Page 52 of Marked For A Bite
How does he know her name?Logan processed the impossibility even as his heart clenched at the raw emotion radiating from his mate.Unless... mate bond telepathy. Her mother must have told him through their connection.
"Alert!" Lena's urgent whisper cut through the moment like a blade. "I sense resistance approaching. We need to move now."
She rushed to the cell door, her violet eyes glowing as she examined the locking mechanism. "Heavy protective wards. That's why security seemed so light down here. Magic is their primary defense."
"How long?" Logan demanded, positioning himself between the approaching footsteps he could now hear and the women working on the cell.
"Give me sixty seconds," Lena said, her hands already weaving complex patterns in the air.
"Company incoming!" one of their pack members called from the lab entrance.
Logan's blood turned ice cold as a section of wall he'd assumed was solid stone suddenly groaned open, revealing armed Granite Ridge guards pouring through a hidden passage. Their weapons gleamed with the telltale sheen of poison coating that made his wolf snarl with recognition.
Ambush. They herded us exactly where they wanted us. I knew this was a fucking bad idea.
The underground chamber erupted into chaos as Logan threw himself between the attacking guards and Zoe. His father's hunting knife found the throat of the first attacker while his free hand drew one of his Glocks in a fluid motion that spoke of countless life-or-death encounters.
Behind him, he could hear Lena chanting desperately as ancient magic sparked against the cell door. The sound of metal groaning under supernatural force mixed with Zoe's desperate pleas to her father to stay strong.
"I've got a partial break!" Lena shouted over the growing gunfire.
Logan dropped two more guards with precise shots, but more kept pouring through the hidden passage. His tactical assessment grew grimmer by the second—they were outnumbered and trapped in a killing field with nowhere to retreat.
Where the hell is Kieran's team?
As if summoned by his desperation, familiar voices echoed from the lab entrance as Maya and Kieran's Delta team finallyarrived. But even with reinforcements, Logan counted at least twenty enemy combatants against their combined fifteen.
Still not good enough odds. Not with civilians to protect.
"Dad, we've got you!" Zoe's cry of triumph cut through the battle noise as Lena's magic finally shattered the ward on his cell.
Logan cataloged the shifting battlefield dynamics even as his hunting knife found another guard's throat. Lena had moved to the next cell, her eyes blazing as she worked to release the other twenty-four prisoners scattered throughout the rows of holding cells. The ancient stone chamber echoed with the sounds of breaking magical wards and desperate groans from victims who'd endured decades of experimentation.
Good. Get them all out. No one gets left behind in this hell.
The flood of Granite Ridge guards had mercifully stopped, leaving exactly twenty combatants for their fifteen allies to handle. Logan's twin Glocks barked in rapid succession, dropping two more attackers who'd been advancing on Lena's position.
Then salvation arrived in the form of their Sigma backup team crashing through the lab entrance. The odds shifted instantly to something approaching manageable, and Logan allowed himself a moment of grim satisfaction as the underground chamber became an all-out race between killing these bastards and evacuating the prisoners.
Almost there. We're actually going to pull this off.
In a moment of rare distraction—something his enforcer training had drilled out of him years ago—Logan glanced over his shoulder to ensure Zoe and her father were moving toward the exit. The sight of his mate supporting her father momentarily dulled his combat awareness.
Mistake.
The wolfsbane-tipped blade slid between his ribs like liquid fire, finding the gap in his tactical gear with surgical precision. Logan's enhanced senses immediately recognized the poison coursing through his bloodstream, and his wolf howled with agony as the toxin began its deadly work.
Fuck. Should've trained her on blades too, not just bullets and arrows.
"Logan!" Zoe's scream pierced the chaos as she sensed his injury through their mate bond.
He watched her hand off her father to Maya, then sprint toward him with fury blazing in her eyes. The guard who'd stabbed him was already dead—Logan's reflexive knife throw had found his target even while poison burned through his system.
"Wolfsbane," Logan said through gritted teeth, dropping to his knees and pressing his hand against the wound that was bleeding far too heavily. His enhanced healing was fighting a losing battle against the toxin. "Blade withdrew clean. Poison's already circulating."
Shit. The one time I get distracted during a mission.
Zoe dropped to her knees beside him, her hands hovering uncertainly over his wound. "What do I do? How do I?—"
