Hammers in the Shadows

Part One: Shadows and Ice - Chapter Eight

I shuddered softly as I walked from the room where I'd left Shawn with his new Alpha and I could barely stop myself from crying, I was leaving my little kitten behind. I was barely able to see as I made my way to where my vehicle had been parked and I saw Zane standing, or rather leaning against my truck. "Zane?" I managed to say though my voice was probably more stressed out than I'd care to imagine, both with the loss of three Pride members, two by violence and one by necessity. Just before I'd transferred Shawn over to Wild Valley I'd been forced to yowl again in pain as another of our patrolling cats was killed, this time it was on the other side of the territory, and this death hit closer to home. The Protector who died was Gregor, and he was the mate of Tatianna. Tatianna was Anna's Assistant as much as Sergey was mine, though she'd served Anna since my mate had been a cub. At my yowl of hurt at the death of another Protector Shawn had tilted his head back and gave voice to his own pain at the loss that was running through the Pride Bonds. As soon as I was capable of it I rushed Shawn through the transfer, I didn't want him feeling anymore pain for the Pride as we lost our Protectors who were running the perimeter patrol.

Zane gave me a firm yet gentle hug before helping me to the passenger side, "Sit, lean the seat back and relax. We are ready to go, I have plenty of food and if you need something to eat there is a cooler in the back seat. There are six of us going immediately. Adam is going to organize the next group. They will be there tomorrow at the latest."

Once I was seated and buckled in Zane went back around and climbed in the driver's seat before he fired the vehicle up. One of his other wolves had settled in the back seat behind Zane and was using his tablet to keep track of what was going on. Zane quickly pulled out of the drive and headed down the road. He'd had already entered the address to the Pride in the GPS unit since he wasn't familiar with that area. Since he knew that I was tired and likely to sleep for a while I knew that he wanted to ensure he had good directions. The radio was on though it wasn't loud and had some relaxing music to help me get to sleep.

I listened to the thrumming of the tires on the road and the muted growl of the V8 and I almost chuckled since Altair had almost gotten us into trouble in order to climb into my lap and comfort me in whatever wolfy way he could. The continued steady noise soon lulled me into a relaxing sleep, though I wasn't far from waking up at any point. It was dark when I woke with a sad yowl of pain as I felt another hollow place form in the Pride Bonds and I couldn't help but cry because this one wasn't a Protector. "Zane... she was hiding in one of our deserted houses... they... they..." I growled at the sensations I'd gotten before she died. "She was just a cub... ten... I want them alive to face the penalty for what they did. Nobody should ever do that to an innocent cub." I didn't come right out and say what they'd done to her, the thought of it made my cat more angry than even Mikel had back when I had just been turned.

Zane didn't appear to react even though I could see from the expression on his face that he could feel my pain. It wasn't going to be much longer before we were going to arrive, "Mark I will not allow atrocities against those attacking. I will do what I can to take them alive but they will be killed cleanly. I know what I am talking about. When Tyler insulted me and my team I attacked him. When he was consigned to death I asked Adam to make it clean or it would have been wrong. Believe me I know what you are feeling. We will deal with this and they will receive what they deserve." It was early morning since I had arrived at the Pack about 5pm the previous day. Add the two hours they were there and the ten or so driving back and it was early morning. It was dark out and was going to be an hour or two before the sun even considered rising, *Ensure everyone has their weapons at hand. It appears the Pride is being attacked. Mark wants the attackers alive but don't chance getting hurt just to keep someone alive. If there is any question kill them and we will deal with it later.* I heard him silently send to those in the truck, and the following SUV.