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

Colliding Secrets

I slipped next to the crack between the stones. Shocked that someone had meticulously shimmied up the wall and removed one stone at a time. Working their way down to the ground to form a zig zagging opening that was narrow enough to be discreet.

Slim enough the Border Guards have missed it. And I knew how cautious they were. But the space between the tree and the wall was barely over a foot, then the crack little more.

Only a woman could fit through. Yet, I suspected that a male had to have done it from the other side.

She's not strong enough to have moved those stones.

I peeked through the crack and was astonished to see Marta had her arms wrapped around a large, long-haired male who was tightly embracing her. His hands freely roaming her body.

Marta?

She has a mate! What is she doing?

I couldn't begin to understand what she was doing. We all knew that it was the code of wolves that once mated we sought no other for sexual gratification. And beyond that, from what I'd always heard, once a wolf was mated, they no longer desired others.

So, what is she doing!

"I thought so." The feminine voice rose so close to me that I nearly leapt from my skin. My jaw gaped as I turned my head to see I was nearly shoulder to shoulder with our pack's naked Beta.

The Alpha's mate.

***

"Lyra Lani?" I whispered in a stunned voice.

"I suspected Marta has been sneaking out here."

We could tell that the wall would muffle our whisperings.

And Marta's far too busy to notice us right now.

"I wanted to know why." Lyra Lani said. "I've some things to discuss with my mate, clearly."

"Clearly." I agreed with her. Hesitating a moment.

"Yes, I'll leave you out of it." She assured.

I nodded in relief and refocused my attention on the painful sight before us.

The male had thrown up Marta's skirts and was roughly rutting her against a tree trunk. She was braced there, her legs wrapping the back of his knees and clutching at his shoulders.

"Who is he?" I asked more to myself then Lyra Lani. But to my surprise she answered.

"A NightHunter. Her former mate I suspect..."

"They don't look so former..."

Lyra Lani grimaced. "You do appear to be right. Draven told me a tale about them."

"Oh?" I was achingly curious. Hoping she'd tell me without me having to do much probing.

"They'd chosen each other, and"

"Each other?" I was aghast. "She didn't fear him?"

Lyra Lani deflated. "Apparently females in generations before us were not so afraid of the mating rituals as us. That was Marta's work."

"But she said a male years ago had ripped apart the female he mated."

"Draven says that's true, but it was Marta's mate. He had mounted her friend and ripped out her throat during the process."

"What? Why would he mate with her if Marta was his...That's..."

"I know...It goes against all our instinct of loyalty." She agreed.

"I don't know why. But he killed her to silence her whisperings in Marta's ear."

"What was she saying?"

"Draven said she was telling Marta to stay away from him. That he was too violent...Too feral."

***

"So, this is him?"

He looked much younger than Marta. Though I could only see his back it looked well-muscled. He was a hulking monster. And from his profile I could see a deep gouging scar spanning the side of his face from his hairline down to his jawline.

"A NightHunter..." Lyra Lani was shaking her head in disbelief.

But my body had begun shaking. I felt my eyes losing focus and rolling into my head. My body began jouncing where it was. Vibrating as I began to tip over.

Lyra Lani gasped and caught my shoulders. Guiding me to the leaves and cradling my head. That was the last of what was physically happening there near the wall, that I'd recall.

I was somewhere else.

Back home. In the hut of sunshine and laughter.

Then clouds poured over the sky and voices were rushed. People moving in and out of the door as my big brothers and sister were rushed off. Then dad sneaking in and out to go meet them.

Then utter blackness. Hot blood on a cold floor surrounding my hands. Blood spurting from my little brothers' throats.

The barking demands of the demon shouting that I would submit to him. Bristled beard and mustach framing thin lips with a scar running from his upper lip to partway toward his nose. Another framing the side of his face. Running along his temple from his hairline down his cheek.

That scar. I memorized it as I stared at him in horror. Tears streaming my face as I gathered every ounce of my strength and shrieked so loud that it sent birds skittering from the trees a mile away.

"No!"

He kicked me in the side and I heard the crunch of a rib. Breathing became hard. He was circling me. Laughing in my face. Leaning over he did that barking laugh which tossed sputum into my face. My mind rewound that moment and replayed it in painful repetitiveness. Memorizing his features. That scar...

He told me I'd do as I was told. Tell him what he wanted to know.

Where the others were. He said he'd kill them all and mate me into submission. Taking me to rule the Gallions.

Gallions? That word felt odd and unfamiliar and I rolled it through my mind.

"You will not." I huffed through gritted teeth. So furious and broken that I was determined to rip him apart with my bare hands if I had to. But then I saw the open door. Knew I could get away. That I would.

And that I'd live long enough to come back for him.