I dreamed, and in the dream Lauren looked at me with worried eyes. Her green gaze held mine and a look of pity crossed her face. I looked up into that startling pale face and my heart whimpered. I tried to breathe but couldn't take a deep enough breath. It felt like there was a knife in my side.

 Lauren touched my face with nimble fingers. "Camila," she whispered, "Camila, look at me." My heart was pounding. I couldn't breathe. I had to breathe. I tried again and it was like inhaling fire into my lungs; the pain seared throughout my entire torso.

 There were tears of panic and pain burning at the corners of my eyes. "Camila," she said again, but this time she lifted my face to hers. "You have to wake up." I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out. Lauren reached out, circling her arm around my waist. I felt her energy unfurling like a serpent, wrapping around me, but instead of constricting, a cool breeze of power filled my lungs as she forced the air into me. I drew the breath of her power in a long ragged gasp and said, "I can't."

Her fingers were suddenly cold steel. "You can," she said, eyes growing misty with power, "and you will." I woke, gasping around the pain in my side. I opened my eyes and blinked into the darkness. The darkness wasn't right. I could see in the dark, but this, this I could not see in. I panicked, trying to move and finding that my hands were bound behind my back. My pulse quickened, pounding through my aching head like some great bell. I licked dry lips.

 Think, Camila, think. I took a very slow breath around the pain. Something was not right. No, something was terribly, horribly, fucking wrong. Where the hell was I? Someone whimpered, high and pitiful. I froze. "Who's there?"

 "I am." It was a man's voice that croaked from somewhere in the room. I turned my face in the direction of the voice. "Who are you?" I asked, cautious. He coughed. "Seth," he said. "My name is Seth." Oh, Gods! I jerked at the leather binds, trying to break them. The leather creaked, weakening, but it did not break. 

Whoever had bound my hands had weaved several layers of thick leather from my wrist to my elbows. I didn't think they were attached to the chair, but I couldn't be sure. The knowledge made me aware of the fierce ache between my shoulder blades. I remembered Lauren's face, her voice telling me to wake. How long had I been unconscious?

 "Miss?" Seth's voice croaked again. "I'm here, Seth," I said. "I know your sister." 

"Dinah," he said and I heard movement. "You know her?"

 "Yes," I said, tilting my head. "She sent me to find you." Okay, so, that was a little bit of a lie. I mean, yeah, I was sent to find him, but being kidnapped with him was so not the way I wanted to find him. Shit. "Seth, do you know where we are?" I heard more movement then. "No, I can't see anything." Terrific, neither could I.

 I tried to break the binds again, and this time, it cost me. The knife like pain turned to something more like a sword. I had a feeling that when the assailant had kicked me, he'd kicked a few ribs out of place. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead. I heard a door open and close to my right. I heard the sounds of heavy footsteps as someone walked into the room. 

My nostrils flared slightly. A cricket chirped, which meant it was still night, unless it was one of those crazy crickets. If it was a crazy cricket, it didn't matter if it was day or night—the sucker was going to chirp regardless. The side of my face ached. The sound of footsteps was closer.

 Who the fuck was it? I sniffed again and caught the scent of strong woodsy aftershave. The smell of moist soil and patchouli wafted like undercurrents in the air. I hadn't paid much attention, but I was pretty sure Evan hadn't been wearing any aftershave. I was trying to remember when another memory swam to surface.

 A man with hazel eyes and spiky hair offered his hand to me. "Austin," I said, sensing him kneel in front of me, disrupting the currents of air. "Oh, that's very good work, Camila." I heard his smile in the dark.

 Sore and trapped, my mind started going ninety-to-nothing. "It was you all along," I said. "It was never Evan." Gods, Austin had moved here from out of state! He offered a booming laugh. 

"Evan has a bad temper," he said. "It makes it hard for him to control his wolf." I agreed with him. Evan's temper was what initially had set me off. It dawned on me in one of those moments where everything just becomes so clear and you have no idea how you didn't see it earlier. 

"You targeted Evan," I said. "You tried to make him your fall guy, tried to make it look like he had lost control of his beast and killed that woman."

 "Brava," he said. "He is also the pack's gamma." 

"What sense does that make?" I asked. "Your half sister is the pack's alpha. Speaking of which, does she know about this, Austin?"

 "Why do you want to know, Camila?" I smiled, blindfolded and bound to a chair, seeing very little escape, and despite myself—I couldn't help it. "I like to know who to kill." The beast woke from her sleeping den somewhere deep inside me, spilling out of my mouth in a guttural growl. 

Austin Mahone smacked me across the face, hard enough that he almost knocked me out of the chair. He caught the edge of it and set me upright. "No shifting," he said, "not yet." I spat the words, "Fuck you." He slapped me again and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. If he fucking hit me one more time... 

I forced myself to count to ten. I decided to talk. "So, Evan would've been your fall guy?" I asked. "Would've been?" he scoffed. "He will be. In fact, thanks to you, the police will more than likely conclude he's their prime suspect." I closed my eyes. He was right. The last person I had mentioned to the police was Evan.

 Shit. Shit. Shit. If I made it out alive, I owed Evan a huge apology. "Evan is your fall guy," I whispered, "and Dinah's brother?" I asked, knowing that he was somewhere in the room. I could smell his fear if I focused on it, but fear was too tempting to the wolf, and I wouldn't risk shifting, not yet.

 "Think of it as leverage," Austin said, thoughtfully. "Leverage?" I asked. "Oh, yes," he said. "It's enough leverage to get Dinah out of my way, don't you think? The life of her brother for her title in pack," he mused with a smile in his tone. Sick bastard.

 "Why didn't you just challenge them?" I asked. "That's what you're after, isn't it? You're trying to work your way up the pack ladder." Austin was suddenly so close I could smell the spearmint gum he was chewing. I'd never like spearmint again. "How would you know anything about the pack structure? Did Dinah tell you?" he asked, an ugly happiness in his tone.

 When I didn't answer, his fingers wrapped around my throat, pushing me back into the chair and threatening to crush my windpipe. "It had to be her," he said, giving me a shake. I hissed in through my teeth as the pain in my head and ribs soared again.

 He let me go so abruptly that my body swung forward. I heard him take a step back. "Yes," he said, "I will tell you something that you did not know. My dear, dear half sister extracted a promise from me before I joined up with her pack," he said. "We were changed at the same time, did you know that?" I blinked behind the blindfold, trying to keep up. "No, I didn't." 

"Oh yes," he said, "our uncle liked to do things to us. One day, well..." He laughed. "One day when we were little, things got a little out of hand, if you know what I mean." I shuddered to think on it. No wonder they both had issues. It made me feel a small sense of pity, but not much. 

Ultimately, I'm a firm believer that people choose who they want to be. "What was the promise?" I asked, focusing on the important part and not his life story. Point for me. "Did Dinah tell you what the Rite of Challenge is?"

 "I know what it is," I said, avoiding bringing Dinah into it. "I had to give my oath that I would not throw the Rite of Challenge at any of her pretty little wolves." 

"You don't think you're going back on your oath, just a little?" I asked. "Oh, no," he said, "I'm sure I'm not. You see, I haven't challenged anyone."

 "You're going to use Dinah's brother to get her to step down in the pack hierarchy. That way, you're not breaking your oath to Taylor."

 "Brava again, Camila." He chuckled softly. "If there is one thing you should know about the Lykos, it is that we are not oath breakers." That might've been true, but some of them were certainly whack-jobs. 

Seth chose that moment to scream. "If you hurt her, I'll kill you myself! You monster!" I turned my head, following Seth's fast and heavy steps across the wooden planks of the floor. I heard Seth give a small cry of pain.

 Austin laughed. "Austin," I said coldly. "If he's dead, he's not leverage. Remember?" Seth's body hit the floor with a heavy thump. He whimpered. "So weak and pathetic," Austin growled. "You can't do anything, human." I bit my tongue.

 I didn't think Austin would like me to point out the fact that he was part human. Another thought crossed my mind. "James?" I asked. He came back over to kneel in front of me. "It's my middle name," he said. 

"How is Ally doing? That was you, in the park." He made it a statement so I didn't say anything. He reached out, touching my hair. I turned away from him. "That white streak gives you away, Camila. Did you know that once every alpha werewolf was born with a streak in their hair that reflected the color of their beast's fur?" he asked. "No," I said, but I remembered Lauren's comment about the mark of a true alpha. 

"Once," Austin said, "there were those that were born Lykos. Those destined to rule a pack as their leader were born with something that marked them as Lykos. The white in your hair," he said, "is the same color as your fur. That is your mark."

 "I wasn't born like this," I hissed. He sounded amused. "No?" he said, "Then it would seem the virus itself has taken a turn. Do you know that the virus was passed down by those true Lykos? It all began with King Lycaon," he said, "who tried to serve the god Zeus human flesh. But gods do not fall for tricks, do they?" he asked. "No," he answered his own question. "So, Zeus cursed Lycaon, turning him into one of the Lykos, so that he might feast upon the human flesh he revered so much as to try and feed it to the god."

 "You're a sick fuck," I said and Austin gave a deep rumbling peal of laughter.

"We are what we are, Camila." I heard him hit his chest with his fist. "I am Lykos!" His voice boomed through whatever prison held me and my skin crawled. "What about Taylor?" I asked in a quiet but steady voice. "The police take out Evan," I said, "you get Dinah to step down," I exhaled, "but what about your sister, Austin? What about your alpha?" 

"I will be alpha," he said. The wolf growled against the inside of my mind, but what she thought was not human words. No, it was my thoughts that translated what the beast inside me felt, and what she felt was: No. No, Austin Mahone would not be alpha. He would never be alpha.

 A lonesome howl rang in my ears. Austin rushed to his feet in a hiss of movement. "What was that?" he said and his footfalls were quick, too quick. Another howl echoed like a blade through the sudden silence, sending chills up my spine, sending a rush of adrenaline through my veins. I tried to break the binds again, and couldn't. Why couldn't I break them?

 Austin cursed as something heavy and solid hit the door. I could hear them growling. There was another loud thud, loud enough to shake the building around us. A lone wolf howled her distress call. I felt the beast stir in the pit of my stomach and opened my mouth. The call spilled from my lips, pouring from my heart in an inhuman wolf song.

 The house shuddered again. Austin rushed back and hit me. "Do not sing to them, wolf!" he yelled. My beast didn't like that. Behind the blindfold I sensed my eyes bleeding gold and opened my mouth, growling. This time, when he swung, I threw my body to the left. The chair and I clattered to the floor. A surge of mind-numbing pain sailed through my ribs again. I tried to beak the binds at my ankles, breathing shallowly around the pain.

 Why the fuck couldn't I break through the leather? The door collapsed in a violent sound, hinges screeched an unnerving whine a moment before the wood hit the floor with a sound like heavy thunder. In the din of it all, I heard Austin shifting, heard his clothes tearing and the bones of his body popping wet and juicy. 

There were snarls like some obnoxious dog fight. Someone touched me and I flinched. "Camila." It was Lauren's voice. She lifted the blindfold from my eyes and the room came into view like a black- and-white movie. It was night and there were no lights on. She began untying the leather straps at my ankles, fingers moving deftly at the knots. My legs were free. She grabbed the binds at my wrists, working at them.

"Just tear them!" I yelled. "I cannot," she said. "The binds at your wrists are laced with silver. If I tear the leather and the silver touches your skin, it will burn."

 "That's why I couldn't break them." She freed my wrists, touching my cheek. "Yes," she said. "How did you find me?" I asked. "Who is with you?"

 "Dinah and Evan," she said. "They found your cell phone and used the scent on it to track you." "Clever." I smiled, somewhat. There was a heavy crashing noise and I turned to see some great black bipedal wolf charging the gray werewolf I recognized as Austin. I got to my feet, eyes scanning the room. I felt my torso with my hands and winced at the pain. I was still wearing the holster, which meant my gun was around here somewhere. I moved as quickly and light-footed as I could.

 We were in a shed of some kind. Dinah's brother lay in a heap on his side, blindfolded and bound as I had been. "Lauren." I looked at her. She followed my gaze. I blinked and she was suddenly beside Seth, untying his binds. I kicked aside my chair, spotting a table beneath an old and rusty window. 

There was a drawer at the top of the small table. I went for it. Where else would my gun be? I heard the growl and turned to defend myself, but the black wolf intercepted, leaping onto Austin's back, its claws scratching at the gray wolf's face. A cinnamon- colored wolf caught Austin's arm, sinking teeth in and clawing at his legs.

 Austin gave a howl of pain. I opened the drawer and found my gun. The black wolf rode Austin's wolfman form to the ground and the cinnamon wolf got out of the way of falling werewolves. "Get off him," I said, clicking the safety of the Mark III, holding the gun in a two-handed grip and aiming down my sights. The black wolf looked at me with golden eyes. There was a little bit of black around the edges of his eyes, and I knew without a doubt that it was Evan. "Evan," I said, "I know you're angry, but please," I added, "let me do my job." His sunny eyes bore into mine. His furred mouth made the words guttural and clipped. "Make it slow," he said. I nodded and drew in a deep breath, steeling myself as I slipped into to that place in my mind where I go when it's just me, my gun, and the poor bastard on the other end. Evan rolled off Austin.

"Austin Mahone." The wolf inside me combined her eerie voice with mine. My words growled at the edges. "For your crimes, you pay." His wolfish lips drew back in a snarl as he got to his knees. I pulled the trigger before he could stand. Once, and the bullet lodged into his chest. His body jerked, reacting to the impact. Twice, and the bullet tore through the skin around his heart like the angry jaws of a predator. 

I took a few steps closer. My ears rang. I shot again. The bullet exploded his chest into a bloody cavity. Blood and thicker stuff hit my legs like someone had thrown it at me. I pulled the trigger until the magazine clicked empty. If I had more bullets, I would've kept shooting. I wanted to shoot him until he was more than just dead. I swayed on my feet and Lauren caught my arm. "You are hurt," she said. "I can hear your breath rattle. Your ribs are broken." I was pretty sure they were broken too. I was also pretty sure that tipping the chair over had only made it worse. I shook my head, biting my lower lip in pain. 

"I'm fine," I said and then nodded toward Dinah's brother. "Help him." She went and helped him to his feet. He stumbled and I took a step forward. "Is he hurt?" He looked at me with bleary eyes, eyes that were such a mirror of his sister's it was eerie. "A few scratches," he managed to croak in a raw voice. I wondered how long he'd tried screaming the last few days. He turned to look up at Lauren. "My sister?" he asked. "Where is she?" Evan sat near the door, licking at a wound in his side. He stopped to look up at me briefly, and with a sharp nod told me that it was over. 

The cinnamon-colored wolf limped toward Seth on all four of her paws. Her voice sounded so strange, so distorted. "Here," she said, and I wondered if I sounded like that. I shook the thought away. Seth Hansen looked down at his sister and slid helplessly to his knees. "Dinah," he whispered, reaching out with shaking fingers to touch the tip of her ear. 

Dinah ducked her wolfish head and leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" She looked up at her brother and smiled with a wolfish grin, licking his face. His honey-colored eyes glistened with tears. I met Lauren's emerald gaze and said, "I need to call the cops." She inclined her head. "I understand."

 "You'll have to go," I said. "I won't risk exposing those who saved my life." 

"What will you tell them?" she asked. "That I was wearing a red cloak and taking a hike through the woods." I gave a  quick smile. "Don't worry about me." I clicked the safety back on and holstered the Mark III, nodding toward the door. "Take them and go." She reached into the pocket of her coat and held something out to me. I looked down to see my cell phone. "You might need this," she said and her red lips curved into a seductively amused smile that made my heart pound.

 I met her emerald eyes. "Thank you, for everything." She touched my cheek with cool fingers. "Your safety is thanks enough." She went to Seth, helping him to stand. Lauren's black coat fanned out behind her. The two wolves trailed side by side, following at her heels.

 "Lauren," I said. She stopped in the doorway. "Would you mind if I came over later?" Her lips curved into a beautiful smile that made the breath catch in my throat. "No, Camila," she said, "I would like very much to see you after you attend to your health."

 I drew a shallow breath."I will." 

I watched as she left with Seth Hansen at her side and the two wolves trailing behind her like loyal and imposing guardians.