Page 10 of Rescued

Wolves.

Holy shit.

She edged closer to Switch. “Are those—are those shifters?” She’d heard rumors of them—people who could turn into animals—but she’d never quite believed it.

The leader snapped, “She knows about shifters? What is she?”

Oh, crap. Shifters were real, and these were them.

That was when things got really weird.

The leader leaned in and actually sniffed at her before turning to Switch accusingly. “She smells human.”

Breanna summoned up all her courage. “I am human.” She’d never expected to have to explain that to anyone—at least, not until the alien apocalypse happened. She added, “I’m a model.” Considering the way she looked right now, with specks of vomit crusted in her hair, she didn’t think anyone would believe that, so she added, “An aspiring one, anyway.”

They all looked at Switch, and back to her. The looks on their faces made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.

One of the guys said, “Okay, let me get this straight. He stole one of our helicopters to go out on a date? Why didn’t he take his own ride?”

Another one, dark and hard-eyed and even scarier than the rest, said, “Obviously, it was too small. Just like all the rest of his equipment.”

Some of the guys laughed—which did not make them any less terrifying. Even most of the wolves made little huffing growly noises, like they were laughing too.

Like they could understand. A chill went down her spine.

Switch flicked his gaze to the guy who’d made the ‘too small’ comment. His eyes had the same look as when he’d threatened to throw her out of the helicopter. “Shut up, Sanchez.”

The other guy growled. Like, an actual horror movie monster growl. Switch growled back.

Breanna really, really didn’t want to get in the middle of that, but Sanchez and the leader guy were not laughing at all, and if there was a fight to the death and Switch lost, she was toast. She said, “He saved my life.”

They all stared at her again, which didn’t get any less intimidating over time. All those scary eyes—not only the wolves’ eyes were golden. Some of the men’s were too.

The leader blew out a sigh, and pulled Switch off to the side. Breanna held her bag in front of her like a shield—not that it would help if the wolves attacked.

Luckily, the two men didn’t go far. Not even far enough that she couldn’t hear what they were saying. The leader said to Switch, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You’ve got to be crazy, bringing her here.”

Switch ran his hand through his hair. It was dark brown and wavy, and the wind blew strands in his face that he brushed back absently.

Like the others, he was sexy as hell. But he was a wolf, too, judging by the growl. Freaky.

He was saying, “Come on, Gunn. What else was I supposed to do? She was one of my ferry jobs for the Railroad. Her drop-off point was compromised and I don’t know if her contacts are even alive. We didn’t have enough fuel for me to be flying around the fucking country looking for a safe place to stash her.”

He glanced over at Breanna, and she pretended she wasn’t listening. “She doesn’t know where she is. If Thanatos is still concerned about secrecy, when we leave I can fly at night so she doesn’t see any landmarks.”

Oh, hell. They were at some kind of secret base. No wonder everyone was so hostile. Breanna clutched her bag tighter, wishing she’d never gotten into this. That she’d just had enough time to take what was in the bag and run away.

“Do we even know who’s after her?” Gunn said.

Switch shrugged. “I don’t ask. They tell me where to pick them up, and where to drop them off. The end.”

Gunn shook his head, looking annoyed. “You and your fucking pro bono work.”

So Switch wasn’t getting paid. Ha. She knew he was a decent guy, deep down. He’d even been nice—nice-ish—when she was throwing up her guts in the field.

Switch said, “Well, it’s my choice. I don’t work for you.”

“But you still feel free to use our equipment and get it shot full of holes.”