He'd tried to reason in every way possible with her to stay back and wait for them, but she'd refused.
Dammit, I love her stubborn ass, he thought with a private grin, loading his gun now that the vehicle was slowing down as it approached the checkpoint in front of the compound.
A guard walked up to them, apparently thinking nothing odd about the vehicle. It was used for The Arctics' business in the compound often enough, according to Rowen. The moment that Prowler rolled down the window to pass his security pass, swiped from Rowen, to the man, the guard seemed to freeze in place, eyeing Prowler.
Even in the darkness of the night, Dice could see the guard's eyes flash gold and then realization dawn on his expression.
Shit.
Before the man could take a step, Dice had whipped his gun around, shoved the barrel past Prowler and out of the window, and blown the guy's head straight off his shoulders.
"Drive!" he hissed, pulling the gun back as Prowler gave him a wide-eyed look, followed by a grin.
"That's what I'm talking about!" he whooped, slamming down on the gas and slamming through the gates of the compound.
They'd been going for a quiet, understated entrance. Obviously, that wasn't going to work.
"We're going in hot!" Dice yelled, banging his fist on the partition again.
He could almost imagine the excited looks the guys must have been passing between one another, and the worry that had to be painted on Meredith's expression.
Whatever happens, I'm keeping her safe, he thought, his keen eyes taking in the mayhem the compound was being thrown into.
Suddenly, the courtyard was flooded with lights and the three guard towers all seemed to burst into life. Dice could see a door opening in the side of the building, so well-hidden that he would have never found the goddamn thing if it hadn't been thrown wide by the troops running out.
Gunshots were ringing out around them and Prowler laughed his chilling laugh as he drove the truck straight into one of the guard towers, making the thing shudder and shake violently. It creaked precariously, the sound of snapping metal being all too clear for the delicate hearing of shifters.
"Get out!" Dice roared, and he flung himself out of the truck, praying that the rest of the squad followed his lead.
Prowler jumped out from the other side and Dice was halfway to the back of the truck, dodging gunfire, when he saw the doors open and Ryker exit first. The big werelion had a bazooka mounted on his shoulder and true to form, he was smoking one of those damn cigars, grinning like it was Christmas and he got to raid Santa's sack.
Aiming the bazooka at the next guard tower while the rest of the squad and Meredith piled out to either side of the truck, Ryker paused for a moment and then let the rocket fly. The whine was almost as deafening as the explosion that followed it, but the tower went up in a shower of flames and sparks.
"That's how we play!" the man called triumphantly, with Dice having to work double-time to gun down the werewolves getting too good with their aim and threatening to blow the engineer's head off before he was done celebrating.
"I thought Rio wanted to play with the big guns," Dice commented, gritting his teeth as he shot a werewolf scrambling down the quickly deteriorating remains of the tower the truck had piled into.
"We share on occasion," Ryker said with a wink, tossing the bazooka off his shoulder and grabbing his rifle instead. "But he's busy as is," Ryker commented, nodding toward the third tower.
Dice barely had enough time to understand what was going on, before it went up in a shower of flames. Rio had taken Price and blown through at least six Arctics' guards that had the distinctly unfortunate luck of getting stuck in their path, before throwing two grenades at the same time up into the watchtower. The sight of Rio and Price running away while the explosion rocked the ground behind them, throwing up dust and sand, was something to behold.
"Meredith!" Dice yelled, hearing the tower creak again precariously.
"She's with me, boss," Prowler called back. "Safe and sound."
The two of them appeared from the other side of the truck, Meredith tucked away behind the back of the wide-shouldered werewolf.
"Can we go play now?" Prowler asked, obviously displeased that he hadn't gotten to blow anything up yet.
"Sure," Dice grumbled, just in time to drop to one knee, aim and shoot two more guards trying to sneak up on them around the house.
"Better go now, then," Ryker called, taking a firm hold on Meredith's wrist and yanking her forward.
Dice was about to protest to the engineer touching his woman, but the reason behind it became clear enough in a second when the tower collapsed over the truck, raining metal down on where she had just stood.
I'm going to run out of time to repay all these damn favors if things keep going like this, Dice thought, shaking his head.
Price and Rio caught up with them at the door, both grinning wide.
"That was fun," Rio noted matter-of-factly. "We should do this more often. The quiet and sophisticated way of doing things is way less fun than just blowing shit up."
"Let's focus on getting out of here first," Dice growled, grabbing Meredith by the waist and pulling her close for a moment to kiss her on the temple.
In the red glow of the fires raging behind them, the slow crackle of flame the only thing they could hear now as the gunfire had ceased after killing everyone who could hold one of the damn things, she looked pale. Though they didn't have a moment to spare, Dice needed to make sure that she was okay. His bear wouldn't allow him to take another step without it.
"Are you alright, Meredith?" he asked, dropping his voice as they stepped into the building.
They found themselves in a long, narrow corridor with fluorescent lights running the length of it and the walls painted a dreary color of gray. Meredith's gorgeous eyes were wide and Dice could see her chin quiver for a moment, but she stilled herself immediately and nodded.
That's my girl, he thought. It must kill her to be back here, but she won't let that stop her.
"I'm fine. Let's go get our baby."
She didn't need to tell him that twice.
Twenty-One
Meredith
The further they got in the large, concrete building, the more confusing it got. All the corridors looked like one another and there was barely anything to tell them apart. For a moment there, Meredith had begun to worry if she could even lead the squad through the place like she thought she could.
I won't let them down. And I won't let Dean down.
Seeing Shifter Squad Nine in action didn't get any easier the more she saw it. She wondered if they knew that during battle, they all became more animal than man. Decisions that would have taken a usual soldier at least a split-second to come to seemed to come naturally to the men of The Firm. Each of the talented ex-SEALs worked like a well-oiled machine, a beast made for conquest and victory.
The way their eyes took on the color of their animal's was the oddest thing for Meredith. At certain times, she could even see the beginnings of a shift about them, their facial features warping slightly and becoming more predator than man. Somehow, she doubted they knew what they looked like then, when they were in the heat of battle.
Protectors. Conquerors. Beasts.
And she was the one who had brought them there.
Meredith didn't even try to count how many men the squad had already killed. It had to be at least twenty in the courtyard alone, because each of the towers had held several men and a small force had come out of the building as well. But Meredith knew there had to be at least that many still left. Even during her time here, with limited access to the rest of the building, she'd seen them congregate at times and she'd had different guards walk her to and from her lab every day.
"Down here," she whispered, pointing at a stairwell that led down.
Most of the compound was hidden underground and when one would fly over the area, they'd barely be able to distinguish the building itself from a sand dune because of how flat and low it was. She knew that the labs were three levels down and she had been kept on the floor below that. And the babies …