Counteragent,she muttered, her face swimming in and out of focus above him.Won’t stop it completely, but buys us time.
Why?he managed to ask through increasingly numb lips, the drug-induced haze making it hard to form words.
Her response was a whisper filled with more complexity than he could process in his compromised state.She leaned close, her breath warm against his ear.
Because I’ve known for months that someone inside your pack is working to destroy other packs.And I intend to prove it’s you and your twin brother.
CHAPTER 1
NADINETORRANCE YANKED THEdart from Conall Stewart’s shoulder with more force than necessary, a small part of her hoping it would hurt.
But the Sunburst wolf was already too far gone, his eyes glassy as the powerful tranquilizer worked through his system.
Stay with me, you bastard,she muttered, slapping his face.The questions I have for you won’t work if you’re unconscious.
The counteragent would slow the tranquilizer’s effects, not neutralize them.She’d learned that lesson the hard way three months ago in Colorado.Her father’s contacts in military R and D had supplied the formula, one of the last things he’d arranged before—
Before they killed him.
Fury surged through her veins, hot and familiar.She welcomed it.
Conall’s eyes fluttered, then rolled back entirely as his substantial weight slumped against her.Shit.He was out.
The sound of boots crunching on gravel echoed through the ravine, though their owners had moved out of sight.Getting closer.Six operatives.Heavy equipment.Coordinated movements.
Decision time.
Nadine hooked her arms under Conall’s shoulders and dragged him behind a larger outcropping, muscles straining against his dead weight.For a brief, savage moment, she considered leaving him for the tactical team.Let them take him.One less Stewart twin to deal with.
But no.She needed answers.And if Conall truly was working with these operatives—as she suspected—they wouldn’t keep him long.They’d reunite him with his twin, and Nadine would lose her best lead on her father’s killers.
My mate.
The thought sliced through her consciousness, unwelcome and infuriating.
Her wolf had recognized it instantly—the universe’s sick joke, binding her eternally to a man from the pack that had destroyed everything she loved.
Not binding.Not ever.
Mate bonds could be rejected.Painful, yes.But possible.
And easier with incomplete, new ones—like this one between them now.
She shoved Conall’s unconscious form into a narrow crevice between two boulders, arranging scrub brush to conceal the opening entirely.The lingering scent of his skin—desert sage and cedar, with underlying notes of something earthy and male—clung to her fingers.She wiped them roughly against her thigh.
Her inner wolf whined in protest.Nadine ruthlessly silenced it.
Her father’s face flickered in her memory.Strong.Proud.Loyal to his original alpha, Vincent.The Sunburst Pack had exiled him for that loyalty—cast him out like garbage for the crime of following pack law as it had existed for generations.
And then they’d hunted him down.Killed him.
Left his body where scavengers could find it.
Pain lanced through her chest, as fresh as the day she’d identified so much of his blood two weeks ago.
I won’t let them get away with it,she whispered.
The team was spreading out, their movements indicating they were initiating a standard search pattern.Amateur.She could evade them easily, draw them away from Stewart’s hiding spot.
