Chapter 66
Chapter 66
“I reached for my gun, not taking my eyes off the now bigger threat. My fingers encircled the handle. After whipping the weapon around, I aimed. The bear paused, chuffing.
Lyra, don’t shoot. You’re all safe. It’s me.
My jaw slackened. “R-Ryker?” I exhaled a long, shaky breath.
The bear lowered his head in a nod.
Rage swelled inside my chest, overflowing like an erupting volcano. I pulled the trigger, hitting Ryker in the shoulder. He growled as the bullet blasted into his flesh.
What the hell, Lyra?
“You betrayed us!” I jerked my head toward the carnage. “Look around… You sent your bears here to destroy my pack! I was such an idiot to trust you…”
“You believe I’d save your ass if I was intent on killing you and your pack? Think about it, you little idiot!”
I paused, my hands lowering somewhat, my mind fast at work. More groans and roars met my ears. I searched around, glaring at Ryker. Bear fought bear. All along the clearing I watched the grizzlies and black bears launch an assault on the initial bears that had ambushed us in the middle of the night.
I gasped. The bears were retreating, tearing across the camp as they fled into the forest. Ryker’s bears charged after them.
My heart ached, the traitorous muscle yearning to believe him. To trust my fated mate. But an insidious part of me whispered, No bear, nor wolf pack has ever found our camp. Its position is tucked away near the mountains. Only Ryker has been here and seen our camp during the investigations. This… this was a trap. Ryker commanded his bears to attack us, leaving half his warriors back in reserve to ‘rescue’ what remained of my pack. This was nothing more than a ploy.
I faced Ryker, my eyes flaring with fury. The bullet had worked its way out of his fur before clinking to the ground.
Ryker’s eyes shone with such earnestness, but mine narrowed in doubt.
I swear, Lyra, I had nothing to do with this! I didn’t call for an attack on your camp. He growled. I don’t know what the hell is going on. Perhaps the Dark Fae influenced my bears somehow.
My upper lip curved, fangs lengthening. “There was no metallic scent of Dark Fae on them. No dead look in their eyes.” I rose to my feet, holding the gun at my leg. I threw out my arm to the side. A shimmer of light appeared around the cabins. The lighted wolf bounded toward us. I made it stop a few feet away. The wolf bared her fangs at Ryker, a menacing howl rumbling from its throat.
Ryker turned his enormous head toward the translucent wolf, astonishment playing across his face. But I didn’t believe it for one second.
“Your bears were acting out of their own fucking free will!”
Ryker swung a pleading gaze toward me. Lyra, please…
“Get out.” My voice shook, and I steeled myself against the raw pain of betrayal. Ryker remained, refusing to move. “Leave!” I shouted at him.
His head sagged.
A tremor of grief wracked my body. I bit my lower lip to keep the tears at bay—the taste of blood filling my mouth. “The only reason I’m letting you live,” I hissed, “is because you’re my wolf’s fated mate. But I will never mate with you… a monster, a bear.”
The light faded in Ryker’s eyes. He paused for a long moment before he turned and padded away. His remaining bears that hadn’t given chase fell into step with their alpha. Then I watched until they were nothing more than smudges within the shadows of the forest.
I swallowed past the dry lump of emotion lodged in my throat and the sting of tears behind my eyelids. I refused to shed a single one over Ryker.
I’d die first.”
RYKER
“Have the prisoners spoken?”
Ruby, my beta, shook her head. “Not yet. The torturing is effective, Alpha. They are weakening.”
My upper lip curled in frustration. I walked past Ruby and went down the dark corridor of the underground prison cell my father built for werewolf prisoners of war. But no wolves filled the cells today. Rage licked through my blood like a windswept flame.”