Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 by C.M. Simpson (top ebook reader txt) 📕

Shady’s comms before paying my head a visit. Mack was silent, but I could feel him thinking about the implications and wondered what he’d make of them.

“She has to find us first,” he said, and I wished he wouldn’t be so sure she wouldn’t.

“Girl, your attitude is making me downright cranky.”

Exactly how cranky I didn’t discover until two days later.

21—Operational Extras

I woke up in an alley, with a pounding head like someone had slipped something into my food, or hit me with a sedative guaranteed to put me out until... well, now.

“Fuck...”

The sound of my own voice made me take a quick, sharp breath, and close my mouth. I was in an alley, for the Stars’ sake. Not on the ship. Why the fuck wasn’t I on the ship? I scanned my surroundings and tried to remember what I’d been doing when I’d fallen asleep.

Last thing I recalled was letting Mack know I’d finalized the plan, and forwarding him a copy. That, and a jolt through my head that ended in blackness.

“Sonuvabitch! What the fuck was that for?”

Still no answer, so I ran a check of my implant to see if it had been damaged. Honestly? Without Tens there to tell me otherwise, the damned thing looked fine, right down to the message flashing in the corner of the screen. I took a careful look at it, and realized it was from Mack, with Tens and Rohan cc’d in. That didn’t stop me from wishing I had an excuse not to open it.

I didn’t, so I reached out, and flipped it open.

“Cutter,” Mack wrote. “I’d apologize, but I don’t see the point. I did what was needed for operational security, and that’s it. You’re safe. Tens and Rohan are on overwatch, and we left you snoozing comfortably behind the biggest dumpster we could find. I also put up a low-level force screen around you to keep the creepy crawlies out, since we know how well you react to those and I don’t want to jeopardize the mission.”

Smart ass! I kept reading, deciding the second he was in reach I was punching him as hard as I could.

Like usual.

“We set you down...”

Dumped, my mind corrected him.

“...outside the entry point you’d selected for your plan. Your gear is bagged beside you, and attached to your belt. We stuck that inside the screen, as well, so you should still have it. Check for any status updates prior to commencement. And we’ll see you when you get back on board.”

That was typical Mack. No wasted words. No extra advice. He’d just assumed I knew what I was doing, and told me what was happening. The only problem was that he hadn’t told me why.

“What the fuck, Mack?”

His voice, coming in through the implant, made me jump.

“Stop your bitching, and get on with it. The stuff in your hip flask should fix what’s wrong with your head.”

I thought about telling him there wasn’t anything that could possibly do that, but decided I didn’t have time. Judging from the long shadows in the alley beyond the dumpster, full dark wasn’t far off, and that was when I’d decided to commence my little jaunt.

From somewhere along the footpath on the other side of the dumpster, I heard a door creak open, and then footsteps step out onto the pavement. The door slammed shut, again, and I heard the distinctive sound of a match striking.

“Security guard,” Tens’s voice came through the implant next, calm and firm. “Looks like a pre-work smoke break.”

And I hadn’t known these things smoked.

“Makes two of us, although they smoke just fine when you hit them with a flame thrower.”

Boom. Tish. He was just lucky he was out of punching range.

Tens snickered.

“You ready, yet?”

I was. With the arrival of the guard, I was out of time. I didn’t even have a minute to check the boys had loaded the pack with everything I’d listed in the plan...or where in the pack they’d stowed it.

“That’s why I’m along for the ride,” Tens told me. “Your Blazer and Glazer have full clips, and there’s a dart loaded with enough sleepy to send this guy to dreamland until the day after tomorrow.”

“Won’t that kill him?”

“Nope. Wolf, remember? Even if we got the dosage right for his weight, there’s a good chance he’ll be resistant to it enough that he’ll wake up early.”

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Quit your bitching and move your ass,” Mack snapped. “You’re wasting moonlight.”

I wondered what bug had crawled up his britches and bitten him, but he wasn’t telling. Tens had no such problems.

“Odyssey sent an acknowledgement, bounced it off the Alpha Nine station, and right out to us. Mack’s worried Delight won’t be far behind.”

With good reason, I knew.

“She usually is,” I said. “I’ll try to make this fast.”

“Just make it successful,” Mack said.

I rolled quietly to my feet, coming off my backside and into a crouch. The pack shifted beside me, scraping softly against the dumpster’s side. Holding my breath, I listened, straining my ears for the sound of the guard’s footsteps. I didn’t hear them.

“Tens?” I asked, via the comms.

I’d really like to know the guard was still smoking, and quietly oblivious to the fact I was lurking so close.

“You’re good.”

I lifted the pack, and pulled it onto my back, sliding each arm through the straps. Once it was settled, I checked the Glazer, making sure the dart was ready. Registering the suddenly strong smell of sweet tobacco, I looked out towards the alley.

The first thing I noticed were the boots, standing at the front edge of the dumpster. The second were the light-armor-clad legs. I kept the Glazer tucked in the shadow of my body and tilted my head—up. Stars, but this guy was a tall drink of water.

My eyes travelled over a very broad expanse of chest to where his shoulder met the edge of the dumpster, and then I moved them to follow the line of his shoulder to his neck, and jaw, and face.

“Holy crap!” I said, and wondered why Tens