Chapter one

“Shit!” Angel suddenly exclaimed and they all looked at him. “Wolfe is gone!” he added.

“We need to move now!” Cole said and the Weres galvanized into action, running back to where they left Ash’s men. 

As they got to the woods, a loud howl rented the air followed by terror-filled screams and sounds of automatic guns, firing. Cole cranked his neck.

“Okay, guys, we have ten minutes to find Antonio Rufus and his sons and bring them out here—"Cole said.

“That is not the plan. I plan to let them burn with this shit hole,” Angel said.

“No, Angel. I have a special dose of death serum for that bastard. I want him and his sons to be very dead. I am not taking chances with him, when I am done with him, then you can burn this shit hole down with their bodies in it. I must admit that’s the only way to wipe out the evidence that you guys were ever here,” Cole countered. Angel took his time to think about that piece of information. ‘Death serum, huh?’ Angel thought perhaps that would be a nice addition to his plans. He nodded in agreement. 

“Ash!” Cole called out.

“On it boss!” the other man replied. Angel thought he appreciated the way and manner Cole Miller was handling the situation thus far. He is not going to lie though, it felt strange to be working side by side with the offspring of a man who contributed to the anguish of his people. His eyes went to Isabelle, the way she moved in sync with him, with total trust and protectiveness. And then Xavier. He nodded to himself, thinking perhaps when he learned more about him, and knew what his cousins knew, the feeling would go away. 

They ran towards the door Angel exited from earlier with Angel in the lead, he turned the knob and discovered it was jammed. 

He cursed, letting out strings of expletives, “Sonofa—” he exclaimed and then grunted hard. 

‘Sonofabitch! That bloody piece of shit! I should have listened to Kurt and left him in that shithole!’ Angel thought as he fought to get his rage under control. All his perfectly laid plans of how he was going to pick up every of Antonio Rufus’s shitty sons, one by one, and finally Antonio Rufus himself, to give them the very same treatment they had accorded him and his kind all these years – fucked up! 

He had it in mind to throw them inside the pit and let every single wolf take turns tearing them apart. He was going to blow up the main building before coming to cleanse the pit with fire with the entire Antonio Rufus generation bleeding to death inside. 

Oh! How he had imagined their lives, draining, slowly from them and then the flames eating up their flesh, bit by bit, with them feeling every single agonizing minute of it before they embrace their end.

And now Wolfe had gone mad, went through the secret tunnel he had planned to sneak through to get inside the building—thanks to Nadia letting him in on the secret passageway—and fucking bolted the door from the inside! 

Now they have to fight their way in! With no guarantee that they would even make it! And speaking of Nadia, he had planned to hide his intentions about her from the rest of them now he would have to explain himself.  “That fucking Wolfe must have gone through here and shut the door.” he cursed out loud.

“Any other way in?” Xavier asked. 

Angel wanted to snarl at the question he considered quite stupid! Of course, there were other ways inside, but this one was the best chance they had. He was enraged that his plans may have gone to hell and was extremely high-strung. He took deep breaths trying to contain his emotions. The last thing he needed was his cousins thinking he was unstable. 

“The front door? And it is always swimming with guards — guards with automatic rifles with silver bullets,” Angel enunciated his reply, trying to sound calm.

“We are taking the front door then—” Cole said calmly and shrugged. “I told you, Antonio Rufus is not escaping me the second time,” Cole replied in a matter-of-fact way as if he hadn’t just suggested they walk up to meet their death. 

Angel studied the big human, his eyes were cold just like most of the killers he had seen ever since his ordeal began. Eyes that mirrored darkness within and he thought perhaps this human might still help to get the ending he had dreamt of after all. 

“Listen up! We need only capable Weres for this fight, everyone else should stay back in the woods!” Xavier said. 

Angel walked smartly to press his back to the sidewall, wanting to use it as a shield and hoping the dark blanketed sky would hide them from the guards. 

In masks and full military gear with chests shielded by bulletproof vests, the others formed a line, imitating his act as they hugged their backs to the sidewall too, letting him take the lead.

The sound of the start of a helicopter blade sounded from up the roof. Angel cursed. 

“They are preparing the helicopter for him! He is going to get away if we don’t act fast!” Angel said. Cursing Wolfe to damnation for messing up his plans. He swore that if Antonio Rufus got away, he was going to beat the shit out of the blasted lunatic.

“Oh, hell, no! Not on my watch!” Cole muttered and ran to the open space to start firing at the guards. 

‘This guy is a maniac!’ he thought and Jason, Blaze's brother, said as much. And then more men joined in, firing rapidly and killing the guards. But the guards kept streaming out in droves. This was what he had been hoping to avoid – an outright confrontation was suicidal. There were too many of them. He had wanted to blast them all to bits in the goddamn house!

And just when he thought it couldn’t get worse, they were ambushed and Cole Miller was lowering to the floor, wanting to surrender?! Like what the fuck?! He had no plans to surrender. He would rather die, going at them than let them catch him again. He said as much, but Cole Miller seemed not to be overly bothered that they were about to be caught! 

And then sounds of barreling bullets came out of the surrounding woods. It was silent but he could hear them. And it appeared Cole Miller could as well. Angel jerked his face up in the direction of Antonio Rufus ' guards and saw them start to jerk and fall. It was the most glorious sight! 

Cole Miller, Jason and some of his other men started to fire the ones who were trying to escape and shortly after the entire grounds went quiet as a tomb. Then a loud explosion came from the roof, and Antonio Rufus's crafts that he knew were atop the roof, turned into flying shafts of metals. 

Angel's heart soared, an adrenaline rush coursing through his bloodstream with vengeance. 

Realizing the front door was now relatively safe enough to walk through he lunged forward, letting all the suppressed rage in him surface. 

The first guard he caught felt the brunt of it as he tore off his head away from his neck and threw the body against the side wall. His big chest heaved with every laboured breath. 

Another tried to aim a rifle at him and he slapped it away, going for his jugular, he tore it out with his sharp claws. Taking hold of two other guards at once, he slammed their heads together, smashing their skulls.  Blood sprayed out all over his new clothes and he didn't care. With his broad shoulders up, chest out, and his head thrown back, he tore his new shirt and let out a howl --- a loud, liberating one, filled with pain, anguish, and the sweet taste of freedom. 

He had dreamt of this day for the longest time. Somewhere deep inside him, there was nagging disbelief that this was actually happening but then he took a look at Xavier and Isabelle, his two cousins, killing alongside him and just as savagely. His heart constricted. It wasn’t a dream. This was actually happening. They had come for him.

Angel couldn’t count how many he killed but he left quite a trail on his path, rushing up the stairs with the intent to find Antonio Rufus's sons and of course Nadia — sweet Nadia, naive Nadia, who thought she could use him as some subject of atonement. She figured she got to get away -- walk the fuck away from him? He was going to show her she had indeed made the mistake of trusting him. She figured that was it. That was all she had to do to get to walk away? She was in for a big surprise. 

The true reason why he was insanely upset with her tried to rear its head and he stumped it -- deep down inside him. Clenching his jaw. The scene of her kissing him and then walking away invaded his head and he shook his head as a man possessed. The feeling of rejection and being plain unworthy welled in him and he gritted his teeth. 

When they got to the corridor where her room was, he asked the others to leave the deck for him, and he started to stride away. 

“Where are you going?” Xavier yelled after him.

“Getting something that belongs to me!” Angel growled a reply and continued to go.  His voice was cold as ice and his heart filled with determination. Not a single one of Antonio Rufus’s family will escape his wrath.