Page 34 of Red Marked

“I’m fine.”

“Mostly.” He looks at the slash across my ribs, the one between my shoulder blades, the dried line down my forearm, and his jaw goes hard. “We’ve been standing out here imagining you dead. Rex wanted to go in after you half an hour ago. I almost let him. Hell, I almost went in myself. You made it back just in the nick of time. What took so damned long?”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” I glance at Rex and then grip the back of Atlas’s neck once and let go. “We’d be dead if you had.”

“So?” Saber steps in. “What happened? I take it there was some hostility.”

I tell them what happened, sticking to the main facts because we don’t have a lot of time.

When I finish, nobody speaks. Brian breathes out a low whistle through his teeth.

“So, your Draig females are there, but you have no idea why our Red females are stuck on that mountain?” Dane says.

“Nope. I’m pretty sure it’s not by choice, and I think they’re in danger, and not from the ferals.”

“You’re lucky the leader… Star, you said her name is…” Atlas lifts his brows. “You’re lucky she decided to save your ass.”

“Very fucking lucky. She has given me permission to return tomorrow night to discuss the Draig females.”

“Tomorrow night.” Atlas shakes his head. “Can you trust them? You said yourself that one nearly took your head off. It could be a trap.”

“I don’t have much choice,” I say. “I didn’t get actual eyes on the Draig females, so my people won’t act on such thin intel.”

“But you will.” Rex shakes his head.

“I know they’re there. I’m pretty sure I can trust those females if I keep a cool head, which I will.”

“You hope,” Atlas grumbles. “There’s another problem. We got in and out of the clinic clean once, but twice could be pushing it. We might still end up getting caught on our way back in tonight. It’s a risk.”

“One we’ll have to take. If anyone asks, we were running night training maneuvers. I’m head of security. I set the drills.”

“Night training maneuvers with no flight log.” Atlas chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “Pryce won’t buy that.”

“Then we’d better make it back without being seen.”

Brian snorts.

“I know I’m asking a lot of you, but I hope you’ll help me.” I look at the sky. “Right now, we need to get back. At this rate, we’ll only get a couple of hours of sleep before the alarm goes off. We’ve got another big day tomorrow.”

Saber yawns so wide his jaw clicks, which sets Dane off half a second later.

“We’ll talk about this more tomorrow,” Atlas agrees. “But you know we’ll all be in.” He looks at the others, and they nod.

I get a warm and fuzzy-as-fuck feeling in my chest. Somewhere along the line, these males have become my friends.

Brian picks up the rig and swings it over his shoulder. “Let’s stay sharp, ladies. We still have to get home in one piece.”

No one argues with that.

13

Flint

The next night…

We leave the rehabilitation facility in the dead of night, taking the same route as before. We creep down the gravel strip behind the kitchens, along the east fence where two floodlights overlap and leave a strip of shadow, ten feet wide, then the open ground to the ridge. Brian is in black again, goggles ready. Dane carries the rig over one shoulder.

Patrol Two passed us roughly six minutes ago. That gives us plenty of time to head to the rocks before Patrol Three comes around the generator shed. We know the drill, moving in single file.