“Ally, no!” The choked-out warning came from Caleb, who was sprawled on the ground with Kent. Both were badly injured, and both were covered in blood. What the fuck?
Ally’s head snapped in the direction of Willow’s cry . . . only to find that there was no Willow there, and a fucking cougar shifter was leaping off a tree branch, its feline gaze trained on Ally with—
Flinching as heat scalded her fingers, Ally dropped the coffeepot back onto the counter. Understanding quickly dawned. “Fuck!” Snatching her cell from the end of the counter, she dialed Caleb’s number.
He answered after only two rings. “Hey, Ally, how’s—”
“Don’t leave your lodge! Whatever happens, whatever you think you hear, do not leave your lodge. It’s not Willow, it’s a trap.” Ending the call, she quickly called Derren. The phone kept ringing and ringing, and she cursed. “Come on, come on.”
Then there was his voice. “Baby, I can’t talk right now—”
“Cougars.”
“What?”
“There are cougar shifters on our territory!” Cougar screams could often sound like babies wailing or women screaming. “I had a vision! They’re near Kent and Caleb’s lodge!” The predator in her wanted to track the felines and rip them all a new asshole for trespassing on Mercury territory with the intention to kill.
“Ally, don’t move. Don’t go after them alone.”
She wouldn’t, because that would give the cougars what they wanted. But she wasn’t going to hole up at her lodge either.
“I mean it, Ally. I need you to stay there. We’re bringing Shaya and Willow to you.”
“What? Why?” But he’d already hung up. By the time she’d quickly washed and replaced her long shirt with a white, long-sleeved T-shirt and her faded blue jeans, the pack arrived at the lodge. Only Derren, Bracken, Kathy, and Shaya with Willow in her arms filed inside.
“What’s happening?” Ally asked them.
“We weren’t prepared to leave anyone at the main lodge, considering what’s parked outside the border,” replied Derren.
That didn’t make a lick of sense to Ally.
Derren pinned her with a determined look. “Lock the doors and stay inside. Don’t split up—not for anything.” His wolf didn’t want to leave her, but even the animal understood that the need to protect the pack was vital. Wanting his head firmly on the threat on their territory, Derren ignored the urge to kiss her and forced his mind to the current issue.
Ally watched as Derren joined the rest of the pack outside. As one, they all shifted into their wolf forms and charged into the forest. Confused, she turned to Shaya. “What was he talking about?” As Derren requested, Ally secured the locks.
“Someone parked a car outside the road leading to the main lodge.” The Alpha female was slowly pacing, her daughter balanced on her hip. “There was an injured, unconscious guy in the passenger seat.”
“Decoy,” Ally guessed.
“I called an ambulance,” interjected Kathy from the sofa. “EMTs were taking him away when we left the lodge.”
“My guess is the cougars were using the vehicle as a distraction.” Bracken’s gaze was scanning his surroundings through the windows. “They had to know that Nick would summon his Beta and enforcers to the main lodge to tell them what’s going on.”
Shaya nodded. “The cougars were able to cross the border without being noticed, and it left the other members of our pack who were scattered around our territory vulnerable to them.”
“They were mimicking Willow’s cry,” Ally told them. “In the vision, I mean.”
Bracken briefly glanced at her. “Smart. It’s a trick cougar shifters sometimes use. No shifter—submissive or dominant—would ignore the cry of an infant. They’d rush right in to help.”
That was exactly what Ally had done. “In my vision, I didn’t even think to call for help. All I could think about was getting to Willow.”
Bracken didn’t appear surprised. “When they use this particular lure, that’s what they count on. If their intention was to mimic Willow’s cries, they were probably hoping to draw any of the pack members that weren’t in the main lodge to them.”
“Getting rid of the pack, little by little.” Cougar shifters really were tricky fuckers. “Kent and Caleb were dying in my vision. I would have been next.”
A muscle in Bracken’s jaw ticked. “When you have a small pack, the loss of three members makes a big difference in a battle.”
“And it’s an emotional blow that can make you act out in rage,” Shaya pointed out.
“How many cougars are out there?” Bracken asked Ally as she came to stand next to him, watching for any threats.
Ally shrugged. “I only saw one in my vision.” But she highly doubted one cougar was working alone, given that Caleb and Kent had been so brutally attacked. They could have held their own against one cougar.
Bracken shot her an odd look before asking quietly, “So, want to tell me why this place smells of you, Derren, and sex?” At her scowl, his expression turned innocent. “It was just a question.”
When his Alpha male halted a safe distance away from the clearing, the black wolf did the same. It had been easy for the pack to track the cougars. They had simply followed the fake cries. His Alpha looked at the black wolf and jerked his head to the left before then going in the opposite direction. The black wolf understood the order. He led half of the wolves one way, while his Alpha led the others another. Stealthily and silently, the pack moved to loosely circle the clearing. Surrounding and trapping their prey was a tactic they had used before.