Page 35 of As Darkness Fall
“He’s mine if he has the guts to try and stop us,” I spat as the truck door closed behind me.
Aaron was already driving before I’d gotten my seatbelt on. His eyes were focused on the road ahead of us and the light cast by his headlights. There was no objection from him.
“I thought we weren’t here to kill people,” Vir pointed out cautiously from the back seat.
“I’m going to kill that bastard,” I said, my wolf yipping at the back of my mind, eager to be let out. She, too, wanted revenge and had a score to settle with Lars. We werepissed, and it was boiling over and into the truck.
Not that I cared at that point. My blood was up, and it wasn’t about to go down anytime soon.
“We’re going to try not to cause wanton murder,” I growled as Aaron followed the map, driving us to the edge of town,pastAldridge Manor, and up a side road. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to succeed. And Lars is a special case. If he gets in our way, we waste him. Without a second thought.”
There was silence from the rest of the car, neither of the men responding to my threats.
“Lars is no longer a leader. He’s not worthy of the title of Alpha of the Seguin pack,” I growled. “He’s a tyrant. A monster. And if we can free the shifters of this town from his grip without going out of our way, then we’re going to do so, and we’re not going to hesitate about it. Understood?”
The truck was once again silent after my outburst.
“I asked if I was understood?” I snarled.
“Yeah,” Aaron said tightly.
Vir just nodded.
“Good,” I muttered, staring ahead as Aaron drove us to our starting point.
Once we got there, we exited the vehicles in short order. I faced Aaron’s team.
“Like I told my truck already,” I said. “If Lars gets in our way, we drop him. No questions, no second thoughts. I get first dibs, because I’m going to tear his throat out. Any questions?”
There were none.
“Good,” I said. “Then unless there are any questions about the rest of the plan, put your game faces on.”
Again, there were none. Everyone seemed to sense that I was in a rage, and even the normally jovial Dave was subdued as he grabbed his weapons and gear from the back of the second truck in silence.
Nobody asked about my pit stop at Jo’s place. I wasn’t going to explain it to them anyway. It wasn’t a logical thing to do. Aaron had been on the money with that, but he was wrong in thinking that it wasn’t necessary. Just because it wasn’t logical didn’t mean it wasn’t therightthing to do.
Mr. A needed to know that his daughter would be okay. To know that she hadn’t been abandoned and that those with the means to do something about it were about to do just that.
I walked behind one of the trucks and stripped, keeping a modicum of decency about myself this time. The others were all gearing up and occupied, and none of them looked over as I got naked.
Probably seen it all enough times anyway. No surprises left.
It was ironic to think that less than a year ago, I’d been absolutely horrified at the idea of stripping down anywhere in public where people could see. I wasn’t ashamed of my body, but it wasmybody. I wanted to be able to choose who saw it.
Just like I should be able to choose who I care about.
There was no time for a pity party, however. The rest of the team was locked and loaded, and they were all waiting on me. It was time.
Okay. Let’s do this, I said to my wolf, calling her forth, opening myself up to the change.
For the longest time, I’d denied my wolf the ability to be free. She had only been allowed out on the nights of the Wild Moon when I had returned to Seguin to avoid Lars’s wrath. That was changing, however, and the more we shifted together, the easier it became to workwithmy wolf half.
Power surged through us as brilliant white fur spread from our head and down our body, covering us in its thick, protective layer. Dropping to all fours, we paused as our limbs reshaped themselves and joints reversed themselves.
A pair of seconds later, we trotted out from behind the truck to see the rest of the team spread out, waiting for the command to advance. I growled and led the way, ducking into the brush and through a small clearing before entering the forest that ran along the side of the property. It served to shield the manor’s lands from roving eyes, particularly those of non-shifters.
Nobody wanted to see how humans would react to seeing a pack of nearly four hundred wolves running around every time the moon was at its zenith. That would cause a stir for sure.
