Reaper Unleashed: Deadside Reapers: Book 7

by Cassidy, Debbie

  “Uri says he’ll take you to the cabin and help you locate the Loup,” Grayson said over the phone. “I’ll round up as many Loup as I can this end.”

  “Grayson, this could still go south. We still might not have the numbers.”

  “I’ll speak to the Crimson pack,” he said

  My attention flicked to Hunter, who was watching me from his spot at the kitchen table. “Hunter doesn’t think they’ll help.”

  Grayson sighed in exasperation. “Hunter doesn’t have the same relationship with Crimson’s alpha as I do. He wouldn’t get his foot onto their territory. I however can, and when I point out how Ulrich being in charge with a hoard of rogue Loups at his beck and call could affect their territory rights and business operations, he’ll listen.”

  He sounded confident, and he knew more about this world than I did. Still it was impossible to ignore the squirming in my gut at the thought of my mate behind enemy lines.

  “Be careful. Don’t go alone.”

  “I’m always careful,” he said. “You…be safe…”

  I glanced at Hunter again. He was now casually sipping his coffee.

  “I love you,” Grayson said.

  “I love you too.”

  Hunter’s jaw flexed as I said the words, the only indication he was listening.

  I hung up and leaned against the counter. “You’ll stay here with Petra. Uri is taking me to hunt for the female Loup pack.”

  He gave me a thin smile. “Getting used to giving the orders, aren’t you?”

  “You’re not the only alpha in this Tribus.”

  The air crackled and Uri appeared by the kitchen door. He was dressed for the outdoors, in a heavy jacket and boots and clutched a plastic bag.

  “Herbs for Petra,” he said, holding out the bag.

  Hunter pushed back his chair and took the bag off Uri, fixing him with a probing stare that was almost challenging.

  Uri arched a brow. “Is there something you want to say?”

  “Watch her back,” Hunter growled.

  Uri snorted. “I’ve been watching her back since long before you came on the scene.”

  His tone was positively bristly, but instead off retaliating verbally, Hunter merely smiled wryly and left.

  Uri looked over at me. “I don’t think he likes me.”

  No, that wasn’t it. It was more complicated than that. “I think it’s more the fact that he expects you not to like him.”

  Uri seemed to turn my words over. “That’s not a great way to live.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  He smiled at me and my heart lit up. “Maybe we can change that,” he said.

  If anyone could help me do that, it was Uri.

  He held out his hand. “Shall we.”

  I crossed the kitchen and stepped into his arms. “Let’s.”

  * * *

  The snow had mostly melted in the forest, but it was still cold enough for frost to give every blade of grass a snap to it. The air was crisp and icy, chilling my lungs as we strode through the trees. I had no clue where to look for the female Loup, and according to the map Uri had with him, this forest land stretched for miles.

  I needed my Loup senses.

  I needed to track them.

  I’d need to get naked.

  Urgh.

  “What is it?” Uri asked. “That look on your face…”

  I sighed and began to unzip my jacket. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to get naked.”

  His brows shot up as comprehension crossed his features. “You need to shift.”

  “Yep.”

  “But it’s freezing.”

  “I’ll be fine, I don’t feel the cold as acutely as a human. My demonic side and my Loup blood see to that.”

  I stripped off my coat and handed it to him then unbuttoned my jeans. He turned his back to give me privacy.

  Oh god, he was adorable. “Uri, you don’t need to do that. You’ve seen everything there is to see.”

  He cleared his throat and faced me again, and yes, there was a definite tinge of color high in his cheeks.

  “Only the once,” he said.

  Oh, wow. Okay. “So, you want a repeat performance, huh?” I stepped into his aura, and allowed it to run its fingers through my hair and down my neck. Shivers of pleasure ran over my skin, and euphoria bloomed in my chest. “That can, and will, be arranged.”

  He reached up to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I’m in no rush, Fee. I’m just happy to be here with you.”

  But there was something in his eyes, a sliver of doubt, a question that was poignant even with his aura pressing on me.

  “Uri, is there something wrong? You know you can talk to me about anything.”

  He smiled and dropped his forehead to mine. “I know. Now, you should shift so we can find these Loup. I’ll stay on your…tail.”

  “Haha, very funny.” I stripped quickly, handing him my clothes, and it was only as I shifted into my Loup form that it hit me. He hadn’t denied there was something wrong… But then I was Loup and the scents in the air instantly sharpened. My focus was on the hunt, on tracking, and it wasn’t long before I’d caught a whiff of another Loup. Hard to tell if it was female of male, but it was fresh, and considering we’d killed off the male pack that had moved here a week or so ago, I was pretty confident I was on the right track.

  I allowed the Loup to take over, following the trail, aware Uri was at my back the whole way. We dove deeper and deeper into the forest until the sunshine was mostly blocked out by the canopy of trees. There were several distinct scents now. Yes, this was the right way. The ground was less frosty here and I stopped to examine a smattering of pawprints.

  I was close.

  The snap and crack of bracken had me freezing and falling into defence mode. Uri called out a warning as several huge Loup padded menacingly out of the shadows, lips pulled back from teeth in snarls.

  I stood my ground, meeting their eyes. I was an alpha and I would not be cowed. I’d come here in peace, but first I needed to assert my dominance. I snarled back, snapping and moving to stand in front of Uri to stake my claim.

  Do not fucking touch.

  They backed up and a figure stepped out of the shadows. I recognized the female Loup that had saved Hunter and me from Larson and his hired hands. She frowned at the sight of me.

  “What are you doing here?” Her gaze swept over me to Uri. “And who is this?” She sniffed the air. “What are you?”

  I shifted into human form and Uri slung my jacket over my shoulders. It covered me to mid-thigh.

  “Hi.” I gave a tentative wave. “You never did tell me your name.”

  “I’m not much for pleasantries,” she said. “I thought we agreed that we’d come to you if we decided to. I thought we agreed you’d leave us alone, and yet here you are, with…this man in tow.”

  “Uri is a celestial, not a Loup.”

  “I can smell that, but why is he here.”

  Her tone rankled, and the impudence nudged my alpha. “He’s with me.” My voice came out thick and gravelly.

  She flinched and her jaw hardened.

  Shit, I hadn’t come here to piss her off. I needed her help. I took a deep breath and smiled. “Look, I wouldn’t have come, but I need your help.”

  She looked me up and down. “Pack business?”

  “Yes, and I know how you feel about pack mentality. I get it, and I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t desperate.”

  She lifted her chin. “I’m listening.”

  I filled her in on the situation with Eldrick. And gave her brief details on Ulrich and his actions, the rogue Loup and their intentions. “If he wins, if he’s allowed to wrest control then his influence will spread. The Loup who join him thrive on inflicting pain and debasing the weak. I have to stop him, and I need your help to do it. I need you to stand with me.”

  The Loup around her, still dressed in their fur, snapped at me. Yeah, they weren’t liking this.

 
“You want us to walk into a den of male Loup?” she asked. “Males who wish to own us. Claim us. Breed us.”

  It was my turn to lift my chin. “Yes, because together we are powerful. They can’t touch us. I’m one third of a Tribus and heir to the Rising pack alphahood. I have a claim, but I don’t have the numbers. I need you.”

  Once again, the wolves around her began to snarl and yip as if arguing amongst themselves.

  She sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I told you before, we don’t get involved in pack affairs, and we don’t leave our sanctuary.”

  Fuck, I hated to do this but… “And what if the pack world came for you? Larson sent Loup here before. He gave them this territory, remember? What’s to say Ulrich won’t do the same? How long will you be able to hide then?”

  She looked to her left at a huge gray wolf. They locked gazes for a long beat, and it was obvious they were communicating. Then she nodded and turned back to me.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “We can’t help you.”

  Shit. “Please reconsider.” But they were already turning away and slipping into the shadows.

  The conversation was over.

  I’d failed.

  What the fuck were we going to do now?

  Chapter Six

  “You did your best,” Grayson said down the phone. “Now let me see what I can do with Crimson pack.”

  “You got a meeting?”

  “Yes, in an hour.” He sounded strange.

  “Grayson…what is it?”

  “I’ll be going into their territory alone. Mitchum’s terms.”

  The Crimson alpha a-hole? He wanted Grayson alone?

  Panic bloomed in my chest. “Wait, what? No, you said you have a good relationship with them, why won’t they let you bring a second?”

  “I said I had a relationship. We’ve communicated before, which is why I was able to reach out, but anything can happen.”

  Unease writhed in the pit of my stomach. “Why does he want you to go alone?”

  “To exert his power. Intimidation? Who knows?”

  I didn’t like this. “Don’t do it. We don’t need them.”

  He sighed. “Yes Fee, we do. I have to do this for all the Loup. We can’t let Ulrich win.”

  My stomach twisted into knots. I felt sick. “Let me come with you. I want to come with you.”

  God, I sounded plaintive, but I didn’t care. All I knew was that my gut was going haywire and that was a bad sign.

  “You’re Eldrick’s heir. You need to stay put,” Grayson said. “The deal is that I go alone.”

  “But—"

  “I love you.” He hung up.

  I looked up into Hunter’s dark eyes and saw the conflict churning in them, saw the resolve and comprehended what he was about to do a split second before he made a beeline for the door.

  “Hunter, no.” I ran after him, but he was too quick.

  The front door slammed. He was already gone.

  Uri came up behind me. “I’ll go after him.” He kissed my temple and winked out.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “Fee!” Petra’s voice rose in alarm.

  I rushed into the lounge to find her trying desperately to hold Eldrick down as his body convulsed.

  I joined her, taking over while she rummaged in her herb pouch. She pressed a paste into his mouth, trying to get her fingers past his clenched teeth and then settled for rubbing it into his gums.

  I held on to him while his body spasmed. Seconds dragged by. Finally the spasms weakened, and he relaxed back into unconsciousness.

  I released him cautiously, hands hovering above his body just in case the convulsions started again.

  “He’ll be fine now,” Petra said. She packed her herbs away and sat back down.

  My hands trembled. “What just happened?”

  “His body has been severely traumatize. The seizure is simply a reaction to that, but his wounds are healing.”

  But she didn’t look too sure. “Petra?”

  She sighed. “There’s no more we can do. Yes, there may be internal damage that his Loup can’t heal, the silver may have gone so deep my herbs were unable to remove it all. I can’t know for sure, and hospitals are not an option for us.”

  Oh god. “He could still…die?”

  “We have to hope he can fight this.”

  I looked down at my father. The man I was only just coming to know and care about. We hadn’t had enough time. I wanted—needed—more time.

  “He’s a fighter. He’s tough. He’ll make it.”

  “Yes, I believe he will,” Petra said.

  I noted the dark circles under her eyes for the first time. “Have you eaten?”

  “Yes, Hunter gave me some of the delicious pasta bake you put in the oven earlier.”

  I’d completely forgotten about the food, but now she’d mentioned it my stomach grumbled.

  She chuckled. “You should eat.”

  “I can’t, not while the guys are out there in potential danger.”

  All my guys.

  Azazel and Mal were up against Mammon in the Underealm, and Grayson, Hunter and Uri were in Crimson pack territory.

  The sick feeling in my stomach grew stronger.

  Petra took my hand. “You must be prepared to be strong if you’re needed. Eat. Trust me. You’ll need the energy for what’s to come.”

  I didn’t question her further. She was a shaman, a different kind of outlier, and her gut instincts had guided Grayson’s father, when he wasn’t being a dick to his youngest son.

  If she said I needed to be ready, I’d damn well make sure I was.

  I made my way into the kitchen. Hunter had taken the pasta bake out of the oven and covered the top with foil to keep it warm. I was about to dish up when the cuff on my wrist began to tingle.

  My vision blurred and the kitchen vanished.

  I was on a street. The sun was setting, and people walked by arm in arm.

  Normal. So normal.

  The voice was a thought projected into my mind in a male voice. A voice I recognized from my memory of Purgatory.

  This was it. This was Cain. I was in his head.

  Focus. Where was he? The street didn’t look familiar. I needed to look for a sign, but I had no control over his head. I couldn’t make him turn it. Shit. Wait…there was road up ahead. A crossroads. There would be a sign.

  Something scratched at the back of my mind and then I was falling. I hit the ground hard, crying out at the impact of tile on tailbone.

  “Fee?” Petra called out from the lounge.

  “I’m okay!” Shit. Had he shoved me out of his head?

  I’d been so close. The cuff stopped tingling. I gripped it and focused, trying to get back inside his head, but the metal remained cool and unresponsive against my skin.

  I had time. If this could happen once it would happen again. The cuff was acclimatizing to me. I just needed to be ready.

  I looked down at the food and my stomach rolled.

  My resolve of a few moments ago wavered. I couldn’t eat while Grayson, Hunter and Uri could be in danger. Two hours, Grayson had said. I looked at the clock. They’d been gone less than forty-five minutes.

  I’d wait, but if they didn’t contact me by the time the two hours was up, I was going after them.

  Yeah, I was Eldrick’s heir, and yes, that was important, but not as important as my guys.

  Nothing was more important than them.

  I dished up a large helping of the pasta bake, grabbed a fork and began to shovel food into my mouth, ignoring the icky feeling in the pit of my stomach and the flutter in my chest.

  If the guys needed me, I’d make damn sure I was in top form.

  I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

  Chapter Seven

  Grayson

  Crimson pack territory has a vibe I can’t quite define, but my Loup is never comfortable here. We live by a code, but the Crimson pack are renowned for breaking it. Coming here alone i
s a huge risk that puts me in danger, but not coming at all could put us all at peril.

  The apartment building that Mitchum and his pack call home is a graffitied monolith of dirty windows. Dumpsters line the alley that leads to the main access.

  I navigate it easily, very aware that there are eyes on me. Mitchum makes sure scouts roam the night and keep watch on his property. It may not be much to look at, but it’s his castle, and he’s the king.

  Best remember that.

  I get to the sickly green door with a dingy porch light bolted to the wall above it and knock three times for entry.

  It opens a moment later emitting the distinctive scent of weed and cigarette smoke.

  A bearded Loup looks up at me with a sneer. “He’s spectin ya.” He jerks his thumb up the corridor but takes his sweet time getting out of my way.

  I’m not about to push him. I’m way out of my territory. Still, the alpha in me surfaces. I can feel him looking down at the irritating Loup, and sure enough he backs up pretty quick.

  The corridor is dirty, walls smeared with brown stuff. I dread to think what it is. Doors are open left and right, giving me an easy view of the apartments within, but I don’t stop to take look. The only person I need to see is up a flight of stairs, occupying the whole of the second floor of his building.

  Mitchum likes his space, and only his betas share it with him. That and any human females he can convince to join them. Humans who’ll believe these Loup to be just regular bikers.

  I push through the access door onto the second floor. There is no corridor here. No apartments, either. Mitchum has had a remodel, and the space is open plan and a blatant mimicry of the ground floor of my house.

  Someone has castle envy.

  There are Loup lounging about on battered sofas. Others play pool or shoot darts. A huge flat screen TV is showing some sports game, and sitting smack-bang in the middle of the room, on a huge leather recliner, a beer clutched in his hand is Mitchum himself.

  He raises the bottle as I approach. “The great Regency alpha, come to visit the little people, eh?”

  I nod “Mitchum.”

  He takes a swig. “You actually came alone.” He looks almost impressed