Page 25 of Fighting For The Pack

“Time’s ticking, Bryn,” he said, giggling as he tried to get the muzzle on me. “Soon, you’ll be begging me to claim you just to save your life.”

“Never! You’ll have to kill me before—”

With one deft move, he pulled the muzzle over my head and fit it over my mouth, securing it with the strap at the back. When he was finished, he stepped back and smirked. “When Night is dead, your wolf will be begging for a new mate and she’ll claw at the chance to be mated to me, even if you don’t want her to.” He winked at me. “I’ll see you soon, Bryn.”

Troy went back up the steps, giggling to himself, leaving me alone, chained up and muzzled like a rabid dog. I fought hard not to cry, not wanting to give Troy or any of his lackeys the satisfaction.

Another day passed without me hearing anything, marking day seven since Troy had taken me and Tavi away from the Wargs’ territory. All this time in the darkness, in the quiet, made me want to give up and cry. I hadn’t seen Tavi since Troy’s men took her away, so for all I knew, my best friend was dead. My mental health had been all over the place this past week, but today it was at its lowest.

If Tavi was gone, there was little point in me sticking around. At this rate, I would never see the Wargs or Tavi or Night ever again. I closed my eyes, almost wishing I could be dead, too, or at least somewhere far, far away from here.

These dark thoughts persisted even as I heard the door at the top of the staircase creak open. It was probably another one of the Kings who’d come to torture me or take me away or drug me yet again. But it was a light pair of footsteps descending the stairs, sounding nothing like Troy or any of his men.

11

NIGHT

The last time I’d made the trek into the Kings’ lands, I’d had murder on my mind and little else. This time, as my wolves and I ran through the forest, murder was again my intent, but there were other things on my mind, too.

Bryn and Tavi were foremost in my thoughts. Not for the first time, I recalled the last moments I’d been with Bryn. I remembered every second of our conversation: the way her blouse had lifted in the breeze as I walked her to Mom’s cabin, the way her lips had lifted into a slight smirk when she’d assured me that I wouldn’t even miss her while she was gone, and of course, I recalled the sweetness of our last kiss.

Our last conversation had been a goodbye. She’d said that she wanted to spend time with Tavi and Mom, but it was clear to me that there was something specific she wanted to talk with them about. And whatever it was, it had put uncertainty in her large, blue-gray eyes.

Now as we zipped between trees and over boulders and through brush, I wondered what she had wanted to talk with them about. Knowing Bryn, there were a myriad of things that could have been weighing down her thoughts. We had been navigating the fact that we were mates, she was still learning how to get in touch with her wolf, and she’d just learned that she was a descendant of the pack mothers.

But it was also possible that what she wanted to talk about had nothing to do with those things. Maybe she’d wanted to talk to them about us. Though it wasn’t the first time I’d thought about our last conversation, I’d never considered that our relationship might be what Bryn had needed to talk about. The reason she wanted space might have been more than just missing my mom and Tavi. If there was uncertainty in her gaze, maybe she doubted something about our relationship. It made my heart sick to think that I might be the cause of her insecurity.

I hadn’t thought to ask Mom about it, with her focused on her recovery and me focused on Bryn and Tavi. Now I might never know what it was that had made my mate so uncertain.

I would never forgive myself if it was my fault. I’d let my doubts take precedence over my wolf and my instincts. If I’d listened to what I really wanted, Troy’s plan would have fallen apart before it started. Bryn would have been claimed, and we both would have entered this situation much stronger than Troy expected us to be.

And if I’d pushed harder to keep Bryn with me, would we have been able to avoid all of this? Bryn wouldn’t have been alone, and Redwolf, seeing that Bryn wasn’t at my mother’s cabin, might not have attacked. Or would that have just delayed the inevitable? At one point or another, Bryn would have been left alone. As much as I wanted to keep her at my side, I couldn’t have eyes on her all the time. Troy could have taken her at any moment she was by herself. At least right now she had Tavi with her.

My wolf huffed at me, and I knew what he was trying to tell me. It was useless to dwell on what I could have done differently, or what I could have done to prevent this. None of us were psychics, after all; there was no way we could have predicted when or how Troy would strike. But I figured it was normal for a man heading toward his death to revisit his regrets.

I had assured my inner circle, Dom, and Mom that I had no intention of dying, that all of my overplanning was just preparation for the worst-case scenario. At the time that I’d made those promises, I’d believed that there was a slim chance that I would survive the fight with Troy. Today, I didn’t feel the same. Running was meant to clear my head and make me feel alive, but it was difficult to keep up with my wolves. Even Dr. Stan, who was the least athletic of us, seemed to be having an easier time with these hours-long running sessions. Evan was with us, too, heading the pack down a less-traveled path to the Kings’ compound.

It worried me, and my wolf, but my worries didn’t weigh me down. I accepted that my survival was unlikely. I was about to enter a test of endurance with a full-fledged Alpha who had the benefit of both fighting on his own turf and getting plenty of rest beforehand. Troy was a sniveling coward, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t strong and well-trained.

I’d give him hell, I knew that much, but beyond that, I kept my hopes low. The last time I saw Bryn in person, she’d worn a soft smile on her face as we said goodbye. “I’ll see you soon, Night,” her sweet voice had promised.

I held onto that image of her as we neared the Kings’ compound. I could find some sense of peace and purpose in the fact that I was dying for my family. If nothing else, I hoped that I would die before Bryn, so that some strength would return to her in time for her rescue. Dom would save her, I knew; it was just a matter of whether or not I’d last long enough to know that he’d done it.

Because I was struggling, Dom recommended we take a rest a few miles out from the Kings’ compound. Pride wanted me to protest, but my body was grateful for the opportunity to recover. There was a small pond near the place where we stopped. A drink sounded wonderful, but I had to wait until my heart wasn’t beating at a thunderously hard pace. Once it’d quieted, I moved to the pond and took a drink form it. The water was cool and felt good sliding down my throat, and I dunked my head under the surface, letting it seep into my fur before pulling out and shaking myself off. The water gave me a burst of serotonin that I hadn’t expected.

Beside me, Evan barked a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting a bath this late at night,” he said. “But I guess there’s no arguing with my Alpha.”

I laughed, too. “Alphas do know best.”

“I thought that phrase applied for mothers.”

I was glad that Evan was with us on the trip in; I felt more secure with my best friends near me. A healthier me might have felt excited enough to try and push him into the pond, but the thought that I might hurt myself and not have enough time to heal kept me from following through on that particular impulse.

“You and Dom are going to split off from us in a couple more miles, right?” I asked him.

Evan had finally had a breakthrough in his investigation, and he’d found a potential location for where Troy was keeping Bryn and Tavi. He would lead Dom and the others into that area while Jasper and I entered the compound for the challenge.

“That’s right,” he said. “I’ll reach out to you when it’s time for us to break away.”

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