Chapter 31 · Back to Back

The scrambler hit a frequency that drilled right through my dental work.

Maya screamed first. High, shrill, jagged. A sound that didn't belong to a six-year-old child, let alone a wolf pup.

Then my son.

I dropped the bolt I was holding and sprinted for the truck.

"Jammer!" I yelled into the sleet. "Somebody find the fucking box!"

Nobody answered. Gunfire rattled down the south line. Sleet sliced sideways across my eyes. Under all of it ran that piercing whine, boring past skull and bone into the raw, soft place where I still carried the phantom weight of my babies.

Theron had thrown a horse blanket over the truck's cab. It didn't do shit. The sonic pulse tore through steel plating like tissue paper.

A heavy hand clamped the back of my neck.

Instinct took over. I threw an elbow back.

Julian caught my fist before it broke his nose. He didn't even flinch. He'd probably seen it coming from three yards away.

"Cut left," he rasped. His mouth grazed my ear, his breath hot, smelling of copper and rain against the freezing air. "Now, Nora."

"My cubs—"

"I hear them.