Chapter 1
Wolves padded past him, quietly making their way towards their targets. He and a couple of his other men had stayed in human form in order to be able to communicate a little bit better. Garrick Landry looked through the trees at the two large buildings long since forgotten by humankind. What used to be a scenic highway wound in front of them but when the interstate had been put in decades ago speed and efficiency had replaced the road that wound through the mountains and the two motels had been abandoned. The abandoned state was only a facade and suited the wolf pack that had claimed it as their territory. His wolf snorted at calling what this was a proper wolf pack. They were mercenaries and their alpha wasn’t a true alpha but he had the ability to provide for them so they stayed. He also gave them the latitude to act how ever they wanted and to do what suited them. Which is what brought them to the current situation.
Garrick had never thought of himself as someone who would involve himself in the larger battles. He preferred his pack exactly how it was now. They were small but they thrived on the side of the mountain they inhabited. They kept to themselves. They had a few packs they considered allies and a few alphas Garrick considered close friends. He could try to blame what he and his wolves were doing now on his closest friend and ally but he knew he would be here regardless of Liam Forester’s direction. The Alpha of the Ossory Pack was waging his own attack and trying to keep their very existence from becoming known. No, he and his wolves were here for one reason…his wolf thought he was some kind of knight-errant rescuing a damsel in distress.
Garrick studied the buildings as they moved closer. The damsel in question was actually pretty bad ass by all reports. When the Leloup Pack’s beta had killed the Alpha and taken control, he had brought in Darius McMannus and his wolves to help him enforce his will. When he found himself cut off from the Leloup funds, he had offered to pay Darius in the one thing a predominantly male pack needed…she-wolves. The idea sickened Garrick and he had offered Liam his assistance. Their pack was currently housing refugees that said bad-ass she wolf had single handily rescued. He assumed he’d end up supporting Liam in a couple fights, maybe house some more Leloup refugees. He really hadn’t thought he’d find himself not just leading an attack but proposing and planning the whole damn thing.
He and his wolf were going to have a little talk when this was over. He still couldn’t figure out why he had gone damn near feral when his scouts had told him that the bad-ass she wolf had gone and gotten herself captured by Darius’s men. He looked down the tree line as his wolves spread out. Two buildings meant they were splitting up but he had brought more than enough wolves with them. They had enough intel from the wolf that had been watching that they knew where Darius was and more importantly they knew where the she-wolves were being held. His bad-ass princess wasn’t the only one here. Giving a small nod, they began their advancement towards the buildings. This wasn’t a subdue as you go and avoid injuring the innocent. The only innocent here were the she-wolves that had been taken. This was very much a kill anyone you came across quietly and efficiently until you found the females.
Garrick knew he was limiting his fighting ability by not shifting but he also figured that the she wolves didn’t know them and they’d need to know they were there to rescue them. Plus, the really annoying thing about being in wolf form was the lack of opposable thumbs. Reinforced doors sucked. You couldn’t just smash through them…at least not easily. While they didn’t know exactly where the she-wolves were being kept, logic dictated that they would be locked away somewhere which meant doors. And those doors would have been designed to keep shifters from going through them.
His wolves moved forward and he could hear the quiet sound of them taking down Darius’s sentries. As he approached the building his group was targeting, he saw movement inside the doorway. The wind was working in his favor and the sentry just inside the doorway wouldn’t be able to scent him until it was too late. Moving with speed and determination, he approached the sentry from behind and with a fluid movement, he snapped his neck. The neck was the one place on a wolf where you could kill them before they could shift. It was all about severing the spinal cord. Continuing forward, the sounds of fighting were getting louder which meant their stealthy approach wasn’t going to continue to go unnoticed.
He thought he’d be torn about joining the fight. The plan had been that the ones in human form keep going and find the she-wolves while the wolves did the fighting. It’s what made sense. It was risky being in human form in a wolf fight. These were his wolves fighting. An alpha’s place was leading his wolves in battle. He had logically tried to justify it in his head. He and the other wolves in human form were the ones at a higher risk and he definitely wouldn’t ask any of his wolves to do anything he wouldn’t. But the reality was this is what his wolf wanted. If he had been fighting, his mind wouldn’t be on the fight, it would be on rescuing his bad-ass princess so that’s what they were doing.
Making his way through the bottom floor of the building and snapping more necks than he cared to think about, he found a door leading down. His instincts told him that’s where he needed to go. The two other pack members in human form in this building followed behind him as he opened the door and started down the stairs that led to what obviously used to be just storage and mechanical equipment. It wasn’t until about halfway down that the smell hit them. Blood. Lots of it. He could smell a few of Darius’s pack down here as well. He had really expected to come across Darius by now but he hadn’t. He continued down the steps and then it hit him. It was the same scent that had hit him when he was at Liam’s and they were getting intel from one of the previously rescued she-wolves. It had smelled slightly wrong then but now…it smelled so damn right and Garrick knew why his wolf was acting the way he was. It was the scent of his mate. The scent that was supposed to soothe him was mixed with the metallic smell of blood and his wolf went bat shit crazy. Rushing down the stairs, he took out two of the wolves in the room in a matter of seconds, leaving the other two for his wolves to finish. He continued through the room to a narrow hallway. What used to be storage closets had been fashioned into cells complete with metal doors. They came to the first cell and Garrick’s stomach turned. A she-wolf was crumpled on the floor covered in bruises and blood. The pack mate that had followed him down the hall tugged on the door and to both of their surprise, the lock gave way.
Knowing his pack mate would tend to the wounded she-wolf, he continued down the hall. Two cells were empty but the blood stains on the floor meant that they had recently been occupied. He continued onto the last cell, knowing what he would find. He would realize after the fact that he had no memory of not just breaking the lock on the door but pulling the whole damn thing off its hinges. What he would remember was the sight of his mate, bloody and beaten on the concrete floor.
