Page 92 of To Hunt A Wolf
I roll my eyes. “Okay, we’re still pretending.”
“Mac,” he says, very carefully. “None of the food was drugged. Or at least, not by me.”
I stare at him, trying to decide whether I believe him. I kind of hate that we’ve come far enough to make out but not far enough for me to know if he’d lie about something like that. “Well, someone did,” I say.
He lets out a growl and then steps back and punches the tree beside him. His knuckles crack against the bark, but the only one who comes out injured is him. Blood coats his knuckles, and he paces away, shaking his head against the pain.
The outburst is out of place, which only makes me worry.
“Whoa, chill. It made sense. The Jades don’t trust me,” I start to say, but he cuts me off.
“I questioned Grey extensively before we left the compound. None of the Jades were ever alone with your food. The only two people who were are sitting around that campfire trying to talk you out of doing exactly what we’re about to do.”
My blood ices over, and my heart threatens to crack at the possibility of what he’s implying. Jadick, I can accept. He’s a cocky douche who’s only looking out for himself. And I’m sure, if I think hard enough, I can come up with a hundred reasons why he’d think killing me would help serve his cause.
But Tripp?
I can’t even fathom the idea of that kind of betrayal.
“Tripp would never,” I whisper.
Levi groans and runs a hand through his hair. “We don’t have time for this kind of suspicion.” He closes the distance, his energy chaotic now. “Mac, listen, we need to keep moving. We’re too exposed out here. Let’s just get Kari, and then we’ll figure this all out, okay?”
“I can’t rescue you without help, Levi. And if I can’t trust Tripp—”
“Go to your mother. She has contacts you can use. People outside our group.”
“She has business associates. My mother doesn’t have friends, Levi. Why do you think she allied with you guys, knowing Jadick Clemons is running the show? She hates him. But she doesn’t have anyone better to support.”
He squeezes his eyes shut, and when he opens them again, I find a desperation I’ve never seen in them before. “We’ll figure it out. We just have to keep moving. If we’re spotted here—”
A shot rings out, and sharp pain lances through my shoulder. I gasp, and Levi roars, shoving me down. I hit the ground with a thud that I feel all the way down my spine, but even before I can open my mouth to cry out, the heaviness descends. My limbs weaken, and my tongue becomes a lead weight in my mouth. I can’t even summon up the energy to be afraid as I watch Levi jerk in sudden pain and fall beside me.
He lands on his side, a dart protruding from his neck, and our eyes meet as scouts rush in to surround us.
“Targets down,” someone says. A male voice I don’t recognize.
A scream echoes inside the confines of my own mind. I am paralyzed against everything except my own emotions.
Fear.
Frustration.
Defeat.
Exhaustion presses heavily against my eyelids. Levi tries to speak but only grunts. I look back at him, unable to form the words to tell him how much I love him before the pull of darkness sucks me under and sweeps me away.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Iwake chilled to the bone and very aware that, underneath the thin sheet someone has draped over me, I’m naked. Inhaling sharply, I open my eyes and sit up, scanning the room where I’ve woken. It’s bland and sparsely furnished. Not a bedroom, despite the narrow bed I’m lying in. Stainless steel shelving and a bedside tray to match are the only furniture beyond the thin mattress. Across the small room, a closed door leads… I don’t know where.
Through a hazy mind, I try to think. To get my bearings.
The last memory I can summon involves being shot with a dart laced with a drug strong enough to drop me where I stood. Not an easy feat when your target is a werewolf whose metabolism runs three to four times faster than a normal human. And then, men crowding around us, shouting at one another to take us into custody.
I don’t know who they are, but my bet is on a certain douchebag alpha with a soft spot for sibling torture.
What I do know is I’m alone.
