Carnal Secrets

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

It was eleven thirty in the evening when the humans finally came. Shaya and the others were all in position, planted in various spots—waiting, silent and still. While many were in their wolf form in the woods, Shaya was positioned on her stomach on a thick branch of a tall tree, allowing her to oversee whatever would come next. Despite the anxiety running through her body and mind, her hands were steady as she held the rifle. It felt right in her grip, made her remember the times her dad had taken her hunting when she was younger. For long periods of time, they would lie still as she was doing now, their senses on high alert. As such, this wasn’t unfamiliar, but still her wolf wasn’t so steady; she was too frightened for her mate’s safety.

Most of the females, Kent, and, of course, Kye had remained in the caves, guarded by Caleb, Gabe, Rhett, and Cam. As such, there was a total of eighteen wolves—including Shaya—taking cover in what would soon be a battlefield: Nick, Derren, Eli, Taryn, Trey, Dante, Jaime, Roni, Tao, Trick, Marcus, Ryan, Dominic, Bracken, Jesse, Zander, and Amber.

It wasn’t long before, one by one, the humans began to enter through the gap that Tao had deliberately made in the perimeter fence. Forty-six humans in total. The fact that they were all dressed in black made Shaya roll her eyes. Dark clothes worked well as camouflage, but black would make a person easier to see, as true black looked unnatural, outlining a person’s silhouette. Even from her distance one hundred yards away, she could clearly see with her shifter-heightened vision that the humans were well armed with guns and knives. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was still alarming.

Knowing his stature and posture well, she could easily spot Logan co-leading the group with another figure as they slowly and cautiously began to move. Could that be the shifter responsible for the creation of the game preserve? Quite possibly. Just the idea had her wolf growling.

Shaya’s advanced hearing barely picked up much noise from them, but she guessed they were all quite experienced at going unseen and unheard if they had been enjoying themselves in the game preserve. Instantly, the images she had seen on the news flashed in her mind, making her sick to her stomach. Having a perfect view of Logan and his co-leader, it was so tempting to just shoot them both there and then. But that wasn’t the plan.

The entire day in the caves had been spent going over the plan. It was simple. They had to lure the humans far inside the expansive territory, which served two purposes. One, it meant Tao could seal up the opening in the fence, thus trapping the humans inside. Two, everyone felt the humans deserved to be tracked and played with, just as they had done to the shifters in the game preserve. Only once the humans were deep in pack territory would the shifters all begin to attack. When images of the mutilated child shifters once again flashed before her, Shaya felt a surge of anger. Yeah, the bastards had this coming.

As the humans followed the trail Trey had left, Shaya thought they would undoubtedly believe they were getting closer and closer to the entrance of the caves. In reality, they were being led farther and farther into the woods. Shaya watched as, without the humans’ knowledge, their hunters began to move into place until the large group was loosely circled as they walked, giving them no avenues of escape when the attack finally began.

It wasn’t until the humans reached one of the many shallow lakes that the shifters made any moves. The three humans at the rear of the group were targeted first. There was no loud attack. Ryan, Dante, and Jaime—all in their human form—each stepped out from behind a tree and swiftly snatched a human and yanked them aside. Shaya knew exactly what they had done in the shadows: snapped the humans’ necks instantly, taking them out of the equation.

Totally oblivious, the rest of the group continued onward. A few seconds later, Dante, Jaime, and Ryan repeated the move. They did it again and again, picking off the humans. They might have done it again, but then one of the group stepped onto a bear trap; his pain-filled cry echoed throughout the forest as the two jaws clamped around his foot and he dropped to the ground. Several humans gathered around him.

Panicked, one human crouched beside him. “Shit, what happened?”

“A bear trap.” Logan.

“I can’t get it off!”

Logan again: “Of course you can’t. You’re not supposed to be able to. Be careful, there’ll be more around.”

“Do you think they have the place rigged?” one asked him.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the closer we get, the more traps there are. And not just bear traps.”

“We better get moving,” said the co-leader. His voice didn’t sound at all familiar. “The wolves will have heard him screaming. They’ll come out here to look around.”

Logan nodded his agreement. “Two of you help him up and support him as he walks. Filcher, any movement back there? Filcher? Filcher?”

“He’s not there,” another human said. “Shit, neither is Gavin or—”

“We’re being picked off,” drawled the co-leader.

“We’re being hunted,” corrected Logan. His voice held a telling tremor. “That means they know exactly where we are. Stay close together.” Two of the group helped support the injured human as they all slowly continued ahead through the trees, constantly turning as they walked to cover every angle.

Twenty seconds or so later, another human triggered a thin trip wire that sent a spiked boulder swinging at his head. Grunting, he fell to the ground, crying out and cursing and bleeding like crazy. Shit, that had to have hurt. When the spiked boulder continued swinging and looked about to hit another human, the male dove out of the way…and stepped into another bear trap. While a few of the large group went to tend to the injured, everyone else seemed to freeze, wary of moving.

Whereas the group had before seemed nervous but confident, they were now cautious and fearful—just like the wolves wanted. It wasn’t until right then, when the group was confused and disoriented, that the ambush began. There was gunfire, there was growling, there was screaming, there was yelling as the wolves came at the group from all directions. It was also the go-ahead for Shaya to act. Aiming for those who she judged the biggest threats and of whom she had a clear view, Shaya fired one bullet after another, gratified down to her gut as she disabled the bastards.

One of those bullets hit her target’s arm rather than his heart, and he dropped his gun as he flinched with the pain. When Nick’s wolf turned his attention to him, the human turned and ran in what could only be described as a blind panic. He suddenly screeched in pain and fell to the ground, having stepped on one of the barbed-spike plates that were planted around. Nick dived on him, closing his jaw around the asshole’s throat.

The wolves were all merciless in their assault. Trey’s wolf had gone feral by this point and was tearing into whatever human was near him. Although he’d taken a bullet to the leg, it wasn’t stopping him—not in that state. Most likely disturbed about his injury, Taryn’s wolf was staying near her mate as she pounced on the humans with equal vigor.

Now in their wolf form, Jaime and Ryan were fighting alongside Dante’s injured yet relentless wolf, who kept bumping Jaime out of harm’s way—all instinct at that moment. Jesse, Bracken, and Zander weren’t far away, attacking with a rage that spoke of the pain of losing loved ones to these corrupted humans.

When Tao and Trick’s wolves lunged at two now weaponless humans, they instantly turned and sprinted away…and fell right into a deep pit in the ground onto a cushion of spikes. Ouch. Similarly, Eli’s and Amber’s wolves chased another duo of humans into a second deep pit that was also cushioned by spikes.

One human was running backward and simultaneously firing in every direction. Had he been looking ahead of him, he might have seen the heavy rock that was supported by several branches, tilted on an angle. The second the human’s foot hit the branch that served as a trigger, the rock collided into him, crushing him. Dominic’s wolf then delivered a killing bite to his throat.

Meanwhile, Shaya continued trying to pick off or, at the very least, severely injure the remaining humans. Unfortunately, two of those remaining were Logan and the co-leader, who were being protected by the others. Clearly determined to reach the two sick bastards, Nick’s wolf was targeting their protectors. Roni’s, Derren’s, and Marcus’s wolves were helping him, but the circle of protection was still strong.

Shaya didn’t have a good angle on the remaining humans and it was pissing her the hell off. She thought about climbing down from the tree and moving to a spot that would provide her with a better shot, but she had promised Nick that she wouldn’t step any closer into the war zone, and she’d keep that promise. If she didn’t, it would distract him, and that would risk him being seriously hurt.

Watching as he suddenly stopped still, she frowned. His head turned her way, and she felt his confusion and anxiety. Then there was some kind of explosion. She could only guess that one of the humans had some kind of grenade—at that moment, the who, what, why, when, and how wasn’t important; what was important was that the force had sent Nick, Roni, and Derren zooming through the air. Roni crashed into a tree, Derren flew out of her view, and Nick hit the ground hard—so hard that she felt as blackness overcame him. Fuck, he’d passed out.

Everything inside Shaya screamed at the sight of him lying there like that, unconscious and vulnerable. Her wolf froze in panic, howling. Drowning in emotions she couldn’t even understand right then, Shaya ignored reason and rationality as instinct took over; she climbed down and raced through the maze of trees. With only Nick’s safety on her mind, she hadn’t registered the presence of three unfamiliar scents until an arm looped around her waist, a hand was clamped over her mouth, and the gun was yanked from her hand. Shit!

She struggled like crazy, hitting and head-butting and scratching, but her attacker—a shifter, she sensed—didn’t release her. From the corner of her eye, she saw movement: Amber’s wolf was finishing off a fleeing human. She caught sight of Shaya and froze in what was most likely surprise. Shaya appealed to her with her eyes, hoping that for just once, Amber would do what was right instead of what suited her.

She didn’t.

The bitch loped away, leaving Shaya at the mercy of God-knew-who. Then the butt of her gun smacked into her head, and everything went dark.

“For God’s sake, shift! Now, Nick! I can’t heal you until you shift!”

It was not the voice of the Alpha female that woke the gray wolf. It was the feel of his mate’s fear, her anger, her determination to be free of the danger she was in. Danger. He had known the danger was coming for her, had felt it just before the blackness came.

There was the sound of the Alpha female’s voice again. But the gray wolf had no interest in her. His only concern was his mate. She needed him, and he would not, could not, ignore that. He tried jumping to his feet. His leg crumpled beneath him. He yelped with pain, unable to rise. He could feel Nick’s panic, knew that Nick wanted dominance right then. Accepting for his mate’s sake that Nick was the strongest at that moment, the wolf backed down.

The shift was agonizing; Nick clenched his teeth against the pain, worried he’d pass out again. His leg had not only taken a bullet, but it was broken in two places. He was bleeding badly in several places, had taken a hard blow to his head, and had knife wounds in his sides.

“Roll onto your back now!” ordered Taryn.

“Shaya,” he panted. “She’s—”

“Now, Nick! If you die, Shaya will kill me!”

Carefully positioning himself on his back, he again tried to speak, but Taryn’s mouth was locked on his and she was healing him. It was the oddest feeling; each time she breathed out some of what she called the “badness,” he felt lighter yet stronger, relaxed yet galvanized. The pain got worse before it got better as his leg snapped back into place. But then there was only calm and peace and power. Done, she sat up. Trey was instantly at her side, holding her.

Nick shot upright and turned to Derren. “Shaya’s been taken.”

“Taken?” growled Derren. “Taken by who?”

“I don’t know.” But whoever it was, they would soon be dead. “Where’s Logan?”

“We can’t find his body, but he was badly injured—there’s no way he could have kidnapped Shaya when he could barely walk. She’d have easily overpowered an injured human.”

Nick could agree with that. “What about the shifter? I haven’t scented an unfamiliar shifter.”

“Neither have I.”

That meant the shifter was most likely the kidnapper. His panic increased at the thought of it, at the thought of anyone hurting this female he’d come to love more than he believed he was capable of loving anyone. He didn’t fear the realization, didn’t fear the all-consuming feeling or view it as a weakness. All he feared was anything happening to her. “I need to shift again. I need to find her.” This would be the perfect time to have another one of his knowings, but oh no, fate had apparently decided that this was a situation he and his wolf would have to fight their way through alone.

“We can’t come with you, Nick,” Taryn told him, tears in her eyes. “I need to stay here. A lot of these people are injured.” Nick nodded in understanding. “You make sure you bring her back,” ordered Taryn. The tears were in her voice now too.

Oh, he’d bring her back. He’d never before let anyone keep him from Shaya, and he wouldn’t start now. “Count on it.” With that, he swiftly returned to his wolf form.

The gray wolf darted to the spot where his mate should have been waiting. He needed to follow her scent in order to find her. Near the tree, he picked up four scents: one belonged to his mate, two belonged to humans, and the last scent was that of a shifter. It was a scent that the wolf knew…a scent that belonged to a wolf who should be dead.

Shaya knew Nick would come for her. Knew it. But she truly didn’t want him to. Not when it was obvious that she was bait—a bait that was sitting on the floor with her wrists tied behind her back, held captive in the “hut” on the other side of pack territory by a trio of mentally unhinged males. Worse, one of said unhinged males was pointing her own rifle at her.

Pissing Shaya off even more, Amber was sitting opposite her in the exact same position. The only good thing about that was that the bitch had a broken leg. No, it wasn’t because she had tried to help Shaya after all. The trio had taken Amber so that she couldn’t alert anyone. They had even injected Amber with a drug that stopped her from shifting—the same drug they’d used in the game preserve. Had they known Shaya was a half-shifter, they would most likely have done the same to her.

Was Amber now on Shaya’s side? No, she was trying to bargain with the trio for her life, claiming she would heal their wounds if they agreed to free her. The bargaining didn’t appear to be working. Shaya wouldn’t have cared if it worked; the only thing she could think about was getting to Nick. But there were three of these shitheads and one of her. She had to wait for the right moment, or they would most likely put her unconscious again. She couldn’t escape if she was unconscious. And she would escape. It went in her favor that none of them knew she was a half-shifter. They didn’t know she was much stronger and faster than she looked, nor that the knot tying her wrists might not be as effective as they’d hoped.

Her dad had taught her the trick of freeing herself from knots a long time ago, but it was a little different trying to do it when it was a life-or-death situation. Just thinking about Nick unconscious had the adrenaline pumping more rapidly around Shaya’s body and her heart pounding even louder.

Stay calm, her father would have told her. Be observant. Okay. Well, two of the three males were human, they had all been visited by the Ugly Fairy—one was so ugly it was almost fascinating—and the one in the center was clearly the shifter behind the creation of the game preserve.

The trio hadn’t come into pack territory at the same entrance as the other humans, so Shaya could only guess that they had taken advantage of the pack being preoccupied during the attack to force their way through the gap Tao hadn’t yet had the chance to fully secure. Humans wouldn’t have stood a chance against it, but another shifter could.

“So, I was just wondering,” she began in a flat tone, “what’s the plan?”

Eyes the color of a dark storm landed on her, twinkling with malice. “Logan wants Nick to find you. He wants him to watch you die. After what Nick did to me, I like that plan.”

“What did Nick do to you?” He didn’t answer. She cocked her head at him, noticing he had a very chimp-like face. “Why do you hate shifters so much?”

“You wouldn’t understand. You wouldn’t understand what it’s like for me.”

God, he sounded like her mother. “Then tell me.” And keep your mind away from Nick.

His upper lip curled. “Imagine how it feels to have to share your own soul. Share it with an animal, no less—an animal that selfishly pushes its wants and instincts on you. You have to live in a pack with an Alpha for a dad—someone everyone looks up to, while they look down on you for not being as good as he is. Imagine how it feels to find that fate has dumped you with a true mate who is nothing but a slut. Yeah, that’s right, she imprinted on someone else, even had pups with him.

“The only good thing about this life is the power and strength. I told my father to step down and give me his position, but would he? No. He said I didn’t have what it took to be an Alpha. So I did what had to be done—I killed him in his sleep. Did the pack accept me as their Alpha? No. They threw me out. As I had no place to go and no money, it was no wonder that I soon found myself in juvie. That was a hell like no other.”

“And that’s where you met Nick,” she surmised. She couldn’t recall Nick speaking of anyone he’d severely pissed off in juvie, though. Or anyone who resembled a chimp, for that matter.

“Speaking of Nick, he should be here soon. He’ll definitely come for you. I know that much.” He turned to the humans. “Where the hell is Logan?” They merely shrugged. “I’m going to take a look outside, see what’s going on.” To Shaya’s frustration, he disappeared out of the hut, closing the door behind him.

“What’s his problem with Nick?” she asked the two humans.

“That’s his business,” said the chubby compulsive spitter who would look right at home on a porch swing with a banjo.

Shaya released a sigh of frustration and turned to the gangly guy beside Chubby. “What did Nick do to him?”

Without moving his eyes from her breasts, Gangly absentmindedly replied, “Merrick just wants to make Nick suffer—it’s like a tit-for-tat thing.”

Merrick? That name certainly rang a bell. “But…Merrick’s dead. Nick challenged him in juvie; he killed him.” And he’d spent most of his life feeling bad about it.

“Obviously, he didn’t. I’m pretty sure Merrick would have left Nick alone if the game preserve hadn’t been found and Logan hadn’t been goading him.” Gangly shrugged carelessly. “In any case, he intends to make your mate suffer.”

“If you want Nick to suffer,” began Amber, “all you have to do is kill her. Let me go, and I’ll heal you.”

“You hadn’t really healed Nick at all, had you?” Shaya somehow knew. Amber’s shocked expression told her it was true. “I have to admit, it didn’t occur to me at first. You looked so genuinely devastated when he told his mom and Roni about the memory lapse. You even asked for the chance to heal him again. But you wouldn’t have truly healed him. No. Keeping him sick meant that you could keep him coming back to you, didn’t it?”

Amber’s expression turned somber. “It was the only time he’d really let me touch him. The only way to make him—the guy I love—need me.”

“That’s not exactly an excuse, sweetie. You kept my mate ill to the point that he thought he couldn’t claim me. But that was the whole idea, wasn’t it?” Before Amber could answer, Logan came bursting into the cabin, hobbling and bleeding, with Merrick close behind him.

“Nick’s unconscious,” Logan told them all. “I managed to get away while the shifters were concentrating on helping and healing each other. But it won’t be long before he wakes up. We need to be ready.”

Merrick retrieved a can of kerosene—kerosene?—from the floor.

“Remember,” said Logan, “don’t splash the hut. We don’t want the place to blow up or burn too quickly. Just dribble it around the perimeter of the hut. It’ll spread to the hut quick enough, but not so fast that Nick doesn’t get to hear, feel, and smell her burning to death.” With that, Logan followed Merrick outside, closing the door behind him.

Motherfuckers. Logan would know a lot about Nick’s past through his juvie records; he would know about the accident that killed his father and forced Nick’s wolf to surface prematurely. Yeah, if there was anything that would make Nick suffer, it was this. Fuck. That. It really was time to go. One half-shifter against two humans was much better odds than if Merrick and Logan had been standing there too.

“I’ll give you only one warning,” she told the two humans in her gravest voice. “Release me, or I will kill you.” Instead of heeding her warning, they both laughed. In fact, so did Amber. How dumb. Seeing that Gangly was still ogling her breasts, Shaya sneered at him. “Must you be a perv?”

He gave her another of his creepy smiles. “I’m just wondering what color your nipples are.”

She raised a brow tauntingly. “Why don’t you come over here and find out for yourself?”

“You know what, I think I will.”

If she had been calling his bluff, Shaya would have been panicking right about then. But she hadn’t been calling his bluff. She in fact wanted him to come to her, because what he didn’t know was that her wrists were no longer bound.

Fueled by her rage at what had happened to her mate, Shaya waited until he was close before supporting her weight on one hand as she sharply whipped up one of her legs and kicked the rifle out of his hands. Before he could react, she whipped up her leg again and booted him in the balls; he made a strange choking sound and fell to his knees. Abruptly, she snatched the knife her father had long ago given her that was tucked into her boot and speared it into his chest.

When a stunned-looking Chubby came charging at her, she rolled to the side and sliced both his Achilles tendons as he stumbled past. Like a sack of spuds, he fell to the ground, crying out. Rolling once again, she seized the rifle and twisted to see that Chubby was trying to crawl away. He froze when she cocked it and gave her a pitiful look. She shrugged. “I told you I’d kill you.” The bullet hit him dead-center in his forehead.

It was then that Merrick swung the door open. But she had already cocked the gun again, ready to shoot, and was aiming it as his head. “You should have run, Monkey Boy.” But the awkward bastard dove to the side, making the bullet skim his ear. “Fuck.” Then a wall of flames suddenly formed around the hut, and Merrick slammed the door closed. “Double fuck.” Before she could even think of acting, a hand shackled her ankle.

“You can’t leave me here,” growled Amber.

Shaya found she didn’t have an ounce of mercy for this person who had deliberately kept Nick ill, who had made her almost lose her mate. “Of course I can.”

“You bitch!”

“Personally, I think I’m more evil than that, but whatever. Give me one good reason why I should help you.”

Instead of answering, she yanked hard on Shaya’s ankle, making her lose her balance and crash to the floor. She lost her grip on the rifle, which went skidding away from her. “If I’m gonna die, so are you,” snarled Amber.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t her own life that Shaya was so frantic about saving. It was Nick’s. Knowing he was unconscious and hurt was making both her and her wolf panic like crazy. Shaya knew that if the bond had been fully developed, she could have used her own strength to bolster his, to help him wake up. Trey had done the same thing for Taryn during the battle with his uncle: He had surrendered to the bond while she was unconscious, and when the bond clicked into place, Taryn had quickly come around.

Since waking up in the hut, Shaya had been trying to do the same as Trey had, trying to surrender to the bond, but she had no idea how. Over and over she’d tried with no success. She knew what stood in the way—her trust issues, her need to feel indispensable to him, her worry that he would come to resent her submissive status. But, she suddenly wondered, were those things really that important to her? Or had she just been finding excuses all along to keep a distance between them?

Over the past few months, he had given her all the assurances she could have needed, hadn’t he? You’re stronger than anyone I know, he’d told her right before he claimed her, echoing every act that communicated he considered her as his equal. Repeatedly he had assured her, I don’t want anyone but you. and, thus, soothing her worry that her submissive status made her less desirable to him. She’d never forget when he said, My life’s worth shit without you in it. And then there was the, You’re indispensable to me—essential to me on every level.

He’d kept every promise, he’d gone at her pace, and he’d been as patient with her as she had needed him to be. Yes, he’d earned her trust with everything he said, with everything he did, with every promise he kept. She did trust him. And yet…the bond wouldn’t snap into place.

Well of course it wouldn’t, she thought with a snicker. It had never really been her difficulty to trust at all, had it? Sure that had played a factor, but that hadn’t been the barrier between them. What had held her back all along had been fear—the fear of him leaving her, the fear of being alone, the fear of just what it would do to her to have to live her life without him being a part of it. And, most importantly, the fear of the power it gave him to admit to herself that she loved him. But clinging to that fear in order to protect herself wasn’t fair to either of them, nor was keeping those words from him.

Ironically, it had been fear that had held Nick back from claiming her at the very beginning, but he had let go of his fear, determined to not let her suffer for that fear. Now, she needed to let go of hers. And she found that she could.

It was not the scent of fire, smoke, and wood burning that made the gray wolf skid to a halt. It was the sudden bang in his chest and impact to his head. He did not fear either. There was no pain. Only the feel of his mate inside him: the feel of her heartbeat, the rate of her pulse. Neither was as strong as it should be. He took no time to enjoy the satisfaction of knowing their bond was now unbreakable. He needed to get to his mate.

With a number of wolves following, the gray wolf allowed the bond to lead him to her. Seeing the small building alight, his mind immediately flashed back to a distant, painful memory—one that brought with it fear, panic, desperation, and the feeling of being trapped. Those same feelings taunted the wolf now, making him hesitate, making him howl. But then he heard his mate’s voice, felt her sadness. She sensed his fear and wanted him to stay back. The wolf could not do that. She was his. She belonged to him. She needed to be safe. The sight of her in danger caused a different kind of fear—not the kind that made him hesitate, the kind that acted as fuel and made him act.

Feeling the bond click into place, Shaya’s wolf and soul screamed with joy. But Shaya didn’t have the time to rejoice about it, because she needed to be free of the evil bitch clinging to her ankle. And she needed to do it before the fire now attacking the wooden walls collapsed the building and killed them both. It was hot, it was dark, it was frightening. She couldn’t hear a thing over the hissing, sizzling, crackling, and popping around her.

Coughing and panicking as her ability to breathe became more and more difficult, Shaya kicked at Amber’s face and hand, wishing she was wearing her stilettos. Amber only tightened her hold and bit into Shaya’s leg. “You weird bitch!” she croaked. Shaya reached down, fisted her hand in her hair, and pulled hard until Amber’s teeth released her. She would have shifted forms, but her wolf was too spooked by the fire.

Using her hold on her ankle, Amber dragged Shaya toward her and went to claw at Shaya’s face. But the move was clumsy and awkward—most likely as Amber was already weak from her injury. Shaya’s hand shot out and snapped around Amber’s wrist. Digging deep for every ounce of strength inside her, Shaya propelled Amber onto her back, pinning her arm to the ground. As a submissive wolf, her strength shouldn’t have exceeded Amber’s, but knowing what this bitch had done to her mate, Shaya and her wolf were close to feral—it gave her the added strength she needed.

With the hand still fisted in Amber’s hair, she slammed the bitch’s head down over and over until Amber gave a dizzy, hoarse moan. Had she been able to see anything, Shaya might have been able to find her knife or rifle and kill the bitch, but the black smoke made it impossible for even shifter vision to see much. She wasn’t sure where the door was, or she might have tried to crawl toward it, but there was the possibility that she might simply crawl farther into the hut.

Sensing that her mate was now outside, Shaya would have smiled with relief if she hadn’t also sensed the fear and memories tormenting his wolf. It broke her heart to feel just how deeply the accident so long ago had scarred him. She tried to communicate to him that he didn’t have to put himself through this again, that she didn’t want his scars to deepen, but she didn’t have a freaking clue if it was working.

Caught off guard, Shaya found herself lying on her side as Amber tried to reverse their positions. She could tell that Amber was again attempting to shift, but apparently the drug Merrick had used on her still hadn’t worn off. That or her wolf was just as spooked by the fire as her own was. Both coughing and close to passing out, they still continued wrestling with one another, weakly battling for dominance.

Then she heard the door suddenly burst open, and the scent of her mate entered the hut. Seconds later, strong hands slipped under her armpits and were attempting to lift her, but Amber locked her arms around Shaya’s waist, using all her body weight to keep her in place. Amber clearly had no intention of trying to get out of the hut, fully aware that she was dead if she did anyway. She seemed to prefer to die of smoke inhalation than by being pounced on by a pack of pissed-the-fuck-off wolves. And she wanted Shaya to die with her.

Shaya, however, wasn’t okay with that. She shoved hard at Amber’s head, but the bitch released her claws and dug them into Shaya’s waist to strengthen her hold. Not willing to give up, Shaya dug both of her thumbs into Amber’s eyes, pressing hard. Meanwhile, Nick continued pulling, only slightly hampered by Amber.

“Get off me, you neurotic bitch!” It came out more of an abrasive whisper. With the last bit of energy she had left, Shaya pulled back her fist and crashed it into Amber’s jaw. Her hold on Shaya then loosened, and the rescuing hands scooped Shaya up, breaking Amber’s grip. Keeping her tucked against him, Nick hurried through the doorway. She had expected to have to go through a wall of flames, but the way was now clear, and the fire was quickly subsiding.

Finally outside, she dimly noted that fire extinguishers were blasting the flames—things that were kept inside the caves in case of forest fires. But as he sat her inside the SUV, her concentration was solely on Nick; she ran her gaze over every naked inch of him, searching for any injuries.

“Taryn healed me,” Nick assured her. He blew out a breath, forcing one of the bottles of water Cam had brought into her hands. Shaya practically inhaled it. “Christ, baby, you scared the shit out of me.”

“I didn’t get kidnapped on purpose,” she rasped. His tight hug would have hurt her if she hadn’t needed that contact as much as he did. “How is everybody?” From her position in the vehicle, she could only see Jaime, Dante, Ryan, Cam, and Rhett. Shit, shit, shit.

Feeling the panic zooming through her, he pulled back and cupped her chin. “They’re alive, don’t worry. Unfortunately, they’re not in great shape.” He paused as a cough interrupted him. “But Taryn was in the process of healing them when I left. My guess is she’s probably just half-healed them so she doesn’t exhaust herself. Gabe and Caleb drove one of the SUVs out here and picked them up while Cam and Rhett came out here with the extinguishers and drinks.”

“Speaking of half-healing…Amber didn’t fully heal you, Nick. She purposely didn’t, because she wanted you to keep going back to her. You know what it means, don’t you? It means the only reason you got ill again was because of her. Taryn’s healing should be permanent.”

The betrayal didn’t cut deep, as he’d never felt anything for Amber, but it still wasn’t pleasant to know that someone who had once been a member of his pack could betray him that way. “In that case, I’m glad no one went back in to save her. What she did goes against the principles of every healer.”

Realizing that a few people appeared to be circling something at the side of the hut, she frowned. “What’s going on?”

Nick sighed. “Jesse, Bracken, Zander, and Derren went after Logan and Merrick, and brought them back.” He cupped her face. “I need you to stay here for me.”

Shaya bit her lower lip. “You’re going to kill them, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” He waited for her to yell at him or at least try to talk him out of it, but she instead nodded.

“Make it painful.”

Startled by her words, he almost smiled. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Still vibrating with fury and fear for his mate, Nick strolled over to the group near the hut. They instantly parted, letting him through. He went to stand before Merrick and Logan. Their expressions were blank, but undiluted fear was wafting from both of them, pleasing his enraged wolf. They knew they weren’t getting out of this alive.

Logan’s voice was shaky. “If you kill me, the rest of my—”

Nick held up a hand to silence him. “I’ve heard it all before from your friend Lee-Roy. It never worked for him, and it certainly won’t work for you.” He looked at Merrick. “You’re supposed to be dead.” Under any other circumstances, Nick would have been glad to find out that Merrick was still alive, that he could let go of the guilt he had been carrying for a very long time. But not now; no, the son of a bitch really did deserve to die. “Know what’s ironic? I always felt bad, since I never meant to kill you. But now I’m actually wishing I had.”

Merrick laughed, but it was a nervous sound. “I don’t doubt it.”

“What I can’t understand is how you’re alive.”

A slight shrug. “The day you almost killed me, I made a deal with Logan that if he brought in a healer to fix me up, I’d tell him everything I knew about you and the other prisoners in there—the codes you all used, what positions you’d all given yourselves, what everyone’s weaknesses were. We’re like-minded, he and I.” The wolves all growled, disgusted by him.

Derren came to stand slightly behind Nick, glaring hard at Merrick. “You betrayed your own kind.”

“They’re not my kind. My kind wouldn’t have ostracized me from my own pack.”

“Trey’s pack ostracized him,” said Nick, “but he didn’t decide to make his entire race pay. There are no excuses for the things you’ve done.”

Apparently Merrick didn’t care, because he ignored that. “I should have been Alpha of my pack! And I should have been Alpha in juvie!”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Nick’s voice was even and quiet. “You’re everything that an Alpha isn’t: cocky, cunning, self-centered, fickle, and bullying. Everyone saw it, and everyone hated it.”

“They respected and followed me until you came along and challenged me.”

“No, they existed in small, tight groups. And those groups feared you, sure, but an Alpha who tries to rule through fear and intimidation isn’t an Alpha. It’s that simple. And so is your fate.”

“Nick,” said Jesse. “We know this guy did you wrong, and we know he kidnapped your mate, but he’s also responsible for the kidnapping and deaths of our family members—my sister, Bracken’s cousin, and Zander’s nephew.”

And the three males needed vengeance, needed closure. Nick could understand that. He could. Had the situation been reversed, he’d have demanded the same. Besides, he’d be getting closure for every juvie member by killing Logan, who had also played a part in kidnapping and attempting to kill his mate. He could give this other piece of shit to Jesse, Bracken, and Zander if that was what they truly wanted; he’d beaten Merrick once before anyway. Nick’s decision must have been obvious in his eyes, because Merrick’s expression turned to a mixture of confusion and anxiety.

“You’re not going to challenge me, one to one?”

“If I did that, it would be over quickly, wouldn’t it? This way, you get to suffer for a little while. I find that I like that idea. You don’t deserve mercy, Merrick. Neither of you do.” He extended his claws, dancing his gaze from Merrick to Logan and back again. “You both tried to take from me the only thing I’ve ever loved. As you can imagine, I have a serious fucking issue with that.” He stepped a little closer to the man who had raped and killed so many young shifters. “This might hurt a little.”