Rachel snorted as if to say, I know that, asshole.
Brady laughed, then hissed through the pain. Everything ached. But he had bigger issues to deal with. “Right. I get it. You’re trying.”
Rachel nodded her head at the dead wolf and Brady instantly understood. “Oh, she’s not going to like this one bit.” He limped over and took hold of the black wolf by the scruff of his neck and, groaning with effort, dragged him over to the other side of Fallon. Gently he lifted her unconscious body, sitting her almost upright against the bulk of the dead wolf’s torso.
Brady kept his ears tuned to the battle in the distance, but he bent down again and felt Fallon’s cheeks, inspecting her for any signs of outward injury.
Her breathing was slow, but not labored. Unconscious, but with no physical wound to show for it. No goose egg on her head, no bruises. That concerned him the most.
“We can’t stay here long, even with you as a blanket. She has to be moved if she won’t wake up on her own. And I’ll bet there are more wolves lurking in the woods here.”
Rachel whimpered. She shifted and stood. “We can’t go back yet. They knew exactly who to target. Where to strike. Aiden...”
“Where is my brother?” Brady couldn’t control the snarl in his voice. His brother could hold his own in a fair fight, of that he had no doubt, but an ambush was far from fair.
“I don’t know. He sent me and Fallon away when they stormed the compound. Last I saw was him shifting. I didn’t want to go, but Fallon pulled me away. We were heading for your room when they attacked.”
“What happened to her?” Brady looked to Fallon.
“Fireballs were coming through the windows as we ran. Wolves and half-shifted men were pouring through the open holes in the windows. We were trying to make it to your room and got separated. When I found her again, she was trying to shift. I said I’d watch her back, but someone knocked me in the head pretty hard. When my ears stopped ringing, I saw her being flung across the room. As soon as she went down, that guy scooped her up and walked out. Like he knew exactly who she was.”
“And he took her this way. Which means someone of importance is out here.” Brady thought for a second about what that might mean. A general leading from the back rather than an Alpha in the midst of the fight – sounded more and more like Charles’s tactics. Going back to the compound to fight no longer made sense, not when he might sniff out the ringleader here in the woods.
Fallon moaned, calling their attention to her.
“If she wakes up, we might have a chance,” Brady said.
“To do what? We can’t go back into that massacre,” Rachel replied harshly.
“Afraid of a fight?” Brady teased but his humor was wasted at the moment. The snarl Rachel gave him was evidence of that.
Rachel bent down and cupped Fallon’s face in her hands. “You’ve got to wake up, Fallon. We need you.” She shook the unconscious wolf a little and when that did not work, she gave Fallon a little smack on the cheek.
“Hey now,” Brady said.
“She can take a little tap on the cheek. We need her to get up.” Rachel tapped her again. “C’mon, lady, wakey wakey time.”
A muscle in Fallon’s face twitched, but she still did not opened her eyes.
“She’s probably got a bad concussion. The cold isn’t helping either.” Brady sighed, frustrated.
“Aiden needs you,” Rachel whispered. “You’re his only hope. Wake up, Fallon. Save your mate.”
Like magic, hearing those words got Fallon stirring. Brady understood immediately. He shifted on his feet, remembering how hearing Rachel was in trouble had spurred him to get out of the infirmary bed despite his injuries. And now that his pain was only an echo of what it had been, it all made sense.
Poets say “Love Conquers All.” But really, what it does is give one the motivation to try. Fallon’s small movements and fluttering eyes were further proof of that.
“C’mon lady. We have to end this. We need you to get up. Aiden is still in there fighting the good fight, but without your help we can’t stop it.” Rachel continued her motivational speech.
Fallon groaned and her hand lifted to her head. “Ouch.”
Brady knelt down in front of her. “Welcome back, sunshine.”
“Go screw yourself,” Fallon grumbled.
“That’s my girl. Let’s get you up.” Brady extended a hand.
Rachel looked confused.
“She’s my sister,” Brady said with a smirk. “Picking on each other is what we do.”
He hefted Fallon to her feet and held her steady.
“Here’s the plan. Out there somewhere is the ringleader of all of this. A coward who would rather send others to do their dirty work.”
“How do you―” Rachel started to say.
“Save questions for the end.” Brady held up a hand to silence her. “Fallon was being brought out here for a reason. Rather than kill her on the spot, she was bait or leverage... whatever. So that means someone of importance is out here. We find them. We bring them home, and let our justice be done.”
Rachel smiled a broad toothy smile. “With pleasure.”
Fallon looked as if she might fall over if Brady let go of her, but her spirit had not been broken. She nodded and whispered, “Okay.”
“Can you shift?” Brady asked.
“Can’t really fight like this, can I?” Fallon grumbled. She took a deep breath and bent to the ground, placing her hands into the snow. Slower than usual, her fur began to appear and with it, limbs began to reshape.
Rachel gasped as she witnessed Fallon’s transformation into the bright red wolf. “Holy shit. Look at her colors. What kind of wolf is she?”
Looking more fox than wolf, Fallon’s unique fur coat had been the result of vampire blood aiding in her transformation. Brady secretly admired her special attributes. Smaller but no less deadly, Fallon was truly unique among their kind. In her wolf form, she was unmatched in speed and had the reflexes of their undead cousins. More than once, Brady had witnessed the bloodlust in his sister-in-law’s eyes, but dared not speak of it out loud. And he needed her to tap into that feral side of herself now.
“She’s a very special kind of wolf,” Brady chuckled.
Once transformed, Fallon took a few wobbly steps before finding her footing and prancing around as if to say she were ready to go.
“When we find the bastard, you let me kill him!” Brady shifted down into his wolf, welcoming the warmth of his fur coat and thankful his wolf was less injured than his human form.
“Not if I kill him first,” Rachel mumbled and shifted after him.
Brady sniffed around for a moment, trying to retrace his steps before the fight with the black wolf so he could gauge the direction he’d been heading. When he found his bearings, he took off deeper into the forest.
He’d been raised here; he knew the land well and where the natural borders of the nature preserve were. His family had run this land for generations. But the direction he was heading now took him toward the water, a dangerous area in the winter. They called it a pond, but it was really more of a lake, given its size, and in the middle of winter the water froze on the surface near the edges. Not an area he wanted to get into a fight near.
Sure enough, as he neared the pond, he could smell the scent of an encampment.
Brady slowed as he approached and saw the virtual tent city laid out before him. But it didn’t make sense. How would Charles have gotten so many of his wolves up this way so quickly? There had to be hundreds of tents in the clearing near the water’s edge.
Fallon and Rachel came up behind him. The looks in their eyes were just as shocked. This had to have been thought out – planned far in advance.
Brady turned to Rachel. Suspicion glinted in his eyes. Of all the places she could have run to, why did she go north? How much of this had all been set in motion to start the war?
He shifted again. “What have you not told me?” Brady asked Rachel.
She shifted as well, holding her hands up in surrender. “I swear I knew nothing of this.”
“Why did you come north?” Brady asked. “Why did Craig seek you out here, of all the places you could have gone?”
“I was trying to leave the country. I had a friend in the pack who said they could get me a passport. They had a contact in Ipswich. So I was heading there.” The fear in Rachel’s eyes spoke the truth.
“How long had you been planning your escape?” Brady asked.
“Months.” Rachel breathed the word.
“Your friend was not a very good friend.”
“What do you mean?” Rachel asked.
“Ipswich is a few miles northeast of here. Our nature preserve is well known as the Olde Town Pack’s base of operations.”
“So?” Rachel asked in confusion.
“You didn’t find it suspicious in the slightest that your former mate knew exactly where to send an assassin?”
Shock replaced the confused look in Rachel’s eyes.
Brady answered the question for her. “They knew you were coming to our territory because they sent you here to die.”
“But you said...”
“I said you didn’t do it intentionally, but you were definitely set up for this,” Brady grumbled. He realized how quickly Mark and Louis had returned to the nature preserve as well. It all began to make sense to him. Had they been truly willing to change sides, they’d have told him where exactly Charles was. Double agents of the most cowardly sort, the rats were spying on them. He should have seen it all. And now here was the proof, plotted, planned, and executed to near perfection.
Down below their position in the tent city, he spotted a few patrolling wolves, but he knew the majority of their forces were in battle with his brother. But if his suspicion was correct, then at least Charles would be here, and he could still bring him to justice.
“We’re going down there. Kill anyone you come across. Leave no wolf standing. I will take the leader alone,” Brady ordered, before he shifted back into his wolf and started down, not waiting for an answer from Rachel. Fallon technically outranked him, but she made no attempt to argue.
Silently he prowled into the camp, avoiding the patrolling wolves as he searched out the main tent.
Rachel and Fallon disappeared into the shadows, and Brady had no doubt they’d do their job to perfection. She-wolves were often deadlier than the men, and with the pair of them together, no lone patrol wolves stood a chance.
Brady found the lead tent near the water’s edge. Larger and nicer than the others, it was guarded by two wolves at its front, but around back, the simple tarp wall was easy to slip under.
Inside, Brady expected to find Charles Marsden alone but came face to face with another familiar wolf: Leif Chevalier of the Canadian Lykans sat in a small folding chair, sipping tea. Dressed for a dinner party rather than a war, the older Alpha gave off an air of superiority to match his age.
Next to him, hovering over a map on a folding table, was target of all his aggression, Charles Marsden. Younger than Leif in looks, with fewer gray hairs in his whiskers, Charles looked as if he had not shaved in a month.
Brady shifted, and before the two men could raise an alarm he held his finger to his lips, shushing them.
Smarter men might have called in their guards, but whether curiosity or contempt kept them quiet, they did nothing but smile as Brady strolled around the table and came to sit just on the edge.
“I’ll have to admit, this I did not expect,” Brady began. “We had our suspicions, of course, after the whole Long Teeth Alpha debacle earlier this year. Charles, you consistently back the wrong side.” Brady speared him with a cocky glare. “But Leif.... really?”
The two men eyed Brady silently before exchanging glances with each other.
“I have something for you.” Charles reached down below and opened a trunk under the table.
“Careful now,” Brady warned.
Charles kept cool and pulled a pair of trousers from the trunk. “Put some clothes on. You’ll catch your death.” He tossed the pants on the desk.
“Catch sight of what I’m packing, and now you’re feeling a bit inadequate?” Brady snorted, trying to hold back a laugh. “I get that a lot.”
“Simply trying to make our guest more comfortable,” Charles responded flatly.
“If you were that concerned, you’d not have attacked my pack,” Brady retorted.
Hate glinted in Charles’s eyes. “Am I not allowed to act against someone who murders my son?”
“Drop the act.” Brady matched his glare. “Your timeline makes no sense. You knew your plan had failed when your spies returned with news of the wrong death. Did you really think leaving a dead body on our property would start a war anyway? Why involve the girl?”
Leif sipped his tea as if he had not a care in the world.
Charles’s eyes gave away the pain behind them, but his face remained a mask of emotions. “We’d hoped an insignificant death would spur some action, yes.”
“And instead...” Brady said.
“Unfortunate losses.” Small twitches at the corner of his mouth revealed the strain in Charles’ feigned smile.
The Alpha was putting on a show, but Brady could see straight through it. “Do you really care so little for your family you’d risk your son?”
“I have others.”
“Who are no doubt fighting my brother as we speak,” Brady replied.
“Some.” Charles shrugged.
“You are some piece of work.” Brady scoffed. “And you, Leif. Why?”
“Why does anyone do anything?” Leif took another sip from his drink.
“You’re the puppet master, then, I take it?” Brady challenged. “Pulled strings in Washington with Giselle, I’m guessing too.”
“Why would I admit to any wrongdoing? If you have proof, lay it at my feet,” Leif responded, his tone neutral but the arrogant smirk on his face all but confirming the truth.
“Well, you’re here now. That’s all the proof I need of your plot against my people,” Brady replied.
“What of it? You’re a lone wolf here. Our guest for the moment, and hostage as needed.”
“That, sadly, is where you are mistaken,” Brady smiled.
Leif’s eyebrow quirked up. “How so?”
“Hostage? No.” Brady laughed. “And I won’t be needing these.” He tossed the pants back to Charles.
“With a word, I could bring this whole camp down on you,” Charles threatened. “You’d be dead.”
“Ah, but not before I have the pleasure of ripping your throat out. Go ahead, call in your guards. Bring this whole camp down on me. You’ll get a word in, but it will be your last. Even your ally here isn’t quick enough to stop me from enjoying the pleasure of sinking my teeth into your flesh.”
Charles stood still for a moment. Seething with rage, Brady could see the wheels spinning. Charles wanted to sound the alarm – he truly believed he would succeed in that – but he also knew of Brady and his reputation. And Brady’s threat was more real than anything else. All he worked for would be for naught if he were killed.
Leif broke the silence between them. “It appears we have a... what is that called? A Mexican standoff.” He finished with a chuckle.
“Death is the only way out,” Brady snarled.
“Ah, but you’re forgetting I am here too. Go ahead and kill Charles. I will be right there to finish you off, and what does that get you?”
“You think I’m afraid of you?” Brady asked.
“No, I don’t. Which makes you an idiot if you are so cocky you think you can take two Alphas and survive. I’m counting on it, actually.”
Brady glanced quickly over to the entrance flaps of the tent. Where he should have seen shadows of guards standing watch, there was nothing.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw his reaction reflected in Leif’s sudden turn sideways.
The Alpha ever so quickly
glanced at the entrance to his tent and back to Brady, who kept an innocent smile plastered across his face. “Of course,” Leif mumbled.
“Figuring it out, are we?” Brady replied calmly.
Leif nodded and sat back down. “I believe I have.”
Charles looked utterly confused, but Brady waited for him to ask the obvious before relaxing his own stance.
“Negotiations, then?” Leif offered, taking charge of the silence.
“Surrender is more like it. Your forces and his. Immediately,” Brady responded.
“Why would we do that?” Charles asked.
“Because he has us surrounded. Our camp has been compromised. Quite quietly, if I might add. Kudos there, young Whelan,” Leif said.
“How can you be sure?” Charles demanded. “He could be bluffing.”
“Care to test my bluff?” Brady eyed him.
For an Alpha, Charles was weak. When Brady met his eyes, it was Charles who broke contact first.
Men like Brady were the kind who gambled. While he hoped the girls had done their job, he couldn’t be certain, and his cavalier attempt to force their hands could easily backfire.
Brady waited for Charles to make up his mind, silently praying he would not raise the alarm, and hoping that if he did, the girls would have had all the guards subdued by now.
“It’s over, Charles,” Leif said from his seat. “We should negotiate while the option is still on the table.”
“No!” Charles shouted. “Guards!!”
TWENTY-SIX
“Now, see this is what confuses me,” Brady laughed. “How did a man like you, clearly lacking tactical expertise, become Regional Alpha?”
Charles snarled at Brady but did not answer his taunting question.
“Think for a second. How did I make it out here? How did I make it into your tent? Surely not alone. Those guards you’re yelling for... dead, obviously.”
Leif cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself. He was staring ahead at Rachel and Fallon standing in the opening flap of the tent. The snowy white of Rachel’s coat had turned nearly as red as Fallon’s.
“Of course she’s here.” The corner of Charles’s lip quirked up, seeing Rachel at the entrance to his tent. “We knew you’d like her.”
Mated (Olde Town Pack Book 2) Page 15
