Page 81 of Patrick’s Seduction

“What did he say?”

“Just that he’s working on some sort of intervention.”

Patrick nodded. “Yeah, that’s vague. Guess it’s too late now anyway. I doubt he’s gonna come up with something usable in the next half hour.”

It didn’t matter now. Everybody was prepared for the battle and armed to the teeth. With some luck, they would all walk away alive, all but Cameron.

Fallon stopped drinking from him, and slid off his lap, her cheeks flushed, her eyes dilated. He could feel her arousal, a direct effect of his blood.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

He brought his arm to his lips and licked over the two puncture wounds, closing them with his saliva. When he looked out through the windshield, he saw that the van had turned onto a rural road, heading for an abandoned barn.

One by one, each Scanguards van piled into the makeshift staging area which abutted a forest, just a short distance from the Gallagher estate.

“Sun’s down,” Damian announced.

Patrick helped Fallon exit the van, holding onto her hand to make sure he’d recognize instantly if she was in distress and unable to suppress the need to shift into her wolf form. He glanced around and ticked off everybody in his head.

“What are they wearing?” Fallon whispered next to him.

“Kevlar suits,” he replied. “No silver bullet or knife can penetrate them.”

“Then why are you not wearing one?”

He caught the panic in her voice.

“They’re a pain to fight in. Pretty heavy and a little stiff. I need to be more agile.”

He tipped his chin in Zane’s direction, who didn’t wear a Kevlar suit either.

“Those of us going inside the house can’t be weighed down by the Kevlar suits.”

She nodded, but she didn’t look happy about it. He couldn’t really blame her. He would have liked to stick Fallon into a Kevlar suit, but he knew that eventually she’d need to shift, and the Kevlar might trap her, making her vulnerable to an attack.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two earpieces. He handed one to Fallon while he stuck the other one into his left ear.

“Everybody,” he called out. “Communication systems on.”

Everybody followed his command.

He lowered his voice for his next command. “Identify yourselves if you can hear me in your ear.”

Alphabetically, like they’d learned in their training at Scanguards, they began to say their names.

“Alright,” Patrick said with a nod. “All is good. Cole, you’re running the command center?”

From his position back at Scanguards HQ, Vanessa’s human mate, Cole replied, “Yep, drew the short straw.”

He knew that Cole had wanted to join them in this fight, but if anything happened to him, Vanessa would literally skin him alive. Besides, Cole was an IT genius like Thomas and Eddie and was needed at HQ because both had opted to join them in the field.

“You’re more valuable at HQ, bro,” Patrick said into the mic. “Where are the drones?”

“I parked them down the road from you guys. Ready to deploy them now.”

“Okay, send ‘em out.”