Page 69 of Alpha Wolf's Arranged Bride
“Can do,” Cody answers, typing furiously.
Fresh anxiety trickles across my skin, making my stomach churn.
I’m starting to get the feeling I missed something, and I don’t like it.
Then I see a thick pillar of smoke rising into the sky ahead of us.
“Fuck!” I scream.
“What is it!” Cody yells.
“It’s the fucking school!”
I slam my foot down on the pedal, yanking the BMW off the road to charge across a nearby park that gives me a direct route.
The car will be totaled by the time I get there, but I don’t give a fuck.
By the time I screech into the parking lot and leap out of the car, the hall is engulfed in flames, the red column spiraling up into the sky with a thick tower of black smoke twisting around it.
“Scarlett!” I scream, running towards the hall. “Jarrod!”
I’m ready to launch myself straight into the flames, but as I get to the door, I almost trip over Malcolm. He’s barely conscious and covered in terrible burns.
“Mal,” I say, gently taking his hand. “What happened?”
“Three wolves,” he mutters. “Came in the front door… how are they so powerful?”
Shit!
A new wave of fury hits me as I realize these must have been the stealth agents that were lurking in our forest. The ones we stopped looking for.
“Mal,” I shake him just a little. “Where are the women and children?”
“Took them!” he gasps. “Motherfuckers were throwing fire. Can you believe it? Tossing it like fucking basketballs. I tried… Rex, I tried!”
“I know,” I say, my heart tearing itself to shreds in my chest. “Do you know where they went?”
“South,” he mutters. “Into the forest. Didn’t kill the kids or the women. Need them alive. I ran after them—”
Malcolm groans, and his breath fails. I grab his hand even harder.
“Malcolm, no! Hang on! WS will be here soon, and they’ll have healers—”
“I’m done in, boy,” Malcolm whispers. “You go on and give ‘em hell for me.”
Malcolm’s chest gurgles as his lungs fill with fluid. I watch him close his eyes, and then his hand drops from mine.
I stare down at the dead body of my mentor, and a great and terrible rage rises in me.
I will kill them. I will kill them all.
Tempering the rage is a deep, cutting fear for my wife and child. I’ve never known terror like this, the kind that completelyswallows everything else and makes the way forward utterly crystal-clear.
The only thing that matters is Scarlett and Jarrod. I don’t care what I have to do, but I will keep them safe. They will survive this!
I stand up slowly, keeping my eyes on Malcolm’s face. Guilt threatens to engulf me, but I hold it back.
I told Scarlett nothing would happen to her—and they fucking took her and my son!
