Worth the Risk by Savannah Stuart Page A

outside
    guards.
    Crouching as low as he could, he inched toward the outside stone fireplace that sat
    between him and the guard. He just wanted to stun the guy, not kill him, so he had to
    be careful.
    After the guy tossed his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, he bent to pick
    up his M4. In that moment, Stephan made his move.
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    Using all his momentum and strength, he pounced from his hiding position and
    tackled him from behind. His paws slammed into the man’s back. The guy let out a
    shout as they tumbled over the chair, but his head struck the stone tile and his entire
    body stilled. Which was exactly what Stephan had hoped for. Fighting for even minutes
    wasn’t in the game plan. They needed to immobilize these men and take the house.
    Stephan nudged him with his paw, but the man didn’t move.
    “He’s out cold,” Nick murmured as he bent next to the man. He tapped his ear.
    “Cosmo says it’s clear out front and I took out three other armed men. I guarantee
    Thomas and Dad have taken out more.”
    Stephan understood his brother, but he couldn’t respond. In shifted form, he could
    project thoughts with his mind, but his brother would only understand him if he was in
    wolf form too.
    As they continued toward the back patio, Thomas rounded the corner. Once they
    were all together by the French doors, Thomas ordered him to shift to human form.
    Pain rippled through Stephan until he was on his knees and groaning. Changing
    back to human form always hurt worse.
    Nick had already pulled most of their clothing from his backpack by the time he
    and Thomas had changed. Wordlessly, they slipped on black pants and long-sleeved
    black shirts. With the weapons they’d brought, there hadn’t been enough room to
    include shoes.
    “Dad and Cosmo are going in through the front,” Thomas whispered.
    The back door was locked so instead of wasting time picking it, Stephan broke the
    glass and unlocked it manually. A piercing alarm sounded as they rushed inside. Before
    leaving their family’s beach house, they’d all studied the layout of Perez’s house.
    Everything on the diagram corresponded with the layout he remembered from his short
    visit.
    Now they simply needed to make it to the lab and figure out a way to get inside
    before any cops showed up.
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    “We’ve got two minutes,” Thomas shouted above the noise.
    As they fanned out across the open living room, two guards appeared from around
    the corner. Both men raised their guns.
    Stephan fired at the one on the right. The man fell at the same time his partner did.
    Either Thomas or Nick had taken him down with one shot. It had been decades since
    he’d been in an all-out gunfight, but the last time had been with his brothers in
    Vietnam. After almost two-hundred years of living and fighting together, it was only
    natural they knew how to work as a team.
    Sidestepping the fallen men, Stephan crouched low then rounded the corner. The
    hallway was empty so he motioned to his brothers. As werewolves, regular bullets
    wouldn’t kill them but they would still cause excruciating pain.
    When they neared the end of the hallway a loud explosion ripped through the air so
    Stephan and his brother picked up their pace. They rounded the corner and into the
    hallway leading toward the laboratory.
    Stephan nearly stumbled at the sight in front of them.
    “What the hell?” Nick shouted above the alarm.
    The steel door leading to the lab was blown off and smoke billowed out from the
    room. As they neared the door, the petite brunette he’d seen strapped down appeared
    in the open entrance.
    She was completely naked but a bright blue ball of—something, maybe energy or
    lightning—crackled in her hands. She lifted a hand as if to fire at them but paused as
    she smelled the air. As she looked at the three of them, it was as if all the energy was
    sucked from her body. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed in a