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Chapter 3
Lucien
Dušan charges across the blood-stained field and vanishes in the fortress compound. Everything is fucked, and somehow amid all the chaos, Meira has run from us. I grit my teeth, and my wolf shoves against my insides at the thought that we’re letting her get away. She’s defenseless, sick, and so damn stubborn that it will get her killed if we don’t find her in time. So we need to do everything here fast, because I need her in my arms again.
My stomach tightens each time I think of her against me, her hypnotic scent, the mark that binds us. But it means shit if she goes and gets herself killed. She only had to give us a chance to explain what’s in her blood, but she ran. I want to kiss all that fear she carries out of her system.
Stupid woman has no idea how sick she really is or how close to the razor-sharp edge of death she walks.
As far as I’m concerned, we mend the wall and put the pack at ease, find that turd Mad, then go hunting for Meira. I growl, as the to-do list seems impossible.
And it’s no coincidence Dušan’s second-in-command appears just as everything falls into chaos. He visited the X-Clan pack across the other side of Europe, as Dušan has a trade agreement with them. But we were recently informed by their Alpha, Ander, that Mad stole serum from their compound.
The members of the X-Clan are a different breed of wolves compared to Ash Wolves, and something in their bodies allows them to be immune to infected blood. They have a serum that works only on their kind.
So that fuckhead Mad believed it was an immunity serum and that he could replicate it to use for himself. Except the serum is useless on Ash Wolves, and now his actions are jeopardizing our relationship with our strongest trader.
Dušan knows I want to rip Mad’s head off, but he keeps protecting the bastard because Mad is his stepbrother. That doesn’t mean he’s not a dangerous fuck. Mad is responsible for the shit that went down today. I don’t know how, but I’d stake my life on it. He’s got shifty eyes. Bardhyl laughs at me when I say this, but you can tell a wolf’s true intention by their eyes. They are the mirror into the soul, after all.
So how the fuck did Mad breach the wall to our compound? I don’t know the answer, so I storm across the open grounds. Up ahead, the stone barricade lays tumbled inward as though something charged into it from outside. A large chunk remains intact, which should make putting it back together easier.
I push past the pack members collecting loose stones and rubble, and I step into the woods surrounding our home. Blood hangs ripe in the air from the battle, so picking up other scents here is close to impossible. But the tire tracks tearing up the terrain leading up to the wall are a dead giveaway. This is the only location with a clearing of woods, so it’d be easy to bring a vehicle up here and smash down the wall, then rapidly drive away before anyone really notices.
“Lucien,” Bardhyl bellows. “Get your ass over here and give us a helping hand.”
I turn to find him and half a dozen pack members standing in front of the fallen wall, most crouching low to start lifting it back into place.
“Of course.”
My hands press to the stone barricade, and we push the goddamn slab upward.
I grunt and strain with the weight, but it doesn’t take long for the wall to sit where it once was. Enormous gaps and cracks litter the broken wall, but it’s nothing a lot of patching won’t help.
Everyone’s running around, cleaning up the mess, arranging for families to see to their deceased. Bardhyl turns to me, dust in his long, blond hair and across his brow. He stands slightly taller than me and could have easily stepped out of Viking times. This wolf is a warrior at heart and looks like one. He also has every available female chasing him in the pack… even taken women pay him too much attention. He fucking loves it, and who wouldn’t? He’s Dušan’s fourth and my closest friend, next to Dušan.
I lift my chin for him to follow me out of earshot of others, and we move to the middle of the field where no one stands.
“Have you seen Mad anywhere?” Bardhyl’s question comes in the form a growl as his gaze sweeps the yard around us.
I shake my head. “Dušan doesn’t even know he’s back yet. I didn’t get a chance to tell him. But that dickhead won’t be far, and he’ll be lucky if I don’t snap his neck when I catch him.”
“I say we find him and chain him up before he gets a chance to do any more damage,” Bardhyl growls, the muscled cords in his neck pulsing. His eyes sweep over to me. “Also, Dušan told me you and he are going to hunt down Meira. I want in. We capture Mad, then we head out. I know these woods inside out, and I have her scent. We split in three and cover more ground.”
He’s my equal, and I have no objection to more of us searching for Meira before it’s too late, because it’s killing me to know she’s out there and we still haven’t left our home. But I’m not sure Bardhyl is thinking this through. With Mad returned, someone needs to remain here to lead the pack.
“I know that look,” he snaps at me. “Mad didn’t fight alongside us, and that makes him the enemy in my eyes. We search for him now and start inside the fortress. We never should have trusted him.”
“We didn’t, but Dušan…” My words trail off because nothing is ever black and white. They are stepbrothers. Mad and Dušan are the only family each other has, and those kinds of relationships are the most complicated. I breathe heavily, with dark thoughts sliding over my mind from when my first mate, Cataline, died… I still wake up in a sweat, swearing I can sense her near me. I vowed to never love again, but fate is unpredictable because she’s made Meira my fated mate as well. And dealing with those emotions tears me up.
“If we do this, we move fast and grab that bastard,” Bardhyl instructs, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I curl my hands into fists, and my heart surges into a race with the promise of a hunt. “Meira is running out of time, and we can deal with Dušan’s wrath later if he doesn’t like how we deal with Mad.”
My friend nods, and we both lunge toward the fortress.
Dušan
We lost seven warriors during the battle, our home has been compromised, and the pack will go into a panic now. They don’t feel safe, so it’s my job to reassure them and ensure their fortress remains secure.
