Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

35. Follow the leader

"Don't ever dare to do that again." His face was dead-serious now, with no trace of his earlier cockiness.

"What? Tell you what to do?" I challenged him- I was not going down without a fight.

"No," he snarled, "jumping in front of the fire like that."

My eyes widened at his response. "Are you being serious? I did it to save you and you are having a go at me?"

"What you did was put yourself in harm's way, on top of that for me. If you ever do that again, I'll..." His jaw was tightening again like it had earlier. Was he worried about me?

It's James' voice that interrupted us both. "Hey, you two! Mind giving me a hand instead of making out in the corner?" he chuckled in between shots.

Rafe got off me and offered me his hand, which I refused as I stood up on my own. James was holding his own quite well with the guns so I used the moment to make a few things clear to this ridiculous wolf.

"You know, people are usually grateful when someone saves their arse. But then again, you don't do etiquette on the battlefield, if I remember correctly. As a warrior though, you should know that teammates have each others' backs. And besides, my bracelet protected us both."

Contrary to the effect that I was going for, the damn wolf pushed me against the wall and moved in closer to me, whispering in my ear.

"I saw the surprise in your eyes. You didn't know that this would happen, so you were reckless, Riley. The guys and I will heal if anything happens to us- you won't." I opened my mouth to protest but he placed a finger on my lips to silence me. The contact brought back the same tingling that I had felt when Aiden's lips brushed against mine the night before. "This conversation is over....for now. We have my sister to save." And with that, he took out his gun again and started shooting from behind the wall.

I snapped back to reality and kneeled next to him to join the gunfight. We still had 6 guys to eliminate, which was not going to be difficult but it was still going to take us a bit of time, time that could cost Natalia her life now that her kidnappers knew that we were there.

"James- can you try and shift?" He nodded in acknowledgement. "If you manage, you need to make your way down to the dungeon without getting detected and you need to try to get to Natalia as quickly as possible. We will cover you and will join you as soon as we eliminate these guys."

Soon enough a beautiful red fox was standing where James had stood seconds earlier. I was fascinated because up to that point I had only seen people shift into wolves.

"Moreau," I heard Rafe growl, "snap out of it. We are meant to be covering him, remember?" 

Ugh, jealous prat.

But he was right, we did promise James to cover him and so we did. He was so small and quick in comparison to wolves that he was gone through the open dungeon door in no time and without any of the guards even realising.

"Well, if he can shift, so can I then. Time for Kai to play," Rafe exclaimed.

"It's not a....." Competition, I muttered under my nose but it was too late- he had already shifted. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw a beautiful silver-grey wolf with stunning blue eyes appear next to me. It was the same wolf-like the one in my painting, and the one I saw back at the Blackwood mansion my first days there.

He nuzzled me gently, as I kept on shooting with both Rafe's and mine guns in my hands- I could not let our opponents have a breather. I heard a commotion from the other end of the room though, accompanied by various growls and barks, and I realised that Callum and Aiden were pushing through from the other side.