Wolf Betrayed (Talon Pack #4)(62)

The wolves hadn’t been doing anything but existing, and yet these people wanted them dead.

She watched as a dark-haired man tried to save another man who had just taken a bullet. They yelled at one another before beginning to fight side by side. What kind of strength did these wolves have if they could still stand for one another like that?

She was in awe.

Yet beneath it all, stark fear and shame slid through her.

She continued to watch as more wolves fell but even more humans did the same. Through it all, she kept her attention on one man, though.

The man in the uniform who stayed behind it all, not willing to get his hands dirty. It shouldn’t have surprised her, and yet it did.

It devastated her.

When the older man finally began to fight, she knew this would be the end. There was no way he could win without cheating, and though he would cheat if he could, there wasn’t enough time.

Avery watched as her father died before her eyes, but she didn’t shed a tear.

She couldn’t for the man who had betrayed everything inside her and even worse, betrayed the world she’d learned to love.

The news anchors commentating kept saying over and over again that Washington had nothing to do with this and the humans fighting were breaking the law—committing treason and murder.

And yet, when her father fell, his eyes glassy and empty, she felt nothing.

What had her father done?

She put her hands on the table, her body shaking.

It wasn’t over, not completely. Her father would never work alone. There had to be someone else out there, something coming that the wolves might not suspect.

She looked around at her small apartment and the world she had created for herself when everything had fallen apart around her.

It seemed it had collapsed once again.

She was only a human, a daughter with no power, but somehow, somehow, she’d find a way to help.

It was the only thing she could do.

But Avery thought, with a sad and horrific realization, she might be too late.

Again.





Epilogue


A month later

Charlotte panted as she came down from her high, her two men on either side of her, their bodies slick with sweat and heat. She fell to the mattress, Bram behind her, Shane in front of her, the feeling of them still deep inside her making her need to come all over again.

She tried to catch her breath, but she couldn’t. Instead, she just licked her lips and did her best to keep her men close.

“We need to do that again,” Shane said sleepily, his voice raw. “I mean, dear God, we need to do that again.”

Bram laughed behind her, his hand on her hip, his fingers brushing along Shane’s. “If we do that every day, we might not have enough energy to do anything else.”

“I’m okay with that,” Charlotte said softly. “Let’s just catch our breath and then go at it again. I think there’s a position or two we haven’t tried yet.”

Shane pulled away slightly to looked down at her. “Really? Which ones?”

She swatted at him then winced at both men slowly pulled out of her. Bram ran a warm washcloth over each of them before coming back to spoon her from behind.

“We have patrol later today,” Bram said. “All three of us are Talon lieutenants now, we can’t just have sex all day and forget to protect our Alpha.”

Even as Charlotte warmed at the thought of duty and purpose, she groaned. “Fine, we’ll stick by Gideon’s side and watch the Pack and be all amazing and strong, but when we’re done, I want to try that one with my leg up in the air like we saw in that book. Okay?”

Shane kissed her hard, and she laughed. “I love the way you make plans. I wouldn’t put it past you to have a sex list somewhere.”

She blushed and lowered her head. She would not be telling them she’d highlighted certain parts of that book so she could come back and make a list later. There was only so much of her dorkiness she could divulge.

Bram bit her shoulder, and she moaned. “We need to shower. Separately. Or we’ll be late. We’re the new kids to the Pack, and I don’t want to be the slackers.”

She turned so she faced him, and Shane snuggled firmly into her backside. “Thanks for keeping us in line.”

He smiled at her, and she fell that much more in love with him. If the man knew that every time he smiled she fell for him all over again, it would be dangerous. “I do what I have to.”

They hugged as one, the three of them finding their own rhythm now. In the month since the battle that had been splashed all over the airwaves, every single shifter had been changed irrevocably. Times were uncertain, and though the human government had assured them the attack wasn’t their idea, everyone was still on edge as to what would happen next.

The sanctions and laws surrounding the wolves were coming out of committee soon, and Charlotte knew that claws and fangs might not be able to fight the next wave coming at them.

But no matter what, she knew she wasn’t alone. She had a new Pack, one that had taken her in just as the Redwoods had all those years before. She had her two mates, the two men who loved her and fought by her side. They didn’t see her as weak. They saw her as an equal.

As they held her, she sighed into them, wanting to keep them close forever. She’d once thought the moon goddess had forsaken her, and fate had betrayed what she’d held dear. But she’d been wrong.