“You look like hell,” he said after Knox shut the door, leaving us alone.

“Nice of you to notice,” I replied with a smirk. “You’re looking a little ragged as well.”

“It was summer high moon a few nights ago. We’re all still trying to bounce back.” Barrett gave a little shrug, but even that motion seemed somewhat stiff and slow.

I wasn’t particularly clear on the details, but summer high moon was the full moon that fell between midsummer and autumn harvest, and tended to pack a little extra punch for all the lunar shapeshifters such as werewolves. From what I understood, it was a three-night frenzy of hunting, fighting, and sex. I used to tease Barrett that nightwalkers didn’t need the moon to tell them when to have an orgy, we were always ready. However, I didn’t feel like joking tonight. I needed the pack at peak strength.

“How’s the family?”

“Sated,” he said, his voice sounding heavy as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What’s going on, Mira? You generally don’t feel the need to check on the shifters at two in the morning.”

“Several humans were murdered at the Docks tonight. The club was partially burned before I arrived,” I began, carefully weighing each word. Barrett said nothing as he nodded, but I listened to him draw in a deep breath. He abruptly halted in the midst of drawing in air, his thick brows snapping together over his nose. He quickly released the breath and drew in another, scenting the air, but confusion was still written across his face. He smelled Nerian on me but couldn’t identify the scent. I doubted if his father could have. There were so few naturi left, and it had been years since the last one was seen in the area.

I paused, not even wanting to breathe the word that could potentially shatter his world, but I had no choice. I had brought him here so he could at least try to protect his people. “The naturi struck—”

“That’s what I smell!” he snarled. His nose crinkled, Barrett took two steps toward me. His wide eyes glowed slightly as they swept over me, his hands were open at his sides, with fingers curled like claws. “You reek of naturi.”

“A hunter is in town. He gave…he gave me a naturi from my past.” I paused again, licking my lips. I mentally sorted through the intimate details of my captivity at the hands of the naturi, trying to decide if there was anything that he needed to know. “That naturi is dead, but there are at least two others searching for him or the hunter. They are the ones that struck at the Docks.”

Barrett paced away from me to the opposite wall, the heels of his palms pressed to his temples as if he were suffering from an intense migraine. “Mira.” My name escaped him in a low growl.

“Do you have an emergency plan?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.

Barrett whipped around to face me “An emergency plan?” he repeated. “That’s like me asking if you’ve got an emergency plan for a day when the sun refuses to set. Of course not! I don’t know of any pack that has faced the naturi. Hell, I only know of them because of you and my great-grandfather.”

I could feel the anger rising in him, but he fought back the panic and won. To the naturi, the lycanthropes were little more than slaves, foot soldiers in their war against the bori and mankind. Trapped between animal and man, the lycans had no choice but to answer the call of the naturi and obey.

“Pull your pack together, hold them, and make them fight this. I—I have to leave town for a little while.”

“You’re leaving now? This is your domain! The vampires are the only ones who can fight the naturi,” Barrett shouted as he closed the distance between us with a few long strides. I barely resisted the urge to put my hand on his chest to keep a semicomfortable distance between us. I didn’t want to feel crowded. My nerves were already frazzled from Danaus and the naturi; an irate werewolf didn’t exactly put me at ease.

“I have to stop this from growing worse, and I can’t do that here,” I snapped. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave my people seemingly defenseless. Unfortunately, I’d heard nothing from the Coven regarding Danaus. I couldn’t sit there on my hands, waiting for them to send word regarding the naturi. What’s more, I was not only one of our strongest fighters, but I also had experience dealing with the naturi. I knew I would be of more use in the Old World than in the New. I had to leave.

“Worse?” Barrett said.

The left corner of my mouth twitched as my eyes darted away from his direct gaze. I didn’t know what the lycans knew of the seal or what happened at Machu Picchu so many years ago, but it was a rule that nightwalkers didn’t speak of it to anyone outside our species. We might have all been on the same side when it came to the naturi, but nightwalkers by their very nature were all about power, and information was the richest form of power. We didn’t tell others more than they absolutely had to know. And regardless of how much I respected and trusted Barrett, I couldn’t fight six hundred years of conditioning.

“There are trying to return,” I quickly said. “I’ll tell you more when I know more.”

My only warning was a low growl that rumbled deep in his chest before his right hand swiped across my midsection, his fingernails replaced with long black talons. I jumped backward, my shoulders slamming into the wall behind me. While I was fast, the wall kept me from escaping him. Four furrows slashed across my ribs and down my stomach. My leather halter top kept the cuts from running too deep, but my stomach had been completely bare.

Before I could slam Barrett with a few blistering comments, I saw him stare at his trembling hand, now flecked with my blood, and then turn confused eyes up to my face.

“I’m s-sorry, Mira. I—I don’t know what happened,” he said, his voice low and rough. He blinked once, his eyes glowed a deep copper, and then he blinked a second time, erasing the glow. A knot twisted in my stomach.

“Barrett?” A part of me wanted to reach out and lay my hand on his shoulder, but my body was still pressed against the wall as I balanced on the tips of my toes, struggling for those few extra centimeters of space. It didn’t feel safe to move.

“I—I think they’re here.” And then his eyes glowed again. The naturi were here and they had Barrett, the Alpha for the Savannah pack, under their control.

“Shit!” I hissed between clenched teeth.

As he reached back with his right hand to take another swipe at me, I jumped forward, throwing all my weight into his left shoulder. I knocked us both to the floor, but quickly rolled to my feet. I squared off against him, putting my back to the only door in the room. Barrett returned to his feet and crouched in an aggressive stance. Beside his glowing eyes, his face was completely expressionless. He had no idea what he was doing. He would destroy me because that was the command implanted in his head, regardless of what he felt about me.

“Barrett, can you hear me? You have to fight this,” I said in a hard voice, while I scrambled for a way to subdue him without hurting him too much. Other than the fact that I didn’t just kill for the sake of killing, I needed him alive to help preserve the local pack.

In the main room, faint sounds of fighting drifted to me. Quickly sifting through my memory, I could recall seeing only two werewolves in the bar when I walked through, not counting the bouncer at the front door. I could only hope that Barrett had not brought more when he arrived. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to divide my attention between scanning the area and watching him. I would have worry about it after I managed to take care of the Alpha.

My gaze darted around the room, taking in a quick inventory. Leather sofa, chair with ottoman, floor lamp, two end tables, two iron wall sconces. I didn’t have a lot of choices. I needed to knock his ass out so I could settle the main room and take out the naturi.