"You kill me, and Ronan will see you tortured for over a decade," Freya retorted, not an ounce of fear in her voice. “To which by then your pelt will rest at the foot of my ghost tree.”
Caden smirked. "It's numbers, Freya. You have less— just over a dozen. I have double that, just with me here. I can summon a hundred more if I wanted. You cannot fight your way out. Do you really want your precious Silver walking to our destination alone? If so, we can always fight our way to her."
Rem stumbled over the translations in her head, although she got the gist of it. She was about to protest when Freya said, "Fine. Try to spare your energy though, Beta. You'll need it when my son arrives. His fury is not to be tested. But you'll learn that, in due time.”
Rem peeked through the bodies to see that while Caden didn't look unnerved, some of his confidence clearly waned.
The group surrounding Rem moved forward, the threat of Ronan not enough. A hundred questions sat at the edge of Rem’s tongue, but as she glanced at Nia, the she-wolf walked with her head held high like Freya’s.
Rem, as far as she could tell, was the only one walking with fear in her shadow.
Casting her anxiety to the side as best as she could, a part of her accepted her own death. If she didn’t have to fear that anymore, then what would hold her back?
Oliver’s safety.
No, she had done all she could for him. If she had to die—if that was truly her fate—she could at least control how she approached death. For her family, for her grandmother, she’d do her best to face death standing tall.
* * *
Walking backto Evensen was a blur. She had no idea what was planned, but she only imagined the worst.
When they arrived at the home, Rem was instructed to walk forward and away from her group. She did so, eyeing the other Silvers that were outside the estate, with about a hundred more Scarlet members surrounding them.
Rem couldn't even smell Varga, the Alpha of the home.Where are the Alphas?
She wasn’t sure, but what she did see was Enola, the queen herself, standing in front of the Silvers. She turned to face the small Warden pack, a smile forming.
"Welcome, Rem," Enola said in Icelandic.
Rem stood there, sucking her upper lip to her teeth, saying nothing in return. Then, through the smell of the shifters and leaves… Rem caught something metallic, and it wasn’t silver.
“What have you done?” Freya asked from behind Rem, her voice grim.
"Bring her over," the queen gently commanded as she motioned to Rem, ignoring Freya.
They fully separated Rem from the group as they guided her to the other Silvers, all of their orange eyes on her. Jola stood in the background with a pale face.
"What is happening?" Rem asked as she leaned into Loral.
"The other Alphas were taken. It's a bloodbath in there,” Loral said, nodding to the estate.
Rem glanced to the entry of the home to see the front doors had been broken off their hinges, some windows shattered, a few parts of the home appearing as if a large boulder pummeled right through the stone, blood bathing the inner walls.
"How did theAlphasget taken?" Rem asked quietly.
The large orange eyes of Loral grew wide, and Rem didn't like seeing her so disturbed. "Outnumbered. Scarlet has way more shifters than the Alphas brought. The Alphas put up a good fight, but it was in vain. The only Alpha that wasn't taken was yours and Marcus.”
"Wait, Marcus wasn't taken?"
Loral nodded. "I think he was in on this from the beginning. That's what Mavis keeps saying."
"We're going south," Mavis interrupted, leaning closer to them.
Rem noticed a distinct calmness in the fiery Silver.
"Care to elaborate?"
Shia interrupted, the queen and Freya speaking hotly in Icelandic in the background. "They're fucking selling us to the hunters. We are waiting on Josie and two others."
