Page 94 of Wulf's Pack
Yes, Alpha.
Beside me, Dennis has finished off another Vail wolf, and the office is quiet. I turn toward the hall, but before I can move, pain rips through me again. I stumble and crash to my knees. Another of my bonds is severed. Another of my shifters is dead.
What is it, Alpha?Dennis asks, alarmed.
I shake my head, but then a mournful howl pierces the air. It’s full of so much devastation that it can only mean one thing. I heard a howl just like that once. The day my brother’s mate died.
Dennis makes the same assumption as me. Our eyes meet, and the remorse I see in his gaze mirrors my own. I swallow hard.We need to hurry.
Ashlyn races down the hall. Dennis barks at her, wanting to run ahead of her, but she doesn’t wait, so he dashes after her. Ishould stay and watch the monitors, but I can’t. The draw to get to Skylar is too strong. I’m desperate to see her.
When I reach the holding cells, we find two coyotes—a man and a woman. This must be the two Ashlyn mentioned, Lisa, the alpha’s wife, and Ashlyn’s brother, Daniel. Both are in bad shape. They’re lying on the concrete floor in their human forms, bruised, bleeding, and broken. They won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
They’re naked, save the leather cords circling their necks. Rage boils in me at the sight of the collars. The bastards beat them nearly to death and suppressed their coyotes so they can’t shift and heal. If the chokers are like the one Skylar wore, we’ll need a sorcerer to remove them.
Dennis checks on Lisa, and Ashlyn holds Daniel’s hand, sobbing. I try not to panic at the fact that Skylar is not in one of these cells. I don’t think she ever was. There’s no hint of her scent.
I rush to Lisa’s side since she looks more coherent than Daniel. “Shit!” I yell when pain tears through me again. How many is that now? How many more will die before this is over?
Focus!my wolf snaps.Find mate!
He’s right. I share a grave look with Dennis. “We’ll have to leave these two here for now. They can’t shift. The collars are magical, and we won’t be able to remove them without a sorcerer.”
Ashlyn gapes at me in horror. “We can’t leave them here!”
I meet her eyes with a steady gaze. “It’s the safest place for them right now. Stay here with them and take care of them. Dennis will stay with you and help you protect them.”
Dennis shoots me a sharp gaze, furrowing his brow. He doesn’t want to stay behind. “Watch the monitors,” I tell him before he can argue. “I need you scanning the buildings, findingany other wolves that may be hiding. We need to make sure every last one of them is dead.”
He relaxes his jaw, and though he’s still tense, he looks mollified.
I turn to Lisa. “Do you know where Skylar is?”
She frowns, and it takes her a moment to answer, as if her brain is having trouble making sense of my words. She must have taken a hit or two to the head. “Who’s Skylar?”
“The female. Victor had a female with her. Do you know where she is?”
She blinks slowly a couple times, her frown deepening. “His mate? The omega?”
I growl. “Mymate!”
Lisa stares at me and then shakes her head. I don’t know if she’s answering me or not understanding me. Her eyes keep slipping out of focus. “The female,” I prompt again. “Do you know where they took her?”
Just when I think she won’t answer, she says, “She was with the alpha. He said something about needing alone time with his mate.”
If I was in a rage before, now I’m nearly feral. I burst back into my wolf form with a vicious snarl. Alone time. I know he’s hurt her physically, but if he’s touched her in any other way, I’m going to lose my damn mind. I hadn’t worried about that before now, because Victor had Skylar for eight years without violating her in that way. But did that change? Was he angry about her finding her mate? If he realized he would never have a mate bond with her, would he finally just take what he wanted?
I can’t stop myself from imagining the worst-case scenario. I reach deep inside myself again, trying to feel Skylar. Our connection is stronger than it was before, but is that because I’m closer to her, or because she’s unable to control her emotions right now? I still feel her pain, but it’s overshadowed by cripplingfear and despair. It’s the bone-deep agony that finally makes me snap. What is making her suffer that way?
My wolf completely takes over, but this time I’m more than happy to relinquish control. I need his instincts. I need his simpler way of thinking, and right now he is laser focused on one thought alone. The alpha’s house. If Victor took Skylar for alone time, he would take her to the alpha’s house. His ego would allow nothing less than to claim the space of the previous alpha.
I race down the hall, ready to plow through anything and everything that gets in my way. Dennis shouts and runs after me, but I don’t care. I’m past rational thinking. I’m past logic. The door to the security building is closed, but my wolf won’t allow me to shift back to open it. I bark several times, until Dennis reaches me and opens the door. If he says something, I don’t hear it.
I take off like a shot, sprinting through the compound without a care or a clue as to what’s happening around me. As I make my way past the rec building, another bond is severed. Another despondent howl pierces the air. I don’t think on it. I barely feel the pain of the bond breaking. Somewhere in my conscience, I know I’ve gone feral. I know the madness is quickly taking me over. My human mind has been pushed aside, and all that’s left is my wolf.
Find mate. Kill enemies.
The door to the alpha’s house is hanging wide open. I burst through without pause. The front room is trashed. The furniture is destroyed, and there’s blood splattered everywhere. A wolf lies in the center of the room, completely mutilated. It’s a gruesome scene. Above the coppery tang of blood is a scent that drives my already feral wolf into further madness.
