Page 54 of Gravel and Grit

Thatitwas Zaek, her mate, the love of her life.

How did they find him? Was he hurt? How was he going to get away if they had a helicopter? She knew he couldn’t fly faster than it could. What if it had guns on it? What if they shot him out of the air? Could he survive that?

Fear was like acid in her veins. The need to go to him, to help him was so consuming she was halfway to the door before she realized she had no way to get to him. He didn’t have a vehicle, and he was hours away on foot, even if she ran the entire way and,dassaor not, she was sure she couldn’t run that far.

“Think, think, think!”

Stop them.

An idea, a reckless one that could very possibly get her killed but might just save his life, popped into her head. She could pretend to be someone else and call them off.

Running to the foyer, she set the security system in case her plan backfired. If they realized who she was and sent people after her, she wanted a layer of protection to at least slow them down.

Even if they come after me that’s fewer trying to kill him. Dangerous, butworth it.

Having done everything she could to prepare, she took a deep, steadying breath. She practiced what she’d say over and over, dredging up the terms and radio protocol she’d overheard the security teams use. Mira thought she sounded… well, maybe not completely convincing but hopefully good enough to sound credible with the background noise of gunfire as cover.

“Command actual, request BFT. How copy?”

This was her opening. Pressing the button, she deepened her voice and responded, keeping her words clipped and authoritative.

“Good copy, ground. Request denied. Withdraw and return to F.O.B.

Situation is Charlie Foxtrot. How copy?”

Her heart was beating so fast it was making her dizzy and her hand ached from gripping the phone so tightly.

There was a pause before the man on the other end barked,“Good copy.

Authorization code.”

Oh shit! Shit shit shit!

“Alpha-Eight-Charlie-Zulu.”

Mira had a small panic attack as she waited for a response. She could swear she’d heard General Harrison use that code, but whether it was the right one for this situation she didn’t know.

“Good copy. Falling back.”

The breath exploded out of her in a whoosh, and she collapsed back onto the couch, the phone falling to the rug out of her numb fingers. Cradling her head in her hands she tried to calm down.

I did it. I can’t believe that worked.

As soon as she could force her legs, trembling with adrenaline, to support her, she returned to the window to watch for Zaek.

Twenty minutes later, it wasn’t her mate’s form that appeared on the other side of the glass.

3 6

MIRA

Low voices reached her before she saw them. They came from the trees surrounding the cabin and advanced on the house. They moved so fast, scarily fast, like darker shadows in the almost pitch black outside.

For a long second, Mira was frozen with fear before fight or flight kicked in. Spinning on her heel, she ran to the hallway leading to the bedroom, then skidded to a stop, her gaze darting around, looking for escape where there was none to be found. This close to the back of the house she could hear the voices there, too.

She was surrounded.

Don’t panic, don’t panic. This was a possibility. He showed me what todo.

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