I spun around, my eyes finally landing on the man responsible for the sudden commotion.
Yards away, Silas stood on a fire escape, leaning against the building’s dilapidated wall. He was throwing a pebble into the air and catching it with a calmness that froze the blood in my veins.
This alpha of alphas. The leader of the rogues. The werewolf I wished would suffer an agonizing death by my hands… saved my life?
Silas caught the pebble he’d thrown in the air again in one hand, giving a lackluster salute to the werewolf behind me with the other.
My hands trembled as an ache bloomed in the back of my throat.
“Marcus…” I whispered, glancing at the hunters in Silas’s trap… at the humansI’ddisarmed and debilitated. “What the hell did you do?”
Chapter Eighteen
Marcus
Ididn’t think I’d see the day when I heard unease in Joanna’s voice and didn’t have the urge to shift. An urge to let my wolf tear apart the ones responsible and leave them a bloody mess on the floor.
When she first cried out, Joanna’s fear swelled like a sudden gust of wind. She wasn’t trying to draw attention to herself or the bastard pressing a knife to her stomach; I felt it—she was only afraid for our child.
In that instant, the two hunters in front of me who wanted me dead meant nothing. All that mattered was how good one bastard’s fear would taste when I tore out his throat.
And when Joanna blew on my burning palms after I freed her from the chain, it caught me off guard; I thought I’d lost the right to even a shred of her sympathy. But as my heart fluttered from the jolt of her cool breath, I grew furious withmyself. Because this time, I was the one who’d caused her grief.Ihad made her worry about me.
But when Joanna located Silas and her hands shook, I didn’t move. When her voice cracked with fear as she begged me for an explanation… my wolf barely looked up from nursing our wounds.
Silas had saved her when I couldn’t, and for that I’d be forever grateful.
“Marcus,” Joanna repeated, finally turning to see the indifference in my gaze. Her mouth dropped open, and she released my hands, taking a few steps away from me. “Hunters!” she called over her shoulders. “Carry the injured inside the building, now!”
“Inside?” a human cried.
“Are you insane?” another added.
Silas disappeared into the faraway building with a smile.
When Joanna’s body tensed, I knew she realized the man on his heels was Chris, one of the alpha’s from the party; that she’d sensed the aura of the brunette woman who was following behind him and knew she too was an alpha.
Lamar also retreated from where he sat watching on the roof of a vacant building, with three lesser werewolves beside him in human form.
Three alphas, a beta, three common shifters… And Latoya. If the hunters fought, there’d be no way they’d make it out unscathed.
“There are tunnels that will lead you out of the compound,” Joanna yelled, “but you have to leave now!” A chorus of protests followed.
“You’re trying to get us killed!”
“It’s a trap!”
“Fix the guns! Please!”
The voices of dissent became more crazed as I sensed the rogues draw closer. Joanna’s head dropped in shame. I don’t know what she did to stop the guns from firing, but she didn’t have the strength to undo it… Perhaps the rejection had stolen a piece of her, too.
Only seconds had passed when her chest rose with a deep inhale. She straightened and lifted her chin. “The Blackwood Pack will not harm you,” she declared, “because as their alpha’s fated mate, I am ordering them to stand down.”
Her words echoed in my ears. My wolf jumped up, my pulse raced. The gasps and whispers of disbelief from both of our kin faded into the background. I stared at Joanna as if she were a tall glass of water in the desert, but I couldn’t utter a single word in response.
Alpha,Grace called through the wolf bond.Is she really your—
I dipped my head.
