Page 68 of Salvation

Todd would have given a million bucks for a camera to catch the look on his cousin’s face. No, wait. He would have given a million bucks to go back in time and capture a time-lapse sequence of Anna’s face. The initial shock, then the wonder. The hope. The love, already pouring out toward the babies and at him.

Athim. A messed-up bear.

At some point, she’d just grinned, and he had the feeling she’d been playing with her own mental camera, too. Aiming it his way and nodding in satisfaction until all his worries about being worthy gradually faded away.

Mate,his bear hummed.

No doubt about it. Anna’s scream for help had sounded in his mind miles away when he’d gone to check the scent Zack had found. No one else heard it — just him — and he’d raced for his mate with a speed and fury not even the fleetest wolf could match.

“Yeah,” he nodded wearily. “Holy shit.”

The cub fit in the scoop of his arm, and he flexed and straightened the fingers of his injured hand. They had worked when he needed them to. Everything had worked. Maybe he wasn’t a complete washout, after all.

“Oh, my God,” Sarah said, appearing beside her mate. “What happened?”

That was the million-dollar question, and he wasn’t really sure he had the answer.

Soren, though, took one sniff of the scene of the attack and growled. “The Blue Bloods.” He all but spat the name.

“Blue Bloods?” Anna asked in a shaky voice.

Everyone looked at her, then at the young woman hunched in the back of the van.

Little by little, it all came out once they were back in the saloon, where the stranger — Summer — explained what had happened. Emmett Whyte — aka Emmett LeBlanc — had been hunting down Sarah for months, while his cronies, the last of the Blue Bloods, had been on their own mission to wipe out any shifters who dared cross species lines.

Ty, Tina, Lana, and several other Twin Moon wolves had rushed over to the saloon, too, and they all hung on the young woman’s words.

“I knew it wasn’t Roy,” Ty growled.

“Shh,” Lana chided. “Let her speak.”

“I was there the day they got word of Victor Whyte’s death,” Summer explained in a shaky voice. “I thought that was it — that they’d finally give up. But instead, they decided to keep up what they called the crusade. They targeted packless couples in remote places.” She buried her face in her hands. “They started talking about going after babies.”

Soren had growled audibly at that, and Sarah shrank back with a look of horror.

“I swear I didn’t want anything to do with any of it.” When Summer looked up, her face was streaked with tears. “I talked them into keeping the twins alive, but that only made them concoct worse plans. Like coming after other couples and other babies.” She looked at Sarah, who turned away, instinctively shielding little Teddy. “They wanted to use Anna to lure you out next.”

“Jesus,” Soren muttered, looking at his mate. His face was red, his fists clenched. Then he swallowed hard and looked Todd in the eye.

I owe you, man. I owe you everything.

Todd sucked in a deep breath. He’d always lived to serve, knowing that the reward would be an ephemeral thing. But that look, that scratchy tone in his cousin’s voice said it all.

You done good, man. You done good.

“Are you sure they were the last ones?” Sarah asked. “Are you sure?”

“I think so.”

“Youthinkso?” Soren roared.

Todd was about to step forward and glare at his cousin, but Anna beat him to it. Anna, who’d fought off half a dozen wolves and taken in two babies unquestioningly, because she was all heart. Anna, who was still on her feet after a hell of a day, because she was that tough.

“She did what she could. Don’t you see that?”

Sarah put a hand on Soren’s arm, and Todd could hear the thoughts passing between the two of them.She’s, what? Twenty-three, twenty-four? What else could she do?

“I’m not sure if there are any others,” Summer sniffled, hugging herself. Then she looked up, shaken to the core but determined to meet the eyes of not one, but two angry alphas — Soren and Ty — to show that she was telling the truth.

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