disappear, but hesitated as he glanced around. She was in a separate building and unlikely to run across the men unless they sought her out, and if they did... His wolf bristled. It was late and dark outside. There was no reason for anyone, particularly several large men, to show up out there unless they had a very specific reason.
If Persephone herself was their reason for arriving, those bastards were about to run into a buzzsaw called Dodge.
He eased out of his hiding spot to investigate the new arrivals. Three large SUVs with blacked out windows and armored doors. His hackles rose. Not good. The scent of blood and death lingered in the air and almost made him sneeze. Dodge stayed in his human form, since he figured guys like that wouldn’t hesitate to shoot a wolf but might wait a second before they shot a man.
Only a second, though.
He rethought that assessment the moment he caught sight of them: massive bruisers with tattoos, badly-fitted suits, sidearms, and fake Rolexes. Dodge’s upper lip curled in a silent snarl. If that hadn’t been enough to give them away as connected to organized crime, the three corpses they dragged out of the SUVs, wrapped in tarps, would have pushed it over the edge.
Dodge retreated, having seen enough, and went to retrieve Persephone. He needed to get her out of there fast. Those bruisers clearly weren’t aware that someone else was on the property. The moment they figured it out...
He shook his head and used all of his stealth to return to the massive building where she’d been throwing around trees and shrubs, and froze. Panic closed his throat. Where the fuck was she? He couldn’t breathe as the wolf wanted to immediately burst into his hunting form to track her down, but the man managed to hold onto sanity. She couldn’t have gone far. If the intruders found her, then he had half a dozen men to kill. Not a record by any means.
He found her as she moved toward the boxy building where the intruders had gone, and clenched his jaw against an immediate curse. The girl had no sense of self-preservation. Surely she had to realize that investigating mysterious people at night in a rural location – alone – was dangerous to her health? She’d run away when confronted with a witch and a wolf-man, so why the fuck did she feel obligated to sneak up on armed mobsters?
Dodge moved as quickly and calmly as he could, not wanting to startle or scare her, and found her pressed against a wall near an industrial kitchen. The sound of bone saws and heavy knives whacking into flesh made it clear someone was butchering... something. He winced and pushed down a hint of nausea. He’d seen a lot of nasty shit in his life, but somehow the thought of butchering some poor son a bitch to feed to wild animals... It was just a bit too much. Give him an honorable death and toss his body on the trash-pile if necessary, but don’t chop him into bits in a kitchen.
He knew the moment when Persephone realized what was going on, because she took in a wobbly breath and nearly fell backwards onto her ass. Every part of her started shaking and he caught the scent of her sweat. Panic. She was close to sheer panic. Hysteria. Screaming. Even the most cold-blooded men he’d worked with probably would have needed a second to compose themselves after witnessing what went on in the kitchen, so he didn’t blame her a bit. He just needed to make sure she didn’t give them away.
Dodge moved fast to cover her mouth and restrain her against him, so she wouldn’t scream or bolt, and told her to stay still. She went rigid with fear, the smell of it practically pouring from her. Dodge didn’t like that he contributed to her fear. There was enough of that already, but there wasn’t another choice. He started moving backward, keeping his attention on the doorway in case the mobsters reappeared to fetch the last body in their trucks.
His lips brushed her ear as he breathed, “This is the worst bit. Just a few seconds. Be brave for me, just a bit longer.”
She still dangled in his grip like a broken marionette – disjointed but still tense and unmoving. Her legs started to flail just a touch, like she meant to help him back up, which he appreciated. Dodge kissed her cheek