Page 4

The room goes away. The prison goes away. There’s nothing in the whole world except that woman’s mouth saying my name.

I yank on the cuff. The chain snaps tight, and the steel bites into my wrist bone. She flinches.

“Don’t,” she whispers. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

I pull again. The ring groans in the table.

“Declan, fucking stop!” Cillian’s yelling now. This motherfucker never yells.

“Come here,” I tell her.

She looks at the cuff. She looks at my face. And then, because apparently my mate’s got no fucking sense of self-preservation, at all, she starts to walk toward me.

Cillian grabs her arm.

I lose my fucking mind.

The table comes out of the floor on the second pull. Bolts and all.

“Cole, behind me! Now!” Cillian shoves her back. The alarm starts screaming. The door bangs open, two guards come through it, and I throw the table at them. One goes down under it. The other one grabs for me. That’s a mistake. I put him into the wall.

“DECLAN!”

There’s more of them. Hands on me. I throw a guy over my shoulder, put another one on the floor. Somebody gets a baton into my ribs, I turn around; he sees my face, and I watch him figure out what he just hit.

“Greene, get down! GET DOWN!”

Fuck them. She’s behind them. My omega’s behind them, I can smell her fear now, and it’s not fear of me. It’s fear for me. That makes it about a thousand times worse.

There’s a crack, and my whole back lights up. Taser. My body locks. I go down on one knee. I rip the wires out. They hit me with another one. And another one.

“Stop it!” That’s her voice. “STOP! You’re hurting him!”

I raise my head. She’s fighting Cillian. She’s actually fighting him, this soft little thing in her cream blouse, clawing at his arm, trying to get around him. Trying to get to me.

Something goes off in my chest, big and hot and bright.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I get back on my feet. A guard goes flying. There’s blood in my mouth; I don’t know whose. Don’t fucking care. I can see her. That’s all I need.

“Get her out of here!”

“No!” Cillian’s got her around the waist. He’s dragging her backward. She’s kicking. “Declan!”

I roar. It doesn’t sound like a man. Every guard in the room freezes, just for a second, and I charge.

Something punches me in the shoulder. A dart. I pull it out. There’s another one in my thigh. And another. The room starts to tip.

No. No, not now, not fucking now…

My legs quit on me. I hit the floor, and five of them pile on. I can still move. One of them screams when my claws find him. Somebody’s yelling about a gun.

“Don’t shoot him!” she screams. “Don’t you dare shoot him!”

She’s crying. There’s tears running down that beautiful face. My wolf’s going out of his fucking mind, because our omega’s crying, and they’re taking her away from us.

I reach for her. My arm won’t work right.