I met his gaze, my heart twisting. “Who do you think?”
This time, it was the old wolf who began to pace, his brow furrowed deeper than I’d ever seen it.
“Marini has a talisman,” I went on. “It’s the thing that binds me to the pack—the tattoo is just an anchor. If I try anything, he’ll use it against me. He’ll use it to make me kill you. That thing… It’s made from me, Gasket. The spell on it… It’s unbreakable. While Marini has it, I’m screwed.”
The old wolf’s frown deepened.
I fisted my hands into my hair. “If I’d known, I would’ve let her go. I would’ve let her go.”
“You didn’t know,” Gasket said, watching my meltdown with a raised eyebrow. “You were only following orders. Hell, even I didn’t know.”
“Something’s gotta be done. Sloane’s timeline… There isn’t going to be enough time to pull it off.”
“Marini’s becoming more and more erratic. I don’t know what you’ve got going on, but you’re right. This isn’t the time to play the long game.”
“Do you think you’d have the support?” I knew Sloane wanted to challenge for alpha but with our shortened timeline, Gasket could have the following we needed.
“Don’t know,” the wolf replied. “I’m well-liked, but that doesn’t always translate.”
I grunted. We had to work fast, then.
“What are we going to do about him?” I nodded at Rick’s comatose body. “He’s going to rat us out. No questions. We can’t afford any leaks.”
“I’ll take him for a ride,” Gasket replied. “A long one.”
I nodded, glad I wasn’t the one taking another body out to the bush or planting one in the remains of a car bomb.
“Marini will ask questions,” I warned.
“And I’ll have a story for him.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”
“More times than I care to remember.” That was something else we had in common.
I was so done with this whole night. Turning, I took a step towards the stairs, but Gasket grabbed my arm and wrenched me back.
“Don’t tell her,” he said. “Don’t tell her about Marini’s plan.”
I narrowed my eyes and pulled my arm away.
“She’s not ready, Chaser. She’s not supposed to be part of this world.”
“I think you underestimate her capabilities,” I drawled. “You’ve seen her break Harley’s nose and change a few tires. That’s not everything she is. Sloane is…” I didn’t know the right word to describe the power in her. Holding it together was one thing, but sacrificing her freedom, knowing what fate might’ve awaited her, to fight back? It was something special. Even I hadn’t been able to do that.
“She’s not ready,” Gasket repeated more forcibly.
It wasn’t the ending to the night I had planned on and not the way I wanted to see Sloane again, but around here, I couldn’t choose my fate. It was all up to the roll of the dice.
“It’s not about being ready,” I said, walking away from him. “No one is ever ready to fight for their lives.”
Chapter 16
Sloane
The next morning, the compound was terrifyingly silent.
I must’ve drifted off in the early hours, but it wasn’t a restful kind of sleep. It was the kind full of dreams that made little sense and left my head fuzzy and my eyes clogged with grit.
When I opened my eyes fully, I realised I wasn’t alone, after all.
Chaser was sitting on the floor, thumbing through a motorcycle magazine. The light dappled across his legs—black jeans that were torn across both knees—and the tight muscle tank he wore clung to his chest just so. His hair was overgrown and hung over his forehead, much like the five o’clock shadow on his jaw that was inching towards beard territory. I never knew vampires could still grow facial hair, considering they were dead and all. I wonder how that works…
Realising I’d never had a chance to stare at him like this, I remained still. He looked tough, dangerous, and handsome. I couldn’t imagine what he would’ve looked like in the 1800s, not even in one of those vintage daguerreotype photographs.
“I know you’re awake,” the vampire said, turning a page and tilting his head to check out a photograph.
“Where’s Gasket?”
He glanced at me, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s what’s on your mind?”
“After last night…yeah, it is.”
“Dealing,” was Chaser’s only reply.
He was doing that thing again. The thing where he told me with the tone of his voice that he didn’t want to explain and I better not nag him about it, either.
“What did I do to deserve the pleasure of your company?” I rolled onto my back, thoroughly annoyed. I was the one who’d been attacked, and the garage had been bombed—probably because of my presence—but it didn’t seem like a priority to tell me what was going on. I was dying to know how Marini had reacted.
“I’ve been ordered to keep an eye on you,” Chaser said with a half-smile.
“Good.”
“Yes and no.”
“Do you have to always burst my bubble?” I grumbled, burying back into the sheets.
“Your father already suspects I’ve got a soft spot for you. This is just another of his tests.”
“Just like the full moon.”
Chaser raised an eyebrow.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk,” I told him. “I didn’t expect it to affect me, being what I am.”
“But it did?”
“Yeah…” I sighed, remembering the searing call of the wolf within me. “But I handled it.”
“Another test,” he murmured, his gaze studying me with a sharpness that tugged at my heart. “They seem never-ending.”
“Typical…” I bit my bottom lip. “I’d really like to—”
“Sloane.”
I laughed, more out of frustration than triggered by any kind of joy. Nothing had gone to plan from the moment we’d met. Everything from matters of the heart to knowing which enemy to fight first. Even when I saw Chaser as the enemy, it hadn’t gone right. It would be a comedy if the stakes weren’t so high.
“What did Marini say?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. By now, my makeup was half up my face, and my eye shadow had probably migrated to make me look like a panda.
“He wasn’t happy.”
“You’re not convincing me.”
“This isn’t working.”
I knew he was talking about my convoluted plan to challenge for alpha. He’d said my father already suspected our relationship, which meant he wasn’t buying a single word I’ve said since we arrived. We’d have to make a bold move soon, but not straight away. The attack on the compound had bought us some time.
“Where’s Harley?”
Chaser shrugged. “Dead.”
“Chaser.”
“He got blown to bits by a car bomb packed full of wolfsbane.”
I bet he did. I narrowed my eyes and sat up. Something was going on, but the likelihood of him telling me was zero. I knew Chaser and Gasket were only trying to protect me, but I was feeling useless. All this was because of me, and I felt responsible.
“Sam?”
Chaser shrugged again.
“You just left her?” I exclaimed, sitting up. “You just left her alone with no idea?”
“My priority is you,” he said, staring at me blankly. “You and this plan you’ve cooked up. Our revenge. Our future. Our freedom.”
Once, it would’ve made me jump for joy hearing him say that, but not now. Sam was vulnerable, broken, and completely open to… To what? Nothing good, that’s for sure.
“I can’t believe you,” I said, kicking my feet onto the floor. Picking up my boots, I dragged them on. “You know how Harley treated her, but at least his claim shielded her from the pack. Now she’s alone and without protection. You know what some of these wolves are like. She’s human, Chaser.”
&n
bsp; He put down the magazine and pushed to his feet. “I heard she didn’t want your help.”
For so long it’d been just him, and now here I was with my big ideas wanting to save everyone, despite the promises I’d made. Maybe I was giving him whiplash.
“She didn’t want my help then, but I haven’t given up on her.” I glared at him and stood. “Get out of my way.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and I pushed against him. “I mean it.”
“Wait.” Lowering his head, his nose brushed against mine.
He kissed me, his mouth pressing against mine. I melted, opening my lips and allowing his tongue to sweep along mine. Fingers moved from my face into my hair, tightening around my messy locks. My knees weakened, and I almost fell back onto the bed, but he pulled back.
“Go,” Chaser said, his lips brushing against mine. “I’ve got your back.”
“Chaser…” I hesitated. I had a feeling this story was changing him more than it was me.
“I didn’t want to be in this life,” he said. “I’ve seen her… She doesn’t want it, either.”
“How do you know?”
He shrugged. “Don’t push her.”
I nodded. I knew all about that.
Moving towards the door, I wrapped my hand on the handle and paused. “What else is going on Chaser?”
“Plenty.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” He said nothing and I sighed. “I hate when you do that, FYI.”
“All you have to worry about today is Sam,” he told me. “Like I said… I’ve got your back.”
Looking him over once more, I opened the door. It was as good as I was going to get.
The compound was oddly quiet as I made my way from my room to Sam and Harley’s.
Glancing up and down the hall, I knocked on the door. “Sam?”
Nothing moved. I pressed my ear against the door, but all I could hear was the whoosh, whoosh as my heart pumped blood through my body.
“Sam?” I pushed off the door and knocked again. “It’s Sloane. If you’re in there, please open the door. I’m alone.”
The door opened a crack, and Sam’s blue eye peered at me through the gap. A chain rattled, preventing the door from opening any farther.
“What?” she murmured, her voice husky. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks all splotchy—proof of her tears shed for Harley.
I placed my palm against the wall and leaned in close. “You know what happened?”
She nodded.
“Can I come in?”
“I…” She sniffed.
“Please, Sam.”
Her gaze lowered to the floor, but she didn’t shut me out. Not yet, anyway. Then she closed the door in my face. For a moment I was stunned, but then the chain rattled and the door opened again.
I slipped through the gap and turned as Sam locked us inside, putting the chain back in place.
The room was decorated to Harley’s taste with framed photos of motorcycles and sports teams on the walls. It also reeked of cigarettes and stale beer, though Sam had done her best to tidy the area. The bed was made with the sheets all tucked in with five-star hotel crispness, the table was free of rubbish, and the floor was spotless. I would bet my life the bathroom sparkled like a teenage vampire in direct sunlight.
“Nice place,” I said, narrowing my eyes at a poster of a naked woman draped over a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
“I’m worried about you,” I said. “Harley—”
“Don’t say it, Sloane.” Sam shook her head and bit her nails. The poor woman looked like she was a hair’s breadth away from curling up in the corner and rocking back and forth.
“Has anyone hurt you?”
She stopped her nervous chewing and shook her head.
“But someone came?” I prodded.
“Yeah. Rocket.”
I curled my lip in distaste. Rocket was bad news. It wasn’t a secret he loathed me and knowing what kind of guy he was didn’t make it any easier to swallow. I could only imagine what he’d said to Sam.
“I… I…” she sobbed and turned her back to me, hiding her tears behind a curtain of tangled blonde hair. “You must think I’m pathetic.”
“No, I don’t,” I said, stepping around her. “Not at all.”
“It’s not meant to be like this. I know it isn’t. But… I always thought he’d change. If he got what he wanted, he’d be happier, and things would’ve been like they’re supposed to. Harley wasn’t always like that.” She glanced up at me, completely lost. “Fortitude did this to him.”
I didn’t know what to say to make it better. Words were nothing but a temporary band-aid. Hell, I didn’t know if there was a solution.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I saw him hit you, and… I couldn’t let him hurt you, Sam.”
“It was our business.”
I bit my bottom lip and glanced at the ceiling. What was I supposed to say to a woman who’d suffered at the hands of a maniac? A man whose death Chaser and Gasket had covered up to protect me. What was the right thing to do in this kind of situation? I wasn’t a therapist or an expert. All I’d ever done was run away, read a couple of political science books, and wrote a few essays that came back with miserable grades.
There was one thing I did know. Sam was vulnerable. Rocket had already been here harassing her, looking to take advantage. I could help her with that.
“You have to think about yourself now, Sam,” I said. “Harley’s gone, but you’re still here. You have to do what’s right for you. For your life.”
“If they…” she sobbed and wiped at her puffy eyes. “What’ll happen to me?”
“I’ll look out for you,” I reassured her.
“I don’t need your pity.”
“It’s not pity.”
Sam sniffed and sat on the couch, rubbing her eyes as she crumbled against the pillows.
“It would’ve happened eventually,” she murmured. “With or without your help. I just…”
“You had hope,” I said, sitting beside her. “That’s not a bad thing.”
“Yeah, it is. I love him… I… I mean, I loved him.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. “I don’t know what I feel anymore.”
I rubbed soothing circles on her back, knowing I was doing a terrible job of making things better for her.
“This. Harley and I…” She choked back a sob. “It was hopeless long before you showed up, but I don’t know what to do without him. I have nowhere else to go.”
“We’ll figure something out,” I said. “I promise.”
She looked at me with such hope in her eyes, I almost broke apart. I hoped it was a promise I could keep. God knew I wasn’t doing a great job of keeping the one I’d made to Chaser.
Chapter 17
Sloane
The already sweltering temperatures soared even more the next day.
Venturing through the compound, I heard rumblings about the explosion, the dead wolves…and none of it was good. I almost turned back, knowing there would be those who blamed me for the attack, and with four bodies lined up, a target was growing on my back. Orders from the alpha would mean nothing if tensions broke.
The Hollow Men had sent a message by sending that car bomb into the compound. It couldn’t be more clear or punctuated if they tried.
My next thought was to go check on Sam, but up ahead, there was a lot of noise coming from the common room. The entire compound was in an uproar over what Marini would do next. The pack wanted blood.
“Hey.”
I turned at the sound of DeLuca’s voice. He was one of the wolves who I hadn’t gotten to know well. He worked on and off in the garage and disappeared on ‘pack business’ more often than he was around to do an oil change. I remembered him carrying off Chaser the night we’d arrived, but other than that, he was a stoic shadow on the sidelines.
When it came to loyalties, DeLuca’s were hard to pinpoint.
“You shouldn’t be wandering around,” he adde
d.
I narrowed my eyes as a bead of sweat trickled down my spine. “There’s a lot of things I shouldn’t be doing, but I do them anyway.”
DeLuca breathed deeply, his gaze sharp as he took me in. “You’re helping Sam?”
His question surprised me, though I wasn’t going to answer. It wasn’t his business.
“She’s well-liked around here, but that won’t stop them.”
I sneered, my expression daring him to try.
“A brother goes down and what was his becomes scraps for who’s left,” he went on. “The guys are already talking. It’s the way of the wolf.”
I wanted to break his nose, like I’d broken Harley’s, but something in his tone squashed down my rage.
“What do you get out of telling me?” I asked, facing him head-on.
DeLuca smirked, his Italian-ness really starting to bug me. Tall, dark, and handsome without the accent. He wasn’t all la dolce vita, but I was sure he thought he was all that and then some with the ladies. If he had his eye on making Sam his new plaything, he would have to go through me first.
“I smell it now,” he said.
“Smell what?”
“The vampire’s wearing off, Sloane,” he warned. “What are your intentions?”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Things are about to get ugly around here,” he went on. “Real ugly.”
“My intentions,” I said, taking a step towards him, “are simple. I’m not for sale. The pack is not for sale. And my blood is definitely not for sale.”
DeLuca smirked and nodded once. His gaze moved towards the common room. “Careful, little wolf,” he murmured. “For all our sake’s.”
He walked away, leaving me standing in the middle of the hall, and disappeared around the corner.
I tightened my hands into fists, my inner wolf stirring. Something had shifted between DeLuca and I…an understanding of sorts. Was this how it felt like to be part of a pack?
Voices rose again behind me, and I turned and made my way into the common room. Heads swivelled towards me, and not all of them wore friendly expressions.
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