Wolf Betrayed

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Bram looked over at Charlotte and Shane, who were holding hands as they tried to pick themselves up, blood and cuts covering their bodies. Charlotte hadn’t fully healed from her torture, nor had Shane from his initial change.

  And Bram was too far away to help them.

  He used all of his strength to at least get to Gideon’s side. Maybe together he and his Alpha could somehow take down the helicopter. If they could do that, they had a chance.

  He shouldn’t have worried.

  The Pack was made up of more than wolves, after all.

  The few humans who were part of their Pack had continued fighting. In fact, they were covering the downed wolves, using weapons to take out any human soldier that got too close.

  But they weren’t the ones that saved them all.

  Leah led the witches of their Pack as they strode powerfully toward the helicopter. Two earth witches blocked anyone from coming near them, throwing mounds of dirt up into the air to create a wall of protection.

  The fire witches scorched anyone that got too close, their flames licking up toward the helicopter itself.

  And Leah, soft and sweet Leah, held up her hands, bringing forth a wave of water from the neighboring lake from behind Montag’s people. Her jaw set, she raised her hands higher, and the wave crashed down on top of the helicopter. The sound of screeching metal hitting the ground before becoming waterlogged was the best fucking sound Bram had ever heard.

  He stood on shaky legs next to Gideon once the ultrasonic waves weren’t hitting them anymore, his eyes wide.

  “Holy fuck,” Bram whispered.

  “And she’s ours,” his Alpha said with a prideful growl.

  The fighting continued, but the feeling was different, more triumphant. Ryder shot past them, running toward Leah, who looked to be swaying on her feet. That must have taken out most of her energy reserves. In fact, many of the weaker wolves on the field went to go pick up the fallen witches who had used the last of their powers to save them all. Ryder led the crew back to the den, and Bram knew he would be forever grateful for the witches and humans who had saved them all.

  Bram and Gideon continued to fight as Kameron passed them, Walker on his heels. The Healer would kneel down to Heal a fallen wolf before moving on to the next, essentially performing battlefield triage. The man had to be working on a case by case basis to reserve his energy because there was no way Walker would make it any longer without doing so. Kameron stayed by Walker’s side, protecting his brother and fellow triplet when he couldn’t protect himself.

  Brothers themselves, Max and Mitchell fought side by side, Mitchell with a determined grace that surprised Bram, and Max with a manic stride that put fear into anyone in his wake. When Mitchell took a bullet to the arm, Max jumped several feet into the air to pounce on the man who had shot his brother, ripping the gun from the man’s hands before he had a chance to take a second shot.

  The Talons were winning, but things weren’t over.

  They kept moving toward where Montag was as the man stood by his precious tank as if nothing would ever be able to touch him.

  Bram would see the man dead.

  Tonight.

  He’d hurt both of his mates, and deserved all the pain that came to him.

  “Now!” Montag yelled at that exact moment, and Bram hit the ground—as did each wolf around him.

  The tank fired, and Bram’s heart sank. They couldn’t outrun this. There was no way they’d be able to, not with the firepower Montag had at his disposal.

  Only the shot went over their heads…right into the wards that kept the den safe. Bram looked over his shoulder as the wards became fully visible, a kind of film coating them like a bubble trapped on the ground. Only the cracks that had formed earlier were now even larger.

  Entire pieces of the wards fell away, and Bram knew this could be the end.

  Only the wards didn’t fall.

  He narrowed his eyes right at the edge of them, shock slamming into him.

  The elders of the Pack, as well as the witches who had to be exhausted, were holding up their arms, chanting and using every once of themselves as they reinforced what was left of the wards.

  Ryder was physically carrying Leah as she chanted, her face deathly pale, but Brie was also there, holding up those who couldn’t stand themselves.

  They were Pack. They were family.

  And they wouldn’t fucking let Montag win.

  Bram screamed, his wolf at the fore. This was why he was wolf, why he was stronger than anyone he knew other than the Alphas and Heirs.

  It was for this moment.

  He ran past the humans in front of him, pushing them away with his claws as he moved toward Montag. He could feel Shane and Charlotte on his heels, their mating bond pulsating like he hadn’t thought possible.

  They might not have the trinity bond, but their bond was different, and he knew exactly what to do with it.

  Shane took out two soldiers on his right, Charlotte another two on his left. And Bram went straight for Montag’s throat. Another bullet hit his side, but he barely felt it.

  Montag screamed, trying to fight Bram off, but Bram was stronger.

  Far stronger.

  Bram wrapped his hand around Montag’s neck, letting his claws out fully so they dug into the other man’s skin.

  And squeezed

  When the other man fell, Bram didn’t let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t scream in joy and purpose that the man who had all but taken everything he could from the wolves was dead.

  Bram turned his back on the body of the former General who had taken it one step too far and growled. “Give me your hands.” He held out his own, and Charlotte and Bram put their palms in his without asking why.

  “Now pull on your bond,” Bram ordered. “That bit of energy that you feel? It’s for us. For right now. Push it out and take out that fucking tank.”

  Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

  “We can do that?” Shane asked.

  He didn’t know why he knew it, but he did, and he wasn’t going to ignore the instinct thrumming through his veins.

  “We can. And we will.” His mates let out a collective breath, and the two of them turned toward the tank with him. He did as he’d told them, pulling on the energy that had allowed him to find Charlotte, the one that had brought him into the Talons when he had been afraid it wouldn’t work.

  Light shot from the sky as fire erupted from the earth. He had never heard of this before but knew this was a gift from the moon goddess herself.

  A gift.

  One he could never repay.

  The fire engulfed the tank, and the lightning broke it into pieces. The machine that had almost taken out their entire den, their elders, their submissives, their children, their future, was gone.

  There might be more, but for now, this was what they had been able to do.

  Cheers erupted from the battlefield as the wolves shouted out their victories, the human soldiers either dead or surrendering. Montag’s evil would be no more, the idea of a serum and what Shane could do for him hopefully dead along with him.

  This wouldn’t be the end. It couldn’t be. They’d just had a major battle in the middle of a forest where people had to be watching. The government would come with questions, but Bram knew they would have their own answers. His people had defended themselves, and that would have to be enough.

  Shane grabbed his shoulders and shook Bram from his thoughts. “You did it. You fucking did it.” He kissed him hard, and Bram growled.

  “We did it,” he corrected before pulling Charlotte into a kiss. “We all did it.”

  “I love you,” she whispered to both of them. “I…I am so fucking glad I get to say that again after what just happened.” Dirt and blood covered her face, and Bram used his thumb and her tears to try to clean some of it away.

  “I’ve never been happier to hear it,” he said honestly. “Now, let’s go see our people.”

  “Our people,
” Shane said softly as he looked over the field at the fallen men and women he had once fought alongside. “I…I think I need that.”

  Charlotte wrapped herself around Shane’s middle as Bram did the same to his side. “We did it. We really did it.”

  “Now, let’s clean up the mess,” Bram added.

  And they would. They would clean up not only the bodies on the ground and the burnt metal littering the forest floor, but they would also have to find a way to work through the atrocities Montag had committed.

  It wasn’t over.

  Not by a long shot.

  But for now, Bram would take this small victory. He’d hold his mates, learn his new Pack, and let his wolf come to the surface through it all.

  Because he’d discovered something he’d known all along.

  He was wolf.

  He was Pack.

  And he was theirs.

  AVERY

  Avery set her phone down and watched the battle unfold on the screen in front of her. Her mind was a half step behind the movements, but she tried to soak it all in. She couldn’t comprehend it, couldn’t understand how this could be happening.

  The wolves and humans were fighting each other live on the screen, and yet no one was doing anything about it. From what the feed had shown, what looked like a military unit had come out of nowhere and attacked the shifters.

  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.

  She’d been tested in the fiery depths of her own personal hell and had come out stronger.

  She was now a Talon, a family to the Redwoods, and a wolf with two mates. A triad, a lieutenant, and a wolf with a purpose.

  She was Charlotte, and she was whole.

  The world had better be prepared because her Pack, all Packs were ready to fight back and battle for who they were.

  Forever.

  Coming Next in the Talon Pack World

  FRACTURED SILENCE

  It’s time for Parker, Brandon, and newly found Avery to have their story.

  A Note from Carrie Ann

  Thank you so much for reading WOLF BETRAYED. I do hope if you liked this story, that you would please leave a review where you bought the book and on Goodreads. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us authors know if you’d like to see more stories like this from us. I love hearing from readers and talking to them when I can. If you want to make sure you know what’s coming next from me, you can sign up for my newsletter at www.CarrieAnnRyan.com; follow me on twitter at @CarrieAnnRyan, or like my Facebook page. I also have a Facebook Fan Club where we have trivia
, chats, and other goodies. You guys are the reason I get to do what I do and I thank you.

  Make sure you’re signed up for my MAILING LIST so you can know when the next releases are available as well as find giveaways and FREE READS.

  The Talon Pack series is an ongoing series. I hope you get a chance to catch up! The prequel, Wicked Wolf is out now and is about Gina and Quinn. Tattered Loyalties, Talon Pack Book 1, centers around the Alpha of the Talon Pack, Gideon, and his mate, Brie. An Alpha’s Choice, Talon Pack Book 2, is also out. It’s about Finn and Brynn and how they found their fate. Mated in Mist, Book 3, features the Heir, Ryder, and his mate, Leah.

  Next up in the series is FRACTURED SILENCE. It features, Parker, Brandon, and Leah. You’ll be able to read them in 2017!

  The Talon Pack (Following the Redwood Pack Series):

  Book 1: Tattered Loyalties

  Book 2: An Alpha’s Choice

  Book 3: Mated in Mist

  Book 4: Wolf Betrayed

  Book 5: Fractured Silence (Coming April 2017)

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  About Carrie Ann and her Books

  New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan never thought she’d be a writer. Not really. No, she loved math and science and even went on to graduate school in chemistry. Yes, she read as a kid and devoured teen fiction and Harry Potter, but it wasn’t until someone handed her a romance book in her late teens that she realized that there was something out there just for her. When another author suggested she use the voices in her head for good and not evil, The Redwood Pack and all her other stories were born.

  Carrie Ann is a bestselling author of over twenty novels and novellas and has so much more on her mind (and on her spreadsheets *grins*) that she isn’t planning on giving up her dream anytime soon.

  www.CarrieAnnRyan.com