We are not pack. We are not connected in that way. But, when agony ripped through Jagger, each one of us felt it.

He dropped to his knees and his wolf ripped out of him. Payne and Gunnar were closest. Jagger’s wolf bared his teeth and turned on them. His eyes blazed, not silver as they usually did, but red.

At first, I thought the Alpha had somehow taken hold of his mind again. Panic stirred me and my own wolf chafed to get out. Mac nearly shifted himself. He stood furthest down the path. We’d been clearing debris to make a new passageway. Keara wanted smaller caverns ready to accommodate our growing number of refugees. We took in more every day.

“Jagger!” Gunnar was closest. He squared off with Jagger’s wolf. I could feel his own need to shift coursing through him. I shuddered and gripped the cave walls, drawing blood as my claws came out.

Jagger’s howl turned to a yelp of pain that struck me through the heart. This wasn’t the Alpha. This was Keara.

“Shit!” I yelled, sensing Jagger’s move before he made it. He couldn’t stop himself. This pull was more powerful than anything the Alpha could do. His mate was in trouble...oh, God. She was in pain. “Get hold of him!”

Jagger had just enough man inside of him to understand my words. He turned on me, fangs bared, saliva dripping from them. The message was clear. He’d kill me...he’d kill any of us to get to Keara if that’s what it took. If I ever doubted that I’d do the same for Molly when the time came, Jagger’s bloodlust made that clear.

Wolf on man, he would tear me apart. But, if I gave into the beast, one of us would die. Gunnar, Payne, and Mac acted together. Thank God for them. While Jagger’s attention was focused on me, each of them shifted. They pounced on Jagger, throwing him against the wall with enough force to crack his ribs.

But Jagger was a man possessed. I died a little inside that day. A year ago, we all knew it might come to this. If Jagger’s pull to Keara ever jeopardized the rest of us, we’d made an unspoken pact to stop him.

And stop him we did. Even in his crazed state, Jagger’s wolf was no match for all three of them. My own wolf jittering through me, I straightened my back and went to him. They had Jagger pinned to the ground. He snarled and snapped, but he couldn’t break free.

I leaned down, getting close enough that he could see my eyes, but not close enough that he could rip my face off.

“Jagger,” I said. “We need you human, man. She needs you human. We’ll figure out what to do.”

Jagger howled, but his eyes faded from red to pink to silver, then finally a calmer blue. Though he struggled against the weight of the others, he let out a heaving sigh and shifted back. Sweat covered his body. Payne’s claws ripped into his shoulder.

“Ease up,” I said. “He can’t talk if he can’t breathe.”

Payne and Gunnar shifted back to human. Only Mac stayed in his wolf.

“Let me go,” Jagger said, his voice ragged with pain. “They’re going to kill her. She’s terrified.”

“What do you see?”

Jagger’s eyelids fluttered. His breathing came in uneven pants. When he snapped them open, the bloodlust returned for a fraction of a second. Then, he focused on me.

“They tricked her,” he said. Icy fear coiled through my gut. It was as if I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“Keara was going up to pick up a supply shipment,” Payne said. He moved, still wedging his knee into Jagger’s shoulder, giving him more room to breathe.

“Three of them,” Jagger said. He strained against Payne and Gunnar’s weight. Mac’s wolf snarled behind him.

“The three that chased Molly and me the other night.” It was a statement, not a question. I knew in my heart it was true. I’d been so caught up in Jagger’s distress, I missed the faint pulse of my own. I focused on breathing.

Mac sensed it rising in me. We are not pack, but he is my brother. If he’d followed the others and shifted back, things might have ended differently. But, he didn’t. Mac’s wolf acted with lightning quickness. He backed me into a corner. His low growl an echoing threat through the cavern. I put my palms out in surrender.

“Three of them,” Jagger said again. “They took them.”

Them. They took them. I closed my eyes and tried to still my rumbling wolf. I had to think. The miles of rock above our heads had provided us with protection. Now, they kept me from feeling what I needed to feel. Molly was mine, but I hadn’t marked her. I couldn’t sense her as an extension of myself yet. Not the way Jagger did with Keara. Maybe it kept me sane for a few moments longer. But in the end, my mind went numb anyway as Jagger’s words seemed to hover in the air then finally land.

“Molly and Keara. Let me go or kill me. It’s the only way you’re going to keep me from trying to get to her,” he said.

My eyes snapped open. “No. You’re not dying today.”

“Goddammit!” Jagger struggled against Payne and Gunnar.

I put a hand up and locked eyes with Mac’s wolf. “Stand down,” I told him. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.” That was partly a lie. But, at least I’d try to protect the rest of them along with the girls. Jagger was too far gone.

Mac didn’t shift, but his wolf dropped his head. He took two steps back, giving me some room.

“Jagger, we can’t,” Payne said. He ran a hand across his jaw. Keeping Jagger immobile was tearing them apart. He would hate us for it. I hated us for it.

“Let me go,” I said.

“No,” Gunnar said. “God, we’ve talked about this. We all know the risks. Jagger goes topside for even thirty seconds, the Pack’s going to sense him. The way he is now, they’ll be able to track him. It’s not safe.”

“If you let her die, it won’t matter,” Jagger said, his voice flat.

“Jagger,” I got in his face. “They have Molly too. If someone led the Pack to her, I have a pretty good idea who that might have been. I can track Bess Kennedy. It won’t take long, I’ve been around her enough. I can get to her faster than any of us. You have to trust me.”

“We don’t need Bess Kennedy,” Jagger spat. “You think I can’t track Keara myself? I know exactly where she is. I see what she sees. And right now, it’s dark, Jagger. So, so dark. She’s hurt. But she’s in a warehouse just off the interstate. Five miles south.”

“I know it,” Gunnar said.

“We can’t go charging in there like this,” Payne said. “You know this is killing me as much as the rest of you. But this is what they want us to do. It’s what they expect.”

“We need intel,” I said. “We need to know how many are with her. Who’s guarding them. Bess might know that. If she’s the one who tipped the pack off, I can work with that. I can persuade her.”

I hated the sound of my own voice and what I was suggesting. Bess Kennedy was used to being victimized. God, I hoped I could appeal to her in another way. But, the thought of Molly and Keara being at the mercy of the Pack tore my guts apart.

“Go,” Jagger said. “Go now.”

I didn’t wait for the others. I ran. The moment I emerged from the caves, Molly’s scent filled me. Jagger was exactly right about where she was. Instinct fueled me, pushing me toward her. I had to leave my heart behind and head in the opposite direction.