Beast Rising: The Order of the Wolf, Book 7

by Angela Addams

  “Stand down, warriors, and join us,” Ariana said. “We need to set aside old prejudices and things we don’t understand in favor of a new world order.”

  “It starts with us,” Kelly said. “If Lazarus is coming, we need to be ready for him.”

  “We stand together.” Cal nodded at Morgan. “That’s the only way.” He lowered his weapon and Morgan did the same.

  Greer remained, looking defiant. “I can’t allow trust to enter my heart. Not for Hunter nor beast.” She let out a huff and slammed her sword into her sheath. “But I’m not stupid either. We need to come up with a plan and see if there’s more information out there about this pending battle. Kelly, sweetie, you really need to tap hard into that portent-riddled brain of yours and seek out some insider info.” She turned her eyes to Hannah. “Don’t think I can’t feel your powers at work. It’s like a tickle against my shields. I will play my part. Every Huntress here needs to do her job and we’ll all work together to make sure the powers are being used in the most effective way. Go team!” she added with a wry smirk.

  Mayhem squeezed Hannah’s hand, an awkward and somewhat painful action that made her wince a little.

  “We stand together. One pack. One tribe. One Order,” Hannah said with a steady voice.

  Mayhem grunted his approval. “And Lazarus be damned.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  When daylight hit, Mayhem didn’t transform into his wolf. He remained a beast and much to his shock, when he willed himself to change back to a human, his body obeyed.

  “Holy fucking shit!” he exclaimed on a burst of breath. “Did you just see that?”

  The pack was alone, as the rest of the group moved back into the house on various preparation missions.

  Hannah threw herself into his arms and kissed his neck. “You did it! You’ve mastered the beast!”

  “This is fantastic. I’ve never had so much control.” He blasted both Jay and Dy with a concentrated internal order. Testing out the hive mind idea, sending them the directive as non-negotiable. “Change back, now. We need to talk.”

  Dy complied immediately. “That is fucking awesome!” he yelled as he gave himself a once-over visual inspection. “It’s like nothing I’ve experienced before.”

  With a groan, Jay struggled, clawing at his arms in frustration.

  “Hannah, sweetie, can you give Jay a hand with things?” Mayhem said, concerned that Jay wasn’t as in control as Dy appeared to be.

  Hannah nodded, closed her eyes, her brows furrowed as she tapped into whatever Jay was feeling. Mayhem projected his command again, giving Jay the order to obey.

  Jay’s face contorted into a painful grimace before he finally shifted back to his human form. He hit the ground a second after that, his legs giving way. He looked up, his eyes rimmed red and bloodshot. “What the fuck is happening to me? I feel like I’ve got a fucking battle going on inside of me. It hurts like hell.”

  “Well, you were shot…by a Huntress,” Summer said as she moved to his side. “I’ve been helping you battle the poison. You’re in the clear now. It’s pretty much gone. I’ll give you another dose though just to be sure.”

  “I got shot?” He frowned. “Where’s Aubrey?” He looked around, his eyes suddenly shifting frantically.

  “You tried to kill me,” Mayhem said, his tone hard. “And Aubrey killed Raven.”

  Jay snapped his eyes to Mayhem, his skin going deathly white as he processed those words. “Raven’s dead?”

  “There’s a lot you’ve missed.” Mayhem held his hand out, an offer for support. “Let’s get ourselves inside. Summer can dose you again. Then we’ll talk.”

  Jay nodded. “Can you just tell me…” He gulped. “Is Aubrey dead too?”

  “No,” Mayhem said, for the first time, his gut twisted a bit, knowing that what he was going to tell Jay was not going to sit well. “She’s not dead.”

  But she may soon be.

  He offered his hand again, no more words necessary at the moment.

  Jay closed his eyes briefly then accepted, using his own strength to haul his ass up. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  Mayhem had them reconvene in his office. Hannah and Dy had collected some food while Summer gave Jay another dose of her symbol magic for good measure. Jay looked better for it. When they were together again, eating, sitting comfortably, Mayhem began.

  “Things have changed.” He motioned to his body. “We have control over our beasts, our transformations.”

  “Some of us do,” Jay said. “The poison is gone but I’m still struggling with this a bit. My wolf is pushing at me, wanting control.”

  “Hannah?” Mayhem nodded toward her.

  Without saying a word, she closed her eyes again and worked her magic on Jay.

  He shuddered, let out a long breath. “It helps, thanks.”

  “You’ve been receiving messages from Lazarus?” Mayhem knew he had control of Jay—he felt the rope of his loyalty and it was strong. Despite the attempt on his life, Jay was on side with Mayhem.

  “It started with Raven, before the portal opened,” Jay said. “Bree and I got into a fight and when she left, I was hit with this massive headache. Took me out. Raven was in my head, telling me that he needed my help. That he was in trouble. The messages went from that to super fucking crazy, like paranoid rants about power and leadership and taking control. He wanted to command a pack, to have me join him. I feel like while he was in my head, there was a lot more going on that I wasn’t cluing in to. Maybe even subliminally. When I saw him, in the portal, when I looked into his eyes, it was like a switch flicked on. He told me to take you out, that you were only going to keep me from helping Raven and that my loyalty belonged with him only. I don’t remember anything after that until what happened today, just now.”

  “You went beast and tried to snap my neck,” Mayhem said as he rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Hannah took the shot.”

  “I’m sorry, Jay,” Hannah said, her head bowed for a moment. “I did what I had to do.”

  Jay looked at her with shock for a moment. “If I was going to kill my alpha, I damn well hope you’d try to take me out.”

  Hannah snapped her head up and Jay reached out to squeeze her knee before turning back to face Mayhem.

  “Summer and Aubrey spent some time cleaning you up,” Mayhem said.

  “And now Aubrey isn’t here.” Jay hedged, gulping before continuing. “What happened to her?”

  “She went rogue, turned full on wolf slayer,” Mayhem started. “She took a shot at Raven—one that I thought was unnecessary.” He raised his hand when Hannah began to argue. “I’ve come to see that I was wrong. Raven was killing Huntresses to help fuel Saska’s powers. I was blinded by grief and ordered Aubrey to leave.”

  “You outcast her!” Jay jumped up, ready to bolt from the house to be sure.

  “I sent her on a mission to find Raven,” Mayhem said as he rose as well. “The portal to Tartarus has been opened and beasts will be coming through. Raven will be coming back.”

  “And you sent Aubrey to find him?” Jay was putting the pieces together faster than Mayhem thought he would. “You sent her to her death!”

  “She’s a warrior and a wolf slayer. I sent her to do what she loves,” Mayhem argued, knowing in his heart that Jay wouldn’t see it that way—that he himself didn’t really see it that way anymore. “We need you here with us for this battle, Jay. Aubrey knows how to find her way home.”

  Jay looked like he was going to blow, his fists clenched, teeth bared. Loyalty was there, sure, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t fight for his mate. No bond trumped that one, not even the bond to an alpha.

  “She took her sister,” Summer blurted. “I’m sorry, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know how Mayhem would react. Aubrey called me, just a few hours ago. She’s safe, Jay. She’s on R
aven’s trail. Her sister and her sister’s Hunter are with her.”

  Jay held his hand out to Summer. “Give me your phone. I want to call her now.”

  Summer shook her head. “She’s in the forest by now. Deep woods. Her sister is a tracker, can find magic signatures or something. They’re on his trail. She said she’d call back at noon.” Summer looked at her watch. “That’s in an hour.”

  Jay stared at her for a minute, clenching and unclenching his fists. Mayhem looked over at Hannah and gave her a slight nod. She got the message, closing her eyes to do her thing. A moment later, Jay was easing himself down in his chair again. Simmering for sure but willing to listen.

  “I’ll give you one hour, Mayhem, and then I’m talking to Bree and going to meet up with her,” Jay said.

  “Fair enough. I have a feeling we’ll be going with you anyway.” Mayhem took his seat behind his desk. “Tell me what happened just now with Lazarus in your head. What did he tell you?”

  Jay blew out a breath and rubbed his hand down his face. “He wasn’t in my head like Raven was. Like, I couldn’t see him and I wasn’t dreaming. It was more like a voice, a commanding voice. Calling all of his brethren to action. I just had this feeling, a need to find you and tell you that Lazarus was planning on coming for you.”

  “Because he knows about the prophecy?” Mayhem shrugged at Jay’s confused look. “Apparently I’ve been named in a prophecy that could go either way. Lazarus may want me to join forces with him.”

  “Which is not going to happen.” Summer snorted.

  Mayhem looked at her. “We have to consider our options.”

  “What?” Summer blurted.

  “Hear me out,” Mayhem said. “As far as Lazarus is concerned, we aren’t aligned with anyone. We could seek him out and offer a deal.”

  “As a ruse though, right?” Dy frowned. “I mean, we don’t actually want to side with this guy. He’s the villain, isn’t he? From what I’ve heard, he’s a pretty fucking horrible monster.”

  “We have the best position here. We can get into his inner circle. We can get close to him. Remember when we were with Talia at that bar?” Mayhem was spinning his plan on the spot, all his thoughts coming together in that moment.

  “Yeah, we walked right into a werewolf bar and no one showed us fang,” Dy said.

  “Totally blended in,” Jay added. “So, what? We’re infiltrating the pack by pretending to be on side?”

  Mayhem nodded. “I think we can get in, assess the situation, and take action.”

  “Alone, you mean,” Summer said, arms crossed and looking pissed. “That’s what this plan is right? You want to go in, just the three of you and leave us out of it again?”

  Mayhem wasn’t going to deny it. His plan had no place for the girls to get into trouble. “You stay here with the rest of the group, help them strategize in case our plan fails.”

  “Fuck, Mayhem, when are you going to get it into your head that you need us? We’re the wolf slayers, not you!” Summer’s voice was rising to match her anger, her face turning a bright shade of red.

  “I’m with Summer on this one, May.” Dy stood and sidled up next to his mate. “They are the only ones who can kill the beasts if things don’t go down the way you’re expecting.”

  “And what exactly are you expecting?” Hannah said, her tone stern as she flashed her anger at him. “You going to have a rational conversation with him and hope he agrees? You going to try to bite him and make him submit to you?”

  Well, yes, actually, that was what he’d planned on doing. He looked at Hannah, wondering how she’d figured it out.

  “If you don’t bring backup, you’ll die,” Hannah said. “I feel it like a certain thing and it’s not just me worrying for nothing. What we know about Lazarus is that he’s cunning and intelligent and survived for thousands of years before he was taken out by his Huntress. If you think you can outwit him without having the real power in the vicinity, then you aren’t smart enough to win against him.”

  Everyone in the room looked shocked at her outburst. Mayhem wanted to laugh and he would have if he wasn’t so pissed by her blunt accuracy. “I won’t sacrifice this pack—”

  “You say that every time but look where we are now. We’ve lost Raven and Darcy, we have no idea where Aubrey is. The pack is disconnected. Your leadership style is not effective, Mayhem. Wise up to that or you’ll lose us all,” Hannah snapped.

  Mayhem blinked hard. Had she just called him—

  “You don’t like that, do you?” Hannah said, her voice steady as she met his glare. “The truth hurts, Mayhem. Enough of your stubborn stance on how things are going to go. We are a pack and we are going into this as one.” She pointed toward the door. “You’ve got a houseful of backup here with more out there waiting for a plan. We do this together so we don’t lose anyone else.”

  Silence fell like a hammer. No one dared speak. Hannah didn’t flinch from his stare. He felt his beast rise, then felt her lash it back into place. And that was that. His lips curled into a hard smile. He’d been mastered, but not by Lazarus.

  “You may have a point,” he grumbled. “I’m willing to consider other options.”

  Summer’s phone rang. She checked the caller ID. “Aubrey.” She passed the phone to Jay.

  “Bree, baby, what’s—” Jay’s frown deepened as he listened. “Wait, what?” He took the phone from his ear a second later. “Bree said that she’s got Darcy and they’re forcing her to open a portal back here. She said to get the magic siphoner ready because Darcy is hostile.”

  “I’m assuming she means Greer,” Summer said on her way out the door. “I’ll get everyone.”

  “What else did she say?” Mayhem growled his irritation, all his plans going to shit.

  Jay moved toward the door, glancing over his shoulder as he did. “She said that Raven is dead again, and this time it was Darcy who killed him.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Hannah followed Summer and Jay, not waiting for Mayhem, still rattled by her freak out. Where that had come from, she didn’t know. She’d never been that bold with him, not since she’d accepted her role as a submissive to his alpha. Which was stupid, really. What wolf pack had a hierarchy with only an alpha ruling? None. As far as she knew, even in the animal world, every male alpha had a female mate who carried as much or more power. The way this Huntress world worked, she should have the power to determine how things went as well, or at least a say in her involvement. It was time for Mayhem to learn and accept it. She didn’t regret a single word.

  Summer had alerted the others, and they were all assembling in the great hall, the makeshift weapon depot they’d constructed after the Hunters and Huntresses had arrived.

  “Did she say when and where?” Greer asked as she sheathed her blades.

  “She said that the portal will open exactly where it opened last time,” Jay said with a nod toward the back of the house. “Five minutes tops.”

  Greer left, pushing past Mayhem on her way out with a mumbled sorry. Hannah shot a look at him, tentative about where they stood with each other. He cocked an eyebrow, tilted his head. Yeah, sure, they needed to talk. But not now. She turned and picked up the bow she’d gotten to like. She tested the tension on its string before putting it down again so she could secure the quiver to her thigh.

  She felt Mayhem come up behind her, hovering but not touching. “I won’t say no—”

  She snapped her eyes to him, her anger rising once again. No words would fix what was wrong with him right now. Control freak. Blind. “You can say no all you want, May, it’s not going to stop anything from happening and it’s certainly not going to stop me from being a part of this.”

  She moved out of his shadow, snatched up her bow, and walked out of the room, following Greer and the others who’d left already. She was a Huntress, just as capable as the rest of t
hem. If he couldn’t see that, then maybe he wasn’t the right mate for her after all.

  “Greer, no crazy stuff this time. Darcy comes through, you lock her down, got it?” Ariana said as she pulled her sickles.

  Hannah listened and closed her eyes to feel the intention.

  “Got it,” Greer said, her tone somewhat dismissive.

  Hannah felt the snap of dishonesty. Greer was a wild card. Totally unpredictable in her behavior and totally untouchable as far as Hannah’s powers went. When she opened her eyes, Greer was watching her.

  “You here to fight, Huntress, or just to watch?” Greer said with a nod to her bow. “You close your eyes during battle and you’ll die.”

  Hannah gulped. Busted. She swung her bow and pulled a bolt, readying it just as Aubrey had trained her to do.

  “Archers at the back, be ready in case that portal lets anything else through,” Ariana barked.

  Hannah spotted Kelly off to the side, her own bow in hand. Hannah moved to join her.

  “Don’t pay too much attention to Greer right now. When she’s in battle mode, she can be brutal,” Kelly said as she nudged Hannah gently. “But it might be a good idea to keep your eyes open while the shit is going down.”

  “I was tapping into my magic,” Hannah said defensively.

  “Yeah, I know. But with better training, you should be able to do that without putting yourself in danger.” Kelly’s friendly smile was gone. “You need to spend more time with us. Pick up some training. It’s not a bad thing to hone your abilities even if all you end up doing is trailing after the band.”

  Hannah winced. She knew Kelly wasn’t intentionally making a dig; the emotion in her words conveyed only an honest assessment. That was all she’d been doing. To think on it now, in the face of a pending battled, it seemed so stupid. She was a Huntress, descended from powerful warriors. A legacy she’d been squandering.

  Aubrey had been right all along. Darcy too. She was a wolf slayer and needed to get her shit together. Training sounded like a fantastic idea. Time away from Mayhem to develop skill and confidence and become more powerful might be just what she needed.