“Care to explain what’s going on?”
“What’s going on, wolf,” the blue-haired passenger drawled, “is your pack has pissed off the Order and the underworld of this city. Quite a feat. You’ve only been here a few months.” She sounded impressed.
Lukas was shocked to hear a young feminine voice that matched what he’d heard in his head. “You said I’d die if I got on that plane.”
“Yes, it’s rigged to explode in a few hours when it’s over the Pacific.
“And how do you know that? What about the pilot?”
She flicked her hand, a lollipop held between her fingers. “The pilot will be fine. And I know because I’m the one who was hired to sabotage it.”
Lukas instinctively reached for a gun that was currently several thousand feet in the air, silently cursing himself for being so careless. He had a small combat knife tucked into a boot sheath, but doubted he would get far with it. Tight, cramped spaces against three opponents in a moving vehicle when he smelled guns on at least two of them would be a challenge, but if this was really Ghost’s team, they were here to help him. Unless they were playing both sides. This was why there weren’t many mages he trusted; the Order always got to them eventually.
The SUV reached the highway and picked up enough speed that even he was leery of jumping. Shifter healing would keep him alive, but he risked being incapacitated long enough they could grab him again. And road rash was a bitch.
The woman shifted in her seat, turning and leaning over the center console to face him, lollipop back in her mouth as she propped her chin on her fist. She tucked her sucker into her cheek. “Relax. If I wanted you dead, why would I have gotten you off the plane?”
“Why don’t you want me dead?”
“Honestly, whether you live or die is irrelevant to me. But Adams called in a favor and made a few promises.” She studied him as she shifted her hand to twirl the stick of her lollipop a few times before pulling it free, pointing it at Lukas. “Ghost, at your service.”
He couldn’t help his snort of disbelief. She couldn’t have been much older than seventeen, and the Ghost had been around for decades.
She narrowed her eyes at him, lifting her chin. “I could always toss you in the ditch. Leave your pack to be annihilated.”
Lukas opened his mouth to ask how old she was before his sense of self-preservation kicked in. “You’re not old enough.”
She smirked at him as if knowing exactly what he’d meant to say. “I’m older than I look.”
“There’s no way you took down the Russian government when you were seven or eight years old.”
“True. I looked the same then as I do now. Except for the hair.”
“How?” There was no way. Mage lifespans might be longer than normal humans, but they still aged noticeably in ten years.
With a thick Russian accent, she replied. “Even most strong defense crumble before beautiful woman.” Then she batted her lashes and curled her tongue around her sucker in a way that made him feel skeevy.
“Please stop,” he said with a grimace.
She turned back around with a cackle, muttering something in Russian he was sure was derogatory.
Lukas reached for his phone before tipping his head back with a groan when he remembered that was gone too. “I need to call my alpha.”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
Ghost let out an exaggerated sigh. “The Order is calling in favors to ensure you’re dead. What do you think they’re going to do when your alpha doesn’t react to the news and they realize you’re still alive? Theonlyreason they haven’t abducted all of you is your military connections. And the fact Max is legally outside of their grasp.”
Lukas flexed his fingers when his claws dug into his flesh and drew blood. He took several deep breaths before he could retract his fangs and claws. He suspected Rían’s wards and protections also had something to do with the Order not trying to take Max directly. He could only hope the Order couldn’t trace the wards back to the mage.
“I’m not going to sit with my thumbs up my ass while the Order comes after my pack.”
“Of course not,” she scoffed. “You’re going to help me finally get my revenge. Starting with Helga Fuchs.”
“And who the hell is that?”
“The bitch who made me,” Ghost replied brightly.
