Warrior's Hope (Dark Protectors #16)(88)

Both Vero and Hunter jumped out.

“Oh, good,” Hope said. “They’re okay.” Her mind had been spinning, and she’d been trying not to worry.

“Excellent.” Paxton ducked and lifted her in his arms, striding out, wearing only the quilt hanging loose on his hips.

“You don’t have shoes,” she protested. “At least let them bring you boots.”

He ignored her. As he strode down the faint trail they’d created, the snow reached his thighs.

Libby poked her head out of the copter. She was dressed in combat gear, and her thick auburn hair was in twin pigtails. She smiled. “Thank God you two are all right.”

Paxton reached the craft and settled Hope inside. She tripped on the blanket, and Libby caught her, pulling her to the rear of the craft. “Here, I brought you clothes.” She handed over cargo pants, a black turtleneck, a bulletproof vest, combat boots, and some bright pink Ugg socks. “They’re your favorite,” she said. She hugged Hope, holding her close. “I was so scared when you were taken.”

“So was I,” Hope said.

“Whoa.” Libby yanked Hope forward and caught sight of her chest. Her head whipped around to stare at Paxton and then back to Hope. She grabbed her shoulders. “Oh my God, you guys mated.”

Heat blasted into Hope’s face, the blush so hot it burned her skin. “Yeah.”

Libby hugged her tight. “Oh, congratulations. It’s about freaking time.”

Paxton settled into the craft. The other two jumped in, and they shut the door. Hope looked around. Her entire team was there. The twins were piloting the craft, while Derrick and Libby were in the back, leaving plenty of room for Hunter, Vero, Paxton, and herself. Derrick tossed combat clothing toward Paxton.

“Is the Realm all right?” Hope asked, reaching for a shirt to tug over her head. “Headquarters hasn’t been attacked yet?”

“No, we got the warning from Hunter and Vero in plenty of time,” Derrick said. “We’re on the offensive. With Vero’s help, we traced the location of the camp where Ulric is. We’re going to take them instead.”

“We’re going on the offense,” Liam called out from the pilot seat.

“Hell yeah,” Collin joined in.

Hope gulped. She hadn’t intended on seeing battle so quickly after becoming mated, but it was her job. “All right, where are we right now?”

“Alaska,” Hunter said. “So we’re about two hours out from hitting the camp.”

“An hour,” Liam called back. “You wouldn’t believe how fast this baby goes. Collin tweaked it last week. We should get there at the same time as the Seven.”

Hope yanked the cargo pants beneath the blanket and pulled them up. It felt good to have clothes on, and even though the pink socks looked ridiculous, they were her favorite and they were warm. “The Seven are coming?”

“Yes,” Libby said soberly. “They don’t know the next time they’ll have Ulric’s location pinpointed, and this camp is not the main Kurjan headquarters, so half of their force is elsewhere. The compound is well armed from what we could tell by satellite, but we finally know where Ulric is based.”

Hope settled into battle mode. “Did they bring the three Keys?”

“No,” Derrick said. “They have the blood of the three Keys, combined with yours, which should be all that’s needed. Their presence isn’t required. They have the combined blood in bullets, they have it in bombs. They even have it in darts. If there’s a way to get the concoction into Ulric, we’re going to do it.”

She reached for the black scaly book. “I don’t think that’s it.” The book felt familiar in her hand.

“That’s the other half of that book,” Derrick said, reaching for it.

“Yeah,” Hope said, pulling it back. He could read it after she did. “I think there’s an answer in here somewhere.” She hadn’t had a chance to read it yet, and curiosity rode her hard. She only had an hour to figure this out. She flipped the book open to see an illustration of three keys. Her heart started to drum.

“What does it say?” Hunter asked.

She looked up. “I don’t know yet. I’m still deciphering the symbols.” Then she narrowed her gaze on her cousin. He sported fresh cuts on his face and bruises on his jaw. She looked at Vero, who was similarly injured. “What happened to you two?”

Vero cut a look sideways at Hunter. “We found a cabin with a radio and were able to call the Realm, but they were two hours out from reaching us with this amazing vehicle, and so...”

Hunter grinned. “We had some things to work out.”

“Yeah, like the fact that you lied to me for five years,” Vero muttered. “I thought we were best friends.”

“We are best friends,” Hunter said logically. “We worked together. We fought together. Crap, we nearly died together a couple of times. We are best friends, but we just needed to work through a little anger before we reached that conclusion.” He flashed a smile at Hope, and a hint of Dage Kayrs showed in his face.

“I can’t wait to see your real face again,” she said.

Hunter snorted. “I know. It’s hard to catch the ladies with this one.”