Chapter Twenty-Seven
Colt
When Sky’s handsome face poke out of the hole, I exhaled sharply. When he finally stepped free of the shaft, I lowered the grate and wrapped him in my arms as I turned, trapping him against me and attacking his mouth. Knowing full well that I wasn’t adhering to the plan by molesting my Omega in the open, I dragged him with me, my hands cupping his ass to hold him to me as I backed into the trees, still plundering the treasure hidden behind his lips.
My Omega, my Sky, was back safe and – at least temporarily – all was right with the world.
At least, it was until I realized that he wasn’t responding to me.
“Sky?” I murmured in his ear, keeping my voice as low as possible. “What’s wrong? Are you injured?” I began to run my hands over him, searching for any sign of injury in the darkness.
“I’m fine,” he hissed back, planting his hands against my chest and shoving.
Taking the hint, I stepped back, but before I could ask anything else, the soft sound of a throat clearing accompanied by the hard jab of an elbow into my ribs brought me back to the present.
Right.
We were supposed to be hiding and a key part of that was keeping quiet.
I sighed and settled down into the brush beside Colby, watching with a frown as Sky picked his way to the other side of the group and leaned back against a tree next to Clint. My were snarled and tried to fight his way free at the sight. For the first time I understood Clint’s visceral reaction to having Trevor naked beside me in the truck after the auction. As I focused my energy on soothing the beast, I made a mental note to apologize to my brother for all the times I’d busted his balls over it.
Once the sun began to rise, we covered with ghillie sheets to maintain our cover and watched through slits in the fabric as cars began to drift into the parking lot a couple dozen feet to the south. When the lot was nearly full, Colby gave the signal and Bane crept out from under his camouflage sheet to reopen the grate.
I huffed out a breath as Colby began down the rope, followed immediately by his team. Bane’s biceps strained as he tried to hold the grate open, so I slipped up next to him and grabbed the other side.
Bane nodded his appreciation and I shrugged. After all, Sky and I were the victim retrieval team – we were supposed to be the last in anyway. Once Snake had shimmied down, there were only four of us left. Me, Sky, Bane and Stahl – two of Blood Valley’s top hand-to-hand fighters – whose job was to protect our exit as well as the victims we brought out.
When Colby’s whistle came, Sky stepped up, but I raised a hand.
“I go first.” When he opened his mouth to argue, I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s got you so pissed, but this isn’t the time and you are not in charge here. We don’t know for sure what we’re jumping into. I go down first and you wait for my call, understand?”
Sky scowled at me and I looked at Stahl. He groaned, but pulled out a spare set of restraints and hung them over his shoulder, his message clear. He didn’t want to tangle with a werewolf, but if I needed him to, he would. “I’ve got him.”
“Thanks.”
The trip to the bottom was a short one, and when my boots thudded against the floor, I grinned at the sight that met me. Colby, Clint, and Snake were already out of sight – working their way through the next floor, I assumed – and Fang was clapping restraints on a guard who was out cold.
I whistled up the shaft and stepped out of the way, making room for Sky to climb down. When he landed beside me, I was relieved that he seemed to have straightened his shit out.
“Which way?”
“Down this hall.” Sky gestured to the side but stayed where he was, waiting for me to lead the way.
I glanced over to Fang. He nodded. They’d already cleared that room, so I started forward. At the end of the hall was a heavy steel door with three deadbolt style locks on it, it was unlocked and propped open. Inside I could see small cells lining the walls, each one barely wide enough that I could have stretched my arms out without hitting the sides.
Shaking my head, I started to the back.
“We’ll work from the back to the front,” I muttered to Sky as I walked. “You get them out to the main room and Fang will help them up the rope. Once they’re up top, Bane and Stahl will take care of them.”
Sky noddedand we went to work. The first cage was easy – whoever had locked it, hadn’t closed it all the way, so it popped right open. As Sky led the small female out to Fang, he explained that we were rescuingher and I started working on the next cage.
The rescue was moving like swiss clockwork when Sky grabbed my wrist, stopping me when I reached the last one on the first wall. “Not that one.”
I raised a brow and looked in through the small window, understanding when I saw Poppy sitting on the cot, her brother sleeping on one jammed in next to it. We couldn’t be sure where her loyalties lay. “We’ll get them last.”
Sky nodded and I moved to the next wall, releasing the first three silently. When I got to the fourth cage, I clearly smelled Alpha.
I took a deep breath and pulled the door open to step inside.
