“You should have been a standup comedienne,” Dakota said coldly. “Where is Jamie Roberts now?”
“Six feet under. Where you’ll be soon.”
Tina came to a curve in the road and stopped.
“Ludwik’s going to marry me,” she bragged. “All I had to do was promise to deliver you to him. I’ll finally be with the kind of man I deserve. An Alpha Prime.”
Dakota scrambled out of the car. Tina and Maureen climbed out too.
“When did you even meet him?” Dakota asked, stalling for time, trying to figure out what to do next.
“When you called your dad yesterday, I found out about it and called Ludwik. We had a nice little chat. Your dad flew me out here with the rest of the pack; he didn’t know I’d be the death of you. And now I’m going to be an Alpha Prime’s mate.”
“He’s hideous, did you know that?” Dakota’s stomach lurched at the thought of anyone being with Ludwik.
“You stupid bitch. Who cares?” Tina shrieked. “I’ll be rich! And powerful! I’ll hunt down everybody who ever made fun of me for having holes in my clothes, and my mate will tear their throats out while I watch!” Tina’s eyes gleamed with madness. Maureen grinned, a hideous rictus, and nodded eagerly. Tina truly was her mother’s daughter.
Dakota could smell dozens of shifters, and they were closing in on them fast, racing through the trees. Her heart hammered in her chest. She would shift and fight to the death. She wouldn’t run; she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
“After all these years,” Maureen said, her tone gloating. “After everything we’ve sacrificed. Your daddy’s going to be sorry he didn’t marry me when he had the chance, because we’re going to make him watch you die before we kill him.”
“My father, marry you? Why the hell would he ever have married you?” Dakota stared at Maureen in bewilderment.
“Because I got your mother out of the way with that ‘car accident’.” Maureen made air quotes as she said it. “And then I let him know I was available to him. And he turned me down, again and again, because he was soooo sad his bitch wife was dead, even though I’m a million times prettier than that fat whore ever was.”
Rage descended over Dakota in a red haze. She lunged through the air, shifting, and slammed into Maureen, who’d already gone wolf. Before she could tear Maureen’s throat out, her head exploded with pain.
Ludwik was there.
She felt as if a bomb had gone off in her head as she fell over and lost consciousness.
* * * * *
Anders paced next to Miles, keeping a wary eye on his Alpha Prime.
Miles was wild with rage. One of the shifters from the east had just abandoned his own pack and come to deliver the news – Jamie, or whatever her real name was, had been taken from him. Ludwik had her.
Anders was afraid that the news had sent Miles over the edge. Normally Miles would be making plans, rallying the troops, telling them where to go and what to do, but now he was half hairy, fangs descended, and growling incoherently. This was not good. They needed their leader to be clear-headed.
The downtown area was swarming with shifters now, ready to move on the eastern territory.
“The newcomers,” Baldwin was saying urgently. “Their Alpha Prime needs to talk to you.”
“My mate,” Miles growled, swatting at him impatiently. “We need to get to her, now.” Miles seemed incapable of listening to reason.
Baldwin and Anders exchanged glances of alarm.
Baldwin put his hand on Miles’ arm. “Sir, the Alpha Prime who just arrived really —”
Miles exploded with rage, shoving Baldwin so hard that he slammed into a wall. Other shifters around them looked at Miles in shock.
Anders struggled not to panic. They were on the verge of losing Miles – and if they lost him, they lost everything. The other shifters wouldn’t follow a crazed feral into battle – they needed a leader they could trust.
“Hey!” An enormous, burly Alpha Prime barreled through the crowd and stepped right in front of Miles. “You know where my daughter is. Dakota. You’re her mate?”
“We need to get her now!” Miles tried to push past the Alpha Prime, who grabbed him.
Miles spun around to face him and sent out a wave of rage that knocked everyone close to him to their knees, and Anders’ heart sank. They were surely doomed.
