Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Worse was the fact that Narah clearly knew that her pack members had been murdered. That meant that among the packs in New York, everyone knew that the Haviland Pack was more like the mob than a family. They preyed on their neighbors, demanded payment from many, and had probably used the deaths to intimidate others. They had targeted not the strongest in the pack, but the most vulnerable, and had probably flouted their crimes to drive fear into everyone they collected tribute from. The Haviland Pack had done it for leverage, and that was an abomination that any true alpha would have made them pay for in blood.
“Be quiet, bitch,” Tuss snarled at Narah. “You owe the Haviland Pack your lives.”
“You took money from us, and you killed our children,” she rasped. “We owe you nothing.”
“You’ve always been a mouthy whore, Narah,” he growled, “but go ahead and run your mouth. We know you won’t do anything about it because you can’t.”
“You’re a coward, Tuss, and you’ll end up as all cowards do,” she spat at him.
“You can die here in front of your mate,” he roared, charging toward her.
Justin bravely stepped in front of his mother, but he was slapped to the floor with the back of Tuss’s open hand. He was about to stomp on Justin’s leg as he lay sprawled beneath him, but then Cole was there, plowing forward, throwing him off-balance and hurling the wolf halfway across the floor.
“Oh, look now,” Tuss crowed, rolling to his feet before starting to laugh. “The pup has claws after all!”
Cole stepped sideways, eyes on Tuss, and I saw them turn gold.
“This is what we need,” Tuss announced, cracking his neck, moving to face Cole again. “Another predator, no more mewling humans.”
No one moved.
“Grab all the kids and the women,” he ordered as he advanced on Cole. “We’ll find out who can shift when we get home and kill the rest.”
People screamed as the men turned on the families huddled in the room. Tuss and his men didn’t shift, instead pulling what looked like machetes from sheaths at their sides, easy to see when they opened their coats.
“Kids, come with me,” I yelled. A guy came toward me, and I picked him up by the throat and hurled him through the living room wall.
As expected, Tuss, his men, and everyone else froze and stared. I wasn’t a large man, so the strength was a surprise. But what was great about kids was that they moved on instinct, so they still ran to me. When I went out the front door, all of them followed, urged on by their parents, who moved to block Tuss and his men from going after them.
The younger kids stayed right with me, not hesitating, but the teenagers, terrified for their parents and unsure what would be best, I was certain, were torn over running.
“You have to come with me, the little ones need you,” I said, appealing to their sense of duty. “They’ll be scared without you.”
Once they were outside with me, I pointed up the hill. “I need you all to run up there as fast as you can. I have a buddy who’s gonna meet you, and you can’t miss him because he’s dressed like an elf, okay? All in green, long black hair, big necklace, and he’ll have a huge-ass walking stick. He’ll protect you, and you stay with him until I come get you.”
“It’s dark,” a small girl said in an even smaller voice.
“No, it’s okay, look by the trees.” I pointed, and she saw, just like all the rest of the kids did, a sudden bright green glow. “There’s a light right there at the edge of the trees. Just follow it up and you’ll find him, easy-peasy.”
Several kids took off then. Had to love them—they didn’t stand around and debate or question, they simply acted. But the little girl and two others standing a bit away from me didn’t move. Instead, she slipped her hand into mine.
“What about Mommy?” she asked me in that tiny, shaking voice.
“Mommy will be fine. Go run up to the green light for me.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.” And I meant it.
She nodded, let go of my hand and grabbed one of the other girls’ hands, and then the three of them ran together up the hill.
“Teague!” I yelled after them, knowing my voice would carry. He always heard me. “Take care of the kids!”
The green light in the distance pulsed once, then got brighter, and I could see the path to him light up even from where I was. I had to stop looking, though, as two Haviland wolves came down the steps then. One had shifted to the size of a Great Dane but with the heavy musculature of an English mastiff, and the other remained in human form, brandishing a machete in one hand and an enormous knife in the other.