Page 19 of Wild & Wanted

Wolf chuckles and kisses me so sweetly, nibbling on the bottom lip before pulling away. "Yeah, it was." He rests his head on my shoulder, placing reverent kisses there before taking a deep breath. “You’re amazing, you know that? Not just because of what we just did,” he adds, lifting his head to grin at me. “But because of who you are. I want all of you, always. I love you, Hadley.”

His declaration hits me just as hard as it did the first time. “I love you, too,” I whisper back.

Wolf hums and then engulfs me in the warmest, safest hug I’ve ever experienced. How does he know what I need, just when I need it?

My eyes flutter closed as I bury my face into his chest, breathing in his familiar scent and letting it ground me in this moment. I don’t know what’s coming for us in the future, but I know for certain that Wolf will be right here with me.

CHAPTER NINE

WOLF

The cool, sterile air of the mostly-empty warehouse should be a familiar comfort to me, but not tonight. Something is different. Out of place. Wrong. I don’t have any evidence to back up my gut feeling, but I’ve learned over the years not to second-guess myself.

It’s past 2:00 AM, and Hadley has been busy getting actual work done–not just distracting me and tempting me to sink into her juicy ass from behind. God, her sounds, her skin, her lush curves… Jesus, I need to stop before my dick twitches to life again and needs more.

The rest of the warehouse is quiet, wrapped in an automatic power-saving grid that leaves rows of towering shipping crates stretching into pitch-black chasms, illuminated only by the amber emergency lights near the exit doors.

Everything in me is on high alert, though, again, I can’t say why. My skin feels too tight and a prick of pain trickles down my spine. Every sound echoes unnaturally, from the high-pitched drip of a leaky roof vent to the low hum of the server racks, and the distant, sharp crunch of gravel outside in the dark lot.

Suddenly, a harsh, mechanical pop echoes from the secondary side-gate.

I freeze, my entire body going rigid. Without a single word, the fiercely protective biker switch flips instantly inside me. I grab a heavy-duty flashlight and move toward the door, my eyes dark and lethal. I quickly send a text to Hadley up in my office. Stay in the office. Lock the doors. Don’t come out until I’m there.

Turning my phone to silent mode, I shove it in my pocket and slip out into the cavernous shadows of the warehouse.

My heart hammers a frantic, deafening rhythm against my ribs. I know why someone is breaking in. They want the servers housing the corrupted manifests. They want to wipe the local data bank and silence anyone who found the glitch. Panic tries to claw its way up my throat, but beneath it, a dangerous spike of adrenaline takes over. No way in hell am I going to let anyone get those servers, and I’m sure as fuck not going to let anyone lay a finger on my woman.

As I make my way farther into the dark aisles of the warehouse, toward the side gate, I hear two men shuffling along the cement floors. I track their shadows, one looking to be about my height while the other a few inches shorter.

Creeping along the periphery, I see the two men turning left toward the server room. They are likely muscle from the mystery syndicate, or even worse, dirty local cops who are in the pocket of whoever is targeting us. Either way, I have a threat to eliminate. Things might be more complicated if the men are law enforcement, but I have no problem doling out punishment to cops. Having a badge doesn’t make someone inherently trustworthy. It does, however, make them more powerful than the average citizen. Power can corrupt even the purest of intentions. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

The intruders whisper harshly to one another, debating whether to pick the lock or smash the glass door of the server room. Before they come to a decision, I charge at them with full speed, a snarl caught in my throat as I close the distance between us.

I drop the first guy with a brutal, bone-crushing right hook to the jaw, spinning just in time to catch the second enforcer charging me with a crowbar. I slam him hard against a stack of pallets, watching as he slides down the wood into an unconscious heap on the cold hard concrete. Breathing heavily, I take a second to check my surroundings in case there are more men coming.

When I’m convinced these are the only two fuckers that were sent, I let out a sigh. I crack my knuckles, cursing at the sharp pain in my hands along with the blood from myself and the two amateurs who thought they could topple the Rebel Kings so easily.

Hadley.

How can I calm down without knowing she’s safe? Adrenaline pumps through my veins once more, pushing me to run hard and fast up the stairs to my office. I grab the doorknob, remembering that I told her to lock it. Fuck it all. I rip the door off its hinges, the creaking and popping of twisted metal filling the silent warehouse.

I’m ready to choke anyone who is attacking her and toss them off the balcony, or at the very least, wipe away her terrified tears.

Instead, I freeze in what’s left of the doorway.

Hadley isn't cowering under the desk. She’s sitting straight in the chair, her fingers flying across the keyboard in a blur.

"I locked them out," she says breathlessly, her dark eyes flashing with fierce, unbroken adrenaline as she points toward the monitor. "I got into the secondary internal network and locked down the terminal before any external IPs attempted an override. But don’t worry, I encrypted the local cache and backed up everything to the club's cloud."

I stare at the screen, then look back down at her. The sheer, unadulterated awe blazing in my chest steals whatever breath I have left. In two massive strides, I cross the room, hauling her out of the chair and crushing her against my solid, trembling chest.

"Are you okay?" I demand, my voice raw, fierce, and entirely breathless. "Did they touch you?"

"I'm okay," she breathes out against my shoulder, her hands gripping the back of my shirt.

Heavy footfalls echo outside as the front doors bang open. I’m sure my brothers got a notification when the warehouse side door was breached. Stryker, Phoenix, and Onyx storm into the building and up to my office, heavy tactical gear shifting, weapons drawn, expecting to walk into a bloodbath and a hostage situation.

They, too, freeze in their tracks as they step into the office.