by Kali Argent
I could shift into an eight-hundred-pound wolf and bite your head off before you could stop me.
While it would be rewarding to wipe the smug look off his face, she couldn’t say that. “Like what?” she asked instead. “My bra size?”
A chorus of chuckles went around the table, and even Luca cracked a grin at her sarcasm. Cade didn’t laugh or smile, but he did stroke his hand up and down her back as he continued to glare daggers at the male. If the guy had any self-preservation, he’d steer clear of her mate for the next couple of days.
“Okay,” Luca said, calling everyone to order. “We’ve got enough to get us started. Mackenna, if you think of anything else—”
“I’ll tell you.”
He dipped his head. “In that case, we need to get surveillance on this place. I don’t want any fucking surprises this time.”
Going around the room, he started dividing the group into teams, each with their own assignments. Mackenna tensed when Cade’s name was called, but she bit her lip and didn’t voice the protest on the tip of her tongue. He was a soldier, and he wouldn’t be satisfied to sit on the sidelines while everyone else put their lives in danger. She still hated the idea of him being anywhere near that place, though.
“O’Malley, I want eyes on that building tonight.”
Unfolding her arms, Deidra pushed away from the wall and flipped her strawberry blond braid over her shoulder before giving him a jerky nod. “I’m on it.” Her gaze went to Rhys, Thea, and finally, to Cade. “Get what you need. We leave in twenty minutes.”
“Collins, are you up for this?” Luca asked.
Deke stiffened his spine and pulled his shoulders back. “I’m good. What do you got?”
“We need to know what kind of security they have in the surrounding forests. Patrols, traps, alarms.” He waved his hand. “If someone takes a piss in those woods, I want to know when, where, and what color it was.”
The room began to clear once everyone had their assignments, but Mackenna didn’t move. She felt frozen, paralyzed, but she didn’t fear for herself.
“Come on, Mack,” Cade said, tapping her on the hip. “Let’s get you back to the room.”
“Cade…” She could ask him to stay. If she begged, he might even do it. “I…”
His smile turned gentle, and he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What is it?”
She couldn’t do it. As much as she wanted him to stay with her where it was safe, she couldn’t ask him to put her before the rest of his team. She couldn’t ask him to turn his back on the Gemini prisoners who needed his help.
So, she took all that fear and worry and shoved it down deep as she leaned in to press their mouths together in a brief kiss. “Be careful,” she whispered against his lips, “and come back to me.”
Chapter Ten
Finding the location of the Hunter settlement had been easy enough, but after a week of nightly surveillance, the news wasn’t good.
What Mackenna had described as an inn had turned out to be a two-story cabin in the center of an old campground. A dozen or more trails wound through the complex, and they’d counted eight additional, smaller cabins hidden in the surrounding trees.
Cade had never believed in fate. He’d always subscribed to the idea that everyone made their own destiny, and a series of coincidences was just that. Coincidences. After seeing the campgrounds, the distance and terrain Mackenna had to cover to reach the little-used highway at the exact right moment, he wasn’t so sure about that anymore.
They had all assumed that with her injuries she couldn’t have made it more than a couple of miles on foot. In actuality, she had covered more than seven miles through dense forest and rocky hills.
He’d met a lot of people over his life. Some assholes. Some saints. Many who had embodied courage, strength, and resilience. Few of them had left an impression on him the way Mackenna had.
She might not be a soldier, but she was one hell of a warrior.
With his arms wrapped securely around his mate, he leaned back against the wall of the conference room and settled in for the meeting. With nearly half their team out on patrol, there were plenty of chairs, but he was too restless to sit.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Lynk said as he unfolded the map and spread it out on the table. “We’re definitely outnumbered, and from what we’ve seen, outgunned as well.”
“There are no fences or gates,” Deke added as he stepped forward and stabbed the map with his index finger. “Mountains are here, here, and here. Completely impassable.” He moved his finger to the north side of the camp. “This forest here is the most likely place for the Wild Hunt Mack talked about. It’s the most easily defended, and there would be almost no chance of escape.”
“Which means, almost no chance for rescue.” Deidra squeezed in between the two males, the end of her braid falling over her shoulder as she leaned forward. “With that being said, it is, unfortunately, our only option.”
Deke looked around the room and shook his head. “The main building is too well guarded. Even if we could get in, the likelihood of finding the prisoners, freeing them, and getting everyone out before we’re overrun is basically nil.”
“Okay.” Leaning back in his seat at the head of the table, Luca templed his fingers under his chin. “Impossible circumstances. Small chance for success.” He shook his head. “Is this a risk we’re willing to take, or do we sit this one out?”
A few people in the room tensed, but no one rushed to throw in their support. Cade couldn’t say he blamed them. It might be the Revenant’s mission to protect the innocents of the world, and any one of them would give their life for the cause, but that didn’t mean they were suicidal.
Some battles couldn’t be won. Some shouldn’t even be fought. If they all got themselves killed, the mission failed, no one was rescued, and there would be no one left to face the next threat, or the one after that.
Because there would always be a threat. There would always be those who took pleasure in the suffering of others. Men and women who enjoyed the elevated status the new regime afforded them. Those who hunted with extreme prejudice, who used their misguided dogmas to justify their inhumanity.
“I’m not one to just walk away,” Deidra said when it appeared no one else was willing to offer their opinion. “In this case, I honestly don’t see how we pull this off.”
Luca dropped his hands and sat forward, scanning the room. “Anyone think we can?”
No one said anything for a long time. When someone finally spoke, it was the last person he would have expected.
“The problem here is that you need two teams. One to fight the Hunters, and another to extract the prisoners.” Abby rose from her chair, though she was so petite, it hardly made a difference. “Clearly, we need another team.”
Cade didn’t even know why she was in the meeting. Even if they figured out a way to pull this off, it wasn’t as if she would be going into the camp with them.
“There is no other team.” Unwinding one arm from around Mackenna’s waist, he swept it out to the side. “This is it. We’re it.”
“The only team of Revenant,” she corrected without looking at him. “Look.” Sliding the map in front of her, she pointed to the big, red X where they’d marked the main building of the compound. “There’s a little service road about six miles to the west. Probably used by forest rangers. It won’t be easy, but you can access it from the north woods.”
Luca followed her finger across the map. “So, you’re saying we wait until the full moon, until the Wild Hunt.”
She nodded. “Getting into the building isn’t an option, so we wait. We have them bring the prisoners to us.”
Cade frowned as he listened to her speak. Since when had she become an expert in battle strategy? “That’s still only one piece of the puzzle. Where do you suppose we find another team to distract the Hunters while we’re leading injured and starving captives out of the wood?”
And why the fuck w
as he asking her?
She eyed him as she slid her finger south on the map. “Aspen. We’ll need to confirm, but I can almost guarantee the ski resorts have been turned into Coalition settlements.”
Since he had no idea what that had to do with anything, he just stared at her.
“If there’s anyone who hates Hunters more than the Revenant, it’s the Coalition,” she explained, her tone exasperated.
Then, every damn person in the room started nodding as if that made perfect sense. Hell, even Mackenna was bobbing her head.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Luca recited. “It could work.”
“And we what?” Cade demanded. “We just stroll into town and ask for their help?”
Flipping her golden hair over her shoulder, Abby smirked. “We persuade them.”
She still wasn’t making any damn sense. “How do you suppose we do that?”
“By sending in a distressed Gemini who just escaped a group of Hunters.” She flicked her wrist dismissively. “We’ll work out a script before then. The point is, we get the Coalition to take out the bad guys while we save the good guys.”
“All the prisoners are Gemini,” Roux said, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “Why don’t we just tip off the Coalition and let them take it from there?”
She made a damn good point. The ARC guards wouldn’t hurt their own. Since none of the captives were human, they wouldn’t have anything to fear. Maybe the Revenant didn’t need to be involved at all.
But Abby was already shaking her head. “We run into the same problem we’d face if we tried to do it on our own. The Coalition can fight the Hunters or save the captives. They can’t do both.”
“It’s likely the prisoners would be executed as soon as the fighting started,” Luca elaborated. “Hunters wouldn’t risk them being freed and turning against them.”
“He’s right.” Mackenna sank deeper into Cade’s embrace when everyone turned to look at her. “There are vents in the basement they used to pump in sedatives. I heard one of the guards explaining to a new recruit that they could also be used to fill the room with poisonous gas in case the compound was ever attacked or infiltrated.”
“We’ll need to check out these service roads.” Luca carded his fingers through his hair as he surveyed the map once more. “Make sure they’re accessible by vehicle and that there aren’t any security patrols that far out.”
Deidra nodded. “I’ll take my team tonight.”
“I’ll take a team to check out the situation in Aspen.” Luca pushed to his feet and leaned forward to rest his palms on the table. “We have nine days until the full moon. Let’s figure out how to make this work.”
There was a lot of mumbled conversation as everyone filed out of the room, but none of it seemed to be in protest of the plan. Cade didn’t like the idea of involving the Coalition, but even he had to admit—albeit grudgingly—that it might actually work.
“Cade?” Outside the double doors that led to the makeshift living quarters, Mackenna took his hand and pulled him to a stop. “Can I talk to you?”
“Don’t worry, Mack.” He tugged the end of her braid and tried to project confidence. “It’s a good plan.”
“I think it is, too.” She didn’t smile. “I wanted to talk to you about something else, actually.”
Only three times in his life had a woman told him they needed to talk, and not once had it ended well. Something told him he wasn’t going to enjoy this conversation, either.
“Yeah, of course. Let’s take a walk.”
Holding her hand, he led her back down the corridor, through the rec room, and out the glass doors of the front entrance. The sun had just started to peek over the mountains in the distance, illuminating the sky in a kaleidoscope of colors. The wind had settled to a light breeze, but the morning was still cold and damp, leaving a thick frost over the ground.
The grass crunched beneath their boots as they rounded the side of the hospital toward a path that led into a small wooded area to the east. A thick layer of fog rolled across the forest floor and coiled around their legs, dampening the fabric of his cargo pants.
He’d be glad to finally get the hell out of Colorado. It was a beautiful state, no doubt, but he was not built for the cold.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“I grew up in Nevada, in a little town about eight hours from here.”
Not where he’d thought the discussion was headed, but she didn’t sound angry, which he took as a good sign. “Okay.”
“I was on my way there when the Hunters took me.”
“Right. You told me the first day we met.”
She stared out toward the mountains, her eyes glazed and unfocused. “I never knew my dad. He bailed before I was born, so it was just me and my mom.”
Cade remained quiet, watching her as she watched the sunrise.
“She died when I was thirteen.” She shivered visibly and finally turned to meet his gaze. “A stupid rock climbing accident. Wolves can heal from a lot, but…”
When she didn’t continue, he wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her close. “I’m so sorry, Mack.”
“I didn’t have anyone else, no other family, so my best friend and her mom took me in. They became my family.”
He finally gave up and had to ask, “What are you trying to tell me?”
“I was on the phone with Jess right before my tire blew. That was the last time I spoke to her. I don’t even know if she’s alive, but I need to find out.”
Resting his chin on top of her head, he squeezed his eyes closed for just a moment, then wiped all emotion from his expression. He wished to hell she would have asked anything else of him.
“That’s really not a good idea.”
“I know, but I have to do it. I have to know.”
“Mack—”
“I can go on my own, but I’ll need a vehicle.”
Like hell she could. “Not going to happen.” She’d lost her fucking mind if she thought she was going anywhere without him, especially clear to another state. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Everything is dangerous now.” There was no heat to her argument, which made it all the more effective. “I know it’s crazy, and it probably doesn’t make any sense to you.” Sighing, she eased back and lifted her head. “I don’t even know what I’m expecting to find. I just know that I have to try.”
The safe house was located on the edges of Demon Alley, a stretch of Deadlands from Missouri to Colorado controlled by werewolves. Being a werewolf herself should have afforded her indemnity, but even a shared species didn’t mean shit anymore. It sure as hell hadn’t done anything for Rhys or Deidra.
Rhys had been imprisoned by his own pack, and Cade wouldn’t wish the kind of torture they’d put the guy through on anyone. Deidra wasn’t one to wear her heart on her sleeve, but from the few things she’d let slip, he gleaned that she’d survived something similar, also at the hands of her own kind.
Past the border and into Nevada, they entered shifter territory. He knew nothing about the packs, tribes, or clans that roamed the western part of the country. Some had described them as more civilized than the werewolves, less vengeful. He hoped that was true, for all their sakes, but he wouldn’t stake his mate’s life on it.
“Mack, I get it. I do.” He’d go to the ends of the earth for the people he loved, but the chances of her friend still being alive, let alone still in Nevada, were practically nonexistent. “You can’t—”
“I’m not asking for permission.” The amber of her irises darkened to a deep whiskey, and her lower lip trembled. “I care about what you think, Cade, and I want you to come with me, but I’ll go without you if I have to.”
He believed her, and he also knew that if anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself. She knew the risks directly, yet she was willing to chance it all on the infinitesimal chance that she might find her friend.
He wasn’t sure if it was brave or
stupid, but he did know he couldn’t let her do it alone. “If we do this, we’re going to be smart about it.”
A brilliant smile lit up her face as she nodded. “Of course.”
He’d clearly lost his mind. It was the only logical explanation for why he was even entertaining the idea. The female was going to be the fucking death of him.
“Come on.” He kissed her brow and sighed. “We need to talk to Roux.”
Chapter Eleven
Slumped back in the passenger seat of the SUV, Mackenna stared out the window at the familiar scenery as they crossed over the Nevada state line. They still had another forty miles of driving before they reached the small town she’d grown up in, but she already felt like she was home.
A part of her knew the excursion was pointless. Even if Jess had survived the virus, Raiders, the Coalition, and every other danger, she wouldn’t have stayed in Cuna Mundo. Mackenna didn’t know what she hoped to find, but she had to go. She had to see for herself and know that she’d done everything she could to find her friend.
Staring at the endless stretches of desert and mountains, she absently fingered the leather cord around her wrist. Attached to the loop was a simple, silver plate inscribed with her name, Cade’s, and a seven-digit number. She didn’t know exactly where Roux had procured the matching bracelets, but she was impressed with the female’s ingenuity, as well as Cade’s forethought.
By registering Cade as her “pet,” it offered them a measure of protection should they encounter Coalition guards. If anyone bothered to check, the records would show the registration had been completed in Colorado, but they had prepared for that as well. If asked, Mackenna was to offer a version of the truth. She was traveling to Nevada to visit a friend.
Keep it simple. Don’t offer details. Make sure no one tried to follow them.
“Shit,” Cade muttered, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“What?” Sitting up straighter, she scanned the sun-drenched sands on either side of the highway. “What is it?”
“Ravagers. Fuck.” Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, he pressed down on the accelerator, throwing Mackenna back against her seat. “Hold on.”