they wanted either you or me, or another witch, to see their arrival back in town. They were just better at covering up the fact their entire rogue pack was hiding in ambush.”
I nodded again. It was irritating not being able to talk, but I was staying in tiger form until this was over. I’d already thought most of that through, but I also didn’t mind in the least. Tiffany’s throaty voice was soothing to me. I sent another ping, two more died up front, and three of the wolves inside died, none of them ours. That meant it was now ten to three in our favor in the house, and Ginny was the counter to Silas’s alpha strength. The front yard was eleven to seven in our favor, and all my shifters were a lot stronger so the odds were far more in our favor than just those numbers would indicate.
Tiffany did the same thing, and I sensed her relax slightly, not her alertness, but her worrying. Not that I wasn’t worrying too.
I tried not to think of the tiger that’d died, and the five others that would’ve if we hadn’t removed the silver. I needed to learn that spell, though I suspected it required silver to be held to work. Like Tiffany’s dagger, so it wouldn’t help me all that much in my shifted form. Naked animals didn’t carry silver.
The worst part was I didn’t really know him at all. I knew he was on Serina’s team, but outside of face recognition I didn’t know him. I’d never talked to him even once. I pushed it out of my head, because his death was enraging me.
We should’ve caught it, done better reconnaissance. Maybe we could pick up some HD video quadcopters or something, make sure we don’t walk into a trap next time, check for snipers with fucking silver fucking bullets. Fuck!
Fucking assholes!
I felt Tiffany’s hand on my neck and shuddered as I released a growl. I was losing it.
Tiffany said softly, “Calm, love. The price is worth it, and acceptable to any who may pay it, for such a big takedown. His sacrifice will save hundreds of us around the world in the future from that asshole, and who knows how many humans.”
I head bumped her. She was right of course. I did respect his sacrifice. But I wasn’t wrong either. A modicum of caution and recon would’ve made a huge difference that day. I’d make sure we did that for all big takedowns or anything that might be a trap. We’d walked right into it, and it was only Ginny’s slight caution in bringing every enforcer we had that lowered the cost to just one life.
I sent out another ping spell, and the front lawn fight was almost over. There were two more wolves, and none of our people were taken down. They were in the process of tearing the last two apart to finish it, if I was any judge by the noise of the fight.
Inside, seemed to be down to Silas and one other. I mentally sighed when I realized that human wasn’t there anymore, which probably meant he was dead.
I chuffed and headed for the door, and Tiffany followed.
I cast the three second spell on the way there, and held it, though it was a ten second spell for a witch to cast. As soon as I walked in, I released it into Silas, and the rogue alpha transformed human and was stuck in the form. One of the bears laid down on him and pinned him down.
Three seconds later, the other one went up in Tiffany’s fire spell, and he lasted about half a second. He’d been close to done anyway, so her fire had burned through his rejuvenation magic quickly.
I shifted, as did all the team leads and my mate.
“Report,” Ginny growled angrily.
I said, “Twenty-two enemies dead outside, including their two snipers. I took out the witch on the second floor as well, with Tiff’s help. One loss on Serina’s team. I…” I trailed off as I didn’t know his name. One of the first things I needed to do now that I was working afternoons as head enforcer was to memorize the faces and names of all ninety in the pack. Well, eighty-nine, now.
Serina bit her lip, and nodded at me forgivingly as she said, “Tyler. He took a silver bullet through the heart, without being able to heal he only lasted for seconds. Six more of us would’ve died,