I wasn’t sure how long I was asleep for, but when low voices had me lurching upright, I felt a clutch of terror in my chest. I knew it was going to be bad, even before I rolled out of bed and searched for my clothes.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked from beside me, still a little sleepy, reaching for the spot that I had just been sleeping in and patting it down as though he couldn’t figure out why I had left. I shook my head.

“We’ve got to get up,” I whispered. I didn’t know for sure, but I had a feeling, judging by the sounds of the voices just outside, that things hadn’t gone to plan. Right on cue, the door flew open and Luke stepped in, glancing over at Ethan and then to me.

“We need to get out of here,” Luke announced, his expression grim.

Ethan’s sleepy eyes went hard and he shot out of bed. “What’s going on?”

I’d started to dress but Luke was already pulling the clothes out of my hands. He was naked, still shivering from the cold, and I realized that we were going to have to shift to get out of here. My eyes widened.

“We have to leave, right now.” He nodded, reading my mind. He stuffed my clothes into the bag he was carrying, and then grabbed Ethan’s.

“Is everyone alright?” I demanded. I needed to know that much, at least.

“We’re all here and safe,” he replied curtly. “But we need to get out. They had a sentry making runs around the perimeter of the place and he must’ve scented us. He sounded the alarm and we’re being pursued. We were afraid if we stopped to fight and wound up losing that they would track our fresh scents back here and find the two of you. Come on, we don’t have any time to waste.”

I followed him out to the living room where everyone else was waiting, and glanced around – they were all on high alert, jaws tense, eyes bright, fresh from a shift.

“Ready?” Anton asked, and I nodded, turning to Ethan, who also confirmed his preparedness.

They followed me outside, all seven of them, and we shifted as one and took off into the woods. I wracked my brain, trying to figure out where we could go from here. Anton and Luke flanked me on either side as we ran. My mind was moving fast but not landing on any good solution besides trying to outrun them – until I remembered the last time that I had been out here, by myself, when I had fled the Robicheaux cabin and was run down by the MacLarens.

I looked over my shoulder and the mercenaries had fallen into something like a formation behind us. Good. I was glad they were there. They were trained, after all, and if my half-baked plan failed and it did come down to a fight-

Suddenly, I caught their scent on the wind. Until then I had just been running because I’d been told to, not because I could hear or feel them in the air. But it was unmistakable when it came, a thick, musky scent that seemed to choke me for a moment, stilling my thoughts and making me slow. Time to make my move.

I took a sharp left, hoping the guys would catch on and follow me, and sure enough, all seven of them did. I could hear their paws crunching through the snow behind me.

I wasn’t sure how long we had before they caught up with us – two minutes, maybe three? But whatever the case, we had to act fast.

I barreled through the forest, the scent of our pursuers growing stronger. I knew they were getting close. How far had they followed us now? They weren’t going to give up at this point, not without something to show for it.

It seemed like an eternity before I burst out of the forest and found myself staring at the lake that I had fallen through the first time I had been captured.

I stepped gingerly onto the ice, praying it would hold. To my relief, there wasn’t so much as a creak as I crossed slowly. The others followed my cue, each of them crossing, one at a time. When we all reached the other side, we hunkered down by tacit agreement, low to the ground in wait. If they made it across, we would have to stand and fight. I didn’t hate our chances, despite our smaller numbers, but if this worked, it would be so much less risky. I couldn’t bear to lose another one of them.

My brain was racing so much at the possibilities that I hardly had time to register the fact that I could have been moments from death right then and there, the same as I was last time I’d been here. Before I could panic, though, the shifters pursuing us came crashing through the trees on other side of the ice-covered lake.

I held my breath and backed into the shadows. Not a sound. Not a movement. Nothing.

There were two dozen of them, maybe more. The first ten or so skidded out onto the ice, not prepared for it, and their nails scrabbled at the slippery surface for some kind of grip. Before they could bark out a warning, though, the others had followed in a headlong rush.

The lake let out an eerie groan just a moment before the crack rang through the forest like a gunshot and my whole body tensed.

Please, god, please…

We watched in silence as they all stopped in their tracks.

And then? All hell broke loose as the ice splintered and shattered like an eggshell. They scrambled backward the way they’d come, but it was too late. The lake opened its gaping maw, swallowing them in one, massive bite.

I turned away, blocking out their gasping howls of terror as the others circled around me restlessly. It didn’t take long for the struggles to cease and for the forest to grow quiet again, but the sound would be etched into my mind for eternity. So much pain and suffering over an old feud that most of us didn’t even know the true origin of anymore.

I paused to collect my emotions and then shifted back into my human form. The others followed suit a moment later.

“How did you know to come here?” Marcus asked at once, eyeing me suspiciously. I shrugged.

“Another group of them chased me down here last time and I fell through,” I replied. “It’s been even colder and I hoped that the lake would be a little more solid.”

“Lucky for you, it was,” Anton said grimly.

“I figured if it wasn’t, you’d fish me out.”

He shook his head slowly and raked a hand through his hair with a hard laugh. “Not a gamble I’d like you to take again, please.”

I couldn’t agree more and nodded. “Deal.”

I went quiet as the enormity of what had happened hit me like a slap. What now? If the mercenaries hadn’t even been able to get close to the compound, how the hell did we stand a chance of saving Rafe?

All of us were standing there in a semi-circle, staring at the inky water, likely thinking the same thought, when a wave of stink hit me.

“What the hell is that stench?” I turned, following my nose, and found myself peering down at the shore of the lake.

When I finally caught sight of the carcass of a rotting elk, a sizzle of excitement ran through me.

Okay, so we might not be able to break into the compound, unnoticed, to save Rafe. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t waltz right in…

“I think I’ve got a plan.”