Rouen Chronicles Box Set

by Raven Steele

  His finger reached out, and he tenderly traced it up my arm. Unlike it had with Silas, the motion didn’t cause swimming revolutions in my stomach. Instead, his touch burned into my flesh.

  He continued. “You accepted every lash he gave, even asking for it at one point. It took my breath away.”

  My throat dried, and I cleared my throat. “Why?”

  His eyes found mine. “Because Briar, I knew you were lying. I saw it in your eyes, your fear of being victimized. You replaced that fear with fire. It stole my breath because I’ve never met anyone as strong as you.”

  “You see a lot, Luke. And yet, you still stand with Dominic.”

  “I told you, I stand for the pack.”

  I closed my eyes. “Thanks for the ointment.”

  I couldn’t deal with this. First, I didn’t have the energy to respond to what he was trying to tell me, and second, I had one goal. Nothing was going to distract me from it.

  The room grew quiet. After a long moment, he straightened. This time I heard him leave. I shivered at the gust of cold air that entered the room with his disappearance.

  When Luke had burst into the room earlier and stopped Silas, I had a fleeting hope Luke was on my side. But his words said something else altogether. Which do I believe, his actions or words? And why did they conflict at all? Unless…a sudden realization dawned on me. Maybe Dominic had something over him, much like the way he had something on most people he did business with. And as long as Dominic had that, Luke would never stop riding both sides of the line. If that were true, then I didn’t blame Luke. It was just cruel to feel his kindness in one moment, then his indifference the next.

  I waited several minutes before I moved. Every part of my body hurt. When no one came to check on me, I risked shifting into my wolf, trusting Luke still had the cameras off. It had been a long time since I truly needed her strength. Very few shifters would've been able to shift after this, but I was no ordinary shifter.

  It didn’t take her long to take over my human form; she was eager to mend my broken body. My wounds healed almost instantly, and I trotted around the room, enjoying the feel of cold concrete against the soft padding on my feet.

  I longed to run in the forest, shrouded in darkness. My body may have healed, but my mind wasn’t quite right. For just a minute longer, I let my wolf enjoy her form before I forced the change back into being human.

  I dressed quickly, shivering as I remembered the pain I’d gone through. Slowly, I made my way back upstairs. More pack members had arrived and they crowded the living room. I glanced in the other direction toward Dominic's office. There was an outside door in that direction, but I would have to pass his office to get there.

  The sound of a rowdy pack echoed back to me. If Silas was there, I’d have to pretend to still be hurt and, if one of them noticed, I’d have to tell them something. I’d actually love to tell them what happened, but I remembered Silas’ warning. The thought of Ryder going through what I just went through made me ill.

  I opted for the back door. I moved quickly past Dominic's office, but the door flew open, as if he had sensed me. He didn't startle at my presence.

  "I trust you won't disobey me again?"

  I lowered my eyes in a submissive gesture and nodded. I even let my lips tremble as if I were still in pain. I hoped he wouldn’t ask to see my back.

  "You are strong and brave, but always remember your place. In my shadow. The darkness is the only place I’ll allow you to exist. Don’t ever forget that."

  I nodded again and hurried away from him. He didn't call me back, but I felt his eyes on me.

  As soon as I reached the back door and had crossed the expansive lawn, I shifted back into my wolf form and darted into the forest.

  Sometimes I believed the only peaceful place in this world was in the forest. Oh, the animal world could be cruel, but it was never done through a thirst for violence, but only for survival. I liked that kind of world.

  I ran for hours, letting my wolf soothe the dark emotions twisting inside me. She burned through my humiliation at being naked and alone in a room with Silas. She ate up my anger that yearned for Dominic's blood, and she mourned Luke's dismissal.

  By the time she was finished, I was ready to face the world again. I had my uncle, and, for now, that was enough. Together we were going to get justice for my family.

  Chapter 33

  After my beating, I avoided Silas as much as possible, which was extremely hard because I was still on his security team. Not only that, but Silas seemed to seek me out as if I was his new pet project. The second he entered a room, he observed me scrupulously, and I had the feeling that he was interacting more with the pack just to be near me.

  His presence made me sick, and I had to clench my jaw every time he spoke to me. But I also took advantage of his attention to try to figure out where he put the briefcase full of Scorpion’s Breath. I’d often catch him sneaking downstairs to experiment with the human, but I never saw him with the briefcase. He must be carrying the vials only, and keeping the case out of sight.

  A few days after my punishment, Gerald found me and asked to take a walk with him. I frowned, but agreed, wondering what he was up to. Gerald had always been nice enough to me since I joined the pack, but we'd never spent any time together alone.

  When we reached the privacy of the forest, I asked, “What's this about?"

  He glanced behind me as if to make sure we were alone. "I heard what happened to you after you saved Ryder from the Greybacks. Is it true? Did Silas punish you in private?"

  "Who told you?" As far as I knew, only Luke and my uncle were aware of what had happened.

  "It doesn't matter. Is it true?"

  I nodded my head and lowered it in shame, really playing it up. Maybe my beating could serve a purpose. My uncle must’ve told him, knowing how important it was to our plan. A risky move if he was caught.

  Gerald’s nostrils flared as air puffed through them. "That's messed up shit. I didn't join a pack just so some Alpha could choose which rules to follow. I mean, sure, you might've gone after Ryder without permission, but one of our most important reasons to belong to a pack is knowing everyone has your back, no matter what. We never leave a man behind. Even Dominic preaches this. You did what any of us would've done, had we known. But you got punished for it. Did Dominic give a reason why you couldn't go after Ryder?"

  I avoided eye contact and twisted my hands together like I was afraid to tell him. My voice soft, I said, "He said he thought Ryder might've returned to the Greybacks willingly."

  Gerald barked out a laugh. "Why would he ever do that? Everyone knows how much Ryder hates that pack, and how much they hate him. Especially after Silas forced him to undress that girl."

  I took this opportunity to stitch his doubts together. “So why then? Why would Dominic not send someone to save him?"

  Gerald lowered his gaze to the ground, his eyes searching the ground as if he could find the answer there among the golden leaves and fresh earth.

  I continued to guide his thought process. “Could Ryder know something about Dominic he shouldn’t?”

  Gerald began to pace, his heavy boots crunching over fallen leaves. “Possibly.”

  “Or maybe it has something to do with Scorpion’s Breath. Maybe he intends on bringing in the Greybacks to expand his reach, and he couldn’t do that with Ryder, Jackson’s own son, living with us. Giving Ryder back to the Greybacks could’ve been part of some deal they made.”

  He stopped moving, his back to me. “Dominic wouldn't dream of merging with the Greybacks. We’ve been enemies for decades and for good reason. The things they do to humans? It’s jacked up."

  "Power can do funny things to people. You saw how Dominic barely flinched at Toby's death."

  I let my words sink in and form a monster inside his brain. The muscles in his back rippled, and he turned around. "What do you think of this new drug?"

  "I think it will destroy us all. It’s meant for huma
ns, but you heard what Mateo said. It’s stronger on supernaturals. How long do you think it will take until Dominic and Silas begin selling it to supernaturals? It’s just one more revenue source.”

  He pressed his hands to his head as if this new thought gave him a headache. He wasn't used to questioning an Alpha’s orders. From the time he was born, he was taught specific pack rules. Where I was leading him was a place he would never have considered twenty-four hours ago. But now he knew. Alpha’s weren’t perfect, especially when they stopped working for the betterment of the pack.

  His eyebrows lifted, and his eyes widened in concern. ”So what do we do? Should we say something?”

  "For now, I don’t think we should do anything. I don't want to cause problems. Our pack needs to be strong."

  He slapped his hand at a thick tree limb above him, snapping it in two. "This is bullshit. Everyone should at least know what Silas did to you.”

  My wolf purred at his reaction. Anger like this can spread through a pack, dividing it, but in order for it to work, the flames had to be subtle. Barely felt and barely heard. If Gerald said anything now, before anyone else had doubts, it would only backfire. Dominic’s power was still too strong.

  I rested my hand on his shoulder. “Please, Gerald. We must stay strong as a pack because I’m worried about the Greybacks. They could retaliate for what I did.”

  The lines in his face deepened. "They wouldn't dare."

  “But if they do, as long as we have each other’s backs, we’ll be okay.”

  "Like Dominic and Silas have ours?"

  “Screw them.” Those words, if spoken to anyone else in the pack, could’ve gotten me another horrible beating. But I needed to add fuel to his fire, deepen the rift between one of Dominic’s most loyal pack members.

  I held out my hand, a silent promise. “I have your back. Always.”

  He hesitated briefly before grasping it. "And I, yours."

  I smiled, a genuine one. I didn't think I could produce one after what I had just been through with Silas. But my smile was triumphant.

  My little army grows.

  After my meeting with Gerald, rumors had begun to spread about the humans and Scorpion’s Breath. Many in the pack had become deathly afraid of it, and some began to voice their concerns about us selling something so dangerous. Of course, I was the breath blowing on these tiny embers of discord.

  But I was careful though not to be seen or heard too frequently. I was already on thin ice with Dominic. Every time we crossed paths, he would give me a look as if he was trying to figure out the answers to a test that only he had been given. It didn't help that he was also asking questions about my past. Where was I born? What packs had I belonged to?

  I wasn't afraid of his questions. I had long ago created a fake life for me, mostly. I explained that I had only joined a pack once when I was eighteen, but it was short-lived. If anyone wanted to confirm my story, they could easily look up the Blue Ridge wolves out of Michigan for confirmation. I had been a pack member, briefly, and there were shifters there who knew me. But they wouldn't be able to tell him much else.

  In addition to Dominic acting differently, something had also changed between Luke and me. He would watch me when I entered the room, and always seemed to be near me when anything got dangerous. But he rarely spoke to me, not like before, or met my eye.

  Once we were sitting next to each other in the car, I could’ve sworn I felt him lightly run his pinky finger down the outside of my thigh. I pretended to ignore it and, when we got back to Fire Ridge, he got out of the car without a word.

  It had been eight days since my secret meeting with Silas. I returned home from Fire Ridge to get ready for work at the club. My hands shook as I got dressed, dread filling my entirety. I hated going to work now. To be among all those people. Their prying eyes. Their demanding voices. Where I used to feed off the attention, I now hated it. Hated pretending I was fine, that I hadn’t been beaten while naked and alone in a room with a total psychopath.

  But I had to keep up appearances.

  I showered and dressed. Instead of going for the sexy bartender look, tonight I wore something low key. I wanted to blend in as much as possible. I had to work the late shift tonight. It was only eight-thirty in the evening, but I was already feeling the effects of sleep tugging at my eyelids. Probably some form of anxiety about not wanting to go in. At the kitchen table, I poured myself a second cup of coffee and drank it down quickly. Then a third.

  “You're going to give yourself a heart attack."

  I turned around. Lynx stood in the doorway wearing a spaghetti strap, black dress. It snugged tightly against her hourglass figure. She looked amazing.

  "Are you going out tonight?" I asked.

  "I thought I'd go to the club with you.” She sidled up next to me and poured herself a cup too. "I know you don't want to tell me what happened to you, but I know something did. I can see it in your eyes. Plus, you’re acting all withdrawn. And what’s with your outfit? You look like you’re wearing a raggedy blanket straight out of a dog kennel.”

  I glanced down at the long black skirt and oversized tan sweater. “That bad?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “It might be okay for church. In northern Alaska. You’re a bartender, remember?”

  “I’m serving people who worship the almighty drink while confessing their sins. Maybe this outfit is perfect.”

  She raised one eyebrow.

  I groaned. “Fine. I’ll change.”

  I downed one more of the steamy, black liquid then moved to go upstairs.

  Lynx stopped me. “I want you to know that whatever you’re going through, you don't have to go through it alone. I'm here for you."

  I placed my hand on the doorjamb, wishing I could tell her everything. But that could hurt us both.

  "Thank you, but I'll be okay. Time will fix this." And a lot of blood spilled from my enemies’ throats.

  "Samira came back yesterday,” she blurted. “Have you had a chance to speak to her yet?"

  This made me pause. "Did she say why she was gone so long?"

  Samira had thought she'd only be gone a day or two to deliver the humans to Wildemoor, but she had taken much longer. It made me wonder what she was up to. At first, I thought maybe she was in trouble, but she had texted Lynx and told her otherwise. She never sent me a message, which bothered me a little. I thought since we’d fought those vampires together that maybe we had bonded a little, but I guess not. Whatever.

  "She just said it took her longer than usual." She ran her fingers through her hair. "The humans are doing well though. At least that's what she said. She can be private, just like you.” She didn’t smile, but her expression was kind.

  I swallowed around the fullness in my throat. “I better go change out of this blanket before I’m late. I guess I'll see you soon?"

  She nodded her head and sipped her coffee. "You need a ride?"

  “Shoot, I already ordered Uber. I wish I would’ve known you were going."

  “You can still cancel.”

  I waved my hand. “Nah.”

  "Roma again?"

  “She’s the best damn driver I know. Half the time I don’t even have to call her. She just shows up when I need her most.” She was also the one who drove me back home that night Silas whipped me to retrieve Dominic’s car, but I didn’t tell Lynx that.

  “Sounds nice, in a stalkerish sort of way.”

  “They’re the best kind.” I winked and left the room, feeling a little bit better that Lynx was going to be there too.

  The club was crowded, more so than usual because it was the weekend. The swarms of people gave me a headache so I kept my head down, speaking only when spoken to. I had several requests from customers to put on a show like I usually did, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The only way I got through the night was by sneaking occasional sips of whiskey behind the bar. It settled my nerves and kept my heart rate calm.

  I liked having Lynx there. She
didn’t hover too much and would come say hi whenever there was a break in customers. It was strange having someone look over me, and yet nice at the same time. I didn’t deserve Lynx’s friendship.

  Luke was there, too. I discovered this halfway into my shift. He slithered in and out of the crowd. Not really a part of the moving system but not separate either. I wondered if he was working on something for Dominic, but he didn’t seem to have a specific purpose, other than drinking and brooding in his usual way.

  Our eyes met a couple of times, but they never lingered. Neither of us knew what to say to each other.

  I was in the middle of pouring a blue Hawaiian cocktail to a college-aged man, when I heard a familiar whistle from the side of the bar. I glanced over. Ryder was tapping on the counter excitedly.

  I finished serving the drink and walked over to him. "What's up?"

  He leaned forward, his voice low. “I think I found it.”

  “Found what?”

  “The briefcase. And we’re going to get it tonight.”

  Chapter 34

  “Where?"

  I looked around to make sure no one was watching or listening in. We had searched everywhere for that stupid briefcase, even searching Silas’ car. We were pretty much out of hiding places to search.

  He leaned forward conspiratorially. "There is a secret room in his master suite. It’s the only place we haven’t searched.”

  My eyes widened. “How did you find this out?”

  “You know Lola?"

  "The maid?"

  He nodded. “She said she was cleaning his room one day when he suddenly walked out from behind a bookcase. No doorknob. He swore at her and threatened to hurt her if she told anyone."

  I had spoken to Lola a few times. She was a nice woman in her early thirties. She was a single mother of two young children. Silas paid her well.