Half a moon hung in the sky when we pulled up along the chain link fence. Angel cracked her window and sniffed the air. “No cats that I can smell.”
Shyla did the same, but I didn’t bother since I didn’t yet have the heightened senses like they did. “Not a damn thing. Come on.” She hopped out, and we followed.
Barbed wire ran along the top of the compound’s fence, something we hadn’t known or expected. Too high to leap over in their cat form, the sharp wire along the top too tall to climb over.
“Shit.” Angel stood, hands on hips, head swiveling left to right while checking out the fence disappearing into darkness.
“There’s trees over there.” Molly pointed to our left. “Maybe a branch hangs over far enough we can climb out and drop over.”
My stomach knotted tight as adrenaline raced through my system. Talk about outside of my comfort zone. Hanging with women I barely knew, disobeying direct orders and stumbling through the dark in a place I didn’t know—what the hell was I thinking?
“Ash!”
I jerked my head left to find Angel motioning me to follow the three of them.
I can do this, I told myself, searching for that determination I’d felt to get my own revenge, thank you very much. It would be sweeter by my hand—and I needed to be close by in case Bryce needed me.
We found trees, alright—dozens, but not a damn one reached over the razor sharp barbed wire atop the fence. Crouched down between the trunks, we watched the compound.
I could barely make out the club’s lights, if it could even be called such. It looked more like a shack from the light of a bonfire at the back of the building in the far distance. Men’s laughter and raised drunken voices drifted through the still night air, and I chewed on the inside of my lip.
“The Leopards haven’t attacked yet—but they’ve been here for at least ten minutes already,” Shyla whispered even though no one would be able to see or hear us from how far away we crouched from the party. “Do you think they made a stop first?”
I shrugged even though they wouldn’t see with their focus on the drunken men.
“Well, either way, our plan to sneak in the back isn’t going to work,” Angel muttered, frowning as she glanced over at me. “I think we ought to just go to the front, stay back enough our mates won’t catch our scents, then chase in after them the second they’re inside.”
“Let’s do it,” Shyla said, pushing to stand.
I crept back toward the car with them, my ears straining, my heart thumping. A sense of unease rippled along my spine, that same premonition-type shiver I’d experienced earlier, and I glanced toward the poorly lit shack again. No sign of electricity shone from the windows. No flood lights lit the front of their club. Frowning, I climbed into the car.
“There’s no electricity around here.”
“They’re off-grid,” Angel told me while driving back along the dirt road we’d approached by.
“The lack of light won’t be an issue for you in cat form, but I won’t be able to see all that great.”
“Just stick with us,” Shyla said. “Stay between us. We won’t let anyone hurt you. Promise.”
Maybe I would get lucky and the fear of facing my attackers once more would bring on the need to shift.
I could only hope, for in human form, I had no chance of protecting my mate.
182
Bryce
It took us twenty minutes to park a few hundred yards away from the Lycaon’s compound, strip down, and shift for those going in cat form, and to double check weapons for those in human. The four brothers driving the vans would stay put for another ten minutes, giving us time to sneak closer and infiltrate.
Once inside the fence, the fourteen remaining brothers and I would spread out in the darkness and close in on the wolf shifters at the given signal. Even though a good distance lay between their ram-shackled club and the closest neighbor, Wraith had told Holliday he would need silencers on all handguns.
Adrenaline pumped through my blood, salivating my mouth for a taste of coppery tang. Wolves stank worse than pig shit, same as fucking coyotes, but coating my tongue with their taste with sweet revenge would be better than a black coffee at the butt-crack ass of dawn.
Clothes and boots all tossed into the vans, we shifted, and Wraith nodded at me to take the lead, and I did so, the bait we’d agreed upon between my jowls.
I stalked through the woods, my ears on alert, my nose sucking in scents left and right, wary for any hint of danger, fighting the urge to sink my teeth into the rabbit carcass between them.
Not a single sentry stood watch along the dirt road leading toward the compound, but two of the cocksuckers shot the shit on the opposite side of the gate, cigarettes in one hand, cans of beer in the other. No source of light lit our way, but we stopped a good enough distance away the wolf guards wouldn’t be able to hear us approach or see us flitting through the trees’ shadows.
I paused, gathered what little self-control I possessed over my cat’s need to shed wolf blood, and slunk closer by myself, my existence shimmering out of sight.
Thankful for the lack of a breeze and not needing to stay down wind of the two guards, I edged close as safely possible—and tossed the rabbit carcass closer toward them with a quick snap of my neck.
The thump of the dead animal landing in leaf litter drew both guards to attention, and they turned, focusing on where the dead animal had landed behind a tree trunk a few yards between us. Both men lifted their noses, and
