by Quinn Loftis
Decebel shot her a look from the corner of his eye. “You do realize this isn’t a movie, right?”
“Yes, but if it was, it would be a damn good one,” she said with a grin.
“Do I want to know why you’re smiling like that?” Jacque asked as she and the rest of the pack members finally showed up.
“Where have y’all been?” Jen asked, ignoring her friend’s question. She was rolling her neck like a fighter about to go into the ring.
“Why are you doing that?” Jacque asked motioning to Jen’s feet bouncing and neck rolling.
“Gearing up,” Jen said, raising her eyebrows up and down. “Going on a wolf hunt.”
“Of course you are,” Jacque said dryly.
“We were checking rooms on our way here and alerting pack members to be on guard,” Vasile explained. “I’ve got wolves at every exit and every door in the mansion. Half of us will phase, and the other half will remain human.”
Jen was about to start stripping, but Decebel let out a string of Romanian curse words as he placed a hand on her arm to keep her from taking her shirt off. “Could you refrain from taking your clothes off for now? You can hunt in your human form and phase later if you need to,” he said through their bond.
Jen growled at him as she watched Drake, Fane, and Alina phase. “I want it noted that I am not pleased with you at the moment.”
“Noted, mate. Decebel chuckled.
“Alright,” Vasile said. “Let’s split up. Decebel, you and Jen take the first floor. Fane and Jacque take the second floor. Drake, you’ve got the third floor, and Alina and I will take the top floor. Avoid killing them if possible.”
Jen let out a disgruntled snarl.
Decebel chuckled. “He didn’t say you couldn’t bite them. Just don’t kill them.”
“I won’t take responsibility if my teeth happen to sink into a major artery,” Jen said as she and her mate started off at a trot. She put her nose in the air and took a deep breath, searching for Skender’s scent. She also tried to pick up any smells of emotions like nervousness or excitement.
“If they’re after Sally, which we all know is why the fool came back, then he’d look in the healers’ laboratory or Sally and Costin’s suite first,” Jen said through their bond.
“I’d bet on the lab first,” Decebel said.
Jen’s feet were silent on the polished wood floor as she kept pace with her mate. She wasn’t surprised that, even in his human form, Decebel was as silent as his wolf during a hunt.
When they were a turn away from the hallway where the laboratory was located, Jen caught Skender’s scent. She let out a low growl. She also picked up on another smell, unfamiliar to her. “Caught both their scents,” she told her mate.
Decebel nodded. “Yeah, I got them too.”
They picked up their pace, now moving at a fast trot. The door to the healers’ room was wide open. Decebel ran through it first, but Jen was right on his heels.
“There not here.” Decebel snarled.
Jen did a quick walk around the room. The scent was already fading. “We must have smelled them in the hallway because they backtracked, but not from the direction we came. We need to follow that scent,” she said.
Decebel was already moving toward the door before Jen finished speaking. She followed and, once again, they moved at a fast trot. Her head was constantly moving, taking quick breaths trying to grab onto the scent of their prey.
The scent led them to one of the sets of stairs that would take them to the second floor where some of the pack members’ suites were located. They’d only gone up a few steps when they heard a loud growl and then the sound of a body hitting the wall.
They both took off up the stairs, skipping two and three steps at a time in an effort to get to the top faster. They hit the second floor and didn’t break stride as they ran toward the commotion that was still ongoing.
Jen rounded the first corner and immediately tried to stop her forward motion to keep from plowing into Jacque and Alina. If Decebel hadn’t grabbed her arms to help her, she wouldn’t have managed it.
She nudged Jacque aside so she could see what was happening.
Fane and Vasile, one in human form and one in wolf form, were fighting against Skender, who was still in his human form. Vasile moved with the speed and grace of a wolf, as he fought using the same style of martial arts Decebel taught the pack. Fane was lunging in periodically to distract Skender. Jen had to admit, Skender was decently holding his own.
“Decebel,” Jacque said, grabbing Jen’s attention. “Can you please get Costin? I tried texting him but he’s not responding. They aren’t taking him down because they want to give Costin the chance.” Then Jacque looked at Jen. “The female is still in the mansion.”
Jen lifted her upper lip in a menacing snarl. She would have found it amusing that she was acting so much like a wolf in her human form, but she was too focused on wanting to catch her prey.
Alina pressed her wolf body against Jen’s leg, and Jen laid a hand on the alpha female’s head.
Jacque grinned. “Ready to hunt while the boys deal with that?” She pointed toward Skender.
Jen nodded and rubbed her hands together as she sang, “I’m going to get you. You’re going to hate me.”
Jacque cringed. “Do not turn perfectly good country songs into sadistic ones. It’s creepy.”
Alina nudged Jacque’s leg and gave a small yipping sound.
“You coming with?” Jacque asked the female alpha.
Alina nodded her big wolf head.
Jacque smiled. “Excellent.”
Decebel had already bolted off to get Costin, so Jen filled him in through their bond. “Alina, Jacque, and I are going after the female. She’s still loose in the mansion.” Jen waited to hear his inevitable argument for her to stay put because he didn’t want her in harm’s way, but it never came.
“Okay. Be safe. As soon as I’m done with Costin, I’ll find you.”
“Well, color me purple and call me Barney.” Jen chuckled in his mind. “You’re not going to tell me no?”
He sighed as he responded through their bond. “Just don’t follow her out of the mansion, okay?”
“A compromise, I like it. Alright, B, I won’t leave the mansion. Now quit distracting me. I’m hunting.” Jen pulled out of his mind and focused her attention back on Jacque and Alina.
“Ready?” Jacque asked them. Both females nodded and gave her the same toothy grin Jen had given only a few minutes before. Jacque groaned. “That’s almost as creepy as the song. Jen, how is it possible that you can have a wolfy smile in your human form?”
Jen shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
Alina made a snorting sound and then put her nose to the ground and started moving. Jen and Jacque followed closely behind her. They hadn’t been searching for long when Alina took off at a dead run. Jen picked up on the scent a second later, and she tore off after the Alpha. She could hear Jacque’s footsteps behind her, so she knew her friend was keeping up.
Alina took a staircase down one flight and turned down the hall where the library, Vasile’s office, and the garden room were located. They continued running, following the scent of their prey all the way down the hall and into another one.
Has this freaking place always been such a bloody maze? Jen thought to herself as the turned yet another corner.
“Pretty sure this house has somehow gotten bigger.” Jacque panted. “And why are there so many hallways? Have there always been this many hallways?”
They turned left down another freaking hallway and finally stopped when they reached the last door.
It was the door that led to the archives. The door was unguarded, which meant Decebel must have gotten Costin and gone back upstairs. Jen could smell the scents of Costin, Decebel, and the woman they hunted all mingled together.
“Why didn’t you stay and guard the door, B?” Jen said as Alina barked and snarled at it.
“I caught Stephanie’s
scent,” he said. For some reason it irked her that he used the female’s name. It just seemed too familiar.
“Well, we’ve got Stephanie’s scent here at the archive door.” Jen couldn’t help the way she sneered the woman’s name as her wolf rumbled her approval. Apparently, they were both feeling a bit possessive.
“It wasn’t there when I got Costin. She must have doubled back.” He paused and then cursed.
“What?” Jen asked.
“I just found her shirt.”
“And she’s not in it?”
“No,” Decebel said, his voice filled with irritation. “That must have been what I was smelling.”
“So, this psycho, Order-loving mongrel is running around topless?”
As she conversed with her mate, Jen watched Jacque open the door. The scent was so strong it struck Jen in the face. With the woman’s smell that strong, she had to be in there. Stephanie, the topless, psycho daughter-of-a-biscuit was somewhere near Thia and the other children.
“Bitch is going to die,” Jen thought as she followed Alina through the door with Jacque right behind her.
Costin was surprisingly calm when he turned onto the hallway where his alpha and Skender were fighting. Vasile could have wiped the floor with the other wolf, but he’d been stalling until Costin could get there. It had been nearly impossible for Costin to walk away from the door he’d guarded, but Decebel had assured him he wouldn’t let anything happen to his mate or son. Even as he stood there thinking about whether he was going to kill his former packmate, Costin’s mind was divided, part of it worrying about Sally and Titus.
Drake was the first one to notice Costin, so he could stall no longer. Fane turned next and then stepped to the side, making a way for Costin to get past them. Both males had been in their wolf form when he’d arrived but had now phased to their human shapes. Drake darted through a door and came out carrying gym shorts. He tossed one pair to Fane and slipped the other pair on. It wasn’t uncommon to have stacks of shorts or pants in various locations around the mansion or pack grounds considering how often they found themselves naked after a phase.
Costin walked slowly forward as if he were approaching death himself. And, for a moment, he wondered if he was. Not that Skender could kill him, but Costin wondered if a part of him would die if he took Skender’s life. Killing those wolves who’d held his Sally hadn’t left any guilt inside of him. The male, Jericho, deserved more than the easy death he got, however, Costin hadn’t been thinking too clearly at the time, or thinking at all. He’d been acting on instinct. So what was his instinct now?
He paused for a moment, not paying attention to Vasile, who’d noticed him and now had Skender on the ground with his powerful jaws clamped on the man’s throat. Costin focused on his wolf and what the beast was feeling. What are your instincts, wolf? What would you have us do?
Costin waited as the wolf in him considered the question. It seemed that the beast also had hesitation when it came to killing Skender. Although the kill would be justified, killing someone who had been a part of your pack, your family, wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Finally, the wolf answered him. He allowed harm to come to our mate. He came back to our pack with the intention of taking her from us again. He has lied to our alpha. He has no honor and cannot be trusted. He will be a continued threat to our mate, our pup, and the pack.
Costin couldn’t disagree. Skender was, without a doubt, a threat. What about any information he could give us about the Order?
I know nothing of that. That is for you to decide. My desire is for him to die so that the threat is removed, his wolf answered.
Costin stared at the man whom he’d once called a packmate. Skender’s eyes turned to him, and they glowed bright with his wolf. Costin almost didn’t recognize the man before him. The anger and betrayal burning in Skender’s gaze was confusing. What did he have to feel betrayed over? It wasn’t them who’d turned his mate over to an organization hell-bent on making slaves of the human race.
Costin stepped closer to the pair and finally he spoke. “Alpha, will you release him, please?” Costin had no plan. For all he knew, as soon as Skender stood up, Costin might break his neck, or maybe not. For the moment, he was just sort of winging it.
Vasile released the man’s neck and gave one last snarl, no doubt as a warning not to do anything stupid. Skender pushed away from his former alpha and slowly rose to his feet, his weary gaze on Costin the entire time.
“Are you really going to kill me, Costin?” Skender asked, his voice guttural with the sound of his wolf.
“You are going to die,” Costin said without hesitation. “Whether it is today, by my claws, is yet to be seen.”
“I didn’t want any harm to come to your mate. The Order is doing everything they can to set the supernatural races free from our bondage.”
“What bondage?” Costin asked. “How are we in any sort of bondage? We come and go as we please. We live our lives, and we help others live theirs.”
“We don’t live! We survive in secret.” Skender snarled. “We hide what we really are because humans are weak and afraid of what they don’t understand. We live in fear of being found out and being hunted like the animals they would call us or, worse, experimented on like lab rats. We are not living, not even close.”
Who was this man? Costin asked himself. How had they missed the signs this was how Skender felt? Was there anyone else in their pack that might think this way? Should they be looking for signs of betrayal in others?
“How long have you felt this way?” Costin asked.
“My parents were members of the Order,” Skender said. “They were killed back when it was disbanded. I didn’t know that a remnant remained. While my parents were members, I didn’t believe in their cause. Probably because I was young and didn’t like being told what to do or think. But after they died for what they believed in, I realized they’d been right.”
“Just because someone dies for their convictions doesn’t make their ideas right,” Drake said coolly.
Skender glanced over Costin’s shoulder to the wolf behind him. “Can you honestly say hiding what you are is right or good?”
“Have you ever considered that maybe the Great Luna created us to be secret so we could help the humans, as we’ve always done?” Costin asked him. “Maybe our purpose wasn’t to come and take over or even live along with the humans but to stand up for them when they couldn’t stand up for themselves.”
“They are a selfish race with few redeeming qualities. I’ve always wondered why Vasile was so hell-bent on protecting and saving them,” Skender said, his lip curling up in disgust.
“They were created for a purpose, just as we were,” Costin said. “We have no more right to exist than they do, and we have no more right to take away their freedom than they do ours.”
“But don’t you see?” Skender pressed, his voice growing urgent as his hands fisted at his sides. “They would take away our freedom. They would do it in a heartbeat and not even think twice about it. If they knew we existed, we would be done for. Why do they get to live their lives freely while we skulk in the darkness?”
Costin could tell that there would be no reasoning with Skender. His mind had been brainwashed to the Order’s agenda, and he was a passionate acolyte to their cause. A zealot through and through. Such types cannot be unconvinced of what they so passionately believe.
“Do you know more of the Order’s plans?” Costin asked.
“If I tell you I do, then I simply make my wait for death longer. Perhaps I would rather you just get it over with now.”
“And what about your mate?” Fane asked. “Do you care so little for her fate?”
“We aren’t bonded,” Skender said. “She will live on, unless your females catch her, of course. I’ve no doubt Decebel’s mate will be eager to rip out Stephanie’s throat.”
“You speak so flippantly about the other half of your soul. Why are you not fighting us to get to her, to save her?” Drak
e asked.
Skender shrugged. “Not all true mates have the same kind of bond.”
“Or maybe she isn’t your true mate but simply your partner in crime?” Fane suggested.
“I don’t answer to you, pup,” Skender said, glaring at the one who had always been known as the prince of their pack.
“Be glad that it was not Jacquelyn the Order took because I would have already started pulling your entrails from your stomach, while you still lived,” Fane said, his words harsh but his voice as cool and calm as his father’s often was when he was in a rage.
“Your woman is a half-breed. She’s worse than the humans. An abomination to our kind,” Skender said.
“Okay, can I kill him?” Drake sighed. “Costin, if you don’t want his death on your hands, I’ll do it for you.”
Costin shook his head. Something in him was telling him not to kill Skender, no matter how badly he wanted to, nor how much the man deserved it. “Alpha,” he said as he glanced to Vasile. “If you approve, I would ask we throw this cur back in a cell, separate from his supposed mate this time. I don’t know the reason just yet, but I believe we need him alive.”
Vasile, still in his wolf form, gave Costin a single nod of his large head.
Drake and Fane grabbed Skender’s arms and began pulling him in the direction of the stairs. They would put him back in his cell and, no doubt, give him a bucket to use for his bathroom instead of letting him out again.
Vasile phased back into his human form once the other three wolves were out of sight. “Are you sure this is what you want?” Vasile asked Costin.
“Part of me wants him dead, the threat removed. But part of me says he still has a part to play in all of this,” Costin said.
“If you change your mind, just say the word,” Vasile said and then suddenly froze. “They found her,” he said flatly, his eyes once again glowing with his wolf.
Costin felt fear slipping through their bond seconds before he heard Sally’s voice. “Stephanie found us. She has Titus.”
Costin’s wolf roared inside of him. “Is she still in the archives?”