Fifth (A Cinco Series Book 1)

by Kit Lane

  “Ky, you lead this.”

  I nodded to Matt, then I was away, following the strongest scent. The others fanned out behind me.

  She was a human—well, a non-human without her powers. She couldn’t have gotten that far. But she was desperate and scared, and her beloved mom had told her not to trust us. Even if we found her, would she come back?

  Alex had scattered Uncle’s rank clothes far and wide in the Scots pine forest, and the carpet of fragrant needles absorbed any footsteps. We ended up in a futile circle, staring at each other. I could feel the rage coming off Matt at my failure to find our prey.

  I tried to apologize but he waved it off.

  “Later, Ky. We’ve got to find her before the Elder does.”

  I wouldn’t fail my Cinco.

  I dropped to the ground to listen. The night was full of noises of nocturnal animals and a light wind whistled through the trees. It was then I heard rustling and harsh panting breaths to my right.

  “Ky?”

  Ronin shuffled next to me.

  “She’s over there.” I used my muzzle to point the direction.

  I set out, Matt and Ronin on my heels. I ran up a bank and surveyed the other side. It was dark, but my vision was just fine at night. She was a hundred yards away, sitting on the ground and cursing up a storm.

  We dropped down beside her, three wolves surrounding her. Alex didn’t seem surprised.

  Matt went human and knelt beside her. “What’s wrong?”

  She choked back a laugh. At least she probably meant it to be a laugh but her body language was more like she was trying not to scream. “I twisted my ankle.”

  Ronin returned to his human form and knelt at her feet. “May I?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Knock yourself out.

  I stayed as wolf while he examined her. We were in danger out there, from bears and other predators, as well as the local wolves. One of us needed to stay alert.

  She hissed and gasped a couple of times, but finally Ronin said, “Nothing’s broken.”

  “I don’t think I can walk on it.”

  “I’ll carry you back.” Ronin scooped her into his arms before she had a chance to argue. He made soothing noises as she whimpered.

  As shaman, Ronin’s power was to help people, but Alex seemed relaxed around Ronin in a way she wasn’t with the rest of us. That made me sad. My human side wanted to get to know her better. My wolf was more cautious. That was the way of shifters. One side always out of step with the other.

  “Ky, are you okay?” Matt fell into step beside me.

  I chose my words with care and made sure we were shielded from being overheard. “Alex seems to favor Ronin.”

  “You’ve noticed that, too?”

  “Could this cause problems for us?”

  Cincos had been torn apart by jealousy and infighting. Even though we’d not had our Quinto, we had been friends since we were pups. Was a woman going to destroy that?

  Matt took a long while to answer. “It’s up to us not to let that happen, pup.” I bristled but he nudged me firmly with his shoulder. “You’ll always be my pup.”

  I growled at him, but not in a challenging way. “I’m older than you.”

  By three months, but older was older.

  He chuffed at me, and I knew I was wasting my breath. Matt would always see me as the junior wolf. It was the way of our world.

  Chapter 13 – Alex

  I was swept into Ronin’s arms before we headed back to the cabin. We were in sight of the lights so quickly I realized I’d been walking in a circle. I closed my eyes and buried my face in Ronin’s neck. He held me closer, and I took comfort from the touch.

  Since my parents had died—parent, if any of what happened was true—I’d been alone. Few close friends and family I hadn’t seen in years. No relationships. I’d focused all my efforts on building up Indigo Catering. In the last twenty-four hours, I’d been held and touched by the guys, and it’d felt right—once I’d got over the naked weirdness.

  Lee glowered as we entered the cabin. “You found her. Good. We need to eat and get on the road.”

  From his stormy expression, he wasn’t pleased at my return. Great, another issue to deal with.

  “I’ll sort it,” Matt said, and vanished out of the door.

  Ronin placed me gently on the sofa. Kyle offered me a drink of water. No one seemed to be angry with me for trying to get away from them. Not even Matt, who I’d expected to be fuming.

  “He was scared.”

  The voice was quiet. Kyle. I turned to him, and he nodded.

  “Scared?”

  “We just found you and then you were gone.”

  “I’d have thought you’d rather be rid of me. I’ve brought you nothing but trouble.”

  Kyle chuffed much like his wolf and sat at my feet, shifting without a blink. “You don’t understand what it’s like not to be complete, to be a Cinco without the Quinto. We’re powerful wolves, yet to the pack we were broken. They wanted to force a Quinto on us, but Matt wouldn’t let them.”

  “You can do that? Make a Cinco. I thought it was destiny.”

  Look at me talking as if I have a clue.

  “The Elders can make a Cinco under certain circumstances. They wanted us to be complete because of our strength. We would be an asset to the pack.”

  As I processed that, I buried my fingers in Kyle’s thick gray fur. Kyle pushed into my touch.

  “Yet they want to destroy us now.”

  “Yes.”

  “Because of my father.”

  “Yes.”

  I sat up and stared into Kyle’s eyes. “You should get rid of me. Save yourselves,” I told him out loud, speaking to his wolf.

  “No!” The deep voice rumbled through the cabin.

  I turned to see Matt holding a large pot, and the amazing aroma distracted me.

  Matt placed the pot on a wooden board in the center of the table, then he turned to me. “We’re a complete Cinco. One of the most powerful in the pack, or we will be when we figure out your powers. You are ours, we are yours. We need time to discover us.”

  I bit my lip, touched and scared at the same time. It was all too much. I was no warrior or alpha, or whatever they needed me to be. I was just Alex Rieke; caterer and now with a hinky ankle.

  “Ours.”

  Four voices chorused in my head. They could start an acapella group.

  I shrugged. “So what next?”

  Chapter 14 – Lee

  Part-wolf, part-Fae. Now there a perfect match—not. I found it hard to believe a wolf and a Fae had willingly mated. Shifters were notoriously suspicious of each other, and other beings. The Fae were worse than us. They believed they were superior to everything else on the planet. Humans thought they had issues. Try being a non-human. I used to believe all beings should live and work together. Three years at college had knocked that out of me. Now I believed everyone should stay the hell away from each other. The conversation with Alex’s mother hadn’t changed my opinion. In fact, it had made me suspicious.

  I thought our particular problem was solved when she went out of the bathroom window. We’d survived without our Quinto before, we could again, and maybe we could make it right with the Elders. But of course, the guys had to find her. Matt and Ronin loved being the white knights.

  I was saying the right things and keeping my thoughts shielded, because those two were besotted with her. No one had noticed. They thought I was monitoring for the Elders. I was, but it gave me a chance to decide what to do.

  With all respect to the other wolves, they took everyone at face value. They saw Alex as a vulnerable victim. What if she wasn’t? What if this was a test of our loyalty to the pack?

  I said no one had noticed, but Kyle had been giving me odd looks and I sensed his gentle probing, but he hadn’t said anything. At first I thought he was as suspicious as me, but his conversation with the Quinto made me realize he was just shy and inexperienced. He wasn’t used to bein
g around women.

  The Elders hadn’t discovered our location yet. I was making it seem more urgent than it actually was. I wanted my wolf brothers on their guard. We were all in danger, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the Elders, the Quinto or both.

  We needed to be on the road and away from Uncle’s cabin. I didn’t want any suspicion to fall on him. Wolves had long memories. Any hint of association with a traitor would stain our family name. It was easy to make a human disappear.

  I scarfed down my steak and said I needed to check in again before we left. Kyle shot me a dubious frown, but everyone else took it at face value. It was useful being the nerd of the group. I didn’t have to explain anything. Ronin had a better idea of what I did than anyone else, but he spent most of his time inside his own head anyway.

  I sat on the sofa, closed my eyes, and extended my awareness outward. I didn’t need to close my eyes, but it stopped anyone trying to talk to me. I noticed the change in the network, the tension that hadn’t been there before. A couple of Cincos were talking about journeys. When I listened harder, I realized they were talking about missions. I curled my lip. They should know better than talking about missions on the open network, even using the euphemism of a journey. Still, their error helped me. I tapped into one loud and vocal Cinco.

  “When are we leaving?”

  “Tomorrow. The Elder wants to gather us all together. He’s taking no chances.”

  “Strength in numbers.”

  I heard a scornful chuff.

  “They overestimate the Cinco. We’re stronger than them. We’ve have been five since pups. They have no clue how to use their power.”

  They carried on disparaging my Cinco, so busy smirking about our downfall they didn’t even realize I was there. Matt would’ve killed us if we’d made such rookie mistakes.

  Now I knew the Elders really wanted to find us.

  I opened my eyes. “We’ve got to go now.”

  Matt nodded. “We’re ready.”

  “Where are we going?” Alex’s face was drawn. She was obviously exhausted. While I’d been on the network, someone, probably Ronin, had bandaged her left ankle.

  She attempted to stand, but Matt came over and picked her up. I saw the anger flash across Ronin’s face, and confusion on Kyle’s. We were going to be a hot mess if we descended into jealousy. Relationships within wolf Cincos weren’t uncommon, but it added pressure on the group. At least one of us was thinking with our upstairs brain. I’d no desire to get involved with our Quinto.

  Matt went around to the driver’s side.

  At everyone’s groan, Ronin laughed. “We might have to get somewhere fast. I’ll drive.”

  Matt protested, but Ronin jostled him out of the way. He took the first turn at the wheel, and once we were on the road, Matt ordered everyone else to sleep.

  I shook my head. “I should stay awake and keep listening.”

  “We need you alert,” Matt said. “I’ll take first watch on the network. If anything concerns me I’ll wake you up.”

  I was dubious, but he was my alpha. Although the network wasn’t his primary skill, Matt was strong enough to listen. Besides, if I had my eyes closed, he wouldn’t know if I was awake or asleep. “Make sure you’re shielded.”

  “Yeah, yeah, go to sleep.”

  Kyle was already snoring in the back row, and Alex was curled up against one door. I brushed against her consciousness, but she was asleep. I closed my eyes and did as my alpha ordered, determined to stay awake. Ronin whistled something tuneless, and it was annoying and soothing at the same time.

  I ran through a list of things in my head. One, where were we going? I couldn’t get a fix from Matt or Ronin. That worried me. We’d never kept secrets before. Then I laughed at myself for the irony. Two, had Rieke been framed, or was Alex’s mother lying? Three, if Rieke wasn’t dead, where was he?

  As if my thoughts had leaked out, I caught a memory from Alex. A dark-haired man with amber eyes and a slender blonde woman. Alex must have been running toward them. Then the man picked her up and swung her around.

  “Love you, my little wolf.”

  Alex shrieked with laughter and held on with chubby arms.

  Interesting. He called her a wolf. Was she truly a shifter, or was it just an endearment?

  I added it to the list of things to check out.

  Chapter 15 – Alex

  I didn’t expect to sleep, but I tumbled into darkness to Ronin’s toneless whistle and Kyle’s whuffs as he snored. My sleep was full of dreams of happier times with my parents. We used to take vacations in Maine. For years, I’d dreamed of the little cottage we used to rent every summer. I hadn’t thought of the place in forever.

  I wasn’t sure what woke me, but when I stirred I was draped over a large wolf. At some point he’d shifted, and I’d used him as a pillow. I sat up, disturbing Matt who chuffed and went back to sleep.

  “Good sleep?” Lee asked, from the front seat.

  I flushed at his coolly amused expression. I squinted out of the window at the sunrise. “Yes, thanks. What time is it?”

  “Nearly six.”

  I rubbed my eyes, surprised that I’d only had three hours sleep, yet I felt refreshed.

  Ronin glanced over his shoulder and grinned at me. “Morning, Alex.”

  I smiled at him, grateful for his friendliness compared to the cool distance of Lee. “Hey.”

  “How’s the ankle?”

  I hadn’t even thought about my injury. I rotated it cautiously. It twinged, but on a scale of relaxed to screaming agony, I was okay. “It’s fine. Where are we?”

  It could have been NorCal, but it wasn’t an area I was familiar with.

  Lee and Ronin exchanged a glance I didn’t understand, then Lee said, “It’s better you don’t know. You still can’t shield your thoughts.”

  I bristled. “I can try.”

  “What happened in Maine?”

  Point taken. If Lee could pluck details from my dreams how the hell could I keep those Elder wolves from plucking anything they wanted out of my head?

  “You could see where I was?”

  Lee nodded. “I only have to see your thoughts, or in this case, dreams, to know where someone is. That’s what makes communicators invaluable and dangerous. I’m going to teach you how to shield. We’re not going to make it any easier for the bastards to catch us.”

  I was surprised at the offer. There was still that off feeling between us, and Lee made me uneasy. He was also hot, which didn’t help when my body wanted to jump his bones and my mind screamed be careful! I was listening to my mind at that moment. My mother wouldn’t have given me that warning if she hadn’t thought I was in real danger. If not these four, then other wolves.

  I needed to keep my head on straight and my libido packed in a suitcase somewhere far, far away. I sat back and closed my eyes, then yelped as something large and furry landed in my lap. I opened my eyes to see Matt giving me a wolfy grin.

  “And you can get off me, furball!”

  He stayed right where he was.

  “Oh well, turn about’s fair play. I guess I did use you as a pillow.”

  “And you drooled on me.”

  I glowered at him. “Don’t you dare try that on me.”

  I could see the flash of challenge in his eyes before he slowly closed them. Matt didn’t like being given orders, even over something as stupid as drool. He said I was the alpha, but he wasn’t going to relinquish his position without a fight, and the guys weren’t going to follow me. I didn’t care what he said, men didn’t follow women unless they had no choice. It was human nature.

  “We aren’t human,” Matt said.

  “You’re still men. Dominant, arrogant, demanding—”

  “You don’t think much of men?”

  In truth, I knew very little about men. My experience was limited to the clients I’d met through the catering business. And I’d have taken none of those home to meet Mom.

  “You’re a virgin?�
��

  “It’s none of your business!”

  “So you are a virgin?” Matt was so matter-of-fact about it, I gave him the truth.

  “No, but there’s only been one guy.”

  I preferred not to think about him. I wasn’t embarrassed by the fact I was inexperienced. Not much, anyway. I’d had one secret crush in high school. I had greasy hair and was covered in spots. Jake Meyer had been six-foot, broad-shouldered and the class heartthrob. He was never going to see me.

  “I’m taller.”

  “What?” I stared at the wolf in my lap.

  “I’m taller. And better-looking.” Replace matter-of-fact with unbearably smug.

  “How do you… oh.” Dammit, couldn’t a girl have any private thoughts?

  The wolf smirked. Not a man I’d take home to Mom.

  Mom! My heart wrenched as I thought of my parents. I hadn’t really processed the overnight revelation that my father was still alive, let alone the conversation with my mom from beyond the grave.

  “You loved your parents very much.” For the first time there wasn’t that edge when he talked about them.

  “I still miss them.”

  “My mom passed away last year.”

  I saw the sadness in Matt’s eyes and stroked his large head. “I’m sorry, Matt.”

  “Me too.”

  Lee made a strangled gasp.

  “What’s wrong?” Ronin asked

  “The local wolves are on the alert for us. They have the tags for this vehicle.”

  Matt shifted and sat up so fast it made me dizzy. “Get off the highway as soon as you can. There are Cincos from other packs in law enforcement here.”

  “That’s unnatural,” Kyle muttered from behind me.

  I jumped. I’d forgotten he was there. “Wolves don’t become cops?” I asked.

  “They do,” Matt said, the familiar impatience returned to his tone. “Kyle’s just got an issue with cops.”

  “Not human cops,” Kyle argued. “Just wolf cops.”

  I was confused. “Why wolf cops?”

  “They’re all assholes.”

  Maybe I’d only met wolf cops.

  “What are we going to do, Matt?” Kyle asked.