I didn’t have the same reassurance as he did and I regretted not biting her last night when my teeth had ached so damned badly for me to do so. But I’d kept from doing it out of some romantic notion of bonding with her when she was finally in heat.
I’d never felt more fucking stupid.
The walkie on my vest suddenly crackled to life. “We found them. They were in a room in the center of this place in the green hallway. We’re taking Luscinia out.”
“What?” I said into the receiver. “What about Perrie? Take her out too!”
“Can’t…” the walkie crackled as they started to go out of range from us. “Can’t get… close… heat… FBI here…”
Edison was already up on his feet and pulling me to mine. “I know where that hallway is, let’s go.”
We backtracked, avoiding the flashlights of the FBI who were going room from room in full body armor.
“Hey! Don’t point your fucking guns like that, you’re scaring her,” a voice barked at the end of the hallway we were currently in and I dragged Edison around the corner before the group of FBI agents could see us.
“Sir, she attacked Robinson,” one of the men said almost sheepishly.
“Nearly took my damned eye out, Vance,” the man—presumably Robinson—grumbled.
“I don’t care. She’s obviously not one of Volkov’s people, look at her. You’re skin and bones aren’t you, sweetheart?”
A feminine growl echoed over the sound of sirens.
“Sir… I really think you should get the tranq…” Robinson sounded scared, almost as if he was backing away from whatever they were surrounding.
Then a feral scream filled my ears as the sound of men shouting provided the perfect cover for Edison and me to slip by.
I changed a glance behind us just in time to see a half-naked woman jump at the FBI agent who was holding hands out to her like he was trying to soothe a wounded animal. Dark hair flew as she scratched at his face and the other men tried to pry her off.
“What the fuck are they doing to people down here?” I whispered to Edison as the green hallway finally came into view.
A large metal door was hanging open and even as far as we were, I could smell the scent of strawberries hanging in the air. Perrie was definitely here and she was definitely in heat.
Edison was already steps ahead of me, striding through the door into what looked like an operating room.
“Edison?” I heard Perrie’s voice before I saw her and everything in me froze as we found her strapped on top of a shiny metal table like someone was about to dissect her.
In the corner was a skinny man with three bullet holes in his chest—probably courtesy of Pack Ricci—and two other empty tables, one overturned.
“Perrie,” her name left Edison in a relieved rush as he hurried over to her and began to tug at the black ties binding her wrists while I did the same for the ones on her ankles.
“Everything hurts,” Perrie’s words were a stuttering sob as she let Edison pull her up into his arms. A rush of strawberry filled my nose and I nearly lost myself in it, my inner alpha riding me hard to knot her. To mate her. But her next words threw a proverbial bucket of ice water over that. “He stuck something in me and started my heat.”
“Shh, darling,” Edison said, clearly having the same trouble I was as he gritted his teeth, the gold of his irises disappearing almost completely as he inhaled her scent. “We’re going to get you home and take good care of you.”
Perrie slumped into him with relief, her nose pressing into the side of his neck.
“We’re going to need another car,” I muttered to him as we hurried out of the room. “There’s no way we can take her in one with our guys and Romey.”
“I have no problem making their asses walk,” Edison growled as we turned the corner.
“Freeze!” a voice barked, stopping us in our tracks.
In front of us was the same FBI agent from earlier, alone now, and with fresh scratch marks on his face.
“Vance…” Edison trailed off as I took my hands off of my rifle in case the guy was trigger happy.
“Keane. I thought I told you I would handle it.” The gun stayed pointed at us.
Edison glanced from the man down to Perrie’s closed eyes. “Sorry, but I couldn’t let you do all the hard work. Let me go just this once and I swear we can play a game of Tom and Jerry later on.”
Vance’s eyes narrowed on Perrie’s flushed face and for just a brief moment I was sure he was going to try and arrest us. But instead he sighed and holstered his weapon. “Fine. But you owe me.”
“Isn’t giving you Volkov not enough of a payment?” Edison asked, his dark brows lifting with surprise.
“No.”
“Fine. Later though, for now I need to get my omega home before I have a bunch of asshole alphas breathing down my neck trying to get to her heat. How are you so calm, by the way? I’m about to lose my fucking marbles and I’m used to how she smells.”
I hadn’t even realized the other man was an alpha. In fact, I couldn’t quite smell anything on him as we slowly skirted past him.
“Military grade scent suppressants,” Vance answered gruffly. “I can’t smell anything and neither can my guys.”
“My…” Edison began to slowly back away in the direction of the elevator. “The government is, as always, full of surprises. Now, if you’ll excuse us?”
Edison turned on his heel and hurried away from the agent and I followed closely behind. “Where did you meet that guy, anyway, Edi?”
Before Perrie I was always with him, so I wasn’t sure how the hell their paths would have crossed.
