by Kimber White
Wolf on man, he would tear me apart. But, if I gave into the beast, one of us would die. Gunnar, Payne, and Mac acted together. Thank God for them. While Jagger’s attention was focused on me, each of them shifted. They pounced on Jagger, throwing him against the wall with enough force to crack his ribs.
But Jagger was a man possessed. I died a little inside that day. A year ago, we all knew it might come to this. If Jagger’s pull to Keara ever jeopardized the rest of us, we’d made an unspoken pact to stop him.
And stop him we did. Even in his crazed state, Jagger’s wolf was no match for all three of them. My own wolf jittering through me, I straightened my back and went to him. They had Jagger pinned to the ground. He snarled and snapped, but he couldn’t break free.
I leaned down, getting close enough that he could see my eyes, but not close enough that he could rip my face off.
“Jagger,” I said. “We need you human, man. She needs you human. We’ll figure out what to do.”
Jagger howled, but his eyes faded from red to pink to silver, then finally a calmer blue. Though he struggled against the weight of the others, he let out a heaving sigh and shifted back. Sweat covered his body. Payne’s claws ripped into his shoulder.
“Ease up,” I said. “He can’t talk if he can’t breathe.”
Payne and Gunnar shifted back to human. Only Mac stayed in his wolf.
“Let me go,” Jagger said, his voice ragged with pain. “They’re going to kill her. She’s terrified.”
“What do you see?”
Jagger’s eyelids fluttered. His breathing came in uneven pants. When he snapped them open, the bloodlust returned for a fraction of a second. Then, he focused on me.
“They tricked her,” he said. Icy fear coiled through my gut. It was as if I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“Keara was going up to pick up a supply shipment,” Payne said. He moved, still wedging his knee into Jagger’s shoulder, giving him more room to breathe.
“Three of them,” Jagger said. He strained against Payne and Gunnar’s weight. Mac’s wolf snarled behind him.
“The three that chased Molly and me the other night.” It was a statement, not a question. I knew in my heart it was true. I’d been so caught up in Jagger’s distress, I missed the faint pulse of my own. I focused on breathing.
Mac sensed it rising in me. We are not pack, but he is my brother. If he’d followed the others and shifted back, things might have ended differently. But, he didn’t. Mac’s wolf acted with lightning quickness. He backed me into a corner. His low growl an echoing threat through the cavern. I put my palms out in surrender.
“Three of them,” Jagger said again. “They took them.”
Them. They took them. I closed my eyes and tried to still my rumbling wolf. I had to think. The miles of rock above our heads had provided us with protection. Now, they kept me from feeling what I needed to feel. Molly was mine, but I hadn’t marked her. I couldn’t sense her as an extension of myself yet. Not the way Jagger did with Keara. Maybe it kept me sane for a few moments longer. But in the end, my mind went numb anyway as Jagger’s words seemed to hover in the air then finally land.
“Molly and Keara. Let me go or kill me. It’s the only way you’re going to keep me from trying to get to her,” he said.
My eyes snapped open. “No. You’re not dying today.”
“Goddammit!” Jagger struggled against Payne and Gunnar.
I put a hand up and locked eyes with Mac’s wolf. “Stand down,” I told him. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.” That was partly a lie. But, at least I’d try to protect the rest of them along with the girls. Jagger was too far gone.
Mac didn’t shift, but his wolf dropped his head. He took two steps back, giving me some room.
“Jagger, we can’t,” Payne said. He ran a hand across his jaw. Keeping Jagger immobile was tearing them apart. He would hate us for it. I hated us for it.
“Let me go,” I said.
“No,” Gunnar said. “God, we’ve talked about this. We all know the risks. Jagger goes topside for even thirty seconds, the Pack’s going to sense him. The way he is now, they’ll be able to track him. It’s not safe.”
“If you let her die, it won’t matter,” Jagger said, his voice flat.
“Jagger,” I got in his face. “They have Molly too. If someone led the Pack to her, I have a pretty good idea who that might have been. I can track Bess Kennedy. It won’t take long, I’ve been around her enough. I can get to her faster than any of us. You have to trust me.”
“We don’t need Bess Kennedy,” Jagger spat. “You think I can’t track Keara myself? I know exactly where she is. I see what she sees. And right now, it’s dark, Jagger. So, so dark. She’s hurt. But she’s in a warehouse just off the interstate. Five miles south.”
“I know it,” Gunnar said.
“We can’t go charging in there like this,” Payne said. “You know this is killing me as much as the rest of you. But this is what they want us to do. It’s what they expect.”
“We need intel,” I said. “We need to know how many are with her. Who’s guarding them. Bess might know that. If she’s the one who tipped the pack off, I can work with that. I can persuade her.”
I hated the sound of my own voice and what I was suggesting. Bess Kennedy was used to being victimized. God, I hoped I could appeal to her in another way. But, the thought of Molly and Keara being at the mercy of the Pack tore my guts apart.
“Go,” Jagger said. “Go now.”
I didn’t wait for the others. I ran. The moment I emerged from the caves, Molly’s scent filled me. Jagger was exactly right about where she was. Instinct fueled me, pushing me toward her. I had to leave my heart behind and head in the opposite direction.
Twenty
Liam
Bess Kennedy lived in a tiny brick house on the east side of town. A well-manicured, tree lined street. Quiet. Affluent. It would be easy to pretend here that nothing sinister lurked in the woods beyond.
Tonight, I was that sinister thing.
I wondered later if she had been waiting for me. I found her sitting quietly on her back porch. The cool autumn air blew through her auburn hair. She was already crying when I got there.
I clenched my fists at my sides. The wolf burned strong within me. With each heartbeat, I felt Molly slipping further away from me. She was shutting down. Trying to stay calm. Even now, she was trying to protect me.
I didn’t wait for an invitation. I walked up Bess’s freshly cut lawn and towered over her. She sipped iced tea, her fingers trembling as she set the glass down.
“I knew you’d come,” she said. “Will you do it here?”
In all the turmoil of the last hour, Bess’s words shook me. She thought I was going to kill her. She wiped a tear from her cheek and stared up at me.
“Is that what they told you I am? A monster? Diseased? You think that’s what they said about Brady Langley? Did you know him?”
Bess let out a strangled cry. “I’m not responsible for that.”
The moment she said it, I knew it was a lie. God. It was my fault. Bess Kennedy had been reporting on us all along. I sealed Molly’s fate the minute I stepped out of the shadows behind the clinic. The weight of her betrayal threatened to crush me. But, as long as Molly and Keara still drew breath, there was time. Precious little.
“Zeke?” I asked. “You gonna tell me he made you do it?”
Bess closed her eyes against my words as if they would shield her from the pain of truth.
“How long has he been one of the Pack’s spies?”
Bess’s eyes snapped open. “I don’t know. What difference does it make? Do you know who he reports to?”
“What do you know?” I went to her. I’m not proud, but I gripped her by the shoulders and shook her. I didn’t hurt her. My touch was gentle, but Bess had been through so much, instinct made her flinch.
“You know what the Pack is, don’t you? You’ve know it your w
hole life.”
“It’s you who doesn’t know what the Pack is,” she said. “Do you know who Zeke reports to? He’s got this town on lock, Liam. The only man more powerful is the Alpha himself.”
God. The answers had been right in front of me. I should have known it the moment I looked in Zeke Redmond’s eyes that first night. He spied for the Alpha’s top general. He was dialed into the true power in Shadow Springs. Now, he’d probably brought Molly and Keara right to him.
She openly wept now. “I didn’t have a choice. I’m sorry about your friend, but they were going to hurt Molly. You couldn’t protect her, so I did.”
“What are you talking about? The Pack’s taken Molly. God, I can feel them around her right now. Do you have any idea what it’s doing to me not to charge over there?”
Bess rose slowly to her feet. “You’re wrong. Zeke said they were interested in her friend Keara. That was the deal. Keara for Molly. I had no choice. They were going to kill her. She’s going to hate me forever, but at least she’ll be alive to do it.”
I tore a hand through my hair. There was still a part of me that could step back and look at her from a distance. Removed from the pain Molly’s distress caused me. “You made a deal with the Pack? You trusted them? Bess, they were never going to honor that.”
She put a hand to her mouth. “What are you telling me?”
“I’m telling you you haven’t saved Molly from anything.”
“Oh, God. I swear to you. They promised. That was my condition.”
I gripped the railing of her porch so hard the wood splintered. Bess jumped and took a step back. I tried to steady my breathing. She was terrified.
“It’s not too late,” I forced myself to say, hoping to God it was true. “It’s not too late if you help me now. I know where they are. But I need to know how many of them there are. I need to know how deep this goes.”
“What are you going to do? What can you do? His name is Tenley. I’ve only met him once. Zeke says there’s no one more powerful than him except the Alpha.”
Tenley. The name simmered in my brain. Rage boiled through me. My vision tunneled and I knew she could see my wolf eyes. There was no help for it anymore. But, I could see her nature as easily as she could see mine. She was just a scared woman trying to do what she thought was right, misguided as that might be. She was also my only chance.
“There were three of them,” she said. “This Tenley was with them. I’ve been around shifters before, Liam. But this one...he’s different. Zeke brought them here in his truck. They made me tell them where Keara was going to meet Molly. I’m sorry, Liam. I set a meeting up between the two of them at the clinic. I have no idea if any more met them. I don’t know where they’ve taken them.”
I reached for her. Somehow, it seemed important to me to comfort her. It was as if I needed to remind myself that through all of that, I was still human too.
“It’s all right,” I said, though I knew it wasn’t. “I do.”
Twenty-One
Molly
The light blinded me as the black hood was taken from my head. Strong hands shoved me down, forcing me to sit on a cheap folding chair. There was no need for bindings; I would never be able to move fast enough to outrun these men.
My head pounded. Instinct made me reach out, searching for Liam’s steady heartbeat beating close to mine. But, the instant I did it, I regretted it. My captors took notice.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I didn’t even have to look to know who it was. Tenley, the fireman from the other night, towered over me. His wolf eyes glimmered from gold to red, then finally settled to a more human brown. My eyes went up and up. The power of his wolf radiated from him. He leaned against a pallet of cut wood, his black t-shirt stretched taut over ripped muscles. He had dark hair, black as night.
Shuffling to the left drew my attention. A door opened and another hooded figure stumbled into the room.
“Keara!” I should have stayed quiet. Why give these men any more than I had to? But Keara was hurt. As Tenley’s companion tore off Keara’s hood, blood poured from a deep gash over her left eye. She landed on all fours, her shoulders quaking. Oh, God. She’d been hit hard enough she was dizzy and disoriented.
Her own gaze traveled up as Tenley walked toward her. The heels of his cowboy boots hit the ground hard as he stopped in front of her. Naked lust came into his expression as he squatted down and hooked a hand beneath Keara’s chin.
“Baby,” he said. “I told you this wasn’t going to work out for you the way you hoped.”
Keara reared back and spit right in his face. Tenley didn’t even flinch. When the two other men advanced, he held up a hand to stop them. I imagined he could give them orders on some telepathic level, but his body language read loud and clear. Whatever Keara’s fate, he would deliver it.
Baby. He’d called her baby. A puzzle piece slammed into my brain with sickening clarity. Liam had said Keara had been promised to one of the Alpha’s top generals. That general was currently staring straight at her, wiping her spittle from his cheek with the handkerchief he’d pulled from his back pocket.
When Tenley reached for her, I couldn’t stay quiet. “Stop it! Take your hands off of her.”
It was Keara who reacted. Her eyes locked with mine and her nostrils flared. God, she was so strong, so brave. She’d kept it all a secret. Tenley had been in Shadow Springs this whole time and yet she’d hidden the fact of who he was from Jagger. I knew why. She said he’d rip him apart.
Slowly, she drew herself to her feet. My heart broke as she staggered sideways, struggling to stay upright. It was Tenley who reached out to steady her. His touch was light, but Keara’s whole body recoiled. She hissed in pain as if he’d burned her with acid.
Tenley’s wolf eyes flashed. His touch became more forceful as he turned Keara. He smoothed his hand over her neck, pulling her hair up at the collar. Jagger’s mark blazed bright. It looked nothing like what I saw the other day. Then, it had been healed over, barely more than a faint, white scar. Now, the flesh looked tender and pink, almost as if she were having some kind of allergic reaction to Tenley’s touch. I realized I wasn’t probably far off. Jagger was her Alpha. The touch of another wolf was anathema to her. Oh, God. In that fleeting instant, I wished I bore Liam’s mark. As much as it caused Keara pain to have Tenley touch her, Keara’s touch seemed abhorrent to him as well. He pushed her away from him.
“I’d say it’s working out just fine for me,” Keara said. She stayed on her feet. Her eyes darted to me and she straightened her back. If she could be brave, so could I.
“That’s an Alpha’s mark,” Tenley said. “You’re smart. You haven’t told him about me, have you? He doesn’t know what I am to you.”
“You’re nothing to me,” Keara said, her tone flat.
He seemed to be having trouble staying on his own feet. Rage boiled through him, and a threatening growl vibrated through him. One of his companions reacted. His wolf burst forth. He advanced on Keara, teeth bared.
Tenley knocked him sideways with the back of his hand. The black wolf yelped and dropped his head. Tenley may not be the Alpha, but he was clearly in command of these two. The other man was the smallest of the three. He stayed human, but sweat poured from his brow. He came to me, jerking me to my feet. He brought me to Tenley.
My breath hitched. My thunderous heartbeat made me dizzy. I locked eyes with Keara. We drew strength from each other. I felt Tenley’s hot breath against my cheek. He licked his lips and slid his fingers to the back of my neck.
God. Oh, God.
The instant Tenley’s flesh touched mine, a new pulse blazed to life between my ears. His. My knees buckled as I tried to drive it out. Tenley pulled my hair back, examining the base of my neck. He ran his thumb against the unmarred flesh he found there.
“She’s clean,” he said. He let me go but pressed the pad of his thumb to his front teeth.
He turned to Keara. “You think you’re clever, Keara.”<
br />
“Clever enough,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me, and you know it. I’ll never be yours, and that’s all that matters.”
He laughed at her. “You’re right. You think you dodged a bullet. Maybe you have. You think the Alpha can’t find a way to remove that mark you bear? You think his own mark isn’t stronger? Sure, you’re second-hand goods now, but that might not matter to someone lesser than me.”
“I told you I’d never mate with you,” Keara said. “I remember making you that promise. You doubted me once. Maybe now you’ll know not to do it again.”
Tenley shrugged. “Looks like I don’t need you for a mate anymore, Keara.” He slid his hands to the back of my neck once more. “It looks like you’ve brought me another option.”
Tenley got two equally violent reactions from his companions. The black wolf charged forward, teeth bared. Again, Tenley batted him away. The second man stepped forward; his wolf eyes flashed red.
“You don’t get to decide that, Davis,” he said. So Tenley had a first name. I filed it away. I might have been grateful for the seeming defense to my honor, but both the black wolf and the second man looked at me with predatory fury.
Tenley grabbed the man by the throat. His movements were so swift, so deadly, the air left my lungs right along with his victim’s. He held him there against the wall. It was a direct challenge. The second man might clearly have been able to throw Tenley off. He had the same shifter strength cording his muscles. But, he stayed still, his feet dangling an inch off the ground.
“And you’ll wait your turn like you were ordered, Mason.”
Mason curled his fingers around Tenley’s. Whatever psychic words they spoke to each other, it was enough to get Tenley to loosen his grip. Mason fell to the ground in a heap. He growled, but didn’t challenge Tenley a second time.
Some detached, clinical part of my brain studied them. The structure of the Chief Pack was complex. Tenley was an Alpha, just like Jagger, Liam, Mac, Payne, and Gunnar. And yet, he was held in whatever thrall the Chief Alpha exerted. If I closed my eyes, I could almost feel it myself. There was a thickness surrounding them, almost as if they were joined with invisible chains. There was a pull. I’d felt it before with Liam. Any time the soldiers of the Chief Pack drew close, it weighed him down and threatened to drive away his reason.