Page 61 of Wolf Forsaken

“What am I looking at?” On the screen was a video with a still of the wolf mural inside the den at Cole’s.

Silas reached around the laptop and pressed the play button. At first, it stayed focused on the mural, but then it panned out to show at least twenty people bound and gagged, fear in their eyes. A few were even shifted, shredded clothes spread out around them.

“What the fuck?” My eyes welled with tears, and Xander came up behind me and put his hand on my lower back. It did little to comfort me from what I was watching.

“Cole. I really wished it didn’t have to come to this, but you see, you need to pay for what you’ve done.” Whoever was filming backed up, bringing Dante into view. “Do you see these traitors here?” He waved a gun, gesturing to the hostages. “They’ve decided not to believe I’m the alpha now. They’ve made their beds. The question is, are you going to let them lie in them too?”

He walked in front of the group and stopped in front of a teenage boy. I held my breath, hoping he wasn’t about to kill him.

“Will you just have Ivy’s blood on your hands? Or will you have these wolves’ blood too?” He shoved the gun under the boy’s chin, making his head tilt back at an unnatural angle. “You have four hours after I see that you’ve watched this video. Or else.”

He kicked the boy, making him fall over, and fired the gun at the mural, hitting the wolf in the forehead. The video stopped, and I was left staring at the mural again. Was Cole really that big of a threat to Dante that he would kill twenty people?

I finally looked up, my attention immediately going to Cole. He was pacing back and forth, his hands in his hair. “He really is still trying to pass me off as dead? What about that guy from the fire station?”

“He was one of the hostages.” Cole pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fuck. Fuck!”

Was there wolf protocol for something like this? We couldn’t just call the police to come in with their tactical unit. There were way too many variables involved; like the fact we shifted when in danger.

“What’s the plan?” I managed to ask without my voice shaking, but my body certainly was.

Silas slammed the screen of the laptop closed. “I can tell you what it’s fucking not. It’s not turning yourself over to that fucking psychopath and dying.”

Cole and Silas were in each other’s faces again, and Cole’s hands balled into fists. “It’s not your decision. Sometimes we have to sacrifice one for the many.”

“You. Aren’t. Doing. It.” Silas was barely holding onto his control as he bit out the words.

“Guys, let’s-” I needed to defuse the tension, not just for Xander’s sake, but for all of ours. Eli was still sitting with his face in his hands, and Sara looked like she was ready to burst into tears.

“It’s not your life. He wants me, and he’s not going to stop at just twenty. He’ll keep going until I turn myself over to him.” Cole backed away, looking defeated. “This is the only way, Silas. You know it is, you just don’t want to admit I’m right.”

I started to move toward him, but Xander wrapped an arm around my waist, stopping me. He shook his head when I looked at him in protest.

“Then I’ll go with you,” Silas said firmly.

“Fuck that. I won’t let you die because of my mistakes.” He went for the door and Silas headed him off. “Move, Silas.”

“No.” Silas stood tall, his chest puffed out and eyes blazing. “You go, we both go, Coco.”

A tear slid down Cole’s cheek and Silas grabbed him by the back of the neck, bringing their foreheads together. The room was quiet as they had their moment together.

We sat down at the table, and Xander reached his hand across the table to Eli. Eli had finally removed his hands from his head, and his face was splotchy from his tears.

Eli gave his hand a quick squeeze. “I’m glad to see you're back.”

“How long ago did you watch the video?” I took Xander’s other hand, hoping if both of us held onto him, he would stay with us.

Cole and Silas hugged, slapping each other’s backs, and came to join us. Cole sat to my right and gave me a sad smile. God, I hated seeing him like that.

“It was sent about an hour ago, and we opened it about twenty minutes ago.” Sara pulled the laptop back toward her. “We have a lot of emails from pack members unwilling to follow Dante’s deranged ideas. He had a pack meeting last night and called for wolves to take their rightful place in the world.”

“We have numbers on our side, right? Let’s just storm in there and kill him.” It seemed easy enough of a plan. I wasn’t a violent person usually, but something about Dante made me want to draw blood.

“He has twenty hostages. We can’t risk all those lives.” Cole tapped his knuckles on the table. “We’re just going to have to call the coalition for help, or I’m going to have to turn myself over.”

Silas groaned. “I know they’re going to catch wind of it all eventually, but who knows what the outcome will be if they’re involved. You remember what happened with the Woodford pack about five years ago, right? They made them all split up into different packs.”

“We aren’t running a wolf fighting ring, Silas.” Cole was restless in his seat. “But you’re right. They don’t like attention drawn to our kind, and who knows what will happen if twenty people suddenly go missing… Plus, we have Ivy to think of.”

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