Ruler (Wolves of Royal Paynes #2) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,100

on my personal radar.

I'd discover my wolf side when Faust came back. Just like I'd rest when Faust came back. I'd breathe when Faust came back. The lack of sleep was doing strange things, making me panic much more quickly than I might have, but while I may have been Faust's Storri and his omega, I was nothing and no one without Faust.

I spun around at the sound of someone entering. I knew it couldn't be Faust, but I'd been excited all the same. Diesel's dark gaze met my worried one. He grimaced as if looking at me was physically painful.

He'd been me once.

I couldn't imagine that five years ago they'd found their pack lands in ruins and turned right around, accepting everyone's deaths. They would've searched the wreckage. In the beginning, they would've been hopeful that they could find survivors. I knew there hadn't been anyone left alive, but in those moments after discovery and before realization, Diesel had to have been hoping, just as I was, that his mate was still alive. That he would know if he weren't…

My heart pounded, and my throat closed. I didn't want any of this panic leaching into Belle, and I pulled the straps of the pack down, letting space come between our bodies.

Faust would come home. He was fine. Everyone else was worried too, but none of them were freaking out. I didn't have any reason to be the exception.

Dr. Tiff passed Florence to a tired-looking Hallie—I didn't notice her coming in—and took Belle from me. "Storri, take a deep breath. You're hyperventilating."

I knew that. I could hear my breath coming in ragged gasps, but I couldn't do anything to stop it. Breathe? How?

There was a beep, a sound I'd come to learn meant the perimeter had been breached, but since no explosion followed, that had to mean the vehicle that just arrived was the Hummer.

I spun around, sprinting for the door with Knox close on my heels. I made it outside to the steps before Knox stopped me. He grabbed my elbow and held on long enough to halt my forward movement before quickly letting go. "You can't run out of the house like that," he snarled.

I shook my head. His anger meant nothing to me in that moment, not when my mate was finally home from danger. I spotted the white of the Hummer through the trees and took off again.

They'd turned the last corner, and Faust must've been just as excited because the Hummer raced toward us.

The passenger window opened, and someone inside pushed a gun out the window.

A gun?

I stopped running but was still closer to the oncoming vehicle than I was to the hotel. I still wasn't sure what I was seeing. This was the Hummer. Who else would be inside?

The person on the passenger side opened fire, and I got a mouthful of dirt as Knox pushed me to the ground, covering my backside with his body. "Trap," he growled, shoving his hands under my arms. He hauled me from the ground and up over his shoulder as he ran. Projectiles zoomed by. I'd thought they were bullets until Knox sprinted past an orange dart lodged into the dirt.

Diesel waited at the entrance, slamming the door shut after Knox made it inside. The door sounded like someone was knocking, but the sounds were just more darts piercing the wood.

They had the Hummer. Portal had the Hummer.

Terror gripped my heart at what that meant.

Knox and Diesel sprang into action, barricading the front entrance, shutting, locking, and sliding furniture in front of the doors around us so there were fewer open access points.

Jazz appeared shirtless and in sweats, rubbing his eyes at the top of the stairs with Angus in his arms.

"Get your ass inside the panic room," Knox hollered.

Glass broke, but I couldn't see where. The sounds outside had changed, each boom louder and more powerful than they'd been before. These weren't darts. These were bullets. If just capturing a nephilim was their only objective, they wouldn't be shooting so haphazardly into a building where they knew two nephilim lived.

"Storri! The children!" Jazz cried out, and I snapped out of my stunned haze.

The children. We needed to get the children into the panic room.

Hallie and Dr. Tiff ran to my side, and I shifted on instinct. The pack was under attack. We had to protect the pack.

My daughters both shifted at the same time, and we ran as a unit up the stairs, joining Jazz before