by Moira Rogers
Eden gave up thinking and acted on instinct, grabbing Kaley by the shoulders and dragging them both to the floor. “Shh,” she whispered, pulling the girl into her lap. Heat spilled from her hands, and she smoothed one up to the back of Kaley’s head, unsure what she was doing but driven by something beyond herself. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”
Kaley shuddered. “He was dead,” she babbled. “He was dead and now he’s not, but he doesn’t believe it.”
“We’ll make him believe it. We’ll have time.” She tightened her grip on Kaley and poured all her belief, all her hope into every word. “You’re not alone with this anymore. You don’t have to be the alpha. Jay’s here, and his friends, and me too. We’re going to make it better.”
Another shudder, and the girl’s near-sobs subsided into whimpers. “I’m so tired.”
Oh God, Eden’s heart ached. She tucked Kaley’s face against her shoulder and whispered more words, soothing lies of comfort wrapped in brazen confidence. She poured all of her hope into Kaley and prayed things were going well in Memphis.
If Zack didn’t come home, Kaley would be the next to break. But she wouldn’t be the last.
Jay cut the engine and peered out at the sprawling, two-story apartment complex. Paint curled off pitted siding, windows had been taped, and at least one door had been broken in recently, the jamb still splintered. “You sure they’ll come?”
Zack stared blankly at the broken door. “They’ll come.”
“Do you want to go inside?”
“Probably should.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Might be some stuff I left behind that no one’s picked over yet.”
“Eden said people had to leave their things behind.” Jay tugged the keys from the ignition. “What happened that last night? Before you went to the farm.”
“They were coming to kill everyone.” Zack bit off a harsh laugh. “Mostly. The bastard stalking Mae tipped their hand. He didn’t want her to get caught up in the purge by mistake, so he showed up and told her to pack her bags like a good girl.”
The man had been obsessed enough to follow her. No way would he have risked her getting hurt in the crossfire. “How did you get everyone away?”
“Lorelei.” Zack’s lips twitched. “She’s not the strongest wolf, but she’s the one you want around in a crisis. I never had another alpha to help me run the pack, but everyone trusts Lorelei. She kept them calm enough to grab what they could, and Quinn—the blond wolf—he’d gotten us a couple of junky cars none of the Memphis pack would recognize. We were gone before Scott realized Mae had given him the slip. We didn’t realize he was fucking crazed enough to pay a witch for a tracking spell.”
Fletcher’s car pulled up beside the truck, and Jay nodded to him and Colin. “Remember the plan, Zack. We don’t fight if we don’t have to. Not right now.”
“Yeah.” Zack reached through the open window to let himself out of the truck, his gaze still fixed on the apartment. “Mae said her friend packed up a U-Haul with all the crap she and Kaley hid in their storage unit. I gotta get that stuff back to her. Them.”
Jay followed him. “It goes beyond that. If we start fighting, we can’t stop until the leaders of this little revolution are dead, gone. You wouldn’t think having a power void could be worse than something like this, but it can. I’ve seen it happen.”
Zack stared at him for a tense moment before turning for the broken door. “I’ve only got so much in me, Ancheta. You’ll have to worry about the world.”
“It’s not a suggestion, Green. It’s an order.”
A flinch. “Yes, sir.”
Jay hated like hell to press the issue, to get controlling, but if he didn’t bring Zack to heel… “You asked me to take care of them the best way I know how. This is it.”
“I got it,” Zack snapped, a hint of growl hiding under the words. “I don’t even want to fight. Do you understand? That’s how fucking tired I am. I want to get the girls the shit they need and be gone.”
He smashed through the unrepaired door and slammed it behind him. As Jay stood there, chilled by the words, Fletcher moved to stand at his side. “That is one broken-ass wolf, buddy.”
Gone. “Zack is Eden’s cousin. He can’t be broken, for her sake if nothing else.”
“He’s halfway to dead, and his pack knows it.” Fletcher crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the truck. “I was with him when the pink-haired girl showed up to tell him about the U-Haul. She’s a clever little thing, made it crystal clear to him that the stuff they’d put aside could give them a real start on the farm. Made something clear to me too.”
“What’s that?”
“The only thing keeping that man going is the young alpha’s safety. Mae must have used Kaley’s name a round dozen times. I don’t know if she’s the carrot or the stick, but she sure does get Zack moving.”
“I know.” And it was a valuable piece of information. “But I’m not about to dangle her in front of him unless lives are at stake. An alpha doesn’t manipulate, right?”
“An alpha shouldn’t have to.” Fletcher rubbed a hand over his arm with a sigh. “A submissive shouldn’t have to, either. It hurts, watching them twist themselves in knots to try to steal the protection they’re owed. But I guess Zack’s girls are going to need some time before they’re ready to come to you. Maybe once this is over.”
He sure the hell hoped so. “Colin knows he’s not supposed to start shit in there, but keep an eye on him, huh?”
Fletcher glanced back toward his car, where Colin was in the passenger seat, staring at his phone. “We had a chat. I don’t think he’ll start anything, but if they do…” Fletcher huffed out a breath. “Oh, they’ll fucking well regret it. He’s in a mood.”
Jay walked toward the apartment and gestured for Fletcher to join him. “Did he uncover something else?”
“Yeah. A pair of the enforcers were new to Memphis. Their last alpha ran them out of New York because they were endangering the pack with their sadistic games. Not that the New York alpha objected to the sadism, but they didn’t always bother to finish their kills. Human law enforcement found a few victims.”
“Franz and Jonas,” Zack said, appearing at the doorway, his gaze utterly dead. “They like their women to bleed out under them. Even in Memphis, no one would let them play with wolves—unless it was an alpha bitch who needed to be put in her place or in a shallow grave.”
Jesus Christ. Jay groaned and rubbed his face. “We’ll add them to the list of things to take care of once we have things in order in Clover.”
Zack bared his teeth in a smile. “Only Jonas. Kaley ripped out Franz’s throat.”
“Way to go, Kaley,” Fletcher muttered as he slipped past Zack. Jay saw his shoulders stiffen. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” Zack stepped aside so Jay could enter the apartment.
The place had been utterly destroyed. Drawers lay on the floor, pulled free of their housings and smashed apart, their contents scattered. Paper and silver shards of broken DVDs littered the front room, the refrigerator had been tipped over in the kitchen, and curses and threats covered the walls in multiple garish shades of spray paint.
All that paled next to the smell, the unmistakable odor of stale human urine that drifted up from the carpet. The wolves who had trashed the place had wanted to make their disdain for Zack as clear as possible—they’d not only ransacked his belongings, they’d marked his home as theirs.
Disgusted, Jay surveyed the room again, looking for anything salvageable beyond the wanton destruction. “Bastards.”
Zack leaned against the open door with a sigh. “Better things than people.”
The rumble of an engine outside left Jay clenching his hands into fists. “Is that them?”
A black SUV with tinted windows pulled past the door, and Zack tensed. “That’s them,” he confirmed as Colin’s door slammed outside. “If there’s only one SUV, they didn’t bring the whole crew. Weren’t expecting to need the
m, I guess.”
“Good. They’ll be less likely to hassle us.” Jay stepped back outside, onto the cracked sidewalk edging the front of the apartment building. This part of Memphis was rough, the kind of place where the neighbors would be watching but wouldn’t intervene.
Colin fell into place on his left. Zack moved silently to stand at his right, and Fletcher pulled the battered door shut behind them but stayed at Jay’s back. “Remember, Colin—”
“I know,” Colin snarled, hooking his thumbs through his belt. “No killing them.”
Jay wasn’t any happier about it than Colin was, but that was his own dirty little secret. His burden to bear as alpha.
The SUV doors opened in unison. Four wolves spilled into the parking lot and arrayed themselves in a crooked line. A tall redhead with dark eyes and a chilling smile took the one step necessary to stand ahead of the rest. “Zachary Green. You’re one stubborn son of a bitch, aren’t you?”
Zack stared at him.
“You don’t talk to him,” Jay said firmly. “You talk to me.”
The redhead shifted his gaze slowly, then took the time to study Jay from his boots to the top of his head with his lips twisted in a sneer of utter derision. “And who the fuck do you think you are?”
Moment of truth. “Jay Ancheta, alpha of the Clover sanctuary. Part of your pack came to me looking for protection, and I’ve given it to them.”
Mutters. One of the wolves bit off a curse. The leader smiled. “Well, I’m Christian Peters, and I’ve lived in Memphis long enough to know that the closest sanctuary is down in Alabama. I think you’re full of shit.”
“That’s what your buddy Scott thought, too, when he came looking for Mae.” Jay shrugged. “He’s dead now. Same thing that’s going to happen to anyone else from Memphis who tries to violate my sanctuary.”
Christian’s smile vanished. “So that’s what happened to Scott.” He seemed to be picking his words more carefully, but the cunning in his eyes was matched by barely restrained fury. “He never had much sense when it came to the girl. I suppose we all have our weaknesses.”
“If that’s what you want to call it.”
A hulking man butted against Christian’s shoulder, his teeth bared. “This is bullshit.”
Christian held out his arm, blocking the other man. “Watch it, Jonas. The man declared sanctuary. That makes him very dangerous or very, very stupid.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what he says. I want the other bitch, the one who killed Franz.”
Zack lunged so fast Fletcher’s hand closed on the empty space where he’d been standing. Jay snatched at Zack’s shirt and grabbed his arm, nearly getting yanked off his feet for his trouble.
Too late. Jonas’s eyes narrowed, and a slow smile curled his lips. “Uh-huh. Kaley.” He drawled out her name. “Tasted real sweet. Bad manners, but I could beat that out of her.”
Unchecked power surged. Zack roared his fury and ripped free, leaving half of his shirt in Jay’s grip. Christian smiled and stepped aside, letting Jonas charge past him to meet Zack in the middle of the parking lot in a clash of fists.
“Fuck,” Fletcher snarled. “Want me to try to pull him back?”
“No.” Jay’s own fury burned hot. Fuck it. He could let them fight it out, take on the rest of them. Destroy the bastards the way they’d trashed Zack’s home and the lives of his pack.
His pack. Jay’s now. He remembered Eden’s voice, sweet and low, murmuring about protecting them—together.
She deserved better than this. They all did.
Jay gave in to the instinct under the anger, let the power of an alpha rise to eclipse everything else. He moved, rushing forward to grab Jonas by the back of the head. He yanked the cursing, spitting wolf out of Zack’s clutches, spun and slammed his head down onto the SUV’s shiny hood. “Enough.”
He dropped the man and turned again. It didn’t matter if he slumped to the pavement or charged. Jay had friends, pack, who would watch his back and make sure Jonas never reached his mark.
No. Instead, Jay strode toward Christian, stopping mere inches from the other alpha’s face. “Do you acknowledge the sanctuary, or do I have to pound every one of your fucking faces in right now?”
The other wolf was strong. Dominant, to be sure—enforcers had to be—but when Jay leaned in, Christian leaned back, a tiny, telling retreat.
A dominant, but not alpha. Not a leader.
Christian stepped back and snapped his fingers before pointing at Jonas. One of the silent wolves at his back dragged the dazed man to his feet and hauled him to the cargo area of the SUV. Christian retreated another step and looked past Jay. “We’ll respect your sanctuary, but you keep that feral bastard on a leash and out of our territory.”
Fletcher had twisted Zack’s arm behind his back, and power spiked from them both as Fletcher spoke, quiet and firm. Colin stood, stone faced and silent.
“This is the last place we want to be,” Jay shot back.
“Fine.” The man retreated to the passenger side door. “Be clear of the county by sunset, or the pack will come hunting.”
“Uh-huh.” Jay knew better. Christian had lost face in front of his pack. Even if he was too much of a coward to come after Jay, he’d never forget the humiliation of not being able to put him in his place in his own territory. And he would never, ever forgive.
A problem for another time. Jay turned his back, dismissing the man as soundly as possible. “Colin?”
Colin stayed silent until the SUV peeled out of the parking lot in a screech of tires, leaving the stink of burnt rubber behind. “None of them are strong enough to take control of the rest, and none are willing to step aside. That’s good for us. And bad for us.”
Good because a pack without a leader couldn’t stand. Bad because a pack without a leader didn’t know how to do a goddamn thing but fight.
Jay shook off the sense of foreboding. “You straight, Zack?”
“Yeah.” Zack shoved a hand through his disheveled hair, pulling at the too-long strands with a growl. “I should have known they’d sink a verbal knife. They do it whenever they can.”
“It’s all they’ve got.” Jay rubbed the back of his wrist over his forehead. “Let’s get this done and get the hell out of here.”
The kitchen porch had always been Eden’s favorite. The driveway led to the front porch, but years of hungry farmers and hungrier kids had worn a path straight to the kitchen, one everyone followed these days. Her grandmother’s rocking chairs were back in their old place, and Eden found the squeaky rhythm soothing as she rocked slowly and listened to the bugs chirping and the fainter noises of Lorelei overseeing the preparation of dinner.
Shane was nearly silent beside her, his feet planted flat on the porch and his chair still. The companionable silence had been welcome at first, but the nervous flutters in her stomach doubled with each second that ticked past. Instead of admiring the view or enjoying the quiet, she strained her eyes looking for the first hint of headlights, the visible confirmation of Jay and Zack’s safety that a phone call from enemy territory couldn’t provide.
She needed a distraction. She sipped her tea and cleared her throat. “How long have you and Jay known each other?”
“About ten years, I guess. Could be twelve.”
“And all four of you worked together?”
He laughed. “More like we didn’t, not worth a damn, anyway. We met down in Houston. There was a big pack there—bigger than you’d expect with one guy in charge. He was old and crotchety as hell, and he ran the place like it all belonged to him. I guess because it did.”
She’d already witnessed the tension between Jay and Fletcher. Too many strong personalities would be trouble when only one could lead. “So what did you do? Did you all leave together? Or just all leave?”
“We tried to travel together for a while. Finally, we figured out we do better if we can have our own space.” He squinted out into the dying evening light. “Dispersal, that’s
what they call it. You know anything about wolves?”
“A little.” She ran her thumb along the edge of her mug and stared into the darkness. “When I was a kid, I read every book in the library that had anything to do with wolves. I wanted to be like Zack. Growing up, he was my hero.”
“And he was born a wolf.”
His tone was inquisitive enough to express interest in the answer without demanding it. “He was born a wolf,” she confirmed. “His mother was one.” She hesitated. “And I guess his father was too, whoever he happened to be. His mother seemed pretty certain it couldn’t have been my uncle.”
“No, it really couldn’t have been, huh?” Shane sat forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “This isn’t a pretty life. The few wolves who don’t wind up dead or traumatized have other problems. They don’t fit in with humans, they have urges and instincts they can’t necessarily control…”
“So I’m learning.” She glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t want the wolf to bite me, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“It wasn’t.” He met her gaze. “You and Jay are going to do a good job. You’ve both got it in you.”
It felt nice to have the approval of someone who understood, and even better when it came from one of Jay’s closest friends. “Thank you. I hope you’re going to stick around for a while and help us.”
“I think I might.”
The door from the kitchen creaked open and Mae slipped out. “Kaley’s still out,” she said, her voice no louder than the squeak of Eden’s chair. “She hasn’t slept much since they first came for Zack.”
Shane rose, stripped off his hoodie and held it out to Mae. “It’s too chilly for no sleeves.”
Eden tensed, but Mae didn’t recoil. Her gaze stayed fixed on his hand as she reached out and accepted the offering without touching him. Eden held her breath, afraid to upset the quiet balance of the moment as Mae tugged the sweatshirt over her head. It fell to mid-thigh and enveloped her body, but she seemed to relax as the fabric draped around her, just like Eden had relaxed the first morning when she’d wrapped herself in Jay’s shirt and taken comfort from being surrounded by the scent of a strong wolf.
