Walk on the Striped Side (18 page)

Elena smiled and
answered, “
Hooah
.”

Gage barked a laugh, as did some of
the other occupants of their truck.

Ignoring
everyone else, he leaned into her space so that they were close enough that the
tips of their noses were touching. “Remember, you’re my mate first and a
soldier second. Nothing is more important to me than you are. So don’t be proud
and think you can handle all of this on your own. We work as a team, and the
nanosecond you think you might be in trouble, you yell my name.”

Wrapping his
hand around the back of her head, he then touched his forehead to hers. “I
can’t live without you again, Elena, and I don’t want to anyways, so please
don’t do anything stupid.”

She gave him no
response, and as tough as he was, he didn’t think he could take another one of
her denials about how they weren’t mates while he was so on edge about her
safety. His tiger was already yanking at that inner leash he kept it on,
anxious to come out to protect their mate.

As the truck
slowed down to a stop, presumably at wherever they were going to park it for a
quick getaway, Gage was afraid that he might lose the battle on keeping his
beast locked down, when suddenly Elena brushed her lips against his own in a
kiss that held no hesitation but plenty of promise, and the enraged roars of
his animal inside his head melted away.

In that moment,
nothing else mattered except the kiss of his mate.

CHAPTER-TWENTY

Elena

What says ‘I
love you’?

A flamethrower.

That Gage had
given her a fire wielding weapon of mass destruction to defend herself on this
mission was proof of two things. One, the man knew her inside and out; he would
know that having her hands on such a piece of equipment would almost send her
into fits of glee. Two, he’d given her something that would not only defend
her, but it would do so in such a way that the hostile wolves wouldn’t get
anywhere near her. That was proof that, although he was placing her on a
battlefield where she was grossly unequal to her opponents, he had faith in her
to survive it anyways. For that alone, he had definitely earned that kiss she’d
just given him.

Gage was quickly
breaking down all the emotional defenses that she’d erected against him. Little
by little,
through
not only his words but also his
actions, he was showing her that he did indeed love her. Which was why she was
still unbelievably confused about his reasoning for hurting her like he had. Or
rather, the lack of reasoning since he continued to refuse to fully explain it.
She was starting to think that, whatever his reasons were, they didn’t matter
because after getting Gage back in her life to some capacity, she was loathed
to let him go again.

And this time
around, she could tell that he was more invested in her—in them—than he’d ever
been before. He showered her with affection. He spoke with her openly in candid
ways he’d never done before. He tried to verbally beat it through her hard head
that he wasn’t going anywhere this time. He’d apologized profusely for hurting
her. And, most importantly, he gave her mind shattering orgasms that ruined her
for all other men.

Elena still
wasn’t one hundred percent sold on this mate thing, however she was open to
dating him again. After they got home from this mission, she was going to sit
him down and be honest. He could consider this a relationship, or whatever it
was that he wanted, as long as he let her take it slow on her end. If he was
being honest about her being his mate, then it shouldn’t matter to him that she
wanted to take baby steps towards that conclusion for their relationship. If he
was truly her mate, then he would metaphorically be there waiting for her when
she was ready to cross that proverbial finish line with him. It all sounded
perfectly reasonable to her.

When the rear
door to the truck was pulled up, she set aside her inner musings. Elena was
about to be knee deep in supernatural creatures that wouldn’t hesitate to rip
her to bloody shreds and feast on her remains. So, if she wanted to stay alive
long enough to go home and finally get laid by her boyfriend, she needed to set
aside the personal stuff for now.

Gage grabbed her
hand and pulled her out of the back of the truck with one hand while holding
the duffle bag with the M2 in the other hand. When their group was all
unloaded, they huddled together to listen to Baines’s quiet words.

“Ten miles to
the north is their compound. Gage, you’ll need to carry your mate on your back
if we want to get there at our pace and not hers. You’ll also need to do the
same when we leave. Davies’s boy here tells me that you all know your positions
and jobs. I’m going to stand outside the house to intercept any incoming
trouble.”

Baines slung a
black backpack off his shoulder so that he could dangle it in front of them. “I
brought some of my personal stash of fun with me when I came here, so if you
hear some loud explosions outside, that’s me telling you that there’s too many
incoming threats and to get your asses out of there. Understood?”

Elena gave her
affirmation along with everyone else under Baines’s shrewd gaze. “Good. Let’s
get this over with then. I’m ready to put some naughty puppies through some
training paces.”

Between one eye
blink and the next, their entire group was gone. The reality of how fast
everyone had disappeared shocked the shit out of her. She had expected people
to disappear in a trick of smoke and mirrors at a Las Vegas magician’s show,
not in the clear night air before her very eyes without the aid of illusion. It
was a brief and amazing reminder of how very different all of them were
compared to her. Elena couldn’t even make her favorite brownie ice cream
disappear that fast, nevertheless herself.

Before she had
time to think much more about such a display of unnatural speed, Gage was
squatted down in front of her, waiting for her to climb on his back. She
stepped forward, plastered herself to his back, wrapped her arms around his
thick neck, and barely caught her squeal when he stood up. Gage grabbed her
feet to wrap around his waist, and when she took the hint and tightened her
legs around him, he reached back with his hand to swat her on the ass.

“Hold on,
Amazon. This is going to be the quickest ride you’ve ever been on.”

Elena snorted in
amusement. “Funny, I thought that would be the time you were drunk and horny
after watching that X-rated movi—”

Her words were
lost in the wind as Gage charged forward. Elena’s ponytail flew about her head,
and it was hard for her to breathe because the tiger was speeding so quickly to
their destination. She made the mistake of looking down at the ground, which
they seemed to practically fly over with how fast Gage was traveling, and her
stomach turned a bit queasy at the sight of the green blur underneath them.
Trying to stem her nausea, she buried her face next to Gage’s neck and closed
her eyes.

A sudden, brutal
jarring of her body made Elena feel like she should have launched forward right
off Gage’s back and over his head—much like a car crash victim went through
their front windshield—except Elena didn’t go flying because Gage had a death
grip on her legs that was totally going to leave big, ugly bruises on her
tomorrow. Her lungs were burning from lack of oxygen, so she tried to take a
deep breath in again and found that she could this time, only that breath
didn’t help the feeling that her stomach was trying to climb up her esophagus
and out of her mouth.

Elena started to
gag and Gage gently dropped her legs to the ground, keeping a hand on her butt
to steady her. As she felt another violent dry heave coming, Elena pushed on
the annoying tiger’s back until he finally let her go completely so that she
could double over with her hands on her knees.

After managing
to not upchuck her entire stomach, Elena gasped, “ASSHOLE.”

She expected
Gage to chuckle at her, but was met with silence. Elena picked her head up to
look at him and found him watching her pensively with the flamethrower in his
hands.

Holding the
weapon’s tank-pack out to her, he whispered, “We have to get you suited up to
go, babe. There’s no time to waste.”

Understanding
his seriousness, she stood up and turned around so that he could help her put
on the pack. He slipped the straps up her arms and over her shoulders so that
it hung from her back like a heavy backpack. She snapped the waist strap shut
and tightened it so that everything was secure and in place. At that moment,
Gage walked around to stand in front of her, still holding the weapon’s gun out
to her, yet he didn’t let go of it when she grasped it with both hands.
Instead, he held on tightly, seemingly reluctant to let go. Elena looked up to
question his hesitation when she saw the reason written as plain as day on his
face.

Gage Ivanov was
scared shitless.

It was a look she’d
never seen on him before, and she would never forget it. He closed the distance
between them so that the only thing that separated their bodies from touching
was the formidable weapon in their hands. “I want you to know that I have faith
in your abilities, Elena. I know you’re going to go in there kicking ass and
taking names, but I still need to ask you to take care of yourself. You’re not
just protecting yourself, you’re protecting me, too.”

She gave him a
disbelieving look. “Gage, there’s not a thing on this earth that I can protect
you from that you couldn’t protect yourself from.”

She felt his
grip on the gun tighten, and for a second she was worried that his
preternatural strength would bend the metal it was made from and permanently
damage it. She couldn’t bring herself to ask him to lighten up, though, because
the way he was staring at her made her feel as though he was looking right
through the fleshy shell of her body, straight into her soul. At the same time,
it appeared to her he was opening himself up in a way he’d never done before so
that she had the same privilege of seeing through him to his soul. The
sensation was nothing like she’d ever experienced before in her life. She
couldn’t have looked away from him in that moment even if her life had depended
on it.

Gage’s low,
gruff voice whispered back, “Don’t you get it by now? You carry my heart with
you wherever you go. Whether you’re right by my side or half a world away from
me, you carry everything I am with you. So, I need you to protect that by
keeping yourself alive because, if you die, I die with you.”

Every molecule
in her body froze at his obvious sincerity. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t
think. What remained of her emotional barriers to keep him out of her heart?
Gone. Said heart was clenched with so much love and emotion that it was
painful. Elena knew, like it or not, she most certainly still loved Gage
Ivanov, and quite possibly more than she ever had before.

She opened her
mouth to say something, anything really, but a hard bump against her leg caused
her to jump in surprise and then look down. Standing silently, watching her
with crystal-clear, light-blue eyes, was a large, black wolf. Perhaps she
should have been scared about a wolf big enough to rip her to shreds sneaking up
on her like that, but she wasn’t for two reasons. One, Gage was still standing
calmly in front of her, and the man would most assuredly rip anything to shreds
that could possibly endanger her. And two, those eyes looked exactly like
Jenna’s eyes. Elena was ninety-nine percent certain that the wolf was, in fact,
Jenna O’Conner. The remaining one percent of her hoped she didn’t crap her
pants if she was wrong and the wolf suddenly took a bite out of her leg.

Keeping her gaze
glued to the
wolf’s
, she asked out loud, “Is that…?”

“Jenna? Yeah.
Now pay attention to me, Amazon. Pretend the nosey wolf isn’t there.”

Elena returned
her focus to Gage. He grabbed her chin with his fingers, holding her in place
for his dominating stare. “Answer me. You’ll be safe?”

She softened
towards him. “Yes, Gage. I promise, if I need help, I’ll let you know. The same
goes for you, though, cat. If you need help, you let me know, too. Sparky and I
will come running to save the day.”

One side of his
lips tipped up and he finally let go of the flamethrower’s gun. “Sparky?”

Elena petted the
gun’s nozzle. “You can’t have something this beautiful and not name it. It was
either Sparky or Krakatoa.” She shrugged. “Sparky seems spunkier.”

He shook his
head in amusement. “All right, Sparky, you ready to do this? The others are
waiting for us.”

Elena looked
over to where the rest of their group was indeed waiting for them. Jenna, Adam
and Logan in their wolf forms; Alec in his white tiger form; and the rest of
them in their human forms except for the vampire who was, well, just a vampire.

Looking back to
Gage, she nodded again. “Affirmative. Let’s do this.”

Gage leaned back
into her space and reached an arm around to the back of her pack. Elena knew
that he was turning the pressure regulator valve for her tanks on, but she
became distracted because he lightly touched his lips to her own.

Pulling back
from the sweet, chaste kiss he whispered again, “I’m going to pick you up in my
arms this time and run you to the front door so that you can keep up with us.
Hold your breath and hide your face into my chest so you don’t get sick this
time. When they have the Alpha and it’s time to go, I’ll grab you and run
straight to the truck. Be ready, and don’t forget to cover that basement door
because we’re depending on you to keep the enforcers that are down there off of
us. Ready?”

Elena nodded one
last time and then, in the blink of an eye, they were moving at what felt like
the speed of light. Her stomach dropped away again, but it immediately jumped
up into her throat because, that fast, they were stopped in front of the house.
Gage placed her on her feet, and though a little woozy, Elena turned to watch
Tyson quickly picking the lock on the front door.

Gage gently
pulled her behind his body because Elena wasn’t meant to be in the first wave
through the door. She and Gage would be stepping through last and taking their
places to hold the first floor while the Pack Master, Minna, Alec, Jenna and
Adam made their way up to the second floor where the hostage Alpha was
supposedly being held. Gage’s unit, Logan and the vampire would be spread out
around the house to combat any wolves who might be protecting the perimeter of
the compound.

The door popped
open, Tyson stepped back, and the Pack Master quickly but quietly pushed
through the front entrance of the Corvus homestead. After that, things moved
pretty quickly. Those who were meant to go inside the house did. Those who were
supposed to spread around outside the house were already gone. And, just as
planned, Gage and Elena were the last ones through the door. By the time she
made it into the house, the others were already halfway up the grand staircase
and moving fast.

Her combat boots
thudded against the tile floor as she made her way to the area where Gage was pointing
at for her to stand. This place was massive. Minna had informed them that it
was ten thousand square feet between the first and second floors, not including
the basement. That was a lot of area to cover. Good thing their tactic was
standing their ground and securing the front door.