by Lia Davis
I shrugged. "Now that we’re united, they might not be so willing."
She pulled out her phone and began tapping it. "I’ll text him and get him to ask."
He agreed immediately and let us know he’d get back to us.
"Nothing we can do now but wait and stay hidden." Quin joined Voss at the bookshelves. "Movie?"
"Maybe we should try to get away. Sneak out and go stay at an undisclosed location. Also, shouldn’t my dad be hiding?" Jillian tapped her phone again.
"He’s passed his leadership on to you. The magic doesn’t work like that. If you die, it would go to your heir. If you don’t have an heir, and you’re not killed by a lycan, it would go to the person you trusted most. It has happened a few times over the years, that the High Alpha died young. It’s usually their best friend or sibling that ends up with the power. Or, if you were killed by a lycan, the power would go to the one that defeated you." We all stared at Voss.
He shrugged. "My dad was prepping me to take the position or mate with you. Turns out we were meant to be mates, but he didn’t know that."
"If that arrow had killed me?" Jillian asked.
"If the assassin was a lycan, they’d get the High Alpha power."
"Even when it’s not hand-to-hand combat?" That didn’t sound right to me.
Voss looked puzzled. "Actually, I’m not sure. I can’t recall a time that it wasn’t a challenge of strength." His face grew darker. "My father is a coward, on top of everything else."
"You’re a good man, though." Jillian joined him across the room. I stayed where I was. He needed some comforting, but I wasn’t going to be the one to do it. "He wasn’t able to beat that out of you."
He smiled down at her as she put her arms around him. "Thanks." His chin rested on the top of her head.
Jillian turned in his arms, leaning against him. "While we’re on lock down and waiting for Dad to call back, we need to plan a trap for when we do find them. And we need to come up with a Plan B in case the witches won’t do the tracking spell."
I eyed her suspiciously. "What would Plan B be?"
A slow lazy smile lifted my mate’s lips. "We make Trinity and Emerson come to us."
6
Jillian
Sometime in the night I’d rolled off the end of the mattress and onto the floor. I’d slept like the dead, though. "I think I need a firmer mattress."
"What?" Voss asked sleepily from the middle of the bed.
"I slept on the floor. It might’ve been the best sleep I’ve ever had." I stretched and stood, pressing the home button on the closest phone. It had a picture of me, and the time said it wasn’t even five in the morning. "I could run a marathon."
Kane moaned and rolled over. "Shut up. I’m still sleepy." Slight snores came from his mouth immediately after.
Voss turned to look at him. He was snuggled against his back, tucked in like he was his protector. It was freaking adorable. "I wish we could just be like this. Just together and enjoying our new relationship."
Kane grunted, but rolled over when Voss shoved his shoulder. "He’s a needy sleeper."
"Sort of like a honeymoon." I ignored him. "We should be at a beach, or skiing. Or camping." I loved to camp. Lycans loved nature, but not all loved being out in the wilderness, exposed to the elements. It was one of my favorite things.
"When we figure this out, we could go camping." Voss smiled at me. "You like camping?"
"That sounds amazing."
Kane grunted again and pushed closer to Voss again, so I dropped my voice to a whisper. "Where should we go?"
"If you want to stay relatively close, my mom’s mom had land down in Tennessee, near Cades Cove. Almost in North Carolina."
My brain and Voss’s must’ve come to the same conclusion at the same time. I opened my mouth, eyes wide, just as he spoke again. "Son of a bitch," he exclaimed. "They’re in Tennessee."
Quin sat upright. "What?"
"Damn it, why can’t I sleep?" Kane also sat up, and he looked grumpy as hell. "Why do you want to talk so much?"
I tried not to laugh at him, but I couldn't seem to help myself.
Voss pushed at him again. "Aren’t you supposed to be up all night, vamp?"
He grunted. "You’ve got me on your crazy lycan schedule."
"We think we know where they are." That got his attention. "Voss’s grandmother had land in Tennessee."
Voss crawled out of the bed, leaving Kane to spread out. "It passed to my father when my mom died. They could be there."
"How could we find out?" Quin asked.
"And why are you just now thinking of it?" Kane added.
"I haven’t thought about that land in years. I don’t even think there’s still any type of home on it. It had been passed down through the years, and nobody has lived on it for a very long time. We used to go spend the full moon on the property, since it was such a big area to roam. There aren’t many lycans down there, though I believe there are some mountain lions that shift."
I gave him a sharp look. "I thought the myths of other types of shifters were just that. Myths."
He shrugged. "Seems like your spirit guides would’ve told you if there were, but I’ve smelled some strange things in those mountains. My dad is convinced of it."
"Would they go that far away?" Kane climbed out of the bed and pulled his pants back on. He’d slept in his underwear, as usual. It drove Quin and Voss crazy. They always wore at least track shorts.
"It’s far enough to be totally out of our radar, but it’s only about a four-hour drive." I held out my hands for someone to help me up. "What do you think? Worth taking a look?"
Quin nodded and pulled me to a stand. "Definitely."
"Okay, I’m getting in the shower." I walked around our makeshift bed, then decided to placate them. "I’ll be safe in the bathroom, and I’ll go through the bedroom fast, just in case anyone is at the window even with our enforcers running double teams all night."
"Now?" Kane tucked the covers up under his chin. "How about in three hours?"
"Now." I yanked the blankets off of him. "Get dressed."
"Listen, if there’s no electricity, no real shelter? No way Trinity will be there." Kane gave me a disbelieving look. "Are we really going ourselves? Isn’t this a job for the enforcers?"
"You’d leave this to them?" Quin sounded pissed. "Voss knows the area. And we don’t know how strong Trinity is, or Emerson. Or if they have anyone there helping them. This could also be a longshot. If they’re not there, at least we’re out of the area while Jillian’s dad works on the witches."
Kane’s face blanched. "Yeah. You’re right. I’m just tired."
"We all are," I said gently before opening the door to the bedroom. "Doesn’t mean we aren’t still the leaders of our people. We have a job to do."
Quin
We were on the road within an hour. The trip was a breeze, and we made it in three hours without any delays. Voss drove and Jillian consulted the map app on her phone. "The fastest way to the coordinates is through the national park."
"I think that’s what I remember from coming up here as a kid." Voss agreed from the front street.
"How many times did you come here?" If he’d been a frequent visitor, how had he not thought of this sooner?
"When my mom was alive, frequently. We shifted here. It was her favorite place. After that, never." Voss’s voice dropped and I heard a hint of sadness it in. That was why he hadn’t thought about it before. Too many memories of his mom.
"So it’s been a while since you were here." Jillian put her hand on his knee. "I’m sorry."
"It doesn’t matter. All that matters is stopping them." His voice was low, gruff, but I knew him well enough to know he was in pain.
"Voss, you don’t have to be the one to do it." I trusted he knew what I meant.
He gave me a significant look in the rearview mirror. "Yes. I do."
Kane looked between both of us. "Trinity is mine."
I nodded, kno
wing he had a score to settle.
I understood. My best friend was in the seat in front of me. We’d been unconventional friends, for sure, but in the end it had worked out pretty well. I tried to imagine the betrayal Kane was feeling. My wolf howled in pain at the thought. I locked gazes with Kane. "Agreed. Jillian and I will do whatever we can to help you two."
Jillian put on her alpha hat. "If they’re here, we need to tread carefully. They’ll have set traps, might have some sort of backup. The Red Night could have had another faction we didn’t know about. There’s really no telling."
I disagreed respectfully. "Actually, I think if we find any signs of them being on the property, we should back off and call in reinforcements."
She turned all the way around in the seat to look at me. "Unless we see signs of anyone helping them, we are dealing with this threat immediately before they have a chance to slip away. I won’t risk another life."
Her voice gave no room for arguments. I knew if I tried to press my point, she’d just out-Alpha me.
I was frustrated that she wouldn’t agree with me completely, but no more frustrated than I would’ve been with any other High Alpha. In pack matters and politics, she was my superior, and my wolf understood that. It was wired into my DNA.
Voss looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "We’re close."
She held up her phone. "The map says we’re still miles away."
"It’s wrong. Years ago, one of my great greats married a witch. It was unheard of then, and nobody was happy about it. They moved out here and bought this land to live their lives in peace. Eventually, their descendants moved back to be with the pack, but the land was forever changed. The stone markers will never fall, and all within them is invisible to humans."
Witches were handy to have around. "We need to make peace with the witches somehow, some day."
Voss chuckled. "We do. Up until a few generations ago, my family supposedly had mild and unpredictable witch powers, but it was bred out as we continued mating with other wolves and the witch blood was diluted."
"Can a human be brought onto the property at all?" If they couldn’t, then any help they might have on the property would either have to be vampire or lycan.
"I’m not sure. I don’t know that anyone has ever tried." He pulled off onto a narrow dirt road. "This road shouldn’t be visible to humans."
"Shouldn’t," Kane muttered.
Voss pulled to a stop and looked out the window. "Do you want to test it?"
Kane shrugged. "No. I’m just tense about this mission."
"Well, this is it. If I go any farther up this road and they’re here, they’ll hear the car."
We sat in silence. This was it. If they were there, it would be our final battle. We wouldn’t give up until someone was dead. As usual before a battle, my gut hardened. My wolf was ready. I was ready. "Let’s do this."
We exited the car in unison, shutting the doors softly and attuning ourselves to our surroundings. I wasn’t sure what Kane was doing, but I knew Voss would be focusing his wolf on his vision. I focused mine on my sense of smell, and Jillian was tapping into that weird second sight thing she had.
My nose sharpened, every smell distinguishable and strong. An animal had defecated nearby. Possum, by the scent of it. There was a fresh kill somewhere to our right, something small. I wanted to go investigate it. When my senses were heightened, my wolf had a modicum of influence. It seemed harder to control him, though. He really wanted to come out and play.
Walking forward, I focused entirely on my nose, filtering out smells that didn’t have any relevance. Jillian was a few paces behind with Kane. Beside me, Voss studied the ground, eyes on the dirt. "What are you looking for?"
"Disruption in the hard-packed dirt." He paused, and walked into the grass, eyes on the same place in the road. We waited as he walked in a circle, studying it from all angles. "There’s been a car through here. Recently."
As he spoke, my nose filtered out a smell that shouldn’t be there. Something that didn’t belong in nature. "I smell diesel fuel."
Kane and Jillian moved forward to stand beside me. Kane froze, going eerily still. "They’re still here," he whispered.
Jillian looked around. "How do you know?"
"I smell their blood." He breathed deeply. "But, something is wrong with it."
"You can smell Trinity’s?" I didn’t know they could scent each other the way they could us.
"I’ve known her longer than anyone else, except my mom. I could smell her anywhere." His expression was grim. It mirrored Voss’s.
"This is it." Jillian looked at the road in front of us, overgrown with weeds and brush. "It ends here."
Voss started forward. "I don’t want to wait. Let’s go."
"Hold up, there Wonder Wolf." Kane tried to lighten the mood, but he was more likely to just piss Voss off. "We need to get a game plan, get our heads in the right place."
Voss turned, visibly agitated. "I know the game plan. They’re either in the ruins of the cabin that was once here, or they’re in a tent near it. The smell of fuel is fainter to my nose, but it gives me a good idea of how far we have to go. As we get closer, we’ll get quieter, and hunt. I thought vampires enjoyed the hunt?"
Kane growled, his eyes brightening. "We do."
"Then let’s go."
I wasn’t about to argue with Voss right then, but Kane was right. We needed a better plan than just attack. "Hey, man." I caught up with him. "Tell us about the terrain around the cabin."
He chuckled. "It’s mountains. The cabin has been lost to the mountain. This road gets us pretty close, but the farther we walk, the more overgrown it becomes until it disappears. Then about two miles up from there, a clearing opens, but even the clearing is pretty overgrown."
I mulled over the options the two jerks would’ve had. "They would’ve had to have cleaned a spot. They’ll need to hunt or get in and out to go to a store." Even if they were camping, and Trinity drank Emerson’s blood, Emerson needed food.
"Dad’s a great hunter." Voss kicked a rock in the path. "With his fucking bow."
"Is there a water source nearby?" I asked.
"Yeah, a whole damn river."
I laughed softly. "I guess that would do."
Kane put his hand on Voss’s shoulder from behind us. He and Jillian were following and listening. "If they’re living off the land, then what the fuck is the diesel smell?"
His question brought me up short. I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it. "Good question."
"Generator?" Jillian asked.
"With Trinity there, that’s where I’d put my money."
Voss quickened his steps. "That’s good. If they have a generator, that will mask the sound of our approach. And the fuel smell will help hide our scents."
I waited a few minutes before bringing it up again. "The clearing, that’s overgrown. Is it bushes, trees, what? What can we expect to fight in?"
"Tall grass, bushes. Huge weeds. And the trees get pretty close to where the house would be if it’s still there."
I continued grilling him up the road. He told us everything he remembered about the land, the animals. Soon, the road disappeared, and we walked on grass and leaves. Not far from the road, we stepped around a couple of trees and a large truck appeared. We all froze, waiting to make sure nobody was in it.
"Possibly the diesel smell," I murmured.
Rocks and tree limbs blocked the path frequently, causing us to have to watch our step more carefully. Not Kane, of course. Or Jillian, oddly. Neither of them seemed to need to look down.
"Jillian," I said softly. Somewhere along the walk, she’d pulled forward to walk with Voss and I was behind, beside Kane. "Do you realize you’re walking through this terrain without having to look? You’re stepping over every rock, every log."
She looked down and immediately stumbled over a root. We all busted out laughing, fighting to dampen the sound of our laughter.
She glared at us. "I guess it's
an instinctual thing," she whispered. "Maybe from the new High Alpha powers."
Voss stopped, took a deep breath, and looked around. "I’m pretty sure the cabin is about fifty yards away. If they were outside in that spot, no generator running, they’d probably be able to smell and hear us here right now."
"Come on out, son." Emerson’s voice drifted through the trees. "We know you’re there."
Voss stiffened, face losing all emotion. "Or maybe it’s closer than I thought."
"Fuck," Jillian muttered.
Kane moved so fast I nearly missed it. One second, he was standing with us, the next he wasn’t. We all looked at each other but didn’t mention it. On the off chance they didn’t realize he was with us, we wouldn't call attention to his absence. We moved forward as a group, stepping out into the overgrown clearing.
Emerson and Trinity stood at the door to a small cabin, triumphant smiles on their faces. Fresh wood shored up the cabin in several places. They’d repaired it.
"Come on out, Kane." Trinity looked into the woods behind us. "We know he was with you."
"He disappeared." Might as well tell the truth. "We don’t really know him well enough yet to know what he’s planning."
"Well, well," Trinity said. Her voice was smooth. She believed she’d already won. "It’s a good thing I do know him."
She really did disappear.
"Fuck, did you see her leave?"
Voss shook his head.
Jillian nodded at me. "I did."
"Good luck, Kane." I sized Emerson up. "Emerson, no offense, but you’re one wolf against three."
"And I’m your High Alpha." Jillian stepped forward, her hands fisted at her side.
Emerson laughed, a booming gut laugh. "You’re no alpha of mine, child."
Jillian leaned forward slightly. I watched Emerson, knowing full well what she was doing. We’d spent time helping her work on her commands. It wasn’t as easy as just wishing someone would listen to you. There was a mental power she had to use to command her wolves.
"Stand. Down." The power in her voice was compelling, and she wasn’t even sending it my way.
