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My wolf is right. The Order rarely sends just one soldier. They hunt in groups, and we have to destroy them before they get close to the wards that protect the Sanctuary.
Something about this dead guy doesn’t feel right. He’d gotten too close to the perimeter. The wards are meant to hide us from outsiders, but lately it seems like they are becoming more and more ineffective. The spells are changed every other day, but they can be broken down with time and patience—and power, something the Order has access to—and that has kept me awake more than anything else over the past few weeks.
It’s the reason I’m out here hunting these assholes alone. I can’t sit in my cabin, watching over Dove in her catatonic state, waiting for an attack. Any threat must be neutralized, and on that, my wolf and I fully agree. It’s tearing me apart seeing her like this. I’m helpless to fix this and it’s making me and my wolf crazy.
Dove is ours, so we need to keep her safe by whatever means necessary.
So my alpha gets ignored as I focus on securing the safety of our little group instead.
I’ve never been belligerent with my alpha before. I owe Cade everything. He saved my life, brought me back from a feral state, and gave me a home. It isn’t that I’m ungrateful for any of that, but I can’t stand with him on this. He wants Dove gone.
Over my dead body.
I know it is causing a huge rift between us. He has everything I want, things I can’t attain. He also doesn’t like Dove, doesn’t trust her, and I can’t stand by his side when he feels this way.
Just as I’m considering heading back to the Sanctuary—and to Cade, who will no doubt kick my ass for disobeying him—a sound vibrates in my ears. I freeze, my breath no more than a whisper as I flick them back to listen.
It takes my wolf a moment to pinpoint what caught my attention. Leaves rustle, branches sway, and something small moves in the undergrowth, too small to be a threat.
It’s the snapping of branches to the east that garners my attention.
I lower my head, scanning through the rows of trunks and the foliage that is starting to fill out as the winter morphs into spring. The breeze ruffles my fur, and as it brushes over my nose, I smell it—or rather, him.
Blood pumps in my ears, my adrenaline building within my veins. My wolf urges us to attack, to put down the threat hiding from us, but I caution him to be patient. I’m not yet completely certain of his location, and I don’t want to alert him to ours.
Cade bays again, and a trickle of concern oozes from me. My alpha has inadvertently made himself a target of whoever is out there because of me. I may be pissed at my pack, but that does not mean I want to see any of the men I have considered brothers for years harmed.
I turn the pack link back on, and as expected, Cade gives me a mouthful of shit the moment I’m connected.
Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you doing?—
I cut through his rant, knowing he’ll be at it for a while if I don’t silence him.
There are unfriendlies. Be careful.
I mute the link again before slowly inching forward, my paws as soundless as they can be stepping on the debris of the forest floor. I use his scent as a guide to pinpoint his location, opening all my wolf senses as I move. I keep low, my head nearly on the ground, as I see a lone figure silhouetted against the shadowy trees. Like the man I just killed, this guy is also tau. I can smell the mix of magic and animal on him.
My wolf and I are both smug as we stalk through the undergrowth toward our enemy. As we have the element of surprise, this should be over quickly, but I’m careful to stay downwind of him anyway, just in case. I don’t know how strong his wolf side is, and I don’t want my scent to alert him to my presence before I’m ready.
A tendril of unease slithers through me as I focus on what I’m about to do. Despite my need to protect those around me, I don't take pleasure in taking lives. Every drop of blood I spill becomes a dark stain on my soul, one I cannot clean.
But this is necessary.
The Order wants the girls. This is the only way to keep Dove safe, and that thought is enough to bury whatever guilt I feel when my teeth rip into the soft flesh of the hunters who come to kill us.
There is nothing I won’t do to keep Dove safe. My need to protect her is so consuming it feels like a hand wrapped around my heart, squeezing with every beat. These woods have become a battleground for me, and I can almost see the blood that stains the ground beneath my paws. I have killed so many to keep us—her—safe.
A flash of movement to my side has my head swinging in that direction a fraction too late. I’d been so focused on the tau in front of me that I’d failed to notice the asshole sneaking up on my right.
Magic swirls around me, the burning scent of it flooding my nose before I’m flying through the air from an invisible attack.
I hit the ground with enough force to push all the oxygen out of my lungs as my body is swallowed by the undergrowth. Leaves rain down on my head, bits of twigs and other debris too. If I were in my human form, I would have covered my head, but as my wolf, I can do nothing but close my eyes and shake it off.
I barely manage to pull in a breath before the pain comes. My wolf growls as wounds open along the vulnerable underside of my belly. I can smell blood—mine—and I have a split second of confusion as I realize I didn’t scent anything before I was attacked.
Where the fuck did this asshole come from?
A hand wraps around my hind legs, dragging me out of the undergrowth, stones and twigs scraping my belly. My wolf rolls his head from side to side, snapping his jaws, trying to find a hint of flesh to sink his teeth into, but all he meets is air.
