The sound of breaking glass distracted her, and she spun to see Noah with his arm inside the glass door, opening it from the inside.

  “Noah!”

  ”What?” He looked nonplussed. “I’m not waiting five hours to get that collar off you.”

  Full of fondness for him—and a little bit of worry that the police would descend on them—she hurried up to the door, following him inside the gloomy store. Sure enough, there were all kinds of metalworking supplies on offer—including, to her acute relief, a selection of files. Noah grabbed a couple and turned for the door. Rosaline stared at him.

  ”We have to pay for them.”

  ”What? Rosaline, we have to go—”

  ”It’s bad enough we broke their door!” She folded her arms, looking at him crossly. “I’m not stealing.”

  He heaved a sigh, giving her a thoroughly vexed look from under his eyebrows before pulling his wallet out and rustling through it. “You’re lucky I have cash on me.” He dropped a couple of twenty dollar notes on the counter and headed out, grabbing her hand as he went—Rosaline grinned a little, still not used to little gestures like that. But Noah’s eyes were worried as they headed out onto the street again.

  ”What’s the matter?”

  ”Worried,” he said, voice low. “They might have seen me leaving with you on my back. I’m wondering if they’re going to put the pieces together.”

  She nodded. “They were going to find out sooner or later, right? I mean, once we turned up back at the bar to break the other women out.” Noah nodded, but a look of guilt flickered across his face. She raised an eyebrow. “What was that look?”

  ”I—look, it’s awful, but I’d forgotten about them.” She narrowed her eyes, and he raised his hands. “I know! I just—can you blame me? Look at you. It’s a miracle I can still talk after what we did last night.”

  Successfully disarmed, she blushed to the roots of her hair, resisting the urge to kiss him. “Alright. Well. You’d better get this collar off me so I can fly us back to the bar. You’re built for speed, I’m built for endurance,” she said, grinning.

  ”Oh, yeah?”

  ”Just wait. I could take you to the moon and back and barely break a sweat.”

  ”You already did,” he said, grinning—and she giggled. But the giddy mood quickly evaporated when Noah tried the file on the collar. She waited as he started sawing away at the collar, frowning a little as the sawing continued… and continued… and continued…

  ”What’s taking so long?”

  ”This—might be a longer project than we thought,” he said regretfully, taking the file away. She reached up to the collar, groaning as she felt the place he’d been sawing at—there was barely a dent in the metal.

  ”Ugh. Typical. At least we did some damage, though,” she said with a sigh. “I tried about a hundred garden tools yesterday, and none of them even left a scratch.”

  ”I’m worried about the wolves,” Noah said in a low voice. “If they’ve got your scent or mine, they’re probably tracking us. We should get out of here. Find somewhere a little more crowded to lose ourselves, find a place to get this collar off, then go back.”

  She nodded. It was a good plan—for all that she could feel frustration gnawing at her chest. God, if they could just get the damn collar off, everything would be fixed. “Okay. Should we run?”

  He tilted his head to the side. “I mean, we could. Or we could just… hail a cab.”

  ”Okay, well, I guess that makes more sense,” she grumbled, annoyed that she hadn’t thought of that. “In my defense, it’s been a while since I spent much time in—human space.”

  He chuckled, taking her hand in his, and she felt a rush of fondness for him—gratitude for having someone on her side, someone to think of things like hailing cabs and avoiding their pursuers. As they settled into the back of a cab (the driver barely batting an eyelid at the late hour and the metalworking files in their hands) she leaned against his shoulder, and he put his arm around her, smiling down at her.

  It was good to be with him. Still, she’d feel a whole lot better about it once the collar was off.

  ”You okay?” he asked.

  ”Yeah,” she said, shrugging. “Just—worried about the others.”

  ”We’ll get them,” he promised her. “You and me. As soon as we get this thing off you—” His eyes flicked forward to the cab driver then back to her, a silent warning that they couldn’t speak too freely. “We’ll head back together and sort it all out.”

  ”What about—” She hesitated, not sure whether she should say Reed’s name out loud. “Your boss.”

  ”He’s not my boss any more. And if he tries to stop us…” There was a cold look in his eyes as he silently clenched his fist, and she shivered, very glad that he was on her side.

  The cab took them through quiet streets into progressively busier ones, and she peered out the window with interest, realizing that they were driving steadily towards the center of Miami. It was a city she’d heard about before, but never visited, and as the sun rose, she realized what a good idea this had been. There were so many people, so many vehicles … even if the wolves back there had caught her scent or somehow managed to follow the cab, there was no way they were going to be able to keep up now. Noah paid the cab driver with his credit card, and they stepped out onto a much busier street than the one they’d come from. A few passersby looked curiously at Rosaline’s collar, and she narrowed her eyes irritably.

  ”Come on. Let’s find somewhere to get this thing off me.”

  ”It’s going to take a while,” he said softly, touching the side of her face in an apologetic kind of way. “But once it’s done—”

  ”I’ll fly us back,” she said. “We’ll wait till nightfall, so nobody sees me, of course… which is frustrating, because I hate the idea of the girls being stuck there any longer than they need to—” But Noah gave her a sidelong glance.

  ”Or we could just get another cab.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “Oh, yeah.”

  ”I’m not going to make fun of you,” he said diplomatically, taking her hand again in a gesture that she was coming to like a lot. They walked through the streets for a little while, making sure their track was thoroughly lost, before sitting down on a partly hidden park bench and finally setting about getting rid of the collar.

  It took the better part of an hour before Noah managed to file all the way through one side of the collar. She grinned triumph, raising her hand to explore the new hole in the thing. It had made some strange sounds as he was filing, like electricity shorting out—they’d theorized that the electronics inside the device were being damaged. If it wasn’t for their very public location, she’d have tried to shift then and there to see whether the damage to the collar had been enough to stop its hold on her—but they were getting enough curious looks from strangers without her turning into an enormous dragon in the middle of the day.

  Noah could sense her frustration—but he was nothing but patient as he moved to her other side and started filing away at the opposite side of the collar. This part was even worse—she was so close to freedom that she itched with every careful movement of his hands, wanting desperately to just rip the thing off with brute strength. But finally, finally, she heard him catch his breath—and the collar fell off her neck and clattered onto the bench.

  ”Oh, my God,” she murmured, rubbing her neck gratefully. “That feels so good. Thank you.”

  Noah smiled down at her—and then, unexpectedly, lowered his head to press a kiss to her neck where the collar had been. She grinned at him, surprised by the gesture.

  ”Well,” he pointed out, “I couldn’t do that last night.”

  She bounded to her feet, full of energy all of a sudden. “Right. Let’s get a cab.” But a sudden wave of dizziness interrupted her. Noah was at her side, reaching out to steady her with concern on his face.

  ”Are you okay?”

  ”Yeah, just—“

  ”When was the last time you ate anything?”

  ”Uh. Yesterday morning.”

  Noah clicked his tongue. “Right. First, we’re getting some food. Then we’ll head back to the bar. Okay?”

  She was going to protest—but as she opened her mouth to tell him that they didn’t have time, the scent of a nearby restaurant hit her nose, and her stomach growled so loudly that even Noah could hear it. She could see him stifling his laughter.

  ”Fine,” she said with mock severity, “but we’re eating fast, okay?”

  It felt odd, sitting with him at a table with an enormous cheesy pizza between them. If it wasn’t for the circumstances, it would almost have felt like a cute little lunch date. The waitress certainly seemed to think it was—she beamed at them both when she seated them, fussing over finding them the perfect table. But it wasn’t just a date, she thought reluctantly. As tempted as she was to just enjoy Noah’s company, they had serious things to talk about.

  ”Noah—I wanted to talk about this.”

  He looked up at her with a mouth full of food, flicking his hair out of his eyes as he hastened to swallow it. “About what?”

  ”You don’t have to come with me,” she said, steeling herself. “I can do this on my own. I don’t want you to feel like I’m forcing you to do this—to fight your old friends and your old boss.”

  He stared at her, clearly taken aback. “Rosaline, of course I’m coming with you. I should have taken Reed down myself years ago. The things he does down there are—well, I don’t have to tell you, do I? They’re evil. He’s a dangerous man. I should have stopped him years ago. This is a chance to make up for that failure—to do something to reverse some of the harm I’ve done by working for him. So if you’ll let me come with you, Rosaline… I want to. Truly.”

  ”But like you said,” she argued, fighting the urge to smile at him, to lean across the table and kiss him. “Reed’s dangerous. Who knows how many shifters he’s got working for him? I’d hate myself if you got hurt because of me—”

  ”And I’d hate myself more if you got hurt because I let you go down there by yourself,” Noah said immediately, and she had to relent. “Checkmate.”

  ”Yeah, good point,” she admitted, looking up at him with a rueful grin. “But so long as you’re doing this because you want to, not because you feel like I’m making you.”

  ”I am,” he said simply. “Of course I am.”

  ”Right. So what’s the plan?”

  Chapter 15 – Noah

  Rosaline was a force to be reckoned with, Noah realized as they sat and talked, finishing their meal as they laid out their strategy for the assault on the bar. It almost felt like a dream—was he really talking about this? Not only disobeying Reed but outright attacking his organization? Could he really bring himself to fight his old comrades and colleagues? There was a lump in his throat when he thought about it—but then he looked into Rosaline’s eyes. Remembered what Reed and his organization had wanted to do to her, how narrowly she’d escaped an awful fate at the old man’s hands. He owed it to her to do something about it. He owed it to himself. Owed it to shifter society in general. They could be better than this, he knew it.

  From what she was able to tell him about her dragon form—something he hadn’t seen in person but was very much looking forward to witnessing—she was a formidable opponent. Much larger than him, with razor-sharp claws and tough, armored scales, she’d certainly be able to do a fair bit of damage. She knew how to fight, too, from what she said. She was modest, saying it had always been her brother and sister who were better at it than she was, but from the brief account she gave of her training and experience, he knew that she’d be able to handle herself.

  ”Most of the guys I worked with, they’re not fighters,” he explained, thinking back to the guys who worked security. “They’re tough, of course, and they can handle themselves… but most of their expertise is intimidating drunk guys into settling down. If it actually came to blows, I wouldn’t trust most of them to have my back in a fight.”

  ”What about you?” she asked curiously, tilting her head to the side. Noah hesitated, his whole childhood rising up in him like a choking cloud. The constant hypervigilance—the attacks from his brothers whenever he was least expecting it. The way his father would knock him down, over and over, telling him it was for his own good, to toughen him up. How could he tell her all of that when he was hardly capable of working through it in his own mind? Even now, he could feel himself trying not to think about it—trying to minimize and dismiss the horrible stuff his parents and family had put him through. Listening to what Rosaline told him about the way she’d trained with her family had set his heart pounding. It sounded so friendly, so respectful, so kind. So loving. His father had always said that the so-called ‘training’ he put his sons through was an act of love—because he loved them, he wanted them to be able to protect themselves. And sure enough, Noah could protect himself. But the damage it had done…

  He shook himself a little, realizing he’d lapsed into silence, staring down at the remnants of the pizza as Rosaline gazed curiously at him from across the table. “Um. Yeah, I’m different. I can fight pretty well. My family...” Why was it so hard to speak? There was a huge lump in his throat, and his eyes were stinging. “Growing up, we, uh, sparred a lot. Older brothers. You know.” There was that habit—minimizing the damage, minimizing the severity of the warzone that had been his upbringing. He could tell Rosaline wasn’t buying it—there was that keen, sharp look that came into her eyes when she was trying to see through him. He shut his eyes for a moment. Part of him wanted to let himself collapse completely, to tell her every detail, even the stuff he’d repressed—but that would take all day, and he didn’t trust himself to know how to put himself back together afterwards.

  The full story could wait. For now, they had to focus on the mission.

  ”Anyway, this attack we’re launching,” he said, forcing his voice to stay steady, and he could see her coming to the same conclusion he had. No time for deviations. “We should move quickly, I think. Reed’s got about forty employees that I know of, but the good news for us is that they’re all out hunting for you.” He felt a thrill of fear go through him, thinking of what would have happened if he hadn’t gotten to her first. She was clearly thinking the same thing—he saw a shadow pass across her face, and he reached out to take her soft hand in his. She smiled at him.

  ”It’s a good thing you found me first.”

  ”Yeah. And hopefully, the majority of them are still out there searching—it’ll mean the bar’s unguarded, or at least only staffed by a skeleton crew. Reed did say he was shutting the place down until you were brought back.”

  ”Gosh, I’ve caused so much trouble,” she grinned, her eyes glinting maliciously. “Poor Reed’s profit margins must be taking a hit.”

  ”That being said, I’m not sure if the wolves last night spotted me with you,” he admitted, voicing something he’d been worrying over for most of the day. “Depending how much of it they pieced together, it’s possible they might have headed back to the bar to tell Reed what they saw. So we should prepare for resistance.”

  Rosaline nodded. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “Good way of putting it.”

  ”My sister Olivia and I… that was always our motto. I was in charge of the first half,” she said, smiling, “and Liv took the second.”

  ”Your optimism isn’t a family trait?”

  ”Not at all,” she laughed, eyes sparkling. “Olivia’s the most pessimistic person you’ll ever meet—though of course she calls herself a realist. David’s usually too busy staring at the sky to think about the future at all. And my father…” She hesitated, and he saw a shadow cross her face again. Something achingly familiar about that expression. Something that resonated with his own relationship with his father. He reached out to take her hand again, and her eyes flicked up to meet him, clearly surprised—and touched—by the gesture. “My father’s difficult,” she admitted.

  ”I know what that’s like,” he said softly. They smiled at each other for a moment—then Rosaline took a deep breath.

  ”Plenty of time for family history later. I think we better get going. Oh! Do you still have the files?” Noah pulled them out of his pocket. “Good. We’ll need to get the other women’s collars off, too. Especially if we’re going to need firepower to get us out of there…”

  ”You think they’ll fight?” Noah asked, surprised. Not that he’d met the women in the cells, but somehow he’d assumed they’d just want to escape. But Rosaline was laughing.

  ”I think it’d be hard to stop them fighting,” she said with a savage grin. Not for the first time, Noah was acutely grateful that she wasn’t his enemy.

  ”Let’s get going,” he said, rising to his feet and dropping a few notes on the table to pay for the meal.

  She followed him out to the street, and they hailed a cab. His heart was already starting to pick up, his body itching with readiness to fight. Some part of him had needed this deeply, he realized as Rosaline took his hand in hers. Some part of him, buried deep underneath the survival impulse, had hated his job for a long time—had hated Reed, hated the things he did, the company he kept, the awful things he allowed to go on. Kidnapping the shifter women wasn’t an outlier—but he was fiercely grateful, in a strange way, that it had been enough to wake him up to the monster he was working for. Or had that been Rosaline, he thought, glancing down at her? Either way—it was time to right these wrongs. It was time to destroy Reed’s empire, once and for all.

  It was mid-afternoon by the time the cab pulled up a few blocks away from Metamorphosis, where Noah had suggested the driver drop them. No sense getting seen before they’d even had a chance to attack the place. They moved into the trees behind the bar where it was quiet.

  ”Well? Let’s go,” Rosaline said impatiently, her eyes on the bar’s door. But Noah had been thinking about this.

 

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