Page 331 of Alpha Mates

The ferals hit first, like a never-ending tidal wave of frothing jaws and savage red eyes. No strategy, just chaos. We cut through them like cannon fodder, but it was their sheer numbers that slowed us while the strongest prepared or tried to run.

Not that it mattered. There’s no escape. We haven’t reached their stronghold yet, but we were surrounding the entire valley, which means this only ends one way.

One side had to get through the other. Whoever tired first would lose. It won’t be us. I’m not stopping until they’re all dead.

I spot the break along the cliff and snap the command through the bond.

With me. Break.

Emitt, Dean, and Mads fall in without hesitation, cutting down anything that moves as we cut through the blood-soaked trees. I rip my way through the bodies until the valley opens below.

The same green foothills Julian and I had scouted a day ago. Same deceptive calm. Only … there are too few bodies. Too few rogues, and no sign of their makeshift homes either.

No,I growl. My claws dig into the dirt as I look out over the emptiness.

Wolves are still trying to run, but the bodies don’t match the numbers we’d seen. Confused, I watch the scene as our wolves spill over the edges, following my charge while the leader of the council warriors, Idris, comes to a stop beside me before she shifts.

“You said there were hundreds of them,” she states tightly. “Where are they?”

Julian,I call through our link.Something’s wrong.

I know. There’s not enough of them,he replies a moment later.We haven’t killed nearly as many as we should have.

“Alpha Calderon,” Idris grinds out while I survey the scene ahead.

My focus tunnels, trying to look past what’s in front of me so that I can see what’s beneath.

It’s a trick—has to be. They couldn’t have run that fast, not with our packs closing from every side. So they must’ve been hiding, but how? How do you scrub the presence of all those rogues? How do you hide this many bodies, this much scent?

Nothing just disappeared off the face of the earth without leaving a trace. Not without—

A sheen in the air. A passing twinge of death.

STOP.

I roar the command loud enough to force all my wolves racing ahead of me to heel by instinct alone, but it’s only heard by my pack. The wolves in the other packs, those who can’t hear me through the link, keep running.

And the hidden horror unveils itself.

It’s not scythes. It’s not so kind.

As the wolves meet the hidden barrier drawing a line between us and them, the grass under their paws flares bright orange, growing too quickly to be natural, crawling up their legs before they can even yelp. It burns through fur and flesh, turning them into char before I can take my next breath.

I force the shift on instinct alone, just to get the warning out fast enough.

“WITCHES!”

The air grows terrifyingly still. Then comes the laughter—and it chills my bones. Reality snaps in half.

It’s not clean like Katerina’s magic, not some warbling wall. Webbed, black lines branch up air itself, making it look like glass about to shatter, and through the fractures, we see the hidden truth.

Just like Julian and I saw before. The rest of the rogues standing in front of what’s left of their camp, a pack of them … and Goddess help us, there are so many of them. One blonde fucker stands at the front, but that’s not even the worst of it. It’s the pair of witches flanking Oliver’s sides—eyes lit up in full-brown inferno orange.

Katerina said they might be here, but we hadn’t seen any when we first came, hadn’t smelt any. Even she hadn’t sensed them. We’d hoped that if she was wrong, we’d be close enough to kill them. But at this distance? They’ll torch a hundred of us before we get the chance.

My heart stutters, infected by raw fear when one of the witches parts her lips, and I think to do the same so I can call the only witch I know, but I don’t need to.

Thunder cracks overhead, and magic Iknowslithers underfoot. Its owner appears a moment later, a deceptively small girl hovering above in the dead space between us and them.