Oh . . . that was totally an accident. Sorry.

A bullet grazed his side and Bo lowered his head, charging the shooter, accidentally ripping off a leg in the process.

My bad. Sorry.

While the bears stomped and slapped around full-humans and Dee-Ann shot the rest while helping to unpin her team, Blayne found where they kept the hybrids. There was a thick chain and padlock on the doors, but she was able to open the doors enough to slip inside.

Some of the hybrids, probably the newer ones, called out for help. But many simply watched her, their bodies covered in old scars and new wounds, their eyes dead. She didn’t care. She was getting them all out.

There was just one problem . . . unlike pure-bred wolves, Blayne wasn’t real good with opening locks. At least not without keys.

She tried several times and was about to go looking for a hammer or ax when a disgusted She-wolf grabbed hold of the padlock Blayne held. “Didn’t your daddy teach you nothin’, teacup?”

“Trust me. He tried.”

Tucking her weapon back in its holster, Dee crouched in front of the first cage and began to work on the lock. Blayne stood and looked around. The place was simply inhumane. Cages sat on top of cages, and in each one was a hybrid shifter. Some were badly wounded, some were dead, and some were silent, simply watching them. Something told Blayne that they’d been here for a while. That they’d given up hope of ever being found.

Dee got the first cage open and moved to the next. Blayne helped the shifter out of the cage and led him to the door. “Shift and run,” she said. “Head to Canada. Don’t look back.” Unfortunately, Blayne simply didn’t trust that Dee’s group would not harm the hybrids, so sending them to Canada was her best option at the moment.

Blayne assisted each shifter that Dee released, the pair getting into an excellent team mode Blayne would have never thought they could manage.

They got to the last cage, and Dee didn’t go right to the lock. Instead she stared at the hybrid inside.

“I’ll come back for her,” she said, and Blayne caught her arm before she could move away.

“We’re not leaving her.” Blayne glanced at the silent female watching them. “She can walk.” Hell, she looked like she could skip, jump, and dance, too.

Dee pulled her arm loose only to catch Blayne’s arm instead and drag her away from the hybrid’s cage.

“Let her out and that female is gonna rip us apart. You can see it in her eyes.”

“How do you know that?”

“Ever seen a pit bull that’s been in one too many dog fights? They got eyes just like hers. We leave her.”

“Hell, you say. We’re not leaving her.”

“Don’t argue with me on this, teacup.”

“I’m not leaving her. And I thought you never left a man behind.”

“I don’t leave Marines. She ain’t no Marine.”

“No. But she’s one of us. I’m not leavingher.”

“You’ll do as I tell ya.”

“Like hell I—” Blayne’s ear twitched, hearing footsteps behind her, coming in the way she’d let the hybrids out. She tackled Dee, the pair slamming into the last hybrid’s cage, bullets ripping up the air around them.

Growling, Dee shoved Blayne away and fired her weapon twice. The full-human went down, but Blayne saw more full-humans heading toward them.

“Dee?”

“Here.” Dee pulled a bowie knife out of a holster she had attached to the back of her jeans, and a thin blade she had tucked inside her leather bomber jacket. “All this time I thought it was the hockey player.” Dee pushed Blayne away. “Go on, teacup. Show me what you’ve got.”

Knowing she couldn’t get the hybrid out on her own, Blayne decided she’d show the She-wolf exactly what she could do.

Blayne leaped on one of the cages and climbed up and around until she had one leg on a cage and the other pressed against the small overhang that was over the door. She waited, watching the door ease open all the way and several full-human males walk in, their automatic weapons raised, their fingers on the trigger. She glanced at where Dee was and adjusted her weight slightly. The last thing she wanted was the gun to go off and kill Dee and that poor hybrid.

When the men had passed a little bit in front of her, Blayne moved.

Dee didn’t know when she’d lost her mind, but she clearly had. Giving Blayne Thorpe the bowie knife her daddy gave her for her tenth birthday and letting the teacup poodle watch her back while Dee unleashed some dangerously unstable hybrid was the height of stupidity. But standing around and arguing about it all damn day didn’t sound like much of a plan, either.

Besides . . . she wanted to see what the teacup poodle could do. It was one thing to see bodies on a slab, but you really don’t know a gal’s skill until you could see her in action.

Crouching in front of that cage, Dee picked up the padlock. The hybrid inside still hadn’t moved. She only watched her with those cold, dead eyes. Dee would rather face twenty guys with guns rather than this female, but Blayne had a way about her and, Lord, was that woman stubborn.

Dee moved her fingers around the padlock, getting a quick feel for it before she unlocked it. A skill any self-respecting wolf had, but apparently not the wolfdogs. She’d found the right spot and was about to unlock it when she glanced behind her and saw Blayne above the barn door. She only had a split second to think, “What the fuck is she up to now?” when Blayne flipped forward and down, the blades in her hands slamming into the shoulders of the man on the far left. He screamed, his finger automatically tensing on the trigger as his body naturally turned. A swath of bullets exploded, tearing two of the men in half. The other three jumped out of the way in time. For humans, though, they were fast, getting back to their feet once the dying male was down and his weapon dry.