DYER'S P.O.V

The car rolled forward and the only thing I could bring myself to think about was the way Aislyn stayed quiet throughout the whole exchange.

It's been a whole week already, and she hasn't said or done anything that would imply how hurt she must be over the situation. I can't even explain what prompted me to bring her back with me.

"Do you think what she said is the truth, boss?" Bodie asks.

"Her story checks out. Her father looked like he wanted to kill her, her sister looked smug and Elliott was just unsure how to react. Nobody even objected to her sister's demand that she be made a payment piece."

"You're right. But something doesn't check out."

I want to ask him what it is that doesn't check out but I stop myself. Something is awfully wrong with the atmosphere.

Bodie must feel it too because he starts sniffing the air immediately. "Something's not right."

The air reeks of silver in this part of the road, like maybe someone had laid an ambush of some sort for us.

"Turn the car around immediately. We're strolling into a trap."

Before the words even fully leave my mouth bullets start flying at our car, hitting everything. The ammunition is so tight and heavy that it rocks the car and starts to chip at the metal covering the tires.

"We've been set up. I need to know now who it was that set us up." I growl out in anger.

"Isn't getting out alive more important than finding out who set us up is?" Bodie questions in an amused tone.

"We both know we'd get out of this unscathed. There's only one person who won't, and we need information to make sure that they don't."

He nods and folds the sleeves of his shirt. He was ready to fight, and so was I. Against us lycans, wolves don't stand a chance, and that's why they use ammunition against us every time they attack. What they don't know, however, is that we might not like silver, but it isnt deadly to us.

"Now!"

Bodie and I throw the door to the SUV open and dive out of the car. We both spring into action immediately, switching forms in midair as we leap at the building where the man with a sniper is crouched.

I sense movement and call out through our den link to Bodie, "There's more of them. Kill them all, I will handle the sniper."

He changes directions immediately, catching a wolf in his mouth as it lunges at him.

I leap over the glass of the building as lightly as possible. Because of how lithe we are, we don't break things with our weight as quickly as a wolf would, and our forms lie in the middle of human and animal.

The man with the sniper sights me approaching him and takes off running. I wonder how far he thinks he can get on the roof of a building loaded with offices.

I crawl around the building, switching my course as well, then come over to the other side of the building. The side he is running toward.

My jaw snaps around his frail human throat once and he drops to the ground, bloodless and unconscious.

******

"Take him to the torture room. I have something to attend to first." I tell Bodie as we park in front of my manor.

"Yes, boss."

I walk into the manor and head straight for the basement. Someone has a lot of explaining to do.

"What the hell do you take me for?" I growl as I barge into Aislyn's cell.

She jerks backward in fear as she sees the feral look in my eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You really think that plotting an ambush is your best bet at talking me out? I thought you would know by now that I am not to be messed with."

Her forehead scrunches in confusion. "I don't know anything about an ambush. How could I possibly plot against you when I am locked up?"

"That was exactly my first thought too, but then I remembered the conversation you had with your sister before we left your pack."

"It wasn't a conversation. She said something to me and I didn't respond."

"What was it that she said to you then?" I ask.

"You were standing beside me. You're clearly not a human, so why didn’t you listen in?"

"Because unlike wolves, we value privacy."

"How smart." Her tone holds sarcasm until something dawns on her and her eyes widen. "You're a lycan king? You're THE lycan king? Oh my goodness! My pack has been trying to kill..."

She shuts up immediately.

"To kill?" I prompt, but she simply shakes her head.

I nod. "Okay then. You asked for it."

I walk out of the cell. "Thirty whips with a silver cane. They wanted to kill me with silver today, so I'd remind one of them what it feels like to have it burn your skin." I say to the guard in front of her cell and march away.

"I have nothing to do with this!" I hear her call after me, but I was already way beyond the point of listening.

The guard walks in immediately and grabs her, her screams echo behind me as he pulls her along. No amount of pretense would save her today.

"Boss," Bodie runs up to me.

"What's wrong?"

"The prisoner is awake."

"Then it's time we had a little chat."

I follow him in the direction of the room where all prisoners are tortured but stop as familiar screams make their way closer.

"Bring her here. I need to confirm whether or not she's a part of this."

The guard nods and pulls her along. I continue with Bodie and both of us walk into the room.

"I'm sorry. I was sent, they were going to kill my family if I didn't cooperate. I had to do it."

"I need one simple piece of information. Give it to me, and maybe your family might not have to bury fragments of you."

He nods eagerly, waiting for the question he knows I'm about to ask.

"Who sent you?"

He looks behind me and his eyes widen. "She was the one who communicated with the Luna what route you used when you were coming to the pack."

"Are you telling me that Redmoon has declared war against my den?"

He chuckles. "Exactly." Then disappears into thin air on a cloudy puff.

He fucking disappears.