“I’m picking up a lot of that muddled scent you described to me earlier so I’m assuming that means skinwalkers are in there. But I’m not familiar enough with his scent to confirm if Strickland is one of them. All I can say for sure is that there are more than we thought. I’d say at least six of them, maybe more.”
Carter cursed.
From the corner of his eye, he could see that Trey was concerned too. With the four escapees they’d already dealt with, everyone had been praying they’d only have to fight Strickland and the last three spawn. But Kamden had apparently been right about Strickland creating more.
They found Mike and Hale kneeling in the heavy shadows under a stand of scraggy pines. Their pack mates were staring intently toward the west side of the manor and the row of tall windows set into the stone wall. Carter was stunned they were still intact after all these years.
While he could just make out people moving inside the dimly lit room, he couldn’t see the pool from this angle. Then he saw the spawn herding a gaggle of people toward one end of the large room, where they disappeared down below the level of the windows.
“Crap,” Hale murmured. “They’re putting people into the empty pool. It’s exactly like Kam described and it’s starting now.”
“We need to move,” Carter said urgently, trying to get a different angle to locate Hadley in the crowd of people going into the pool. “We can charge the windows and smash our way through.”
It was Mike’s hand on his shoulder that stopped him this time. “I understand what you’re saying, but that won’t work. There’s too much open space and there are too many of them facing this direction. They’ll see us coming, even as fast as we can move. They could kill every one of the hostages before we even reach the windows, much less the people in the pool.”
Carter felt his omega stir a little, but it must have realized Mike was right. The urge to rush in blindly began to fade as quickly as it started. It was still shocking that his omega seemed to be deferring to him.
“What do we do then?” he asked.
He needed Mike to make this call. No matter how much it hurt to accept that.
Mike glanced at the manor again, his gaze drifting up to the crenelated roof line and its position right above the windows. Then his eyes slid to the left, narrowing at something he saw in that direction.
“We can climb up that corner section to the north, get up to the roof, rappel down, and come in through the windows,” Mike said. “They won’t see us until we’re already in the room with them.”
Carter looked through the windows, trying to find Hadley, alarmed that he still couldn’t see her. It would take way too long to get onto the roof and set up their rappelling gear, but it was a good idea, even with the delay.
Edging backward with a nod, Carter turned and headed away from the manor at a jog until he was deeper in the trees and undergrowth. Then he turned north and took off at a dead run. Hearing the others behind him, he didn’t slow until he reached the northernmost corner that Mike had pointed out.
Carter paused a second, eyeing the construction, taking in the way every other cornerstone jutted out slightly, providing a series of handholds they’d be able to use to climb the building. He didn’t hesitate, sliding his M4 carbine over his shoulder to hang down his back by the sling strap, then stepping forward to start climbing.
As he moved quickly up the wall, his fingers squeezing the top edges tightly, he refused to think about falling. That would only make him climb more slowly and he didn’t have time for that.
Hadley didn’t have time for that.
On the edges of awareness, Carter heard Knox’s voice coming over his earpiece, saying that he, Turner, and the rest of the marshals had arrived. Carter didn’t pay much attention as Mike filled them in on on the situation and directed them to find a way in from the east so they could help any of the hostages that fled that way when the four of them came crashing through the windows.
Carter reached the roof faster than he expected. Once there, he raced for the part directly above the swimming pool area. Dropping his backpack, he dug out his rappelling gear, harness first, then gloves, carabiner, and rope. He got the gloves and harness as fast as he could, barely remembering to double-check all the straps and buckles as he connected his carabiner. Looking around, he decided the parapet crenelations would be the best place to tie off his rappelling rope.
He was only halfway through that process, Mike and the other guys following suit when he heard the first scream. More quickly followed, sounds of pure terror filling the night.
Carter’s omega reared up as if it could discern Hadley’s terrified voice among all the others.
“You have to let me stay in control,” he whispered to his omega, begging that it would listen even as he climbed up on the parapet and started hooking into his rope. “Our mate dies if you take over.”
His omega settled immediately even as Mike called out to Knox and Turner, telling them to move as fast as they could, that there was no time to wait for them to get into position.
Carter stepped back until he was leaning out at a forty-five-degree angle on the wall. Then he looked right and left, finding his pack mates lined up with him. As the screaming below reached a crescendo, he jumped off the wall hard, releasing his grip on the lower end of the rappelling line at the same time.
The rope burned his hands through the leather of the gloves as he sailed out away from the wall, dropping in a big pendulum swing at the same time. Training and instinct had him jerking the lower rope upward at the right time, which slowed his descent and caused him to swing back toward the wall.
The moment his boots hit the wall somewhere around the third floor, Carter relaxed his knees into the impact, then he was kicking off, releasing the lower rope and dropping again.
As his swing began to take him back toward the manor, Carter turned his body so he was almost sideways, getting an arm up in front of his face and bracing for impact right before he smashed through the window he’d been aiming for. Glass shattered all around him as his pack mates hit their windows, all four of them dropping to the marble floor along the edge of the pool at nearly the same time.
The scent of his soul mate immediately filled his nose, relief flooding through him at the knowledge that she was here. His omega perked up but once again seemed willing to cede control to Carter.
Shaking his head to clear any broken glass from his hair, Carter opened his eyes to see way too many of Strickland’s spawns already charging toward him and his pack mates. Where the hell had he gotten so many?
