Blaze approached an open door and caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped and looked inside. It was a small office. Vincent Pierce, the event organizer, stood behind the desk, loading cash into a leather satchel. Pierce looked up, saw Blaze in the doorway, and ran out of the second exit.
Blaze’s wolf came up with such force, he couldn’t hold it back. The shift tore through him, and he ripped out of his clothes. He followed Pierce out the back door of the office on all fours. Pierce turned into a second corridor as Blaze’s jaws closed on the man’s thigh, his teeth biting through flesh and hitting bone.
Pierce screamed as he fell.
Another guard came around the corner with his weapon up and stopped when he saw Blaze in wolf form on top of Pierce. Dom and Andre came up behind the guard and put him on the ground.
Dom crossed to where Blaze had Pierce pinned and crouched beside him on the concrete. He pulled Pierce’s arms behind his back. The zip ties clicked. Pierce was breathing in short hard pulls, blood spreading through his thigh. Blaze let go, turned, and was running before Dom finished standing up. He had to find Stella.
The corridor stretched ahead of him. Stella’s maple and brown sugar scent pulled him toward the reinforced room at the end of the corridor. Then he heard a roar that shook the walls.
His mate.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Stella driftedin and out of consciousness on the concrete, losing track of how long she’d been there. When she came back to full awareness, she heard shouting somewhere in the building. The drug was working its way through her bloodstream, and the bear was close enough she could feel her. She heard banging. Boots scuffling past. A gunshot.
Something fluttered in her chest. It was a knowing that came up in her body before her mind found words for it.
Blaze.
He was in the building. She knew it the way she knew the shape of her own hand. He was coming for her. The fog burned off like a fever breaking. Her senses came back. The smell of the concrete sharpened. The sound of shouting clarified. The cold of the floor against her cheek went from numb to sharp.
She turned over and pushed herself up on her hands and knees. Her bear came up to meet her, and the shift overtook her fast. Her spine lengthened. The bones of her shoulders rotatedforward. Her arms thickened and her hands flattened against the concrete, her fingers thickening into paws.
Fur came up in a wave from her shoulders down her back and along her flanks. Her hind legs lengthened and her clothes tore at the seams, falling away. Her massive body filled the room, pressing her against the locked door.
She raised herself up onto her hind legs and threw her weight against the door. The frame buckled on the first hit, concrete dust coming down from the ceiling. She backed up and hit it again. The door tore off its hinges and crashed into the corridor.
The fluorescent lights were too bright in the hallway. She could smell guards running ahead of her and behind her. She could smell the women in the holding room down the corridor, frightened and drugged. She could smell Blaze moving toward her.
She turned her head and saw his wolf rounding the corner at the end of the corridor. Gray fur. Blue eyes. Blood on his muzzle that wasn’t his.
Mate.
He came to her at a run. He didn’t slow down until he reached her, and then he pressed his shoulder against her ribs and stood there with his side against hers. The mate bond passed between them, solid and warm and alive.
The bear and the wolf moved down the corridor side by side. He flanked left, and she held center. A guard came around the bend ahead of them with a pistol up. The color drained out of his face when he saw what was coming. He got one shot off into the ceiling before Stella hit him. He went down and didn’t get up.
A door cracked open to her right, and another guard tried to slip out. The wolf was on him before he cleared the threshold. The guard went down without a sound. A third tried to surrender at the next corner. His hands went up and his weapon fell to the floor. The wolf circled him and pushed him against the wall, teeth closing around his forearm. Footsteps came up the corridor behind them. Stella turned her head, and the wolf turned with her.
Hunter and Siren.
Hunter kneeled and zip-tied the surrendered guard’s hands. Siren stepped forward with her sidearm pointed down. She met Stella’s eyes.
“The women?”
Stella turned her head toward the bend ahead.
“Take me.”
Stella started off to the holding cells, Blaze beside her. Siren followed, weapon ready. Hunter stayed behind to handle the zip-tied guard. Around the bend, the holding room door was locked from the outside with a heavy slide bolt.
Stella rose up onto her hind legs, came down on the door, and the door came off its hinges into the room. The women inside scrambled back against the far wall. Their eyes had the dull look of people who had been drugged. One of them screamed when she saw the bear. Siren stepped past her into the room with her hands open and her weapon holstered.
“You’re safe. We’re Steel Protection. The police are right behind us. Stay where you are. We’re going to take care of you.”
