Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
But when the door opened, it wasn’t her.
It was Tavish.
I didn’t need to look to know he stood in the doorway watching me. After the silence stretched on, I exhaled and stared at him.
He was dressed in dark training clothes, his jaw tight, his expression grim. His eyes swept over me, taking in the tension I couldn’t hide. “Father wants tae see ye. Now.”
The tightness in my chest grew sharper. “What’s wrong?”
Tavish glanced down the hall, then back at me, his voice low. “We have a problem. Scouts spotted signs near the border. Tracks. Strange scents. Signs of intruders.”
Intruders.
Something inside me snapped awake. I pushed away all my self-loathing, my obsession with Aisling, and let the part of me that had been forged in blood and battle—the Prince of the Scottish Lycans—focus on protecting my family and all we held close.
Once out of the room, the tension in my body shifted to something focused, dangerous. “Any idea who or what it is?” I finally asked as Tavish led the way.
“We donna kno’. No’ yet. But it’s no’ just travelers passing through. Whoever or whatever it was… they were careful with their scent. They came close tae the estate but stayed far enough back that the sentries didn’t detect them.”
I clenched my fists. A threat was right at our front door, and I was here losing my mind over things that I had no control over.
My silent wolf and a female I had no right to want.
“Where’s Father?”
“In the lower level. He’s gathering the Guard.”
I nodded but stayed silent.
Even as I stalked down the hall and focused on the threat at hand, my mind refused to stay where it should. It kept circling back to her. Aisling.
And a dark thought crept in, one I didn’t want to voice, not even in my head.
What if they came for her? What if… they took her from me?
The idea made my blood run hot, and I clenched my jaw hard enough my molars ground together.
She wasn’t mine. Couldn’t be. And yet, the thought of anyone trying to take her, harm her, touch her—
I’d burn the fucking world to the ground before I let that happen.
When we got to the secured lower level of the estate—one only accessible to us and the Guard—I followed Tavish into what we called the War Room.
I entered, the heavy door slamming shut behind me and locking automatically.
Inside, my father, the King of the Scottish Lycans, stood front and center along with numerous male Lycans, alert and ready to stop whatever threat had come knocking.
This was just the beginning of something big, dangerous, and what would threaten everything.
9
LENNOX
Istayed back, quiet, and listened. But even as my father outlined what little we knew, even as strategies were discussed, I felt it pulsing beneath my skin.
“They’ve already reinforced the north and east perimeters,” Cian said, voice low, clipped. “But we’ve got a problem.” He pointed to a section of the map—a stretch of dense forest that bordered the estate’s land and ran dangerously close to human villages. “The tracks stop here. Like they vanished into the ground.”
“Or into a tunnel,” Caelan muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Gods, don’t tell me they’re burrowing into our lands.”
“It fits with Therabus and Katara tactics, the slimy fookers,” Cian said grimly. “The bastards donna fight like warriors. They sneak. They trap. They prey.”
My father leaned over the map, his fists braced on the table. The flickering firelight caught the silver in his hair, casting his face in stark shadow. “The last time they came close tae our home, we lost good males. I won’t let that happen again.”
I felt the weight of his words like a stone in my chest. I should have said something—offered a plan, a strategy—but my mind was a storm. And I kept hearing that small voice in my head whispering one word over and over.
Aisling.
What if they got through our perimeters? What if they reached the estate? What if she—
No. I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t.
And gods help me, I didn’t know if I was more afraid of the coming battle… or of what she was starting to mean to me.
Because I was coming to the hard truth that, fated mate or not, I wanted Aisling as mine.
“We need tae sweep that area,” I finally spoke up, voice low, the growl in it rising. “Every inch. If there’s a tunnel, we collapse it. If there’s a den, we burn it out.”
My father’s gaze met mine, searching, weighing… maybe even judging my ability to fight. But then I saw the nod of approval there, the silent acknowledgment that whatever I thought were my failings, I was still his son. Still a prince of this clan. A warrior.
“Good,” he said. “Lennox, ye lead the sweep. Take Tavish and Cian. I want no less than thirty of the Guard with ye. Fully stocked and loaded. If those motherfookers are hiding, we take them out. Donna give them a chance tae retreat.” Banner ran a hand over his face and exhaled. “I want Magdalena tae be summoned. Have her reinforce the wards around the land.”