“For the moment,” Lucan hedged as he leaned out to the side.
At the front of the SUV, Rio had pulled Mayhem out of the driver’s seat and laid him flat on the scruffy weeds. Face up to the sky, the male was moving in an uncoordinated way, arms circling weakly, legs up-and-down’ing, like he was drunk and trying to run.
There was a lot of blood on his face, like a glossy, red mask.
And then things got worse.
Off in the distance, through the tree line, the unmistakable flicker of headlights coming fast was the tick-tock of a doomsday clock.
“We’ve got company,” Rio said.
After which things got worse-er.
Flaring his nostrils, Lucan scented the air and bared his fangs. “Rio, get your gun out.”
Cranking his head around, he re-tested the scents coming over on the breeze and got a confirmation that made his pecs tighten. Great. The one thing that he really didn’t need added to this shit show.
“Mayhem says it was a wolf,” Rio called out. “In the road. He swerved to avoid a wolf.”
“Yeah, I can scent it from here.”
Lucan measured the approaching vehicles. They were closing in, an inexorable gunfight rolling toward them like a storm surge.
Glancing at Apex, he tossed the male the one gun he had. “Defend them while I go deal with a relative of mine.”
Apex caught the weapon and nodded without a word.
Leaping from the side panel of the SUV, Lucan hit the ground and ran down the undercarriage to his mate. “I’ll be right back.”
“Be careful.”
He kissed her quickly and then tore off, jumping up the shallow embankment. The road was unlit, but he didn’t need streetlamps to see. The wolf’s body was about forty feet away, in the center of the pitted asphalt strip, blood staining the white-and-gray fur of the chest, a gray tongue lolling out of open jaws. Surprisingly, the rib cage was still going up and down. That wasn’t going to last.
Even though it had been decades, Lucan recognized the male. It was another of his cousins.
The first had been brought in by the Executioner mere nights ago. For whatever reason, the wolven had come off the mountain and were circling the prison camp—
The growl came directly across from Lucan.
As he lifted his stare to a stand of bushes, a set of glowing blue eyes was locked on him.
“Rio,” he said loudly, without looking away from the wolven. “Get back in our car—”
“What?”
“Get in our car, right now.”
“But what about—”
“Now!” he barked as he sank down into his thighs and prepared for a fight.
Whether it was going to be on four paws or two feet, that was the only question.
Talk about spoiled for choice.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was with no small measure of confusion that Kane opened his eyes and regarded the night sky above him. Given the pain he had just endured, he had assumed… that the next thing he saw would be the foggy landscape of the Fade and the white door he had been told of bywahlkers.