A guard squatting between two trees five feet away lifted his gun in Griffin’s direction. My wolf howled, and we ran with blinding speed toward the guy as his finger tightened on the trigger. I lowered my head and rammed it between his legs, lifting him up like he was riding a bull.
He fell forward as the gun fired, and the bullet missed its mark-short by three feet, and the guy landed on his face.
A rustling forced my attention back to Goatee. He loaded some kind of tranquilizer dart into a gun and pointed it at me. “This has gone on far to long.”
Shit. I had to time my movement, or my fight would be over. I inched toward a tree, as he aimed right at me.
Taking a deep breathe, I tried to remain calm and act scared, like I’d given up. I lowered my head, but not enough that I couldn’t see what he was doing. His finger pulled the trigger, and I channeled every ounce of speed into racing behind the tree.
The breeze of the dart hit my tail as I narrowly escaped impact.
“Fuck!” Goatee screamed as his face turned red. “The tranq missed the mark, so all of you need to get your asses in gear.”
Goatee charged Killian, who was fighting off a man with a knife.
It was clear these were all shifters who were more comfortable using their weapons than their animals, which boded well for us in a way. No matter how bad things got, they would shift only if that was their last option.
My animal knew that Goatee was trying to trick me. She took note that he wasn’t moving as fast as he could, and he had his head turned slightly in my direction as if waiting for me to charge. All of that told me he had no intention of attacking Killian.
I couldn’t let him know that I was on to his plan. I rushed toward him like he was expecting, but as I reached him, I spun out of the way.
He turned on his heel and swung a knife where my shoulder would’ve been. However, all he did was hit air as he turned in a complete circle, expecting an impact. He sneered at me as his breathing increased.
“You stupid bitch,” he growled. “You won’t get away this time, no matter what kind of game you try to play.”
Game? That was what he called this? This game was not only about the fact that my life was at risk, but it involved the lives of the two people left that I cared dearly for. I risked losing everything. This was about survival.
I hunkered down and bared my teeth at him. Our guards were getting closer, at least, giving us some more backup. I glanced around and noted that all four wolves and eight enemy shifters were now missing, probably gone to stop our guards. I hated that the guards were being ambushed, but for the moment, that helped Killian, Griffin, and me. With Killian and Griffin pack linking with the guards, they should be somewhat prepared for what they were walking into.
Gunshots fired, and a sharp pain pierced my hind leg. I staggered back a few steps, trying to keep my balance, but placing weight on the injured leg caused me to collapse. The sharp pain morphed into fire as if my leg were being burned. I turned to find blood trickling down my silver fur.
I’d been shot.
“We tried to do it the nice way.” Goatee squatted beside me and held his knife in front of my face.
“But you wouldn’t have that. So you’re forcing our hand… again.”
My heart hammered. Maybe they didn’t have to bring me in alive after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
M
y focus locked on the knife Goatee wielded in my face as my training kicked in. This guy was insane, and there was a glint in his eyes, informing me he loved the hold he had on me. He
placed the knife against my throat, letting it cut through my fur and slice my skin.
My skin burned, but that was the wake-up call I needed. He would hurt me little by little, which would lead to me losing my mind.
Fear could paralyze and make someone irrational, which meant if I didn’t get a hold of myself, I would be playing right into his hands.
I refused to do that.
To make it easier for him.
I had to make them pay for what they’d done. Being smarter than them shouldn’t have been hard. They relied on terror, weapons, and surprise attacks.
In my peripheral vision, I could see both Killian and Griffin holding their own, but we were each fighting multiple enemies. Goatee’s men outnumbered us by eleven, and the enemies were attacking Griffin and Killian in groups of five while four were locked on me. But that was both good and bad. Good because they thought we’d have backup imminently, so they wanted to end the fight quickly, and bad because they’d do whatever it took to end it as quickly as possible.
Goatee had to be my first priority. I needed to get out of his clutches to help my guys and the other guards who were on their way.
The other three men on me circled, watching their leader subdue me. Or so they thought.
“Don’t worry.” Goatee leaned forward like he was telling me a secret. “They won’t see us take you. We’ll knock them out before we drag you away. And we will kill them if we have to-if you don’t cooperate.”
Like hell that would ever happen. I refused to be a puppet in this sick game. But that was the problem. I had no damn clue what game they were playing, which put us at a disadvantage. Who was the man behind all of this who desperately wanted me as his own?
The knife slackened against my neck as Goatee turned his head to watch what was going on with Griffin and Killian.