Page 52 of Soul Bound

Ranger suddenly comes to a screeching stop, at first, I don’t know why, and I look around his large frame. When I see the beams of light coming from other flashlights and the shadows of movements reflected on the stone walls, I understand.

Whoever is down here is about to be on top of us.

Ranger flips the light off from our own light and I’m blanketed in complete darkness. Icey cold fear slithers around me. Still holding my hand, he turns us, so we’re hurrying in the direction we came from. Since he can see in the dark and I can’t, I have to trust him to lead us. He pulls me behind him at a speed my shorter legs have trouble keeping up with, I have to work hard to not stumble. As we get farther away from the people with the lights, the darker it is. I can’t see a thing. I don’t know what direction we are going at this point and I could barely tell you which direction is up or down, it’s so dark.

He makes multiple turns, leading us through the maze of tunnels. A couple of times, my knuckles rub against the stone walls and I start to feel a slight burning sensation coming from the scrapes that now sit there.

Ranger comes to a complete stop, and I slam into his back accidentally. I’m about to whisper to him and ask what’s going on when I hear the distinctive sound of a gun cocking. The sound is quickly followed by a flashlight turning on.

A man wearing all black stands in front of us with a handgun pointed at us. A smile I can only describe as wicked is on his face. “You really shouldn’t have come here,” he tells us. “Did you think we wouldn’t know when someone showed up here? The second you drove through the front gate you tripped our silent alarms. You were never going to make it out of here.”

Ranger’s response is an angry animalistic growl, which prompts the man to lift the gun to Ranger’s head. The sight makes my blood run cold with fear.

Ranger takes a menacing step forward, but the guy just shakes his head. “Don’t even try it. You may be strong, but a bullet to the head is still a death sentence for a shifter.”

I wonder how he knows Ranger is a shifter but looking down, I find Ranger’s claws are out, and I can’t see his face, but I would bet his eyes have shifted as well.

“Here’s how this is going to go,” the man speaks. “We’re going to go ahead and head out of these fucking tunnels. You aren’t going to try anything stupid while we walk and if you do…” He shifts the gun from pointing at Ranger to pointing at me. “I’m going to put a bullet inher. Got it?”

I stay silent but Ranger just snaps his teeth at him.

The man touches his ear and I notice he has an earpiece in, “I’ve got them. Headed your way now. One’s a shifter,” he warns the person or people on the other end. The man listens to whatever the person says, his head silently nodding. When he’s finished, he jerks his chin in the direction we had just come from. “Right. Let’s get moving.”

Ranger doesn’t move and the man raises a brow, “You want to see who’s faster?” He jerks the gun closer to me. “I can almost guarantee I can pull the trigger faster than you can attack me. Want to see if I’m right?”

I squeeze Ranger’s hand before addressing the man with the gun. “No. We really don’t.”

“Smart girl,” the man says patronizingly.

I bite my tongue to keep from saying he can go shove that gun where the sun doesn’t shine.

Don’t piss off the man with the gun, Winslow.

We walk stiffly back the opposite way. Ranger’s hand crushes mine in its vise grip. I’m surprised I don’t feel the cracking of bones. I can however feel the prick of his claws biting into my skin. He’s not meaning to do it, I know this. And even though it hurts a little I don’t let go—holding on to him is the only comfort in this situation.

At some point another man dressed in black comes around a corner, he also holds a flashlight and gun. He nods his head at the other man. “Sterling was right—he knew someone would come back here.” His eyes rake over me, and I squirm under his appreciative gaze. “Are you sure we have to turn her over? What if we played with her just for a little while before we do?” He runs a finger down my face to my jaw. I jerk away from his touch but don’t break eye contact. I don’t show him fear.

My already angry wolf shifter bares his sharp teeth. “If you touch her again, I will break off every one of your fingers and make you eat them.”

“Ah, so she’s yours?” The man raises a dark brow. “She’s a cute one, I’ll give you that.”

Ranger doesn’t answer him.

“Let’s get out of here. You know I hate these fucking tunnels.” The man with the gun pointed at me growls. “I’ll take her, you watch him.” The man shoves me forward.

“I can walk. You don’t have to push,” I bite at him.

They lead us through a couple more narrow tunnels before we are back in one big enough for us to walk side by side again. Each man stands behind each of us, a gun just inches away from the back of our heads.

“Isnowa good time to tell you,I told you so?” I hiss at Ranger. “I knew coming down here was a bad idea.”

“No talking!” The man presses the barrel of the gun into my skull in warning.

I throw my hands up in surrender. “Okay,okay,I get it.”

“I don’t know what brought your guys here, but I just want to say thank you. It’s been very boring guarding this place—nothing has happened in months. And now the boss is going to be thrilled we were able to procure him a shifter…” One of the men goes on and on.

Oh, so he’s allowed to talk? That doesn’t seem fair…

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