A dark brown wolf I knew well barreled past us and down the slope. A yell went up around us as Pack Council wolves burst from the trees, intent on attack.
“Wolfe?” Killian shouted, his eyes on the small skirmish beneath us.
“Go,” I told him and two others. “Help Cody and bring them home.”
Diesel gripped my arm.
“No,wewait. We’ve left lookout points empty. We leave,the whole Hollow is vulnerable.” I didn’t know what was worse: knowing my grief had allowed my packlands to become vulnerable or watching the shifters struggle below us. And then Killian and two others were there, ripping violence into the attackers with deadly accuracy.
The smaller of the shifters ran towards us, and soon they were all over the barrier.
Lake shifted and threw himself at me. I caught him and held him close as he clung to me. Cody shifted back into human form, Thalia shifting and collapsing into his arms as she sobbed.
“Tariq?” Jaxson asked, and the larger gray wolf shifted into his beta. “Are you hurt?” His eyes scanned his beta.
“No,” the older male said gruffly. “Fucking exhausted, but not hurt.”
Diesel helped Adair to her feet. His fingers were running down the scar on her face, which ran down her neck. “What happened?” he demanded.
“He betrayed us,” Thalia spat out, pushing Cody away. Her blonde hair was matted, her skin dull with exhaustion. “He betrayed us all.” She limped over to Adair. “She was left to die; the shift didn’t heal it,” she said softly, keeping the other woman close.
“Not dead though,” Adair murmured. Her voice was raspy from the damage. Her eyes filled with tears, and I looked around, seeing so many similar looks from my pack. “Not like some.”
Thalia was crying again. “He killed them, Alpha,” she sobbed. “He killed them both.”
I nodded. “I know.” I’d never felt so helpless. I held Lake closer. I wanted to hold all of them closer.
Rowen came running down the path, and Adair pushed off Diesel and ran to her. They collided, holding on tight, sobs wracking her body.
“How did he get in?” Thalia demanded.
I sighed, placing Lake down, despite his cry of protest. “I don’t know,” I told them truthfully. “I don’t know how Axel betrayed us all.”
Chapter 28
Wolfe
“But we’ll find out,”Diesel growled, eyes on Adair, who still held onto Rowen.
“And then we’ll kill him,” I promised them.
Thalia sighed, her head dropping onto Cody’s shoulder. “The pack…” She looked over at Darla. “Everything broke when they died.”
Diesel walked closer to her. “Tell me.”
She didn’t even blink. “It cracked, right down the middle.”
Darla moved forward. “The land split open, swallowed everything, would have taken us too, but something…” She stopped, shaking her head in remembrance.
“It felt like something shoved us,” Thalia said, her voice low.
“Shoved us into moving,” Darla agreed. “And once we started running…”
Thalia looked at me. “We didn’t intend to stop.” She looked over at Adair, who was watching us now. “But…we found them between here and Stonefang. On the pocket of land that separates territories.”
“Neutral ground,”Diesel rumbled.
Thalia smiled tentatively at Tariq. “Grandmother taught me enough when I was younger to give energy to those who needed it most. Channel it into another to help them.”
