Page 35 of The Wolf's Appetite
“This happened hours ago,” my father said. “They’ve been scrambling tae figure out what the fook happened when they got word from me. Then it all made sense. In a way.”
“This near Luca and Ren’s stronghold?” Kane asked.
“Just at their outer wards. Clearly planned and orchestrated.”
Adryan’s brow furrowed. “Ainslee okay?” My uncle asked about my sister, who was mated to Luca.
“Too close to their mates for their comfort, obviously. Luca won’t let this slide. He wanted tae go full-on mercenary and hunt these fookers down, but I told him tae wait until we came up with a plan. No time for him to bring Ainslee here. No’ safe.”
“He’s already set up defenses and calling in the witches in his area,” Cian supplied.
Sebastian leaned forward. “That’s three attacks in three territories now. One in the Highlands. One near the vampire northern border. Now Romania.”
I hadn’t heard about the one attack near thevampires’ borders, but I had been preoccupied… with my mate.
“They’re not targeting individuals,” I said. “They’re testing defenses.”
Dad’s eyes met mine. “Exactly.”
Cian pulled out a map marked with recent supernatural skirmishes—most small, some oddly precise. “These attacks follow a pattern. They’re probing for weaknesses is my best guess.” Cian pointed to an area on the map. “The first hit was on what they deemed a weaker Lycan outpost. The second, a vampire transport. Now, a key Eastern European Lycan region. Every move is calculated. I just donna kno’ the end game, yet.”
“These aren’t the savage fucking Therabus that we kno’,” Adryan muttered. “They’re trained. Coordinated.”
“Controlled,” Father added. “We’re no’ looking at isolated incidents with brutalOtherworldfookers. We’re looking at a trained operation.”
I stared at the map again. “So what’s their goal? No’ just destruction. There’s no message. No claim.”
“No,” Sebastian said. “But think about it—who benefits from destabilizing every supernatural faction?”
Cian answered before anyone else could. “Someone who wants control. Someone who doesn’t want peace between the bloodlines. Someone who wants tae risefrom the ashes of fractured unity and become superior.”
Father nodded. “They’ve always been known as crazy and less than intelligent. After the fall of the Assembly, we should have known someone would try tae be an opportunist with a shift in the power balance. Things were uncertain. They banked on that.”
Adryan tilted his head. “Maybe this isn’t just one faction. Maybe it’s a collective. Maybe Therabus and… others are working together.”
“Like who?” Kane asked. “Rogue scientists? Mercenaries? Someone with enough money and vision to use the Therabus as living weapons?”
“There are creatures older than all our species. Ones who we donna even kno’ about,” Cian added. “For all we kno’, something much bigger and dangerous is using the Therabus as a pawn.”
“They’re being used,” I hissed. Because that’s the only thing that made fucking sense. The Therabus were not known for their stealth or intelligence. They were equivalent to an animal simply surviving out of luck.
Father growled low in his throat. “Definitely a possibility. Probably what’s actually happening. But we need to dig deeper. Cian, get the tech team on this and donna stop until we have answers. Get the witches involved to see if they can spell some insight.”
“Whoever is doing it… they’re building toward something bigger. They’re escalating, testing, learning. They’re studying us,” one of the Guard said.
Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “Which means they haven’t launched the full plan yet.”
“No’ yet,” Father said. “But they will.”
I looked up, locking eyes with each male in the room. “Then we unify. All of us. Vampires. Lycans. And anyone else who wants tae keep theOtherworldfrom being wiped off the map.”
“We’ll need Luca and Ren brought in,” Father added.
Sebastian nodded. “And we tighten protections around the females. Who’s saying they won’t go after mates…”
The growls erupted at the very thought of the females being harmed, and the scent of male aggression and the need to protect saturated the air.
A silence settled again. Not out of fear—but from determination. The kind that builds in the chest of men who have fought and bled before.
