Page 14 of Wolf Sacrificed

He pointed a finger at me. “Your brother might have been a little out of his mind, but he was loyal. We will remember him by pushing forward with our crusade.”

I ground my teeth but kept digging. “He also wouldn’t want to see anything happen to either of us. I think you need time to grieve.”

My dad tossed his shovel. It smacked against a tree with a crack. “Grief is something I don’t have time for. It makes you weak. Distracted. That is something we cannot afford.”

I ducked my head. “I’m sorry.”

Dad glared at me, watching as I continued to dig. “It should be your traitor brother we are burying. Not Mikey.”

My chest tightened, and I cleared my throat and swallowed down the thick lump. “You don’t think there’s any chance of reconciling with Lincoln?”

My dad stomped around the shallow grave and shoved me. “Lincoln is not my son. He’s not your brother. He betrayed us and then murdered Mikey in cold blood.”

I sidestepped and continued to shovel. “I’m sorry. I know. I just wanted to make sure. This is hard for me too, Dad. We’re all each other has left.”

Mikey might have been insane, but he was my brother, and Dad… Well, he would always be my father.

Dad’s face fell, and his eyes shimmered. He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I know, son. I’m sorry.”

His face grew haunted as he stared at my mother’s grave. “I promised myself and your mother when I buried her I would watch out for you three boys. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The three of you were…”

My heart thudded painfully as I glanced at my father. He blinked a few times, ensuring the brimming tears never fell.

He lunged for me, and I stiffened, taking a step back until his arms circled me in a bear hug. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Sawyer. You have my word.”

I froze in his arms. The familiar embrace flashed me back to when I was a child, and there was no love like that of my father and mother. For a second, I envisioned my younger self and relaxed in his hold.

The instant he pulled away, the moment shattered.

He rubbed at his jaw and shook his head as he looked vacantly at Mikey’s body. “The only way I can protect you is by making sure this world is a safer place.”

I opened my mouth, but he continued before I could speak up.

“We have to bring all the packs under us.”

I clamped my mouth shut and dug again.

He stomped across the ground, his feet squelching in the wet mud as he retrieved his shovel. “Once we have a large pack, we will be untouchable.”

I huffed and tossed the fresh mud off to the side. “Sloane’s pack has proven resilient. Are you sure we should go after them again so soon?”

Dad grinned, his eyes sparkling. “We won’t. Not yet. They have lost their alpha, and Lincoln and that stupid girl think they can play alpha. They’ll turn on her faster than we can get there.”

He waved his hand and then started to dig again. “Let them pick each other apart. It will make taking them so much easier in a few weeks.”

I jammed the tip of my shovel into the ground, hesitating a moment before I moved the earth. “So we are going to take time to regroup, then?”

Dad threw his head back and cackled. I shuddered. Whatever sweet moment we’d had vanished. The maniac who had taken over my dad had returned.

His shovel sank into the mud, and he heaved it over to the side. “No. We can’t lose our momentum now. We’ve finally started gaining steam. We’ve gained more men these past few months than we have the past few years. Alphas are seeking us out to join our ranks.”

I stopped shoveling, watching as the loose earth splatted back into the hole. “Then what’s the plan?”

Dad grinned. “There is a pack about four hours from here. Charles Denning is the alpha. One of the other guys was telling me about them. They only have about thirty members. We will focus our attention there in the next few days. Overtake them. By the time that is finished, the other alphas should have turned on Lincoln’s bitch.”

I saw red. I flexed my hands on the wooden edge of the shovel so hard that I chipped it and gave myself a splinter. I gaped at my palm, blinking, the sliver long and in deep.

He had no right to talk about Sloane like that. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something that would give my true position away.

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