by Rae Foxx
Even with the snarl, I recognized the voice. Hell, I recognized the smell. Even with a layer of dirt in my mouth it was pungent.
I didn’t think we would have recognized it by running through it. Standing here, feet from him and whoever he was talking to, there was no mistaking the demon that was standing beyond the trees.
We all took a slow step forward, giving one quick glance to one another in silent agreement. We were totally going to rush the bastard; see how he liked a face full of dirt.
“You know she won’t like that. Your daddy will have your head if you keep playing around. I suggest you get it done.” That voice I didn’t recognize. I had expected him to be on the phone or some shit, not having a secret dawn escapade with some lady in the middle of the forest.
Bastard said he was on my side.
‘Bastard,’ I nearly screamed in my head, Howl having heard and mumbled something in reply. Guess I woke him up. ‘Sorry, baby, go back to sleep.’ All I got was another mumble. I would have to make it up to him when I got home.
“Don’t like it, don’t care,” Tommy snarled, all of us still stepping through the forest as stealthily as we could. “Now leave me alone, Dans. I have work to do.”
“I can’t believe you are going to turn--”
“What the hell is going on here?” Saxon’s asked, first to bust through the brush to where Tommy and his companion were.
The two gasped at his arrival, a second gasp following when Finn appeared. When I popped my dirt-smeared face through the trees I was the one with my hand to my mouth, gasping like a cartoon character.
Tommy was standing there with Danvers.
Tommy and Danvers.
Maybe it was because I was drunk-tired or maybe my ears were filled with mud. I should’ve recognized that voice.
Talking like some kind of conspirators. Based on what I had heard they knew each other and Danvers, or Dans whatever hell kind of nickname that was, knew Tommy’s dad. You know, the demon king.
“What in the ever-loving dragon balls is going on here?” I screamed. Screw keeping my voice down, screw that we were on the run from the witches. I was faced with something far more important--two bastards who stepped away from each other as though they had been about to take their clothes off and were putting a bible between them again.
“Ivy! What are you doing here?” Tommy growled with a sound that was way too dark for him. Well, dark when he wasn’t a demon and was just a lying, manipulative asshole. Now he was a lying manipulative asshole of a demon and the dark manipulative growl fit him perfectly.
“I’m coming from the solstice,” I said, hands on hips as my mates came to flank me. “I was tracking down info, you know, like the intel I told you to track down.”
“Nice intel,” Saxon said, voice hard as he looked Danvers up and down, not a drop of interest in his eyes.
Danvers snarled and her eyes flashed, the color and slit more catlike than I expected. Huh. She had been hanging around and naked training my pack for nearly a month. I hadn’t seen her shift once. I always assumed she was a small animal like the twins’ sand cats, but that look in her eye clearly belonged to a bigger animal.
Much bigger.
“I’m not intel you fucking vamp,” Danvers snarled, looking Saxon up and down with a sneer. I almost rushed her. Finn’s hand on my arm was the only thing that stopped me. “I ran into him when I was scoping out Pater’s camp.”
Something vile twisted in my gut, “Why were you at Pater’s camp, Danvers?”
I realized I had forgotten her first name, not that it mattered. Danvers fit her with the way she was looking at me, far too much malice in her eye. It was only when my wolf growled that she dropped her gaze.
Geeze, welcome back.
“I wasn’t at Pater’s camp,” Danvers sneered, her nose wrinkling. “I was doing the same thing this demon was doing.”
Her grimace turned to Tommy, who grinned, his legs twisting into smoke and mixing with the fog of the morning--as if we needed a reminder of how creepy he was.
“Why is there a demon in your employ, Alpha?” Danvers continued, stepping toward me as her eyes darted back to mine. My spine straightened, bones stacking like dominoes. “I assumed you had more sense than that. Turns out I was mistaken.”
“He’s not in my employ, Dans,” I put as much malice in her nickname as she had in my title. “He’s trying to earn his place. If he doesn’t have anything for me, he’ll be out on his creepy ass.”
I turned, expecting Tommy’s smug ass grin to fade. He laughed, half-ash legs stepping over a fallen log so as to get closer to me.
“Always the bitch,” he was snarling and looking at me like I was his favorite pet like he wanted to chain me and pet me at the same time. I had no clue how that worked, but it knotted my spine. “Maybe I will keep what I found to myself then. Little whores like you don’t deserve the good stuff.”
I spat and took a swipe at the demon that he easily dodged. Too bad my one punch had distracted him from a snarling Finn who side tackled him.
They went down with a grunt, fog and black smoke swirling through the glittering lines of dawn that were breaking through the trees.
“Idiot,” Tommy snapped, punching Finn right in the chin and then shoving him away with so much force that he soared through the air, arcing high before he landed with a thump. I tried to catch him, but instead, he crashed into my chest. We both collapsed into one of the tree trunks. Air sucked from my chest as Tommy stood, laughing, only to get punched by Saxon--in the balls.
And down Tommy went again.
“You are all children,” Danvers sighed, leaning against a tree with her arms folded over her chest. “If you must know, I was summoned to speak to Pater. It seems he wished to use my services. I figured it would be a good chance to get some information.”
“You went to go visit the enemy without telling me?” I may be a baby alpha, but even I knew that was bullshit.
“I went on your behalf,” Danvers smiled and did that weird-neck-baring thing. I was half-tempted to bite into her as punishment. “When I arrived at their camp, however, it was clear no one was there. It was only on leaving that I ran into the demon. I would have killed him, but he insisted he was working for you--”
“So, I guess I’m the bitch you have to get off his back,” I interrupted, my fists balling against my legs as I recalled the last conversation. “What was it you said? Oh yeah, ‘If it’s a day late, she is going to have to fucking deal’.”
My wolf snarled, my lips curling to reveal my teeth as I stared at them. They both looked terrified, Danvers instantly
“I already told you you’re a bitch, Ivy. You’re my bitch, but still a bitch,” he added, smiling at Finn and Saxon, who gave him sneers of their own. “So what if I was talking about you. You tried to boss me around like some kind of god,” he laughed humorlessly and came so close the dark in his eyes threatened to swallow me. “No one bosses me around, Ivy. You’re lucky I’m not in the mood to fight your weak fuck buddies, or I would teach you a lesson.”
His fists were as hard and tightly wound as mine were, both ready to throw a punch, both ready to teach the other a lesson. I had already been lucky enough to land one punch. I knew I wouldn’t be lucky enough to do so a second time. Super werewolf healing or not, I was not interested in dislocating my jaw.
“God, Tommy, if you think you are going to--
“How many times do I have to tell you I’m on your side--” he interrupted me, but I laughed at him. I was getting tired of listing all the asshole things he does that prove he is not, in fact, on my side.
“Get me what I want and maybe I’ll believe it.” My fists pulled into tighter balls as I folded my arms, Saxon and Finn flanking me as I faced the demon.
Danvers stood off to the side, her lips tight as she watched us. For all our fight training, she was sure out of her element. She kept glancing between me and Tommy as though she was deciding where to place her bets and couldn’t make
up her mind.
Clearly, that wasn’t the only thing she couldn’t make up her mind about.
She and I were going to have to have a little talk later.
“I don’t know where your mom is,” Tommy said, his lip twitching into that smile that I had once upon a time thought was bad-guy handsome. “Not that they would know where some strung-out coke whore is, even if they were there. Because, like we said. They are gone.”
“Gone?”
“God, princess, for a leader you are dumb as rocks. They. Are. Not. There. If I had to guess, that’s the answer to your other question.” Tommy laughed to himself, everything around me became hazy as I turned toward where Howl was.
Howl had mumbled in what I had thought was sleep. Something was very wrong. Why hadn’t he called for me with our mental link?
“Oh no,” I explained nothing as I shifted, my clothes shredding around me as my wolf ripped her way through my skin and burst into a run even before my paws had fully hit the ground.
Shouts of concern mixed with Tommy’s laugh as I weaved through the trees, my wolf leading me right toward what I had missed thanks to the smell of demon mixed with the smoke of an accidental explosion.
Fear.
Fear bathed the forest. I screamed in the mist of morning as I broke through it, racing toward the source.
Right to the pack house.
Saxon caught up to me, Finn close behind thanks to their own supernatural abilities. Danvers and Tommy were nowhere to be seen.
It was just me and my mates as we broke through the trees to face the massive house that had become home over the last few weeks. Now, it had no resemblance to that.
Every window was illuminated, the yellow light bright in the dim light of dawn. It streamed over the blood-smeared dirt of the parking lot, illuminating the dozens of shapes that kneeled in lines. Crying. Shaking.
Bodies bowed as they doubled over in pools of their own blood, hands bound behind their backs, heads down. I could barely make out the bright red locks of Scarlet in the middle, her shaking, sobbing form flanked by the twins and every other member of my pack.
Everyone but one.
“I was wondering how long it would take you,” a familiar voice sneered from the massive porch of the house.
Pater stood covered in smears of red and black, Selene on one side, Nicky on the other. Every other inch of the porch, the yard, and I’m assuming the house was covered by his pack, all in their animal forms as they snarled and snapped at my pack, keeping them in line.
I didn’t need Pater’s sludgy grin to tell me what would happen. His warning was clear enough, if only because of the limp, bloodied body that hung from his hand.
‘Howl!’ I screamed, sure he could hear me. He didn’t even budge, not even when Pater shook him, all three of them laughing as he dropped him to the deck with a sound more liquid than human.
“I was starting to think Howl wouldn’t be able to stay alive long enough to watch me fuck you. You’re just in time.”
Chapter 24
No.
No.
No.
The word repeated, screaming alongside Howl’s name as I tried to get his attention, as I tried to pull him back from the brink his father had beaten him to.
‘Howl, look up. Howl, I’m right here,’ I growled in warning, my wolf pawing the ground with long claw marks as she stepped forward, both of us running through every possible way to rip Pater’s head off.
He would deserve it after what he had done to Howl, after what he had done to all of them. I had to figure out how.
It was just me and Finn and Saxon. With the bit of yellow light that was starting to hit the peaks of the roof, we didn’t have much time with the vampire.
If only I could jump over the massive dirt lot and take him out in one shot. Even if I could jump that far, there was no way I was going to get past the army of shifters that were lingering everywhere, staring at me. Glaring at me.
Snarling at me, teeth bared, claws at the ready.
My wolf snarled in response, hackles lifting as I pawed at the ground, leaving deep gashes in the dirt behind.
Pater laughed, “Are you really wanting to fight me, little trash girl? Can’t you see you are outnumbered? Your pathetic pack is captured. You either give up, or you end up like them. Either way, I make good on my threat,” my wolf growled at that, digging deeper grooves in the earth. “You didn’t think I would forget did you?”
Selene and Nicky watched the dirt break apart beneath my claws, their laughs mixing with Pater’s until it was all I heard. The growl of my wolf echoed away from me as all of the animals turned, snarling in return.
“Admit you cannot win, Ivy,” Pater said, stepping down the stairs to face me, leaving Nicky to stand over the immobile Howl. The robe he wore billowed open as he stepped down, revealing his partially erect member. I almost threw up right then. Guy had balls, or rather, he didn’t, because they were shriveled and old.
“Shed that skin and come to me. If you take what’s coming to you, I promise that no further harm will come to the usurpers.
My wolf snapped, Saxon hissing as he stepped back from the light that was creeping over the ground toward us. I was running out of time. Even if it was the dead of night, I doubted the three of us could take them all. I only had one option, and no, it was not to let that old man rape me to death.
My wolf fell away as I stepped forward, not letting my eyes deviate a millimeter from Pater, his greasy smile spreading wider.
“There she is,” he crooned, licking his lips, his eyes dragging over my body. I could practically feel his slime ball hands all over me with the intensity of his stare, but I didn’t even flinch. I didn’t cover. I stared at him head-on, keeping my wolf right against my heart, just in case.
“Let them go,” I said with a nod to my people, their sobs wrestling against the growls of their captors as they tried to look towards me. “They have done nothing wrong.”
“Nothing wrong?” Selene said, her voice shrill.
“They have followed a half-breed,” Pater said, smiling at Selene before he lifted his hand, his long finger tracing down her jaw. She closed her eyes and lifted her chin, letting his hungry gaze drag over her.
I was going to be sick.
Leave it to Selene to find a way into the Alpha’s life. I took Howl, she found an alternative. Except he was already mated… yet the overly submissive form of Howl’s mother was gone.
What in the world was going on?
“They followed a liar who cheated and used magic in an attempt to beat me,” Pater sneered, walking along the line of my pack as he approached me, stopping just shy of my wolf’s jumping range.
“I didn’t use magic--”
“But you have it.” He was all smiles now, clearly taking my response as an admission. “That is sin enough for a shifter.”
“I didn’t know that I had magic,” I lied, trying to keep my face impassive, even as my heart clenched. Saxon stepped back further, Finn stepping closer as Pater did, although still not close enough for me to reach him.
“You expect me to believe that?” he grinned, leaning over to wind his fingers through Scarlet’s hair, lifting her head to reveal a face covered with bruises and shallow cuts. One of her eyes was swollen shut. She grimaced and tried to pull away as he yanked on her hair, as he turned until his erect cock was pointed right at her.
He sighed, head rolling back as he moved closer. Scarlet whimpered and moved back as Selene came around the side of the old man and wrapped her hand around him, her palm rubbing up and down his shaft.
God. I needed to look away. I wanted to look away.
This could not be happening.
“They are my pack,” I nearly screamed, desperate to get him away from Scarlet before anything happened. “Leave them alone and let them return to me. We will leave your lands. But the pack is mine.”
He turned, Scarlet collapsing to the dirt as he released her, although Selene’s hands
did not leave him. They were everywhere.
“That’s where you are wrong, mangy mutt,” he said, trying out another nickname. “You didn’t win the match. You cheated.”
“So, you beat them up as punishment? And your son?” My focus drifted to Howl, who was still in a heap on the porch, Nicky pushing him around with the toe of her shoe as though she was checking if he was still alive. My heart sunk, the pressure in my chest growing as I watched her lift his arm.
Watched it fall.
‘Howl.’ Still nothing.
I was running out of time. If I couldn’t bargain with him, then I would fight him.
I would try.
“You did that to your son because you thought I had magic?” I barely got the words out before Pater roared, his voice echoing over the house and trees as his face turned a dark shade of red, his wolf snarling from his chest. His power pulsed out in a wave, blanketing us all.
“He is no son of mine!” I flinched, stepping back as my wolf hissed, the beast ready to burst from me and take him down. “He has shamed me. I have already found a replacement. His life means nothing to me now.”
As though on cue, Selene came back around the side of him, her hand flat on his exposed chest as he turned, as he kissed her in a way that made me really hope that she wasn’t the replacement he talked about.
“I like this one better anyway.”
Shit. I was going to be sick.
“Take the lands, Pater,” I said, well aware my voice was breaking as I begged. “Let us leave. We will all leave. We will never come back.”
Finn’s hand pressed against my back, the comforting weight all I needed to know that he was there, that he would follow me anywhere.
To death.
Or a thousand miles away.
Too bad that decision did not lay with me.
“Didn’t you hear? Your win is forfeit, which means the pack, the lands, you… It’s all mine anyway. You have nothing to bargain with. Well, you have one thing.” His eyes dragged over my body, lingering at the apex of my thighs, his tongue darting out as though he was licking me, tasting me.
