Fane motioned with his hand, indicating he wanted them to retreat farther into the woods. “Subdue them quickly and quietly. We don’t need them alerting the others that we’re here.” He glanced at his pack. “This time, Decebel, leave one of the B-Squad alive.”
Wadim chuckled. “Instead of the A-Team, we have the B-Squad. Nice one, Alpha.”
“Who is the A-Team?” Sorin looked confused.
“Holy troll babies, you guys have got to watch more television,” Adam said, his voice low. “And FYI, if we were the A-Team, I’d be Face.
“Not to be redundant, but who cares? Shut up already,” Decebel hissed.
They each hid behind large tree trunks until the three fae walked past. Fane nodded, and Decebel, Costin, and Drake stepped out like phantoms behind the fae. Lucian remained beside him, like a silent sentry. Without so much as a grunt, the wolves wrapped their arms around the faes’ necks in a chokehold. The fae instinctively reached up and pulled at the strong arms squeezing their throats. Before any of the fae realized to use magic on their attackers, Adam cast a spell to bind their hands. Apart from a muffled gurgle, the fae couldn’t make a sound.
“Should we just keep all of them?” Decebel said through gritted teeth.
Adam hurried over and placed a hand on two of them, spoke in the fae language, and then touched the last one and did the same. “They can’t flash now,” he explained.
“Good call,” Fane said. “And, yes, Dec, let’s just take all of them. We might have a better chance at getting some useful information. Three stool pigeons are better than one.”
Adam flashed the group back to the sprite realm, straight into the lowest level of the stronghold, where the sprites’ dungeon was located. They put each fae in their own cell and then stepped back.
“Your magic is useless in there,” Adam told them. “But by all means, wear yourselves out trying to get free. It will make it easier on us when we come to torture you.” Then he looked at Fane. “We are going to get to torture them, right?”
“Better do it before Jen finds out they’re down here,” Costin said. “When she realizes they’re here, the blades will come out. And she won’t put them away until their heads are separated from their bodies.”
Fane looked over at Decebel, who held up a hand. “I’ve locked it down.” He pointed to his head, indicating his mate-bond with Jennifer was closed.
“Dude, if she was pissed before, she’ll be ready to skin you alive.” Adam grinned, and his eyes danced with glee.
Fane ignored their banter and looked back at the three captured males. “You can make this really easy or really hard. Give us the information we want, and we’ll simply wipe your memories and let you go. Refrain from sharing that information, and things will be much less pleasant.”
One of the males stepped forward. He had deep blue eyes, shoulder-length black hair, and he was at least six-and-a-half feet tall. He was thin like most fae, his features too pretty to be human. “Do you honestly think we fear death?”
Fane shook his head. “Of course not, but it’s not death you should fear.”
“Oh?” the male said, his brow rising. “And what’s worse than that?”
“Our women,” Drake answered.
The three fae males laughed. “You expect us to be afraid of your females? Are you so weak that you need your women to fight your battles for you?”
Adam busted out into his own raucous round of laughter, which caused the wolves to grin.
Fane noted the confusion on their prisoners’ faces. His own lips turned up slightly. “We don’t hide behind our mates.” His wolf rose to the surface. “But they are a bit more bloodthirsty than we are. Occasionally, we like to indulge them.”
Decebel nodded. “Makes them easier to live with.”
“That’s the truth,” Costin agreed. “Even Sally likes a good bloodbath now and again.”
They all laughed at this, as Sally was the least likely to cause any bloodshed. But everyone knew if someone she loved was in danger, all bets were off.
Lucian cleared his throat. “Did I not mention that Perizada ismyfemale?”
At this news, the three prisoner’s faces paled. Even though they might not know she still lived, apparently in death she still struck terror into her enemies.
“Let’s give them time to think about it,” Fane said. “We can check on them later. If they’re still not willing to talk, we’ll let the girls have some fun. It might make them forgive us for earlier.”
“Oh, yes!” Adam put a fist in the air. “Crina nearly bit me this morning when we had our little talk about attacking Alston’s stronghold. I was worried I’d be sleeping outside again. But this”—he pointed at the prisoners—”will totally get me out of the doghouse.”
Fane shook his head as he marched out of the dungeon.“Where are you, Luna?”Fane reached out to his mate.
