Chapter 17

ZACH

Zach walked away from the infirmary knowing that he was leaving Anna in good hands and knowing that it was best he walked away, for now, so that she could process everything that had happened.

He also needed to wrestle his mind to the task at hand, focusing on the humans who had threatened his pack and his mate.

~“I’ve got the last one at the old hunting cabin on the southern perimeter.”~

Alex’s voice was grim, but Zach could hear the underlying satisfaction in it.

He felt a smirk curl his lip, knowing that tone of satisfaction meant that the human soldier had arrived at the cabin injured, and probably not because he had tried resisting capture.

Wolves could be a vengeful bunch, especially when the battle is too short to vent any anger.

The humans’ comrades had fallen much too quickly to sate anyone’s bloodlust, and tempers among the soldiers in the den were still running high.

As Zach made his way outside, he decided to walk to the cabin, knowing that the forty-minute walk would help take the edge off his own temper.

He was very much aware of how close the bullet, the one that had slammed into his thigh, had come to hitting Anna, possibly killing her.

The leg in question was protesting his decision to walk, throbbing harshly with every step.

Zach had decided not to tell Natalie about the injury, not wanting her to heal it yet because the pain reminded him to keep his head focused.

He had dropped his guard out in the forest with Anna.

They had been on Silver River territory, and even though Zach had known about the humans camping out there, he had—naively—believed they were safe.

His mistake had almost killed her, and the pain in his leg was a punishment, a stark reminder, of why that couldn’t happen again.

If he lost Anna, he would likely turn feral, and then, everything would be lost. Not just for him, but for Silver River as well.

Alex would step in and take care of everything, but he wasn’t a true alpha, and there wasn’t one within the pack, not even among the pups.

It was an issue that had been playing on Zach’s mind ever since he had become alpha, especially when he had only stepped into the role because Phillip had been killed.

If he didn’t find another young alpha, someone he could mentor and train to take over if something were to happen to him, the pack would flounder, and someone like Blake would rush to step in and take over.

Zach strongly believed that had been Blake’s game plan for a long time, and he had suspicions about Blake’s involvement in the way half the pack had suddenly turned against Phillip, including his second.

The uprising had seemed to come out of nowhere, no one remembering any talk of discontent before it.

It was still something that Zach considered a lot. He had been searching for the trigger that had acted as the catalyst but without success yet.

All he could confirm from the remaining pack members was that Phillip had been a good, fair alpha, an opinion shared by the most submissive and those that filled the soldier ranks.

When Zach had turned five, his alpha nature had become clear, and with his parents’ permission, Phillip had personally taken over his training.

Zach trained as a soldier, starting at the bottom rank, but at the same time, Phillip was showing him how to lead the pack and how to interact with every member of Silver River, from the pups to the maternals to the other soldiers.

Zach had probably spent more time shadowing Phillip than he had spent with his own parents.

Lost in his thoughts, Zach no longer noticed the burning throbbing from the gunshot wound and almost stumbled into the cabin before he noticed he was anywhere near it.

He could admit he wasn’t on top of his game and decided that maybe he would go back and visit Natalie when he returned to the den, just to make sure the bullet was removed from his leg.

His shifter healing would probably push it out in its own time, but he wasn’t one for self-flagellation, and walking around with a bullet in your leg was probably borderline stupid.

Or, you know, way past the line of stupid.

Zach rolled his eyes at himself before pushing through the door to the cabin and coming face to face with the man who had put the aforementioned bullet in his leg.

Immediately, a low growl rumbled through Zach’s chest, his claws itching to slice through the fragile human flesh, the memory and smell of Anna’s fear as they had run from the humans still too fresh.

“Yeah, thought you might feel that way,” Alex murmured, leaning back against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed casually against his chest.

“The rest of them died pretty damn quick, but me and the boys, we figured this one deserved something a little more…special.”

At those words, a muffled whimper left the human’s mouth, which someone had shoved a dirty rag into.

He was sitting in a wooden chair in the middle of the room, his arms tied tightly behind his back.

One of his eyes was almost swollen shut, and dried blood had trailed down his face.

“He talk yet?”

“No, we were waiting for you.”

Alex tilted his chin down at someone standing on the other side of the alpha. Zach turned to see Daniel step forward with a sinister smirk curling his lips.

It was the only time Daniel had ever smiled, and it was fucking creepy.

~“At what point do we stop him from torturing people?”~ Zach spoke to Alex, feeling concerned.

~“When he admits that he has a problem. He’s a big boy, Zach.”~

Alex arched an eyebrow at the alpha, who shrugged and turned to watch as Daniel ripped the rag away from the human’s mouth.

He wasn’t going to step in today. Today, they needed to know what the human was going to say.

Daniel leaned forward, tapping a name tag stitched on the guy’s black combat jacket that read “Dawson.”

“So, we already know your name, good. Let’s do this nice and easy: who sent you to Silver River territory?”

As he spoke, he bent at the waist and planted his hands on the arms of the chair that the guy sat in, leaning forward until their noses almost touched.

There was a moment of silence as he waited for Dawson to speak, but the human said nothing. Zach knew that Daniel hadn’t expected anything else.

He chuckled darkly, turning to a table that had been set up earlier behind the chair, where the human wouldn’t be able to see it. “Good choice, ~Dawson~.”

The human’s eyes darted to Zach and Alex at those words, at the glee in them, widening in apprehension and almost pleading.

Alex slowly shook his head, while Zach just stared, impassive.

“You shot our alpha, almost killed one of our females,” Alex said quietly, knowing the human would have to strain to hear him.

“Did you think you would ~ever~ have a chance of surviving this?”

Daniel stepped back into view, carrying a large hunting knife.

“You sealed your fate, Dawson. The only thing you can decide now is how slow or long you make it.”

The tip of the sharpened blade trailed across the human’s cheekbones, looking almost like a caress, except for the fact it left a fine red line behind it that almost immediately began beading blood.

To Dawson’s credit, he didn’t make a sound, his eyes focused on Daniel’s face.

“How many slices do you think it’ll take before you talk, hmm?” The words were soft, sinister.

The blade dropped to dance along the side of the human’s neck, leaving a shallow cut around two inches long.

“Or will we need to get more creative, use different tools? Don’t worry”—Zach could sense the grin in Daniel’s voice and was grateful that he couldn’t see it—“I’ve packed for every single occasion.”

“I-I don’t know anything.” Dawson’s voice was high-pitched, laced with fear and adrenaline.

“I’m just a grunt, a late hire. They didn’t tell me anything important.” His voice was stronger at the end, his confidence seeming to grow.

Daniel must have decided that it was time to stop screwing around because, in a quick, graceful movement, he had spun the knife in his fist until he was holding the knife pointed downward. He then drove it viciously into the meatiest part of Dawson’s left thigh.

A loud scream erupted through the cabin, causing all three shifters to flinch as their eardrums were assaulted.

Looking over at Zach and Alex, Daniel commented disdainfully, “They don’t train them like they used to.”

“I’m telling you, man, I don’t know anything!” His voice was insistent, almost a whine.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, Dawson, so why don’t you just go ahead and tell us ~everything~.”

Daniel jerked the knife roughly out of Dawson’s leg, causing another moan of pain, before shifting the knife to hover over his other thigh threateningly.

When he didn’t immediately respond, Daniel inched the knife slightly to the left until it dangled directly over the human’s groin.

“Or maybe…maybe I start carving somewhere else. Wonder if that will make you sing like a canary?”

A pathetic whimper escaped Dawson’s lips, and he closed his eyes, his head bowed in defeat.

“N-no, please…”

He nervously licked his lips, his eyes flickering between the three shifters.

“All I know is that we were told by our bosses to infiltrate the Silver River territory. At first, it was just setting up surveillance and assessing the size of the pack and any weak points that would be useful in the event of an attack. Our squad was told a couple of days ago that the orders had changed, that now, we needed to assassinate the alpha, but they didn’t say why.”

When he finished talking, the cabin fell into dead silence as each male processed the information.

The human faltered, his gaze still frantically flickering between each man, looking for any sign of mercy. After a moment, he swore.

“Please! That’s all I know, I’m telling you. You said you’d kill me fast if I talked!”

Daniel looked at Zach over his shoulder again, and Zach inclined his head down at the soldier before turning and exiting the cabin, knowing that Alex would follow.

As the door swung shut behind them, another scream pierced the air, followed by loud swearing.

“How long will Daniel keep at him?” Alex asked as they began walking back to the den.

“Until he’s one hundred percent certain that he knows nothing else.”

Zach’s mind was whirling. Why would a human organization—and they didn’t know exactly which one—want to keep tabs on this pack in the first place?

“You never know what he might have heard that he doesn’t think is important. None of this makes sense. Why are humans targeting us now, and why did their plans change midway?”

The two shifters were silent for several long minutes as they walked.

“Something obviously happened with the bigwigs at these humans’ faction, something they definitely wouldn’t share with grunts like Dawson,” Alex murmured thoughtfully, “but they had to know a half-assed assassination attempt on you would fail, and now, they’ve lost their element of surprise. So, what could have pushed them to make such a rash move?”

“Well, we still don’t know who they are, but we know two things. First, they’re human. Second, they either hate us specifically or they hate shifters in general. That narrows down our search parameters.

“As to their change in plans, if they thought I was an easy target, they might be bigoted toward shifters, the type of humans who think we aren’t much more than mindless beasts”—Alex growled at the thought—“exactly. That would explain why they thought I was an easy target.

“But their change in plans intrigues me. They came in with a bigger plan in mind, a bigger attack, and something—or someone—changed that. I think we need to find out what before they attack again.”

“All right. I’ll touch base with Jon, see if he’s heard anything, and get him to put some noses to the ground in the city.”

“Organize a meeting here as well, and include Theresa in it. We need to have the whole pack on high alert. I don’t want anyone going out of the inner perimeter without a lieutenant’s say-so. It’ll be a lot of extra work for everyone, but I think we need to be cautious until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Alex nodded in agreement before eyeing Zach from the corner of his eyes.

“What?”

“I was wondering how to ask about the Anna situation without you biting my head off.”

Zach could feel a muscle twitch in his cheek but kept his face expressionless, refusing to glance at the male he considered his best friend.

“I’m dealing with it.”

“Will she be good for the pack?” he asked succinctly.

Zach froze mid-step, his mouth curling into a snarl as he stared Alex down. “What the hell are you trying to say?”

Alex stopped as well, facing Zach head-on, planting his hands on his hips.

“She doesn’t have a wolf, Zach. At the moment, she is a vulnerable part of the pack, perhaps the most vulnerable. As she is, she makes you weak. If she had been able to shift today, you might not have been sho—”

“Enough!” Zach slashed a hand between their bodies, cutting Alex off.

“She is not just someone I have a passing attraction to, she is my ~mate~! And consider for one second, one fucking second, Alex, the fact that she is alive right now.”

Zach paused, but Alex didn’t say anything; he just blinked, waiting for him to continue.

“Shifters who are blocked or disconnected from their animal usually turn feral or die within weeks or months. Anna has been blocked for years, Alex. She is the strongest person that I know, and while I believe that her wolf will come back, I wholeheartedly believe that she will be a great asset to Silver River even without it.”

Zach turned and continued to walk, his breathing harsh and heavy in the air. Alex immediately fell back into step beside him, waiting a moment before breaking the silence.

“Okay, just checking.”

Zach gave a wry, disbelieving chuckle. “Just ~checking~?!”

“Well, you’ve been avoiding her for a while now, and you also went a little homicidal, so I was justifiably concerned. Probably more about you than her, actually…,” he finished with a quiet mumble.

Zach growled threateningly but Alex only laughed, knowing there was no real heat behind it.

“I seriously hope I don’t turn into a mess like you if I mate.”

“Shut up.”