Nash stared at his mother, his chest heaving in ragged, heavy gasps. He looked at Tabitha kneeling on the stone, then looked at me, the agonizing weight of the decision pressing heavy on his shoulders.
"If you fail us, Tabitha," Nash rumbled, his deep voice dropping into a lethal, terrifying Alpha promise, "if you make one wrong move or step toward Fernando, there is no place on this earth where you can hide from my steel."
"I won't fail her, Alpha," Tabitha whispered, bowing her head against the flagstones. "I swear it on my life."
Twenty minutes later, the storm raged wild over the northern crags.
Deep within the sulfur-choked northern ravine, a small campfire flickered inside the mouth of a dark granite cave. Two heavily armed rogue sentries stood guard near the narrow ledge, their
