Slade licked Cricket’s nose and she his, but their reunion was short lived. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
The bridge lowered again, but, fortunately, slowly.
Nikolay chuckled. “No hurry.”
Slade’s ears pricked forward. Didn’t he almost fall to his death? “Are you mad?”
Nikolay shifted to human form and a clipped mobile fell to the ground. As if he had unlimited time, he picked it up and pressed a short sequence of number. In seconds, an explosion ripped through the bridge taking part of the cliff with it, widening the span. No way was anybody getting out any time soon.
Slade shifted to human form and so did Cricket.
Cricket cheered, “Yeehaw!” She turned to the brawny blond lycan. “I’m starting to like you…?”
“Nikolay, but pretty lady can call me Nik.”
“I’m Cricket.” She held her hand out.
Slade stepped in between them. “She’s mine.” Why did he say that? She was not his. Must have been the threat of nearly losing her.
“Of course, comrade, but as you say in America, we better get out of Dodge.”
Cricket pointed toward the left. “I smell another road about a mile that way.”
“An old farming road.” Nik grinned. “Maybe we can have sheep for dinner then find transportation.”
Slade stared at the burning bridge. “We need more than a tractor to get away. They keep two helicopters on the castle roof.”
“Helicopters disabled,” smirked Nik. He handed her the small mobile he used to detonate the bridge. “Call your contacts.”
Cricket took the throw away from the resourceful lycan and smiled. “I’m really starting to like you.”
Slade used his body to cover her flesh from Nik’s gaze. “Who are you?”
“I’m Russia’s secret weapon. Only werewolf in Russian Special Forces. Explosives and sniffing out mines my specialty.”
“Cool.” Cricket beamed.
A tinge of jealously burned his gut. “Humans can’t know about our kind.”
He stared at his hands, and his voice lost gusto. “Only commander knows and he died trying to keep Wolfstrom from abducting me.”
Slade sensed his deep pain. “Let’s shift before they call in backup from the lab facility.”
“Rylee has the coordinates. Once we get farther away, I'll call her again.”
Slade lifted a brow. “You sent her our coordinates?”
“Yep. I mean the coordinates to the lab facility.”
“I’m really starting to like you,” Slade repeated.
“Thought so, since I’m still alive.”
Slade drew her in. “Of course, I wouldn’t…”
Nik interrupted. “No time for, how you Americans say, makeup sex.”
Slade nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”