Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)

Sinclair wanted to play. He’d watched for years as this man tormented his people. But he was acutely aware of Mira, who was hidden only a few feet away. If the soldiers managed to make it to the roof, they could easily hurt her.

With a last pang of regret that he couldn’t protract the pain, Sinclair circled his prey, holding the man’s horrified gaze as he lunged toward his neck.





Chapter 12


Mira remained crouched behind the A/C unit. She didn’t need to watch the slaughter. She knew that Sinclair could easily take the two men.

It didn’t matter if they were armed or not. Or if they were trained in combat.

A wolf shifter who’d waited twenty-five years for revenge wasn’t an enemy anyone wanted to face.

There were growls, and screams, and a gurgling sound that made her cringe before a shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Sinclair standing there.

Instinctively, her gaze ran over his mussed hair and flushed face. His eyes still glowed with the power of his wolf, but he was very much a human again.

Then her eyes lowered and she caught sight of the blood that stained his t-shirt on his right shoulder.

“Oh, God,” she surged upright. “You’re injured.”

He shrugged, reaching to take her hand. “I’m fine,” he assured her, tugging her away from the air conditioning unit toward the center of the roof.

“You’re bleeding,” she breathed, her hand reaching up to lightly touch his upper chest.

“I’ll heal,” he assured her, leading her away from the two dead men who were stretched at awkward angles, their throats clearly ripped out. Yikes. “We need to get out of here,” he said.

Moving at his side, Mira was doing her best to ignore the bloody display just a few feet away. Which explained why she didn’t notice exactly where Sinclair was leading her. Not until he tried to coax her into the cabin of the helicopter.

Instantly, she dug in her heels. She might be slowly regaining her trust of Sinclair, but not when it came to flying ten thousand feet in the air.

She liked her pilots to be highly qualified with plenty of experience, thank you very much.

As if sensing her sudden fear, Sinclair sent her a questioning glance.

“Mira?”

She took a step back, waving a hand toward the chopper. “You intend to fly that thing?”

“Of course.” He tilted his head, clearly confused by her reluctance. “It’s the fastest way back to our lair.”

It would be faster, still…

“Do you have a license?” she demanded.

He shrugged. “I’ve seen it on TV, how hard can it be?”

She pulled away from his grasp. No way in hell she was going to ride with a man who’d learned how to fly from a TV show.

“I’ll walk before I get in that thing,” she said.

His lips twitched. “I’m kidding, sweetheart. I was trained a couple of years ago to fly military helicopters,” he assured her.

She frowned. Why would he train to fly a helicopter? Then she gave a faint shake of her head. Did it really matter?

As long as he was competent and could handle the dangerous machine, she was satisfied.

Gingerly, she climbed into the seat, allowing Sinclair to strap her in and arrange the helmet with built-in headphones on her head.

Then, trying to remember to breathe, she watched as Sinclair climbed in beside her, putting on his helmet before studying the instrument panels that looked far too complicated. Did he really know what to do with all those dials and buttons?

As if reading her mind, Sinclair sent her a wicked grin as he started the engine. Overhead, the blades began to turn, whirling faster and faster. Then, as they lifted off from the roof, Mira desperately sought something to distract herself from the knowledge that they were rapidly rising away from ground.

Glancing around the small cabin, she caught sight of the steel briefcase that was half shoved beneath her seat.

Hmm. It looked like something important.

With a tug, she was lifting it onto her lap, surprised to discover that it wasn’t locked. She was even more surprised when she realized what was inside.

“Yes,” she breathed, excitement racing through her.

Capable of hearing her through the headset, Sinclair sent her a curious glance before returning his attention to the wide-open sky in front of them.

“What is it?” he demanded.

“A laptop,” she said, quickly opening the computer and typing in the password to enter the SAU’s private network. She’d stolen it during her time at the air base, as well as the ability to hack through the various firewalls they’d put in place to try and prevent anyone but the top officials from gaining control of the world’s infrastructure.

“Can you use it to send Bree the tape?” Sinclair asked.

Mira already had the flash drive in the computer, downloading the large files directly into the SAU cloud. She wanted to make sure that no one could interfere with her plans.

“Oh, I can do better than that,” she promised, excitement tingling through her as her fingers flew over the keyboards.

Sinclair was a dominant leader, and a lethal predator, but this was her talent.

And she didn’t need fangs or claws to draw blood from their enemy.