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“No,” Loreck said. “By using hunters.”
“You… What?” It sounded insane. Desperate. “No. There is no way that Lukas would have—”
“Who do you think put us in contact with them?” Loreck snarled. “Lukas was a man who valued survival of his pack and his bloodline above all else. Even if that meant making an alliance with a lone hunter. It didn’t matter to him either way.”
Bill couldn’t process it. This was a trick. A way to undermine his resolve by attacking one of the few bastions of his past he still held dear.
“No,” he insisted, shaking his head. “I don’t believe that. Not for a second.”
“Then don’t,” Loreck said, lifting his shoulder in a dismissive shrug. “And let your mate and everyone else you pretend to give a damn about die. The time for wallowing in uncertainty is over. State now exactly what you expect from me. I won’t have my people go to war with yours.”
“I’m not asking you to,” Bill replied. “I’m asking for—”
A wave of emotion barreled into him with the force of a punch, nearly taking him off his feet. He staggered and braced his hands against a nearby wall just to stay standing. Something was wrong. He could feel it. An ache tore through his chest, and only one thing could be the source of it—Loren had dropped her wall.
She was in danger.
“I need to go.”
He tore from the room, exiting the building. In the darkness, few landmarks caught his eye, not that he needed any guidance to find his way. He merely fixated in the direction of Black Mountain and took off, shifting in seconds. Minutes later, he cleared the border, and he didn’t even see his pursuer until they collided with him, knocking him off his feet.
“What are you doing?” Micha’s bones audibly popped with the force of his change. He still sprouted a pelt of brown fur even as he lurched upright on human legs. “Are you crazy? What about waiting until tomorrow? If you go in there now, he’ll have you ripped apart.”
Bill growled. Whatever fear he’d felt had already vanished. He expanded his consciousness, seeking out Loren’s, but ran into a wall. Her mind was closed off and out of reach.Damn it!Logic warned him that giving Lukka any excuse to question the validity of his challenge would backfire.
When he felt another foreboding tug at his gut, it was already too late.
He took off, sensing Micha on his heels and Naomi right behind him. They weren’t his only company—he picked up the approach of at least two others racing from the direction of the Eislander territory.
But diplomacy would have to wait.
Barging onto Black Mountain in a blind rage would do no good in the end. But neither had trusting in honor for the past five years.
The time for restraint was over.
It was time to play dirty.
40
Loren wasn’t sure how she found her way back to the center of the pack territory alone. Her chest heaved, her skin slicked with sweat as her eyes adjusted to the tendrils of moonlight filtering through the trees. Despite the time of night, the winding streets snaking through the sparse buildings weren’t deserted.
People streamed from various directions, all of them staring.
At her.
The fact that she was a stranger seemed to be a moot point. Her hair was a mess, her steps disjointed. Sonia’s borrowed clothing was caked in mud and rumpled, but she didn’t give a damn as to how she might look.
Tension laced the air, prickling beneath her skin. Something was wrong.
Though she didn’t have to look far to find the source of the unease. She barely managed to crest the hill overlooking the heart of the territory’s center when she noticed a black streak cutting across the landscape. Mid-lunge, the creature shifted, transforming into a man, bathed in shadow and silver.
Her heart throbbed with recognition. Bill.
But, for once, she wasn’t his focus.
“Lukka!” he bellowed, his voice easily riding the wind. With a start, Loren recognized that he was advancing on the large ornate building Kyle had pointed out to her. Ablaze in the orange glow of lamplight, it resembled a wooden palace.
And Bill was an errant warrior ready to burn it to the ground. Watching him, her hold on their bond snapped. A wave of emotion flooded into her—his fear, his relief as he sensed her nearby. His grudging realization as to who might have caused her terror.
