Devil's Property [Devil Hills Wolves 3] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Fel Fern

  “So are you,” Lance said softly.

  “Even if you told Zack to stay away from the Devil?” Santino knew bringing that up might ruin this ground-breaking talk they had, but he asked to understand why Lance warned Zack to keep away from him.

  “When I told Zack that, I didn’t think the healer would be anything special to you. I couldn’t risk Zack failing to do his job just because you broke his heart. We need the pack whole, and for that, we need your sister.”

  Santino snarled. “You think I’d hurt Zack?”

  “You don’t exactly have a pristine reputation when it comes to relationships,” Lance said. “But I’ll admit I made a mistake. Maybe this healer is for you, after all. You know, for the longest time, I always preferred working with Sabine over you.”

  “We’ve never hid the fact we dislike each other,” he said, baring his teeth.

  “I think I understand why,” Lance continued. “It’s because we’re so alike.”

  It seemed the conversation was over, though. Lance opened the truck door and got out. Santino did the same. He mulled over the Beta’s words, only to find Deacon regarding the two of them with unconcealed amusement. The bastard probably knew they needed to have that conversation.

  “Productive talk?” Deacon asked.

  “I’m heading to the western sector with my team,” Santino grumbled, but he did give Lance an acknowledged nod.

  In what ways were they alike? Santino knew he let his temper get the better of him, always made the reckless decisions, but Lance was his exact opposite, level-headed and calm. Maybe there was so much more to the Beta than he initially thought.

  Chapter Twelve

  These woods, these old trees Santino knew like the back of his hand, felt different, smelled wrong. The hawk shifters working with them on this rotation hadn’t reported anything strange, and he’d just checked with Ariel ten minutes ago.

  Santino prowled the denser areas of the western sector, hackles raised. Intruders? The hawks would have warned them about those instantly. Unless it was an enemy they couldn’t detect by normal means, Santino thought.

  Since using sight and scent didn’t work, Santino stretched his mind, trying to see if he could brush up against any nearby minds. He sensed a faint presence right in Ariel’s area. Fur raised, Santino sprinted toward that direction, only to hear a series of pained growls. He recognized the sound. Ariel.

  Fuck. If anything happened to his second-in-command, he’d be seriously pissed. Ariel was a fellow pack member who Deacon, Sabine, and he had grown up and had been one of the few dominant soldiers who hadn’t been afraid of him. She was a good soldier and an important member of his team, and thus fell under his protection.

  Then silence.

  Anger swept through him as he ran faster. He kept to the trees, though, using his dark coat to blend in with his surroundings. Still no strange scents, but he could definitely sense them. Intruders. Santino didn’t warn the others yet, needed that element of surprise.

  Copper his nose. Freshly spilled blood. He slowed his pace, remained in the bushes as he spotted Ariel lying on the ground in wolf form, not moving. Jared snarled at the two men dressed in the Discipline Squad’s all-white uniform. Both pointed assault rifles at him.

  Santino had battled these bastards often enough to know that when the Squad headed to shifter territory, they always carried guns loaded with silver bullets on them. He culled the instinct to attack them on sight. Something was off here. A furry body brushed against his side. Tom, another of his senior soldiers. A younger soldier like Jared would have rushed in, but Tom waited, knowing how he worked.

  How did these Squad members manage to enter their land without them knowing? Every sector had been closely monitored by both the pack and their paranormal allies. These two Squad members were humans. He stretched out his mental abilities, cast it outward like a net, then felt a third mind hidden close by.

  That third presence registered genuine surprise.

  Who are you? A shaky male voice asked in his head, sounding frightened. The Esper had every right to be scared. Agnes had taught him most Espers could recognize another Esper’s mind, but Sabine and his mind felt different, wilder and more savage somehow thanks to their wolves.

  Santino gave Tom a nudge toward the direction of the Discipline Squad. Tom didn’t hesitate to run toward the clearing, announcing his presence with a snarl, providing Santino the necessary distraction to hunt down the Esper. There was only one reason why that Esper would be working with the Squad. He was probably rehabilitated, his mind broken and reshaped so his abilities could be used by humans as weapons.

  Shit. This was on him, because usually Sabine and he were in charge of sensing Espers in their territory. There were a few Esper families living in Devil Hills, but none of them were combat trained. Sabine suggested they start training capable Espers to help out with patrols, but they never got around to implementing the plan.

  Santino easily found his mark, a pale man hidden behind a tall oak tree, his white uniform hanging loosely on his frame. This Esper must possess some kind of cloaking ability that masked the scent of the other humans, a dangerous power since shifters and other paranormals tracked by scent if sight failed them. The hawks would have sighted them, too, so he had to assume this Esper might have the ability to create illusions, too.

  He sprinted out of his hiding place. Seeing him, the Esper screamed, backing against a tree. Sensing two more minds nearby and hearing the click of guns, Santino dodged slightly to the right.

  “Shit, get that animal. If he kills Aaron, we’re done for,” a male voice yelled.

  A bullet grazed his left side, drawing blood. Another found its way to his right shoulder. He snarled, ignoring the flare of pain. Fine. He’d deal with these fuckers first. Santino stopped and turned his head, narrowing his gaze. He locked on the two shooters and shoved his telekinesis outward, the force of it slamming both men so hard, their backs hit the tree, breaking bone. They screamed.

  He returned to his prey.

  “What kind of monster are you?” the pale man whispered, beginning to tremble. Most rehabilitated Espers were unbalanced, Santino knew. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were only supposed to extract that bobcat healer. Voss wanted a shifter healer so badly.”

  Rage rode him at those words. They wanted Zack? He closed his teeth on the Esper’s neck and tore out his throat. Was it his imagination, or did the Esper looked relieved to die? Santino spun, but his wolf assured him the woman who approached wasn’t an enemy but a trusted packmate.

  Ignoring her for a moment, he shut his eyes and tried to see if there were any other Espers who escaped his notice. He opened his eyes and said, “This area is clear.”

  A hawk shifter flew down from one of the trees and shifter, looking out of breath. It was Hope, another hawk shifter he and his team worked with frequently.

  “Santino, I’m so sorry. None of us saw or scented anything until we heard the gunshots,” Hope admitted, looking a little wary as he padded toward her and turned back to human form to converse.

  She swallowed, and he realized he was still letting off aggressive energy, his wolf still on the killing edge. Santino also realized he was still blood splattered. He reeled in his wolf and debated what information to share with the hawk shifters. Hope’s lower lip trembled, which didn’t help his mood. Fuck. The last thing he needed was one of their allies being terrified of him.

  Santino breathed in and out.

  “Hope, it’s fine. They had an Esper with illusion powers and some kind of scent cloaking abilities with them,” he said, nodding to the Esper with the torn throat. “Update your hawks that the problem’s been taken care of.”

  Hope looked at the corpse with open hatred. Santino didn’t blame her. The denizens of the Devil Hills community were protective of both the land and the people living in it. Still, none of his soldiers would have wasted precious time lingering.

  Problem? Deacon asked in his mind. Thank God,
Deacon reached out to him first. He doubted he could send out a psychic message to the Alpha in his state.

  Santino seldom expanded so much of his Esper abilities these days because it drained him mentally and took a physical toll on his body after. Unlike the time he rescued Zack and the other Silver Thunder survivors, Santino only used short bursts of power. Today, Santino let anger ride him and he used too much of his abilities, but it didn’t matter.

  He didn’t use to be this weak. If Sabine’s mind was linked to his and Deacon’s, she would have given him some of her life force. They would do the same for Deacon if the Alpha were weakened, another reason why he wanted her to wake from that coma.

  He’d stay conscious and do what needed to be done.

  He gave the Alpha a quick update of what happened.

  Got it. Reinforcements will arrive soon. Are you injured?

  Just minor wounds.

  The Alpha cut the connection.

  “This is new,” Hope muttered. “I can’t believe the Squad managed to evade our notice.”

  Christa politely cleared her throat. Christa had initially been part of Sabine’s team. Deacon had temporarily allocated Sabine’s team members to the other enforcers’ teams. He trusted Christa, because his sister thoroughly selected her own soldiers, too.

  “I’m sorry,” Hope said, blushing, and shifted back to hawk form to continue her duties.

  He turned to Christa, who didn’t waste time giving him an update. “The two Squad members who shot Ariel are dead. Ariel sustained heavy injuries, so did Jared. Tom sustained minor ones.”

  He raised his eyebrow at that. Santino had carefully selected the man and women on his team, even supervised the training of some of them. True, Jared was new to his team and acted impulsively on occasion the way the young wolves tended to.

  Still, it was hard to believe two humans could wound his soldiers at all.

  As if Christa knew what he was thinking, she continued, “They appear to have new weapons able to momentarily stun a shifter for a few seconds.”

  Santino swore. He debated sending for Elaine or Zack, but it wasn’t exactly easy getting to this sector thanks to the rocky and uneven terrain. That only told him these Squad members must have been here for quite some time, had escaped noticed this long until he found them. This wasn’t good news.

  “I’ll return Ariel and the others. Tom and I will bring Ariel and Jared back to the pack compound.” Santino paused, thinking. He wasn’t strong enough to send out another message to Deacon. “You head back first to the compound and tell Elaine to get ready. Deacon’s sending more pack members this way.”

  “You’re injured, too,” Christa added, staring at his bleeding shoulder.

  “I’ll be fine,” Santino said through gritted teeth, refusing to show weakness.

  Christa nodded and returned to wolf form and began running in the direction of the pack house. Santino changed back to animal, quickly did a mental scan of his surroundings again. Satisfied he felt no other presence, he returned to his injured packmates.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Go through the healing process with me again,” Elaine told Zack.

  Nervousness filled Zack as he studied the middle-aged no-nonsense healer with the streaks of gray in her hair. He’d gone through his lie with Elaine two times now. Did Elaine know or suspect he was a fraud?

  They were all seated inside the well-equipped clinic located inside the main werewolf pack house. Upon entering, Zack had been impressed by how well-furnished her clinic was and, admittedly, a little jealous. Elaine had state-of-the-art equipment and complete medical supplies. Then Elaine sat Daryl and him down and began shooting him thorough questions that made him sweat.

  “Elaine, Zack’s already told you,” Daryl said exasperated. “You’re only supposed to tell him about Sabine’s situation.”

  Elaine turned those scary gray eyes on Daryl. Even the empath sucked in a breath. Only Sylvia seemed immune by Elaine’s glare, still preoccupied with her cookie and coloring book on the table.

  “Are you giving me orders, Daryl Rush?” Elaine asked in a chilly voice.

  “Not at all,” Daryl said quickly.

  He swallowed. Damn it. Elaine was scary.

  Those gray eyes bore into his. “When Deacon told me he’d let a new healer into Devil Hills who specializes in healing of the mind, I expected a much older and experienced healer,” Elaine said with clipped tones. “You’ve given me a narration, not facts, not what I want to know if a situation like this arose again.”

  She knew, Zack thought with certainty. His heart sank. Even Daryl looked at him a little too closely for his liking. His jig was up. It didn’t matter. Zack hated lying because he knew Elaine didn’t interrogate him on purpose. She genuinely wanted him to pass her his knowledge, even though she probably suspected he’d lied his way to get into Devil Hills.

  The clinic door banged opened. A female werewolf peered in.

  “Elaine, I’m sorry to interrupt, but Santino and his team sustained heavy injuries during a fight with some Discipline Squad members in the western sector of our territory,” the werewolf reported. “Two are critically injured.”

  His heart raced at those words. “What happened to Santino?” he whispered.

  “Uncle ‘Tino’s hurt?” Sylvia asked with huge eyes. Daryl walked over to the girl and gathered her in his arms.

  “Come on, Sylvia. We’ll wait outside,” Daryl said in a soothing voice, ushering her outside the clinic.

  Elaine rose to her feet and quickly gathered some supplies.

  “Elaine—” the werewolf began, but Elaine interrupted her.

  “Zack, since you’re here, you might as well make yourself useful,” Elaine snapped.

  “Of course,” he blurted. “I’ll do anything in my power to help Santino and his wolves. The others and I owe our lives to them.”

  “Elaine,” the female werewolf repeated. “There’s no need to pack for supplies, they’re on their way here.”

  Elaine huffed. “You should have said that earlier. Zack, we’ll prepare the clinic.”

  “Tell me what you need,” he said, grateful for the distraction.

  Too many questions raced in his mind. How did the Discipline Squad members manage to breach a tightly guarded territory like Devil Hills? There could only be one reason why they were here.

  Those Squad members were probably still hunting him and the other survivors. Since they managed to get this far into the wolves’ territory, they must have been confident enough to risk slipping in and out—before the wolves noticed. That possibility scared him shitless, but not as much as the thought of how badly hurt Santino was.

  He spent most of the morning and afternoon with Daryl and met plenty of other werewolves. Santino was Deacon’s strongest enforcer, and for Santino to be hurt—

  “You lied your way into our land, didn’t you?” Elaine asked quietly once they were alone and finished setting up the clinic. “The story you’ve told me, I’ve heard it before from passing group of shifters. You changed some of the names, the places, but it’s the same tale.”

  Zack froze and faced the healer. He was sick of hiding, of deceiving these wonderful folks who’d given him and the others shelter. “I lied to make sure my people were safe.”

  “That’s the first honest word to come from your mouth,” she said drily.

  He clenched his jaw. “I know what I did was wrong. I’ll own up to my mistakes. I planned on telling Santino as soon as he returned,” his voice trembled as he spoke. He shivered. Bloody images of Santino’s broken body kept popping up in his head. “I-I didn’t mean to lie to him. The last thing I wanted—”

  Elaine stepped in front of his face, hand flying, her slap returning him to his senses. His cheek stung as he stared at her.

  “You’re a fucking healer. Get yourself together. One hurdle at a time. We’ll work together and heal the injured. Then, we’ll talk about your lies,” she said.

  God. His mother wo
uld have liked Elaine, because the healer was so focused on her work. Shame washed over him as he struggled to maintain his neutral expression. She made a good point. Healers couldn’t break down during a critical moment.

  Moments later, the clinic door banged opened again. Seeing Santino holding onto a badly bleeding slender woman with red hair made his heart leap with hope. True, Santino was covered in blood, too, but the enforcer was still able to stand.

  “Set Ariel on this bed and Jared on the other. I’ll take care of Ariel and Zack will tend to Jared,” Elaine said, natural at giving orders.

  Santino flashed him a smile, before settling Ariel on the bed. Deacon soon entered the room, and he realized the Alpha was probably helping keep the injured shifters alive by sending some of his energy.

  Zack took deep breaths and focused on the two other werewolves who helped the injured shifter Jared to the bed. Jared was about his age, he realized, entire chest covered in makeshift bandages that began to bleed through.

  “Tell me about his injuries,” Zack said in a firm voice to the wolves who brought Jared in

  “He was shot three times in the chest with silver bullets,” one werewolf reported. “He was still conscious when we carried him out of the forest but fainted a few minutes ago. Will he be all right?”

  “I’ll do my best,” he replied.

  Zack quickly went to work, peeling off the bandages and assessing the state of Jared’s injuries before reaching out for the tools he prepared on the table.

  “Wait, Santino already took out the bullets,” the werewolf said.

  Zack examined Jared closely and nodded in approval. “Cleanly too. Good.”

  Santino probably used his telekinesis, he thought. No time to go to Santino, although he badly wanted to walk up to the enforcer and hug him, just to convince himself Santino was safe.

  “Everyone except Deacon and Zack, leave the room,” Elaine said. “Wait, Santino you’re injured, too. Stay.”

  Shit. That didn’t help. How badly was Santino injured? Why hadn’t the enforcer said anything? God, it would be so like Santino to put the lives of his men and women first over his own.