“The timeline’s moved up.” The words are like ice water in my veins. “Intel’s confirmed. You and your pack are wheels up at 0600 tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” The word is a strangled gasp. A corrosive combination of fear and panic lashes tightly around my chest and squeezes. “No. That’s not enough time. We have preparations. We?—”
“There are no preparations, Ridge. This is an order.”
From the way he says it, I know the order came from the very top.
The queen.
“I’ll deal with the classes. Don’t worry about that. We don't need to debrief on what you’ve covered. I’ll muddle through.” He pauses for a second, awkwardly, as if he expects me to respond when he just struck me across the face with a baseball bat’s worth of bad news.
When I don’t answer, he spins on his heel and scurries off.
I stay frozen, the silence roaring in my head.
Tomorrow. We’re leaving tomorrow.
That means we have to leaveher. We have to leave Brylee. I knew it was coming—I fuckingknew it—but I thought we’d have more time.
But no. Time isn’t a luxury that alphas in our position are allowed to have.
Tomorrow.
The thought hits me like a physical force, stealing the air from my lungs. A cold, hollow ache spreads through my chest, a void where my heart used to be.
“What’s wrong?”
Kylian’s voice is a whisper right behind me. I didn’t even hear him approach. Didn’t know he knew my schedule. I turn, and his eyes, usually alight with manic glee, are narrowed with concern. Or what passes for concern from Kylian.
I can’t lie to him. Not to my pack.
“We’re leaving,” I say, the words tasting like ash. “In the morning.”
Kylian is silent for a long moment, the air thick with unspoken understanding. He looks back toward the dark castle haloed in moonlight, then back at me. A slow, wicked grin spreads across his face, sharp and dangerous. It’s the look he gets right before blood starts to fly. Usually by his hands.
“Well, then.” He rubs his hands together, his manic grin growing. “Why don’t you come help me with the little project I’ve been working on. Before we go make the world safe for everyone else…let’s make sure it’s safe forher.”
The apartment complex is a shithole,the kind of place where dreams go to die.
It’s perfect.
Kylian and I perch across the street, our shadows swallowed by the deeper darkness of an alley. We stare at the stucco building that’s overgrown with ivy and watch a man exit his car.
Our targets for tonight are handsome alphas who are so full of easy confidence and swagger that they make my hands itch to grab a blade.
The man lets himself into the building, and we move. We flow through the night, two predators on a hunt. Kylian is vibrating with barely contained energy, a giddy anticipation of the violence to come.
We follow the alpha’s scent to a third-floor apartment. The lock is a joke; Kylian has it open with a quiet click of his tools, and we slip inside.
The living room is dimly lit, and the air is thick with the scent of beer and arrogance. And then I see them in the dull blue light cast by the video game on the TV. Two more alphas, identical to the first, sitting on a ratty couch.
Triplets.
Brylee’s ex-lovers.
The ones who betrayed her, who left her broken.
And our victims for tonight.
