“How many?”
“At least a dozen that we found. Could be more hidden better. They were expecting someone to come rescue the Alpha.”
I thought about that for a second. They had set up defenses, knew we’d try a rescue eventually. Made sense. But they hadn’t expected us this fast. They hadn’t expected Knox to be wearing a tracker that would lead us right to their front door.
Thank god for Knox and his paranoid gift ideas. All that worrying about keeping me safe had ended up saving him too.
“Can we get rid of the traps?” I asked.
The scout nodded. “It’ll take time, but yeah. We’ve got people who know how to deal with this stuff.”
I signaled for everyone to wait. Nobody moved forward until those traps were dealt with. The last thing we needed was to lose wolves to explosives before we even got to the house.
Cole got a small group together, wolves who had military experience or knew about demolitions. They moved forward carefully, disappearing into the trees. Every now and then someone would signal back, letting us know they’d found another trap and were working on it.
I kept watching the house through the binoculars, hoping nobody inside noticed what was happening outside. Hopingthe wind wouldn’t change direction and carry our scent toward them. Hoping we had enough time to do this right.
Movement near the garage caught my eye.
I looked at the smaller building, at a dirty window high up on the wall. Something moved behind the glass. Then a hand pressed against the window for just a second before pulling away.
Was that Knox? Did he know we were here? Was he trying to signal us?
My heart jumped into my throat. That was him. It had to be him.
Hold on, I thought, sending the words through the bond as hard as I could. Just a little longer. I’m almost there.
We were so focused on the buildings and the people inside that we completely missed the danger coming from behind us.
The first warning was a low growl from somewhere in the trees at our backs. A sound that made every hair on my body stand up.
Then all hell broke loose.
At least a dozen rogues came at us from the forest.
They appeared out of nowhere, huge wolves with matted, dirty fur and yellow teeth. Their eyes were wild and hungry, nothing human left in them. They must have smelled us moving through their territory. Must have been following us, gathering their numbers while we sat here like idiots watching the house.
To them, we were just fresh meat. Trespassers in their domain.
The first rogue slammed into our group before anyone could react. One of our wolves went down with a yelp, teeth snapping at his throat. Then everything exploded into chaos.
I stumbled backward, reaching for the taser at my belt. Our neat formation fell apart as wolves crashed into each other, ours and theirs mixing together in a mess of fur and claws and teeth. Cole grabbed my arm and yanked me behind a thick tree, shoving himself between me and the fight.
“Stay down!” he yelled, then shifted and threw himself at a rogue that was trying to get around the tree toward me.
The clearing turned into a battlefield.
I pressed my back against the tree, heart pounding so hard I could barely breathe. Wolves were fighting everywhere around me. Snarling, biting, clawing at each other. Blood splattered across the ground, dark in the moonlight. Bodies crashed through bushes, snapping branches. The whole place smelled like blood.
Our wolves were doing well. They were trained and working together, which gave them an edge over the wild rogues who fought alone. But the attackers had more bodies and fought like they had nothing to lose. Like this was their last meal and they were starving.
I saw Noah take down a rogue with his claws, slashing across its throat. Ryder was fighting nearby in wolf form, his jaws locked on a rogue’s leg while Sawyer went for the kill. Moonfang and Ravenshollow wolves fought side by side, just like I’d told them to.
But we were losing people too.
One of our wolves got surrounded by two rogues at once. Another went down with deep cuts across his side, struggling to get back up. This wasn’t a clean victory. It was ugly and brutal and people were getting hurt.
Then I noticed something else.
