by M H Soars
I don’t remember falling asleep myself when the sound of the front door banging loudly against the wall jars me awake. I jump out of bed, my heart stuck in throat and my body poised in a defensive stance. A few seconds later, two burly shifters wearing muscle shirts, jeans, and combat boots fill the doorframe. I angle my body in an attempt to hide Nadine, but they can see her.
“What’s this? Doesn’t this pack know the meaning of privacy?” I say through my teeth.
One of the shifters, the tallest of the duo, sneers. “Privacy is a word you should erase from your vocabulary, sweetheart. You belong to Valerius now.”
There are so many things I’d like to tell this asshole, but the insults die in my throat. I’m in no position to get into an argument with these guys. And I thought my first days with the Crimson Hollow pack were tough. They were a trip to Disneyland compared to this.
“What do you want?”
“The alpha has requested your presence,” the second minion answers before his gaze travels over my shoulder. “And he’ll be pissed to learn that useless mute spent the night here.”
Narrowing my eyes, I take a step forward. “Leave her out of this.”
Before I can stop her, Nadine walks around the bed toward the door. Her gaze is down when she stops next to me.
“You don’t give us orders, bitch,” the first asshole replies. “You may have dined with our alpha last night, but that doesn’t mean shit around here.” He turns around and stalks away, followed by his buddy.
I don’t move right away, so Nadine grabs my arm and makes me follow them. Valerius’s minions are waiting by the front door. The moment their gazes zero in on Nadine’s hand on my arm, she drops it.
Their pace is brisk, and both Nadine and I have to sprint to keep up. Like déjà vu, there’s a circle around the red barn, but this time, the crowd parts for Valerius’s brutes, and consequently for Nadine and me.
Valerius is standing proudly in the middle of the circle. Gone are the dark markings on his skin. He looks refreshed, but also seems more evil than ever when he glances my way. His eyes flash red when he sees Nadine. With a snap of his fingers, he commands the girl to stand by his side. She keeps her gaze down as she walks toward him, and I want more than anything to protect her, but I know if I try, I’ll only make matters worse for her.
My attention diverts to the two hooded figures kneeling opposite Valerius. Behind them are two hunters.
“Good morning, my dear Amelia. I hope you’re well rested.”
“Who are those men?” I point at the captives in question.
“Men?” Valerius chuckles. “Those aren’t men. They’re maggots.”
On cue, the hunters remove the hoods from their captives, revealing two wolves I recognize. I don’t remember their names, but I know their faces. They’re from Crimson Hollow.
Bound and gagged, they grunt and struggle against their bindings as if trying to tell me something.
I whip my face back to Valerius. “You kidnapped them? Why?”
“To punish them for being such loudmouthed vermin. They were talking trash about you, my dear, for everyone in Hell’s Hole to hear. I don’t tolerate that kind of disrespect. You are one of my wolves, after all.”
“I don’t care they were speaking ill about me. You need to release them.”
“You’d better watch your mouth,” he growls, then straightens his button down shirt. “Now, I’m bored with this talk.” He glances over the two Crimson Hollow wolves as if he’s inspecting live cattle in a market. “Release that one over there with the ugly goatee.”
The hunter behind the guy in question does as ordered. The moment the shifter is ungagged, he lets his tongue loose.
“You filthy bastard. You don’t know what’s coming to you. My pack is going to decimate you and this poor excuse for a pack.”
The nearest hunter pulls his leg back and kicks the wolf in the ribs, sending him to the ground.
“Shut your mouth, vermin,” he says.
“Make him shift already. I don’t have all day.” Valerius waves his hand.
What? Make him shift? How?
I have my answer in the next second. The hunter pulls a syringe from his vest pocket, then jabs it into the fallen wolf’s neck. There’s a grunt from him, and his body starts to tremble. The shift begins slower than usual, and I have a hunch it is because it’s happening against the wolf’s will.
A brown wolf finally appears, and it snarls viciously in Valerius’s direction. The second hunter pulls his captive’s head back by the hair, then presses a sharp hunting knife against his throat.
“I’d think twice before doing anything,” Valerius warns the wolf. “One wrong move on your part and your companion dies.”
The wolf glances at his friend and loses the bravado.
“What are you waiting for?” Valerius glowers at me. “Shift already so we can get this over with.”
“What?”
“Are you fucking deaf? I didn’t go through the trouble of bringing those two losers here just for you to stare at them. Avenge your name.”
“You want me to fight him?” My heart is thundering inside my chest while my mouth goes dry.
I know the answer before Valerius replies. Of course he does. I realize I’m asking stupid questions to buy time because I really don’t know how I’m going to get out of this situation and save my peers.
“No. I want you to invite him for tea. Shift already. I’m losing my patience, Amelia.”
I hesitate for one second, and that’s enough stalling for Valerius. He grabs Nadine by the hair, pulling it so hard she can’t hide the pain in her face.
“If you don’t do as I say, you’ll force me to take out my frustration on sweet Nadine here.”
Seething, I ground my teeth. There’s no winning Valerius over, no gaining his trust. He’s deranged and evil. I don’t bother taking off my clothes before I shift. I’m too angry and frustrated for that. The emotion only doubles in wolf form, making it almost impossible to aim my aggression toward the Crimson Hollow wolf. I want to rip Valerius’s throat instead. He knows that, which is why he’s using poor Nadine as a shield.
Turning toward the other wolf, I try to communicate with him telepathically. I find his mental shield, but he doesn’t open it for me. Damn it. If he was talking badly about me, then he won’t trust me. I’m proven correct when he attacks, teeth bared, ready to take a chunk out of my face. I leap out of his reach, but don’t go on the offensive. Instead, I attempt one more time to get him to talk to me. Finally, he allows it.
“Nothing you can say is going to change how I feel about you. I knew you were up to no good, you filthy Shadow Creek spy.”
“I’m not a spy. I was taken, just like you were.”
“You’re one of them, and I’m going to kill you before I end your alpha.”
He comes at me again, more furious than before. I have no choice but to go on the offensive. I don’t know his rank in my pack, but he’s not the strongest opponent I’ve faced since I was bitten. Without much effort, I scratch the side of his face. Before he can recover, I jump on his back, biting his shoulder. I could inflict more damage, sink my teeth deeper, but I don’t want to hurt him too badly. I just want to keep Valerius from killing him and his friend.
The reluctance to hurt is only on my side, though. This wolf never liked me before, and now it seems his animosity has evolved to full-on hatred.
Trying to use his larger body mass against me, he jumps in my direction, not realizing I’m much faster than he is. I manage to slide away before he can pin me to the ground, but I’m running out of time. Valerius will get bored and punish all of us. I have to end this. Keeping my body lower to the ground, I wait for the wolf to try to jump on me again. When he does, I leap out of the way at the last second, twisting mid-jump to clamp my jaw around the side of his neck. This time, I do bite, hard enough to take the steam out of him.
He folds on his front legs with a whine, and I let go.
The wolf tries to get up, but he collapses again. He must have had other injuries I didn’t see before the fight started. He was already running on fumes. Surprisingly, he shifts back, painfully slow. I don’t know if the drug injected on him has worn off or if he’s doing it on his own.
I step back, turning to Valerius. He knows I want to kill him, there’s no point pretending otherwise, so I bare my teeth, emitting a low growl from deep in my throat.
“What are you waiting for? Kill him,” he commands.
His venom hits me like a cannonball. I sense the malevolence, Valerius’s will bearing down on me. He’s using his alpha influence at full strength, but he doesn’t know it doesn’t affect me. I’m not bound to him.
Unwilling to shift back and defy Valerius as human, I shake my head, the only way I can communicate I’m not doing it.
“You have to do it,” Nadine says in my head. “Don’t challenge Valerius.”
“I can’t kill that wolf, Nadine. That would make me a monster.”
She goes silent, then her gaze shifts to the crowd behind me. The hairs on my back stand on one end as I feel the arrival of more wolves, the other wolves—Valerius-controlled freaks. Adrenaline kicks in as I swing around in time to see Victor lead the group into the middle of the circle. The other shifters who are still in human form give the former beta a wide berth.
“End it.” Valerius’s chilling words reach my ear. A second later, following Victor’s lead, his wolves descend on the Crimson Hollow shifter.
No!
I make a motion to keep the wolves away, but a sharp prickle on my side followed by a burning sensation that spreads through my body like wildfire renders me useless. My legs give out from under me, and I lose the ability to control my muscles. I’ve been shot by a tranquilizer gun again.
In horror, I watch Valerius’s killing machines tear the poor shifter apart in a frenzy. His desperate screams seem to go on forever until the soil surrounding him turns crimson. His friend can’t help him, either. He’s down on the ground being held there by the boot of one hunter pressing down on his neck.
Finally, Victor and his companions spread out, revealing nothing but a pulp of torn flesh and blood in their wake. The only part intact is the shifter’s head. I let out a whimper, hating myself for not being able to stop the carnage. What made me think that I could bring Valerius down on my own? I’m no match for him.
Unable to move now, I only see Valerius’s approach when his boots appear in my line of vision. He crouches in front of me, his face twisted into something so vile it’s almost demonic.
“It’s a pity that it has to come down to this, Amelia. I really had high hopes for you. It seems the information I received was false after all. There’s nothing special about you. You’re just like the others, insubordinate and weak.”
He unfurls from his crouch, turning to someone in the crowd.
“Take her to the lab.”
Chapter 23
Tristan
I feel the hard throbbing on my temple first, as if my skull is splitting in two, then comes the ache all over my body. Finally, I blink my eyes open. At first, I’m disoriented, not knowing where I am until the foul taste of ashes in my mouth jars my memories. I’m in Irving Forest. I came here last night looking for solitude. Then Lyria found me, holding a bottle of my favorite whiskey in her hand. A bottle that I must have drunk all of.
Movement on my peripheral catches my attention.
“Billy? What are you doing here?” I ask, and the kid jumps on the spot, as if startled.
“I decided to go for a run. Found you passed out here.”
I groan as I try to sit up straighter. “What time is?”
“A little over seven. Did you…sleep here?”
“It would appear so.”
When I manage to stand up, the entire world begins to spin. I have to focus on a point out in the distance to try to find my balance. “I need to get back to the compound.”
“Tristan, I need to tell you some—”
“Damn, Tristan. Did you spend the night here?” Lyria asks from behind, her loud voice making me wince. Why does she keep popping up when I least want to see her?
Massaging my temples, I ask. “Why are you surprised? You’re the one who gave me the booze.”
“I didn’t think you would drink the whole bottle.”
Lyria’s attentions switches to Billy, and I hope she won’t start picking on the kid now. I can’t deal with bickering this early when I’m suffering from a massive hangover.
“I’m going back to the compound. I have a raging headache,” I say.
“That’s why I came looking for you. Seth and I need to have a serious conversation with you.”
Fuck, that sounds as much fun as sticking my head into a bee’s hive.
“Oh, yeah? About what?” Billy asks, and I know that will earn him a tongue lashing from the enforcer.
In true form, Lyria glares at Billy. “Nothing that would concern an omega. Don’t you have chores to do?”
“Leave him alone, Lyria. Come on. Let’s go.” I begin to walk toward the forest, hoping she will follow me. Anything to avoid Lyria getting all confrontational with the pack’s omega. I can’t deal with that bullshit right now.
She does follow me. As soon as we’re out of earshot, I ask. “What’s this meeting all about?”
“I think it’s best if we discuss that when we’re not out in the open.”
I have a bad feeling about this covert meeting. I bet Seth wants to discuss the future of the pack, more precisely, my role in it. He’d better not come with some bullshit talk that Mom can’t be the alpha and I should challenge her for the role. She’s more than capable of ruling. Quite frankly, after what happened last night, I’m the last wolf who should be the alpha of anything. I’m a disgrace.
The feeling of failure doesn’t leave through the entire trek back to the compound. Lyria leads me to Seth’s apartment, which is in a complex building reserved for the enforcers. Of all the things I could expect from Seth, an ambush wasn’t it. And that’s exactly what it feels like when I enter his place and find all our enforcers there, waiting for me.
“What’s this?”
“Tristan, before you jump to conclusions, let me just start by saying we have the utmost respect for Dr. Mervina and for what she’s done for the pack,” Seth starts, confirming my suspicions.
“But that won’t stop you from stabbing her in the back,” I say through my teeth, barely keeping in check the anger that is now running through my veins.
“She was a great alpha’s consort, but she’s not a true leader. The pack needs a strong hand at the helm, especially now that Valerius is threatening war against us,” Seth insists, and everyone shows their agreement with a nod of their heads.
So it seems the news of my defeat hasn’t reached down here yet. I wonder how long it will take for Valerius’s cronies to spread the news. I’m sure Seth and the others will be singing a different tune when they find out.
“Trust me on this. Our best bet at survival is if my mother remains the alpha.”
“You can’t be serious, Tristan.” Lyria takes a step forward with disbelieving eyes.
I don’t buy for a minute her charade. Something is not right here. I can almost smell the deceit.
A sharp bolt of headache has me blinded for a second. I wince, closing my eyes and trying to breathe through the pain. I never felt anything like it. It’s almost like a flash migraine of sorts.
“Tristan, are you okay?” Seth asks.
“Yes, I’m okay. I need painkillers.”
I sense the unrest that spreads in the room and the judgmental glances of the enforcers on me. Am I making a mistake by not siding with them? If I say no to replacing my mother as the alpha, who are they going to pick as the next contender? Shit, I can’t think straight. My mind is boggled up in a giant mess. Lyria should have known b
etter than to bring me to this meeting after I drank all night. Booze that she provided. Maybe that was her plan, get me so drunk I couldn’t think straight the next day.
A loud screech outside has all the enforcers on their feet in the blink of an eye. Fuck, is Valerius attacking already? I’m the first out of Seth’s apartment, and the first thing I see is Jeanine Smith sobbing nonstop as she clutches a box.
“What’s going on?” I take three steps at a time until I’m down in the courtyard.
Vincent, a young wolf who hopes to join the enforcers this season, answers. “The Shadow Creek pack delivered a package this morning and a note.”
He hands me the small piece of paper and there, written in neat block letters, the message.
This is the just the beginning.
“What’s inside that box?” Seth asks before I can.
Jeanine opens it, her hands shaking visibly, before she pulls out what’s inside. Deacon’s head.
Disgruntled sounds echo all around me. A kid bends over and pukes. But soon those sounds become muffled as a ringing in my ears gets louder and louder.
“Where did you find that package?” I manage to ask.
“In front of the north gate,” Vincent replies.
“Get me the footage of the security camera. I want to see who came within our borders.”
My vision turns double. If I don’t lay down somewhere, I’m just going to pass out. I’ve drank myself to a stupor before, but never in my life had I felt as shitty as this the next day.
“I’ll get the footage,” Seth says.
I feel a hand on my lower back, then Lyria’s face appears in my line of vision. “Tristan, you look like you’re about to hurl. You should rest.”
“I can’t rest. There are things to be done.” I step out of her touch.
“Has anyone seen Harold?” someone in the crowd asks. I can’t tell who.
