“Don’t start,” Trevor growled at Connor as he stopped and let Kat catch up. “She refused to stay behind, and she would have followed on her own if we left her at the truck. Argue with her about it later if you want.”
Regardless of Trevor’s advice, Connor would have started arguing with Kat on the spot, but just as he opened his mouth to tell her to go back to the safety of his truck, the front door of the farmhouse burst open. He growled low in frustration as a group of people in dark cloaks came out the door. Connor grabbed Kat and pulled her with him behind a dark SUV. The rest of his teammates barely got out of sight before seven adults and three teenagers stepped onto the gravel, heading toward an unmarked panel van. Connor picked up four distinctly masculine scents, three that seemed to be feminine. Nothing he could smell suggested any of them were supernatural, which he wanted to think was a good thing.
The kids had sacks pulled down over their heads, but even then, Connor could tell they were terrified. The scent of fear was rolling off them in waves as their captors shoved them toward the van.
Connor gestured at Kat to stay behind the SUV, even though he had little hope that she’d do it. Then he started moving around the vehicle, motioning to his teammates as he went, knowing the only way they were going to save those kids was to hit the bad guys before they realized anyone was there.
He reached the rear of the SUV, pulling his weapon from its holster as he poked his head around to get a good look at who they were up against. He relaxed a little when he noticed that none of the people were carrying weapons that he could see. But then again, all of them were wearing heavy cloaks that hung down almost to the ground, some with cowls pulled up to cover their heads. They could be hiding almost anything under those cloaks. He stepped out from behind the SUV, quietly closing the distance between him and the people about to herd the three teenagers into the van.
Connor was still a few yards away when one of the cloaked figures suddenly spun around, almost as if they’d heard him coming, as impossible as that seemed. He had a second to realize the person was a woman before her hand came up in a blatantly aggressive move that could only mean a gun barrel would soon be pointing his way.
Connor lifted his own weapon, ready to shoot, only to hesitate when he realized the woman’s hand was empty. But then she thrust her palm toward him, sending him flying backward across the parking lot and feeling like he’d just been kicked in the chest by a horse the size of a truck. He had a single heartbeat to wonder what the hell had happened, then he was smashing into the side of the metal shed and hurting way too much to worry about anything else.
Shouts and gunfire filled the air before Connor hit the ground. He rolled over, groaning in pain as his ribs creaked, looking up to see that everything had gone to crap. Trevor, Hale, and Rachel were trying—and failing—to reach Addy and the other teens.
As he shoved himself upright, checking to make sure he still had his gun at the same time, he saw Hale being picked up and thrown through the air, without anyone ever physically touching him. If Connor’s trip across the parking lot hadn’t been a dead giveaway, then seeing the same thing happen to Hale confirmed it. The people in the cloaks were magic users like Kat.
Connor couldn’t say he was surprised. He supposed a part of him had expected something like this from the moment Kat had dropped her big secret on them.
He started to move in Hale’s direction, wanting to check and make sure his pack mate was okay, but then he saw one of the cloaked figures heading straight for Kat.
Instinct made Connor turn and run in her direction as fast as his battered body could take him, his weapon coming up to point at the center of the big man’s chest. But before he could even consider squeezing the trigger, the man turned his way and gestured with his hand, ripping Connor’s weapon out of his grip and sending it disappearing somewhere in the darkness.
Connor didn’t slow down. Instead, he let his anger and concern for Kat wash over him, claws and fangs extending, the muscles of his body twisting and spasming so hard, he thought for a moment that he would drop onto his hands and knees and start the full shift into his wolf form, something he’d never come close to doing before.
He had a second to wonder why the hell his body had chosen that particular moment to try a full shift when a loud roaring sound made him jerk his head up to see a ten-foot-high wall of flames rolling toward him. He barely had time to dive to the ground, burying his face and hands in the gravel as the fire raced over him like a living thing, grasping and tearing at him before billowing up into the sky.
Connor rolled over, expecting another wall of flames to be coming his way, but instead he found Kat standing between him and the big man in the cloak, her hands up and that wall of fire he’d been worried about writhing in midair mere inches away from her outstretched palms.
For a moment, he was too stunned to move as he watched the raging, roaring flames obey Kat’s unspoken commands. But then he saw how fast she was waning, exhaustion quickly overtaking her. She’d been wiped out and dizzy before getting here. He had no idea how she was even keeping herself upright.
With a snarl, he charged the big warlock, closing the distance between them in a few strides and not slowing in the least before slamming into the man at full speed. He doubted the body-jarring impact hurt the guy very much, but it definitely distracted him enough to force him to break off his attack on Kat, the flames disappearing into thin air.
He and the warlock tumbled over and over, Connor twisting around until he was on top of the man, clawed hand swinging back to strike. But he never got a chance to deliver the punch before a savage thump of pressure to his chest sent him flying backward once again. When he hit the ground this time, he was sure he’d cracked some ribs. Well, more ribs, actually, since the impact with the work shed had probably damaged a few already.
By the time Connor got to his feet, the big guy he’d tackled was gone, the three kids were already in the van, and the door was sliding closed. Rachel and Trevor charged in from the side to run after them only to get tossed aside, too. Both of them ended up going right through the windows of the farmhouse and slamming into a few interior walls by the sound of it.
The van kicked up gravel as it spun out of the parking lot. Even though Connor knew he was too late, he ran after it anyway.
Then Kat jumped in front of it, raising a hand and staring down the driver like she honestly thought that would do something besides get her killed.
The van didn’t slow.
Cursing, Connor changed direction, heading straight for Kat instead, getting there when the van was only inches away and tackling her before she got run over.
He tried to protect Kat as they landed, but he’d been running at full speed when he hit her, and the impact was vicious. He heard the airwhooshfrom her lungs, and he was sure he’d hurt her. When they rolled to a stop, he cradled her as gently as he could in his arms, looking for obvious injuries.
Kat waved him off, pushing his hands away as he tried to check her ribs. “Go after the kids. They’re getting away.” When he hesitated, she gave him a shove. “I’m okay. Go!”
Connor didn’t want to leave her, but he did, forcing himself upright to sprint after the van as fast as he could.
The van with the teens inside had been joined by two of the large SUVs that had been parked in front of the farmhouse, and now, all three were tearing across the rough farm property, heading for the road near the place where he and Trevor had left their vehicles.
Movement to his left let him know one of his pack mates had caught up to him. He didn’t have to look to know it was Hale. Connor assumed that Trevor and Rachel were still trying to extricate themselves from the inside of the house.
The rough terrain of the open field slowed the three vehicles a bit, allowing Connor and Hale to close the gap between them. The two SUVs suddenly slowed then, and Connor could only guess that he and Hale had been spotted. The SUVs were probably falling back to serve as a rear guard, purely to keep them from getting at the van and the kidnapped teenagers.
“We’ll have to take out those SUVs first before trying for the van,” Hale yelled. “And we need to make it fast. If they reach the highway, we’ll never be able to keep up.”
