Hunted Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Eight by Krystal Shannan, Camryn Rhys Page A

you, commander.” Duke nodded at the rest of the Rangers. “Everyone hear that?”
    “We didn’t,” Hannah said.
    Viper’s hand slipped onto her back before he realized he’d done it. He pulled his hand away. “They found your friends.” He offered a tight smile.
    “Are they okay?” Her eyes were so hopeful, so unspoiled. Her hope was going to infect him.
    He’d learned never to hope.
    “It sounds like they are.” Duke glanced between the three civilians. “He would’ve told us if anyone had—”
    “Give me your twenty,” Rain interrupted, in every Ranger’s ear. “Warrick and I are on our way to you.”
    “We’re just east of the power station.” Duke hit a button on his watch and read out the latitude and longitude. “We found one of Rossi’s children who showed us the evacuation plan. We’re about to advance on the place they’re holding all the women.”
    Girls , Viper corrected in his head. He’d seen those security feeds. Not all of them were women. Some of them were as young as fourteen, it had appeared. They were girls .
    “Use your NODS,” Rain said. “Scope out the guards and see if you can take it without us. We’re still a good ten minutes out from your location.”
    Duke nodded and signed off. He lowered his night vision goggles and all the Rangers followed suit. When Viper got his down, he could see through the foliage in a way his wolf eyes couldn’t.
    “It looks like there are four guards on the near building,” Duke said, his voice low. “Anyone see more?”
    “Four on the near, and none on the far, that I can see,” Gonzales said, from the front of the group.
    “That’s what I see,” Golick added.
    “We should come around from the back, then. See if we can get access to the building without alerting the guards.” Duke pointed off to their left. “If we keep a wide perimeter, we can probably stay out of the range of their hearing.”
    “Unless one of them is focused on listening for us,” Viper added.
    Golick shook his head. “But we can’t plan for that. We don’t have time.”
    “What about Gabriel?” Duke said in Spanish, an edge of reluctance in his voice. “What do you think?”
    “They’re not listening for us.” The islander grabbed his hair into his hands and wrapped it around, twisting it out of his face and on top of his head. It stuck in a knot on top and Viper was surprised at the calm on his face.
    “You don’t feel your father here, do you?” he asked. He knew the difference.
    “He’s not here, no.”
    “Then what are we doing?” Hannah stepped around Viper and toward the center of the group. “We don’t go in with guns. They’re innocents.”
    “They. Have. Guns.” Viper pulled her arm. “There are guards in front of that building who will shoot at us if we don’t shoot at them.”
    “They’re kids,” she said, her tone heavy. Viper could feel her chest tighten. He knew that feeling. That was where his anger lived.
    “They’re not all kids.” He released her arm. “Just let us do our job.”
    “They’re on the move,” Gonzales said from the front. “Those four guards are running to the other building.”
    The other Rangers looked toward the buildings, but Viper glared down at Hannah. “We’re not going to kill anyone who isn’t going to kill us.”
    She crossed her arms. “We shouldn’t be killing any of them.”
    “We’re only going to kill in defense.” Duke put his hand between them and pulled up his NODS with his other hand. “You do need to let us take the lead, ma’am.”
    “Fine, but I’m not going to—”
    An explosion rocked the air around them, throwing Gonzales backward into Golick and Trahan.
    Viper reached for Hannah and pulled her against his body, falling to his back on the ground and holding her tight as he rolled on the explosion.
    Duke was yelling something and Viper couldn’t hear anything except the thrumming of his pulse in his ears and the ringing after-affect of the blast.
    He