by Cheree Alsop
AZURE
The Silver Series: Book 5
By Cheree L. Alsop
Copyright © 2012 by Cheree L. Alsop
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Cover Design by Andy Hair
www.ChereeAlsop.com
To my husband, Michael Alsop,
The best content-editor
A wife could ask for.
To my family for their support,
For their love, and the
Endless adventures.
I love you!
Chapter 1
I tossed a kernel of popcorn into the air, caught it in my mouth, then a bullet buzzed past my face close enough for me to smell the silver. I fell back in my chair and landed on the red sand with a thud. I rolled to my feet, my heart pounding and eyes searching the darkness. Sounds of a struggle parted the moonless night around the red rocks. I wondered how they found us and what had happened to Riff on night watch, then a shadow rose in front of me and lifted a gun.
I ducked under his arms and barreled him into the stone pillars that rose like sentries through our camp. The huff of air forced from his lungs with the impact sounded loud in the still night as the pillar collapsed behind me. I let him drop to the ground, then punched him in the jaw for good measure. I threw his gun into the darkness and took off to search for my friends.
Brian struggled on the ground with a man who looked to outweigh him by at least a hundred pounds, but he still should have been no match for the werewolf's strength. The scent of warm iron touched my nose and I saw a knife sticking out of Brian's thigh. I grabbed his attacker and hurtled him across the ground where he crashed into the dying remains of our fire. I spared a quick glance for Brian's leg, worried that the knife might be silver.
“I'm fine,” he growled between gritted teeth, his hands clamped around the knife to prevent it from doing further damage. “Help the others.”
His attacker was rising from the coals and I kicked his arms out from under him as I passed, sending him back into the fire. The sounds of a struggle came from the shadows.
I found Sam just outside the camp with a bullet between his eyes. Loss throbbed through my body and I knelt to check for the thump of his pulse, though my ears told me his heart no longer beat. My teeth clenched in anger and a growl escaped my lips. I couldn’t control it any longer. Someone had to pay. I phased into wolf form; my clothes tore away in the haste of the phase, but I didn't care. Black fur ran up my body and settled as the phase completed. I longed for the reassuring touch of moonlight, but my wolf eyes easily made out the rocks and brush of our desert surroundings. I took one last look at Sam, then loped toward the next sounds of battle.
Johnny kicked one man in the stomach and turned to face another, but before he could touch him, I leaped, grabbed the back of the man’s neck in my teeth, then turned in the air so my weight and momentum flipped the man backwards into a tree. I ran to the next clearing and tore a chunk out of the leg of a man who was trying to skewer Max with a black bladed knife. He used the distraction to take the knife from the man and slice his throat. Max then phased and followed me to the next struggle.
The other werewolves joined us and we took down our remaining attackers in a smooth, synchronized group as we had practiced so many times with deer and elk. It was easy to pretend they were just game instead of humans sent to kill us. To protect my friends, I pulled down human after human and tried to ignore their struggles and protests. They fought back with surprising skill and several werewolves were hurt in the process, but we protected our camp and didn’t stop until the threat was gone.
I phased back into human form behind a convenient stand of scrub brush and rocks that also served as a hiding place for one of our many stashes of clothing. I pulled on a set of shorts and rose slowly. The scent of blood tangled with the cinnamon and sun scent of the desert sand. It was a hard battle, but the werewolves were safe. I almost felt the same triumph as when we had a successful hunt, but the taste of blood lingered in my mouth and the sharpness of it reminded me that we hadn’t survived easily.
I avoided looking at the faces of the fallen men and focused on my injured comrades. Johnny was hunched next to a tree, his arm sliced to the bone and a bruise forming around one eye, but he shook off my efforts to help, insisting that others needed it worse.
I could barely look at Sam's body; a pang of guilt tore through me. I should have known they were coming. I should have protected him. I took a steeling breath and walked back to camp. Several of my group had gathered around three men, two of whom shouted insults and threats. My head throbbed from a blow I had taken during the heat of the fight. I rubbed my eyes.
“Shut them up,” I growled.
“They say there's more coming,” Zach, a gray, said over his shoulder.
“They would have been here already,” I replied. “It wouldn't make sense for them to attack at separate times.” I gave the loudest man a piercing stare. “Isn't that right?”
He sputtered for a second, then replied, “You're wrong. They're on their way and you're gonna die like the filthy beasts you are.”
“We aren't the ones who came into your home and killed your friends and family for no reason,” I barked out with an edge of anger. Sam’s death and the attack threatened to break my control in the face of a man who so openly defied me.
“No reason?” The man let out a snort of disbelief. “You're an abomination and every one of you deserves to die. The Hunters won't stop until every man, woman, and child werewolf is wiped from this earth.”
I gritted my teeth against a retort and tipped my head at Max who stood behind him. Max nodded and he and Zach dragged them from the camp. I glanced at the last captive and my heart slowed.
The Hunter was a girl close to my age. She struggled between Drake and Seth, fighting to hold a knife that Seth tried to pry from her hands. Her eyes met mine and I was surprised by her irises, a bright green the color of spring grass after a rain. Her eyes were clouded with pain, but held a spark of defiance despite the odds she faced. She knew she was defeated, but she didn’t give up. My heart went out to her. Against reason, I took a step forward.
“Let her go.”
Drake and Seth stared at me like I had gone mad. Drake, a gray who always listened to his superiors, let go of her and stepped back, but Seth kept a tight hold on her arm. “She's a Hunter,” he protested.
I fought back a growl at his defiance and attributed it to adrenaline from the attack. I met his eyes and glared until he dropped his gaze and let the girl go. She fell to her knees in the dirt, blood pouring from a long, narrow gash in her leg and a scrape above her eye. I wondered how many other wounds her dark clothing hid.
“What's going on here?” Brian demanded. He limped into the clearing with Ben's help. The brothers looked from me to the girl and I stepped between them to shield her.
“She's been hurt enough,” I said. I m
et their eyes, my heart pounding and an edge of recklessness to my thoughts.
Both Alphas looked like they wanted to argue, but Brian wasn't in any shape to fight and Ben wouldn't put his brother in danger. The Alphas knew they would lose if they tried to defy me on even ground, let alone with one of them hurt. My strength and size was the only thing that kept the balance at Two. Ben was about to say something, then he glanced behind me and his eyes widened.
Before I could move, something sliced across my back. I turned and stared at the girl in amazement. She stood holding the bleeding gash across her thigh, the knife in her hand and her chest heaving. Her long black hair tangled around her face. My teeth lifted back in a snarl at the feeling of blood running down my back. I fought down the urge to slap her. “Don't do that again if you value your life,” I said in a growl.
She opened her mouth to reply, then her face paled and her eyes rolled back. She fell forward and I caught her before she hit the ground. The knife fell with a tiny thump to the sand. I lifted her up and her head lolled against my chest. She felt tiny in my arms.
I turned to the other werewolves and Brian smirked at me. “Good luck with that,” he said. Ben helped him inside and the other werewolves followed close behind. I glanced around at the destruction of our camp, stone columns riddled by bullet holes, chairs upturned, and the fire scattered with the coals burning out. The sharp scent of blood covered the normal sandy cinnamon and sage smell of the night air. The girl moaned in my arms. I hesitated at the mouth of Two, then ducked through the entrance. I ignored the stares of the other werewolves as I made my way to my quarters.
The red rock walls and caverns that made up our home held the scent of the many werewolves I lived with. The floor had been laid with marble, but the thin red dust that coated everything from the sandstone walls made the surface slippery in the best of times. Brian and Ben had slacked off on sweeping lately and it wasn’t worth the fight to keep them working.
Starlight from the thick glass above filtered down to create snake-like patterns on the rocks and marble. I turned at the fork and followed the left branch past the cavern that made up the dining area and kitchen. I took a shortcut through the empty workout room and stopped in front of my door at the back corner of Two. It was solitary and secure, just the way I liked it.
I turned the handle and pushed the door open with my shoulder. Less light streamed through the glass along the ceiling because we were deeper down, but I liked the cool air and the solitude was welcome after the numerous fights that inevitably broke out among the group. Two’s position as a haven for hideaway male werewolves definitely came with a price.
My feet sunk into the thick carpets when I crossed to set the girl on my couch. A small sound escaped her lips. I folded my arms and watched her. She looked small on the couch, younger than my nineteen years, but not by much. I wondered if it was bravery or foolishness that gave her the fire to stand up to a dozen werewolves alone. I shook my head and went back out the door to find our resident doctor in training.
***
“Tie it off there.”
I followed Traer's directions and tied the bandage together at the front of the girl's thigh. He had already completed the stitches and was focused on a nasty looking bite on her forearm.
He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Permission to be frank?”
I rolled my eyes and dipped a cloth in the bowl to clean a deep scrape along her other arm. “You're my friend. Say what you want.”
He glanced at me, then concentrated on stitching the gashes back together. “Why save her? There are over a dozen dead Hunters out there and four werewolves. She's one of the enemy.”
I didn't answer for a few minutes. I had already asked myself the same question, knowing I would be held accountable as soon as my mother called, but I couldn’t explain why I felt so strongly about not letting her die with the rest of them. I felt Traer's eyes on me and shrugged. “I don't know. Look at her.”
He stopped stitching and studied her for a minute. “Well, she's young, quite pretty, and a trained killer. Quick with a knife, too, I hear.” He tipped his head toward my back meaningfully.
I shook my head. “If she was trained, she would have stabbed instead of sliced.”
Traer’s eyebrows rose. “You're sidestepping the fact that she cut you with her knife and you still defended her against Ben and Brian. A dangerous move, I might add.”
I tossed the bloody cloth onto the counter and picked up some gauze. “They'll live, and they know better than to mess with me.”
He nodded. “For now. Your size will only protect you for so long. One of these days they’re going to attack when you’re weak.” I rolled my eyes at the words he had said many times before. Two was still mine and their strength was no match against me. His brow creased. “You didn't answer my question.”
We both knew I didn't have to answer anything to a gray, but he was my friend and had never been anything but true to me. I wiped the blood from my hands with a clean cloth and shrugged. “She looked like she needed help.”
“She's not some injured puppy, Vance.” He glanced at me. “You can't keep a Hunter here without consequences. Too many lives are at stake.”
“Tell me about it,” I said quietly. I threw my rag with the others. “Would you rather I had let her die?”
Traer didn't reply. He tied off his last stitch, wrapped a bandage around her arm with smooth, deft movements, and checked the other bandages one last time. He sighed. “Well, she might live. She lost a lot of blood and the grays definitely gave her a working over, but she's still breathing so we'll see if she lasts the night. Humans heal a lot slower. A wound we'd recover from in a day could kill them by infection before it’s even had a chance to close.”
I frowned down at her still form. “Tell me something I don't know.”
Traer glanced at me. “You're going to have to explain this to your parents?”
My lips twisted into a wry smile. “No doubt Ben's already beat me to the punch. You'd think they were his parents the way he fills them in on everything that happens here.”
“And twists it to fit a profitable point of view?”
“Exactly.” I let out a breath. “I'll deal with them tonight when they call. For now, help the others clean up and give me an account of the injured and dead.” I rubbed my knuckles absently and a thought occurred to me. “Traer?” He turned at the door. “Have the boys bring what weapons they collect. The scent of silver in the bullets was stronger. We need to see what they're using.”
He nodded and pulled the door shut behind him. I stretched gingerly. My shirt clung to the knife wound along my back, but it was already healing and was nothing more than an annoyance. I sat slowly on a chair by the fireplace and studied the still form of the girl.
Straight black hair swept across the side of her face in a soft caress, accentuating fair skin and full lips. Her brow creased as though she felt pain, but Traer said that his sedative wouldn't wear off for hours. I stood up again. It was too much to be in a room with a Hunter while my comrades were gathering bodies and tending to the wounded. I went to the door, then paused at the question of if she would be safe while I was gone. A small smile touched my lips at my foolishness. If there was anything a werewolf respected, it was territory. She would be fine as long as she stayed in my quarters.
I shut the door behind me and walked down the hallway, trailing my hand along the red rock walls in a habit that had stayed with me since childhood. The familiar rough grains under my fingertips calmed my troubled thoughts. I followed the twists and turns of the natural rock formations to the wide dining room. Natural benches carved from the red rocks were interspersed with worn couches, a television set that had seen better days, and a dining table that had once been my mother’s newest fad, but now showed the dents, scratches, and carvings of fourteen werewolves stuck in one place for too long.
Thomas was there, the other Alpha besides myself
and the Lopez brothers. He tended to Johnny's arm and glanced up to meet my eyes when I walked in. His expression was a mixture of concern and amusement. “Found a pet?”
“Very funny,” I replied.
Zach came in with Max close behind.
“What's the report?” I asked.
Zach cleared his throat. “Riff, Sam, Jason, and Sy are dead.”
I took a slow breath to ease the anger that ran through my veins. The urge to hit something flared and I rubbed my knuckles. Several of the werewolves closest to me backed up and dropped their eyes.
Ben continued, “Johnny, Drake, and Brian were wounded but recovering. Twenty-four Hunters are dead.”
I stared at him. “Twenty-four? What'd they do, bring a small army?”
“Looks like it.” He met my eyes, his gaze serious. “They were definitely out for blood.”
Ben walked into the room. “I put the guns on your table. That Hunter's sleeping on your couch.” He gave me an accusing look.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I fought to keep my tone calm. “What do you want me to do, have her sleep on the floor?”
“If she has to sleep anywhere,” he said.
My control slipped. “She's not an animal,” I snapped before I could stop myself.
“Neither are we,” he growled back. “Yet they hunt us like vermin.”
“And I did my share to stop them,” I said in a tone that warned he was about to step over the edge.
Zach cleared his throat, his eyes on the ground. “By my count, Vance killed fourteen of the Hunters himself.”
Ben's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed. “Why keep the girl then? She's one of them.”
“That's what they say about us,” I pointed out. “She was obviously inexperienced and I didn't feel like she deserved to die.”
