has gone to ground. Nate and a couple of the others tried to track them, but they’ve disappeared.”
Nate sighed. “Like ghosts. Poof.”
Matthias took the flashlight and scanned the map, then frowned. He shook his head. “Are you sure this is the most current map?”
Zane nodded, his lips pursed. “Yeah. I know all the packs like to keep some of their trails hidden, but Woodland takes secrecy to a new level.”
“I even cross-checked with satellite imagery,” Nate said. “The trees effectively mask many of their trails. This is the best we can get.”
Matt’s eyes narrowed as he surveyed the document. “Rafe Woodland doesn’t trust easily.”
“Rafe Woodland doesn’t trust at all,” Zane muttered. “We’d do well to remember that. Someone who doesn’t trust easily isn’t trustworthy, as he proved today. Although that tracker could prove useful...” His voice trailed off in suggestion.
Matthias kept his eyes glued to the map, and merely grunted a response. He’d been thinking of little else since he’d dragged her into camp late that afternoon. That woman, that...she-wolf. Her long legs, narrow waist, and gentle swell of hip and breast—she was beautiful, in a lithe, natural kind of way. There was something about her that called to him, that stirred his beast, that tightened his body with a need he didn’t appreciate and could barely control.
“You two certainly had an—intimate—connection,” Zane drawled, leaning his hip against the truck.
“Oh, really?” Nate inquired. Matthias fought the inclination to growl at his pack mates. He wasn’t in the mood for any of their teasing.
Zane nodded. “Oh, yeah. Thought he was going to imprint on her,” he admitted in a stage whisper to Nate.
“Is that so?”
“Yep.”
“Well, that’s more than he’s done with any of our pack,” Nate murmured.
This time Matthias did growl, the sound low and soft yet nonetheless clear in its warning.
Nate folded his arms and looked expectantly at Matthias. “You say so much when you say nothing, Matt.”
Matthias shook his head, his lips tight. “She’s Woodland.” That pretty much said it all. Her pack had conspired to kill his friend.
Zane shrugged. “She’s hot.”
“That she is,” Nate commented, his tone light with interest, and it was all Matthias could do to stop the snarl forming in his throat.
Zane nodded, then glanced back at Matthias. “Two months ago you were the guardian to stop us all going on a pack hunt, Matt—no matter how much I tried to convince you. I would have thought you, of all people, would be prepared to overlook her...shortcomings.”
This time Matthias did look up at his friend. Zane had this knack for making him feel ancient. His friend liked to act now, and think through things later. Maybe. Matthias had never thought he’d be the cautious one, the voice of reason, but he’d learned his lessons the hard way. Sometimes it paid to do the homework.
“I stopped the pack hunt because we didn’t know what we were up against—we still don’t know,” he said in a low voice. “Woodland haven’t welcomed visitors in years, not since their previous alpha prime died. We have no idea how strong they are, how many there are or how they act. Hell, we can’t even get an accurate map of their territory. We learned today that observing the normal rules of engagement won’t work with Woodland. We’ll fight, but we’ll be smart about it.”
Zane frowned. “They killed Jared. They all deserve to die.”
“And that’s why I’m guardian prime, and you’re not,” Matthias said shortly, then leaned forward, crossing his arms over the hood of the pickup. “Just a minute ago you were commenting on the sexy Woodland tracker, now you want me to kill her? What about the pups? Would you kill them? The juveniles? The elders?”
Zane looked down at the toes of his boots. “Of course not.”
“We want them to pay, though,” Nate said quietly.
Matthias nodded. “Hell, yeah. Jared was a good man, and a great alpha. He didn’t deserve to die, not that way.”
When the conspiracy between Woodland Pack and one of Irondell’s so-called pillars of society, Arthur Armstrong, was revealed, it had been all he could do to keep the Alpine pack from wreaking revenge on Woodland, Nightwing and Irondell—an act that would have cost them dearly.
Armstrong was currently rotting in a prison cell, but Woodland Pack’s involvement meant a crime was committed by lycan against lycan, and justice came under tribal jurisdiction. It was Alpine’s privilege—and duty—to serve justice to those within the pack responsible for the murder of their alpha.
So it didn’t matter how hot, how sexy, how damn desirable their tracker was, she was the enemy. If she was in any way involved, she would pay, along with the rest of her pack.
“I’ll be the first one to admit I want blood for blood for Jared’s death,” he said in a low voice. He shifted his gaze between Zane and Nate. “And I’ll do whatever it takes, but no justice is served if we kill any innocents. It wouldn’t honor Jared.”
Both men dropped their gazes, but he could see he was getting through to them.
“For the record, I said she was hot. You’re the one that came up with sexy,” Zane grumbled.
Matthias decided to ignore that. He turned to Nate. “You saw the numbers Rafe Woodland had at his disposal. We’re going to need reinforcements. Go back home and call up another guardian squad, but make sure there are still some left behind at Alpine. I don’t want Samantha left vulnerable.”
As Jared’s pregnant widowed mate, Samantha Alpine had stepped into the alpha prime role in Alpine Pack when her partner was killed. Not many knew of the discussion she’d had with him prior to doing so. Nobody else knew she’d offered him the prime position. He clenched his teeth. He couldn’t accept, though. He had been Jared’s guardian prime, and Jared had died under his service. He wasn’t fit to be an alpha prime, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to leave Samantha defenseless while he avenged his alpha’s death.
“Do you think a squad is enough?” Zane asked, his brow furrowing.
Matthias grinned. “Sometimes you need a better weapon than sheer brawn,” he said, and glanced over his shoulder at Trinity, now playing a game in the dirt with the pup.
Zane sighed. “Fine. So we have the Woodland tracker—what if we use her as a bargaining chip? Exchange the tracker for the alpha prime?”
Matthias had to clamp down on his instinctive refusal. It was reflexive and purely selfish. He wanted to spend more time with the tracker, although Zane’s proposition had merit. If Woodland’s alpha prime agreed, then it would mean limiting the risk of casualties and deaths on both sides. And it meant that the alpha prime could save face. He’d be saving one of his own, an honorable surrender.
He sighed. “Fine. Send a message through to Woodland proposing
