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Hearing the question, Jon crossed to the beta and pressed his fingers against the side of his throat. He looked at Isaac and shook his head.

“I’m sorry. Juan didn’t survive.” Despite the apology, Isaac felt no pity. Juan was almost as vile as Elias. He had murdered without remorse and tortured Akari to send a message to Zion. Isaac knew nothing about Riverside pack, but they had to be a better alternative than the exotics. Didn’t they?

The wolf coughed, eyes squeezing shut. “My pack is done. We don’t stand a chance without a leader.”

“Where’d they take the females?” Isaac asked coldly.

“Don’t know.” He coughed again, even more violently and blood sprayed from his mouth. “Not my… problem… anymore.” He slumped, chin dropping to his chest as his breath rattled out and then stopped.

With a deep sigh, Isaac stood and looked around. Two of the wolves clung to life. The rest were dead.

The medic did his best to save the final two wolves. Unfortunately, their wounds were too severe, and they had lost too much blood. Within an hour all eight wolves were dead.

Discouraged by the outcome, Isaac crossed to where Jon and Kyle stood. The wolf bodies were being loaded onto a hover cart, so they didn’t really need to be here. Still, Isaac couldn’t make himself leave.

“Scan the room. Can you tell when this happened?” What he really wanted to know was could they have prevented the attack if they’d left immediately after Tara’s vision.

“I’ve already tried,” Kyle told him. “I can’t pin down an exact time.”

“Then it’s a good thing Juan showed me what happened,” Jon offered with a secretive smile. “We couldn’t have made it in time even if we left immediately last night.”

“How did Juan show you anything?” Isaac objected. “He was already dead.”

“I was wrong. He was unconscious, not dead,” Jon told him.

“Juan arrived while they were playing with Dawn and he was furious. He’d left specific orders that the females were not to be touched.

Clearly, they were touching Dawn. The argument became a fight, and the fight turned into a coup.

Alex, the Riverside alpha, showed up with half his pack and we saw the results.

Riverside pack now rules the village, which means they control the captives. ”

“Did Juan tell you where they took the women?” Kyle asked hopefully.

Jon shook his head. “Juan didn’t tell me anything. I just watched his memory, which ended as Alex hurried the women out of the cave.”

“Damn it.” Isaac heaved another sigh. “I really wanted to do this for Tara. It would have been the perfect wedding gift.”

“They had to have taken them back to the lupine village,” Jon mused, rather than responding to Isaac’s complaint. “There are not that many places to hide a bunch of females.”

“We had no idea this place existed and it’s right under our noses,” Isaac pointed out. “There could be other places like this all over the planet.”

“Let’s go talk to Elias,” Kyle suggested. “If he finds out that Riverside pack just wrested power away from him, he might be willing to help us.”

“It’s worth a try,” Isaac conceded.

Most of the standby troops had already dispersed when Isaac reached the clearing where they had been waiting. “Where the hell is our mate?” he demanded of the first soldier they came to.

“She wanted to return to the village, so we escorted her back.”

Releasing his pent-up breath, Isaac said, “Very good, and thank you.” It wasn’t their job to babysit females, and he needed to stop taking out his frustration on everyone around him.

“You can just beat the shit out of Elias instead,” Jon suggested. “It might make you feel better.”

“I’ll beat the shit out of him after we question him,” Isaac responded with a halfhearted smile.

Knowing that cheering up Tara was going to take some time, Isaac, Jon, and Kyle went directly to the lodge.

Not surprisingly, two of the guardians were updating Zion when they arrived.

Zion looked nearly as frustrated as Isaac felt.

The pride leader finished his conversation with his guardians then approached Shadow Team One.

“Your mate will doubtlessly give you hell, so I won’t bother berating you,” Zion began. “Was there anything you could have done differently that would have changed the outcome?”

“I don’t believe so, sir,” Isaac told him stiffly. He felt defensive, but wasn’t sure why. Zion was being more understanding than usual. “Jon was able to memory share with Juan before he died. He witnessed the entire attack. It began moments after we learned how to find the entrance.”

Zion nodded. “The medic confirms your timeline. Most of the wolves had been dead for hours.”

“We would like to question Elias,” Kyle told Zion. “See if he might be willing to share dirt on his enemy.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath, but you’re welcome to try.”

Isaac led his team down to the detention level. Now that Babcock was dead, Elias was the sole occupant. Isaac nodded to the guards and one of them scanned open the door leading to the row of cells.

“Come to gloat?” Elias snarled. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Well, this is definitely not going to improve your mood,” Isaac predicted. He moved to stand in front of Elias. The wolf sat on the edge of his bunk, hands folded in his lap. “Juan is dead along with the others on duty in the cave. Riverside pack is now in control of the lupine village.”

Clearly shocked by the news, Elias pushed to his feet and approached the energy barrier. “Are you sure Juan is dead? He…” Elias closed his eyes and his features went blank. He was likely trying to contact his beta telepathically. “How many did I lose?”

“There were eight in the cave, including Juan,” Isaac told him. “We have no idea what took place once they reached your village.”

“I knew Riverside was dissatisfied, but this is unbelievable.” He began pacing his cell. It only took three small steps to cover the space, so it wasn’t much of a trek. “I didn’t think Alex had the balls.”

“Well, he clearly does,” Jon sneered. “He just slaughtered eight of your men and kidnapped twenty-some potential mates. Do you have anything to say about that?”

“He’ll take them to his mountain stronghold,” Elias said, staring off into space. “The village will be too volatile until Riverside pack establishes their dominance.”

Elias sounded emotionless, empty. If Isaac didn’t know all the atrocities this bastard had committed, he might feel sorry for him. “How long will that take?”

“Weeks, maybe months.”

“Are the women safe until then?”

He looked at Isaac and scoffed. “Hardly. Alex will bury his cock in one of them before nightfall and the rest will go to the most trusted members of his pack.” He turned his head again, staring into nothingness.

“You think I’m a monster. I know that. But we’re all just trying to survive.

Good luck with Alex. He’s much more ruthless than I’ve ever been.

” Without warning, Elias transformed his fingers into claws and tore out his own throat.

Blood gushed from the gaping wound, and he was dead before he hit the floor.

Determined not to scream at her mates the moment they walked through the door, Tara anxiously paced their living room.

They were up at the lodge. The soul bond was nice that way.

Never again would she wonder where they were.

She could sense their locations. She could sense all sorts of other things too.

She knew that the women hadn’t been in the cave.

There had been some sort of uprising, and a bunch of wolves were dead.

She wasn’t sure if this meant the captives were in more danger or less.

All she knew was she wanted it to be over, and it wasn’t.

Claire was still a captive. Dawn had likely been claimed.

And the other human females were still in danger.

The door opened a few minutes later and her mates strode in. She took a deep breath, meaning to unload on them. But all three looked stunned. “What happened? Why did you go to the lodge?”

Isaac walked right past her as if she wasn’t there and printed himself a double shot of whisky.

“Print a bottle,” Kyle suggested. “It’s going to take more than one drink to get that image out of my head.”

“What image?” she asked, her annoyance turning to concern. “What in the world just happened?”

Isaac tossed back the shot then printed a bottle before he spoke. “We went to question Elias about the other packs.”

“Riverside pack is trying to take control,” Kyle interjected. “The wolves are in the middle of a pack war.”

“Meaning the captives are in the middle of a pack war,” Tara said, her voice tremulous.

“Elias knew his days were numbered.” Isaac crossed the room and handed Jon the whisky bottle and a stack of tumblers. “He had nowhere left to turn.”

“He answered all Isaac’s questions, then ripped out his own throat,” Jon told her.

She gasped, then covered her mouth with her hand. What did you say to someone who’d just witnessed that? “I’m sorry,” she whispered helplessly.

Isaac looked at her and shook away his stupor. “We’ve seen far worse, love. It was just shocking to see someone do it to themselves.”

“We weren’t expecting him to react so… negatively.” Kyle shook his head and forced himself to smile, but his gaze was still deeply shadowed. “Give us a few minutes to process. We’ll be fine.”

Tara moved to the couch and sat down. She sat quietly and let her mates work through their emotions in their own way. Kyle grew talkative, but he refused to talk about work. Jon brooded. Isaac moved to the workstation and began researching the Riverside pack.

A couple of hours passed before they were ready for a meaningful conversation.

“Elias said Alex likely took them to his mountain stronghold,” Isaac began. “I think I’ve found it. I hate to delegate this to anyone, but it’s close to the raptor village. One of the birds could fly over there and check it out without the wolves thinking anything of it.”