Page 145 of Shadow City: Silver Wolf

“All right, I’ll go. I’m linking with Randall so he doesn’t get scared,” Killian said as he ran off to the house.

I turned to Sierra and Griffin and said, “You two head back to the car.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for incoming vehicles. I’ll be two miles southbound, so you shouldn’t have any issues with hearing me if I see something.” Rosemary took off into the sky, heading toward the road.

“They’ll be here shortly,” Julius growled, clearly annoyed. “We need to go or we’re going to get caught. I offered to come with you all because I thought I’d get away from here faster, not be stuck waiting for my imminent death.”

“With Rosemary gone, I’m staying here with you.” Griffin crossed his arms, refusing to leave. “Sierra, hurry and go get the car.”After almost losing you, I can’t leave you right now. And that way, two of us are watching Julius.

His words softened me. He’d already agreed to so much, despite not being thrilled about it.Okay.

“Uh, why me?” Sierra asked and pointed at him. “You have two legs.”

“You know Griffin would never leave here without me,” I said. Sierra also wasn’t the best fighter, so for her to not be in front of the house if their backup rolled up would be ideal, but I also didn’t want to offend her. She’d been loyal and jumped into danger to help and be part of the team. Disregarding her would be a mistake. “We need you to get the car ready so we can get the hell out of here if things go south. Or worst case, you’ll still be free and can get help if the rest of us are caught.”

“Oh, okay.” Sierra nodded, and her back straightened. A glint of determination darkened her irises to charcoal. “I can do that.” She pulled the keys from her pocket and headed toward the car

I kept my gaze on Julius to avoid looking at the bodies that littered the ground. If I paid attention to them, I’d haveflashbacks of my own slaughtered pack, and unlike these people, we hadn’t done anything to warrant an attack.

When Sierra disappeared back into the tree line, I stepped toward him. “Now tell me who’s after me. Who are you working for?”

“Why would I tell you now?” Julius sneered. “You could just leave my ass behind. I need to make sure you’re invested in keeping me around.”

Griffin clenched his fist.That jackass.

Yeah, I couldn’t disagree with that sentiment. “We could still leave you here. Maybe you should give us something so we know your knowledge is worthwhile.”

He smirked arrogantly. “Yeah, I’m not falling for that.” There was so much animosity wafting off him, it was almost suffocating. I had no clue what I could’ve done to make him hate me so much.

The problem was that Julius knew he had us. We couldn’t risk leaving him behind in case he actually did know something. And even if he didn’t, I couldn’t turn my back on one of my own. It would’ve been so much easier if I’d never found out he existed.

The front door swung open, and Randall and Killian ran outside.

Randall’s shaggy brown hair clung to his face, sticky with greasy sweat, and when he saw us, his moss-colored eyes widened in horror, emphasizing the light purple bruise around his eye. “He’s still here.” The spicy smell of fear emanated from him.

Then Rosemary’s scream filled the air. “Incoming!”

CHAPTER THREE

Her words rattledme as we sprang into action.

We crossed the gravel driveway, and Randall was able to keep up, despite the younger wolf’s injuries. If his face was bruised like that, I could only imagine what the rest of his body looked like. They hadn’t given us any food or water since I’d been there, so there was no telling the last time he’d eaten, which would slow his healing. A weaker shifter might not have been able to push through.

More confident in Randall’s stamina, I kept my eyes forward, trying to ignore the corpses lying all over the ground. Even though we’d killed in self-defense, death still haunted me; there had been too much of it, and I was raised to always mourn the dead, regardless of the situation. In our attackers’ minds, they weren’t the bad guys, and in fairness, we could be viewed as the bad guys through another lens. It was all about perception.

By the time we reached the tree line, the rumble of an engine was purring faintly in my ears. Shit, they were getting here faster than I’d anticipated. They couldn’t be more than a couple of miles away now.

Wings flapped overhead, and I glanced up. Rosemary’s dark feathers almost blended into the night sky, which was sayingsomething, given my better-than-normal vision. She grunted, “Hurry up. They’ll be here in minutes if not sooner.”

Even if the trees hid us, they’d pick up our scent easily. It was fresh and strong, and though Julius and I could easily outrun them on a night like this, we would be held back with Randall’s injuries. He might be a trooper, but they would catch up to us, even with our head start.

Griffin ran faster as the crunching of gravel grew closer. The other two kept a steady pace behind us.

The only reason I wasn’t panicking was because I could hear the engine of the car Griffin had rented to trail my kidnappers’ car from the coffee shop where they’d grabbed me, which meant we were getting closer to Sierra. We’d known the kidnapping was going to happen because Carter—the shop’s manager, and my boss—had informed us this time around. We couldn’t risk our enemies identifying Griffin’s or Killian’s vehicles, so we’d rented one and left it in the school parking lot overnight. Griffin had driven me to work at the shop like usual in his car so that nothing would seem suspicious, and then he, Killian, and Sierra had been able to stay under the radar in the rented car. Rosemary had followed in the sky.

Fortunately, the plan had worked. They’d remained undetected until we had to act when four additional men came here a day earlier than expected to retrieve me from Julius.

The trees grew thicker, helping to cover us from the silver moon’s bright light. That would buy us a few minutes before the new arrivals realized what had happened. Well, maybe not that long—the bodies were easy to see.

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