Page 88 of Revenge of the Blood Pack

Asha

It’s another three hours’drive until we finally approach our destination. The terrain breaks, and mountains rise from the desert waste, their slopes robed in green pines. The road slithers up the grade. The sleepy miles of empty, tan expanse give way to vigilance. Yet everyone watches the trees, expecting something to leap out from behind them.

“What’s the plan exactly here?” I ask, breaking the silence.

All eyes focus on Max.

He stays staring straight ahead when he answers. “We go in as Enforcers under the cover of just checking things out. We find your pack members. We make it clear that they’re coming with us and that if there’s a problem, all hell will break loose with the Enforcers. They won’t want that, and we’ll remove your pack members. Then, with the victims as proof, the Enforcers will come in and handle the Raven Pack.”

“Or?” Braxton asks, lifting a brow.

“Or?” Max repeats with an edge of irritation.

I look between them, intrigued. I’m still trying to figure out their whole relationship. Braxton seems to respect Max as his brother and his commander, but he also seems to want to handle things in a completely different way than Max.

Braxton huffs after a few seconds of silence. “What if it isn’t that easy? Are we prepared to go nuclear?”

Nuclear. That sounds a hell of a lot better than Max’s limp-dicked Enforcer plan.

“Same question,” I say, trying to ignore the surge of bloodlust that awakens inside of me at the thought of just letting these bastards get away with everything they’ve done.

Max checks his mirrors, but I suspect he’s buying himself time. “We can’t take on a whole pack…”

“Maybe I can,” I say.

Max glances at me. “Is that really what you want to do? Become…”

I realize he’s picturing my brother. What he became in that town in order to cause that much death and pain. No, I don’t want to become that. Every time I use that kind of magic, I change. I feel the call of the darkness more.

Sweat beads my forehead, and I swear I see dark wisps at the edge of my vision. Fuck. I hate thinking about it. Thinking about it breathes life into the monster that haunts me.

“Asha?” Max asks.

I snap back to the conversation. “Maybe we try to be careful. If we can.”

“It’s always smart not to strike when the odds are against us unless given no other option,” Orson says from beside Braxton.

Braxton rolls his eyes. “Super helpful.”

I give him a look.

He gives me a dark look back, and I get the sense he doesn’t like me defending Orson. Even with a look. In response, I stickmy tongue out, then turn back around.There.It wasn’t mature, but it’s a reminder that he can’t tell me what to do, even silently.

Clouds darken the sky overhead and a shiver rolls through me. My moment of happiness passes, and I start to wonder again about what we’ll see soon. My pack members. But who? Who survived that I wasn’t aware of?

A hundred faces move through my mind. Men, women, and children. The instant I think of some of them, I picture their dead bodies in the street. The next face I remember is in the Blood Mage’s prisons, being tortured alongside me. Somehow, I can’t think of anyone that would have survived, and the mystery is its own unique kind of torture.

Then, there’s beyond that. How the fuck are we going to save my people? Max seems so confident that his Enforcer status will be enough, but I remember this pack. Wolves that turned on other shifters. Who killed women and children in the streets.

Being an Enforcer seems like unlikely protection.

Max turns off the main road and ascends a single-lane dirt path. The SUV pitches side to side with every bump and rock it rolls over. It distracts me from my nerves, which is an unbelievable blessing.

At last, we lurch to a stop and I look over at Max in confusion.

“Hoof it from here,” he says, then gives my knee a quick squeeze, as if he senses my apprehension.

I point at the dirt path that continues up the mountain. “There’s more road but no village in sight.”

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