Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
The head of the guards stood there in uniform, a bulletproof vest strapped on her chest. She was as she had always been, cold and calculating, a little smile on her face.
“I knew one of you would come for him. If I just remained patient, it was going to be so much more efficient than trying to hunt you all around that mountain.”
“Let the wolf go,” Apex said. “You can have me. Just let him go.”
“I don’t think so. He’s proven to be quite a pet.”
As she opened the door wider, what was on the far side was the last thing he wanted to see: Callum was alive, it was true. But that was only his body.
The male had been strapped naked to a bedding platform, and it was clear he had been used, his throat raw from bite marks, his sex lying across his thigh, bruised and deflated. But the worst of it was the way he stared up at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused and blinking slowly.
Like his soul was gone.
“You bitch!”
Apex attacked before he knew what he was doing, his lunge so violent that he nearly lost hold of his gun.
He didn’t make it.
The head of the guards shot him in the thigh so that when his weight landed, his leg crumpled out from under him.
His head caught his fall.
Right on the last step.
The crack was like a lightning bolt. Just like the pain.
And then everything went black.
* * *
Kane didn’t go back to the garage. He knew that was where Nadya would go. Instead, he dematerialized to the clearing up on the mountain, to the hut. But there was no old female. No wolven, either.
Maybe that was for the best.
He sat down on one of the logs around the cold fire pit and stared at where the flames should have been. Behind him, the sounds of nature at night were a tiptoe into his ear, as if the whole world recognized he needed to be handled carefully.
He should have explained himself better to Nadya, but his head was fucked, and the anger that had entered him along with that resuscitation he’d been through, or whatever it was, made him volatile to the point where he didn’t know if he could trust himself. He had once been so even-keeled.
Then again, back in the Old Country, the world had been his oyster. It was easy to keep a level head when there was no pressure.
As he thought about Cordelhia once again, he was shocked, and also not surprised. In his gut, he had known something was wrong about all of his good fortune in the New World.
Or maybe that was just hindsight talking.
As for Nadya, he wanted to be angry with her for doubting him, but how could he be. With the way her past had gone, he could see the why of it all for her, and though he wanted to talk her out of the way she felt, wasn’t he just like her father?
Telling her what to do because of his own ambitions.
Which had been a future with her.
What the hell did it matter—
Fast approaching footfalls brought his head, and his gun, around to the sounds. But he didn’t bother trying to take cover. Frankly, if someone shot him in the chest, it would probably hurt less, and then he could die.
If he could die, that was—
Mayhem shot out of the tree line. “Apex has gone to the prison camp.”
“What?” Kane asked with exhaustion.
“I just came back after a food run to the bolt-hole, and Lucan said that he’d returned and taken a bunch of ammo and knives. Do not tell me he is just going to wander around the damn mountain looking for deer to hunt. He went to the camp. Alone. To try to find Callum.”
As Kane slowly rose to his feet, he thought, well, he already felt like hitting something. Here was his chance.
“Lucan tried to come with me,” Mayhem said. “I told him to not be a fucking liability.”
“Wow. That’s a totally reasonable thing to do.”
“I’m turning over a new leaf. At least for tonight.”
Kane took a deep breath. “Let’s go. Frankly, I knew this was where we’d end up. I’d just been hoping if we gave it time, that white-haired wolven would magically reappear.”
Closing his eyes, he meant to dematerialize back to the prison camp. But when he didn’t move, he popped his lids.
Mayhem was still in front of him. “First things first,” the male said softly. “We take care of Apex. Then you can deal with whatever blew up between you and Nadya. And don’t tell me something didn’t happen. She looks as bad as you do.”
Kane glanced at the sky, at the way the moon was peeking out of the cloud cover. It was a beautiful sight, but cold and ultimately useless.