Taken by Storm (Raised by Wolves #3)(52)
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I nodded, like I understood, even though I didn’t. The only thing I was able to wrap my mind around was the fact that something was about to go down.

Something bigger than Maddy giving birth.

“Sora?” That was all I said—no elaboration, no pretense that what she was about to say might not rock me to my core. I waited for her to speak, feeling emptiness bubbling up inside of me instead of anger, exhaustion instead of fear.

I didn’t want to hate Devon’s mother again, didn’t want to look at her and see the bad things, instead of the good. She must not have wanted that, either, because she expelled a long breath and then started talking.

“What exactly did Callum tell you about Maddy?” she asked. “What did he tell you about the Senate?”

Callum had told me that Maddy might be rabid.

I’d discovered she wasn’t.

He’d told me that if Maddy wasn’t the killer, the Senate wouldn’t be able to enact the vote.

“He told me she was safe,” I said, realizing even as I said it that those words had never left his mouth.

He’d said that the Senate couldn’t enact the vote.

He’d said that they wouldn’t be able to cross into our land without permission.

He’d never said they wouldn’t come after her. He’d never said that she was safe.

“Maddy’s in No-Man’s-Land.” My thoughts went from my brain to my mouth with no filter. “And once you get there, No-Man’s-Land is fair game.”

The other alphas couldn’t cut through my territory to get to Maddy, but they might not have to. By definition, any slice of No-Man’s-Land fell between two territories—maybe more. Maddy’s cave was in the mountains, and the mountains

were accessible from Cedar Ridge territory, from Shadow Bluff, and from Vallée de Glace in the North.

It might not be easy, but it was doable, and Callum had never said Maddy was safe. He’d just listened to me say it.

He’d let me believe it.

“Two other alphas have access to that mountain,” I said. “If they realize she’s there …”

Maddy had been hiding out in No-Man’s-Land for months—but this time, there was a trail of bodies, including one in Winchester, that could lead the other alphas straight to her door.

Looking at Sora’s poker face and seeing Callum’s, I knew suddenly that the Shadow Bluff alpha wasn’t the problem, and neither were our neighbors to the north. Shay had called the Senate meeting. He was the one who’d been building alliances.

“He’s coming for her,” I said. “Shay got passage—from Shadow Bluff or the northern packs, from someone who has access to that mountain.”

And Callum knew.

This had nothing to do with the Shadows. Callum’s ability to sort through possible futures would have been operating full force. He’d seen this coming. He’d known Shay might come after Maddy, and he hadn’t said a word.

“Callum has his reasons,” Sora said, but I doubted that she knew them—I doubted he would have shared them with her any more than he would have shared them with me.

This was what Callum did, who he was. He played God. He played me. He let bad things happen.

You need to be human for this.

I’m sorry, he’d said. For something that might happen and might not.

I swallowed down the words that wanted to come and instead gave Sora a small, flippant nod.

“Thanks for the heads-up.” My words came out sounding tired, not sarcastic.

Damn it. I didn’t have time to be tired. I didn’t have time to celebrate Wilson’s permanent death, to sob with the memory of holding a gun to Sora’s head, to rail against Callum for playing with us like we were dolls.

I stuffed my feelings back in their little steel box, and I turned to the others: to Lake, who hadn’t taken her eyes off Griffin, to Chase, still in wolf form. I turned to Jed and Caroline, both ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

“Let’s go.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY. IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY. I didn’t bother blocking my thoughts off from the others—to the point where I wasn’t sure whether my silent mantra, as we climbed the mountain, was for my benefit or theirs.

We would get to Maddy in time, and even if we didn’t, I had to trust that she could hold her own. Shay wouldn’t physically harm her—she was too valuable, the baby was too valuable.

Shay would try to claim her. He’d dig his fingernails into her skin and try to force his mind into hers, instating a bond that would tie her to the Snake Bend Pack.

To him.

But Maddy was Resilient. She could fight him. She could resist.

I just had to hope that she would be able to hold on until I got there, that giving birth wouldn’t have taken too much out of her. I had to trust that, push come to shove, her survival instinct—and her instincts as a mother—would be enough.

It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.

We were getting close. I nodded to Chase and Lake, let them go. Faster than my human eyes could track them, they ran.

We were going to get there.

Maddy was going to be okay.

And then I was going to kill Callum.

“Wolves.” Caroline said the word out loud, and I was reminded for the second time that day that she wasn’t a part of our pack. She wasn’t a part of this.

Yet, here she was.

“How many?” I asked, unwilling to distract Lake and Chase from their task with that question.

“I don’t know,” Caroline replied, her baby blues narrowed in concentration. “They’ve got a perimeter set. The wind’s coming out of the north. I can go around back, scope it out.”

I glanced at Jed, and he nodded. Caroline was impossible to track—even with werewolf senses, they wouldn’t hear her coming.

Like a thief in the proverbial night, she was gone, blending perfectly into her surroundings, stalking through the rough mountain terrain, a girl on a mission.

I turned to Jed. Darkness fell over his eyes, and that was the only signal I needed. I reached for my own Resilience, called up the power, and ran.

One second I was at the base of the mountain, and the next thing I knew, I was at the mouth of the cave. I saw Chase first, then Lake, both in wolf form. Their clothes littered the cave floor. Their hackles were raised.

Opposite them, Shay Macalister was smiling. He was bent at the waist, too large to fit fully inside Maddy’s den.

“Leave. Me. Alone.”