by Zoe Chant
Max reminded himself that the brave thing to do, the selfless thing to do, was to let Shoshanna choose for herself what risks she wanted to take. It would be hard, but he could do it. “All right.”
Shoshanna kissed his cheek. “Call your sister.” She looked him up and down. “Maybe put some clothes on first.”
Max laughed and did so.
Alexandra picked up on the first ring. “Ms. Ross,” she said. “Results already?”
“You could say that,” said Max.
There was a long pause. Then, “Max, you scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m sorry.” He left it at that, waited through the long pause.
“What,” Alexandra said after a moment, “no excuses? No telling me to keep my nose out of your business, even though your business is literally also my business? No obvious lies about your motivations or whereabouts?”
Max frowned. “Have I been obvious?”
“Only to me.” Alexandra sounded confident, and Max chose to believe her. No one in the world knew him as well as she did.
They’d grown up in the same house, and worked together at RGS their entire adult lives. They were the most similar of any of their siblings. This, of course, meant that they were each dedicated to making their own mark on the world, independent of the other, and that they respected each other’s work enough to leave the other alone to do it themselves.
Their personalities weren’t identical. Alexandra was much more like their father, straightforward and prepared to bull through anyone who stood in their way. Their mother had despaired of ever teaching her the delicate ways of high-society wives...which hadn’t turned out to be a problem, ultimately, because Alexandra wasn’t married, had declared that she didn’t intend to be married anytime soon, and was much more comfortable making lesser businessmen cry than she was sipping tea at a cotillion.
Max had been happy to master the art of negotiation, to make all parties walk away thinking they had won, when in fact everyone had been dancing to his tune all the way. He enjoyed subtlety in the same way their mother had. Alexandra wasn’t subtle.
But apparently, she’d noticed some signs of subterfuge in his behavior over the last six months.
And now...it was time to take Shoshanna’s advice to heart. Though Alexandra wasn’t known for her subtlety, she was very, very smart. She wouldn’t take any stupid risks. And she was in Hong Kong right now, so Elite couldn’t hurt her.
Max knew he was telling himself this as an attempt to convince his instincts that Alexandra didn’t need protection, even though he still wanted to keep her far, far away from any danger.
Sometimes courage didn’t mean what you thought it meant.
So Max summoned his courage, and said, “I’ve been working on something alone for the last six months.”
“Does it have something to do with Carl Hendricks, shapeshifter experimentation, and our brother being kidnapped in the secret mission that I was not informed of beforehand?”
Alexandra had been very unhappy when she learned about what had happened to Seth. Max had taken her recriminations without argument, but it hadn’t occurred to him at the time that the solution was to keep her in the loop as he went forward. Rather, he had been too focused on his failure to protect Seth, and had thought that he needed to keep all of his siblings away from any future investigations.
Now, he took a deep breath and said, “Yes. I’ve been following up on the possibility that there were other companies out there conducting similar investigations.”
“And you’ve found some.” It wasn’t a question.
“Not only have I found some, I’ve learned that they are at least as dangerous as Hendricks was. There’s been an attempt on my life.”
He could hear Alexandra’s indrawn breath. But when she spoke, her voice was steady. “And you’ve engaged Ms. Ross’s agency to help you investigate it?”
“...In a manner of speaking, yes.” Max decided that the conversation about mates could perhaps wait until he saw his sister in person.
“I’ll fly back to New York today,” Alexandra said, her voice already settling into the confident tone with which she expressed to others how things were going to go. “The travel time is unfortunate, but it can’t be avoided. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Max was taken aback. “It would be safer for you to remain overseas.”
“Don’t be an idiot. I’ll call you from JFK. Please stay alive until then.” Alexandra hung up.
Max looked at the phone. “I was not expecting that.”
“I’m not surprised at all,” said Shoshanna from across the room, where she must have overheard the entire conversation, with her shifter hearing. “She is related to you, after all.”
“A fair point,” Max conceded. He had to admit, having Alexandra working with him would make things easier. Few people were more capable in the business world than his sister was.
"Okay," said Shoshanna, coming over to take her phone back and sitting down on the bed. "What's next? With the understanding that I don't want to wait around for Elite to show up at my doorstep."
"No," said Max. "We can likely prevent that. I only scented two men out on the grounds, so we could certainly take them by surprise, even if they're in a car."
"I have tranquilizers," Shoshanna said, surprising him. At his look, she said, "I figured I might as well take advantage of the possibility, since they used it against me, so I stocked up a long time ago. And it's a good way to take someone down without killing them or even seriously injuring them. I have two tranq guns we could use."
Max nodded. "All right. So, we can take down the thugs. If we leave one conscious, we might be able to get him to tell us where they're based."
"Yes," Shoshanna said slowly, "especially if they're just hired muscle. Good. And then what?"
"Then I call us some backup and we infiltrate the facility," Max said firmly. If it had just been him, he might have tried to do it on his own, but he wasn't risking Shoshanna's safety without at least twenty security personnel alongside them.
"Great," said Shoshanna. "I'll get the tranqs."
"If I could have your phone back, I'll call up the office and get the security team together," Max said. "I can pull together some of the force that took down Hendricks' lab."
"Good." Shoshanna went out to get their equipment together.
Max called the office. First, he reassured his secretary that he was indeed fine, no foul play to worry about, and then he assembled the team that had gone into Hendricks’ lab. Some of them were detailed elsewhere, but it was a good group, and they all knew about shifters already—and had all signed extremely harsh nondisclosure agreements.
It occurred to him to wait until they arrived to go after the two men watching them, but he decided against it. The faster they moved, the more likely it was that they could forestall any sort of operation staged against Shoshanna’s home.
And if he and Shoshanna, forewarned and with the element of surprise, couldn’t subdue two ordinary humans, well.
This was an unfamiliar feeling, this building excitement and...solidarity. Or, it wasn’t completely unfamiliar. It was the same thing he felt when he and Alexandra walked into a boardroom together, knowing that they were about to utterly subdue the businessmen waiting inside.
Max and Shoshanna were going to take these people down. He and his mate, together, were going to make sure that Elite could never hurt anyone else again. They were going to avenge Tom’s death, and save any shifters who might have been kidnapped already, and all the shifters who would’ve been taken in the future.
And no one was going to stop them.
He grinned at Shoshanna when she came back into the room, holding two tranquilizer guns. She stopped in the doorway, eyes widening.
“What?”
She smiled slowly. “That’s an expression I’ve never seen on your face before. But I like it.” She tossed him a tranq, and he caught it, then took three steps forward and kissed her.
> “Are you ready?”
“You bet your ass I am,” she murmured against his mouth, and grinned.
***
Shoshanna was surprisingly happy.
Happier than she’d ever thought she’d be, facing down people who were doing the same thing to shifters as she’d experienced.
But this was different. Because this time, she had her mate by her side.
She’d been so angry at Max for hiding his identity from her...but when she’d told him why she needed him to be honest, to include her, he’d listened. For the second time that day, that arrogant loner control freak had listened to her, and he was honestly trying to change his ways.
Shoshanna guessed that meant that she was going to be making an effort, too. But somehow it didn’t seem impossible with Max, the way it did with other people—even Kevin.
Shoshanna thought of Kevin as a bit of a little brother. It made her want to protect him, to keep him from knowing things if she thought they’d hurt him. Exactly the way Max had with her.
So she understood. But that didn’t mean she was putting up with it.
But the look of predatory glee on Max’s face as she’d come in with the guns suggested that he was coming around to see the benefits of working with his mate instead of against her.
They set off through the woods together.
Shoshanna had figured out what would be the most likely place for a stakeout car: a little unpaved turnoff at a bend in the road about a mile away. So she and Max went through the woods instead of down the road, moving quickly and quietly.
Even in his human form, Max was stealthy and graceful. He insisted on taking the lead, and once she saw him move, she was happy to let him.
The thing was, being excited to take these assholes down at Max’s side didn’t mean Shoshanna wasn’t afraid. She was afraid. And she knew that Max still wanted to protect her, and to make sure she was safe. And she wanted the same for him. Heading into danger was far, far better together than it would have been alone.
They moved quickly and silently through the woods until they were almost at the turnoff. Shoshanna gripped Max’s arm to let him know they were almost there, and he slowed. They crept forward, keeping themselves hidden as they moved closer and closer.
Soon they could see the car. Shoshanna smiled privately to herself, pleased to have been right. The two men were casually talking to each other, obviously bored and confident that they’d see anyone coming past in a car with plenty of time to stop them or follow them.
Max and Shoshanna eased through the underbrush until they were almost on top of the car. Then Max stood up.
The quick movement attracted the men’s attention, and they started as Max seemed to appear ten feet away from them, in the opposite direction from where they’d been looking. His right hand, with the tranquilizer gun at the ready, was hidden behind a tree.
The two men scrambled out of the car, lifting their own guns. The second the driver’s door was open, Max shot him straight in the chest with the tranq.
Then Shoshanna popped up, gun ready, and the two of them moved forward lightning-fast, guns trained on the second guy.
Looking back and forth between them, caught half-out of the car with his gun not pointed at anything, the man raised his hands into the hair.
“Good thinking,” Max said mildly. “Drop it, please.”
He dropped the gun. Shoshanna darted in and grabbed it, then retreated out of range.
“All right,” she said when she’d taken up position again, tranq pointed at the thug. “You’re going to tell us where your boss is.”
The man shook his head. “I don’t care if you tranq me. My boss’ll do way worse if I give him up.”
“You know what it is you’re after?” Shoshanna asked.
The guy pointed one of his raised hands at Max. “Him. He’s some kind of freak monster.”
“How do you know that?” Max asked.
“I saw a video. Guy changing into a wolf. Craziest thing I ever saw in my life. They said you’re the same.”
“How do you know it was real?” Shoshanna asked. “They could fake something like that, easy. Haven’t you seen movies?”
“No, these guys are—they’re scientists. They’re not making a movie, they’re not trying to cause a sensation. They’re looking to do experiments. They want it all kept secret. So why bother making it up? They have all these records, DNA tests, this special tranq stuff they gave us that’s supposed to work on monsters. And hell, he walked away from that crash—we saw all his blood in the front seat, and now he’s standing right there, no injuries, no nothing?” The man shook his head. “You’re a freak, all right.”
“Very well,” said Max.
He sounded a little different from what Shoshanna was used to. Max always sounded educated and wealthy, but now he was...cold. Imposing. Like he could move his little finger and henchmen would suddenly appear and cart you away.
Lion, king of the jungle, she thought suddenly. Max looked like royalty, all right, even out here in the forest wearing Kevin’s old clothes and facing down an ordinary thug.
“I’ll allow the point,” he continued. “I’m a freak. What I don’t understand, then, is why you’re still apparently more afraid of your boss than of me.”
The thug suddenly looked nervous.
Max offered his gun to Shoshanna. She took it. Then Max met the thug’s eyes and, not looking away for a second, began to transform.
The thug backed a few involuntary steps away, then froze in place. Max’s skin rippled, his fingers elongated into claws, his fur sprouted. He fell to all fours, suddenly much, much larger and with much, much longer teeth than he’d been a moment ago.
Finally, he was fully transformed, an adult male lion, powerfully enormous and ready to pounce. His mane was the same shade as his hair, Shoshanna noticed, a resplendent gold. He flexed his claws and growled low in his chest.
She stepped forward. "So," she said. "Where's your boss?"
"Uh," said the thug. "Uh, he's—there's this warehouse." He couldn't take his eyes off of Max, who had kept up the low growl while Shoshanna was talking. "Is he—can he hear me? I mean, can he understand me?"
"Yes, he can," said Shoshanna. "Anything you want to say to him?"
"I swear I don't want to do any harm to you," the thug assured Max, his voice shaking. "I was just being paid to do a job! I didn't realize—I mean, I don't want—"
"You're going to get out of here and never go back to Elite again?" Shoshanna generously interpreted for him.
He nodded vigorously. "Yeah. Yeah. I don't want any trouble with...you guys. They said there were a lot of you. I don't want to mess with anything that can do...that."
Shoshanna frowned. "But you knew he could transform already. You said they had a video of someone else doing it."
"Not the same." The man's eyes were still fixated on Max, who was staring right back at him, not breaking eye contact. "Not the same at all."
Shoshanna supposed she could understand. Having a hostile man turn into a lion right before your eyes had to be an experience you didn't want to repeat. And Max had a...presence. He emanated strength, authority, and powerful, unstoppable danger. It made her feel safe, but it was obviously having the opposite effect on this guy.
"All right, then," she said. "Where exactly is this warehouse?"
The thug spilled his guts, telling them the location of the warehouse, the layout, who they could expect to find inside—"Leonard, he's Elite's head of security, and he's always got a few guys there with him. That's where we brought your car," he said, still staring directly at Max.
"His car is there?" Shoshanna asked sharply. "The one you sabotaged so he'd run off the road?"
"Yep. It's pretty totaled, I don't think there's much you can do with it."
Fixing it had not been Shoshanna's first thought, but she didn't feel like sharing that with this guy. "Anything else?"
"I think that's it. All the guys there have tranq
guns like mine, and most of them have real guns, too. So don't go charging in just the two of you, unless he's bulletproof or something."
"Thanks for the advice," Shoshanna told him, and tranqed him.
She caught him as he fell unconscious, and eased him to the ground; she didn't want him to crack his head on the car door or something and seriously injure himself.
Max transformed back. "Well. That was extremely informative."
Shoshanna nodded. "Guess I know where we're going next."
"You don't have to come," Max said. "We'll have an RGS security team coming to help. You could stay here."
Shoshanna pictured sitting at home, waiting for Max to carry out a raid on the company who'd tried to kill him, who'd left him drugged and bleeding and crawling to her doorstep.
"No," she said. "I'm coming with you."
Max was silent for a long moment. Shoshanna knew that he wanted to argue with her. To tell her she had to be safe, he needed to do this alone.
Finally, he nodded. “Let’s go take them down, then.”
She grinned. Elite wasn’t going to know what hit them. “Let’s do it.”
***
Max's security team met them in the middle of nowhere, several miles away from anything resembling civilization. They pulled up in a van and Max spoke briefly to the man in charge, while Shoshanna hung back, taking deep breaths.
The idea of going back to a lab like the one she’d been in filled her with anxiety. But at the same time, there was a freeing sensation. Because she was going into this place as an invading force, with this small army alongside her, and her mate leading the way. They were going to win, and nothing could stop them. She knew it in her bones.
They followed the security van in Shoshanna's car, getting closer and closer to the warehouse the thug had told them about. When they were about a quarter mile away, they pulled over and went forward on foot, Shoshanna and Max and ten security personnel.
At that point, Shoshanna and Max shifted. Prowling along the road beside her mate felt so right. They were hunting their prey together. The security team faded into the back of her consciousness; she was aware most of all of Max next to her, his powerful paws silent on the ground, his muscles tensed in preparation for action.