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Boris stepped away and made a hand signal to one of his men. That same signal rippled from one scout to another until they had all come in to gather around him for instructions.

“Bleddyn with me. Minsi and Raul, I want you two on the hunt for those two Fae,” Chanin instructed the small group he brought with him.

A few minutes later, Boris came back to Chanin. “We’re set. On your signal.”

Chanin glanced at Faolan, who’d shifted along with his team. The warrior leader had led his group to the edge of the woods, but now his wolf’s head was canted in his direction as if awaiting instruction.

Inhaling deeply, Chanin exhaled and claimed his wolf form. Move your warriors out, Faolan.

Let’s move . The eight wolves peeled off to follow the east path toward the mouth of the cave. Their stealth movements were low and fast. Soon, they entered the mountain.

Everyone in the woods watched and waited until the scout on the cliff made the all-clear signal. Meaning the Fang Warriors had eradicated the Weres at the cave’s entrance.

We’re going in , Chanin directed.

Boris and one of his scouts were the first to dash toward the cave-like opening. Now that those men Farkas set as lookout were taken down, the rest of the teams moved directly toward the target.

Chanin filed into the small opening of the cold storage. Those before him leaped over the two bodies on the floor as they split down the various halls.

He stopped and stared down at the two bodies with their throats ripped to the spinal cord as their blood created large pools on the ground around them.

Acwulf and Lobo had once been his friends.

Both men had expected to reign over the Pack alongside him, a twin beta set.

However, Chanin remembered the malicious behavior that started in their youth and continued after.

He would not allow such a malignance in his Pack to lead with him.

It hadn’t taken them long to align themselves with his cousin.

Chanin would have preferred to bring them to heel, but the men had made their choices like those who joined Farkas. And just like these two, they would all die.

Which way do you want to go, Alpha ? Bleddyn looked left, then right.

Chanin leaned into Lobo and lowered his snout, sniffing long and slow.

All around him, he could hear the moving of his teams along the corridors, so many passages.

Chanin isolated out all the other smells of his teams and focused on the dead male below him.

The scent of the deceased Were’s stench assaulted his senses, but he pushed past it and focused on a thread of a single trail, a solitary scent, until he hit pay dirt.

Farkas. Because Lobo had been around Farkas, it was enough for Chanin to lock onto it to search for his cousin.

This way . Chanin led Bleddyn away from the bodies where his Beta had sniffed along Acwulf. Chanin would collect them and any other dead later. Unless there were warriors or scouts, they would carry them back home.

Some scouts went up the ramp to the left, leading to a dock wide enough for three semi-trucks to pull side by side.

On the dock, were three large roll-up doors raised to provide entry into that storage section.

Other wolves ran down the long passageway to the right; however, Chanin veered Bleddyn off to a narrow hall toward a room that at some point may have operated as an observation booth to watch what came in and went out.

Chanin lifted his head and clutched the handle with his teeth. Once he had a good grip, he pulled down until the door opened a crack. Chanin’s wolf released the metal handle and then used his head to slowly push the door wider. Like the others, he wanted to try and keep silent.

Standing in the space with a large viewing window, monitors, and a switchboard inside the room, Chanin inhaled, instantly filling his nose with Farkas’s scent.

His cousin had been in this room a lot. Since none of the monitors or primary electricity worked, Chanin wasn’t sure what purpose the room held.

He didn’t have time to figure out his cousin’s illogical mind.

As Chanin started toward another door on the back end of the room, Bleddyn’s thoughts caught him.

They used this room as a planning center .

Why do you think that ? Chanin could scent at least three different wolves who had been in the space.

When he turned to look at his Beta, Bleddyn sniffed around the table only to rise on his hind legs and stare at the tabletop. There are maps of the area under the glass .

Chanin hustled back and got up beside Bleddyn.

He stared down at not only the front area of the storage entryway but all the different tunnels, rooms, labs, and massive refrigerator units.

Each one was labeled. He noticed the city and state markers, which proved how far this particular storage had gone.

It traveled far. However, it looked unfinished before being closed down due to the leaks.

The only thing beyond the central area seems like an underground highway from the east. Most likely, it was used as another route for cargo to enter the facility , Bleddyn determined.

That’s how they reached the Fae and the livestock.

The dragons and Fae probably need to know about the leads that run into their territories.

I will notify them and urge them to seal them soon.

Chanin wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, but it needed to be done. He wouldn’t wait until the next council meeting. However, it would give him a reason to call an emergency one. He could deal with this topic and broach the one around his mate.

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind at the moment, he focused back in on the map.

Farkas’s scent is going to be all over this place. We don’t have time to search for him in every nook and cranny he’s touched .

We need to figure out which of these areas your cousin is holed up in .

Chanin stared at the drawn scale of the place. He read the maps hastily and crossed off one area after another before landing on a room in the back of the facility labeled commander’s suite. Something Farkas would feel was his due.

There . Chanin smacked his paw beside it as he analyzed the fastest way to reach it.

“Stay back!”

“Grrr.” A menacing growl pierced the air, following the yelling that echoed through one of the corridors.

“No. No. Ahhhrrr....” Someone’s scream became a gurgle before it went silent.

Shit . Chanin pushed off the table and ran toward the back door again.

There goes the wake-up alarm . Bleddyn powered through the door and down the narrow hallway behind him.

I’m sure Farkas heard that. We must find him before he has a chance to get away .

Chanin would love to believe that his cousin would stand his ground and fight, but weasels always ran.

The map had been a great help and allowed him and Bleddyn to rush along the passage with one destination in mind. They saw one wolf after another in a battle of fangs, claws, or hand-to-hand combat in human form as they approached the sleeping quarters.

Those caught in a fight with a were-wolf sporting a green bandana attempted to run away or were already ripped apart.

After several twists and turns, he and Bleddyn finally made it to the hallway that led to the commander’s suite. A passage to the right of the door led to the lab area.

Before they knew what was happening, a form jumped from the shadows with a pipe swinging toward their heads.

Chanin was thankful for his sharp reflexes as he ducked.

There was a loud clang as the heavy metal of the pipe made contact with the concrete wall. “Die, Chanin.”

Bleddyn was even quicker as he launched right over Chanin’s head and crashed his large wolf body into the male.

“Ah! Bleddyn, you bastard.” Valko, Farkas’s crony and right hand, kicked the Beta in the ribs with his thick boots as he attempted to wrestle his arm, holding the pipe out of the wolf’s jaw.

The pipe clattered to the floor.

Blood dripped from Valko’s wrist and stained the floor and Bleddyn’s fur.

Bleddyn shifted. Snatching the pipe, Bleddyn performed a roundhouse and kicked Valko across the face. The other man sailed back into the door Chanin was trying to enter.

Chanin growled, prepared to chew through the male to get to the door. Valko, leaner than Bleddyn and stupid, pushed off from the door and ran at Bleddyn, swinging a fist.

Bleddyn took a blow to his shoulder but came back with an uppercut.

“Go, Chanin, I got this.”

Being a dirty fighter, Valko kicked toward Bleddyn’s crotch with his boots.

Anticipating the move, Bleddyn pivoted and took the blow on the inside of his right thigh. He grunted but didn’t go down. Instead, he countered repeatedly with a fist to Valko’s ribs on one side, then the other.

Chanin heard Valko’s grunts and whines behind him as he shifted to grab the doorknob and turn.

He entered the room and noticed two things immediately: the room was large and filthy.

Farkas had clothing strewn everywhere, and moldy food remnants covered every flat surface.

Chanin moved around the room, trying to locate the one person he’d come for.

However, when he glanced at the bed, it was so disarrayed that Chanin couldn’t tell if Farkas had recently been there.

But his cousin’s scent was heavy and overpowering. He was either hiding in the space or had recently been in it.

There weren’t any windows, like everywhere else inside the mountain range, but there was an ensuite bathroom.

Chanin started toward it to check and see if Farkas was inside, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a closet door sitting slightly ajar.

Ditching his path to the bathroom, he hurried over to the closet.

If he was wrong and Farkas was in the bathroom, he knew that Bleddyn would alert him if Farkas rushed out of the room.