by Shea Balik
How Kirill had managed to stay under the radar for the most part was anyone’s guess. The man was massive. Staying inconspicuous wasn’t something that could have been easy for the polar bear shifter.
“If you can’t trust your mate and his friends, you will never know a moment’s peace,” Kirill told as he tucked his own mate closer to his body. “Trust me on this.”
His heart contracted in his chest as Trygg imagined holding his own mate in his lap, with Kellach’s head resting against his chest, a smile on those lush lips that told the world just how happy he was to be right there in his mate’s arms. Shifting his gaze back to Kellach, he prayed one day he would get that chance, but Kirill was right, he needed to take a leap of faith if he wanted to get there.
“For those that hadn’t gone rogue I helped them to fake their death and got them new identities.” Trygg prayed his admitting this wouldn’t end up getting those people he’d helped over the past few years killed. “But if they’d gone rogue…” It wasn’t easy, especially when they only ended up that way because they were forced to deny their own mates, but once a shifter turned, there was no getting them back.
He gave a sigh before finishing. “I still kill them.”
Something shifted within Kellach’s gaze. Trygg thought he saw admiration, but he wasn’t sure as it disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared.
“And we’re supposed to just trust you’re telling the truth?” Chadwick scoffed.
“Like I said,” Kirill answered for Trygg. “I have several men who have been helped by one of the Council’s men to disappear.” Kirill flashed his pearly white teeth at Chadwick. “I’m more than happy to call them in here to confirm Trygg is that man.”
When no one spoke up right away, Edrick asked, “If anybody needs the proof, I’m willing to wait for Kirill to call in his men.”
Again, everyone remained silent.
“Fine,” Edrick said. “Then I expect to hear no more talk on trusting Trygg, got it?” Those blue eyes met every man’s gaze, forcing each person to nod his head in acquiescence. “Good,” Edrick said when he was done. “Now, let’s get down to business.” Edrick turned back to Trygg, pinning him with a hard stare. “What exactly does the Council know about us?”
CHAPTER 7
“Are you okay?”
Kellach just managed to stop himself from reacting to being startled and throwing Jari to the floor. Good thing too, since Lucca walked in behind him and would have most likely killed Kellach for attacking his mate without provocation.
Not that it would have been his fault. If anything it was Lucca’s and the others for training him to react first, ask questions later. They had drilled into him the need to ensure his safety before worrying about the consequences of doing so.
“You know sneaking up on someone will get you killed,” Kellach drawled out.
Lucca growled. “Threatening my mate will result in the same consequence.”
Jari rolled his eye. “Gods save me from men with too much testosterone.”
Kellach couldn’t help but laugh. No one had ever accused him of having too much testosterone, especially since he had more delicate features than most men. “Don’t you have to be at the diner?” he asked, hoping to make Jari forget his original question.
“Yeah, but you looked like you could use a friend,” Jari told him as he sat down in the chair next to Kellach on the front porch.
Jari might be right, but Kellach wasn’t sure he was ready to talk about what was bothering him. How could he voice it out loud when he wasn’t able to admit it to himself? “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.” Jari’s matter-of-fact statement surprised Kellach. The sweet little mouse didn’t seem the type to stand up to anyone, yet Jari was proving far stronger than any of them had first thought. “But if you don’t wish to talk about it, I understand.”
Suddenly, Kellach couldn’t seem to keep it inside any longer. “I hate that I was given a wolf for a mate.”
“How come?” There was no judgment in Jari’s tone, just curiosity. It was one of the reasons he liked the mouse shifter so much. Jari rarely judged, just listened, which was more than any of them deserved considering they hadn’t done the same when Jari had first come to Miracle.
The pain of the past pressed on his chest until it ached. “My sister was killed by wolves.”
“Oh, Kellach, I’m so sorry.” Jari took Kellach’s hand in his, giving him a squeeze. “What happened?”
“My father tried to double cross a wolf pack on a deal.” That was his father, always trying to outsmart someone and usually failing. “When he was caught, the wolves demanded he give my sister, Carolina, to them.”
Kellach hadn’t even been told until his father had handed Carolina over to them. It was the only time Kellach had actually yelled at his father. He’d paid for that mistake when his father punched him hard enough to knock him unconscious. Kellach had only been eleven at the time, but it had changed everything.
From that moment on, he’d taken his lessons with Edrick, Lucca, Chadwick, and Hudson seriously. Kellach had sworn he would never allow his father to hurt him again. But when it came down to getting beaten to death, or hitting his own father, Kellach found he just couldn’t use the training he’d received against his own flesh and blood.
His father had never had that problem. “Two weeks after she’d left, Carolina died at the wolves’ hands.” A sob clawed its way out of his chest as he thought about his sweet sister. She was probably the only person who actually was prettier than Kellach, yet she didn’t have a vain bone in her body.
To know she’d been treated so abominably was something Kellach still had a hard time thinking about. “According to what they told my father, there wasn’t enough of her left to bury when the wolves had finished with her.”
“Is that why you don’t want to be mated to me?” Trygg said from the bottom of the porch steps. “You blame me for what happened to your sister?”
There was so much pain in Trygg’s eyes that Kellach wanted to tell him no, but it would be a lie. As much as he didn’t want Trygg to be his mate, Kellach still couldn’t lie to the man. Nor did he see the point. “Yes,” he answered, the anger of what happened to his sister filling his voice.
Maybe it was wrong, but Kellach did blame Trygg. No. He blamed all wolves. His father was right. They were nothing but animals with no humanity.
“Were you part of the pack that killed Kellach’s sister?” Lucca, who had stayed by his mate’s side while Kellach talked about his sister, asked. Lucca had already known about Carolina. All his friends did.
Trygg shook his head. “No. I’ve been with the Council for sixty years. I left my pack long before Kellach or his sister were even born.”
Kellach lifted his chin. “It doesn’t matter. All dogs are spineless cowards who enjoy torturing others.”
“That’s not true,” Jari said. “There are several wolves that came with Kirill to Miracle and they’ve been nothing but nice.”
Kellach growled and Lucca growled right back, defending his mate. But Kellach no longer cared if he pissed off Lucca, the Alpha’s second and one of his best friend. “Wolves are heartless and will turn on you if you trust them.” He started right at Trygg as he said, “I will never make that mistake.”
Then he stood, shifted, and took off into the surrounding woods, as far from Trygg as he could get. Space was just what he needed from a mate he didn’t want.
Thoughts of his sister always left Kellach raw and emotional but it had been necessary. Since meeting his mate, Kellach had felt an attraction he’d been hard pressed to deny. When Trygg had admitted to helping shifters escape from the Council, Kellach found himself actually liking Trygg.
Neither of those emotions could he afford to have if he was going to keep the promise he made to his dead sister to never trust a wolf. Memories of her sweet smile and kindness to others helped to harden his heart against any and all feelings he’d been having for Trygg.
Kellach just hoped he’d be able to keep up his resolve to stay away from the man he felt drawn to.
CHAPTER 8
There was nothing Trygg hated more than hearing how shifters used their superior strength to torture others, even other shifters. Kellach’s sister may have been a mountain lion shifter but against a pack of wolves she wouldn’t have stood a chance.
As he dug further into the information he’d found on Kellach since he’d been given this assignment, Trygg couldn’t exactly blame his mate for hating wolves. According to the file, Carolina had been sweet and loving without any malice. Which, the deeper he dug, was surprising considering the father she and Kellach had grown up with. The man made hyenas seem like fluffy bunnies in comparison.
Mr. Alder was into shit that would get him killed except somehow he managed to stay under the radar, which wouldn’t stay that way for long as the man got bolder the longer he played the game. Too often, the man was working both sides, not caring which side won so long as he got as much money as possible.
It had started with petty stuff, but now the man was dealing la pequeña muerte, a drug created for the much faster metabolisms of shifters in an effort to get high. The stuff was too strong for humans and often ended up killing shifters.
The Council had been trying to stop the making and trade of the drug for decades but hadn’t had much luck. Those creating the lethal drug were extremely rich with far reaching arms, killing anyone who tried to get in their way. Many agents working for the Council had never been heard from again once they went after the drug cartel.
Kellach’s dad clearly didn’t seem to understand who he was messing with or he wouldn’t have gotten involved with the cartel. The man was going to end up dead. Then again, from everything Trygg had learned, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving individual.
“Hey, Trygg,” Harper greeted as he walked into the diner where Trygg had set up his laptop to work on finding out more about Carolina and the pack that had killed her. But try as he might, he couldn’t find any reference to her death.
“Hi, Harper.” Trygg looked up, his eyes bleary from staring at his screen so long that he almost missed the stack of boxes Harper was trying to carry across the diner. “Here, let me help,” he offered, jumping up from his seat.
Harper actually gave a relieved breath when Trygg took the four boxes that were precariously perched on top. “Thanks. I really thought they were going to end up on the floor before I could put them down.”
Once they had put the boxes down, Harper opened up the top one from his stack to reveal a tantalizing peach pie. “Just for that, I will give you a piece for free.” Then Harper opened another box to reveal banana cream.
Trygg couldn’t help but moan. “I’ll take the banana.”
He received a bright smile from Harper. “You got it. Let me just put these away and slice up some fresh bananas to top it off.”
Saliva pooled in his mouth as the aromas of each pie opened assailed him. “Damn, these smell like heaven. Just how many kinds did you make?”
“There had better be twelve,” Jari said as he eyed the boxes skeptically. “But that doesn’t look like twelve, Harper Lazo. You promised me twelve.” Jari’s hands went to his hips and a scowl appeared on his face as he glared at his friend.
Harper rolled his eyes at this friend’s dramatics. “Look, I have eight done but I plan on making two chocolate cream pies while I’m here and I thought instead of two more pies I would do something different and make a couple of batches of cookies.”
Jari’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then he gave a sharp nod. “Fine, but one batch better be oatmeal raisin.” Then he turned on his heel and headed back into the kitchen.
“Drama Queen,” Harper mumbled.
“I heard that, and right back at ya,” Jari yelled from the kitchen.
Harper sighed loudly but continued to put the remaining pies away. When he was done he took out a plate and a grabbed a banana from the back counter. “So, what had you glaring at your laptop as if you were ready to throw it across the diner?”
Startled to realized he’d been so transparent, Trygg answered honestly. “I was looking into who had killed Kellach’s sister.”
The door to the kitchen swung open. “Did you find the pack?” Jari asked with a sharp knife gripped tightly in his grasp.
With an eye on that knife, Trygg shook his head. “No. Kellach’s father was into some pretty shady deals so there isn’t any clear cut path to which pack he’d been dealing with back then.”
“Snow Creek,” Edrick said as he entered the front door of the diner.
Trygg’s heart sank. “That’s impossible.”
Edrick shrugged. “To be honest, I can’t say if it was true or not. We were eleven when it happened. By the time we were old enough to look into it, I admit, I had forgotten about Carolina.” Edrick appeared ashamed of what he was saying. “Kellach was one of my best friends and I let him down by not finding the bastards who had killed his sister and making them pay.”
All Trygg could do was pray Edrick was wrong about the pack name. “How do you know it was the Snow Creek pack?” Unless something had drastically changed in the past sixty years, Trygg couldn’t believe Snow Creek was responsible.
“That was the name Kellach’s father gave us. It was also the pack that informed my father about Carolina’s death.” Edrick’s blue eyes turned glacial as he said, “They claimed there wasn’t enough of her body left to send back for burial. For that, they need to pay.”
Trygg couldn’t agree more, he just prayed there had been some sort of misunderstanding or he could kiss any hope of a future with his mate goodbye. Kellach would never be able to forgive him when he found out it was Trygg’s brother who was the Alpha of Snow Creek.
CHAPTER 9
Irritation built within Kellach as he turned to find Trygg heading his way. The problem was his annoyance wasn’t at seeing Trygg, it was how happiness seemed to bubble up within him. Nothing was going to change the fact that his mate was a wolf, so he needed to stop mooning over a man he couldn’t have.
“What do you want?” he snapped when Trygg approached him. He hadn’t meant to be that surly but then again, if it kept Trygg away from him, it was probably a good idea to be as unpleasant as possible.
Except Trygg didn’t seem to be upset that Kellach had snapped. In fact, he seemed amused, as if Kellach had done exactly as he thought he would. Damn, if that didn’t piss Kellach off even more.
When Trygg actually chuckled, Kellach knew he must have once more voiced his thoughts out loud. It was getting so bad, Kellach was tempted to find some duct tape to put over his mouth, or maybe a staple gun.
The bark of laughter from Trygg had everything within Kellach stilling as he stared in wonder at the man. It didn’t make any sense. His friends laughed all the time, yet when Trygg did it, pleasure coursed through Kellach’s body, filling him up until he overflowed with it and he found himself laughing right along with his mate.
The sound was so foreign to him, Kellach wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. So why did he continue? It made no sense. It was something he was finding to be true whenever Trygg was around. All of Kellach’s normal defenses seemed to melt away when he was near his mate, making it impossible to keep the man at a distance.
“You have a beautiful laugh, my pretty kitty,” Trygg said as he stepped even closer.
There couldn’t have been more than an inch or two separating them. Yet instead of wanting to put more distance between them, Kellach desperately wanted to close the distance that seemed to stretch between them. He even went so far as to lean in, but a loud crash behind him jolted his head back to reality.
Kellach scowled at himself for being so stupid as to forget, once again, that he couldn’t get involved with a wolf, even if Trygg was his mate. “Don’t call me that,” he growled out as he took several steps back to give him some breathing room that wouldn’t involve taking in lungful’s of his mate’s ta
ntalizing scent.
“I get why you hate wolves, but you have to know, I had nothing to do with what happened to your sister.” Trygg sounded so sincere and Kellach knew he was right.
But none of that mattered. He’d made a promise to his dead sister and no one, not even his mate was going to change his mind. “That doesn’t change what happened. Or that wolves are nothing but bullies who prey on the weak.”
Trygg gave a frustrated sigh as he ran his hand over his head to the back of his neck. “You know that’s not true.” When Kellach opened his mouth to argue, Trygg said, “Sure there are some bad wolves, but there are also bad mountain lion and every other type of shifter or human for that matter. That doesn’t make all of us evil.”
Kellach wanted to refute what Trygg said, but he couldn’t. His own father was a classic example of a bully, but that didn’t mean the rest of the mountain lions were the same. “That doesn’t change anything.” And it didn’t.
A part of Kellach may have wanted to give in to his mate so he could have that happily ever after his friends were finding, but life had taught Kellach a long time ago that things never worked out that way for him. That lesson had started long before his sister had been taken from him. It had started when he was five and Chadwick had announced he was going to find his male mate.
That was when Kellach had first been introduced to just how cruel life could be. He hadn’t believed Chadwick’s mother that shifters weren’t allowed to like someone of the same sex. Just as Chadwick had known he was gay without even knowing what it meant, so had Kellach.
He’d gone home and told his mother. She’d been so horrified that she’d locked him in a closet for three days until he swore he would never utter such filth again. Shortly after his sister died, his mother also died. Kellach had never been sure what happened to her, but he hadn’t cried for her.
