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Alpha?
“And yet, you address me properly.” Maybe he’d just been cast out. Rogues didn’t respect hierarchies. Apparently, he hadn’t unlearned that yet. Unless…
Kai siphoned through the memories and feelings again, recalled the voices he’d heard, the shouts of agony, the words.
He narrowed his eyes, his canines feeling sharper than usual as he drew a horrendous conclusion. “You’re not a rogue at all, are you?” The man’s stiffening seemed enough of an answer. And if he wasn’t a rogue, then these traps… “You’re one of Locke’s men.”
There.
A fluttering of the man’s heartbeat. A sinking sense of doom so potent Kai could taste the bitterness.
Fuck.
Those shouts became a clear image of terrified people bounding for freedom only to be snared in these jaws, hoping they’d bleed out before they could be dragged away. A bounty hunter meant to capture Kai’s spies or wrangle Locke’s own fleeing pack members. That family…His own men…
How many had been taken?
Kai swore he could feel the man’s rasping breaths against his sole as his face turned a faint shade of purple.
Kill him.
It was a thought that came too easily. A little more force and he could. His power fed off his own malice. It wanted to dig and pry and tear and shred and rip apart. It wanted retribution—but Kai pulled back. Back, back.
“Are you alone?” Kai’s voice was lethally calm, cold.
As if he could sense his fate was at a crossroads, the man nodded. If he lied, Kai would know anyway. It felt like he had a hold on the man’s bones, his breath, his soul. Whatever wolf lay dormant beneath his skin, he found that too and had it cowering. The lumerosi on his arms and his back burned. “How many other traps are there?”
“F…four. A…at each of the…these t…trees.” Gasping now, the man pointed out several of them with a shaky hand.
Kai wouldn’t turn his attention away, but there was Rhydian still at his back, guarding him. “Some of the trees are marked, likely so he wouldn’t accidentally trip them,” he said, no waver in his voice, a mountain of force, another threat in his own right.
“How do you disable them?” Kai asked.
Several attempted labored breaths fell before he could say, “A…a pin by the back mechanism.”
“Rhydian.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Rhydian fell back to make work of disarming the snares while the man’s eyes fluttered, turning glassy. If Kai didn’t let up soon, this was over.
End it.
But if he could learn whom he was working with, overhear his conversations with Locke, see plans through his eyes…
To protect his family, his people, to protect Isla—
Stay with me.
“Rhyd, leave that one alone!” Kai called to his brother, who’d been crouched beside the last of the snares.
He ignored his power’s temptation, having the same sinking feeling as before. If he gave into it, he’d lose another fragment of himself when he already struggled to keep himself pieced together.
Kai lifted his foot and stepped back from the man, who let out a cry of relief as he scrambled for his throat. “Th…thank you.”
Maybe he’d lost too much air. That’s why he was so delusional.
Kai nodded sideways to the trap. “Walk.”
