Behind you.
On your left.
Breathing heavily, Tripp took a step back when all the shifters were down.
He watched as Amelia shifted to her human form. He followed suit.
“How are we going to find him?” he asked breathlessly.
“We flush him out,” she said, a smile stretching across her face. Her green eyes sparkled. “Like the rat that he is.”
Behind her came the rest of the shifters from the agency. They had all shifted into their human forms.
And they each carried a gas canister.
Amelia leapt into the air and grabbed onto the vent with one hand. Then, vaulting herself upward, she crawled into it.
They figured there was a partition in the wall that Craig had disappeared behind. The other shifters threw the gas canisters up to Amelia, and she caught each one easily. Then she opened them, one by one, and threw them down the vent.
The air swirling around them took on a sour smell immediately. Amelia jumped to the ground before it affected her.
Quietly, they listened.
Coughing came at the far end of the building. Amelia shifted instantly, and Tripp was right behind her, their shifter lungs managing better than Craig’s human ones. They rocket through the halls, following the sound of the coughing.
And there he was, stumbling out of the building into the open air.
Craig’s face was red, and he was coughing violently. His limbs flailed as he staggered.
Once outside, he gasped for air. Tripp shifted back, wanting to be able to talk to Craig. He was already growing used to the nudity of being a sifter and thought nothing of it as he looked at Amelia.
For the first time that day, her face softened. “What do you want to do?” she asked him. The other shifters from the agency surrounded Craig.
They were ensuring he didn’t go anywhere.
“I don’t know,” Tripp said. He felt almost helpless. “I don’t think he deserves to live. But saying that feels wrong.”
Amelia nodded. As they turned, something whistled through the air. Tripp stepped in front of Amelia as the projectile passed them.
It was a bullet.
When he looked up, Craig was pointing a gun directly at them. At Amelia.
With one final roar, Tripp shifted. He fluidly became a wolf in a blink. He bounded toward Craig in three large strides.
His half-brother was dead before his body hit the ground.
TWENTY-FIVE
AMELIA
Amelia was shaken but invigorated when she and her mate defeated Craig. It wasn’t an ending that either of them longed for, but it had undoubtedly become necessary. They shifted into their human forms, dressed as much as they could, and retrieved Tripp’s mother.
She was a bit hysterical, but it wasn’t anything Amelia couldn’t deal with. It also wasn’t anything Tripp couldn’t deal with either, as he was her knight in shining armor and partner in practical thinking.
“Shh, it’s okay, Mom,” Tripp soothed, holding his mother to his chest.
Nick and Scarlet were at the scene, as well as a few other agents who had aided in the battle against the shifters. Amelia glanced at Nick, her boss and colleague, who gave his signature sly smile and nod of approval.