“You’ll have it. We’re getting Levi back, and they’ll pay for all this. When do we attack?” I said, turning back to Hakeem.
His eyes widened a bit, and he glanced at the others. “Well, uh, Idlewild was designated the leader of the war party, and, well, as of now, you lead Idlewild. You aren’t an alpha, but you’re the alpha’s mate. I suppose we go when you say we do.”
“Tell everyone we leave in ten minutes,” I said.
The word went out, and the few who were too injured to join the main party were sent toward Hidden Grove to find shelter and medical help. I walked out to find Rainier as he stood at a bluff that overlooked the valley where the Red Maw were assembling. They looked like tiny ants moving around at this distance, but I could already see that their numbers werefargreater than we’d been led to believe.
Without glancing over his shoulder, Rainier said, “I fucked up. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry about what?” I asked, taking my place beside him.
“I should have stayed with him,” he muttered miserably. “I let him get too far out ahead of us. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking. If I’d been right there with him, none of this would have happened. The two of us could have fought off anyone. This is my fault.”
“Stop that,” I said. “If you’d been with him, you might be dead now. They didn’t want you, they wanted him. I don’t want you dead, and neither does Levi.”
Rainier let out a dejected snort. “I wish I could believe that. It’s just hard. I tried as best as I could, but…” He shook his head in defeat. “They came out of nowhere, June. None of us noticed their scents until too late. They allreekedof smoke. I think they stood over some campfires or something to mask it. They fucking planned this,” he growled, kicking a rock.
The stone went tumbling end over end out into the abyss before arching downward to bounce and ricochet down the hill toward the enemy.
“Come on,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. “Let’s go get him back.”
Rain kept staring down at the Red Maw men for a few more seconds, before finally nodding and turning away to look at me.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s go fuck some shit up.”
“You really should have been a poet, you know? With eloquent words like that, you could have made a name for yourself,” I said, giving him a sarcastic grin.
He chuckled, which was a good sound to hear after seeing him so depressed. “Don’t be an asshole. Come on. Let’s get our boy back.”
Soon, our war party was amassed and ready. I assumed one of the alphas would lead them down the mountain toward the valley, but instead they deferred to me and Rainier.
“You’re his people. You’re from his packs,” Patrick said, nodding toward the trail, more than a hundred shifters behindhim, antsy and ready to get going. “If anyone leads us to war, it’s you two. We’ll follow you.”
There was no reason to argue. I shook his hand. “Let’s go, then,” I said.
Turning, I shifted and bolted down the mountain, Rainier at my side. From behind us, the sound of a hundred cheers erupted, then morphed into the angry howls of wolves. A hundred angry shifters descended the mountain behind us, a sea of warriors hell-bent on revenge and victory.
As I ran, bobbing and weaving around trees while sprinting at full speed, an anticipatory excitement filled me. I’d never enjoyed violence or fighting, but now, with this new connection to my past life, I had an instinctual urge to fly into combat. If this was how Naphele had been in life, she definitely was a force to be reckoned with. It’s probably why that son of a bitch Rafe had to surprise her. She’d have been much harder to defeat if she’d been ready for his attack.
Remembering my vision of her death, more rage surged through me, and I released my own howl. It wasmyturn to be the warrior princess. Naphele was gone, she would never come back, but she could live again on the battlefield. Her memory could echo across the air as I tore and shredded through the men who’d taken the man I loved.
At the edge of the clearing, I stopped and stepped out into the grass, allowing my men to slow and join me. A hundred wolves became one hundred men and women, a line of people spreading out and flanking me, Rainier at my side. The Red Maw, having heard us coming, had grouped together, ready to fight us if we came pouring from the woods. Instead, our two armies glared across the open grass at each other.
Their group stirred and parted, allowing a single person to step out. A woman. She was imposing and stately with short hairand an expression of disdain on her face. That could be no one else but Desdemona, the female alpha of Red Maw.
“Is this the young lady we’ve heard so much about?” Desdemona called out. “Our friend Anders has given us quite a story.”
At the mention of his name, I clenched my fists in anger, my gaze finding him a few yards away from Desdemona. Our eyes locked, and Anders gave me a cocky grin. I wanted to break his nose. Nothing sounded more appealing than listening to, and feeling, thecrackof the cartilage snapping under my knuckles.
“Why are you here, little girl?” another voice called out.
The man beside Desdemona glared at me. He was a full head taller than her, with a red beard and a sweat-stained ball cap on his head, his thumbs tucked into the loops of his dirty jeans. Carlton, Desdemona’s beta.
Ignoring his words, I took a step forward and raised my voice to be heard. “Where is Leviathan Cross? We want to see him and make sure he’s unhurt.”
“Unhurt?” Desdemona said, tossing her head back and cackling like a villain in a kids’ movie. “Why would he be hurt?”
A sigh of frustration hissed out of my nose. I’d known these people less than a full minute and I already hated them.
