Page 72 of Colton’s Mate

In the distance she could hear people shouting and calling. They were getting closer.

“They’re on their way up,” Kitty reported. “Let’s get out of here.”

Brandon shook his head. “They went after my crew,” he said. His eyes were glowing feral green. “We’re finishing this.”

He led them down the short hallway to a high balcony, looking out over a huge stone cavern. Below them were a crowd of armed crow men; shifter crows were circling in the air.

When they caught sight of the crew, they folded their wings and dove. Brandon gestured and Titan moved to the front of the balcony, still holding Rohene—now with a knife to her neck.

Everything went quiet.

Brandon’s voice rang out through the cavern.

“Listen up, fuckers,” he snarled. “Because I’m only going to say this once.”

The crew raised their weapons.

“We don’t know where your shit is, and we don’t fucking care. We’re done with you—and you are absolutely done with my crew.”

One of the men below called, “Let go of the queen, or we’ll kill you all.”

Brandon moved his machine gun to point at the speaker. “I believe I was the one talking.”

He raised his voice. “From now on, you leave us alone. If you don’t, this can go one of three ways. One: we can tell the shifter council what you’ve been up to.”

Kitty said loudly, “Come on. That’s no fun. Then they get to kill everyone. And they won’t even let us watch.”

“Two,” Brandon said. “We can get our dragon friend Helo to burn this entire complex to slag with her fire. And trust me, if she has to fly all the way up here from Tennessee, she’s going to be in a grouchy damn mood.”

He paused. “Okay, well, she’s always in a grouchy mood. So, consider this place melted.”

The leader scoffed, “You’re bluffing. The Shifter Council won’t put up with that shit.”

“Oops, he’s right,” Kitty said to Brandon, still loud enough for everyone to hear. “We’ll have to get Kindra to do it.” To the crows she added, “She lives in an interdimensional space not under the jurisdiction of the Shifter Council, so…” She spread her arms. “Melted crow hideout, no consequences. Everyone wins.” She frowned. “Except you.”

Brandon said, “Three: we could just blow you into the next life with our own damn explosives. Which is the most fun option of the three, from our point of view.”

“You’ll never get away with that either,” said the leader.

Brandon looked at Kitty. She raised her enormous gun-thing and shot at the roof of the cavern. A fucking grenade burst out of it, hit the ceiling, and exploded. The crows ran for cover as dust and rubble rained down on them.

When the dust settled, Brandon said, “Or you can just leave us the hell alone forever and ever. Your call.”

A crow called out, “We don’t want to start a war.”

Brandon said, “Then we won’t have a problem.”

Someone else called, “We thought the lynx was a crow-follower.”

“Wrong,” Brandon said. “She’s a Wild Blood. Don’t forget it.” He turned to the crew. “Let’s go.”

Callie nudged Brandon. “What are you going to do with her?” She pointed to Rohene, still in Titan’s choking grip. She’d apparently recovered from the shock of what had happened in the spirit world, and her dark eyes were spitting fire.

Brandon looked at Titan. Titan looked at Brandon. Then he picked Rohene up and heaved her over the balcony.

They heard the shrieks of fury and alarm as they walked away.

“I love doing that,” Titan said.