Alina couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her, so she had no idea where they were going. She only prayed they got there soon. Gas cylinders and fuel drums were exploding all over the place, puncturing the smoke with gouts of red and yellow flames. If they didn’t escape soon, this whole place was going to disappear.
Through watery eyes, she saw a patch of light ahead of them. She had half a second to remember the dirty windows covered with the security grating. Trevor didn’t even slow down. He simply tucked her to his chest and smashed his shoulder through the glass, metal screen and all.
They hit the ground outside, then rolled a few times before Trevor was up and running away from the building with her. They’d only gone about twenty or thirty feet before the warehouse blew outward, and a column of fire consumed the sky behind her.
Trevor didn’t stop running for at least five minutes, probably worried about hybrids coming after them. But when it appeared that wasn’t going to happen, he carefully lowered her to the ground and checked her urgently for injuries, his face so overwhelmed with concern she could have kissed him.
The hell with it.
Reaching up, she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and dragged his mouth down to hers. Trevor seemed surprised at first but must have decided that meant she was okay, because he let out a sexy growl and returned her kiss full force.
Pulling away, he looked at her seriously. “You really okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah, though maybe we should stop putting ourselves in positions where you have to keep saving my ass like that. Not that I mind being swept off my feet now and then, of course.”
He grinned. “I like saving your ass. It’s a nice ass.”
She laughed but then grew serious again. “I know you were busy, but did you hear what Wade said to me? It’s possible he was full of crap, but considering he probably thought we weren’t going to make it out of there, I don’t see why he would have bothered lying. I think he was serious. I think Thorn means to start a war.”
Chapter 16
It was getting dark by the time Trevor and Alina got to the address Adam had given them when Trevor called asking to meet with the reclusive shifter. Unlike the normal out-of-the-way places where they usually met, this one was bustling with people. Of all the places Trevor expected to meet Adam, an expensive loft-style apartment complex near the Navy Yard wasn’t one of them. As they walked in, something told Trevor this meeting was going to be different from the previous ones.
The first floor of the building looked like an office of some kind, complete with desks, leather couches for visitors, and potted plants. Trevor looked for a sign on the wall indicating what kind of business it was but didn’t see one. The employees—three men and a woman—looked up from their computers as Trevor and Alina entered. Trevor would never have known they were shifters if it wasn’t for the fact that—like Adam—they didn’t have a scent. He had heard Landon and Ivy refer to them as hidden shifters, because they could essentially hide in plain sight. While they possessed some level of animal ability, it wasn’t enough to put them on the DCO’s radar as potential agents. But they’d gained Adam’s attention and now worked for him.
The woman pushed back her chair. In her midtwenties, she had long, wavy, blond hair and gray eyes that looked like they’d seen way too much for her age.
“You must be Trevor and Alina,” she said. “If you’ll come this way, I’ll show you where you can wait. Adam will be with you soon.”
She led them down a hallway lined with small offices, storerooms, and corkboards filled with worker’s comp disclaimers and work schedules that Trevor suspected were there more to make this place look like an actual company than anything else.
He picked up the scent of his fellow shifters long before the girl opened the door to the room at the far end of the hall, so he wasn’t surprised to see Ivy and Landon; Ivy’s sister and fellow feline shifter, Layla, and her boyfriend, Jayson; Clayne and Danica; the newest DCO agent, former Special Forces soldier Angelo, and his fiancée/partner, Minka, the hybrid Thorn’s doctors had created using Ivy’s DNA; feline shifter Dreya Clark and her partner/boyfriend, Braden Hayes, a former detective from the Washington burglary squad; and finally Declan and Kendra and their newborns. Even Tanner and Zarina were in attendance.
“Are you going to introduce me?” Alina whispered.
Trevor grinned. Despite the fact that the proverbial shit was about to hit the fan, he was damn glad to see everyone alive and in one piece. “Yeah. Come on.”
Taking her hand, he led her into the room with its pool table, big-screen TV, more video game consoles than he’d ever seen in once place, and gigantic sectional couch and made the introductions.
Trevor didn’t miss the knowing look Ivy and the other shifters gave him. They almost certainly smelled his scent on Alina and hers on him. Not that Trevor cared if anyone knew he and his partner were sleeping together. Everything that happened at the warehouse only reinforced the connection between him and Alina. The entire time he’d been fighting Jake and the two hybrids, all he could think about was Alina’s safety. She was quickly becoming the most important thing in his life.
“When did you guys become partners?” Landon asked. A former captain in the Army Special Forces, he’d taken on a leadership role the day John had recruited him into the DCO.
“About a week ago,” Trevor said.
No one seemed surprised by that. Each of them had fallen for their significant others just as fast.
Ivy smiled. “Well, it’s good to see that you two are working out so well together. Though I’m not sure how Ed and Jake are going to take that.” She must have seen Trevor wince, because her eyes filled with concern. “What’s wrong? They’re okay, aren’t they?”
Alina exchanged looks with Trevor. “It’s complicated,” she said. “It might be better if we wait until Adam gets here to explain it.”
Since Adam didn’t show up on cue like Trevor hoped, he used the time to catch up with everyone. The most shocking thing was learning Kendra had given birth to the twins while a gunfight had raged a few feet away.
“I helped deliver them,” Tanner said proudly as Alina fussed over Noah and Chloe.
Trevor did a double take at that.
