AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tires squeal in the distance and my eyes pop open, the noise jolting me from the easy peace that had settled over me. I ready myself for another attack, my hand reaching for the gun still holstered on my leg. I pull it from the strap, but before I can bring it up, Zeke’s voice breaks through. “That’s our pack, they’re going to load up the injured and bring them back to be treated.”
Some of the tension eases from my chest and I give him a grateful smile, my look encompassing Everett and Arsenio too, knowing that they had as much to do with that. I don’t even let myself think about how much they helped my pack tonight, unsure what would have happened if I didn’t have the two alphas here on the ground.
“Go with them please, Silas.” I scan those crowded around us, knowing that he will be near.
“Of course,” Silas nods solemnly from the side of an injured woman close to us. He clasps a shirt to her side, the white fabric turning red from the blood seeping through it.
“I’ll help gather the injured too,” Seline says, and I give her a grateful look, my gaze scanning to find where her voice sounded from. She has a young man’s arm slung across her shoulder, already helping him to where the Whitlock pack is unloading supplies.
I glance back to where Monte was a moment ago, about to ask what happened again, but my words cut off, realizing he has his phone clasped to his ear.
“The guards at the entrance had set up a perimeter in time before the bears got over there so we were able to get everyone else out unscathed,” Zeke explains, noticing where my attention has strayed.
“Not everyone,” I murmur, looking back to where Zayn is at my side, his hand firmly clasped around my arm, more out of desperation than possession. As my eyes meet his light grey ones, he gives me a wary smile that quickly turns into a grimace, his gaze scanning the blood that must be coating my skin.
“Can’t get rid of me that easily.” Zayn chuckles weakly with a queasy smile and I suppress the urge to groan in frustration, holding back the ‘I told you so’ poised on my tongue.
“They found the footage,” Monte says, breaking through my thoughts and I slip out from the cocoon my mates have surrounded me in. I move to Monte’s side, feeling the presence of my mates at my back again.This is going to be great … I’ll never get a moment of peace again around these four.
Monte holds up his phone for me to see a grainy picture on the screen. It takes a minute for it to come into focus and each second ticks by like an eternity as I squint, attempting to see who is in the photo as the circle spins in the middle, attempting to connect to Monte’s data.
I stop breathing as the image becomes clear, the picture snapping into focus like a slap across my face. I fucking knew it, my instincts screamed at me not to trust this man, and I’m glad I didn’t.
“Who is that?” Zayn whispers, leaning closer, the hot caress of his breath brushing against my ear as though he might be able to figure it out if he looks hard enough. I push down my response, not wanting to take the rage boiling in my veins out on him. Bile rises in my throat at the weasel being underneath my nose for so long—underneath my father’s nose. Had he killed him? The question floats to the top of my mind and a chill sweeps through my limbs, my finger itching to wrap around his throat and strangle the answer from him. And there’s no question about it, he will burn for this, he will pay with his life for betraying this pack and endangering those he was supposed to look out for as a beta in the inner circle.
Red creeps into my vision and I know I need to move fast, my need for vengeance pushing me forward. My face burns with the rage bottled up, begging to be unleashed on someone so I scan the crowd, looking for the man who betrayed us all, knowing he can’t be far. His ego is too big to let him escape with the others, he’d want to see the fruits of his labor, watch his own people die while keeping his hands free of visible blood.
My eyes light on the man they’ve been desperately scouring for, a low menacing growl escaping my lips. I hear my name being called, the sound distant as though spoken beneath water, the words next gurgled beyond recognition as a hand lands on my shoulder. I lean away from the touch, and instead focus all of my senses on the tense back of Axel slinking away to his car, weaving through the growing number of broken bodies on stretchers without a shred of sympathy or remorse for what he caused.
Dead. He’s dead—a literal dead man walking.
“Alpha,” a man says, not one of my own, but his voice actually half snaps me from my focus despite still sounding distant. Axel's footsteps are somehow louder to me, reverberating through my body like the ticking of a clock, my time fleeting with each step he takes away from me. “I just got a report from the guards, Elise got away.”
“She what?” Everett roars, but I don’t bother to wait to hear any more, knowing with certainty what I need to do now. I have no idea if anyone was killed tonight, but many were injured, in addition to the two wolves murdered a few days ago at the Langley’s compound, and the countless attacks on both our pack and Everett’s. Someone needs to pay. And that picture on Monte’s phone is like a bullseye on the perpetrator, on the example I need to make. Because there’s no way I can let this happen again.
My wolf urges me forward, knowing we wouldn’t have time to make the shift again and still catch him. My bare feet pound along the grass and leap onto the pavement of the parking lot as shouts ring out behind me. Fuck it, they can catch up to me, because this time I’m not about to let the son of a bitch I have my targets set on get away. This pack needs blood, to make up for all the lives taken mercilessly by this mother fucker. Aldric got away for now, but Axel will not. No matter what I need to do I will see that light leave his eyes tonight, I will see the fucker take his last breath before me, and it will be my hand that pulls the trigger.
Axel’s strides are measured as he hurriedly makes his way to his car, his thumb pressing on the key causing the lights to flash as he attempts to conceal his movements. But I can see the barely suppressed panic in his jerky steps and the way he pushes the button a few too many times.
My bare feet carry me silently towards him, my gun still clutched in my hand while I close the distance between us, all of my heightened senses narrow in on the man before me, sharpened by my wolf. I count them down, pulling on my wolf to tell me when to press into the pavement, to bounce off and tackle him to the ground—three, two, one.
I leap off the ground and my body hurtles towards him, the wind whipping around me as I let the blood curdling snarl leave my lips. His shoulders tense at the sound, and his head whips around just in time for my body to collide with his. Instantly, I position my hand with the gun under his jaw letting the hard metal smash into his face.
An agonized wail splits through the otherwise silent night, pain clearly radiating through his jaw as I’d intended, knocking him off guard as I pin him to the ground. Positioning the barrel beneath his chin, I wait for him to recognize the cool press of the gun against him. His Adam’s apple bobs in his throat, his limbs quivering beneath me as his lips absently search for words.
“Please, Alpha,” he begs, and a whimper escapes his lips as I press the barrel harder against him. I numbly register footsteps behind me but I tune them out. This son of a bitch is mine to deal with, and I won’t let anyone else lay a finger on him, not until I’ve had my fill of watching his blood flow freely from his veins, not until he’s paid for his sins.
“I’m not your fucking, Alpha. I never have been, have I, Axel?” I growl, my free hand pinning one of his arms to the pavement and digging my nails into his flesh until warm blood spills onto them.
A hiss escapes, his eyes searching mine for a moment, and my lips curl back into a snarl. Whatever he’s searching for he won’t find it here. He seems to realize that though since his fear vanishes instantly, a sneer twisting his vile face, his eyes glinting with malice.
“I guess you’ve finally figured it out now.” He snickers, showing the full weight of his contempt. “Took you long enough.”
I push the gun further against him and a glimmer of fear sparks in his eyes, but it’s gone just as quickly.
“You won’t kill me,” he taunts, eyes looking over my shoulder for a moment before I dig my nails further into his arm, eliciting a hiss of pain.
“You wanna bet,” I purr, letting my nails shift to my wolf’s claws, and he bites down on the scream before it can escape.
