Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 80431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“In which we were almost killed,” Mirage snarled.
Chief Aiken Oakley
Valor
Valor cringed.
From what Lion had told them, they’d been close to killing the Browns for their treachery.
“That wasn’t the intention. We risked everything to protect him,” Zorion challenged.
Valor stalked through the dense bushes, muscles coiled, his razor claws flexed and ready. Zorion had his longbow strapped across his back, but he knew he wouldn’t need it.
“If you choose to blindly follow the director’s orders, Zelmir will end up captive…again. They want the formulas in his head for the thermonuclear device he can build. We destroyed the first one made in an attempt to keep it out of the wrong country’s hands. Meaning every country.”
“If it’s destroyed, then Zelmir Benton is safe.”
Valor stared hard. He couldn’t figure out if Grace was incapable of speaking or if Mirage always did the talking for both of them.
“No, he’s not. Countries have enlisted their most dangerous mercenaries to capture him again. And just like the Ravens’ attempt, Zelmir will be starved and tortured until he makes another one. A weapon that’s worth billions.”
“Fuck,” Grace rumbled in a deep baritone.
So he does speak.
“The organization has manipulated us. We are pawns in a game where the rules benefit only them. It’s no longer about missions of justice. You’re being sent to take innocent lives for the director’s greed.”
They were silent for a long time as Zorion seemed to let that devastating intel sink in for the Browns.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye. Together, we can expose them and set things right.”
Grace nodded to Mirage.
“We will stand with you,” Mirage agreed. “But if you cross us…you do it at your own peril.”
Valor let out a low growl.
He didn’t like the way that threat sounded. It was time for them to go. He still didn’t trust the Browns. They’d met, as Jo had asked, and now they were done.
He motioned for Zorion to send Jo’s final message then they’d leave the same way they’d come.
Suddenly and without a trace.
Meeting adjourned.
He watched Zorion snatch another arrow from behind his back, then pulled the folded note Jo had written from his front pocket and attached it to the tip.
He heard him nock it and pull the string taut, the idler wheel turning to give enough power for the arrow to penetrate the tree trunk behind Grace’s head.
Zorion fired—then it happened, a shift in the atmosphere.
A presence he nor Zorion sensed until it was too late.
Valor gaped at the figure standing cloaked in the edges of the moonlight.
A towering man in a calf-length black trench with his jet-black hood resting low on his Roman nose and veiling half his face, leaving only a ghostly glint of his sharp jaw.
Meridian. Death’s ally. The Alpha’s man of righteousness.
He stood stock-still—like a statue of ominous power—with his arm locked in place, his hand curled tightly around the shaft of the arrow.
Valor swallowed a lump of disbelief. What the fuckin’’ fuck?
The air around Meridian seemed to pulse with an eerie darkness, a heavy aura that drained the warmth from the air. The forest once loyal to Valor and Zorion seemed to now bow to his presence.
Ex and Meridian.
There they stood. Dark. Deadly. Just as frightening as the stories said.
Meridian had made no sound, no whisper of movement. No shift in the leaves. He just appeared as if the night itself had birthed him.
Power radiated all around him. Even the shadows seemed to recoil from his path.
“Fuck,” Valor muttered into their comms. “Jo, it’s the Blacks.”
“The Browns must have somehow signaled for them. Stay calm,” Jo whispered, as if even she were anxious…and she was safe on the other side of the world. “Do not engage them. They aren’t your enemies.”
Valor was impressed. He recognized capability when he saw it.
“It is an honor, Meridian.” Zorion’s voice was strained but even.
The silence grew thick, almost tangible, until Ex spoke.
“Show yourselves.” His tone sounded final.
“Do as he says,” Jo urged.
Valor glanced at Zorion. A silent question, which received a silent answer.
Stay close to me.
Zorion nodded.
With their hoods pulled as low as possible, they landed in perfect sync, their feet hitting the ground with a force that sent pine needles and leaves flying into the air.
As the other four Ravens took them in, he and Zorion remained still on a potential battlefield that could erupt with one wrong move.
“Tell them about the hidden file,” Jo said.
Valor relayed the message verbatim.
“There’s a computer in the director’s safe behind a canvas painting that contains an encrypted file.”
“How will we contact you?”
“Find our handler,” Valor answered Mirage. “She’s known only as Jo. She says there are more Ravens than the six standing here…find them while we diminish any threats in our path.”
He and Zorion inched cautiously backward—refusing to turn their backs on trained killers—until the bushes swallowed them.
Chief Styles Sawyer
Zorion
The cabin Jo sent them to while she set up a new headquarters was perfect.