Page 36 of Pack Reclaimed (Blood and Moonlight 3)

“Oh god,” Vanya said, voice cracking.

“This doesn’t explain how he moved on to witches,” Holt said. “He’s reaching. Using something else to get in your head.”

“Son of a bitch,” I cursed.

“He sold you,” Torryn said, his voice bitter and furious. “I knew my father was bad, the elders, but this? I never…”

“Again, it’s not your fault,” Holt said. “Fuck your dad, fuck your pack, but this isn’t on you.”

“It doesn’t matter how it’s starting but think how poetic it is that you’ll be ending it,” Victor pointed out. “And I’m honored to be able to help you.”

“It explains how they found us in a room full of humans that night. Why they dragged her out the moment I turned away… It all seems so staged now that I look back, I bet they expected me to be too drunk to follow her out. I ruined their plans.”

“You did,” I told her, taking her hand. “But don’t let him do this, little wolf.”

“That sounds so much better coming from you,” she said, giving me a half smile.

“Let’s focus on plans then,” Victor said, waving his hand at the screen behind them.

Harrison pressed something and a map blew up on the screen. “We’ve done our best to do some recon.” He pulled out a tablet and a stylus pen drawing directly on the map. “It looks like there are three layers to the pack because he’s built on the side of a mountain. The first stretch is the guard barracks. In the middle is where he keeps prisoners, surrounded by more guards, of course. Top tier would obviously be the alpha and whatever else he keeps in his place, including some elite guards. They’d be the most powerful of his guards, so don’t underestimate them.”

I’m more than a little skeptical. “How the hell would you know if you haven’t seen it?”

“A mix of the landscape, every other complex’s setup, and information sent from the archive,” he said simply. “We have experts on strategy.”

“So it’s a guess at best?” Leven asked with a snort. Victor looked less than amused but answered with patience we likely didn’t deserve. I wouldn’t take kindly to anyone questioning my intelligence, especially on my land.

“No. It is a carefully and intelligently calculated recreation of what I know we’ll find. If I didn’t trust it, I wouldn’t be sending my men into this battle with you.”

“This is great,” I said, shooting my people a look. Alexander walked back in before it could continue, hissing something to Victor before taking his seat.

“It seems there was no video footage of our delivery person. That should be impossible,” Victor sighed. “We have made ourselves a target. Let’s hope that tomorrow is a success.”

“That’s the plan,” Vanya said. “We should have more allies coming to join us tomorrow.”

“My hive will be joining, or those of us who will be useful,” Victor said. “We have no choice but to give all the support we can. I refuse to have my people fall and at this point, yours either. Especially since we have the upper hand now.”

“There’s no element of surprise here,” Vanya spoke up. “They’ve watched our every move. Not to mention he’s proven he knows we’re coming.” She held up the letter he had delivered right to our door. But I don’t think that was what he was referring to. He gestured to the map.

“We don’t plan on going for surprise, we plan on going for numbers. Attacking in force and knowing who to send to which tier. It’s the only way we can do this now.

“Will you be ready?” Victor asked pointedly. It was almost a taunt.

Vanya was the one to answer. Her hands clenched in a fist in front of her. “I’ve been ready for weeks.”

The vampire smiled wickedly. “Good. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to… play.”

ChapterSixteen

Grave Alpha

The floor-length mirror that stood in my room showed the inside of the hive. We knew the vampires were near but we didn’t know they werethisclose.

“Straya, send out the message.” She let out a huff of annoyance, her signature move when I told her to do anything. The red envelope was clutched in her hand, and she walked by with her eyes glaring daggers at me. I smirked back, watching her fury build but she wasn’t stupid enough to do anything about it. On her own she was useless, she needed an empire and that was my specialty. And for her part, her magic was keeping this place under wraps.

My eyes focused on the hive, the meeting interrupted only a blink later as the envelope was handed over. There was no purpose to the note other than toying with Vanya. At this point, I enjoyed it too much to stop.

I turned and walked toward the three broken bodies sitting in the cell. “Look Meira. Your sister thinks she’s going to come take us down tomorrow. Maybe she’ll join you in there, give me the complete set I was promised a long time ago.” Meira growled but it was half hearted at best. Her legs were still a bruised, jagged mess, the collar keeping her from shifting to heal.

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