Guardians lined up in front of the alpha’s home, some of them shifting into their panthers. Others were armed with weapons provided by the sheriff. Evie watched from the window in Talon’s office, refusing to hide with the pride females. Hope was by her side, strapped with two guns in her shoulder holster.
“They’re going to take me tonight,” Evie whispered, looking over at the other female who was already shaking her head in denial.
“We are not going to let them take you,” Hope vowed.
“You and I both know the sheriff’s visions are solid.” Evie blew out a harsh breath. “Hope, I need you to promise me something.”
“No,” Hope snarled, her eyes glowing amber. “I won’t promise you anything, because you aren’t going anywhere.”
“Just listen to me,” Evie snapped, her own panther agitated. “Please keep Kye from hurting himself to come save me. Let the Guardians do it; keep him home.”
“That man is going to come after you.” Hope raised a brow. “He’s growing as an alpha, and I’m fairly certain even his brother’s command won’t keep him away.”
“He’s going to try to fight his way to me,” Evie acknowledged. “It’s going to be dangerous, but I’ll be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” Hope reminded her, coming up to pull Evie into a hug. “Please get into the safe room.”
“No,” Evie replied, looking up into her friend’s eyes. Hope had wetness there. Her usual hard shell shattering with worry. Evie started to say something, but gasped when Hope raised her own gun in the air.
“I’m so sorry, but I have to save you,” Hope whimpered, bringing the butt of the gun down… making Evie’s world go dark.
Evie jumped to her feet, cursing when she looked around the safe room and saw all of the females of the pride with their young. The older couples were consoling everyone as they waited for word of what was happening on the outside. She had a knot on her head from where Hope had struck her. Thankfully, with her fast healing, it was subsiding along with the massive headache from the blow.
“Damn it!” Evie swore, pulling on the door.
“It’s for the best,” Nova said, holding Atlas to her chest.
“No, it’s not,” Evie replied, feeling the beast prowl beneath her skin. She reached for her weapon and threw her hands in the air when she found it gone. “This is bad, Nova… really bad.”
“It’s for your safety,” Liberty repeated to her, handing her sleeping daughter off to Savage’s mother.
“No,” Evie growled, shifting her eyes as she searched the room. She knew every aspect of the protective space behind the weapons cabinet in the security room, because she helped build and stock it. Reaching above the door, she heard Liberty curse when she retrieved the hidden key. “I’m sorry. I’m going.”
“Evie, NO!” Liberty started to grab Evie’s hand, but a hard scowl from the young female sent the alpha’s mate a step back.
“Do not stop me,” she warned as she unlocked the door to her unwanted prison. She slipped out the door, ignoring Noah as he cursed from behind her. She locked the pride in the room and closed the cabinet, tossing the key to the Guardian.
“Where is everyone?”
“Damn it, Evie,” Noah shouted, standing up from his seat.
“Noah, I will hurt you if you even try to come at me,” Evie warned, her canines thickening in her mouth.
“Shit,” he replied, running his hands through his dark hair. “On the lawn. Others are in the woods.”
“Kye?” she asked, needing to know where he was.
Panic lodged in her chest as she felt fear from her leader. Noah spun around and looked at the monitors. Men were coming through the gate at the road with weapons raised. Evie gasped when a human officer was shot.
“The Community is here,” Noah declared.
“Kye? Where’s Kye?” she demanded, scanning the monitors, feeling fear when she didn’t see him.
“He’s in the woods, not far from our mother’s place,” Noah replied, changing his tone when she opened the door to the hallway. “You better not get taken!”
She waved him off and hurried out the door, securing it as she left. The alpha’s home was dark and silent, as though the home had been abandoned for years. The feeling was strange not seeing people mingling around.
Slipping out the back door, she wanted to cry when she heard gunfire coming from the front lawn. As much as she wanted to run and help the other Guardians, Evie’s main focus was finding Kye. She ran across the backyard, past the circle where Talon held their meetings, and headed for the road that led up to the mated cabins.
She partially shifted enough to use her panther’s keen sense of smell to find him. It didn’t take her long to find his trail.
“Evie!” Kye scolded as she rounded the large tree close to the small driveway leading to his mother’s cabin. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for you,” she panted, pushing back her beast.
“You were supposed to be in the safe room,” he slipped, cringing when her eyes widened.
“So, you were part of that?” Evie narrowed her gaze and tightened her fists at her sides. Right now, all she wanted to do was clobber Kye and Hope for orchestrating her safety.
“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he explained.
“We do this together,” she said, poking him in his stupid chest. “I know they are going to come for me, but…”
Her words died in her mouth when a gunshot rang out across the darkness. She screamed when a patch of blood bloomed on Kye’s chest. His hands reached for her, but he failed as he gasped for breath… falling to the ground.
“No!” she screamed, her panther ripping from her chest.
When she spun around, there were four males as large as Guardians pointing their weapons at her head. The beast lifted its lip, a vicious snarl rolling off her tongue. The panther backed up, straddling Kye’s body as he lay bleeding out on the ground. They weren’t going to hurt him anymore as far as she was concerned.
“E…Evie,” Kye gasped, gaining her attention. The human side wanted to shift to give him aide, but her panther won out by dominating to keep her safe. His panther clawed at his human body, attempting to shift to heal himself, but Kye shook his head, fighting the shift. Tears welled up in her eyes when his canines elongated and he snarled, “Run.”
Her panther screamed as Kye’s body went limp. She jumped for the men, but didn’t make it far before one of them raised a hand and a flash of light shot forth from his palm, striking her in the chest. The pain paralyzed her, dropping her body to the ground. Whatever the man had done had forced the shift from her panther back to human.
The men didn’t speak as they lifted her from the ground, one of them tossing her limp body over his shoulder like she was nothing more than a flimsy blanket.
Evie tried to scream, but whatever they’d shocked her with kept her from making sounds louder than a simple moan. Reaching down deep, she searched for her beast, but the panther inside her was gone… lifeless.
Talon!
Talon!
Talon!
Nothing.
As she hung over the man’s shoulder, Evie felt a lone tear escape her eye. They were going to take her and possibly study her like she was nothing, like she didn’t matter.
Gunshots sounded louder as they reached the alpha’s home. Still paralyzed, she couldn’t move her head to see what was going on, but from the sound of it, her pride was losing the fight. As the man slowed, Evie silently cried out when she saw blood on the ground. Without her beast, she couldn’t pick out the scent to know if it belonged to one of her pride or the enemy.
“Get that one in the van,” a voice said. “These sons of bitches have more firepower than we thought.”
The male grunted and hefted her up higher on his shoulder when he started moving again. As he reached the van, the man turned, and she saw the front lawn of the alpha’s home.
It was covered with bodies of Guardians and officers.
Liberty donned the special gloves the females used in training to keep from accidentally touching a male and causing herself pain. It was hard, but she kept the tears out of her eyes as she ran from the closet upstairs, tossing blankets and sheets over the banister to Calla below.
“That’s all we have,” Liberty yelled. “Start making pallets on the ground. Use the pillows if you must.”
The alpha’s living room was a staging area for the wounded. Talon was out with Savage and Winter, looking for Kye, Booth, and Taze. It’d only been half an hour since more deputies from surrounding counties showed up to help them protect the pride. The men were either caught or they committed suicide before they could be taken into custody. The pride took out twelve of them on their own before the mercenaries remaining started opening fire on everyone with semi-automatic weapons.
So many of them had been shot.
Ranger, Lucky, Axel, Diesel, and Kraven were in bad shape. The healer was pulling bullets out of their bodies in preparation for the males to shift to heal. So far, Ranger was the only one alert, and he was fucking pissed.
“Where’s my mate?” The male’s voice was harsh and deadly. Thankfully, Hope ran from the kitchen with water, sliding to his side. “I’m here. I’m here.”
“I need our alpha here,” Harold snarled, using long tweezers to dig into Kraven’s chest, right above his heart, to find a bullet.
“I’ll call for him,” Liberty said as she stood back, pressing her hand to her heart. She sent up a silent prayer to whoever was up there listening. Please don’t take any of them from us.
A commotion on the back porch stopped Liberty from calling out for her mate. Calla reached for her weapon at the same time Hope stood over her mate protectively. Both females raised their guns toward the door in preparation to shoot the intruder, but when the door flew open, everyone cried out when Kye was brought in naked and bleeding from a wound to the center of his chest.
“No!” Liberty’s cry was heard throughout the pride, and an agonizing wail echoed from each of them.