by Unknown
“Do dragons not breed true?”
“No, some of the offspring are human, some shifters.”
“Not so for wolves. We always breed true. But go on.”
“We talked about it and we started to do some extra research on each of our targets. Not just where they were and how best to kill them but who they were. A lot of them were awful people and we had no problem killing them. But then we had one who wasn’t. We dug into his life, deeper and deeper, but we couldn’t find a single thing that would warrant a death sentence.”
Keira curled her hand, her nails scraping over his pants. “We couldn’t do it. So we tipped him off and gave him enough time to flee. We told our superiors he’d seen us coming and escaped. And that was the beginning. We’ve done the same thing ever since. And Knightley wasn’t bad enough to kill. We were trying to tip him off. It didn’t go so well.”
“I’m proud of you. It takes courage to go against the established norms that way. But one question--why’d you pull your weapons on him?”
“We didn’t do that until he shifted and came after us. We’re not stupid. We do need to defend ourselves.”
“Why do you think he took your sister?”
Good question. “I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. And she didn’t sound quite like herself. I mean, it was definitely her, but there was something different too.”
“Well, as long as she’s okay.”
“Yeah.”
They fell silent. Where the hell had that whole monologue of hers come from? She never talked that much with anyone except for Gill. She never felt comfortable enough with anyone or trusted them enough to talk about more than exactly what she had to. And now with Lachlan, everything was different.
It seemed like everything was changing far too quickly and she couldn’t figure out a way to get back to where she’d been.
#
As they neared Northumberland National Park, Lachlan called Sebastian on his cell. His cousin didn’t pick up, so Lachlan called again and then again. The third time, Sebastian answered.
“What?”
“Since you’re determined to fight, I’m laying some ground rules. One, to avoid collateral damage, we will fight in Northumberland National Park.”
“We’ll bloody well fight at the Stronghold.”
“You won’t reach the Stronghold. We’ll be waiting for you at Northumberland and if you attempt to go around us, the government has planes ready to shoot you off the road. They’ll let us fight at Northumberland but only because I convinced the General. Don’t be stupid.”
Sebastian made an inarticulate noise in his throat.
“Rule number two. We’re fighting in our wolf skins. It’s a long shot but I think our wolves have a better chance at living through this if they haven’t been peppered by AK-47s. This fight is between you and me. Let’s minimize the impact on our pack if we can.”
“I have non-wolf fighters. Their only weapons are guns.”
“I have some too but let’s try to keep them out of it unless there’s no other choice.” That left a lot open to interpretation but it was the best Lachlan could do.
“Fine. We’ll start out as wolves. Any other rules you want to lay down?”
“That’s all the rules. But this is it, Bastian. Last chance. Challenge me directly. We can have it out, just the two of us, and end this. We don’t have to send out our packs to die.” He wanted to hang up but on the off chance his cousin might take him up on the offer of a challenge, he stayed on the line.
And heard dead air. Sebastian had hung up on him.
“It’s on,” Lachlan said.
“You didn’t really expect him to do the right thing?” Keira said.
“No. But I’d hoped.”
“Yesterday morning you said you thought he’d kill you if he won.”
“He has to. I can’t challenge down, but I can challenge up. If he wins and takes my title but leaves me alive, I’ll challenge him and win it back. I’m stronger than he is and he knows it. If he wins and wants to remain UK Alpha, he’ll have to kill me.”
She squeezed his leg. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“We’re evenly matched. He has as good a shot at winning this battle as I do.”
“You have something he doesn’t.” She met his eyes and smiled. “Me.”
An hour later, they had reached the spot in Northumberland where they’d chosen to fight. With some of the soldiers, Keira and Lachlan had set up the tent they intended to use as their base at the top of a rise and verified with maps and GPS that they were in the right spot.
Then they stood and watched Sebastian’s trucks roll up on a hill across from them. Between them, a small valley lay bright green in uncharacteristic sunlight. And all Lachlan could think about was that it would soon turn red with blood.
#
As Keira stood beside Lachlan watching their enemy arrive, her phone rang. It was Harris. She’d avoided him long enough, so she picked up.
“Where’ve you been?” he said.
“Busy. Gill got in touch with me. She’s okay.”
“She got ‘in touch?’ Why aren’t you with her? Where is she? Why the hell aren’t you both on your way back to base?”
Jackass. This is why she didn’t want to talk to him. He always acted like he was giving the orders but he wasn’t their boss. He was their liaison. “And here I thought you were calling to tell me you’d tracked her phone.”
“I couldn’t. She had it turned off. Now why the hell aren’t you headed back?”
“We have business to attend to. Just put us both down as being on leave.”
“You’re supposed to ask for leave before you take it, Harlow.”
“I know. But stuff just came up.”
“What the hell’s going on?”
“It’s personal stuff.”
“So both of you are on unauthorized leave?”
“Looks like.”
He hung up. Nice.
Lachlan put his hand on her back and she let him. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” He heard all of it, didn’t he? Damned werewolf hearing. She needed to get better at remembering that.
“Was that someone from the dragon slayers?”
She should have taken the call privately. Lachlan wasn’t supposed to know about Harris. Or, hell, about any of it. She’d already told him far more than he was supposed to know. “My handler, if you will. He’s an ass.”
Lachlan chuckled. “Don’t hold anything back.”
“I won’t.”
He kissed her temple then ducked into the tent. She stayed outside for a few more minutes watching the trucks roll in. When had it become so easy to be tender with him? The little touches and kisses weren’t familiar for her but felt good coming from him.
Across the valley, men and women stripped. Some folded their clothes and put them neatly aside while others dropped them in rumpled little piles until they dotted the ridge. One by one, the people shifted, their bodies arching and contorting before dropping to all fours and sprouting fur.
When she turned to enter the tent, she saw the exact same scene behind her–lots of naked men and women not even trying to hide themselves. She pushed the tent flap out of the way and went inside. There was only one man she wanted to see without his clothes on and it was getting harder and harder to come up with a reason not to get naked with him.
She stepped up next to Lachlan at the table in the center of the room. A stack of maps lay on the surface. When she’d joked about them being old school with the paper maps, he’d explained that they didn’t have a screen that could show a single one of those maps in as much detail all at once as what they could see on paper. So yeah, old school.
But they weren’t without technology. The large tent held several computers with uplinks to satellites showing the battlefield in startling detail. They’d be able to track progress or lack thereof in real time.
Ia
in came into the tent. “We’re all here.”
“And ready to go?” Lachlan said.
“We have enough shifted soldiers to start the battle. The rest are getting into place.” Iain stopped next to Keira.
Lachlan tapped the tabletop. “All right then. Heroic speech time.” He headed out.
Chapter 11
Keira shot a glance at Iain as the two of them followed Lachlan.
“He meant ‘time to rally the troops,’” Iain said.
“Sure he did.”
“My brother has a sense of humor. Haven’t you noticed?”
“I haven’t known him very long.” Not long. But she still felt like she knew him.
Lachlan stood in the middle of wolves as far as the eye could see. They sat on their haunches and watched him. “No need for long speeches,” he said so loudly he nearly shouted, “It’s very simple. We are the strongest, we are the best, we will win. For Scotland!”
“For Scotland!” yelled the soldiers still in human form. The wolves howled, a sound so loud Keira fought to keep from covering her ears. She knew they were werewolves and wouldn’t harm the mate of their Alpha but she still felt a thrill of fear go through her at the sound.
Then they moved. Almost as one, the wolves headed for the edge of the rise and spilled over it into the valley. An echoing howl rose from the other ridge followed by a flood of movement. From afar, it looked less like a pack of wolves than like the earth itself rippling down the hillside.
The two masses of moving fur got closer and closer and finally met in the middle. Keira pulled out binoculars to watch while around her, more and more wolves continued to race toward the fight.
She’d never seen anything like it. Bereft of weapons and opposable thumbs, the wolves used their teeth and claws, snapping at each other’s necks, grappling and rolling while kicking at each other. Blood spurted where their claws scraped deep enough to snag the skin. Powerful jaws and teeth broke leg bones with a single snap and in some cases tore out throats.
Keira had been in plenty of fights and killed more than her share of dragons but she’d never been in a battle like this.
Behind her, she felt the heat of Lachlan’s body as he stepped almost close enough to her to touch. “How’re we doing?”
“I can’t really tell. I hate to say this but they all look the same to me. Isn’t that a problem? I mean, shouldn’t you all be wearing colored scarves or something so you know who to fight and who to leave alone?” Seemed like an awful lot of room for “friendly fire.”
“No need. We’ve got our noses. Each pack has a particular scent. And while we’re all a part of the UK pack, the Scottish and English factions smell different.”
Hunh. “You can tell that even in the heat of battle?”
“Of course.”
“Okay, but what about from back here? You can’t smell them, can you?”
“No.” He took the binoculars from her and looked out over the battlefield. “I can just...tell. Maybe it’s a wolf thing.”
“Or an Alpha thing. So how’s it going?”
“Just about evenly matched. Neither side is making headway.” He looked through the binoculars again then waved. “Smile. Sebastian’s watching us.”
“You’re waving at him?”
“I’m screwing with him. You should see his face.”
Keira stepped closer to him, putting her hand lightly against his back. “Show me.”
As he handed her the binoculars, Lachlan dropped his arm around her shoulders and tipped his head down so it almost touched hers. With his other hand, he pointed. “See the truck there and the table next to it? There’s a man right next to the table who’s looking at us with binoculars.”
The man Lachlan had pointed out stood holding his binoculars with both hands, legs spread. She couldn’t really see his face but his body looked like a typical wolf’s–hard and muscled. The binoculars were trained in their direction at first then strayed as though he were looking for someone. But who would he be looking for other than Lachlan?
“I’ll bet he wonders who I am,” Keira said.
“I’ll bet he knows. We have spies in his camp; he no doubt has spies in ours.” Lachlan squeezed her shoulder. “Let’s go inside so we can get a look at the satellite view.”
#
Half an hour later, the battle continued to rage. More wolves had arrived on both sides and the battlefield now stretched further than they could see with the naked eye. Not because Lachlan’s wolfish vision wasn’t up to it, but because hills and trees blocked the view.
So it was down to the satellites. Lachlan and the others in the tent watched several different screens which showed different sections of the battleground.
He hated thinking about all the wolves who were dying on both sides, so he pushed it out of his mind. He didn’t start this. He’d done everything he could to avoid it. But now that they were in the thick of it, he had to finish it.
On the Eastern flank, Lachlan’s troops held off Sebastian’s with apparent ease. In the center where the bulk of the fighting was going on, the battle was fairly evenly matched and neither side had made any good advances.
But on the Western flank, Sebastian’s forces were gaining ground. Lachlan directed some of their relief troops to that flank but before they got there, Sebastian’s wolves broke through and surged around the edge of the fight. But instead of pushing into the center to help their comrades or heading for Lachlan’s base camp, they surged forward creating a thin line hemming Lachlan’s troops in from the West.
“They’re trying to surround us,” Keira said.
“Can’t let that happen,” Lachlan said. “Who can we send?”
Iain checked. “We’re almost tapped out.” He stood. “I’ll take the few relief troops we’ve got left.”
Lachlan wanted to go himself but he knew as Alpha he needed to stay at the base, in charge. “Go.”
After he left, just two lower ranked wolves remained with Lachlan and Keira. He needed the two of them to operate the satellite feeds or he’d have sent them too.
The Scottish forces on the Eastern flank prevailed, so Lachlan sent half of them to the center to tip the balance and the rest to the Western flank to assist Iain.
“Alpha.” Niall was operating one of the satellite feeds. “There’s a group going around the Eastern edge of the fight and heading for us.”
Lachlan leaned over Niall’s shoulder. “Show me.”
Sure enough, at least fifty wolves rounded the central battle and headed up the hill toward the tent. Some of Lachlan’s wolves pursued them and held back at least five or six but the rest continued. As he watched, more wolves followed the original fifty.
Keira pulled out her gun and her dirk. “Just the four of us?” She didn’t wait for an answer. She stalked toward the door.
Lachlan clapped his hand on Niall’s shoulder. “Get some troops up here. Whoever’s closest.” He pointed toward his other tech, Tavish. “You’re with me. No time to shift.” They both grabbed weapons on their way out of the tent.
Keira stood at the top of the rise. She aimed her hand gun at a wolf Lachlan couldn’t see and pulled the trigger, her arm jerking upward in recoil. “One.” She took aim again.
Lachlan stopped beside her and aimed his weapon at the wolves catapulting toward them. “Stop, or I’ll open fire!”
A couple of them slowed but the rest sped toward them. Bullets would likely kill them. Lachlan had never had to kill like this before but it couldn’t be helped. They didn’t just threaten him, which would be bad enough. They threatened his mate.
He opened fire. The front two wolves stumbled and fell. Two more behind them jerked when hit but managed to get just a little farther before going down. The next two did the same, closer and closer.
#
Keira shot another werewolf dead between the eyes and before she could blink, another leapt over his body and raced toward her.
“Fall back.” Lachlan took one step backward.
She paced him. No way was she running when he needed her, but he was right–they needed to move before they got overrun.
Keira paused long enough to aim at another werewolf and shoot.
A wolf leapt at Tavish who fired at him. His rifle clicked over and over, not a single bullet left. The wolf landed on Tavish’s chest and tore his throat out.
“Keira, run!”
“Like hell.” She shot another wolf but they just kept coming and coming.
“Run, damn it!”
She fired her weapon. He was nuts if he thought she’d leave him. She couldn’t stand the thought of him dying. It knotted her up inside until she wanted to puke. Was it love or that mating thing? She didn’t know. All she knew was she wasn’t running anywhere.
Lachlan scooped her up with one arm and hauled ass to the mouth of the tent. “Niall! Now!” Then he spun and opened upon the wolves heading toward them.
Niall came out of the tent with a mess of guns. He handed Keira an AK-47 which would shoot faster than her hand gun and took up position beside Lachlan. All three fired on the oncoming wolves and for a moment it stopped their progress.
“When’s backup coming?” Lachlan growled.
“A minute or two.” Niall nearly panted, fear shortening his breath. “Where’s Tavish?”
“Dead.”
More wolves topped the rise and raced toward them. Where the hell were they all coming from? Keira held the gun steady and fired, the steady recoil battering her body.
“You need to go,” Lachlan shouted over the gunfire. “Run.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“This is my fight, not yours. I won’t have you die over it.”
“No.” She fired again, catching two wolves in a short burst.
“Keira, it will kill me if you die. You understand? I need you to leave.” He shot down the last two wolves just as another batch flooded over the hill.
Her stomach clenched. Did he even know what he was asking? “What the hell do you think it’ll do to me if you die?” she yelled. “No. No way am I leaving and you can’t make me.” She didn’t care if she sounded like a little child. He couldn’t make her and so she wasn’t going.
