Caress of the Wolf [The Gray Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Lori King

  “Oh my God! No! Tawny!” Whitney screamed and lunged toward her best friend, wild, hot tears scorching down her cheeks as her brain fought to process the scene in front of her. Reyes was nude, but Chance was not. Reyes was also covered in blood, like Tawny was.

  Tina and Caroline both came into view, and they hurried to Tawny’s lifeless body to help. They were speaking too softly for Whitney to hear from her place in Mateo’s arms, and she struggled to escape his solid grip. “Please! Let me go to her! I have to make sure she’s okay! Tawny!”

  Mateo held her tightly, forcing her to face him and not her best friend. “Stop, Whitney. Calm down. You can’t help her right now, but Tina and Caroline can. Remember they are the ones with medical training. Breathe for me, mate.”

  She snarled at him but her limbs went limp and she collapsed against his chest. Through the pounding of blood in her ears she heard wisps of Chance’s story.

  “…heard her saying no….whimpering…attacking her…I just reacted.”

  The last pieces of the puzzle locked into place, and Whitney’s heart shattered. Her best friend had been attacked and raped by Reyes Asis. The same way that young friend of Mateo’s had been. Only this time, Reyes paid the ultimate price. Damon confirmed that Reyes was dead just as Rolando, and Alastair came into view with most of the other Gray and Diego wolves.

  It took only a moment for Rolando to spot his son, and the pain on his face was as intense as the pain in Whitney’s chest. She didn’t want to feel sorry for him, because she knew that the reason for Reyes being a vile, terrible man was due to Rolando’s influence, but at this moment, he was a father who lost a son.

  When Whitney heard Caroline say that Tawny was alive but unconscious, she stopped thinking about the man responsible and focused on her friend. Looking up at Mateo, she nodded more calmly. “I’m better, but I have to see her. I have to touch her, please, Mat.”

  She saw him look to Cadence, and without either speaking, they discussed it.

  Only if you can remain calm, flower. She was hurt pretty bad.

  I don’t think this is a good idea, mi reina. You should stay here and let Caroline handle this.

  I need to see her.

  Let her go, Mateo. She won’t rest until she does this.

  She felt Mateo’s arms relax around her and she gave him a reassuring half smile before she ran for Tawny’s side. Dropping to her knees in the grass, she reached for Tawny’s hand, flinching when she saw blood and dirt under her nails. They had turned her over so that she was on her back, and the damage was even more apparent from the front. Reyes hadn’t just beaten and raped her, he had tortured her with his fists and teeth.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Whitney whispered.

  Tina gave her a steady look and frowned. “No, but she’ll live. We have to get her inside and cleaned up. Caro, the supplies we started putting together for Tasha will have to be replaced. Tawny needs morphine and stitches in a few places.”

  “I think we should take her to a hospital, T. They need to do a rape kit,” Caroline argued, rubbing at her swollen belly to ease her anxiety.

  “No. No hospital. Tawny would freak out and the doctors would ask too many questions,” Whitney snapped. “We have to take care of her here.”

  Caroline looked at her, the sympathy warm in her eyes. “But…”

  “Caro, the damage is done, and the attacker is dead already. Let’s have the guys carry her up to the Alpha cabin and clean her up. There are no broken bones, and I don’t think she has a head injury, but if she doesn’t come to in an hour we’ll go to the hospital,” Tina said softly. “I know you stand firmly on the side of legal justice, but there’s something to be said for martial law. We take care of our own here, right?”

  “Right,” Whitney said, looking to her Alpha-Bitch for confirmation. Caroline sighed and gave a small nod. “Mateo, Cadence, can you help us get her inside?”

  The two men stepped forward but Justin Truehope stopped them as he stared down at his older sister, shock and horror etched into his face. “No, we’ll do it.” Tate and Heath both stepped forward and the pair of them gently lifted their injured sister. As they began to carry her away from her front yard, Justin turned to Chance and said, “Thank you.”

  Chance dropped his eyes to his split knuckles and gave a sharp nod.

  Devin frowned at Chance and at Rolando weeping over his son’s body. “What happened exactly?”

  When Chance hesitated, Whitney shot to her feet and got in his face. “Tell us, Chance. I know you didn’t hurt her, so tell us what that bastard did.”

  Taking a step back, Chance growled in warning, and suddenly Mateo and Cadence were between her and him. “Back off. I’m the Alpha now, you will respect my mate.”

  Whitney was shocked when Chance’s head dropped in submission and he blushed. “I’m sorry, Cadence. My wolf is feeling agitated and adrenaline is still pumping through me. I came down here to talk to her.” His eyes darted to Whitney’s. “I kinda have a thing for her, and I wanted to tell her myself. He was on top of her, hitting her, and fucking her like a dog. She was fighting him, but she was too small compared to him, and I don’t know why she didn’t shift. If she shifted she could have run, but she didn’t. Why the fuck didn’t she shift?”

  Tears were running down the younger man’s cheeks as the horror of what he had intercepted hit him, and Whitney moved to his side, wrapping her arms around his lean waist and hugging him tightly. He buried his face into her neck and sobbed on her shoulder. No one spoke for several moments as the impact hit them all and they all processed through their own emotions.

  “You did the right thing, Chance,” Cadence said, moving to stand beside the two of them and patting his friend on the back. “Reyes paid the price for his heinous act. Justice was served.”

  “Justice? You call cold-blooded murder, justice?” Rolando hissed, and Whitney turned just in time to see him launch himself toward her and Chance.

  Mateo took the brunt of the older man’s body and pushed him backward onto his ass. Rolando leapt to his feet and snarled, his body beginning to partially shift with his emotions. Javier appeared out of nowhere and pulled his father back, holding him tightly around the waist.

  “No, father. Stop! Reyes has already done too much damage, don’t make this worse.”

  “That bastard killed my son. His Alpha! You’re not going to let him get away with that, Javier! You and your brother must make him pay!” Rolando screamed, smacking his younger son in the head.

  Javier shook his head to clear it. “No, father. Reyes is dead because he raped that girl.”

  “No! He did it. Reyes was protecting her! That boy raped her!” Rolando attempted to launch himself at Chance again. When Mateo grabbed him by the neck and pushed him to his knees, he glared up at the big man. “Son, why aren’t you avenging your brother?”

  Mateo’s eyes widened. “Huh? Do you think I’m Reyes?”

  They all looked to Javier, whose head had dropped. He looked so broken that Whitney felt a pang of sympathy for him. “No, he means you, Mateo. Well, you and I.”

  The only sound was Rolando’s constant babbling grief and promises of retribution, but no one paid attention to him. All eyes were focused on Javier as he explained.

  “Fuck! I knew Reyes was a loose cannon, but I didn’t do enough to stop him. Erock was not your biological father, Mateo. Rolando was. He raped Deidre, and your father found out right after Cara was born that you weren’t his son. He went after my father and Barton. I don’t know what happened, but Erock never came back and they spread the story that he had run out on your mom.”

  “I killed him. I shoved a knife into his gut and I watched him bleed!” Rolando screamed.

  Whitney’s stomach turned as she watched the man expose the vile nasty creature that he was to everyone. There was sweat on his brow and his lip was curled in disgust. Every muscle in his body was tense as he fought Mateo’s hold.

  “You can’t be my father,” Ma
teo whispered, and Rolando laughed.

  “Oh yes I can be, son, and as your father I command you to avenge your brother’s death. Don’t disappoint me like Javier! Be an Alpha, boy, be what you were born to be!” Rolando demanded.

  Mateo looked up at Cadence, wild-eyed and lost, and Cadence immediately took control of the situation. Javier and Devin both took Rolando and dragged him toward the cabin he had been staying in. He would be chained and kept under guard until his fate was decided, but he would most likely pay for his crimes with his life. Whitney left Chance’s side to embrace Mateo, holding him in the same way, but the bigger man rested his chin on her head while he cried.

  Whitney had no idea who removed Reyes from the scene, but when they finally separated, his body was gone, as was everyone but Cadence. He sat on the porch steps staring at the ground in silence.

  Moving to his side, Whitney reached for his hand and was relieved when he complied. “Are you okay, Cadence?”

  He shook his head and let out a hollow laugh. “No. Are you?”

  “No. But we will be.”

  “How can you say that? I’m the Alpha of a broken pack that has been traumatized for years by my own father.”

  “And mine,” Mateo whispered.

  “Mat—” she started to correct him.

  “Don’t. I have to accept the truth just like anyone else. I won’t believe it entirely until I speak with my mother, but it does make a lot of sense. Right now we have other things to deal with, so that has to wait.”

  Cadence stood and the two men stared at each other. “You told me once that who my father was, didn’t change the man I could be. I’m saying it to you now. You’re not him, so whatever crazy ideas you have in your head, you just get rid of them right now. Got it?”

  Mateo nodded and gave Cadence a small smile. “Got it.”

  “Can we go see Tawny? I need to know she’s okay,” Whitney asked.

  “Of course, love. We will talk on the way, because just before this all happened we were informed that Chance pulled out of the battle.”

  Whitney gaped at him in shock. Her brain couldn’t hold any more information, so she just stared at him. He nodded and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as he turned her and they began walking to the Alpha cabin.

  “Yeah, I know. Crazy night.”

  Chapter 12

  Within a few short hours, everyone in the den knew what had happened to Tawny, and many had come by the Alpha cabin to check on her. She had woken shortly after they finished settling her into a bed and cleaning up her injuries, and the emotional void in her eyes was painful to see.

  Cadence tried to see the situation from an unemotional standpoint, but holding Whitney while she sobbed on his shoulder made that difficult. It didn’t help that his mind kept exploring the idea that it could have easily been Whitney instead of Tawny that Reyes targeted. His wolf pranced with anxiety, and his skin rippled with the need to shift. It was obvious that Mateo and many of the others felt the same, but no one was willing to be alone just yet.

  “I’m going to go give Tina a break and take the next half hour shift. Why don’t you and Mat go for a run?” Whitney said, rising from the porch swing they had been snuggled up on. She looked across the porch at the man leaning on the railing in the shadows, and her eyes glossed over with tears again. “Take Chance, too. I think it will do him good.”

  Cadence nodded and accepted the quick kiss she pressed to his lips. As she went back into the house, Justin and Heath Truehope came out looking a decade older than their chronological age. They were followed by Devin, Damon, and their father Jim, as well as Liam and Henley.

  “Diego, we wanted to talk to you about Asis,” Justin said. His voice was harsh, like someone had sanded his voice box down, as he struggled with his inner beast and the emotional turmoil in his heart.

  Cadence nodded and rose to face Tawny’s brothers first. Chance moved across the porch nearly silently and stood at his shoulder like he was concerned for his Alpha’s safety. Giving the wounded man a smile of gratitude, he addressed the Truehope brothers. “First, let me apologize on behalf of the Diego pack. I hope that you know that no one would ever have wished this on your sister, and that you won’t hold the actions of one madman against the rest of us.”

  Heath nodded. “Of course, and thank you. How do you plan to proceed?”

  Mateo appeared at Cadence’s other shoulder, and he could feel his other pack mates at his back. An outsider looking in would see two packs of large men facing off in what could result in an epic war, but Cadence had no intention of battling the men in front of him.

  “Before…” He met Heath’s gaze steadily, and then flicked to meet Justin’s. “Before the incident this evening, Devin and Alastair approached me to inform me that Chance had withdrawn from the Alpha challenge. With both Silas and Chance out of the running and willing to pledge their loyalty to me, that left only Reyes. I would have battled Reyes on the field in the morning and taken on my role as Alpha after subduing him.”

  “Would you have fought to the death?” Caroline asked, joining the men of her pack but standing in between the two groups as though to play mediator.

  Cadence hesitated. “I don’t know the answer to that. I wouldn’t have gone into the battle with that intention, but we all know that things happen in the heat of a fight. It doesn’t matter now, because all of my opponents have each pledged their loyalty to me, or they are dead.”

  “Rolando is requesting that we allow him to take his son’s place in the Alpha battle,” Damon said softly, and Cadence felt his wolf rear in anger.

  Clenching his fists, he fought to contain his fury. “That man is no Alpha.” A gleam in Damon’s eye eased some of his ire, and Cadence turned to Devin. “I will fight him.” “You don’t have to,” Devin said, exchanging a look with Alastair.

  “I know that, but when I return to my pack as their Alpha, I want to be able to tell them I earned it fairly, and that there are no other challengers waiting in the wings to slit my throat while I sleep. I need to put their nightmares to rest,” Cadence responded. “What Rolando and Barton did to both my pack and now yours was heinous. It deserves retribution. There will be a battle tomorrow, however, it will not just be me entering the ring with Rolando. I will admit any wolf who has a grievance against him and his late Alpha to join the fight.”

  “That’s barbaric!” Caroline gasped, and Cadence gave her a hard look.

  “My father attempted to rape and murder you and Tina, just as Reyes did tonight to Tawny. That alone would have sentenced him to death. Rolando Asis raped Deidre Diego and when her husband found out that his son was not his blood, Rolando murdered him in cold blood. He has threatened myself and my Beta, Mateo. Each of these crimes would justify me killing him, but it’s not for these specifically that I will kill him.” Cadence spun to face his fellow Diego wolves, meeting each man’s eyes briefly. “Those of you from my pack are well aware of the horrors that our friends and family have had to live through for decades. When we return to them, I want to be able to set their demons free and tell them that it’s over. I’m not asking anyone to fight with me, but I’m offering everyone the opportunity. No one will think less of you if you choose not to. Either way, Rolando’s last sunrise will be in six hours.”

  Facing the Gray pack again, he looked to Devin. “Your wolves are welcome to join if they were betrayed by my family, but I will understand if you want to leave this to the Diego pack.”

  For several moments, Devin’s expression remained blank, and everyone held their breath. Cadence wasn’t going to back down even though he knew how hard it would be for Devin to allow this sentence to be carried out on his pack land. When he finally responded, Cadence was relieved to see admiration in his eyes and not disgust. “You and Mateo have earned the right to seek whatever punishment you deem worthy of the crime. I won’t interfere.”

  Relief washed over the group, and everyone relaxed. Cadence gave Devin a grateful smile. “I suppose everyone had
better get some rest. Tomorrow will be a big day.”

  Caroline turned away from her husband, and Cadence could see she was angry with his decision, but she respectfully held her tongue. He was glad he wasn’t the one facing her in private later. She might be a gentle soul, but she was still a force to be reckoned with. He watched her walk back into the cabin, rubbing her rounded belly to soothe the babes she carried, and an image of Whitney pregnant flashed through his brain.

  Mateo gasped beside him, and he knew that he had projected the image too loudly. “Whoa. After all that talk about vengeance I wasn’t expecting you to be thinking about procreating,” his cousin said with a small chuckle.

  “Random thought. She could be pregnant now, you know?”

  The look on Mateo’s face expressed how happy that would make the big man. “Then we had better get cracking on planning a wedding, huh?”

  “Not yet. I have a feeling we aren’t done convincing our she-wolf to pack up and move yet.”

  “Whitney loves us,” Mateo argued.

  “Does she?”

  “Of course, she said so.” His cousin’s confused look turned to understand when he met Cadence’s gaze. “She hasn’t said so to you yet?”

  He shook his head and turned to stare out into the darkness. The other wolves had dispersed, and only he and Mateo remained on the porch. Chance was nearby, he could scent him and August, but even his keen wolf eyesight couldn’t spot him in the dark shadows of the trees around the cabin.

  “She will, Cadence. Things have been so hectic, and for God’s sakes we’ve only known her for a couple of days. This whole time she has been afraid that one or both of us were going to die, and possibly steal her life with us. Give her the benefit of the doubt. I know in my soul that she loves us.” Mateo put his hand on Cadence’s shoulder. “All of our dreams are coming true, cousin. Don’t give up now.”

  Nodding, he gestured to the house. “Whitney went up to take over for Tina for a while. Can you keep an eye on her while I go for a run?”