I keep seeing his cold, unyielding stare as he pulled the trigger. His betrayal stings so much worse than the dart ever could. Does he have so little faith in me that he had to be the one to hurt me rather than take any risk that someone else would?
My throat tightens, and I blink back the tears that have been threatening to fall ever since I woke up groggy and confused in Ryan’s office. I can’t let myself feel the hurt. I can’t allow myself to think about how little he must value me. Like I’m expendable. Weak. Like my being on the mission would make no difference. Hedidn’t only shoot me, as if that’s not bad enough. He chose not to trust me.
So instead, I hold on to the anger. I cling to it. Let it simmer away, ready to boil over as soon as I see him.
Because I’m going to murder Luca Taylor. And then my brother. Maybe Jackson, too. He’s only a maybe because he mindlinked Emily, and she said he was furious about Luca shooting me, but he still left me behind.
Which is why I’m on my own as I pull up to the rendezvous point, half an hour after everyone else. I don’t even fully know why I came. I should have left them to it. But I couldn’t. Every fiber of my being was pushing me to go after them and make sure they don’t do anything stupid like get themselves killed before I have a chance to rip Luca’s stupidly handsome face off.
I climb out of my Jeep and head straight for the bus, where Doc and Tyson, one of the warriors, are holed up. Tyson’s jaw drops, but Doc recovers from the shock of seeing me much quicker.
“Any word from the breech party?” I ask Tyson. “And before you get any ideas, do not tell them I am here.”
“They successfully cleared the warehouse and found the omegas. They should be on their way back,” he says. His eyes go glassy as he mindlinks someone, and then he frowns. “They haven’t left the building, and the perimeter line can’t mindlink them. There’s something blocking them.”
Shit. This can’t be good.
“Tyson, get Doc out of here, stay within mindlink range, and park up somewhere public.” I open my bond to Luca, the one Ilocked down as soon as I regained consciousness earlier. I can’t mindlink him either, but I can detect his emotions. Just a little, seeing as the bond isn’t complete. He’s a jumble of feelings—anger, fear, regret, and shame.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, and a heavy dread settles in my stomach.
Tyson blinks at me like I’ve grown a second head. For half a second, I see the thought forming—my orders were to stay here.
“Move. Now,” I snarl, my voice low, dangerous and full of my wolf. I don’t have an alpha command, but my bark is dominant, anyway.
“Yes, Luna.”
He scrambles behind the wheel as I rush off the bus and into the forest. The sound of the ignition turning and the bus driving away echoes behind me. Mindlinking all warriors to move in closer to the warehouse and try to get a visual and what’s happening and report back. I race through the forest, guided by the aerial map I memorized and a need to keep everyone safe.
Branches whip across my arms, slicing my skin, but I don’t slow my pace. The air tastes of iron and pine, sharp in my throat. Rage keeps me moving, but underneath it all is dread—thick, coiling dread that I might be too late.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“There’s a she-wolf. Dark hair. She’s pacing at the front of the building. A couple of dead warriors in uniform. No sign of ours,” comes a report from Sam, one of the younger warriors. “Orders?”
“Hold back, be ready to act as soon as I give an order,” I say, my voice clipped even in mindlink. My lungs burn as I race forward. The green pine trees blur together as I push myself faster and faster.
I skid to a stop when I reach the Lunar Eclipse warriors, back far enough from the tree line that I can’t see the warehouse, even though I know from studying the aerial maps it’s close.
“Simon, I’m going to go in. Take Carson and head that way,” I say, pointing out where I need them. “I want you ready to create a diversion in that direction.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Simon replies. The title jolts me. No one has ever addressed me like that. I’m an alpha wolf, but I’m not his alpha. Never will be. But I’m the highest-ranked wolf here, and wolves respect hierarchy. No one will question that, not even me.
“I’ll mindlink you; be ready.”
Simon nods and swiftly moves in the direction I pointed out. “The rest of you, be ready for anything. Mike is in charge if I don’t come back.”
A chorus of “yes, Alpha’s” follows me as I slink towards the warehouse. Some of the infrared thermal goggles I suggested buying would be helpful right about now, but of course, I don’t have them after being left behind. Without them, I’m relying on actual vision, and I have no idea where that she-wolf is as long as she stays inside.
“Now,” I mindlink to Simon and Carson when I’m flattened beside the door. Growls and snarls erupt, and it sounds like a fight between two shifters in wolf form. I tune my hearing into the building, holding my breath as I try to tune out thedistracting sounds outside. Light footsteps move forward and stop at the doorway.
Claws extended, I fling myself through the entrance. A loud bang rings out, and searing pain erupts from my side. White-hot agony burns like nothing I’ve ever felt in my life. My ears ring from the sound of fire.
She has a gun. I grasp her dominant arm and snap it against the door frame. The sickening crunch of her bone breaking is loud enough to make it through the incessant ringing in my ears. But then she’s screaming. A high-pitched, piercing wail that goes through me.
Bitch fucking shot me, and she’s complaining of a broken bone? I sweep a leg under her feet, knocking her to the ground and pinning her arms down with my knees as I straddle her chest.
She’s still screaming. My head pounds. Pain radiates from my fucking bullet wound. Her head thrashes back and forth as she wails. And the combination of that with the searing pain in my side, the ringing in my ears, and my annoyance of being in this situation at all has my patience waning thin.
