Hours passed as the Rizer pack combed through the town of Freebasin finding and hunting out the renegades who were hiding in the homes of the people of Freebasin. Some of them victimized before the pack could get to them.

Few of the renegades were left alive after the Rizer pack found witnessed their cruel acts. Darian said commanded the pack to make an example of those who come to do harm to the people of Freebasin.

Ian thought of what might have happened to Nora if she’d been in the town at the time the renegades attacked and his ferocity tripled. Understanding how Darian had become so protective over Cara’s people made sense to Ian now.

“Thank you, for coming,” one of the women is crying and clutching her daughter to her chest. The young woman has a haunted look on her face. It makes Ian want to kill the man who put that look on her face all over again.

Darian nods to her. Killian howls calling his pregnant mate Angeline to come and help see to the wounded now that the threat has passed. When her answer doesn’t come Killian shoots to his feet.

“I’ll go find her, you stay here and see to the wounded,” Darian commands Killian but he’s struggling to hold him with his authority and we all know the minute Darian leaves, Killian will be right behind him.

Ian races forward. “I’ll go.”

Darian nods and tells Victor to go with Ian.

The two wolves jet off through the forest. Ian taking the lead and slowing when he reaches the area where he left Nora. Following her trail he finds her crying silently and shaking at the base of the mountain. Bowing his head he picked up Nora by going between her legs and then standing.

He jostled her purposefully so that she would hold on. Killian was already ahead of them and would arrive at Rizer fortress alone. As soon as Nora got a good grip on him, Ian charged up the mountain as fast as he was physically capable.

The furious roar that sounded up ahead shook the ground and was joined by the other half of the pack making the earth shake as if the mountain were getting ready to gobble up the forest.

“No, no, no. Please no,” Nora pleaded against his back. She wasn’t speaking to him though. It was like she was praying.

Ian only made it to the gates of the Rizer fortress. The rest of the pack was coming out. Kate one of the elder shifters grabbed Nora by the throat and slammed her to the ground right off Ian’s back. “Who are you?” Kate demanded of Nora.

Ian rammed his shoulder into Kate forcing her to release Nora.

No one hurts our mate. His wolf spirit growled with approval.

Kate doesn’t stay down but comes right back at Nora. Ian leaped upward taking the hit of Kate claws and teeth in his chest.

“Stop it,” Nora cries. “Ian it’s okay, let her do whatever she wants to me. I deserve it.”

“I knew it,” Kate growled she was partially shifted, half beast with wild wolf eyes set in a human face with giant wolf teeth.

Ian didn’t shift. His body was dripping blood as he put himself again between Kate and Nora. Victor flanked him adding his support to Ian.

“What does that mean?” Onyx the black-haired shifter female once part of the Herod pack asks Nora as she joins the group. “The others are on their way back.”

Ian still hasn’t shifted, his body leans against her enough to remind her that he’s with her.

***

She knows she doesn’t deserve his protection. At the same time, she finds herself leaning on him too and holding onto his fur.

Deserving being ripped to shreds and knowing you are only a few words away from it actually happening doesn’t make it any easier.

“I am so sorry,” Nora begins.

Kate is shifting slowly which is entirely more terrifying that a fast shift. Her jaws are growing toward Nora as she looks at her. A long string of saliva dripping from her huge sharp teeth.

“Speak woman, what have you done?” Onyx demands.

“I am a member of… of the… HRAF,” Nora’s fingers tighten in Ian’s fur as Kate finishes shifting. She begins to circle around Nora looking for an opening to strike.  “My family was torn to pieces by shifters right in front of my own eyes. That doesn’t make what I’ve done right. I’m not saying it does.”

Hurry just say it and get this over with.

“My contact came to me today wanting information. I told him about what Angeline can do, her visions.”

The sound that Ian makes is like a wounded animal but worse. The sound is so painful that everyone who hears it flinches. Nora feels it like a slash to her own heart with a poisoned blade. Tears are streaming down her face. It hurts so much she wants the shifters to tear her into a million pieces and end her suffering.

Ian pulls away and starts shifting back into his human form. Nora fists her hands ready to feel the pain of the pack bringing about her death.

“How could you do this?” Ian roared launching from all fours onto his back feet as he finished shifting.

Nora didn’t step back or cower away. She knew whatever strike he delivered she earned with her betrayal. He stopped coming toward her when his face was a mere inch or two from hers. His eyes so angry and hurt that to look into them made Nora wish that Kate had killed her already.

“He was going to take you,” Nora answered her voice quivering painfully. “I couldn’t let him use me against you. I… I love you, Ian.”

“You love me? This is how you treat someone you love? By using them to hurt their family?”

Nora closed her eyes long enough to let out her sob of pain that she could no longer hold inside. “I’m so sorry, Ian.”

Killian arrived next and before Nora knew what was happening Ian had her in his arms. The pack was coming from nearly every direction.

Ian leaped straight up into the air to avoid the attack but they weren’t finished attacking. Nora tried to push away from Ian to end it and he growled ferociously into her neck.

“She’s my mate,” Ian roared so loud Nora couldn’t hear the next few things he said because her ears were ringing.

“They’ll torture Angeline,” Darian said. The pack with their keen hearing having heard enough to know what had happened. “She’s pregnant,” he growled his amber eyes cutting through Nora like a knife.

Nora stiffened realizing that there was still something she could do. “Let me go back and get her out.”

“No, we’ll all go.”

“After Rafi’s pack murdered the last nest of HRAF? They’ll have devices set up for miles around to listen for you. They’ll kill her the instant they realize you’ve come for her,” Nora warned them afraid because she knew they had no reason to trust her.

“You’re saying that you want to return to this crazy murder and torture camp, and you want to do it by yourself?” Ian growls.

Nora is no longer afraid. If he was going to hit her, he would have by then. “Yes. It’s the only way to get Angeline out alive.”

“She could just go warn them that we’re coming,” Cora, the female alpha said as she studied Nora, her light brown hair fell in delicate curls making her appear soft, but the steel in her eyes spoke volumes about what she was truly capable of.

“If I go first you will be able to track me and you’ll be led directly to the place where Angeline is being kept. I have to go, it’s your best chance,” Nora told them.

“Let her go,” Killian growled. “if she doesn’t get my wife and unborn child back safely I will kill her regardless.”

Ian blocked Nora from Killian’s view. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

“I will,” Killian answered without hesitation.

“I’m going,” Nora said. “You don’t have to fight each other. I have done enough damage, don’t you think?”

“Ian, you walk with her until she tells you that you can’t go any further. We will join you. I will calm the pack.” Darian the alpha commanded before looking directly at Nora. “You will return Angeline to us. There is no other choice for you.”

Nora wasn’t a werewolf so he could not coerce her with his alpha authority, but she nodded because she understood. It was also a not so subtle threat. It didn’t anger me though. I’d caused one of his family, a pregnant woman no less to be taken away and tortured.

She turned and started walking. Any second one of the wolves was going to become uncontrollable and kill her. At least she believed they would until she dared look back at Ian. He was walking just behind her. The warning looks he was giving the pack weakened her resolve to stop crying.

He’s still protecting me after everything I’ve done? What kind of creature am I that I don’t forgive like he does, or be as loyal as he is when he has no reason to be?

“Keep walking,” Ian commanded putting light pressure at the small of her back. “Darian is struggling to keep them still.”

Nora picked up her pace, concentrating on pushing her body instead of all the guilt and pain filling her like a tsunami. Digging deep she forced herself to stop crying. Wiping her face with the back of her hand she did her best to clean away any trace of her tears.

It didn’t take long for Ian to start asking questions as he followed her through the forest. “Is everything a lie?”

“My name is Nora Prush. I really did see my family killed by your kind.”

“And everything else? Your kiss? Your touch? Your cries of pleasure when I poured into you?” Ian’s voice was raw and harsh sounding.

Nora knew she could simply tell him it was all true but he wouldn’t believe it. Somehow it mattered to her that he knew that she really did love him. Maybe it was because she’d never really loved anyone who wasn’t her family like she did him.

This might be the last time she got to speak with him she realized and through caution to the wayside. Why not be vulnerable and bear all when it was the last chance she’d have to do so?

“I leaned on Slade after my family was killed. He pulled me into the wagon that kept me from joining their fate and it linked me to him. All these years, I thought that I loved Slade.”

A low rumble emanates from Ian’s barreled chest.

“The truth is, Ian that I forgot how to love. I was so consumed with hating.” Nora swallowed hard. “I clung to it because it was so much safer than caring. It wasn’t something I decided, in fact, I don’t think I even knew I was doing it. Until that day when you chased away the Nothings.”

Ian turned his face away from Nora and she could not see if her words were getting through any more or if he was just shutting her out. Maybe he was finished listening to her since so much of what had gone on between them was lies.

“I couldn’t believe you were a wild feral animal pretending to be human when you were the most caring man I’ve ever met. I couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t drawn to you and attracted to you when I couldn’t bear the touch of Slade any longer because all I could think about was you.”

“Stop lying to me,” Ian growled turning his face so she could see his rage. “Don’t you care that you’re killing me? That your words are ripping my insides to nothing?”

Nora didn’t flinch away from him even though she knew that was what he was trying to get her to do. “I’m not lying. I haven’t known you long enough to love you, Ian. Somehow that doesn’t matter. I do. I love you.”

“You betrayed me.”

“I betrayed you before I knew you and yes after I knew you too. I wanted to save you, Ian.”

His hands gripped her upper arm and Ian jerked her so she was standing in front of him and gave her a shake. “Do I look like I need protecting. Do these scars make you think that I’m weak? I’ve been tortured for answers and I did not give away anything. I did not betray my family. I would never betray the ones I love.”

Nora’s lower lip quivered even though she was doing her best to be strong and brave. “I know. You are the strongest man I know. I’m sorry that I love you too much to allow you to be tortured again.”

Ian’s hands opened and he pulled them back like she’d burned him. She was still hurting him. Her words were only adding to his pain and doing nothing to make him feel any better about anything that had happened between them.

“My time with you was the happiest I’ve ever had. Thank you, Ian.” She held her hand up but was careful not to touch him, she didn’t want him to cause him any more pain. “You have to stop here. I will continue on. It will take me a half hour to reach the sub base. You have to give me at least that long before you or any of the pack pass this point.”

Ian just stared at her, his eyes full of so much emotion it was impossible to know what he was thinking.

“You were right to trust me. It was me who did wrong. This is my fault and it’s my duty to make it right. I’m really sorry, Ian.” Nora turned and started running hoping to cover a lot of ground in the smallest amount of time possible.

If I can shave five minutes off my travel time, maybe I can do more than just save Angeline. Maybe I can help the HRAF to understand the shifters better. They’re so wrong about so many things.

“Nora,” Ian’s voice catches her before she can get too far. She turns back to look at him. “If you survive, don’t come back. Don’t ever come back.”

The fragile walls of her strength begin to shatter. She turns and runs as sobs wrack her body and steal her breath.

He hates me. I knew he would and yet it hurts so much more than anything I’ve ever could have imagined.