“Show me where Savannah was taken,” I ordered.
Tony led me out back into the forest, and Billy followed. Savannah’s scent bombarded my senses, and my wolf struggled to get out. I’d have to shift soon, or he might actually claw himself free. I’d never experienced him so agitated, except when my sister died.
“I need to think!” I roared at my wolf, though everyone averted their eyes.
Savannah had managed to fight off two wolves, again. But it wasn’t enough.
I could make out the scents of Regina and the bloody trail she’d followed. She was a cunning tracker. That was a glimmer of hope.
I glanced up at the setting moon, just slightly past its peak. I wouldn’t be able to try the ritual until tomorrow, and that would be too late. The attackers’ timing had been perfect to disrupt the ritual and grab Savannah while I was away.
The hair on my neck rose. “They knew what I was doing and when. And it looks like they knew exactly which room she was in. We have a leak. Someone’s feeding them information. That, or they’re scrying on us.”
Tony, Regina, Billy. I trusted them to the ends of the earth. They were as loyal as blood.
I fixed my allies with an iron expression. “For now, no one talks to anyone outside our team. Not a scrap of information gets out. Tony, we’re going after Regina. Billy, you’re the only one I trust to sort out this fucking mess. Someone tipped these assholes off. If it was the East Wisconsin pack, I want to know. If it was our pack, I want to know. Crack skulls and call Tony if you learn anything.”
Traitors in the pack. Rogue wolves potentially working with the LaSalles. Blood demons. It was chaos.
I needed to clear my mind.
I stepped away and pulled off my clothes. My wolf rose, and the familiar snapping of my bones and tearing of muscles rocked my body.
Once the shift was over, a sense of calm settled over me, and things became crystal clear.
Traitors and trucks and logistics were two-legged problems. The fortune teller had said that Savannah would provide the answers I sought. There was nothing on earth that was going to stop me from finding her. To do that, I needed to capture the rogue wolf alive.
My paws dug into the dirt as I leapt forward through the trees.
Time to hunt.
It took all night, but we caught up with the miserable bastard just as sunlight rose above the horizon. He had lost a lot of blood and was barely able to run. He wasn’t wolfborn but rather a shifter like Tony, and he wasn’t even strong enough to stay in wolf form.
He stumbled out of my way, but Regina slammed him to the ground, and he futilely writhed beneath her paws.
Tony shifted into human form and started going through the man’s pockets.
I padded over to where the bastard was lying belly-down, then bared my fangs and snarled in his face. He stank of piss and fear and drugs, and the sickly stench of death clung to him. Most importantly, he wasn’t one of ours. As we’d expected, whoever was behind this was recruiting outcasts from all over.
After what he’d done to Savannah, the scent of his fear was delicious. I opened my jaw and pressed my teeth against his trembling throat, a mild suggestion from my wolf.
No. Not yet. Answers first.
Reluctantly, I reigned in my wolf. As my bones cracked, I shifted back to two-legged form and gave a savage growl. Shoulders heaving with restrained fury, I turned to Tony. “Did the bastard have anything on him?”
He passed me a little vial, and my heart skipped a beat.
A week ago, I’d found the crushed remnants of a glass vial at one of the other crime scenes. We’d never figured out what it was.
I held up the vial and examined its contents in the light of the rising sun. Not much was left. It was bright red, like fresh blood. I popped the cork and sniffed. Definitely blood, though something was very strange about it—something that pulled at a memory I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
I passed it back to Tony. “Let’s stand him up.”
Regina gave a low warning growl and stepped off the man. He started to crawl away, but I heaved him up and slammed him against the trunk of a tree. Tony grabbed his arms and pulled them back behind the trunk, then lashed the man’s wrists with his belt.
“You’ll pay for this,” the rogue werewolf wheezed.
Tony rammed his fist in the man’s face with a sickening crunch, and blood flowed from his nose. Grabbing a fistful of the man’s hair, Tony yanked his head back against the trunk so the fucker’s eyes met mine. They were bloodshot and dilated, and his skin was ashen and clammy. His hands were trembling, but not from fear.