Page 95 of Resisted

A growl erupted from my throat, and Rig’s hand clamped down on my mouth before he brought his lips to my ear. “Shh! If they hear you now, cub, we’ll never be able to save them.” At the rate we were going, I’d never get the chance. Not when Rig refused to let me go help and all three of my men were wrapped and shackled in chains. “You need to wait for the right moment.”

The room filled with smoke that slowly seeped to where we were hiding, making it impossible to see what was going on. “When is the fucking right moment, Rig? I can’t see them now.”

Panic began to bubble up, clawing at my insides as it worked its way to freedom, but Rig never let the panic escape. His grip tightened, and his hand covered my mouth again. “If you run in there blindly now, how is that going to be helpful?” He paused as if I could possibly answer the question with his fucking hand covering my mouth. “It won’t. What you see is Vince, Boyce, and Silas out of the game, what I see is a plan that Roth most definitely orchestrated. I trust Roth.”

“I don—”

He cut me off. “With my life. I trust Roth with my life, Bella. This was all part of their plan.”

He didn’t know that. He couldn’t know that. A room filled smoke couldn’t have possibly been in Roth’s plan. How could he have predicted that? Who could have really predicted that? But as the smoke began to clear, it had become apparent that Roth was in control and even through the obscured visibility, he’d managed to get the upper hand in the fight. Whatever deal they had set, whatever reason that Vincent and Boyce turned themselves over for, hadn’t seemed to bother Roth. He and his team moved forward, ready to win by any means necessary.

Rig reassured me again. “I trust them, Bella. All of them.”

But those were my men out there in chains. My mate, who was barely lucid from abuse. My trust in Roth wasn’t as great as his. Not when the guys that belonged to me were suffering.

Not yet.Boyce’s voice in my head felt so damn unfamiliar, so foreign, but so fucking right, I reeled back from the unexpected invasion.

Boyce?I said, trying to make sure I wasn’t hearing things.

Yeah, Bella. It’s me. Listen, do not go yet. It’s not time.

Time? Time for what? How would I know when it was time?Time?

He’ll be all yours, Bella. I know you can do it.

Who?But that spot where Boyce once was present was silent. I was shut off from him, alone again, trying to figure out what this meant and how to connect again, but it was no use. There was so much going on around me that I could hardly concentrate, let alone break through his barriers.

He’d said now wasn’t the time, but he never told me no. In fact, he’d told me he’d be all mine, and I just wished I knew what he’d meant by that. I wished I had better guidance, and most of all, I wished I could manage to loosen Rig’s grip on my body so that I could prove just how worthy I was to have these men in my life. But Boyce had made it clear it wasn’t my time, and I could only trust that when it was, I would know.

“Kill one more, and I’ll end them all.” The man who spoke held his hand up, and a tiny mechanism glistened in the light. Shit, I wouldn’t put it past him. He looked fucking unstable.

This time, it was Roth who spoke. “I’m sorry, it appears there was a miscommunication on who fell back on the deal.”

“Is there ever any true fucking honesty between a poacher and his prey?”

Prey? He thought we were prey. My wolf growled, begging to show him what being prey really felt like. I would break him, of that I was sure. Nothing would stand in my way as I tore into him, human or wolf. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t shift. These were my men. My people. I would protect them anyway I could. If only I could get loose from Rig.

As if he knew my thoughts, Rig’s fingers dug into my skin. “I’m warning you, Bella.”

Warning me? I was ready to say fuck it and let Rig try to stop me, but Boyce’s message kept playing through my mind and I knew I hadn’t been imagining it. I knew he'd been there. If he thought I could be helpful, I had to believe him. He’d never given me reason to question him before, and I would not start now.

Roth cleared his throat, appearing way to cool, considering the situation at hand. “It appears your prey has the upper hand.”

I’d never seen Roth smile, not a full-on smile, only private little smirks that honestly, I felt were more about humoring the receiver than showing his own amusement. But I had a feeling that when he looked toward the small handful of poachers left, a grin was stretched from ear to ear. How fucking terrifying it must’ve been to be on the receiving end of Roth’s smile. Yet I longed to be on the other side, longed to catch a glimpse for myself, if only for a moment.

“You think you won?” The man laughed. “Did you forget that I have all the control? I can blow this whole room up with a single push of a button, though I would prefer to electrocute your mutt to death first.”

I swallowed hard at his confession, nerves making my palms sweat. “I hadn’t forgotten about your little contraption. Though I suspect you love yourself a little too much to blow us up. At the very least, you love the sound of your own voice.”

What was Roth doing, poking someone who was clearly unstable and could take all of us out. Yet Roth talked fearlessly as the man approached him, his shoulders back and his head high. It was in this moment that I could see how Roth was the alpha of the pack. He oozed the power that was needed to get through tense situations like this, and he did it without blinking an eye.

“Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?” The man’s head tilted up to look at Roth’s sheer size, and though he was trying to be intimidating, his smaller size meant he missed the mark. There was no comparison between Roth muscular form towering over him and the man’s soft, unkept body. Still, the man didn’t cower as he slipped the device into his pocket and stood as tall as his lacking height would allow.

“Would it matter who I was?” Roth questioned. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but I knew he had an end game.

Mirroring my thoughts, Rig offered, “He’s creating an opening, throwing the man off-kilter. There’s four of them left, pup. Not a single one of our men our down, if you don’t count the ones in chains. When the time is right, I’ll go in with the element of surprise.”

Him, solo? Or him with his team of two? I hoped he knew there was no way I would allow it. Had Rig forgotten that those men out there belonged to me? I didn’t voice my intentions for fear he would try to stop me. I was unwilling to be stopped before I had a chance to prove my worth to my pack.

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