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

The door to where they were holding the cubs popped open, and I went right in.

“Right, two shots, chest height.”

I followed Mack’s instruction, not stopping to wonder where Rohan was. I just assumed the system was slowly winning, and he needed to concentrate on fighting the code while Tens got the younglings out of there.

“Keep running forward. Two shots left and forward. One ahead. Drop guns. Block back.”

I didn’t think. I snapped the three shots out, dropped my weapons, pulled the blade and spun. Doors on either side of me sprang open, their metallic locks snicking open to the accompaniment of a multitude of scampering paws, and shuffling steps. I caught movement passing close to my feet, as I blocked the stun baton descending towards my head, and slid back a step.

Small flares of silver caught at the edge of my vision as I took on the remaining guard. I didn’t remember Rohan’s words about not letting the little monsters get a hold of my guns until a hail of solids ripped upwards through the torso of the big lupar trying to stove my head in. He fell to another series of rounds, and my eyes cut to where a small and very angry human was trying to keep hold of the blaster’s grip.

She had both hands stretched around it, but her gaze wasn’t fixed on the fallen guard. She was already tracking for more. I moved towards her, and her gaze and the Blazer turned towards me. I dived for the floor as another set of rounds stitched the air where I’d been standing.

“Tens!”

But my cry of alarm wasn’t needed as the child was pulled away in a blur of light. I flipped over onto my back, searching for any more. For a minute, I thought she’d been the last, but then a small movement caught my eye, and I saw there were two more—a cub and a kid, each with an arm wrapped around the other.

I flipped the blade to my other hand, and waved for them to come on over.

“Let me get you out of here,” I said, just as Rohan gave a cry of frustrated defeat, and Cas bounced into my head, and back out, again, slamming the way he’d come through shut in his wake.

“Get to the roof,” Mack said. “You’re gonna have to jump, and you’re gonna have to make sure you bring those two with you. We’re not leaving anyone behind.”

I didn’t bother wondering what would happen if I jumped without them. If I was Mack I wouldn’t pick me up, either.

“Wouldn’t do it to you,” he said. “You jump without them, I’ll figure you’ll have a darn good reason.”

His words eased some of the tension inside me, but I stuffed the blade back into its sheath, and reached for the nearest kid’s hand.

“We’re gonna have to hit the roof,” I said. “You trust me?”

The hand that closed around me was all the answer I needed. I heard a metallic scrape and looked down in time to see the cub lift my Glazer from beside the fallen corpse of the wolf guard. I remembered to breathe when he passed it over.

“Hurry,” he said. “They’re coming.”

Oh, they were, were they?

“You know the way to the roof?”

He dipped his chin in a wolf nod, and let go of his friend’s hand.

“Follow.”

That single word was delivered in a swift bark of command, and I had the sudden urgent feeling that I had found the wolf captain’s son. I didn’t bother asking him, who his sire was. I just raced after him. We bolted into the corridor, me following his sharp turn back to the corridor that held the elevators, and then along, into the stairwell and up.

We were only three flights below the roof, but I was breathing hard by the time we’d reached the top. It didn’t make me appreciate Mack’s training, any better. Not right then, anyway. Maybe when we got out of there...

The wolf cub skittered out onto the roof, running towards the edge as wolves stirred around the shuttles waiting on the landing pads. I didn’t bother trying to take pot shots at any of them. I figured they’d see two cubs and a female, and decide they could take us. That was pretty much the only advantage we had.

If I’d been Mack, or Tens, or even the boy, they’d probably have tried to shoot us.

“Yeah, lucky you.”

And a merry ‘Fuck you’ to you, too, Tens.

“Just be ready to catch us,” I told him.

I used my grip on the kid beside me to pull him against my side, and off his feet, and then I sprinted to catch up to the cub. I didn’t bother stopping to explain, I just scooped him up with my other hand.

“Hang on!” I screamed, taking a leap towards the low wall surrounding the edge and hoping I could actually get a foot onto its top.

These kids were a darn sight heavier than they looked.

“Stop your bitching, Cutter,” resounded in my head, as twin shrieks hit my ears, and two sets of hands curled tight into my combat suit.

Fuck. I really hoped Tens could do what he’d said he co— Silver light, wrapped around us, and I landed heavily in the teleport center. For a moment, none of us moved, and then two sets of hands and feet started clawing and kicking to get away from me.

I let them go, and let my legs collapse beneath me, confident Tens could handle a couple of pretty pissed off kids, while I caught my breath and worked out how to stop shaking. In the end, it was Cascade who calmed the kids down.

Tens got hit in the side of the head by a blast from the Glazer, and I was just incredibly grateful I’d set the thing to stun and hadn’t had time to readjust it for anything more deadly. He went down like a sack of shit, and the cub backed up to a