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Pain and fear flashed across his face with each trembling breath he took. His entire body sagged as tears filled his eyes.
“Please.” A ragged sob tore from him. “I don’t want to die!”
Wincing, I stepped back, putting distance between us.
No mercy. Kill him. Finish what you started.
No. I needed this rogue to draw in his brother. In the end, I’d show them as much mercy as they would have shown my pack—I’d kill them both.
Show no mercy. Kill on sight.
Turning away, I retreated into the forest and waited. I didn’t know how long my pack-mates would be in a paralyzed state. What had these rogues planned? Paralyze an entire pack, then what? Tie them up? Torture them to death like they had their own siblings? Their own mothers and grandmothers? Apparently, they had no clue how many were in my pack because my parents were in town.
Unless they’d already found them.
Mom and Dad are safe. They’re okay. Even if the rogues caught them, they’d just paralyze them, right?
I scented the other rogue moments before he appeared. And how had these animals ever sneaked up on my pack? This rogue made no attempt at stealth. He hadn’t even taken two seconds to check out his surroundings. He’d burst through the trees in human form, naked, carrying a rifle, and headed straight for his wounded brother.
All emotion. No brains.
“Lucas?” A bloody hand reached out. “Help me.”
The rogue stumbled to a stop and stared down at his brother as he lay in the snow, then I saw his fingers clench hard on the rifle.
I held my breath.
Is he that cold-hearted? Will he paralyze his own brother and kill him?
“Lucas, help me.”
The rogue dropped the rifle as his knees hit the snow. He swiped a hand over his face and mumbled words I couldn’t hear. I watched as his furious gaze swept along the tracks I’d left in plain sight. Anger flashed hard on his face, but he didn’t come after me. He turned away and focused on his brother. More mumbled words, then the rogue shrieked as his brother lifted him into his arms.
Do it. Do it now. Kill them both.
But I didn’t move, much less breathe.
Lucas saw what I had done. The blood. The tears. The anguish on his brother’s face. The pain. The fear.
I wanted to scream, “How does it feel? How does it feel to be sofuckingscared?”
Say nothing.
I watched as Lucas gently laid his injured brother in the back seat of the car then closed the door. He stepped around to the trunk, pulled out a small box, and set it on top of the vehicle.
Silently, I wove through the trees to a fresh vantage point. Lucas picked up his rifle and studied the ground until he found my tracks. He raised the rifle, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. He pulled another dart from the small box and loaded it, then fired in the direction my tracks indicated I had gone. Without a word, he repeated this four more times, each time more rushed than the last. I watched as his hollow gaze swept the forest. I almost wished he could see me—the wolf who had escaped them and taken out her blind rage on his brother.
Lucas took one more glance at my tracks, then tossed the rifle and box of darts into the trunk. After slamming the trunk lid, he pounded his frustration out on the roof of the car. He laid his head against the door, shaking as if he were crying, but the sounds he made were not of sadness. He was laughing. A crazed sort of laugh that made my skin crawl. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear, then turned and stepped away from the car as he looked into the sky. A wide grin spread across his face.
Then, he shouted, “I’m going to hurt you. I’m going to make sure there is nowhere you can hide.”
He climbed into the car and carefully backed out along the tire tracks they’d made traveling in.
I’d wait until they were long gone before retrieving the twins from their hiding place. Tears burned my eyes as my humanity rushed back in where only my wolf had been seconds ago.
I didn’t have time to fall apart. Not yet. Not while my pack-mates lay paralyzed, out in the cold.
I stood, listening to the fading sound of tire chains crunching through snow until I heard them no longer.
