Page 39 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)
Logan looks at him, “I could, but it wouldn’t do you any good. He was wearing a glamour, and a pretty fucking strong one.”
“How do you know that?” Calia asks, sounding surprised.
“It’s one of my gifts,” Logan replies simply.
River gets us back on track, as he asks, “What did this person want?”
“He paid Alpha a lot of money upfront, and then told him that if he got the job done, then there would be double that at the end,” one of the others says.
Someone else nods in agreement and adds, “We refused. We’ve always gotten on with you guys, at least we did before the new alpha took over.”
“Because we refused, he took the women and pups,” someone else growls, looking absolutely furious, and I can’t say that I blame him.
“We can’t find them anywhere,” Logan says. “The Beta went to look for them, but he’s gone missing now too.”
“The Beta is a good guy?” I ask. “He can be trusted?”
Logan glances over at me and nods, “Yes, Ma’am. He tries to do what he can to protect the rest of us. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot that he can do against the alpha.”
I nod, “No, there’s not.”
“What was the job?” Coen asks, suspicion in his expression.
Logan grimaces, “We had to keep an eye on the road near the main gates to the compound. He said that if you all showed up, then we were to attack. We were to kill all of you, and make sure that we left Neith alive.”
I’m momentarily surprised that he knows my name until I remember that he most likely saw me on the Choosing with the others, and that’s where he’s learned it from.
He continues, “The guy that smelled wrong wanted us to bring her back to the pack house, and then Alpha was to call him, and let him know that we had her. If we failed, then Alpha was going to kill the pups and the women.”
“He was going to leave your pack as a male-only pack?” Doc asks, looking confused and disgusted.
Logan looks like he’s about to throw up as he replies, “Not exactly. He said that female wolves were easy enough to buy.”
Bile rises in my throat, oh fuck no.
My eyes connect with River’s, and the same disgust that I’m feeling is darkening his eyes. We have to fucking help them, we have to. I don’t know if my thoughts are just that obvious on my face, but River nods, his expression grim.
“Do you know where he was planning to get them from?” Van asks, his jaw tight.
Logan and all of the wolves shake their heads, and thankfully, look as disturbed as we all feel, which means I don’t have to kill any of them.
“We can look into it,” Van says firmly. It’s not a suggestion or a maybe, it’s something that we will look into and figure out how we can help.
We all nod in agreement.
The wolves’ eyes widen, clearly not expecting us to care so much, or even want to help. Their surprise is very telling, and shows the lack of care that they must have been living with under the reign of the Alpha douche.
“Alright, I think we’ve heard more than enough,” Van says as he takes charge. He looks at his parents, “We’re going to head over to the pack house and handle this. Are you willing to look after the injured wolves here and secure the ones that we know are loyal to the alpha? What’s he called?”
Pride shines in both of their eyes as they nod.
“He’s called Derek,” Eamon replies. “Yes, we’re more than happy to take them in until this is sorted.”
“Are you sure that you got all of the ones that are loyal to Derek?” Calia asks Ransom.
She looks surprised when Ransom immediately looks at me.
“Neith?” he asks.
My men smile proudly. I scan the remaining wolves, and this time I call on my magic to help me, and not just my intuition. Asking it to reveal to me any wolves loyal to Derek.
I’m about to say that all of the ones that are left unbound aren’t loyal to Derek, but then my magic sends this little warning buzz, and I glance back at one who is studiously trying to avoid my gaze.
“He’s loyal to Derek,” I say, as I point at him.
“Bitch!” he growls as he launches himself at me.
Before anyone can react, Griff shoves his hand through the chest of the wolf while he’s mid-jump and rips out the wolf's heart. The wolf falls to the floor in a heap, and Griff lets the heart fall from his hand, kicking it away from the wolf.
It all happens so quickly that if I had blinked at the wrong moment, I would have missed it.
I grin, “That was hot.”
Griff chuckles while everyone, apart from my men, looks at me like I’m fucking crazy.
I know it’s not normal to find violence so sexy, but that’s just who I am, thank fuck the guys don’t seem to mind.
Everyone is staring at Griff with shock, fear, and a healthy amount of respect. Van grins and points at Griff’s hand, wrapping water around it and then pulling the blood away so that it’s clean again.
“Thanks, man,” Griff grins.
“No problem,” Van replies while everyone is still silent. He looks at me and carries on as if nothing happened. “Is that the only one, Nene?”
I nod, “Yep, all the rest are good.”
“Great. We’ll get them sorted and get another team out here to clean up and dispose of the bodies,” Calia says.
Evander nods and looks at the others, “All of you stay here, we’ll get this sorted out.”
“You will?” Logan asks incredulously.
“Of course we will,” Van replies.
“I’m coming with you,” Logan says as he stands up and stretches. The wounds in his leg nearly healed.
“Me too,” another one says.