The night is quiet. Amelia links us, letting Lucas and I know that some of our men have begun hunting down Ramos’ men, drugging them with the new gun Hannah invented. We will round everyone up as soon as we have Ramos in our grasp. For now, the innocents will be marked on the forehead with a blue bingo dabber, and the ones who happily hurt the wolves of Oak Fur under Ramos and Marilyn’s orders will be cuffed with silver and kept outside for us to take away and put down tomorrow morning.
Running through the familiar woods brings a sense of melancholy as I jump over fallen logs and splash through small brooks, the cold water coating my legs. I want to stop, to relish being back as the magic of Oak Fur grows stronger the closer we get to the packhouse, but I don’t. I push past those urges. Killing Marilyn and Ramos is more important right now.
“Wait,” Ash whispers, stepping in front of Lucas and me. We quickly hide behind a crop of bushes, our senses on high alert as we look around. Ash sensed something, and I trusted his judgment.
Titus takes two tranquilizer guns from their holsters and hands one to Ash, who silently thanks him before he slinks into the underbrush. As a hunter, I know Ash will easily take out the targets. The sound of a wolf falling to the ground proves me correct, and a low whistle sounds, a signal telling us we can come out.
We leave our hiding spot, finding Ash cuffing an unconscious male, and Lucas is quick to help move him out of the way.
“Everyone is reporting how lax the patrols are on my side,” Titus says in a hushed tone, his eyes scanning the forest.
[It seems security is tighter closer to the pack house,] Amelia says through the familial link, making me frown. I relay the information to Titus, who curses and sends this through to his pack. I guess Ramos has tightened security, just not at the border.
“He’s probably doing this to protect Marilyn. She’s carrying his pup,” Ash guesses, and I agree. Ramos will be with Marilyn inside the packhouse—it’s the strongest building and the easiest to defend.
“So what do we do?” Titus asks.
“We keep to the plan. Go through the houses we know hold supporters of Ramos and drug them while quietly avoiding the houses full of innocent wolves,” Lucas answers, looking down atthe unconscious wolf. Now that we’re closer to him, I recognize him as one of the warriors who hung around Pearl, Marilyn, Prism, and Ruby—one of the wolves who would throw food at me or steal my things with one word from those whores.
“I call killing this one tomorrow,” I state, glaring at the wolf before motioning for the others to follow.
The race towards the packhouse is relatively smooth, with only two more run-ins with the warriors on patrol. Everyone has checked in with Amelia or Titus, and they have relayed what has been accomplished to us. So far, we have drugged seventy percent of Ramos’ men, and those are numbers I could happily accept. The other thirty percent must be at the packhouse.
“Kaylee!” someone calls out just in time as I sense the punch being thrown my way. I duck, using my momentum to turn and send an uppercut to my attacker. My fist connects with their jaw, the sounds of teeth shattering and bones snapping telling me I did some damage. My attacker falls to the ground, his mouth bleeding. Thankfully, my one punch rendered him unconscious.
“Do you think he linked anyone?” Ash asks, quickly drugging the wolf.
“No,” I answer with absolute certainty.
“He’s one of the wolves Marilyn slept with. I believe Jarred is his name.”
Lucas looks at me in shock, and I frown, the mask thankfully hiding my expression.
“Are you sure?” he asks. I shrug, understanding his confusion. Marilyn was his betrothed.
“Yes,” I answer, nudging my boot against Jarred’s leg. “He’s one of three she slept with while you were with her. I tried to tell you, but you snarled at me and told me to stay out of your relationship,” I state, watching guilt flicker in Lucas’ eyes.
“Kaylee...I—”
“It’s fine. We didn’t know we were mates then, and it was just after you lost your mom. I just thought you knew in the end,” I answered, getting a nod from him.
“When this is over, I want to hear everything you know about what Marilyn did behind my back,” Lucas states as Titus and Ash hide Jarred away.
“Why?” Ash asks, looking at Lucas in confusion.
“So I can make it all up to Kaylee,” Lucas answers with an eye roll. I smile, taking my mask off briefly to place a kiss against my mark on Lucas’ neck, feeling him shiver beside me.
“You’ve already made it up to me,” I say quietly. “Now, let’s hurry up. We have two wolves who I’m excited to kill.”
With Jarred tucked out of the way, we slow down and slink through the shadows. No other wolf has crossed us, but I hear from Amelia that Simon got to knock out his father, who just so happens to be a Ramos supporter. I ask her if Simon is okay, to which Amelia answers that he feels like a pup on Christmas and can’t wait to watch him be executed. With a chuckle, I tell Titus and Ash this, and they both stumble in shock.
“And here I was, thinking Lucas was the only one with daddy issues,” Ash jokes, making me have to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep me from laughing. His words quickly earn Ash a smack upside the head from Lucas, who glares at our friend, but I can tell by the cheeky look in his eyes that the smack wasn’t hard at all.
After Amelia’s announcement, the trip through the woods is quickly finished, and as I stand just inside the tree line with my three companions, I stare at the packhouse I’d been dragged from the day after my birthday. I can still picture that day in my mind. I can still feel the anger radiating from Ramos and see the glares and sympathetic gazes of those in Oak Fur.
“It’s gotten a lot more ragged-looking since the last time I saw it,” I state.
“That it has,” Lucas agrees, his gray eyes darkening. We look at each other, my own eyes reflecting in his, and I can tell that we both have mixed emotions about being here, being in this pack that had cast us aside because of one man. With a nod, Lucas and I take off, heading straight for the entrance.
