Page 20 of Deception

“You want one?” he asked, shoving a warm bottle of beer in her hands.

“No thanks,” she managed. “But do you want another?”

He grinned like a man freshly mated to a meek little she-wolf who would be at his beck and call. “Got me a good one, boys,” he called to his cousins.

Try me,her wolf murmured inside.

She served drink after drink, doing her best to get Mett as drunk as she could.

“There’s more back there, baby,” Mett said, waving her toward a building.

Happy for a momentary escape, she entered and looked around. “Oops,” she mumbled, entering a bathroom by mistake. She was halfway out the door when she stopped in her tracks.

Bathroom. Cabinet. Drugs.

She darted inside, grabbed the painkillers she found in the cabinet, and headed out to where the liquor was stored. The hard stuff. With shaking hands, she split open capsules and poured the contents into a bottle of vodka, then shook the bottle on her way out.

“Where have you been?” Mett barked, showing his dark side again.

“Getting you the good stuff. Look.”

The sun had just slipped over the horizon, and the men had placed torches around the fighting ring. Half a dozen men were already circling each other there, vying to be the first to start the show.

“Half an hour to go,” someone murmured.

Mett swiped the bottle from her hand and took a hard swig.

She watched him carefully, edging farther and farther away from the center of action, eyeing everyone around her while trying not to appear suspicious. Fights for an alpha position could take all night, mainly because they were preceded by dozens of lesser fights as men took sides and challenged each other in pairs. Those warm-up fights rarely resulted in death, but they were messy, drawn-out contests between hot-blooded youngsters eager to show off their prowess. More bark than bite for the most part, with contestants fighting in human form before shifting to four feet. One fight would lead to another and another, feeding the crowd’s thirst for blood. It would take hours for things to finally escalate to alpha level. She doubted anyone would miss her in the excitement. The trick would be slipping away in the first place.

Mett looked around for her, stumbled, then took another long swig.

Now?her wolf begged, ready to run for the hills.

She checked the scene one more time. Gretchen was on the far side of the arena, paying Summer no mind. Mett sat down on a hay bale, blinking hard. His cousins were drunk, too, even if they hadn’t ingested any of the spiked stuff.

Let’s go!her wolf urged.Now!

She took one last look around then stepped out of sight behind an outlying building. She moved slowly, using one structure after another for cover, leaving the hubbub behind. Finally, she reached the edge of the settlement and jogged up a path, then ran like she was running for her life.

Drew,her wolf hummed.We get to see Drew!

Her step faltered before she forced herself onward. What if Drew hadn’t been bluffing when he addressed the wolves? What if he had changed his mind about her?

She clenched her jaw and ran on, following a narrow gully that wound northwest. Even if Drew had changed his mind — even if he broke her heart — she had to see him. To share what she’d observed, for starters, and to find out how she might best help whatever mission he had been tasked with.

She stopped, shed her clothes, and hid them behind a rock before shifting to wolf form. And the second she did, instinct took over.

Mate! Must see my mate,her wolf cried as she sniffed the air for any sign of pursuit.

Nothing. No one had seen her go, and no one was following. They were all too busy at the fight, and they’d be busy for hours after with the bonfire and gossip that always followed such landmark events in a pack’s history.

And if anyone did follow her… Her fur bristled, and she bared her long teeth. No one was stopping her tonight.

She splashed across a creek and waded a long way upstream, exiting and reentering the water several times to make sure she couldn’t be tracked. Then she flicked her trail, jogged up a hill, and sniffed.

She couldn’t scent Drew from here — not directly. But every muscle in her body sensed a pull coming from the east, so she ran that way full tilt.

Mate,her wolf huffed as she ran. He was out there. He was waiting for her.

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