A Rebel's Heart (6 page)

Pulling out her phone, she sent a one-word text to an untraceable cell.

Marco.

A few seconds later she got a reply.

Polo
.

Relief flooded her system and threatened to make her knees give out. She had to get a grip. The twins were safe and very smart. But still she insisted on the text codes for her own piece of mind.

Although Vance had just threatened her niece and nephew. At least that was what she took it for, a threat. Maybe he knew they were wolves. No. He’d never met—or even seen them.

She had to get out of Shield and disappear. Fall off the radar for good.

But how?

When she reached the lobby door, she jerked back as it flew open to reveal a large man with black hair and bright green eyes that bored into her as he moved forward. She sidestepped him, but he was too quick. He snaked one arm around her waist, drew her into the hard length of his side, while he held a gun straight out, and fired at everyone around them.

She screamed, but no one heard her over the gunfire. Shield soldiers came from the back offices, weapons drawn. Two more men stepped up beside her and her captor then rushed the wall of Shield soldiers, killing them with ease like trained assassins.

Christa twisted and kicked with no results. The man had a death grip around her waist. “Let me go. We don’t have money in here.”

He didn’t reply, which was no surprise to her. She didn’t expect him to.
Think, Christa
. She scanned the large lobby, and her heart ached for the men and women she’d worked with for the last eight years. They were giving it their all, but it wasn’t good enough. One by one, they fell.

And she was helpless, trapped in the arms of the murderer.

One of her captor’s allies, an auburn-haired man, advanced down the hall. He came back a few minutes later and said, “He’s not here.”

The man holding her firmly to his body growled. “Let’s go.” He shot the last soldier before turning her around to face him.

She gasped. No fucking way. He was a shifter.

The way his eyes reflected off the light told her that. Frantic, she shoved against his chest. He wouldn’t budge. “Let me go!”

He lifted a brow and studied her for a moment or two as though he was trying to read her mind or something. Oh, no he wouldn’t. She yanked her knee up and connected with his balls, hard. He cursed and let go of her as he doubled over.

She didn’t waste time. She ran for the door, only to skid to a halt as the auburn-haired man appeared in front of her. What the fuck? A teleporter? No, he hadn’t materialized in front of her. She’d seen it done before. Fucking shifter speed was what he’d used to reach her so fast.

Christa patted her hip. Damn. She’d left her gun in her car because it was always too tempting to shoot Vance if she took it into the meeting.

She tried to fake a left and then moved right to move around him when the other man gripped her by the arm. A sharp stick in the arm made her jerk. She peered at the man as he pulled a needle out of her arm.

Son of a bitch.

Her vision blurred, and her legs wobbled, no longer able to hold her up.

“Bastards,” she managed to say before everything went black.

****

“What the fuck did you do that for?” Hayden gritted out as he straightened, his balls still throbbing.

Damn female.

Kirk, the leopard sentry, capped the needle and slid it into a red plastic bag. “She’s a runner and a liability. Unless you preferred me to let her go, because I wasn’t going to be the next one she racked in the balls.”

Tanner, who was currently holding the female steady, bent to scoop her up in his arms, but Hayden sent him a warning growl and halted his brother. With a raised brow, Tanner waited for Hayden to hobble over and take the female from him.

Hayden led his brother to the Range Rover while Kirk stayed behind to wait on Blaine, the new leopard Alpha of Ashwood, to teleport in with another sentry to clean house. Blaine normally couldn’t teleport to a place he’d never been, but he could flash to someone who was linked to him. Kirk, as well as Tanner and Hayden, were tied to the leopard Alpha by a blood bond. So Blaine could teleport to them without effort.

It was a good thing too.

Hayden had left a mess of dead, mutant-infected humans in that office building.

He tossed the keys to Tanner and climbed into the back seat with the female. Before he settled himself in for the long drive back to North Carolina, he checked her pockets. He found a small zippered wallet and a cell phone. Opening the wallet, he smiled as he pulled out her driver’s licenses.

Christa Baker. Age thirty-nine.

He slid the card back inside the wallet then handed it to Tanner. “When we get to a secure place, call Dane and see what he can pull up on her.”

“Will do.” Tanner opened the console and tossed the wallet inside before starting the Range Rover.

Hayden slid her cell phone into his pocket and propped Christa up the best he could and fastened her seatbelt. He leaned his head back on the seat and closed his eyes. This had been one fucked-up operation. Not only had they failed to catch Vance, Marshal of the rogue Pack Onyx, but Hayden had stooped to a new low.

Kidnapping.

Good one, asshole
.

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From Carrie Ann Ryan’s Dante’s Circle series

His Choice

As the youngest son of Lucifer, Fawkes has long since known what paths his future could take. He could follow his father’s footsteps, stealing the souls of humans and slowly lose his own, or starve himself and wither away until he finds his true half and forms a bond that can not only save his life, but his soul.

Leslie Masterson’s life has been one torment after another. A submissive wolf, she’s tried to hide in the shadows of her Pack and find the will to live another day. After her brother—the man who has beaten her verbally and physically her entire life—is killed when he challenges the Alpha, Leslie finally sees a path to freedom.

It only takes one look between the two for them to know that they could be the answer to each other’s prayers, but some of the Pack isn’t ready to let Leslie go. It will take the strength of a fiery demon from hell and the love of a submissive wolf to overcome not only their past, but their chance at a future.

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From Rebecca Royce’s Fallen Alphas series

Alpha Rising

In the first book of her exciting new series, Rebecca Royce invites you to a world where the death of the Alpha Prime has left a vacuum in the power structure binding the packs together and the alphas of each werewolf pack are on the brink of war. Negotiations will take skillful handling, dominant strength, and the discovery of old bonds long forgotten.

A mechanic, the Philadelphia Alpha Travis Michaels understands how to keep his pack together and running smoothly despite the upheaval caused by the death of Lucian, the Alpha Prime. To that end, he makes regular visits to a little diner in New Jersey—a neutral ground where he and the Manhattan Alpha try to negotiate a peace. But the last thing Travis expected to find in the diner was a latent werewolf and his true mate…

Cursed with the worst luck when it came to men, Liliana Rouse is less than thrilled by Travis’ obvious interest even if he heats her blood and turns her inside out with lust. Her body, she’d long since learned, was not the best judge of character. But Travis awakens a longing in her she can’t deny, and when her apartment is firebombed and a second alpha sweeps her away, Liliana discovers a whole new world of danger and passion…