Free Twin Wolf Trouble (Shifter Squad Six 2) by Anya Nowlan Page B

desperate to twist her head around the direction this day was taking.
    First, she’d gone out on a lovely little walk with a friend, and she’d managed to get herself stuck right in the middle of an explosion in downtown Chicago. Then, she’d gotten all packed up to run off to parts unknown, and her babydaddies had showed up at her door, guns drawn, ready to go to war for her. How much weirder could her day get? And could someone give her a knife to cut through the tension in the car?! The energy in the SUV was electric, tense, and expectant.
    Madeline was about to say something, anything really, when Tex suddenly jerked the car to the side and Thatch threw out a string of curses so damn colorful that Madeline was thankful that neither Raze nor Rhone had developed that far into language comprehension to understand any of it.
    “What’s happening?” Madeline asked, but she didn’t need the answer. The moment the first gunshot sounded and the back window gave a dull thud on impact, not breaking, she knew exactly what was going on.
    They’d found her. Not only her wolves, but the others as well.
 

CHAPTER TEN
    Tex
     
    “They’re fucking shooting at us in a residential area! What do you want me to do, roll the damn car and take cover behind it?” Tex hissed, yanking the steering wheel to the side and sending the heavy SUV skidding through a curve, tires whining.
    “I see that. Get out of here as fast as you can,” Thatch barked, twisting himself around in the seat to look at Madeline. “Madeline, get down, you and the boys both. The glass is bulletproof but it doesn’t hold forever,” he said, his voice calm and authoritative.
    How Thatch could remain so chilled out at a time like this was beyond Tex. Not only had they found the woman that Tex was entirely sure was their mate, but she had kids?! Twins! Obviously his and Thatch’s! And now someone was trying to kill all three of them, and him and Thatch along with it.
    Tex could feel the adrenaline coursing through him, humming in his ears, threatening to make him explode. He had a quick temper, always had, and it had gotten him into trouble plenty of times. While Thatch was almost cold in his calculations, Tex was the polar opposite. Between the two of them, they evened out. In a situation like this, though, Tex was damn glad that he was at the wheel and not his brother.
    He checked the rearview mirror, seeing two equally hulking black vans speed toward them with a man hanging out of one of the windows with a semi-automatic. Gritting his teeth, Tex made the car swing quickly on the mostly empty road, counting the seconds until they could hit the highway. He didn’t want to return fire in a residential area with kids running around. Not that he had ever enjoyed it, but suddenly it felt a lot more reckless than it had ever before.
    Thatch was already dialing up Connor on the phone, his gun drawn and in his hand.
    “Madeline, sugar, you okay?” Tex called back, looking at her huddled body on the back seat as he made the SUV roar up and over an overpass on his way to the busy highway.
    “No! You think I should be?” she quipped back, visibly shivering.
    “Probably not,” he confirmed with a mild grin.
    Okay, things were completely messed up, but a really big part of him couldn’t have been happier. They had Madeline in the car with them for shit’s sake! She was there with him and Thatch, finally within arm’s reach again, and Tex could make sure that they never let her go again. The last year or so had been a complete nightmare without her. He hadn’t been able to make himself touch another woman since. Even the thought of being with someone had felt oddly like cheating, a concept which he’d never had a problem with before!
    The things the love of a good woman could do to a wolf. Tex would have never believed it if it hadn’t happened to him personally.
    Another hail of bullets rained down around the SUV, pockmarking it from the outside, but not