“And if they walk into a trap?” his mother questioned.
“Then luckily you have so many damn kids that you can spare one,” Scott snapped, though his regret showed immediately as his mother’s face shifted. Her eyes were now fully the wolf and her lips stretched out grotesquely to accommodate the canine teeth pushing forward. A low growl escaped as she lunged forward only to be caught at the arms by himself and Charlie.
“My children are not expendable!” The words were a fierce growl, though Micah quickly stepped between the two, looking exasperated at having to break up his fellow alphas.
“No one thinks they are, Melanie,” he reassured her, hands held up on either side to prevent an approach. “But we need to have a figure head visible so they know it’s a united front.”
Landon’s gaze shifted to Imogene’s wide eyes as the tension stretched, and he longed to reach out to her except a visible relationship might make things worse. As if feeling his gaze or sensing his thoughts, she glanced toward him and offered a weak smile from her spot beside Steven.
The tension only faded a bit when his mother finally said, “Fine. Landon and Tyler can go.”
“Elias for us,” Scott said, begrudgingly.
He started to comment about the heir and the spare except his mother had also chosen not to go with her first-born so he held back the urge. It wouldn’t do to start a fight when things were already so tense, though he found himself breathing a sigh of relief when Steven volunteered, “I’ll go for Durand.”
Imogene frowned and caught his arm, obviously not liking the idea. “I can do it.”
“I’d feel better if you stayed with Micah,” he said, though Landon caught his eyes for a minute and read something else there. An ulterior motive for asking her to stay back. “Please, Im?”
“Okay, but promise you’ll be safe.” Her eyes flicked toward him for a moment and Landon gave a small nod while Steven made his verbal promise before focusing again on his mother who’d lost all glimpses of wolfiness and Scott.
The brief conversations about who else to send continued among the alphas, though Landon barely listened aside from hearing one of the Langford cousins had been selected rather than Paul. Several unfamiliar Durand members were also chosen to accompany Steven. He held his silence while those pack members seated in front of them were given orders to go into lockdowns with everyone at the main houses for the next twenty-four, any arguments cut off with a quick flash of wolfish eyes and growl.
Finally, the meeting began to break up, though he hung back until only himself and his mother remained since Charlie had gone back to the twins. Imogene had given his fingers a brief squeeze before she’d headed off with the rest of Durand, glancing back once with an obvious frown of concern
“You sure you’re okay with this?” his mother asked, quietly. “I can get one of the others.”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “They attacked our family. I already let you guys down once, but I’m damn sure not going to let it happen again, not now, not ever.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Contrary to how quickly a plan had been formed to visit The Red Stag, the colors of approaching dawn streaked the sky by the time Tyler’s truck turned into the largely empty lot of the bar. Landon sat in the passenger seat plus one of the non-related wolves and Steven in the backseat with one of the Durand representatives, a blonde he didn’t know who’d introduced herself as Lana. Elias’ car followed with the final Durand rep and the other two members of Langford, including a brunette named Sage who he vaguely remembered from high school, having decided cutting down the number of vehicles would make arriving and leaving easier.
He’d snuck away briefly to call Molly back and, giving her the benefit of a doubt, he’d asked her point-blank about the devices. She’d hesitated before admitting they’d considered a similar design for some of their own residents who were newer werewolves, wanting to cut down on potential accidents which made complete sense. However, she hadn’t been able to provide much in the way of how or where the devices came from except blaming the internet and saying they’d given up after being unable to monitor how far the block went.
As the vehicle slowed to a stop, Landon pushed open his door and stepped out. He inspected how different the bar looked in the early morning light compared to the darkness of his last visit. None of the neon signs were lit up, though the place still looked like something of an eyesore that would topple with the right breeze. A pair of trucks and a car were in the lot closest to the door, but he picked up only the faint scents of humans and blood.
“You’d think instead of investing in werewolf hunting gear, they’d make this place less of a death trap,” Tyler remarked from beside him. Steven made an agreeing sound as he helped Lana from the truck then stood beside them. “It even smells like death.”
“Didn’t Eliana say the truck was blue?” Elias’ question drew their attention to him as he pointed to the closer truck and added, “Could be coincidence, but I say we check it out.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lana volunteered, stepping away from Steven. “Why not get two more of each on the other vehicles then whoever is left can check around the building? No one enters until we’re sure things are clear out here.”
Landon’s brows rose at the surprisingly efficient plan and how easily the others consented to it. Allowing Tyler to pair up with the Langford cousin, he found himself joined by Steven and the remaining Langford representative to stake out the building, though as they fanned out, he couldn’t resist asking, “So what’s the story with Lana?”
“Why? Are you in the market for a new heart to break?” Steven questioned without a break in stride or glance to the Langford rep at their curious look. “She won’t put up with your crap like Im.”
Instead of giving into being offended by the words, he replied, “I’m not going to break Imogene’s heart again, but I don’t recognize her.”
“She’s an old friend of Micah’s,” he responded as they rounded the building. No sounds were coming from within, and the back proved equally as uninteresting as the front, empty aside from a pair of trash cans and a dumpster set further back. “Former military, got medically discharged for an injury that shouldn’t have healed so to avoid them learning she was a wolf, she didn’t fight it. Micah invited her out to join the pack just over eight years ago, and she’s been here ever since. She’s been great for the guard.”
The last words sparked a potential memory from his last visit to guard training. While she hadn’t been one to get in the ring with him, she had gathered to watch and spoke with Roy afterwards while he’d chatted with the twins.
A whistle cut off further conversation and drew their attention to the Langford rep who gestured toward the dumpster. Leaving Steven by the door, Landon made his way to the dumpster and leaned up to see within, immediately finding himself greeted with bloody clothes and bandages whose scents were no longer masked by spoiled food. He hesitated before pushing them aside, looking for anything else incriminating, though the lower contents appeared to be relatively normal bar trash.
“Even if the teens couldn’t change, bites or scratches could still lead to turning,” he said, glancing behind him toward Steven. “If we don’t find them, we could be looking at a rogue situation.”
Steven’s frown conveyed his concern before he gestured for them to leave the dumpster alone. Its contents were concerning, though nothing useful, so they made their way around the opposite side of the building to return to the parking lot. Elias and the others were waiting to confirm both trucks and the car contained dried blood but no people. However, no sound had come from within and no one had come or gone since they’d arrived which didn’t reassure him at all.
“How do we want to do this?” he asked, focusing on Tyler and Elias for their guardsman abilities then shifting his attention to Lana. “We don’t know what waits within.”
“I’d say four at the front, four at the back, and one to watch. Claws at th
e ready and at least two in wolf form, assuming we aren’t blocked,” Lana said after a glance from Steven. “Watcher stays with the vehicles. If anything changes, they give a signal like a whistle.”
While Elias looked ready to argue, he gave a nod instead then volunteered to take the back group, including Lana. Only a minute later Tyler offered himself as watcher and the others split, though he did notice that Steven once again chose to stick with him. He’d have bet the older wolf wanted to ensure nothing happened to him that would lead to an angry or upset Imogene by staying close. He couldn’t be upset since while Steven preferred to be non-confrontational, he didn’t shy away from getting his hands dirty when necessary as evidenced by his immediate transition to wolf alongside the other Langford member.
Watching the others circle around to the back, Landon went through the countdown then led the way through the front door into The Red Stag. Chairs were stacked atop tables that were pushed out of the way to leave a clear space, though the pair of limp bodies in the middle of the room caught his eye. Twin growls came from the wolves who’d stepped inside behind him yet he imagined it was more in reaction to the scents of blood and decay than a threat, but he still held up a hand to halt forward progress. His claws forced themselves out on instinct.
The door behind the empty bar, bare of the usual liquor bottles, opened to allow Elias and the others into the space, though they drew up short once they spotted the bodies. No one could miss how they hung upside down or the puddles of blood beneath from what a shift of Landon’s eyes said were slit throats.
Gesturing for the others to move forward, he approached the bodies and did a quick check to find bite marks on one’s forearm and the other’s neck. Each bite resembled human teeth, but he knew the marks were made by a wolf which had prompted their deaths, likely to avoid the potential for turning.
“If this is what they do to their own, imagine what they want to do to us,” Elias commented as he studied the bodies from the other side. His expression showed more curiosity than disgust. “You think they intended for us to find them?”
Landon bent closer to inspect the bodies and picked out a similar design to the clothes as the trio who’d been brought to the amphitheater. Age-wise he guessed them to be early to mid-thirties and dark-haired, relatively average by human standards.
“I think it was a message to us, and their own people about sloppiness.”
“What do you mean?” Elias questioned with a frown.
“If it was just a message to us, why the staging? They’re already dead so the show wasn’t just for us,” he explained, stepping back and glancing around to where the ones in wolf form were investigating every corner. “We caught three who I’m willing to bet took their own lives rather than be questioned which tells you a lot about the kind of people we’re dealing with.”
“Fuck,” Elias mumbled. “What do we tell the alphas?”
“We tell them that--”
Landon’s words cut off as a summoning howl came from the small hallway off to the left. His feet were in motion before he fully recognized Steven’s howl, though the rush toward his voice halted at a whistle from Tyler near the doorway and a shout of, “We got company.”
Catching Elias’ arm, he instructed, “Take your group, and I’ll get Steven. Do not engage unless they attack first.”
Elias nodded then headed for the door with his group, already shedding his clothes to switch forms, though Landon pushed himself further down the hallway toward Steven’s howling and past the Langford cousin investigating some kind of storage room.
He pushed an ajar door fully open to reveal a room plastered with the flyers Imogene had collected from the library and pages he could vaguely recognize from the manifesto. Splotchy red handprints, likely done in blood, covered various sections, though Steven’s position at the desk, front paws propped and peering at something, had him moving forward.
“What did you find?”
He immediately recognized it as the same manifesto Imogene had shown him on Charlie’s doorstep, but it looked thicker. He went to pick it up and felt a bit of resistance before a harder tug lifted it from the desk at the same moment that Steven’s head cocked to the side as if listening for something.
His own ears picked up the sound of shouts, snarling, and an occasional howl from the front where Tyler and the others were facing who knew what. A glance at the desk found a string of some kind poking through a small hole in the desk, though before he could question or touch it, he picked up a click and felt more than saw the desk explode.
Steven’s wolf form suddenly ran at him, but he had no time to react before the wolf’s weight slammed them both through the office’s only window and a good portion of the wall. Heat seared his skin and something snapped as he slammed into the asphalt outside, Steven’s weight bearing down on him with enough force to scrape several chunks of skin off.
Giving a push to relieve himself of the weight, Landon groaned and tried to sit up except everything hurt too much. Heat and flames rolled out from the hole, though he caught a glimpse of a dark, motionless shape nearby that he thought might be the Langford wolf from the hallway.
Steven’s bloody and concerned face hovered over him as he ordered, “Dammnit, Landon, you are not allowed to die. Stay with me.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, and he could still hear snarls and shouts yet everything rapidly faded into the darkness closing over him. White hot pain continued to radiate through his body as he tried to find words to reply.
“Stay with me, Landon.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor.”
Imogene’s steps came to an abrupt end at her friend’s words, though barely five minutes passed before she resumed the same path. Her eyes shifted toward Micah who’d planted himself right beside the front door, another older wolf by the back door, and met her gaze with a look that said he knew her temptation. He’d likely chosen that position on purpose whereas the rest of their pack were seated quietly throughout the house, either the living room or one of the spare rooms, but she couldn’t bring herself to sit.
It had been nearly an hour since Steven, Landon, and the others had left them in the amphitheater, and each passing minute increased her agitation. Only Micah’s earlier words about the importance of leadership in front of the pack kept her from following through with going after them, but she couldn’t make herself just sit down and wait.
“Im, stop.” Letty stepped into her path and caught her shoulders, bringing the pacing to an abrupt end. “Let’s go make some tea.”
Instead of waiting for a response, Letty tugged her into the kitchen away from the prying eyes of their pack members. She started to snap when Letty questioned, “What’s going on with you tonight? You’re not usually this bothered by Steven being in the thick of things. Talk to me, Im.”
She hesitated. “I’m worried about Landon.”
“More than the usual?” Letty questioned then waited for a confirming nod. “Why?”
“Because I . . .” Imogene paused as she tried to put her fear into words then finally said, “He and I talked after he read the letter, and I don’t know if he can handle adding more blood to his hands which is exactly what’s going to happen. Whoever is doing this doesn’t care about bloodshed, but it could ruin him.”
“What do you mean more?”
Again, she hesitated with a glance toward the older wolf guarding the back door. Grabbing Letty’s hand, she tugged her down the hall and into the relative quiet of her childhood bedroom, shutting them away from the prying eyes and ears of the pack. A brief glance went around to ensure they were alone as she warred with sharing Landon’s secrets.
“During his time away, Landon’s taken more than a handful of lives,” she finally said, wrapping her arms around herself. “I didn’t get details, but I don’t think they all deserved it. He was following orders, and I just . . .”
“You think another death might send him runn
ing again?” Letty guessed with a frown.
She nodded, glumly. “Even if I know Steven and Tyler won’t give the kill order, what if Elias does? If Landon’s the only one who doesn’t act then . . .”
As the words trailed off, Letty stepped forward and grasped both her arms at the elbow. “This is still a matter of trust, Im. Trust that he’ll come back from this,” she said, quietly. “You trust that Steven will come back so trust that Landon will, too.”
“But what if he doesn’t?” she asked, aware of how her voice cracked.
“Trust him.” Letty’s abrupt order caught her off guard before she more calmly repeated, “Trust him, Im. His niece and nephew were among those attacked so do you really think he’d hesitate against a threat to them?”
Imogene’s mouth opened to answer except knocking on the door interrupted then Micah’s head appeared. “Steven just called. Im, you need to head over to the Miller house,” he instructed with barely a glance to Letty. “Joseph will shadow you through the woods.”
“What’s happened?” She broke away from Letty’s hold to approach him.
Micah’s guilty expression answered for her. “Landon’s hurt, not sure how bad, but Steven says it isn’t looking good.”
Even before the last word had completed, Imogene shoved past him and bolted through the house then out the no longer blocked door. Joseph’s scent came from her left, but she made no break in stride nor did she glance toward him as she raced through the trees. It would have been quicker to go wolf except she wanted to be able to speak when she got there plus showing up naked on their doorstep might not be the best idea.
As she ran through the familiar woods, she kept repeating a mantra that he was fine in the hopes it would become true. Her thoughts churned and her heart pounded at the thought that she could lose him again after she’d just gotten him back, though she told herself not to think about the past, only their potential future. Whatever happened would heal, and he’d make fun of her hysterics before they laughed it off. If only that little voice didn’t keep creeping in to whisper that maybe it wouldn’t heal, maybe their story was doomed to end in heartbreak again.
Rule of Claw: Wolves of Worsham #1 Page 20
