We went to look over the map. Cade entered the room, followed by Blake.
"I'll take a team of five to go and check it out." I began to speak around my thoughts as my fingers ran over the spot on the map where Keri was pointing.
"I'm going with you," Cade said. I lifted my eyes to his. I gave him a brief nod of acceptance.
We had no idea what we were going to find there and the fact they'd been able to kill werewolves with such ease set off alarm bells.
"Where are you going?" Scarlett asked as she appeared beside Cade, just catching the end of the conversation.
He turned to face her. "I'm going with Kyle to check out the place where we think Crystal is."
There was a moment of concern in my sister's eyes. She looked at me before looking at Cade. Her hands went to his waist.
Something passed between them through their link like a struggle of wills before she closed her eyes briefly and Cade kissed her forehead gently. I was happy that my sister was so happy with someone who knew exactly how to ease her fears, but I couldn't stop the sharp feeling of jealousy that I was missing out on all of this with Crystal.
With that familiar feeling of jealously, I also felt anger that Crystal had put me through so much. The same questions niggled in my mind but I shut them out. I had no answers. The only person who knew why was Crystal.
"I'm going with as well," Blake added. We all knew the stronger our group was the more successful we were likely to be. The stronger the bloodlines, the stronger the chances of coming out of it alive.
"Sure."
Keri stood tall. I knew what she was going to say next before she even said a word. "I'm going too."
Blake shook his head. Keri got that determined look in her eyes as she turned to face him.
"I can't let you go," he said, and Keri crossed her arms. "If something goes very wrong, we will need an alpha here to continue to run things. Nate can't do it on his own."
She pressed her lips together. It was a struggle between the girl who loved him and the alpha who knew he was right.
"Promise me you'll be careful," she said.
He nodded.
It was too much, watching the connection of the people surrounding me, without feeling a sense of loss.
"Are you guys ready?" I asked, walking to the door.
It wasn't long before the three of us were walking to the bottom gates of the compound.
"Be careful," my uncle warned me as the gates opened.
Two additional werewolves joined us. They weren't alphas or betas but they were my strongest fighters.
James appeared as well.
I need you to stay, I told him through the mind-link. I could see he wasn't happy about being excluded but he nodded.
Just outside the gates we all shifted into our wolves one by one. As we ran to the property in question I tried to clear my mind of thoughts of my mate. I had to keep my head or there was a chance I would create a situation that would be difficult to overcome.
I took the lead as Cade and Blake ran just behind me with my two fighters tailing us at the back. I ran as fast as I could. I knew the forest we were running through like the back of my hand. The quickest route was via the forest in wolf form.
As we neared it, still with a fair amount of forest between us and the place where Crystal should be, I stopped. I changed and turned to face the rest of the group as they shifted back.
"You take the left side," I commanded Cade and one of my fighters in a whisper. They nodded and began navigating their way through the thick forest to the left part of the massive property.
"Blake, you take the right," I instructed. Blake began to walk in the opposite direction with the other fighter.
I turned back to face the path I was going to take. The nervousness in my stomach reminded me that despite trying to keep my emotions out of this I was worried about the outcome. There was so much on the line. So much I could lose.