Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 95748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
She had to be alive. There was no alternative.
Emily’s senses clogged with the sharp tang of blood. The coppery scent filled her nose, thick and suffocating. Nadia lay silent, unmoving, her chest barely rising and falling. Her eyelids fluttered once in a while, but the blood soaking her sweater hadn’t stopped flowing.
Victor lay flat on the floor on his stomach, blood pooling beneath him and seeping into the cracks of the old wood. Four bullets. Four silver bullets to the heart would kill anybody. Even an Alpha.
Raya had left about an hour ago, and she’d taken the knife with her. So Emily just fought the chains the best she could, not getting an extra inch of freedom.
“Nice try.” Raya’s boots clip-clopped as she returned, her black clothing dusted with snow, her dark hair clinging to her face.
Emily tore her gaze from Victor’s still form and looked up at Raya. “Your plan is insane. Neither pack will let you take over with somebody from the Ghostwind Pack.”
Raya stood just inside the doorway, her arms crossed, manic eyes glinting. “I have a plan,” she said, her voice disturbingly light. “My plans are the best.”
“Jackson’s going to kill you for this,” Emily said, willing her voice to stay strong despite the trembling in her limbs. Her wrists ached from the cold metal cuffs, the chain biting into her skin with every movement.
“Jackson will never know it was me.” Raya smirked. “I’ll be back in my own territory just in time for the mining disaster. I’m sure Jackson will be out looking for you,” she added with a tilt of her head. “He’ll come running home the second he hears about the explosion. His pack is everything to him.”
Emily’s pulse pounded harder. “Then you think you can kill him?” Jackson wouldn’t see the betrayal coming, but still. He was a fighter.
Nadia mumbled from her position on the floor, her voice weak.
“Yeah. Then I’m going to kill him,” Raya said, her tone light as if they were discussing a weather forecast. “I’ll probably have Bulwark with me.”
“Oh, yeah. The new Alpha?” Emily managed to grit out.
“You know it’ll never fly, right?” Nadia rasped.
Raya rocked back on her heels, a look of twisted delight dancing across her face. She couldn’t seem to care less that her lover lay dead on the floor, blood soaking into the stone beneath him. Emily was fairly certain Victor was gone. His chest hadn’t moved in minutes, and those silver veins had crawled across his skin too fast for any wolf shifter to survive.
“You don’t understand.” Raya’s smile widened. “Bulwark has Slate Pack Alpha blood in him. He’s from the McGregor family. They were kicked out years ago, and believe me, he wants revenge more than I do.”
At least that explained why he’d stabbed Nadia. It hadn’t just been a job. It was personal.
“So, he has a plan,” Emily said, her mind racing.
“Apparently so,” Raya said, her eyes gleaming. “We just worked out the details. We’re going to mate and rule both packs. We’ll keep them pure. No outsiders. We’ll dig deep for slate, including tat his Embervault Mine, and do so efficiently and properly.”
“What a lunatic,” Nadia muttered, her voice rough with pain.
Unwilling amusement flickered through Emily despite her body ringing in pain. She struggled against the shackles again, but they held firm. “Where is your boy toy right now?” she asked, forcing her voice to steady. If she got free, she had to take him out after Raya.
“He had to return to his pack,” Raya said, her tone almost bored. “They’re preparing to attack the Granite Pack as soon as the bombs go off in Jackson’s mine.”
Emily had to warn Jackson somehow. Those poor miners. “You know the other two packs won’t let you take over. They have a coalition.”
“Oh, they will. They don’t have a choice.” Raya shrugged. “It’ll be two packs against two packs. Erik and Seth may have great fondness for you, but they’re not going to let all their soldiers die in a war. Especially since you’ll be dead.”
“Why aren’t I already?” Emily asked. “You could’ve killed me. Why didn’t you?”
Raya’s smile vanished. Her shoulders stiffened as she stomped over to Victor’s body and kicked him in the shoulder. The body barely moved.
“You were a present for him,” she said, her voice quieter now, almost…wistful. “I thought we were on the same page. We agreed we’d take over all the territory. But in the end…” Her voice dropped to a murmur, tinged with something like sorrow. “He just didn’t want to kill you. He wasn’t strong enough.”
Emily’s stomach twisted. While she’d never been a Victor fan, he’d tried to do the right thing in the end. Awareness tingled along her thighs and up to her heart, sharp and sudden. Strength. Coming from outside?
Jackson?
“Well,” Raya said, “I guess if you weren’t a decent present for Victor, you’ll be one for me.” She lifted the gun, the barrel pointed straight between Emily’s eyes.