“Una, please.” Killian’s eyes are wild. There’s a pop, then a bang, and then the roof crashes down in flames.
“Go!”
He shifts as he sprints, bounding down the steps and up the path, disappearing in the dark and the smoke. There are shouts and howls, but no more screams. I pace the porch, straining to see more. Ivo and Gael rush past with bunker gear. I force myself not to call out and delay them.
Mari, Annie, and Kennedy are fine. They have to be. Their wolves are strong and quick.
I squeeze the railing, my claws splintering the wood.
Killian will do whatever needs to be done.
I expect comfort, and fear slaps me in the face. I can’t stay here, no matter what I promised. I can’t let him go.
I make for the steps, but as I do, a familiar husky voice calls from behind the cabin. “Una! Come here.”
“Fallon.” I rush toward him. “Are you hurt?”
“Come quick.”
He sounds like there’s something very wrong. I round the back, and out of the smoke, three ATVs roar up. Fallon. Alfie. And Lochlan Byrne.
15
UNA
My body hits the rock wall at force. Mari screams. Annie clutches Kennedy’s black coat, using her whole weight to hold the wolf back. There are too many—he can’t take them all. I stagger back to my feet, limp forward until I’m back in front of my girls.
My heart thuds, panic momentarily deafening me. I can’t show fear.
I’m surrounded by wolves and males. The males are ours. The wolves aren’t. They’re huge and shaggy and yellow-eyed. There’s only one of their kind in human form. He looks like a castaway. His long hair is matted, and there are claws jutting from his mud-encrusted hands and feet. I can’t make out his features behind his tangled brown beard, but I can see his fangs.
I’ve never seen one, but I have no doubt they’re Last Pack. On our land.
Terror skitters up my spine, but I stay stock still. If I show fear, they’ll attack. The air is thick with aggression.
Eamon sneers down at me. “Tell the freak of nature to shift back, Alpha.” The word drips with scorn.
Kennedy’s wolf is not going to listen to me. He’s a beast, and he’d never leave us undefended.
“Do it, or we kill it.” He snaps, and six Last Pack wolves stalk forward, so close that their musky filth burns my nose. Kennedy’s wolf bares his teeth, and he doesn’t give an inch, but he knows he’s outnumbered.
“Now, or I put it down.” Eamon’s cold, rheumy eyes bore into mine. He’s not bluffing.
Anger and fear make my voice tremble. “Shift back.”
By some miracle, she does. Kennedy pops straight to her feet, fists balled, guarding us with her body as if she were still in her fur. She is a fierce wolf.
Eamon laughs and calls over to the castaway. “Justus, you sure you don’t want the broken one, too? She can control the others for you.”
Justus spits and then scratches his hairy chest. “No. We trade for unmated females. She stinks like alpha.” Justus shuffles closer and sniffs the air. “And you promised us three. There are only two.”
“You can fuck the freak in her human skin just fine.”
“Not talking about the blessed one. Talking about the blonde.” He points at Mari.
Mari’s not mated.
I glance at her. Her eyes are downcast. Her cheeks are pink.
Mari’s mated?
No way. I’d know.
“Take her anyway,” Eamon says, sneering. “She might not bear y’all pups, but that means you’ll get more use out of her, right?”
Mari sobs. I stiffen my spine, praying she sees and follows suit. Already, there are a dozen yellow-eyed wolves tracking her, salivating. Her fear even tickles my nose.
Get mad, girls. Get mad, I think at them as hard as I can. I wish I was magical like Abertha.
I need magic to get out of this shit.
They’re going to ambush Killian, and of course, he’ll kill them all, but what will happen to my girls while he does?
“You got so many you can use them thus?” Justus spits in the dirt and stalks back to his wolves, grumbling.
Eamon shrugs at Lochlan, and they wander off to sit on a log beside a cold fire pit, knives in their hands. Last Pack and a half dozen males, including Finn and Alfie, lounge around the clearing. In the woods beyond, I scent more Last Pack and a handful of other A-roster males and elders. And Fallon.
That traitorous rat.
That idiot.
What did they promise him? A shortcut to A-roster? He’d fall for it. He’s always wanted more, faster, easier.