Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Her stomach dropped. “About what?”
He slammed silver handcuffs onto one of her wrists.
“Hey,” she snapped, swinging out on reflex.
He caught her other hand easily and snapped the second cuff shut. Heat burned where the silver touched, sharp and immediate.
“Oh God,” she gasped. “Not silver.” She yanked back anyway. “What are you doing?”
“I had a meeting with my pack earlier,” he said, jaw tight. “Merritt wasn’t wrong. They don’t like the way things are going. So, I’m taking you and we’ll have a bit of leverage.”
Leverage? “You plan on cheating?” The asshole.
“The Ravencalls aren’t giving me a choice,” he said, wincing. “They agree you should be the next Alpha female, even though Taryn would do a better job. But lineage is important.”
Nadia kicked out, catching him hard in the ankle, and twisted to run. He grabbed her hair and yanked her back. Pain spiked along her scalp, bright and blinding. The notebooks thumped against her hip inside her oversized purse as she staggered.
She swung again. He backhanded her.
Pain ricocheted through her head, and she blinked hard, trying to clear her vision. The door was right there. So close.
“They can’t help you,” Luca said from near the entrance, his voice almost gentle.
She dragged her gaze toward him. “You took out my enforcers?”
“My people did,” Luca said. “It’s our only chance. The entire pack is at the school, and Caidrik’s gone on some trial right now. I’m sorry.”
“I won’t mate you.”
He sighed heavily. “We have leverage, and you probably will. I don’t know. Maybe if I just take you back and show I can do so, they’ll let me lead my way.”
Fury rushed through her, ringing in her ears. “Sounds like the pack is leading the Alpha, Luca. That’s no way to rule.”
“I just need time. You can help me get that.”
She could also slice his jugular, if she could get to her knife. “The Slate Pack will come after you.”
“Yeah,” Luca said. “But we’ve got a hundred big, good fighters, and we’re ready for war.” He grabbed the handcuffs and winced as the silver bit him too. “Boy, silver sucks.” Then he yanked her toward the door, and Nadia dug in her heels.
He forced her outside and down the steps, into the snow. She paused, searching for her enforcers.
Nothing.
Luca pulled her toward the SUV. “My enforcers had the element of surprise and took out yours, but I gave orders to knock out and not kill. They’re waiting for us at the edge of town.”
She gulped. At least her enforcers weren’t dead. “This is a bad idea. You know that, right?”
“It’s my only option.”
Awareness prickled down her spine. She partially turned and then stilled. “Bulwark,” she whispered.
She saw him at the edge of the light first, a massive shape just beyond the reach of the porch glow. He stood still for half a heartbeat, eyes reflecting faintly. Then he charged.
Luca shoved Nadia sideways and out of the way, but Bulwark wasn’t aiming for her. He hit Luca with the sound of boulder on boulder.
Chapter 25
Caidrik left the trial the way he’d left most of the trials so far, limping just enough to piss him off.
The last challenge had been difficult in a very specific way. No shifting allowed. That had been made explicit. Caidrik had spent the night as a human chasing bears down a mountain because that was apparently what passed for wisdom these days, and gravity had taken advantage of every single misstep.
The only bright side in the entire debacle was that he still wore clothes as a human and didn’t need to stomp back into town buck-assed naked. His gloves were torn, his jacket ripped at the shoulder, and his jeans crusted with snow and dirt and a little blood that had dried dark along the seam of his thigh. His boots trampled rocks as he moved, and every scrape sent a reminder up his leg that his knee was not happy.
He was getting to the point where he thought these damn trials were the pack’s way of having a bunch of Alphas handle a bunch of pack problems.
The adrenaline ebbed from his body, and his injuries started to burn. He had bruised ribs that protested every deep breath and a shoulder that felt loose in a way he didn’t trust. His back was one long ache that settled deeper the longer he stayed upright. His thigh burned, sharp and mean, every time he pushed his pace.
Stupid bears.
Hopefully Nadia had spent the night getting some much needed sleep. The silver still lurked in her system, and only time would help her. He sighed. In fact, he could use rest before taking on the last two trials…and his brother.
Bulwark was out there. Waiting.
Silence cut around Caidrik, and he slowed his pace.
The forest should have been louder.
That was the first thing that bothered him, though it took him a few seconds to recognize it for what it was. Snow muted sound, sure, but it didn’t erase it. There should have been something. Wind through branches. A bird stupid enough to move this late. The distant padding of patrols.