Page 63 of Fate Awakened

I catch myself smiling at her and turn back to the screen as I see three men and two giant dogs jump out of the first vehicle. The second vehicle produces three bodyguard-looking men, one exceptionally large man, and a smaller female I would recognize anywhere.

Elle.

My breath catches as I lean in closer to the screen, trying to examine her to see if she has any injuries, just wanting to know if she’s ok.

“They have her,” I say out loud, though not really to Presley.

“How many, Keith? Focus. I know you care about her, but I need to know who’s with her. How many?” she redirects me, the calm confidence in her voice allowing me to pull myself out of the emotions I was frozen by for a moment.

“Two dogs, six men, one giant, and her,” I respond.

“Any staying at the vehicle?” she questions, making me examine their movements.

“Doesn’t appear so,” I respond.

“Copy, keep an eye on the other feeds. We don’t need any surprises. I’ll relay the new information,” she says before jumping onto the radio.

“Inbound with ten. Hudson and Brielle are both with them. Two shifte…K9s,” she corrects herself in the middle of the relay as I maintain all my attention on the other screens.

“They should be at your position in about eight minutes,” she adds.

I continue looking over the feeds with no other movement while Presley flies through screens and information in her section. I glance her way and see her zooming in on the feeds, defining the faces, and exporting them into another screen where she runs them through facial recognition, and endless data appears.

“I’ve got movement on camera two,” I say quickly as I see two people sneaking from tree to tree.

“Red team, location?” she asks into the radio. She nods at the response and turns to me.

“Those are friendlies. They’re moving to circle behind the incoming group,” she passes along to me, and I nod.

Every minute seems to drag on as we wait for this group to reach the clearing. Each flutter of a leaf or reflection of snow off a bug's wings causes me to snap to attention. I wait quietly as Presley relays the information she’s discovered about the group arriving, and from the sound of it, none of them are good guys.

At the end of her brief intro to the radio, she listens to a response from the other end.

“Copy that,” she replies, turning to me, “They’re entering the clearing now.”

I nod, returning my gaze to the screens, my blood pressure elevated, knowing we’re this close.

A flash of headlights catches my attention, and I see a sleek black car turn into the same parking lot the group arrived at ten minutes ago. I wait to flag Presley’s attention as I assume this is just a lost hiker looking for directions on the large maps they have stationed in the background of the lot.

It isn’t until the two men get out that I begin to panic, and I shout louder than necessary over to Presley.

“We have a problem!” Her head whips toward me, and her eyes squint in before growing large. Fear enters my body as my mind races back to how this was supposed to go. My next words hang in the air as she processes this new challenge.

“What the fuck is Marlo doing here?”

Chapter 22

Cain

Movementacrosstheclearinghas me straightening my spine. Their arrival causes all of our group to tense in anticipation. We haven't had a face-to-face meeting with anyone from the Marlo leadership in almost five years, and while we’ve encountered many from within the organization over that time, none of the exchanges were peacefully executed.

At the front of their group walks Big Tony. You literally can’t miss the guy. He’s six foot eight and about three hundred pounds. In both his wolf and human forms, he’s intimidating, to say the least. Not only that, he’s armed. A handgun hangs from a shoulder holster and sits just below his bicep. He doesn’t even attempt to hide it as he strolls into this meeting.

Behind him file several other pack members, none of whom we know outside of the rundown Pres has spent the last ten minutes running us through. I spot Hudson's wild blonde hair and have to fight back a growl as every part of me wants to tear him limb from limb for putting my Mate in this situation. What stops my loss of control is the mess of brown hair, piled on the top of her head, that I see bobbing just behind Big Tony. My heart stops the moment he moves enough for me to see her fully.

She’s walking unassisted with Hudson on her left, and another Marlo pack member on her right. She wears the same black leggings and blue hoodie she wore when she came to my house two days ago.

Has it only been two days since I held her? Since I looked into her eyes and knew she’d be mine?

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