Page 47 of Fight or Fly

It was a bark worthy of an alpha, and my spine snapped straight beneath it. “No!” I gasped, before clawing back a shred of control. “No, we’re not mated.”

He made a hissing noise that brought to mind the reptile I’d accused him of being.

“What does that have to do with any of this?” I asked.

“Tactical advantage,” he snapped.

Had he wanted to use the psychic connection between mated pack members as some sort of...location tracking? Did it even work that way?

It was a gamble, but I was about to concede on the basis that being physically reunited with Beckett and the others was better than being separated. Together we were stronger, surely. I pushed my reservations aside.

“I’ll get Jax on board, but only with conditions. You also retrieve the two alphas Sloane is holding as leverage against Beckett.”

Nikolayev sneered at me. “I’m hardly likely to leave Sloane with that kind ofleverage, as you put it.”

Making sure that Sloane didn’t keep Flynn and Alexcouldmean rescuing them along with Beckett. It could also mean killing them as a means of removing them from the chessboard.

“And Irina leads the rescue mission,” I went on, banking on the omega being more inclined to retrieve her former mate than put a bullet in her head.Please, let that be a reasonable assumption on my part.

“Relying on sentiment?” Nikolayev mocked, confirming that he knew very well of the connection between his soldier and one of Sloane’s prisoners. “Very well. I concede to your demands. Now tell me what you know.”

Hoping I wasn’t making a horrible mistake with all of this, I recounted the events surrounding Beckett’s disappearance, as I knew them.

When I was done, he nodded. “You will be returned to your cell now. You have thirty minutes to convince your guard dog to do as he’s told.”

“Wait,” I said quickly, before he could turn around and stalk out. “Irina. You know very well who and what she is. Why is she working for you? Why isn’t she dead?”

“Only a fool wastes a valuable asset,” he replied, his mind clearly focused on organizing the retrieval mission. He paused, pinning me with those piercing gray eyes again before adding, “And you should know that Enoch Sloane is mostdefinitelya fool of the first order.”

With that, he did leave, and was replaced immediately by the two guards. They marched me back to my cell—and the alpha I was about to try and convince to join a paramilitary operation under the command of a man we all hated.

SEVENTEEN

Jax

MY RELIEF AT Leona’ssafe return did nothing to make me like what I was hearing any better.

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