The engines wake me first—harsh mechanical growls that don't belong in the predawn quiet. My body recognizes the danger before my mind fully processes it, muscles tensing beneath the warm weight of arms draped across me. For one precious second, I exist in the liminal space between safety and threat, cocooned in the scent-marks of my newly claimed mates, before reality shatters with the first crack of gunfire.

The bed erupts into motion. Cole vaults upright, his massive form suddenly ...