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“He wanted to test us,” Brynn said as she paced the house. “He wanted to let us know that he could not only get to the Alpha’s mate, but that he could get toanyonewithin the wards.”
Kameron growled, his claws out. Gideon didn’t blame his brother for the lack of control then. As the Enforcer, it had to be killing him as much as it was Gideon that there were leaks they couldn’t plug.
“The witches should be done with the new layer of wards soon, but it’s not soon enough,” Kameron bit out.
“Shannon cannot enter Pack lands anymore without assistance, but that means nothing when we don’t knowwhowould aid her,” Gideon put in. “Our patrols are stretched thin as it is.” It grated on him, but they weren’t as large of a Pack as the Redwoods. With traitors in their midst, they were fucked until they discovered the identities of those who would cause them harm.
“The tunnels are almost finished,” Mitchell added. “Our treaty with the Redwoods and the connection we now have with them is secure. If we need to hide some of us because of technology, we can. But first, we need to take care of this problem.”
“I don’t know why I can’t feel the dissent,” Brandon bit out, the Omega looking far angrier than Gideon had seen him in years. “I should be able to help, but it’s like I’m clouded.”
Brie reached out and slid her free arm down Brandon’s back. It didn’t anger Gideon’s wolf, not when Brandon needed the care, and it made Brie happy to do so.
“I think that Shannon, and whoever is with her, have been hiding what they’ve been doing for far longer than you’ve had your powers,” Brie said calmly. “They’ve been shielding themselves somehow. Wewilldefeat them, but it might take them coming at us for it to happen.”
“And that’s dangerous as hell,” Brynn muttered.
“Everyone is on alert,” Gideon said. “We have the sentries on duty as well as the soldiers on their lookouts. Each person in this Pack knows that it is someone from within. I didn’t want the Pack to know it all for fear that our morale would crumble, but keeping them in hiding would only hurt us more.”
Brie’s hand squeezed his. “They are stronger than that. They won’t crumble. We’ve all known there was poison within the Pack.” She spoke as though she’d been a Talon all her life, and he couldn’t have been prouder. “They won’t go down without a fight. They’re with you, Gideon.We’rewith you.”
He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. Max let out a soft laugh next to him, but Gideon ignored it.
“We need to know what Leo and Shannon’s plan is,” Gideon continued. “They not only wanted Brie to die and for them to become the leaders of the Talons, but they had another plan.”
Brie bit her lip. “They said they wanted to take over the Redwoods as well. It sounded like they were the Centrals all over again.”
“And what did the Centrals want?” Gideon asked, though he knew the answer, dread in his belly.
“Once they got the Redwoods, they’d have been unstoppable,” Brie answered. “They wanted to rule the humans, not only the wolves.” Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “In order to rule them, they’d have shown the world who they were. You don’t think…”
Gideon cursed. “With all our plans of the tunnels and political maneuverings in case the wolveswererevealed, someone on Shannon’s side might have been in on that.”
“What good would revealing who we are do?” Brynn asked, fear in her gaze. “We’re not safe out in the human world. Humans try to silence what they don’t understand.”
“We’re leaping to conclusions here,” Ryder said, ever the voice of reason, but even he sounded skeptical.
“We need to be on alert for that as well,” Gideon said. “We’ve been hiding for so long, becoming more and more insular as time passed because the humans were getting so close, that if Leo shows the world who we are, it could be disastrous.”
“We don’t know that’s what he wants,” Brie said. “That might have been what the Centrals wanted, but that doesn’t mean he’s on the same path. For all we know, he just wants to rule in secret until he dies.”
Gideon let out a breath. “Leo has never been one to stop once he gets what he wants, no matter who he has to kill along the way.”
He refused to look at Max and Mitchell when he said it, but he felt their tension. Leo was their father, the man who should have cared for them above all else. Instead, he was the man they would have to kill in order to keep their people safe. The brothers would do it, just as Gideon had done with Joseph, but it wouldn’t be easy.
They were on the brink of war, the battlefield full of secrecy and pain.
Gideon’s communicator beeped, and he looked down at it, answering at once. “What’s going on?”
“Leo and Shannon are right outside the wards,” the soldier began. “They have a pup, Alpha. They said if you and Brie don’t come to meet them, they’ll kill him and then others one by one until you do.”
Gideon growled, low, deadly. “We’re on our way.”
The others had heard the conversation and were already on their way out the door. He kissed Brie hard and tugged her close.
“I’m going. You can’t hold me back.”
He sighed, pulling her with him as they ran toward the sentry post. “I can’t hold you back, Brie. I also can’t let that pup die.”
“We’ll fight for the Pack, Gideon.”
He squeezed her hand, his wolf on the prowl. The war had come to them, and this time, there was no turning back. There was something off about this, and he knew they were running into a trap, only he didn’t see a way out.
Lives were on the line, and he had one shot at saving them.
He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake.
