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Alpha Jenkins clears his throat, his blue eyes shining with icy determination. “Time to hunt.”
CHAPTER 14
Garren
Everything inside me is screaming at me to go to the front of the line and take the lead. It’s not because I would have some ridiculous hero complex. It’s because Alyssa is there and the Alpha in me demands that I protect my fated mate.
She’s capable of looking after herself, I say to my wolf, needing him on my side to help me suppress the urge.
But she’s our fated mate, my wolf growls back. We only get one, and if we lose her, no one will ever be able to reach even her knees. She’s ruined us for anyone else.
She saved us, I argue. She saved our family, our kingdom, our legacy.
Which is why she has to be protected, my wolf insists.
You know full well that if we do that, we’ll lose her for sure, I reply. At least now, she lets us be by her side to try to protect her.
My wolf makes a small sound in resignation before retreating, but not too far. His help will be needed if we are to successfully slay the witches.
Graham warned us about their numbers being between twenty and twenty-five. We’ve expected that there’d be a lot of them, especially congregating around Hekate. Between the four packs, we have thirty-six wolves fighting on our side. The prognostics aren’t the best, but the surprise is on our side, and if we act fast, we can cut their numbers in half before they even manage to throw one protection spell up.
“It’s a laundromat,” I whisper, Night Vision helping me see the faded sign.
“It’s a front,” Blaine tells me. “The witches often use small businesses to provide them with cover for their meetings.”
“They’re like the mafia,” I comment, rather amused by the new discovery.
“But a lot deadlier,” Blaine agrees, then brings his index finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.
Alyssa, Malia, Gavin, and Jensen share a look, exchanging a wordless communication as we proceed onto the next stage of our plan. The first one was clearly the arrival, and the second task was to surround the witches by covering all the possible exits.
Malia and her Lightbringers join the Dark Hunters as we make our way around another block to get to the back of the building without being too obvious. The only distinction between the two packs is the different emblems on our biceps. The Lightbringers have a flashlight, which in my opinion, is ridiculous and the opposite of badass, and Dark Hunters have two hunter’s arrows put one over another in a cross.
I make sure to glue myself on Alyssa’s ass, staying as close to her as possible. We arrive on the other side of the building without any problems, and without seeing a single soul.
Something’s off, my wolf tells me, and I want to agree with him, but I don’t know the streets, so I can’t exactly say if the silence is normal.
Malia and Alyssa don’t seem too worried, their heads turned toward the door. Alyssa glances at the watch on her wrist, counting us down to the time we’ve set with Gavin. We agreed to attack the witches at the same time, hitting them from both sides.
Movement on the second floor, my wolf alerts me, and I squint to try to see it myself.
The curtains are preventing me from getting a better view, but that doesn’t stop me from staring at it a moment longer. I need to confirm it by myself before I mention it to the Alphas.
The light’s turned off, which means that there are no shades to be thrown on the old curtain. In theory, the Night Vision should help me see, but in this case, I’d need X-ray vision as well.
Alyssa’s eyes are still locked on the watch on her left wrist, and she slowly lifts her right hand. Time’s almost up. She counts down the seconds once we reach five.
I tear my eyes from the third floor and prepare myself for her to give a sign. My muscles tense and my feet dig into the ground beneath me, ready to propel me forward. The moment that she only has an index finger left, she waves her hand down, and we rush to the backdoor.
Blaine’s the first to reach the door, slamming into it with the force of his whole body, then lowering himself on the ground, making as small of a ball out of himself as possible considering the size of him. It gives us plenty of space to jump over him and get ahead while he recovers from the significant impact his body took when he crashed against the massive thick door that was undoubtedly protected with a spell or two as well.
Half of the wolves stay with Malia to clear out the rooms while the rest of us make our way toward the front, looking for the stairs. Gavin meets us halfway, his team following the same divide tactic as ours. Malia and Jenkins will join us as soon as they’re done.
As the highest-ranking member, Gavin automatically takes the lead. Alyssa allows his Beta to follow him, the same as I have to allow Blaine to position himself in front of me to cover the Alpha. I have to suppress every urge that arises in me to not push him out of the way. That’s how packs work and that’s how we’ve been trained. I’m lucky that they let me go third in the so-called row.
There are too many bodies in front of me to properly take in the tight stairwell we’re ascending. When we reach the first floor, Gavin and Alyssa, along with the Betas, already confirm that the first room’s empty.
“I’ll take this floor, you move up,” Gavin says and gestures for the mix of the Pack of Shadows and the Lafayettes to follow him.
