Page 24 of Kidnapped By the Wolf

The sight only excites my animal more, and it takes all of my self-control to keep the beast restrained. “She’s Clint McGregor’s daughter.”

“And you still haven’t contacted him with your demands, have you?”

I open my mouth to make some excuse, but Sebastian’s satisfied smirk nearly snaps my restraint.

“I didn’t think so.”

“She’s an innocent human,” I growl. “This isn’t her fight.”

“Who bloody well cares if it’s her fight or not? You know what is at stake!”

“Of course I know what’s at stake,” I snarl back.

How fucking dare he question my resolve? As alpha, my pack is my first thought upon waking and my last thought before going to sleep at night. At least theywere, until he dropped a certain gorgeous, infuriating human on my doorstep.

Maybe Cassie has skewed my priorities.

“I thought I was doing you a favor, snapping her up. Since you couldn’t seem to do what needed to be done.”

“Afavor?” I bellow, my anger ratcheting up a notch. “You snatched that poor girl who’s had absolutely nothing to do with this and brought her to me. She didn’t evenknowthe McGregors were kidnapping she-wolves for Red Feather Lake. Her father planned on shackling her to that asshole Dane to save his own goddamned skin. She’s the only one who’s innocent in all this!”

Sebastian lets out a huff of humorless laughter, and his voice takes on a hard edge. “The alpha I know would have no problem using that girl as leverage.”

“Then you don’t know me at all.”

“Oh no?” He stalks toward me then, shoulders back, eyes flashing. “What about Khazget?”

At those words, all the blood drains from my face. My wolf’s hackles go up, and I have to clench my fists to keep from grabbing him by the throat.

Khazget is a village in Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. It was at the center of Operation Jade Falcon — a stealth mission carried out by the private military company I worked for after I got out of the marines.

Operation Jade Falcon never made the news. Nor did Khazget.

My unit took out a cell of terrorists who’d bombed a school, killing hundreds of innocent children. We’d been informed that our targets were using the abandoned building as their base. What we didn’t know was that they’d taken hostages.

The mission was a complete shit show that resulted in the death of an eight-your-old and a ten-year-old, as well as two of our own.

“Oh, yes,” Sebastian murmurs. “I know all about Khazget — including the innocent blood that was spilled.”

“That was different,” I growl. “If you know about the mission, then you know it was never supposed to happen that way.”

“But itdidhappen,” Sebastian growls. “And I bet you stand by the decisions you made that day.”

I grit my teeth. Every cell in my body is vibrating — thrumming with the urge to shift.

“Choose your next words very carefully, brother, or I won’t have to justify spilling more blood today.”

Like any soldier who’s seen active combat, I’ve had to rationalize my actions to myself a hundred times over in the years since. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning. Khazget is no different.

I told myself we saved an untold number of lives that day, but it doesn’t erase the stain of death from my soul.

“No need. I was only going to say that the Adrian who was in Khazget would have no problem sacrificing one measly human for the good of his pack.”

“I havealwaysput my pack first,” I growl. My wolf is dangerously close to the surface now. I can feel the prickle of fur along the back of my neck and my nails lengthening into claws.

“So what’s the fucking problem?”

“The problem is that she’s not just somehuman!”

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