Chapter 18 · Marked Registry - Chapter 18: The Van List

The van was already rolling when Ella hit the side door.

Cain's hand came down on her shoulder, yanked her back. "Not yet."

"They're moving them now." She could smell it—the fear, the wolf musk leaking through the vent slits. Three, maybe four bodies crammed inside. "We don't have time for yet."

He didn't let go. His grip was iron, his face unreadable in the sodium light spilling from the depot's back gate. "You go in loud, they torch the manifest. We lose everything."

"They torch it, we still have the wolves."

"They torch it, Horne walks." Cain's jaw tightened. "And this happens again. Next month. Different wolves. Same end."

Ella hated that he was right. Hated that she was even listening. The van's engine growled, brake lights flaring red as it idled at the checkpoint. Two guards in Regulation gray flanking the barrier. One of them had a tablet. The other had a shotgun.

She could hear claws scraping metal inside the van. Someone whimpering.

"How do we get both?" she asked.

Cain's mouth curved, sharp and humorless. "Badly."

He moved before she could ask what that meant.