Page 165 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

She nodded again, and I snatched her up, pulling her hard to my chest for an awkward, trembling embrace. My heart squeezed in my chest. Alive. They were all still alive.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked in a watery voice. “Why betray your pack?”

She chewed her bottom lip and wrote something out near the hem of the gown and passed it to me.

You’re good. He’s not.

She had that all wrong. The part about me being good anyway, but I didn’t argue. “How much longer?”

Piper considered, listening closely to the sounds of the forest outside. She held up a one and five apologetically, and I ground my teeth. How the fuck was I supposed to sit here uselessly for fifteen more minutes.

“Do you know where he went? Where Devin went?” She shook her head, and a chill snaked through me.

I had to believe he wasn’t going after Clay and Jared, at least not yet.

Piper settled into silence, sinking down to sit cross legged with a fresh swath of gown in her lap. She set to drawing something, and I peered over her shoulder in the dim light to find the beginnings of a map.

“Hey,” I interrupted, crouching down to her level. “You can’t stay here. He’ll know you helped me. Your scent is bound to be all over this room by now.”

She frowned, though it certainly didn’t seem like news to her.

I wrinkled my nose. She knew he’d kill her and still helped me anyway. I couldn’t say I condoned what she’d likely done in helping him build this army, or in getting my mate’s sister killed for switching sides, but…

I understood what it was like to feel like you didn’t have a choice. I knew the urge for self-preservation above all else was the hardest thing to give up.

“Come with me.”

She cocked her head at me.

“Come with me, and if we survive...if I can kill him...you’ll have a place with my pack.”

Her eyes filled with unshed tears and instead of trying to write anything, she snatched my hand, squeezing it in what I could only assume was a form of thanks.

“Don’t thank me, yet,” I muttered. “There’s a pretty good chance neither of us will survive until tomorrow.

” A lump formed in my throat as I tried to come up with some semblance of a plan.

I needed to rescue my packmates before anything else, even though my heart yearned to make a beeline straight for my mates.

I owed it to them to save them and once that witch had his hands on them, there was no telling where they’d wind up.

I may not be able to find them then. I couldn’t risk that.

Okay, find the shifters Devin has captive, free them, then what?

The taste of blood filled my mouth as I bit down too hard on my cheek trying to think of a way out of this, but I was coming up empty.

Fuck.

Okay, first things first. Get the hostages freed and then work out the rest.

Like Jared would’ve said: one step at a time.

A gentle tap on my arm drew my attention back to Piper and the new message she had written over the top of the map.

I was coming to find your pack when he found me first, it said. He promised me safety if I helped him. If it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t have so many shifters in his pack. He used my ability against them.

She signed that she was sorry and it was one gesture I did remember from that old textbook.

“You were coming to find my pack?” I asked, not needing the explanation of the rest. Devin could be very convincing and quite charming when he needed to be.

Besides, I had no doubt this poor girl was hated everywhere she went.

No one wanted someone being privy to their private thoughts.

I could imagine the trials she would’ve had to face in trying to find a pack, and everyone knew that being a lone wolf wasn’t the safest way to live as our kind.

I heard you took in same sex mated pairs and that you had a seer and had mated to two shifters. I thought if anyone could understand, it would be you. I had no idea Devin was after you. None of us knew until it was too late to do anything to stop him.

She didn’t have to tell me the rest. The way he treated Piper now told me all I needed to know.

She’d helped him of her own free will at first, not knowing the truth that hid behind carefully crafted smiles and an easy laugh.

And when she decided she didn’t want to help him anymore, he made her anyway.

I patted her leg, practically bouncing on the balls of my feet in anticipation of getting the fuck out of here. “You don’t need to explain to me. I know him. I understand. I may not be able to promise you safety, but I can promise you freedom.”

She nodded resolutely, discarding the remaining nub of pencil with the shirt on the floor. She held up five fingers.

Five more minutes.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and both of us jumped at the sound, sharing a look. I was almost afraid to breathe and break the spell.

If it rained, our scent would be harder to track. Hell, if it rained hard enough, it would be near impossible.

We listened intently as the first droplets began to fall, a dark cloud passing over the sun above, erasing the shadows on the stairs.

A wide grin split my face and deep within, awoken by a new hope, my wolf lifted her weary head.