A derisive snort came from the kitchen, and I turned to find Clay shaking his head, running his tongue over elongated teeth. He wasn’t fucking buying it. But even if he wouldn’t show it to the others, I could feel his deep seated hope that his sister wasn’t entirely lost to that monster. That he wished he could believe her.
Hazel made as though to console Sam before snatching her hand back to her chest with a sad look in her eyes that made me wonder what it was she saw. I could guess, though. Having been under Devin’s thumb once myself.
“What are we waiting for then?” Vivian declared, her voice growing in pitch. “We have to go and free them. We have to bring them home.”
I cast my best friend what I hoped was a reassuring stare. “Yes,” I agreed. “But we have to be smart about it.”
I turned my attention back to Sam. “If you want to prove your loyalty remains here with this pack—with your family—then there’s something I need you to do.”
Her brows wrinkled.
“I need you to go back to him.”
She gasped. “I can’t,” she pleaded, a note of panic returning to her voice. “He’ll kill me.”
“He might,” I agreed.
“Why send her back?” Hazel asked in a flat monotone, not betraying how she felt on the matter. “If I’m wrong about her intentions, then…”
Then she could destroy us.
It was a risk.
But I trusted Hazel’s judgement. Could sense Sam’s remorse.
“It’s a bad idea,” Jared argued.
I held up a hand.
“You will tell Devin that I’ve done as he asked. That I’ve severed the bond with Clay and Jared and you personally witnessed my rejection of them. And that I plan to give myself up as he requested.”
“I don’t get it,” Vivian snapped. “What’s the play here?”
“We’ll discuss it once she’s gone.”
“Please don’t ask me to do this,” Sam pleaded. “I’ll do anything else you want.”
“This is what this pack needs from you.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“You’ll leave as soon as you’re able to walk on your own.”
“What are you doing, Allie?” Clay demanded, his jaw working again.
Trust me, I tried to tell him without saying the words aloud and his lips parted, but no other argument fell out.
“If you betray us again,” I warned Sam. “Devin won’t be the one you need to fear...and that beating he gave you will look like a fucking mercy. Do you understand?”
23
“She’s right, you know,” Hazel said during the meeting barely six hours after I made my choice to send Sam back to Devin. “He might kill her the moment she returns.”
“He might,” I agreed. “But if she survives, you’ll get what you asked for. I’ll pardon her from her crimes. She’ll be excommunicated from this pack, but not killed.”
Hazel fell silent, gazing blindly toward the north east, where Sam limped into the trees only thirty minutes before. My mind still reeled from everything she told us, and everything she didn’t. I got the sense there was more. That there was something she was desperate for us to know but couldn’t say.
Maybe Devin had commanded she keep something else a secret when she was still part of his pack? Would the effects of his alpha dominance persist even after she joined our pack?
Fuck. Why did I still feel like there was something more to this than I was seeing? Damn my fucking over-paranoid brain.
“Let’s get to the point,” Jared cut in. “What’s the plan, Allie? I know you wouldn’t have let her go back to him unless you had one.”
Nodding, I cringed inwardly, hoping they didn’t think this was the stupidest idea in shifter history. Normally, I’d have brought them in on a decision of this magnitude, but there was no way to have that discussion with Sam present, and honestly? I was afraid they’d try and stop me.
“Whatever it is,” Clay said in a low, dangerous voice, his eyes flicking to me and away. “I already don’t fucking like it.”
“How about a little faith?” I said, trying not to be stung by his words.
Layla jabbed Clay with an elbow. “Don’t be an asshole.”
Clay grumbled something unintelligible, laced with curses, but I paid him no mind.
“Okay,” I said on a breath. “Once Sam has returned and told Devin that I’ve done as he’s asked, I’m going to call him to set up a meet.”
“The fuck you are,” Jared hissed.
I sent him a glare, urging him to wait for the rest.
“He’ll be so preoccupied with readying for the meeting that he might not notice the shifters he has stationed at the mill with the captured wolves haven’t been checking in.”
We’d wrung every morsel of information out of Sam last night before allowing her a couple hours of fitful sleep to heal enough to be able to leave. She wasn’t a fountain of information, but she was able to tell us that he kept somewhere between six and ten shifters on guard at the mill depending on whether he needed them elsewhere.
To her knowledge, they were all still alive, but weak. He fed them enough to keep them alive, but that was it.
It was a good thing we had a shit ton of beef just waiting to be eaten. We already had about fifteen pounds of it thawing.
“We need this distraction for this to work. If he figures out we’re going to free them, he could intercept the rescue attempt and we’ll lose even more shifters.”
“Right,” Jared said, and I could tell he was holding back from saying something much less calm. “But this whole plan hinges on Sam not betraying us again. If she does—”
“I don’t think she will,” I interrupted. “And my gut has never been wrong before.”
They all knew it was more or less true.
“And this meeting?” Clay cut in. “Who’s to say he won’t bring his entire pack and slaughter us all?”
“I’m counting on it,” I bit back, making everyone shut up. “We’ll send a team to free the shifters from the mill. Five or six.”
“I’m going,” Vivian said. “I want to lead it.”
“Fine,” I replied. “But you’ll go with Seth and Charity as well.”
She nodded.
“You’ll travel with supplies to get them fed and mend any who are injured after you take out the guards.”
“Okay,” Viv said, catching on.
“As soon as you have them strengthened and ready to go, you’ll join us.”
“Our numbers still won’t be enough to defeat him,” Clay roared, not seeing what was right in front of him.
“We don’t have to defeat them all,” I corrected him. “With our pack freed, he won’t have his bargaining chip anymore.”
Layla gasped. “You’re going to challenge him.”
“You’re damn right I am,” I replied with a grin. “And I’m going to end that motherfucker once and for all.”
Everything was set into motion quickly after that. Viv, Seth, and Charity gathered three others to join them on the raid to free our kin.
I briefed the rest of the pack on the plan, promising that if this went down how I hoped it would, not a single soul would be harmed. I needed them all with me as a show of strength, to keep Devin’s attention on us and not behind him where we planned to drive in the knife.
Let him think I planned to attack him with my inferior numbers. Let him relish in the thought of having his chance to rid me of my mates.
And then pull the carpet out from under him with a challenge he couldn’t refuse.
It had to work.
There was no other plan.
This was it.
For now at least, it seemed Sam had kept her word. I made the call to Devin early this morning, and when I told him I wanted to meet, he was overeager to agree.
He even promised me that if I had truly rejected them as I said, that he would consider releasing his captors. We just needed to work out the ‘terms’ first.
> Ha! The only term I would accept would be his psychotic head on a fucking pike.
The bastard had no idea what he was in for. My wolf was ready. I was ready.
As a little extra added bonus we thought we’d like to see him kneel before we killed him. Just to rub a little salt in the wound, you know?
If we made Ryland kneel to us, we were certain we could utterly break the pathetic shifter that was Devin Wright.
“Everything is set,” Clay said. “But I don’t like leaving camp abandoned.”
I didn’t, either, but we couldn’t afford to split up with our numbers already so small. “And Hazel?”
“Stubborn old bat is insisting she come with us.”
“She’ll be safer at the old cabin. It’s warded.”
“Try telling her that.”
A slap on my arm had me tripping forward on the dirt lawn in front of our cabin. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told my grandson,” Hazel chided. “I’m coming with you whether you like it or not.”
“Grams…”
“You say it won’t come to a fight,” she argued. “So then what’s the problem, hmm?”
“Why do you have to be so damned difficult?” Clay groaned, scrubbing a palm over his face.
I lifted a brow at him. “Now I know where you get it from,” I said, tossing a wink. “Not that I ever had any doubt.”
Hazel smirked and left. “Send someone to fetch me when it’s time to leave,” she called back. “I’ll just go check on my garden first.”
I shook my head, chuckling quietly to myself.
“You seem…” Clay trailed off, cocking his head at me. “...different today. Happier.”
I bit my lower lip. “Hopeful is more like it,” I corrected him. “I think this is going to work. By the end of today, this all might finally be over.”
Clay’s lips pressed into a hard line that told me he didn’t think it would be so easy, but he nodded. “And what will you do if you succeed?” he asked. “If you take him out, you become rightful alpha of his pack.”
My mood soured.
“I’ll do what I did when I took over this pack,” I decided. “I won’t force anyone to stay.”
Clay didn’t seem particularly supportive of the idea, but he didn’t argue the point. We needed to get through steps one through five before we started worrying about step ten.
Jared came out from the cabin a moment later in a pair of low hanging cargo shorts, his chest and hair glistening with water from the shower. He looked up as he approached. “Hey. Everything good?”
“You’ve been gone for fifteen minutes,” I reminded him. “Not much has changed.”
He lifted a brow at me. “Around here? A lot can happen in fifteen minutes.”
“Well, Hazel’s coming now,” I relented. “So there’s that.”
“Stubborn old bat,” Jared grumbled, and Clay and I nodded our agreement.
Just then, I sensed Viv approaching and found her, Seth, Charity, Archer and two other shifters weaving through the trails of pack camp toward us. Viv looked better than I’d seen her in weeks. She’d force fed herself all three meals the day before and accepted some extra strength sleeping pills from Charity to help her get the rest she desperately needed.
It would’ve been a lot easier if we’d been able to use the store of magical potions from Stella, the witch who’d been a friend to the pack for generations. But you know, immunity from witch and vampire magics had its drawbacks just as well as it had its advantages.
“You look good,” I commented and Vivian gave me a partial smile and a nod.
I could tell she was feeling it, too. The hope that today, this would all be over. That she’d finally get her mate back. And I got the feeling Viv was never going to let Destiny out of her sight again.
“We’re ready to go,” she announced, her resolve clear on her face.
A pang in my chest told me that despite my trust in this plan, I was still terrified of something going wrong. I didn’t want her to leave. Not without me for backup.
I grimaced. “All right. Go now then. We’ll be leaving in about an hour which should give you enough time to get to them, see them fed, and make your way to where we’re to meet.”
“Just make sure you come up on the barrens from the—”
“Yes, from the west. We know,” Viv answered Jared. “We’ll follow the creek as far as we can to hide our trail. We know the plan.”
He gave her a terse nod and tugged her into a hug that had her light brown eyes widening. “Be careful, Viv.”
“Well, fuck, if we’re going to be dramatic about it.” Clay rolled his eyes before taking his turn wrapping Viv in a big bear hug while Jare moved on to embrace Charity and give Seth a clap on the back.
“You be careful, too,” Viv whispered against my cheek as she hugged me, her long arms crushing my ribcage.
“We will be,” I promised her.
She fixed me with a pointed stare as she pulled away, as though she didn’t believe I would be careful at all and fuck, did no one have any faith in me?
I gave her a pronounced eyeroll and a little shove. “Get out of here.”
Seth saluted me and Viv flashed me a grin I had been starting to think I would never get to see again.
“Come back whole,” I demanded, calling out to them as they vanished into the tree line and my gut twisted.
Jared pulled me into his side, lending me some of his strength. “They’re going to be all right. They can do this.”
I nodded.
“I know they can.”
24
It was hard to imagine that only a few weeks ago Seth and Layla came to this very spot for something as innocent as stargazing.
Now, returning to the barrens, Layla looked anything but innocent. In her wolf form, she was lithe and alert. Vividly aware that her boyfriend would have arrived at the mill where the white river met the iron creek over an hour ago.
If everything went to plan, they would already be on their way here. Layla had wanted to go with them, but saw the sense in coming with us instead. I could account for Vivian’s absence if we met with Devin before they arrived. I could say that she couldn’t be trusted not to attack first and ask questions later, given he had her mate. But Layla not being present would raise suspicion. Especially when I had the entire pack at my back.
Though there was still the chance he might wonder at the absence of Seth and Charity, having known them too when he was still with the Forest Grove pack.
Please, I sent the silent prayer to the heavens as we cleared the trees and stepped out onto the wide expanse of patchy dirt and grass known as the barrens. Please let this work.
My pulse picked up at the prospect of seeing Devin again and not being able to immediately go for his throat. I was really hoping Viv would show up with all of the others in tow before Devin got here so I wouldn’t have to hold back.
I came to a stop just outside the tree line and the rest of the pack stopped with me, their nervous energy ramping up.
Where is he? Clay asked, and I peered with my canine eyes across the expanse to the trees on the other side. Seeing nothing.
Late?
My hackles rose at what that could mean, and I soothed myself in the thought that perhaps we were just early. Judging by the positioning of the sun, sunk beneath the tree line but not fully drowned just yet, we were right on schedule.
Pretty, isn’t it? Layla said, distracting me from my thoughts.
I turned to find her just behind me, staring up at the sky with hopeful eyes.
She was right, though I hadn’t noticed it. The sky awash with the colors of a summer sunset in the mountains. Clouds with pink stained bellies in a hazy purple sky. A wash of amber light over the floor of the barrens. Tipping the tops of the trees in a gold so bright they appeared to be on fire.
My gaze snapped forward as the stench of foreign wolves was carried our way on a westward breeze.
They’re here.
B
lood rushed in my ears, and I dug my paws into the earth, rooting myself still until the moment when I could spring ahead. My wolf bristled at the feel of the earth beneath us. The slight tremble of it as the enemy approached.
Easy, Jared warned and I reined in my wolf with a long exhale.
I still don’t sense him, Callum sent from somewhere behind us and my blood chilled.
It may not mean anything, I told myself. They may just be slightly out of range. It was handy having one half of a mated pair of shifters with us. Callum could tell us when Archer was near. He was also the reason we knew they were all still alive. Or, at least, Archer was.
We’ll stall, I decided. I’m sure the asshole will want to preen first anyway.
Just then, a wolf broke through into the barrens. A wolf with dark fur the colors of stone and wet earth, with eyes brightest emerald. A silent gasp parted my lips at the sight of him.
There was no mistaking who he was. I’d know those eyes anywhere. They were the same ones that stared into mine as he hurt me. Bit me. Changed my life forever.
But this wolf was twice the size of the one who was run out of Forest Grove over four years ago. And as his pack emerged from the shadows of the forest, I saw that his numbers were not exaggerated as I’d hoped.
Perhaps not seventy, but there was no denying the number was painfully close to that. On closer inspection though, I found young shifters much like the one who gave us the information we needed. There seemed to be many more teenagers and even younger juveniles than I’d anticipated. Though none seemed older than their mid-forties.
Though, if they’d been running with a pack for any length of time, they could all be much older than they appeared.
My initial relief at seeing so many younger, more inexperienced wolves was quickly replaced by a horrid hollowness in my stomach.
There are so many young… Jared trailed off in my thoughts, mimicking my worry.
They were just kids. We couldn’t kill them...could we?
I shook my head.
It won’t come to that.
Anything? I sent to Callum, setting my jaw as Devin and his pack came to a standstill fifty years away.
Shifted Scars: A Wolves of Forest Grove Novel Page 21