Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
“How much time?” I asked Niamh.
“We don’t know, and that’s the honest truth. There were messages of the extraction crew going dark, but Fred was able to get their locations, though we’re not sure how valid that intel is. They appear to be moving into the area, but not necessarily into position. We want to get moving.”
It felt like my brain was rapidly firing. It had always taken us a few days to sort out private jet travel, what with the various planes, pilots, and tiny airports. There wasn’t a magical strip in this area, and we needed a magical pilot and certain size plane for the basajaunak. I didn’t dare leave them here. If we showed up to grab the mages while Momar’s people were attempting the exaction, we’d need the extra hands.
But there was no way we could leave right now to handle this. The earliest would likely be in the evening, but more probably the next morning or even the day after.
“Can you get a message to the mages?” I asked.
“I’ve left a message on the encrypted phone,” Fred said, “and through their setup in the woods, but we don’t know how often they check those. The IPs they use seem to be cafés and other random locations. Going off-grid means they aren’t easily reachable.”
“Damn it.” I dug my nails into my sides.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Austin waited to the side, and Broken Sue stood in front of an open van door. They would leave right now to get the mages, not bothering to prove anything to the collection of alphas.
But we had no transportation. That was the sum total of what we needed to plan. Get there, bust in, and either force the mages to come home with us or fight them out of the enemy’s grasp. Until we had planes, however, we could do nothing but wait. Doing one thing at a time was a luxury we hadn’t had for a while now.
“Dang it. Mr. Tom, get on that transportation. Niamh, you and Fred find out more information, or help Mr. Tom. The rest of us are going to take care of a bad alpha while you handle that. Call if you have something, but don’t interrupt us if you don’t. The very moment we have a way to get to Nessa and Sebastian quickly, we’re taking it. Okay?”
“Right, so.” Niamh motioned for Fred to start walking back the way they’d come.
Mr. Tom held out the basket to Edgar.
“No, not to—” I started.
“I got it.” Ulric ran that way, intercepting the basket just as Edgar’s fingers brushed the edges. “Sorry, Edgar, but you get really weird about food.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Edgar said. “No one seems to eat my offerings anyway.”
“He just told you why,” Jasper said.
I started toward the vans. My power blasted out, a call to arms. “Load up.” I made a circle in the air with my finger, belatedly noticing Kingsley and some of the other alphas down the way, watching. I pointed at them. “We’re doing this to prove to you that we can handle ourselves in battle. Better get there on time, because we can’t dally. We have other people to save.”
Austin didn’t need to bark orders. Everyone filed in quickly, with the basajaunak in the large cargo vans at the back of the convoy.
“How hard is this going to be?” I asked Austin as he climbed into the van. Tristan sat in the driver’s seat.
“Kingsley doesn’t think we’ll have a problem. With you in this mood, that is almost certainly true. We’ll knock this out and figure out what needs to happen for Nessa and Sebastian, okay?”
I looked out the window. The saving grace was that I knew the extraction team wouldn’t kill the mages. They’d want information, and for that, the mages would need to be kept alive. Sebastian had undergone torture before, and Nessa was tough. Even if we didn’t get there first, we could still save them.
Still, I’d really rather we got there first.
TWENTY-TWO
Tristan
“Listen to me closely,” Alpha Steele told Jessie as we neared the homestead, a beaten-down place with small dwellings, dirty streets, and very few people out and about. It almost looked like a ghost town. “Watch your six at all times. If someone comes at you, that constitutes a challenge. The outcome is at your discretion, but in a situation like this, you kill. The people in charge have made life miserable for the pack members. They’ve committed atrocities because no one could stop them. If they’re spared, they could, and probably will, move on and do it again.”
“No problem,” she answered.
“You don’t have to make it flashy, but you can if it gets the job done. Do not heal.”
“Got it.”
Alpha Steele had filled her and Tristan in on how one of these things typically worked. Essentially, they waltzed in, threw their weight around, challenged, killed the baddies, and tried to help facilitate a new leadership. That, or help them move on.