Page 55 of Wolf Betrayed

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Bram almost fell to his knees as the shock rocked along the bond. Bile filled his throat, and a metallic taste coated his tongue. His ears rang, and his wolf howled, scraping along his skin, begging to be let out. The wolf needed blood, needed flesh beneath its claws.

It needed revenge for whatever the hell had made the bond twist and bend the way it had just then. It hadn’t broken, no, but it had been damn close to doing so.

Shane, not yet at full strength, sagged against him. He lifted his mate up slightly, and the other man shook him off, standing straight once again.

“What the hell was that?” Shane asked, his eyes wide.

“Charlotte,” Bram bit out, his breath ragged. “Something happened to Charlotte.”

His phone buzzed then, and he pulled it out, his hands shaking like crazy. He usually had way more control than this, but he could barely breathe when it came to Charlotte.

He read the screen and cursed. “It’s Kade. I need to go to the neutral territory. Apparently, Charlotte sent out coordinates of something suspicious right before we felt that pain along the bond.”

“I’m going with you.” Shane was almost fully healed from the shift, but he didn’t have a lot of training at being wolf.

It didn’t matter, though. Not when their mate was in danger.

“Let’s go.”

In the end, it took longer than merely running at full speed toward the coordinates Charlotte had left. Gideon and the others had stopped them on their way out, alerted that their wolf, Chloe, was out of contact, as well.

Fear edged along Bram’s spine, and he did his best to ignore it. He couldn’t function if he were lead by fear alone. Anger and determination he could work with, but not mind-numbing fear. Shane hadn’t said another word after they’d told the Talon Alpha what they knew. Instead, the other man shifted from foot to foot while they waited, and then, in the car ride over, had fisted his hands on his tense thighs, his gaze focused as he went through whatever he needed to in his head.

Bram had seen the man work before, but this was a new kind of intensity. Shane was a soldier, through and through, and now he was wolf besides. Meaning everything he did from now on would have a new power behind it.

They would need that, Bram feared. That and so much more in the time to come.

As soon as they reached the neutral territory, Bram and Shane hopped out of the vehicle. Kameron and Brandon had been in the front of the SUV and were right by their sides.

Another SUV pulled up almost at the same time, and Maddox, Ellie, and a couple of Redwood enforcers, including Quinn, hopped out.

“Where is she?” Maddox asked, his voice low. He was looking right at Bram. “Use the bond if you have to, but find my baby girl.”

“Maddox,” Ellie admonished. “Let’s get to the site before you growl and go crazy.”

Maddox’s nostrils flared, but he nodded once at Bram, then Shane, before turning and following his mate.

Shane met Bram’s eyes, his brows raised. “I guess those are her parents?” Though Charlotte had told Shane of her childhood and mentioned Maddox and Ellie, Shane hadn’t left the Talon den before this to actually meet the Redwoods.

Bram nodded. “Let’s find our girl.”

They ran to the place where Charlotte had last been, and he almost tripped when he saw the body lying in the rubble.

She was the wrong shape, her hair the wrong color, but he’d had a moment when he’d thought it was Charlotte.

Brandon let out a curse and fell to his knees beside the fallen wolf. Chloe. “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.”

Kameron bent down, as well, his jaw tense. He helped Brandon turn the woman over, and Bram sent a prayer to the goddess for her soul.

“Walker is on his way, got waylaid by a sick pup, but he’d have been too late,” the Talon Enforcer growled. “Damn it. He’d have been too late.” The other man closed his eyes and put his hand on Chloe’s cheek. “Too damn young.”

“What did this?” Brandon bit out.

“Someone left a bomb that wasn’t too cleverly concealed over here. The center of the impact is here, and whoever made it shoved it full of a fuckton of shrapnel. Anyone too close didn’t have a chance.”

Bram looked over at Shane as the other man spoke. “She’s still alive, Shane. We can feel her. But where is she? She wouldn’t just leave Chloe right here out in the open if she could help it.”

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