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

corner, tucking his human companion in behind him, and keeping the Glazer pointed out.

He took out one of the teleportation crew, next, and then walked his fire into the second.

“Cutter! Do something!”

I lifted my head, and the Glazer snapped towards me. When I didn’t move, it stayed on me, and the teleportation crew ducked below the cover of their consoles. I’ll give them this, they kept their heads, not a single one of them making a break for the door.

“I’ve got this,” Rohan said, and before either Mack or I could tell him not to, the door to the center opened.

He ducked under the first shot, and dropped to one knee just inside the door. The Glazer shook, wavering between the two of us, but I recognized the way Rohan was positioning his body, and knew what he was doing.

The boy was fucking brilliant!

“Oh, Hell, no!”

Mack wasn’t impressed, but that was nothing unusual. I shifted slightly, adopting the same posture Rohan had taken, my throat moving as I whined in duet. With any luck the kid would realize we meant him no harm. It was a long shot, and I doubted he’d believe us, but if we got a chance to explain we were sent by his father...

It was difficult to keep an eye on the Glazer without meeting the cubling’s eyes. The door slid open, again, and the weapon rose, but the cub couldn’t track quickly enough to follow the enormous black body that leapt over Rohan’s crouched form, and bounded across the room, bouncing into both youngsters hard enough to knock them from their feet.

The Glazer flew out of the cub’s hands as he went over onto his back, kicking and swearing at the big dog standing over him and remorselessly licking his face.

23—Coming Home

The kid was still pissed off when I went over to pull Cas off him. Given the stream of invective he hit me with, I decided I’d let Cas sit on him a bit longer. I waited for him to stop cussing long enough for me to get a word in edgewise.

“Your dad’s the Hunt Master in Carafakt Gorge, right?”

He’d been about to open his mouth and hit me with another tirade about uppity, useless females, but he shut his jaws with an almost audible snap, and glowered at me, instead. I didn’t wait for him to ask if I’d been sent. I told the little mongrel straight up.

“He let me live, as long as we’d came to fetch you.”

I saw his ears quirk, and he gave me a broad, wolf grin.

“He mustn’t have liked you very much.”

“And why’s that?” I asked, smirking as Cas licked his face from nose tip to eyebrow.

The cub sputtered, trying to push the dog’s face out of his own as he answered.

“Because the Rennet’s World pack will hunt you down to avenge what you have done.”

His words sent chills to my heart, but I did my best to hide them, rolling my shoulders into a shrug.

“They come for me and mine,” I said, “and I’ll just kill more of them—and then I’ll go hunt the rest down before they can shift their furry wolf asses off world.”

He laughed at that, pushing at Cas, until the dog let him slide free and get to his feet. To my surprise, his first action was to turn to the human he’d been sheltering. I watched as he helped the kid to his feet, waiting until he looked back at me.

I was about to ask him to follow me, when he spoke, cutting across me. “Where is my She?”

What the Hell?

My face must have said it all, because he asked again.

“My She. The one who took down the guard—what did you do with her?”

His ears had gone from being cocked forward to angling back, and his tail had stiffened to a straight line behind him. The boy with him reached out to touch his arm, and the cub snapped his head to meet his gaze.

His friend flinched, but didn’t back down. “They got us out; they will not have harmed her.”

The cub froze, his eyes on the boy. I froze, too, holding my breath. This kid was definitely his father’s son—save for his strange affinity with humans. In the short time I’d spent with Alpha Nine’s Hunt Master, I’d sensed nothing similar.

After a moment, the cub dipped his chin, and turned back to me. The boy released his arm, and I had two pairs of piercing eyes looking into my face.

“My She?” the cub asked, his tone more a request than a command.

I was about to answer, when I heard Tens groan.

“Oh, crap,” I said, glancing at where Tens was slowly coming round, and then back at the cub. “You’d better get behind me.”

For a moment, I thought he might insist on standing and facing Tens on his own, which would have been ballsy for anyone, let alone a cub, but, after another glance at where the technician was waking up, he came and stood by me.

“Will he be angry?”

I was about to try and reassure him, when Tens answered for me.

“Hells, yes, I’m angry!”

He finally sat himself up, and glared in the general direction of the cub, the kid, and me.

“You were told not to let the little monsters get a hold of your gun!”

I didn’t let him intimidate me. Smart ass!

“I kinda had both hands full of little monster if you recall! Some dumbass couldn’t manage to pull the three of us off a tower roof!”

“You ungrateful bi—” which was as far as he got before the cub launched himself out from behind me and rammed him in the chest, knocking him onto his back as he swung with both tiny fists.

Tens gave a yell of surprise, trying to fend the kid off with open hands, until Rohan came and lifted the cub clear. I’d been about to intervene, but the cub’s human had grabbed my arm, and pulled me to a stop.

“Let him,” he said. “He needs...”

He let the