Free Redemption by Cara Carnes Page A

disappearance blind your judgment.”
    “Back at you, Alpha,” Peyton said.
    He leaned in and growled. “Sounds like a challenge, wolf.”
    “It’s a reminder. Don’t let the man’s desire choose the leader’s path. Remember Jarvis’s lectures?” Peyton reversed a couple of steps. “Her vanishing act a couple years ago nearly undid you. I can’t stand aside and let it happen again.”
    “Why are you so quick to assume what she says is lies?”
    “Because it makes no fucking sense, Adrik. Come on. Think with the brain on your shoulders. We’ve treated thousands of people who were in facilities and bussed to us afterward to trade their pathetic credits for provisions. None of them remembered a damn thing. Very few of them sustained injuries anywhere near hers. And not a single one of them had even a hundredth the credit she did.”
    His wolf snarled.
    Everything Peyton stated made sense, yet he refused to believe Mira would lie—not about something as serious as torture. Rape.
    Fuck.
    Just the thought of his pack—his sentinels—discounting what she’d survived made his wolf snap with a need to defend her. Fortunately Blade appeared from the restaurant and headed their way.
    For an Impure the man was massive. A couple inches taller than six foot, the man had the wide shoulders of a flyer. Straight ebony hair drifted along his shoulders. He paused a couple feet from them and looked around.
    “You didn’t bring many warriors with you. Three and a half wolves aren’t gonna help much,” Blade commented.
    Marek whistled.
    Peyton lunged, but Marek grabbed her by the waist.
    “Like I said, three and a half.” Blade chuckled as his gaze swept over Peyton, whose fierce snarls filled the area. “We need to get a few things straight before this meeting proceeds. First off, I’m not happy you didn’t bring more warriors. I’ve got men, but they aren’t well trained compared to your pack and given the fact Mira’s wanted by The Alliance, I can’t call them in on this.”
    “How the hell do you know about Mira?” Adrik demanded.
    “It’s my business to know, wolf. I can assure you I know more about this than you do for now. That’ll all change soon enough, though. Until then, you and your…men need to play nice with mine. You disrespect someone in my group, we’re done.”
    “Exactly what is your skin in this?” Marek asked.
    “My business isn’t your concern.” Blade’s jaw twitched. “I’ve been itching to hit this fucking facility since the first day I saw Mira with those two guards.”
    Adrik growled. He couldn’t handle hearing that shit, especially from a stranger who’d seen it, let it happen. For two fucking years.
    As if sensing the tension within him, Marek stepped forward, putting himself partially between Adrik and Blade. The man regarded his second a moment.
    “Right. Okay, I get it. I shouldn’t go there with the conversation.” The man sighed. “Fair enough. I figured you’d have questions and it’d be better to hear from me than her. Obviously y’all process differently.”
    “So there is a facility,” Peyton stated.
    “Yes, in the outer bowels of the bayou a few miles south—well inside Hell’s Playground. I’ve been supplying them for a little under two years after their previous procurer became gator bait. The NAH sucks ass, but their credits help the cause.”
    “Which is?” Marek asked.
    “Again, my business, but we have a common goal. I want the NAH gone. So do you. We work together and go our separate ways afterward.” Blade motioned toward the overgrown vegetation to the west. “When I realized the extent of their…atrocities, I got someone inside the facility. Then I realized something wasn’t right with Mira.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She remembered me.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Everyone knows volunteers don’t remember their time inside, but what no one realizes is their memories are wiped at the end of each day. But she remembered me.