Forbidden Love (Stone Pack Book 1)

by Harper Phoenix

  She stretches up on tiptoes and presses her lips to mine. Despite my handful of her hair restricting her movement, she manages it. I look deep into her eyes. And I see a resigned look there. Good. She’s going to stay. Thank fuck for that. I leave her in my room and head back to the kitchen where everyone else is ready and waiting on my order. I take Brad aside.

  ‘Devon is in our room—do not let her out of your sight, Brad. If she goes to piss, you sit right outside the door. She’s fuelled by guilt right now, and I have a bad feeling she’s going to disobey me and make her own way to the warehouse. You cannot let that happen—you feel me?’ He nods then breaks out in a grin.

  ‘Would love to be a fly on the wall if she does disobey you,’ he sniggers.

  ‘Well, if she succeeds, Brad, you won’t need to be, ‘cause I’ll fucking bury you in it.’

  ‘Harsh man, real harsh.’ He shakes his head at me in mock disbelief. Fucker. I slap him on his back and signal for the rest to suit up and head out.

  ***

  It’s dark. We’ve scoped the place out for the entire day, and I’m certain Brad’s intel is spot on. Howard and Logan have maintained a close proximity all day, while the others have fanned out around all sides. We can see all the entry and exit points between us. We have com radios and enough weapons to take down a small country. This isn’t about how nicely it’s done—it’s about speed and accuracy. I want it over with. As for Maiya, I owe it to Devon to at least see if she’s being held here. I can only hear male voices and they are muffled at best, possibly soundproofed walls. We’ve watched as the guys take turns in their guard duty. They are sloppy and stupid, making for easy targets. We move in, leaving Logon on sniper duty. Howard takes the two men nearest us out in about thirty seconds, not even slowing in his stride. We enter through the side door and signal the rest to do the same. They all enter and get in position, leaving only Dom outside running perimeter, Logan watching his back. I move silently, gun in one hand and my knife in the other. I’m not stopping to ask questions. These fuckers are going to ground today.

  Howard moves to clear one room, while I stop and listen as I hear muffled voices in another, arguing. I strain my ears but even with my wolf hearing it’s hard to catch the gist of what’s being said. I pin myself up against the wall and listen as the voices come closer and become much clearer. I’m dressed all in black, and my face is covered, camouflaged. My adrenaline is pumping through my body, and I’m fixing to get this done. Itching for a release. Another minute passes and I get my chance, in the form of two kitsunes, small, but well built. I slice the first one’s throat clean and through to the oesophagus. I leave him to flail and flap like a fish out of water while I deal with number two. He’s shocked at my sudden appearance, I can tell, but I don’t give him time to shout for help, pummelling my knife into his heart. The only noise he makes is a gurgle and a gasp before he also crumples to the floor next to idiot number one. Howard catches up to me, and I smell blood on him too. He signals with his fingers, two dead. Total so far, six dead. I move further down the corridor until we meet Jacob—all clear on his side, he signals, three dead. Totalling nine. Fuck, and we thought this was just a small problem. As we clear the last and only corridor left I smell it, and my stomach turns. Death. Human and female. We round the corner, and I fear the worst, I can’t make out any other scent because the stench of death is so strong.

  The room at the end has a mattress in the middle of the floor and on it lays a broken body, bloody and at least a day old. I can’t make out who it is, so I move closer. Howard holds up a hand. I stop in my tracks. He walks around the mattress looking for any signs of booby traps—there are none. So I move the blonde hair from the face. It’s so swollen and bruised I can’t tell if its Devon’s girl. Whoever it was, died a fucking horrible death. These bastards are sick and twisted. From the smell alone, I know she’s been raped by multiple men, and the torture she faced is just warped. Sick bastards doesn’t describe what they are well enough. The poor girl has been through so much hell I bet she was grateful for death. I feel sick, and I want to kill the motherfuckers all over again.

  Howard steps up beside me. ‘Not Maiya, she isn’t here.’

  Relief floods me, and I realise just how much I want to find her, for Devon.

  ‘She was here. I got her scent in another room, but she was alive when she left.’

  ‘Boss?’ Harrison says over the com in my ear

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘I think you need to come out and see for yourself.’

  Howard and I look at each other, and I know it’s something fucking bad. I make my way through the warehouse and out the back where Harrison is in the treeline. As soon as I walk towards him, I get the scent on the wind.

  ‘Fuck,’ Howard spits out. I can’t form the words to go with how I feel. I’m just hoping it isn’t what I’m thinking. Because if it is, we have a fucking traitor in our pack.

  ***

  We bury the girl in the surrounding woods, giving her a small bit of decency. Her family, wherever they are, will never know how she came to her end, and I know that will forever haunt me because everyone deserves peace, but I can’t give it to them without putting all of us in the frame, and putting us on the police radar was not good practice. We had to stay clean. Always. So we always cleaned up any mess. And this was definitely one big fucking mess. We burned the mattress, the bodies, and all other evidence that anything had happened, while I sent Harrison on a mission following the scent in the woods. After a couple of hours, he was back and very pissed. He’d followed the scent for six miles before it disappeared at a fuel station. He’d spent a while backtracking, trying to find it again and came back with nothing. So it was a bust. But not over. I’d been on with Brad, and he was hacking every CCTV in the area—we needed to know for sure. Being a traitor carried the death sentence, no exceptions. So we couldn’t be half-assed about it, we needed hard evidence.

  ***

  We arrive back, and Devon comes straight to me. Brad has a grim look on his face, telling me he had something. First though, I need to speak to Devon. I sit her down in the library.

  ‘We didn’t find her, baby, but she’d definitely been there.’

  She sags in her chair, with a look of desperation on her face.

  ‘We will find her, baby.’ I just wasn’t sure if we’d find her alive, but I didn’t say that out loud.

  ‘What did you find there? Were they there?’

  I nodded

  ‘We killed nine more, so this is bigger than we initially thought. They didn’t come unprepared.’

  She just sits in a trance, her eyes glazed over, not really with me, but not completely elsewhere either. ‘Devon?’

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘It’s not over. I’ve got Brad and the others all working on leads. I won’t stop until they’re all dead.’

  She nods her head, but she’s still distant.

  I’m so relieved they all made it back in one piece. I’d been so worried they wouldn’t. The relief of seeing Jared walk through that door was immense. For a minute I forgot about Maiya, and then the guilt came crashing in like a tsunami at a tidal barrier when he told me they hadn’t found her. This was all my fault. They’d taken her to persuade me to do what they needed me to do. And I had escaped and left her in the shit. I would never forgive myself for that. Ever.

  ‘Devon, did you hear me?’ I nod not really sure if I did or not. ‘Baby, there’s something else.’

  I snap my head up and stare into his eyes—what else could there possibly be?

  ‘What?’

  ‘I think Kristen is working with them.’ My head span. Holy fucking shit balls. No way?

  ‘I can’t even wrap my head around that, Jared. I’m so confused. I thought you and the kitsunes hated each other? An age old grudge?’

  ‘We do, and I can’t believe it either, but the scent was there along with theirs. Kristen had been there.’

  ‘And you’re sure it was by choice
and not by force?’

  ‘I have Brad working the CCTV in the area, to be sure.’

  I nod my head. ‘Why me, Jared?’

  ‘I don’t know, baby, but I do know they are sick fuckers and are getting nowhere near you ever again.’ His choice of words has me reeling. You don’t use ‘sick fuckers’ unless you saw things that made you sick to the stomach.

  ‘What did you find, Jared?’

  He shakes his head. He doesn’t want to impart that info obviously.

  ‘Jared, tell me?’

  I wasn’t going to give up on this so he may as well just spill and spare me the back and forth.

  ‘Nothing you need to hear about, baby.’

  ‘Jared, this is because of me! I do need to hear it!’

  He sighs long and low. ‘Baby, they kill for the sake of it. Not because they need to but because it’s fun to them.’ I stop my whining and just look deep into his green orbs. He was cut up over this. And he felt bad. I could tell.

  ‘Jared, share this with me. It’s not your burden to bear—its mine.’

  He shakes his head.

  ‘They are twisted sick fuckers who need putting down. I’m not giving you details, Devon—you don’t need that shit in your head.’ He gets up and walks out of the room. I’m left feeling bereft and guilty. I’d made him relive whatever he found there tonight, and he’d left me and walked out because I wouldn’t leave it alone. I’m and idiot. I find him in the kitchen with Brad. They’re muttering in low voices. I can barely make it out, but I hear Kristen’s name.

  ‘I’m going to call my dad,’ Jared announces. ‘This changes things.’

  I walk up to meet him as he comes toward me, and I take his hand. His face is grim, and that means one thing. Kristen is a traitor.

  ***

  Mr Stone arrives, and the house is full—there are men in every room, and every single one of them looks like they do this every day. They have an arsenal of weapons. I can’t say I’ve ever seen guns like these and I’m the only American in the house. Guns are illegal here, and they have enough to arm a small town. This is ridiculously scary, and I’m to blame. I’m standing in the kitchen as three men dismantle and clean several guns spread out on the table. It’s like a bad dream—everywhere I look there are more men, more guns, and more testosterone.

  I can’t breathe. I need Jared, and I can’t see him anywhere. I’m tingling all over, and my head is spinning out of control. Pain—my chest hurts I can’t catch my breath. Pain. Help someone, please. I can’t breathe. Jesus Christ I’m going to die surrounded by men I don’t know, in a room full of illegal weapons. I feel a sharp pain in my knees as I hit the floor. I’m so dizzy that I can’t see straight—my vision starts to blur, and I see black spots.

  ‘Shit!’ I feel arms around me. ‘JARED, SOMEONE GET JARED, NOW!’ Yes, yes I need Jared. I want Jared. Darkness.

  Jared

  ‘Devon, baby, wake up,’ I beg, it has been fucking hours, and she is still out cold. This can’t be normal. She fainted— a panic attack is what Zoe called it—but why the fuck isn’t she waking up?

  ‘Zoe, check her again.’

  ‘Jared, I know what I’m doing. She’s fine, and all her vitals are okay. She just checked out, that’s all. She needs to rest. She hasn’t properly recovered from her own ordeal and then she’s faced with all this. It’s a lot for anyone, Jared, but she’s practically a human, never being brought up in a pack. It will have been a huge shock.’

  I mull that over and decide she’s right.

  ‘Shit.’ I can’t believe I left her alone to deal with all that—it never even crossed my mind.

  ‘She feels guilty too like this is all her fault. She was talking about it being her fucking burden to bear, fucking hell and I left her alone. I’m a prick.’

  ‘Jared, she’s going to be fine,’ Zoe berates me, ‘and you didn’t leave her alone, she was here with all of us. None of us realised—’

  ‘It’s not your job to realise. It’s mine, and I fucked up. Too wrapped up in this shit that I forgot to take care of my female.’

  ‘Jared, don’t be stupid,’ Zoe says, but I don’t pay her any attention because Devon’s eyes start to flutter. Thank fuck for that. I don’t know if I should be quiet and let her sleep or if I should talk her into waking up. Fuck it.

  ‘Baby, you okay?’ Her eyes snap open fast, and she sits up, looking around her. I’ve put her in our bed. I can see the panic in her face as she wakes up. She’s done that every day since she was taken, but she hasn’t mentioned it. So I’ve left it alone. One day we will talk about it though. When she no longer has anything to fear from them. I hate seeing it on her face—in her eyes when she thinks no one is watching. It’s eating her from the inside out and seeing what is left of that girl today only makes me realise just how fucking lucky I was to find her in one piece. I just hope to fuck we find her friend before it’s too late. I don’t think Devon would cope with the alternative, and I don’t want her to have to. Finding Maiya isn’t an option—it’s a necessity. The guilt Devon is feeling over this shit needs to stop. The only way that will happen is if we get her back. So we get her back. No matter what.

  There’s a knock at the door. Zoe moves to answer while I sit stroking Devon’s hand, trying to calm her down. ‘Devon?’ I ask. ‘Are you okay?’

  She nods and gives me a small smile.

  My dad walks up to the other side of the bed. ‘Quite a scare you gave my son,’ he says. Great! Cheers, dad. I look over to him and am going to give him a look to shut him up, but when I do, I find him looking at Devon with something close to kindness. Well, fuck me!

  ‘Yeah, I guess I did, I’m sorry—’ She starts to apologise, but I don’t let her.

  ‘You’ve nothing to be sorry for, baby. You’ve had a rough time of it,’ I tell her making sure she doesn’t place more guilt on her shoulders. Fuck that. Zoe moves in and starts her blood pressure machine for the millionth time. And my dad looks at me and then rolls his eyes to the door telling me he wants to talk. I make my excuses, and tell her I’ll be back in a minute. Devon smiles, and Zoë assures me she’s in good hands before shooing me out of the room. I follow my dad downstairs into the kitchen where I find Jedd, Kristen’s father, sitting at my table looking grey. My dad starts up the questions immediately.

  ‘Your daughter is a traitor, Jedd. Do you expect me to believe you had no idea?’ Jedd flinches at the word traitor, and the look on his face tells me he really didn’t have any idea his daughter would be capable of it.

  ‘I didn’t know, Harry. I’d have stopped her. I wouldn’t have allowed it. I swear to you.’ My dad looks unimpressed. I’m not sure what angle he’s playing here, because if Jedd didn’t know, he didn’t know. Meaning this is pointless.

  ‘As a father, I make it my business to know what my son is up to, Jedd. And what I do not know, I find out. Why? You may ask,’ Jedd looks to the floor, ‘because, Jedd, I am his father, and he is my son, and I want to make sure he forges the correct path. Not, shall I say, walk down a treacherous one.’ I can’t help but feel my dad is being a little unfair here, after all, I am watched and kept safe, twenty-four seven because I’m the alpha heir. Kristen isn’t, and it’s a little hard to keep tabs on someone from miles away. I’m about to suggest that when he speaks again.

  ‘How often do you speak with her?’

  ‘Everyday.’

  My dad nods, pacing up and down the length of the table.

  ‘And you last spoke to Kristen?’

  ‘Four days ago,’ Jedd mumbles.

  ‘So four days go by, and you didn’t think that was strange?’

  To be honest, it didn’t occur to me as strange because she always stays out, granted not for this long. I didn’t really care enough to notice I guess, as shitty as that is. Jedd’s chin starts to wobble, and his eyes fill up.

  ‘She was devastated’ he growls out. Looking right at me. ‘You broke her heart.’

  I fold my arms across my chest and lo
ok right at him.

  ‘If that’s what she told you, Jedd, she was a good fucking liar.’

  ‘She was your intended—this is all your fault,’ he spat like he was talking to some scumbag piece of shit. That’s when my sympathy for the guy ran out.

  ‘Listen carefully. That was never going to fucking happen. And before you spout any more shit about her being heartbroken or whatever, you need to take off the rose-tinted glasses, Jedd. She is a power-hungry bitch, with a cold heart. She probably screwed her way through half the men in this town, so don’t spout crap at me about how I caused this shit. No one made her do jack shit. She did this all on her own.’

  He glared at me like he wanted to kill me.

  ‘You should never have allowed this union, Harry. He was meant for Kristen, and you allowed that… that…’

  ‘Be very fuckin careful what you say next, Jedd. Very fucking careful.’ If he thinks I will let him slate my female he is very fucking wrong.

  ‘She’s not even of pure lineage.’

  ‘AND?’ I roar in his face. He flinches, and his eyes go to his feet. Fucking pissant coward. The room is silent, and everyone is looking to me, waiting to see what will happen next. My dad is leaning against the far end of the table looking rather amused with the situation. I’m just fucking mad. I walk over to Jedd and whisper in his ear,

  ‘You ever say one wrong word about my female, I will cut your balls off and feed them to you through a fuckin straw, you feel me?’ He nods. And I’m done. He doesn’t know anything worth a damn, and he’s just trying to save Kristen’s skin by placing the blame at my door. Fuck him and fuck her. Waste of my time. I seek Brad out, leaving my dad to do whatever the fuck he wants with Jedd.

  ‘Anything?’ I ask when I find him in the room with all the security monitors.

  ‘The bitch is clever, but I’m better. I’ve narrowed it down to about a six-mile radius.’