by Milly Taiden
“Point to where the gold is,” he demanded.
She stared at the map. She had to stall to give Tevrik time. “I have no idea where it is on a map,” which was a partial truth—this map looked nothing like the professionally printed plats she was used to—"I only know how to get there from town.”
“Well, shit,” Petey said.
James huffed. “I told you we should’ve stayed in town. I’ve hated this piece of shit hut since I was a kid.”
“Yeah, well,” Petey retorted, “burn it down, you whine baby.” He threw James’s coat at him. “Get the truck going. We’re going into town then straight to the mountain.” His eyes focused on Juliet as if saying she’d better play along or else.
19
Tevrik couldn’t put this off any longer; his mate depended on him. It had been fifteen years since he was there last. And in that time, something had happened to Wolf Grove to make it seem a rundown ghost town.
His wolf was just as nervous. They both knew they had failed. Failed the pup, the pack, and the alpha.
He stopped in the driveway beside the house. An old man with salt and pepper hair stood on the porch, dead center of the steps to the front yard. Tevrik couldn’t decipher the look on his stoic face. Tevrik wondered which member of the pack he was.
Tevrik opened the truck door, stepped out, then closed it behind him. He couldn’t bring himself to move forward. The front door swung open and a small female flew out and shoved the man to the side. Next thing he knew, his back was plastered to the truck door, but the best smell in the entire world, next to his mate’s, surrounded him. Mom.
She had her arms around him, bawling into his shirt. She mumbled words, but he couldn’t make them out with her sobs. At least she wasn’t yelling, telling him to never come back. Wolf killer.
He held his mother close, taking in more of her scent. God, he had missed her, not realizing how much until now. He fought the tears that threatened. Not cool to cry in front of the parents.
His mother pulled back and put her hands on his cheeks. “My baby wolf boy has grown up. You’re taller than your father now.”
He stared down at her face. Where there had been smooth skin around her eyes and mouth, wrinkles and creases had set in deeply. He supposed a lot of that had to do with him and his failure. But her smile was still as warm and welcoming as it had been.
“Where is Dad?” he asked. “I’m here to ask for your help. My mate’s in trouble.”
Her eyes widened. “You have a mate too?” She hugged him tightly again, another big sob tore from her chest. He didn’t know how to take that. Was she happy or upset? He knew he didn’t deserve to be happy, but he had found Juliet and wasn’t giving her up. Fuck what everyone else thought.
The old man had stepped off the porch and wandered toward the two still against the truck. When he was closer, Tevrik fought a gasp. It was his father.
The alpha wolf had aged thirty years in fifteen. His white hair, normal for the arctic wolf, was a thin crown encircling his head. Streaks of steel gray highlighted the narrow swath. The beard he sported was more black than white. His eyes drooped with heavy bags underneath as if the world had hung on them. Thick lines etched his forehead and the frown Tevrik had seldom seen him with.
With an arm still around his mother, Tevrik extended his hand to his father. Tevrik wouldn’t have been surprised if his father rejected it. As expected, his dad ignored the customary greeting. Instead he stepped up to Tevrik and put his arms around his shoulders, squishing Mother in the process.
It wasn’t the normal slap on the back, how ya doing hug. It was a my missing son has come home hug.
After a moment, his dad stepped back and slapped his shoulder. “Let’s go inside, son—” his voice cracked on the last word as if he hadn’t said it in a long time. His mother took his hand and they followed the old alpha into the house to the kitchen.
His home was as he remembered it, except with an updated and bigger TV in the living room. The blue sofa and matching loveseat hadn’t weathered so well. The cushions sagged in the middle and the material was frayed in several places. His dad’s leather recliner had an indention that perfectly outlined his father’s form. Maybe it wasn’t exactly how he remembered it. Why hadn’t they purchased new furniture or updated the home? Something was wrong.
At the kitchen table, the two men sat and his mother pulled a can of his once favorite soup from the cabinet.
He didn’t know where to begin. He had so many questions and he could tell his parents did too. But he had to find Juliet before Petey did something he’d regret.
Nobody said a word, waiting for the other to start. There was so much that had to be said. He released a deep breath.
“Dad, I need your help searching for my mate,” he said.
“Searching for your mate?” his dad said.
Tevrik shook his head. Damn, had he forgotten how to talk? “I mean, I have to get her back. I think Petey Mills took her to spite me.”
“Hold on a second,” his dad said, sitting back in his chair, “you’ve been here in town? For how long? Why didn’t you come home?”
“No, Dad,” Tevrik said, “it’s not like that. I was. . .it’s a long story and I have to find Juliet.”
His mother set a bowl of the hot, chunky soup in front of him. “That’s her name, Juliet? That’s a lovely name.”
“She’s beautiful, actually,” he said, staring at the bowl on the table. This soup he used to crave when he got home from school. He’d eaten several bowls of it a week. It was so delicious. But smelling it now, he wanted to throw it away. That wasn’t how real tomatoes smelled, nor the meat. Acrid scents from the other vegetables stung his nose. Were those preservatives and chemicals used in making and canning the meal? Didn’t his parents sniff that? Then again, why would they? He never did when all he ate came from the store.
“Thank you, Mom—”
His mother sat back, a tear in her eye. “You’re welcome, son.” She wiped at the tear. “You’re so different.”
His brows furrowed. “Different how?” He glanced from his mother to his father.
His dad smiled. “I’ve—we’ve—never heard ‘thank you’ come from your mouth.”
Tevrik was ready to retort, but then realized they were right. Goddamn, he must’ve been so ungrateful as a child. He’d spent years blocking out everything that had happened before he left home for his own sanity.
He took his mother’s hand from across the table and said, “I’m so sorry for all the stupid, idiotic things I said and did when I was a kid—”
His mom waved away the words, more tears gathering in her eyes. “We’ll get to that stuff later. You said Petey Mills took Juliet and she is in danger.” She looked at his dad. “You need to go to his home. Find that girl and teach that man a lesson, once and for all.”
That didn’t sound good. “What has Petey done to get a lesson from Dad?” He knew some of those lessons from his childhood and they weren’t fun.
“Since his parents left, he’s been a pain in the ass,” his father said. “The boy can’t keep his head out of his ass for one day.”
Mom shooed them out the door. “Talk on the way there. I’ll get the house ready.” Tevrik was about to ask what she was getting the “house ready” for, but the front door closed. He thought he heard the word grandpups. Grandpups were on the agenda for his wolf? Top of the list. Tevrik had other ideas for the top of the list. Grandpups? Holy fuck.
No, no, no. Tevrik shook his head to clear those thoughts and focus on his father who was speaking and leading to the garage. “I’ll drive since the SUV has more room.”
Sliding into the front seat of the SUV, he realized that it would be just the two of them. He wasn’t ready to talk to his father, to tell anyone, about where he’d been and endured for so long. He hadn’t been able to get it out for himself yet. He waited in silence for his father to start the interrogation.
20
Tevrik sat in the passen
ger’s seat of his father’s SUV. It was just him and his dad, and the perfect environment to tear into him about everything that had happened.
Thinking back to that day, Tevrik figured the two wolves who were scouting with him had relayed the shooting and death to the family and the pack. He couldn’t face the murdered boy’s father or his own, so he ran. His dad probably knew the gist of what happened, but not the full story. The time had come to face the music.
“So,” his dad started. Tevrik cringed inside, wondering which question would be first. “how long have you had your mate? A few years?”
That wasn’t what he was expecting. Shock had him stumbling for words. “Uh, actually a few days.”
“Days?” his father repeated.
“Yeah,” he said, “she fell into my lap in an avalanche.”
His father stomped on the brakes. “She what? An avalanche?”
Tevrik waved him on. “We’ll tell you all that when we get her back. How far does Petey live from here?”
“Several blocks, but won’t take long,” his dad answered. Once again, seeing the devastation of the suburb, Tevrik has to ask. . .
“Dad, what’s happened here? I mean, this is not the place it was fifteen years ago.”
They turned the corner and his father let out a deep sigh. If it was possible to hang your head and drive, that was how his father looked. “I failed them, son.”
“Failed who? What are you talking about? You’re the alpha.”
“Yes, and as the alpha, I’ve led the pack to its end. The pack is no more and it’s because of me.” Tevrik cranked sideways in his seat, speechless. He was the failure, not his father. His dad continued. “Not long after you left, the price of oil plummeted. The corporations that had employed almost everyone picked up their stuff and moved out of state. It had become too costly to drill up here.
“With them went the jobs, the money, and everything else it takes to make a living. Members couldn’t afford to live here anymore. All the pups left to find jobs after school and never came back. The town of Antler can barely support the population it has now.”
“But, Dad, that’s not your fault,” Tevrik burst out. “How could you know the businesses would leave?”
“That’s just it,” Dad replied. “I brought the pack into the modern age and we became dependent on humans and their ways of living. Now we don’t know how to go on without money.”
The SUV stopped and his father got out, headed for a house that needed to be condemned. Tevrik quickly caught up, barely holding back his need to rush forward and kill the bastard who took his mate. His dad put an arm out to keep him back.
“I’m the alpha still,” he said. “Let me handle this.” Tevrik nodded even though this was his mate they were here for and stepped back. His dad’s fist hit the door hard enough that something inside crashed to the floor. Tevrik thought it was probably part of the roof.
When no answer came, his father backed away and took in a deep breath through his nose. “His scent is weak. He hasn’t been here for a while.”
“He was working at the general store when we were there,” Tevrik commented.
His dad looked at him with drawn brows. “You lost your mate at the general store? How old is she? Four?”
That was the father he knew. Sarcastic and the joke maker of the pack. Tevrik had lost track of the number of times his dad had embarrassed him in front of others with a dumb joke or something totally inappropriate—even if members laughed with him. He thought the kids were supposed to embarrass the parents.
“No, Dad,” he growled, “she’s not four. Come on.” They shuffled through the snow back to the truck. After closing both doors, they sat quietly. “What now?”
His father cranked the engine. “He always hangs out with James Watson. Let’s try his house.” Tevrik remembered James from the diner parking lot. He and Petey were pieces of shit made for each other.
“Dad, what did you mean by Petey has been a pain in the ass?” Tevrik asked, thinking back to the conversation in the kitchen.
His dad let out another sigh as they turned a corner. “In the past few years, we’ve had small robberies and thefts, cars broken into, that kind of stuff.”
“And you think those two are responsible? Why don’t their scents give them away?”
“They must’ve used some kind of scent blocker. The enforcers smelled only chemicals and the like from the blocker. No wolves.”
Tevrik shook his head. So much had happened, had changed, in the time he was gone.
They parked on the street outside another shack that wouldn’t pass any safety inspection. As they got out of the SUV, his father said, “When he’s home, his truck is parked in the driveway.” Tevrik picked up the tinge of gasoline in the air. James may have been there a while ago, but he’d recently fired up his truck and drove away.
Panic slowly made its way into his mind. He was so sure Juliet would be at one of their homes. Where else could they have taken her? His fists shook. If they hurt Juliet in any way, he would tear them limb from limb while they were alive. His wolf wanted out to hunt them, kill them.
“Get in the truck,” his alpha ordered. The wolf had no choice but obey the order. Calming, Tevrik slid onto the seat and slammed the door closed. His panting fogged up the passenger-side window. “All right,” his alpha said, “tell me all that happened when Juliet came up missing.”
Tevrik threaded his fingers through his white hair and pulled. Anger, hate, and terror coursed through his blood making logical thinking almost impossible. All he wanted was to maim and kill.
“Tevrik Awulf,” the alpha growled, “you will relax and recall what happened at the store. Now.”
His wolf receded and Tevrik’s breaths slowed. “Thanks, Dad. I’ve never had to deal with this kind of thing before. I don’t know what to do.”
His father’s large hand gripped his shoulder. “You did good by coming to me. That’s what pack is for.” He was about to tell his father that he was wrong. Tevrik no longer belonged to the pack. He’d failed everyone long ago. “Now tell me about Juliet.”
Those thoughts overshadowed all else.
“We stopped in at the store to get her food before I took her to the airstrip.” His dad’s brows raised, but he didn’t interrupt. “We were kinda in a tiff and not talking at that moment.” His dad smiled as if to say welcome to having a mate. “Then she yelled out for me and I came running to see her all aglow with excitement.”
Tevrik twisted in his seat. “Dad, she found a stash of gold. Huge nuggets like I’ve never seen in real life.”
“You don’t say?” he replied, hand smoothing down his beard. “Since you were in the store, you sure it wasn’t the fake gold they sell? That shiny pyrite stuff.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ, Dad. Now’s not the time for joking around. She found the gold before the avalanche started on the mountain.”
“Ah. Was she telling you this in the store?”
“Yeah,” Tevrik replied. “I told her to keep quiet about it and we’d talk in the truck. I went to pay then couldn’t find her after that. But I smelled Petey’s stench mixed with my mate’s scent.”
Dad looked at him. “This might not mean much, but Petey and James are convinced Kitty Kalloway’s lost gold is real. They’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains. I’ve had them watched for a while now to make sure they aren’t causing trouble somewhere else when they aren’t in town.”
Tevrik was surprised to hear that tale’s name. He’d told Frost about it not too long ago. “I guess that could be what Juliet found. I don’t know how much is there. We hadn’t gotten that far into the conversation.”
“No, son,” Dad replied, “that’s not what I’m getting at.” He looked at his dad, wondering what the hell he had going in his brain. That was another reason he wasn’t alpha material. He wasn’t smart enough. “You know Petey works at the general store. He stocks shelves and unloads the trucks with merchandise,” he paused for a moment.
“Fuck me,” Tevrik shouted. “Petey heard Juliet talking. He could’ve been in the aisle over. The bastard took her to get to the gold she found, not to get back at me.”
Dad nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Son of a bitch.” Tevrik hopped out of the SUV, stripping off his shirt then pants. “I’m going to the mountain.”
“Which one,” his father asked.
By giving the information to his father, Tevrik would be exposing where he had lived the past years. Was that something he wanted? His dad hadn’t asked one question about anything but his mate. Hadn’t said anything about the killing. Hadn’t told him to get out and never show his face again. Maybe after all these years, his father forgave him.
“Crested Peak, about a half mile from the rockslide.”
His dad nodded. “I know where that is—”
Tevrik slammed the door closed in his rush to shift and run to his mate. The SUV started up and rolled down the deserted street toward the pack home. His wolf paced a moment for him to figure out the shortest way to get to the peak. He could go through town which would take several hours, or he could take the shortcut path to the tundra—his insides chilled at the memory—the path where it all happened fifteen years ago.
21
Tevrik stood in his wolf’s form in the middle of the street of his hometown, unable to move. He knew the direction he had to take to get to his mate but he didn’t want to go that way, couldn’t go that way. He hadn’t been there since that day. But for Juliet, he’d give his left testicle. His wolf shuddered at the thought and got moving.
He could do this. He would. His wolf broke into a run. They were wasting time whimpering like ninnies. The end of the houses came too quickly for him. The path began at the park. His wolf kept going even though he wanted to stop.
An alpha keeps his cool and thinks before he reacts. An alpha is strong with his emotions but still caring and empathetic. His father had taught him so much to prepare him to be leader. Out in the wilderness alone, alpha leadership was useless. But maybe what his dad showed him was for more than just leadership. Maybe he’d learned how to make it through life.