I stood there frozen. The shifter world was still new to me, but it was part of my heritage and as much as I struggled to understand it at times, the obvious threat to it sent a chill to my bones.

"Riley!... Riley! Are you okay? You didn't hear me the first few times I called you," Aiden said with concern in his voice. All I could do was to motion for him to read the last message that I had pulled up on the screen.

"Holy crap - this is bad! We need to get Nat and get out of here before we play right into the hands of these guys."

Just then Rafe burst into the room.

"I know where my sister is."

I quickly shut down the laptop to make sure that no one could figure out that we had accessed it. I knew that I would have to speak to the others about whatever was going on here but first, we needed to save Natalia.

"Where is she, Rafe? And how do you know?"

"We mind-linked. She is very weak because they are keeping her drugged." His jaw clenched in anger, his hands tightened in fists. "The mind link was very weak because of it but she seems to be okay. Well, alive. They are keeping her in...." he paused and I knew that he was probably getting flashbacks from his own time spent here, " in the dungeons below."

I touched the earpiece of my radio and instructed everyone that we were heading for the dungeons. We barely made our way to the ground floor though, when one of the guards spotted us. Hardly a second later I heard the security alarm blaring around the mansion. Great, so much for the element of surprise.

We hid behind whatever furniture we could find as more guards emerged, shooting at us with their guns. Our group returned the fire, taking some of them out in the process.

"Guys, we need to split up in order to take control. Callum, Aiden, you are closer to the other door so try to go around and attack them from behind, cutting off their reinforcements from wherever they are coming. See if you can shift if needed." They both nodded and subtly made their way through the other door as we covered them. "James, Rafe, we need to try to get to the dungeon entrance on our left. Clear?"

I turned around looking for their agreement but instead all I saw was Rafe getting up from behind the table that he and I were using as cover and trying to sprint for the dungeon door. For fuck sake, will he ever learn to listen?

I didn't have time to think further about it though as I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand up, alerting me to impending danger. It felt like time changed to slow motion- I peeked from behind the table and I saw that the guards were preparing to use the same energy ball blaster like the one they used to me and Nat when she got kidnapped. I saw them aim at Rafe and shoot as he moved towards the door, and my instincts kicked in at that point.

I jumped towards him to push him out of the way while James shot our attackers but not before they had fired the energy ball. I felt myself collide with Rafe's body second before the energy ball hit us. We both fell on the ground behind a nearby wall.

At first, I wondered why I didn't feel the blast from the energy ball but when I saw my glowing protection bracelet, I realised that it had once again saved me from whatever magic these guys were using. It's only then that I noticed that was lying on top of Rafe. I turned my head to look at him but that was a big mistake as I suddenly found myself dangerously close to his lips. My breathing hitched and my mind went blank as I was not sure what smart thing to say right now to downplay how intimate our position felt. The bastard beat me to it though.

"You know, Moreau, you didn't have to go through all that trouble to get on top of me," he smirked. "Next time just ask." Prick.

"In case you didn't notice, I saved you, you idiot. And why can't you simply follow the plan?" All I wanted was to wipe that overconfident expression off his face. Apparently, my words worked because he turned stone-faced before he rolled us over to be on top of me.

"Don't ever dare to do that again." His face was dead-serious now, with no trace of his earlier cockiness.

"What? Tell you what to do?" I challenged him- I was not going down without a fight.

"No," he snarled, "jumping in front of the fire like that."

My eyes widened at his response. "Are you being serious? I did it to save you and you are having a go at me?"

"What you did was put yourself in harm's way, on top of that for me. If you ever do that again, I'll..." His jaw was tightening again like it had earlier. Was he worried about me?

It's James' voice that interrupted us both. "Hey, you two! Mind giving me a hand instead of making out in the corner?" he chuckled in between shots.

Rafe got off me and offered me his hand, which I refused as I stood up on my own. James was holding his own quite well with the guns so I used the moment to make a few things clear to this ridiculous wolf.

"You know, people are usually grateful when someone saves their arse. But then again, you don't do etiquette on the battlefield, if I remember correctly. As a warrior though, you should know that teammates have each others' backs. And besides, my bracelet protected us both."

Contrary to the effect that I was going for, the damn wolf pushed me against the wall and moved in closer to me, whispering in my ear.

"I saw the surprise in your eyes. You didn't know that this would happen, so you were reckless, Riley. The guys and I will heal if anything happens to us- you won't." I opened my mouth to protest but he placed a finger on my lips to silence me. The contact brought back the same tingling that I had felt when Aiden's lips brushed against mine the night before. "This conversation is over....for now. We have my sister to save." And with that, he took out his gun again and started shooting from behind the wall.

I snapped back to reality and kneeled next to him to join the gunfight. We still had 6 guys to eliminate, which was not going to be difficult but it was still going to take us a bit of time, time that could cost Natalia her life now that her kidnappers knew that we were there.

"James- can you try and shift?" He nodded in acknowledgement. "If you manage, you need to make your way down to the dungeon without getting detected and you need to try to get to Natalia as quickly as possible. We will cover you and will join you as soon as we eliminate these guys."

Soon enough a beautiful red fox was standing where James had stood seconds earlier. I was fascinated because up to that point I had only seen people shift into wolves.

"Moreau," I heard Rafe growl, "snap out of it. We are meant to be covering him, remember?"

Ugh, jealous prat.

But he was right, we did promise James to cover him and so we did. He was so small and quick in comparison to wolves that he was gone through the open dungeon door in no time and without any of the guards even realising.

"Well, if he can shift, so can I then. Time for Kai to play," Rafe exclaimed.

"It's not a....." Competition, I muttered under my nose but it was too late- he had already shifted. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw a beautiful silver-grey wolf with stunning blue eyes appear next to me. It was the same wolf-like the one in my painting, and the one I saw back at the Blackwood mansion my first days there.

He nuzzled me gently, as I kept on shooting with both Rafe's and mine guns in my hands- I could not let our opponents have a breather. I heard a commotion from the other end of the room though, accompanied by various growls and barks, and I realised that Callum and Aiden were pushing through from the other side.

The now 3 guards that were left in the room with Rafe and I were clearly getting confused and scared as to what was going on, which resulted in them losing focus. Rafe's wolf howled and growled as he saw an opportunity to attack them in their stupefaction. In a matter of moments, he was already on top of one of them, ripping his throat out before he jumped on the next one. The last guard took out the energy ball blaster to shoot at him but he was not quick enough for my skills and fell dead on the floor thanks to the bullet that had hit him right in the heart.

"Someone should have told us that we can shift in here- we would have been done ages ago then," I heard Callum say as he and Aiden emerged in the room.

"Clear?" I asked both of them, perhaps out of habit from my workdays.

"Clear. Are you okay?" Aiden asked.

"Yes, we are fine. James headed for the dungeon to get to Natalia quicker and, although he probably slipped past the guards in his fox form, I have a feeling that we are bound to have company down there. So I suggest that I go through first."

"What? No way," Aiden protested and I heard Rafe growl behind him.

"Yeah, I have to agree with them, Riley," Callum spoke up as well, "we promised your brother to bring you back safe and sound."

"Oh, for crying out loud, we are losing time in stupid arguments. I can take care of myself- I've survived the past 27 years without you guys around to treat me like a damsel in distress. And if you stopped behaving like some macho idiots, you will realise that I am right." It was not the time for me to get fired up like this but these guys really knew how to push my buttons sometimes. "They probably have more of those energy ball blasters downstairs and I am the only one who is protected from them, thanks to my parents' bracelet. They will not expect that and will probably be thrown off by it, which is when the three of you will attack."

I could see that Callum and Aiden were carefully considering what I had said, whereas Rafe continued being his usual safe even as a wolf, growling in discontent.

"I don't like this at all but I trust your instincts, Riley," Aiden said, squeezing my hand. "Just be careful please."

Satisfied, I led the boys to the dungeon. It was cold, dark and damp as soon as we went through the door, and the air was so stale that it was difficult to breathe. We carefully walked down the narrow stairs. The walls were made out of stone. The whole place felt so old that I would not have been surprised if the dungeon had been built during the medieval times- you could feel the years of torture and suffering that had taken place under this mansion. The thought made me shudder and my heart ached as I realised that this was where Rafe was held as a teenager and where his mother had died. His wolf was walking on my right so I instinctively reached out to him, running my hand reassuringly through his fur.

We reached the bottom of the stairs and the only way we could go was to turn behind the corner. I heard Aiden and the others stop before he signalled that there were 6 guys on the other side- it paid off to have shifter hearing, I guess.

"We stick to the plan, guys- I go first and you attack as soon as they lower their weapons." The three of them nodded, confirming their readiness.

I stepped from behind the corner and I saw the 6 men in front of me looking confused at the sight of a single armed woman in front of them. They were clearly taken aback as they had not expected this- given the commotion upstairs, they must have expected a little army of attackers. Some of them started lowering their guns, probably thinking that I was no threat to them- after all, I was one woman against all of them.

Two of them were still smart enough to aim their energy blasters at me and I returned the favour by aiming my guns at them.

"Hello, boys."

We fired at the same time but while their shots caused me no harm thanks to my bracelet, I saw both of them fall on the ground, my bullets having hit each of them in the head. The other four were in shock but before they could react, Callum, Aiden and Rafe appeared from behind me, charging straight for them. Rafe was the first one to reach them given his wolf's speed, tearing limbs off as he got hold of them. Meanwhile, Aiden, Callum and I were fighting the rest hand-to-hand, taking them out in no time. I was surprised how in sync we all were, like a team that had been working together for a long time.

When the last of the guards was finally out, I took the time to have a look around. The space was wide and better lit than the rest of the dungeon, with numerous cells on each side of the room. Many of the cells had their doors open, clearly because they were empty but a few were closed shut. The big wooden doors of each cell had small windows on top to allow the guards to look inside and small holes at the bottom, most likely to pass the prisoners things like food, without opening the door.

"In here." James' voice came from one of the closed ones.

Rafe shifted back to his human form and we both rushed towards the cell simultaneously, this time completely ignoring that he was fully naked and covered in blood. We worked together to open the door to find an unconscious Natalia in James' arms. She looked so peaceful, so innocent in the chaos and mess surrounding us, as dead bodies lay around behind us.

"Is she...?" I didn't dare finish my sentence, as I couldn't see her breathing.

Please don't let her be dead.