AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘He came with Mark a few times to the tourney, him and young Noah. Noah was next up, but that frigid bitch Lucy squirreled him away somewhere. I’ve got you now so I don’t need them. Mark said he hid it here, and he was in too much pain to be lying. If only he hadn’t died so damn quickly, he could have been more bloody specific then we wouldn’t have needed to attack Archie or spend so long with this pathetic little pack.’
‘Pack rumours say you seemed quite enamoured of the alpha of the pathetic little pack,’ Amber pointed out.
He snorted. ‘What do you know of pack life? She’s weak. I could woo her, mate her and become alpha. Or I could simply kill her and take her place, but she has such a nice body I thought I’d fuck her first. Even that idea has lost its shine. This place is backward. She wants to be everyone’s friend. It’s pitiful.’
His gaze sharpened on Amber. ‘I know what you’re doing, but playing for time won’t help. No one is coming for you – they don’t know where we are. And if you don’t find me my bloody evidence, you’ll be dead in half an hour.’
‘I’ll be dead in half an hour anyway,’ Amber said calmly. ‘You won’t let me walk away from here.’
‘There are two ways to die.’ Ace smiled unpleasantly. ‘Trust me, you want option one.’
‘Only two?’ Amber replied faintly.
‘The rest are variations on the same theme,’ he promised darkly.
I started to pull myself back from the tree’s awareness but the elder tree reached out and grabbed me, hauling me back deeper into the clearing. It pushed me forward and showed me my apology birch tree. The dryad elders had buried it where the ground had already been disturbed. Beneath the roots of the apology tree lay blackmail.
Having shown me what it wanted, the elder tree released its hold and I lurched back to my body with a gasp. I felt like an idiot. The elder tree had shown me the disturbed ground before. How much easier would life have been if I’d understood what it was trying to say to me days ago?
My small pack circled protectively around me. Five trees over, Bastion stood on four legs in full griffin form, lounging against the tree in languid arrogance.
I ignored him for a moment. ‘Ace and Lauren are up ahead. Mark buried his blackmail material by the elder tree. He told them that much, but they haven’t been able to find it so they’ve kidnapped Amber to get her to do a locating rune. She’s stalling for time in the hope of being rescued. Let’s not disappoint her.’
David and Elena exchanged confused glances, wondering how I’d got my information. Now was not the time to get into my piping.
‘I’ll swoop in and lift DeLea out of danger,’ Bastion offered. ‘The rest of you can deal with the two wolves – that’s pack business.’
He made it seem easy, but I was nervous. I didn’t want anyone else in my pack to die. And Ace was second to his alpha brother, whilst Lauren had already demonstrated her total ruthlessness and lack of hesitation to get her hands – or claws – dirty. Bastion was right, though: getting Amber to safety was our top priority. She’d been dragged into wolf business by me, and she didn’t deserve to die for it.
On the surface, I had good odds; I had numbers on my side. We had five to their two. But the truth was that I had David, whom I knew struggled with the violent side of pack life. Liam was capable and smart but still a little on the young side. And Elena? She had a lot of emotions flying about that might cloud her judgement.
Other than that, it was me and Greg. I trusted him and Esme to kick ass, but those odds still didn’t fill me with the warm and fuzzies. But we had little choice; if I wanted to be alpha of this pack, I had to protect it – even the dead members who turned out to be complete little shits.
‘Everyone shift,’ I ordered. I waited until we were all on four legs before I stripped and transformed myself. We were downwind of the breeze that was carrying the scents of Ace and Lauren.
I let Esme take front and centre and surrendered control to her. She gave a small yip and we all charged forward. Bastion leapt up, his great white wings lifting him easily above the tree canopy. We gathered speed and momentum and raced towards the clearing, hearts pounding and blood singing. The hunt had begun.
As we burst into the clearing, Ace swore. ‘Protect me,’ he barked at Lauren as he started his own shift. I knew from experience we had no more than two minutes before he’d be in wolf form.
Esme didn’t give a shit about chivalry. He would be easier to kill on two legs and she wouldn’t hesitate to rip his throat outifwe could get to him. The five of us ranged out, circling our enemies. Esme threw her head back and howled her intentions. The pack echoed her eerie call.
Greg and Esme charged toward Lauren who ran to meet us, teeth bared. With our tail high with confidence, we pounded forward. Lauren’s tail was flicked down because she knew the odds weren’t with her, but she ploughed towards us just the same. Esme felt a flicker of approval; Lauren would go down fighting to protect Ace, as she should.
Esme increased her speed and lowered her head, butting firmly into Lauren. Braced as Lauren was, our speed and bulk were such that we tossed her to the floor. Esme showed no hesitation and no mercy as she ripped into Lauren’s side with her teeth.
Lauren let out a yowl, but although she was down she wasn’t out. She found her feet again and surged back up, swiping at us with her claws to force us back before she leapt, teeth ready to rend our flesh. Before she could make contact, Greg slammed into her, echoing Esme’s charge. He ripped into Lauren’s leg and Esme aimed for her throat.
Lauren’s coat was thick and she turned at the last minute, leaving us with a mouthful of fur and the faint tang of blood. It was not the killing blow that we needed. Esme spat out the coarse hair and yipped to Elena, Liam and David. They were still hesitating to attack Ace whilst he was human. The humans were in control of their wolves, and centuries of human manners had bred in that it was wrong to attack an opponent when they were vulnerable.
Esme called to their wolves to attack but it was already too late. Ace’s shift was almost complete, and he would not afford them the same courtesy.
We focused again on Lauren. She was bleeding badly from our first attack and she broke away, heading into the woods to escape. If it had been up to me, I’d have let her go. Maybe she’d learnt her lesson. But Esme was in charge and she had no mercy. She called for Elena and Greg to give chase. Lauren had killed Mark and she was accountable, no matter who had given the orders.
Greg and Elena harried Lauren, nipping and ripping at her, as we turned our attention to Ace. He was growling low in his throat, threatening, hoping to scare us off, but Esme crowed in delight and mockery. She wasn’t so easily scared; Ace had sought to use us and her outrage was riding high.
We ran the few paces to Ace and collided with him. Esme hadn’t managed to gain as much momentum this time and he stayed on his feet. He ripped into our foreleg and pain flared, but we danced back easily and ripped into him in turn.
Liam and David were here now, by our side and ready to attack Ace because he was in wolf form. David lunged forward and tore into Ace at the same time as Esme; they were as co-ordinated as synchronised swimmers, albeit significantly more deadly. Liam joined the fray, pummelling Ace, throwing him to the ground, and Esme went in for the kill. She bit into Ace’s neck and held on with her strong jaws as he struggled to regain his footing. As she bit deeper, blood poured out. David and Liam kept Ace on the ground, and slowly his struggles ceased.
