“Novak,” Ronin addresses Drake. “I’ll share the intel my pack has gathered if you allow me to leave herewithmy female.”
“What intel could you possibly have? You’re from a dead pack.”
“Enough of us survived the WSSO attack. After we burned our dead, we sent scouts out to search for missing shifters, like Angelina. We thought she was lost to us, but eventually we heard rumors of a shifter matching her description luring lone wolves for the WSSO. Recently, we learned of a breech and escape from the facility where she was held. Since then, the number of shifters disappearing declined. We figured she was the one who escaped. The trail led south, to southwest Colorado.”
“Wait….” Angel holds up both hands as she shakes her head. “When precisely did you find out where I was?”
“Our scouts located you six weeks after the raid on our pack.”
“Tenmonths? You’ve known for over ten months where I was… and you never tried to rescue me?”
“The facility was too secure. We couldn’t risk losing more shifters.”
“Couldn’t risk losing more…” Angel’s voice falls off. As her eyes find me. I want to hold her, but she’s shaking her head, backing away from everyone, looking as lost as when I first found her.
Her gaze drifts from me to Ronin. “Did you at leasttry?”
“No.”
“You didn’t even try. Not once. I meant nothing to you, to the pack?—”
“The risk was deemed too great.”
“How about asking another pack for help? One with perhaps larger numbers or fighting skills?”
“And give away our new location?” He shakes his head. “We decided?—”
“We… then this wasn’t a unilateral decision Declan made.”
“Declan?” Drake asks.
“His older brother, and new alpha of my birth pack. No real drive, no ambition?—”
“Enough!” Ronin snaps at me. “You will not talk about our alpha that way.”
Angel advances on him, muscles fluttering beneath her skin as if she’s barely keeping her wolf from breaking free and gutting the male. “He’s not my alpha, not if he left me with the enemy to rot. He didn’t even have the guts totryto rescue me.” She glares at him. “And neither did you.”
“Lina, you have to understand?—”
“I don’t have to do anything, least of all for you and Declan.” Without another word, Angel starts walking into the woods. Alone.
“I didn’t dismiss you, female,” Drake says, a growl riding his words.
She spins on her heels. “My apologies for trespassing into your territory, Alpha, but it was a life-or-death situation. I owe you a favor—something reasonable—but like I just told my formerpackmate, no one owns me. I’m a lone wolf, and you’re not handing me over to him or anyone else.”
“Shit,” I say as Angel shifts and takes off. She’s declared herself a lone wolf, which means she doesn’t recognize the authority of any pack over her, and likewise isn’t entitled to the protection of any pack. And she’s heading east, not north towards Black territory. “Hayden?”
“Go, Garrett. Watch over her. I’ll take care of things here. Make sure this asshole doesn’t follow her.”
I shift and spring into the woods, hearing Drake arguing with Hayden, but Hayden’s voice remaining calm and in control. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I catch up to Angel, but I can’t let her leave here unprotected, not even if she’s trying to leave me behind with everything else she’s running from.
After tracking her for several miles, I howl once, hoping she’ll stop or slow down and wait for me to catch up. With my wolf’s size, I can easily catch up and overtake her, but she hasn’t given me any sign she wants me near. I have to approach by invite only, or I risk alienating her completely.
Another howl, and still, she doesn’t answer. Finally, I shift. “Please, Angel,” I call out to her. I can’t see her but I’m close enough she can hear me. “Let me help you.”
“Go away, Garrett. I don’t want to talk to anyone. Including you.”
“Then don’t. But you’re wounded.”
