Shifted Scars: A Wolves of Forest Grove Novel

by Lawson, Elena

  I recognized the route we were taking after we diverted from our northern heading to turn sharply south. Piper was smarter than I gave her credit for. She’d only headed north to leave the camp, but as our path converged with White River, she’d skated down to the edge of the bank and continued south.

  The bastard hadn’t even moved his captives yet. He was just that cocky that I wouldn’t be able to escape and that Clay and Jared wouldn’t dare make a play for them after everything else that’d happened.

  It was his cockiness that was going to be the end of him.

  When Piper began to slow after nearly an hour of running, I knew we were getting close. It was still raining pretty hard and that would be to our advantage, but in the distance, I could see the clouds breaking up.

  If we wanted to get them out and make any sort of clean getaway, we’d need to do it right now.

  There was just the tiny problem of us being heavily outnumbered, but I was filing that under minor detail in my already overflowing worry bank.

  Piper stopped, jerking her head to the southwest.

  I nodded.

  I wouldn’t have blamed her for staying behind, but as I jumped up from the riverbank, she followed, keeping right on my heels.

  We crept through the brush in the dark, and distantly I could hear the sloshing of a watermill turning double-time in the rain and wind.

  We found a good place to stop and observe from a distance, tucking ourselves in next to the wide trunk of a fallen tree. It reeked of rot and fungi, which was perfect to help conceal our scent even more than the rain already would.

  The mill was situated off to the right of the intersecting river and creek. A quiet stone building almost entirely covered in moss and young ivy, the stones chipped and yellowed with age. The windows broken or missing entirely.

  At first we saw no one, and I had to wonder if they’d moved on. If Devin had already returned and discovered I was gone and sent word for them to move. Or perhaps the bodies of the two shifters I’d killed barely an hour ago had been discovered already and it was someone else who set word.

  But then…

  Two shifters exited the building, standing under a stone awning to keep their cigarettes from getting spoiled by the downpour.

  I listened carefully, trying to pick out their voices, or any other noises from the building.

  Snippets of their conversation floated my way and to my surprise it seemed they were still thinking they were on schedule for a pick up by the witch’s lackeys sometime before dawn.

  It was barely midnight now. We had lots of time on our side at least.

  Piper cocked her head at me in question, a small whine of protest on her lips that made my wolf want to bite her head off. Quiet, I commanded, and even though she couldn’t hear it, she felt the weight of my alpha dominance and fell silent.

  Six.

  The more I listened, the more I was certain of it. There were six of them. Two outside sharing a cigarette. One in wolf form down the creek. And three more inside.

  Unless the ones I heard talking and shuffling about inside were actually my packmates, then I supposed there were only the three. I doubted I was that lucky, though.

  There was just one more thing I needed before I could even think about finding a way inside. There was no way in hell I was walking blindly into another trap.

  It came several minutes later, the scrape of chains over stone. A low moan so familiar it made my blood sing with relief.

  “She’s waking up again,” someone said, their words all but drowned out by the pelting rain.

  “Bitch doesn’t know when to quit.”

  “I’m going to stuff your useless balls down your goddamned throats,” came Viv’s biting retort, clear as a bell, sharp as the business end of a blade.

  They were keeping them unconscious, then, which wasn’t exactly fucking ideal but…

  Work with what you’ve got.

  A thump preceded a gasping emittance of pain and my hackles raised.

  Wait, I beseeched my wolf, but I’d given her the reins, and she’d just decided the element of surprise was all we needed.

  One of the shifters huddling under the awning stubbed the cigarette butt out on a wall, sending bright red cinders scattering into the wind and rain. He didn’t even see me coming.

  He didn’t make so much as a squeal before I had him pressed flat to his back and cut off his air supply with a feral thrust of my paws. The other one I caught mid-shift, his bright green eyes reminding me so much of Devin’s that there could be no holding back.

  His neck snapped under my jaws and the coppery tang of blood filled my mouth as he went down, twitching as he grew limp.

  The door burst open, and I charged before I could think, my jaws clamping down on a corded shoulder as I tumbled into the mill. The man still locked between my teeth.

  “Get her!” someone shouted, and I snarled viciously, sinking my teeth further into the man to make him scream.

  Come near me, I dared them without the need for words. I fucking dare you.

  The two remaining men shifted, narrowly avoiding injuring my pack, who lay in a tangle of pale limbs and chains against the far wall. They were so still that for a heart wrenching moment I thought they might be dead. But their heartbeats filled my ears, the sound like a balm to my soul.

  My gaze locked on Vivian’s for an instant, her gaping mouth closing as she immediately went into action, trying to wake the others as she pulled mercilessly on her shackles.

  No mercy, my wolf decided. I decided.

  The one in my grip was dead in the next instant, spurring the remaining two to charge. I growled, letting the power of my alpha spirit fill me to near bursting. They barely cleared half the space to me before they buckled under the pressure, bending, breaking, bowing.

  In my periphery, I could see Piper in the doorway, staring aghast at the scene before her, paralyzed with fear.

  There was no stopping now, though. I charged them, checking the one on the right so hard that he sailed into the stone wall with a deafening clap! And fell to the ground, unmoving.

  My twin tails whipped around me as the other of the two cowered, head bent low and ears pressed flat.

  No.

  Piper!

  The shifter who’d been down the creek fell on her a second before I might’ve warned her, knocking her out of the doorway and back into the brush.

  Fuck.

  I howled as a lancing pain shot through my ankle, my distraction allowing the other one to launch an attack.

  “Allie!” Vivian cried, and the wolf yipped in surprise as a long bolt of chain whipped into its rear end, giving me the opportunity to break free. My counterattack was swift and merciless, going straight for the quick kill.

  I ran for the door.

  Stumbling over myself in my haste to get to Piper, I nearly bowled her over as she reappeared in the doorway, panting heavily. Bloody but uninjured. The victor.

  Impressive.

  I jerked my head to the door, requesting that she remain there to alert us of any others, and she spun around dutifully, scanning the shadows.

  “Allie?” the groggy voice of Seth found my ears and I yipped excitedly, rushing back to the group as the scent of stale urine clogged my nostrils, replacing the tang of blood that’d been clogging them before. Trey and Todd were still unconscious near his feet, but I could tell they were alive. They were okay.

  We were all going to be okay.

  “Allie, quit it, you’re disgusting,” Seth griped as I licked him up the side of his face.

  “Are you hurt?” Viv asked, still tugging on her chains as the others all began to come to.

  I barreled into her chest, stepping on someone else’s leg in the process and knocking the wind out of her.

  “Whoa,” she said. “Easy or you’ll break a damn rib.”

  My wolf, soothed by the knowledge that her charges were all here, all still alive, gave over the reins.

  I shifted back, j
erking Vivian’s chin up to the see in the moonlight jutting into the room from one of the broken windows above. She batted my hand away. “I’m fine.”

  She wasn’t, but I knew she would be. There was dried blood on her cheeks and below her nose, and I had no doubt there had been many bruises that’d since healed as well. She put up a damn good fight.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I choked out, hugging her. “Where’s—”

  I scanned the waking shifters and found a bright streak of purple as Destiny lifted her head from across the pile. She blinked into consciousness, her shock at seeing me clear on her face. “Allie? But they said…”

  “They said you gave yourself up,” Seth finished for Destiny when she trailed off. “That Devin had you.”

  “He did,” I admitted. “I escaped.”

  “How long until he comes after us?” Seth asked, jerking at the chain around his wrist.

  “I don’t know. But he’ll know I’m gone, or at least that something is up, soon. I had to put down two of his patrol on my way out.”

  “So when the patrol switches...”

  “Yeah. And I have no idea when that is. At best, a few more hours. At worst, the bodies have already been discovered.”

  A groan drew my attention to a mop of dirty blond dreadlocks as Charity awoke, radiating feral rage. “The fuck is going on,” she hissed, violently wriggling out from beneath a few others who were still knocked out.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, catching her eye as I gazed at all my packmates who had already awoken. “It’s all going to be okay, but we need to move.”

  Charity snapped herself to full attention, finding the corpses of the dead shifters strewn around the other end of the mill. “Shit, Allie. You went to work.”

  “Where are the guys?” Seth asked. “The rest of the pack?”

  I left Viv to find the keys to their shackles, knowing that time may not be on our side.

  “I’ll explain everything,” I promised. “But first, let’s get you all free.”

  “Then what?’ Viv asked, trying to reach for her mate, but Destiny was still too far away.

  It made sense why they kept them all in a big pile like that, jammed them all so close together that if any dared to shift, they would be injuring others in the process.

  Motherfuckers.

  “We’ll gather some food,” Charity supplied. “And water. They have a bit here, but Seth, Viv, and me, we’re stronger than the others. We haven’t been here as long. Fifteen minutes to gather some supplies and get everyone fed and then we move? Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I replied, finding the keys in the pocket of the one lying limp by the wall and tossing them to Charity. “Go. Hurry.”

  “Then where will we go?” Archer asked, coughing and wincing in a way that had me worried he might have a few displaced ribs. I hoped not. I didn’t have the skill to set them without help. At least not here without the proper supplies.

  I knew he was likely eager to get back to his mate. To know where he was. “Callum is fine,” I assured him, praying that I was right. “And we’re going back to camp...or...to wherever the rest of the pack went.”

  I had to admit I had no idea if they would have returned back to camp. Not knowing that Devin knew exactly where it was and could strike at any time.

  “Did any of them have a cellphone?” I asked, already rifling through the dead shifter’s other pocket.

  “The tall one,” Luke said, barely able to stand on his own as Charity cut him loose from his chains. “He’s usually outside.”

  One of the smokers then. I raced for the door and found the phone buried deep in a side pocket of the guy’s cargo shorts. It was wet from the rain, but still worked as I tapped the screen.

  Shit. Facial recognition.

  I knelt down and pried back the guy’s head with a fist in his hair and opened the screen a second time, hoping the moonlight would be enough for the phone to pick up his face.

  It took two more tries, but it unlocked, and I heaved a sigh, thumbing Jared’s cell number into the illuminated keypad as I stepped back inside.

  I began to pace when he didn’t answer on the second ring or the third. I ended the call as it went to voicemail and tried Clay’s phone instead, convincing myself that his not answering didn’t mean anything.

  But Clay didn’t answer, either.

  Or Layla.

  “Fuck,” I cursed, my fingers hovering over the keypad, trying to think of another phone number I could try, but theirs were the only three I knew by heart aside from Vivian’s, and she was already here.

  Deep breaths, Allie.

  I scrolled through the call log on the phone, checking the numbers there. Then the text messages. Other than a raunchy sexting convo with a girl named Candy, there was nothing of note.

  And if this was the only phone and no one had called yet to sound the alarm, then that had to mean we were still in the clear. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it was something.

  I pocketed the cell for now, resolving to keep it just until we left, at which point I’d smash it to pieces and leave it behind. If someone called or sent a message, then we’d at least have a heads up.

  Vivian held Destiny close as Charity and Seth limbered up to go collect some water and whatever they could find for food. “You coming?” Charity asked her, and she turned to whisper something to Destiny.

  “Leave her,” Archer said, rising with a slight limp. “I’ll go with you.”

  Vivian sent him a grateful half smile and went back to picking debris out of her mate’s hair.

  Piper shifted out of the way as they passed, each of the three giving both her and me curious looks. “She helped me,” I explained. “She’s with us now.”

  That was all that needed to be said. They gave Piper thankful nods and tight smiles before departing.

  “Want to fill us in?” Viv asked, settling a weak-looking Destiny into her lap. Her head rolled back onto Viv’s shoulder, and her chapped lips parted as though she hadn’t the strength to keep them shut. My stomach twisted at the sight, and I searched the space for anything that might help, gaze settling on a half-full water bottle discarded in a corner of the room. I brought it to her, using my palm to tip up her chin as I poured small mouthfuls of water in, slowly so she could swallow and catch her breath.

  “Thank you,” Vivian mouthed, and I sighed, falling onto my backside on the cement floor. I did my best to fill her and the rest of them in, feeling guilt like a ten-ton weight on my chest with each word.

  It was odd, though, how not a single one of them looked angry or seemed to hold any hostility toward me. They all looked...grateful. Relieved. Like I was their savior and not the one who got them all into this damned mess in the first place.

  “So we find the others then?” Destiny croaked, the water doing its work to moisten her throat and allow her body to begin to heal from everything it’d endured here.

  “That’s the plan. We’ll head west toward our territory. If they’re there, I’ll sense them. If not, then if we can just get close enough to wherever they are, then the mate bond should guide me.”

  “Or we’ll be able to pick up their scents and track them,” Vivian supplied, and I agreed.

  Her eyes hardened, sparking with the fire she always harbored deep within. I knew what she was thinking. “And then?”

  “Then the bastard pays for his sins.”

  There would be no white flag. No deals struck or trades made. Not this time.

  It was him or me.

  Live or die.

  29

  Just a little farther, I sent through the pack bond, trying to reassure the ones still weak with hunger and exhaustion. Still stiff with soreness from not moving for so long.

  If we didn’t pick up any trace of them soon, we’d find a safe place to make camp and rest for a few hours, but I couldn’t give up yet. Our pack camp was only twenty more miles northwest. We were getting close to the edge of the third patrol ring now, though I didn’t ex
pect it to be manned, whether they were at camp or not.

  Not with so few of them remaining.

  The rain had let up almost thirty minutes ago, but my pelt was still weighed down with moisture just as much as the branches of the trees and water-soaked plant life.

  Do you sense them yet? Vivian asked, flanking me with a weary Destiny at her side.

  No.

  She didn’t say it, but I knew what she was thinking because the same thought had occurred to me already. If my mates were at camp, I’d have sensed them by now.

  Which meant they weren’t. Which meant there was virtually no reason to go there, to the one place our enemy would undoubtedly look.

  It’s almost dawn, she said. We should turn to the south, follow the Willamette River to cover our tracks. Make camp until we figure out what our next move will—

  I stopped, lifting my head as the first rays of pink dawn light brightened the navy sky.

  What is it? Charity asked, loping ahead, her body rigid with alertness, her cutting eyes searching out the misty, dawn-stained foliage for attackers.

  I lowered my head, listening, trying to figure out what had made me pause.

  There it was again.

  A pull in my center.

  A tether between souls.

  It’s them, I blurted, moving in a wide circle on clumsy paws, trying to figure out which direction. I assumed it was camp, but when I moved in that direction, the tether slackened. The sensation weakening.

  South!

  They were approaching from the south, I was certain of it.

  A whine forced its way out of my mouth and my wolf rocked back on her heels, moving forward only to stop again. Needing to go to them but also needing to remain with the weakest of her pack. To protect them.

  Go on, Todd said, bumping my side with his shoulder.

  We’ll be right behind you, Trey finished for his mate.

  I charged ahead, hearing the others pick up their pace behind me.

  My wolf did her best to temper her speed, but as that tether grew shorter and shorter, drawing us closer to them, we couldn’t help but sprint.

  The miles flew away beneath my paws, the scent of petrichor filtering through my lungs in great gusts of breath. Until I could make out other scents floating to me on the northbound breeze.