I push him out of the way and go over to stand beside Milo. “What the fuck are you doing here, Nate?” I demand. “We already told you, we don’t want anything to do with you.”
“You want to hear what I have to say,” he says. “Your old pack—they’re tracking you. They have been watching you and know about Milo.”
“I fucking know they’re tracking me. Did you think I missed that when I was chained up on a beach?”
“I mean they’ve got your scent right now,” Nate says. “They’re already on their way. I got here first because I ran faster than they’re running. But they won’t be far behind me.”
“Fuck,” Milo breathes. “We’re going to have to face them right now. The sun’s almost right overhead. The moon’s never less visible than now.”
“You’re going to fight them?” Nate asks.
“Just get lost,” I say.
“I’m going to fight them with you,” he says.
“The hell you are.”
“Em—”
“Do you really think that we’d trust you, Nate? After what you tried to pull? Do you really think we’re going to rely on you in a fight? You’re crazy. There’s absolutely no way.”
“I’m not asking you to trust me,” he says.
“We’re not going into a fight with you—”
“Look, you can’t stop me,” he says. “You can’t stop me from fighting against them unless you want to fightme. And frankly, you don’t have time for that because they’re coming now. The fight is going to happennow.Do you want to spend the time before they arrive bickering with me, or do you want to get ready for them?”
“We could try to run,” Milo says, but he doesn’t sound like he means it.
“We shouldn’t,” I say. “We want this fight. And, okay, this isn’t the way we pictured it going down, but we did want it to happen. I say we stand our ground.”
Nate glances at me, and I can see that he knows he’s the element that’s making me feel unsure of what I’m saying.
No need for that, Nate. You chose to be here. And you’re right. We don’t have time to kill you. We don’t have time to run you off. Not right now.
“There’s something you should know,” Nate says.
“Something else?”
“Yeah. The ones who are coming now—it’s the alpha and your mate. That Victor guy. The one who wants to kill you himself,” I say. “If they win this fight, they won’t just chain you up. They’ll kill you here and now.”
Chapter 50
MILO
IgrabEmlyn’sarmand pull her off to the side. “Are we being insane?” I whisper.
“Definitely,” she says. “But can you be more specific?”
“Trusting Nate.”
“Oh, nobody’s trusting Nate.” Her mouth is set in a firm line. “But he’s right. We can’t stop him from fighting the wolves, if that’s what he wants to do.”
I look over her shoulder. Nate is stripping down, tossing his clothes over the branch of a tree. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and then his body ripples into a shift, and the wolf emerges.
Nate as a wolf is definitely intimidating. He’s bigger and bulkier than I am. I can tell that even standing several yards away, even in my human form. He’s not someone I’d want to go up against, and he definitelyissomeone I want to have on my side in a fight.
The only problem is that I can’t be sure he’s on my side. What happens if we get into the fight and he proves himself disloyal?