“No,” I shout. He raises his head, and I tense at his brutal, scarred features. “Don’t hurt her. I’ll come with you.”
“No,” Catherine protests feebly, struggling to push herself up. The man kicks her. She flies across the pantry, crashing into an opposite wall. The shelf cracks, and she falls to the floor. Glass jars rain down, shattering on the tile. Catherine lies among the wreckage-so still, I fear she’s dead.
“Stop it,” I scream, rushing him. He catches me easily and drags me through the kitchen and into the hall. Two more black clad guards flank us.
“We’ve got her,” the scarred brute tells them. “Let’s go.” He pins me under his arm, and I struggle until something pricks my neck, and the darkness swallows me.
Brick
We arrive at the game site, pulling into a snowy lot to park. A second SUV pulls up beside ours. I expect to see Sully and the rest of our party, but only Billy climbs out. He’s been giving me space, knowing he’s on my shit list. My wolf still hasn’t forgiven him for mistrusting Madison.
“Where’s Sully?” I ask.
“He stayed behind,” Nickel answers for Billy. “There was some sort of security glitch on the island.”
“What’s happened?” Madi is on the island. “Is everything okay with my ma-” I catch myself before I say mate. I’m here to pretend to find a mate. I hate it, but I have to keep up the ruse that I haven’t attached myself to a human a little longer. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s no big deal. The guards were a little late to check in, that’s all.” Sully’s team is supposed to check in every hour on the hour. Sometimes via phone or video call, but most of the time it’s done with a special code. “The internet went down for a few minutes, that might have delayed it.”
My wolf goes into overdrive, slamming against the walls of the cage. Every muscle in me tightens to keep from unleashing the beast. “I need to go.” My mate might be in danger.
“With all due respect” -Nickel faces me, careful not to meet my eyes while still standing strong-“this is probably nothing. Sully’s on it. He should be conferencing now with the head of security on the island. If anything’s wrong, he’ll fly out himself.”
My nerves are screaming red alert. “I should be there.” I shouldn’t have left. What sort of alpha am I, leaving my vulnerable mate alone?
“You need to be here, Alpha,” Jake murmurs. He and Vance crowd me, blocking others from seeing my meltdown. Beyond them, I sense Billy watching me.
“If you want to sell this, then Jake is right,” Nickel says. “Think of the pack.”
Right. The pack. I need to focus on why I’m here. A show of strength to prove I’m not moon mad.
The whole shifter world is watching.
Nickel pulls out his phone. “Do you want me to call Sully?” He tries and grimaces. “I have no signal.”
My top wolves hover around me, waiting for me to make a decision. It’s up to me.
I’ve come all this way. This is the plan-show my face at the mating games. I don’t have to stay long.
“Let’s go,” I growl.
Jake and Nickel nod, relaxing.
“Just get through one game,” Vance says. “Smile, shake hands, make conversation.”
“Right.” My voice is so gravely, it may as well be a growl. “Smile.”
“As they say in England,
Stiff upper fang, old chap,” Vance says in a horrible accent.
“We do not say that,” Nickel mutters. He catches sight of my face and advises, “Perhaps a little less fang.” I glare at him, and he lowers his eyes. “Nevermind.”
“Let’s go.” I follow the scent of ash down a path that cuts through the trees. We emerge in a field. In the center, a pile of tree trunks shoots up flames taller than me. Members of the other packs congregate there in tight huddles organized by pack.
I lead my pack to a spot near the bonfire, close enough to feel the heat but not be seared by it, and out of the path of the billowing smoke. A group of wolves dressed in black march up from the opposite side of the field to stand across from us, and my wolf snaps into focus.
So does Billy. “Guys,” he mutters, and my sister, Jake, and Vance quiet. “The Adalwulfs are here.”
“Good,” Vance says. He and Jake step in front of Scarlett as if to block her from the Adalwulf pack’s view. “It’ll make things more interesting. Sometimes these games get violent. As long as no one dies.”
“But if someone falls into a chasm or suffocates in a snow cave, it’s just a horrible accident,” Jake murmurs back.
Vance smacks his right fist into the opposite palm. “Exactly.”
“Wait, where’s Aiden?” Nickel narrows his eyes. There’s no sign of Odin’s son among the wolves in black. And of course, Odin isn’t here-he’s snug in his fortress, living out his last days.
So why are wolves from his pack here? Enforcers-the biggest, baddest of their fighters.
My wolf tugs at me. Something’s not right.
One of the Adalwulfs, a big bruiser with a scar slashed across his face leaps to the top of a boulder.
“Change of plans today,” he shouts. A shudder goes through onlookers as they see his harshly scarred face. Wolves don’t scar like that unless the wound is treated with vampire blood. But Odin is known for punishing his troops with that sort of torture. “Our alpha Odin has designed a new game.”
“What game?” A wolf with a French accent calls.
The wind picks up, clearing away the smoke, and carrying a chilling scent to me. A soft, sweet one that doesn’t belong in this frozen landscape.
No. It can’t be. The scent smells exactly like…
“Madison.” A strangled growl bursts from my chest, right when the Adalwulf announcer looks straight at me.
“The challenge is called hunt the human.”
* * *
Madi
Icy needles prick my cheeks. I flinch, and an awful clump of freezing wet slush falls against my neck. It’s so cold it burns, and I jerk upright.
Pain pounds through my temples. My mouth tastes like ash. There’s a strange slumberousness in my limbs, but the savage wind slicing through me is waking me the fuck up.
I’m no longer in balmy Greece, with white sands and turquoise blue water asfar as the eye can see. The sky above me is gray and heavy. I’m on a vast frozen plain, lying in the snow.
Someone wrapped a thick, red coat around me and shoved my bare feet into snow boots, but underneath I’m still in the light blue sundress I was wearing on the island. My hands and bare knees are already going numb. I force my frozen fingers to zip up the coat and flip up the hood. I’m whimpering, my jaw cramping from how fast my teeth are chattering.
Where am I? I have to think.
There are tracks around me, the heavy boots of my captors imprinted in the drifts. Far to the left are signs of parallel tracks-like a helicopter landed there. There’s no sign of the helicopter now. There’s no sign of any living soul.
I’m alone.
Dark shapes topped with snow rise in the distance. I brush away the snowflakes clumping on my eyelashes and can make out massive evergreen pines. I must be on a frozen lake, and the trees are lining the shore. Beyond the forest, giant peaks disappear into the clouds.
I force myself to eat a handful of snow. The frigid sting wakes me up further. My fingers throb with pain that fades to numbness. I shove them in the coat pockets.
My last memories are of the scar-faced man dragging me through the kitchen, leaving Catherine’s broken body lying on the pantry floor.
I hope she and Ariadne are okay. I hope someone figured out how to get a signal and radio for help. Because I need someone to figure out what happened and find me before I freeze to death.
The Adalwulfs must have drugged me and dropped me in Alaska. Or somewhere with frozen lakes, mountains, and pine trees.
Not Alaska…
Sweden. Because that’s where Brick is, right? The only reason the Adalwulfs would be after me is because of him.
First things first. I have to find shelter. I can’t survive out in the open like this. The only reason I haven’t died of exposure is the winter coat and boots my kidnappers gifted me with.
Thanks for nothing, asshats.
They must want me to survive long enough to… what? Die tonight when it gets much colder?
This line of thought is not helping. I force myself to trudge towards the nearest shoreline, a mile away.
I’m not going to die here. I can figure this out.
An eerie sound bursts from the treeline. I stumble to a halt, my muscles freezing as the melancholy cry goes on and on. Am I headed towards it? Or away?
The howl stops and starts again. Then another and another, echoing off the mountains until the howling comes from all sides.
It might be Brick or his pack.
But it might not. And I can’t risk it.
I grit my teeth and start to run towards the shore.
* * *
Brick
I crash through the forest, branches whipping my face. I’m running, still in human form. I haven’t taken the time to shift. My speed turns the falling snow into sharp sleet slicing at my face.
Wolf howls echo all around.
She’s out there. Alone. My mate.
I knew something was wrong.
And now she’s in danger. My wolf was telling me to return to her, and I let my top wolves convince me to go ahead with this charade, to put my pack first.
Did they know something was wrong? Did Sully know how bad it was and hide it from me?
Is there a traitor in my pack? Can I trust any of them to fight for a human?
But I can’t stop to think about that now. I have to find her.
I put on speed, dodging boulders and pushing through the tightly-thatched pine boughs. Branches crackle and snap, dumping snow in my wake. When I break free from the woods, Billy is running flat out beside me.
“Scarlett,” I grit out. Madi is my first focus, but I can’t forget my little sister. With the Adalwulfs making trouble, she might be in danger.
“Headed back to the hotel under guard. Sully will keep her safe.”
If Sully can be trusted. Dammit!
Behind us, a long, low bugling sound rings out. A hunting horn.
“What’s that?” Billy asks.
“The start of the games,” I answer grimly. Now more wolf packs will be out to find Madi.
“Nickel stayed behind to explain. The packs wouldn’t-“
“Some of them would.” Some of them would find hunting a human distasteful. Some of them would relish it.
Howls break out. Among the rest, I recognize Jake and Vance’s distinctive song. Billy says, “I told them to spread out and watch our backs. The Adalwulfs are up to something.”
The wind shifts, blowing bonfire smoke our way, and I lose the faint floral scent. I halt, floundering in the snow.
“This way,” Billy says, and I follow him to higher ground. We come up on a rocky hilltop, overlooking a thick pine forest. Beyond the frosted tree tops lies a large frozen expanse. “There, on the lake.” He points. There’s nothing but white, but then swirling snow settles, revealing a tiny red dot. A figure struggling across the snow-covered ice.
Madi. My mate.
I’m off like a shot, speeding down the hill.
“Alpha,” Billy shouts. “Wait!” He’s running too, but a few feet behind me. So when I plow into the waiting Adalwulfs, he’s able to avoid their attack.
Giant black and brown wolves surround me on both sides, leaping to bring me down. They’re half feral, with huge fangs and bright red eyes. Odin’s enforcers take a potion to enhance their strength-the side effect is red eyes.
The leader, Scar Face, strides forward, still in human form. “Odin sends his regards. He will relish news of your death as he did that of your father’s.”
He leaps, shifting into a giant black wolf, and goes for my throat. His followers score my sides. I snap at them, and they retreat, only to press into me. Teeth graze my legs, my flanks. A heavy weight lands on my back-a wolf trying to pin me, so Scar Face can tear out my jugular.
In a fair fight, I could destroy every one of them and not break a sweat. But I’m outnumbered, ten to one. The sheer number of bodies threatens to crush me.
Billy stands free of the wolf pile, lunging at anyone who comes close. He’s looking for an opening, ready to jump in to help me fight.
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