Eternal Embrace by Billi Jean

be right beside Torque, Jax thought. She eased next to Torque’s bigger body, and watched Jaxon closely from the shelter of his arms. She’d doubted him before, he wondered suddenly if she did again.
    “You’d best be,” she warned and tilted her head to give Torque’s pissed-off expression a once over. “Explain the game plan to him a bit more clearly, because I don’t like it. Maybe Jaxon can think of something we’ve missed, dear.”
    “It’s too closed in. That’s the main problem. Tunnels and underground fighting can be deadly, Torque,” Star added.
    Ranger pulled Star closer against his side and frowned thoughtfully. “It’s true. We learned that first-hand in the tunnels under the vamp house. They can be confusing. Worse, they can hide the enemy from you until they’re right on your ass. They know the layout, it’s their turf and we’re going in blind. This salt mine sounds just as fucking bad as the vamp house.”
    “Look, the salt mines outside of Detroit are nothing like the salt mines you two were in,” Torque argued. “First of all, Hunter reports that this section of the mine is closed because it’s unstable, but it’s big, huge really, with expansive, straight tunnels that are lit with electricity,” Torque explained.
    “How exactly is that good?” Jax demanded.
    “Hunter checked and the humans shut it down, she believes, because the Death Stalkers were able to convince them it was unstable, but Michigan is not on a fault line, so—”
    “She believes,” Jax repeated. Hunter was good, he’d give her that. The little witch could do things with electronics that boggled the mind, but would she know what was stable or not in a mine? “Does she know what she’s talking about?”
    “She’s never stated anything but the truth to us. Has she ever given advice you found wrong?” Torque asked.
    He studied Torque’s silver eyes and tense posture. His buddy looked better, more settled, but he was ramped to go. If Torque and Beauty were in on this, Jax was there as well. “Fine, let’s hit it. I guess that the Death Stalkers have a cell there, and she’s found out how many, where and how to hit it?”
    “She sent word but we also received a report from a Lykae Viktor, a Russian, you remember him?” Ranger asked, his grin growing.
    Jax did remember the guy, and the fact that he’d kicked Viktor’s ass last he’d seen him. Not without his own pain, but still, he’d knocked the shit out of the bigger man in a fight club. Maybe he’d fought dirty, but the ring had no rules. Viktor might not see it the same way though. “Yeah, I remember him lying on the mat, knocked the hell out. Is that the same wolf you’re talking about?”
    “Would you two cool your jets, please?” Star asked when Ranger went to set her aside and come at him for dissing one of his pack.
    What could he say? He rubbed the wolf pack the wrong way.
    “Yeah, cut it out. Aren’t we on the same side?” Beauty demanded. “Torque?”
    “Don’t look at me, Jax always gets the pack worked up.”
    Maybe because the pack had been the ones to kill his parents. Not that the battle wasn’t both parties’ faults—too many grudges and wrongs to settle anywhere but a battlefield—but still, he fought the need to punch most wolves for their superior attitudes. Only a few were exempt from that, mostly younger wolves without the prejudices of the elders. Or Ranger.
    “Then let’s hit it. Beauty will give you the locale so you land with us. Once we land, Star and Ranger will go in deeper. Find Viktor if you can, and near him, you’ll find Hunter. Beauty and I will stay with Jax and hopefully find the cells holding the prisoners. We’ll meet up with you at the centre. That’s where Hunter’s found the most activity and where we’ll hit them the hardest to free whoever they’ve got down there.”
    “Or whatever , right?” Jax reminded him.
    “Yeah, the wolf, tiger things, right?” Beauty murmured, looking