leapt out, quickly followed by Jeremy. Dax and Rocco nodded in Jeremy’s direction, but Rush noticed they differed to him.
“How do you want to do this,” Rocco asked. “Do you want us to shift and go in there like a pack of wolves?”
Rush mulled it over for a second. “I think we can try reasoning with him. I have the money.” That was a lie, and the others immediately knew it.
“Yes,” Jeremy said, “you have the money.” The words earned Jeremy a thankful head nod from him. Jeremy had silently understood that he was asking for the loan after all.
“If we go in there and tell him he can have his cash, we don’t have to have a full-on war,” Dax stated. “Besides, we might be at a disadvantage. We have no way of knowing just how many of his pack he has with him. Could be three or ten.”
“Right. But if Spike comes at us, I feel like a better fighter in my wolf form,” Jeremy argued.
“Same with me,” Rocco pointed out.
“How about this,” Rush said. “Dax and I go in, all diplomatic with the promise of his cash. He won’t like that we didn’t wait for his ransom call or whatever the fuck his plan was. If he or his people come at us, we can easily shift. You two can be right by our side, in wolf form already.”
“I think we should sneak in. That way, we have the element of surprise,” Jeremy amended.
Rush nodded. “Yeah. I like that.” He was no great tactical thinker, so he felt at a disadvantage. At least Jeremy was there to help him formulate a decent plan.
It might have been his mate that had been taken, but Rush was happy it was a team effort with Jeremy and the others that had been called in. It put the chances on his side, and he was all up for that.
Chantal was all that mattered.
Jeremy shifted into a white and gray wolf that looked freakishly similar to his own. It made sense, he had to suppose, simply because they were related. Rocco’s own wolf had black fur nearly as thick and curly as the man’s own mane. Dax and Rush went to the chain-link fence. It was easily eight feet tall and was topped with barbed wire. It was overkill for an old mill but definitely made sense if Spike ran his shitty loan business out of the location.
The mechanism to open the gate was activated by a keycard or passcode. Thankfully, there was no guard on duty. Using his brute strength, Rush kicked the electrical panel a few times, knocking it to the ground. It was not real finesse work, but the lock on the fence was disabled with the panel down and out. It only took a bit of a push and more elbow grease to open the gates.
Rush curbed the desire to smile. The first part had been easy. That could either be a good sign or a bad sign. If Chantal had been with him, there was no doubt in his mind that she would have done something like turn three times while chanting unjinx in that cute little way of hers.
Thinking of her only spurred him on.
The foursome entered the gate. The two wolves stalked off to look for a good spot to sneak up on Spike. They could hear a heated conversation in the distance in the main office with the sensitive shifter hearing. The structure was a large rectangle with a sign hanging on the door reading head office.
Once again, Rush wanted to feel good about how easy the rescue mission had gone. He only hoped it meant that no harm had been done to Chantal.
Rush wanted to kill someone.
No. He wanted to kill Spike.
Chantal was bound to a chair, her hands behind her back. There was a bleeding gash on the side of her head, and he hoped to god she didn’t have a concussion. The cut would most definitely need some stitches.
Rush wasn’t all that surprised when he saw that Chantal was giving her captors some serious shit. She had definitely been coming out of her shell since that fateful New Year Eve’s Night.
“Apparently,” Chantal said from the other side of the warehouse, “when I’m kidnapped, I turn into a motormouth. It is as surprising to me as it is to you, I assure you. Usually, I’m a shy person who does not speak unless it is absolutely necessary.”
“Shut her up,” the leader, Spike,