in his eyes.
“Nope,” Whit says the one word then magic shoots from him, pushing the male to the far wall, where he hits it hard as Whit splays the male’s fingers with his magic so he can’t teleport.
Sevan rushes past us as his wolf and slams into the male. Within seconds the male’s head falls from his body and then Sevan’s wolf tears into his limbs with ferocity.
Whit taps my shoulder and points to the far corner of the room where there’s a hole in the floor.
“Thay, where are you?” I ask.
“Follow the ladder down if you’re done shedding blood up there.”
Aries is the first to climb down. Whit and I start to do the same, while Austin, Sawyer, Des, and Sevan stay above ground.
“Four more down,” Echo states.
Des turns and strides from the room with gun in hand and Austin does the same. We’re not sure how many are guarding the area.
I climb down the ladder and my feet land in dry dirt. No cement slab of a basement. This appears like someone dug it out. In the corner of the room is the group of paranormals we’re looking for. Their hands are in magical handcuffs and their fingers are separated.
Thay is watching them, reading their minds. We’ve come across a group of prisoners a few times who were staged. Not prisoners at all. But once they were free, they attacked us. We almost lost Thay and Sawyer during those instances. In fact, I think at one point or another, every single one of us on the team has been near death. Some I haven’t witnessed because it happened before I joined. But that reminds me how Whit is new and, at some point, his life will be in jeopardy as well.
Reaching into his pocket, Thay withdraws a pair of keys. Imogen perfected the universal magical handcuff keys and told her mom how she did it. In turn, Yvonne made each of us on the team a set. She gave Whit his when she put the block on his mind.
Before Thay can reach them, someone teleports into the room. Aries is hit hard enough to throw him to the ground. It happens in a blur. Whoever this is has to be a vampire or has their strength.
Thay spins and blasts out magic, but the being moves with a practiced grace and speed to dodge the magic. Then the male teleports again, but this time behind Whit, whose hands are by his side as magic builds.
“Fae. And shifters,” the male sneers. “Rodents.” That word and the sound of the voice have my body going cold.
I slowly approach him as Whit’s voice floats to me. “Easy, Cam. This isn’t an ordinary male.” He confirms what I suspected.
“Hello, Caiden,” I say, low and deadly.
In this moment, in the damp air of hollowed-out ground, I fully realize that if it came down to who I would save: Caid or Whit, I’d choose Whit. That thought doesn’t cause me to pause or reevaluate. Maybe if Caid hadn’t been a part of the Shifter Eradication Coalition. If he hadn’t ordered shifters from other packs to be killed. If he hadn’t threatened me, I’d have a different opinion. Or maybe it really doesn’t matter who has their hands on my mate. Seeing his fingers dig into Whit’s throat, I want to kill him.
“Camden,” Whit tries to draw my attention back to him, but it doesn’t work. My eyes are on my brother. “I can get out of this,” Whit tells me. “I don’t want you to hurt him or put yourself at risk.”
“Do what you have to, Whit. It changes nothing.” There’s no need for me to try and project my thoughts. Caid has the ability to read minds. Besides, now he’ll know who I would choose if I had to do so.
“You’re weak, brother,” Caid says to me. “You’ve found your mate and are so ready to kill your own blood for him, even after I let you live. And that’s just what I did. I could have killed you numerous times.”
I spread my arms wide. “Do your best.”
“Camden,” Whit whispers harshly in my mind. He’s aware of what I’m doing. Trying to take Caid’s attention off my mate and solely on me.
“Since when did you start trafficking paranormals?” Aries asks from somewhere behind me.
“I’m sure the two fae in the room have already read my mind, so I’ll just say it out loud for the whole class to hear. I didn’t run this little