I was on my feet again. “Because we’re the only ones they keepreturningto.”
I left the tent and headed to the point of the most recent attack. I combed the area with such intensity I was sure I’d inspected every blade of grass individually. I tracked the scents, I paced the footprints of the brief resistance, and I crouched down and inspected where Simon had fallen and died.
I looked up, my body in a crouch, my gaze fixed on the peak of the mountains as they stood above me.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
I slowly stood, my call to my betas telling them to meet me.
I walked briskly back the way I’d come earlier this morning. When I stood outside the shifter’s door, the door stood open. I went inside, and the place was empty.
“Wolfe?”
I turned to look at Brand and Axel.
“What’s wrong?” Brand asked me, his eyes searching over Sherry’s home.
“I found our traitor,” I told them bitterly. “She was right here, under my nose the whole fucking time.”
Axel glanced at Brand and stepped further into the house. “Her husband died last night.”
“All packs suffer losses in times of trouble,” I bit out. “That’s what she told me when I came here this morning.”
Axel was shaking his head. “No. She told Rowen as if that’s whatyousaid toher.”
“A liar and a murderer,” I snorted. I turned to Brand. “I want every one of his patrol in my office in the pack hall in ten minutes. No excuses.”
“Alpha.” Brand turned and left.
Axel waited for me to speak. When I didn’t, he stepped forward. “Wolfe?”
“Mm-hmm?”
“Rowen was with her all day.”
I looked at my packmate, my heart hardening. “I know.”
And I’d sent her away for herprotection. Had she played me for a fool, or had she delayed Sherry’s escape by offering her comfort?
“We bring her back?”
I shook my head, my tongue running over my top teeth. “No, we stick to the plan. We keep her out of the Hollow for as long as possible.”
“She could still be innocent,” he offered weakly.
“Yeah, or she could be very fucking guilty.”
Chapter 7
Rowen
I hadn’t beaten Killian.
It really pissed me off. Iwasfast,but hecheated. I knew he had, I just didn’t knowhow. But I would find out.
Stonefang Pack was closer than I remembered, but then they were a pack that liked to move around a lot. Their territory was vast, a lot of it uninhabitable even for shifters.
Homes were sturdy timber structures, which Killian told me they had dotted over their territory in small clusters. They were one-or two-room shelters, with stone hearths and elevated sleeping platforms. The pack moved often between sites, and the homes were easily dismantled if needed.
