Page 62 of Titan’s Mate

Jax growled. “You’re not in a position to negotiate.”

“I will be soon. We have a dragon on the way.”

Jax hesitated, obviously trying to figure out if this was a ploy. There were more gunshots from outside. Finally the panther said, “If this isn’t done by the time he gets here, I will kill her.”

Titan repeated, “I’m keeping one artifact. Or you get fried by the dragon. Now tell your people outside to stand down, and I’ll do the same.”

Jax stared at him for a long, long minute, then gave a jerky nod to one of the other soldiers. “Tell them.”

The man spoke into his radio. “Hold fire.”

Titan immediately said into the comms, “Remy, they’re standing down. Unless you’re attacked, do the same. They’re holding Mari hostage until I give them the treasure. Stay out of here. Tell the others.”

There was an excruciating silence, and then Remy’s voice came back. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

He did too.

Titan went back into the closet, and Jax dragged Mari over where he could watch the proceedings. One of his guys kept his gun pointed at Titan, while the other covered Jaeda.

Titan laid his hands on the floorboards and chanted the counterspell under his breath. The protection spell dissipated.

He yanked up the floorboards with brute strength. Inside the compartment were weapons, bundles of cash, and small wooden chests that Titan knew contained gold from his clan. There was also a polished wooden box that pulsed with magic.

He opened it up and found the artifact he was looking for. A small gold statue of a sleeping bear, with a curled-up human woman tucked into the curve of its body.

Jax snarled again, and Titan just impaled him with what Remy called his serial-killer look.

“This. One. Thing. Or I swear on the blood of my clan, not a single one of you will leave here alive.”

Jax subsided, and Titan pocketed the artifact. “The rest of it is yours,” he said. “And if you hurt Mari, I will hunt you down, kill you, and feed you to the demons, just like I did your alpha.”

Jax and his soldier pulled back to let Titan out of the closet. He moved away from the entrance, not taking his eyes off Mari.

Jax’s men gathered up everything out of the vault, using old blankets for bags. Titan kept his gaze on Mari and Jax the whole time. As they prepared to leave, Titan said into the comms, “Brandon, the panthers are leaving. They have money and artifacts. I told them the Wild Bloods wouldn’t stop them.”

He hoped Brandon would get his message. Jax and his panthers could keep the money, as far as he was concerned, and they could escape if they wanted. But the Draken artifacts were too dangerous to let loose in the world.

Brandon said, “Put on your radio.” Titan slowly raised his hand to hit the button.

Brandon’s voice came into the room. “Jax, Fierro here. As alpha, I agree to your terms. As long as you harm no one, you and your men are free to go without interference from my crew.”

Titan relaxed a fraction at the last words. Tyr wasn’t part of Brandon’s crew, and so he wasn’t part of the guarantee. He’d get the artifacts back.

Jax’s men climbed out the broken windows with their loot. When they were outside, Jax said, “Your fucking alpha better keep his word.”

“If you don’t let go of my mate in the next five seconds, I will rip you to pieces.”

Jax gave Mari a mighty shove, went panther and leaped through the window.

But Mari hadn’t been prepared for a full-strength panther shove. She stumbled across the room, tripped over a broken chair leg and fell. Titan lunged for her, but missed her by inches, and her head hit one of the solid wood columns on the four-poster bed with an audible crack.

He gathered her up, running his hands over the side of her head. It was bleeding like a bitch, and he was afraid there was a skull fracture.

“Brock! Get in here now!” he yelled into the comms, and then spoke gently to his mate.

“Mari? Mari, love, open your eyes. Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

She stirred in his arms, and relief flowed through him. She opened her eyes.