“I don’t have a choice,” she said. “It’s the only way to stop him.”
Paxton leaned his head back and crossed his arms. He didn’t turn his head. “Liam?”
“Yeah, Pax?” Liam asked, banking a hard left.
“When you set down, all of us are exiting except for Hope. I want you to fly her at least five miles away from the battle zone.”
Hope jolted. “What? Wait a minute.”
“No,” Paxton said firmly. “You can direct your team from there.” His head remained back, but his gaze slashed to her, piercing and cold. “What exactly do you think happened earlier today?”
They’d mated. She’d move on from this world happy. Fulfilled. “Paxton,” she started.
His chin rose, and the words stopped in her throat.
“What you seem to have forgotten is that your heart is no longer yours to sacrifice. Your heart is mine, Hope. Don’t you ever fucking forget it.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Paxton finished tucking another knife into his boot. The Realm had copied the design of the Kurjan slicing blade, and he kept one in each boot. He didn’t like using them, even against the enemy, because deploying such a deadly weapon seemed unfair. However, the Kurjans were all armed with the deadly blade, so he didn’t have a choice.
He had guns strapped to his thighs and more knives secured in pockets throughout his cargo pants and his vest. “Where are we?” he asked.
Hope typed rapidly on her laptop. “Vampires are coming from the east, demons from the west, the Seven from the north, and we’ll come in from the south. There are six teams, and we’re coordinating from this position. We want to hit the ground at the same time.”
“What’s the go sign?” Paxton asked.
She kept her gaze on the computer screen. “There will be a missile strike from the Realm—the minute the missiles impact, we hit the ground using the explosions and the resulting confusion as cover.”
Paxton nodded. “Who’s on Ulric?”
“The Seven are on Ulric,” Hope said, reading the screen. “We’re to provide cover and engage and assist.” She looked up at the team. “This is the best fighting force the Realm has ever seen. We’re young, but we’re strong and fast.”
Pax eyed the soldiers. It was a good pep talk.
She continued. “The vampire teams are going to take on the Kurjan soldiers because there are more of them in this camp, while Zane’s demon teams will take on the Cyst. Our team is to provide cover for the Seven as they get to Ulric. That means taking on both Cyst and Kurjan soldiers.”
“Got it,” Libby said, stretching one arm over her chest.
Hope extended her fingers, stretching them. “Once there’s an opening and most of the enemy soldiers are taken care of, we need to find the enhanced females. The kidnapped women will be easy to corral, whereas females who have been mates of the Cyst for years, possibly centuries, may put up a fight. You have to expect to be attacked from every angle.”
“We usually are,” Derrick noted.
“Good point,” Hope said.
Paxton sighed and looked at Vero. “You can sit this one out if you want.” He felt an allegiance to this new brother of his, and he couldn’t imagine the battle going on inside the young warrior.
Vero’s eyes were a deeper blue than usual, fraught with intense raw emotion. “I’ve chosen my side,” he said. “I chose you, Paxton, and I chose to avoid war. Now we’re at war. I just want to end it. I’ve got your back.”
The words slammed home inside Paxton. “All right. I have your back as well.” He looked at the fighters in the small craft. “This is a team of partners. Liam and Collin, Libby and Derrick, and Vero and Hunter. You all have fought together before. You need to cover each other’s backs. I’ll take point.”
Hope stopped typing and looked up. “Liam can’t be with Collin if he’s flying me five miles away.”
“I’m aware of that,” Paxton said easily. “Collin, stay with your brother—you’ll both take Hope to safety.” He wanted to leave guards on her, but Collin and Liam were needed in the battle. There was no question about that. “It’ll take you two about a minute to run five miles.” The young hybrids were exceptionally fast, and he knew it. “Hope, the second they’re gone, you lock this thing up, and if anybody comes at you, I expect you to shoot missiles and fly out of range.” They all knew how to fly in case of emergency, and Hope was no exception.
Her jaw firmed.
“Done talking about it,” he said, looking at Libby. “Libs? Are you ready?”
“Always,” the shifter said. She nudged Derrick. “You ready?”
“I could spend a few minutes in battle,” the witch said easily, forming a fireball in one hand. He was as well armed as the rest of them, except he would probably employ the plasma balls to start with. They could knock a full-grown shifter on his ass.
Paxton enjoyed being on Hope’s team. It was where he’d wanted to be the last several years as he’d been training to kill. It felt right. Though everybody else had a partner, he considered Hope his, even though she would be behind a laptop typing furiously.
He liked that.
Although he needed to deal with her willingness to sacrifice her heart later. It wasn’t going to be a lesson she enjoyed. If nothing else, she had to understand that she would not sacrifice her life. They’d only mated a few hours ago, and any immortal chromosomes that he could give her surely had not taken effect yet. At the moment, she was still vulnerable and still breakable. They had no idea how easily she could die, and he didn’t want to find out. “Stay safe, Hope.” He didn’t like repeating himself.
She looked up. “You’re not giving me a choice.”
Good. Now she was understanding him. Drake had tried to kill her, and his generals had seen that action. Surely one of them would take it upon himself to fulfill Drake’s dying wish. Pax wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Our squad is in position,” Liam said, looking over his shoulder and then back to the night sky. The craft hovered in the air. They all grew silent.
The only sound was the clacking of Hope’s fingers over the keyboard. “We are Realm squad two for this mission,” she said. “Squad one is in position.” She typed more. “Squad two, ready.”
They all waited. Pax’s heart rate picked up, and he forced it to slow. He needed to be cold. It was the only way to fight, and he was good at it.
“Squad four in position,” Hope said.
Several loud explosions rocked the world. The craft pitched and then settled.
“Go now, go,” Hope urged, looking up from the computer.
Liam dropped the craft fast, and they hit hard. Paxton had the door open before the helicopter settled. He jumped out into air filled with debris. Fire burned all around, except for the area where the enhanced females were kept. Realm soldiers moved in while Cyst and Kurjan soldiers poured out everywhere, already firing guns and swinging knives.
He ducked his head and ran full bore into the battle.
Hope could barely breathe. Smoke billowed into the helicopter as her team rushed out. Her heart was in her throat, and panic threatened to consume her. The idea of Paxton getting hurt froze her for the briefest of moments. She took a deep breath and started typing again.