Page 25 of The Dragon's Dream Mate (Savage Shifters Special Ops 3)

“I’ve been here seven nights,” she said. “This was going to be my eighth night. But hopefully, I’ll get to spend it somewhere else?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

“You will, I promise,” I said.

“How much longer?” Corine asked. I could tell she was trying to be patient and brave, but she was ready to get out. Who could blame her?

“Not too much longer,” I said. “It will probably be in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning because that’s when the bad guys are going to be sleepy. They won’t be paying attention to what is going on.”

I wish I had a watch so I could know what time it was. On the other hand, if I had one, I would merely be staring at it, getting frustrated when five minutes seemed like an entire hour.

We were engaged in a quiet but rousing game of rock, paper, scissors when I heard a low whistle come into the room from the darkness.

“Stand up quietly,” I said. I tiptoed over to the window and pushed the screen out. It hit the ground with a clatter.

I heard someone say, “What the …” Then, there was a loud grunt and the sound of someone hitting the dirt.

About that time, there were a whole bunch of crashing sounds going on inside and outside of the house. The cavalry had arrived.

My heart was thundering as I pushed Simone through the window first. When she landed, she said, “Okay, Aunt Rainey.”

I handed the toddler to her, and she caught him, setting him on his feet next to her. The baby came next.

As the escape was happening, I felt an incredible calm come over me. I was not afraid or nervous. This is what I was really built to do and why I’d worked so hard to be in the FBI.

Some of the kids were a little wobbly on their feet, but Simone managed to steady them once they were outside of the house. I slid through the window just as the door to the bedroom burst open and one of the bad guys stormed through the door.

“Come on, Aunt Rainey,” I heard Simone urging.

However, I couldn’t resist getting in the last word.

“This time, you lose,” I hollered at the bad guy through the window. Then, I joined the young ones.

I picked up the toddler, and Simone still had the baby. Simone told Kami, Eric, and Camille to hold hands.

They were so amazing. They weren’t running chaotically or panicking. They were simply waiting for orders. I don’t know that I would have been that put together when I was their age and had just undergone such trauma.

Lucian blasted through the fence, making a large hole in it for everyone to climb through.

“Aunt Rainey,” Simone called my attention.

“Yes, baby girl,?” I answered.

“There is a huge bird that is flying next to us,” she said, sounding more in awe than afraid.

“That bird is here to protect us,” I said. “He is my friend. He’ll attack anyone who tries to touch you or hurt you.”

“Okay,” she said simply.

“Everyone, hold hands,” I said. “Simone, can you bring up the rear? Lucian, my bird friend, will be behind you, protecting you.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Holding the toddler in one arm and holding the hand of one of the younger kids with the other, I passed through the hole in the fence, and we hurried to the van the team had used for surveillance.

I swung open the side door and started loading it full of kids as fast as I could.

My heart back to racing, as this was the make or break moment, I yelled, “Make sure everyone has a seatbelt on.”

I raced to the driver’s seat, hastily put on my own seatbelt, and screeched away. I was sure that I left behind two-thirds of the tire on the street.

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