Page 128 of Knot Your Problem

I spun to the other soldier on watch with us without waiting for confirmation from Matt. He didn’t need hand holding.

“You’re on me.” I took off at a fast sprint, trusting him to follow. The PMV had dropped us here before retreating at a slow crawl. We were going to lose valuable minutes just getting into town, but we had no choice.

As soon as we reached the outskirts of town, we moved into stealth mode and slipped through the shadows as fast as we could. We intercepted a few of the Honey Badgers and told them to find a safe place quickly and spread the word. We were all on a countdown now.

When I got into town, I used one of our field calls, a distinctive owl hoot for a species not local to this area, to draw the mobile teams to me. Most people wouldn’t register the difference, but my guys would.

They knew if they heard it, that shit was going sideways. They would immobilize the guards they were tracking and join me. We were lucky the town itself was small, only a few streets in each direction. Most of the residents in this area had rural blocks or acreages.

I heard the hoot repeated from the other side of town, acknowledgement from the North mobile team.

I took a knee and waited impatiently, yet with perfect outward stillness, trying to conserve energy after our run. I hated staying still, knowing my team was in action. Yet, I’d trained myself and my team to do it when needed. No fidgeting or sudden movements that would draw any eyes in the area.

I didn’t have to wait long. My guys were damn good at what they did. They started filtering in slowly, appearing like ghosts out of the shadows. I checked in with our bond and got resolve mixed with a small amount of anxiety from everyone. We all felt the same. We knew we had tasks to do, but we would all feel better when we were together.

I breathed a sigh of relief when Dio showed up, followed shortly by Hunter and Leif. Dave was the last to appear. I had to assume Pala and Lexie were still with the Honey Badgers. A flicker of concern came from Lexie down the bond suddenly, so I sent a feeling of reassurance towards both her and Pala. I quickly got a shot of what felt like love and determination coming back at me. It made me feel strong and connected.

“Any trouble I need to know about?” I whispered the question and directed it at everyone. I got a half dozen shaken heads in reply and I felt a moment of pride.

“There weren’t as many guards around town as we were expecting. We only came across one and he was drunk. He seemed lost,” Dio answered quickly.

I nodded in acknowledgement as I checked my watch and almost cursed. “Leif, Hunter rendezvous with Damon. He has a humvee from the Palace headed his way with three alphas and a prisoner. He may need you nearby if things get rough. You have three minutes at most.”

They took off like a shot. Fading into the shadows so fast it was as if they’d never been here.

We were a few buildings down from the pub. From our surveillance, the guard patrols had seemed haphazard. Pala hadn’t noted any scheduled call-ins, which worked in our favor now. So they should have no idea what was happening outside.

I could hear faint music and raucous laughter. The light spilling out the windows was like a beacon calling to us.Idiots.

“Surround the pub. Damon will signal when the humvee arrives, then I’ll signal the rest of the Honey Badgers to take shelter. We move on my signal.”

Dio and Dave instinctively moved to my side as we turned and headed for the pub. We angled for the front, while others headed for the back and nearest side, covering every window and exit. There was an attached general store on the far side, with a shared wall, but the side nearest us had an alleyway running alongside it with a couple of small windows higher up, probably from bathrooms, and a fire exit.

I narrowed my gaze at the sheer arrogance of the alpha standing in the middle of the picture window, scanning the street. The lights of the pub had him highlighted like he was a Christmas display, and with the darkness outside his visibility would be zero. He was trying to scan the street, and I assumed he was who the humvee intended to pick up.

When he angled his face in our direction, I recognized him as Winston, the asshole who had punched Lexie and who had orchestrated the escape from the farm. He was clearly the commander of this unit. I didn’t know how his men could still follow him, after he reportedly used one as a shield against Hunter’s sniper gun when he escaped. I was itching to take him out, but I knew I couldn’t, not yet.

“We have a problem,” Dave hissed at my side. “There’s way more people in there than we were expecting.” He was right, there were a bunch of betas in there, mostly men but also a few women. It looked like a party.

“Do you recognize them Dave, are they from town?”

“A few,” he replied as he scanned the room. “There’s also a few from outlying homesteads. It looks like they’re trying to make friends with some locals. Assholes like them if I’m remembering these faces right.”

A man stepped up beside Winston, looking nervous and gesturing behind him. Winston completely ignored him.

“That’s the Mayor,” Dave whispered. “He’s a good guy, Lexie is friends with his wife. I don’t know what he’s doing there.”

“Fuck, we have a bigger problem.” Dio echoed Dave’s earlier sentiment, a little more bluntly.

“What?” I scanned the mess of men around the bar, but I wasn’t seeing what he was seeing. Until he grabbed my face in one hand and directed it towards the dim back corner of the pub.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Exactly,” Dio hissed in my ear.

A woman was standing in the back with her hands tied over her head, secured to the rafters above her. She looked terrified and everyone was giving her a wide berth except for a drunk alpha sniffing around her. A bright pink head of hair had just bobbed up from the back of a booth behind her, near the door to the kitchen.

“That’s the mayor’s wife,” Dave said.

---