by Dianna Love
She hoped.
In the blink of an eye, she realized Tarski had nailed it. She spared no time for details as she ran back to the bike, telling her wolf, I think I know how to find them, but we may not survive.
Expelling a long sigh, Tarski asked, Is human mate?
Yes. She didn’t see any hope of turning that into a reality, but Adrian loved her and she loved him.
They were strange in the same way.
Tarski said, Red my mate. There is no other for me.
Jaz smiled and said, Good enough for me. Let’s find them.
She rolled on the accelerator, roaring down the road.
Chapter 30
Jaz drove close to the wolf shifter compound she never expected to step foot on again. She’d made lots of escape plans early on, just as her Kodiak clan had advised her.
Additionally, she’d figured out how to move around the property through giant oaks and across rooftops to observe and listen while not being detected. She’d taught herself that when her mother left the Kodiak clan.
She’d hoped to secretly catch her mother talking about her.
Yeah, that never happened.
Now she knew why.
Navigating to a path that led to the first tree she’d climbed during her original planning, she took a step back and launched herself to the closest limb, scratching her skin as she hugged her way to the top side. Then she quietly moved through limbs thicker than her thighs. When she could take in the front yard of the Alpha’s home, she stared for a long minute.
No one walked through.
Reinhold’s guards weren’t the best security, but he always had one stationed close by.
She would have run this place differently.
Reinhold’s voice ordered, “Quiet.” His powerful voice carried from over where the shifters sometimes trained.
Not often.
Backtracking to the base of the tree, she circled wide, expecting to run into someone, but no. She made it all the way past the smaller buildings Reinhold used to house supplies as well as a couple cages for when one of his lunatics lost control.
They weren’t bad wolf shifters, but fights broke out often. Dominance battles in wolf packs were normal. These wolfs didn’t fight for dominance so much as just to bleed something.
Squeezing through a narrow spot between the out buildings and a wooden fence, she made it to another sturdy tree she’d used in the past to observe the male shifters fight.
Her Kodiak clan would have cringed.
Reinhold had given them this spot to destroy. They all knew better than to break out claws in the main yard where Tanza grew flowers.
The male shifters stood around with their usual surly expressions. Where was Tanza?
Jaz had no time to worry about anyone but Adrian.
Reinhold had to know where the Blood King had gone.
She’d make him talk, but not with seventeen shifters on hand. She climbed up the back side of the tree blocked by another big oak closer to where Reinhold stood in its shade. Even with cool temperatures, he sweated profusely, which made no sense for a shifter standing still.
Reinhold called out, “Why are you here and not him?”
Who could that be?
Careful to stay thirty feet up on limbs thick enough not to bounce as she eased out above the alpha, Jaz lowered herself slowly to hug the armful of wood.
A white van had been parked close. Had the shifter she didn’t recognize traveled here in it?
He told Reinhold, “Our leader sends his regards and said you would understand his not coming. He indicated that your location was not secure. His words. Not mine.”
In other words, literally, don’t kill the messenger.
Muffled howling sounded inside the van.
Reinhold ordered, “Bring your offering for me to see.”
The visiting shifter asked one of Reinhold’s wolves to give him a hand. When they reached the van, the howling got worse.
It sounded enraged and pitiful at the same time.
Jaz’s heart clenched. That can’t be...
Tarski said, Red! Kill the wolves. Free Red. Mate in pain!
The two shifters carried a cage barely large enough to hold a wolf in front of Reinhold.
She watched in horror as Reinhold’s wolves taunted Adrian’s wolf.
They are killing mates. We must kill!
Jaz struggled to hold her wolf inside, which had never been a problem. She couldn’t breathe looking at that cage. Her hands shook with the need to release Tarski and go on a rampage.
But Tarski had been right. They needed to think like Adrian and Red when in combat mode. She sucked in a deep breath and clenched the wood, allowing her claws to come out and dig deep.
She shouted at her wolf to stop Tarski’s verbal rampaged. I know, Tarski. Give me a minute to think.
Every second will cost Red more!
I know. I don’t want to dive in that, get killed, and not free them, Jaz sent back. She hoped Tarski would stay calm in spite of the edge in her voice.
The visiting wolf shifter said, “Our Blood King has fulfilled his part of your agreement. I am to take the female to him.”
That made no sense to Jaz.
Why would the Blood King think Reinhold had her?
Standing straight below Jaz, Reinhold replied in an angry voice, “I told Rey to find that wolf Tanza spoke to. I said to let me know when he captured him, not bring him unannounced. I will keep his offering. Thank him, but tell him I will come tomorrow to discuss fulfilling my part of the contract. I will not insult him by sending one of my wolves.”
That was only because this alpha had no wolf he trusted. Was Reinhold bluffing that he had Jaz? “Those are not my orders, Alpha. In fact, the Blood King is moving his operation. He made it clear that if you don’t want his generous offer, I am to return with the gift.”
“No,” Reinhold objected. “This wolf is mine to kill.”
His pack howled maniacally.
Screw this.
Jaz pulled out her knife and dropped to the ground behind Reinhold where she shoved the knife against his throat.
If he and his wolves were a better pack, she might not have been successful.
Reinhold snarled and gripped her arm with claw-tipped fingers and yanked, but she held firm.
His wolves started howling and yelling. They only waited for Reinhold to give the order.
When she didn’t budge or finch, she whispered in his ear, “Tell your wolves, and that stray one, to sit on their hands or I’ll kill you then turn the Golden Kodiak wolf loose to show your pack how we earned a bloody reputation in Alaska in my teens.”
Not her best moment back then. She’d cleaned up her act after working with the healer, but she’d use any weapon at her fingertips right now to get to Red.
Reinhold’s body tensed. He growled and threatened, “You will die for touching me.”
His wolves stared at each other in utter confusion. They’d heard her words. None were willing to jump in against a woman with the reputation of being a murdering shifter.
“You think I care?” she replied her teeth clenched. “I lost my give a shit factor days ago when I had to kill Kaiser to survive his mad wolf on Jugo Loco. I’m a dead woman walking. Your only hope to survive is if I do.” She lifted her voice even though the wolves should have heard every word so far, but this was for them. “But know this, if I’m attacked, I’ll kill your alpha first, then I’ll take at least half of you with me to the afterlife. Maybe all. Draw straws to decided which half dies first.” She pushed a hit of her energy toward Reinhold’s heart.
She normally only did that when someone’s heart stopped working.
On a perfectly healthy organ, it hurt like hell.
Reinhold flinched and his eyes bulged. Trembling started in his shoulders, then in his arms and hands. He ordered, “All of you sit on your hands. Even you from Rey’s pack.”
Grumbling broke out. One wolf yelled, “She’s that Golden
Kodiak killer.”
Reinhold yelled back, “She has a knife at my throat. You’re not that fucking fast. Protect your alpha and do as I say!”
The order stuck this time with his wolves.
The Blood King’s wolf did as told, but watched with a wary look in his eyes. Reinhold’s alpha power had no hold over him. That delivery boy probably only stayed until he could leave with a full report for his leader.
She cast a hard glance over the wolves, ready to state her case. Hopefully, they would listen to her words.
Could Adrian and Red hear her?
One glance at Red’s unfocused eyes destroyed that hope.
Clearing her throat, she powered up her voice. “You may be fantasizing about ripping me to pieces right now, but you should hear what I have to say before you make a rash decision where you end up in pieces.”
A shifter beside the cage muttered, “You killed Kaiser. That’s a death sentence.”
Red had been snarling nonstop, but the sound turned more vicious when he angled his muzzle in the direction of the wolf shifter who had spoken.
That shifter’s confidence disappeared. He edged further away from the cage, keeping his hands beneath his butt.
Tarski told Jaz, Red still protects us.
Jaz took that as a positive, but Red had yet to show any sign of recognizing her at all. She continued with her announcement. “In the short time I spent here, I learned about the female shifters who disappeared. One vanished right before I showed up.”
Reinhold groused, “Wolves come and go. We took you in. My wolves have no idea where they went.”
Jaz said, “Truth. Now answer this, Reinhold. Do you know what happened to the women?” When Reinhold remained silent, she said, “Okay, do you know what happened to Daisy? If you fail to answer, that means yes.”
She’d cornered him with her words.
His heart rate picked up and every shifter present knew it. He shouted at his wolves, “You want to believe a lone wolf that we gave a home to, one who killed Kaiser?”
She cut him off. “I killed Kaiser because I found him abusing Daisy. I helped her escape. He attacked me in wolf form. I shifted, then my wolf tried to wear him out for us to bring back so he could admit what actually happened. He fought like a crazed animal, because he was on Jugo Loco. My wolf pinned him and put her teeth on his throat to end the battle. He jerked away, ripping out his own throat.”
Bodies flinched and faces twisted with disgust.
She kept going. “Don’t you wonder what keeps happening to the females? I had no idea at the time that your alpha had been training Kaiser to steal your future mates.”
Reinhold shouted, “That’s a lie.”
Jaz inhaled deeply. “What truth do you scent? Mine or his?”
His wolves looked at each other, muttering questions.
“She’s the Golden Kodiak wolf,” Reinhold said, trying to regain control of the verbal tug of war. “You’ve heard of how she killed in Alaska. If she slits my throat, she’ll confirm who she is.”
Nice counter threat, Reinhold, she mused to herself, but she had to stand strong and win this without killing him.
She searched the faces of the wolves. This pack was so messed up that half of them had no idea how to use their noses.
The tide could turn against her.
Red kept up his demonic sounds.
If she lost ground now, she’d be attacked. When her heart chilled at the possibility of losing, she spoke even bolder. “Yes, I’m the Golden Kodiak wolf. Want to know why? Reinhold got my Kodiak bear shifter mother pregnant and produced Kaiser while Reinhold was still mated to Tanza’s mother.”
Reinhold said, “Shut up, bitch.”
Not now that she knew she’d hit a nerve. While talking about that moment when she learned the truth of her birth, Jaz recalled the guard who’d brought a message to the Blood King and the odd conversation that followed in the throne room.
The Blood King couldn’t have known she would be here for Reinhold to trade for Red. That left one obvious choice.
While his pack stared in shock, Jaz went for another hit.
“I learned all this from the Blood King’s own lips. You know who I mean. Rey, Reinhold’s brother. Guess who your alpha intends to trade for this red wolf?”
Reinhold vibrated with fury. “She’s crazy.”
Jaz shouted, “Tanza. That’s who. He intends to give his only daughter and last child to the Blood King, who is her uncle.”
A loud wail erupted behind her from the buildings with cages. She asked, “Where’s Tanza?”
Not the brightest one in the pack, a wolf shifter she’d seen most often hand-cutting weeds piped up. “In a cage. She got hysterical. Women do that.”
“I order you to be silent!” Reinhold yelled.
The next sound came from Red. His growls came more often between snarling and Tanza’s screams.
Jaz had the alpha cornered. Had this bastard intended to play the concerned father all the way to the point he handed his child to a monster for his own purposes?
She shouted at his men, “Why do you think Reinhold wants to deliver his part of the trade when none of you are around? Because Tanza will be the next mysterious disappearance!”
The female, who had to be Tanza, screamed curses from the containment cage.
Jaz hated breaking the young woman’s heart one more time, but a broken heart had to be better than being the Blood King’s sex slave.
Reinhold warned in a low voice, “I’ll call up my pack if you don’t stop.”
Jaz pressed the sharp blade deep enough to break the skin. Blood oozed out. She said, “Your mad pack will go after blood first. Call them.”
In fact, some of the pack had started bouncing on their hands and salivating.
Jaz didn’t want to slice Reinhold’s throat and commit cold-blooded murder.
Red’s hideous noises amped up even more.
She had to get him out of that cage.
She challenged the wolf shifters. “Your alpha has lied to you time and again. Do you not feel the sickness in the bond? It’s him. He’s the reason you have no mates, and never will, if you stay bonded to him.”
Tanza shouted, “No, Daddy. Tell me she’s lying.” Her voice broke with crying, “Please tell me she’s lying.”
Reinhold howled the sound of a trapped wolf. He growled and shook with crazy anger.
Jaz sliced his skin and warned, “Kaiser forced me to deal with his crazy. Don’t be like your son if you want to live.”
Still shaking and growling in a harsh bursts, Reinhold snarled, “What do you want? I’ll give you anything you want to stop this.”
Staring at the slow destruction of her mate in that cage, Jaz said, “I want justice for the women you gave to the Blood King. I want justice for Daisy since she’s probably dead. I want justice for turning Kaiser into a sick sexual abuser. But most of all right now, I want justice for torturing my mate.”
Her hand shook with the need to kill Reinhold for all he’d done. Her blade kept pressing harder against his throat. She struggled not to make him pay for his sins here and now.
Reinhold shouted, “I challenge you to a battle to the death! A fair fight. Will you murder me or accept?”
Murder him? He had no idea how close he pushed her.
Insane laughter bubbled up inside of her. She clamped her mouth tight to hold it in. “Fair? Is that what you offered the women whose lives you destroyed, Reinhold?”
“Accept or face them when you murder me.”
She bunched her shoulders. She didn’t want this fight, but she would finish it. “Order your wolves to stand down while we fight and accept the outcome.”
Reinhold became emboldened and ordered, “Stay exactly as you are and do not interfere. You will accept the outcome and none of you will challenge me again after this.”
So he’d been battling wolves trying to take his place as alpha, huh? His order had them squirming, but Reinhold had only agr
eed to prevent any of them attacking him if he survived.
Withdrawing the knife from his throat in a fast move, she shoved him face down, and stabbed the knife in the tree trunk.
She called up Tarski at the same time.
Her wolf had to be ready to bleed this wolf, probably all the wolves. Tarski burst forth before Reinhold could shift into his dirty-brown wolf and get to his feet.
His wolf’s brown eyes were dull with a sickness she’d seen once before. That had been a shifter cast out from his people after he killed his mate, too.
The alpha’s coat might have been pretty at one time. He had problems. Big problems. Was he also juicing on Jugo Loco?
She had no idea if Tarski could defeat an alpha capable of drawing on his pack’s power, such that it was. Still, he’d have an extra boost, because Reinhold would grab an advantage.
Tarski turned toward the cage where Red stared at them with dead eyes. Jaz wanted her wolf focused, which was hard with a mate being tortured. She told Tarski, We end this now.
Yes. Alpha dies.
Jaz hadn’t wanted to kill another of Tanza’s family, but this was not about what she wanted. This was about justice if she and Tarski survived.
Reinhold’s wolf never made a sound once he shifted and came at her.
Tarski sensed the insane beast as it leaped.
Chapter 31
Jaz and Tarski had trained with the Kodiak bear clan and it showed in her wolf’s ability to battle Reinhold’s wolf.
That brown wolf stumbled, then came back harder. He had to be drawing on his pack’s power.
Some of the shifters yelped and whined.
Reinhold yanked power so hard from the pack, he hurt his wolves. He didn’t deserve to lead any pack.
Had Tarski felt the alpha’s change?
They’d never fought the leader of a pack who could boost his power in the midst of fighting before.
Jaz never spoke to Tarski when she fought to avoid distracting her wolf, but she had to tell her. Reinhold is regenerating faster and stronger. He’s draining energy from his wolves. Take all of our power and end this.
Withdrawing as far as she could without losing vision, Jaz became silent. Tarski went from drawing on their power slowly for endurance to calling up a load.
