Lucas ducked behind a broken pillar. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered before pulling the pin out with his teeth. “Heads up!”
He threw the grenade forward and dove back, carrying Vash in the process. The whole floor reverberated before a wave of light flashed before his eyes. The structure that held the first floor in place crumbled, and broken pieces of cement and marble shot above their heads. Whatever guards were shooting at them were now wasted.
“Holy shit,” he said.
Vash lifted his head, shaking out the dust from the locks of his hair. “Was that it?”
Lucas stood and smiled, coolly biting against the metal toothpick. The ex-convicts roared with victory, pushing him forward with more artillery support. He was never a real leader, but he finally felt as if he’d won something. The best part about it was that he wasn’t doing this for himself anymore. He was doing it for her.
But a war worth fighting couldn’t be won simply by storming the buildings of their leaders. Somewhere, there was an army, and he had a feeling Severin was smart enough to put things in place. For now, they would run with a new energy, but he wondered if time might turn things over.
The fire in the east tower burned on. It should have registered in his mind as tragic. Instead, it appeared as a triumphant symbol of freedom and liberty. “Looks like the building is empty. I can’t make sense of this, Vash. I really can’t. Fucking tanks should have been on us by now... helicopters—anything! Instead, we were met by some weak armed guards,” Lucas said.
“Just don’t be surprised when the ambush drops on our head,” Vash said.
Lucas sighed and grabbed Vash’s shoulder, squeezing tenderly. He gazed into his pack-brother’s eyes and felt a deep and burning sensation within his chest. “Look, Vash... I...”
“Don’t get all mushy with me. I get it,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“It’s just that... we’ve been through a lot, and—”
Vash pulled away, groaning. “Oh, man. Just because she changed us, doesn’t mean that you can’t pretend to be an asshole every now and then.”
“I love you, man,” Lucas said, grinning. “I love you so fucking much!”
“Yeah, well...” Vash’s voice trailed away, but Lucas sure as hell wasn’t letting him off the hook that easy. “Yeah, I guess that I love you, too. Why the hell not, right?”
Lucas chuckled. “Damn right, you do.”
Standing, Vash shrugged his shoulder away and marched forward. Even if he wouldn’t admit it without force, Lucas knew the truth. The three of them were pack-brothers for life. It didn’t matter that they weren’t of the same blood. They were of the same spirit, and they had scoured the world together. It was time to settle down. The only question left to ask was when the world would let them. Or, if...
The crowd of convicts followed them up the set of stairs, pillaging every room in sight. “We need to find Killian before these guys tear the place apart. We still don’t know where the nursery is, and I want to make sure our children are safe” Lucas said before the darkened twist of endless stairs and doors.
“We’re just going to have t
o find it,” he said. If there was one thing he’d learned through all of this, it was that nothing was impossible.
Howling, Killian tilted his head back in excruciating pain. “God, dammit, woman. Can’t you speed this thing up?”
Ruby swiveled the needle and thread through the thick, opened flesh. It was deeper than he’d thought, but he had been through worse. Once, a bullet got lodged in the side of his skull. When that happened, he thought he might die from pure shock alone.
“We’re almost finished, but you’re acting like a real baby,” she said. “Just keep breathing. It’s almost over.”
“This ain’t my first rodeo,” he said. “I’ll be fine once it’s over.”
Killian let out an exhausted laugh and tried not to watch her too closely. He knew if he did, he might accept her as someone decent when she was clearly anything but that. Still, as she finished dressing the wound, the conversation took a different tone.
“Hey,” she said, “I know what I am... what I’ve done...”
Killian’s smile fell. “Spare it. I don’t need to hear about it, okay? Every time I think of what happened to my children, I want to vomit. You tortured our woman, the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“And you don’t think I’ve been through anything either? I’ve spent my whole life fighting to get back a family I never once had,” she said.
“You’ve spent your life as a soldier. I’ll give you that much respect. These days, the code means less and less. In the end, we’re all searching for a way out.”
“You’re no saint. You ravaged my sister as any alpha would,” she said.
“We integrated her, gave her a place to nest before the birthing process. We promised to keep her out of harm’s way. It’s in our nature. It’s different,” he said.