Preserves & Premonitions

by Bella Falls

  Gasps and quieter murmurs spread throughout the crowd. They parted away from him, giving their alpha a path to the middle. Those of us who came with him followed him and settled right behind where he chose to stand.

  A man wearing a trucker hat and chewing on a toothpick took a step forward. “The kind that goes against the laws of nature. She ain’t normal like the rest of us.”

  “I wouldn’t be lumpin’ my daughter in with pond scum like you, Andrew Norton,” Elodie said. “There ain’t nothing natural about the hate you’re spewin’ right now either. Then again, you’ve always been a bully since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. Always picking on others so you could feel better about yourself.”

  Georgia touched my hand to get my attention. “Do you see Zach’s parents here?” she whispered.

  I scanned the crowd and found his mother standing right up front. Her husband was nowhere near her.

  “There. That’s the mom,” I said, pointing the woman out to my friend.

  She narrowed her eyes and glared at them for a second. “I don’t see any ghosts around her.”

  My hopes for her help sank. But the raised voices in opposition to Dash pulled my attention.

  “Whatever has brought you here tonight, I’m sure we can talk it out like civil adults,” the alpha said in a calm tone.

  “I brought them here,” Max said, stepping forward. He held a cream folder in his hand. “I’ve been collecting data and evidence on you for a while to prove that you are not fit to serve as alpha for our pack.”

  Dash stayed steady as a rock, his facial expression never changing. However, through our binding, I could sense his absolute outrage. I tried to send him vibes of calmness to balance out his emotions. In a room full of shifters, we needed to avoid any physical altercations. Especially if our suspicions were proven correct about just how strong our connection had grown.

  “Not to mention, Silas died while he was supposed to be guarded by your third,” someone piped up from the middle of the crowd. “Other than Max, your leadership and choices have put us all at risk.”

  “Especially your choice for mate,” a woman added. “We don’t need no witches up in here.”

  Georgia vibrated with anger next to me, and I grabbed her hand so we could keep each other steady.

  “Yeah, shifters only,” a deep male voice demanded.

  “Because y’all are all so pure?” Davis asked as he scoffed.

  “I wouldn’t be talking since you haven’t been a part of the pack for a while now,” Andy taunted. “Rumor has it you can’t even call on your wolf. Of course, we can always test that theory out right here, right now.”

  “No one is going to fight tonight,” Dash exclaimed. “But I would like to hear more from you, Max.”

  The room fell quiet as some hushed the others from talking. The second in command stepped forward to stand in front of Dash. He kept a steady gaze on his alpha while he pulled out sheets of paper from the folder.

  “I have here financial records for the pack that show that there’s been money being taken out and hidden. When I looked into the problem, I found two accounts that have the same amount of money missing being deposited into a separate, secret account.” Max held the papers high in the air. “It has come to my attention that the owners of that account are the Channing family.”

  Davis cringed. “I didn’t have time to look into who owned the account. I’ll bet Max had access to one of our father’s old accounts we never closed.”

  Dash waited a moment before he spoke. “And I guess it’s a coincidence that you used to handle the finances of the pack when you were my father’s second in command, Fletch. You would have every opportunity to funnel money into an account you had previous access to.”

  The pack members whispered to each other, and a few changed their glances from accusatory to more questioning.

  Max smirked. “Nice try, attempting to shift blame on me rather than to take ownership of your own treachery. Although the pack finances are just one nail in your coffin as alpha.” He shuffled through the papers and picked another piece out. “I’ve got here a note from Silas that he left prior to taking his own life. It states that our alpha was the one behind keeping the drugs running to help put money into his own pocket.”

  “Without him alive to question, that makes his last words pretty suspect. If he even wrote that note,” Dash challenged.

  Lucille stepped forward, separating herself from the crowd. “Now I understand why you dragged your feet to find who was responsible for my Zachary’s death. It’s because you didn’t want us to find out that you were the cause of it all.”

  She rushed forward to attack Dash, but Max held her back. “Don’t worry, Lucille. I’ve got this taken care of,” he murmured to her. Once he placed her behind him, he squared off with the current leader. “Dashiel Channing, I officially challenge you for right as alpha. I should have taken over after all of the mess both of your brothers caused, but I tried to give you a chance to redeem your family name. No longer will I stand by, allowing you to drag us down any further.”

  I couldn’t stand how Dash took all of the criticism without defending himself. Despite Davis trying to stop me, I moved forward to stand next to Dash.

  “How dare you,” I spit at the traitor. “This pack was in ruins until Dash managed to rally things to save it. And how long did it take for your lives to get better? Was it years? No, it was mere months. Only a strong leader would have been able to do that.”

  Instead of realizing his wrongdoings, Max smiled with satisfaction. “What kind of alpha needs his chosen mate to fight his battles? And what does it say about the shifter who chooses a witch instead of one of his own? What abominations will your offspring be once you breed her?”

  Dash blurred forward with supernatural speed and grabbed his former friend by the shirt collar. “Watch what you say about Charli.”

  I realized my huge mistake too late when the rest of the crowd became riled up all over again, several of them shouting obscenities and insults about witches. A few unimaginative participants kept rhyming it with a choice curse word.

  Davis moved me out of the way. Elodie took me by my arm and pulled me to stand alongside her. Dash’s brother whispered something in his ear and got him to let Max go.

  Dash took a step away and drew in a long breath. He stared out at the crowd who stood against him. They shouted and cursed him for several minutes, and my heart matched his as it broke with every insult. However, he didn’t say anything to defend himself nor try to force them to stop. He listened to every single word until they tuckered themselves out and gave him a brief moment of quiet so he could talk.

  “I know the shortcomings of my family, and I know my part in it all. When I took on the role of alpha, I did so out of guilt and a desire to make it up to each and every one of you.” He looked around at every single one of the pack members staring back at him. “While I can understand the evidence being presented sounds reputable, I deny every single allegation and question the validity of the claims.

  “And I would like you to notice how I am not running away from you or your anger. Nor am I forcing you into submission like my father used to do when anyone stood against him. You have every right to voice your doubts, but I would prefer to handle this in a more official capacity.”

  “Are you going to answer Max’s challenge or not?” Andy asked, sarcasm dripping from his words. “Or are you intending to let the witch fight all your battles?”

  It took a lot of effort for me not to hex his belligerent hiney, but I’d already misstepped when I’d tried to defend Dash from Max.

  “Before I address Max again, I’d like to say something.” Dash took one long step forward so that he stood apart from his former second in command. “If I stay as alpha of the Red Ridge pack, then there are a few things that will be changing. First and foremost, we have to get rid of the idea of purity of our kind. That’s something that my father believed in that has hurt more of our membe
rs than it’s helped.

  “There is no weakness in who we choose to love as partners in our lives or as family who has our backs.” He glanced back at Cameron and nodded at her. “From here on out, we will not be held back or ruled by intolerance. We will strive to be better than we were before, and I promise you, it will make us stronger in the long run.”

  My heart swelled with pride, and I hoped he could soak that in to bolster him against those who still questioned his leadership.

  Lucille opened her mouth to say something, but she decided against it and stepped back to stand next to her friend. Fewer of the people gathered in the warehouse seemed willing to continue to stand in opposition of Dash.

  “You still have yet to accept my challenge,” Max reminded him. “You can either answer it or you can try to go through the legal route. But remember, if you do that, you forfeit your leadership role until the final judgment has been made. And in that time, I would take over as alpha since I still serve as the pack’s second.”

  Dash turned to face the older man. He walked forward until he closed the distance between them. “Challenge is accepted. We will settle this in forty-eight hours.”

  “I think twenty-four is more than enough time for someone so guilty,” Max countered. “Any longer would provide too big of a window to escape retribution.”

  Dash gritted his teeth. “Fine.” He extended his hand to shake on it.

  Max stared at the offer and hesitated. But when he noticed everybody in the room watching him, he had to accept.

  As soon as they shook on it, Max leaned forward and whispered something into his ear. Whatever he said caused fury to explode in Dash. He was coming too close to getting into a physical altercation.

  “We need to get him out of here,” I whispered to Elodie. She caught her daughter’s attention and tilted her head towards the back exit.

  Davis approached his brother and grabbed him around the shoulders. “Let’s go.”

  Georgia and I stayed close together as we waded through the crowd. We ignored all of the glares and a few of the whispered insults.

  Andy moved through the crowd so he could block our exit. “You remember what we used to do to witches in this country?” he drawled, switching his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. “Once Dash is taken care of, then who’s going to protect you? Nobody.”

  Cameron maneuvered around Georgia and me and placed her hand on Andy’s chest. “One more threat like that to the alpha’s intended, and you’ll find out what we do to loudmouths like you.”

  He grinned like a Cheshire cat. “You ain’t gonna be sittin’ so pretty either when the leadership changes. We’ll chase those like you all the way across the state line.”

  I had enough of the manure spilling out of his mouth. “Yeah, well, I think it’s pretty stupid of someone to make threats to a witch.” I wiggled my fingers at him in a dramatic gesture.

  Andy stumbled away from us. “Don’t you go cursin’ me or nothin’.”

  I continued to wiggle my fingers on him and even got Georgia to follow my lead. “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes,” I quoted in an eerie tone.

  He pointed at us. “Y’all heard them, right? These witches just tried to curse me!”

  A woman standing next to us laughed at him. “That’s a line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, you idiot. You should have paid more attention in Ms. Davis’s English class.”

  Cameron placed a hand on the small of my back and escorted me and Georgia out into the chilly night. My chest heaved as I tried to draw in a breath. When I blew it out, it created a billow of steam.

  “I can’t leave Dash,” I said as Elodie encouraged us to get to the cars.

  “He’s right behind us with his brother, but we need to be ready to get out of here before that mob exits, too,” she said, tossing the car keys to Cameron.

  The SUV’s lights blinked once as Dash’s third in command unlocked the doors. “I didn’t see any of this coming until it was too late,” she said with regret. “How did I not anticipate Max’s betrayal?”

  “You know all of those allegations are false, right?” I checked.

  “Of course,” Cameron responded quickly. “But it looks like Max has been sowing seeds of discord for a while now, and they won’t be as easily convinced of the lies. And that was a pretty good number of pack members in there.”

  “Twenty-four hours isn’t long enough to do much of anything,” Elodie added. “Dash is going to have to fight Max. And I guarantee, there will be no choosing skins only.”

  Fear gripped my belly, knowing the real consequences to both of us if the fight happened. Even in wolf form, I imagined our magical binding would allow both of us to be injured. Or worse.

  The metal door slammed open, and Davis rushed out. I waited to spot Dash and blew out a sigh of relief when his broad figure appeared behind Davis.

  Georgia sidled up to my left, blowing on her hands to keep them warm. “I don’t get shifter justice. If there was only a way for Dash to prove who actually killed that young man.”

  Her comment reignited my earlier idea. “Because if he could, then maybe others wouldn’t be so supportive of Max’s claims.”

  “Good idea, except how are you gonna do that in less than twenty-four hours?” Elodie asked.

  Dash and Davis approached. “Let’s get out of here,” the older brother insisted.

  Our small group split apart according to the cars we’d driven in before, but I stopped Dash from opening the back door. “We need to borrow one of the cars. And Georgia needs to come with you and me.”

  He glanced down at me with curiosity. “Why?”

  “What better way to solve Zach’s murder than to ask the victim himself?” I nodded in Georgia’s direction.

  “I can’t promise anything,” she said. “But I’ll try.”

  Cameron opened the driver’s-side door. “Wherever you’re going, I’m driving. So, what’s the plan?”

  Dash looked at me, and I went with my instincts. “We need to get to Zach’s house before his mother returns. The fact that his father isn’t here tells me that he might not agree. We’re going to need to be let inside the house so Georgia can try to connect with Zach’s ghost.”

  Davis asked Georgia for the keys to her car. “Well, you’re not going there alone. Aunt Ellie and I will tail you guys and make sure nobody follows. If they do, we’ll try to steer them away from you. But we better hustle before anyone sees us leaving.”

  We got into the two cars, and Cameron took the lead, driving out of the parking lot as fast as possible without burning rubber. The strained hush in the car weighed heavy on all of us, and it gave me space to think about the past few days here in the mountains.

  Dash’s life had been hard for almost all of it. No wonder he’d come to Honeysuckle Hollow to hide. I almost wish the two of us could ignore all of these problems and go there now, if only to keep him safe from threats.

  I patted his knee to show him support, and he grabbed my hand, holding it in his for a brief moment. With no barriers between us, I could feel all of the emotions consuming the shifter. Frustration, anger, gratitude. When the strongest of his feelings surfaced to the forefront, I panicked. But before it got too awkward between us, he let go and withdrew his touch, staring out the window in stony silence as we drove on our mission to talk to Zach.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Cameron slammed her hand on the steering wheel. “How could Max betray us like this? I could just kill him for it.”

  Dash smirked. “In less than twenty-four hours, that’ll be my job.”

  The truth in his words chilled me. I’d already learned through my challenge that the only way to win was to be the last one standing. When it came to trying to take over the leadership of the pack, it could only end in life or death.

  “If neither of you had any idea, then he’s had to have planned this for a long time,” I said.

  “Davis guessed that there were hidden paym
ents to secret accounts far longer than when I’ve been in charge. Since Max served as Dad’s second, he may have been skimming money from the pack for decades. Or maybe Dad started it all.” He let out a long groan and rubbed the stubble on his face. “Without more time to investigate, I may never know the real truth.”

  “Yeah, well, where was he when Kash almost sank the whole ship?” Cameron asked with indignation. “If he was so interested in leading, why didn’t he try to defeat your brother on his own?”

  The streetlights from outside as we drove by highlighted Dash’s displeasure. “I don’t know. Maybe because he could steal money without anyone noticing? Or maybe he supported my brother’s craziness until it became too dangerous.”

  My heart ached for him all over again. “I’m sorry you’ve been put through so much. I know you saw him as someone you could trust, and finding out the truth just sucks.”

  He moved his hand, and it hovered close to my knee as if he wanted to pat it. Instead, he folded it in his lap. “Thanks. I saw Max more like an uncle and less like my father’s lieutenant. He knew what my home life was, and much like Aunt Ellie, he tended to soften some of my father’s blows, both emotionally and physically.”

  “Then his betrayal means so much more,” I uttered in a soft voice.

  Dash scoffed. “If you think I’m pissed, you should be more worried about Davis. It’s possible that even if I don’t succeed in winning the challenge tomorrow, my brother won’t let Max walk out of there alive.”

  Not wanting to think about the gruesome outcome of the challenge, I changed the subject to focus on a possible solution that would negate the need to kill anybody.

  “What will it take for you to find and connect to Zach’s ghost?” I asked Georgia, leaning forward so she could hear me in the front passenger seat.

  She stopped biting her fingernail to answer. “I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to do anything. I need all of you to understand that up front.”

  “We do,” Dash reassured her. “And if it doesn’t work, that’s fine. But I appreciate you trying to help me out once again. I’m gonna end up owing you so much, G.”