Page 73 of Rabid
Saul’s voice rings in my mind clear as day, as the memory rushes through me of what the Twin Rivers’ betas were discussing as they were searching for me.
Where’s the other wolf? Burke said he’d be here with her and to bring him too. That was the agreement.
I turn to Tyran, pulling him to a stop, and the other pack members immediately do the same. “We have a traitor,” I announce, and the males and females go eerily silent as my declaration sinks in.
“What makes you say that?” Tyran asks carefully, his eyes flashing with anger as a tic forms in his jaw.
“When Twin Rivers attacked me, they were talking about working with another wolf. That wolf was supposed to be there when they took me. They traded me for a place in Burke’s pack.”
The betas go tense, shooting looks between them, but it’s nothing compared to the rigidity now coursing through Tyran.
“At first, I thought they might be talking about Presley,” I admit with a bit of a wince. “She was the only one I could think of who really doesn’t seem to like me and might have the right motivation, but she attacked them. She didn’t leave me to fight them off alone, even though I ordered her to.”
“Did they say who it was, give any more hints other than they were supposed to be there when you were attacked?” Tyran asks, his expression deathly cold and detached.
“No, but I’m pretty sure it was a male, they saidhim,” I answer, frustration and regret marring my thoughts. I try to play back what happened. But between my panic and fear, my body’s reaction to the dart they shot me with, and the emotions filtering through the bond, Saul’s words are all I can pick out of my memories.
“I’m sorry,” I offer Tyran and the betas, but his eyes soften for me, and he kisses me, his lips dismissing my apology.
“Nothing to be sorry for. You did good, and now we can all be sure to watch our backs until we can narrow down who it might be.” Tyran turns back to his betas. “Travis, get with Link. He ran his nose over every inch of the attack area. Make a list of every wolf he picked up; we’ll start there.”
Travis salutes Tyran and immediately jogs off.
“Brody,” Tyran barks out. “Get what you can from the male that was left behind, then kill him.”
“Wait, you have Saul, Burke’s beta?” I ask, surprised.
“We do, do you want to speak with him?” Tyran asks gruffly as though he doesn’t like the idea of me being in the same place as one of the males who tried to take me.
I shake my head. “No, but, Brody? When you kill him, make it hurt...a lot,” I instruct, and with a wicked smile, Brody salutes me and lopes away.
“Harlan,” Tyran asks, “are they at the meeting point on our territory?”
She nods. “Yes, at the falls where you instructed.”
“Load everybody up, we’ll be leaving immediately after the meeting,” Tyran commands, and three betas break away to follow his orders.
We walk quickly to the treeline, and Tyran reaches over and takes my hand as we make our way through the woods. He pops off orders about protective formations and the possible traps Burke may throw at us while we go, and I watch my mate, in complete awe of his confidence and control. It’s easy to see why he’s so formidable, and my wolf and I revel in this dominant vengeful side of him. He’s just as savage as us. Perfect fucking mate.
Tyran orders his Third in command to stay by my side. Theno matter whatpart of his order to Harlan makes me and my wolf bristle. But then it hits me just how awful the last two days must’ve been for Tyran as he watched me fight to heal and come back from what was done to me. Just the thought of anything happening to him overwhelms my wolf and me, and a new kind of rage begins to simmer inside of us.
Half of the betas with us shift and then span out in different directions. I breathe through the small twinges of pain that prick my stomach as we hurry, ignoring Tyran’s probing eyes when he looks over at me as we go.
A little pain never hurt anyone. He’ll just have to get over it.
Quickly, we climb up a steep hill to get to where Tyran’s allies are waiting, volatile restlessness settling within our group. I can feel the need for blood moving through the pack, and I know that the time to leave, the time tofight, is getting closer.
Soon, the sound of water as it plummets off a cliff and falls recklessly to the ground pounds in my ears. It’s a steady, immutable white noise that serves as the perfect background to the rhythm of the heartbeat in my ears and the contention thumping through my veins.
Then I come face-to-face with three consecutive waterfalls falling from a sheer cliff. They bathe us in their mist as we move closer, the water in the air like an eerie fog that’s cloaking us from danger. The falls feed into a churning river that’s sporting sharp stones jutting up every few feet and several downed trees that were caught in its wrath. Ruin Falls suddenly seems aptly named, the water willing and capable of utter destruction.
We step out of the milky haze of water and find several pack sentries guarding four males who look patient but alert and ready for anything that may come their way.
I study Tyran’s allies with guarded curiosity, but when my eyes land on one of the males, my heart stops and anguish rips through me. The memory of Hess’s bruised, battered, and bloody face pops up in my mind, followed by Burke’s callous tone as he told me he was dead. I suddenly realize why the pack name Plummet Lake sounded so familiar, my mind jumping back to the night after my mother’s funeral when Hess and I sat and drank a beer.
He told me then that his brother is the alpha of the Plummet Lake pack. What he didn’t tell me is that his brother was his damn twin. Anger and sorrow curdle my thoughts as I take in the alpha. They look exactly the same in every way, same blue-gray eyes, same round face, same color and style to their hair. I know it’s not Hess solely because the scent is different, barely, but enough to confirm that I’m looking at a genetic replica and not my mother’s best friend.
Unabashedly, I stare at the unknown male, only able to see his brother, and it sends a pang of misery and regret through me.
