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her, she’d surrounded herself with Walt and the kids.
    Giving her one last kiss on the forehead, he left Nevan’s house to meet Alec and Hayden at the north end of the den.
    About fifteen minutes later, Damian stood on the front porch of the small cabin he and the rest of his group used on occasions when they needed a safe place to sleep or needed to meet in small groups.
    Chad opened the door and grinned. The bastard. Standing back, Chad said, “You look like hell.”
    Damian growled at the male, which wasn’t too far out of character for him. Chad always had a way of irritating him. Now he knew why. Chad was a lying, backstabbing bastard.
    “Did you get any leads on who caused the fire?” Damian growled out as he walked into the cabin.
    Chad shut the door and followed him farther into the living room. “I put a call out for whoever is in the area. No word yet.”
    Damian forced himself to calm. Chad hadn’t put the call out. Damian was certain. Deciding he’d had enough of the polite bullshit, Damian pulled out the pocketknife and handed it to the other male.
    Chad glanced at it, and Damian swore he saw a flicker of fear flashed in his features before he took it and smiled. “I’ve been looking for that.”
    “Don’t you want to know where I found it?” When Chad didn’t answer right away, Damian continued. “Why did you do it?”
    Chad lifted his gaze to Damian’s, and one corner of his mouth twitched. “Just giving a little payback.”
    Damian narrowed his eyes. “Payback for what?”
    “My family. You gave the order to bail out when you knew my family was still in the den.” Fury rolled over Chad and reached out to Damian.
    “I didn’t know until it was too late. We barely got out ourselves. It was seconds before the whole place blew.”
    Chad started to pace, shaking his head. “No. There was time.”
    Damian blew out a breath. Chad had lost his mate and two children when their den was attacked and destroyed by Onyx, a rogue Pack set on ruling all shifters. Damian had thought all this time that the male was dealing with his loss while fighting against the rogues that had taken their Pack, their family, away.
    Apparently Chad was dealing with it in a way Damian hadn’t expected.
    “You caused the car accident, didn’t you?”
    Chad laughed. “You see what good that did me. Your mate is still alive.”
    Damian cursed under his breath. He’d confided in Chad a few months after they’d formed their rebel group, telling the male that Sarah was his mate, and because Walt was like a brother to him, he couldn’t have her.
    “Why, Chad?”
    The male gave Damian a hard stare and snarled. “Because I wanted you to suffer as much as I had.”
    The next instant, Chad rushed at Damian, nailing him in the stomach with his shoulder. They tumbled to the floor. Chad punched him the jaw. Pain shot up his face. Damian hit Chad in the gut, knocking the male off him. Damian pulled out the gun Blaine had given him and pointed it at Chad’s head. The male stilled and glared at Damian.
    “It’ll take only one shot to head, asshole.” Damian wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he pulled it away, he wasn’t surprised to see the blood smeared across his hand.
    The front door flew open, and Alec charged in and cuffed Chad none-too-gently. “The Council of Elders will be thrilled to have their first trial in two hundred years.”
    Damian holstered the gun and walked past Hayden to get outside. Once free from the walls of the cabin, Damian shifted in a flash, not bothering to remove his clothes first. He needed to run, needed to feel the air in his fur.
    Run off the pain from the betrayal.
    He’d always thought of Chad as a friend, someone he could confide in and would have his back. All the while, the bastard had been plotting the death of his mate.
    Fury pushed his legs faster through the forest and toward Ashwood. His only thoughts were on Sarah and making sure she was safe.
    He’d never leave