Mated to the Chaos - Georgette St. Clair Page 0,21

and the Trinity Council. Encantado was filled with power mergers.

Perhaps they should have assumed something was coming. There had to be a reason for all of this, right?

Carlo snorted, scanning the wolves on patrol—each pair had one in wolf form, the other on two legs with rifles ready. If the same reasoning could be considered, Carlo connecting with Chaos—if it could actually be a good thing—would probably help out quite a bit.

Yes, he was man enough to admit Nanshe probably saw the power that could be gained their union. The issue was, Chaos already had a snap at him, and it didn’t make him better.

Actually, he’d been touched twice, and he was grateful it had corrected him the second time. Although, he wasn’t as clear on how that happened. Even when he tried to think about it, the memory was fuzzy, and he only remembered a moment of pain before he focused on getting Zoey and Dominic out of the Chaos Realm so they wouldn't turn out like him.

Try as he might, he couldn’t see the benefit of taking on Chaos. If he didn’t have to worry about that, he’d gladly leap at the chance to have a mate next to him, to know he would be sharing his life with the other part of his soul, rather than alone.

But he had no choice, and as tempting as Nanshe was, he’d have to get through this without claiming her. He couldn’t risk it.

He groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. He’d just be taking himself around a circle thinking about all of this. No matter how he tried to approach it, the one large issue blocked everything.

Chaos.

A sudden silence made Carlo stand taller and lift his nose into the air. It fairly crackled, but the other wolves didn’t seem to notice it. They continued walking, but he was on alert. Electricity sizzled across his skin—a warning.

“Ciro,” Carlo murmured into his comm unit in his ear. It was one of the changes made in agreement with the Alphas of the Moretti, Lombardi, and Moonstone Packs. Each group was on different channels, but they could key in and alert others if they saw danger. The sorcerers and mages were linked with Kalinda, who had Romano at her side if she needed to get to the wolves.

As another safety, they’d kept Silva with her, the Guardians watching the portal near Scorched Earth, Asherah near the districts with Heath, Kallan and Teague. Zoey was on lockdown with Isadora and Fabiana within the Lombardi lands with her guards and Eiravel and Cynes.

They were spread thinner than they wanted to be, each protecting their own areas and expanding a bit to encompass the mages, but the Renegades offering border patrol helped.

“I’m here.”

“Can you smell anything?”

Ciro was the best Scenter of his pack, called upon any time they needed to track. When he needed a break for his nose, he’d work with Giuliana in her vintage shop, but he was on twenty-four-hour duty right now, only catching sleep when the other Scenters under him were sure he was covered.

“Incoming!”

It was all the warning Carlo got, the comm loud in his ears, before multiple openings appeared in the air.

“We’ve got portals!” Dominic bellowed.

“Tell the mages to prepare,” Adonis ordered.

The comms were alive with warnings, but Carlo couldn’t respond. They were all under attack at once. Large, white masses bled—fucking bled—from the portals, dripping down to the ground. Carlo raced to the front, ready to attack as the masses frothed and bubbled before shifting into tiger-like monstrosities.

They roared, and every wolf in the vicinity answered with howls. Cats versus dogs.

Dogs win every time, fur face.

There was a pregnant pause, a moment of silence and anticipation before the battle began. Carlo acted first, snarling in challenge when he pulled his gun and shot. The bullet whizzed through the air, even as Carlo shot at the next tiger.

Except the bullets didn’t do the job.

“Watch out!”

Carlo leapt back just in time, dodging the clawed swipe of the first tiger he’d attacked. So bullets wouldn’t work. It was good he had more weapons at his disposal. He sheathed his gun, then shifted enough to let his claws appear on his hands. He didn’t want to shift entirely and lose the ability to speak with the others.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t without wolves.

“All soldiers get shifted. Bullets are useless.”

They moved as one, snarling and snapping at the tigers, as high-ranking males fought with claws and on two feet. Carlo wouldn’t let these things