Page 61 of Pack Rage
Chapter 29
Little Rogues
GLEN
“Drink some water, pup.” Sergeant patted me on the back as I panted, lying in a heap on the forest floor. It was semi-dark in this grove, the sun having given up hours before, and the moon almost ready to rise. I didn’t have time to rest, but even with the extra power that had surged through me hours before, when Flor and Grigor had claimed each other, my body was screaming for rest. “We don’t have long, but you’ll need to rest. Gather your thoughts, and breathe.”
Breathing should have been impossible. I’d been running from Eastern Enforcers for what felt like days when Sergeant and the Tenebris boys had signaled me. Though I suspected the only reason I’d gotten away was that the Eastern Enforcers’ attention had been diverted to the crowds that had begun arriving at the front gate. Hundreds of shifters had been pouring into the Eastern packlands, circling the Mansion to fill the area behind the house, around the Council ring.
Taking the canteen from Sergeant’s hand, I managed to take a few sips while I collected my thoughts. I didn’t have long;Grigor had spoken into my mind only a moment before, and I had bad news.
“How far’d he run?” Bo murmured from a tree branch ahead of me as I caught my breath.
“How long’s the question,” his friend Leroy replied. “He kept them Eastern shitheads runnin’ in circles until they pulled back.”
Sergeant grunted. “He’s been running since yesterday morning. He drew the Enforcers away from the pack protector so she could get inside. You two need to run now, get some distance from the fence line. Remember your training.” They both nodded and scampered off, their movements far quieter than they had been the first time I’d found them blundering through the forests at Southern. Sergeant waited, sniffing the air, until a distant call—the unmistakable hoot of a great horned owl—let him know they were away and hidden.
Sergeant didn’t relax. He didn’t like that the Enforcers had stopped chasing me. I didn’t like it either.
I’d shot away from the Mansion when they’d found us, my heart in my throat, my wolf howling at me to draw the predators away from our mate.The howling had only stopped once I realized Flor had gotten inside without being spotted. At least, I assumed that’s where she was, since every Enforcer had focused on following me. It had been almost impossible to keep tabs on her while I ran myself ragged inside the fence line, searching for the moment I could escape.
There had been Enforcers doing something all around the clearing where the Council meetings were held on the full moon. I’d thought they were cutting the grass around the edges, but they’d been pouring something out in a wide circle, maybe fertilizer, though it hadn’t smelled like it. They hadn’t been armed with clippers or weed eaters, but walkie-talkies and whatmight have been surveying tools, until they spotted me and joined in the chase.
I’d finally managed to get close enough to the fence and climbed over, using my claws. Then I’d led the two dozen Eastern shifters on an even longer chase in the woods, some of them carrying guns. The stench of silver had tainted the air when they’d shot at me and gotten close enough for me to catch the scent. But instead of freezing with fear, I ran faster, rage at the way the Eastern pack broke our laws with impunity giving me speed.
That rage, and the calm in my bond with Flor, had kept me going for miles. Most of the Enforcers quit chasing me, and when night fell, I’d climbed trees and picked off the last three, giving them quick deaths with my claws. It was more than they deserved. Then I’d looped back to the acreage behind the Mansion, looking for Sergeant.
He and his boys had been running, too. They’d sent two or three of their pack out to test the boundaries of the compound, taking out any drones or cameras they found on the way with slingshots. When Enforcers had chased, they’d let them, luring them into brushy, dense patches of forest, then falling on them en masse. Sergeant told me they’d stopped hunting close to the fence line when there was some kind of earthquake.
If I’d had the breath to laugh, I would’ve.Earthquake, my ass.I’d been in the middle of fighting the last Enforcer, twenty miles away, and felt the ground move. Distracted, I’d almost let the shifter get his claws into my eye. But the enormous surge of Grigor-flavored power had told me precisely what was happening, and I’d channeled that strength into finishing my final battle, then running back.
Sergeant handed me another container, a small can of apple juice. I hated the stuff, but needed the calories, so I popped the tab and drank it in one long gulp.
“Did it work, Glen? Flor got in safely?”
I pressed a hand to my chest. “As far as I can tell. She bonded with Grigor, and it felt like she settled something with Finn, too? I can’t tell what’s up with that, exactly. But Flor’s alive.” I tried to stand, grabbing onto Sergeant’s arm for balance. “Grigor had bad news. Just now. He’s on his way here, from the north.”I tapped my temple when Sergeant’s thick eyebrows lifted.
“Ah, I see. He’s not with them?”
“No. He chased after Elina, but she wasn’t there.”
“Wonder what she was doing,” he murmured, just as a breeze cut through the grove. His nose twitched, and he inhaled deeply. “Smells like blood. A lot of blood. And magic.”
I shivered. Grigor had warned me she could be near, though he was on his way. “That’s her. She’s got to be close by.”
“So close, you wouldn’t believe it, Glen Hillier.” The voice slid out of the nearby bushes from every direction.
We both froze.She’s here,Sergeant mouthed, his breath a small cloud in the deepening cold. He hooted three times in a row, and waited until leaves crackled in the distance. The boys had heard.
Letting go of his arm, I focused on the feeling of dread emanating from in front of me. Sergeant silently unsheathed his sword, waiting. No, it was Flor’s sword, I realized. She’d left it with him, having only taken her steak knife into the Mansion. Sergeant held it like he’d won a thousand battles with it, though. He may very well have.
Stay here,he mouthed, and stepped toward the danger. But that wouldn’t be where she was, I knew. If she’d managed to fool Grigor into chasing the wind, she wouldn’t expose herself like this. I opened my mouth to whisper a warning, but felt something dull and cold, no larger than a thumb, press against the base of my neck.It had to be a gun, and even though Icouldn’t smell it, I knew in my soul it was loaded with silver ammunition.
Wait.I couldn’t smellanything.I couldn’t shift my eyes, or cry out. I was frozen, as a hand wrapped around my throat, and four sharp-tipped nails plunged into my neck.
I knew from the moment she stabbed her claws into me that she was stronger than me. But she wasn’t stronger than all of the mates in my bond. I took a shallow breath, ready to call on them to help me defeat her. Or at least escape her hold.
“Shhhh,” she whispered, turning my head to see the four shifters who were perched in the trees around us, guns aimed at the back of Sergeant’s head. If even one of them shot him from here, he was dead. “Good boy. He doesn’t need to die just yet.”
