Page 25 of Wolf Betrayed

Chapter Seven

What had she been thinking? Charlotte hadn’t been thinking, that was for sure. She’d blurted out the words she should have held closer for just a little bit longer, and now she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. She hadn’t even talked to Bram about it, and yet had felt the need to tell Shane when neither of them was ready for something like that.

She’d been selfish by putting her own needs, her own wolf, ahead of the major operation that was about to take place. That wasn’t like her in any shape or form. She’d always put her Pack, her family, first. And yet she hadn’t been able to hold back the truth.

If it had been any other person with either Pack, they would have already known why there was that tension between the three of them. Maybe they weren’t a triad, but there was something going on, and if Shane had known what to do with the wolf inside him, he would have caught on. He was going through so much, she knew, and apparently, something deep inside hadn’t wanted her to go through any more. Keeping secrets only hurt people in the end, and yet she’d wanted to hold back just a bit longer.

She didn’t know what she was going to do for herself, let alone how the others would react. She’d already tried mating with someone, already given over to the need that had coursed through her. It hadn’t worked, damn it. She’d failed at a process so inherent to the needs of shifters that her kind went willingly into fate’s hands and trusted the moon goddess ninety percent of the time. Most people didn’t reject their potential mates, as there was a reason the moon goddess put them together. Their human halves fell in love and knew without a doubt that the other person was the other half of their soul.

Though she’d known it was a risk to Bram to be mated to her considering where she’d come from, she’d fully given in. And had been rejected. Not by Bram, but by fate itself.

And now, the moon goddess was giving her a second chance. Perhaps even a third. Only she wasn’t sure she was worthy enough for the two men who could be hers. She knew the blood that flowed in her veins. The man who had fathered her had murdered hundreds and sacrificed his own daughter to bring a demon into the world. That man’s son had also killed and tortured hundreds of wolves and humans in his own right, his sense of decency long since diluted by the blood of the innocent.

How could the moon goddess want to gift Charlotte with a mate and a future when her family had caused so much hurt to the world around her?

Yes, Ellie had found a mate with Maddox, but Ellie had been through a far greater hell than Charlotte had. She’d paid the penance for the cruel men’s sins, and yet Charlotte didn’t feel she had yet. Yes, she’d been taken from her birth mother at a young age and forced to live in a basement, chained to a wall and forever encased in silence, but she didn’t think it was enough. It would never be enough. Countless men and women had died because of the Centrals’ Alpha’s greed and cruelty, and Charlotte would never be able to wash that away.

But now it seemed she had a choice. So many choices. Bram or Shane. Bram and Shane.

And because she hadn’t been able to help herself, she’d told Shane the real reason she and Bram could calm his wolf. Because he’d been born human, she wasn’t sure he got the full scope of what it all meant. She couldn’t wrap her head around it herself.

Charlotte ran a hand over her face and sighed. She needed to shower quickly and head back to the Talons so they could do what they needed to do. She didn’t have time to keep her head in the clouds and worry about things out of her hands. She would go with the others to the compound and do what she did best—move fast. She was one of the fastest wolves in the Pack, and she’d use that to her advantage.

And when they were done, maybe, just maybe, she’d sit down with Bram and Shane again and worry about everything else. But right now, she couldn’t think of the personal things in her life, only the Pack’s future.

She quickly stripped out of her clothes and turned on the shower. The water heated quickly, and she slid under the spray, letting out a long sigh of pleasure at the sensation of the hot water on her skin. She’d always loved hot showers, much to her family’s chagrin since she’d had to share the bathroom with her two younger sisters. Maybe it was because she hadn’t had long or hot showers at all when she’d been a child that she took this one form of pleasure when she could.

What most people didn’t know about the Pack she’d grown up in was that the Centrals weren’t always like that. In fact, they’d been a strong and valiant Pack much like the Redwoods before her father had broken something deep inside himself to become who he’d become. And because there had been decent people left within the Pack, who had seen what their den was becoming, they’d left, hidden within the forest and created their own version of a Pack. They didn’t have an Alpha or anything the moon goddess would have gifted them with, but they had been taint free of the disease that had spread throughout the rest of the Centrals. They didn’t have hot showers, and they lived under the radar for as long as they could. Charlotte’s mother had been one of those deserters, doing everything she could to protect her daughter from a Pack that would see her destroyed. Though Charlotte knew the distance between her mother and her mate, the Alpha, was what had eventually killed her, Charlotte had never been as proud of a person as she was her mother.

The fact that she had that woman’s blood running through her veins was the only reason she had any semblance of hope most days.

She hadn’t thought about her birth mother in a long while. It hurt too much most days, and Ellie had been the best kind of mother, everything Charlotte had ever needed. She didn’t like looking into the past, and she had been a lot recently. She knew it was probably because she was worried about what the future would bring.

Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about Shane and Bram. Maybe it would be best…maybe it would be best if the two of them mated and she stood aside. Maybe they would be happier without a woman like her near them.

She quickly wiped away the tears that dared to fall and finished showering. There was no use crying over something she wasn’t going to deal with right now. First, she had to save her people from whatever schemes this Montag had and get rid of the poison that had made Shane into what he was.

Then she could deal with her own crap.

And that was the seventh time she’d told herself that, so maybe it was time she actually did it instead of just talking about it. She turned off the shower and dried off, her mind finally on the mission at hand. Once she was dressed and her hair back in a braid, she stretched her arms over her head, centering herself for what was to come.

She’d been lost for so long, even when others thought she was finally found. Tonight, however, she had a purpose, a plan. She would work with her Pack and the Talons to ensure there was a future for her people. One free of the dangerous propositions Montag and the others held so close to their chests.

She was wolf first, woman second tonight.

And she would fight.

Shane’s presence by her side heated her from the inside out, but her wolf didn’t push her to move closer. In fact, it seemed to steady at the idea of being so close to Shane on one side and Bram on the other.

Tonight they had a mission, and her wolf was eagerly waiting to show off her skills. That, Charlotte thought with a smile, was satisfying.

The wolves were strategically placed around the compound in human form. If needed, they would shift, but it would be better to not tip anyone off to their presence. And seeing wolves around this particular area would do just that. Though Shane wasn’t a hundred percent yet, they needed him there in case there were any details he’d missed when he’d briefed them. With so many things going on, it wouldn’t surprise Charlotte if he had. He’d been drugged and out of his mind the last time he’d been here, after all. They’d placed Charlotte and Bram with him to keep him steady, and while she’d thought that would have made it more difficult for her, it had just the opposite effect. Her wolf needed to know where these two were, and because they didn’t have a bond to aid in that, their physical closeness would have to do.

She inhaled deeply, ignoring the two scents around her as they wove together to form an intricately enticing aroma, and studied the landscape around her. Bram was to her left, Shane to her right, and she did her best not to think about how perfect it felt. They would have to talk soon, she knew, because it was getting harder and harder to focus on the more important things.

Her senses told her there were at least ten guards stationed around the compound, but she couldn’t tell if anyone was inside the building. Either it was an empty husk, and the guards were there to protect the equipment or even act as a decoy, or there was something blocking her. Knowing these particular humans as she did, she wouldn’t put any of those scenarios past them.

Bram leaned close, his body pressed tightly against hers, the warmth of his breath on her neck doing horrible things to her self-control. “We’re going in soon. You ready?” His voice was so low that she could barely hear it, and his lips were at her ear.

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