It was stupid on her part to believe that it could work, that her mother wouldn’t recognize the password from so long ago and realize what the date corresponded to, choosing to change it the moment that Joseph had left, but it worked.Much to her surprise, it worked.
It worked, and with no time to spare, intention heavy in their bones, Ryan and El ran, leaving out the door and taking off into the hallway, both of their minds blank until, at the last moment, Ryan seemed to remember that there was one person they would be leaving behind.
The one who, under any and all circumstances, he could not afford to leave behind.
“Adam,” Ryan realized at the last moment, roaring his brother’s name and leaving El with no choice but to follow as he tore off into the hallway, shooting off towards the kitchen without another thought in sight.
Chapter20
Time moves slowly when hiding, Marcus admitted to himself, though he scarcely wanted to admit such a thing.It seemed that the longer that they stayed out of sight, listening to Annabel speak, the more that she dragged it out, her voice carrying on and on as she went about her plan, sending his blood igniting and forcing the man to hold his jaw shut.But for all that the beast inside of him wanted to set out and roar forward, teaching her a lesson for speaking about his mates and his brothers in such a way, Marcus was able to hold it in.
Actually, he was capable of holding in more than just his own beast, setting a hand on Trip's shoulder and holding him back as well with a warning stare, making it more than clear to his brother-in-mating that under no circumstances was he to shift.The very last thing they needed was him going off the cuff and alerting everyone to the fact that they were there.But what Marcus hadn’t accounted for at the end of the day was Shawn—largely because he thought that he didn’t have to.
Regardless of whether or not he had previous hunter ties, Marcus couldn't deny that Shawn was a reasonable man, hardly one to act irrationally in any situation.He had the mind of a soldier, and he knew just how important moments like these were.If Marcus had to make an assumption about the situation, he never would have guessed that Shawn would be the one to jump forward, finally losing his temper and springing out of the closet in a flurry.That just didn't make sense to him.
It should have been Trip, who was younger, who had a loss of impulse control every now and again.But it wasn't.
And maybe, in its own way, it was for the best that it was Shawn, considering the fact that he was a panther and not an obvious part of the pride.It would be harder for the hunters to find him when they reviewed the footage when they realized what had happened and how Annabel had led her sons into a room devoid of weapons, one where they were put in danger, without her really realizing it.
Of course, at the end of the day, that meant that it was the Pantera problem, which probably wasn't something that they wanted to deal with, considering they weren't the ones springing into action in a hunter’s home, having broken in and everything.But, though Marcus considered himself to be mature and one of the older members of the pack, he couldn't help but be thankful for the fact that it was Shawn.
Anything to buy time for the pride compound at the end of the day.
And, perhaps more importantly to Marcus, though he would hardly admit it to anyone if they were to ask, anything to buy time for his mate and his child.Yes, the Pantera would suffer as a result of these irrational actions, but Marcus was willing to choose his own family over them.
He was selfish like that.He always had been.
He had always been a believer in karma as well, which was why he was glad that when he opened the door ever so slightly more, he saw that Annabel’s sons had run, leaving her to roll on the ground and face the beast from her nightmares as he mauled her face.But Shawn only had a few good seconds before the boys returned, very obviously with guns in hand, and if Shawn thought that Marcus would see him shot that day?He was wrong.
Regardless of his past, regardless of the burning hatred that Marcus had felt for him only moments earlier, he wouldn't see him dead.He had to save him.
That was why, using all of the power in his body and immediately regretting it, Marcus lunged forward, exerting the strength of a lion for just a second as he gripped the back of Shawn’s neck, tearing the panther back as it howled within his grasp, shooting him a glare and hardly understanding why it couldn't continue mauling Annabel.
“We need to go,” Marcus spat, and yet that still felt like an understatement.They didn't just need to go.They needed to be out of there about half an hour ago.Actually, they all needed to be out there.But he could hardly think of a way that they were going to get out just yet as he dragged Shawn into the hallway, hardly allowing the man the opportunity to shift as he turned his head both ways and tried to find an escape.Undoubtedly, most of the doors were locked, and undoubtedly, there was no clear route outwards.
But then, Trip just had to be just as beautiful and cunning as he always was and make that giant grin blossom across Marcus's features.Because Trip didn't believe in waiting for things to happen to him no, he was never one to sit and wait.He made rash decisions, and while that wasn’t always the best move, in this case, it most definitely was.
Seeing as how there were two men who were going to be running on marble tiles to the nearest room that they knew to contain weapons, Trip made the most rational decision he would make in his entire life.He took one look at the wall beside him, and he saw the big red lever that was sitting there.Without a second thought, perhaps because he heard the rustling of doors opening down the hallway, Trip drove forward and pulled the fire alarm down just as Annabel began to get to her feet, almost spotting who it was that had attacked her, at least until Trip jerked backward and jammed the door shut, much to the woman's howls.
“Oh, these fuckers are about to be a slip and slide,” Trip noted to himself with a grimace as he regarded the halls, but Marcus could but turn to his brother with a massive grin on his face.
“Bad for aim,” Marcus proclaimed, and even though he could tell that Shawn wanted to argue, the man sighed on the ground as he pulled himself up, just barely catching himself so that he didn’t fall against the marble tiles.
“Very, very bad for aim,” Shawn said, and Marcus could tell that if he had any more energy, he probably would have said a lot more.He probably would have noted that the whole covert part of their operation was definitely ruined and that now everyone knew that they were there.But, since shifting tended to take a lot out of a man, Shawn did no such thing, instead flinching at the blood that he saw on his hands and wiping them off on his pants before nodding his head in a direction down the hallway while making eye contact with the other men.“This way,” Shawn stated, and the men followed without question, knowing that they had only a few minutes to get out of there at the most.
Unbeknownst to just about everyone, while they were doing that, another man was having a very different experience that day.
Chapter21
Adam was having a day.
Not an interesting day, not a boring day, but just a day.One that had started rather early, curling into his mate’s side and scenting her as he always did to see if she was finally pregnant, only to find that they still had not been gifted by the mother.Not yet, but that didn't mean that they couldn't keep trying.
It had been a disappointment, to say the least, one that had stung as he had woken up and gone to the kitchen, only to see his niece giggling there, reminding him of all the things that he wanted, but Adam was capable of moving past it.After all, at the end of the day, he had a mate, and that was something to be glad for.Though, in time, his triad would likely rejoin him, and they too would want to know about the young woman who he had found for them, a thought that made the typical bubble of jealousy blossom in his chest, but…
Well, until they bothered to show up, he was able to bury himself in Willow and enjoy their time together, not envying his brother in the slightest as his brother struggled to share his mate with several other people.Why the mother had willed lions to operate in triads when it came to mating, Adam would never know.It seemed cruel in his mind.But, if he was only allowed to have Willow just because he was in a triad, he would settle for it.
And then, the news had come that his day with his mate was cut short.
