“Have you thought about teaching?”
“Teaching what?” I grunted.
“Tracking. Hemlock Academy needs a Tracking Professor.”
“You do it.”
“I teach Shifter Cultural Studies.”
“Switch then. The needs of the pack first and all that.”
Spending half a day in the woods with someone else can get boring for some trackers, but the idle chit-chat made it infuriating for me.
“You’ll get bored of just tracking eventually,” Jake said through the pack link.
“Doubt it.”
“You will. Everyone does.”
I sniffed the air as we rounded a mountain side. Nothing near by except a deer.
“We could eat the deer,” my wolf said. “Or he could eat the deer. Maybe if he had something in his mouth he’d shut up and track.”
Hunting wasn’t in the plans and would only draw attention to our subtle movements. Jake was physically quiet. He wasn’t a bad tracker. He was just chattier than I liked.
“Security will get boring too.”
“Nah.”
I sniffed the air again desperate for something to be amiss. When I found this bastard, his death would be slow and painful for landing me in a forest with the chattiest tracker in history.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I twisted in the direction of the deer. No scents met my nose. No sounds whispered from the forest, but someone besides the deer was there.
“Someone big. Go for the belly,” my wolf said and I felt my eyes shift over to his.
“Lunch?” Jake interrupted.
“Not yet,” I snapped at him on the pack link. “This way.”
We crept over the forest floor using the trees for cover. I sniffed again and detected the slightest waft of sage, one of the main ingredients in most pheromone blockers. It was too faint for most people, shifters or not, to notice, but as a tracker it was my job to notice.
“Shift?” Jake asked.
“No.”
Our silent movements were rewarded by a sharp snap of a twig. Whoever was following the deer gave away their location with one misstep. We headed east towards the snapping twig. The wind changed in our favor and the slightest scent of a wolf beta filled my head.
“He’s big for a beta,” Jake said on the pack link.
I circled him twice without him noticing. He didn’t see me until I was on him with my fist in his mouth and snapping his neck with the other hand. The snap of bone filled the forest and I waited for one of his companions to join us. No one did.
“You’re going to catch rabies doing it that way. What if they bite you?” Jake asked.
“Shut up. I know what I’m doing.”
I plugged the location into my phone, so I knew where to send the clean up crew when we were done.
“You better hope he was with them and not some innocent fool,” Jake said.
I fished around the dead guy’s pockets and found an O negative blood pouch. In his bag, was a rope, a canteen, and a pregnancy test.
“He was.”
With one down, we had real tracks to follow. Fortunately for us, the Alpha running the despicable breeding farms didn’t hire competent men. He hadn’t bothered to cover his tracks that led back to the makeshift shack four other betas were building. Most of them were smaller than him which is probably why they chose him to hunt down lunch.
“Why would someone as rich as this fucker want a shack in the woods?” One of the betas asked.
“You’re stupid, Tony. He doesn’t really have four omegas. He’s into some kinky shit. Just shut up and work.”
“He’s trying for pups,” a third beta wiped the sweat from his brow. “They’re not his, but he wants pups. Well, whatever the vampy equivalent of pups is. I heard him talking to the sexy little red head about it. Something about vampires can’t knock up other vampires.”
I made a mental note to ask Bane about that later. If anyone in the pack would know it would be him. As a healer, he was prepared to care for any omega who enrolled in Hemlock Academy.
“That seems counter productive to the survival of species, doesn’t it?” Tony laughed.
“That’s why there ain’t many of them out there.”
“Guys, we have company,” the beta who hadn’t participated in the conversation said.
“Fuck a duck,” Jake cursed on the pack link.
“You get Tony. I’ll take mouthy. Then we’ll get the others.”
The betas grouped together ready to fight. Their eyes searched the woods open wide. Their heartbeats pounded in my ears as we circled behind the shack before making our attack.
“NO!” Mouthy yelled pulling a gun from his pocket. The bullet exploded as I lunged for him. It cut through my shoulder burning and tearing muscle and flesh as it left.
My wolf exploded from my chest forcing my shift as I landed on Mouthy. His gun bounced from his hand. We struggled beneath my weight, but I wasn’t playing around. With our cover blown there was no need to be quiet. Growling, I ripped into his throat shutting up his cursing cries for help. Leaving him dead, Jake and I rounded on the last one at the same time.
“NO! Please!” He begged.
“Name and location of the man that hired you,” Jake said still in his human form.
“We don’t know. We just know he has a lot of money. You can have the money he gave us. It’s in the bags inside.”
“Or we could take the money and kill you,” Jake growled his eyes shifting to that of his wolf.
“That sounds like a plan,” I growled, and the beta swerved left.
Pain throbbed in my shoulder, but the flesh already healed over the bullet.
“He told us to call him Jeb!” The beta shrieked when Jake’s hand locked around his throat. He tried to snatch the dagger at his waist, but Jake was too quick. He fell to the ground with his dead friends.
“Where’s Tony?” I looked around.
Three bodies laid where four should have been.
“He hauled ass as soon as we came around.”
“Smarter than he looks. Come on. There’s a trail.”
I stayed in wolf form anger fueling me. The motherfucker shot me. It happened before, but usually it wasn’t shifters who pulled a gun.
“Dead dumbass now,” my wolf said.
We followed the trail through the long side of the woods with Tony always just out of sight. He led us across a dirt road to the back of a rundown apartment complex. Kids played on monkey bars and a swing set watched over by a lynx omega. Her ears perked up at the scent of blood.
“Inside kittens. Come on, inside for some cookies and milk,” she rushed the children inside. The sound of three deadbolts locking followed.
With the place clear of kids, we followed Tony’s trail to the apartment next door to hers. The door was unlocked, and inside Tony was loading money into a bag.
“Shit!” I swore when the door swung open. Two shots fired and landed in the hall wall. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Look guys, I was just doing my job, okay? I don’t know who you are or why you want Jeb dead, but go kill him! I didn’t do anything. I was hired to build a shack and watch over some omegas next week. I’m a glorified fucking babysitter!”
“Tell us where Jeb is,” Jake said.
We walked in and closed the door.
“I don’t fucking know! Do you know where your fucking boss is right now?”
“Yes.”
“We met at a diner, okay? It’s a little place called Mama Dragon’s.”
“And?” Jake asked.
I circled Tony reveling in the scent of his fear. I was wolf now and ready to kill what wasn’t useful to the pack. Tony grew more useless by the second. He cocked his gun and pulled the trigger again, but Jake and I knew it was empty. It didn’t smell like a loaded gun. He blasted his last bullets into the hall wall leaving himself defenseless pray to two Alphas much larger than him.
“Where was Ole Jeb headed?” Jake asked closing the space betwe
en them.
“He said he had to meet up with some friends,” Tony stepped back and jumped forward when he brushed against my side.
“You know, you don’t have to kill me. I’ll join your side!” He pleaded. Tears swelled up in his blue eyes.
“We have no use for traitors,” I growled.
Jake nodded in my direction and went off to explore the rest of the house.
I shifted into human form. Tony wasn’t going anywhere.
“You sure you don’t remember anything else, Tony?” I asked, still circling him.
“The other guys think he’s trying to buy a baby or something,” he covered his face with his arms leaving his belly exposed.
“From who?” I asked.
“He didn’t say. Rich fuckers like him… They don’t tell… They don’t tell the hired help shit, man! You know that!”
“Do you have a preference for how this ends?” I asked him.
“Look! You don’t have to kill me. I’ll disappear! I’ll go to Europe or Asia! You won’t ever have to look at me again.”
“What exactly do you think Jeb’s up to?”
“No good, obviously,” Tony stammered. “Look, I know he’s the guy kidnapping omegas, but I don’t know why. I don’t know where he has them right now.”
“Knife? Broken neck? Torn out throat?” I asked and circled him again.
“Please, don’t do this! Lock me up in prison or something, but I don’t want to die!” Tears streamed down his face now.
“Wolves don’t have prisons and most of those owned by the feds are shut down. The days of humans being in charge is nearly over. They’ve undone themselves by denying nature. So, should I choose for you? Would that make it easier? Because, Tony, it’s going to happen one way or another. You knowingly associated with an enemy of Hemlock Pack. That’s a death sentence, man. We both know it.”
“I’ll do anything.”
“What do you think, Jake?”
“What? Let him live so he can turn around and betray us like he did that old bastard, Jeb? Nah. Not today.”
“You’ve been judged by a jury of your peers, Tony. May the Other World be kind to you.”
I didn’t give him time to react. It was time to put him out of his misery and move on. A quick snap of bone ended Tony’s fear of death.
“There’s nothing in the fridge except for blood packs. All O neg. They were here recently, but they’re gone now.”
“Are you Hemlocks?” A soft voice came through the door. It was the lynx from earlier. “I called the Patriarch. He’s on his way. If you’re not you better clear the hell out of here before he gets here.”
I shot Darian a quick text of our location, so he didn’t show up and spook off the vamps if they were still around.
“We are,” Jake opened the door and we both flashed our Hemlock security badges.
“Oh, thank Juda,” she sighed.
“Have they been bothering you, ma’am?” Jake asked.
“No, but I knew they were up to no good. A group of betas like that are either here to shoot porn or do drugs or worse. And I don’t want that around my kittens.”
“It’s clear for now, ma’am,” I smiled at her.
***
Jake waited with the lynx until the clean up crew arrived. We couldn’t chance Jeb showing up and taking his wrath out on her or other honest residents of the apartment complex.
I searched the surrounding areas for any sign or waft of a vampire. A few miles away I found the deer from earlier. Prone and drained of blood with two deep puncture wounds in its throat. Its tongue lolled out and its eyes red from strain.
Vampires didn’t usually drink wild animals. So, the vamp who ended the buck was either starving or pissed off. Reaching down, I closed the deer’s eyes.
“Rest well in the Other World, brother deer,” I sighed.
I hated seeing good meat go to waste. If you kill an animal, you have to eat it. It’s the way of the wild but infected with a vamp’s venom the meat was useless. Unless the vampire was starving the buck died in vain as just another innocent caught in the crossfire of a war he knew nothing about.
***
I let Jake drive the SUV home. Usually, I didn’t ride with other people, but made an exception this time. I was too pissed off to be behind the wheel.
“What’s tearing you up? Tony or not finding Lee?”
“Tony got what was coming to him. He may have been in a tight place, but he made choices against the pack.”
“I asked, because you were more kind than most would have been. All the Other World talk.”
“Death cleanses us all,” I shrugged.
It wasn’t his business if I was religious or not. Trained up from the time I was a pup at my grandfather’s side I learned that death is the end of the problem. Dead men tell no tells and dead men can cause no harm. They go to a special part of the Other World and wait to be reborn again. Once dead, all was forgiven. We didn’t kill for the sake of killing. We killed to protect the pack and a dead man was no longer a threat to anyone.
“So, it’s Lee then,” Jake said.
“We don’t have to talk about this,” I told him. “I’m fine. I know you think of me as Darian’s kid brother, but I’ve been doing this a long time too.”
“Actually, you remind me a lot of Darian,” Jake laughed. “He’d be pissed about not finding the omega too.”
“Aren’t you?”
“No. No use. We shut down a breeding farm before it happened. That’s what we accomplished. We learned the name or at least the alias of the guy and we set him back. Every time we set him back we get closer to killing him. This is the long game. Every victory on the way there just puts him at more of a disadvantage.”
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
I hoped to take a shower before I saw Logan, but he and Gary waited at the gate for us.
“Darian must have told them we were on the way,” I said.
“I text Gary to let him know.”
“Why do I smell your blood?” Logan raced to the SUV’s door before Jake even pulled to a stop.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Logan
“I’m fine,” Jessie said as I wrenched open the door.
“I smell blood! Your blood!” I was rambling but couldn’t stop it. Shooting was bad. A bullet to the heart might kill an Alpha if his wolf doesn’t heal fast enough. Grabbing his hand, I pulled Jessie from the SUV and yanked up his shirt. He pulled it off over his head. Dried blood both his and someone else’s clung to his flesh. I ran my hands over his stomach and chest looking for the wound.
“It was only my shoulder, babe, and it’s already healed,” Jessie said.
“Okay,” I nodded. “Okay.”
“Let’s go home,” Jessie scooped me up and I didn’t even complain about the blood that would without a doubt ruin my favorite green shirt. My Alpha made it home safely.
At the house, I followed him into the shower searching for any other injuries.
“I’m okay, really,” he cupped my chin forcing me to look at him. “We didn’t get them, though.”
“That’s okay,” I nodded.
“He’ll have to go out there again,” my wolf reminded me.
“Can someone else go with Jake next time?” I asked wrapping my arms around his neck.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Jessie smiled and kiss my forehead. “He’s a chatty fucker so I hope so. I don’t want anything to happen to you, Alpha. I don’t think I could live without you.”
“Look at me, mate,” Jessie pressed his forehead against mine under the jets of steaming hot water. “I’m okay. I’ll be okay. We’re going to put this bastard down and then we’re going to move into a bigger house and fill it with pups. We’re going to live in peace with you teaching the pups to brew and me teaching them how to track. We’re going to have a good life, because this shit with this fucker isn’t going to last forever.”
“I know,” I clung to him. “It’s just too much like
what happened before.”
“When?” Jessie asked.
“Can I tell you after dinner?”
“Alright,” Jessie kissed the top of my head.
How was I going to tell him what happened that night? Or in the days leading up to it or what happened afterwards? He was a Hemlock. A law-abiding Hemlock. What my family did wasn’t exactly legal.
***
I took my time doing dishes to put off the moment I needed to finally open up to my mate. We were true-mates with a complete claiming vow. I knew all about his family and the organization they ran. It was time to let Jessie in on the Fox family legacy. I just didn’t know where to start.
While I washed up, Jessie went to check in with Darian and see if the cleanup crew found anything they missed. I knew they didn’t. Both Jessie and Jake were good at their jobs. If something was there they would have found it.
I still checked in with my only sibling, Jayden daily. It might just be a text, but I made sure he knew I was alright. He knew about Jessie and our vows. He knew that soon he might be an uncle, but I wasn’t sure how much I could tell Jessie without pissing off Jayden? After our parents died, it was always us against the world. Well, us and Syn, but that was a whole other story.
I was only supposed to work at Hemlock Academy for a year. Just to be safe while our territory was cleaned up, but I fell in love with the campus, the job, and the pack structure of the Hemlocks. Most of all, I fell in love with how peaceful the campus always was. Trouble never made it this far. Not the dangerous sort at least.
The front door opened, and I listened for Jessie to call out.
“It’s me, mate.”
That’s what he always said when he came home now.
“Did they find anything?” I asked as I dried and put the last dish away in the cabinet.
“Nah, it was clear,” Jessie walked into the kitchen.
“Can we cuddle?” I asked and dried my hands off on a kitchen towel.
“You never have to ask that,” Jessie scooped me up and I laughed.
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