Legacy (Blackwater Pack Book 3)

by Hannah McBride

  Lulu spun to face him. “Silence.”

  His lips mashed together and his eyes bulged as he tried to talk through his closed mouth. A few strained grunts were all he managed to get out.

  Lulu walked forward, pausing in the aisle space between their seats. She glared down at Linden. “You will be quiet during this meeting. I’ve bound your lips together. You can try to pry them open, but you’ll leave yourself a bloody mess if you succeed. And if you manage to open your mouth, my next trick will be to have you chew off your own tongue.”

  He glared at her, but slumped back into his seat with a huff.

  “Wise choice,” she replied coldly before moving to sit in the section with Elias. She slid into the seat by the wall of the plane.

  There were no windows here. Just two clusters of tables each with four seats that looked decidedly less comfortable than the ones we had, and a row of seats along the back.

  I slipped into the seat next to Lulu, directly across from Elias.

  “Skye,” he whispered. “How are you?”

  “Not pregnant,” I spat back.

  His lips twitched. “Pity.”

  “Where’s Maren?” I demanded.

  He blinked slowly. “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t,” I said sharply, slapping a hand on the table. “I know you know where she is. Where all the missing women are.”

  He sighed deeply. “Skye.”

  “They took kids, Elias. Took them from the school that you worked at.” I glared at him across the table, wishing I could slap him or hit him.

  My wolf would’ve been happy with killing him.

  “That was never my intention,” he admitted quietly. “I understood why Damien sequestered the girls in our pack, but taking children from other packs was not something I approved of. He’s done much I haven’t approved of.”

  “And yet here you are,” I retorted bitterly. “You’re keeping his secrets and helping him. Spying on me. Did you know Damien sent someone to try and kidnap me to force Remy to back down yesterday?”

  Elias frowned. “Remy survived?”

  I lunged forward, but Lulu grabbed me before I could put my hands around his throat. My body vibrated with rage as I settled back into my chair, seconds from shifting and ripping his damn throat out.

  “Tell me about the elementalist you found,” Lulu commented softly. “We know you’re working with one.”

  His eyes shifted to her. “I already told you, I won’t betray my Alpha.”

  “No, you’ll just betray people who were your friends. People who trusted you,” I responded in disgust. “You’ll betray the people you’ve spent your life trying to save.”

  “I truly believe in what Damien is doing, Skye,” he said with a grimace. “I know his methods seem troublesome—”

  “Troublesome?” I interrupted with a hollow laugh. “He’s kidnapping women and children. He killed dozens of men. He’s forced his way into packs, taking their people and giving them no choice. That’s a little more than troublesome, Elias.”

  “What is his system?” Lulu asked quizzically. “What can he possibly hope to gain by this?”

  Elias studied her for a minute, seeming to try and decide how much of his Alpha’s plan was safe to unveil.

  “I told him how Narodnaya is organized,” he finally said. “The lunar wolf cycles. I especially emphasized how vital a role women played. How they were respected and protected at all costs.”

  I snorted. “And obviously kidnapping them was the next logical step.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What you call kidnapping, others might call liberating.”

  “And how are these little girls being liberated, Elias?” I demanded.

  He exhaled through his nose slowly. “We have a facility where we’ve been keeping the women and girls.” He met my gaze. “Unharmed. This isn’t like Long Mesa, Skye. They’re not being abused.”

  Thank God. I closed my eyes, the weight of his reassurance enough to make me want to cry.

  Katy had been terrified Maren was being abused the way Mom and I had been. At least that wasn’t happening.

  “They’re being trained,” he added.

  My eyes snapped open, and Lulu frowned. “Trained how?”

  “You’re right. We found an elementalist. One who was connected to earth. When I explained what you were doing, she said she could do the same. We focused on using what you were doing with the lunar cycles on those of age.” He looked down. “But there have been complications.”

  “What kind of complications?” I ground out.

  “Women have died. Their bodies got … frozen in their shift. Their hearts gave out under the stress.”

  “What moon phase did you use?” Lulu whispered.

  “All of them,” he replied honestly. “We needed to prove it could work.”

  Her mouth gaped open in horror. “You fool. You stupid, old, manipulative fucking fool.”

  I tensed, bracing for Lulu’s wrath as her chest heaved. She was furious. Dangerously, lethally furious.

  And it was all aimed at Elias.

  “Did it ever occur to you that there’s a reason we don’t do this monthly? You have to have the right lunar phase, which any true earth elementalist would know! That’s why they’re dying. We also don’t force participation. It’s all voluntary. The human has to want to be one with their wolf.” Lulu looked ready to reach across the table and choke him.

  Elias dipped his head. “I will relay that information when all of this is over to Damien. We will make the necessary adjustments.”

  “You’re not going to win this,” I replied coolly, folding my arms across my chest. “Remy did survive, and he’s Blackwater’s Alpha. And not just Blackwater. Other packs that don’t want Damien as their leader are joining us. Nikolai isn’t coming to America just to bring me home. He’s bringing me an army.”

  For the first time, Elias looked nervous.

  “Damien is going to lose, and I’m going to free those women and girls he’s planning to auction off.”

  Surprise and confusion twisted his features. “Auction? No, Skye. He’s planning on placing these women with a genetically compatible mate.”

  “No, Elias,” I replied tartly, “he’s planning to auction them off. Nikolai has someone inside the pack. Terms of the auction are already being discussed openly.”

  A snort from across the aisle caught my attention. Linden was still managing to smirk despite his mouth being magically glued shut.

  “You have something to add?” Lulu asked archly, lifting a brow.

  His mouth fell open suddenly.

  “Speak,” she ordered, snapping her fingers like he was a dog she could bring to heel.

  He glared at her, working his jaw. “I don’t take orders from those beneath me.”

  Lulu rested her elbow on the table and propped up her chin on her hand. “Did you know that I could start snapping your bones with a single thought? I could break a rib so it pierces your lung or your heart. Maybe crack open that thick skull of yours. Or demolish every tooth in your foul mouth until you’re choking on your own blood.”

  He glowered for another second before turning to Elias. “She’s right, old man. You’re a fucking fool. Of course he’s selling them off to the highest bidder. War’s expensive, and men are willing to fight if they know they’re getting a shiny new toy at the end of their battle. The girls will fetch a higher price since they’re … untried. Damien was sure to keep them intact for his friends.”

  My stomach lurched dangerously, and I could see Lulu looked just as disturbed as I felt.

  “No,” Elias stammered, shaking his head. “He wouldn’t—”

  “And I’m the one you shut up?’ Linden snarked with a chuckle. “Damien was right. You really are blinded by devotion to your precious cause. Those girls will be passed out like fucking party favors. Every Alpha who was aligned with him before the Summit knew this. It was part of the fucking reason we joined. He’s taking the women and girls from eve
ry pack he controls. At the end of this war, he’ll have most of the female shifters in North America. His to assign to whatever mate he chooses.”

  Linden turned his glare to me. “Including you. Although, part of the deal I made was that you and your mother be returned to Long Mesa along with my wife and daughter at the end.”

  “Do you even hear yourself?” I whispered. “Your wife. Your daughter. Your sister and your niece. Does family mean nothing to you? What the hell made you so damn twisted inside?”

  “My father made it abundantly clear how much more valuable my darling sister was. Our entire childhood was him picking her over me. He always doted on her, coddled her. He was even going to make her mate Alpha of our pack,” he spat, venom dripping from his words.

  “So, this was all because Daddy liked her more? You’re a jealous asshat who decided to lash out because you couldn’t hack it as a real Alpha?”

  “The omega house was my idea.” Linden smirked at me scornfully. “Well, mine and Allan’s. After all the challenges that followed the war because of your mother, my father was too weak for another challenge. We offered him a deal. Let us control the omega house, and he could keep his pack.”

  “She’s your sister,” I choked out, horrified.

  “She is,” he replied grimly, “which is the only thing that kept me out of that house. I let Allan use her as often as he wanted, and I took the only other person Adalynne cared about for myself.”

  “Zara,” I murmured, stunned, “her best friend.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “Damien is going to win. Even with your father, your mate, and all your little allies, he’s going to win. And you know why? Because he’s been preparing for this for years. How do you think he got women from so many packs? How he got someone close to you in fucking Russia? He has people everywhere, embedded in every pack, who believe in what he’s doing.”

  I stared at him. “You really are a monster.”

  He laughed callously. “You have no idea what’s coming for you, little girl. I can’t wait to see you completely broken down the way your mother was.”

  “Shut him up,” I said quietly to Lulu.

  Instantly his mouth sealed shut, but there was glee in his bright green eyes as he watched us.

  I turned to Elias. “Now do you see who you’ve been helping? What you’ve done?”

  “I never wanted this,” he replied brokenly, looking utterly defeated.

  “I don’t care,” I remarked with a shrug. “All that matters is how you’re going to help us fix it.”

  His head hung sadly. “It’s too heavily guarded, Skye. You’ll never make it. It’s isolated, and they’ll see you coming from a mile away. And even if you have the manpower to take it down, he might kill everyone inside just for spite. The only way to get to it is …”

  “Is how?” I challenged, my tone hardening.

  “You’ll have to win,” he answered. “You’ll have to win and take Damien’s pack from him.”

  I smiled back at him. “That’s exactly what we plan to do.”

  33

  Skye

  I dropped into the seat beside Tate with a sigh, the pulse pounding in my skull making my head hurt. Across from me, Dimitri stood up and let Lulu get back to her seat, but I didn’t miss the hand that ghosted across her hip for a second as she slipped by him.

  “Well, that’s a lot worse than I thought,” I muttered darkly, running a hand through my hair.

  “He talked to you?” Nikolai asked quietly, his expression thoughtful and concerned as he studied me.

  I nodded, still working through what Linden and Elias had spilled.

  Tate grabbed my wrist. “Maren?”

  At least not all the news had been bad.

  I gave Tate a small smile. “She’s okay. For now.”

  “For now?” Her eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that even mean?”

  “She’s at a facility in New York, inside Norwood’s boundaries. Apparently it’s heavily guarded, but Linden and Elias don’t think he’ll hurt the younger girls.” I bit my lip.

  “They’re too valuable,” Lulu muttered darkly.

  “Valuable?” Tate repeated, worry creeping into her voice.

  “The auction?” Dimitri asked.

  We both nodded again, but I knew Tate needed more information, even if I hated to give it to her.

  “The girls and women that have been taken? Damien’s planning to auction them off. But they’re not abusing them.” I flinched. “No one wants damaged goods.”

  She hissed out a breath beside me. “I’ll fucking kill him. All of them.”

  “We can take it down,” Nikolai growled. “I’ll have the men coming land in New York instead and tear their way through his pack until we find the women and the children. We’ll free them all.”

  “He’ll see you coming and kill them,” I replied softly with a shake of my head. “The only way to stop this and free them is if we can kill Damien. We have to take him out of the equation.”

  “And Trace,” Tate muttered. “You know he’ll just take his father’s place. He hates you and Remy as much as Damien does.”

  “Then we’ll kill them all.” Natasha’s eyes glittered as she coldly announced exactly the conclusion we were all coming to.

  “We need a plan,” I said calmly. I looked at Nikolai. “How much longer until we land?”

  “We’re over Washington now,” he answered. “We’ll start our final descent in a few minutes.”

  “I should go sit down,” Natasha said absently. She turned and headed back for her seat.

  My pulse thrummed in my blood. It felt like I was going to burst apart any second. This close to home, and yet still having to wait, was its own special form of torture.

  “We should land in the next twenty minutes or so.”

  Relief surged through me like a tidal wave, washing away the anxiety and fear that had been festering for days.

  Our problems wouldn’t stop when we landed. In a lot of ways, they would just begin.

  But I felt stronger knowing I had Remy at my side and my pack at my back. That made the world a little less scary.

  “You’re nervous,” Nikolai stated beside me, his gray eyes assessing me.

  I turned and looked at him. “I’m anxious and excited and overwhelmed and …” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, and I’m nervous.”

  “But you’re not scared,” he said firmly, frowning.

  “Scared?”

  “Of what’s to come when we land.”

  My jaw tightened. “No. I’m not scared. I want my friends back and my family safe.” I gave him a pointed look. “All of my family.”

  His lips pulled up into a soft smile that reached his eyes.

  “So, you admit we’re family?” Dimitri asked, nudging my foot with his.

  I glared at my sort-of brother. “I admit Nikolai and Natasha are my family.”

  Tate snorted beside me and Lulu started laughing.

  “I’m the one who saved you, little sister,” he retorted.

  “Kidnapped,” I corrected curtly. “You kidnapped me.”

  His mouth dropped open. “You’re seriously deluded.”

  “Well, they fight like siblings,” Nikolai muttered, shaking his head. He glanced up as Alexei came down the aisle.

  “We’re making our final approach,” he told Nikolai before turning and flashing me a smile. “You’ll be home in about fifteen minutes, printsessa.”

  Nikolai stood and followed him back to the front of the plane, taking his seat beside Natasha again.

  Warmth spread in my chest, suffusing through my blood and seeping into my bones. I exhaled, trying to keep from squirming around in my seat.

  Tate leaned her head against my shoulder, her eyes staring down at the ground outside the window.

  I glanced over, momentarily overwhelmed by emotion when I saw the trees and the tiny houses below.

  The next fifteen minutes were going to be slow torture. I needed a distraction b
efore my wolf and I lost it.

  “You said earth elemental,” I said suddenly, looking at Lulu.

  She glanced up at me in surprise. “That’s right. That’s what my people are.”

  “But just earth? Is that specific or something?” I frowned, trying to focus on her as the plane turned.

  Tate sat up, also needing the distraction as the view outside her window turned to clouds and sky.

  “There are four elements,” Lulu answered. “Earth, fire, air, and water.”

  “Spirit,” Dimitri murmured.

  Her gaze flicked to him before turning to me. “Yes, and spirit. But spirit is not very common.”

  “So, that’s how you do what you do?” Tate asked, gesturing with her hand. “How you make the magic stuff happen?”

  Lulu nodded. “That’s why we’re called elementals.” She glared at Dimitri. “Not witches.”

  He smirked, but stayed quiet.

  “There’s a difference?” I asked slowly.

  Dimitri groaned. “You had to ask, didn’t you?”

  Lulu elbowed him. “Witches are something that were made up by idiotic parents who wanted to keep their unruly kids in line centuries ago. They’re a fairytale. Totally made up for stories and television and movies.”

  “Good to know,” Tate mumbled, biting her lower lip to keep from smiling.

  “Elementals can control an element found in nature,” Lulu added. “Like I told you before. We siphon magic from the element we’re bonded to. It’s why my people were able to create wolf-shifters. Wolves are earth creatures.”

  “So, that’s why shifters are wolves,” I said slowly.

  “No, that’s why you’re a wolf-shifter,” Lulu corrected. “You could have just as easily been a bear.”

  I almost choked on my own spit. “A bear?”

  “Sure. There’s bear shifters, mostly in Siberia and eastern Russia. I think there’s some around the Arctic Circle, too.”

  Tate and I must have had the same wide-eyed expression of shock because Dimitri started laughing.

  “I told you,” he said to Lulu, “the North American packs are a fucking mess. They don’t even think there’s other kinds of shifters out there.”

  “There’s more?” I cut in, the pitch of my voice raising slightly. I looked at Tate. “Did you know this?”