With two steps, Ryker had covered the ground between them and then slammed his fist into the side of Rowen's face, making the man slump against the elevator now, completely knocked out. Ryker cocked a brow at the looks he was getting from Rio and Dice as he hauled the passed-out form of Rowen over his shoulder.
"What? I don't like monologues."
"I would have probably shot him," Dice said with a shrug, slipping his big palm around Meredith's hand again.
It felt better having a grip on her. Like everything was going to be okay as long as he held her hand in his. Rationally, he knew that it was the furthest thing from the truth, but it was a small bit of solace regardless.
"So what now? I don't want to bust in on your leisurely conversation or nothing, but unless you two have noticed, we're sort of fucked here," Rio said, a notion which was marked by the sound of shouting and footsteps not far behind them.
The guards must have broken through the crowd of partygoers and were finally catching up in earnest. Having come through the building before, he knew that the vast majority of The Arctics' security had been set up downstairs, banking on keeping the esteemed guests safe from anyone trying to break in from the outside.
While there had been enough firepower upstairs, the fact that The Arctics hadn't planned on the audacity of Shifter Squad Nine trying to disrupt things from the inside was currently playing in the squad's favor. It wasn't going to be that way for long, though.
We still need to get out of here.
"What are our options?" Dice asked, only to be answered by the eerie, chilling laughter of Prowler.
He still fucking hated that sound, like he was seconds from being mauled by some faceless demon every time Prowler laughed his ominous laughter.
"I think you guys are going to be fine," he said.
"You're going to have to give us more details here," Ryker called, shifting the limp form of Rowen a bit on his shoulder so he could get a better grip on his gun.
"Did someone call for an airlift?!" Price's voice chimed in on the headset, causing the rest of the squad to share confused looks among themselves.
The very distinct sound of helicopter blades whirring close by caught everyone's attention and when Dice spun around to look out of the floor to ceiling windows, his face broke into a wide smile. So what if his squad was insane, at least they were effective as hell.
Hovering between the two towers, Price waved at them from the pilot's seat of an assault helicopter. It obviously wasn't The Firm's and Dice had no fucking clue where he got it from, but he wasn't about to argue with results.
"Step back," Price said, and all of them ducked behind the other side of the elevator as Price aimed the twin mounted railguns at the windows.
The sound was absolutely deafening as countless heavy-duty bullets tore through the reinforced glass, embedding themselves in the steel and concrete fixtures. The glass shattered and Price moved the helicopter in a way that he covered the path of entry that The Arctics' guards had taken as well, pushing them back for a moment. There were more than ten men in full riot gear and it didn't take much to realize that pure force of will wasn't going to be enough to deal with those guys.
"Come on! Everybody get on!" Dice yelled, rounding behind the elevator shaft that stood in the middle of the large, open-spaced room, giving them a second more of cover.
Price kept the helicopter as close to the building as he could, but it still left a considerable distance between the safety of the chopper and the certain death of staying where they were, or plummeting down to the ground. The blades of the helicopter cut into the room and even Dice had to admit that there was some precision flying at play here.
No sane pilot would have taken the chopper so close to the building that the blades were cutting into it, knowing that the wind could knock it out of place and kill anyone unlucky enough to be in the path of the inevitable explosion. Luckily, sanity wasn't in high order in Shifter Squad Nine anyway.
"Duck down," Dice hissed as Price swung the chopper closer, so close in fact that if they'd stood up straight, they would have risked losing their heads.
"Dice! I-"Meredith started, horror gleaming in her eyes as she saw the endless drop down and the jump that seemed to be impossible to cover.
"You're going to have to," he said, feeling the heat of a bullet whir past him as the werewolves opened fire.
Without a further word, he grabbed hold of Meredith's hips and practically threw her into the helicopter. She fell on her hands and feet, grabbing hold of a seat and her feet managing to stay on the rail before clambering in. Dice breathed out a sigh of relief, taking the rifle from Ryker and dropping low to return fire.
That feeling of intense calmness still floated about him, like nothing in the world could faze him. With a chopper practically inside the Etihad Tower, a pack of werewolves out to kill them and with his mate running for her life, he needed all the calm he could get.
"Get in," he yelled, just as Rio took the leap next.
The helicopter was fighting with the wind, bobbing up and down as Rowen was tossed in. Ryker was a beast of a man and that was probably the only reason Rowen didn't end up as flat as a pancake on the tiles in front of the building. Rio tugged the man in and Ryker jumped in next, grunting as he almost came short because the chopper got thrown further from the building.
Price opened up another volley of gunfire on the werewolves as Dice ran out of ammo, the werebear growling under his breath. A big part of him wanted to tear through every last one of those wolves and make sure that they could never hurt anyone like they had Meredith ever again. But at that moment, there were more important things to worry about – like the safety of his mate and his child.
"Everybody, get out. We meet up at the loft," he said into his headset, unsure if anyone could even hear him over the whine of the helicopter engine.
The werewolves broke through a moment later and Dice tossed aside his gun. Price couldn't hold the helicopter close any longer and Dice had to take a running start to try and make the jump. With bullets whizzing past him, some embedding in the helicopter, and the distance seeming to grow larger by the moment, Dice let out a roar.
The helicopter and the outreached hands of Rio and Ryker seemed to grow smaller as another gust of wind threw the chopper off, Dice falling past the safety of the fuselage. For a harrowing second, he thought it was all over, but he managed to grab hold of the skid with one hand. Gritting his teeth, he held on for dear life as Price immediately dipped out and down, taking no more chances with getting hit by the gunfire.
Looking up, Dice grabbed hold of the skid with his other hand as well, hanging from the helicopter high above Abu Dhabi. He could hear laughter from above him as Etihad Tower was left far behind, Rio's grinning face appearing over the side and reaching down a hand for him.
"Hey, Slicey, you wanna come up or are you enjoying the scenery too much?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Do you want to change places?" Dice asked, taking the outreached hand regardless.
He was yanked up and soon enough, the fuselage door was closed behind him. There were several gaping holes in it from where the bullets had torn into it. Considering that it was an assault helicopter, probably some derivative of the Blackhawk used by The Arctics, that just went to show what kind of firepower The Arctics had been using to try and stop them. Dice had to thank his lucky stars that the wound in his shoulder was from a regular handgun.
"Dice!" Meredith gasped, throwing her arms around his neck as he took a seat next to her.
He grunted in pain but pulled her into his lap immediately, nuzzling his face into her neck. He squeezed his hands around her waist, loving the feeling of actually being able to touch her again. For a moment, they were safe. That had to count for something.
"Hey, we'd love to give you two some privacy, but we don't have a lot of options here," Rio said with a chuckle.
"Cut the lip," Dice said, though there wasn't any bite left in his words.
He couldn't be annoyed when he was looking into Meredith's gorgeous blue eyes. She grinned back at him, running her hands down his cheeks and chin.
"I'm- … I'm so sorry," she said, barely audible over the roar of the helicopter as it put distance between itself and the Etihad Towers.
Dice knew that they were going to have to ditch the chopper and get out fast, but that thought only occupied a part of his senses at the moment. Far more of his attention was being lavished on Meredith and the fact that she was really, truly there with him. It still felt unreal.