by J. L. Wilder
“When we have him,” Emmett said, “I’ll be the one to challenge him. The rest of you will guard the doors.”
Wes nodded again, even though he was uneasy with this part of the plan. Choosing one person to challenge Cody—that was just replacing one alpha with another. If it was going to be like that, shouldn’t they talk amongst themselves about who the best choice to lead them would be?
But there was no time. And besides, he wasn’t sure who he would have picked over Emmett anyway. There was no clear choice, no obvious great leader among them.
It’s only temporary. It’s only until my son is old enough to take the lead. That’s one thing we all agree on.
The group dispersed. Wes made his way quietly down the road in the direction he had been assigned to search—toward Tina’s house. They had suspected that Cody might be spending his time there if he wasn’t at his own home.
He thought of Lauren, who he had left on the outskirts of town. It was awful—painful—to be away from her. He wished he could have left one of the others with her as a guard. But who would have stayed? Who would have been willing?
He couldn’t imagine that anybody would.
She’s waiting in her bear form. She’s hardly defenseless.
But she was so very pregnant. It would be hard for her to run away if anything were to happen...
No. Nothing will happen. All the danger is here, in the city. That’s why I left her behind. Because I knew she would be safer there.
Still, it never failed to surprise him how difficult it was to be away from her, even for short stretches of time.
He turned a corner, and Tina’s house came into view. He didn’t know the place well, but like most shifters, she had lived in the same house since childhood. It had belonged to her parents. And in those days, Wes had known where everyone close to his own age lived.
The brownstone looked deserted. Through the closed windows, he could see that the lights were off inside.
They aren’t here, he thought, not sure if he felt relief or disappointment. It looked like he wasn’t going to be the one to have to capture Cody after all.
But what if Cody wasn’t in any of the places they had decided to look?
Then, just as he was wondering that, Tina emerged from around the side of the house.
They both froze, staring at one another.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Tina hissed.
“Where’s Cody?” Wes asked.
“You were exiled. He’s going to kill you for coming back.”
“Fine. Where is he?”
“Not here.”
“Bullshit.”
“He isn’t here, asshole. And you shouldn’t be either. Get off my property.”
Instead of pointing out that he wasn’t technically on her property, but rather on the sidewalk, Wes stepped forward onto her lawn and raised his eyebrows.
She took a step backward, and he realized that she was intimidated by him. Good.
“Get away from me,” she said. “You’re not a part of this pack. You were exiled. Take your pregnant girlfriend—” she spat the word that was more commonly used for humans than for shifters as if it was an epithet— “and get away from this city. You’re not wanted here.”
“No,” Wes said. “You’re the one who isn’t wanted.”
“What the fuck did you say to me?”
Something like acid was coursing through him. All he could think about was the way it had felt to stand there and watch this woman burn his home to the ground. “No one wants Cody in charge of this den,” he said. “We’re going to put a stop to his so-called leadership. He’s a terrible alpha.”
“How dare you!”
“He’s going to destroy us all, and he doesn’t even care. I think it’s what he wants.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Tell me where he is,” Wes said, stepping toward her. “Come on, Tina. There’s no way you want this den to go to hell. You’ve always been kind of a bitch, but this is your home. You can be part of what we’re going to build after he’s removed from power if you help me now.”
“You’re talking about my mate!”
“And what has he ever given you?” Wes demanded. “Night after night of endless parties? Is that really what you want? Didn’t you ever dream of something more?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m going to be a father,” Wes said quietly. “I have dreams for the future of this den. I have dreams for my family.”
“You’re not going to be a part of this den’s future.”
“I guess you can’t understand, can you?” he said, boiling over with anger. “You have no genetic heritage. You have no children. You’ll never know what it’s like for the future to actually matter.”
Tina let out a scream of rage. Her whole body trembled, and her eyes dilated to black.
Wes braced himself for a fight.
But suddenly, Tina relaxed.
She smiled at him.
Then she raised a hand and raked it violently across her own cheek, her pointed fingernails opening three bloody gashes in her own skin.
As Wes stared in confusion, she pressed her hand to the wound and collapsed to the ground with a cry.
Chapter Fifty-Four
WES
He stared at her, taken aback, almost frightened. Why had she done that? What did it mean? There was something about it that terrified him—especially the way her mean, beady eyes were fixed on him now. It was as if she was waiting for something.
Then he heard a roar of rage.
He turned just in time to duck the powerful swipe of a bear’s paw. The animal stood on two feet behind him, teeth bared, signaling anger.
Wes rolled away and came back up onto his feet several yards from the bear.
“Cody,” he breathed.
They hadn’t accounted for this in their plans. They had assumed they would be taking him by surprise, not the other way around.
But there would be no capturing him. That much was clear. He had the drop on Wes, and he was wild with anger.
This is why Tina scratched her face. She had done it to provoke him. Of course. It all made sense now.
And it had worked. Cody clearly believed that Wes had been the one to harm his mate.
He would fight Wes to the death now, just like Wes knew he would have done if anyone had dared to harm Lauren.
Which meant that there would be no duel between Cody and Emmett. The duel would be here and now, between Cody and Wes himself.
“I challenge you,” Wes yelled at the animal before him. “I challenge you for leadership of this den!”
The bear roared in fury and swiped at Wes again, but the distance between them was too great. Wes turned and sprinted across the yard, putting as much space between himself and his foe as possible.
He heard the bear give chase, thundering after him. He felt the earth shaking beneath him. He heard Tina cry out, but he couldn’t tell what she was saying.
It didn’t matter. There was only the bear—and himself.
He let his anger take over. He let it sweep through his body like fuel, pushing him to new heights, drawing his own inner bear forth. He felt the animal spring out from the core of him, taking possession of his body, lending him strength and power.
He dug in his claws, whirled abruptly, and launched himself at Cody.
They collided with bone-shattering force. There was pain, but it was secondary to the anger and the determination to eliminate this threat once and for all. Wes dug his claws in, not knowing what part of his adversary he had a grip on, and not caring. The point was to tear him apart. That was all that mattered.
Cody fought back. Wes felt a sharp, stinging pain along his back and knew that a gash had been opened up there. He ignored it. It could be dealt with later. He opened his mouth and dug his teeth into flesh, biting down hard, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth and overflowing onto h
is fur.
Glancing up, he saw that it was Cody’s neck he had in his mouth. That was the reason for all the blood.
Cody made a sound that was half roar and half whimper.
I’m killing him.
The bear knew it instinctively. The hot blood in his mouth was Cody’s life draining away.
Wes had never wanted to end another man’s life.
He didn’t want to do it now.
His human mind prevailed. He released his enemy and stepped back, hoping that they could simply agree between them that this fight had been won. Surely, there was no need to play it out to the end.
Wes stepped back and examined Cody carefully. It was a grievous wound, and it would have killed a human, most likely, but shifters healed quickly. If they got him help, he would live. And then he would be forced to step aside, to concede that he had been beaten—
Cody lunged up off the ground.
Tina screamed.
Cody slashed Wes’s shoulder violently, and Wes reacted, throwing him back to the ground. He grabbed him by the neck once more.
Instinct took over.
How many times had he killed his prey like this, holding them by the neck? How many times had he watched Lauren do it?
This time—it wasn’t any different. He was fighting for his own survival, just as he had been doing since the day he’d gone off on his own to live wild for the first time. Killing a deadly enemy was no different from killing food. It was doing what he needed to do to survive, and to ensure the survival of his family.
He felt the life leave Cody’s body. He hadn’t expected that he would know the moment it happened, but he did. The struggle went out of him, and he seemed to grow in weight.
“You bastard!” Tina screamed. “Oh, you bastard!”
Wes backed away from both of them, dizzy with what he had done.
I killed the alpha.
He could still taste Cody’s blood. It was still hot.
He felt ill.
He turned his attention to Tina. There was no way of knowing whether this fight was over. Would she try to avenge her mate? Would she want to fight him now? The idea of another fight, so soon after his first kill, made him feel dizzy. He didn’t know if he would be able to stand it. And could he really bring himself to kill a woman if she insisted on a fight to the death, as Cody had?
“Wes!”
He turned.
Emmett was running up the street, sprinting toward them.
Oh, thank God.
He sank back into his human form—and immediately turned and vomited. The taste of blood on human lips was so much more potent, so much more difficult to stomach.
Emmett arrived in the yard and surveyed the scene. Then he moved to Tina’s side and hauled her to her feet.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Everyone is waiting for us at Lauren’s.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
LAUREN
“Hold still,” Lauren murmured.
Wes was drenched in sweat, but he was shivering. His eyes were glazed, and he stared off into the distance, not seeming to see anything.
“He might be going into shock,” Emmett said. “Try to warm him up.”
Lauren nodded. She finished bandaging the wound on his back and grabbed a blanket, pulling it over his shoulders. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close against her, letting him rest his head on her belly. He always liked that.
“I killed him,” Wes said softly.
Lauren saw blood on his teeth. She held him tighter. “Can somebody get him something to drink, please?”
Matt nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. A moment later, he returned with a glass of amber liquid.
Lauren knelt before Wes and pressed it into his hands. “Drink,” she said quietly.
He drank. He made a face as he swallowed, but when he opened his eyes, they looked normal again.
“You okay?” she asked.
He took another drink, swished the liquid around in his mouth, then grabbed an empty bowl on the end table and spat into it. Lauren saw that the liquor and blood had mingled together and were now faintly green.
She handed the bowl to Matt. He hurried away with it.
“I’m all right,” Wes said quietly.
“You did good, you know,” Emmett said. “What you did—it had to be done.”
“Were you going to kill him?” Wes asked.
“If he made me,” Emmett said. “I didn’t want to do it either. But if he forced a fight to the death—yeah, I would have done it.”
“You’re monsters!” Tina sobbed.
Lauren turned. She had all but forgotten about the woman in the corner, chained to an exposed pipe. But now she remembered. Tina was the one thing they still needed to deal with.
“What are we going to do with her?” she asked.
“What do you mean, do with me?” Tina demanded. “Are you going to kill me too?”
“Nobody wants to kill anybody,” Emmett said to Tina.
“He killed Cody!” She pointed a trembling finger at Wes. “He’s evil!”
“Cody wasn’t going to let me live, and you know that,” Wes said. Lauren was relieved to hear his voice sound steady. “It was kill or be killed.”
“And you would dare to defy your alpha?”
“My alpha exiled me,” Wes pointed out. “He disowned me. I wasn’t his anymore, which means that he wasn’t mine.”
“I suppose you think you’re our alpha now,” Tina sneered. “But the den will never respect you. No one will submit to you. You’re not half the man Cody was.”
“He’s man enough to get a woman pregnant,” Lauren pointed out.
“Bitch,” Tina snapped. “Shut the fuck up. You’re barely shifter at all. Nobody wants you here. You’re not part of this den, and you haven’t been since you walked away twenty years ago.”
Wes took a step forward. “Speak to her like that again and you’ll regret it, Tina.”
“Lauren’s right,” Matt said. “We need to figure out what to do about her. Whatever we decide to do about den leadership going forward, she’s not going to go along with it. Our new leader will always be in danger from her because she’ll never submit.”
Everyone in the room regarded Tina. She stared back at them defiantly.
“Exile,” Lauren said.
Emmett glanced at her.
“We don’t want to kill her,” Lauren said. “Nobody wants to have to do that. So the best choice is exile. It’s the way she’s been solving her problems for years. We send her out into the wild, and then we won’t have to deal with her anymore.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Matt asked. “What if she comes back?”
“If she comes back, we will kill her,” Wes said. “Lauren is right. This is the best way. We offer her mercy. It’s her choice whether or not she wants to take it.”
“You don’t have a merciful bone in your body,” Tina bit out.
“You know that isn’t true,” Wes said. “You know because you were there when I offered mercy to your mate. You saw me try to end the fight. He was the one who wanted to keep it going. He was the one who wanted one of us to pay the ultimate price. Well, now I’m giving you the same choice I gave Cody. Walk away from me right now, and if you do, I’ll let you live.”
“I hate you,” Tina said through gritted teeth. “I hate all of you.”
“That’s fine,” Lauren said.
“If I ever get a chance to make you pay for what you’ve done here today, you can rest assured I’m going to take it. You’d better be prepared to look over your shoulders for the rest of your miserable lives. I’ll never give up on trying to hurt you back the way you’ve hurt me.”
Emmett had clearly had enough. He turned to a pair of his friends. “Take her to the border of the city,” he said. “See to it that she runs away.”
The men nodded. They went over to the pipe, unchained Tina, pulled her to her feet, and hauled her out of the house.
&nbs
p; Lauren lowered herself carefully onto the couch. She felt exhausted, and her babies had clearly picked up on her emotional turmoil because they were kicking around inside her as if they were at a parade. She rested a soothing hand on her belly. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “Everything’s fine now.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Two Months Later
LAUREN
“Emmett’s here!” Wes called.
Lauren stood up slowly, a lasagna pan gripped in one oven-mitted hand, the other hand on the small of her back. She knew that Wes hated the fact that she was on her feet at all, let alone bending over to use the oven, but she was determined to play a role in today’s meeting.
“You’re more than welcome to attend,” Wes had told her. “You don’t have to cook for us.”
“But it’s my house,” Lauren had said. “And they’re my cousins, and you’re my mate. I want to do this. Let me.”
He’d given in, in the end, on the condition that she let him know immediately if she started to feel unwell at all. Lauren had agreed to that. She didn’t want to do anything to put her babies’ health at risk. She wasn’t stubborn enough for that.
But right now, she was feeling fine, apart from a little back pain. She placed the lasagna on a trivet in the middle of the kitchen table just as Wes and Emmett made their way into the kitchen. They were laughing like old friends.
Emmett crossed the room to her and embraced her. “Damn, girl,” he said. “You got big. You’re a house.”
Lauren laughed. “I know,” she said, running a hand fondly over her stomach. “I’m ready to be done with this, just about.”
“When are we expecting them?” Emmett asked.
“Any day now,” Lauren said.
“Well, I’m sure they’ll come in their own sweet time,” Emmett said. “If they’re anything like their mom and dad, they’re not going to let anybody tell them how they should live their lives.”
Wes slugged Emmett in the shoulder. “Help her get the drinks, will you?” he said. “Make yourself useful.”
