“Sorry—”
Rafe grabbed his hand and kept it pinned where it was before he could pull away. “Never apologise for being your truest self,Adri. I love watching you settle into who you were always meant to be. Just like I love feeling your claws claiming my skin.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Adri huffed, ignoring his jaguar’s protest in the back of his mind that it was exactly what they were doing and how much better his scent stuck to their mate when he implanted it with his claws.
“We’re almost to our staging point,” Rafe said, gesturing to a darkened warehouse ahead that Adri recognised as one of the venues for their fights.
The fighting ring that operated throughout the city provided excellent cover for Marco to acquire property in other territories, he realised. Then he shook his head and told himself to focus. He didn’t need to be trying to familiarise himself with Marco’s methods and strategies. No matter what Rafe said about him becoming part of his inner circle.
Rafe pulled the SUV right through the large doors and into the darkened building. Adri blinked in surprise as they crossed the threshold and light flooded over them to reveal half a dozen other vehicles parked neatly in the space and a group of predatory-focussed shifters standing around a table in the centre.
“What the fuck?” Where had they all come from?
Rafe parked the vehicle and reached over to undo Adri’s seatbelt for him while he stared around in surprise before kissing the scruff on his jaw. “Rocco is an expert in glamour and illusion. You wouldn’t have noticed after your fight with the feral fighter, but Rocco used his magic to keep the whole place and all the crowd fleeing from drawing police attention. He’s one of themost powerful air witches in the country. We’re lucky to have him.”
He’d known being involved with Rafe and his pack was going to be next level, but this really hit it home. What was he thinking, trying to fit in with these people?
“We wouldn’t even know where to look without your help, Adri. You belong here as much as anyone. You belong with me,” Rafe murmured, somehow picking up on the thoughts he hadn’t expressed.
For a split second, Adri considered leaving. Then he realised that would mean relying on someone else to watch Rafe’s back. That wasn’t something he was willing to do.
“Whatever. Let’s do this already,” he said, stepping out of the car.
Adri hung back as the pack discussed how they’d go about breaching the location of the tracker, not willing to draw any more attention to himself.
“The building is a decommissioned office block. Four levels and a basement carpark,” Marco said.
“Our scan shows one guard on the main entrance, one on the carpark elevator, and half a dozen people concentrated on the second floor,” Rocco added.
“The limited number of people suggests either this isn’t a significant location, or they’ve already mostly cleared out,” Marco continued. “None of our magical or technical scans suggest the building itself has been wired with explosives, but given the D-2S history, we have to assume the occupants might be. There’s also a chance the people here are justfighters associated with the ring and don’t know anything about the group. Given the variables, I want to send Rafe in first, undercover as a doctor visiting, and see if we can avoid triggering an incendiary response that would destroy any intel.”
“No!” Adri growled before he could stop himself.
They could send his mate alone into a building filled with terrorists over his dead body.
CHAPTER 12: RAFE
Marco’s eyesflashed gold as he glared at Adri over the table, and it was all Rafe could do not to step between them.
“Watch your tongue, Carter. I’m not going to send him alone. You’re going with him,” Marco said.
Rafe suppressed a growl. He didn’t know which was worse—leaving Adri behind to deal with the pack without him and risk him pissing off his Alpha, or bringing him into the middle of a potential terrorist cell that had already ambushed him once.
“They’ll recognise the two of them as associated with the pack,” Luca pointed out, glancing up from his computer. “I can’t hack anything to stop them recognising their faces.”
“Iwantthem to know they’re pack. Rafe will tell them we’re more concerned about the recent deaths than the existence of the fighting ring, and that the cost of their continued operation is submitting to a medical check by us. If they’re not associated with the D-2S, the fact that it’s the doc visiting and not an enforcer should head off any violence and give you a chance to scope things out. He’s the closest thing we have to a peacefulenvoy. If things go south, the rest of us will be right here as backup. Rocco can keep us hidden under a glamour near the entrance. Rafe and Adri are more than capable of holding their own long enough for us to get there.”
Unless someone exploded. Or opened fire with silver nitrate bullets. Or they all turned feral. There were so many ways this could go wrong, but Marco’s plan was the best option they had, given the history of how quickly any sources of information died when the D-2S realised they were under threat.
“They already ambushed Adri once. Why risk sending him in at all?” Rafe said, sparking a huff of frustration from his mate.
“There’s a big difference between luring a solo fighter into an ambush and attacking someone who walks up to the door representing the Lunettis. They’re not going to risk pissing me off. And if I keep him here, he’s going to charge in to rescue you the second something feels off. I can’t afford to be distracted containing a pissed-off jaguar,” Marco said.
“Fucking hell. I can control myself,” Adri snapped.
“Not when those instincts you’re so set on ignoring are riding you hard. You’re best-placed to recognise the fighters and what’s going on with them in there. Would you really rather stay behind?” Marco asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No. I’m not leaving the doc unprotected. Can we get on with this already?” Adri said, his sullen voice belied by his keen predatory focus as he shifted his weight to the balls of his feet like he was prepping for a fight.
