Page 152 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

“I don’t know,” he insisted, and the scent of his fear wrinkled my nose even in my human form. All sour and sweet. “But I know that y-you...that your pack is his endgame. He’s been g-getting us all ready for this s- since my pack joined.”

I nodded, surmising that he was telling the truth. If he knew more, I had no doubt he’d say it. “Okay,” I gritted out, my teeth near cracking at the tension in my jaw. “Fine. Where is he keeping the shifters he captured?”

He curled in on himself, lowering his head as though waiting for the blade to drop.

“Hey!” I shouted. “You tell me where they are or I’ll—”

“I don’t know!” he cried, panting, his entire body trembling. “I s-s-swear I don’t. Th-This was my first run with the attack crew. We were supposed to t-take that one,” he glanced briefly at Jared, his Adam’s apple bobbing, “straight to the alpha. He said he wanted to handle him himself.”

My wolf almost leapt out from my throat and swallowed the kid whole, but I managed to rein her in at the last second, my own body trembling with the effort of keeping her caged.

Just wait, I urged myself. Urged my wolf. We’ll have our revenge. We just need to wait.

“The others he c-captured aren’t at pack camp. He keeps them s-somewhere else. Nobody knows where except his inner circle.”

Sam. Would Sam know?

Vivian shifted in a lupine cry of anguish that morphed into a very human shriek in the span of one shared breath.

“He’s lying!” she hissed, stepping forward with her hands extended, her fingers tipped with deadly sharp claws that didn’t look at all like they were receding.

“Viv!” I warned, and she hesitated, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Guilt lashed through me like the biting edge of a whip at the sight of her ribcage, clearly visible through her pale skin.

I turned my attention back to the boy. “If you’re lying—”

“I’m not,” he choked out through sobs. “I p-promise.

I would tell you if I knew. I would.”

Vivian’s glowing eyes met mine, frantically searching my gaze as though I might have a better answer for her than this boy did.

“Where is his camp?”

“We move every c-couple of days. We’re on the eastern s-side of Mt. Hood right now.”

Far, but not that far. Jared told me that Mt. Hood was home to more than three small packs a long time ago, but after a battle between them leaving only one the victor, none wanted to remain there anymore. They abandoned their camp and moved south. Mt. Hood was no-man’s-land now.

“Devin wants something,” I muttered, trying to think through the red haze of my rage tainting my every thought. Think, Allie.

“And he’s not going to stop until he gets whatever it is.”

I bit my lower lip so hard I tasted blood, and the tang of it combined with the sharp bite of pain brought me the clarity I needed to make the call.

“Tell your alpha I want to meet.”

“Allie, what the fuck are you doing?” Clay’s growl came from the trees as he charged back to where the rest of us stood, his face a shade of red that might’ve scared me once upon a time.

I clenched my fists and stood my ground. “I’ll meet him at the eastern border of my territory. There’s a lacrosse field there at the college in Beaverton. Saturday at noon. I’ll be waiting at the northern entrance under the bleachers. He knows the spot.”

Bile rose in my throat at the memory of his hands on my body. How I’d craved his touch. How I’d let him in. How I let him drag me beneath the bleachers when I should have been watching my best friend’s lacrosse championship game.

The boy looked like he was either going to shit himself or pass out in relief. “Y-you’re letting me go?”

“Run. Before I change my mind.”

He pressed himself up from the ground on shaky legs, cautiously glancing at the giant wolves and furious humans who all looked like they’d rather take a bite out of him than let him leave.

“This is a mistake,” Clay hissed under his breath as Jared shifted back to his human form, a vacant look in his eyes.

“Go!” I all but screamed at the boy and he tripped in his haste to flee, scrambling to get back to his feet and shift back into his wolf form.

“We should have killed him,” Jared said plainly. His face pale. “Clay wanted to and I stopped him. If we’d killed him—”

Clay hauled off and slammed his fist into the nearest tree, sending wood splinters scattering into the air with the force of the blow.

A bloody smear was left in the mangled trunk, but he didn’t even seem to feel the injury as he tore the lowest branches clean off the thing and threw them to shatter against other trees.

His emotions wreaked havoc on my already chaotic thoughts and my tenuous hold on my control. I clenched my body tighter, willing my wolf to give me the inner peace I needed right now. The level headedness of an alpha. A leader.

“Clay,” I called in a low voice, waiting as he unleashed his rage on the forest around us while Charity and Seth dutifully remained in their wolf forms, keeping their ears pricked to any sign of approach and Viv and Jared stood mutely by. Angry and numb.

“Clay,” I tried again, and he whirled on me, face a mask of pain.

“What?” he demanded in a voice not quite fully human.

“You were ordered to let him leave pack territory by Ryland. That was his punishment. If you had disobeyed—”

“And what about after?” he demanded, stepping up to me until he was so close I could smell his sweat. Hear the hammering pulse of his heartbeat. He put his face in mine. “After you became our alpha and I stopped keeping tabs on him, hmmm? I should have gone after him. I should have ended him.”

“I wouldn’t have let you.”

His upper lip twitched as he rolled his shoulders back, challenging me. Clay would never hurt me, I knew that, and yet for a fleeting second I wondered if he might really lose his control this time.

Guilt crushed me as his hands gripped my arms and yanked me to his chest, pressing me against the dirt and sweat, tucking my head beneath his chin. “This is my fault,” he said in an exhale, his body twitching as the muscles attempted to relax with the adrenaline still flowing through them.

I pushed him away. “No, it’s not.”

I sent a pointed look at Jared, urging him to meet my gaze. “It isn’t either of your faults. It’s mine.”

Jared opened his mouth like he might disagree, but I shook my head. “It doesn’t fucking matter now, does it? I’m assuming he wants some kind of revenge against us for forcing him out of Forest Grove. For me denying him.”

“Then you can’t go there,” Vivian said. “You can’t meet him. It might be exactly what he wants.”

I knew it must have pained her greatly to admit that, especially since meeting with him might’ve been the only way for us to find Destiny and the others. But there was one other possibility…

“I’m not,” I told her, making all the others turn spurious looks my way. “Haven’t you ever seen a movie? Read a book?”

“What are you saying?” Jared asked, his brows lowering.

“We’re going to plant a phone there. And at noon on Saturday, we’re going to call it.”

Surprise flashed across Clay’s eyes, and he cocked his head at me like he never knew I could be so crafty. Dick.

“Guess there is a use for all those books you read besides getting you all hot and—”

“Ew,” Vivian interrupted, looking like she might vomit.

“Everyone cool with this plan?”

They all nodded, Seth and Charity included with slight inclines of their lupine heads.

“Good. There’s just one more thing.”

I sent an apologetic look Clay’s way, but this was it. It couldn’t be avoided any longer. They needed to know. And as soon as we got back, we needed to find out what Sam knew.

If she knew where Destiny and the others were being kept this whole fucking time, I would feed her to Vivian.

“What?” Vivian asked, and I could tell she was internally bracing for what I’d say next.

“It’s Sam. She’s been lying to all of us.”