Jagger might never forgive us. I knew in my heart he would blame me most of all. My cousin. My blood. We bound him in chains made of dragonsteel and left to try and save his heart.

My own heart ripped from me as we got closer to the warehouse. Molly was strong. I could feel her trying to keep calm. Even now, she was trying to protect me.

“You okay, man?” Payne asked. We’d belly-crawled up a shallow embankment. The warehouse was bordered by a small reservoir. Bess’s intel had been accurate so far. We sensed three shifters from the Pack. One strong, two weaker.

Gritting my teeth, I nodded at Payne. “We clear on what we’re here to do?”

This was a kill mission. Once we got the girls to safety, we could leave no survivors, even if we were the ones to die.

“Why haven’t they scented us yet?” Mac slid closer to me. His wolf eyes flashed in the dark stillness of the night.

I closed my eyes and reached out with my heart. Molly was moving, talking. Afraid, but in control.

“They aren’t trying to yet,” I said. Mac took it as the simple answer it sounded like. Payne shot me a look. He understood. They weren’t trying because their attention was diverted by something.

Our women.

“Liam,” Gunnar put a firm hand on my shoulder. It had nearly come to blows between us back in the caves. He’d lobbied to put me in chains right alongside Jagger. He figured my connection to Molly was strong enough to cloud my judgment and risk exposing all of us. I’d convinced him otherwise. I had lied.

“What do you see?” I said, my words thick in my throat.

Gunnar set his gaze toward the warehouse. Zeke’s pickup truck was parked in front of it. Two red eyes flashed near the southwest corner. He was a big, black wolf. My skin pricked, but the wolf turned away from us.

“You see that fucker in the front seat?” Mac asked.

Squinting, I looked again at the truck. Sure enough, Zeke Redmond sat with his hands on the wheel looking nervously toward the prowling black wolf.

“We take the black wolf out first,” Gunnar said.

“We split up,” I countered. “The minute we make a move toward him, he’ll alert the other two inside.”

“Fine,” Mac said. “You handle the black wolf and that shitheel in the pickup. Gunnar, Payne, and I will storm the warehouse.”

I rose and faced him. “I’m going for Molly.”

“Dammit, Liam,” Gunnar tore a hand through his hair. “You let us handle it.”

“I’m going for Molly,” I said. “If I have to go through the three of you to get to her. I won’t make a mistake.”

“There’s no time for this,” Payne said. “But let this be a lesson to all of us. Mates are trouble.”

“He’s on her!” I shouted. I didn’t wait for the others. I ran toward the northeast corner of the building. Gunnar and Payne swore behind me, but they followed.

Mac moved, but stayed behind, watching our sixes. All it would take was one wrong move and these wolves could signal to the rest of the Chief Pack. If more came, none of us would make it out alive.

Payne took the black wolf. He wasn’t ready for it. Payne leaped and shifted in midair. He had the black wolf on his back, paws up. I tasted blood in my own mouth as Payne’s fangs sank into his neck. I would have liked to watch him die.

An echoing click drew my attention. Zeke had gotten out of his truck. He aimed a shotgun straight at me. Gunnar was at my side, growling. He hadn’t shifted yet, but his shoulders twitched with the urge.

“Like clockwork,” Zeke said. Payne’s attack had been almost silent. Earbuds dangled from Zeke’s neck. The idiot hadn’t seen or heard Payne strike. He hadn’t realized that his wolf protector just had his throat ripped out.

Payne stood right behind Zeke, his fangs still dripping from the blood of his kill.

“Put the gun down, Zeke,” I said. “We don’t kill humans unless we have to. Don’t make us have to.”

Zeke shifted his aim, leveling the barrel of his shotgun straight at my chest. Payne struck before he got the shot off. Again, his attack came lethal and silent. But Zeke didn’t die. His back broken, he writhed on the ground.

I stepped over him. “You shouldn’t hit girls, Zeke,” I said, spitting on the ground next to him.

“They’re going to kill you.” His voice came out as a painful hiss. But there was nothing more he could do. If he survived the night, he might never walk again.

She screamed. My heart turned to stone.

I heard Mac cry out from behind me, warning me not to move. Beneath that, the pull began low in my belly. They were close. They were coming.

My wolf tore out of me. I leaped high, shifting before my paws hit the ground. Payne and Gunnar were at my side. Pushing past me, they hit the steel door of the warehouse together, buckling it as if it were made of tinfoil. Their wolves rippled below the surface, but they held back the shift. I was too far gone.

In my mind, there was only Molly. For the rest of my life I would wonder if things might have ended differently if that hadn’t been true. If I had held back my shift, would that have made the events of those three seconds change?

He held her against the back wall of the warehouse, his fingers curled around her neck. Molly’s eyes widened with shock, but somehow, she didn’t scream.

He was tall and broad; his eyes glinted gold. Not red. It meant he was as strong as we were. The Alpha’s pull hadn’t dragged him under, turning his eyes red. In my periphery I saw the red wolf. He’d shifted the instant we burst through the door. Payne, Gunnar, and Mac were on him.

Behind me, flesh tore. In my rage, I had no thought of whose it was. It didn’t matter. Molly was the only thing that mattered.

“Stop!” Molly’s voice reached me.

The pulse of the pack thundered inside my head. The command was simple.

Submit. Submit. Submit.

The urge to lie on the ground made my legs weak. Madness threatened to rip my vision from me. It was Molly’s voice, Molly’s heartbeat that tethered me.

Let her go! It was my command. The man holding her by the throat stayed still as a statue. Growls erupted behind me. It might have been the others. It might have been the red wolf. I didn’t care.

“Liam,” Molly whispered. “Oh, Liam.” Her eyes fixed on a point over my left shoulder.

Something was coming. Hell, the whole Pack might be about to barge through the warehouse door. It didn’t matter. It only mattered that I ripped apart the shifter standing between Molly and me.

“Don’t call them,” she cried. She wasn’t talking to me. She was talking to the man holding her. “I’ll go with you. Just don’t call them. Let him go.”

He turned to her, his lips curled into a smile. “You’ll go with me anyway.”

I didn’t let him say anything more. Molly screamed as she turned back to me. She felt my thundering heartbeat and knew what I was about to do.

I lunged for him. He didn’t shift then. If he had, he might have won. We might have died together.

As I sunk my teeth into his arm and pulled him off Molly, he cried out and tried to throw me off. When we tumbled to the ground together, only then did he shift. His wolf sprang forth. He was silvery-gray and bigger than me. In another time, another place, that might have mattered. But I had something to fight for.

“Liam!” Molly screamed.

The gray wolf rounded on me. I’d wounded him badly. Blood poured freely from the torn flesh of his shoulder. He got his bearings though and charged. He caught me in the chest, driving me backward until we hit the far wall of the warehouse. Metal buckled from the force of our bodies. I dug my claws into his back. He howled in agony but sank his teeth into my shoulder, drawing blood that made my vision waver.

I held on, going for his jugular. He squirmed beneath me. His greater size didn’t matter as I held him down. His eyes went wide with understanding just before I sank my fangs in for the kill.

“Liam!” It was Mac’s voice behind me. He needn’t have worried. I knew what he wanted. The gray wolf’s eyes darkened then began to fill with red. He was calling for the Chief Pack. The taste of metal filled my mouth as his blood began to flow.

He died with his eyes open, glinting gold still, but vacant.

My blood rage thundered through my veins. It wasn’t enough that he was dead. I wanted to tear him apart. Strong hands on my shoulders drew me back. In the heat of it, I kept fighting. I would have kept on killing.

Once again, it was Molly’s voice that drew me back from the brink.

“Liam,” she cried. “Stop! It’s Payne!”

I paused long enough for Payne to fling me against the wall. It got me out of my head long enough. I shifted back, rising on unsteady legs. Pain flared from the wound in my shoulder. Each pulse was agony.

Staggering forward, I looked for Molly. Panic seized me as I couldn’t find her at first. Only Payne’s hand on my good shoulder kept me from shifting again.

“We have to get out of here,” he said. “You killed the strong one. But the Pack senses something. Can’t you feel it?”

I couldn’t feel anything but the pain in my shoulder and Molly’s frantic heartbeat. Mac and Gunnar were doubled over near the center of the room though. Mac clamped his hands over his ears. The command from the Pack was burning through him.

Then I saw Molly. I had one brief beat of joy. Then, I took a step forward and my heart ripped in two.

She was on her knees, doubled over like the others. Her breath was ragged and she knelt over Keara. Keara lay on her back, not moving as Molly did chest compressions.

Oh, God.

I ran to Molly’s side. Keara’s color was ashen. Her eyes were fixed and dilated as she stared at the ceiling, sightless.