The Pack's Hacker (by Cooper) novel Chapter 169

Kennedy

When I wake up, my head is throbbing. I’m uncomfortable and when I try to open my eyes, blood drips into them. People are yelling around me and it’s making my head hurt even worse.

‘Echo?’

‘I’m here. I’m weak, but I’m here.’

‘Do you know where we are?’

‘By the smell of the two arguing over us, they’re Alphas, no one we know. I’m guessing this is one of their packs. One is Alpha Jasper, the Alpha who took us.’

“Tell me that Quirin is dead. Tell me that you didn’t take his Luna and leave him alive,” one of the Alphas snarls.

‘ECHO! Echo, we have to get out of here! We have to warn Quirin!’ A ball of fear knots in my gut. No matter how upset or angry I am at Quirin, I still love him. I won’t let anyone kill him.

‘Echo, can you shift?’ I ask her.

‘If it means saving our mate, I will.’ I know what she’s saying. She’s saying that she would exhaust herself, force herself into exhausted silence to save our mate.

‘I have no intention of losing you either, Echo,’ I say fiercely.

“Then let’s try to get to Quirin quickly. If I go silent, just know that I’ll do everything in my power to get back to you.’

‘I love you, Echo, and so do Quirin and Raif. They won’t let you go either,’ I say, just as my arm is yanked by one of the Alphas. It hurts and I realize that I’m injured in more places than just my head. Echo is taking a huge risk by shifting, but we have to get out of here and I’m not fast enough on two feet.

‘Don’t heal me. If we get to Quirin, Mom will take care of me. Save your strength to run,’ I say, just as my other arm is yanked but the second Alpha.

‘Are you ready, Echo?’ I say, knowing I’m going to have to push my strength into her to help her get out of here with the injuries we have.

‘Yes. Ready?…. NOW!’ she yells in my head.

I yank my arms out of the Alphas’ grasps and leap, trusting my wolf to pull the shift. It’s painful, but she lands on her paws and takes off, running hard and fast.

“GET HER!” I hear one of the Alphas say before hearing two sets of heavy Alpha paws join the warriors in the pack around me that have all turned to try and capture me.

I hear the howl of the hunt from one of the Alphas, I’m assuming the one whose pack this is, because suddenly, there are warriors coming from every direction trying to capture us.

I open my mind, needing to try to connect with someone, anyone, to let them know where I am. As I reach out in my mind, Echo ducks and leaps over the warriors trying to capture us. When one gets too close, she kicks them with her back paw, slicing her claws across their face.

I refocus on the area ahead of us, seeing that the patrols have collected together ready to tackle Echo when she gets too close. She quickly looks behind us and not seeing anyone close on our right side, she lowers her head and runs full-out toward the patrols. At the very last minute, she twists agilely to the side, skirting around them as they all push forward trying to tackle her.

I hear their snarls of frustration as they turn and join the hunt. As we run, I’m thankful for Quirin’s endurance training with Echo and I. She’s stronger than she was when we moved to his pack a few weeks ago and now, that strength is helping her to run while injured.

I’m trusting Echo to know her way home and to keep us ahead of the warriors that are after us. I’m not sure how long we’ve been running when I feel a flicker in the mind link. I latch onto it, knowing that as soon as we’re close enough, I can call for help. 1

I feel the person on the other end latch on to the link as well, as if both of us are desperate to make contact. Whoever it is, they must know who I am and that I was taken.

It’s only a few more minutes when I feel the link snap into place and his voice booms into my mind.

‘KENNEDY!’

‘Quirin,’ I say, my voice shaking in the mind link.

‘I’m coming for you, Kennedy.’ I hear Raif howl in the distance, and Echo turns to run toward him.

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