AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The only reason Sebastian and his pack had had trouble with this particular submissive was that she was a black-foot. Running one to the ground had its… challenges. That was why they’d shot her sister and the other female with tranquilizers before dragging them from their car.
The pack had originally thought of capturing Hale’s black-foot the same way, but none of them could ever get close enough to her for that—the pride’s security was too tight, and Hale acted as her guard at all times.
Sebastian had known that if they could somehow draw away several of the strongest members of the pride, they’d have a chance of getting to her.
That chance had arrived.
Their plan had been successful. The Olympus shifters had fallen for it, thinking the pack intended to use Hale’s mate as bait. Nah, it was her relatives who were the lure.
Davide turned to him, a glimmer of conflict in the amber eyes they both shared. It was hard to look at him sometimes; made Sebastian’s throat ache. Aside from having different colored irises, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the baby brother they’d lost, even down to the scruffy haircut.
“Are you sure they won’t contact the Crimson Alphas?” asked Davide. “The females we took are under their protection. They’d have the right to know that their pride mates were kidnapped.”
“Hale isn’t going to include the true mate of the woman he claimed—he’ll want to be her hero,” Sebastian pointed out with an inner eye roll. Once shifters mated they lost their edge and turned into fucking pussies. “Besides, what does it matter? The involvement of an additional pride won’t help them. They’ll be looking for us in the wrong place.”
Davide didn’t appear reassured. “But if the Crimson Alphas do hear of it, the Alpha male would probably come straight here to protect her—then he’d find us.”
Sebastian shrugged, unconcerned. “Then we’d kill him.” Simple.
His brother and Wattie exchanged an uneasy look. Something they did a lot lately. Samuele’s murder had thrown the entire pack, and it had turned these two shifters into fucking fretters who hesitated to take chances. His wolf swiped out a paw, annoyed by their lack of confidence in Sebastian and his plan.
He looked from Davide to Wattie. “Remember: We need to move carefully. The Olympus shifters won’t be expecting this, so they won’t be prepared for it. But the enforcers who are left will still be on the lookout.” The fucking pride seemed to have eyes everywhere.
But not here. Because Sebastian had already shot the cat who’d been patrolling the wooded area.
His brow knitted, Davide caught him with a probing gaze. “You don’t still mean to kill her, do you? I want Hale to suffer as much as you do, which means I want her to suffer. But if we snuff out her life, we’ll never get Tommaso back.”
Sebastian licked over his front teeth. He’d known there was a high probability that the pride was somehow responsible for Tommaso’s disappearance. So many times his brother had ranted about how someone needed to go blow Hale’s brains out. Sebastian had insisted it was too predictable and they needed to proceed carefully.
But whereas Davide and Samuele had always been fairly easy to maneuver and manipulate, Tommaso was too erratic and impulsive to be controlled. So when he’d snuck off and then hadn’t returned, the pack had figured it was likely he’d gone after Hale and been subsequently killed. Sebastian had been shocked when their packmate Peter—who’d made the call to the black-foot—notified them that she’d claimed Tommaso was alive and in the pride’s possession.
Sebastian was also highly skeptical that Hale would have allowed his brother to keep breathing. He let that skepticism show on his face as he cocked his head at Davide. “The Olympus Pride isn’t known for being merciful. You really think they wouldn’t have executed him?”
Davide’s square jaw firmed. “What I think is that he’d never give up on us. If he thought there was a chance we were alive, he’d keep looking until he found us or had proof we were goners. And the pride isn’t merciful, no, but they might have decided to hold off on killing him until they have our pack’s location—they’ll be intent on wiping us all out.”
True, but… “I’m not convinced he’s alive. Hale’s mate seemed to know a lot, though. If the pride really has him, she’ll know where. She can point us in the right direction. And if she doesn’t, or it turns out she lied, I’ll just make her death that much more painful.”
He wasn’t going to make it an easy death. No fucking way. Blood was owed, and it would be taken.
Wattie rubbed at the back of his head, ruffling his tousled dark hair. “Maybe we should just back off.”
Sebastian glared at him. “Haven’t we been over this already?”
“Yes, but I still say it might be best to cut our losses,” said Wattie. “You can’t say you don’t wish we’d targeted a different pride. We thought it wouldn’t be too hard, since the Olympus shifters don’t live on a massive stretch of land somewhere. That was a huge miscalculation on our part. These assholes are proving tough to take out.”
“We just killed one of their enforcers, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. One. We also went after several of the pride—a kid, an enforcer, and a black-foot. Every attempt went to shit.” Wattie lifted his shoulders. “We could just walk away.”
“But we’re not going to. Their fucking enforcer killed Samuele.”
“Maybe we should have listened to him. He had doubts about going after the pride.”
With that, Samuele’s words flitted through Sebastian’s mind… “I say we pick another pride to target, Seb. You know their reputation. Pallas cats are crazy motherfuckers. I don’t feel like pitting myself against them.”
Sebastian had waved that off, undeterred. To go after a pride with such a rep would only lead other shifters to fear the pack more. “Are you saying it’s our fault he’s dead?”
“No. I’m saying we made a mistake in dismissing his concerns.”
