The Pack Girl's Retribution (Sequel to The Pack's Girl)

Where I'd Go

I could just tell him. Tell him I'd been breaking Draven's orders. Endangering us all by my inability to resist searching for my former home and where I was and now by endangering myself in following Marta and catching her with a NightHunter.

And he'd tell me to take things slow and let him go out and to be careful. To wait for Draven's blessing.

But I don't want to wait!

"Tell me the rest." He stepped from behind the pillar. Rolling his back onto it and levelling that keen green gaze on me.

"Rest?" I sat up. My white nightdress glowing in the dark and my hair waving over my shoulder as I blinked blearily at him.

"If you saw Marta poison, Jaecar, she didn't hang out while you went and got Rebekah. And you wouldn't have let her get away with it, as easy as that...So what'd you do?"

He already knows I followed her. He's waiting to see if I'll admit it.

"I followed her." I sighed. Ducking my head.

"To where?" There was a dangerous note in his voice that told me I was treading thin ice.

"To a crack in the wall."

He stepped off the pillar, his arms falling. "And just when were you planning to tell us that?"

"I wasn't."

He tilted his head, and his eyes went wide in warning. Dark lashes just brushing his brow as he was tempted to give me a sound thrashing. I knew that look.

***

Truthfully, I was surprised he wasn't yelling already.

It's only because the others are sleeping and he doesn't want to wake them. I never knew why Vanquish always wanted to have this sort of intimate conversation with me while the others were either gone or asleep. But I appreciated the privacy in it.

"You won't like my answer." I said so quietly, I could barely hear my own voice.

"Tell me anyway." He commanded.

"Lyra Lani was there, and she saw what I did. She'll tell Draven."

"What was she doing out without him!" Vanquish looked even more furious that I was no longer doing foolish things alone but now taking our Beta on my adventures.

"It wasn't my fault!" I defended.

He growled low in his throat. His arms were at his sides and his fists were working. He rolled his head, adjusting his neck.

A sure sign that he's fighting changing.

"She was already following Marta." I said in a hesitant voice.

"Best explain quickly woman. I'm losing patience."

I could see he was. His eyes had the yellow sheen and his jaw was jerking in a way that told me pointed teeth were sliding into his mouth.

The air around us seemed to thin, in a way that indicated he was perilously close to becoming the beast.

"Vanquish..." I pleaded. "let me tell you..."

"I suggest rapidly." He sneered through gritted teeth. "You've been off on your own path lately. You seem to be forgetting that everything you do reflects on the pack."

"What's it gonna take Vanna Rae?" There was a threat in his voice.

"She hurt Jaecar and took off. I got Rebekah and followed her. She led to the crack in the wall, and I found out that Lyra Lani has been watching her because of some of the things she's been doing and telling the she-wolves."

"What's she been telling them?" He deflated. Looking at me in surprise.

"That the males often kill their mates under the Mating Moon. That it's common for wolves in our pack to become so aggressive in the act or the marking that they cause their mates to bleed out."

He tossed up his arms, spitting epithets. "Well, no wonder you were scared half to death! I knew we were animals with our hormones in full rage but we'd never have killed you!"

"I didn't know that..."

"Damn Marta!" He swore again. Turning a full circle in his fury. "That old woman better hope she doesn't cross my path anytime soon."

I gave him a helpless shrug. "Don't kill her..."

He gave me a side-eye. "I make no promises..."

***

"That's why Samantha was so hell-bent on escaping Jaecar when she surely had to know he's only wanted to claim her for years. He'd never have killed her or injured her like that."

"She's the youngest of us. I'm sure she wholly believed Marta. I did..." I admitted reluctantly.

He gave me a quick look. Shaking his head. He looked Heavenward and began massaging his temples in a circular motion. He dropped his hand away and levelled that gaze on me. "How could you girls not know that you have more power over us than that foolish animal moon?"

"I had no idea until after..."

He shook his head in frustration. "Resisting us is more likely to get you hurt."

"I know that now."

"Why would Marta do that?"

"I was getting to that." I said hesitantly. Chewing my lip furiously now.

"To what, Vanna?" He cocked his head to give me a waiting study. The attitude in his posture was screaming aggravation already.

He could come unhinged.

But not telling him will certainly drive him there.

***

"She was meeting a NightHunter."

"What?" He roared through his teeth. Making the other two sit bolt upright.

"The leader of the pack, I think." My vision blurred and I became dizzy again as I fought to remember. Seeing that scar and him laughing in my face after he cut the throats of my little brothers.

And possibly killed my bigger ones.

My God...What if he'd found BailaLae? She was as beautiful as an angel. What if he hurt her?

That thought made my mouth go dry and new fear rage in my eyes. "What if he still has her?"

"Who?" Vanquish said.

"My sister."

"What would make you think that?"

"He killed my little brothers and mother and father and most likely my older brothers. What if he found her?"

"I doubt he'd have kept her prisoner." Vanquish said softly. Unsure if he was being reassuring or heartless.

"She was stunningly beautiful."

"NightHunters wouldn't have gotten to keep them." Racer was climbing the ladder to join the conversation. "Anything that is considered a prize goes straight to King Detry."

"What?" I frowned. "Who the devil is he?"

"He owns the land beyond our walls." Hunter was climbing up now. "An evil shit who employs wolves to hunt wolves and mages to hunt the wolves that rise against him."

"Us..." I whispered. "Mages?"

"He has a guild of them." Vanquish supplied. "Trained in hunting wolves."