Page 120 of Wrath

I felt my lips twitch upwards. “I really want to kiss you too.”

None of my mates were perfect. I certainly wasn’t. But somehow, in this world characterized by entropy and chaos, we had found each other and created a home. We all had demons that haunted us, but I knew that together, we could survive anything.

Light flashed, and my surroundings blurred. I squeezed my eyes shut as, yet again, the world fell away. A soft bed and cotton blankets replaced the uncomfortable chair and bindings, and the stalactite was no longer in my hand. The pain from the injury had receded.

We had completed the trial.

FORTY-ONE

LUPE

The handcuffs bit into my skin as we were paraded through the center of camp.

I cast a glare at the shifter to the right of me, baring my teeth, but he simply stared straight ahead, his lips pressed into a thin line.

All around me, the men and women I’d led into battle—my friends and family—were being restrained and even killed in some cases. I felt sick to my stomach.

I’d failed them.

I’d failed them all.

This was my mission. I’d promised Z I could handle it.

How did everything go to shit so quickly?

The plan had been fairly simple. Our best snipers would take out all of the guards manning the perimeter at once. Then a rather large group of us would storm through the front gate, serving as a distraction. Smaller groups would infiltrate from the side entrances.

Killian was assigned to enter through a lone door in the back, surrounded by guard houses. He would, hopefully, sneakthrough the camp unnoticed until he came across the humans. Then he would use his incubus gifts to calm them and lure them towards the exit. Easy.

However, there were nearly quadruple the number of troops stationed here than there were last night. All of them were armed and angry.

Like they knew we were coming.

A growl ripped free before I could contain it, and I debated my options, glancing in all directions.

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that there were at least seventy of my soldiers still alive. Of those, half of them were injured, though I couldn’t tell the severity.

Bash was being pushed forward in front of me, his hands tied behind his back in an attempt to prohibit him from doing any magic. Killian was to the right of me, blood trickling down his cheek from a wound on his head. He, too, was tied up, but he had the addition of a gag in his mouth—probably to prevent him from “seducing” the guards. His eyes flickered from face to face, wide with fear.

Think, Lupe, think!I mentally growled to myself.

I could shift, but I wasn’t sure what good that would do in my current predicament. Every guard here was a shifter. My bear was large, but it would be no match against one hundred ferocious animals, all intent on sinking their teeth into my flesh.

“Move.” The guard behind me shoved at my shoulders, and I threw him a glare.

As soon as I was free—and trust me, I would be free—I would rip his head straight from his body. I had never considered myself a violent person before, preferring to use my words over my fists, but currently, my veins hummed with the desperate need for blood and vengeance.

Both my bear and I knew it would be the only way to get back to our mate.

“Turner! You piece of shit!” Bash raged from in front of me.

I redirected my attention to see my mage brother glaring straight ahead.

Turner, the human we’d reluctantly recruited, stood near a stone-faced guard—probably the warden of this camp, if the war medals decorating his chest were any indication. I couldn’t determine what type of shifter he was from this far away, but he was huge, with grizzly, gray hair, an eye patch, and numerous scars slicing down his neck.

Turner lowered his head at Bash’s shout, shame darkening his cheeks.

He was the traitor? I should’ve seen it coming, but stupidly, I’d believed that his need to free the humans outweighed his hatred of us. How could he? No…the real question was…how dare he? How fucking dare he?

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