HUCK

Every night for the past week, at exactly eight o'clock, Brooke tried to escape through the bond. No matter how hard I clung to her, it didn't ease her fear. Titan was doing something to her, and I was powerless to stop him. Images too brutal to stomach made me itch to rip out the right side of my brain, and the more desperate she became, the darker my thoughts grew.

My wolf prowled beneath my skin, fully in control as the rest of me descended into madness. Up the hill, a wall of sentinels and guns was tethered to the mountainside. I'd kill them all to get to her...if they didn't kill me first.

I crept through the shadows, shifting through the thickest parts of the woods. Each step I took was steeper than the last until I had to use my hands to stop myself from sliding down. It gave me the cover I needed to go unnoticed by the sentinel above. He whistled a lazy tune, oblivious to my presence. I dropped to my stomach and slowly dragged myself the last few feet by my elbows, peeking over the edge.

He was seated in a lawn chair, his legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed, and black boots inches from my face. Moonlight glinted off the blade he was using to clean the dirt from beneath his thumbnail. He was distracted, much like the two sentinels positioned twenty feet away on either side of him. Each of them had a gun, and I'd spent more hours than I could count burning its every component into my retinas.

Did they know their high-dollar weapons were essentially bombs? If the muzzle wasn't perfectly aligned with the loading mechanism, the bullet would hit it, destroying the gun from the inside. There was a pin meant to hold it in place, but there was nothing stopping it from being pulled. One tweak would put any of them out of line, and I was determined to sabotage as many as I could.

An owl hooted, and I glanced over to find its golden eyes watching me from a nearby branch. "What are you waiting for?" he seemed to ask.

I sprang up, grabbed the sentinel' feet, and yanked hard, dragging him out of his chair and over the edge. We fell, tumbling halfway down the hillside before the terrain finally caught us.

He wheezed, scrambled, but before he could make it to his knees, I slammed him back down. One hand over his mouth. The other around his throat. I squeezed. "Shh," I said, as his body bucked and twisted. "Almost ov—shit!" Pain seared through my side, and I looked down to find the asshole's pocket knife buried into my flesh.

He pulled back, stabbing me again and again, prompting me to release his throat in order to grip his wrist. Twist. Snap. He roared against my palm. I reached down, blindly searching the ground for the knife. He fought harder as he realized what was coming. Instinct drew his weakened wolf to the surface. Tufts of hair sprang from his face; a snout started, but never fully formed. Even now, the man fought the beast. He'd rather die than betray his lie.

My fingers curled around the handle, and my arm swung up, sinking the knife into his neck.

His eyes widened, catching every ounce of moonlight. A gargled breath echoed inside his throat. I kept pressure on the knife, watching the life seep from his body. He dwindled like a flame, and the night dimmed with him. The forest stilled, and I held my breath, listening for any sign that his absence had been noticed.

Nothing.

I removed his uniform, and hurriedly put it on. Then I took his place at the top of the hill, where the first of many guns waited. I felt around until I found the pin, then gripped it between my thumb and forefinger. I pulled. One down. I started toward the next, headed in the direction of the entrance to mid town. "Look alive," I called, alerting the next sentinel to my presence.

He jolted slightly, straightened, and looked behind me. "Where's Kieffer?"

I glanced back, then shrugged. "I'm just here to service the guns. No one was there."

He frowned, and I waited, almost wishing he would question me. But he didn't. "Must be taking a piss," he said, as he watched me fiddle with his gun.

I found the pin, pulled, nodded to him and kept moving. The further down the line I went, the less suspicion I received. After all, no one else was saying anything, so why would they question it? Little did they know, I was rigging this whole place for disaster. When I led my wolves up the mountain, they would fire, and this whole place would blow sky high, clearing a path of char that would make Titan's destruction look tame.

The ground leveled as I reached the clearing just west of mid town. White, canvas tents filled the space. An army of sentinels congregated around them, looking more like festival goers than men ready for a fight. Everything about this was too easy, sloppy, and I found hope in Titan's obvious underestimation.

I reached the castle road and continued across it, but my luck ran out before I could reach the other side.

"You!" a sentinel called. He rushed to stand in front of me, gripped my vest, lifting a piece of paper level with my face.

My eyes shifted, taking in the crude image of me printed across its surface.

Well, shit.

I gripped his head, twisted, snapping his neck before kicking another sentinel in the chest. I grabbed his gun and spun it around, firing into a group racing toward me.

Bad move.

The gun exploded, having clearly been rigged by some idiot beforehand. A blast of heat flung me backward, and I hit the dirt hard. My ears rang. The world was on fire. Legs rushed around me as everyone scattered like ants beneath a magnifying glass.

I coughed and pushed to my feet. Smoke burned my eyes, clouded my vision. Another explosion, followed by two more. Boom! Boom! Boom! Men shouting, screaming, wailing. I raced into the woods, away from the chaos. Shit. Shit. Shit. Boom! Boom! Boom!

My wolf burst free, paws pounding the ground for more than just survival. They were distracted. If we hurried, we could get the pack across. I clung to Brooke as I went, wishing she could know exactly how close I was getting. I'm coming, I sent her. I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming. I repeated the words like a prayer, just as much for myself as for her. A howl ripped from my lungs, rising up at the moon peeking through the canopy of branches above.

When I made it back to camp, I shifted and boomed, "Wake up! We're moving!"

People scrambled from their makeshift beds, panicking as they rushed to gather their things. It was obvious they thought we were under attack, and I didn't have time to correct them.

"What's happening?" Bear asked as he entered my path.

"We can make it past the line, but we have to do it now," I said. "Where's Jewel?"

"Here," she said, limping up behind him.

I looked down, taking in the bandage wrapped around her thigh. "What happened?"

"It's fine," she said. "What makes you say we can make it past the line?"

"Just trust me. You'll see." I focused back on Bear. "Help her walk, will you? We need to leave in ten minutes." My voice lifted, ensuring everyone could hear me. "Leave it if you have to! We can replace things later! We need to move now!"

"Huck!" Jewel blocked me from moving. "How can we make it past the line?"

"Dammit, Jewel, because I blew the fucker up! Happy? Can we go now?"

I pushed past her, making rounds to ensure everyone was doing like I'd asked. We couldn't afford to leave anyone behind, but the longer we took, the harder it would be. My heart thundered. "Don't worry about clothes. We'll get new clothes," I told a girl packing her bag.

Overall, it took twice as long as I wanted it to, and half as long as it should have. By the time we were moving, my wolf was raging. Soon. Soon. Soon. I didn't believe me. It felt too good to be true. My luck wasn't that good, not now, not when it came to her.

And I was right.

We made it to the line, and I froze, feeling as if I was being crushed from the inside out. It couldn't be. How? Smoke rolled through the air, the only evidence that a fire had ever existed. Armed sentinels stood shoulder to shoulder, rifles ready as new guns were tethered to the mountain behind them. Different guns. Bigger guns.

"Huck," Jewel breathed. "I know you're struggling, but I'm begging you not to do this. We can't make it past the line. It isn't possible."

I swallowed hard. "I can see that." All of it for nothing. Why would the goddess give me a line, knowing it would lead me nowhere? She had to have known.

Unless she hadn't. Perhaps Jewel was right. Maybe I really was losing my mind.

Her voice softened. "I think it's time we acknowledge how out-resourced we are." She placed a hand on my shoulder. "We have to go to the buyer. We can't do this without help."

"But I was just here." My voice didn't sound like mine. Too strained. Too defeated. Too weak. My jaw clenched.

"I understand, but this isn't going to work. Not like this. Dominick will—"

"We don't have anything to sell him."

"We can steal from the humans."

"It'll take too much time. Our wolves can't afford—"

"We can't afford not to," she said. "Not if you want to take the mountain. It's either go to Dominick or stay in hiding. There is no other option."

She was right, but she had to be wrong. There had to be another way. I just needed to find what it was. "They can't have the entire mountain blocked. We just need to travel far enough to go around them."

"Huck—"

"Just let me think," I said. "I need..." I needed Brooke. I needed my mate. I needed. I needed. I needed her. A roar ripped out of me, and I slammed my fist into the nearest tree. My knuckles crunched; I welcomed the pain. For a blissful second, it stole my focus, distracting from the crippling emptiness that wouldn't end until she was with me. "I need to think."