Chapter 66

The leg was gnawed and bloody, but the cloven hoof at one end suggested it might have begun life as a ram...or perhaps as a goat or a deer. Most damning of all, the leg was located dead center in the heart of Wolf Landing, only a few feet away from Lupe’s cabin.

Still, despite gruesome evidence that the ram’s death had in fact been associated with our pack, I barely took the time to glance at the detached limb. How could I when the living were in danger of being turned into equally grisly cuts of meat?

“That’s not proof,” Hunter argued, easing toward my vanquished charge while ignoring Grey’s aggressive stance. The girl was clasped against the enforcer’s bare chest and her eyes were wild. No wonder since she could barely breathe with one of Grey’s broad palms cupping her mouth while the other iron arm clamped around her throat. Still, Lupe was holding it together...which was more than could be said about her captor.

Grey is furious. I picked up on the emotion even before peering closely enough to make out scratches and bruises representing Lupe’s ill-fated attempts at escape. Meanwhile, blood oozed from multiple bites marring Grey’s legs, proof positive that the whole pack had tried to rescue the teenager before backing off once their attacks failed to achieve the desired goal.

Yeah, the enforcer had every reason to be pissed. But that didn’t give him the right to damage defenseless kids in retaliation.

Hunter didn’t meet my eye as I eased forward, but I could feel his acknowledgment of my presence down our mate bond as he inched closer to the entangled pair of shifters. Meanwhile, twenty-one wolves with raised hackles ringed my mate as Glen, Lia, and Ginger continued to cluster around Stormwinder in two-legger form.

The female trouble twin had been speaking quietly and quickly into the older man’s ear ever since I entered the clearing, and now the breeze shifted to fling a wisp of words in my direction. “...call him off...” she demanded. But when I met Glen’s eyes, I only received a curt head shake by way of reply. No, the Tribunal member had no intention of preventing the catastrophe currently unfolding in our midst.

Well, at least they’re keeping the old coot busy, I thought, circling around in the opposite direction. While I’d been assessing the scene, Hunter had halted five feet away from the younger male, a decision that I couldn’t blame him for one bit. There was something about Grey’s eyes that suggested Stormwinder’s current protégé wasn’t entirely in his right mind, the expression on his face reminiscent of the recklessness Hunter had displayed when he first joined our newborn pack.

In Hunter’s case, that initial feral nature while finding his footing had mellowed into the aspect of a caring and attentive pack leader. But in Grey’s case, I had a sinking suspicion the bloodling’s rampant wolf would instead succumb to behavior all of us would soon come to regret.

So I clung to the tree line, counting on my mate to keep Grey’s attention fixated on the most obvious danger while I snuck up behind the two figures holding all of us in check. Before I’d traversed half the distance separating us, though, Grey spoke at last.

“You want to protect this pup?” he asked, the words gravelly and garbled as if his wolf was attempting to wield the man’s tongue without human assistance. Yep, the uber-alpha had dropped whatever pretense at humanity he might once have possessed. We’d need to use our instincts rather than our brains if we hoped to rescue Lupe from the jaws of the shifter who was quickly descending into the mind of a wild beast.

“She is a pup,” Hunter agreed, keeping his eyes averted in a submissive gesture that didn’t come at all naturally to the uber-alpha shifter. It hadn’t escaped my notice that my mate didn’t answer Grey’s actual question, but I hoped the enforcer wasn’t thinking rationally enough to make a similar connection. “She’s barely old enough to shift,” Hunter continued. “Young, stupid.”

“Young doesn’t mean stupid,” Grey retorted, his arm loosening slightly from around Lupe’s neck as if he’d developed a hint of empathy for his captive in response to Hunter’s words. My clever mate was apparently on the right track.

But the time wasn’t yet ripe for escape. So when Lupe tensed, sensing the opening she’d been waiting for, I didn’t stop to think. Instead, I broke the cardinal rule that had made our precarious relationship possible in the first place.

“I’ll hang with the pack,” Lupe had told me once soon after being reluctantly drawn into the fold. “But don’t think I’m one of you. Don’t you dare do that ‘Oh I’m your alpha let me speak in your head thing’ or I’m outta here!”

I’d shrugged and agreed. After all, it wasn’t as if I drew pleasure from insinuating myself into the minds of people who hated my guts, so bowing to the teenager’s wishes was no skin off my teeth.

Now, though, I couldn’t afford to play nice. Instead, I reached down the pack bond and slapped Lupe with a compulsion directly inside her own brain. “Stand still!” I demanded, feeling the rebound as a wave of shared agony pulsed through her young skull.

The girl flinched, proof that my words had at least made an impact. Whether the compulsion would manage to alter the actions of a stronger wolf was up for debate, though.

Don’t strike out at Grey just to spite me, I begged silently. I didn’t send the words down the pack bond, though, since a second invasion seemed likely to make matters worse rather than better. And, to my relief, Lupe’s eyes flashed with anger...but she obeyed.

Meanwhile, seemingly oblivious to what was going on behind the scenes, Hunter inched another step closer to the off-the-rails enforcer even as he continued to play with Grey’s mind. “You’re right. Young doesn’t mean stupid. Sometimes young means in need of a second chance or in need of a shoulder to lean on.”

I’d stopped walking when I decided to jump into Lupe’s brain, not sure I could perform the two tasks simultaneously without stumbling over my own feet. So I was only halfway around the clearing by that point, abreast of Grey and able to catch the expression on the younger male’s face when he cocked his head to one side in response to Hunter’s statement.

To my relief, stark lupine rage slowly faded away from our enemy’s countenance as human calculation filtered in to take its place. The enforcer was being drawn back from the brink by my mate’s carefully chosen words, and I couldn’t resist releasing a long, drawn-out sigh. Maybe we’d be able to rescue Lupe after all.

“You didn’t answer my question,” the younger uber-alpha said more clearly after a long moment of deliberation. “Do you want to protect this pup?”

Grey was less tense than he’d been a moment earlier, but the hairs on the back of my neck abruptly stood on end. Yes, the enforcer’s human brain was in the lead...but was that really any better for us than facing down a wild wolf? Because while a shifter’s animal half could be unpredictable, the human brain was significantly more clever. Wheels were now turning in the young male’s head, driving us all toward a destination I wasn’t so sure we wanted to visit.

Hunter’s nostrils flared as he received the same visual cues I had and followed up by scenting the air in search of the emotional undertones. “I want you to release her, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said after a moment. “Lupe’s not worth bloodying your hands over. She’s mine to reprimand. I’ll ensure that she does no more harm to man or beast.”

Once again, Hunter was creeping forward, although I didn’t think Grey had noticed his opponent’s advance. By this point, in fact, my mate was nearly within arm’s reach of Lupe—the moment we were waiting for was fast approaching.

“Be ready to run,” I broadcast into Lupe’s mind, knowing as I did so that I was harming the tentative bond of trust that had allowed us to communicate telepathically in the first place. Immediately, I sensed confusion and anger at the repeated intrusion, but the girl managed to tamp down her emotions long enough to visualize a reply.

“I’m ready,” she promised.

“You’re not answering my question,” Grey countered, turning his body so Lupe was pointed away from Hunter and closer to me. “I want to know if this pup means something to you. Is it duty making you stick your neck out for her, or do you care about this bloodling who has been nothing but trouble for your pack?”

So this was the issue Hunter had been adroitly sidestepping for the last few minutes. Around us, the entire clearing seemed to hold its breath. Stormwinder’s lips curled into a predatory grin and Lia’s eyes squinted shut as if she was afraid to see the events about to unfold. Meanwhile, the Pied Piper pack of bloodlings encircling my mate’s legs peered up at their alpha while Ginger stopped muttering long enough to take in his reply.

Lupe, though, was the one who cared the most. The girl liked to act as if she wasn’t one of us, but when it came right down to it she was every bit a wolf. And a wolf craves the protection and affection of her alpha above all else.

So I wasn’t surprised when the tether stretching between us went entirely still as the girl prepared herself for Hunter’s answer. This, I realized, was the moment when my mate would accept Lupe into his good graces, allowing the teenager to finally relinquish the chip she’d been balancing atop her slender shoulders.

And then Hunter squashed all of our hopes and dreams. “Duty,” he said shortly. “Lupe has been a thorn in my heel ever since she first entered this pack. I don’t give a fig about one unruly bloodling girl.”