Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“You are not to blame if something happens to them. I know you’ll do your best to bring them home alive if they’re not already dead.” She choked on the latter word.
Swallowing, he touched his forehead to hers. “I’ll see you soon.”
Watching several shifters file out of the house in the cul-de-sac, Sebastian Vercetti smiled from his position in the woods at the rear of it.
“You were right, Seb,” said his brother Davide beside him. “She told the others.”
“I knew she would.” Feeling his upper lip curl, Sebastian rasped a hand over his buzzcut. “You can always count on a submissive to turn to dominants when panicked. They can’t handle shit themselves.”
Their mother had been the same—a weak, spineless damsel. One who’d cowered from her father, even when the bastard was beating or caning her own sons.
On his left, Wattie noted, “A lot of them are leaving. Why that many?”
Sebastian spared the dark, burly hyena shifter a quick look. “They probably plan to surround the train station and catch us in action.” And they’d fail, because there would be none of the pack there for them to find. Just imagining the bastards scratching their heads and chasing their tails made him smirk.
That smirk widened at the sight of the black-foot waving them off from the porch. “There, Hale’s left her behind.” It had been a given that he would, since a submissive would be no good in a fight. She would be too scared to go along in any case. Probably begged Hale to leave her at home.
The only reason Sebastian and his pack had had trouble with this particular submissive was that she was a black-foot. Running one to the ground had its … challenges. That was why they’d shot her sister and the other female with tranquilizers before dragging them from their car.
The pack had originally thought of capturing Hale’s black-foot the same way, but none of them could ever get close enough to her for that—the pride’s security was too tight, and Hale acted as her guard at all times.
Sebastian had known that if they could somehow draw away several of the strongest members of the pride, they’d have a chance of getting to her.
That chance had arrived.
Their plan had been successful. The Olympus shifters had fallen for it, thinking the pack intended to use Hale’s mate as bait. Nah, it was her relatives who were the lure.
Davide turned to him, a glimmer of conflict in the amber eyes they both shared. It was hard to look at him sometimes; made Sebastian’s throat ache. Aside from having different colored irises, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the baby brother they’d lost, even down to the scruffy haircut.
“Are you sure they won’t contact the Crimson Alphas?” asked Davide. “The females we took are under their protection. They’d have the right to know that their pride mates were kidnapped.”
“Hale isn’t going to include the true mate of the woman he claimed—he’ll want to be her hero,” Sebastian pointed out with an inner eye roll. Once shifters mated they lost their edge and turned into fucking pussies. “Besides, what does it matter? The involvement of an additional pride won’t help them. They’ll be looking for us in the wrong place.”
Davide didn’t appear reassured. “But if the Crimson Alphas do hear of it, the Alpha male would probably come straight here to protect her—then he’d find us.”
Sebastian shrugged, unconcerned. “Then we’d kill him.” Simple.
His brother and Wattie exchanged an uneasy look. Something they did a lot lately. Samuele’s murder had thrown the entire pack, and it had turned these two shifters into fucking fretters who hesitated to take chances. His wolf swiped out a paw, annoyed by their lack of confidence in Sebastian and his plan.
He looked from Davide to Wattie. “Remember: We need to move carefully. The Olympus shifters won’t be expecting this, so they won’t be prepared for it. But the enforcers who are left will still be on the lookout.” The fucking pride seemed to have eyes everywhere.
But not here. Because Sebastian had already shot the cat who’d been patrolling the wooded area.
His brow knitted, Davide caught him with a probing gaze. “You don’t still mean to kill her, do you? I want Hale to suffer as much as you do, which means I want her to suffer. But if we snuff out her life, we’ll never get Tommaso back.”
Sebastian licked over his front teeth. He’d known there was a high probability that the pride was somehow responsible for Tommaso’s disappearance. So many times his brother had ranted about how someone needed to go blow Hale’s brains out. Sebastian had insisted it was too predictable and they needed to proceed carefully.
But whereas Davide and Samuele had always been fairly easy to maneuver and manipulate, Tommaso was too erratic and impulsive to be controlled. So when he’d snuck off and then hadn’t returned, the pack had figured it was likely he’d gone after Hale and been subsequently killed. Sebastian had been shocked when their packmate Peter—who’d made the call to the black-foot—notified them that she’d claimed Tommaso was alive and in the pride’s possession.