Alpha’s Claim (Bad Boy Bears #1)

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

P aloma

My stomach was in knots the entire flight back east. Darius let me use a laptop on the flight, and I used it to set up my own leverage against Thom.

Now, as we fly the short distance from New York City to Lockepoint, I’m a complete disaster. It’s horrible to return after trying to escape it for so many years, but even more horrific is imagining all the dastardly things Thom might do to Wren if we don’t get there in time.

I blink back tears. No, I can’t think about it.

Darius squeezes my hand. We’re in the back of a repurposed military plane. Matthias sits on my opposite side, checking through his first aid kit.

The comms unit crackles with the pilot’s announcement. The sound is loud but unintelligible.

“We’re approaching Lockepoint now,” Teddy interprets. He’s sitting a few feet away from Darius, next to his ex-military friends from Taos. They are also shifters. They used to all be on a shifter special ops team with the military, but now they have a private security firm.

“Is it weird being back here with us instead of flying this thing?” the Taos guy asks Teddy.

Teddy shrugs. “Buddy flies just fine. I trained him myself.”

I look from Teddy to Darius. I don’t think they’ve had time to talk out their disagreement. They’ve just agreed to put it aside to help me rescue Wren.

All the Bad Bear brothers are on the mission. Five of them are flying in on helicopters, while Darius, Teddy, and Matthias are with me. Teddy’s special forces buddies are here, too, the ones who operate as Black Wolf Security out of Taos. They brought the plane.

“How did you even get all this equipment?” I motion around the plane. A sleek boat made of gray metal takes up most of the space.

“Friends in high places,” Darius says.

“More like friends in low places.” The Taos guy leans out to grin at me. I’ve noticed he’s kind of a flirt. I think his name is Lance. His white teeth shine out of his camo-painted face.

Teddy, Matthias, Darius, and I aren’t in any war paint, just military-grade combat gear. I’m wearing a bulletproof vest that’s a heavy leaden weight on my shoulders. A necessity, since I’m the only non-shifter here. The four Black Wolf Security guys are in high-tech gear and bodysuits that will allow them to strike a target hard and fast in the dark.

A few days ago, I didn’t know shifters existed. Now they’re risking it all to help me rescue Wren. It’s overwhelming. I’ve gone from being locked alone in a tower and used for my gifts to surrounded by new friends who don’t know or care that I have a weird intuition that results in profitable stock trades.

The Black Wolf Security leader, a tall, dark-haired guy named Rafe, marches around the boat to stand in front of us. He’s got a calm, focused presence that inspires confidence. A lot like Matthias.

“We’re ready. We’ll drop the boat. Then you four” –he points at me, Darius, Matthias and Teddy– “parachute down to meet it. Buddy’s going to drop the rest of us closer to the beach. We’ll make a hole and cover you, so you can head straight to the mansion.”

I try to imagine each of these steps, but all I can picture is a jumble of every action movie I’ve ever seen.

“Got it?” Rafe finishes the debrief. I have the feeling he’s repeating the plan for the civilians. My mouth is dry, but I nod.

Teddy rises, grabs three parachute packs, and helps Matthias and Darius strap into theirs. “Paloma, you’re with Darius.”

My heart is trying to pound out of my chest, but I stand so Darius can strap me to him. My wild heartbeat calms as I lean against him and soak in his warmth.

“You two lovebirds have fun,” Lance says.

Darius growls, but I raise a hand and flip Lance off.

Matthias chuckles. One of the Black Wolf guys barks a laugh. Lance slaps a hand to his heart, pretending to be wounded.

Rafe shakes his head. “Serves you right, brother.” To me, he says, “Welcome to the team.”

A buzzer sounds, and I nearly jump out of my skin. I grip the side pockets on Darius’ flak jacket. We’re face to face, and I’ve never been more grateful for his huge Viking build. “I’ve got you, little princess,” he rumbles. “I mean, warrior princess.” He bows his head, so he can brush his lips against mine .

“Awww,” Lance and another Black Wolf security guy chorus. “Kiss cam!”

Both Darius and I flip them off without even breaking the kiss. He smiles against my mouth, and I find enough breath to chuckle. I had no idea members of a special ops team could be so goofy.

Then Rafe gives a signal, and the back of the plane opens up. The wind howls a few feet away from me and Darius. Adrenaline pumps through me. I pull down a pair of night goggles and secure them.

Darius tightens his grip on me.

Rafe gives a thumbs up. A mechanism triggers, deploying a grayish-white parachute. It flies out first, a bright circle in a dark night. The boat follows.

Rafe and the rest of his team walk to the plane’s center. They’ve attached themselves to straps to approach the opening without getting blown out.

Teddy strolls past them and, without hesitation, leaps into the night. At first, his legs seem to fly up, and then he’s hurtling down after the boat.

Matthias tucks his glasses in a pocket, zips it shut, and saunters to the end of the plane. He lets himself fall, his limbs spread-eagled in the howling wind.

It’s Darius and my turn next. My stomach flip-flops as we approach the dark maw of freezing air.

“Let’s do this,” I shout. And then the wind steals the breath from my mouth.

Darius and I fall, hurtling towards the roiling ocean.

There’s a jerk as Darius deploys his parachute. I brace against him and blink rapidly to clear my watering eyes as we float more gently downwards. The plane roars overhead, heading toward the distant strip of sand .

Beyond the beach, Lockepoint mansion glows. Every window on every floor is illuminated. It’s beautiful and pathetically unguarded.

Thom’s hubris will be his downfall.

The plane swings low. Against the bright lights of Lockepoint, I can see four dark shapes leap out of its belly. They each hit the water with a small splash.

“They don’t have parachutes.” I suck in a breath.

“They don’t need them. They’re shifters. They can hit the water and survive,” Darius murmurs. “They’ll take the beach and clear a way for us to land the boat.”

The wind whips my hair over my face. We float closer to the water. I brace myself to hit it. Some of us don’t like swimming in November.

I glance down. “Look.” I tug Darius’ vest to get his attention.

Below us, Teddy and Matthias have gotten into the boat. Teddy’s at the controls, driving it towards us.

“Perfect timing.” Darius fiddles with some mechanism on his parachute and lets us drift slightly to the right. Teddy steers the boat under us. Matthias stands, ready to grab us. Both he and Teddy are dripping wet.

“Hang on.” Darius releases the parachute, and we fall a short distance. I grit my teeth to keep from crying out.

Darius’ feet hit the metal hull with a bang. Somehow, he keeps his balance as the boat rocks on the choppy water. That must be another perk of being a shifter.

Darius unstraps and checks me over while Teddy points the boat toward shore. My legs wobble like jelly, but I grab Darius and hold on to stay upright.

The next thing I know, Darius clutches me to him and pulls me down to the floor of the boat where he can bend over me, covering me with his body. My ears ring–there’s a crack, crack, crack in the distance and a rat-a-tat-tat of answering machine gun fire.

“They’re storming the beach.” Teddy slows the boat, and the wind dies.

“Should we help them?” I ask from my cramped position under Darius.

“Nah, they’re good. Wait for the signal.”

I slap Darius’ arm. “You can let me up.”

“She’s wearing a vest,” Matthias says. “Remember?”

“Sorry.” Darius helps me upright. His eyes are brightly lit. “Protecting you is my number one priority.”

“Here.” Matthias hands him a black matte helmet. Darius helps me put it on. I agreed to wear this headpiece because it’s bulletproof, but it must be state-of-the-art. The glass face plate gives me night vision. The world glows green, and I can see the yellow-white shapes of the team’s heat signatures in the distance. I watch with fascination as they slip up the dunes, each descending on a guard house. There are soft booms up and down the sandy strip as they set off charges and then move with whiplike speed to take out any guards that survive the guardhouse explosion.

“We need to get closer, so we’re ready,” Matthias says. Through the helmet, the sound of their voices is amplified while the crack of bullets seems muted.

“On it.” Teddy motors us closer. “Just wait for it.”

“Wait for what?” My own voice echoes in the helmet, but the twins hear me just fine. Back at the mountain, Hutch told me shifters have heightened hearing, and can see in the dark. I’m beginning to understand why special ops is a natural career choice for shifters.

“Wait for the distraction,” Teddy says.

A loud whistling sound goes up, and firecrackers burst in the sky beyond Lockepoint .

“There it is.” Matthias grins. “Courtesy of a few more of our friends from Arizona. They snuck up from the road.”

More firecrackers explode, showering the sky with rainbow colors.

Two helicopters appear from the east and west. They fly up to the house from opposite directions and pause to hover over the gables. A rope lowers from each bird, and two dark figures shimmy down to the roof.

I can’t be sure, but I think one of them is wearing a kilt.

“Axel and Canyon,” Darius murmurs.

One of the helicopters tilts sideways, and a huge shape leaps out onto the steep roof of my old bedroom tower. It rises to hind legs and waves a paw at the helicopter pilots as they zoom away.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, that’s Everest,” Matthias tells me. “He’s the final stage of the aerial attack.”

The bear falls to all fours and lets out an echoing roar.

Teddy’s busy gunning the engine. “Brace yourselves,” he snarls. The boat skims the water, pointed straight towards the beach.

Every muscle in me tenses, expecting a crash when the boat rams the shore. Instead, Darius grabs me, crouches, and leaps, just as the boat plows into the beach.

He and Matthias land side by side. Instantly, two black-clad figures–their body heat turning them bright gold through my helmet–flank us. It’s Lance and Rafe.

“Let’s move,” Rafe says. He and Lance hold guns and hunch low to cover us as we run up the beach. I let Darius swing me into his arms. He can run faster than I can, and we need to get to Wren.

In seconds, we’re at a set of side doors. Matthias kicks them down, and Rafe and Lance step in first, swinging their guns to check the area beyond.

“Clear,” they shout and race on. We move through the house, with Rafe and Lance clearing each room before Darius, Matthias, and I walk through.

The place is eerily quiet. The sight lights on the guns sweep over the marble floors. The priceless paintings on the wall are silent witnesses to our invasion.

“West wing,” I say. “Thom will have Wren there, in the panic room. And there’ll be lots of security.”

“Not anymore,” someone calls. Canyon strides around the corner, stopping short when he sees the gun sights trained on his bare chest. “We tore into the roof, took out a couple dozen guys at once. Everest threw a bunch of them out of the windows. What’s the word for that?”

“Defenestrated.” Axel appears behind Canon. He’s eating what looks like an apple. “The way to the west wing is clear.”

“Let’s go.” I step forward. “This way.”

Darius and his brothers all fall in around me. “The safe room is in the lower levels. There’ll be more guards down there.”

“We’ll take care of them,” Matthias rumbles, his eyes shining with an eerie blue light. “It’s time to show them just how bad our bears can be.”