Leap of the Lion (The Wild Hunt Legacy #4)(100)

Zeb growled. “No, little female. You’re not going back there.”

Oh, she wanted to agree so, so badly. Tears filled her eyes. “We can’t let them kill Vicki or her babies. And you need me to get in.” She pulled in a shuddering breath.

Zeb studied her with black eyes and then glanced at Alec. “To risk a female is…wrong. But we need her.”

“By the God.” Staring at her, Alec gripped the table. “I don’t want…”

“You must,” she whispered. “For Vicki.”

After a long moment, he nodded. “Aye. We need you.”

There was no sense of victory, not with the paralyzing fear lodged in her bones. Don’t think about returning. Not now. “But what about the shifter-soldiers?” My brothers. “Can we get them out and remove their trackers? The camp has a stockade fence and floodlights. Owen set off an alarm and—”

“Wait.” Alec paced away from them, stared out the window for a moment, and rubbed his hands roughly over his face. When he turned, his expression held only a cold resolve. He walked back and picked up Zeb’s phone. “Tynan, you know about human security systems. Take charge of breaking the shifter-soldiers out. Tonight. Collect what you need, get moving that direction, and we’ll send you help.”

“My brothers and their friends won’t believe anything you say,” Darcy said toward the phone. “They’ll think it’s a Scythe trick. A test.”

“Those Scythe feckers could well make a male suspicious.” Tynan was silent for a second. “Right then. Darcy, did ye wear those clothes I left you and did you re-hang the bag?”

“Yes. And yes.”

“Then I can convince your lads.” He paused. “Alec, were you saying the poor shifters will have to carve the GPS devices from their bodies?”

“Aye. Then and there,” Alec said.

“Right. Consider it done.”

Wells cleared his throat. “How many of the shifters from here will assist in the two attacks?”

Shay answered, “Should be quite a—”

“Not as many as you think,” Calum said.

The cahirs looked at him in surprise.

“Somehow the Scythe learned about me and Victoria. Do they also know Cold Creek has other shifters? We must get the elderly, females, and cubs to safety.”

Tensing, Zeb and Shay turned toward the kitchen and the sounds of Bree cooking. They wouldn’t leave their mate to be taken.

“In that case,” Alec said, “how about those trained shifter-soldiers that Tynan is going after? They could be useful at the Seattle prison.”

“Too far to get them there in time to help,” Zeb said.

Wells frowned. “Not if I can arrange a helicopter.”

Calum nodded. “Do it. The males would want to be part of getting their sisters free.”

“They would,” Tynan said over the phone. “But can they? Cutting out the trackers will leave them bleeding and limping.”

“Send Donal,” Calum told Alec. “He can heal them enough that they can fight.”

Tynan grunted. “You explain it to him, then. My littermate hates patch jobs.”

Alec pulled out his own phone and swiped a number. “Donal, we need you. Meet us at the lodge—and come prepared for a battle out of the territory. You’ll be doing quick and dirty repairs.”

“Out of the territory?” Donal’s sonorous voice came from the speakerphone. “By Herne’s holy prick, where am I to get the energy to heal? Do I look like a Gods-benighted battery? And you want me to—”

When Alec thumbed the speaker off, the cursing faded to an indistinct rumble.

The cahirs…except for Alec…were grinning, and even Darcy felt her lips curving up.

“That’s my tactful brother.” Tynan chuckled. “What’s the location of the forest camp?”

“It’s off Highway 20.” Darcy explained how to get to the stockade from both the road and the mountain meadow.

“Got it. Alec, the females’ prison camp is in the Gatewood area of West Seattle.” Tynan rattled off the address.

Shay bent over the map and circled the spot with a pencil. “If the cats follow Darcy in, they can deal with the machine guns.”

Follow Darcy in. Her stomach was one frozen knot.

“Attack after dark,” Zeb said.

Shay nodded. “If we can kill the floodlights, we’ll have an advantage.”

“Kill the power to the neighborhood,” Wells suggested.

The cahirs nodded agreement.

“How do you want to time the attacks? One first or…” Tynan asked.

“Simultaneous,” Zeb said. “Keep them too busy to think—or harm anyone.”

“Shortly after dark is probably the longest I can stall them.” Calum looked at his cahirs. “I will arrange to surrender myself just before the attack, so they will believe everything is going their way.”

“Why would they wait for you?” Wells asked. “I wouldn’t.”

“They can’t calculate when their note will reach me…which is why we could have this meeting. In a minute, I’ll take my phone into the mountains and call them from there. Once I call, they’ll understand it will take me a while to return to Cold Creek.”