Page 14 of Bound to the Dragon
She wrenches her arm out of my hold, her eyes popping in dismay.
“Are you out of your mind? My pack was harmed up here, too!” she fires back, her cheeks flushing red. “I would never do anything to endanger my pack!”
The passion in her voice is sincere, but I can’t help but think she knows more than she’s saying.
As we step back onto the veranda, I see she’s right. No one was spared in this entire attack. The few strangers among the carnage are none I recognize.
Madison’s mother sobs quietly in a corner, and my mate looks at me helplessly. “Can I deal with her?”
I almost refuse, but even I’m not that cruel. “Make it quick. This conversation is not finished.”
She hurries away to attend to Lynelle, and I survey the disaster before me. My pack flocks around me. They’re waiting for directions, and I don’t know where to start. Some of the members have already begun to tend to the injured without my direction, and I suppose that’s as good a place as any to get going. The attack was so sudden, so unexpected. There’s no protocol for this, an attack at a mating ceremony. Who would be this brazen, so cold?
“Get this cleaned up.” It’s not a necessary order, but I say it all the same, and the remaining pack members get to work clearing the veranda.
I glance over my shoulder. Madison huddles with her mother, where Lynelle continues to shake, the two speaking in hushed voices. I strain to hear what they’re saying over the din. Something tells me that whatever they have to say is pertinent to what happened here today.
Snatches of the conversation reach my ears. “…again… the rogues… us…”
Hair on my arms rises as Madison’s head jerks up, and her dark eyes lock with mine, a gleam of fear sparking inside them. What is going on here?
I command her closer with my stare, but she deliberately ignores me and returns her attention to her mother. Annoyance flashes inside me. She will never submit to being Luna, not in the way I need her to, anyway. To do that, she needs to trust me fully, and I don’t think we’ll ever get there, not the way we’re starting.
Dealing with Madison will have to wait, though. For the moment, my pack needs me, and I have to see what the shifters in the cells know. But Madison and I will definitely be having a sit-down before the night’s end.
Ensuring that the enforcers have everything under control on the veranda, I retreat to the basement to find my Beta exactly where I left him, standing in front of the cells.
“Has anyone said anything?”
Vigo shakes his shaggy blond mane, and I unlock the jail cell to let myself inside. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”
The group cowers upon my arrival, but this time, they’re much less talkative.
“Well?”
No one moves, their eyes darting between one another.
I suck in a breath and spin away. “Fine. Kill them all.”
A meek male voice chirps out. “No! Alpha, wait.”
Without turning, I wait. “What is it?”
“Please, let us go, and I’ll tell you whatever you want?—”
“Shut up, you idiot!” another captive demands. “He’s just going to kill us, anyway!”
A stab of disappointment pierces me as I recognize this was probably my only chance to get one of them to talk to me.
“Kill him.” I point to the assailant and storm out of the cells as he yelps in protest. “Kill them all but two. I’ll be back in an hour and see if one of them is ready to talk then.”
“Which two, Alpha?” Vigo asks, but I wave a hand dismissively.
“Whichever two might seem the most willing to talk.”
Again, I scale the stairs, determined to find Madison, but when I reach the veranda, she and Lynelle have disappeared. I search for my pack members, noting that the carnage has been cleared substantially since my last visit.
“Where is Madison?”
