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Pilot nodded.
“They hit us just outside of town, which means whoever hit us is local,” I told them. “See what you can sniff out. Check with our local contacts and informants. If they’re stupid enough to try to sell our guns in our territory, I want to know. Reach out to the surrounding clubs and chapters. Let them know to be on the lookout as well.”
A chorus of acknowledgment rose at the table.
“Good,” I passed the gavel to Hunter. “Anything else to bring to the table?”
The men shook their heads.
Hunter banged the gavel. “Dismissed.”
CHAPTER THREE
“We do everything for the greater good of the pack, Freya.” My mother smiled down at me, but it was thin and placating. “That is all you need to know.”
All I needed to know?
Her only daughter had been beaten and bullied. Assaulted by the alpha’s heir. And she said it was for the good of the pack. I wanted to slap her out of whatever daze she was living in. I’d never doubted my pack or my parents’ unquestioning loyalty to it, not even when my aunt disappeared, but now I was beginning to wonder.
Since birth, we’d been taught never to question the actions of the alpha and High Council. Their orders came from the moon god, and he was never to be second-guessed. He had created us, after all, and he kept us safe.
The world outside wasn’t safe. Humans were volatile and sought to extinguish our kind.
That was what we were taught. To fear what lay beyond our borders.
But it wasn’t what was beyond that I feared.
It was those who preyed on me under the guise of well-being.
“He raped me,” I snarled.
“Damien is entitled to take that which he is after.” She spoke softly, her small hands kneading the dough in the bowl. She had invited the alpha and his son for dinner. The traitorous bitch. “It is an honor.”
“Look at me,” I hissed, turning her away from her menial task. “Look at me and tell me how it is an honor.”
Her gray eyes roamed my broken face, but they were unseeing of the damage that had been caused. Blood still trickled from my broken nose. My cheekbones were swollen, the bruising seeping into my orbital region. If I hadn’t been focused on healing myself, they would probably be swollen shut. My bottom lip was split, and there were hand-shaped bruises around my neck.
“You look fine, dear.” She sighed with a smile. “If you’re worried, go clean up before they arrive.”
There would be no forgiving them.
No loving them as a child should love their parents.
I had to escape this place.
Humans couldn’t be worse than the monsters within.
Gasping, I jackknifed, sending a shock of pain stuttering through my body. I sobbed, cursing the white-hot agony as I tried to keep the encroaching blackness of unconsciousness at bay. The freezing water of the river lapped at my bruised and bloodied legs, but I barely felt it. That couldn’t be a good thing.
I’d read about hypothermia in one of the books Dr. Monroe had let me borrow from his office. It had been under the guise ofwanting to learn to be his assistant. But in reality, I had wanted to be prepared for what could happen outside the compound.
The bank of the river was sandy. There was no discounting how lucky I’d been that the fall hadn’t killed me. It was hard to kill a shifter, but even our bodies had limits they could not come back from. My fingers clawed at the sand, my body groaning in protest as I crawled toward the shelter of the forest. I could just see the hardened rise of the blacktop curving through the pine. It had begun to pour, the rain a soothing balm on my fiery skin.
My teeth chattered, my jaw trembling, as I inched my way toward freedom. I hadn’t come this far just to die. The fall hadn’t killed me, which meant that there was still work to be done. If only the black of unconsciousness hadn’t gotten me first. The last thing I heard was the rumble of an engine filling my ears.
It wasn’t often that I took my truck out. The feeling of being enclosed between two metal doors left me feeling claustrophobic. My knees rode tight against the dash. The air inside was stifling and hot, even with the window rolled down. Shifters were born to be close to nature. Even if many of us couldn’t fully shift, it was ingrained in our DNA to roam free and be one with the earth. It was why most shifters rode motorcycles. We loved the open and air and freedom. Wolf sat in the passenger seat, humming to a country tune as we rolled through the forest. The only reason we had taken the truck wasdue to the pouring rain. Plus, we’d been planning to move some merchandise from the warehouse back to the compound that couldn’t be done on bikes.
Our windows were rolled down, allowing a fresh breeze to roll over us, the scent of pine and fresh spring air helping to lessen the burdens of the day. It was one of the reasons we’d chosen this state as our haven. Many packs were learning to retune themselves to nature and the moon goddess, hoping that it would bring us one step closer to being able to fully shift again.
