It was too late.
She was halfway to Rhys when she suddenly collapsed to the ground, crying out as she clutched at her right leg. The metal clamp was no ordinary bear trap. With deep, jagged grooves and long, pin-like spikes, it had been designed to hurt, to incapacitate.
“Shit.” Cade made his way to her, careful of every step. “Mendez, stop moving.” The spikes had pierced clear through her boots, and rivers of blood flowed down her leg, making the leather wet and shiny. “Mendez! Stop moving. Look at me. Look at me, Thea.”
He had to say her name three more times before she finally unscrewed her eyes and stared up at him. The pain in her gaze was profound, as well as the anger, but there were no tears.
“I’m going to get you out, but you have to be still,” he told her, placing his hands on the springs to either side of the jaws. “This is going to hurt, but when I open the trap, I need you to pull your foot free. Got it?”
She clenched her jaw and nodded.
“On three. One. Two.” He applied all of his weight to his hands, pushing down on the springs.
Thea let out a very cat-like screech as the jaws opened, prying the spiked teeth from her leg. Once free, she twisted to the side and jerked back, pulling her foot from the trap just before it snapped closed again.
“You didn’t say three,” she panted as she sprawled on her back in the dirt. She turned her head to the side, her gaze fixed on her mate. “Rhys?”
“He’ll be okay,” Luca called as he helped the werewolf to his feet. “We need to get the fuck out of here.” He urged the surviving captives to stay behind him as they trudged over to the rest of the group. “Has anyone heard from O’Malley or Webber?”
Both Cade and Thea shook their heads. He also hadn’t seen Lynk since the shifter had disappeared to deal with the sniper.
Rhys collapsed onto the ground beside his mate. “Hey, angel.” His voice was rough with pain, but he gave her a wan smile. “Come here often?”
“Idiot,” Thea muttered, but she arched her neck to press a kiss to his cheek. “How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?”
In answer to her question, the rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire rose up in the distance, only short volleys at first but rapidly increasing in volume and intensity. The cavalry had arrived.
“Come on.” Cade offered his hand to Thea. “On your feet, soldier.”
Keeping his gun hand free, he hooked his arm around her waist, supporting as much of her weight as she’d allow while Luca and a couple of the captives worked to get Rhys on his feet. They had a lot of ground to cover and not much time to do it.
“Here,” a familiar voice said. Jogging up to them, Lynk nudged one of the males out of the way and slipped under Rhys’ arm to prop him up. “Man, you look like shit.”
Rhys chuckled weakly. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a dick?”
“Frequently.” There was a small cut on Lynk’s jaw, no bigger than shaving nick, but he appeared otherwise uninjured.
“The Hunters?” Cade asked.
“We’re clear,” was all he said.
As predicted, the trek through the woods took twice as long as it should have. Partly, because of their wounded comrades, and partly because they had to pause to detonate additional traps along the way. Electrified nets. Trenches filled with steel pikes. Spring-loaded spike strips that whipped around trees like bungee cords.
Throughout it all, Cade couldn’t stop thinking of Mackenna. Was she safe? Had she made it back to the vans? Or was she still at the ski resort? He couldn’t wait to hold her in his arms again, and once he had her there, he was never letting her go.
“That’s far enough.” Stepping out from behind a tree, Seth Barnes walked onto the path with a handgun held out in front of him.
If Cade hadn’t been so enraged to see him, he would have laughed. Did the idiot really plan to take them all on with a single gun? Even if he shot one of them, he’d be dead before he could pull the trigger again.
“Barnes?” Thea growled at him. “We thought you were dead. What the hell are you doing?”
“He’s a Hunter.” Cade trained his gun between Barnes’ eyes. “They planned this.”
“Not a very good plan,” Lynk commented. “Sounds like they’re getting their asses handed to them by the Coalition.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” Barnes thrust his gun at them several times, his eyes wide and crazed. “They weren’t supposed to come. No one has ever—”
He stopped talking when several guttural growls rose up from behind Cade. Clearly, his team had heard and interpreted the words the same way he had.
This wasn’t the first time the Hunters had played this game. He wondered how many others had marched willingly to their deaths. Other Revenant teams. Shifter tribes. Werewolf packs. Anyone wanting to help right a terrible wrong, but instead, had been lured in and systematically slaughtered.
How many captives had “escaped?” How many of them had found safety, only to come right back to try to end the suffering? The Hunters hardly had to work for it anymore. Instead of blowing up towns and invoking the wrath of the ARC, they could simply bring Gemini to them.
“You talk too much.” A pair of glowing green eyes appeared in the darkness behind Barnes just before Deidra stepped into the moonlight.
With a fierce roar, she lifted her foot and kicked out, connecting solidly with the guy’s back. Barnes’ jerked, his arms flailing as he stumbled forward. Cade wrapped his finger around the trigger of his gun, prepared
