The kiss was wicked, openmouthed, tongues tangling and the taste of the mating hormone spilling to her system.
Ah God, this was what she wanted too. The pain would go away, the need for his touch would never be sated.
Her fingers fisted in the shirt he wore, her hips tilting up to him as he suddenly lifted her, holding her to him as his tongue pumped deliciously into her mouth and within seconds had her pu**y burning for him.
“We have trouble rolling in,” Rule suddenly announced. “Roll out before we’re in a firefight with no backup.”
Between one breath and the next, Lawe released her. His hand gripped hers as they began to run for the cover of pines and the safety of the Breed-enforced hotel on the other side.
Megan and Braden had already left with Liza and were headed back across the golf course in one of the fully loaded Desert Dragoons used for military desert operations.
Passing him and heading to where Thor was being helped from the trees by Josiah, two other Dragoons sped toward Lawe, Diane, and the group following them. Jonas drove the vehicle, with a Breed manning the powerful laser-powered weapon mounted to the roll bars. Behind him the second Dragoon bounced over the rolling landscape with Dane Vanderale at the wheel, his partner, Rye Desalvo manning the weapon mounted to that one. The calvary was riding in and if the expressions on their faces were anything to go by, then they were anticipating a hell of a fight.
This was Lawe’s area of expertise. He loved the firefights, Diane loved the investigations, the rescues. There was no rescuing needed here. And it wasn’t that she didn’t get a hell of an adrenaline rush from the firefights. It wasn’t as though she wasn’t aware she would be involved in far too many where Lawe was concerned.
But in this case, he would be in danger if he was forced to worry about her in this instance. He’d given her the investigation, the fight, the chance to prove herself, and she knew it wasn’t over yet. Honor Roberts was still out there, and Liza Johnson had yet to be questioned. Gently.
But her part in this particular battle was over; she would wait and see what the war brought.
Turning to him, she threw her arms around his neck and smacked a joyful kiss to his lips.
“Get yourself wounded and there will be hell to pay, Mate,” she warned him.
Surprise filled his eyes, but the anticipation that brightened them was something she was familiar with. Something she knew herself. The anticipation of the job he loved.
Justice.
It was what he had taken his name for, and it was a part of him.
She was his mate, but the adrenaline was his mistress just as it was her admirer.
“I love you.” He touched her cheek before turning to the Breed Diane hadn’t seen until he jumped from the Dragoon that bounced to a stop before them. “Tarek, take care of my mate.”
“As though she were my own,” Tarek promised.
Tarek Jordan, mated himself and out of active status, but still part of the support teams when he was available. “Let’s move out.” He give a quick nod to Diane before they moved out quickly, racing across the golf course to the safety of the hotel.
Worry was a part of leaving him behind, but she knew he’d never be able to do his job if she were at his side during a firefight. A battle with a dozen Coyotes and human soldiers was far different than allowing her to fight Malcolm, and Diane knew it.
She glanced over her shoulder to see the dust of the vehicles racing to meet the oncoming Council soldiers as another Dragoon raced toward them from the hotel.
“Here’s our ride,” Tarek shouted as Thor was first loaded in.
Reaching the vehicle themselves Diane jumped in the open side, taking one last look at the disappearing dust as Lawe and Dane’s Dragoons disappeared over the rise, and four others raced from the trails that cut through the pines to meet them.
Reinforcements. Dane and Jonas hadn’t taken chances. There were enough Enforcers joining them, along with Dog’s teams, to ensure victory.
And when he returned—
When he returned, it would be to the mate willing to give all of herself to the Breed who had finally set her free.
EPILOGUE
He was wounded.
Diane stood silently, biting her lip as she watched as the Breed medic worked silently on the gash across his right bicep, and this was after digging the bullet from the shallow wound in his shoulder.
Blood smeared across and down his chest, but he sat silently, almost relaxed but for the edge of concern in his somber gaze as he watched her.