Page 93 of Untamed

"It didn't seem safe," Caryn whispers, her face paling. "What happened to him? What happened to all of them?"

"You said before that Orion Ferax forced you all to leave," I say. Both Caryn and Job nod. "Why?" I ask abruptly.

Another shared look passes between the two. "He was angry with Harrigan. Some... um... there were these rumors of..."

Rhet interrupts with a cold voice, "of young females and males sold into slavery?"

I feel my canines cut through my gums. Damn my brothers and their secrecy. I can tell Rhet has known about these rumors for a while.

Caryn nods, her shoulders curling inwards. "We heard that RustClaw was safe because those nomads don’t seem to bother you none."

"What nomads?" I snap. I'm not sure if I'm talking to Rhet or Caryn and Job.

"Devel Grim's team," Rhet responds calmly.

I swear so foully that the pups' eyes light up. "Devel Grim investigates sex crimes within wolf packs," I say to Caryn bluntly. "And he's not the type of wolf you want to piss off. So how do Orion and Harrigan figure into this?"

"It makes sense. Rumors say that Alpha Harrigan was buying females," Job says wearily, his head bowed. "All of the unmated males would end up with females, somehow. No one went unmated. Then... Orion was MateLess, but Harrigan wouldn't get him a mate. Orion was angry. Guess he wanted a female."

"We heard that he was looking, and... maybe for... her," Caryn whispers. "A golden female."

"My female?" I ask, my voice dropping.

"M-maybe?" Caryn says weakly.

"Orion is looking for my luna," I tell her. My voice is coming from far away, a feeling that I've never felt before creeping into my heart.

My wolf snarls, low, deep, guttural. I rise to my feet, the back of the chair cracking into two under my clenched fists. I pick it up and sling it across the room, sending it crashing through the drywall in a puff of white powder and splinters.

The promised pain and violence in the sound from my gut rips through the wolves in the room. Rhet is by my side a heartbeat later. Asher is crouched, ready for anything. All four of the FeraxMaw cringe, the pups starting to cry.

"Never," I grate out between jutting canines that cut into my lips, sending blood trickling down my chin, "will that scum ever get his paws on my luna. It's fucking asinine. Understand?"

Caryn nods frantically, eyes wide as her nose runs and she cries.

My growl sinks into flesh and bone as easily as my claws would. Whimpers burst free from Caryn as it sinks into her belly. It's not how a good leader should act, but I refuse to let some criminal wanna-be alpha be linked to my sweet, wild hellcat in any way, even by a rumor. "He is the enemy, and my mate is the future luna of the RustClaw," I grate out. "I will rip off his face and lay his skinned head at her feet."

"In," Rhet cautions me carefully. "Relax, brother wolf. She's in no danger here."

My wolf howls. My body reacts without a single conscious thought. I barrel from the room, catching the faint hint of sweetness in the air from the trail left behind by my cat.

She is out by the treeline. Her palms pressed to the trees. She looks at me with those unique eyes wide in horror.

The stinging pain in my neck is like nothing I've ever felt before, but I instantly know it's a threat. I whirl, confused at how any wolf could sneak up on us when we are within a hundred yards of the alpha's house.

Inside job.

The thought penetrates a half-second before I see Greta's face flash from a second-story window. She was supposed to be locked up in the cells. Asher was told to lock them all up. Is the traitor Asher?

My angry bellow brings wolves running from the house as my knees start to buckle. I hear other footsteps running towards us, these from the wrong direction. A door slams, a car door, I think.

I reach for my mate. Her loss felt clear to my bones. I growl, blinking, shaking my head, trying desperately to clear the dizziness from my brain.

"Qitsuk," I croak.

I think I feel the forest tremble and quake... something strange welling up in me, but the blackness descends before I can fathom what it might be.

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