Page 340 of Alpha Mates

Still better than none.

Signalling the others, we creep back the way we came, moving extra slowly so we don’t step on any loose twigs as we let the rogues enjoy their borrowed time. Scouts stay posted, but the rest of us circle up with the leaders who’d spotted the rogues too.

“They know they’re not making it out of this,” Maverick mutters, eyes locked on the treeline. “They just want to take out as many of us as they can on the way.”

“I’m not losing any more wolves,” says Alpha Imrie, the alpha of the Blood Stone Pack. My chest tightens. I still see the remains of those charred wolves.

“No, we’re not,” Julian agrees.

“Then how are we getting in?” Idris presses, watching Julian like she knows that he has something up his sleeve. “There’s only one entrance, and they’re guarding it with everything they’ve got.”

“There’s a second entrance,” he says. “There are wolves on the roof—they got up there somehow.”

“Maybe, but then how doweget in from there?” Beckett asks at his side.

“From above,” Julian answers. He’s not looking at us though. He’s focused on something else. Someone else …

I follow his gaze to Kat plucking petals from a tiny flower, one by one. She’s mumbling something under her breath as she does, but stops the moment she senses eyes on her.

Looking up slowly, she lets her surprise show for only a moment before she glowers. A second later, she teleports to stand right in front of us. The others flinch but Julian and I are used to it.

“What?” she asks plainly.

“Kat,” Julian asks, not bothering to sugarcoat it with a thanks for all she’s done already. “Do you think you could take a set of us to the roof?”

“Yeah, and?” she asks, raising a brow.

“That’s it,” I say.

But Julian shakes his head. “And place each of us right on top of the rogues up there?”

I whip my head towards him like the other alphas.

“That’s insane,” I scoff before she can answer. “She can’t do that and keep all of us hidden out here. She just fought a bunch of witches too. I know she’s strong, but she’s notthatstrong. There are too many of us and too many of them. To pull that off would be—”

“Madness,” she says with one of her terrifying smiles. “I’d have to teleport you, and I can’t do that without a visual from above myself. Or …” She runs a hand through her beaded hair. “I could carry us all up and position you above, and then, I guess, drop you.” She chuckles. “Alright, I’ll try. How many are we talking here?”

“Enough to match the rogues up there,” Julian says as he scans the group before looking back at Kat. “Once they’re down, we take their weapons and snipe the ones outside from above before heading in.”

“Right,” Kat says slowly, “but to pull that off, you’ll need me to mask the whole rooftop too. So they won’t smell any blood or hear anything.”

“Exactly.”

She groans and stretches. “Geez. Am I doing everything?” she asks with a yawn. “I came to help, but what would ya’ll do without me?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Julian replies, a simple fact that makes Katerina quiet while he continues. “If this works, we’ll finish off the outside sentries in minutes. Once we’re in, we’ll take out as many as we can without them even knowing we’re here. We’ll be quick and quiet until we can’t anymore. That’s when you’ll attack,” he says to the other alphas, “so they’re ambushed from both sides.”

Sitting back on his heels, Julian nods to himself as his plan cements itself in his mind. “We trap them. No chance to escape.”

“That’s it? That’s the plan?” Maverick asks, incredulous. “It’s built on a bunch ofifs.”

“Ifyou have a betterone, I’m listening,” Julian growls, tilting his head just enough to shoot a glare that could level a forest. “Ifwe do everything the way I described, then we’ll be fine.”

Pride swells in my chest when no one else challenges him or questions his logic.

Julian’s a smart motherfucker, and they’d all be idiots to think this isn’t the best course of action—and the one that saves the most lives.

“Kat?” I ask, glancing her way as she cracks her neck.