Page 37 of Predator (Stope Packs #4)

Jackson’s computer finally stopped updating. He clicked the program open. Blood rushed through his veins, his ears pounding with each pulse.

“Jackson,” Thane yelled, barreling through the front door, buck-ass naked. “I got your message. I shifted. Where is she?” He sniffed the air, his gaze dropping to the floor where blood streaked the stone floor. “Blood.” He stalked through the open double-doorway into the office. “What are you doing?”

“I had a camera. I don’t know if it worked,” Jackson muttered, fingers flying over the keyboard. “I engaged the security system.”

Thane’s nostrils flared. “If you engaged the system, the cameras outside should’ve turned on.” He leaned over Jackson’s shoulder, pointing. “No. Click there.”

Jackson followed his instruction. Slowly, grainy images appeared on the screen. He leaned forward, heart hammering against his ribs.

“Here.” Thane grabbed the mouse and clicked several times. The images sharpened.

Jackson sat back, the wolf in him roaring. “Raya.”

“What the fuck?” Thane whispered, jaw dropping open as they both watched the screen.

Raya dragged Emily from the house, a bag over his mate’s head. She was limp, not fighting.

“She must’ve been knocked out cold,” Jackson muttered, heating with fury.

They watched as Raya shoved Emily into the back of a truck and drove off.

“She had a helicopter.” Jackson stood and grabbed Thane’s shoulders. “Where would she go?”

Thane staggered back, shock written across his face. “I…I don’t know.”

“Think it through, damn it. Where would she go?” Jackson barked, adrenaline snapping and coursing through every muscle.

“This is her home,” Thane said, his eyes dazed. “Would she go to Vegas?”

Jackson shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. What does she want with Emily?”

“Raya must have taken Emily for Victor,” Thane said, his voice hollow.

“For Victor?” Jackson repeated, eyes narrowing.

Thane swallowed hard. “They…dated once. I thought it was over a long time ago.”

What would Raya see in Victor? How had Jackson missed this? He worked with the female every day. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I just found out not too long ago. We were already dating,” Thane said slowly as if piecing together a puzzle in real time. “It was a summer fling with Victor. They met up at several different mining conferences that year, or so she said.”

Jackson’s mind raced. “Raya wouldn’t take Emily to Slate Pack territory. And she’s not in ours.”

“No.” Thane’s brow furrowed, the lines deepening.

“What about the Embervault Mine?” Jackson asked, the words tasting like iron.

Thane’s eyebrows shot up. “It would work. The Slate Pack’s got the electricity running there. It’s isolated, and nobody would hear a thing.”

Jackson nodded grimly. “We’ll have to fly.” Already shifting before he hit the door, he bolted through the snow, feeling the percussion behind him as Thane shifted and followed. They sprinted toward his helicopter.

If Raya had planned this, it was down to the minute. She was the most efficient wolf Jackson had ever met. The betrayal burned like silver in his veins. He’d trusted her. So had Thane.

Why hadn’t Jackson scented her betrayal? Why hadn’t he caught the discontent beneath her practical exterior? Sure, she’d often been disapproving, but that was just her nature. He hadn’t realized how deep her resentment ran. Or was it love? Were she and Victor in this together?

If so, why not just kill Emily outright?

Unless Victor wanted to make a statement.

Didn’t he realize it would cost him his life? He’d seal his fate the second he touched her.

Jackson reached the helicopter and shifted back into his human form, muscles straining as he jumped into the cockpit. He yanked a pair of jeans from the emergency pack he kept in all his vehicles, sliding them on before tossing another pair to Thane. “Here. We’ll have to go in fast.” She had to be okay.

Thane caught the jeans and tugged them on, eyes gleaming with the same rage that burned through Jackson’s blood. “We’ll find her.”

“We have to.” Jackson turned the key, engaging the ignition. The blades began to spin, whipping the snow into a blinding vortex as the engine roared to life. He gripped the controls, heart hammering against his ribs as the helicopter lifted into the swirling snow.

She had to be alive. There was no alternative.

Emily’s senses clogged with the sharp tang of blood. The coppery scent filled her nose, thick and suffocating. Nadia lay silent, unmoving, her chest barely rising and falling. Her eyelids fluttered once in a while, but the blood soaking her sweater hadn’t stopped flowing.

Victor lay flat on the floor on his stomach, blood pooling beneath him and seeping into the cracks of the old wood. Four bullets. Four silver bullets to the heart would kill anybody. Even an Alpha.

Raya had left about an hour ago, and she’d taken the knife with her. So Emily just fought the chains the best she could, not getting an extra inch of freedom.

“Nice try.” Raya’s boots clip-clopped as she returned, her black clothing dusted with snow, her dark hair clinging to her face.

Emily tore her gaze from Victor’s still form and looked up at Raya. “Your plan is insane. Neither pack will let you take over with somebody from the Ghostwind Pack.”

Raya stood just inside the doorway, her arms crossed, manic eyes glinting. “I have a plan,” she said, her voice disturbingly light. “My plans are the best.”

“Jackson’s going to kill you for this,” Emily said, willing her voice to stay strong despite the trembling in her limbs. Her wrists ached from the cold metal cuffs, the chain biting into her skin with every movement.

“Jackson will never know it was me.” Raya smirked. “I’ll be back in my own territory just in time for the mining disaster. I’m sure Jackson will be out looking for you,” she added with a tilt of her head. “He’ll come running home the second he hears about the explosion. His pack is everything to him.”

Emily’s pulse pounded harder. “Then you think you can kill him?” Jackson wouldn’t see the betrayal coming, but still. He was a fighter.

Nadia mumbled from her position on the floor, her voice weak.

“Yeah. Then I’m going to kill him,” Raya said, her tone light as if they were discussing a weather forecast. “I’ll probably have Bulwark with me.”

“Oh, yeah. The new Alpha?” Emily managed to grit out.

“You know it’ll never fly, right?” Nadia rasped.

Raya rocked back on her heels, a look of twisted delight dancing across her face. She couldn’t seem to care less that her lover lay dead on the floor, blood soaking into the stone beneath him. Emily was fairly certain Victor was gone. His chest hadn’t moved in minutes, and those silver veins had crawled across his skin too fast for any wolf shifter to survive.

“You don’t understand.” Raya’s smile widened. “Bulwark has Slate Pack Alpha blood in him. He’s from the McGregor family. They were kicked out years ago, and believe me, he wants revenge more than I do.”

At least that explained why he’d stabbed Nadia. It hadn’t just been a job. It was personal.

“So, he has a plan,” Emily said, her mind racing.

“Apparently so,” Raya said, her eyes gleaming. “We just worked out the details. We’re going to mate and rule both packs. We’ll keep them pure. No outsiders. We’ll dig deep for slate, including tat his Embervault Mine, and do so efficiently and properly.”

“What a lunatic,” Nadia muttered, her voice rough with pain.

Unwilling amusement flickered through Emily despite her body ringing in pain. She struggled against the shackles again, but they held firm. “Where is your boy toy right now?” she asked, forcing her voice to steady. If she got free, she had to take him out after Raya.

“He had to return to his pack,” Raya said, her tone almost bored. “They’re preparing to attack the Granite Pack as soon as the bombs go off in Jackson’s mine.”

Emily had to warn Jackson somehow. Those poor miners. “You know the other two packs won’t let you take over. They have a coalition.”

“Oh, they will. They don’t have a choice.” Raya shrugged. “It’ll be two packs against two packs. Erik and Seth may have great fondness for you, but they’re not going to let all their soldiers die in a war. Especially since you’ll be dead.”

“Why aren’t I already?” Emily asked. “You could’ve killed me. Why didn’t you?”

Raya’s smile vanished. Her shoulders stiffened as she stomped over to Victor’s body and kicked him in the shoulder. The body barely moved.

“You were a present for him,” she said, her voice quieter now, almost…wistful. “I thought we were on the same page. We agreed we’d take over all the territory. But in the end…” Her voice dropped to a murmur, tinged with something like sorrow. “He just didn’t want to kill you. He wasn’t strong enough.”

Emily’s stomach twisted. While she’d never been a Victor fan, he’d tried to do the right thing in the end. Awareness tingled along her thighs and up to her heart, sharp and sudden. Strength. Coming from outside?

Jackson?

“Well,” Raya said, “I guess if you weren’t a decent present for Victor, you’ll be one for me.” She lifted the gun, the barrel pointed straight between Emily’s eyes.

“Whoa.” Emily raised her shackled hands. The cold metal bit into her wrists as panic coated her throat. “You’re signing your own death warrant.”

“If the Slate Pack learns I’ve killed you, then they’ll know nobody’s coming to save them.” Raya’s tone was calm, final. “I’m sorry, but there’s no other alternative but to kill you both.” She angled her head, eyes gleaming with a dangerous light. “I think your sister’s dead already. I’ll shoot her a couple of times just to make sure. Do you want me to do you first so you don’t have to watch that?”

Emily blinked once. “How about you release these,” she rattled the chains, “and we fight it out? Or are you afraid?”

Raya’s teeth flashed in a humorless smile. “I’m not afraid, but I’m also not stupid. You’re taller and probably stronger, even with whatever problems you’ve got going on. I think I’ll just shoot you in the head.” She settled her stance, the gun steady in her hands.

Emily refused to close her eyes. She let the Alpha blood in her sing, digging deep for every ounce of strength in her body. One more time, she tried to shift, pushing past the pain, the weakness, and the doubt. This time, something broke free inside her. Freedom burned hotly through her muscles and bones. Her body shifted?—

Just as a massive black wolf burst through the block windows, glass shattering in every direction, and crashed into Raya.

Raya yelled as she hit the floor, rolling several times before springing to her feet. The gun swung up, aimed at the wolf. Jackson.

He didn’t give her a chance.

Leaping across the distance, his fangs slashed through her throat, and the gun clattered to the ground, useless. Her headless body followed a heartbeat later.

A second wolf bounded in. Thane.

Jackson shifted back into his human form. Emily snarled in wolf form, yanking her paws free of the shackles with a metallic clink. She stumbled, her head pounding as though nails had been driven into her skull. With a soft whimper, she shifted back to her human form, dropping to her knees.

“Emily.” Jackson rushed toward her, pulling her against his chest. “How bad are you hurt?” His hands roamed her scalp, searching for injuries.

“Ouch,” she hissed, wincing. “Don’t push on that.”

Jackson swore under his breath as she sagged against him. Her pulse thudded weakly where his hand supported her neck.

“Nadia?” Emily called, craning her head toward her sister.

Nadia groaned from the floor. “What?”

“Are you okay?”

“Nope,” Nadia gritted out. “I got stabbed. With silver. Can we go to the healer now?”

Emily dropped and clutched her sister’s arm as Jackson stepped away. He crouched beside Victor, rolling him onto his back before placing two fingers to his neck.

“He’s dead,” Jackson confirmed grimly. “Did he kidnap you?”

“No.” Emily’s voice wavered. “He actually tried to help us.” She sucked in air. “There are explosives at the mine. You need to get everyone out.”

Jackson’s head jerked.

Thane looked wildly around. “I’ll find a phone.” He ran out of the room.

The room tilted as Emily’s vision wavered. She swayed, her knees buckling. The shift had drained her. She still had silver in her system, and her earlier attempts to cut through the shackles hadn’t helped. Blood trickled sluggishly down her wrists.

“Damn it,” she muttered before her legs gave out.

Jackson caught her before she hit the floor.

Again.