Devil Hills: #1 Scarlet, Lexi & Lily

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  She knew that voice. It was Mitch James.

  “I have the trap set out in the woods for that feline niece of mine,” James ground the words between his teeth. “She has no clue what her parents left her. I need her dead and gone. We had a deal.”

  “I could have managed my revenge without you two.” He sounded angry, cold. The one unknown factor of the three.

  Lily let her gaze sweep around the room, landing on a mirror hanging next to the stairs that led to a small loft. The third man was barely six foot, out of shape, with jowls that hung a little off his jaw.

  “I could easily have taken Gaines with me,” he continued. “She should never have been allowed to live. It’s past her time to die.”

  “Your son got damn careless if a kid killed him,” sneered Morrison.

  So that made the other one, the calm one, Hunnicutt.

  The human. The one who’d been after her.

  “I should never have involved myself with you. Either of you,” he said gruffly, regrettably. But he knew he was running out of time and he wanted his revenge. He wanted justice for his sons’ death.

  “You needed us as much as we did you. Just to locate all the bitches.”

  Lily closed her eyes. Idiots.

  So here she sat. Listening to them bicker about whose fault it is, when they’re all about to get their throats ripped out. One little human against two shifters and a crazy vengeful human. Swell.

  She figured the only reason they didn’t scent her was because the place smelled of so many bad things already. But she pulled the guns, released the safeties and waited. They had to know the wolves were hunting them and would find them.

  Lexi had been running through the woods, skirting around where she knew the trap was when she came to a skidding halt. She turned almost as if she’d jumped straight up and launched herself against the wolf she saw coming across the path she’d avoided. They landed in a rolling bundle of fur, the wolf up and ready to strike if not for the second wolf jumping between them.

  Lexi shifted quickly, ignoring her nudity and pulled the fine wire she saw hanging. The trap sprung with a snap of bitterly sharp, vicious jaws. She picked it up, hooked it onto a tree limb and quickly shifted back, taking off to the A-frame cottage.

  Stupid dogs, she hissed and kept running. She could smell Lily and knew where she’d gone. Just like the human who had taken Lily and his wolves had circled around and gone back to the house.

  “Shift!”

  Her back hit the wall with the low, vicious order that echoed in the house. Fingers tightened on the triggers, an all too familiar growl filling the room.

  Lily kept her head still, working to keep her peripheral vision in a wide half bubble around her. She had no way of knowing where the others were.

  It didn’t surprise her that a large wolf appeared at either end of the sofa. But the shattering glass that burst from the side did manage to rip through everyone’s focus and pull their attention from her. She’d been ready to shoot, skittering back and pushing to her feet. Her breath caught in her chest and her heart froze.

  She knew it was Jess. Her mate had come for her.

  And nothing was going to stop him from killing them all.

  Lily watched the one sided battle seconds before the front door was slammed into and sent crashing against the wall. She recognized Scarlet and Lucas taking on the second wolf. Working as a team, they slashed and bit, keeping the enemy seriously off balance.

  Lily tore her gaze away in time to see Hunnicutt slip into the other room and out the back door. She took off at a run, one last look over her shoulder at Jess. Her sweet country doctor, covered in blood and a blood lust rage to protect his mate.

  Her.

  Her boots hit the porch and she took off along the path, following the older man into the woods.

  She tucked one of the guns away, swiping her palm up at the mist slanted and striking at her face as she dodged branches and logs on the path.

  The low, familiar hiss and spit of her favorite cat reached her ears. Lily barely had time to duck before the large tawny body came bursting from the underbrush, striking with a heavy thud into the center of the man’s back, taking him to the ground beneath her weight.

  Lily watched his weapon skid off to the side, his body held firmly in place on the ground, her claws were extended, ready to strike and kill.

  “No, Lexi…stand up, Hunnicutt,” Lily ordered, her face a taut grimace. She could feel the blood tearing through her, pounding, hard and painful as it collided with the memories that rarely left her. It shot straight to her heart when she realized she would finally be able to look into the eyes of the man who had ordered her parents death. “Murderer.” She spit out viciously.

  “I could call you the same, little miss,” he shot back without hesitation. He stood taller than her by several inches. He’d kept himself lean and strong, his hands clenched at his sides, aching to end her life.

  “I defended myself against your adult terrorists.” She said bitterly. “Turn around.”

  “You took my son!” He ground angrily, taking a step only to stop when the large cat issued a warning, her ears back and fangs bared. His face was dirt smudged as he slowly turned to face her on the trail. He eyed the cougar with obvious disgust. “Your friend…and now you take one of them as a lover. At least all your parents were guilty of was teaching them. You…” His face was twisted in fury. “You sleep with the abomination!”

  “That man is a better human being than you could ever hope to be,” Lily shook her head sadly.

  She couldn’t shoot him. She wanted to. God, she wanted to.

  She thought she’d be able to if she ever met the person who ordered their death.

  She stared at him when Lexi swung a large, heavy paw at his legs and backed up, buckling him to his knees. She barely had a second to look quizzically at Lexi before a wolf she wasn’t familiar with came forward, quickly gripped Hunnicutt’s neck and twisted.

  She gasped loudly, stumbling back a step. Her eyes wide when she felt her wolf beside her, his head high and muzzle covered with the blood of the enemy.

  Howls of victory ricocheted through the woods, full wolves joining the triumphant chorus rippling through the mist day that the enemy had been beaten.

  Her stomach clenched tightly in a wild lurch of pain. It had been hiding deep, trapped inside her and never allowed free. Until now.

  Lily dropped to her knees, the gun falling from her fingers before she wrapped her arms around her wolf, her face buried in his side, ignoring the smell and mess.

  She just needed him.

  From somewhere so far away, tears she’d never allowed free fell, her slender body shaking, mourning the people she loved so long ago that she was never able to say goodbye to.

  Cleaned up and human, Eli carried blankets and covered his brother as he held Lily against him. Neither of them cared about the blood he still sported as he stood up and lifted her against him, cradling her like the child that had watched her parents murdered so many years ago.

  Eli draped a blanket around Jess and offered one to Sage Terrence when he shifted and stood looking down at the body. After he’d swiped a paw full of killer sharp claws across the dead man’s chest.

  “Determined animal attack. Death by misadventure,” he said softly, watching Jess walk back toward the A-frame house. “Never saw Jess like that before,” he commented quietly, accepting a blanket and tucking it around him.

  “He’s never had Lily before,” Lucas said simply, taking one of the large blankets and looking down at Scarlet. “You going for a swim in the creek? Come back to the house and don’t take too long,” he matched the growl she gave him before taking off through the brush toward the rushing water. “Woman should have been born a fish, I swear.”

  They left the body on the trail and flanked by a cougar with a twitching tail, they walked quietly back to the vacation house. Having two of the ones responsible for all the problems die in wolf form made their deat
h easy to explain and even easier to dispose of their bodies.

  Sage washed up and dressed in the clothes that had been brought from the SUV.

  “Sometimes it’s good being sheriff,” he commented, glancing toward the couple standing near the SUV. They’d collected her things from the vehicle that had brought her to the house.

  “All this was about stuff from so long ago,” Lexi came from the bathroom, wrapping her hair up and going immediately to the arms that opened for her. “Thank you, Sheriff.”

  “From what I’ve been able to find out,” Sage looked at the two bodies they hadn’t moved since they died. “They met at some bar and concocted the plot while half drunk. I’m not sure even their own packs will miss them, to be honest.”

  “People like that don’t understand how strong the emotion is to protect where a mate is concerned,” Lucas took Scarlet’s hand in his, raising it to his lips. “Pretty good fighting there, mate.”

  “Hey, I got some skills,” she tossed back, her palm out to Sage. “Thank you. I know she wanted to kill him. I could feel it.”

  The short cropped black hair shook slightly.

  “Her heart wanted to. It’s different from being in the car and watching it the first time. Then it was self-defense for her. To her, this would have been murder and she didn’t need that. Justice is done.” He pulled a phone from his pocket. “Might as well get this cleaned up before the end of day. See you guys back in town,” he nodded at Lucas and walked out to his SUV, talking as he moved.

  “We should get back,” Scarlet walked with him toward the waiting vehicles.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” Lexi said, biting the palm that came over her mouth.

  “Eeww…feline rabies,” Eli teased. “I told you…this is not your fault.”

  “I’ll smack her tomorrow,” Scarlet promised, hugging her friend. “He’s right. Until Lily figured out all the connections, none of us knew. Are you okay?” She asked as they drew closer to Jess and Lily.

  “The doc here says I’m fine,” Lily answered from her place in his arms, her head on his chest. “A sore spot on my thigh where they shot me with the tranq…but otherwise…” She shrugged. “I’m good.”

  “I’ve called and told them the clinic is operating with my PA’s today,” Jess pulled keys from his pocket. “I’m taking her home and spending the rest of the day just being glad it’s over. See you guys tomorrow.” He looked at both his brothers. “Thank you all.”

  “Come on,” Lucas opened the pickup and lifted Scarlet to the front seat. “Let’s go home, mate,” he tossed his phone to Eli. “No excuse. I’m driving. You report to dad the outcome and he’ll notify the council. The council can notify the packs involved.”

  “Fair enough,” Eli lifted Lexi to the seat and followed her into the back.

  It was over, they all thought in one long, private mental stream.

  The middle of October in Devil Hills.

  The fun was just beginning.