Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
There was no sign of strangers, which meant they hadn’t flown in. The castle armaments would have prevented them from landing on the official helipad up top.
I ran at full speed toward the nearest guard post, dismayed to find it empty. That was where we picked up the first scent of our enemies. There was no blood or sign of struggle, just a missing guard and the scent of unknown wolves.
We followed the perimeter at half speed, following the scent trail. Sure enough, every guard was gone, including Andrei. But when we reached the main guardhouse in front of the castle where he should have been stationed outside, we found them.
The door hung open, and when I nosed it wider, all twelve men were piled inside like so much abandoned luggage. I yipped, then shifted back to human form. I turned toward Kane and the rest of our party. “I’m going to check their pulses. Fan out and guard our backs, but don’t leave anyone’s line of sight.”
They moved immediately, Kane taking up the position directly outside the door.
To my relief, they weren’t dead. Their pulses were thin and thready, though, with dark lines spreading out from pinprick wounds on each of their necks.
Shit.
I stepped back out of the shack. “They’ve all been darted with wolfsbane. The cowards poisoned them.”
Kane snarled, saliva dripping from his open maw.
There used to be a first aid kit inside the shack. Check it for the antidote, he told me through the pack bonds.
He sent a mental image of the location, and I stepped back inside the building. Sure enough, it was behind one of the monitors, easily within reach but not readily visible to the men who dragged our guards in here. I quickly administered doses to each of them using the autoinjectors I found inside.
When all was said and done, there were only two left, but each man would be on the mend soon enough. Pissed, but alive. I took a second to think, then decided to lock the door before I stepped outside. We could send someone to retrieve them once we’d secured the grounds, and they’d at least have some protection in case any of the attackers fled this way.
With our men secured, I left the two spare injectors outside the shack, behind a rock. Then I shifted back to wolf form, and we headed for the castle.
We followed the scent trail straight to the front doors. It was wide and contained a multitude of scents-if I had to guess, they’d brought at least twenty men, and from the depth of the pheromones, they were all in heightened states of anger.
Brazen motherfuckers.
The double front doors stood open, hanging oddly off the hinges as if they’d been battered. We found the first traces of blood in the foyer, and several mangled bodies. Most were Hungarian pack members I didn’t know, but I spotted one of the housekeepers, her neck twisted at an odd angle.
She must have been the one to answer the door,
I thought sadly. There was no sign of Cristian, the butler, but I suspected the bodies were his handiwork.
The trail broke then, scents scattering up the stairs toward the family wing, while others went forward into the main floor of the house.
I turned to Kane, and he spoke to us all mentally.
Split up. Sergei with us, the rest of you clear the upstairs. We’re making a push to get to our females. Keep an eye out for Dirge. He stayed out to fight and may need medical attention. Do not split up further, and when you’re finished upstairs, wait here unless I call for you.
Sergei stepped up to my other side as the four remaining wolves darted up the stairs on swift paws. Seconds later, the sounds of fighting reached our ears.
We ran deeper into the house, heading straight for the kitchens.
Hang on, Leigh. I’m coming for you.
THIRTY-TWO
Leigh
Ihad no idea how long we’d been down here, but I was feeling antsy. Shouts and loud thuds occasionally made it to us through the thick walls, and once, the castle rocked as if there was an explosion. But still, no sign of our men.
Shay was pacing the back wall, eyes aglow. She’d stripped down to her underthings, in case she needed to shift in a hurry, because we had no spare clothes down here. An oversight we’d rectify when this whole fiasco was over with.
After a while, it grew quiet, as if the action had moved away from wherever we were in the bowels of the castle. But then a scraping sound reached us, and the little hairs on my arms stood on end. There was a sound of crying and muffled footsteps down the tunnel that we’d come through, and I stood with the gun.
Shay was at my side in a heartbeat. “Stay here. Keep a clear line of sight on the tunnel. I’m going to shift and creep up that way. If it’s an enemy, one bark. If it’s a friend, two barks.”
She didn’t wait for me to answer before she shifted into her cocoa-furred wolf with gold eyes, and then she was gone, silent paws carrying her into the tunnel.
I turned to Bri and Olivia. “You two go into the bathroom, turn off the lights, and lock the door.”
“Absolutely not. If you’re staying out here, we’re staying,” Brielle argued.
“Bri, I love you, but if something happens to me, you two can fix me. I will be less than useless if one of you gets hurt. Get in the damn bathroom!” I used my alpha bark, but she just narrowed her eyes at me as Olivia started shuffling toward the bathroom, my order carrying her against her will.
“That doesn’t work on omegas, Leigh, but I take your point. Why don’t you go in with us?”
“Because I’m not leaving Shay up here alone. If she runs down here with people on her ass, I’ll shoot them, and then we’ll all lock ourselves in the bathroom.”
“Fine,” she sighed, and followed Oli into the bathroom after grabbing a pistol off the nearest gun rack. A second later I saw the line of light disappear under the door and heard the click of the lock.
I waited on pins and needles for something to happen, but time seemed to turn to molasses. Sometime later, there were two yips from the tunnel, and I could finally breathe again.
My jaw dropped and I lowered the gun when Shay walked in trailing a string of disheveled household staff, at least a dozen chefs and housekeepers in uniform, tailed by Cristian, the butler. He was wearing an impeccable suit with tails as usual, but blood was spattered across his face and smeared over his hands as if he’d stepped out of some weird, pseudo-historical horror film.
“Are you all okay? Nobody followed you?” I asked, setting the gun on the nearest chair, facing the wall.
“We’re all okay, thank you, ma’am,” one of the housekeepers said, and then I swear to the Goddess, she curtsied like I was some sort of princess. We were under attack, there was blood in her hair, and she curtsied, to me, a half-breed nobody.
“Okay, one, my name’s Leigh, and you’re free to use it. Two, I feel weird when you curtsey, so no need. I’m from Texas, not the queen’s palace,” I joked with a grin, trying to put her at ease before I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.