Vivian Arend - Moon Shine

He had said he trusted her, had even given her space during the fight in the bar, but this was their real world. This was a challenge not only to her leadership, but for the entire pack.

If he turned her down, he was as good as saying she wasn’t worthy of leading. He had only one option if they were going to make it as mates, as sick as the choice made him.

“I’ll take Dexter.” He caught her by the chin and forced her to look him in the eye. “But you leave a trapdoor so I can get back in.”

“Evan—”

She was about to argue. Forget that noise. He spoke firmly. “I trust you, it’s not that. But don’t ask me to stand by and do nothing to defend the pack. More importantly, I need to help you . I want to stand at your side while we do this.”

She didn’t hesitate. Just pressed up on her tiptoes and planted her lips against his. A fiery kiss full of desperation and passion. The two of them together, even though for a time their skills were needed in different directions.

Evan put everything he could into the kiss before pulling back.

“I’ll set the side service door on a code block,” Amy promised, sneaking her hand out of his pocket and holding up his cell phone. “I need to borrow this as well. The password for the door will be ‘united’.”

Evan nodded then turned toward Dexter. “Okay, buddy, it’s time for you and me to do a little sightseeing inside some secret passages. Hold on, and we’ll get you to your mom as fast as possible.”

A set of arms wrapped around his neck as Dexter settled in tight. Evan spared one last glance over his shoulder at Amy, then crawled into the ductwork and headed for the roof.

Evan vanished with Dexter. The lovely sense of certainty her mate left with her washed away the urge to worry.

It wasn’t cockiness, but confidence. Even while they were apart, they were working together to get the job done.

Amy closed the panel and turned her back on the duct, focusing on the task ahead.

She opened Evan’s phone, made a couple of adjustments, then turned it on. She used the 3G connections to access the main computer she had hacked into so long ago.

She had been using illegal access to the system as part of her revenge. Now it looked as if having the cheats in place might save them.

One after the other, she checked the systems for ways to give Evan time to get Dexter free. She turned on alarms in three different sections of the hotel. None of them connected to outside authorities, but hopefully the clanging would be bothersome enough that Mike would send someone to check them.

Her thumbs flew over the teeny keyboard as she accessed a direct line to the security cameras. It took her thirty seconds to find her targets, figuring out not only where Mike waited, but where Lance and Toby were setting up mischief.

Mike had taken over the bar. All the curtains to the outside were closed—no prying eyes could spot what they were up to. It also meant she’d have to go through the side hallway and take the back door into Evan’s office.

Toby concerned her more. He was in the mechanical room, a soldering iron in his hand. She wasn’t sure what modifications he was making, but in reference to their discussion about explosions, it didn’t look good.

The entire situation had a deadline, and she had to make sure she was in the right place at the right time to get out alive.

With Evan’s phone set up to show multiple camera angles, she risked opening the door and scooting into the hallway. It would be far faster if she could take the direct route rather than crawling through ducts. She snuck forward, placing each step to avoid making any noise, moving to the emergency staircase like a ghost. She ducked through the door seconds before two wolves passed where she had just left.

By the time she reached the top of the landing, her thighs were burning from lactic acid. As she moved, she kept one eye on the shifting camera reports, the phone clutched in her hand like a lifeline. That’s how she saw the roof grid open, and Evan’s head and shoulders appear. He glanced around quickly, but none of the rebels were on the roof.

Evan sprinted to the fire escape, checking over the side of the building before crawling out of sight, Dexter clinging to his back like a monkey.

If things went well, Evan would be on the ground in less than fifteen seconds. Amy paused for long enough to set off a new series of alarms, all of them on the far side from where Evan and Dexter were descending.

Now it was her turn. She ran the length of the hallway, fiddling with the set of keys she’d taken from the maintenance room. A group of wolves were approaching, and she used the master key to access one of the larger suites.

She closed the door silently behind her, leaning against the door. Mike’s wolves paced past, unaware of her presence only feet away. Incompetent fools. They should have been using their noses. But, she was glad their skills at espionage were as bad as they were. It meant she and Evan could get the jump on them.

Amy looked around as she got her breathing under control. It wasn’t her final destination, but the room she was in was a good second choice. One of the fancier suites in the hotel, this one had an Internet connection along with the television. It was like Christmas, Hanukkah and every birthday wish she’d ever made. A couple adjustments later and she’d hacked into Evan’s system again.

Now more than one security-camera view was visible at a time. Her alarms had worked, and outside the building Dexter was in Laney’s arms, just barely visible across the street in a gathering of familiar faces.

There was no sign of Evan.

Amy took the time to trigger a program she’d written ages ago during her revenge-planning days. The one that would set off alarms at random intervals. She added in the power grid, which would set up the lights to fail in a random series. She hit start, then headed back to the door ready for the next stage of the adventure.

Down one more set of stairs, around the corner, she slipped into Evan’s office and stood motionless against the side wall, waiting for her heart rate to slow before she risked opening the mainframe.

Mike was only a dozen steps on the other side of the door from her.

She checked Evan’s phone again, but it only confirmed what she had suspected. While Mike seemed in no rush to burn things as he’d threatened, Toby was no longer in the mechanical room. Instead, he and Lance were both on their way back to the bar.

She bet anything they were hoping Evan would show up.

Which meant she couldn’t wait any longer. She tiptoed across the floor and opened the computer in the corner. Evan had crashed all the Moonshine Inn laptops at one time or another, and Amy had slipped remote access codes into all of them.

But the big old mainframe was the jackpot for taking control of the final touches.

She opened the master control and stared for a moment at the flashing command box. All of the doors in the inn had an electronic safety lock. When given the order, the doors would automatically swing open to allow visitors to exit in a rush during an emergency.

If she reversed the command codes, the opposite would be true. None of the doors would open without her specifically setting them to release. She only needed the password, and the change would be complete.

So. What would Evan pick for a master password? She was sure he would have chosen it, even if Caroline used the controls one hundred percent of the time.

No hesitation. There was only one thing Evan would have selected before anything else. The one thing always on his mind, at least when he would have set up the code.

She typed in “whitehorseforever”.