Rising Storm (Westin Force #2) - Julie Trettel Page 0,2

moments.

Home. That had been a lot of places over the years, but none more so than San Marco. The lodge just outside of wolf territory had become more of a home to me than anywhere else since my family was murdered.

These guys, and girl, had become my family. Before it was just me and Silas, but now we had Tarron, Baine, Ben, Grant, and even Taylor—Westin Force’s Bravo Team. This was my family, the best of the best. We worked hard and we played hard. That was the gorilla code Silas and I had brought to the unit.

I’d honestly thought we’d all come to Vegas to gamble, drink, and maybe even convince Grant and Taylor to get married by Elvis just to say we did it all. I definitely hadn’t prepared for a mission of this magnitude. I needed time to mentally prepare. Silas knew that too which is probably why he told me we were here to celebrate my birthday and blow off a little steam.

I’d be blowing off steam all right, but not in the good sort of way. I had numbed myself to most things in life. I’d even gotten over my hatred of guns by learning to properly shoot, and understanding that I would never shoot an innocent. I wouldn’t even shoot to kill unless I had no other options. I wasn’t in the job of making widows and orphans, but I’d needed that skill in our business, and I needed to face my fear of an inanimate object. The gun was just a weapon, a tool. It hadn’t killed my parents and band, the person standing behind it did. If I ever crossed paths with that person or persons again, I would enact my full revenge and they wouldn’t live to see another day. That was my only exception. An eye for an eye and all that mess.

I wasn’t always so bitter. Most of the time I didn’t even think about my past anymore, but Silas had to know I wasn’t going to take this well. I don’t care how disconnected he is from his feelings, I couldn’t understand how he could remain so unaffected.

That probably wasn’t fair. I knew better than anyone how much that man shouldered, but I also hated when he went into robot mode and shutdown at times like this. I wanted to punch something, yell, storm the cage, rescue all the animals, and then destroy the place making it impossible to ever be used as an underground animal fight club again.

I took a deep calming breath and shook out my hands that were suddenly aching from clenching them so hard. I knew if I stayed away that my imagination would get the better of me and would probably be far worse than it was. That was a little hard to believe given my current reality though.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please remain quiet so as not to spook the beast as we bring out King Kong!”

Despite his warning, the crowd went wild before the calm began.

I walked back in and down the aisle. I was almost to my seat when I saw the large Silverback being led in by a chain around his neck. He stood tall and roared as he pounded his chest.

“Shhh,” the announcer said. “Just a moment longer. As fierce as King Kong is, he’s got a match before him today with Sahara, the meanest gorilla I’ve ever encountered.”

While one guy tightened the chain on King Kong, another brought out Sahara.

The hair on my neck stood up and my hands started to sprout fur as my body shook all over.

“That’s a female!” Tarron screamed over the crowd while Ben and Grant moved in to restrain me.

Dark brown eyes with just a hint of green around the pupils locked with mine and I froze.

Mate, a small voice whispered.

Emma

Chapter 2

It had started out as just another day stuck in captivity. I’d had the nightmares again. They’d restarted ever since Frank had pulled me for the cage fights. Vada had tried to keep me from him for as long as she could, but in the end he’d won.

The Raglan weren’t just capturing shifters anymore, though the others tell stories that that’s how it began. Now they also took in animals. They were running several comparison experiments to see how our kind differed from actual animals and how to tell the difference between us when in our fur.

Frank was far more observant than the others and always noted it was in my eyes.