She’d get free somehow. Her lifedepended on it.
ChapterThirteen
Mytan woke with a growl and snappedhis sharp fangs. Wrath jerked back just in time to not have hisface bitten off. The big beast rolled to his paws and roseunsteadily, listing one way and then the other before digging hisclaws into the dirt. Mytan lowered his head and glared at Wrath,snuffling the air.
“She’s gone,” Wrath said.“Your maker is gone. You can find her. Can’t you?”
Mytan tilted his head.
Silenced stretched aroundthem.
“You didn’t think he’dsuddenly learned to talk, right?” Cael asked. “No matter that shemade him, he’s still just an animal.”
Wrath felt like an idiot, but he’dalso witnessed the connection between Trinity and Mytan. Wrathplaced a hand on his head and said, “She’s in danger. Help me saveher.”
Mytan sniffed at his arm and thenjerked his head away, lowering it to the ground. His rapid sniffingled him away from their group. Wrath didn’t think it was acoincidence that he was heading in the direction of Veltris’spack.
Wrath looked at Cael.
Cael snorted. “Okay, that’s prettydamn awesome. Assuming he actually is leading us toward whoever hasTrinity and not just following a prey trail orsomething.”
“I trust him.”
Jet and Creek were starting to rouse.Wrath took his eyes off Mytan for a moment and said, “River, youand Magnus get Jet and Creek to the cavern. Keep an eye out foranything out of the ordinary. I wouldn’t put it past Veltris toattempt an attack on our cavern while we’re looking forTrinity.”
“Got it,” Riversaid.
The rest of the pack had joined him atMytan’s lair. He looked at his people. They weren’t nearly as bigas Veltris’s pack, but they were faster and stronger than thepurebreds. Trinity’s life was on the line. And his own as well. Hehad no doubt that Veltris had taken Trinity as bait to lure Wrathinto a confrontation with the intention of killing him. And therest of the hybrids.
“We’ve spent our wholelives fighting for the right to exist. I may have led you astray inthe past, into a life of violence and evil, knowing I was under thelure of the blood lust, but Trinity changed that. Changed me.Veltris retaliated, and I failed her. I have to get her back, and Ineed your help.”
Cael considered their pack. They weredown four males, which meant eight against Veltris’s dozens. “We’rewith you, Wrath. She’s our alpha female. We’ll get her back safelyand make sure Veltris knows that we’re not in the business ofharming innocents or starting wars anymore.”
Wrath felt a camaraderie with hismales that he hadn’t had before. They weren’t following him becausehe was dangerous, they were following him because he was doing theright thing. For once.
“Let’s get our alpha femaleback,” Wrath said. He lifted his head and let out a defiant howl, apromise to Veltris that the male would suffer if a single hair onTrinity’s head was harmed.
Catching up to Mytan, they followedthe big beast toward their enemy’s territory. A plan formed inWrath’s mind as they moved silently and swiftly through the forest.Wrath couldn’t pick up Trinity’s scent at all, which told him thatthe purebreds had somehow masked it.
Wrath wished he and Trinity couldspeak telepathically to each other. He’d tell her he was coming forher. That he loved her. That he was sorry.
Giving Mytan a pat on the haunches asthey moved together through the woods, he said, “Good pup. Let’s goget your maker.”
* * *
Gemma Haleywehl listened toVeltris and his males talk about the Blood Wolves. She’d beenreading in bed, thinking about going outside, but unsure if shewanted to face Veltris again. He hadn’t exactly been receptive toher suggestion he not kidnap Wrath’s mate. While she’d told him repeatedly that theonly thing Wrath’s males did to her was not give her food or water,Veltris honestly didn’t believe her. She’d been injured during hernumerous escape attempts, including giving herself one hell of acracked rib, a sprained ankle, and a deep gash along her jaw. She’dstruggled with the chains so much she’d bruised and torn up herskin.
Wrath had taunted her, of course. Hadsent his males in to intimidate her. He wanted Veltris’s territory,wanted to drive their pack out so he could expand his own reach.The male was terrifying on a level that her own mate was not,because Wrath didn’t seem to have much in the way ofmorals.
But she was aware of how badly thingscould’ve gone for her in their custody. She could’ve been raped orkilled, her body left as a warning to Veltris and any other alphathat he was no male to be trifled with.
The fact she hadn’t been harmed madeher believe that Wrath wasn’t really all that bad. He for sure hadan evil streak, but like the purebreds, once they reachedtwenty-five without their true mate, the blood lust began to takeover, sealing their fates at age thirty.
Humans didn’t have that kind ofticking time bomb.
She’d saved Veltris’s life when shemated him.
Gemma looked at her shoulder where theblack tattoo swirled and swooped over her pale skin.
“You’re sure he’ll come forher?” Furio said.
“Of course,” Veltris said.“He won’t stop until he sees her. It’s a perfect trap.”
“He’ll expect a trap,”Lerrin said.
“And we outnumber him. Hecan expect all he likes, but we have manpower he doesn’t. It’ll bea quick battle, and we’ll finally rid ourselves of the scourge ofthe blood wolves.”
“And the female?” Rahleyasked.
“Collateral damage,”Veltris said.
Gemma’s stomach churned. She put downher book and swung her legs over the bed, listening to Veltris andhis males discuss snuffing out the lives of their enemies socasually, including killing a female. She’d never thought her matewould become what he hated so much, but since he’d apparently gonethrough with the plan to abduct Wrath’s female—and knowing thatVeltris believed the worst about Wrath and not the truth that Gemmaknew—she wondered if the female had been harmed.
Before she was abducted, she’d neverreally been afraid of anything. She’d proudly stood with Veltris ashis alpha female, the first human alpha female in
