The crock pot on the front lawn didn’t make any sense. Colt frowned as he looked from it to the shower curtain, to the broken bedroom window, and back to the littered front yard. What the fuck? Beside him, Karis squeezed his hand and gasped out, “Genie,” and then bolted for the front door.

“Genie!” she screamed louder as she disappeared inside.

“Oh my God, let her be okay,” he murmured as he sprinted after his mate.

Inside, their cabin was a disaster. All the kitchen chairs were toppled over and the cushions were ripped off the couch. Nothing stood upright anymore. Not the coatrack, the bar stools, or the fridge. The pictures had been ripped off the walls, the glass shattered on the frames. The coffee table and kitchen table were nothing but splinters, and every door to the kitchen cabinets were open. They were empty. The dishes were nothing but shards of ceramic adorning the old, scuffed wood floors.

Colt was in shock, but Karis was in a frenzy.

“I hear her!” she yelled, scaling the ladder to the loft.

He could hear her, too. Or rather, he could hear her tiny heartbeat drumming ten miles a minute. Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum.

He didn’t bother with the ladder. He bunched his muscles and leapt for the railing above, latched on with his fingers, and hopped it like he and Trigger used to do when they were kids jumping fences.

His mate was already to her, pulling the terrified squirrel from the hole in the mattress she’d chewed and carved out when she’d hated Karis in the beginning. She used to hide in that hole to leap out and bite Karis, but today, she’d used it to hide from the crows. Good Genie.

His heart banged against his chest as he sat down on the mattress next to Karis and took the little squirrel from her hands. She was frozen, not moving, staring unblinking.

“What’s wrong with her?” Karis asked.

“She’s terrified.”

Colt placed his little wishing squirrel to his chest and cradled her tight like he used to when she was a little baby in need of comfort. I wish you were okay. It took five minutes of cuddling, but she thawed out muscle by muscle until she was relaxed and shaking like a leaf against him.

“I’m gonna kill them,” he murmured with certainty.

“Colt,’ Karis whispered.

“I’m serious, Karis. I don’t know when it will happen, but I am going to kill those fucking crows. They hurt you in the war. They lured you out to hurt you again. They scared Genie. I mean, fuck! What were they even looking for? There ain’t nothing in here worth anything! They destroyed our entire fucking home. Look at your stuff!”

Karis’s silver-eyed gaze dashed over to the small dresser with all its drawers ripped out, her bras and panties and shirts scattered all over the floor. Her strawberry-blond curls were mussed from her Change, and she wasn’t wearing any clothes. Those had been shredded when she went after that crow.

Bait? Fucking bait? They’d lured his mate out into the snow, lured her into a Change, lured her into defending their territory, and then they’d ransacked their home and scared Genie. He saw red. Red tinted everything. The bear scratched and clawed just under the surface of his skin, roiling inside of him like some tornado gathering power. Every crow shifter in Red Dead Mayhem would pay for what they’d done.

The gravity of their situation hit him like a gale force wind. He could’ve lost Karis. He could’ve really lost the woman who made him okay. Who thought his damage was beautiful. “What if I hadn’t heard your Change?” he murmured, pulling his mate close to his side.

She was so warm. So solid. She fit perfectly there, as if she was made to fit right against his ribs.

“How did you know I was hunting the crow?”

“I was in the barn putting Ranger away, but I had this awful feeling in my chest. Just…so awful my bear ripped out of me and I couldn’t stop him. Ava did the same thing.”

“How did Trigger know those crows were there?”

“Because Trigger don’t get hunted. He’s been the bear all his life. Been targeted all his life, too. The other night when we went into town and the mountain lions came after you and Ava? That was the first time I’ve ever seen him fall for a bait-and-switch. They’re using our rage to steer us, and it needs to stop. Now.”

“Will there ever be peace here?” Karis asked.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“When every shifter here is dead, and we are the only ones left standing.”