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CHAPTER32
DOONE
With the clubhouseturned into a war room, everyone who wasn’t heading to Champaign on the mission rushed off to prepare for the defense of Night Falls. There were sixteen of us left in the old Masonic Temple after the doors closed.
As she had in the caverns, Onyx took the lead, splitting us into four teams. Leaving their cubs in the care of Braeden and his human wife, Onyx and Taron would travel with a sixty-ish alpha wolf named Axel and his youngest son, David. David would drive a van with supplies, while the rest followed on their motorcycles.
I would drive another van, Mosa riding with me, while Axel's two older sons, Garrett and Ross, played tag with us on their bikes. Driving her Jeep, Clover would be surrounded by three riders—her mate, Joshua, a black bear named Rooster, and an alpha elk shifter named Buzzsaw.
That left Justine in a third van with Garland, a young, tech-savvy elk shifter, driving while Mallory and Rooster’s brother, Clark, followed on their motorcycles.
"What's our target," Taron asked his mate, his honey-gold gaze darkening with thoughts I couldn't even guess at.
I knew the Champaign wolves had attacked Night Falls in the past after tracking Onyx to where she was hiding out. A pride of lions had joined the effort to annihilate the Night Falls community. A shifter named Constantine headed the lion pride. Marcus commanded the wolves and was murdered, along with Onyx's father Ruben, by his own guards. I didn't know if Kalchik was one of the complicit guards, just that he took over in the aftermath in a bloodthirsty manner according to the intelligence Clover had gathered.
Onyx’s mouth opened, but no words came out. The lips moved a little, but still no sound. She looked like she was arguing with herself.
"The wolves want to attack the leap," Clover said, sliding in to fill the silence. "Henric is busy shitting the bed because he apparently didn't authorize Kitka to make the hit. He's even considering handing her over to the wolves as a peace offering."
Justine, who had been listening with her gaze lowered and her chin tilted downward, jerked her head up. "Did he say that in a text message?"
"No," Clover answered before tapping at her phone's screen. Half a second later, a recording played.
Hearing Henric's voice, Mosa stiffened next to me. I surreptitiously reached out and wrapped my fingers around hers. The tips were cold, her body responding to the stress of the war we were about to officially launch against the Illinois shifters.
That stupid cunt,Henric snarled.Her psychotic little stunt is going to get us all killed.
If you were to deliver them to her…a voice started but trailed off.
"Mammad," Justine and Mosa whispered in unison.
Clover stopped to make a note then hit play again.
Not alive, Henric said.But who can I have do it?
"Coward," Mallory growled, his knuckles turning white as his hands curled into tight fists. “He never could fight his own fights.”
Clover backed the recording up and increased the volume before hitting play again, but if there was any answer to Henric's question, it was lost in the muffled whispering that passed between the two cat shifters.
"Now," Clover said, returning the phone to her jacket pocket, "I can tell you that this Mammad's phone, and presumably him with it, immediately visited someone after leaving Henric's office."
With a swipe of her fingers, she made all of our phones beep. I didn't pull mine out, just looked over Mosa's shoulders as she woke hers. It was a satellite image from one of the online map services. Mosa kept expanding the image until she could see where the unidentified roads intersected.
"I think that's Pohl's place," she said, showing her display to Justine.
An abrupt, almost braying, laugh erupted from Justine.
“Care to fill us in?” Onyx asked, her voice soft but her gaze laser-focused on Justine.
“Pohl had a daughter, Sarah,” Justine answered. “She and Henric were not-so-secret lovers during our engagement. Raised by a sadist, she had a desire to please everyone in authority coupled with a high tolerance for pain.”
Justine paused as a shudder ran through her. Steeling her spine, she continued.
“It was clear she might try to stop the wedding, which would have stopped the—”
She closed her eyes. Mallory finished what Justine couldn’t say.
“No wedding, no peace treaty.” He gently squeezed his mate’s hand, then went on. “Let me guess, Kitka killed Sarah and slid straight into Henric’s bed as part of her reward.”
