Chapter 90
DANE
His throat was in my hand. I could feel his pulse beating wildly. Hell, I could almost smell his blood. All I had to do was squeeze, and I could end Remington Reed, one of the most vicious. Broken Forest fighters.
As if she could read my mind, Aurora put her hand over mine. She glared at her former foster brother. “As much as I want to see him dead, he came here at his own risk.”
“Then he knows the consequences.” My claws tightened. Bit into his skin.
He bared his teeth at me. “Do what you have to. I don’t care anymore.”
“Why?” Aurora demanded, stepping close to him. “You’re the future Alpha of Broken Forest. Why wouldn’t you care?”
“You think my parents are ever going to step down? Hell no. I don’t even know all the dark shit they’re into these days. But if you want to save your children, that’s where they are.”
Both my wolf and the man that I was howled for his death. He’d killed Blue Ridge wolves. He was the enemy. He deserved it.
Aurora’s hand was still on my arm, her eyes huge. “Why are you
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doing this, Remi?”
2/6
“For you,” he coughed. “Because after a lifetime of what they did to you…what I did…I owed you.”
Aurora looked speechless. I managed to loosen my fingers one at
a time.
“Come on,” I said to Aurora and…Evelyn? What was she doing out here?
I didn’t like that. There was no good reason for her to be alone in the forest with the rival she’d lost to after eight years. But I’d have to file it away for later. Right now, we needed to focus on the children.
I let go of Remington, and he dropped to his knees, gasping and gagging while I used the pack bond to summon my warriors.
“What will you do to him?” Aurora asked, her eyes never leaving her brother.
I crouched in front of Remington. “You may have just saved my children’s lives. Once I have them again, you can go.”
Remington nodded and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Wait!” Evelyn called, striding up to us. “What about my–I mean, the nanny. Was she with the children, too?”
Remington gave Evelyn a long stare. The longer he looked, the paler she got. Finally, he said, “All I know about are the kids.”
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I called a few of my wolves, and they dragged him away to the house.
I looked at Evelyn, my brows drawing together. “What was that about?”
She shook herself like she’d been in some kind of trance and shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
Then, without even looking at me, she turned and walked toward the house.
Evelyn rarely did anything without looking to me or asking for my attention.
Another strange moment to think on later.
We went back to the house, and I rallied the pack. I wanted to take them all and launch an all–out attack, but there was still the treaty and the Council to think about.
“Unfortunately, we have no proof they’ve taken the children except the word of one of their own wolves,” said Archer.
When I growled at my beta, Trajan stepped in. “Consider, Alpha, that he could be setting us up for a trap.”
The more I got to know Aurora’s choice for her future beta, the more I approved of her decision. He was good at being a voice of reason without pissing me off the way Archer sometimes did.
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I turned to Remington. “You swear your pack has my children?”
“On my life,” Remington said.
I wasn’t sure why, but I believed him. Aurora did, too.
In the end, we decided to go to Broken Forest with a dozen of our strongest warriors at our side and more hidden in the forest nearby if they were needed.
“Dane,” Aurora stopped me just as everyone was shifting to leave. “What about what Remington said? What if this is just a trap for you?” She hesitated, then said, “Or…what if it isn’t? Do you believe what Remington said about you?”
I remembered my grandfather’s fears leading up to his death about me being a sacrifice, and I nodded. “I believe him, yes.”
I knew there was an unspoken question in her words. If it turned out Remington was right, and I had the chance to trade my life for my children’s lives, would I?
Yes. In a heartbeat.
But Archer and Evelyn watched us, and I wasn’t going to argue with them, so I didn’t say it out loud. The decision was mine, and I wouldn’t discuss it.
By the time we entered the forest, crossed onto the other pack’s land, and made it to the cave mouth that served as their pack house, the sun was fading. I strode out in front of my pack in my lycan form and howled a challenge.
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Even though, worryingly, we hadn’t seented the twins or Mary Jamison on our way here. If they’d come this way, we should
have.
A moment later, Waylon Reed answered, exiting the cave in hist own lycan form with two dozen pack warriors behind him..
“What’s the meaning of this, Montague? You’ve set foot on my lands. You know that means death.”
“You have my children,” I growled. “Give them back to me, or our war begins all over again.”
Waylon laughed. “We don’t have your children.”
“Yes you do,” I growled. “I want them back.”
“What proof do you have?” Esther asked, coming to stand by her husband while still in her ridiculous 1950’s dress in her human form.
“Remington told us,” Aurora called out. “He risked his life. He has no reason to lie.”
“Remington?” Waylon laughed. “All right, where is he, then?”
I looked around for Remington…
He was gone.
