“Does Sierra know?” she asked.
Colt shook his head.
I know what it’s like to be on the outside looking in. His words echoed back to her. Every bit of it made sense now. She knew what it was like to be born an outcast, but even she had her mother to love her, to accept her, someone she could depend on. How must it feel to become a lie he’d been forced into and then live that lie every day, hoping and praying that the family he now called his own didn’t find out? To fear that they would hate him? Cast him out?
This powerful alpha standing in front of her might have been a formidable force of a man, but he’d never known true love, acceptance. Not even from his own family.
Belle ached for him. His own adopted sister didn’t know the truth, yet she had wanted—no expected—him to tell her, and unknowingly compared him to those who had taken everything from him. When really all he’d been was afraid to show his real self to anyone.
She’d never forgive herself. She had to fix this. Had to make this right.
She eased toward him. “Colt, I didn’t know. I—”
“Don’t.” He drew back from her as if she had him cornered. “It’s my deepest secret, Belle. James died years ago, and on the night he took me in, I swore to him that I’d never sully the Cavanaugh’s pure Grey Wolf bloodline or his memory by ever telling a soul. I owe my entire life to the man, so you can understand why I didn’t tell you, and why…” His voice trailed off.
…And why we can’t be together.
She understood that now. With her ties to the Wild Eight, willful or not, if anyone ever found out, he’d lose everything. His position, his family’s reputation, the pack he now called his own…and the family that had saved him.
Tears continued to pour down her face. They wouldn’t stop. “I’m so sorry, Colt. I—”
He raised a hand, tearing his gaze away from her as if he couldn’t stand to look at her. “Don’t, Belle. We’re even now.”
The admission that she’d hurt him tore her in two.
Prowling past her, he headed for the door of his apartment, still refusing to look at her.
“Colt,” she pleaded.
“We leave for the Missoula ranch first thing come sunrise.” Without another word, he closed the door behind him, leaving her standing there desperate for how she could ever make this right.
Chapter 16
The rain complicated things. Colt leaned on the open barn door, staring out at the pasture as the sky opened. He’d ridden in only moments earlier, barely escaping being drenched from head to toe. The gentle patter of the fat raindrops hitting the ground echoed inside the barn, and the scent of damp spring grass hung in the air. At least they’d managed to get most of the ranch work done. The rain would cause minor issues with visibility on the recon mission tonight, and the damp evening wasn’t favorable calving conditions, but he enjoyed the sound all the same.
A sharp whinny drew his attention. Colt turned to find Wes’s horse, Black Jack, baring his teeth at a goose who’d taken refuge in the barn. Silver was watching the other horse with disdain, his tail raised high and haughty as if Black Jack’s petty antics were beneath him.
“Leave the goose be. It’s more his home than yours,” Colt grumbled at Black Jack. He’d had it to the end of his rope with the ornery beast. He wished he could say the four bites healing on various parts of his body, which Black Jack had caused over the past six days, were love nips or because the horse was homesick and missing his rider, but Colt knew better. Black Jack was an asshole, plain and simple. It was no wonder Wes was pissed off all the time.
Since Black Jack and his own prima donna of a horse maintained an ongoing feud, Belle had mainly been caring for Silver and serving as his rider since they’d arrived at the Missoula ranch, which meant at least Silver was pleased as punch. It gave Colt plenty of excuses to avoid being alone with her, on account of the fact that Black Jack and Silver might rip each other a new one. But that feat grew more difficult with each passing day. Sure, he and Belle had had plenty of interaction, but it had been cordial and only in the presence of his men. And his men weren’t much help on this front. They were so friggin’ charmed with her that it bordered on obnoxious.
He couldn’t blame them when she was constantly flitting around, lending an extra hand with the ranch work, tending to minor wounds, and even making lunch for them on occasion. It was obvious she was trying to make herself useful, and the soldiers loved it. The real kicker had come yesterday afternoon when she’d not only taken a shift monitoring the calving shed, but also somehow still found time to cook a delicious pot-roast dinner with peach cobbler for dessert.
When Austin had announced the warm, gooey dessert was orgasmic and he might be in love, and Dean had responded by offering to battle Austin for her, Colt had nearly throttled them both. The pie was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted—aside from the woman herself—but that didn’t matter. Being charmed by her was hard enough, especially now that she knew his secrets, but seeing how his soldiers adored her made it worse.
“Won’t be much longer,” he muttered to himself.
Silver moseyed over and rested his head on Colt’s shoulder as if he too understood the struggle. Colt patted the beast’s cheek. Though he was fairly certain Silver’s struggle had less to do with women and more to do with a certain ornery mustang. At that moment, Black Jack decided to kick open his stall gate and all-out chase the goose out of the barn, snapping at its heels as it ran, flapping its wings and honking. Colt shook his head, and he could have sworn Silver did the same. He had no idea what Wes saw in that bastard of a horse.
Thoughts of Wes and his ornery horse turned Colt’s thoughts to the pack and their safety. His men had been gathering intelligence on where the vampires stored their scientific data, and tonight was the night they would retrieve it. According to the intelligence Colt had bribed Blaze into gathering on his behalf, Lucas was still operating out of a coven not far outside the Missoula ranch. All they needed to do was get in there and find any incriminating evidence they could, and then get the hell out. Colt had mapped out the schematics, so now it was just a matter of following through with the plan.
Once they did, they could quickly launch their counterstrike. With Lucas engaged in battle with the Grey Wolves, Belle would need to go.
It’s better this way. She can’t stay.
At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
By nightfall, the rain had drenched the ground, creating heavy puddles and pockets of water out in the pasture, meaning the pregnant mothers were coming into the calving shed thoroughly soaked. As the temperature dropped with each passing hour, they’d need to stay vigilant and use the heater to keep the calves healthy and free of infection. And the visibility for their mission wasn’t much better, but they would manage.
“Are you ready?” Colt asked.
He and Blaze were positioned in front of the several computer screens Blaze had rigged up to serve as their command center. When the time came and the controls flipped on, they’d be able to see everything through the lenses of Austin’s goggles—a nifty little bit of technology Blaze had replicated based on data he had conveniently “stumbled on” while “perusing” the Dark Net and which bore a striking resemblance to the latest U.S. Army technology. When Maverick had discovered where the design originated several months earlier, he hadn’t been pleased. But Blaze had gotten away with it because having a brilliant technologist and hacker on their side was integral to besting their enemies and staying off human radar. It didn’t help matters that Blaze was also an alarmingly talented warrior for someone who spent most of his time perched in a desk chair.
Blaze cracked his knuckles and neck in a show of preparedness. He flopped down into his computer seat and twisted toward Colt. After dinner, his packmate had forgone the god-awful Hawaiian shirt he’d been sporting all day in favor of his pajamas—a T-shirt
that read If you don’t like tacos, I’m nacho type and a pair of lounge pants covered in little pineapple houses and SpongeBob SquarePants figures. “I was born ready,” Blaze said with an exaggerated wiggle of his eyebrows.
Colt rolled his eyes. “Sure you were.” He glanced at the clock. It was two minutes before sundown, which meant they had approximately an hour before the vampires rose, when it was still shadowed enough to slip past their security. While vampires weren’t cursed to roam the night and sleep in coffins, the sun did weaken them with extended exposure, so they remained mostly nocturnal.
Colt’s cell phone vibrated in the back pocket of his jeans, and he reached for it.
As Colt pressed the receiver to his ear, Austin’s drawling voice confirmed, “All men in place.”
Colt nodded toward Blaze. “Patch them through,” he ordered.
Colt locked his phone into the station dock and pulled on his headset. It wouldn’t be his first time commanding a mission from a remote location, but he didn’t prefer it. He considered himself a boots-on-the-ground leader, and his men rarely conducted missions without him. The way he saw it, if he wasn’t regularly risking his life for the pack right alongside them, he was little more than a battle-educated figurehead. But in this case, it would have been counterproductive to the mission. He was one of the vampires’ targets. Having him burst in there, guns blazing, would play right into the vampires’ plans, in the event the Grey Wolves were discovered and taken captive.
Colt leaned over Blaze’s station, one hand on the back of his packmate’s computer chair and the other on the desk. With their combination of careful planning, superior technology, and Colt’s memory of the coven’s layouts from his capture, he would be able to run this mission as if he were there. He’d planned out every detail in depth.
“Can you hear me, Austin?”
“Loud and clear,” Austin answered.
“Roger that,” Blaze responded. “Enter from the east entrance. When you get there, scan the lock and Blaze will hack the alarm.”
“Yes, sir,” Austin answered. They were already on the move.
They’d drilled their plans in detail for the past several days before Colt had allowed them to move in. Austin, Malcolm, and the others had this memorized so thoroughly that they could likely complete it in their sleep.
“Scannin’ the system.” Austin’s voice sounded over the headset speakers.
The image of the security keypad loaded onto Blaze’s screen. Blaze’s fingers flew across the keyboard, enlarging and analyzing. He might be a major pain in the ass with terrible fashion sense, but even Colt had to admit that the wolf was a veritable tech genius.
“Got it,” Blaze said.
On the screen, the lock clicked open.
“Damn fine work,” Austin replied.
Blaze grinned. “It’s sexy. I know.”
“Don’t stroke his ego any more than necessary,” Colt instructed. “Head in. Keep right down the hall.”
The soldiers slipped into the building, their night-vision goggles penetrating through the darkness. In his periphery, Colt scanned the adjacent monitor. If their scanner was correct, the three vampire guards were in place, as anticipated.
“Three vamps,” Colt directed. “The first is up ahead on the right. Take him out in a choke hold. We can’t have him alerting the other guards.”
Colt watched on the screen as Austin lifted his hand in front of his goggles in an okay symbol. Austin shifted his attention to Malcolm and the other soldiers, directing the camera there as he went. He communicated their next move with hand signals. Colt’s pulse pounded, his muscles tightening in anticipation of the kill as if he were there himself. What he wouldn’t give to bleed every one of those fuckers dry…
The first kill went smoothly. Austin and the team followed Colt’s instructions, taking out the first bloodsucker. They snatched the beast from behind, pulling him into a silent choke hold before staking the monster straight through the heart. The second kill didn’t go quite as smoothly. The vampire noticed them as they rounded the corner, but the monster barely had time to let out a threatening hiss before Malcolm improvised, impaling the vamp’s vocal cords with an arrow straight to the throat before staking him in the chest. A single vampire was no match for several well-trained Grey Wolf soldiers at once. It made the task far too easy, barely a challenge. As they approached the third and final kill, the vampire shifted on Colt’s monitor screen.
“Don’t move,” Colt ordered. “Hold position.” It was headed in their direction, but from the looks of it, it was likely to take a different turn. For some reason, the vamp was abandoning its post. “Prepare for fire and hold.”
Austin lifted his gun. The forty-five fitted with a silencer wouldn’t kill a vamp, but it’d give it pause, enough to slow it down until one of the soldiers could either stake it or cut off its head.
“Blaze, get me eyes on that fanger,” Colt ordered.
Blaze’s fingers raced across the keyboard until a second screen popped up, allowing Colt’s attention to turn between Austin’s view and wherever the stray vamp was headed. As Colt anticipated, the vamp turned in the other direction, leaving the path ahead clear for the team. But where the hell was the bloodsucker headed?
“Resume progress,” Colt directed. “Target is up ahead to the left.” It was a straight shot in. All they would need to do was reach Lucas’s computer and insert the jump drive Blaze had given them. Then the werewolf would be able to work his magic, downloading all the vampires’ files from their private and protected server to the pack’s own. With any luck, there would be incriminating evidence there, more than enough detail about the vampires’ plans to convince the Seven Range Pact to launch a counterstrike.
The Grey Wolf team rounded the corner, easing down the hall toward the final destination point. After watching a moment of Austin signaling for Malcolm to pick the lock and their struggle with the key pins, Colt watched on the screen as the door swung open.
“We’re in,” Austin whispered through the intercom.
They made quick work of placing the drive in the computer’s USB port. As soon as it connected, Blaze’s fingers were racing across his keyboard in a fury, combining buttons and creating commands as code flashed in green letters across his screen.
“T-minus fifteen seconds,” he said.
“Cut the Jason Bourne shit.” Colt growled. But that was when his eyes fell to the second screen, to where the stray vamp guard had disappeared—and the crowd of half-turned he’d unleashed.
Headed straight in the team’s direction.
“Shit!” Colt’s instincts shifted into high alert. “Get outta there, Austin!”
Colt watched in horror as Austin ducked out into the hall. In the line of Austin’s night vision, several of the half-turned charged toward them. Colt’s heart thumped against his breastbone. His gaze darted to the monitor. The place was now swarming with the half-turned—bigger, stronger, and far more lethal bloodsuckers.
“Abort mission,” Colt growled. “Now.”
“No!” Blaze shouted. “Five more seconds, and I’ve got it.”
“Colt!” Austin yelled through the confusion.
“Get the fuck out of there now, Austin!” Colt hollered. “That’s a direct order.” Evidence or not, he wouldn’t deliver his men a death sentence.
“I’ve almost got it,” Blaze muttered.
“Go!” Austin yelled to his men. He ripped the jump drive from its port with two seconds left to go. Blaze roared a pissed-off groan, but there was no time. The soldiers needed to get out of there—fast. The camera attached to Austin’s goggles shook and vibrated as he ran, before one of the vamps jumped straight into his line of sight.
“Shit!” he and Colt swore in unison.
Within seconds, the camera went black.
“Where’d they go, Blaze? Where the fuck did the
y go?”
Blaze hunkered over his keyboard, slamming in various commands. “I don’t know. I’m trying to get them back, but the diagnostic isn’t responding. It’s—”
“Fuck!” Colt slammed a fist onto the desk. Something had tipped them off, but he had taken every precaution, dotted every i and double-crossed every t. Now his men were in hot water—thanks to a miscall in his judgment. And for all he knew, they could be dead because of it.
Time slowed as Colt paced the front porch of the cabin they were all staying in. If those bloodsuckers got hold of even one of his men, he’d never forgive himself. Twenty minutes later when the black van tore into the drive, the tires let out an earsplitting screech. All seven soldiers unloaded from the van, carrying Austin. Even in the darkness, Colt saw the blood staining his black clothes and speckling the gravel of the driveway. They carried him into the cabin amid a chorus of shouts. At all the commotion, Belle was running down the stairs within seconds, struggling to tie a cotton robe around herself.
“Belle,” Colt breathed. For the first time in days, he locked eyes with her, pleading with her to save his packmate.
In an instant, her eyes seemed to convey everything he knew she’d been trying to get him alone to say. All the pent-up emotion of the last week. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to hurt you. And the one that slayed him the most.
I still care for you.
She knew exactly who and what he was, yet still she wanted him. All of him. He wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her for everything she was worth, but it still wasn’t that simple. She gave a single nod, with a promise in her eyes of We’ll talk later. Charging past him, she became the perfect ray of calm and focus in the storm.
“Out of my way,” she shouted, pushing through his men. They cleared a path, and she went straight to Austin’s side. Immediately, she began assessing the wolf’s wounds. With her wolf strength, she ripped Austin’s shirt open, revealing a gaping wound where it appeared a vampire had taken a large chunk out of him.
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