by Kim Faulks
Tires screamed as she jerked the wheel, throwing me along the backseat to the far door until she slowed the car and pulled up at the house on the corner. Houses were being built in the distance. Workmen were nothing more than ants, carrying timber across their shoulders.
“Get out. Get out now.”
I grabbed the handle and yanked. The door opened with a rush, spilling clothes onto the road.
“Up there.” She pointed to the front door and climbed back inside the car. “You can wait on your own.”
I snatched my shirts from the asphalt and slammed the door behind me. The car lunged forward, forcing me backwards until my heel kicked the gutter, and then she was gone, roaring down the road before I could say a word.
The morning sun burned my scalp. I winced at the light and blinked into the blur.
This wasn’t my prison in Hell…for that I was thankful.
The front door opened and hit the outside of the house with a bang.
Alpha took a step outside, wearing nothing more than a towel. His cold gaze swept over me, and lingered at my head.
Run away, a voice inside whispered as Alpha stepped aside, flattening his spine against the wall, and motioned me inside.
2
Alpha
The kid slipped into the house with barely more than a glance.
Helen swore she was gonna take care of the girl, said she was gonna give her “motherly love”. Gashes of crusted blood covered X’s scalp. Hunks of hair stuck out as if she had some kind of fucking disease.
If that was love, if that was Helen’s kind of love then the kid was better off here.
I punched the door closed and met her in the hallway. “This will be your room, still a bit of a mess…sorry. The bed’s comfy…”The bed’s comfy? “You hungry?”
She stepped inside and reached for the door. I braced myself, waiting for the slam. The metal handle bounced. The lock clicked—open, locked, open, locked.
She tested the fucking lock.
Heat rushed, burning all the way into my chest. “No one’s gonna hurt you here. You know that, right?”
She moved deeper into the room, never once giving me her back, and dumped her clothes onto the bed and moved to the dresser.
Pink lace peeked out from the corners as she yanked the drawer. I flinched. “Oh. Ah. Some of that’s from an old girlfriend. You can use whatever you like. She’s not comin’ back any time soon.”
She pulled the frills and the lace from the corner and moved them to the drawer below. Water dripped down my back. I was standing here almost fucking naked while she…she… “Let me put on some clothes and I can help.”
“No. I just want to be alone.”
Her husky voice made me swallow. She took in some smoke from the fire Doc Angel started, enough to kill a man…lucky she wasn’t one.
I took a step and made for my room at the end of the hall. Anger turned to stone and stuck in my craw as I elbowed the door shut.
Fucking wolves. No matter how hard I tried. No matter how many times I thought I was finally understanding their kind, they went and did something like this.
She was just a damn kid—I punched each foot into my khakis and yanked the zipper—she needed safety, needed protecting, not some barbaric act like that.
I shoved my arms into a shirt and yanked it down. The kid had weighed almost nothing in my arms when I carried her from the building. Long brown hair spilled over my chest. The others had already fled in the truck, and it was just us left. Parts of the compound had already started to cave by the time I found her. She’d been nothing more than a dark blur in a haze of white.
I could still hear her first gasp of air. I could still see the first time she opened her eyes, and hear her first words…
Not me…save Joslyn…
Goddamn kid. We had no way of knowing what we were walking into—had no way of knowing how deep this betrayal ran. All we knew was that the Dragon and Joslyn were in there, and we had to get them out.
I pulled on my socks, laced up my boots and listened for her. I knew every creak in this house, knew every bowed floorboard and every dry hinge. I slowed my breath and cocked my head. There was no sound—nothing.
I expected my damn fridge to be consumed. I expected to hear drawers opened, bedroom doors knocked on, my things to be rifled—boundaries stepped over. I rose from the bed and made for the door. But it was as though she wasn’t here at all.
I sighed—hard, and stepped on each board listening to the place moan and groan like a tired old man as I headed for the bedroom at the front of the house. “You okay in there?”
She sat in the middle of the bed, feet crossed, knees drawn to her chest and stared out of the window. Crusted blood glistened from the gouges on her scalp. Some parts were shaved to the skin, others dangled as long as my damn hand.
Hate turned to hurt. I wanted to fucking throttle. I wanted to wield a pair of scissors and try my best to even what was left. “So I gotta head out for a while. You want me to pick up anything? A burger, a pizza…more shirts, or socks?”
Something on the horizon held her focus. “No…thank you.”
“Well, there’s food in the fridge, help yourself.” I turned to leave and stilled. “I have guns, just so you’re aware, in just about every room and corner of this house.”
She turned, leveling me with an icy stare. “Is that a threat?”
“What? No…fuck no.” Her words were a fist to my gut. “For protection, in case you need…something. I dunno, just wanted you to feel safe.”
“I’m fine,” she whispered and turned to the window. “You don't have to worry about me.”
“Yeah, well. My number’s on the fridge. So if you change your mind, you know how to get me.”
She never answered, only stared into oblivion.
I backed away, and turned, grabbing my keys, my gun, and phone before heading out the rear door. The fucking mess of her hair haunted me. I swiped the screen, pressed buttons, and climbed into the Jeep.
“Alpha,” Gunny snapped, and then swore.
The roar of the engine drowned out any background noise. She grunted. Tires squealed through the headpiece. I wanted to be with her, fucking craved it. My palm itched with the need for steel, and my heart raced, desperate for a chance to find the bloodsucking sonofabitch who took Joslyn’s babies and Doc Angel. “Where are you?”
“Between bumfuck and nowhere. Next question,” she barked.
I turned the key and the engine growled to life. “Ace should be almost on your tail. He left at zero two-hundred.”
“I see him,” she growled. “He’s been trying to find my ass for the last hour.”
She’d drive that car into the ground before she let him catch her too.
“I’m heading for Davonport, be there and back before nightfall.”
All of a sudden, I had her undivided attention. “Why?”
I wanted to slice open this festering wound. I wanted to tell her everything.
But I knew Gunny.
I knew what she wanted to hear and what she couldn’t.
And this betrayal cut far too close to home.
“I just want to do a little digging on my own, ask a few questions, rattle some cages.”
“Take Irwin. I don’t want any of us going anywhere on our own. This shit’s getting strange, Alpha, real fucking strange.”
“Sure, yeah.” I had no intentions of taking anyone. The less who knew about this the better. “Keep me updated, Gunny.”
“Will do,” she mumbled before ending the call.
I shoved the car into gear and backed out, catching sight of X through the window. She looked so damn small, so fragile. I wasn't the only one betrayed here.
The Jeep bounced as I backed out onto the street, braked, and then shoved the four-wheel drive into first. That was the thing about Soteria. Those that lived here, human or wolf, obeyed a code—one that was rock solid and enforced by me, and the rest of the team.
There
was nowhere to hide here—nowhere I wouldn’t find eventually. I slowed the car and drove past kids playing in the street. Parents never watched; they were off hunting, working, contributing in one way or another. This was a safe place. A place owned by Senator Artemas Roth, a place many called home.
Someone watched me from the shadows at the edge of the forest. I scanned the tree line, catching the outline of an unfamiliar male and slowed the car.
We’d had new additions to the estate almost every day. Human folks came from the surrounding towns, shifters from packs near and far. Most had been quiet. I wanted to keep it that way. I gave the stranger a nod and focused on the road, turning the bend before I slowed to the house midway along the street.
The front door was open—didn’t mean much, not around here. I switched off the engine and shouldered open the door.
Music echoed from inside, something with a heavy beat and happy…I swallowed my fury and slammed the door. The sight of X’s shorn hair and hacked scalp came to life. I’d saved her from the building, brought her here to be looked after—not be brutalized.
I strode toward the house and climbed the stairs. “Helen, you in there?”
Dark movement came from the other end of the house. Empty beer cans sat outside, some crushed, bits of steel dangled like strings—shredded—with claws. I swallowed hard.
“If it’s about the girl I don’t wanna hear it,” she growled, moving into sight.
“Yes, it’s about the girl, and you’re gonna hear it.”
I stepped inside and looked at the goddamn mess. Clothes, bottles, and empty packets of food huddled together like a band of goddamn brothers. I yanked my gaze up, hate singed my veins. “I try to understand you, I really do. I think I’m just getting through, that we’re starting to see each other for what we are and come to-fucking-gether, then you go and do some sick, ritual shit like this?”
Her brow creased, there was a second where she tried to piece it all together. How could she not understand…did she think I wouldn’t say something? The light dawned in her eyes. She flinched and slowly shook her head. “Wait…”
I couldn’t stop the rage and the hurt. The shit spewed out of me like a ruptured vein. I crossed the room in a second and stabbed the air with my finger. “She’s just a goddamn kid! So that’s your idea of motherly fucking love? Is it? Well, is it? You were supposed to protect her, supposed to care for her. I wouldn’t do that to my damn dog!”
She stumbled backwards. Her skin turned ashen. “Wait, no. I didn’t…I…”
The air was stifling, thick like a rag over my mouth. I’d seen my fair share of war, seen the sick things humans did to each other—but this…this was beyond the pale. “You’re done here. No more parties, no more fucking house, food, or goddamn protection. I want the name of who cut her hair, and who suggested it—and I want them now.”
“No one…I…didn’t do this.”
That was all she said. Fire lashed my face. I clenched my fist and screamed. “I don’t fucking care! Tell me those names, Helen. Tell me, or so help me God I’ll wield the scissors my goddamn self!”
“She did it! She did it to herself, don’t you get that?” Helen stumbled to a doorway. “She’s a goddamn animal…you don’t understand what she’s like…she came at me with fucking shears!”
Gravity drew me to that room. I sucked in a breath. She was just a kid…just a damn kid. She didn’t do this, couldn’t do…
Steel glinted, drawing my gaze to the bedroom door. Thick shears stuck out of the wood, embedded to halfway along the blade. This…the word lingered in my head…she couldn’t do this…
The strength it would take to drive steel that deep was a slap to my face. My gaze drifted from the steel, taking in the pretty colors of the room and stopped in the middle of the floor.
“Haven’t had time to clean up yet. I was going to come and talk to you, I swear, Alpha. I just…the kid scares me. I know violence. I know rage—but what she has inside her is something else.”
Her words cornered me like a predator. Strands of long brown hair covered the floor. Dried hunks of bloody flesh stuck out of the ends.
“Get rid of her Alpha. Get rid of her before she destroys us all.”
I stepped away and turned. I could read a person, knew their body language, knew the way a lie sat in their eyes. Helen wasn’t lying. She wasn’t lying. “Sorry, Helen. I…”
“I couldn’t take her to anyone else, couldn’t risk she’d…you know, she’d hurt someone other than herself.”
Jesus. I had to get out of here…had to think. I stumbled outside down the stairs. I grasped the car’s handle before I knew, and then I was inside, starting the engine, shoving the damn thing into drive and punching the accelerator.
The needle climbed higher as the car roared through the streets. I jerked the wheel, passing half-built houses and workmen. One waved to me, and I lifted my hand in return. But my body was numb…my mind…numb.
I couldn’t outrun the sight of those shears, and her hair…her long, beautiful hair.
Helen’s words echoed as I spun the wheel and headed for the highway. I know violence. I know rage—but what she has inside her is something else…
Get rid of her…send her away…where? Family…maybe she had family still alive. X…what kind of a fucking name was that anyway? I picked up the phone, and stole glances at the road.
The call was answered on the sixth ring. I glanced at the display….right number. There was no way in hell Irwin took six rings to answer—not even if he had company.
“Yeah?” Irwin’s blunt tone cut through the car.
I kept my focus on the road. “How you doing, buddy?”
“I’ll live.”
I opened my mouth to say something, anything to give him some damn comfort while the ache in my chest flared. But what could you say when you lost someone who was more than a brother, and more than a friend?
What could you say when that person felt like an extension of you?
I’m sorry just didn’t cut it.
I pulled away from the hurt and buried the sting. “Feel like doing some digging?”
“Sure, what do you need?”
I listed what little information I had. Her name, family, the small snippets Joslyn gave me—but kept this morning to myself. No one needed to know, not yet, not until I knew what I was dealing with. “Thanks buddy.”
He ended the call, leaving me listening to nothing but silence. I punched another number and waited for the bark through the phone. "Darrion, my boy. Everything okay?"
I winced every time he called me that, and the old bastard knew it. “Everything's fine. I thought I’d pay you a visit.”
The crash of the waves echoed in the background. "You could, but you'd better be a damn good swimmer. Wait…I’ve run out of damn bait anyway, so I may as well head on in. Where are you?"
"Just left home, so I'll see you in about three hours?"
"I'll be here…and son…” His voice softened.
I tensed my gut, knowing what was coming.
“I'm sorry about Stitch.”
“See you in three,” I muttered and ended the call.
Some part of me sighed with relief, knowing he was at home. I just couldn’t bring myself to face the men I once knew. The military was a hard mistress—once you left her…you may as well be dead.
Three generations of Slaters had fought for our country, but only two were life-long service. My uncle, Major General Newman Slater couldn’t have been prouder. We drank a bottle the night before I shipped out, and I still remember his slurred words, murmuring how proud he was—as proud as any father could be.
And then I betrayed him. Betrayed my country, my family, my friends, and left behind the only thing I knew—for the only thing that mattered…honor.
Gunny didn’t have to ask me to leave—I knew she never would.
I had her back before the attack, and after. No one wanted to listen to four decorated soldiers, not when we started t
elling them what we saw.
The young female shifter didn’t belong in the middle of a war, but that’s where we found her, on a recon mission in an Afghany field.
I could still see her goddamn dress, still see her claws, and the silver glint in her eyes. The kid had looked no more than thirteen and USA bred—I would’ve staked my reputation on it.
What we saw in that field changed us, made us question…and by questioning, it put a target on our backs.
When Gunny woke in that hospital missing a leg we knew two things: one, whoever sent the wolf would come again, and two, there was a war happening right under our noses…a real war—and we were fighting for the wrong fucking side.
I spent the rest of the drive thinking of that. The circumstances that divided us from our military family had only made us stronger. As if we’d been sucked into an impenetrable void, that not even death could break. Stitch was gone, killed doing what he loved—rescuing, protecting, and kicking ass. The only thing left to do now was to find who was responsible and nail them to the goddamn wall.
Pine trees gave way to a splatter of buildings. Mom and Pop grocery stores crowded the streets closer to the city limits. I flicked the indicator and took a left before the cars crammed bumper to bumper and headed for the ocean.
I stabbed the button for my window at the sight of the first palm tree. The smog filled air carried a trace of salt. I already craved the fresh, pine-stained air from the forest. All this place did was made me want to turn around and head for home.
Soteria was more than a place of safety. It was more than the houses and the people, more than the unity and the pride. It was the cold, crisp, pine-scented air and the icy rivers that cut through the land not far from my own backyard—it was beauty of nature—it was the hunger of the wild—the animalistic rush when I first glimpsed our home and that burning drive to not just survive…but to survive with purpose.
I caught the sight of the ocean between towering apartment buildings and headed for the water. Low-set houses turned into monsters the closer I came, until there was nothing but giants looking out into endless blue.
