Page 136 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

“He’s coming to,” Jared informed me, his face placid as an early morning lake, even though I could sense how he truly felt.

It was how we were all feeling. It’d now been almost forty-eight hours since Trey and Todd vanished without a trace.

Luke was still missing. It was going to take days if not longer for the power company to come out and restore the lines, effectively pausing all operations at the quarry and putting our finances in a chokehold.

Not to mention we were all fucking starving.

Seth would be leaving in about an hour to go pick up our order from the butcher in the city, though, so there was that at least.

“Clay used the bindstone on him like we were taught, but I’ve never actually seen it work before so just...be careful, all right?”

I inhaled deeply, unclenching my fists as I rose from the kitchen island where I’d been sitting with Layla and Vivian.

“Want me to go with you?” Layla offered as I got up, but I shook my head. “You need to go with Seth. I don’t want anyone going anywhere alone right now. He’ll be leaving soon.”

Layla hopped down from her stool and came around to pull me into a jasmine scented hug. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to.

“I’m staying actually,” she said as she pulled away. “We wanted to be here for you.”

Viv offered me a sad smile. “Destiny offered to go with him for the pickup. Sara is manning the bar tonight at the pub for her and you know how my girl is a night owl.”

I smirked. That she was. Their pick up time was later in the evening so they likely wouldn’t be back until after dark. I debated sending a third body with them just in case, but then it was possible the meat order wouldn’t fit in the Jeep. They’d need all the space they could get.

They didn’t push me on coming with, and I was grateful.

They didn’t need to see this. Hell, I didn’t even want to see this, but this was my job now.

I was the alpha, and I needed to keep my pack—my family—safe.

“Thanks, you guys,” I muttered, leaving them behind in the kitchen as I let Jared lead me out to the moon chamber where we were keeping Gregory.

It’d been relatively easy to grab him. Just like Clay thought, he’d been loitering outside Jacqueline’s shop earlier today.

Waiting to ambush me again when I left with this week’s book order.

But it was him who was ambushed. One good clock to the back of his skull by Clay and we had him in the back of the Jeep.

The pack kept a small store of bindstone in the safe in Ry’s old office.

It didn’t look like much except a hunk of rock, but apparently if worn around a witch’s neck, it prevented them from accessing their powers.

Blocked their ability to draw energy from the earth.

I wouldn’t pretend to understand how it worked, but I was grateful it did.

The only other way, by my understanding, was to blind them and sever their hands, and I wasn’t quite prepared to go that far, even if my wolf heartily disagreed with me.

“I still don’t think we should’ve brought him here,” I groused to Jared, the tension returning to my muscles as we rounded the edge of the cabin and the moon chamber came into view, the stone painted in gold from the setting sun.

“There was nowhere else to take him,” Jared replied. “We’ll make sure he’s either blindfolded or unconscious when we bring him back to town and cut him loose. He won’t be able to get back here on his own, and if he tries, then it’ll be his funeral.”

I hadn’t needed to use the moon chamber for a long time.

Another perk of being the twin soul wolf.

But Layla and Viv had to use it for their first year of moon-triggered shifts, give or take.

In the beginning, it was almost impossible to control the inner wolf during a moon-forced shift.

Which was why they needed to be chained, to keep them from lashing out or hurting anyone, or god forbid, wind up biting another human.

Now, the only being chained in the moon chamber was a witch. He slouched against the wall about halfway down the length of the chamber. His hands chained at his back, anchored into the wall. A rock on a leather cord strapped around his neck, resting against his clavicle.

Clay’s upper lip curled as he watched the witch slowly come to. Moaning and squirming like a babe.

I shucked off the weaker Allie and left her at the threshold, barring her from following me inside. This wasn’t the time to let my anxieties get the better of me. I needed answers, and I needed them now.

For Trey and Todd. For Luke.

“Gregory,” I said by way of greeting, barely recognizing my own voice as I went to stand next to Clay in front of our captor. “Thought I told you to stay out of my town?”

He spat on the dirt floor and squirmed against his binds, glancing down at the stone resting below his throat. He grimaced, looking pale as he realized what it was.

“Bindstone? Where did you get it? I thought we’d destroyed all that was left.”

Clearly they hadn’t, but I wasn’t here to talk about a stupid rock.

“I’m going to cut to the chase,” I said, lowering into a crouch to put myself at eye level with him. “We seem to be short a few members of our pack.”

I studied his expression, searching for any evidence of falsehood while I asked the direct question. “Are you responsible for their disappearances?”

His brows scrunched together, brown eyes flaring with something I couldn’t name beneath the surface. My wolf growled and the sound came from my still- human lips.

“Answer me,” I gritted out between my teeth, a tremor rattling down my spine and raising the hairs on my arms.

“What is this?” he asked, and I scented the first whiff of fear evaporating from his flesh. “You have no right to hold me here. If you release me now, I will not report this to the council.”

Rage tightened my core, heating me from the inside out as I resisted my wolf’s urge to bite his head off and be done with it.

“Allie,” Jared warned in a low voice from somewhere behind me, probably sensing my murderous intent. I didn’t care.

“If you don’t tell me what I want to know, you won’t be going anywhere.”

My voice came out stone cold and so devoid of emotion I had to wonder if it was even my own.

I would not stand for anyone hurting the people I cared about.

I would not allow my family to be messed with.

It was my job to protect them, and it was the one thing I would not fail at. Not while I was still breathing.

Gregory seemed to be judging my sincerity, his gaze narrowing while his breathing picked up a tick.

“Fine,” I muttered when he didn’t speak. “Have it your way.”

Clay darted forward like he would stop me, but I already had my hand wrapped firmly around the witch’s ankle, and a beat before Clay could reach me, it snapped beneath my palm and Gregory’s scream echoed into the night.

His eyes welled, and he cursed repeatedly, staring wide-eyed at his broken ankle like he could heal it by sheer force of will. For all I knew, maybe he could. But he wouldn’t be doing that with a hunk of bindstone around his neck.

“Allie, we should—”

“Don’t,” I snapped at Jared, raising a hand to silence him. My rage was enough to chase away the guilt of not allowing him to rein me in. I didn’t need to be reined in right now. I needed to be let loose.

My wolf ached for freedom. She wanted to see how his slender neck would feel with our jaws around it. I licked my lips.

“Talk,” I barked at him. “Talk or I break the other one.”

“You crazy bitch!”

Wrong answer.

This time, Clay and Jared didn’t bother stopping me as the bones in his other ankle crunched and then snapped. They did nothing even when a bit of jagged white tore through his flesh and bright crimson glinted in the moonlight as it ran down into the earth.

Bile rose in my throat, and I gagged on it, but managed to keep it down. Managed to keep a straight face. The weaker Allie I left at the door was begging me to stop, but I couldn’t.

This bastard was a threat to us. My bones sang with the truth of it. My heart recognized a snake in the grass when it saw one.

Trust your gut.

It was what my dad always used to tell me. What Hazel told me. And it hadn’t steered me wrong yet.

“Still think I’m bluffing, asshole?”

I reached for his kneecap, and he dragged himself back from me, wincing and shaking, until he was pressed up against the stone wall.

“Stop,” he cried. “You fucking heathen, just stop and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“Everything,” I hissed.

His lips parted and a worried crease formed in his brow, but then he sighed and dropped his head. Resigning himself to betraying whatever confidence the Arcane Council member had in him.

He sucked a breath in through his teeth as a cool breeze funneled through the moon chamber, whistling over his broken skin.

“Start with where the fuck my friends are.”

His jaw twitched and I couldn’t see his expression because of the shadows from his hair falling over his forehead, but he shook his head. “I don’t know where your missing shifters are.”

“Liar!”

He snapped his gaze back up and glared at me. “It’s the truth!”

I didn’t believe him, not for one second, but I’d play along for a minute.

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s like I said; I’m here to bring you to speak to a representative of the Arcane Council.”

“Get Hazel,” I shot to Jared. This clown may be able to lie to me, but he wouldn’t be able to hide his nature from her.

He left a second later, and I stood, taking a steadying breath. It was a damn good thing Hazel was blind. I didn’t want her seeing what I’d done to the witch, though I was sure she’d be able to smell the sweet tang of his blood soaking into the earthen flood.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Why? Why does he want to speak to me?”

The witch slouched against the wall, his breathing evening back out. If he thought I was out of danger just because I’d stood up and moved two steps away, he was mistaken.