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the direction the conversation was going, but it was the direction she’d known it would go. “I’m not one of Afana’s men. I’m a female who was kidnapped when I was a child, the same age as Jessica. I’ve pretended to be a male all my life in the bunker to keep from being raped by the men. I hate Afana and his men more than anyone here. I want revenge, and I thought you would as well! Clearly, you have smaller balls than me!”

Ryder wasn’t sure if she’d gone too far with the last comment, but fuck it, she’d said it now. Too late to go back. Everyone in the settlement was staring at her, and she could feel Carter’s eyes burning into her back.

“Oh, thank god,” he blurted. “I knew it! No dude could look as hot as you.”

Ryder gave Carter the side-eye. Not really the time!

“Prove it,” Maxwell said, making Ryder feel uncomfortable.

Son of a whore. He couldn’t just take my word for it, could he?

Ryder knew that she’d have to show them. She removed her layers of clothing, dropping each garment to the ground. She hated feeling like she was a piece of meat. That was the reason she’d concealed herself all these years. To stay away from perverts’ eyes, like the eyes which were locked on her now.

The wolf growled at Maxwell and the other men. He knew what was going on and wanted it to stop.

Ryder got down to the bandages, the last scraps of cloth before baring her chest.

“They’ve seen enough,” Carter exclaimed. He picked Ryder’s clothes up off the ground and passed them back to her. He held them in front of her like a blanket.

“You’re right,” Maxwell said. “We have seen enough, and yes, she is female. But she’s still from Afana’s bunker. She can stay in your shack until we decide what to do with her—and you.”

Mama Lou and Peter peered into the tunnel Terrier had gone down, and they were greeted by a nasty surprise—Nestor’s dead body. They scanned the tunnel to see if anyone else was there, but they were alone.

Peter leaned down to look at the body and make sure he was dead. He felt for a pulse, but there was none. However, there was a smell of rotten eggs coming from his flesh.

“How long has he been here?” Mama Lou asked.

“His body is still warm,” Peter answered. “It hasn’t been long.”

“Push his body under the pipes. We can't have any more guards coming down here, not until we’ve found Terrier.” Mama Lou and Peter agreed on that plan, and he rolled Nestor under the large metal pipes.

“This shit is getting weirder and weirder every second,” Peter remarked, and Mama Lou nodded in agreement.

A high-pitched scream came from the women’s ward.

Peter took off running, then looked back at Mama Lou. She couldn’t run as fast. She waved him on. “I’ll catch up. You go.”

When Mama Lou came into the women’s ward, Peter was standing in the doorway of one of the cubbies with Terrier by his side. The huge men were staring into the room, unblinking.

Mama Lou prepared herself for the worst. Over the years, she’d seen some horrific sights, but nothing could have prepared her for this. Vera was sitting on the bed, gorging herself on the remains of a man. His gut had been ripped open, and his neck was oozing blood from a bite.

It hadn’t been a woman screaming. It had been the man Vera had just killed.

Vera looked up at them with blood dripping from her mouth. Her eyes glowed red, and she was pissed that her feeding time had been disturbed. When she stood up, her clothes were drenched in blood. Vera ran toward them with her hands out, but Peter slammed the door shut just as Vera reached it. The force of the impact knocked her down, and they heard a thud from the other side when her body dropped to the floor.

When Peter opened the door again, he and Mama Lou looked down at Vera. She looked like she was out cold.

“What the fuck?” Mama Lou demanded. Vera’s eyes opened, and she quickly got to her feet. “Close the door.”

Peter did, and he held the door shut to boot. The handle rattled as Peter tightly gripped it. Terrier got a chair and propped it under the knob for additional reinforcement. It took a moment for Mama Lou and Peter to comprehend what had happened to Vera.

Mama Lou looked at Terrier. He didn’t seem too surprised by what they’d just seen. “You’ve seen this before?”

Terrier nodded. “Yes, Mama. Twice today.”

“Twice?”

“Ivan and Nestor.” Terrier frowned and shook his head. “I heard a woman’s screams and came to help, but it wasn’t a woman in trouble, was it? Vera looked like her usual happy self.”

“Afana has been down here,” Mama Lou told him, reaching out to squeeze his arm. “You need to stay hidden until we can work out what to do with you.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Carter’s shack was basic, with just a bed on the floor and a pile of clothing next to it. Carter smiled and shrugged. “I wasn’t expecting guests.”

The wolf stood in the doorway looking inside. He wanted to go in to keep an eye on the two of them, but he also wanted to be outside so he could see what was happening in the settlement. He decided to wait on the doorstep, since his heightened hearing would let him know if anything went wrong inside.

“I’m going to take a nap,” Carter said as he placed his weapons beside the bed and slumped onto it. “You’re welcome to join me.”

Ryder scowled. I knew it! That treacherous shitehawk! As soon as I revealed I was a female, his cock became his brain, and no doubt it’s just as small! That thought almost made Ryder smile, but she wasn’t in a smiling mood.

“What the fuck?” she asked.

“You know, sleep? Or is that something you don’t do? You’re really hard