Page 56 of Sold Wolf Slave

I stared, that disbelief and rage building inside me, rendering me mute. I let out a low growl as I imagined tearing him to shreds, but knowing I couldn’t. He had all the cards.

Yawning, he stood, pushing himself away from his desk. “This has been a fascinating conversation, but I have things I need to take care of,” he said, sauntering toward a back door. “I would head toward the portal quickly if I were you.”

He strolled out of the office, the door closing behind him. Part of me wanted to chase after him and tear him to ribbons. But doing that would more or less forfeit Kendra’s life.

I growled, running my fingers through my hair, trying to keep my rage in check as I mused over everything. The options were obvious. We leave now and have the chance to continue the mission. If we stay, then the mission would be scuttled, and we would almost certainly die.

My head swam as I contemplated everything that had happened in the last handful of minutes. What was more, Cain was offering us an out. There was a chance he was lying, but I was inclined to believe him. He was a smart guy. He knew that the rest of the Gold Wolves would go after him with a vengeance if he killed one of us. Letting us go and keeping two hostages with him would let him keep his operation running, and he would have time to take precautions against us in the future. But if we left, we would have the chance to come back. We found them once. We could find them again.

At which point, Kendra would probably have been sold to some random person to get her out of his hair, and Morgan would be married to him, and it would be even harder to get her away, I thought.

Leave and abandon Kendra, but salvage the mission? Or go after Kendra and abandon the mission?

It should have been an obvious answer. One gave us the chance to come back, to keep the mission alive—the thing we were here for in the first place. The mission should always come first. It was one of the first things you learned in spec ops. But just the thought of abandoning Kendra, of leaving her to this place, made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t. I couldn’t leaveher here to deal with whatever punishment Cain had in mind for her.

For once, I was able to see past the mission to things that might be more important than completing the job. If I left, I was abandoning Kendra. That was something I couldn’t do, even at the cost of the mission.

It didn’t make sense. I had always seen the mission as the most important thing in any situation. This time was different. At first, I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me, a realization that should have been obvious from the beginning.

I loved Kendra.

It was as simple as that. I loved Kendra. I loved her tenacity, her stubborn streak, her determination to do what was right. I liked the way she challenged my worldview. She might run head-first into trouble, but she did it because she knew it was the right thing to do. She cared about her family and would move heaven and earth to protect them. She was beautiful, clever, and didn’t show fear.

I loved her, and I couldn’t leave her here, even if it meant the mission fell apart. I wasn’t going to leave her here alone.

“Will, what’s the plan?” Chris’s voice pierced through my thoughts.

I shook my head to clear it. “I’m staying,” I said. “I can’t leave without Kendra.”

“Yeah, sort of figured that would happen,” Nolan said.

I blinked, momentarily taken aback. “What?”

“We have eyes, you know,” Nolan said.

“It was pretty obvious you cared about her,” Chris said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to these lengths.”

“You’re not as subtle as you think,” Nolan added cheerfully.

“Right.” I coughed. “Anyway, I’m wasting time. Any idea where they might be holding her?”

“Probably either in the same area they were keeping Morgan or the place next door,” Nolan said. “My guess is the place next door. Cain isn’t going to want her and Morgan too close to one another.”

“In that case, I’m going there,” I said, turning toward the door.

“She’s not going to leave without Morgan,” Chris pointed out as he came into step next to me.

“Then I’ll get Morgan as well,” I said. “You two get through the portal. Tell Declan what happened and find a way to stop Cain.”

Both Nolan and Chris gave me dumbfounded looks.

“You’re an idiot if you think we’re leaving you here,” Nolan said. “We happen to like your too-serious, borderline-surly demeanor. It adds so much flavor to the group.”

“Pretty much,” Chris agreed. “We’re with you until the end.”

I let out an annoyed huff. In one way, this was good. I needed all the help I could get if we wanted to get both Morgan and Kendra out of here. On the other hand, if we all died…

Then don’t die, a voice in my head told me, rather reasonably.

---