Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 151489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Lydia flinched and moaned. “Some asshole just chomped on Cam’s hind leg. He’s okay though, thank God. Ryan helped get the other wolf off of him.”
Grace gave her a sympathetic smile. “Rhett’s received some pretty decent scratches and bites, but he’s not tiring or in any real pain. God, I hate this shit.”
“I need to walk around. Not outside,” Lydia quickly assured them, shifting from foot to foot in restless, nervous movements. “Just through the tunnels. Standing still is killing me.”
“I’ll go with you. Coming, Taryn?”
“Thanks, Grace, but I feel too woozy, I need to sit.”
“I can stay with you if you want.”
“She’s fine, she’s got me and Brock,” said Greta, waving Grace and Lydia out of the room. She turned back to Taryn, frowning. “Don’t worry so much about him.” It was chastising rather than comforting. “God knows he’s been through enough battles and he’s always come back, alive and well.”
“That’s not going to stop me from worrying.” Nothing would stop her from worrying short of Trey standing before her.
“Darryl’s nothing but a little fart anyway. That’s why he’s brought so many with him – he knows he’d never win a one-to-one challenge with Trey.”
“Why do you think he wants the packs united so badly?”
Greta huffed. “Darryl’s problem is that although he was born an alpha, he was a weak one – too weak to be a Pack Alpha. His little brother, Rick – Trey’s father – on the other hand, was very strong. He was also a horrible bastard. Darryl spent his life walking in Rick’s shadow, overlooked. But that didn’t stop him from lodging himself so far up Rick’s ass that he ended up being made Beta. Then Trey was born and even as a little boy you could tell he was a powerful alpha. Both Rick and Darryl saw him as a threat and treated him very badly.”
Taryn couldn’t help that her upper lip curled in anger. “Yeah, I heard a little about that.”
“When Trey almost killed his father, Darryl was ordered by Rick to beat him, punish him. But Darryl wouldn’t – he knew he couldn’t. That was why talk of banishing him started. My guess is no one in the pack forgot Darryl’s fear of a fourteen year old boy and so he’s not being respected or obeyed as Alpha.”
“Makes sense. If he had been, half of his pack wouldn’t have turned up here to check on my welfare.”
Greta nodded. “Unless he shows his pack that he can overpower Trey and fix the divide in the pack, he’ll be challenged soon enough and lose his position.”
Greta said more but Taryn couldn’t make any sense of the words as her hearing suddenly went weird, like she was underwater or something. Seconds later it returned to normal, but then her vision went blurry again.
“Taryn, Taryn, you alright?”
She wasn’t sure who asked and she didn’t care as the sudden urge to vomit had her ready to dash for the nearest bathroom. But she didn’t make it. She hadn’t even gotten halfway out of the room when she doubled over with pain and projectile vomited all over the kitchen floor. Then again. And again. And again. Then she flopped onto her side, panting, moaning and sweating. Worse, she was way beyond woozy and close to passing out. She felt Brock pick her up.
“Go get Grace,” he told Greta. “I’ll take her to lie down in her room.”
She retched again, but this time nothing came out. She doubted there was anything left in her stomach, especially since she’d hardly eaten anything that morning. The feeling she now had wasn’t all that different from when she had hit her head. It was a little like she was weightless, like a dream state was creeping up on her. Her vision alternated from being fuzzy around the edges to being totally blurred. Her head seemed so unbelievably heavy and she felt sort of detached from her body. This could not be good for the baby. Fear shot through her as she wondered if this somehow meant she was losing the baby.
Shit, that sun was bright.
Wait, what? It occurred to her then that, hey, she was outside. And she should not be. “Where are we going?” she slurred. Her body jolted crazily and she realized they were descending the steps of the mountain face.
“Sorry, Taryn, but this is just the way it has to be.”
His voice was sharp, clipped, cold. This was not the Brock she knew. “It’s you. You’re the informant.”
He peered down at her, clearly surprised. “So you knew. Doesn’t matter now. All that matters is getting you to Darryl quickly.”
“What did you do to me?” she moaned as a spasm wracked her stomach.
“It’s just a drug to make you sleep. I slipped it in that weird juice. I’ve no idea how you can drink that stuff Grace makes.”