“Excuse me, your pack was okay with Austin’s father cheating, but not Jessica? Why wasn’t Lloyd Bronson kicked out of the pack for cheating on his mate?” Savannah’s face was flushed with anger.
“Because the pack charter was written hundreds of years ago,” Grant said wearily.
Oswald’s gaze fixed on Austin. “His very existence is proof of the dishonor done to our Alpha. By pack charter, he is forbidden from setting foot on pack property. He is forbidden from inheriting. He is forbidden from associating with pack members.” He gave Cliff and Grant a glance loaded with meaning. “If you associate with him, you forfeit your position as Alpha,” he informed Cliff. “And like him, you would be exiled.”
Grant grimaced. He looked at Austin. “I’ll go back over the charter, but basically…what he’s saying is correct.”
“Pack charters suck,” Savannah growled, hands on her hips. She scorched Oswald and the Elders with a look of disgust. “Austin is too good for you twat-waffles anyway.” The haughty, offended looks on their faces were priceless.
Austin slung his arms around Savannah’s shoulders. “I know you think you’ve scored some kind of big victory there, but frankly, this doesn’t change shit,” he said to Oscar. “I haven’t set paw on the pack lands in years, and you all knew I was never going to take a cent of pack money anyway.”
There was a storm of emotion swirling inside him. He’d apparently just traded one asshole dad…for another asshole dad.
But he’d gained a brother.
For most of his adult life, he’d thought that Cliff had betrayed him just so that he could be assured of the Alpha position – a betrayal that had festered and burned inside him.
And all along, Cliff had really been watching out for him. Cliff had kept his secret for all these years, not wanting Austin to be cut off from the pack forever. Even if he never got to talk to Cliff again, he’d always have that.
Cliff’s rejection had stung so much that he’d cut himself off from all of them, even Grant. He’d lashed out at them again and again, and let them know that he didn’t need them any more than they needed him.
It hadn’t been true.
He’d never let himself acknowledge how much their rejection hurt, but now that he knew why, he felt as if the poison in his soul was evaporating. He felt a heavy weight lifting from him – a weight he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying.
“You also cannot continue accompanying him the rest of the way to the Washborn pack,” Oswald said, with a smug tone that set Austin’s teeth on edge.
Fuck. He’d just lost the protection they’d promised for Tully’s pack. And he was going to have to figure out how to transport Roy back to the Washborn pack without their help, and without tranquilizer darts.
Jason had known exactly what he was doing when he’d called the Elders and spilled his ugly little secret.
And even though Jason’s leadership was now in question, Austin was still going to have to honor the agreement. He wouldn’t be able to unseat Jason right away; there would have to be DNA tests, maybe a formal challenge. Tully’s pack might be dead by the time the dust settled.
And also, Roy was a fucking lunatic. It wasn’t like Austin could just let him go.
He glanced back at the truck. Rusty was still hovering nearby, watching. So far, for whatever reason, Roy wasn’t flipping his shit.
“I will say goodbye to my brother,” Cliff said.
Austin, head swirling, looked down at Savannah, who still had a slightly stunned expression on her face. She slid her arm around his waist and hugged him.
“I’m glad you’re not some poofy billion-were anyway,” she told him. “Rich people are weird. I think. I’ve never actually hung out with any.”
He hugged her back. “We’ll forage for nuts and berries together,” he said with a wry grin, but he loved that his mate loved him, not his bank account. And it was a good thing, because after he’d emptied it out to pay Savannah’s mother all those bounties, his bank account was quite anemic these days.
He inclined his head at his brothers to follow him, then started walking towards his truck. Cliff and Grant hurried after him.
“One minute!” Oswald yelled. “After that, you forfeit pack membership!”
The other Elders were all looking away, faces creased with varying expressions of unhappiness or disapproval. Even the Elders who’d stood behind Cliff hated that this was happening, because the honor of the Alpha reflected on the honor of the pack – and Austin was a living, breathing, walking testimony to how their late Alpha had been shamed.
“After one minute, you can kiss my furry taint!” Grant yelled back at Oscar. “There’s no provision for this in the pack charter, so we’ll take as long as we damn well please!”
“All right, tell me everything,” Austin said to Cliff when they reached the truck.
Rusty leaned in, a puzzled look on his face.
Cliff nodded, his expression resigned. “Christopher was Jessica’s true mate. They went to high school together. She rejected him for Lloyd, because at the time Lloyd was wealthier. Christopher moved to Washington, married, founded his own pack, and started using his Seer power to make money. They say that Seers have power that relates to what matters most to them. For Christopher, it was money. That’s why he did so well on the stock market, why his pack is so wealthy. What do you see in your visions?”
“Things that affect my friends and family.” He glanced at Savannah.
Cliff glanced back at the Elders, who were scowling at them, then returned his attention.
“You understand now why I was trying so hard to keep you from visiting the pack?” he asked Austin. “If you started showing any sign of being a Seer, it would be obvious Lloyd wasn’t your father, and we’d all be cut off from you forever. You’d lose your inheritance. We’d never be able to back you up if you needed help.”
“I get that, but why didn’t you at least tell me?” Austin demanded.
“Because you’ve got your stubborn, stupid pride and you would have said something,” Cliff said with exasperation. “If our father had found out, while you were alive, he would have taken out a hit on you. And after he was dead, I was afraid you’d just be such a stubborn ass that you’d tell everyone, and then be cut off from us forever.”
Austin nodded, his mind reeling as his entire life history rewrote itself.
“How did Jessica end up banging my dear old dad?” he asked, bitterness dripping from every word.
“Well, Lloyd was an asshole and not her true mate, so our mother was miserable, and she ended up having an affair with Christopher. I caught them at it, in the woods.” He shuddered. “God, I still cannot unsee that. Anyway. They didn’t know I’d spotted them. And then nine months later, you were born. Jessica hated you because you reminded her of the man she really wanted and couldn’t have. And my father hated you because he somehow sensed something was off with you.”
“Holy…” Rusty stared at Cliff and then at Austin, his eyes bugging out. “Damn. I feel like I’m watching one of my mate’s soap operas.”
“That’s it,” Savannah said suddenly. “That’s why I was staring at you guys earlier. You two look alike, but Austin…there’s something different about his looks. Subtle, but there.” She patted his arm. “Way more handsome,” she added, and Austin winked at her.
“Jason apparently found out somehow,” Cliff continued. “Maybe his dad told him. And he knew that means that legally, since Christopher is dead, you are now Alpha of the Washborn Pack.”
“I don’t want to be Alpha of anything!” Austin said angrily. “I may have the Dominus gene, but I hate politics, and I barely even know those people. And I would absolutely suck as a leader. I’m hot headed, impatient, and I hate planning ahead.” He shook his head. “I do want to see Jason gone, though, so I have no problem challenging him. It’s just a matter of staying alive long enough to deal with this.”
“Yeah, but from what I gather of their pack charter, as lo
ng as you’re alive, Jason is no longer legally the Alpha,” Cliff said, frowning darkly. “You’re going to have to deal with that when you show up. Jason knows that, obviously, now that he’s revealed who you are. His pack Elders are likely preparing some kind of formal motion, and they’ll investigate, and if they get a chance to prove your parentage…well, Jason’s going to do his best to make sure you’re not alive long enough for that to happen.” He chewed his lower lip. “And officially, I can’t do a thing to help you.”
Austin glanced at Savannah, whose face had gone grim and determined. He wanted to tuck her away somewhere safe until he’d resolved all of this.
But she’d never let him do that.
“I’ll find something,” Grant said quickly. “I will study our pack charter inside and out and find a way.”
Austin grimaced. “I appreciate it, Grant, I really do. But I don’t think you’re going to find any way around it.”
“If you don’t want to come back to the property, that’s totally fine. But I’m not giving up contact with my brother. My kids will play with your kids. We will visit. I will be the world’s most annoying houseguest. I’ll blast your TV, drink all your beer and clog up your toilet. And so will Cliff.”
Cliff laughed grimly. “I happen to be an excellent houseguest, but then I’m not an uncultured swine like certain brothers of mine. But we’ve got more pressing problems. You know Jason is leading you into a trap of some type, right? He expects Roy to kill you, but if Roy doesn’t, you’ll never make it off their pack lands alive.”
“Meet him in town, or if he insists you go to pack property, stop at the pack entrance,” Grant said. “Make sure there are witnesses.”
Then Grant flashed a defiant look at the Elders and pulled Austin in to hug him.
When he let go, Cliff threw his arms around Austin. Austin stiffened at first, then relaxed and returned the hug. It felt good to finally be able to hug his asshole brother. Hard. Really hard.
“My ribs,” Cliff grunted.
“Pussy.” Austin grinned and let go of him.
Cliff snorted. “When I figure out a way to come visit you – not if, but when – I will make you eat those words.”
“I think that was just one word, wasn’t it?” Savannah said. “Let’s go, babe. We have a long, hard drive ahead of us.”
Cliff and Grant gave him regretful half-waves as they walked away. Rusty kept pace with them.
And then he and Savannah looked with dismay at the trussed-up killing machine in the back seat of his pickup truck. And Roy peered back at them with a cold, calculating gleam in his eyes.
Chapter Fifteen
As his pack’s cars drove out of the parking lot in a long row, Austin felt his phone vibrate. He hadn’t looked at his phone in a while. He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled it out.
Somebody was calling from an unknown number. He was about to answer, but then he saw that there were also six missed calls from Barry at the Watering Hole, so he sent the unknown call to voicemail.
“I’m going to make a call really quickly,” he said to Savannah. “If he even looks at you wrong, yell.”
Savannah flashed him a despairing look.
Yeah…and then what?
Without the tranqs, there was no way for them to get Roy to the Crescent Moon Pack’s property. Was it worth even trying? He’d be risking not just his life, but Savannah’s.
Then again, could he talk Savannah out of it? Unlikely, which meant they had to head out on a trip that was doomed to failure.
Once Roy decided to start fighting back again, it was just a matter of time before he wore Austin down.
He felt sick to his stomach as he stepped away from the truck and punched in Barry’s number. Why had he called so many times? His stomach twisted with tension as the phone rang.
And he was rewarded with Barry’s grouchy morning voice and a string of curses.
“Do you ever call at a normal hour, knob-head?” Barry yelled.
“You called me like six times!” Austin protested. “I thought it was an emergency!”
“I called you like six times yesterday! Not at the ass-crack of dawn.”
“And? Why did you call? You miss my pretty face?” Austin said irritably. He’d been genuinely worried, damn it.
Barry groaned. “After what you told me, I brought my shotgun back behind the bar and loaded her up with silver bullets. And I hired a couple of guys to work security. And night before last, two rogues burst into the bar with guns, tried to rob us, and we killed them. So, free beer for life, my friend.”
“Really?” Austin said, astonished.
“Well, maybe not for life,” Barry mumbled. “Yeah, that’s a little much. Okay, free beer for a…year? A month. A month sounds good. I mean, you really do put them away. I think you got a hollow dick. Leg? Is it leg? I can’t think this early.”
“No, I meant, really, my vision came true?” For the first time in a long time, Austin felt a flare of real hope.
If his hazy vision had sort of foreseen the future, then, impossible as it seemed, he really must be a Seer. He truly wasn’t going crazy.
“You have visions that show the future? I don’t suppose you see lottery numbers?” Barry suddenly sounded very interested.
Austin barked out a laugh. “No, jerk. Only friends and family. And asshole bartenders. I see a lot of visions about asshole bartenders.”
“Well, now you hurt my feelings,” Barry grunted. “Free beer for a week.” And he hung up.
Austin flicked a glance back at the pickup truck.
Roy had said that Austin shouldn’t fight the visions. And given that Korbin had lied to him about the fact that he was a Seer, he would very likely have given Austin the worst possible advice – telling him to fight the visions when he should have been relaxing and accepting them.
Of course, Roy was a lunatic.
But what did Austin have to lose?
He needed to know what the Washborn Pack had planned. He couldn’t lead Savannah into an ambush.
He flicked a quick glance at the truck to make sure she was still all right. She was standing there, hands shoved in her pockets, staring into the back seat of the truck.
He closed his eyes and pictured himself driving up to the entrance of the Washborn Pack property. He imagined his pickup truck driving through the huge arch of vines, gliding down the road, pulling up in front of the big brick mansion where Jason Washborn lived, picking Roy up and setting him on the ground, driving away…
Nothing.
Nowhere in that whole mental sequence did he see anything going wrong. And he didn’t think that could possibly be true.
Maybe the visions didn’t come on command, or at least not without years of training. Because there was no way that—
Family and friends… Seers see visions about things they care about…
He closed his eyes again and did his best to relax. He rolled his shoulders, letting his tense muscles loosen.
He focused on Savannah. This time he pictured her in the driver’s seat, driving through the arch. Tension started to clench his muscles again. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
Mentally, he sent her down the road, with Roy lying in the back seat… She was going around a sharp curve…
The truck running over a row of stopsticks and swerving madly…smashing into a tree…
Dozens of Jason’s men pouring out of the bushes…swarming over the car, smashing the windows… Austin bursting out of the truck in animal form and being surrounded by twenty wolves…
Savannah’s body lying on the ground, vacant eyes staring at the sky, throat torn out…
A grenade explosion of rage and panic detonated in his gut. “Nooo!” he howled. His fangs burst from his gums, itching to sink into flesh, and his whole body instantly went furry. His bones and muscles warped and rippled as his wolf fought to burst out of his skin.
Jason’s men were going to ambush them and make it look as if Roy had kill
ed her. And him too, of course. Who would even question it?
He staggered, blind with fury. He’d kill them. He’d kill them all.
“Austin!” Savannah’s voice wrenched him back to reality. He followed it, staggering towards her.
The haze cleared away from his head, and he sucked in deep breaths. Savannah isn’t dead. She isn’t dead.
He blinked hard. He was standing twenty feet from the truck, and he was leaning on Savannah, who was swaying under his weight.
“I’m okay,” he said slowly.
“Did you see something bad?” Savannah looked up at him, her brow creased with worry.
“Just us being slaughtered by Jason and his men,” he said grimly. “No big deal.”
Savannah had started to answer when a shrill voice rang out from behind him.
“Austin Aloysius Bronson.”
Who the hell even knew his middle name? That sounded like the way an angry mother would address him.
He spun around…and found himself looking down into the furious face of Savannah’s mother, Laurel. Right before she drew back her fist and clocked him in the jaw, surprisingly hard for a short, roly-poly woman in a gingham dress and sensible shoes.
“Mom! No! Don’t hit him! What are you doing here?” Savannah cried. She grabbed her mother’s arm just in time to stop her from punching him again. “Why are you punching him?” she yelled as her mother wrenched her arm free.
“Because I can’t punch you! And because he let you take this incredibly dangerous job! How could you?” Laurel yelled at her.
“I left you a note,” Savannah mumbled.
“Yes, telling me you needed a week off! How stupid do you think I am?”
Savannah stared at a crack in the asphalt. “Um…not enough, unfortunately? Ow!” she added as her mother socked her in the arm. “I thought you said you couldn’t punch me?”
“I changed my mind! Transporting the most dangerous prisoner in the country? What the heck were you thinking?” Laurel’s face scrunched into a furious red knot, and she clenched her plump fists.
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