Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
“As far as I’m concerned, Jack is a disgrace to other alphas,” Keane growled. “It’s about time for him to do something befitting his title. Like take care of those assholes before they left his territory.”
“But I wasn’t a member of his pack,” I reminded him, my heart warming over at how angry he was on my behalf. “And he warned me to get out of there before anything bad happened. If he hadn’t, they might've caught up to me there because I’d grown too comfortable.”
“You don’t owe him gratitude for that. It was the bare minimum of what he could’ve done.”
Keane crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head. “If someone manages to track you to my territory, you won’t be the one who needs to run. They will. Or else my grizzly will rip their throats out and leave their bodies for wild animals to feast upon.”
My eyes widened at his colorful description, but my mate nodded in approval and murmured, “Damn straight, except they’d have to get past my wolf first.”
“We don’t even know if they managed to follow me here,” I reminded them.
“It’s better to assume that they have.” Keane pulled out his cell phone and fired off a few messages. “I’ve put Leyton, Booker, and Artemis on high alert. And I let Rome know it’s best if he and Thora stay in Timber Ridge for now.”
I felt terrible about throwing everyone’s lives into an uproar. “I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Keane assured me. “This isn’t your fault. It’s the bastards who think they can snatch shifter females for whatever fucked-up reasons they’ve got in their sick heads.”
I felt bad that we hadn’t told him the truth about why someone might be hunting me, but unless Aaron and I joined his pack, my secret needed to stay between us. No matter how much we trusted the grizzly who was willing to kill for me.
“If they come for you, it’ll be the last thing they do,” Aaron vowed.
10
AARON
Three days passed without any trouble after that alpha called my Cressida. I was torn between hoping nobody showed up to try to get her and wanting them to come so I could destroy the threat to my mate. Once the people who thought they could use her healing talents were gone, my hope was that we’d be able to avoid anything like this happening again for the rest of our very long lives.
We still didn’t know if they were humans or shifters. Not until Artemis spotted four hyenas in the forest near his cave. They weren’t indigenous to the area…which meant they were shifters. And there was only one reason they would be sneaking around in the wilderness near our home instead of showing up at Keane’s door for permission to be in his territory. They were hunting my mate.
After sending a message to his alpha, the dragon shifter flew to his cabin. Cressida’s eyes widened as she watched his descent. “Holy crap!”
Since my mate turned into an even rarer and mythical creature, I hadn’t expected her to be so astonished by Artemis’s dragon. My wolf wasn’t happy about it, but he settled down when I reminded him about how we reacted when we first saw his animal form.
After he shifted back to human, Keane tossed Artemis a pair of shorts. “Not sure they’ve ever hunted as a pack before. Instead of staying in teams of two, they split off and are approaching separately.”
“Amateurs,” Keane scoffed, shaking his head.
“Good, it’ll make it easier for us to rip their throats out,” I growled, my wolf raking his claws against my skin in a demand to get out and hunt down those who sought to hurt our mate.
“I’m ready for action,” Leyton called as he jogged toward us.
“Perfect timing.” Keane pointed at Artemis, his brother, and me. “There are four of us, and four of them. So we’ll each take one down.”
“What about me?” Cressida asked.
As much as I didn’t want her anywhere near someone who wanted to take her from me, I also wanted to keep her close. To make sure nothing happened to her since I knew that I’d do whatever it took to ensure that my gorgeous mate remained safe. And I figured Keane would feel more comfortable if the target of the men who had invaded his territory didn’t remain near his pregnant mate and cub. “You’re coming with me.”
Relief shone from Keane’s eyes, but he still asked, “You sure?”
“Yeah, I don’t want my wolf’s attention divided while facing off against our enemy. Knowing they’re after Cressida, I don’t want her out of my sight,” I explained.
“It’s your call.” He turned his attention to Artemis. “With the routes they were taking, where are the best spots to intercept?”
The dragon shifter laid out a plan that worked for all of us, and then he shifted back to his animal form before taking to the air again. Leyton and Keane ran toward the trees before splitting off from each other to shift into their grizzlies. Then I turned to my mate and crushed my lips against hers. I needed her taste in my mouth as we went into battle.