They both took hold of the door lock, a massive steel contraption. Shane’s hands looked huge beside hers.
“Three,” said Shane. “Two. One. Pull.”
She threw herself back with all her strength. Shane gave a grunt of effort, his muscles bulging.
The door tore out of the wall.
Six guards stood outside. Shane pounced on them before Catalina had done more than stagger backward. He punched one in the jaw and snatched the tranquilizer gun from his belt, then fired at another guard without missing a beat. His gun hand was swinging to level on the third by the time Catalina got it together to move.
She leaped at the nearest guard, and felt a surge of triumph when she hit him. But even while using her agility, she’d forgotten her new strength. She slammed into the guard with a startlingly hard impact. Both of them flew forward and hit the wall.
Catalina staggered to her feet, bruised and shaken. Four guards were down, including one beneath her. Of the remaining two, one was opening his mouth to shout, and the other was firing at Shane. Her instinct was to go for the one trying to hurt her mate, but she recalled Shane’s advice on not jumping in front of him when he was trying to shoot someone.
Her moment of decision felt long to her, but it passed in a fraction of a second. She leaped toward the guard trying to shout. Catalina hurtled easily through the air, tucking herself into a ball for more speed and then uncurling just before she reached her target. This time she’d judged her powers better. Her hand clapped over the guard’s mouth as she landed beside him. He struggled, but his yell was muffled by her hand.
Shane dropped to the floor. The dart fired by the remaining guard passed over his head and smacked into the wall. Shane rolled forward, reached out with his free hand, grabbed the guard by the ankle, and yanked. The guard fell with a thud. Still lying on the floor, Shane fired first at the guard fighting Catalina, then at the one he’d pulled down.
A moment later, all the guards lay unconscious.
“Good call,” remarked Shane. Catalina was gasping from exertion and excitement, but he was as cool as ever. “And good work. How was your first fight?”
It had been primal and thrilling. Her inner predator had taken over, making every movement instinctive. Though she’d felt the danger, she’d felt confident in her abilities, too. Fighting had felt natural, as if it had been what she’d been born to do. But most of all, fighting beside her mate had satisfied some deep need within her. It was as if a piece of her life that she’d never even realized she’d been missing had unexpectedly clicked into place, making her whole at last.
Deep inside her, Catalina’s leopard purred her approval. We are predators. Mates hunt together.
“Wow,” Catalina managed.
Shane bent and gave her the quickest of kisses, a bare brush of his lips against hers. It made her head spin even more.
“That’s my mate,” he said. “Let’s go fight some more.”
He led her down the corridors. More guards were waiting. The next two fights passed in a confused rush of adrenaline. Catalina knocked out one guard, and then another. None managed to sound the alarm. Shane never let anyone so much as touch her, though he took some hard blows protecting her.
The next thing she knew, they stood in another empty corridor. She had lost track of where they were, but Shane hadn’t.
“Next turn goes to the corridor the lab’s on,” he whispered into her ear. “I’ll go first. They won’t see me until it’s too late. Give me a count of ten, then come in.”
Catalina nodded. Shane’s eyes narrowed in concentration. She didn’t see any change in him, but he walked around the corner as casually as if he was strolling to the grocery store.
She gritted her teeth as she counted to ten. She wasn’t afraid that he was in danger; she knew he could handle it. But she was sorry to miss seeing him in action.
At the last count, she stepped around the corner. Three guards lay unconscious on the floor, while a fourth was starting to flee. Catalina leaped forward, firing the tranquilizer gun in mid-air. The dart smacked into the last guard’s back. He took one more step, then fell unconscious.
“Show-off,” Shane said softly.
“You love it,” Catalina whispered back.
He plucked off a fallen guard’s badge and waved it at the lock. The door slid open.
Catalina tensed to leap, but Shane was faster. His tranquilizer pistol instantly leveled on the man who stepped into the lab, the black-haired, dark-eyed shifter who had tracked and captured her.
She waited for the men to attack each other. Instead, they took one look at each other, then froze. The only motion in the room was that of the door as it slid shut behind her kidnapper, leaving the three of them alone together.
Chapter Thirteen
Shane
Shane felt as if he’d turned a corner and walked straight out of reality. Everything around him fell out of his awareness: the lab, the danger, the mission. He could barely feel the warmth of his mate, though she was standing right beside him.