Page 16 of Stealthy as a Wolf

“Oh, hey, you’re awake?” I tossed him a bright smile, blinking up at him flirtatiously, then I brought up my knee hard and fast. “Sorry!!”

Matty grunted, the air in his chest whooshing out with anoomph.

Only I miscalculated.

While he toppled over like a good little boy, he grabbed for me, dragging me down with him. I tried to squirm free, but his arms were everywhere. I was panting when I finally tore myself away. “I thought you were a house cat, not a damn octopus.”

I crawled away from him…only to be halted by a pair of bare feet blocking my escape.

I tipped my head to the side and followed the pants legs up…and found a very pissed off alpha glowering down at me, his expression thunderous.

The fucker broke free from my command.

And he was pissed.

I was such a dead woman.

“You can’t fault a girl for trying, right?” I gave a mortifying squeak when he reached down and hauled me up by my arms, leaving me dangling off the ground by a good foot. “Or maybe not.”

I refused to drop my eyes from his reproachful gaze. My wolf hunkered down in my head, bringing her tail up to cover her snout, as if embarrassed by my less than graceful escape. We’d been perfecting them over the years, and I couldn’t believe I’d allowed myself to be outwitted by a pretty face, a sexy alpha, and a pair of sneaky cocks…er, cats.

Sneakycats.

If I was going to get killed, I would do it my way. I lifted my chin and pursed my lips. “Now that you’ve caught me, whatever are you going to do with me, big boy?”

* * *

BOONE

Using the distraction the woman created, I stretched out my leg, snagged the keys with my foot, and dragged them toward me. I plucked them up, quickly fitting first one key, then another into the lock until I found the correct one.

Bingo!The fourth one worked like a charm!

When the manacles clicked open, I lowered my arms, gritting my teeth while blood rushed painfully through my sleeping limbs. Ignoring the pain, I pressed my hand on Burke’s shoulder, letting him know it was me. Though his eyes were closed, I knew the stubborn ass was awake, waiting for an opportunity to strike. I slipped the key into the lock, breathing a sigh of relief when it snapped open.

Not that it mattered.

With the collars clamped around our necks, we were still trapped.

Both of us were injured, our bodies littered with dozens of bites, the snakes having used us as pincushions. The wound in my thigh still bled sluggishly, my ribs were cracked, and my lungs felt like they were filling with blood when one of the snakes managed to wrap his beefy arms around me and very nearly squeezed the life out of me. Burke had it worse. Venom was eating away at his back, nearly down to the bone, where he’d been sprayed with poison while protecting me.

Being unable to shift left us vulnerable, our senses muted, the damn collars stripping away the last of our dignity.

Burke opened his eyes, grimacing when he pushed himself upright, a muscle jumping in his jaw as he gritted his teeth against the pain. “You know what we have to do.”

My attention shot toward the kid on the ground, and my mouth tightened. We needed to get him to safety. It was only luck—and a little slip of a girl—that we’d managed to make it this far. If the kid died before we could get him to the Summit, it would send our world spinning into chaos.

“The wolves will give us trouble,” I warned.

“We’ll distract the alpha.” Burke gave a negligent shrug. “His priority is the girl. We take the kid and complete the mission. He won’t interfere, not if it means the girl would get hurt.”

I gave Burke a sharp look, my insides curdling at the thought of anything bad happening to Maggie. “We’re not touching her.”

My cat snarled in my head at the very thought.

There was something about the girl that drew my feline. Maybe it was the fierce way she waded into battle. Or the way she stood up to the alpha. Or the sneaky way she took out the kid. Whatever the reason, my cat approved.

I was naturally pissed at being taken captive…until I saw the girl open the back of the van. Despite being injured, despite the blood loss, the thought of being at her mercy had my cock hardening.

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