He scaled a nearby tree, claws almost silent on the bark. No one ever looked up. From here, he could see the edge of the camp and some of the movement inside.
He didn’t know what kind of situation Karl had been forced into, but he was going to get him out. He just had to work out how.
KARL
The big shifter pushed open Cormack’s door. “Michael wants to see him.”
Karl wearily used the arms of the chair to lever himself to his feet. He hoped wherever they were taking him was warmer than here. He’d started shivering in the cold.
He was holding desperately to the hope that Leon had tracked him here, and then gone back to the ranch and reported to Matt. Because Matt needed to know about this place. He needed to keep the pack safe. And Leon… Leon didn’t belong in this. Not if it was going to end the way Karl was starting to think it would.
He followed Cormack to another cabin. An alpha stood in the center of the room, power and command practically rolling off him, and Karl dipped his head in carefully judged respect.
The alpha’s blue eyes were shrewd and assessing on Karl, lingering briefly on the death grip he had on the stick, the sweat at his temples, and the way he was listing slightly to one side.
“You can sit,” the alpha said. Not quite a command. Not quite kindness, either.
Karl hesitated. Everything in him was screaming not to put himself at a disadvantage, but his legs weren’t giving him a choice. He lowered himself carefully into the nearest chair.
“I’m Michael, alpha of this pack. Why were you so near our territory?”
Karl had barely gotten his ass down on the seat before the question was fired at him. “I was trying to find that pup’s pack. I didn’t know you were here.”
“Why did you have him in the first place?”
“I found him.” Karl bit down hard on his urge to demand what the hell kind of a pack would let a pup that young near a river on his own. He needed to keep this as amicable as the alpha would allow.
“Thank you.” It sounded sincere, but there was a remote expression in those eyes that were still cataloging him. No appeal to emotion would sway this shifter. He’d seen it before, in psychopaths and in people who’d seen too much. He had no idea which of those Michael was, but the outcome would be the same regardless.
“Where did you come from?” Michael’s gaze hadn’t moved from his face, as if he could discern any lie with the intensity of his regard.
“I’m from the Elk Ridge pack.” Karl reckoned he had nothing to lose by being honest. If only he could hold onto his thoughts, but his head was cloudy, words increasingly difficult to find.
“How did you end up so close to us?” Those blue eyes bored into Karl, as if he could wrest the answers directly from his brain. Good luck with that. Only thing he’d find right now was cotton wool.
“Tracking some hikers,” Karl said, his tongue thick and his lips somehow numb. “We only came this far upriver becauseof the pup.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed. “We?”
Shit.Karl forced his breathing steady. “My team. They peeled off a while back.” Let Michael think there were people who’d miss him, but who weren’t close enough to be hunted. He couldn’t risk them finding Leon.
He was sweating, and freezing at the same time. Had to focus. Had to protect Leon. Don’t say his name. Don’t even think it too loud. HehopedLeon had already gone back to Matt, was on his way to safety—but part of him knew better. Leon would be out there still, circling, looking for a way in, thinking six moves ahead. It was steadying, knowing Leon had his back, even now.
“They took the logging road,” he added. Hoping to distract Michael from his near-slip, he gestured in the vague direction of where he was talking about and was distantly alarmed by how loose and floppy his arm was. Might think he’d been drugged if not for the fact he hadn’t accepted Cormack’s offer of a drink.
“They’re gone,” he repeated, not sure if he’d said it before.
Michael didn’t move, but something about the air changed. “You look sick.”
“Hurt my leg.” Karl firmly closed his mouth because he hadn’t intended to say that, and who knew what else might come out if he didn’t stop it. He’d pushed through worse, he was sure of it. But this time, his body wasn’t listening.
He was aware of Michael moving, a door opening, and voices, but everything seemed suddenly very distant. He was burning up and ice cold at the same time and didn’t know how that was possible.
He blinked, just for an instant, and a woman was kneeling in front of him, cutting his sweats. He tried to object, but then she touched the dressing. Pain seared through him like fire, roaring up and out before everything went black.
Chapter Nineteen
LEON
