by Sayde Grace
“I can’t cook worth a damn, and while some of us here may be able to, I need everyone training for Saturday. Can you two help feed us?”
Ms. Joy narrowed her eyes at him. “I refuse to be a maid. I never did so with you and Cole, and I damn sure won’t now. I have no problem helping cook, but I will not wash and fold clothes.”
Ms. Angela turned to glare at her best friend. “Joy! Yes, you will. Our family needs us, and you know we can’t fight worth a crap. But we can help them this way. Now nod and say ok.”
The men gaped at the two women as they glared at each other. The thick scent of arousal filled the air, and Jasper growled to get the wolves’ attention. All eyes snapped to Jasper, who shook his head. “Outside to train. You can all work off some of that hunger, then we’ll eat food. Go.”
Beside him, Ivan smiled and winked. “I’d love to help cook. I’m pretty good at it too.”
Jasper rolled his eyes. For fuck’s sake, the guy had Vivian. Why would he…He didn’t have Vivian, neither had ever wanted a relationship, but Jasper refused to mount her during her heat and Ivan had done so to keep her from pain. Granted, he got release from it, but he hadn’t sought it out. Ivan was a good wolf, but he’d be damned if he handed Ms. Joy over to him.
“Out.” Jasper nearly growled. He shook his head, trying not to smile at Ms. Joy’s flushed face. Damn it, the women around here were going to drive him mad.
Jasper strode out to the back. His wolves had broken off into teams and currently were sparring with each other. Jasper nodded in approval. Tonight he wanted to see their fighting skills. Tomorrow they’d break into more teams, which would alternate from shifting and fighting to weapons training. Jasper wanted to learn each wolf’s best skills to place them in the most beneficial places. He had no doubt Velham would arm his guards with guns and instruct them to shoot to kill.
With any luck, his own wolves could use stealth and snap most of their necks before the gunfire rang out.
* * * *
Sidda waved her brothers into her room. The guard outside her door shook his head, but with one glare from Sidda, he stepped aside, letting her brothers inside.
Russ blinked in surprise. “How come all you have to do is glare or run off at the mouth and the guards move aside?”
That wasn’t entirely true. Brockton and Stephan certainly didn’t move aside. But it was a good question, one she didn’t really know how to answer. “Are the guards all Red Moons?”
Zeke shook his head. “No. Most of the full Red Moons were killed during the Pack Wars. The guards are mostly wolves who have be banished from their packs.”
Sidda nodded. It made sense. Dane could offer them all protection from prosecution in return for handling his dirty deeds. But it still didn’t explain why they bowed to Sidda.
“Russ, Zeke, can either of you read the guards? None truly seem to care what goes on with us just as long as we don’t interfere with them.”
Russ tugged his top lip between his teeth. “They read like humans. When I try to read dad, his mind is split. Like there’s two people in there, same with you. The guards don’t have that feel. Is that weird? I mean I know they’re wolves, because I can smell it on them, but there is only one presence in their mind.”
That wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. She’d hoped that the guards were showing her some symbol of respect by bowing to her. Instead, she had a sneaking suspicion that Dane’s scientist had developed a way to suppress the guards’ wolves. It’d be genius if they were able to keep their wolf strength but not have the instincts to challenge Dane. With his powers, he’d be able to control them and sic ’em on whoever, whenever.
Sidda sighed. “I think Dane is using something medical on them. When my mom found me, she knew what I was and knew I had to be hidden. She took me to a Luna doctor she’d dated, and he gave me some shots that kept my wolf from coming out until Jasper and I mated. I’m wondering if Dane has developed a similar drug to use along with his own powers to completely control the wolves here. Mine has been very subdued since coming here. She doesn’t whisper to me. What about y’all?”
“We’ve never shifted.” Russ glanced at Zeke, who nodded.
“That’s not good. And, if my hunch is right, Dane will use that drug against the Lunas coming Saturday. I’ve gotta see if I can contact Jasper. Read the guards and see what you come up with. First thing in the morning we begin training. Now go rest. We’re gonna need the energy.” Sidda smiled at the two young boys who were going to be forced to grow up almost overnight. Both had already suffered enough over the years, but they held a hint of innocence still. The death and carnage to come would take that innocence from them, but there was nothing Sidda could do.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jasper’s dreams were filled with images of him and Sidda at the cabin. He’d followed her there in wolf form, hoping to get her to change, but for some reason, she hadn’t. Then when he neared her, he realized why. She was in full heat and shifting was impossible. All that mattered to him was them being together.
Jasper sighed, bringing himself away from the memory of the dream. He glanced down the table at Cole, who was smirking at Vivian, who in turn glared back at him cussing a blue streak in Romanian. Jasper shook his head. Cole had bitten off more than he could chew this time, but the poor bastard didn’t realize it yet. Ivan sat down beside him, smiling at the two fighting at the end of the table too.
“I like your brother. He would have made a great wolf, maybe a little of a free roamer.” Ivan wagged his eyebrows. “Nonetheless, he would have made an entertaining wolf.”
Jasper nodded in agreement. “He’s that all right. But for now let’s begin going over what we’re to do today.”
“We now have forty wolves prepared to fight. Most are from other packs, but ten more of our own pack members have shown up. Some of the wolves have said Blue Moons are living with them and that they’ve heard of more. Once Dane is taken care of, I believe our pack mates will come back.”
Jasper nodded absently. A buzzing began in his mind, a small whisper of Sidda’s voice, then without warning, he saw her, smelled her, and could nearly feel her. She’d opened her mind and body to her Alpha.
Jasper’s feet weighed heavy as he trotted back to their room to try and speak with her in privacy. Once the door shut behind him, he sank on the bed, opening his mind to her. In response, she smiled through his Alpha link, and his world went right. All the trepidation of the last few days vanished with just one vision of her smile.
“Sidda?”
“Oh thank god. I was scared that after breaking the bond we wouldn’t have any link at all.” Her mind’s voice cracked.
“I’m your Alpha. You will always be connected with me if you open your mind. Jesus, Sidda I miss you. Please tell me everything is going okay and tomorrow I can bring you home.”
“Tomorrow night I’ll be with you at home, I promise. But first, I’ve got news.”
“I don’t like it when you have news.” Jasper cringed. News from Sidda usually had a catch.
“Yeah, and this one you’re really not going to like.”
“Sidda?”
“Dane is forcing me to be marked by either Stephan or Brockton at the party. He is going to make me mark them back. But I think I talked him out of letting Brockton touch me, and there’s something wrong between Dane and Brockton, so tomorrow before the party I’m going to push their buttons. I just need to know if I’m marked by Stephan what will happen.”
“I’ll kill the fucking bastard for touching you is what will happen.” Jasper snarled. Anger whipped through him, pushing him closer to fury.
“Jasper, he doesn’t really want to. We’ve all been wrong about Stephan. Dane is controlling him and the other guards with more than just his powers. Dane’s brainwashed Stephan into thinking he has to do the things he does. Stephan wasn’t the one to kill those babies, it had to be Brockton. Russ and Zeke are going to work on finding that out what Dane has done to the
guards .”
“Sidda, I don’t give a fuck who is doing what. No one has a right to touch my mate, no one.” His growl echoed through his mind to hers and back. Yeah, he was beyond pissed.
“Jasper, listen. Since I’ve been here, my wolf has been silent. I can use my power, which by the way I’m very good at, but she’s not really there. I feel like I was before, but just still have my powers. I need you to ask Doc if it’s possible Dane could be weakening the wolves but keeping his guards’ strength. None of them have tried to harm me or our brothers’ but they follow Dane’s orders.”
If Dane was keeping Sidda and the other wolves down, it would weaken their strength. They wouldn’t shift, making them weaker than Jasper or Ivan, and very easy for Dane to control. Not to mention that with Sidda’s wolf suppressed again, it’d be harder for her to come into heat around Stephan or Brockton.
“Sidda, please don’t ask me to wait while some other wolf marks what is mine and only mine.” He rubbed his hand across his jaw, fighting back his canines.
“Jasper Gandillion, I swear to you if you show up before the right time, I will use my power on you again. But this time I’ll knock your ass out for a month!”
“Sidda…” He growled, hating that he couldn’t stop her. “I will stop you from doing that again.”
“Oh really? Well, listen here, pup. I’m going to get our family out of here, and you are going to wait for the right time to rush in. Believe in us, Jasper. We can do this.” She stayed silent for a second, which gave Jasper a moment to calm down. She was right, but damn, he hated his mate being in the position she had put herself in. She needed to be taught a lesson.
Soon he’d teach it to her.
“Keep flaunting that, and I will be forced to restrain you when I get you home.”
Her throaty laugh had his cock hard and aching. “Oh, hon, I’m so looking forward to it. But first you’ll have to catch me. For now though, go find Doc and check that out for me. Either me or Russ will try to seep back into your perverted mind. By the way, when I get out of here, you will explain what the hell you were thinking about mounting me.”
“I’ll do more than explain, I’ll show you. I love you, Sidda, please be careful. I’ll reach you tonight. Stay open to me, understand?”
“I love you, too, but Russ is a strong reader, and personally, I’d like for him not to know everything I’m thinking, if you get me.”
“Stay open, babe. It comforts my beast and myself to know you’re safe. Please.”
“All right. Gotta go, love you.”
Shit, he’d wanted more time with her. With a sigh, he pulled himself from the bed to find Doc. Jasper rubbed his eyes, hoping his emotions stayed intact. The bedroom door slammed behind him. Down the hall, Ivan’s thick laughter flowed from the library. With one sniff of the air, Jasper knew instantly that Ms. Joy sat with him. Every instinct in Jasper screamed for him to rush her to safety, but then sanity won out. She’d beat him senseless if he interfered. Gritting his teeth, he strode out onto the back deck to find Doc watching the troops fight.
Doc straightened at Jasper’s presence. “Morning…” Doc’s eyes searched his. Jasper smiled, knowing Doc wasn’t entirely sure what to call him now.
“Jasper, Doc. Just call me Jasper. I have a feeling we’ll be more than Luna brothers soon.” Jasper nodded at Ms. Angela, who watched the pack training.
“We’ll see. What can I help with besides making sure they are all healthy?”
Jasper blew out a breath. “I spoke with Sidda. Our mate bond is gone, but she believes me to be her Alpha, so we are still connected through a pack bond. Thankfully my mind reading power enhances my Alpha power to link to my wolves. All the wolves who believe me to be their Alpha share a link with me which allows me to sense them, either as a hum of energy or, in Sidda’s case, a clear voice. I can sense her stronger because she is an Alpha female. ” Jasper hated the taste of that fact. “Sidda wants to know if Dane could have found a way to medically drown down a wolf, like what you did with her. She said his guards don’t respond like regular wolves, and she thinks he’s controlling them. She also mentioned, that since she’d been there, her wolf has stopped whispering, but she still has her power.”
Doc raised his eyebrows before glancing back at the training. “If I could figure out a way to keep Sidda’s wolf at bay all these years then I’m sure Dane could do something similar. He’s got some geniuses working for him. To be honest, if he’s found a way to do that, add it with his powers and he’d be able to wage war on humans easily.”
War against the humans is what Dane’s ultimate goal would be. But first he had to take control of all the worlds Lunas to do so. “If Sidda’s still got her powers, that means his guards will still have their strength, right?”
“Theoretically, but any time you suppress the shifting gene, you run the risk of taking the power away. For Dane to take away his guards’ power to shift is crazy.”
Crazy unless you have the most threatening wolves, the ones who under normal circumstances would challenge you. “Maybe. Sidda believes Dane has brainwashed Stephan, and that Brockton is the one who is responsible for most of the murders.”
Doc cocked his head to the side. “Stephan was about eleven when Dane took him from his parents. As I remember, Dane had talked the elders into giving Stephan to him as a show of loyalty.”
Jasper’s eyes narrowed. He’d never heard that version of Stephan’s story. “What? I thought he killed his parents and Dane took him in.”
“No, that’s what we were all told, but years ago, I treated Stephan’s pack Alpha. Dane saw Stephan’s potential and wanted him as he hadn’t gotten any heirs yet. He convinced the pack elders to start spreading rumors of Stephan being forest crazy. Soon the pack wanted him gone, and Stephan’s parents couldn’t stop it. The pack handed Stephan over to Dane. No telling what the boy was told over the years. But that doesn’t make up for the things he’s done.”
Jasper wanted to agree, he had to agree, otherwise the wolf he hated nearly as much as Dane would have his pity. He couldn’t show pity to any of Dane’s wolves. He certainly couldn’t show any pity to a wolf who was trying to take his mate.
“Sir?” Ivan marched toward him with his head lowered in respect. “I believe we are all paired up and ready to show you the results of our training.”
Jasper raised one eyebrow. “We? Last I heard you were working on Ms. Joy.”
Ivan grinned then quickly wiped the smile away. “Maybe a bit, she’s lovely. But the pack is ready for you.”
Ms. Joy could do whatever she wanted, and Ivan was decent. Right now he had an army of wolves to get ready for the upcoming day. Later Sidda would get him the inside details while Doc figured out what Dane used on his wolves. That secret could never be publicized. If it were, the entire Luna Nation was in trouble. Humans could use it against them and control them.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Dear, please stop pacing. If we are to train you, then we need to start. This pacing back and forth while chewing your nails to the quick is getting us nowhere. Now sit.” Delilah patted the seat next to her on the sofa.
Sidda glanced over at Russ and Zeke, who sat at the table with Scarlett. All three stared at her, waiting for her to sit. Sidda blew out a frustrated breath as she flopped down on the couch.
“I can’t believe Jasper hasn’t let me know what Doc has to say. He should have already found out something.”
Delilah smiled. “Well, dear, Jasper also has a small army of wolves to get going too. He is probably very stressed and busy right now. Let’s start with what we need to do before tomorrow night.”
Sidda knew that, but it damn sure didn’t help her any. She wanted to know exactly what was happening with Jasper and the pack. “I know. All right, let’s get this going before someone interrupts us.”
She sat up straight on the sofa. Her courage had began to fade slightly when she hadn’t heard from Jasper. She’d hoped he’d have given her informa
tion on the guards, but that didn’t matter. They would all be imprisoned or dead by tomorrow evening, but she still wanted to know what Dane had done to them. If it happened to be a drug, she wanted it destroyed, never to be used to control anyone again.
“Sid, me and Russ made a map of all the places we know that lead out of the house. And some places to hide we’ve found too.” Zeke held up a sheet of paper.
Sidda rose to stand in between his and Russ’s chairs. The drawing detailed nooks and crannies plus a few spots that would allow them to sneak out.
“All right, boys, these that lead to the woods,” Sidda pointed to two paths on the map, “how easy is it to get to these places?”
Russ chewed on his bottom lip and shrugged. “This one,” he ran a finger across one pencil mark, “leads through the kitchen to a small pantry that opens up toward the woods. It’s a utility entrance for groceries. The path from there to the wood-line is pretty open though.”
Zeke pointed to a second path. “This one leads to Father’s office, but the hidden door on the side wall opens to a tunnel. That tunnel goes all the way to the woods outside of the gates.”
Oh, that one sounded good. But it was located in Dane’s office, which was a huge problem.
“Can you get in Dane’s office without being noticed?”
Zeke nodded, but Scarlett shook her head. “Delilah and I will be well guarded. There’s no way Zeke and Russ can get us out without being noticed.”
Sidda grinned. “Oh, but that’s where you are wrong. I can still pull my calming powers to make the guards fall unconscious in a deep sleep if I open up to Jasper. I won’t be able to go with you all, so I need you to grab as many files from Dane’s office as you can. If you can get his laptop, I’ll need that too.”
Russ rose and began pacing the same path Sidda had walked. His eyebrows drew together in a deep frown that made him look like Jasper.
“I don’t like it.”
