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And I would be one step closer to finding Blythe.
The lights shut off, drowning the room in darkness.
I ran my thumb over the circular locket coiled at the bottom of my pocket, clutching it between my fingers as if it were the only thing keeping the memories at bay.
Keeping the pain from devouring the shell I’d become.
“I’m coming for you, Blythe,” I whispered into the shadows.
I stared into the yawning abyss until my eyes were heavy with sleep, and I could no longer fight the exhaustion that threatened to consume me.
***
“Daddy!” I screamed.
I reached for him as his body went limp and his eyes took on a milky quality. I’d never seen a dead body before, and terror choked the breath from my lungs. They killed him. Daddy said they would try and take us away, and they killed him because of us. The weight of my grief was unbearable as my father—the man who loved and protected me—sagged against the steering wheel in a pool of blood.
“No . . . no . . . da-daddy, no!” Blythe’s sobs filled the air as the back door was ripped off its hinges.
It only took a moment for my sister’s screams to turn from despair to terror. Gloved hands yanked her backward, and I snapped into action, moving on instinct as my wolf rose within me. I lunged, clawing at the shifters who held my younger sister.
“Fuck!” one cried out, trying to shake me off.
“Get away from her,” I shouted, ignoring the blood on my fingers.
I tore into their flesh with a screech as Blythe fell to the ground at the shifter’s feet, but more of them surrounded us. I scrambled in front of Blythe, determined to be the barrier between her and the men who had killed our father.
“Grab that little bitch before she attacks again,” growled the shifter who had pulled Blythe from the car.
I smirked.
“Are you going to come quietly like a good girl, or are we going to have to hurt you?” the new shifter asked in a deceptively calm voice.
This one was more frightening than the first. There was a darkness in his eyes—showing a cavernous pit where his soul should be—ready to tangle me in its web.
I took a step back as hot tears stung my cheeks. “Murderers! We’ll never go with you.”
A horrible smile pulled at his thin lips. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
My stomach squeezed as he advanced.
Then, a thunderous boom shook the earth, and I fell to my knees. A sickening crack rang through the air as pain zinged up my arm.
I cried out, rising to my knees and looking for Blythe in the chaos. Cradling my throbbing arm to my chest, I gaped at the scene unfolding before me. The first group of wolves were fighting another band of shifters—one with females.
“Hands off the girl, you piece of shit,” one of the women shouted, dodging a blow while reaching for Blythe.
The Council shifter released Blythe, but when the woman went to grab her, he struck. The woman pushed Blythe into the arms of a scared male moments before her attacker locked her in a fierce hold.
The Council shifter dragged his nose over her hair, taking a long sniff. “When I’m finished with you, you’ll regret the day you joined the free raiders.”
Free raiders.
The words buried themselves in my memory.
My head snapped back as someone grabbed my ponytail and viciously dragged me through the battle. The man and woman quickly disappeared amid the mass of colliding bodies, and I screamed.
I was still screaming as they shoved me into a black van, raised their weapons, and fired into the fray.
