up dust and sand, was something to behold.
“Meredith!” Dice yelled, hearing the tower creak again precariously.
“She’s with me, boss,” Prowler called back. “Safe and sound.”
The two of them appeared from the other side of the truck, Meredith tucked away behind the back of the wide-shouldered werewolf.
“Can we go play now?” Prowler asked, obviously displeased that he hadn’t gotten to blow anything up yet.
“Sure,” Dice grumbled, just in time to drop to one knee, aim and shoot two more guards trying to sneak up on them around the house.
“Better go now, then,” Ryker called, taking a firm hold on Meredith’s wrist and yanking her forward.
Dice was about to protest to the engineer touching his woman, but the reason behind it became clear enough in a second when the tower collapsed over the truck, raining metal down on where she had just stood.
I’m going to run out of time to repay all these damn favors if things keep going like this, Dice thought, shaking his head.
Price and Rio caught up with them at the door, both grinning wide.
“That was fun,” Rio noted matter-of-factly. “We should do this more often. The quiet and sophisticated way of doing things is way less fun than just blowing shit up.”
“Let’s focus on getting out of here first,” Dice growled, grabbing Meredith by the waist and pulling her close for a moment to kiss her on the temple.
In the red glow of the fires raging behind them, the slow crackle of flame the only thing they could hear now as the gunfire had ceased after killing everyone who could hold one of the damn things, she looked pale. Though they didn’t have a moment to spare, Dice needed to make sure that she was okay. His bear wouldn’t allow him to take another step without it.
“Are you alright, Meredith?” he asked, dropping his voice as they stepped into the building.
They found themselves in a long, narrow corridor with fluorescent lights running the length of it and the walls painted a dreary color of gray. Meredith’s gorgeous eyes were wide and Dice could see her chin quiver for a moment, but she stilled herself immediately and nodded.
That’s my girl, he thought. It must kill her to be back here, but she won’t let that stop her.
“I’m fine. Let’s go get our baby.”
She didn’t need to tell him that twice.
Twenty-One
Meredith
The further they got in the large, concrete building, the more confusing it got. All the corridors looked like one another and there was barely anything to tell them apart. For a moment there, Meredith had begun to worry if she could even lead the squad through the place like she thought she could.
I won’t let them down. And I won’t let Dean down.
Seeing Shifter Squad Nine in action didn’t get any easier the more she saw it. She wondered if they knew that during battle, they all became more animal than man. Decisions that would have taken a usual soldier at least a split-second to come to seemed to come naturally to the men of The Firm. Each of the talented ex-SEALs worked like a well-oiled machine, a beast made for conquest and victory.
The way their eyes took on the color of their animal’s was the oddest thing for Meredith. At certain times, she could even see the beginnings of a shift about them, their facial features warping slightly and becoming more predator than man. Somehow, she doubted they knew what they looked like then, when they were in the heat of battle.
Protectors. Conquerors. Beasts.
And she was the one who had brought them there.
Meredith didn’t even try to count how many men the squad had already killed. It had to be at least twenty in the courtyard alone, because each of the towers had held several men and a small force had come out of the building as well. But Meredith knew there had to be at least that many still left. Even during her time here, with limited access to the rest of the building, she’d seen them congregate at times and she’d had different guards walk her to and from her lab every day.
“Down here,” she whispered, pointing at a stairwell that led down.
Most of the compound was hidden underground and when one would fly over the area, they’d barely be able to distinguish the building itself from a sand dune because of how flat and low it was. She knew that the labs were three levels down and she had been kept on the floor below that. And the babies…
Shots rang out around her and Meredith gasped as Dice’s strong hands pulled her down onto the ground. His hand clamped down on her mouth immediately before she could make a noise and he hushed her.
“Shh,” he murmured, nodding at Ryker and Rio who peeled off from them.
Price and Prowler took up the rear while the werewolf twins rushed forward, eager to go and find whoever it was that was shooting at them from below in the stairwell. Dice took a firm grip on his gun again and Meredith squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as more gunfire turned the stairwell into a giant echo chamber. The sound was almost unbearable but as quickly as it had begun, it quieted once more.
“All clear,” Rio yelled, a certain tone of bemusement in his voice.
“Come on,” Dice said, but Meredith was already up and moving forward.
The stairs and frankly the rest of the building as well brought back horrific memories for her of the time she’d spent there. She hadn’t been aware of how real it had been and how haunted she was by it until she’d stepped back inside and the emotions seemed to flood her. But she was going to be better than that.
Anything for Dean.
A moment later, she had to clap her hand over her mouth willingly and squeeze her eyes shut as they walked past the corpses of two guards, at least one of whom she recognized because of the ring he wore on his left hand. He was going to be hard to identify without his face, though.
It seemed to be a Squad Nine specialty.
Faceless men tell no tales.
“We have to keep going, it’s down another three floors,” Meredith said, receiving nods from the rest of the men.
Dice kept by her side, his body thrumming with electricity and energy. He looked like he was ready to tear through walls if he had to in order to keep her safe. The werelions kept their place in front and Price and Prowler remained behind them, one or both of them occasionally disappearing to check out the adjoining corridors on the levels they passed by.
The compound was sort of a maze. That was why Meredith had been so adamant about going with them, even though she knew that she was as much a liability as an asset to them. After all, she had no martial capabilities to speak of – being a scientist didn’t really come with the need to really know how to handle a gun very well. But if she’d let them come here alone, there was no saying if they’d ever find Dean before it was too late.
Time was of the essence, after all. Meredith had no doubt that someone had already alerted The Arctics and reinforcements were on the way.
“The rest of the prisoners are being kept on this floor,” Meredith said, motioning toward the entrance to the fourth floor. “Or at least the women I was with were.”
“Check it out,” Dice told Rio and Ryker, who nodded quietly and broke away from the rest of the group.
As if they were reading each other’s minds, Price and Prowler split apart as well and Prowler took point to fill the hole le
ft by the werelions and to keep Meredith safe. Despite not trusting one another very much, Meredith had to admit that the squad really worked well together. It seemed like there was a man for every job and whenever something was lagging, there was another there to pick up the slack.
“Just one more level,” she whispered, wringing her wrists as they trundled down the stairs.
The entrance to the fifth underground level was already in sight in the barely lit stairwell when more gunshots were fired, one of the bullets barely missing Meredith. Dice threw her to the ground before she could even attempt to react, growling like someone had just messed with the wrong man at the wrong moment.
“Get them,” he hissed, Price rushing past him.
Dice took up position as well, staying so his body covered Meredith’s while he took aim. She backed away a step on her hands and feet, feeling the coolness of the concrete at her back as she stared ahead with her eyes wide. This was becoming really dangerous and frankly, the faster she could get out of there, the better.
“I can’t get a shot here,” Price whispered back to Dice, and he nodded grimly.
“They must know they’re getting screwed out of their lives,” he growled in response. “I’ll go.”
“No, I’ll go,” Prowler piped in quickly, patting Dice on the shoulder before getting up and moving forward swiftly. “You need to keep your girl safe.”
The wicked grin the werewolf flashed before disappearing down the stairs was eerie in a way and Meredith had come to understand what Dice meant about not feeling entirely at ease around that guy. But as far as werewolves went, Prowler seemed to be one of the nicer ones she’d ever met.
Considering that he was apparently a raiding psychopath, that was saying something.
Gunshots sounded and Meredith winced as she heard Prowler suddenly yell out in pain. A second later, with Price already dashing forward to join his brother, the gunfire ended and Prowler stepped into the doorway, clutching his left shoulder.