Page 51 of Romeo

Romeo nearly got taken out by a two-by-four and was now grappling with two men. The large open space was filled with people fighting. Some tigers had shifted but most had remained human. The smell of blood was heavy in the air. Bodies were pushed aside to make room for fighting. She couldn’t even tell who had the upper hand.

And now she was being pulled away from the fight by an asshole.

“Damn it! Let me go!”

Buck didn’t relent. He kept pulling her back, her heels bumping on the tile and failing to stop her.

She had a sinking feeling that if she didn’t get away from him, he’d take her somewhere and kill her.

With everything she had, she reached up and dragged her claws down Buck’s face. He screamed and shoved her away, the gun going off as he was blinded by the blood streaming down his face.

She hit the ground and rolled away.

Something soared over her with a roar.

She knew in her heart it was Romeo.

He landed on Buck, knocking the gun away.

She heard a crunch and Buck went still.

Romeo’s tail swished back and forth, and then he climbed from Buck, whose head was now at an odd angle, his eyes glossy and unseeing.

She shivered.

Romeo padded to her and she threw her arms around his furry neck. Her wolf let out a growly purr.

She smelled smoke and Romeo stiffened with a growl.

Someone had set fire to the factory. The room quickly began to fill with smoke.

Midas roared a wordless order to his people to get out.

“You heard the boss,” she said, using Romeo to help pull herself to her feet. She was aching from being dragged all over and beat to hell, but she could feel her body healing the wounds.

They hurried to the door Buck had been dragging her toward, and she shoved it open. The brisk winter night hit her in the face, and she winced at the freezing rain that started falling while she’d been captive. A vehicle raced by, followed by several others, and her heart fell.

“That was Brent,” she said as she and Romeo moved away from the factory, quickly joined by the other ambush members. The humans who were alive were carried out and guarded as they all took shelter away from the fire that had quickly engulfed the old building.

“Did you say that was Brent?” Midas asked as he and a woman joined them. “Where?”

“In the truck that just drove by with a few others. He’s a coward, so I’m not surprised he took off when things got dicey. He must have seen he was losing.”

Midas stared past her. “We’ll see if we can get tracking on the vehicles for the police. Are you okay?” He put his arm around the woman, who introduced herself as his mate, Maya.

“Oh, you’re the queen. Congratulations on your mating. I’m so sorry that I caused so much trouble.”

“You exposed the Humans Against Shifters initiative to us,” Maya said. “You might have started off as a spy, but you’re certainly not finishing that way.”

Romeo let out a yowl.

A man jogged up, sporting a black eye and busted lip. “We just swept the place. No one alive is inside.”

“Did we lose anyone?” Midas asked, his voice grave.

“No,” the man said with a shake of his head. “They did though. We counted fifteen dead inside.”

“We need to talk,” Midas said as he dismissed the man and turned to face Ashley. “But we can wait until we get back to town.”

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