Page 7 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 3
It sounded harsh, and I wished I could’ve recalled my words, but Trinity wasn’t really listening. She looked past me, as if she were watching some other event unfold, maybe one where she wasn’t being chased by shifters.
“Trinity?”
“Sorry.” She paced through the snow, rubbing her hands up and down her arms—whether out of comfort or cold, I wasn’t sure. “What did he say about my parents?”
“Are you sure you’re up for it?”
She laughed sharply. “That bad?”
“They were murdered after you’d been given up,” I told her. “Ripped apart. The only name found in relation to their deaths is one Boyle O’Brien.”
Trinity froze, and I observed as her eyes grew even darker in anger. She curled her hands into tight fists and turned from me, pacing around in a close circle, mumbling under her breath.
I had a good idea what she was murmuring. After all, she knew Boyle and had probably been nice to him. Now she knew he had something to do with why she was an orphan. It would be enough to piss anyone off.
She stopped pacing and turned to me. The mark on her arm was showing with her sleeve rolled up, and she stared down at it for a long moment before locking eyes with me. “In your plan, will Boyle die?”
“It’s a possibility,” I hissed.
“Make it a reality,” she said. “I want him dead. I want them all dead.”
Chapter 4
Josh
Sniffingthe air atop the ridge, I glared down over the trees. The snow made everything stand out in perfect contrast to the white glow. I hoped crimson streaks would soon be in the mix, signifying my plans had worked.
When the war started, once again, the wolves would be on the move to the top of the shifter food chain where we belonged. There was no stopping our plans—unless we couldn’t capture Trinity.
She was the key to all this.
If we didn’t have her soon, I would risk my place as pack alpha. I would be labeled a failure in the eyes of my pack, and I’d quickly find myself disposed of. The other wolves of the pack would rather have someone else, someone stronger—Boyle. He’d been the chosen one to replace the last alpha. Only I’d fought off many other candidates, but not Boyle. No, not the man who’d always been by my side; I needed him to have my back, to protect me from my numerous enemies inside and outside the pack. But lately, I sensed a shift in his loyalty. Boyle had been undermining my authority by questioning my decisions—behind my back and, recently, openly in front of the pack. I knew Boyle was a cunning bastard, simply biding his time to strike, like when I was weak and the pack was ready to turn on me. That time was quickly approaching, unless I could give my pack the war they’d wanted for decades.
Getting the bears out of the way would be the first step. The rest of the shifters would fall easily after that—if they didn’t want to follow the new regime the others and I planned to establish.
“Josh.” Boyle approached, barely bending his head.
“Have you found them yet?”
“The bears covered their tracks too well. We’re still hunting.”
I snarled, the sound reverberating deep in my chest. “We have to find them, and soon. Elder Tadeo is growing impatient.”
“If you’d have just let us take her from the beginning,” Boyle argued, “we would’ve already been back home.”
“You know why we didn’t,” I snapped.
Boyle didn’t say a word. He’d been against the plan from the outset.
He’d told me if I wanted to start a war with the bears, he would be more than willing to do it without all this running-around shit. He’d wanted to take the damn Protector since the start and not have to worry about drawing out the bears.
We knew Fergus worked for some government agency. It was dangerous to involve him in any way when he might have backup. That was the last thing my pack needed.
“If you didn’t come up here to tell me you found them,” I went on, turning to glare at Boyle, “then what do you want?”
He snarled and took a stride toward me before he drew himself back and bent his head in submission. “I tell you this is a fool’s errand. How do we know Fergus hasn’t already called for reinforcements? He knows we’re after the woman, and by now, he probably knows who she is.”
Impatiently, I narrowed my eyes. “What’s your point?”
