Page 103 of Hart's Redemption

“So?” Remus asked, his hand still poised to call in the troops.

“So, what happens if he’s genuinely in danger? He’s an Alpha, Remus.”

“Shit.” Remus spat out another muted curse and closed the contact hologram. “We’re just going to sit on our tails and wait then? That’s not a plan.”

“Look, this isn’t your pack. You don’t understand how tenuous everything is,” Eric attempted to clarify.

Remus crossed his arms and glared right back at Eric. “This became my pack the secondmyAlpha marriedhim.” He pointed accusingly at me. “Either you start coming up with viable options or I do what I do best.”

“And what’s that?” Eric snapped right back.

“Supernatural Threat Elimination, Acquisition, and Mitigation.”

“Enough with the pissing contest already. We have bigger problems.” To my amazement, the two appeared thoroughly cowed by my outburst. I looked at Eric. “We stick to the original plan. Tomorrow morning, before the entire Klamath Pack, I’m going to make a case to spare Josh’s life.”

“And when that fails?” Remus asked.

I hesitated. “I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it. In the meantime, I need you to do me a favor. How are you at reconnaissance?”

Remus’s toothy grin was exactly the response I was hoping for.

Josh

Rage blew through me as the silver manacles closed around my wrists. I snarled at theweretaking malicious glee in my pain. If it wasn’t for the chains holding me fast to the chair, I’d have beaten him within an inch of his life. I was too sleep-deprived, hungry, and frankly pissed to even attempt to corral my increasingly manic state.

“Seems we finally have your attention, Detective.”

I transferred my glower to the insipid Alpha leering back at me. Had I realized the drastically under-funded Klamath Pack was in possession of magic-imbued silver restraints, I might have reconsidered this asinine plan to do nothing. As it was, I was already committed to inaction, and I refused to jeopardize whatever plan Elijah was working on.

“Maybe now you’ll be more amenable to my questions.”

I stared at him.

Mallin grabbed his wrists behind his back and stared levelly right back. “How long have you been working with Elijah? When did he find you? How much is he paying you?”

Paying me? And what’s with all the questions about Elijah? Does he not even care about what I’ve done to Tommy? Levi? Keith? Zeke?

“Answer me. When were you planning to overthrow me? Was the attack by your supposed mother even real, or merely a ploy to undermine my authority?”

Is he fucking kidding me?

My mouth remained firmly shut, but my face was less than quiet. A skeptical eyebrow rose of its own accord at the blatant paranoia accosting me. Mallin clearly didn’t care about the pack, only that he was in control of it.

He gestured to thewerestanding beside me, the one that had awoken me with the burn of spelled-silver being wrapped around my body. I was a little disappointed to see that my previous playmates had been replaced with stouter stock.

“See if you can help loosen his tongue.”

The brute’s ham fist smashed into the side of my face without a whisper of hesitation. Stars exploded across my vision, and my ears filled with a sickening crunch of bone.

“Not his face!” Mallin fumed.

The brute glanced from my rapidly swelling jaw to his alpha. “But the rest of him is covered in silver.”

“Then move the chains.”

Theweregrunted, but donned the gloves he’d previously used to handle the restraints.

I spat out a mouthful of blood at his feet, then showed my teeth when it met with no reaction. These morons seriously had no idea who they were fucking with. Elijah help them, they’d be unidentifiable masses of bodily fluids by the time I was done with them.