Page 67 of His Rejected Mate

“Yup,” I agreed, pride in my voice. “Let’s hurry. Kira’s fast, and I don’t want her making fun of me for being slow.”

Together, we shifted and bolted after Kira. Our speed allowed us to make it to the camp before sunset.

Crew was moving through the camp, assisting his people as well as some of my packmates and Kira’s to prepare their defenses. He was a born leader. When he saw us approach, he raised a hand in greeting.

“Welcome to the front lines,” he said.

“You seem pretty chipper for someone who’s in a war,” I said, shaking his outstretched hand.

“If I had to choose between fighting off angry ferals, wendigos, and thunderbirds versus pissy, spoiled assholes from the Ninth Pack, I’ll take spoiled assholes any day.”

I chuckled. “How’s it going here?”

“Pretty good.” Crew turned and gestured toward the rest of the camp. “August is over in that tent, said he was working on some leads. Not sure what that means. I’ve gotten the remainder of the camp organized into platoons. I made sure one of my magic users is in each one, which should help with defenses. If those Ninth Pack assholes try anything, they’ll be in for a surprise when we start lobbing spells and magic at them.”

“Any word on how he’s doing?” Kira asked, nodding to the far end of the camp. A sullen-looking Gavin sat there, a few Eleventh Pack guys standing around him. One of the men held a pistol.

“He’s not happy about being considered a possible enemy, but he’s glad he’s not been turned out into the wilderness to fend for himself. I hope he does what he says. I don’t think your dad was joking when he said he’d rip him limb from limb.”

Eli and Chelsey came over to us, and Chelsey hugged Kira. Kolton blushed and did a poor job of trying not to check Eli out. Wasthiswhy he really wanted to join us out here? I stifled a smile.

“We still need to figure out safe transport for Chelsey,” Eli said to Crew.

“Transport to where?” I asked.

Crew sighed, his eyes downcast. “Back home. She needs to check on her family. Problem is, Twelfth Pack territory is on theoppositeside of the Ninth Pack’s lands. We’d have to go through their whole territory to get her there. That’s pretty much impossible right now. Even the highways are being patrolled, so using a car is out.”

“I really need to see them,” Chelsey said, and the look on her face was one of desperation. “They think I’m dead. I can’t imagine what my brother and parents are going through. I tried to call them, but the signals into Twelfth Pack lands have been blocked or something. Apparently, lots of cell towers and magicrelays have gone down in the fighting. Service is super spotty right now.”

“I think we’ll need to use that helicopter. It’s the safest way,” Eli said.

Before our discussion could go any further, August came sprinting out of his tent. “I’ve got news,” he said.

“Good or bad?” I asked.

“Depends. A guy I’ve been talking to just sent me an email. He’s a private detective, a bear shifter. He and I have been doing some digging. Wanna know what we found?”

“Are you drawing this out for dramatic effect?” I asked, impatient. “What the hell did he tell you?”

“Looks like the Tranquility Council is a lot farther down the drain than we realized,” August said. “His investigation pulled up a wire transfer for several hundred thousand dollars from the beta of the Seventh Pack to three of the highest-ranking members of the council. He hacked the guy’s email and found the exchange. They spoke in code, but it was easy to crack. An operative was sent in, under cover of night, to murder Jayson’s dad.”

“A Tranquility Operative assassinated him?” I asked, astonished. “Are you sure?”

August nodded. “Unfortunately. No idea who, though. There’s only so much we could dig up, but do you know what this means?”

Kolton gave a tight nod. “We can destroy the Ninth Pack.”

“What do you mean?” Kira asked.

“Jayson hasn’t done shit to investigate his dad’s death,” Kolton explained. “As soon as he died, Jayson started pointing fingers at us. Rumor is, some of his pack elders and even the beta were a little pissed that he didn’t look into it. If we leak this info, they’ll flip their shit. It’ll probably even split their pack. Jayson will be fucked.”

“He’s right,” August agreed. “Once they split, there’ll be infighting. It’ll make it easier to hold them off and defend ourselves. We could even recruit some of their wolves to the Eleventh Pack, strengthening you guys in the process. A bunch of those people are innocent bystanders paying for the sins of the people running the pack. They’ll want a fresh start.”

“I’ll do it,” a voice said from behind us. “I’ll leak the info.”

We turned in surprise to find Gavin standing there, flanked by his assigned guards.

“You?” Kolton asked.

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