Chapter 1 #2
“Who are they?” She’s starting to shake, her eyes searching the woods for more shifters.
“My pack. They won’t touch you. I promise.” My assurance doesn’t calm her.
“Garrett,” Hayden calls in that cautionary voice of his.
I hold out a silencing hand behind me, telling them to maintain their position.
And form. If Hayden shifts, she’ll see he’s a white wolf.
The only white wolves up north are from the Novak clan and they have a well-earned reputation as brutal, unstable wolves.
Even though Hayden’s one of us now, revealing his heritage will undermine what little trust I’ve gained with this female.
“She’s the bait,” Callen says.
“No, she isn’t,” I snap, even though I know he’s right the second he says it.
Carter had caught the highly alluring scent of a female wolf, followed it straight into a canyon sealed off by the WSSO.
Only his agility and knowledge of these woods kept him from capture.
I glance upward to the canyon walls ahead.
Narrow ledges carve a jagged but climbable path toward the upper plateau.
Now it makes sense. He didn’t run. He climbed.
My wolf’s hackles rise at the thought that I’m walking into the same trap. I inhale a deep breath. There’s nothing here except fresh snow, decaying pine needles, skunk, frozen juniper, elk droppings, and the distant musk of deer. All nearly drowned out by Angelina’s intoxicating scent.
I push her scent out of my nostrils so I may focus on getting her out of here and hold my hand out to her. “Come with us, Angelina. You don’t belong here.”
Blue eyes lock onto me as she shakes her head and mouths I can’t.
“Fall back,” Hayden orders, the bite of his voice warning us of the impending trap.
I refuse to move. My hand remains outstretched and unwavering. I don’t care what her involvement with the WSSO is. I’m not losing another female.
“Go ahead, Garrett. I’ll be fine.” She throws me a reassuring smile, but it doesn’t reach those clear blue eyes.
A hand clamps down on my right shoulder and pulls me back. Forgetting my place, I turn and swing at Hayden.
“Enough, Garrett.” He motions toward Callen who has already shifted to wolf form and is guarding our flank. They sense danger here, even though there’s no evidence of any.
“This is the trap,” Hayden says, no attempt to keep his comments between us. “She’s part of it.”
That scent I’ve indulged in for too long starts to fade. I spin around to speak with Angelina.
She’s gone. It doesn’t matter how many times I inhale, the wind has died, making it impossible to pick up her scent. “I can track her.”
“That’s what they want. To lead you into a trap. The same trap Carter barely escaped.” His eyes follow the same narrow ledges I spotted moments ago. “And I’m sure they have people waiting at the top as well.”
“She’s not part of it,” I bite back, even though deep down I know she is.
Frank circles in from the left. He’s been listening in, keeping his distance. They all do that these days.
“Come on, Gare.” Frank musses my head, as if I’m a newbie instead of the pack’s retrieval expert. Maybe that’s because I’m acting more like some poor sot who doesn’t know his ass from his head. I know what they’re seeing. I just see past the lie. They don’t.
“Angelina’s not part of this. She’s not luring shifters. Not willingly.”
“She’s not the first shifter to work with the WSSO,” Hayden says, almost a note of sympathy in his voice. “Time to go home.” He signals Frank and Callen to retreat. We’ve been here too long..
Hayden won’t shift, not until I do. I can see it in how he glances at me in between scanning the woods. Damien’s probably told him to keep a close eye on me because I haven’t been myself lately. Not with the anniversary of Marla’s death coming up.
“We’ll discuss the female back at the pack. We have what we came for.”
“What is that precisely?” My stomach’s knotting, as if I screwed up the mission, failed my pack. Again.
“Intel. On the enemy.”
“Angelina’s not the enemy. She’s a shifter, one of us.”
“She’s working with the WSSO, which makes her the enemy. Worse, a turncoat.”
“You know all about turncoats, don’t you, Hayden?”
His hand wraps around my throat like a steel vise. “I’ve fought, bled, and nearly lost my mate for this pack. No one, not even Damien’s cousin, will question my loyalty ever again.” He’s right, but I’m in no position to talk.
Without waiting for me to agree, he removes his hand.
“It wasn’t a slight.”
“Bullshit.”
Right again. I drag my hand over my face. “Sorry.”
“I don’t want your useless apologies. Just get your head on straight before someone dies.
We need you. You’re a talented shifter, one Damien and the pack relies on, as do the innocent shifters we rescue.
” His hand clamps down on my shoulder, firm but not aggressive like before, as he turns me away from the canyon.
Hayden’s not one to hold a grudge, but I am.
If only I could figure out who I’m mad at. Callen, Frank, Hayden or myself?
With one last glance at where Angelina last stood, that beautiful face trying to hide her fear as she pleaded with me to leave, I shift and follow behind my packmates.
My wolf claws at me as I race through the woods, Frank and Callen to either side of me and Hayden.
Every instinct tells me to relent control to my wolf.
I don’t. He’ll turn around and track Angelina, which is precisely what I want him to do.
Even if his instincts are more reliable than mine right now, shifters follow orders.
Even when it goes against every instinct, every fiber of their being…