Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Fuck. I set Aurelia down quickly and shed my clothes. If the escaped prisoners met up with those who’d evaded capture, they might think it an ideal opportunity to try and pick off some of my pack, one by one.
What they didn’t know was they were about to run up against the big bad wolf.
“Guard the woman,” I commanded Nova. “Pull everyone together. Group them tightly around her and the supplies. Wait for my return.”
I ran to the side and shifted, waiting for the flash of pain to subside before feeling the pack bond stretch out around us. My wolf took hold of it, quickly getting a feel for where everyone was and effortlessly structuring them. Tanix was sent in the opposite direction with a team accompanying him, just in case the prisoners running toward the creek was a diversion.
How had they broken my bond?
I dashed through the trees, my wolf calling others to us as we ran. They fell in line as my wolf caught the scent of the prisoners.
He bared his teeth as he stepped in the creek, the pack spreading out around us, with Sixten flanking us to the right and Dante quickly joining my wolf’s other side. Issuing cues through his body movements and pushing his will through the bond, my wolf steered both Dante and Sixten to break off and go up the creek. We took fewer people with us down the creek. If we ran into the enemy, it would be easy for my wolf to force a bond and protect our people. The others might need to fight, and therefore needed the numbers.
Currents of scent drifted through the air. I thought my wolf caught a faint, familiar whiff, but not one from the prisoners. Slowly, he tried to catch it again but it was elusive, older. He couldn’t quite place it. Continuing onward, he had our people spread out a bit, most on land, hunting for a sign that the prisoners or anyone else had come this way. Nothing.
After about a half hour, with no alarms pushed through the bonds from anyone else, we called everyone in and headed back.
“That was a very well-executed escape,” Tanix said when we met back up, just out of the creek. “Very well executed. We wasted no time in going after them, but they were just . . . gone. Vanished. We didn’t pick up any scents stepping out of the creek.”
“We had people stretched out along the banks, too,” Sixten said, her hands on her hips in obvious frustration. “Nothing.”
“Think it was magic?” Dante asked.
“I’ve never heard of magic like that, and we know the most powerful of faeries,” Sixten replied. “We know the new demon . . . thing, whatever it is he’s calling himself—“
“Lord,” Dante supplied.
“Lord, whatever. He doesn’t have that kind of magic.”
“The woman ran into the trees at near the same time the prisoners escaped,” Tanix said softly, his gaze on me firm. “They took off in the opposite direction.”
I felt a pang in my gut, knowing what Tanix was suggesting. His account of the timing was correct.
“Did she try to run?” Sixten asked, looking between everyone. “Didn’t she just wobble into the trees some?”
“Yeah, bro, look,” Dante told Tanix, “I get where you’re going with that, but she didn’t bring up that line of questioning. That was all Mr. Dick Jacket and the alpha. That chick has taken an emotional beating these last two days. She’s sloppy and unstable—no offense, Alpha. She didn’t execute this plan.”
I gritted my teeth, not commenting, kicking myself for being distracted by the woman yet again.
“I’m just pointing out the coincidence,” Tanix replied.
“You’re pointing out when the alpha was distracted, which was a perfect time for the prisoners to take off,” Sixten said. “Any idiot can see she’s a product of Granny, not a team member. I’m not saying she isn’t a guilty party, because we all heard that she has no reservations about what she was doing, but she is just trying to stay alive.” She paused. “I was in the demon dungeons—I know what that’s like. I’ll tell you something else, if part of my group escaped and didn’t bring me with them, I’d escape later out of spite, track them down, and kill the lot of them. She wouldn’t want to stay behind if she didn’t have to, good sex or not. No offense, Alpha.”
“Real eloquent,” Dante murmured.
She punched him. “Shut up.”
I took a beat to balance myself, thinking through this logically. I couldn’t allow my leadership to be affected by that woman. She’d done it too much already and now the prisoners had escaped. Whether she’d planned it or not—and I didn’t think for a moment that she had—she was still responsible for pulling my focus away. One of my people could’ve died. I needed to take greater care.