Sloane shook his head. “Something’s wrong, Ash. I can feel it.” He paced furiously, his anxiety higher than it had ever been. This wasn’t normal for him. He got restless but not anxious, like his body couldn’t contain all the frantic energy inside him. He felt nauseous, terrified, and…. “Oh God.” The pain that hit Sloane brought him to his knees.
“Sloane!” Ash grabbed hold of him and lifted him to his feet. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“It’s hard to breathe,” Sloane wheezed. He clutched at his chest. “It feels like my heart’s going to explode.” His lungs burned, like he couldn’t get enough air in them, and his muscles strained, agony shooting through every inch of him. “Something’s happening.” Fuck, his mate was in trouble. Whatever it was, it was causing Dex an extraordinary amount of physical and emotional pain. Then it stopped. Sloane sucked in a lungful of air and straightened.
“What the hell just happened?”
“It stopped. It just stopped.” Sloane ran a shaky hand through his hair. He grabbed on to Ash to steady himself. “It’s like he….” Sloane couldn’t bring himself to finish his sentence. “I can’t feel anything.”
“Okay, come on. Let’s go round up the guys. We can take the stuff to go.”
Sloane nodded. Ash was right. If they didn’t get some real food in them soon, they wouldn’t be any help to anyone. They hurried outside, where thankfully the food had arrived and everyone was digging in. Rosa took one look at Sloane and stilled.
“What’s wrong?”
“Something’s happened to Dex,” Ash said. “Grab your food or shovel that shit, ’cause we gotta go.” He grabbed a burger and handed it to Sloane. “Eat.”
Years of working at the THIRDS, of not having enough time to fully recover, made them experts in getting food down as quickly as possible so they could get on with saving lives. In three bites, Sloane was done with his burger. The rest of his team was ready to go. They’d still need some time to be back to their full strength, but it was a start.
“Hudson Colbourn?”
Everyone looked over at the huge tiger Therian in jogging attire. He smiled wide at them, and Hudson smiled politely.
“Yes?”
The rustling sound met Sloane’s ears seconds before Hudson jerked, a tranq dart sticking out of his chest. Everything happened as if in slow motion. Hudson’s eyes drifted shut, and he crumpled to the ground. Sloane made a dive for him, catching him as Seb’s roar shook the trees. People screamed and ran as Seb jumped the iron rail and tackled the jogger to the ground. The team scrambled, flipping the hefty ironwork tables and taking cover as gunfire erupted. Sloane said a little prayer of thanks to the restaurant for their choice in sturdy, thick, iron-laden dining furniture. They weighed a fuckton, and the solid wood surface would provide some temporary cover.
They’d come for Hudson.
Ash huddled in beside Sloane, who had Hudson cradled in his arms. “Where the fuck is Seb?”
Sloane peeked around the corner of the table. “He’s busy. We need to find one of the shooters and get that gun in Calvin’s hands.” He scanned the area and saw movement in the trees. “There.”
Ash nodded and dashed over to the next couple of tables, where Calvin and Hobbs were. He said something, and the two nodded. Ash lifted the table and walked it over to the rail, covering them. In a swift movement, Calvin and his partner were over the rail. Ash tossed Hobbs the table, and Hobbs caught it, swinging it around to give him and Calvin cover just before Calvin dove into the bushes.
Seconds later, Calvin emerged from the trees, shooting while Hobbs covered him. One bullet was all it took. Calvin aimed with precision and fired. No hesitation, no mistakes. Didn’t matter if his target was moving or not. He calculated and pulled the trigger.
Sloane turned his attention to Letty, who was huddled behind another set of tables to his right. “Letty, what’s the status on backup?”
“Fifteen minutes,” she called out.
“Shit. Okay.” These guys had no intention on being here fifteen minutes. It had to be the Makhai. No one else wanted Hudson as badly as they did.
Ash returned to Sloane’s side. “These assholes were waiting for us. How the fuck did they know to strike us now? How the hell did they know we’d be unarmed and vulnerable from Postshift?”
“Probably were watching us.”
Ash nodded his agreement. He moved his gaze to Hudson, out cold in Sloane’s arms. “They want the doc.”
“They can’t have him.” Fuck, it couldn’t be a coincidence. What he’d felt from Dex, and now Hudson?
“How the hell are we supposed to stop them, Sloane? There’s fucking dozens of them, all in tac gear and armed.”
Ash was right. As skilled as Calvin was, there were only so many bullets in that gun, and from the number of emerging hostiles wearing tactical gear, it looked like they were outmuscled and outgunned. They hadn’t recovered enough for another shift.
“We’re going to have to retreat.” There was no way they could face that many armed Therians in the state they were in.
More gunfire erupted, followed by a small explosion that had Sloane and Ash ducking on instinct. Ash’s eyes widened.