“It’s not over.” He refused to lose hope. “There are eight of them but humans are weak. We have a chance.”

“Not a good one,” she whispered. “What the hell though, right? It’s a beautiful day to kill some bad humans. Some of them are going out with me. I figure I’m on borrowed time anyway.” She paused, her voice lowering. “I always figured I’d die at Mercile.”

Shadow hoped the mercenaries would decide it was too risky to rush the cabin. Time wasn’t in their favor. The longer they were on NSO land, the less chance they had of fulfilling their mission. Species officers would eventually swarm the area.

Movement drew him from his musings. Part of a tree trunk separated and took on a human shape. It lunged forward to another tree.

“They are coming.”

“I was about to tell you that. Two of them just darted closer.”

“Don’t shoot until you’re sure you have a target. There’s open space between the cabin and the woods. They’ll be exposed when they attempt to reach us.”

Breeze took an unsteady breath. “I guess I should tell you that I’m not a really good shot. I’m better at fighting with my hands but I’ve passed my training. I won’t shoot my own foot.”

He clenched his teeth. “Shoot them in the feet instead. It will slow them down.”

“I can do that.”

“Avoid chest shots. They’ll be wearing vests. Target their legs or heads. Just get off as many shots as you can.”

“Got it.” Determination sounded in Breeze’s voice.

Shadow took a deep breath, tracking the movements in the woods around them. One human darted closer and he almost reached where the trees had been cut back from the cabin. He was close enough that the black markings of paint on his face were visible. These were definitely not typical humans. Skilled mercenaries.

He wanted to keep them at a distance. He lifted the rifle from the weapons he had laid out, hit a panel of glass, and shattered it with the butt. The sound carried and he watched the human disappear behind the tree trunk.

“We’re well armed,” he bluffed. “Security is on the way. Your time is up. Leave while you can. My people won’t allow you to live.”

Silence. A full minute passed before a male voice responded from the far right, out of his sight.

“Send out Mud. She is the small New Species with brown hair and eyes. We’ll allow you to live if you do.”

Rage gripped him and his heart accelerated. Mud? I’m going to kill the bastard who named her that. He’d assumed they were there for Beauty and now his suspicions were confirmed. It took a lot of effort to get his emotions in check. New Species had been given numbers when they were test subjects but she’d been tagged with a derogatory title.

“Fuck,” Breeze hissed.

Shadow had bad words to say too but calmer ones came out of his mouth. He was careful to speak clearly instead of snarling. “We don’t know who you’re talking about. No one is here by that name.”

“Don’t play games, Shadow. We know who you are. It’s you and Mud in there.”

His absorbed that information. They knew his name, which had to mean someone had betrayed the NSO. The tub worked at hiding Beauty’s body temperature if they were using thermal scanning if they were mistaking Breeze for her. The other option was they couldn’t see inside. Their intel hadn’t warned them that another Species female would be present. Either way the humans obviously only expected to come up against him.

“Son of a bitch,” Breeze whispered. “We do have a leak. I’m going to find out who it is and rip off his nuts.”

He softly growled to silence her. They’d deal with that later. Right now they needed to stall for time. He decided to bluff by laughing loud enough for it to carry. “I’m Torrent. You are at the wrong cabin, humans. You paid for bad directions. I hope it cost you a small fortune to get screwed over.”

“Bullshit.” It was another human male who called out. “We’ve got a lock on your signal. You’re Shadow.”

The air in his lungs froze while his brain tried to work fast. How would they have a signal? He would have had to either carry something on his person or inside one of his bags. He mentally went over the list of items he’d packed and what he’d worn on the trip to Reservation. The other bag contained weapons. A dozen possibilities of when he might have been tagged with a tracker filled his head. They were small enough to hide in clothing, his boots, or even on the bags. The only people who’d had access to him or his belongings had been his task force team and the few Species he’d come into contact with at Homeland. Of course anyone could have sneaked inside his room at the dorm. Only Species had access though.

“I’m Torrent,” he repeated. “I don’t know what signal you think you tracked but you’re wrong. Shadow is at another location.”

“Bullshit.” The same human responded, probably the one in charge, and it was coming straight ahead from behind a large rock. “Stop wasting time and send out Mud. Her owner wants her back.”

His fangs flashed as he fought the urge to howl. No one owns Beauty.

The human spoke again. “It’s your coin, jackass. Every team member has them and carries them at all times. Stop stalling and send her out. We haven’t opened fire because she’s worth a lot of money alive but that’s all our orders were.” He paused. “Alive. It doesn’t mean we can’t return her injured. We have a medic to patch her up. It’s your choice. Either way we’ll come in there to get her or you live by having her walk out of that cabin to us. Those are the only options you have.”