Page 27

C ayson

The four of us walk down the hall of the castle, clumped together as we start up the stairs.

We’d done a full perimeter check outside and had found nothing—absolutely nothing—that might threaten our Faye, so we were feeling pretty good, discussing nonsense and laughing together. Like a weird family.

All because of Faye.

“What if we went bear hunting ? I bet if we bag one of those big boys, we could keep people fed for weeks!”

I know that to the others, this comes out as wishful, fantastical thinking, but the truth is that I’m thinking about my pack.

I’m thinking about how I can keep them fed and happy once we return home.

I’d been inching closer and closer to the realization for weeks, but when Eli said it, I felt, all at once, that it was true.

It’s time for me to grow up. To put my mate first. To put my pack first. To be the alpha and the shifter that everyone needs me to be.

So, maybe hunting bears isn’t the best idea I’ve ever had, but we did a pretty good job when we went after that bear in the forest with Faye. And we hadn’t even had Eli with us then. Bear hunting wasn’t out of the question for a group as big and strong as ours.

“Your head is bigger than your ass,” Maverick says, throwing an ancient insult at me, loosely translated.

I stare at him when he turns back around. He may have lived with the humans, but the guy is smart. He has “real shifter” written all over him.

“Are you saying you like my ass?” I ask sweetly, batting my eyes at Maverick, who flips me off over his shoulder.

My pace picks up as we get closer to Faye’s room.

We’re headed to pick Faye up for breakfast, and I can’t wait to be close to her again.

To breathe in her scent. It feels like the mating bond between us only grows stronger every day, and I wonder if the bond will just keep getting stronger.

The idea is hard to imagine. I already want to shrink her down and put her in my pocket, so I can carry her with me all day.

“Is this what we’re in for? This mating bond sure does come with a lot of extras I’d rather go without.” Eli grumbles, as we’re about to round the corner to Faye’s room. “The two of you?—”

When he stops, halting in the middle of the hallway, his hand in the air, the rest of us still immediately, going on high alert. When Eli senses something is wrong, it means we’re moments away from feeling it ourselves.

“Smell that?” Eli asks, and we all glance at one another. We don’t smell it yet—ultimas are known for having far superior senses of smell. Eli moves down the hallway, a low growl rumbling from his throat. My heart pounds.

Not again.

On the ground, the guard is lying, completely out cold. Xander is beside him, blinking as if newly conscious. He tries to sit up, then falls back down.

I rush to his side and kneel down, helping him to sit up.

“It’s Dexter,” Xander breathes, and my blood goes cold.

I smell it—Dexter’s scent, lingering at the doorway to Faye’s room. Mingled with it is the sweet scent of Faye and the metallic scent of blood. Fuck. How did this happen?

Ezra and Eli disappear into her room, while Maverick and I help Xander up. It takes him a minute to be able to stand solidly on his feet, but then he does. A chilling look comes over his face.

“They were so fast. I didn’t even have time to react before I was out cold. I’m sorry. I should’ve done better. I should’ve–”

“It’s okay,” I tell him quickly. “But do you have any idea where they took her? Any idea at all?”

He winces, and I hate how dilated his pupils are. My boy has a serious concussion. “No idea.”

Ezra and Eli are back out of the room in an instant.

“There aren’t any clues where she went,” Ezra says, panic in his face.

“Unfortunately for them, no matter how careful they were, an ultima will be able to smell them out,” Eli says, a darkness to his words that screams of the pain he intends to inflict on Dexter and his men once we reach them.

Eli is moving down the hallway quickly, following his scent, and we rush after him, watching as he tracks the scent away from her door. If Dexter was there, there’s no telling what might be happening to Faye at this moment.

But it won’t be good, that’s for damn sure.

I cross my fingers behind my back—something I used to do as a kid, a habit that resurfaces every once in a while, when I’m stressed—and think. Maybe Dexter was outside her door while we were gone. Maybe the blood smell was just Faye making a mistake while shaving.

Maybe she’s just visiting Addilyn, or wandering the castle grounds.

But we all know, deep down, that isn’t true.

We follow Eli’s nose to miles outside of the castle grounds in our wolf forms. I have never seen a wolf track something the way Eli does.

He barely has to touch his nose to the ground, and he knows where he’s going.

His feet are flying beneath him, and it takes everything in us to keep up with him, with Xander trailing at the end.

Suddenly, he stops. She’s just up ahead.

How many shifters are there? Ezra asks.

He sniffs for a moment, then says, At least a dozen of them.

Eli shifts back, so we follow suit. He stays low and begins to army crawl forward, and we do the same behind him. My heart pounds loudly in my chest, and I pray that whatever we see at the top of that hill, Faye is alive and unharmed.

When we crest the hill and look through the trees, we freeze.

There they are. A whole group of big, ugly fuckers.

It must be a Pack Obsidian thing. We can just see Faye on the ground, wearing a cute little red top, her hands behind her back.

A tiny omega in a pack of alphas, handcuffed and lying on the ground.

Rage like nothing I’ve ever felt before floods through me, but when I surge forward, Eli holds out a hand to stop me.

“We have to make a plan,” he says, and when his eyes meet mine, I nod, sucking in a breath.

“I’ll go for Dexter. He’s the strongest. Ezra, do you think you can handle Kurt?

Not that he’s in fighting form right now, moreso because he’s a slippery fucker we don’t want to leave alive. ”

“Yes,” Ezra says, like a soldier entering the field.

I straighten up, glancing at the others, who all look like it’s taking everything in them not to bolt across the field toward our mate. Our mate who is weak, vulnerable, and in trouble. A woman we have all sworn to protect with our very souls.

“Okay,” Eli says, voice tense. “I get Dexter, Ezra takes Kurt. Can the rest of you handle ten alphas on your own?”

“In my sleep,” Xander says, and when I glance over at the big guy, I can see he means it. I can almost imagine him taking on ten alphas, alone.

Down below, we see Kurt standing over Faye, looking weak. A flash of silver shines in his hand, and we collectively seem to freeze in time as he slashes out at her. Her cry of shock and pain echoes through the woods. But at least she was able to cry.

Eli’s eyes flash black. “Let’s go,” he says, wasting no more time and shifting as he turns, lifting his foot from the ground as a human and returning to it with a massive white paw. The rest of us follow after him.

“… give it to her again. Deeper this time. ” I hear Dexter say, but the next breath is knocked from his body when Eli slams into him with all the force he has.

Dexter shifts immediately, as do the other alphas, all except his son, and I see Ezra whiz past me, headed for Kurt. Ezra instantly gets his teeth into the arm holding the knife near Faye, and Kurt screams and drops it, falling helplessly back on the ground.

Faye, our beautiful mate, smiles, and says, “I knew you’d come!” There’s not a drop of fear in her voice.

The rest of us square up with the ten remaining alphas. Xander is a powerhouse, a tank, practically indestructible, so Maverick and I dart around, letting him draw most of the attention while we hit them where it hurts, while their backs are turned.

I get my jaws clamped around a wolf’s legs, biting my teeth into the tendons, ripping them out, and watching as he crumples to the dirt, whining and yelping at the pain, unable to get back to his feet.

Wolves don’t usually fight like this with each other.

They play fight. They fight to send a message. But not for true damage.

Not like we’re fighting right now.

Xander gets his jaw around one alpha’s back —locking in and picking him up from the ground before hurling him to the side like some kind of wolf of legend.

Even as big as Xander is, Eli is bigger, and I can hear him absolutely tearing Dexter apart on the other side of the clearing, while the wolf whimpers.

Then I see Ezra skid to a stop beside me, and I realize two more wolves have appeared from the woods, trying to keep him from reaching Kurt. Probably because the bastard can’t handle more than a stiff breeze right now. I shift my body, covering Ezra as he gets to his feet.

Fuckers came out of nowhere, he mutters.

Together, we turn and fight them off, snapping and clawing at them until we have them on their backs, defenseless, and then we make sure our blows will take them out of the fight. They might be strong alphas, but we’re stronger. And we’re fighting for our mate.

There is no greater motivation.

Wolves go for Faye, and Ezra stands between them and her. He’s splattered in blood, looking like a guardian of hell. Kurt lays beside her, trembling like an omega surrounded by alphas. He’s finally frightened the same way he’s left so many others frightened due to his own actions.

Eli and I return to Maverick and Xander, joining in the fight against the remaining alphas. We’re practically rabid. Biting, clawing, growling. The wolves start to run from us, but we don’t let them. Every man responsible for taking our Faye will be lucky to ever walk again.

Dexter’s voice comes through our minds. Stop, enough, we fold.

Eli’s growl cuts through the air. We’ll show you the same mercy you showed our mate.

Protect my son! Dexter roars his command.

More wolves head for Faye and Kurt, and Ezra springs away from them, heading for the wolves, cutting them off from Kurt and Faye.

Dexter’s shrieking whimpers cut through the air. If it were anyone else, I might feel sorry for him. In this case, I don’t. I honestly hope Dexter gets his throat ripped out.

Then the terrible sound stops, and Dexter goes silent. Near me, Ezra throws a wolf off his back and pounces on his attacker, tearing and biting until the wolf stops moving. I knock a wolf onto the ground, and one quick bite has him bleeding and whining.

Looking up, I see that we’ve all handled our wolves. That this fight is finally finished.

Where’s Faye ? Eli asks, trotting toward us, his white fur drenched in blood.

I turn my head, swiveling to try and get a look at her. I expect to see her there, still on the ground, but she’s gone, a set of drag marks where she used to be.

My stomach churns, and my words come out shaking with rage and fear. She’s gone.