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“I just hate it when you say things like that,” I sniffled. “You act as if your life means nothing when it means everything to me,” I gripp
e
d his shirt so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

“Babe,” Caeden rubbed my cheeks. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“But you mean it,” I breathed. “And I know you’ll do it if you have the chance. I can’t-” I swallowed and tried to calm myself down, “I can’t see you hurt again.” I shook my head and my hair rubbed against his shirt. “That night, when you came to Gram’s and Peter had hurt you, changed things for me Caeden.” I purposefully lifted his shirt up and over his head. “Look at this Caeden,” I rubbed the scars on this side.
Caeden’s perfect tanned skin
was
marred by five pale white scars
;
all several inches long.

“But what about you?” he grabbed my arm and held it out so the light hit it.
LIAR
. “They hurt you too, don’t you want to do something?”

I clenched my teeth and then spat, “Of course I want to do something! But I don’t want to do something that’s just plain out suicidal!”

“I’m not being suicidal,” Caeden pulled away from me and brought his legs up to his chest where he then rested his arms. His muscles were tense and his jaw ticked.

I pulled at the emerald color grass. Before I shifted for the first time grass had always seemed bland.
Now it shown with a kaleidoscope of
colors.

Finally Caeden collapsed on his back and laughed. His laughter was contagious and I quickly joined him even though I had no idea what he was laughing at.

“What is it?” I finally asked.

“I’ve really ruined today. I wanted to take you to the park and have a date,” he laced his fingers through mine, and the sun made his blue eyes glow. “We never get to have dates anymore.”

“No, I guess we don’t,” I shrugged.

“And of course, I had to mess this one up. I hope you can forgive me?”

“Only if you promise not to go on a suicide mission of revenge. We’re a pack Caeden.”

“I promise,” he said.

“Good,” I said and wrapped my arms around his neck before kissing him senseless.

After we left the park Caeden called the pack and told them to meet us at his house. We were going to find Logan.

I really hoped that Logan had simply left, needing time to think, and that Travis didn’t have a part in this. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to figh
t against another pack and I didn
’t want to be a weak link.
I want to be strong. I don’t want Caeden to worry about me. I want to be able to stand on my own.

Caeden reached over the middle console and laced his fingers with mine as if he sensed my inner turmoil.

We didn’t talk on the drive back to the house. Caeden occasionally received a call from one of the pack. “Bring Lucy,” he said into the phone.

When he hung up I asked, “Who’s Lucy?”

“Logan’s familiar,” he said.

“Oh right, I forgot
.”
Swallowing I said, “I don’t know if I can kill someone. I’m not as confident about that as you are.”

Caeden gently squeezed my hand and turned into his driveway. “I wouldn’t say I’m
confident
that I can kill someone but if he’s hurt another member of
my
pack,” he growled, “he’s not going to live to see the next day.”

Caeden parked the Jeep and we went over to greet Bentley and Bryce who were both sitting on the hood of Bentley’s black GMC truck.

Lucy, Logan’s chocolate lab familiar, paced nearby.

Caeden nodded towards the woods, “Let’s go find Logan.”

*
* *

Power surged in my muscles
as I ran. Nothing could touch me. Caeden’s silver form flickered in front of me. Bryce and Bentley flanked me. My wolf instincts could since a fight coming. Blood was in the air. Caeden stopped and through his head back, howling. His howl promised death. He took off again and I stretched my legs farther to better keep up with him.

Lucy barked somewhere up ahead. I knew we were deep in the woods, deeper than I had ever gone, and maybe even states away.
Adrenaline spurned me forward. Bentley and Bryce struggled to keep up.
My eyes narrowed in determination and I stuck my nose to the ground, smelling everything.

I really hope my little bit of training pays off.
I said to no one in particular.

Don’t worry my she-wolf
, Caeden said.

If I had been in my human form I would have smiled.

Suddenly, Caeden skidded to a stop, and dirt went flying. Lucy pawed at the earth and Caeden helped her.

With a shimmer he shifted
to his human form. I couldn’t help my reaction to turn my head. The rest may be okay with nudity but I hadn’t grown up that way. Cautiously, I turned my head back. Caeden was covering his bottom half with a bloodied shirt. I sniffed. The scent of grass, water, and air hit my lungs. Mixed together it was a scent that was uniquely Logan’s.

The shirt dropped from Caeden’s hand as he shimmered once more and became a wolf.

He’s close
, was all Caeden said.

The guys and I followed Caeden and Lucy.

Lucy came to a stop in front of what could only be described as a cave. But instead of being made of rock it was formed from dirt.

The five of us crept
forward.

The smell of stale earth and blood assaulted my lungs and I gagged. As a wolf it sounded like I was trying to cough up a hairball.

I focused on picking out distinct scents to identify any shifters that may have been here.

Malice floated through the air, bearing the spicy sent that was Travis.

Flowers. Carnations to be exact belonged to Hannah.

I couldn’t pick up a scent belonging to Robert, but I hadn’t been around him enough to connect one with him, so I had to assume that three wolves were waiting for us.

The cave, if it could even be called that, widen out.

Logan!
Caeden cried. He ran forward.

I stopped in my tracks at what I saw. If I had been a human I would have clapped a hand over my open mouth.

Logan was tied to the wall with metal chains that dug into his wrists and ankles. His shirt, obviously, was gone. His naked chest was crisscrossed with claws marks. In those marks something glittered and with renewed horror I realized what it was. Silver.

“Silver is deadly… to werewolves too, more so, than it is to us… For shifters it gives us an injury… that doesn’t heal fast… which can lead to death…” Caeden’s voice echoed through my he
ad from that long ago day when
he was bleeding on my couch.

With the injuries Logan had sustained and the amount of silver… I’d say he didn’t have much time left.

Caeden and Bentley
shifted
to their human forms and began to untie Logan.

Bryce suddenly whimpered and I turned my head towards him.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Travis clapped his hands as he entered the widened out portion of the cave. He was shirtless and his jeans hung low on his hips. His black eyes were void of any compassion. They were the eyes of a killer. A murderer. Robert and Hannah hovered behind him. “Come to rescue an impure? Tsk, tsk, Caeden. Don’t you know they’re not allowed to live?”

Caeden growled, despite being in his human form.

“You are the impure,” Caeden spat. They finished untying Logan and the blond boy slumped forward, passed out; completely unaware that rescue had come.

Bentley and Caeden gently helped Logan to the floor, careful not to hurt him, even though he was completely oblivious to the world.

“Travis,” Caeden’s teeth groaned together. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll run.”

“Oh, are we playing cat and mouse?” Travis grinned, showing elongated teeth. Hair began to sprout and he started to shimmer. “I love games. I choose cat,” his words were muffled around his teeth. He dropped to his paws and a blondish-white wolf stood before us with black eyes. Robert and Hannah
shifted
too.
Robert’s color was ashy where Hannah’s was almost a peach color.
Travis barked in warning. Run.

Caeden and Bentley
shifted
.

Sophie, stay here,
Caeden instructed.

What? No!
I protested.

Please, I need you to stay with Logan in case they come back for him. Please.
He said all this with his eyes zeroed in on Travis.

Okay.
I said.

Let’s go boys
, Caeden said and the three large wolves rushed the smaller ones.

Travis and his pack took off like bullets out of the cave, after all there was no where else for them to go.

I padded over to Logan. His chest rose and fell painfully. His breaths gurgled and I worried he may have a punctured lung. Strips of skin hung off of him like a torn shirt. How did anyone do this to another human being?

Logan hadn’t always been nic
e, most of the time he was down
right rude, but no one deserved this.

I switched to human form to inspect his wounds better. When I found that there was nothing I could do I switched back so I would be better prepared to defend if need be.

I heard a howl outside and my hackles rose. I knew Caeden was right, that I needed to stay with Logan, but I couldn’t help feeling like I needed to be out there. Four against three was better than three against three. I began to pace the perimeter of the cave for something to do. Logan obviously wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.

Another howl sounded close to the entrance. It was a howl of pain. Of distress and I knew it belonged to one of my own. Bryce.

With a quick look at Logan I sprinted from the cave and towards the howl. I saw Bentley straight ahead fighting Hannah. To my left, Caeden and Travis disappeared behind some
trees;
they were making the most noise. But immediately to my right Robert had Bryce down on the
ground, his teeth seconds away from biting into Bryce’s neck and killing him. Bryce whimpered and that noise alone spurned me into action once more.

A power like none I’d ever felt coursed through my veins and I hit Robert in the side. I heard several ribs crack and break.

Kill him. Kill him. I will KILL HIM.

In that moment all my humanity disappeared. I was nothing but a wolf.
A wolf intent on protecting its pack mate.
A wolf intent on the kill.

Fear flooded Robert’s eyes.

I struck down and slashed his neck open with my teeth, cutting through his pelt and skin. His blood rushed into my mouth, hot and rusty. The light went out of his eyes and with death he reverted back to his human form. His coppery blood coated my mouth and soaked the earth.

I had killed a man, a boy really, in a matter of seconds and hadn’t felt a thing.

I padded cautiously towards Bryce, who wasn’t making a noise.

His eyes were closed but his chest rose and fell. He must have passed out because he was now in his human form. When we
’
re wolves we only change
bac
k to our human form if we want to, we’re
killed, or we
pass
out.

His throat had a pretty big cut but it was healing. It would heal faster if he was in his wolf form but I didn’t want to attempt to wake him up. It would be better if he could heal without feeling the pain.

Bentley limped over. Hannah had bit his leg and blood oozed out, dripping with little, plop, plop, plop, sounds to the ground.

She’s dead.
Bentley said.

Robert’s dead too.
I said.

Remind me, I never want to be on the receiving end of your anger.
His tongue lolled to the side in a wolfish grin. His gold eyes seemed so bright against his black fur.

A bark and howl sounded a few miles away.

Caeden and Travis.

Worry coated my tongue with an acidic taste. I tried to spit it out but instead only succeeded in looking demented.

Bentley and I looked at each other as we listened to the sounds of the war raging nearby.
We were both breathing heavy and the same fear that resided in my soul was reflected in his eyes. I could hear the blood rushing through my body.