Pack Master (Undeadly Secrets Book 4)

by Aaron L Speer

  “Apologies. It appears I erred in thinking young Anthony could control his primal needs. It won’t happen again, I assure you.”

  “Your promises mean nothing to me.”

  “How about actions? Let me fix those for you,” he said, gesturing to the wounds he saw.

  “No. Go away.”

  Tynan gave a short grin and moved to complete her request, before pausing. “It is time. The heads of house are here. I request you get ready and with that I bring the offer of healing you. If a pretty girl such as yourself wants to be seen without bruises, I would take the offer.”

  “I don’t care what they think.”

  “You realise of course, more will attempt to claim you for their own, given we can sense your arousal. Young wolves under my command especially. You will be safe in the room, but it would be best for all concerned if you allowed someone to sate your need eventually.”

  “Oh for the love of…listen. Alicia told me what this is. Longing for my Alpha, some weird wolf shit. I don’t want it and it’s not my fault. Give me something to stop it or leave.”

  Tynan furrowed his eyebrows. “You keep seeing Nicholas in your mind?”

  “Yes!” she screeched, “but it’s supposed to be getting better not worse.” Nicole saw Tynan stiffen slightly, a curious expression on his face, before he left without another word.

  Her baby was softly crying and when she held him she couldn’t have been happier or more in awe of him. She held him close, kissing his warm cheeks as her own tears flowed. “Thank you…”

  *

  Tynan marched across his stone walkway and towards the guard on the front tower. He looked out over the sky, the stillness. The girl’s words were perplexing. Longing was commonplace.

  But to this extent over a dead wolf? This out of control? Slade had been dead for months. Unless…the unthinkable. He wasn’t and her longing was in fact a message her Alpha was still alive. Tynan had sensed no deception when she spoke of what Alicia told her. Therefore, Alicia was either unaware or keeping it from her.

  “Mr Gibbs…double the guard at the gate.”

  “Sir, the summit meeting?”

  Tynan had secured their acceptances on many provisos. One being that each Alpha be allowed a heavy entourage in case of attack and that, while inside, Tynan’s defences would not be raised. “Do it.”

  Impossible for Nicholas to be alive? Maybe. But he would be ready…just in case.

  *

  Bliss. That’s how Nick would describe it. No pain. No worries. It felt like only seconds passed, but he wondered if this was what heaven was like? There was no light, no darkness. He couldn’t feel his body. Only his mind. He couldn’t be dead, could he?

  Almost as if answering his own question, he suddenly became aware of his body. His mind snapped back to where he now found himself, face down in a river of water. His lungs ached and out of sheer instinct he fought his way upright, straining to not take a breath until finally his face broke the surface. Water gushed from his mouth as he choked and then expelled air and the contents of his stomach. His head spun, and for a few seconds he was content to tread water, heaving in oxygen as hard and fast as he could manage.

  It was then he could open his eyes and survey what had happened, where he was, what he had survived. The airport was less than a hundred metres to his right. He was in a trench that separated the runways from a vast customs holding area for large containers. He had landed in a stretch of water roughly ten feet across and who knew how deep. What he did know was he had been metres away from being completely obliterated. The plane lay in front of him, burning and in pieces. Nick could see, over the trench, more flames, giving him the indication the plane had landed and skidded to this point, half stopped by the trench.

  Nick made his way to the bank and heaved himself up, though his movements were like he was weighed down with lead. His skull pounded and it was then the blinding, rushing and continuous numbing pain made way for another sound. Frantic screaming. He wobbled on his hands and knees but crawled to the top of the trench and looked out over the wreck. Emergency services were on hand. Nick could make out the only real light besides the flames was the constant circular motion of the red and blue, but he also saw something else. Nick squinted to get a better look.

  They were being attacked. Vampires had descended onto the scene. Nick could tell they were feeding off people. Cars had been stopped on the highway past the airport, and people were running out of their vehicles only to be chased down and slaughtered. Panic and chaos reigned. The situation was completely out of control. The people were defenceless. Nick struggled to get to his feet but did so. He was so exhausted he could barely open his eyes, but he put one foot in front of the other towards the bedlam. He wrung his hands, trying to get his nails, his strength, anything, but they were not coming. He didn’t know why, and he knew he would be a sitting duck without powers…he also knew that he couldn’t walk away, strength or no strength, that’s just not who he was. But there was no way he could possibly fight all these alone and survive.

  What sort of man would he be to run?

  A smart one perhaps, but not one that could ever look Nicole in the eye again. Not one that she loved. In the moment when all he wanted to do was hold her one last time; he ran headlong into the fray, leaping on top of a vampire that had just pounced on a woman. He pulled the vampire off her and shoved him away. “Go!” he yelled as the vampire rose and tackled him to the ground. “Run!”

  “I can’t! My baby!”

  Nick pressed the vampire, with a full extension of his arm, away from himself. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the woman trying to get into her car, but in her way were two more of them. One was staring at her, and the other was crawling on the car appearing to smell the infant inside. He flipped the vampire off him with all his might onto his side. He grabbed a rock as he rolled over and swung with everything he had across its head. Again and again. He had no doubt it wouldn’t kill him. He just needed time, seconds even, to help her.

  The woman was terrified, screaming at them to leave her alone and to leave her baby alone. The one facing her stalked forward, the one on top of the car had almost reached the door handle. Nick bolted forward, and shoving the woman out of the way, burying his shoulder into the stalking vamp, lifting him up and charging into the side of the car. The impact drove the top vamp off and onto the ground. Nick lashed out with fury at the vamp he had hit, driving fast knees directly to his face so that his head dented the driver side door. Nick’s head rose as the second vamp broke through the driver window with its arms, grabbing the baby and yanking it free of the vehicle. “Holden! NO!”

  Nick heard both the cries of the mother and the child. The vampire looked down at the infant with a hunger that could not be reasoned with, opening its mouth and lowering it down on the small neck. Nick had no time to go around. He leapt on to the car and launched himself forward, cracking the vampire across the face with a fist.

  The contact was true, and the vampire was rocked back. Nick snatched the child from its grasp with a trembling right hand, sure he had broken several bones. As Nick gripped the child, wrapped in a pink blanket, time seemed to slow. His hand stopped trembling. The pain ended just as the crying had stopped. Flashes appeared in Nick’s mind. Giggling. Crying. Babies. A baby? Yes. One. He could hear it now. The same one that he had heard when with the Forgotten.

  A prickling sensation came over his fingertips and he opened his eyes. The mother had just run around the car, desperate for her daughter. “Here you go...” Nick said evenly as mother and daughter were reunited.

  “Look out!” she screamed, but Nick heard it. The vampire behind him had lunged in attack. Nick twisted his whole body and swiped his fingers across the vampire’s chest. The strike caused the vampire to fall forward, blood flowing from the wound. Nick looked at his hand, seeing the fingernails out, glistening. Nick smiled. He had no idea why he had his powers back but had a feeling they wouldn’t last. Best to make use of
them. He spotted the last vampire readying an attack, but Nick dug his fingers into its throat. The gargling cough might have been enough, but Nick wanted to be sure it would die. He released his grip and kicked out hard, sending the vampire flying back into the side of the car. Its head broke through the back window, but Nick wasn’t done. He pulled the lifeless form of the vampire out of the car and plunged a stray shard of glass into its forehead, rolling it off the boot and onto the dirt.

  “Oh my God...thank you...”

  “Go...” Nick wheezed. His powers beginning to fade. The images in his brain were flashing again as if struggling to focus. “Get in the car...get yourself and Holden out.”

  She didn’t hesitate to heed the advice. Hurrying to get her daughter in the car and race off. Nick watched the car go, before falling on his haunches, holding his head. Once again, images of no clarity were racing through his mind.

  “What?” he yelled to no one but the wolf inside him. “What am I supposed to be seeing?”

  A hail fire of bullets made Nick drop to the dirt, covering his head with both hands and pivoting his head to see behind him. The vampires were being riddled with lead, falling where they stood. The seconds dragged on, and then suddenly there was silence. Nick took a few breaths and glanced up to see where the firing had come from.

  He saw two men in riot gear, holding assault rifles, advancing forward, looking over the bodies. A third, wearing a bulletproof vest but no other protection, got out of a black car.

  “Check them,” the man in the vest said.

  “Sir, this one is alive...” one said, referring back to the third man.

  “Remember our orders. Clean this place up and get out. It was just a plane crash. No survivors.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  More bullets rang out through the air as they crept along. It was then something made sense to Nick. No survivors meant exactly that. None. No vampires or humans. They were here to wipe out everyone. More cars arrived, that same gleaming black, and out from them came men dressed in ambulance gear and police uniforms. Nick looked back towards the crash to see ambulance and police cars abandoned, their drivers either killed by vampires or shot.

  Replacements for the media.

  Nick tried to get up, but his legs wouldn’t cooperate. The images in his head were screaming at him. He scrunched his face and gritted his teeth. Before he knew it, the end of a rifle was pointing over his head.

  “Sir...”

  “Ready arms!” the reply came. In desperation, Nick rolled away and lashed out with a foot, knocking the gun from his hand. Nick got to his feet and grabbed him, turning him around as a human shield.

  “Enough! Kill anyone else and he’s dead. Get it?”

  The third man by the car unfolded his arms and walked forward briskly. “As I live and breathe. Nicholas Slade, I hope? You’ll be glad that we found you.”

  “What of it?”

  “There’s a price on your head for starters. On both of you actually. Now this can go smoothly or very very roughly, but a choice must be made now. Come quietly or there will be consequences for both of you.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? Both of us? Who?”

  Nick turned around with the officer, soldier, whatever he was, still in his clutches. He saw now what was going on. A vampire stood behind him, the tallest vampire he had ever seen, on the roof of a car, flames bristling behind him as his long red coat wafted in the breeze. Fresh blood was dripping down his chin and onto his bare chest as he gazed fixedly on the scene in front of him with a look of cold indifference in his bright red eyes.

  “Nicholas Leslie Slade, you are charged with the murder of Jason Trodd, the manufacturing of Dream State, the destruction of Sydney Airport and with the deaths of over one hundred people that resulted from your actions. Leeson Amadeus Nightingale, you are charged with-”

  The man stopped to look at his feet. Nightingale had thrown the severed head of one of his riot officers.

  “Who fuckin’ cares? You cunts in ya black vans have been chasin’ me for days and ‘ere tonight I see a whole bunch of ‘em racing past me, out towards good ol’ Mascot so I decided to tag behind. Ya wanted the Big Dog, ya got the Big Dog,” Nightingale sneered, lowering his stance, readying himself. Clearly this was going to go very, very roughly. “All I wanna know is what’s the price?”

  “It just went up by five grand to forty five...”

  The men, dressed as fake emergency officers, pulled out weapons and clicked them, ready to fire. “One hundred grand for both of you, split between us all, is very tempting.”

  Nightingale let himself down from his perch and marched forward. “Hold the fuckin’ phone. You mean to tell me this sperm stain is worth more than me-” Nightingale moved next to Nick and gave him a double take before gripping the man Nick held and pulled him away, annoyed. “Oh would you fuck this piece of shit off already? I’m talkin’ to ya.”

  Nightingale threw the man into the path of the others by their black cars. They scattered as he flew into several, knocking them over.

  “Get outta here, pretty boy. Men gotta talk.”

  Nightingale held Nick by the scruff of the shirt and prepared to lift him, but Nick snatched his hand away, gripping it by the forearm. “I don’t take kindly to being touched by vamps.”

  Nightingale lowered his eyelids to look Nick over and then stared at the strength of his grip. He might have been impressed, or nonplussed. Nick couldn’t tell.

  “Oh really?” He hit Nick with an uppercut he never saw coming. Nick rose in the air and fell back on top of the car, crushing it with his body. Before he hit, Nick heard Nightingale yell, “Not touchin’ ya anymore...”

  *

  Lee turned back to the men aiming their guns and lit a cigarette. “Fuckin’ youth I tell ya. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s arrogant fucks who think they are untouchable and God’s gift to everything, aye. So now...” Lee said, exhaling. “How’s about me reward?”

  “What?”

  “Well, ya said there was a price on our heads. He’s dead. I wanna claim me cash. Ante up, bitch.”

  “I think you’ll find you are mistaken about him being dead. We must talk, Mr Nightingale. The two of you must come with us. We can drop your charges-”

  Lee raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. Something quite puzzling occurred behind him, the teeny bopper moved. He pivoted his neck to see the car shake and the doors burst out with kicks. The teeny bopper rose. No longer a muscle-bound kid but a beast. His silver eyes were gleaming in the darkness and his overdeveloped muscles, giving him triple the thickness of his body, were now heaving with every breath he took through four sinister looking fangs.

  The beast roared and the sand by his feet was swept up and out by its force.

  Lee smiled and peeled his coat off, one shoulder at a time. “Wolf aye...oh fuck yes, Fido.” He slapped his knees. “Come on boy…Come to daddy...”

  *

  Nick launched himself at Nightingale with such force both were lifted off their feet and crunched back down to the earth. Nightingale used his legs to flip Nick over his head and within seconds was on Nick’s back with a thin belt tugging at Nick’s throat. Nightingale leaned back, stretching Nick’s throat, dry humping him, shaking the belt, digging it in harder. Nick jumped and swerved, trying to get air, but all it did was cause Nightingale to smack his arse with his free hand, riding his back like a bronco.

  “Giddy up boy! Wahoo!”

  Leaning back and having his childish fun allowed Nick a small advantage; he could get to his feet. He didn’t bother to straighten, instead he leapt high with the vampire and shoved his top half forward as he hit the ground. “Whoa boy…whoa!”

  Nightingale’s face and chest came over Nick’s head and smashed into the ground with such force Nick heard vertebrae or the bones of his skull break. Nick lay hunched on his hands and knees, facing away from Nightingale’s body, inhaling air like a starving man at his last meal. A sharp stinging p
ain cut across his back with such force he let out a howl of pain. Nightingale had risen, holding the belt in his hand. The buckle covered with Nick’s blood. The bones of his face were piecing themselves together from under his skin before Nick’s eyes. Nightingale wiped his own blood from his mouth and pointed to Nick with his belt hand.

  “When I say whoa…I MEAN WHOA!” And with a sling of his arm the buckle raked across Nick’s face, tearing his cheek open. Nightingale was so quick, two more lacerations opened up on Nick’s chest before he blinked. Nick backed up and crumbled down.

  “C’mon then! I thought you were some hot shit wolf with moves!”

  The next whipping strike by Nightingale was caught by Nick and the bicep of Nick’s right arm holding a quivering pump as he held the belt taught with the vampire at the other end was something Nightingale obviously noticed. “Fuck…that’s a pretty good move…” he said to himself before Nick pulled sharply on the belt. The force propelled Nightingale forward to be met with a straight fist, bringing him to the ground. Nick stood on his belt arm, crushing the bone and unleashed furious fists with as much strength as he could. Every strike caved in more and more of Nightingale’s jaw and face but drained what little Alpha strength he had left. A river of blood poured out of Nightingale’s mouth. His teeth were bashed out, some digging themselves into Nick’s hand, but he didn’t stop even though he was exhausted.