Charlee sat in the corner of the small panic room in Grekov’s home. She brought her knees up to her chest. Once the bullets had went flying, she had run back into the main part of the house. Even though they had only been in the house for a few hours, Ivan had drilled the escape plan into their heads for there as well.

“If shit jumps off, you’re to run into the safe room and not open the door for anyone,” were his exact instructions.

“Why would a person need a panic room?” Malena asked as she sat in the chair in front of the television monitors.

“I have no idea, but I’m glad that he does,” she murmured, laying her head on her knees. Her arm didn’t even bother her anymore. She must have been running on pure adrenaline.

Charlee was shook up. Again, someone had tried to kill her. This time, she saw the bullets coming. There was no doubt that they were trying to kill her. She was absolutely terrified. She wrapped her arms around her knees and drew them in tighter to her chest.

“These monitors aren’t showing me what’s going on outside of the house. All the video feeds are coming from inside the house,” Malena disclosed with a heavy sigh.

The panic room was hidden behind a fake wall in Grekov’s office. Once the heavy steel doors slammed shut behind them, they were sealed into the one hundred square foot room. It was outfitted with television monitors, a large cot, and a fridge stocked with food and water that would last them for a few days. It would take a tank to get through the steel walls and door of the room.

Charlee sighed deeply, not knowing what to think. Malena must have picked up on her emotions.

“Are you okay?” Malena asked, coming to kneel in front Charlee.

“I can’t live the rest of my life this way,” she admitted, her voice full with emotions. With the current attack, she felt defeated. She’d had high hopes that the contract would be cancelled. Panic began to rise in her chest. How would she ever lead a normal life? She’d always have to look over her shoulder in fear that someone was trying to kill her.

“Don’t give up. West will succeed. He has to,” Malena encouraged, grabbing her hands in hers. The faint hint of smoke came through the air vents, causing her panic to slam harder against her chest. What if they couldn’t be rescued? What if the house burned to the ground with them in the panic room?

“But what if he can’t? Seriously, Malena. Think of what my life would be dwindled down to. I would never be able to teach again. I couldn’t be a biologist, something that I have dedicated my entire life to.”

A warm trail of tears flowed down her cheeks. She angrily brushed them away. It wasn’t her fault. All of this was because some thug wanted to kill her beloved tigers and wanted her out of the way so that they could make millions off of dead animals.

“Hey! Snap out of it,” Malena demanded. “You aren’t dead yet, but we will fight to the death. We’re not going to just roll over and let them take us out. I always wanted to be able to have people tell stories about my death. If they break through the walls, we can grab the guns we have and go out in a blaze of glory, just like in the movies.”

Charlee couldn’t help but chuckle at the imagery of them shooting their way out of the panic room.

“You’re crazy, you know that, right?” Charlee smiled. “First off, the steel doors can withstand ten thousand pounds of pressure. Don’t you remember Ivan’s lecture? I highly doubt that those men will be able to get in here,” Charlee pointed out. She had to give it to the man, he was very thorough at his job and took it very seriously.

“All the more reason for you to be able to have a happy ending. You’ll get West and you’ll hook me up with one of his sexy friends. Or a brother. Please tell me he has a brother.” Malena batted her eyes innocently.

“He does have a brother.” Charlee chuckled at Malena’s squeal of delight. Charlee reached out and grabbed Malena’s hands again. What would she do without her? She never wanted to find out. “You know I love you, right?”

“I love you too, Charlee,” Malena whispered. “We’re all allowed a weak moment. You just need a kick in the ass to bring you back to your normal self and that’s what I’m here for.”

Charlee nodded her head, unable to speak as emotions overcame her. She watched as Malena went back to the chair in front of the monitors. She wiped her face to erase any evidence of her tears. The smell of smoke grew stronger and she didn’t want to let on to Malena that it worried her. They were locked away in this steel framed room and the house could be burning down around them for all they knew.

“Here we are. I can see outside the house. It was just a click of the…” Malena paused, frozen in her chair.

Charlee slowly stood from her position and inched her way toward the monitors, but she already knew why her friend couldn’t speak. Her eyes were just as captivated by what was on the screen as Malena’s.

Tigers, wolves, and even a bear lined the property, surrounding men that were aiming guns at the home. Malena brought up different angles of the property and each showed animals behind the humans who were attacking. They couldn’t hear what was going on, but Charlee knew that those animals were not just any ordinary animals.

They were shifters.

“Oh my,” Charlee murmured as her eyes scanned the screen, desperate to see if any of the tigers were West. The smoke began to fill the small room through the air vents, throwing them both into a fit of coughing.

“What in the world—” Malena gasped. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. This is amazing. It’s as if the animals are banding together against the men.”

Charlee’s eyes began to water as they watched in stunned silence as a large man walked from the direction of the front of the house. Charlee peered closer to the screen, recognizing Drago. He was speaking fiercely to the humans, but it didn’t look like the men were going to budge.

Her lungs began to burn from the inhalation of smoke. She shot a glance at Malena and knew that she was worried now too. They both kneeled on the floor in front of the monitors, trying to stay near the fresh air. Tears slid down her face as she tried to take a deep breath. At this point, she prayed that if West was out there, he’d make it to her fast enough.

Charlee gasped as the men turned their guns on the animals. Human bullets could not kill shifters, she chanted over and over in her head. West had assured her that if he got shot, he would heal fine. But now that she was watching this horror unfold in front of her eyes, she didn’t know if she wanted to observe it.

Seconds ticked by after Drago’s announcement. West braced himself for the impact of bullets as the humans continued to hold their weapons steady. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the human who dared point an automatic weapon in his direction. The silence was broken by the sound of text messages arriving to the humans’ cell phones.

West knew immediately that the hit was officially cancelled. But some of the humans didn’t lower their weapons immediately. The standoff continued for a brief moment before all the humans reluctantly lowered their weapons.

“Safe passage?” one of the humans asked.

“Safe passage,” Drago repeated. “Go now and the animals will not attack.”

Each shifter stayed in their positions as the humans slowly made their way away from the house and disappeared into the woods. West released the breath he didn’t know he had been holding. His feline was upset that there would be no battle, but the human in him was relieved. His tiger would be satisfied once he laid eyes on Charlee and knew that she was safe.

His eyes turned to his cousin’s house and the bottom of his stomach dropped. The fire’s flames were moving through the house rapidly. Panic set in as he ran toward it, the thick smoke clouding the sky. He slowly transformed back to his human self, uncaring that he was naked.

“You can’t go in there,” Luka said, coming to stand next to him while hopping on one foot to throw on a pair of jogging pants.

“The hell I can’t,” he snapped, moving toward the building. Nothing and no one would stop him from entering the building. Shouting erupted behind them as the other shifters had transformed to their human forms and were rushing, trying to fight the fire.

West ran directly into the burning building. His eyes stung from the smoke. He knew that his cousin had a panic room and the girls would be stashed there. Coughs racked his body as he ran through the smoke filled home. His cousin had the room installed on the second floor a few years ago and had invited him to come see it. Thankfully, he remembered where the room was. The idea to shift crossed his mind. It would be quicker on all fours and he would be closer to the ground, but he wouldn’t be able to get the door open without opposable thumbs.

The tiger in him growled and lent his strength, giving West a burst of energy as he came upon the stairs. He took the stairs two at a time as Luka shouted from behind him. He ignored his longtime friend. He had to get to her. The air grew scarce, causing his lungs to burn. If it was this hard to breathe outside the room, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like where Charlee and Malena were.

The hallway that greeted him was dark and thick with smoke. He blindly ran toward the direction of his cousin’s office. Once he reached the open door, flames greeted him. He released a curse as he looked into the room and jumped back out of the way of the scorching flames as they grew.

“West! Here!” Luka shouted, arriving at his side with two fire extinguishers in his arms. “Not sure if these will help.”

“Worth a try,” West said, snatching one out of Luka’s arm. He pulled the pin and aimed the fire extinguisher at the base of the flames. The white foam substance pushed back the flames, enough to allow West to enter the room with Luka behind him, using the other fire extinguisher. He made his way to the wall that hid the panic room.

He slammed his fist into the panel that hid the secured keypad. He remembered his cousin telling him the secret code that was the same emergency code that was used amongst all Rogavac’s should they be in trouble. His fingers flew across the keypad and the light changed to green. His body grew tense as the steel door released a heavy groan and began to slide open.

It finally opened, revealing the small room. Malena and Charlee were huddled together on the floor in a corner.

“West!” Charlee gasped as he strode in toward her.

“Hey, baby,” he murmured, collecting her in his arms.

“I got Malena,” Luka announced, coming in the room behind him. “Go over to the balcony. The fire hasn’t made it over there yet, and Drago and his men are waiting down below.”

West’s tiger seemed to settle down now that they had Charlee in their arms.

“I knew you would make it.” Her voice was strained and ended on a squeak. His tiger didn’t like seeing her this weak. As soon as they got her safely away from the burning house, he would put her on the first plane to the States.

“Of course I would. Don’t talk,” he murmured, stepping out onto the balcony. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his chest. Now that the danger of her being hunted down was no longer there, West promised that he would take her home and lock them away for days so that he could have her to himself and fully assess her inch by inch to satisfy his tiger.

“Um, Luka?” Malena’s scratchy voice appeared from behind them as he stepped out onto the balcony behind West.

“Yes, Malena?” Luka replied.

“Next time I need rescuing, you may want to step up your game. West, I see, knows how to rescue a woman.” Her words were cut off by a string of coughs.

“Oh? And what’s wrong with my technique?” Luka asked, shock registering in his voice.

West turned to them as Luka came to stand next to him.

“He’s naked. Next time I need rescuing, you need to show up naked like your boy over there!”