“Yes,” Lucas stated, causing my eyes to narrow on him. “I knew she had a mate and that it was you, Saint. Braelyn didn’t deny it to me when I asked. She said if you love something, you protect it, even if you have to protect it from yourself and the monsters within your glass house.”
“Which leads me to believe she knew exactly what was happening in her home and on her mountain,” Xariana injected smoothly. “Others have told me the same thing. Why would she say that unless she was aware of what her father was doing and that he was a monster?”
Lucas sat down, his face scrunching up at Xari’s words. His dark head shook, but he couldn’t argue it; no one could. My stomach tightened, and a vice clenched around my heart. We’d been questioning the pack about Brae, and everyone said the same thing. Brae never argued that her father was a monster, backing that opinion up with her own words.
“We believe there’s another lodge somewhere on this mountain. We don’t have very long before winter comes, and it goes without saying the children won’t survive without food until spring. We must find them soon before the snow comes,” I stated, changing the subject from Braelyn.
“I can send my sons out, but I can confirm already that there’s no hidden lodge on the mountain.” A silver-haired alpha stated, his light blue eyes holding mine briefly. “We’ve patrolled the area for many years. There’s no secondary lodge, at least not above ground.”
I turned his words over in my head before exhaling slowly. Moving my attention to the monitors showing the children huddled in groups, I studied the area around them. We were missing something, and time was running out. Sliding my gaze over the walls behind them, I paused.
“It could be underground. Maybe that’s why we can’t locate them. We’ve been looking for a lodge, not considering they could be beneath the surface. It would explain not being able to smell or catch their scents. They’re fucking underground, which means they’re freezing, and we’re losing our window to save them,” I exhaled, glancing at the monitors and studying the way the women clustered around the children, using their body heat to keep them from freezing.
We’d assumed they were their mothers, but looking at them now, it was doubtful; they seemed too young to have children of their own. Tragedy and fear created bonds between the victims, just as it had my crew, Carleigh, and me. Pushing my fingers through my hair, I schooled my expression to cover the fact that we were losing the fight because time wasn’t something we had.
“What we discussed here tonight doesn’t leave this room. That’s an order as your alpha,” I announced.
“That’s a shit order. If Brae is in on this, we deserve to know,” one of the alphas growled, his red eyes meeting and holding mine. “If she is involved, we’ve been working side-by-side with someone who has betrayed us. I will not respect a woman who sells her people, let alone bow to the bitch.”
“Agreed,” another stated, forcing my gaze to slide over the men seated against the wall.
“We don’t know the level of her involvement yet. Until we know for sure, Braelyn is considered innocent,” I warned. “She is my mate, and if she is found guilty, I will take her life. That is my vow to you. Her punishment is mine to give. As her mate, it is my right to handle her how I see fit. Until I say otherwise, she isn’t to know that we’re aware of what was happening here. I don’t want to give her the chance to cover her tracks or hide anything from me. It could be that she’s unaware of what her father did, as you all were.”
“Or it could be that she was a knowing participant. After all, she sent you into slavery to star in several porn and snuff films,” Carleigh sneered, her lips tilting into a cocky smirk. “I’m biased, though, since I’ve tasted her mate and crave him for myself.”
I studied Carleigh for a moment before dismissing her to excuse the alphas from the room. Ezekiel and Enzo approached slowly, staring at the monitors that showed the room filled with children of varying ages.
“There are ways to get answers out of your mate quickly. Let us play with her, and she’ll tell us everything you want to know,” Enzo stated, his lips curving into a deadly grin.
I snorted, studying the Gemini twins. They were incubus demons, who fed off sex, and they ran a club that was known for granting people their deepest, darkest fantasies. I’d often heard the rumors of how they seduced their prey, and once they had them in their thrall, both would feed on the same victim. They always asked for consent and were never denied.
We’d actually encountered the twins on a hunt where they’d been tracking down a child that was stolen from one of their hives. Cocky, arrogant, evil pricks they were, but they had heart, and we shared the same goals to stop the trafficking. Or at least when it suited them and fit within their terms. Witches were their hard limit, hating them with a vengeance due to a curse in which they weren’t eager to share the details.
“I’m going to pass on letting you fuckers get close to Braelyn. No offense, but if she isn’t guilty, I don’t want her craving you twisted assholes once you’ve finished corrupting her.”
“We’d play nice with her,” Ezekiel promised with a grin.
“No, we really wouldn’t. My brother is lying. Your mate would be ours forever because you’d never satisfy her once we’d given her our love,” Enzo bragged.
“Yo! Ying and Yang, fuck off. Braelyn is Saint’s mate; not a plaything,” Eryx snapped, his gaze on Carleigh, who stood beside me, anger oozing from her pores as she glared at me. “You too, sweetheart,” he laughed. “You can play with me, though, Car. I will enjoy giving you what you crave. Let me hurt you, and you can act like you don’t like it rough for me. What do you say?”
“Fuck off, Eryx. You know I only play hard to get for Saint,” she snorted.
“He isn’t interested in playing with you anymore. He has Braelyn, and their bond—it’s absolute. You’re not even on his radar as long as she lives.”
“As long as she lives, which at the moment, doesn’t seem likely,” Carleigh smarted off, turning to look at me. “I’m hoping she’s found guilty sooner rather than later. I miss being yours, Saint.” Carleigh pushed her hair over her shoulder before starting toward the door and slipping out of the room.
My stare slid to Eryx, who smirked the moment he noted the anger burning in my eyes. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Killing two birds with one stone,” he snorted. “Piss off the hound, and she may nip at the heels of the wolf. You’re the one who fucked a hellhound and then invited me to play with her. Carleigh came here for you, and you know it. She’s going to be gunning for Brae, and wanting her to be guilty, Saint. You invited a jealous bitch onto your playground, and Brae doesn’t even know she’s here yet.”
“Maybe I should be using Carleigh to get Braelyn to unleash her anger? Women often let their words go when they’re upset or jealous,” I mused as Xari lifted a blonde eyebrow at my suggestion.
“Or they kill you in their anger. As someone who has experience with cheating pricks, might I suggest you not go that route? I’d hate to have to put your guts back into your stomach, and sew them up again, asshole. Once was enough for me.” Xari rolled her pretty eyes and crossed her arms over her corset-covered chest.
Xari was a little badass, fae halfling, with a skill set most immortals didn’t have in their arsenal of tricks. But that’s not surprising since she’s Xavier’s daughter. He’s the man that started the hunter organization, and he had overseen her training. Xari has been hunting since puberty, and her old man trained her to kill without hesitation. I’d met her with my entrails hanging out, and she hadn’t balked as she shoved them back into my stomach, sewing them up, then complained that I was whining like a bitch the entire time.
“Have you asked Braelyn how much she knows about what her father was doing?” Xavier asked with a worried expression. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think you’re going to be able to kill her if she is guilty, Saint.”
“If he won’t, we will,”
Ezekiel stated, running his thumb over a blade as shadows wafted around him.
“I’ll be the one to kill her if it comes to that,” Eryx folded his arms and glared at Ezekiel and Enzo. “Braelyn is pack, and that makes her our responsibility. No one else is to hurt her. If Saint says the word, I’ll put her down as gently as possible. She’s his mate, and no matter what has happened, he needs to know that she will be released from this life humanely for him to get out of this with his fucking soul in one piece.” Eryx picked invisible lint from this sleeve before meeting my gaze. The pain in his expression was momentarily visible before he shut it down and replaced his mask of civility.
“Dinner should be fun,” I ground out, exhaling, and everyone gave a soft chuckle at my expense. “Shove it, assholes. After dinner, you’re with me, Eryx. We’ll question Brae about what she knows regarding Harold’s business. The rest of you, start looking for underground caves or storage containers. I saw shipping containers outside of the compound. Harold could have had some buried and is using them to hide his shipments. He would have had them close to the compound because he was a lazy prick who thought he couldn’t be caught in the act. Not to mention, the video feeds in this shithole leave the back entrance dark. It’s that way for a reason.”
“Harold didn’t want anyone seeing him hauling out bodies; I take it?” Xavier frowned, peering around the room.
“That’s what I’m guessing, and he didn’t want to be seen bringing his victims in either,” I grunted, running the newest facts through my mind.
My gaze slid back to where Zayne pushed pause on an image of Jane Doe. Her face was always facing away from the screen and covered by what looked to be a pillowcase, concealing her features.
“What if Jane Doe is a Fenrir wolf? It would explain her never being raped since the wolf god would have protected her. She’d have to be a willing participant to get past Fenrir’s protection. And this,” I said, pointing to the monitor, “does not appear consensual.” I turned to look at Xavier, and he nodded.
“Could be, or it could just be that wasn’t what he wanted from her. She’s Harold’s first victim, that much I know. I’m still combing through the tapes, and there are a lot of them. He enjoyed her the most. You can see it in his eyes. They don’t sparkle with the same excitement when he’s with the other women or children. There’s a madness he unleashes on Jane Doe that is sickening.” Xavier lowered his tone, his eyes locking onto the faceless body. “Harold never shows her face, and there’s no sound recorded when he’s with her, so we can’t tell if she’s begging him to stop or if she can speak at all. He’s gone to great lengths to hide her identity from those paying to watch these sessions. I hate thinking that we’re too fucking late to save her. I fear he tired of Jane Doe or went too far one last time.”
“Wish we could resurrect Harold and kill the prick again.” My attention moved back to the woman bound to the bed, with her legs and arms splayed wide apart, her face hidden behind the black cloth. My eyes slid down to her stomach, skinned down to the muscular tissue, and huge, gaping chunks of her arm and leg muscles that were missing. “I shouldn’t have killed him, but I had to gain control of the pack…”
“You did what was needed,” Xavier stated.
“Monsters like Harold wouldn’t have told you anything. They enjoy holding that power over you,” Enzo said, his darkening eyes holding mine. “We know because we are like that, too. Knowledge is power, and when you hold someone’s life with that power, it is addictive.”
“You know you’re scary as fuck most days, but you’re pushing that limit today,” I snorted, watching the evil grin that tugged at the corners of Enzo’s mouth.
“You should see us when we’re really angry.” Ezekiel laughed, but the look in his dark gaze was anything but friendly. “You sure we can’t play with your mate a little? We can unveil her darkest fantasies and desires with merely a kiss.”
“I think I can handle my mate, but if she proves to be too hard to crack, I’ll consider your offer.” The twin’s eyes turn a wicked shade of blue before the color swallowed their eyes, and black swirls slid over their arms and hands. “Kill the demon vibes, assholes. You’re making Xari uncomfortable, and she gets stabby when she’s uncomfortable.”
“Noted,” Enzo smirked as he tilted his head, eyeing Xari with a darkened expression. “I like stabby women.”
“Cool the shit,” Xavier demanded, laughing Enzo and Ezekiel off. “She’s not into demons or twins that share their toys. She’s my fucking daughter, assholes. Get your minds on the fact that there are children here, starving, and tonight the temperature’s dropping to forty degrees.”
“We do dinner, and then you guys head out and cover the ground in a grid pattern. Just like we did on Mount Rainier last summer.” I swallowed down the fact that I was about to have dinner with a jealous hellhound and my mate, and the fireworks that were bound to happen would be entertaining for everyone except me.
Chapter Eleven
Braelyn
I walked into the dining hall with my heart in my throat. Phenrys hadn’t spoken a single word to me the entire time I fixed my hair and makeup. Instead, he’d chosen to glare at me as if I were a rodent he wanted to exterminate. It was unnerving to be the only one talking while the other person examined you like something he wanted to hurt.
The moment the dining room came into view, I paused as the pack rose to their feet. The alpha’s table was empty, causing my hackles to rise. Usually, I sat with them to avoid my father’s table. I searched the room, only to be nudged forward by Phenrys.
“Move it,” he ordered, causing me to start forward without finding the alphas.
The pack remained on their feet as I moved between the rows of the tables, heading for the one at the hall entrance. I hadn’t sat there since I was a child, trying my best to escape my father’s attention. Now I was being forced to sit there again, and my body wanted to turn my ass around involuntarily, hightailing it back to my bedroom and the safety it offered me.
I stalled at the sight of the blonde woman sitting beside Saint, her big green eyes on him with a look of possessiveness that made my stomach churn. Closing off my emotions, I stepped up to the chair, dragging it out to sit where Phen had directed me. Across from Saint, instead of beside him, where he’d purposely placed the blonde. It was my spot, and it wouldn’t go unnoticed by the pack.
My eyes slid over the female who returned the slow examination before turning up her nose at me. Her hand slipped through Saint’s elbow, pulling him closer as she whispered into his ear, causing his eyes to meet and lock with mine. They sparkled as if she was telling him a secret.
Dismissing them both outright, I glanced down the length of the table, filled with hunters, demons, and the wolves of varying breeds Saint had brought with him. There wasn’t a single person seated at the table that I recognized from my pack, and none of the alphas were here.
“You look beautiful, Braelyn. You’re the spitting image of your mother,” Leif announced, causing my gaze to swing to his in shock.
“Thank you,” I said softly, if not a little hesitantly.
“The pack respects you,” he continued as if everyone else wasn’t listening to his every word.
“They do, but then unlike my father, I work beside them.”
“Indeed, you do. Your ability to keep up with your pack today impressed me. You remind me of home. I longed for the fjords for the first time in a very long time, Braelyn. Had your pack not been so weak and feeble all those years ago, I may not have slaughtered them so easily. You would have stayed my hand had you been born when I set siege to your line.”
I blinked, trying to figure out what the hell one said to the maniac who chased our pack from the shores of Norway eons ago. This man slaughtered my grandparents, murdering them for being different. Holding his stare, Leif smiled, fully aware that he’d left me without recourse to say something.
“Do you not work beside your pack?” I a
sked, watching his lips jerk at my question. Lycans usually don’t live in packs, but it was rumored in certain circles that Leif was indeed working to integrate a large number of Lycan wolves into a pack. “Or, are we supposed to pretend that you’re not trying to build a pack?”
Leif smiled before nodding his head. “You do remind me of your mother. She had a fire in her eyes and soul. It saddened me to hear that she passed. Having a babe, wasn’t it? It was stillborn, and she could not deliver, right?”
“My mother didn’t die giving birth or because of pregnancy complications,” I stated, slowly turning to find Saint and the others hanging on my every word. “My father discovered my mother carried another daughter. Displeased, he took an ax to her as she tended to the fire in our apartment. He then removed her heart, leaving her and his child to die on the floor.”
“And you did nothing to prevent it? Fenrir women are warriors from birth.” Leif’s accusation stung as his words hung in the air.
“I was five when he murdered my mother. She’d told me never to allow my father to see my emotions. I was terrified of him, and he knew it. He wanted an heir that could hold the pack by the blood in their veins.”
“Fenrir packs are normally led by their women, born as natural alphas to their packs,” he stated, pouring bourbon into a glass before pushing one across the table toward me. “Harold wasn’t aware that you were his alpha heir, was he?”
“No, and since I had beta tendencies, it was easily kept hidden. I wasn’t aware that I was an alpha until nine years ago. I suppressed it after that, but my father noticed. It’s why he’d agreed to allow Carlson to take me as his mate. My father wanted me away from the pack so that I couldn’t take it from him.”
“Because you would have by right,” Leif laughed, shaking his head while holding my stare.
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