Ryder checked the screen. “About forty minutes at this speed. Then we go on foot.”
Forty minutes. Forever and no time at all.
I settled back in my seat and kept watching the trees blur past outside. Counting the seconds until I could hold my family again.
The trucks stopped about two miles from where Knox was being held. We pulled off the road into a thick group of trees where the vehicles wouldn’t be seen easily. Noah turned off the engine and everything went quiet. Just the tick of the cooling engine and wind rustling through leaves.
Everyone got out without making much noise. Doors clicked shut instead of slamming. Gear got checked one last time. The wolves who were going to shift took off their clothes and left them folded in the trucks.
Then they shifted.
I’d seen it plenty of times by now, the way their bodies changed. Bones cracking and reshaping, fur spreading across skin. It happened fast, just a few seconds, and then I was surrounded by massive wolves with eyes that glowed in the moonlight.
It was still kind of amazing, honestly. Even after everything, even knowing what we were about to walk into, part of me was in awe of what these people could do.
Cole and Noah stayed human, one on each side of me. Their claws were out, long and sharp and ready. They were my guards tonight, my protection if things went bad.
We started moving through the forest.
The ground was rough out here. No paths, no trails, nothing to make walking easy. Just trees and bushes and rocks everywhere,trying to trip me with every step. This was rogue territory, land that no pack had claimed, wild and forgotten.
I pushed forward anyway, ignoring how much my legs were starting to burn. The vest was heavy. My feet kept catching on roots and stones. Every few minutes I’d stumble and have to catch myself on a tree trunk.
The wolves moved around me like it was nothing, like they were floating while I crashed through the underbrush like a drunk elephant. I felt clumsy and loud compared to them. But I kept up. I wasn’t going to be the reason we slowed down.
The bond in my chest got stronger with every step. Knox was close. Really close now.
We came over a small hill and stopped.
There it was.
A big cabin sat in a clearing below us, surrounded by thick woods on all sides. It looked nicer than I expected, more like a vacation rental than a bad guy’s hideout. Nice porch that wrapped around the whole thing. Big windows with light spilling out into the darkness. Someone had put money into this place.
But what caught my attention was the smaller building off to the side. A garage or shed, maybe fifty feet from the main house, looking a lot less fancy. According to Ryder’s phone, that’s where the blue dot was.
That’s where Knox was.
My breath caught in my throat. He was right there. So close I could almost feel him.
The team spread out around the property, moving into position without making a sound. I crouched behind some trees with Cole, and he handed me a pair of binoculars.
I looked at the cabin through the lenses, adjusting the focus until everything went sharp.
Someone was moving inside, pacing back and forth by a window. A woman, waving her arms around, clearly in the middle of an argument. Mary. It had to be. Even from here I could see how pissed off she looked, gesturing wildly at someone I couldn’t see.
Another figure walked past a different window. Lucio. I recognized how he moved, that confident swagger that made me want to punch him in the face. He looked upset too, his movements jerky and agitated.
But I didn’t see Mira anywhere.
I lowered the binoculars, my stomach tightening. Where was she? Inside somewhere I couldn’t see? Out in the woods watching for intruders? Waiting to ambush us?
Not knowing where she was made my skin crawl. She was the wild card in all this.
A wolf came back from scouting ahead, shifting to human form to whisper to Cole. He was one of our guys, young but experienced, and he looked worried.
“Tripwires,” he reported quietly. “All around the place. Not just alarms. Explosives. Traps set up to hurt anyone who gets close.”
My blood went cold.
