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I appraised him for another long moment. It was just the one cut. Otherwise, he was unscathed. Thank God. But he was right. Alpha Dane would never believe that Willa had gotten the slip on him.
“We should come up with a story.”
“I’m sure they’ll know about the ones that got away.” Lincoln used a tree branch to haul himself up a steep drop before turning back to me and taking my hand.
I grunted as my feet slid over the muddy terrain, but I made it to the top. “We could say you went after them and Willa ran away and I couldn’t stop her.”
Lincoln narrowed his eyes and then frowned. “No, he knows I would never leave the two of you alone. If I’ve learned anything from my dad, it’s that the best lies are the ones closest to the truth.”
I held his elbow as we moved over the ground. Our feet sloshed in the mud, and it was so deep in some places my shoes sank in and pulled off my feet.
And these were new, too. Dang.
“So, we tell the truth. Willa saw them running and ran after them. We chased after her, but the others attacked, and we were outnumbered.” I darted my gaze around the woods. I hadn’t realized we’d chased after them so far.
Lincoln helped me over a few rocks. “Yeah, that’s probably the best thing to tell him. I wonder if they know how many of them got away.”
I wiped my face with the back of my hand. It did little to help the water from running into my eyes. “There had to have been at least twenty of them. Some of them were enforcers.”
Lincoln grunted and wiped his hands on his pants before offering one back to me to help me up a ravine. “At least twenty, and I counted five additional enforcers. But you haven’t seen me fight.”
“Oh?”
He gave me a grin that made my belly flutter. “I’m one of the best in the pack.” He sobered and looked away from me. “I could beat my dad in a fair fight.”
I gaped at him, my mouth opening and shutting, and then it popped open again. “Then why don’t you? Why not end it now?”
Lincoln slicked his hand through his hair. “It’s not that easy, Sloane.”
“Why not? Packs follow hierarchy. If you kill the alpha, then you would become alpha.” I stopped walking and stared at him.
Lincoln looked down at the ground and sighed. “I said I could beat him in a fair fight. Sawyer could too. But we would never get the chance. You’ve seen how he is. The second he felt threatened, he would call in his lackeys to take over. We’d be outnumbered in no time. I’m a good fighter. Sawyer, too, but he has at least a hundred loyal men who would do anything for him.Anything!”
I shuddered and hugged myself as his words sank in.
He put his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “That’s why Sawyer and I decided we needed to do something different a long time ago.”
“From all angles.”
He tucked his finger under my chin and tilted my head up so I’d have to look at him. “Exactly.” He smoothed his thumb over my face. “We will get there, Sloane. I promise.”
I flicked my gaze to his upper lip which was coated with beads of rain. I’d bet they’d taste sweet. I licked my lips.
Lincoln pulled back and started walking again. “We need to finish our plan, and we still have a bit to get to the cars. We chased them for almost a mile.”
I blinked and gritted my teeth. Why hadn’t he kissed me?
He turned back when he noticed I wasn’t next to him. “The Delidos are strong, but I don’t know how long they’ll be able to hold off the full might of the Wolf Bloods.”
Guilt washed over me. I was worried about a stupid kiss when men and women were dying. Gah. I was a bitch. Then his words sank in.
“The Delidos are strong. Can’t we tell your dad you shifted to heal your wounds?” Yeah. I clucked my tongue as an idea formed. “Let’s rip your clothes some more. There’s already lots of blood all over them. You got attacked as a human. They threatened to kill me if you didn’t comply, so you stopped fighting. Willa chose to go with them. There is no way we can protect her. Not since I stayed behind.”
I hated to throw Willa under the bus, but she had made her choice and I’d made mine. There was no way the alpha would believe that the Delidos had only liberated her and not me.
Lincoln scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We could always say that Willa orchestrated it all.”
I held up my hand. “No. He’ll put a target on her back.”
