by Jade White
So she left the makeshift hospital, feeling as if she had left a part of herself behind. She loved the baby so much. We really need to come up with a name for him. I want us to come up with it. Beric and I together. If he wants to…
As much as she wanted her family to be whole and happy and, most importantly, healthy, she had to focus on her pack. The worst member of her pack. The traitor.
Was it possible the fiend was a Blood Rose? She could think of no one who hated the Teal Warriors enough to risk endangering the rest of their pack.
Well, she could think of one person and one person only.
Her father.
But that was absurd. He was alpha. He would never do something so callous.
Then again, he hadn’t been acting like himself since he first learned about her being pregnant. And even before then, when the Brutal Claws had first stated to sniff around their lands. He was always on edge, ready to pick a fight with anyone who looked at him the wrong way.
Although she could hardly believe he was capable of such a thing, she needed to talk to him regardless. That he had spoken out against the Teal Warriors in front of that crowd was almost unforgivable in and of itself.
Her father hated being here, so he was staying in a relatively small house that had belonged to Teal Warriors who had died during one of the first few battles. It was the farthest he could be from everyone else.
As she hurried that way, the realization that there had not been a council meeting since before the wedding struck her. They were losing their way. The Blood Roses always drew strength from their unity. Without the council, they would surely lose to their enemies. The thought saddened her, but she would not give into sorrow. Too much was at stake.
She stalked to the house. The door was locked, but a light shone from beneath it. Her fist pounded on the door.
Her father didn’t answer it.
“Open up. It’s Miera. We need to talk.”
No response.
Was he not here after all? Where would he be?
She was contemplating trying a window when the door finally creaked open. Her father stood there. He looked worn and old, as if he had aged a great deal in a short amount of time. She certainly felt that way herself.
His lips were pressed into a straight line, and she instantly recognized that look. He was disappointed in her.
“What did I do now?” she asked, suddenly weary.
“You… You are disappointed in me.”
His sudden reversal left her gaping at him and forced her to be honest before she could think whether that was wise. “Well, yes. I am.”
“And you have every right to be.” He sighed and shook his lowered head. “I must admit I always thought the world of you, and I never thought you would ever do anything other than what was expected of you. And for the most part, you’ve done just that.”
“I’m not perfect.”
“And neither am I. I know I’ve been unduly harsh on you. I apologize for that.”
Impulsively, she threw her arms around him.
After a moment, he returned the hug and patted her shoulders. “I’ve been harsh toward the Teal Warriors, too, but I reserve judgment on whether or not that is unduly as well.”
Heaving a sigh, she stepped back. “Father, be reasonable. Whether or not you like them doesn’t matter. Without them, we will all die. Hell, we might die anyhow. Is it worth the risk of losing us all just to condemn them?”
She watched his face carefully. To her horror, a single tear streaked down his cheek.
“I’ve been a terrible alpha, haven’t I? I… I’ve been so angry all of the time.”
“Why? Because of me?”
“Because I have cancer. It’s terminal.”
“Cancer?” Miera gasped and covered her mouth. “I thought it wasn’t possible for weres to get cancer!”
“Well, I’ve always been one to go against tradition.” His smile was weak. “It’s in my brain, and I… I don’t have much time left either way. Regardless…” He straightened and puffed out his chest. “I will do my part to mend the rift I created. I still think there is a traitor, and we do need to find him or her, but we must come together.”
Relief and horror warred within her. Her father wasn’t the traitor, but to learn he was dying… “How long have you known?”
“I found out just before I learned of your… condition.” He grinned wryly. “The baby…”
“A son.” She beamed with pride. “He’s too small and might not live, but he’s alive for right now.”
“A blessing. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I have gone to visit him. If he takes after his mother, he’ll pull through. He’s got fighter genes in him.”
“From both his mother…” She trailed off. She had been about to say “and his father” meaning Beric, but that wasn’t the truth. With time and Beric as his stepfather, their son would take on some of his traits.
At least, she hoped that would happen.
“First, we should have a council meeting.” Her father rubbed his hands together, looking more and more like his old self. “We can have some of the Teal Warriors on it, like we intended before the Brutal Claws ruined everything. We must figure out who the traitor is and then focus on the Brutal Claws and—”
“You set it up.”
He blinked. “Won’t you be there? You and your husband?”
“Yes. I’ll go and find him. If we’re late, start the meeting without us.”
“Why would you be late?”
She kissed his cheek. “Just do what you’re told for once,” she teased. She turned to leave.
“You should know that one of the items I intend to bring up is my resignation as alpha.”
“You’re stepping down? Why?” Was his timeline that short?
“I have about six months or so, if the Brutal Claws don’t kill me before the cancer does. I can’t keep trying to be leader when these past few weeks prove that I’m no longer fit to be. You are ready. You and Beric, together will be our alphas.”
Tears burned her eyes as they hugged again. Leaving him was bittersweet. At first, her feet dragged but then she picked up speed until she was running. Had Beric found the traitor yet?
For some reason, a pit formed in her stomach. She questioned every were-jaguar she passed to see if they knew where Beric was, but no one had seen him for the past half hour. Gradually, she left the crowded part of the compound for the more remote areas, and that’s where she saw them.
Beric and Charles.
Fighting each other.
To the death.
Why? Because Charles had knocked her up? Or because Charles was the traitor? Either way, she knew whom she was siding with.
Miera shifted for the first time since before she had given birth. It felt wonderful to be on all fours again. She stalked toward the two animals and joined the attack. Her initial attempts to separate them proved futile, but she did manage to prevent them from delivering fatal blows. Neither could die. Not that she necessarily wanted Charles to live. He had proven to be clingy immediately after, but when they had spent time apart, she thought he would move on and forget her. When he had approached her and she realized the opposite was the case, she never wanted to see him again.
Only the possibility that he was the traitor had her fighting Beric to keep Charles alive. They needed to know all that he knew.
Beric kept glancing at her whenever she halted him from attacking Charles, and she knew he had to be questioning her motives. Obviously, he knew about her and Charles. She couldn’t change the past, but she would ensure Charles had no part in their future. Beric, as his alpha, could send Charles away. Of course, it would be fairer to do so after the war with the Brutal Claws ended… unless Charles was also the traitor.
Finally, she seized an opportunity to jump onto Charles’s back after he lunged at Beric. She shoved his head into the dirt, fangs at the ready.
Beric lifted onto his hind paws, and she realized he planned
on suffocating the were-jaguar.
She shifted her mouth to human. “Is he the traitor?”
In answer, Beric savagely bit Charles’s ear.
Miera swatted his nose, not enough to hurt him, but enough to hopefully, finally get through to him. “If he is, we need him alive.”
Understanding finally shone in Beric’s eyes, and he shifted completely to his human form. He kneeled down and grabbed Charles’s furry throat. “Change to human. Tell us everything, and we just might let you live.”
Miera stepped off of Charles’s back. She wasn’t certain they could force him to tell them anything, or even force him to switch form.
Charles, in jaguar form, remained hunched down from when she had jumped onto his back. He was pawing at the ground, not looking at either of them.
“He’s the traitor all right,” Beric spat. He looked angry enough to kill. If she hadn’t gotten here when she had, Charles might already be dead.
“You betrayed us?” Miera demanded.
Charles glanced away.
“Everyone but you and our baby,” Beric said.
Her heart warmed at hearing “our baby,” but then the meaning behind his words sank in. “What do you mean? Charles, what plan had you worked out with the Brutal Claws?”
He stared at her.
Why wouldn’t he answer? Because Beric was here? She wasn’t going to send her husband away to talk to the father of her child.
While she hated the idea of this, the realization that his seeing her naked body might get him to cooperate had Miera shifting the rest of her body to human form. She wanted to cover herself, hating the lust shining in Charles’s eyes. “Your plan?” she repeated impatiently.
Charles shifted and stood straight. There was some space between them, but not enough for Miera’s liking. She couldn’t hide behind Beric, though, not when she was hopefully getting somewhere with him.
“Well?” she asked.
“I wanted you and me and our baby to be safe,” Charles said quietly.
“The baby is not yours,” she said.
“The baby has my blood!”
“Blood doesn’t make you a father.” Miera shook her head. “You can’t—”
“You can’t take him away from me.”
“He isn’t yours.” Beric stepped forward, his hands tight fists. “If you want the chance to see him—”
Miera winced. She didn’t want Charles anywhere near her son. What if he tried to run off with the baby?
“You’ll tell us what you know of the Brutal Claws,” Beric finished.
Okay, maybe under those circumstances, she could deal with a supervised visit.
“Please tell us, Charles,” she added.
Charles glowered at Beric but then smiled almost lovingly at her. “Andreas the Bloodthirsty has taken a special interest in how this all plays out.”
“This meaning…”
“Taking down two packs. He wants to make sure his people can handle more than one pack at a time. He wants power, but he also wants people to fear him.”
“Why only send a few warriors at a time?” Beric asked. “If he sent a huge force, we would’ve been done long before now.”
Charles didn’t respond.
Miera suppressed a sigh. “Why hasn’t he sent a huge force?” she asked.
The were-jaguar grinned, seemingly pleased that she was willing to play his game. “He’s toying with you. Wants to see if you’ll break. If you’ll try to flee. If you’ll rise up and stand against him. If it is possible for two packs to unite against a single enemy.”
“Basically, he’s using us as a social experiment,” she said slowly. A bitter taste filled her mouth.
“Basically,” Charles agreed. “If you’ll just come with me, we can be—”
“If you were going to say happy…” She waited to see his reaction, and he nodded. Her stomach churned. “I would never be happy living with the person who would condemn his people to death just so he could save his own hide.”
“And the hide of the woman I love and our baby,” he protested.
Somehow, she refrained from hitting him. “You don’t love me.”
“Of course I do! Let me prove it to you.” He started forward.
Beric moved to stand in between her and Charles. Not that she needed his protection, but she did appreciate the gesture.
She glared at Charles. “I don’t love you.”
His jaw dropped. “You can’t honestly think you love that guy.” He pointed savagely toward Beric. “He—”
“Charles, don’t you dare talk about me and who I love.” She walked around Beric to better face him. “Just tell us what the Brutal Claws’s next move is. Are you supposed to help them over the fence again?”
“No,” he said sullenly.
“Charles, if you don’t tell me, I’ll die,” she said bluntly. “I’m not running off with you. I didn’t want to before, and I sure don’t want to now. I will stay here and fight them until they kill me. If you really love me like you say you do, you’ll give me a chance to survive whatever you helped them plan.”
A long moment of silence passed, and Miera winced. She shouldn’t have antagonized him. She should’ve continued playing their game. At least he had been forthcoming.
But then he cleared his throat. “They are going to lay low. Make you all think you were safe. And then, in two weeks, I was going to open the gates for them and…”
“And everyone would be slaughtered,” Beric whispered.
Charles nodded.
Beric brought his fist toward Charles’s head. At the last moment, he turned his fist into a paw. The blow was harsh, and Charles dropped to the ground. He was still breathing, but not for long. The council would try him for his crimes, and he would almost certainly be put to death.
They now knew their enemies’ plan. Time to formulate one of their own.
*
Beric appreciated his wife’s intelligence. He had been blinded by anger and hatred and almost ruined their chances of learning what the Brutal Claws were arranging. To waltz on in and destroy. Typical of the most bloodthirsty and savage group of were-jaguars to ever live.
An hour after they secured Charles in a prison cell, he and the other members of the council—two had perished in the wedding attack—along with Mark and Sam, sat at the table in the alpha’s quarters. In his quarters. It didn’t take long at all for them to settle on a plan—and Beric was both surprised and pleased that her father stepped down and now Miera was alpha as well. Once everything was settled, Beric and Miera quickly gathered all of the fit fighters remaining inside the mess hall.
Miera explained about Charles being the traitor, and for the next half hour, the two of them pleaded with the two sides to come together.
And, miraculously, they did, but only after Beric laid out their battle strategy. “It’s foolish and risky, and we all might die, but it’s also our only shot.”
They roared their approval. They didn’t want to be in the shadows, hiding and frightened. They were more than willing to be led into battle for once, instead of waiting for the battle to come to them.
So the next day, Beric and Miera led a large party out of the fence and toward where Charles claimed the Brutal Claws were living. It didn’t take them long to see that the were-jaguar hadn’t lied. Thousands of tents dotted the grasslands. One, in the center, was by far the tallest and grandest.
“That one there.” Beric pointed to it from their perch on a nearby hill. “That’s where Andreas the Bloodthirsty will be. He’s our target.”
Not even twenty minutes later, they were in position, and they brought the war to the Brutal Claws. The fighting was vicious and terrible. Even some of the wounded had come along, wanting revenge for those who had fallen. Only those who were far too injured, the doctors and nurses, and the elderly and the very young were left behind.
It was a mighty gamble, and one that could very well ruin them, but they all knew and understood and accepted the ri
sks, Teal Warriors and Blood Roses alike, and Beric couldn’t be more proud of them all. They were truly acting like one pack. If they survived, they would need to come up with a new name.
Beric fought alongside Miera for the first several hours. The Brutal Claws had never anticipated a battle on their own turf, not that they really owned the land they were living on. It was a massive clearing with a few hills but no bushes. Only the tents marred the land, and Beric threw many a Brutal Claw into one. Luckily, because they had taken them by surprise, most of the Brutal Claws weren’t armored, although almost everyone was armed. After all, they were brutal.
After fighting two Brutal Claws and slaying the one, the other turning to find a less aggressive foe, Beric realized Miera was no longer beside him. Before he could try to locate her in the bloody mess, he realized just how close he was to the tent he believed belonged to the alpha of the Brutal Claws, Andreas the Bloodthirsty. Could he be lucky enough that the alpha was still there? He had to have joined the fray.
With even more determination fueling him, despite the new wounds he’d acquired, Beric fought his way over to it. He would do this. He would take on the asshole who had made their lives miserable. He would make him pay.
“Looking for me?”
Beric whirled around to see a man who stood almost seven feet tall. Muscular, built like an ox, stripped naked. This could only be Andreas the Bloodthirsty.
He had been fighting in jaguar shape, but Beric now shifted to his human form. He rolled his neck from side to side to work out the kinks. “I am.”
“And you are?” Andreas the Bloodthirsty had a deep, booming voice that echoed somehow. Even more impressive were his eyes—black as sin, brimming with anger, and full of hatred.
“Beric.”
“Ah, yes, the little alpha who married in a vain attempt to save his people. I commend you for having loyal people, but I’m afraid you’ve brought them here to die.”
Beric’s fangs popped out. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken. If anyone is going to die, it’s going to be you.”
Andreas the Bloodthirsty threw back his head and roared with laughter. He continued to laugh as he shifted his form. Only he didn’t become a jaguar. He became a lion.
