by Bella Falls
Dash held up a hand to stop his second from contributing more. “Are you dealing drugs?”
Silas’s eyes widened. “I…who says I was?”
Cameron shoved his head forward, reminding him that she stood behind him. “That’s not an answer.”
“It’s a yes-or-no question, and I need a clear response,” Dash continued. “Are you dealing drugs?”
The guy’s right foot bounced up and down as he fidgeted with nerves. “Listen, I didn’t mean any harm, but you gotta understand, I’m behind on my bills. My landlord’s threatening to evict me and my girlfriend. And Lori’s pregnant.”
“Lori Matthews?” Elodie quipped. “Ooh, boy, you do know her mama’s gonna skin you alive.”
Silas’s desperate eyes flashed to hers. “No, she won’t. Not if we could have told her about having a grandbaby and that we were engaged. But I needed the cash to fix things up right and to get Lori a ring. Make it all official, you know?”
His story stirred my sympathies. Had I done the right thing in leading Dash to him?
“So, you admit that you’ve been dealing drugs,” Dash clarified. “I need to hear you say it.”
Silas glanced around the ring of us, looking for an ally. Finding none, he gave in. “Yes,” he spat out, staring at the floor.
Dash’s jaw tightened, and he clenched his hands into fists. However, his tone remained calm. “Who were you selling to? I need names.”
Silas raised his hand. “I won’t tell you that,” he whined. “I don’t want to get anyone else into trouble.”
“Now you’re worried about your actions hurting someone else?” Dash bellowed. “What about when the junk you sell kills one of our own?”
Silas widened his eyes in distress. “What? I didn’t kill nobody.”
“You didn’t?” Dash pressed.
The young man squirmed again. “No.”
The alpha crouched down so he could look at the suspect directly in the eyes. “Zachary Owens.” He spoke the name with such reverence laced with sadness.
Realization dawned on Silas, and he stammered. “I didn’t…you think I…but I…” He shook his head back and forth. “I don’t get it. I mean, yeah, I sold a little to Zach but nothing that would have actually killed him.”
Dash stood to full height. “A little? You call an entire bag of that white crap that almost tore our entire pack apart a little?”
“What are you talking about?” Silas sat up straighter. “I wasn’t selling anything as heavy as all that.”
Dash broke his glare away from the man. “Charli, give me the bag.”
In all of the excitement, I’d forgotten about the clue I still grasped in my left hand. Releasing my tight grip, I held out the wrinkled receptacle for him to take.
He shook it in front of Silas’s face. “You wouldn’t call this heavy? If it’s what I think it is and the tests prove it, then you’re a murderer of Zach Owens, plain and simple.”
The frightened man stopped his fidgeting. “I swear to you, I’m not involved in anything like that. Not before, and definitely not now. You know I lost my best friend Ty to that filth.” He leaned as far forward as possible until Cameron put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from falling out of the chair onto his knees. “Alpha, please believe me.”
A long silence followed the impassioned plea, and I swallowed hard, Dash’s conflicted emotions battering me. He was caught between wanting to exact a swift and immediate punishment now and giving the guy a chance to defend himself.
Silas glanced over at Max. “Fletch, you know me. I’ve always been good to you and your construction crews. You have to help me out.”
“What you’ve done for me was fulfilling your job as a mechanic. That has no bearing as to whether or not you’re guilty of what your alpha is accusing you of,” Max replied.
Silas slumped against the back of the chair in defeat. He chewed on his dirty thumbnail while his right leg bounced up and down over and over. Elodie left my side and walked over to her daughter. She whispered something in her ear and then switched places with her behind the chair, allowing Cameron to approach Dash and Max.
The three pack leaders conferred with each other as I stood off to the side in awkward silence. I felt like an intruder into a society I could barely understand. If this had happened in Honeysuckle, we’d already have gotten the wardens involved. But up here in the mountains, the pack ruled itself first before getting outside authorities involved. And I couldn’t help questioning my part in the whole debacle.
Silas kept mumbling to himself while he waited to find out what would happen to him. His words became increasingly more manic, until he snapped his fingers. “Accuser!” he shouted.
The three leaders stopped talking. Max stepped away from them and addressed Silas. “What did you just say?”
“Yeah, of course. Because nobody would have ratted me out, so that has to be it,” the young man rambled to himself as he put together his thoughts.
“You’re not making any sense,” Cameron said.
Silas attempted to stand up, but Elodie shoved him back into the seat with one hand. He struggled to stay put but continued to talk. “Someone has pointed you to me for something I didn’t do. I want to challenge my accuser.”
“Whoever told us about you is irrelevant,” Dash stated.
“No, it isn’t,” Max countered. He strode over to stand next to Silas. “He has every right to face his accuser.”
“Not if we know he’s guilty. His rights in the pack are stripped,” Dash declared.
Silas glanced up at Max in desperation. “Search my house. Search my car. Search everywhere. I swear, you’re not going to find that kind of drugs anywhere near my stuff. I’ll cop to selling some weed and edibles, but nothing more.”
“We will conduct a very thorough search,” the second of the pack promised. “But until then, you’re going to have to be guarded.”
“Are you deaf?” Dash roared. “I already declared that his rights are stripped. He’s not going to be catered to.”
Max stopped addressing the accused and moved to stand between his alpha and Silas. “Unless you have clear proof of his guilt, you cannot take away his rights. And I don’t think you do.” He made a show of glancing over at me.
Dash reached out and grabbed Max by his shirt. He yanked him away from Silas and released him so that he stumbled away from the group. “Do you know what you are doing?” the alpha snarled.
“Do you?” Max spit back at him. “By pack rules, he has every right to voice a challenge.”
“But you know we’re positive it’s him,” Dash protested. “And you know what it means if the challenge stands.”
Max stood to his full height and got into Dash’s face, unwilling to back down. “The risk of the situation you find yourself in falls on you and your choice.” He glanced over at me again.
Dash’s eyes glowed and he reached out to grab Max by his shirt again, but Cameron moved like a flash to stand in between them, one hand on each of their chests. “That’s enough.”
The two men snarled at each other, ignoring the woman’s command. Max stood a little shorter than Dash, but his glowing eyes showed no fear. “If you’re not willing to uphold pack laws, then maybe Lucille and her friends are right. You aren’t fit to serve as alpha.”
Dash cracked his knuckles. “Since this seems to be a day of formal challenges, shall I accept that as one?”
“No!” Cameron declared, shoving both men away from each other with great effort. “Max…shut up and back down. Now! Neither of you are fighting each other. We’ve got a bigger issue to deal with right now.”
An animalistic rumble emanated from Dash’s chest at his response, and the atmosphere in the garage sparked with magical tension. Max’s eyes stopped glowing and he exposed his neck, taking a step back.
“I was out of line saying that. Forgive me,” he said in a low tone. “I know this creates an awkward situation for you, but that doesn’t mean Silas is wrong in
his request.”
Dash’s chest heaved up and down as he drew in unmeasured gasps of air. With his eyes still flashing inhuman yellow, he also took one step back. Without turning around, he declared, “Challenge has been made. As per the rules, we will convene in forty-eight hours in order to address it. Fletch, I leave you in charge of making sure Silas is guarded. Cam, you’ll assemble a search team to scour over every inch of where he works, where he lives, even where he takes a crap.”
His friend wrinkled her nose at the last suggested place. “I’m on it.”
“But first, I need you to take Charli back to the cabin.” Dash peeled off his shirt in one swift move.
I gaped for one microsecond at the unbelievable sculpture of his muscular body but looked away when he began unbuckling his belt.
“I’ll take care of her,” Elodie promised. “You go do what you need to do.”
Another kind of magic flavored the air. Dash dropped to his knees, grunting and groaning. Fur exploded from his skin, and in what seemed like a prolonged time, a large wolf appeared in front of me.
My heart thundered in my chest, and I swallowed down a shriek of fear. The animal turned its head in my direction. Reminding myself that I knew it was Dash and not a ferocious, mindless beast did nothing to quell my fight-or-flight instincts. Or more like flight-or-flight. My legs itched to run as far and as fast as they could carry me.
Max watched my reaction with a little too much enjoyment. “Welcome to pack life.”
“Wipe that smirk off your face quick before I do it for you, Maxwell Fletcher,” Elodie warned. “Your alpha gave you instructions. Time for you to get your bearded butt busy carrying them out.”
When Max secured Silas and walked him to the door that led to the front office, Elodie walked over to a button on the wall and pushed it. The large bay door squeaked and creaked as it opened, allowing daylight to spill back into the large space.
Dash’s wolf lumbered over and stopped right in front of me. His head came up to my midtorso, and he cocked it to the side, allowing me to take in the sight of him.
“Is that really you, Dashiel Thaddeus Channing?” I asked in a small voice.
A quick whine of complaint escaped him, and he licked his chops, smacking them. Although I didn’t speak wolf, I was pretty sure that was his way of letting me know he hated being middle named.
He bowed his head and leaned it closer to me, bumping my hand once. Twice. Unsure if I was interpreting the gesture right, I took a chance and reached out to touch him. He pushed his head against my hand, and I ran my fingers through his thick, coarse fur. The animal closed its eyes, enjoying the moment. But before I could process the special occurrence, Dash’s wolf bounded out the open door and disappeared.
In only a few minutes, the entire garage emptied. A pile of Dash’s clothes remained on the ground.
Terry dared to open the door from the main office. “Can my guys come back in here to work?”
Elodie shook her head at me and rolled her eyes in a dramatic fashion. “Yes, but I need you to lock down any personal space your employees use. There will be some pack members returning to do a search, and you’d better be compliant and sweet as pie to them, Ter, or I’ll make sure you get the scrawniest, saddest little tree for the holidays this year.”
The owner chewed on his cigar a little harder and spat brown liquid on his cement flooring. “Fine.”
The older woman bent down and picked up the abandoned clothes with a sigh. “I’m sure you’ve got a bunch of questions just swirling around in that head of yours.”
“That’s a complete understatement. I have no idea what I just witnessed,” I admitted, still a little too shell-shocked to make sense of it all.
Elodie escorted me back to her daughter’s car. “Good thing Cam remembered to give me these.” She unlocked the doors with a click of a button and tossed the abandoned clothes in the back seat.
I stood outside of the car, staring at the garage and replaying the whole thing in my head. My part in what had happened still didn’t sit well with me even though I didn’t doubt my magic for a second.
Elodie rolled the window down. “You’re not gonna get any answers if you stay out there. Get in.”
In an exhausted daze, I gave in. I barely registered the town as we drove through it back to the tree farm. My jumbled thoughts occupied my head so much that I didn’t notice when we pulled off at a road stop that looked like a classic red barn complete with white trim. A painted sign over the replica barn doors declared the place The Mason Jar.
Visitors rooted through farm stands of seasonal vegetables, and homemade wooden lawn decorations crowded the modest patch of grass out in front. Picnic tables dotted the land off to the side with a few people seated at them.
“This here’s owned by Willamena Smooter, one of my oldest friends.” Elodie put her daughter’s car in park. “I thought I’d get us one of her famous desserts to take back to my place. There’s gonna be a lot to discuss, but I find that things go down better with some good food in your stomach.”
At the mention of food, my stomach rumbled. With all of the adventures of the day plus expending a bunch of magical energy, I could use some replenishing. “My grandmother says the same thing.” I kept it to myself that Nana’s philosophy usually meant that whatever she wanted to discuss wasn’t going to be fun.
Elodie turned off the car and opened her door. “She sounds like a wonderfully wise woman,” she joked.
I followed her past the customers perusing the vegetables and into the barn itself. More visitors shopped through the different rows of goods. Whoever had set the place up made it look like an old country general store, although most of the products were for tourists rather than to supply a community. I got lost in a floor-to-ceiling display of all kinds of jarred preserves.
“Someone’s into canning.” I picked up a jar of pickled okra.
“That’s an old tradition up here in the mountains. Those who come from old families know that it was what you put up that could get you through a lean winter.” Elodie handed me a basket. “Why don’t you pick out some things to take back home with you.”
She helped me go through the huge selection and even offered to give me some of her canning recipes to bring back to Honeysuckle. By the time I’d gotten some for all my friends back home, I had two baskets to pay for.
We approached the register with no one behind it. “Willie, you in here?” Elodie called out in a loud voice.
“Of course I am. When am I not?” A woman a little older than my friend walked out from behind the counter. Her slight limp kept her from approaching us fast. “And who have we here?”
“This here’s Charli. She’s staying at the farm in one of our new cabins,” Elodie said, leaving out my connection to Dash.
I nodded at her in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Willamena.”
She waved her hand in dismissal. “You call me Willie like all of my friends do. Looks like you’re trying to clean me out of all my canning,” she crowed, ringing up my purchases.
“Pfft, like you don’t have more,” Elodie teased. She put her arm around my shoulders. “Willie, Charli here’s had a bit of a rough day. Any chance you still have one of your famous jam cakes left?”
“Ooh, child, it’s a good thing you came in when you did. Hold on one moment.” Willamena stopped checking me out and disappeared for a moment. When she came back, she held a white cake box. “I was saving this one for Henrietta Cartright since this morning, but I told her she better come get it close to lunchtime or I would let it go to someone else. And as usual, that woman’s chronic lateness means she misses out.”
Elodie rubbed her hands together. “Then it’s gonna taste all the sweeter.”
Her friend bagged up my purchases in some canvas bags with her store’s name on it. She went over to the preserves section and grabbed a couple more jars, making sure to add them to my collection when she returned.
“Here. I’ve added some of
my blackberry preserves just for you.” Willamena winked at me as she pushed the bags in my direction.
Elodie held the white box in her hands. “Thanks, Willie.” She ushered me out of her friend’s country store, but as soon as we stepped outside, she hustled me back to the car.
“Why the rush?” I asked.
“Shh. Hurry up.” Elodie unlocked the doors and slid in. She crouched down in her seat, giggling.
Unsure of what was happening, I followed her lead. “What’s going on?” I whispered.
Elodie lifted her head high enough so she could see someone get out of the car parked close to us. She handed me the white box and started her daughter’s vehicle. “That’s Henrietta. Trust me, we don’t want to be here when she realizes we’ve got her cake.”
Elodie’s phone rang as we pulled back out on the road. She glanced at it before ignoring the call. My phone rang next, and I saw Dash’s name on the display.
“Tell that boy to hold onto his britches. We’ll be there soon enough,” the older lady demanded.
I answered the second ring. “Hey.”
“What’s wrong? What happened?” he barked at me.
“Nothing. We stopped off at a roadside store and picked up some things,” I explained.
“When I got back and didn’t find you, I thought something must have gone down after I took off.” I heard an audible sigh from his end.
“Chill out, big dog. We’ll be there in like five minutes,” Elodie called out. “And we’re bringing one of Willie’s jam cakes with us.”
A short span of silence followed before Dash answered back, “I’ll put a pot of coffee on. See you in a few.”
Elodie shook her head and clicked her tongue. “That boy and his protective issues are gonna get him slapped upside the head. And it ain’t gonna get better with the challenge that’s coming.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn’t need the gift of premonition to guess that trouble was on the horizon.
Chapter Fourteen
Elodie had been right. The jam cake was incredibly tasty. The blackberry preserves gave just the right amount of tang to counterbalance the sweetness. But no amount of dessert could sweeten the details about Silas’s challenge.