by Terry Spear
Pleased that Carol thought she was pregnant, Lelandi still couldn’t believe Carol could really know such a thing. She shook more flour and sugar out of her hair.
He kissed her forehead. “I invited your brother and uncle and parents to the feast. They dragged Ural along.”
Lelandi stared at Darien, then slapped his shoulder. That’s why he had been so intent on making love to her. It had nothing to do with his pack but all to do with worrying she might want to return to her family.
He grinned. “I thought you’d be pleased.”
“You didn’t have to prove anything to them. I would have stayed with you.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “You’re an alpha pack leader’s mate, and you have the heart of a lion. Let’s get the feast under way.”
Lelandi was sure the fight would come first, but only after she dealt with her father, who wouldn’t like it that she hadn’t gotten his permission to mate Darien.
Darien escorted Lelandi into the sunroom where her parents were sitting, visiting with some of the members of his pack. Her brother and uncle were talking to Jake, and Ural sat in a corner looking unhappy. Probably still mad because of his incarceration and Darien’s people’s treatment of him. But he shouldn’t have hung around.
“We’ll leave you alone for a few minutes to get reacquainted,” Darien said to Lelandi. Everyone remained stiff and formal until Darien gave Lelandi a searing kiss on the mouth, grinned, and then winked at her. He squeezed her hand and reiterated, “The entertainment begins in a few minutes.”
The grays who were speaking with Lelandi’s family rapidly left the sunroom while Lelandi kissed her mother and father, then her brother, uncle, and cousin.
“Triplets,” her mother said, her face beaming. “I’ll stay with you during the last trimester.”
“Will... will you be living with Leidolf all the way out in Oregon?” Lelandi’s voice betrayed her sadness.
“Heavens no. Not with my grandkids coming and Hrothgar now in charge of the pack at Wildhaven,” Her mother patted Uncle Hrothgar’s arm. “Your fathers little brother is now in charge and our land is saved. She glanced at Leidolf. “When are you going to give me some grandkids?”
Leidolf looked annoyed and folded his arms. “I need a mate and none are available, right now.”
Eleanor tugged at Uncle Hrothgar’s arm, “You’ll need a mate, too. I did see a red female in the house earlier. What is she doing in a gray pack?”
“Carol? A red from Bruin’s pack turned her. But she’s an only child now and has aging parents here so I don’t think she’s interested in leaving.”
Leidolf shook his head. “I wouldn’t take a newly turned lupus garou. Too much of a responsibility. They don’t know our ways and would need constant supervision.”
“As if you can be that choosy, dear brother.”
“And there’s our line to think of.”
“You mean because we’re royals?” Lelandi rolled her eyes.
“It never meant much to you, but someone has to keep the line going. And not by mixing up with a gray either.”
Their mother smiled. “Just like the old days. I forget how much you two fought.” She sighed. “Your mate is motioning for this event to get under way. Save your teeth and claws for the one who deserves your wrath, if Darien should fall in his mission to avenge Larissa’s death.”
“He won’t fail,” Lelandi said with confidence. But she sure as hell wanted to know who he was going to be pitted against—who had killed her sister.
In front of his gathered pack and their guests, Darien raised a glass of cider, his free arm around Lelandi’s waist. “We’re gathered here to celebrate the mating between our clans of Silver Town and Wildhaven. Lelandi is not only a royal.” Darien said, pausing until the gasps died away, “but the daughter of pack leaders on both her paternal and maternal sides. So we are much honored to welcome Lelandi and her family into our embrace.”
“Hear, hear,” a chorus of grays and reds responded.
He raised his hand for silence. “Now for the grievous news. A pack bands together as a family, a united front against all others. But when one of our kind deviates from acceptable pack behavior, the individual must be dealt with swiftly and harshly. A death for a death, although in this case the murderer has killed more than one. But we can only mete out justice once.”
“Normally, I would challenge the murderer and face him in our way, wolf to wolf. But I ask my Uncle Sheridan, sheriff of Silver Town, to fight on my behalf.”
Low conversation filled the room and Lelandi glanced at Darien. He pressed her close and whispered in her ear, “I know what I’m doing.”
Sheridan stood tall, a small smile curving his lips. He glanced at Trevor.
“He has agreed to fight Trevor.”
The room was deadly silent.
Red-faced. Trevor stood his ground.
Lelandi looked up at Darien, tears in her eyes. Trevor wasn’t the killer. How could Darien have made the mistake?
“Trevor admitted he lied about taking care of mudslide victims on the night of the shootings. Why? He wouldn’t reveal the answer. But Uncle Sheridan knew. Trevor had hired the gunman who shot Lelandi, Tom, and Sam. He appeared on the ridge and killed the gunman before anyone could question him. The motive, you ask? He wanted to be sheriff. He thought his sister’s mating with me would secure that position for him in the future. But some might have heard rumors Larissa’s offspring were not my own and when Ritka revealed this to Trevor, he dreamed up this blackmail scheme. Through the sheriff’s diligence, he discovered the money in a bank account in Green Valley in Trevor’s name.”
Trevor shot a dagger of a glare at the sheriff.
Darien motioned to Chester. “Acting on our behalf, P.I. Chester McKinley helped to uncover this treachery. All the puzzle pieces fit together. Trevor was a condemned man living on borrowed time.” Darien’s spine stiffened and his eyes held a feral gleam.
But Trevor didn’t look like a condemned man, which made Lelandi suspicious that Darien and he had cooked up this whole charade.
“Except for one thing.” Darien waved at Carol. “I wouldn’t have revealed Carol’s special gift because it’s her choice, but she’s agreed to save a man’s life.”
Carol nodded.
Lelandi stared at her. She knew, too? And didn’t tell Lelandi? Inwardly, she growled.
“Carol has second sight.”
Muffled conversation renewed.
“She saw not Trevor in the vision, but another man, who shoved the chair out from under Larissa’s feet, allowing her to strangle until she was dead.”
Darien held onto Lelandi when she felt ready to collapse, but she had to remain strong as the pack leader’s mate, and she bit back the tears, willing them to stay at bay.
“Carol’s visions aren’t clear all the time, she explained to me. But one thing was—he wore a police uniform.”
“Trevor,” Sheridan said, his voice booming.
“At first, that’s what Carol thought since all evidence pointed to him. But she touched the rope the murderer had tied into a noose. That man was you, Uncle Sheridan. You went on vacation, thinking you’d committed the perfect crime—murdered my mate, who was a disgrace to the pack because she was already mated and now having another gray’s offspring. But you hadn’t planned on Larissa having a family. A sister, who would come to avenge her. Ritka must have notified you when she was at the tavern that Lelandi had arrived, and you hurried home to take care of the mess.”
“But Trevor’s gun fired the fatal bullet that killed the gunman. He was the shooter.” Sheridan said.
“My brothers and I investigated your house when you searched for evidence at Trevor’s. We had already inspected his home first and found nothing to connect him with the crimes. However, at your home, we discovered the hunter’s spray that makes an individual smell like decaying leaves. At Angelina’s home, we found the kind that makes a person invisible to other animals. Why would
either of you need hunter’s sprays to hide your scent?”
Sheridan gave a coy smile. “I have no idea why Angelina would have such a thing, but the stuff I have was evidence.”
“Hidden underneath your bathroom sink? And the GHB? Used to drug so many at the hospital? We found it in the same location.”
“More evidence. I couldn’t keep it at the jailhouse. Trevor might have destroyed it. Besides, I was drugged, too, remember?”
“Conveniently, yes. To counter suspicion. And you were the one in charge of so many of the investigations. You could ‘find’ whatever suited your purposes. If you had ‘found’ the GHB used in the crime at the hospital, why hadn’t you reported it? We checked the area where we discovered Lelandi after she’d been shot. No decaying leaves like you’d said.”
Lelandi shivered, realizing how close she’d come to death at Darien’s uncle’s hands.
“I must have gone to the wrong location. At the time of the shooting, I was at a hotel—”
“We investigated the hotel already. You checked in, but you disappeared in a hurry. One of the maids said you left several items in the bathroom and on the desk. You grabbed your bag, threw it in the truck, and roared out of there like the devil was after you. Even the manager said she noticed because you nearly hit another vehicle and the driver laid on the horn,” Darien said.
“So I left in a hurry. Mason called me and said several shootings had occurred, and I needed to return at once.”
“He called you on your cell phone well after you’d left the hotel. Time enough for you to have heard from Ritka, hired a gunman, and return so you could strangle Lelandi.”
Uncle Sheridan turned his murderous glower on Trevor. “He has no alibi for the night of the shootings. He lied. And if I was strangling Lelandi, who shot the gunman?”
Darien offered a sinister smile. “You admit there had to be two of you? That the time was such that someone else had to have shot and killed the gunman? Only Jake and I knew this.”
Sheridan’s Jaw ticked in restrained anger.
“True. Trevor lied about where he was. But he does have an alibi. He’s been having an affair with an underage lupus garou.”
Ohmigod, was it Caitlin?
Sheridan looked smug. “Then the girl lied. To give him an alibi,”
“Her mother told me about her daughter’s condition. She found them in bed together in a hotel on the outskirts of town. She was giving them the riot act for an hour at the same time when the shooting of the gunman occurred. Angelina used Trevor’s gun to murder the gunman. You and she are without alibis.”
“She’s conveniently dead so she can’t defend herself. But then again, she hated Larissa and Lelandi, so maybe she did hire the gunman. She did have the blackmail money.”
Darien snorted. “You said Trevor had it.” He waved a diary in the air. “Ritka was your lover. Doc Featherston examined the body and learned she’d been mated. Ritka wrote how you’d set up the blackmail scheme and when Larissa discovered you were the mastermind, you killed her. You were obsessed with keeping the pack line clean, and Ritka feared you, although you continued to come to her night after night. She was your partner in crime, along with Hosstene and Angelina, who you conveniently disposed of. But, you, damn it, you are my own flesh and blood.”
“Your mate was a whore and brought shame to both the pack and our family’s good name. It was only a matter of time before she took off with Joe. He’d been stealing from the silver mine so he and his lover could leave here. You would have gone after her, killed Joe, and brought her and her bastard children back to the pack as your own, while she remained the female pack leader, weak and disloyal. With her lover dead, do you think she would have changed her ways? Bah! She would have been more depressed. bringing the whole pack down with her. I couldn’t allow it.” Uncle Sheridan tore at his shirt. “You want me to fight Trevor. I will.”
Lelandi hated Sheridan, but his words tore at her heart. He was probably right about everything he said. The pack would have suffered. But she couldn’t agree her sister should have died because she had loved the wrong man.
Darien grunted. “No. I only wanted to draw the truth from you. You’ve shamed the family and our pack. You’ll fight me.”
Several of the pack members patted Trevor on the back, although some gave him dirty looks. Taking an underage lupus garou was unacceptable in their society, and Lelandi wondered again if it was Caitlin.
She glanced at Doc Mitchell and his gaze met hers. Caitlin’s parents were absent. In fact, no underage lupus garou were present. When Bruin had such a gathering, everyone from the pack, regardless of age, was required to attend.
Darien kissed Lelandi’s lips. “I’m sorry, Lelandi. I had to be sure.”
“You’ve always done right by me. You will for Larissa as well.”
Darien took a deep breath and nodded. ‘It ends here and now.” He turned to face his pack. “To the field.”
The battlefield.
Chapter 26
As SOON AS LELANDI SAW SHERIDAN IN HIS WOLF COAT, SHE knew he was the one who’d stalked her in the woods. Too bad the pickup hadn’t run him over on the road.
Nearly everyone loped out into the winter setting in their wolf forms where the upper crust of snow was crisp and giant snowflakes fluttered earthward. Wolves have the advantage over larger animals on deep-crusted snow, although Lelandi figured Sheridan wouldn’t fall through the snow like a moose or elk might, slowing him down. despite his heftier size. Though she could hope.
Carol, not ready to join the wolf pack to watch another killing fight, didn’t shapeshift. Maybe because she was afraid to turn wolf or the fear another wolf would attack her again. Lelandi’s father, who remained in his wheelchair, watched out the sunroom window with Carol at his side. Since the accident, he hadn’t been able to shapeshift, and she knew he felt like less of a lupus garou and battled depression, wishing often he had died with his people. Although she was certain he wanted desperately to be the one to avenge Larissa s death.
Both grays and reds alike formed a circle while Darien and his uncle faced off. Sheridan was taller by four inches and stockier built, but Darien had youth and strength on his side.
Leidolf crouched, ready to pounce, but Uncle Hrothgar growled at him, and her brother bowed his head slightly and straightened. For an eternity, it seemed Darien stared Sheridan down. Their wolf coats kept the chill out, the second dense coat keeping the snowflakes from touching their skin and melting. Everyone patiently watched for the showdown to begin while neither panted, just watched each other, their tails stretched stiff behind them, their thick hair standing at attention, ears perked, waiting for the other to move.
Lelandi’s mind worked over the past events, and she realized how easy it had been for Sheridan to cover his tracks since he was always in charge of the investigations—even to confirm Larissa had committed suicide.
Darien turned and walked in a circle toward his uncle, who immediately moved away.
Sheridan continued to avoid Darien, but the pack leader was quickly closing the gap. Inwardly, Lelandi darkly smiled. The first test and Sheridan had failed. The bastard. Sheridan tried to turn, but he wasn’t agile enough and Darien bit him in the flank.
If Lelandi hadn’t been in her wolf form, she would have cheered Darien.
Sheridan yelped and dodged before Darien took another bite. He wouldn’t kill him quickly, she figured. Not after Sheridan had murdered her sister, two pack members, and tried to murder Lelandi.
His people and hers would want justlce—lupus garou justice, but drawn out enough to make it count.
Sheridan tried to hide his limp from the wound, but he continued to circle around the inside of the group, keeping away from Darien. By the way his tail drooped slightly. Sheridan was already showing signs of defeat.
When he neared Leidolf, her brother snarled at Sheridan, his teeth bared, his tail straight—readying for the attack.
Lelandi’s fur stood on end. Let
Darien take care of it, she prayed. But Sheridan snapped back at Leidolf, so close Lelandi nearly died. Leidolf’s blood was running hot, the way the anger swelled deep inside him and she, being so connected with her triplet’s emotions, felt swept into the maelstrom.
In the blink of an eye, Leidolf responded to Sheridan’s taunt and attacked, sinking his teeth into the bigger gray’s side.
Sheridan could kill her brother for being such a hotheaded fool as soon as the bigger gray shook him loose. But she didn’t expect Sheridan to free himself from Leidolf’s grip, then bite into Leidolf’s neck, since Darien was more of a threat.
Instinctively, Lelandi went for Sheridan’s throat and grabbed hold. She felt Darien brush against her side, trying to get to Sheridan, but she couldn’t let go for fear the gray would kill her next. As fast as it took a bolt of lightning to strike the ground. Sheridan released Leidolf and seized Lelandi’s throat. He would kill her like he murdered her sister, and if he did, he would destroy Darien’s reason to live.
She didn’t have time to panic, or feel Sheridan’s jaws clamping down tighter, stopping the air from flowing, before Darien grappled his uncle’s neck with his powerful jaws. Biting down hard, he crushed the bone and the life out of the gray.
Sheridan’s mouth loosened on Lelandi’s neck, and they both collapsed. When she fell on her side, she lay still, trying to catch her breath. But it was worse than that, and she couldn’t help being totally humiliated. Darien quickly changed into his human form despite the cold and held his hand over the wound on her throat. “Carol.”
His own neck bleeding, Leidolf nuzzled her face.
Darien lifted Lelandi from the snow and hurried her into the house.
“Lay her there, Darien. I... I’ve never taken care of an injured wolf,” Carol said, opening a first aid kit.
“They can be testier than in their human forms, but in Lelandi’s case, I’m not sure that’s always true,” Darien said, a slight smile curving his lips.
Lelandi growled.
Doc Mitchell stalked into the house, zipping up his jeans and grabbed his bag. “Came prepared for any eventuality.”
