“I see the wolf in the net. Are you sure this isn’t a trap for all of us?” Wyck didn’t trust easily.
He raised his head to the sky and inhaled. I knew the other brother was near and waited patiently. Moments passed, and then Damien solidified before me. I shifted to human as well.
“Neat trick. Why didn’t he do that?” I nodded toward Lucas, who lay panting, his eyes looking pained.
“We have the same reaction to silver as you. Why did you not bring anything to remove the net?” Damien looked around me.
“Don’t question me, boy. I have a plan, but I wasn’t risking my people. Besides, do you see a vehicle trail around here?” I held my arms out to my sides and spun in a circle. “I’d say your friends had the one trap, and maybe more inside if you’d have made it further. Now, we can stand out here and have a pissingcontest, or I can head to Rowan’s and be back with what we need. His home is on the other side of these caves.”
Damien hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
“I bet that hurt,” I taunted, but didn’t wait to hear anymore. I walked over to the downed wolf. “Hang in there, I’ll be back and get you out of there.” A vision of the kid in the hospital flashed in my head. I wondered if we’d need to call Jennaveve to help this one, too. With a shrug, I shifted again, my body flowing into the big black beast without any of the repercussions the rest of the pack would suffer. It was good to be Alpha. I sent up a silent prayer to our goddess for her gifts.
Wyck and Coti kept pace with me, their attentions alert to any more traps the vampires may have set for intruders. We reached Rowan’s, and just to fuck with my newest member, I looked at Wyck and gave a nod. With a growl, Wyck took off at a full-out run and knocked over a good-sized tree, knowing Rowan would be getting alerts on his phone.
“Why the hell would y’all do that to my poor tree?”
“We need you to open your garage so I can borrow a couple of four-wheelers.” I barely kept from laughing as Rowan cursed up a blue streak.
“Kellen, that was so mean. You know he has issues,” Lyric said.
“Yeah, control issues. It’s too easy to fuck with him. Tell him we are scratching at his door, and if he doesn’t let us in, we are gonna knock the fucker in.” The sound of several deadbolts disengaging kept me from messing with the ex-Navy SEAL.
“Thank you, Lyric.”
“Hey, I let you in,” Rowan growled.
“Yeah, but we like Lyric better.” We all hopped on the two all-terrain vehicles Rowan had in the garage and hurried back to where we’d left Damien. Rowan really did like his toys to have all kinds of bells and whistles. With the log chain andwinch attached, I hoped we could get the net off without further damaging the wolf.
Coming over the rise of the hill, I was glad to see no surprises waited for us, but the wolf looked even worse than before we’d left. “Damien, will he be able to shift once we get the net off of him?” Even though the other man wasn’t anywhere to be seen, I still recognized his unique signature. His scent was still strong. Meaning he was there.
“How did you know?” Damien materialized.
I looked over my shoulder, seeing the hybrid. “I’m a fast learner. Now answer the question. We’re losing daylight.”
“Depends. If he can, it’ll be into human, not air.”
“Let’s do this, boys. Lucas, this is gonna hurt, cause we gotta drag it off you. I didn’t have time or resources to bring in a crane to pull it from the top.”
The wolf raised his head as much as he could. “Lucas is aware and wants it done,” Damien said between his teeth.
Looking between the two brothers, I wondered if they shared the pain but shrugged it off. I hooked the winch up to the net, the silver stinging my palms. Jumping back onto the four-wheeler, I grit my teeth and drove forward. The net came off easily as they hadn’t anchored it down, knowing the silver alone would hold them in place. Once I had it completely off, Damien dropped to his knees next to his brother, sweat dripping off his forehead.
“Can you shift?” Damien asked. A painful whimper came from Lucas.
“Load him onto the back of here. Wyck will drive the other one, while Coti runs alongside us. Are you okay to disappear and fly back, or do you want to ride with Wyck?” I didn’t think the man would answer, but then he stood.
“I’ll ride with Wyck. Thank you.”
“Let’s roll out, boys. Coti, don’t stray too far from us. Stay on the same trail we came in on.” Coti nodded, then became hiswolf again. I ripped the silver off the winch and tossed it aside. Wyck and I looked at Lucas, then lifted him together, laying him on the back of my borrowed four-wheeler. The big animal didn’t make a sound, which worried me. Wyck climbed back on his, with Damien on the back.
We made tracks back to the club, but my worry for the injured wolf had me sending a call out to Jennaveve. “Jennaveve. I hate to bother you again, but I have an injured um, wolf that could use some attention. I don’t think he’s going to last much longer.” I sent her the image of the silver net lying over the wolf.
“I will be there shortly. Give me a bit. I see you are on the move. Where shall I come?”
I wondered at the weak tone but brushed it off as a matter of distance. “The club. Thank you, Jennaveve.”
“You are most welcome, Alpha.”
