Pain unlike I’ve ever felt before spiked throughout my body. My wolf roared inside me, gnashing his teeth, ready to rip out Rufus’s throat. I squeezed my eyes shut before blinking them open. I had to clear the red from my eyes before I lost it and ended up useless to Reese.
Threats of how I would rip his body limb from limb ran through my head. My wolf conjured up myriad ways in which it would toy with Rufus, slowly torturing him before finally ending his worthless life. But I clamped down viciously on the urge to tell him this.
“Your mate is safe with me… for now,” he continued. I could hear the pleasure in his voice. “What your primary concern should be is how you’re going to save that useless pack of yours.Ifyou can save them.”
“What did you do?” I snarled.
“Absolutely nothing… yet.”
Rufus had always been condescending. The type that believed he knew better than everyone. I’d despised him ever since the first moment I met him years ago before he became the youngest council member of the Alliance.
“But, well, let me explain. You have two options. First, you can come after your mate before I slit her throat. Or, you can save your pack, who, as we speak, are living blissfully without knowing that there is a ticking time bomb in their midst. Quite literally. The dirty bomb I created filled with oil derived from wolfsbane and colloidal silver is set to go off within hours.
“The explosion will enshrine your entire commune. Which, by the way, I’ve had your brother summon all of your betas and pack members from the other communes.”
“They would never listen to a directive given to them from anyone other than me,” I said through gritted teeth.
He snorted. “They would if they received a message from your phone number. Oh, how many things that your geeky brother can do from his tablet,” he taunted. “Anyway, once the bomb detonates, any werewolf within a ten-mile radius will burn to death from the inside out. Thanks to inhaling the deadly combination of silver and wolfsbane.” He clicked his teeth.
“Such an ugly way to die. But I will enjoy watching it from my view, with your mate. You can save them, though, if you make it on time to defuse the bomb. If you choose your pack, however. You can only save one.” He laughed maniacally this time, obviously pleased with himself.
“Why are you doing this?” I demanded.
“Because you killed my family!” he snarled.
I pulled back, scrunching my face, trying to make sense of his accusation. As far as I knew, Rufus Dalton hailed from the Northeast. I had never crossed paths with him until he was appointed to the Alliance a decade ago.
“You’re fucking delusional.”
“And you’re running out of time,” he snarled back. “You have a decision to make. Your mate or your pack. Will you choose to kill all of those stupid, loyal packmates of yours by choosing your mate, or will you sacrifice her for your pack, like your father?”
An angry jolt passed through me at the mention of my father.
“And don’t try to call for help from that deaf brother. Thanks to Christophe, your phone has been tagged with a tracker. From this moment, any phone call or message you send will set off the bomb immediately. You will be the death of your pack with one phone call. If you care to save your mate, we’ll be at the place where all shifters unite.”
I punched the steering wheel as he laughed at his fucked-up joke.
“You only get one shot. But I’ll make it easier on you,” Rufus said as if doing me a favor. “I will give you three hours. In that amount of time, you should make it to whichever destination you choose. Ticktock, the clock has started.” He disconnected the call.
I roared out in frustration, both my wolf and my human blinded with rage. In a blur, I saw everything I loved flash before my eyes. My pack, which I spent my life with, and more than five decades fighting to build them a life worthy of hanging up our warring ways. My goal had always been to secure the safety and security of future generations, and in a blink, it could all be stripped away.
To add to my fury, a second later, my phone buzzed. Rufus, from Christophe’s phone, sent a picture of Reese slumped over in the back seat of a car. Her hands were bound, and her wrists were tied behind her back.
For Proof,the message read.
It took everything in me not to toss my phone through my windshield.
Reese.My wolf whimpered as a memory of her from the night of the supermoon came to mind. She looked so damn beautiful underneath the glow of the moon. I saw my entire future in her eyes that night.
Before total despair could take over, I recalled that I had a spare phone. An old burner phone that only Chance knew about. I couldn’t contact him or anyone else with my normal cell, but…
I reached over to the glove compartment and popped it open. The burner phone tumbled out, and for the briefest of moments, I felt like there was hope. Like I could save both the love of my life and my pack.
But when I flipped the damn thing open, all hope diminished. The battery had died, as I had failed to recharge the phone in the months since I last used it. And I didn’t have the correct charger.
Christophe was too far away for me to communicate through our bond.
“Fuck!”
