He reached the safety of the thick forest and shifted, raw power, enhanced by rage and fear, shimmering around him. At his back, Michael and Danielo shifted too, and their pack connection burnt brighter.
Zio reached out, urgency lacing his command like never before:Faster. Before it’s too late.
Danielo:What about the guns?
Zio:They won’t shoot anyone in human form; can’t be sure we’re shifters. As wolves we’re safe in the forest.
It was the only reassurance he could offer his brothers, but they didn’t question it, their faith in him absolute, and their desperation to get home as strong as his.
With every wolf who’d followed them from the border camp at their backs, they fanned out and raced through the trees, enemy scents thickening with every stride, assaulting Zio’s senses. In the back of his mind, the trauma of being separated from Devan burnt ever-bright. But for the first time in days, something burnt brighter, and he latched onto the fury building inside him, used it to push on as the sound of fighting reached him, laced with blood and smoke.
The eastern boundary loomed ahead. Zio burst out of the trees, and the scene that greeted him almost drove him to his knees. Fire. So much fire. From the meeting hall, to the barracks, and even Varian’s house, the entire compound had been razed to the ground.
Shock hit Zio like a truck, but the impact was lost in the swelling rage. Through the smoke and chaos, he caught sight of the bungalow he’d shared with Emma for his entire adult life until her death, and her face was suddenly all he could see. Anger had been Zio’s constant companion from the moment she’d died in his arms, but it had lessened in recent weeks, overwhelmed by Zio’s every thought and emotion revolving around Devan.
But Devan wasn’t there, and without his scent to calm Zio’s wolf, the craving for vengeance returned full force.
Zio skidded to a stop on the brow of Varian’s garden. He tipped his head back and howled, his call to his pack brothers and sisters clear:This ends here.
Danielo split their forces and disappeared. Moments later, Zio’s paws were wet, soaked by the water pipes Danielo had ruptured with his gift.Yes.Zio howled again, jerked his head forwards, and leapt into the fray.
Enemy wolves were everywhere, dozens of them. Hundreds. The more Zio killed, the more seemed to appear. Northern wolves fell, each death a lance through Zio’s heart he’d never forget. Somewhere behind him, Michael’s pained howl ripped through the air. Zio whirled around, but an enemy wolf leapt at him before he could locate his wounded brother.
Fur and blood filled Zio’s mouth as he grappled with the larger wolf. Zio was fast, but his assailant was heavy and strong, and his teeth tore into Zio’s flank.
Zio yelped, distracted by the fiery pain, and it was the opening the enemy wolf needed. He threw Zio down, knocking the breath from his lungs, and bared his teeth.
Saliva dripped from blood-stained fangs onto Zio’s face. The stench of hatred left him dizzy, laced with the acrid scent of his own fear. He struggled beneath the weight of the huge wolf paw holding him down. The gash in his side opened up, exposing bone, and an agonised whine escaped him.
Buoyed by the herbal pills Devan had prescribed, Zio’s body fought to heal itself as he battled to escape. More blood. More pain. Zio raked his claws down the enemy wolf’s chest, twisting and scraping, inflicting as much damage as possible. The wolf cried out. For an instant, Zio surged, and the ground shook beneath him, but the size difference between them was too great, and he found himself on his back again, throat exposed, ready for certain death.
Caught in a vortex of fear and acceptance, he stopped struggling, gaze snared on the fangs baring down on him. The enemy wolf dipped his head to end Zio. He braced himself for searing pain, for the lifeblood to be torn from him and spat on the ground, but the final, finishing bite never came. A brindle wolf crashed into them from the side. The huge paw constricting Zio’s chest disappeared, and sounds of a fierce fight reached him as he gasped in air. But it was over in a flash, and then Michael stood over him, panting, bleeding, eyes wide with concern.
Michael:You good?
Dazed, Zio rolled over and sprang to his feet, nosing Michael’s wounds as his own knitted together.You need Devan.
Michael:He’s not here.
Of course he wasn’t. Zio had made sure of that, commandeering every vehicle to race his forces back north before Devan had returned to camp from his phone call, an action he bitterly regretted as Michael limped towards him. In a split second, he’d had to decide their course. He’d put the need to protect his potential mate above the lives of his brothers. Of hispack. And now they were outnumbered without their healer, and dozens of them were already dead.
“Zio.” Hands shook Zio’s shoulders—human hands.
Zio blinked, and Michael stood before him, battered and bruised. Zio nudged him with his nose.Change back. It’s not safe.He punctuated the command Michael couldn’t hear with a low whine.
Michael shook Zio again. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop. We don’t have time. If we can’t win this fight, we need to retreat.”
No.
“Yes.” Michael knew Zio well enough to counter his wordless protest. “I don’t smell Varian anywhere. He’s either dead, or they took him away. Gale too. We’re outnumbered, brother. We’re not getting out of this unless we fall back.”
Varian. In Zio’s haste to enter the fray, he’d barely stopped to consider their alpha, but Michael was right. Zio scented the air. There was no fresh trace of Varian or Gale’s unit anywhere.Where are they?
Michael shot a nervous glance over his shoulder. “I don’t know where they are. But we need to regroup to find out. Fighting blind is just going to get us all killed.”
He was right, like he always was, but in the five seconds Zio had wasted forcing Michael to ram the truth down his throat, the scene in Varian’s garden had changed. Ten enemy wolves had become twenty... thirty, to Zio’s nine, and new fires burnt.
They were surrounded.
