Walk on the Striped Side

by Jessie Lane

  Alec rolled his eyes. “Like I was saying, a piggy to the slaughterhouse.” He let out an oink sound. “Here comes the bacon.”

  “The phrase is ‘a lamb to the slaughter’ you imbecile!”

  Gage watched their spat with little interest. Instead, his attention was focused on his mate’s face and her devious little plan. A plan that he was pretty sure had just backfired on her, but she hadn’t quite figured it out yet. Without having to pry it out of her, Gage was pretty damn sure that Elena had thought that Gage wouldn’t take her on the mission. She’d probably assumed that he would think it would be too dangerous for her. And if he couldn’t take her, then he’d have to uncuff her and let her go. At least that’s what she thought.

  The truth was a different matter. Gage knew all too well just how capable his ornery little mate was. He’d checked her service records after he’d fucked her for the first time. He should feel bad for intruding on her privacy like that, but the fact was that he didn’t. A man had to know whether he’d just stuck his dick in crazy. Because crazy women were the ones that tried to sneak in your room and cut off your cojones while you were sleeping in retaliation for you ending things.

  What he’d found while snooping through her record at the time had surprised him. Not only was it exemplary, but Elena had achieved expert status with her weapon’s qualifications and had also exceled in her hand to hand combat training. If she had been a man, they would have asked her to join one of Special Forces teams. Looking back now, her service record should have tipped him off that she was more than the average human woman. But he’d ignored all of those seemingly important signs to focus on one thing and one thing only, she wasn’t crazy. Therefore, he could keep sticking his dick in her without fear of losing it. What a fucking idiot he’d been.

  So now here he sat with a conniving mate who had thought to outmaneuver him. Only, she ended up being manipulated around to Gage’s intentions of taking her on the mission with him, but by Alec instead of himself. A couple of insinuations from his brother about it being too dangerous for her to go, and now she was spitting mad. Because Elena was more than capable of going on this mission and protecting herself. Even against shifters. All Gage had to do was put the right weapons in her very capable hands and turn her loose on those poor mangy bastards in Germany. They would never know what hit them.

  “You’re not really thinking about taking her, are you bro?” Now Alec sounded worried.

  Gage pulled his eyes off the very angry face of the woman he loved and glanced over to his brother. He loved that idiot, but if his sibling didn’t learn quickly to watch what he said around Elena, there would be no way Gage would be able to save Alec from her wrath.

  Grabbing Elena’s handcuffed hand in his own, he placed them on the table in view of everyone to make a statement. He would not be separated from his mate for any reason. He rubbed his thumb in soothing circles over her baby soft skin of her hand and thanked God for what was probably the thousandth time that he was able to do such a simple act again as touching her.

  “She’s going.”

  “Have you lost your fucking mind?” Alec shouted. “You’re going to get her killed!”

  Gage growled at his brother. Not liking the man’s insinuation that he would ever do anything that would or could harm his mate. Alec leaned forward and lowered his voice.

  “Think about this brother, and think hard. You and I both know you wouldn’t make it if anything happened to her.”

  He felt Elena’s body stiffen next to him. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she was probably a little shocked or confused at Alec’s statement. She still hadn’t figured out that Gage had pushed her away because he would probably die of grief whenever she died because of her humanity. This was a grim reminder of exactly why he needed to keep Elena with him at all times. He needed every second he could get to work his way into the stubborn Amazon’s heart. Make her love him so much that she couldn’t bear to leave him when she figured it all out.

  Gage gave her hand a gentle squeeze for comfort and then resumed his slow circles on her skin. He didn’t have time to wallow on this matter. He had to get things taken care of so he could concentrate on Elena. First, they had to get to Germany and rescue Alpha Corvus. Second, they had to come back and clear Lulu of her murder charges with the Ninth Circle Council. Then finally he could have some time with his mate. No interruptions. No worries other than their relationship.

  Turning his attention away from his internal thoughts and back to his brother, he smiled. He could tell from the varying facial expressions of everyone in the room that they all thought he was out of his mind to consider taking Elena with him. The only person who might understand how he felt at the moment seemed to be Adam, who was looking at him with resignation. When you loved a woman who had the heart of a warrior, you couldn’t try to wrap her in bubble wrap and put her on a shelf. You had to let her be who she was or you’d end up suffocating her fiery spirit. Gage refused to do that to his mate. Besides, he had ways to protect her from the potential dangers.

  “Don’t worry about Elena. By the time I’m done outfitting her with weapons, she’s going to be a one woman army. If I were you though brother, I’d stay away from her after she has fire power. I can’t guarantee she won’t shoot your annoying ass.”

  CHAPTER-SEVENTEEN

  Elena

  Sitting in a plane worth a few million dollars to the Army and still handcuffed to Gage was not where she expected to be right now. No, Elena had thought she’d be sitting back in her room at her Aunt’s house right about this time. Let free by a man who was overprotective on a good day and a damn Neanderthal on his worst days. She’d honestly thought that Gage wouldn’t want her on this mission for the very reasons his brother had protested it a couple of hours earlier.

  The joke was on her. Not only had Gage not let her free, but after making a few calls to his team, and some arrangements with Pack Master Davies, he’d taken her to her Aunts’ house and flaunted his keeping her hostage like it was no big deal. The man apparently had no qualms about walking into her families’ house, without knocking, and then asking her which way led to her bedroom.

  Did he care that her entire family was sitting in the living room watching them?

  No.

  Did he listen to her when she said she refused to tell him which room was hers?

  No.

  Did her two sisters or two aunts bother to get up off their lazy asses to help her get free of the crazy tiger?

  NO.

  All four of those bitches had sat there, quietly watching her and Gage as if they were some kind of fascinating documentary about animals mating in the wild, and hadn’t lifted not one fucking finger to come help her. What was worse? When all four of them started cackling like hyenas after Gage ignored her protests, scooped her up in his arms, and then headed up the stairs to where the bedrooms were located. That was about the time Elena decided it was time to disown her family. Treacherous bitches!

  She was so mad at them, she didn’t bother to say a hi, bye or go fuck yourself on her way out the door with Gage and a duffel bag of her clothes fifteen minutes later. They better not ask her for Christmas presents this year. Because if they did, all of them were going to get a dose of Nair in their shampoo bottles and blue die in their toothpaste.

  Now here she sat, still dressed in that stupid red ‘I would cuddle you so hard’ shirt she’d bought Gage two years ago and regretting ever buying it for the bastard. The passenger area of the plane, where she sat with their rag tag group. Everyone who had been at their meeting was here minus Grandmother Ivanov. Plus some chick named Minna who apparently was from the very pack they were going to attack, and five members of Gage’s unit had joined them on the plane. Since the plane had taken off the group had turned into a ball of nervous energy. Feet tapped, legs bounced and fingers drummed on top of the arm rests as adrenaline and instincts revved up. There were only two other people on this plane besides herself who weren’t twitching l
ike crack heads in need of a good fix, and that was Jenna and her SWAT partner Kent. Elena was ready to start shooting people because of all the damn fidgeting!

  When she had asked Gage a few minutes ago in a whisper what was up with everyone and the non-stop squirming he had mock whispered back that shifters didn’t do well in enclosed spaces. Then he had informed her that there was no point in whispering because everyone there with them could hear everything she’d said. Leaning her head back against the headrest, she closed her eyes and tried to tune all of them out. Maybe if she just sat here quietly, she could block all of their incessant restlessness out and find her inner happy place.

  Gage placed his hand on her thigh and started rubbing his thumb in circles over her pants. He seemed to be doing that particular gesture as often as he could now, and it was starting to bug the shit out of her. She wasn’t sure if the action was supposed to comfort her or turn her on, but either way, it was making him harder and harder to resist. How was she supposed to keep the infuriating man at arm’s length if he was always touching her? She didn’t need the constant reminders from him about how quickly or easily he could get her wound up with just a few simple strokes of his thumb.

  That thumb was dangerous dammit!

  “How long will the flight to Germany take?” One of the guy’s in Gage’s unit suddenly asked.

  Elena sighed in resignation. So much for peace and quiet.

  “Nine hours.” Mumbled Alec sullenly.

  Elena’s eyes snapped open at his tone and she glanced at Alec. “Is nine hours going to kill ya there big guy? Because you sound like you’d rather have your nuts nailed to a wall than be on this airplane for that long.”

  Alec’s mouth opened to respond, but Jenna cut him off. “Just be glad that we’re here on Gage’s plane with his unit. The last time I went to Germany with Mr. Freaky here, well, let’s just say that his testicles weren’t the thing getting nailed on that flight.”

  This time Elena’s eyebrows shot clear up to the top of her forehead. “Mr. Freaky?” She asked Jenna.

  The other woman snorted. “We are talking about Alec, right? Have you looked at him lately?”

  Elena was kind of surprised at the woman’s response. Looking back to find Alec glaring at Jenna, she took in his appearance. He had on a charcoal t-shirt that showed off his bright and colorful full sleeve tattoos. He was wearing some of Gage’s camouflage pants and a pair of combat boots that she’d seen him in more than once. Scanning back up she took in his unusual artic blue eyes that were still pinned on Jenna and his white blond hair that was shaped into his normal Mohawk. Unless the woman was talking about Alec’s hair and tattoos, Elena didn’t see anything about the man’s appearance that she would label him a freak. She couldn’t help but feel kind of disappointed that Jenna might be prejudiced somehow. So far the woman had seemed rather friendly with her, even if she was abrupt at times. It would be a shame if Elena had to kick her ass because she was being a racist bitch towards Alec because of his hair and ink choices.

  Turning back to Elena somewhat disgusted she snapped. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t see anything wrong with him.”

  Jenna held her hands up in the air in a surrender motion. “Whoa… calm down there. I wasn’t trying to piss you off. All I’m saying is, how many white tigers have you seen in the world? If the real wild white tigers are rare, don’t you think that an Other white tiger would be just a tad unique?”

  Elena unclenched all of the muscles in her body that she hadn’t quite realized she’d tightened in the first place. Without even a conscious thought, she’d placed herself on the edge of her seat, ready to fly across the aisle of the plan and deck the woman for insulting Gage’s brother. Damn, this emotional shit was getting heavy for her. She hadn’t even accepted her feelings for Gage yet, and here she was, ready to rumble over his brother’s honor. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so stoked to come on this mission. A little distance from Gage and the rest of his family might have been a better idea.

  She felt a tug on her handcuffs, so she looked to the other side of her where the pest in question was sitting. Of course he was sitting there, smiling all smugly at her display of defending his brother. He probably thought the next thing she would do was fall on her knees and declare her undying love for him. Not.

  Elena was trying to think of the perfect thing to say that would wipe that smug smile right off his face when she felt a tug on her hair from Alec’s side. Just what she needed, another Ivanov man poking and prodding her. Which was damn annoying! She was not the Ivanov’s personal human rope to be yanking on in some twisted version of tug-of-war. Turning back to Alec, she snapped. “What!”

  The hulking white tiger gave her a cheesy grin and said in a smarmy voice two octaves above his normal range. “Awwww, I lubs you too Sis! Does this mean I can have a hug now that we’re family and all?” He held his arms out wide like he was waiting for her to actually hug him.

  Elena’s upper lip lifted in a snarl of irritation. She must have been out of her ever loving mind to defend this annoying piece of dick lint! “Don’t get all mushy with me idiot! I only got defensive because I thought she was being a bigot about your tattoos and general appearance. I don’t like racism of any kind. But now that I think about what she’s said, Jenna has a point. If the white tiger is a rare thing in the wild, that’s got to be the equivalent of you being a one nut wonder or something at a side show. Can my sisters and I put you on display and let the paying customers pet you?”

  Gage dropped his arms back to his sides and then tapped his lips with one finger like he was considering her proposition. “Will they be petting my very large and awesome two nuts?” He suddenly asked.

  Jenna barked a laugh as Elena told him no.

  “If there’s no nut petting than I’ll have to pass. Sorry Sis, I can’t expose my boys to the world if they’re not going to be appreciated properly.”

  A sudden loud banging sound came from the front of the passenger area. Elena and everyone else swiveled their heads to see what the noise was. What they found was Pack Master Davies with his head tilted back and repeatedly banging it against the wall of the plane behind him.

  “What the hell are you doing that for Uncle Owen?” Jenna asked him.

  He stopped banging his head, then pulled his eyes from the ceiling to look at her. “I would rather beat my head against the wall until my brains are leaking out of my ears than listen to one more second about Alec and nut petting. So can you all please stop before I’m traumatized by mental images of that for the rest of my hopefully very long, immortal life?” By the end of his rant the man was snarling, and Elena wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but she thought that might be foam on the corner of his mouth. Just what she needed, a rabid old guy who could shift into a wolf and rip them to shreds on an airplane ten thousand feet in the air.

  Alec leaned forward in his chair to say something to the Pack Master with a teasing glint in his eyes, but Elena stopped him by slapping a hand over his mouth.

  “We’re good. No more nut jokes for the window licking white tiger.” She felt Alec growl against her hand. “Is there something we can do to pass the time until you receive your intel from your friend? For instance, does that tv over there work? Because this sitting around and waiting is killing me.”

  The Pack Master didn’t answer her, but Gage nodded and then picked up a remote and turned on the television that hung on the plane’s interior wall. “We’ll have to put on a dvd. It’s not like the Army pays for the premium channels.”

  The younger man, Logan, who Gage had explained was Jenna’s younger brother spoke for the first time in Elena’s presence. “Do you have Mission Impossible?”

  Before anyone could answer him Jenna snarled in his direction and pulled her pistol out of her holster. “Anyone puts on Mission Impossible and they get a bullet in the ass!”

  Jenna’s mate Adam chuckled and Elena sighed in disgust. This was going to a long, long flight.


  CHAPTER-EIGHTEEN

  Gage

  His sensitive ears picked up the chime of a phone just seconds before Pack Master Davies said, “Baines came through with the video.”

  Thank God. They were only three hours outside of Germany and Gage wasn’t sure how much more sitting around and doing nothing he could take. He was so bored he felt like popping his claws out and starting to shred the seat cushions just for the hell of it. The group had watched a two movies, which hadn’t been so bad, but the arguing about what movie to watch? He’d wanted to start throwing them off the plane just to stop the damn arguing!

  Looking over to Tyson, he gave him a chin lift and said “Hook his phone up to the television so we can see the video.”

  While Tyson was linking Davies phone up to a laptop, which would then stream the video to the tv, Gage looked over to Minna, the former Corvus Pack member. The blond submissive wolf had thrived in Adam McPhee’s Pack. He’d heard through the grape vine that she was dating one of Adam’s wolves, which had surprised him because Gage had thought maybe she had a romantic tie with the Corvus Alpha. The German woman had begged them almost daily to rescue Corvus, but it seemed all of that begging wasn’t for a lover, but perhaps a friend. Hopefully, in a little more than a couple of hours, the woman would get her wish. All they had to do was go into the Corvus Pack compound, grab the hostage Alpha and kill any hostile wolves that got in their way.

  Gage called Minna’s name and when she turned her head to look at him, he gestured with his hand to the tv. “We need you to point out anything and everything you know about the compound while we go through this video, okay?”

  She nodded and then went to stand beside the television. Tyson gave her a remote with some quick instructions on how to pause or re-start the video and then sat back down in his seat. Minna pushed a button on the remote, and a dark grainy image of the ground came on the screen as the video started. The view shifted upwards until a large brick mansion came into view. There was no fence or barrier around the house, only trees. That would work into their favor because they wouldn’t have to scale a wall to get in or out.