Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature Book 4)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  The cavalry, it seemed.

  “Liam…” The name on Brunton’s tongue was a threat and a warning. I looked over my shoulder to find the wolf we’d presumed dead standing toe-to-toe with my man-bear guardian, who had no intention of letting him pass. Brunton, however, surged past Grizz with ease and tackled Liam. Everyone else encircled the two werewolves, who were now engaged in a full-on fight. Brunton swung like a wild man while Liam took the beating, defending himself as best he could without countering. When it was clear that Liam was only weathering Brunton’s storm, Foust caught the surly werewolf’s arm just before he could land a haymaker. Given the strain on Foust’s face, it took considerable effort. “You killed them, you motherfucker—your own kind!” Brunton shouted. “Then you nearly killed Kat and handed Knox and Piper over to the fucking fey king!” Brunton’s true intentions behind finding Liam had finally bubbled to the surface; his vengeance would not be denied. Jagger, Foust, and Jase had to restrain him as he struggled to get to Liam again, who stood bleeding in the driveway.

  Grizz obviously seconded his sentiments, his growl growing until I was certain that he, too, would go at the wolf that had betrayed his own—had attacked his adopted packmates and his lone wolf bestie. One look from me kept him at bay, but the gesture he made in return let me know how little he appreciated my silent command to stand down.

  I looked over to Knox and saw the pain in his eyes. He’d once loved Liam as a brother, that much was clear, but that love didn’t change what Liam had done, and he knew it.

  “Why are you here?” Knox asked, his voice dangerously even.

  Liam’s eyes moved from the alpha over to me. “I came for her.”

  Wrong answer.

  Knox had Liam by the throat before I saw him move. Merc stepped closer, prepared to intervene.

  “You did that once,” Knox said, lifting Liam off the ground. “You won’t do it again.”

  Liam’s gaze fell upon me, and in it I saw fear.

  “Knox,” I said, touching his arm, “he’s not here to hurt me—ask him yourself.”

  He turned eyes of fire to me but did as I asked. “Are you here to harm her or anyone else I care about?”

  Liam struggled to shake his head. Knox dropped him to the ground.

  Once he’d regained his composure, Liam stood to face me. Whether he was avoiding Knox’s stare out of shame, submission, or defiance, I couldn’t quite be sure.

  “What do you want, Liam?” I asked.

  “To help you kill the king.”

  You could have heard a pin drop; even nature stilled at his statement. The birds were silent. The crickets no longer chirped. It was as if the world itself understood the weight of his words.

  I prayed the king hadn’t somehow heard them.

  “Why?” I asked. “Because he tried to kill you?”

  “For that and more.”

  His answers seemed so perfect—too perfect. I couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t a ruse the fey king had somehow crafted to make us trust him, only to have it all blow up in our faces later.

  “You were his assassin until you changed sides, but how do we know it isn’t all a lie?”

  His eyes drifted to Knox. “Ask me. Ask me if I am still loyal to our maker.”

  Knox did just that, and Liam’s words rang true.

  “I escaped—” Liam began, only to be cut off.

  “Or the fey king let you go,” Brunton interrupted. The boys lightened their hold on him but didn’t set him free.

  “He escaped,” Knox said. “He speaks the truth.”

  Before the argument that Brunton was itching to have could begin, the front door opened, drawing our collective attention. I looked over my shoulder to see Kat standing there, taking it all in. When her eyes landed on Liam, she straightened a little and walked toward him. There was no urgency in her gait; just that calm, cool sashay she had when she wanted all eyes on her. When she was preparing to do battle of one kind or another.

  She stole her gaze away from Liam long enough to note the small entourage restraining Brunton, then looked back to the unfamiliar wolf. She’d clearly pieced together who he was. The question that remained was, what would she do with that knowledge?

  “So you’re the one who tried to kill me,” she said with a hint of amusement I might have thought she actually felt, but the set of her jaw told the true story. She was going to play with her food before she ate it.

  Liam looked at her as though he’d never seen her before, and I thought she’d kill him right then and there. Instead, she just smiled.

  “Don’t remember me?” she asked, feigning affront. “Let’s see if I can jog your memory. You’d been picking off Knox’s pack slowly. We went out to hunt your sorry ass, and you attacked me from behind like a scared little bitch, sliced my throat, and then ran back to your fairy king for cover. Does that ring any bells?”

  To Liam’s credit, his eyes widened slightly in recognition.

  “Ah, that’s better,” Kat said, stepping into his personal space. “Have you come here to let me return the favor?” Her claws extended from her fingers, and she dragged one along Liam’s throat where he’d cut hers. “Maybe I should make you turn around so you don’t see it coming…”

  Liam assessed her for a second before slowly doing as she’d suggested, tipping his head back silently to grant her access to his throat. Whether it was atonement for what he’d done or he’d lost his mind, I wasn’t sure, but I had no plans to let her kill him until we really knew why he’d returned.

  “Kat!” I said as she set the tip of her claw under his ear. “Not yet!”

  She looked back at me, her irritation plain. “An eye for an eye, Piper…”

  “And you can have that eye—maybe—once we know why he’s here. Just let Knox interrogate him first. Then we’ll decide his fate, okay?”

  With great reluctance, she backed away from him and he turned to face us.

  “I suggest you answer these questions as honestly as possible, Liam, or I’ll lose my patience and let her finish what you started,” Knox said, his alpha voice in full command. “Now, you say you want to help us kill the king? Why?”

  “Because he left me for dead.”

  Knox nodded. “Does he know where you are?”

  “I imagine he suspects, but unless he has spies here, he cannot know for certain. I have not seen him since your mate saved you.”

  “Why would we go after the fey king?” Jase asked. “We have other problems to deal with at the moment.”

  “Because I have seen how deep his obsession with Piper runs. There will be no thwarting him. He wants her for himself—for his plans—and he will not stop until he has her. You would be fools to wait for him to come for her again.”

  “But he doesn’t have you to do his dirty work anymore, does he, brother?” Brunton spat that final word like it was rancid on his tongue.

  Liam looked over to him, then his gaze shifted to Kat and back again.

  “You think my betrayal is worse than your own? That you are the only one who has suffered? You are wrong about that, brother. So, so wrong. Perhaps you will one day allow me to tell you why.”

  “Fuck off—”

  “Enough!” Knox shouted. “Brunton has a point. The king won’t come here on his own, and he’s out of lapdogs to send—unless those fucking golems lose their taste for witches and come for us—so tell me why he should be a priority.”

  “Because he has allies here—and other places.”

  “Who?”

  “I do not know, but I know they exist. He spoke of them often.”

  Knox growled. “Truth.”

  “Then maybe we should spend our time rooting out those assholes,” Dean suggested. “If he can’t act without them, that will shut him down in a hurry.”

  “We cannot hunt those whom we do not know,” Merc countered. “It would take considerable time for Knox to interrogate the better part of the supernatural community in the city—a community at war, might
I remind you.”

  “So what? Are you saying we trust this traitorous shit? Let a killer of our own kind waltz back into the fold like nothing ever happened?” Brunton asked.

  “I am saying that, if what he has said is true, we cannot overlook the danger the fey king presents.”

  “Keep your friends close,” I said quietly.

  “And your enemies closer,” Kat replied, staring down Liam. The resignation she felt was clear in her expression. She shook her head once, then turned and walked back toward the front door. “If you want to let that murderer stay here, that’s fine with me. I just can’t promise I won’t kill him in his sleep.”

  “Knox,” Foust said, looking to his alpha, “the others—”

  “I know, Foust.” The muscles in Knox’s jaw feathered as he weighed his options. They were few and far between. And none were great.

  Much to my surprise, he looked at Merc, as if asking for his opinion.

  “There are places in the mansion—places to keep him detained,” Merc replied, and I flinched at his words; at the thought of him in the cell with his father right before he’d killed him and severed our bond. “If you wish to keep him there, I will allow it.”

  Knox nodded.

  “Wait,” I said, realizing something I’d all but forgotten in the chaos of our return from Faerie, “isn’t Mack down there?”

  Jase and Dean shared a look, then turned their collective gaze to their brother. After a long pause, Jase spoke. “We had to get him out of there the night you disappeared. It was that or kill him, and we weren’t sure if you’d gotten what you needed from him.”

  I schooled my features to keep the memory from showing on my face. They’d whisked Mack away before Merc went medieval on his father. Whether he’d known the former king was there or if they’d been well-separated, I didn’t know. But either way, his brutal death would have been heard anywhere down there unless the cell had been soundproof—which I knew it wasn’t. They’d had no choice but to get rid of Mack.

  I managed a quick nod of acknowledgment, and Merc carried on before anyone could ask questions.

  “Jase. Dean. Take him,” Merc said. His brothers didn’t bat an eyelash, approaching the intruder and detaining him like the prisoner he was about to be. Liam let them take him without objection.

  “So that’s it? He gets a pass on everything he did?” Brunton was fuming. Too much anger without an outlet was going to undo him.

  “He gets a pass on nothing,” Knox replied, biting out his words, “but we keep him until we know more.”

  “And if that’s the plan? To gain entrance to the mansion again—to take us down from the inside?”

  “Once I am done asking him questions, we’ll know everything. Until then, you will abide by my decision, understand?” Knox said. Brunton bristled, but nodded. “Good. Now Foust, you let the others know the situation. I have answers to get.”

  One by one, Knox, Foust, and Brunton filed back into the mansion. Grizz lingered at my side until I told him to go make sure Kat was okay. He grudgingly agreed and went inside, leaving Merc and me alone.

  “Do you think it’s a coincidence that Liam showed up here right after our aborted attempt to go after him?” I asked. His stormy eyes gave little away. “Right after those golems saw us?”

  “I think Knox has to hear him out before we’ll know anything for certain. We don’t have the luxury of acting without thinking first, especially if the king is the threat Liam claims he is.”

  “And if he’s up to something?”

  His expression darkened. “Then I’ll fight for the right to kill him myself.”

  I swallowed hard. “Good luck with that. Kat won’t go down easy.”

  A half-smile. “No, I don’t imagine she will.”

  Chapter Four

  Merc and I made our way down to the basement, where Knox’s interrogation had already begun. Foust, Jagger, and Brunton loomed behind him, prepared to deal with whatever threat the incarcerated werewolf might pose—or maybe they, too, just wanted answers right from the horse’s mouth.

  “We went out tonight to try to rescue you,” Knox said. His voice was low and sad and full of grief. Everything going on was weighing on him heavily, and I worried about how he’d handle it. He’d told me once that he ran from New York because it was all too much for him. I hoped he wasn’t planning to do it again. “We found the portal, but we also found the king’s golems abducting witches—”

  “Or trying to,” Brunton interrupted. “Know anything about that?” His tone, unlike his alpha’s, was full of anger. If I’d offered to let him into the cell to have another go at his fellow Original, I doubted he would’ve hesitated.

  Liam looked to Brunton and held his stare. “He’s harvesting their power…”

  His words crashed into us. Silence fell over the room.

  “What do you mean?” Merc asked. “Why would he need to do that?”

  Liam hesitated. “Because his land is dying—Faerie is dying.”

  Holy. Shit.

  “And you know this how?” Brunton asked. “If you were nearly killed and forced to escape, then your timeline isn’t adding up so well, given what we know of the abductions.”

  “I know because the fey king had contrived this plan before I betrayed him.”

  “But how?” I asked, barely able to speak. I couldn’t fathom what he was saying, nor could the others, judging by the looks on their faces. “How could his half of Faerie be dying?”

  “I do not know. But I know it is true. I’ve felt it myself. If it weren’t for the magic he’s stolen through sacrifice, I do not know what would be left of it now.”

  “He seemed pretty powerful when we were there,” Knox countered.

  “The decay is recent. The lands are still strong, but I can feel the drain on them when a sacrifice has not been made.”

  “What about the queen?” I asked. “Are her lands dying, too?”

  He shook his head. “I do not know, Piper. I’m sorry.”

  As my mind reeled, Merc pulled out his phone and began dialing.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  His expression tightened. “Setting up the meeting with the coven queen—and the other factions. If Faerie is dying, then it is only a matter of time before the fey arrive here, prepared to claim the power that New York has to offer. If we’re too busy infighting to notice, it will not end well for any of us.”

  A voice sounded on the other end, and Merc headed out of the room to discuss matters. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Our escalating war provided a great distraction for the fey—one we couldn’t afford. But managing a meeting with multiple races and higher stakes seemed far more risky than a private discussion with the coven queen about her missing witches. Nothing about this meeting would be easy. I didn’t envy Merc’s position in all of it.

  I pulled Knox toward me and whispered in his ear. “I need to talk to you.”

  He was leading me out the door and down the hall in an instant. Merc was nowhere to be found.

  “What is it?” he asked, looking at me with concern in his eyes.

  “I didn’t tell you this right after we returned because I didn’t want you to freak out—”

  “Am I going to freak out any less now?”

  “Probably not, but—“

  “Then just tell me, Piper.”

  I took a deep breath to steady myself. “I owe the fey queen a favor.” He let out a string of curses under his breath. “I had to, Knox! I did it—“

  “To save me.”

  I nodded tightly. “It was the only way to escape the fey king. I asked for amnesty, and she said I could have it for a price.”

  “The price being a favor whenever she deems it necessary?”

  “Yes…”

  “And if Liam is right about Faerie dying, that could be one hell of an ask when she comes around to cash in on your deal.”

  “I know…that’s why I’m telling you.”

  �
��Fuck!” he shouted, slamming his fist into the concrete wall. Dust flew through the air, and bits of cement fell to the ground.

  “I didn’t know what else to do, Knox! You were dying, and I couldn’t let that happen.”

  He rushed over and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m not mad at you, Piper. I just hate that bitch so much…”

  “Watch it,” I said with a laugh, “you’re talking about my mother.”

  His whole body tensed at my words. “She is no mother to you,” he said, his voice little more than a growl. “She may have conceived you—birthed you—but that’s where your connection to her stops. I don’t care if her blood is in your veins. It doesn’t matter. She is not your family.”

  I took his face in my hands and pulled it to mine until our lips met. “I know that.”

  “Hey, I hate to break this up and all,” Brunton called from the doorway, “but are you finished with him?” Knox nodded. “What do you want us to do, then?”

  “Leave him there for now. We might need him later.”

  I could see Brunton’s anger brewing beneath the surface, but he said nothing, just closed the door behind him as he obeyed Knox’s order.

  “This isn’t going to be easy,” he said under his breath as he looked at the door.

  “No, it isn’t, but we should be used to that by now.”

  I smiled up at him and he took the bait. “I guess you’re right.”

  “You guess? I’m always right, Knox. Best you learn that sooner than later.”

  He bent down and kissed me until the sound of the stairway door opening rang through the hall. I pulled away to find Merc standing there, staring at the two of us.

  “The meeting is set.”

  He disappeared through the door he’d just come through without another word. My hands fell away from Knox, and though I could feel his stare boring through me, I couldn’t meet his eyes. Our situation was a difficult one to navigate to say the least, even when everyone in it had agreed upon the terms. It was moments like those that illustrated its shortcomings. If we didn’t get a handle on it sooner than later, I feared we’d implode.

  Chapter Five