I shook my head as the realization settled around me. “We killed everyone.” Rufus talked about the pack I got revenge on for kidnapping my father and murdering my mother.
“Not everyone. I was there, hiding deep in the woods. I ran away once the attack started, but I could see your murderous pack.”
“So you dishonored your pack by running away and hiding while they fought.” It was my turn to taunt him. “Now you’re pissed with me for avenging my parents, unlike you, who was too much of a coward?”
“No!” Rufus screamed, putting the gun to my temple. “You’re the coward. You fight with your might. I use my brain. We both do, don’t we, Christophe?”
I looked to the betrayer I had once called my brother. “Is he right, Christophe?” I asked through gritted teeth. “How could you betray us for this loathsome bastard?”
He just stood there, holding his shoulder with his other hand. I spotted a few trickles of blood spilling out onto his hand.
“That’s enough talking,” Rufus said when my brother didn’t say anything. He nudged me with the gun, pushing me forward. “Since you chose your mate, you get to watch your pack die in front of you.”
I walked past Christophe, growling at him. “I swear, brother, on the name of Nightwolf, I will have your head for this.”
He turned away from me. Rufus pushed me inside the meeting room. It was empty.
“Chael,” Reese called from up on the balcony.
I roared when I saw her bound to that fucking wall. “I’m going to snap your neck,” I told Rufus.
He cocked back and smashed the butt of the gun into the side of my head. I stumbled, my vision blurring, while a ringing started in my ears. I forced myself not to pass out. Reese needed me, and I couldn’t help her if I was unconscious.
“I always wanted to do that,” Rufus snickered. “Save your threats. You’re not getting out of here alive. Christophe, turn on the screen,” he demanded.
A second later, the screen at the front of the room flashed on. An aerial shot of my commune came into view. Droves of my pack walked down the street and poured into the open field where we held the Supermoon Ceremony.
“A strategically placed drone is watching all of your pack filing out to their deaths,” Rufus mocked. “Thanks to a text sent to all of their phones from your brother. He made it look like it came from your phone, telling them to gather at the field. Oh, and here comes the deaf one,” Rufus cackled.
My stomach clenched at the sight of Chance turning onto the main road of the commune.
“It’ll only be a few more seconds now. You know,” Rufus started, “I’m glad you chose your mate over them. Now you can know the pain I felt when I watched the rest of my pack die in front of me. You deserve that kind of misery before I have your brother wipe all of the security footage, except for the part where you came charging in here.
“We’ll leave the rest of the council evidence that you broke in here with the intent to steal from and then destroy the Alliance. With all of your defiance up until this point, it’ll be easy to make them believe you wanted to put an end to them. And then, I’ll explain how I was working and was able to stop you and your mate from stealing essential records with the gun Lupine keeps in his office. It’s brilliant. They’ll all believe me. All it takes is a reminder here and there of the damage done by your pack for generations. And at that time, as we toast to getting rid of the Nightwolf pack, finally, every council member will drink to your demise. With the wine I laced with the same concoction I put in that dirty bomb.”
He laughed maniacally.
“Then I will rule it all.”
“No pack will ever listen to you without the Alliance behind you,” I told him.
“Oh.” He clucked his tongue. “That is true. But since the Alliance loves to hide behind these walls, no one will know it’s just me running the show. Not for a long time. And by then, I will have completed the potion that Pines and I started on so many years ago. I will figure out how to strip shifters of their abilities so that none of them ever exist again.”
He sounded so fucking delusional and sure of himself. While he spoke, I eyed the room, noticing that Christophe was out of my sight.
My heart thundered in my chest as I watched the screen. Chance parked directly in front of the pathway that led to the field. He started waving his hands.
“What’s he doing?”
A small, triumphant smile touched my lips. “Saving them.”
“How?” Rufus demanded. “How did he know?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’ll all be over in seconds.”
He peered down at his watch and started to count down from ten. I held my breath as I watched my brother, my beta, direct the pack away from the field. It looked like he was directing them to get into their cars and follow him.
“Ten,” Rufus said.
My heart pounded against my rib cage. I waited to see what would happen.
