Wolf Bargain (Wolfish 3)

No one could really blame Remus if it was his brother who made the first move. If it was his brother, the shifter always toting peace that attacked, then it would look like Remus was acting in self-defense.

Lydia steps past me and sets down the basket of herbs that she had been holding in her hands. She opens a closet next to the door and pulls out two guns. Then she hands one to me. I hesitate even taking it.

I’d always insisted on using a tagging gun when we went hunting. I’ve never used a real one. I’ve never so much as held one.

Now, just looking at it, I feel the weight of its power.

Lydia sees my hesitation, but it only makes her shove the gun into my hands by force.

“Sabrina, we’ve tried everything else, haven’t we? If it comes down to saving Kaleb, or Marlowe, or Rory, what will you do?”

She’s right. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to protect them.

I take the gun.

17

Sabrina

Not for the first time, I find myself struggling to keep up with a shifter racing to save one of my boys from danger in the Free Territory.

But this time, it isn’t just one of them. It’s all three of them.

Lydia is faster than me, but I’m surprised by how much faster I am than I thought I would be. Even with how sick and weak I’ve been, and even though I’m still struggling to match Lydia’s pace, I am still faster than I’ve ever been on my two human legs. The wolf in me is in there, deep inside just waiting to be able to come out and run.

Just the thought of it spurs me even faster.

We took the car first, driving until the roads were too dangerous to travel. Even though their temporary territory has changed, the drive and ensuing furious hike through the forest is strangely familiar. It’s not unlike the trek with Vivian last year.

Vivian.

What I would do to have her here, now. With her help, we would have surely found them already.

As it is, every second that pas

ses feels like a second that takes me further and further away from them. From the chance of saving them.

Branches snap back into my face, thorns catch at my arms and legs, roots reach up from the earth trying to make me stumble—but nothing slows us this time.

Nothing until Lydia spots something up ahead in the seconds before I do, her words finally sending us skittering to a halt beneath the overhanging trees.

“There!” Lydia shouts as she points up ahead.

We’re too late.

As soon as the first flash of movement becomes visible, suddenly the whole forest comes alive all around us.

They’ve already started to fight.

The scene before us is a bloody and vicious one. It’s all claws and snapping jaws, but even amongst the flurry of snarls and howls, I can see that our pack is vastly outnumbered, even with the fringe members of Romulus’ pack here fighting alongside them. I scan my eyes through the clashing bodies until I am able to spot Rory, Marlowe, and … where is Kaleb?

I don’t see him at first.

The flashes of movement through the trees dart so quickly, it’s not easy to make out individual shapes. He has to be here somewhere …

And then he is.

I scream.