The entire day in the caves had been spent going over the plan. It was simple. They had to lure the humans far inside the expansive territory, which served two purposes. One, it meant Tao could seal up the opening in the fence, thus trapping the humans inside. Two, everyone felt the humans deserved to be tracked and played with, just as they had done to the shifters in the game preserve. Only once the humans were deep in pack territory would the shifters all begin to attack. When images of the mutilated child shifters once again flashed before her, Shaya felt a surge of anger. Yeah, the bastards had this coming.
As the humans followed the trail Trey had left, Shaya thought they would undoubtedly believe they were getting closer and closer to the entrance of the caves. In reality, they were being led farther and farther into the woods. Shaya watched as, without the humans’ knowledge, their hunters began to move into place until the large group was loosely circled as they walked, giving them no avenues of escape when the attack finally began.
It wasn’t until the humans reached one of the many shallow lakes that the shifters made any moves. The three humans at the rear of the group were targeted first. There was no loud attack. Ryan, Dante, and Jaime—all in their human form—each stepped out from behind a tree and swiftly snatched a human and yanked them aside. Shaya knew exactly what they had done in the shadows: snapped the humans’ necks instantly, taking them out of the equation.
Totally oblivious, the rest of the group continued onward. A few seconds later, Dante, Jaime, and Ryan repeated the move. They did it again and again, picking off the humans. They might have done it again, but then one of the group stepped onto a bear trap; his pain-filled cry echoed throughout the forest as the two jaws clamped around his foot and he dropped to the ground. Several humans gathered around him.
Panicked, one human crouched beside him. “Shit, what happened?”
“A bear trap.” Logan.
“I can’t get it off!”
Logan again: “Of course you can’t. You’re not supposed to be able to. Be careful, there’ll be more around.”
“Do you think they have the place rigged?” one asked him.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the closer we get, the more traps there are. And not just bear traps.”
“We better get moving,” said the co-leader. His voice didn’t sound at all familiar. “The wolves will have heard him screaming. They’ll come out here to look around.”
Logan nodded his agreement. “Two of you help him up and support him as he walks. Filcher, any movement back there? Filcher? Filcher?”
“He’s not there,” another human said. “Shit, neither is Gavin or—”
“We’re being picked off,” drawled the co-leader.
“We’re being hunted,” corrected Logan. His voice held a telling tremor. “That means they know exactly where we are. Stay close together.” Two of the group helped support the injured human as they all slowly continued ahead through the trees, constantly turning as they walked to cover every angle.
Twenty seconds or so later, another human triggered a thin trip wire that sent a spiked boulder swinging at his head. Grunting, he fell to the ground, crying out and cursing and bleeding like crazy. Shit, that had to have hurt. When the spiked boulder continued swinging and looked about to hit another human, the male dove out of the way…and stepped into another bear trap. While a few of the large group went to tend to the injured, everyone else seemed to freeze, wary of moving.
Whereas the group had before seemed nervous but confident, they were now cautious and fearful—just like the wolves wanted. It wasn’t until right then, when the group was confused and disoriented, that the ambush began. There was gunfire, there was growling, there was screaming, there was yelling as the wolves came at the group from all directions. It was also the go-ahead for Shaya to act. Aiming for those who she judged the biggest threats and of whom she had a clear view, Shaya fired one bullet after another, gratified down to her gut as she disabled the bastards.
One of those bullets hit her target’s arm rather than his heart, and he dropped his gun as he flinched with the pain. When Nick’s wolf turned his attention to him, the human turned and ran in what could only be described as a blind panic. He suddenly screeched in pain and fell to the ground, having stepped on one of the barbed-spike plates that were planted around. Nick dived on him, closing his jaw around the a**hole’s throat.
The wolves were all merciless in their assault. Trey’s wolf had gone feral by this point and was tearing into whatever human was near him. Although he’d taken a bullet to the leg, it wasn’t stopping him—not in that state. Most likely disturbed about his injury, Taryn’s wolf was staying near her mate as she pounced on the humans with equal vigor.
Now in their wolf form, Jaime and Ryan were fighting alongside Dante’s injured yet relentless wolf, who kept bumping Jaime out of harm’s way—all instinct at that moment. Jesse, Bracken, and Zander weren’t far away, attacking with a rage that spoke of the pain of losing loved ones to these corrupted humans.
When Tao and Trick’s wolves lunged at two now weaponless humans, they instantly turned and sprinted away…and fell right into a deep pit in the ground onto a cushion of spikes. Ouch. Similarly, Eli’s and Amber’s wolves chased another duo of humans into a second deep pit that was also cushioned by spikes.
One human was running backward and simultaneously firing in every direction. Had he been looking ahead of him, he might have seen the heavy rock that was supported by several branches, tilted on an angle. The second the human’s foot hit the branch that served as a trigger, the rock collided into him, crushing him. Dominic’s wolf then delivered a killing bite to his throat.
Meanwhile, Shaya continued trying to pick off or, at the very least, severely injure the remaining humans. Unfortunately, two of those remaining were Logan and the co-leader, who were being protected by the others. Clearly determined to reach the two sick bastards, Nick’s wolf was targeting their protectors. Roni’s, Derren’s, and Marcus’s wolves were helping him, but the circle of protection was still strong.
Shaya didn’t have a good angle on the remaining humans and it was pissing her the hell off. She thought about climbing down from the tree and moving to a spot that would provide her with a better shot, but she had promised Nick that she wouldn’t step any closer into the war zone, and she’d keep that promise. If she didn’t, it would distract him, and that would risk him being seriously hurt.
Watching as he suddenly stopped still, she frowned. His head turned her way, and she felt his confusion and anxiety. Then there was some kind of explosion. She could only guess that one of the humans had some kind of grenade—at that moment, the who, what, why, when, and how wasn’t important; what was important was that the force had sent Nick, Roni, and Derren zooming through the air. Roni crashed into a tree, Derren flew out of her view, and Nick hit the ground hard—so hard that she felt as blackness overcame him. Fuck, he’d passed out.
Everything inside Shaya screamed at the sight of him lying there like that, unconscious and vulnerable. Her wolf froze in panic, howling. Drowning in emotions she couldn’t even understand right then, Shaya ignored reason and rationality as instinct took over; she climbed down and raced through the maze of trees. With only Nick’s safety on her mind, she hadn’t registered the presence of three unfamiliar scents until an arm looped around her waist, a hand was clamped over her mouth, and the gun was yanked from her hand. Shit!
She struggled like crazy, hitting and head-butting and scratching, but her attacker—a shifter, she sensed—didn’t release her. From the corner of her eye, she saw movement: Amber’s wolf was finishing off a fleeing human. She caught sight of Shaya and froze in what was most likely surprise. Shaya appealed to her with her eyes, hoping that for just once, Amber would do what was right instead of what suited her.
She didn’t.
The bitch loped away, leaving Shaya at the mercy of God-knew-who. Then the butt of her gun smacked into her head, and everything went dark.
“For God’s sake, shift! Now, Nick! I can’t heal you until you shift!”
It was not the voice of the Alpha female that woke the gray wolf. It was the feel of his mate’s fear, her anger, her determination to be free of the danger she was in. Danger. He had known the danger was coming for her, had felt it just before the blackness came.
There was the sound of the Alpha female’s voice again. But the gray wolf had no interest in her. His only concern was his mate. She needed him, and he would not, could not, ignore that. He tried jumping to his feet. His leg crumpled beneath him. He yelped with pain, unable to rise. He could feel Nick’s panic, knew that Nick wanted dominance right then. Accepting for his mate’s sake that Nick was the strongest at that moment, the wolf backed down.
The shift was agonizing; Nick clenched his teeth against the pain, worried he’d pass out again. His leg had not only taken a bullet, but it was broken in two places. He was bleeding badly in several places, had taken a hard blow to his head, and had knife wounds in his sides.
“Roll onto your back now!” ordered Taryn.
“Shaya,” he panted. “She’s—”
“Now, Nick! If you die, Shaya will kill me!”
Carefully positioning himself on his back, he again tried to speak, but Taryn’s mouth was locked on his and she was healing him. It was the oddest feeling; each time she breathed out some of what she called the “badness,” he felt lighter yet stronger, relaxed yet galvanized. The pain got worse before it got better as his leg snapped back into place. But then there was only calm and peace and power. Done, she sat up. Trey was instantly at her side, holding her.
Nick shot upright and turned to Derren. “Shaya’s been taken.”
“Taken?” growled Derren. “Taken by who?”
“I don’t know.” But whoever it was, they would soon be dead. “Where’s Logan?”
“We can’t find his body, but he was badly injured—there’s no way he could have kidnapped Shaya when he could barely walk. She’d have easily overpowered an injured human.”
Nick could agree with that. “What about the shifter? I haven’t scented an unfamiliar shifter.”
“Neither have I.”
That meant the shifter was most likely the kidnapper. His panic increased at the thought of it, at the thought of anyone hurting this female he’d come to love more than he believed he was capable of loving anyone. He didn’t fear the realization, didn’t fear the all-consuming feeling or view it as a weakness. All he feared was anything happening to her. “I need to shift again. I need to find her.” This would be the perfect time to have another one of his knowings, but oh no, fate had apparently decided that this was a situation he and his wolf would have to fight their way through alone.
“We can’t come with you, Nick,” Taryn told him, tears in her eyes. “I need to stay here. A lot of these people are injured.” Nick nodded in understanding. “You make sure you bring her back,” ordered Taryn. The tears were in her voice now too.
Oh, he’d bring her back. He’d never before let anyone keep him from Shaya, and he wouldn’t start now. “Count on it.” With that, he swiftly returned to his wolf form.
The gray wolf darted to the spot where his mate should have been waiting. He needed to follow her scent in order to find her. Near the tree, he picked up four scents: one belonged to his mate, two belonged to humans, and the last scent was that of a shifter. It was a scent that the wolf knew…a scent that belonged to a wolf who should be dead.
Shaya knew Nick would come for her. Knew it. But she truly didn’t want him to. Not when it was obvious that she was bait—a bait that was sitting on the floor with her wrists tied behind her back, held captive in the “hut” on the other side of pack territory by a trio of mentally unhinged males. Worse, one of said unhinged males was pointing her own rifle at her.
Pissing Shaya off even more, Amber was sitting opposite her in the exact same position. The only good thing about that was that the bitch had a broken leg. No, it wasn’t because she had tried to help Shaya after all. The trio had taken Amber so that she couldn’t alert anyone. They had even injected Amber with a drug that stopped her from shifting—the same drug they’d used in the game preserve. Had they known Shaya was a half-shifter, they would most likely have done the same to her.
Was Amber now on Shaya’s side? No, she was trying to bargain with the trio for her life, claiming she would heal their wounds if they agreed to free her. The bargaining didn’t appear to be working. Shaya wouldn’t have cared if it worked; the only thing she could think about was getting to Nick. But there were three of these shitheads and one of her. She had to wait for the right moment, or they would most likely put her unconscious again. She couldn’t escape if she was unconscious. And she would escape. It went in her favor that none of them knew she was a half-shifter. They didn’t know she was much stronger and faster than she looked, nor that the knot tying her wrists might not be as effective as they’d hoped.
Her dad had taught her the trick of freeing herself from knots a long time ago, but it was a little different trying to do it when it was a life-or-death situation. Just thinking about Nick unconscious had the adrenaline pumping more rapidly around Shaya’s body and her heart pounding even louder.
Stay calm, her father would have told her. Be observant. Okay. Well, two of the three males were human, they had all been visited by the Ugly Fairy—one was so ugly it was almost fascinating—and the one in the center was clearly the shifter behind the creation of the game preserve.