Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Wanting to claw that self-satisfied smirk right off his face, Madisyn’s seething cat let out a loud hiss. “And you felt you needed all these clans and a pride to deal with just one pallas cat? I guess I should be flattered.”
“Oh, no. This is about more than just you. It didn’t have to be. You could have just told me what I wanted to know in the beginning. You could have just given Daisy’s location to Charity that night at Enigma. But you didn’t. And then you had the Mercury Pack stand up for you.” His face hardened. “You dragged them into this, Madisyn. You. And now they all have to pay for their part in this. By keeping you from me, they also keep Daisy from me.”
A low moan slipped out of Dawn, and her swollen eyelids fluttered. Her face scrunched up in pain as she tried to move. Archer’s claws must have pricked her neck harder, because she froze.
“I realize you probably can’t see much through those swollen eyes, so I’ll quickly explain what’s going on,” he said to Dawn. “You may remember I told you that I’d use you to make a deal with Madisyn. Well, we’re on Mercury Pack territory right now, and she’s just about to tell me where Daisy is so that I don’t kill you. Isn’t that nice?”
Dawn looked as if she was grinding her teeth, but she didn’t otherwise move.
“That’s it, just stay quiet and still,” Archer told the cougar. “This will be over in seconds. Right, Madisyn?”
God, this guy needed to die—preferably in a fuckload of pain. “Why can’t you just let Daisy be?”
“You’re not dense, Madisyn. You know why. An example has to be made so that I never have to deal with this bullshit again. I’d say wiping out the Mercury Pack will certainly deliver a very clear message to anyone who thinks of repeating Daisy’s mistake—it will show that no one could protect them from me. It’ll also make people less likely to ever fuck with me or my clan.”
Shaya laughed—a dark sound that caught everyone’s attention. “You can’t think that you’ll succeed in wiping us out. Different breeds of shifter have tried it before—they all failed.” She glanced from Madisyn to Kathy, looking exasperated. “Honestly, you’d think people would learn from that, right?”
Archer didn’t seem concerned. He shrugged. “Let’s face it, you can’t win against all of us. You don’t even have a prayer of taking us on.”
No, they didn’t, thought Madisyn. An army of bears versus five wolves, a margay, a human, and a pallas cat shifter . . . God, they were so far outnumbered, it wasn’t even funny. If the rest of the pack didn’t join them soon, they were fucked. Especially since these people would be even bigger threats once they’d shifted into their black-bear forms.
Really, the only weakness black bears had was that they were slow to shift. The big bastards had broad heads, large muscles, and powerful jaws that could crush bones easily. Their dense fur, thick skin, and layers of fat made them as hard to hurt as pallas cats. Their strong, curved claws weren’t razor-sharp, but a single swipe could cause deep lacerations and broken bones.
A pack of wolves could take down a black bear. But one wolf against one black bear—those were shitty odds. And since there were so many bears, they could afford to split into groups to gang up on each of the Mercury Pack members . . . Yeah, like she’d said, they were indeed fucked.
Madisyn had overpowered three sows, sure, but they’d been in their human forms at the time. She highly doubted that they would remain in their human forms today. In fact, she suspected that Charity would make a point of pitting her sow against Madisyn’s cat. Leanna and Cady could possibly join the fight, since they wouldn’t be otherwise occupied.
Although . . . now that she’d taken her eyes off Archer to sweep the crowd, Madisyn noticed that it wasn’t quite so large or thick now. She also noticed that the sixth line of defense was all pallas cats. She realized that the sneaky bastards had probably incapacitated line after line, making their way closer and closer to the front. Vinnie might have thrown all subtlety aside at this point if it weren’t for the claws digging into Dawn’s throat. One wrong move from anyone, and the cougar would be dead.
There wasn’t room for excitement, though. She couldn’t even allow herself to feel a little optimism. Although Archer’s numbers were down, there were still far too many bears. Of course, if Vinnie had brought his own allies along, the sides might be more evenly matched. Whatever the case, no one was getting out of this without at least some fractured bones and ugly lacerations. Some might even die, including her own pack members, and that thought made Madisyn’s stomach twist painfully.