Raven cares about one person: himself—his comfort, his desires, and his freedom to do as he pleases. He’s fed up with scientist Sampson Marlow making decisions for him and ready to start a new chapter in his life. One last assignment goes horribly wrong, and he’s the one who ends up in a cage…of sorts. Seeing the silent war between the two parties from the shifter’s point of view gets his conscience involved—not that he’d ever admit that to anyone. Upon escaping the wolves and returning to the scientist’s facility—fully intending to hand over his resignation—Raven finds himself drawn to a small Arctic Fox shifter held captive by the scientists. Although it puts Raven’s plans to move on and forget that paranormals exist on the back burner, he can’t seem to help himself. Raven does something he never thought he’d do. He goes to the enemy for help in freeing the shifter. Raven just wants to return the little fox to his skulk. He sure as heck-fire ain’t gonna keep him. Then he’ll move on with his life. What could possibly go wrong?
Shane broke the silence. “Then what do you suggest?”
‘Bout time they ask me. Of course, Raven knew why they hadn’t. The conversation he’d overheard had said it all. They didn’t trust him. And well they shouldn’t.
“Your face is posted at the guard shack at each entrance,” he said, pointing at Jared. Smiling, he added, “After your little stunts in Colin City and in Idaho, they’re not taking any chances. You’ll need to go in disguise.” He scanned the room full of men, mentally cataloguing pros and cons of each man, then discarding options. “You,” he finally decided, pointing.
“Oh, hell no,” Rainy snarled. The wolf shifter probably didn’t technically need to be there, but his mate, Travis, was a vet. “Ye will not take me mate.”
Raven lifted his chin and turned to look at Declan, ignoring the man’s outburst. “I want your vet. He’ll be able to make certain it’s okay to move the shifters, and if they’re too injured, surely he’ll have something to ease their suffering.”
“There’s no way in hell I’m putting shifters to sleep, you asshole,” Travis snapped.
Pausing, Raven realized Travis might have misconstrued his words. He smiled at the fair-haired human. “I meant you probably had painkillers or something to knock them unconscious while we moved them.”
“Oh.”
“Ye still aren’t takin’ me mate,” Rainy roared. His arms tightened around Travis, holding him close to his side.
Declan held up his hand. His dark eyes seemed to peer into Raven’s soul. It was almost creepy. “What is yer plan? How can ye guarantee me people’s safety?”
Raven snorted. “I’m not guaranteeing anything. I’m just saying those two are the ones I’m willing to take in with me. I’ll get them into Sampson’s office and we’ll take the security down for the south gate. Anyone with a pass-card and eyeball will be approved. We’ll also control communications so the guards there can’t call for help. It’s gonna be your job to take them out quietly,” he told them, pointing at the other shifters in the room.
Leaning forward, Raven rested his elbows on his knees. Excitement coursed through him as he planned the operation. “Each security desk checks in every thirty minutes. You need to leave someone there to do that,” he stated. He glanced between Declan, Shane, and Carson. “I’ll give you all blueprints to study while we fly out there. It will show holding pens, labs, offices, everything. You bring in whoever the hell you want, but we need to be in and out in one hour.”
He looked at Jared. “I’ll leave you in Marlow’s office to download his files.” He smirked at the other man’s suddenly delightedly wicked grin. “Thought you’d like that.” He then looked at Travis. “You, I’ll take to the holding area. I want my fox out of there.”
“Your fox?” Kade jumped all over that. Leaning forward, he pressed, “What do you mean, your fox?”
Raven wanted to wish he could take the words back, but he didn’t. The longer he was away from his mystery fox, the more he wanted the little shifter. He tamped down his suspicion of what it meant and instead glared at Kade. “That’s right. The fucking fox is mine. You do whatever the hell you want with the rest of them. I’ll take the fluff ball wherever he needs to go.”