Out of Smoke and Ashes

by Tymber Dalton

  The fact that the men who grabbed Carla were at the wedding meant Abernathy wasn’t through with his bullshit. Given a minute alone with the other wolf, Ain knew he’d gladly eviscerate the older man without a second’s hesitation.

  No one fucked with his Pack.

  It took them the better part of another hour to get out of there. It was going on evening when the cops released Carla’s car to them and Brodey drove it home while Elain rode with Ain in his truck.

  He despised the despondent look on his mate’s face, wished like hell he could make it better for her. Anything that hurt her, made her upset, was like a knife to his own heart. His job was to keep her happy, keep her safe.

  So far, he felt like a damn failure at that. He knew his brothers felt the same, but as Prime, he took it even more personally.

  They couldn’t get hold of Blackie, either. He and Callie were still en route to home and out of touch, totally unaware what was going on.

  And he didn’t feel right about asking Lina and the dragons for help. They had enough on their plate with the Beasts and with Lina recovering from having just given birth.

  Back at the house, Micah and Jim helped sort through the groceries and put away anything that was nonperishable. The cold stuff had long since gone warm or defrosted and went in the garbage.

  “I’ll make another grocery run,” Micah said.

  Ain simply nodded. He’d called Mark Telford and the Montalvo jaguars. They were on their way. As were Doug, Oscar, and Wally, who hadn’t left Arcadia yet. He’d also called Jocko for advice, but the former head of their Clan Council echoed they had to wait for Daniel to get back in touch.

  Being helpless and unable to proceed was not a feeling Ain was used to experiencing.

  He hated it.

  All he could do was keep making phone calls.

  And pray.

  Chapter Seven

  Elain couldn’t sit still. “Why are we not out looking for her?” she yelled at Ain.

  He wheeled around and glared at her. “Sit down, Elain.”

  Compelled by the edict, her ass dropped onto the sofa. She glared at him. “Fuck that noise! Who the hell do you think you are edicting me to sit down?”

  Brodey dropped onto the couch next to her and draped an arm around her shoulders. “He’s the Prime Alpha of our little Pack, babe. And he’s right. You do need to calm down. We’re doing everything we can right now. Plus we’ve got our attorney working with the shifters in local law enforcement to try to keep this out of the media.”

  She knew they were right, but the fact that she felt so helpless ripped her apart even more than the Alpha struggling to be free inside her.

  The Alpha wolf that wanted to kill and feast upon something.

  Cail dropped onto the couch on her other side. “Sweetie, let Ain do his thing. Believe me, he’s got this under control. When there is something we can do, he will tell us. All right?”

  Liam slumped into a chair on the other side of the coffee table. “I can’t believe this. Everything’s goin’ to fecking hell.” He let out a snort. “I’m surprised damn Uncle Marston hasn’t shown up yet. That’d be a right fine addition.”

  “Who?” Cail asked.

  “Marston Hill. Bloody arsehole. My mother’s brother. He was a beta, but Mum said he harassed her and Father after I was born, kept tracking ’em down even after they moved several times. Even followed them over here to America.” He let out another disgusted snort. “I had a feeling he was on our trail when we escaped Spokane to Tampa.”

  “Why?” Brodey asked. “I mean, why was he trailing them and you?”

  He nodded toward Elain. “The damn blood oath. He was bound and determined to make sure it was upheld. He swore to it, and nothing would dissuade him. He caught up to me in Connecticut before I lit out to Washington state.”

  “Well it doesn’t matter now,” Cail said. “The Clan Council decreed it void after Elain kicked Paul’s ass.”

  “But he might not know that.”

  Elain had a thought. “What does he look like?”

  Liam shrugged. “Quite a bit older than me. Last time I saw him, he looked like an older man. Few extra pounds around the middle. Grey hair, green eyes. Always fancies himself a natty dresser.” He grimly smiled. “Betas and omegas tend to show their age sooner than Alphas.”

  “Natty, how? Like wool suits with a sweater, maybe?” she numbly asked.

  He slowly nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

  She didn’t realize she’d started trembling until both Brodey and Cail had her hands in theirs and were stroking her arms. “Babe?” Brodey asked. “Talk to us. You’re scaring us.”

  “I need to get up,” she said.

  “Ain!” Cail bellowed. “Unedict her, dammit!”

  “All right,” he yelled back from the office, where he was on the phone again.

  She stood and rounded the coffee table. Liam straightened as she stood in front of him. Holding her hand out, palm up, she gently grasped his.

  Elain closed her eyes. She knew Lina’s Fat Boy and her Mr. Creepy were one in the same. But could she really be able to put a name to him? “Think about him,” she softly said.

  She tried to calm her nerves, to put her Alpha back in its cage. After a couple of minutes of nothing, she took a deep breath and actively pushed her mind to cooperate.

  A fuzzy, still picture developed, as if taken from Liam’s point of view. She envisioned a busy downtown sidewalk up north, because of the light snow falling, and before she was born if the make and models of the cars were any indication. She searched the mental image, finally spotting the man standing in the shadows of a doorway.

  Her eyes popped open. “Son of a bitch!” she whispered.

  Liam looked up at her. “I was thinking—”

  “Snowing. Up north.”

  He nodded. “My last, best sure memory of seeing him.”

  Cail and Brodey flanked her. “Babe?” Cail asked.

  She released Liam’s hand. “We finally have a name to put to the face. Mr. Creepy, aka Fat Boy, is Marston Hill.”

  * * * *

  Elain let Cail pour her a stiff rum and Coke while Liam went off to make phone calls of his own. When he returned twenty minutes later and joined them at the kitchen table, he looked shaken and Elain was well on her way to a halfway decent buzz.

  “Neither of my brothers got a look of the fecking bastard who killed their mates,” he said, his voice sounding choked as he slumped into a chair.

  Cail placed a water glass of straight whiskey in front of him. Liam downed it in two gulps and held it up for Cail to hit him again.

  He did.

  “The bastard kidnapped their mates and talked to them over the phone,” he finally managed. “Never identified himself.”

  “They couldn’t tell if it was Marston or not?” Elain asked.

  He shook his head as he quickly drained that glass and hesitated before holding it up for another refill. “Neither had set eyes on the bastard in decades. They were both betas, and their pups and grandpups were all betas, boys and girls alike. When they couldn’t tell him where to find me, because they simply didn’t know, they each received postcards in the mail with an address they could find their mate’s body. They only lived an hour apart, but he killed the mates in different places.”

  Elain wished she was up at Lacey’s thinking spot by the water. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault.”

  Liam snorted. “No, girl, this isn’t any fault of ye. I blame yer great-great-whatever uncle Rodolfo, and your granduncle Marston for this.”

  “They died because he was trying to find me,” she said. The thought she didn’t want to voice, that she suspected Marston was likely responsible for the deaths of Charles and Ellie Lyall, too.

  “They died because both those wolves are fecking monsters,” Liam insisted. He turned the water glass around in his hand, studying it. “If anyone’s to blame in this room, it’s me for putting people in the middle of t
his ancient grudge. Which is what it truly was. Was never about a dowry. It was about Rodolfo not being able to keep his little sister under his thumb the way he wanted. About her choosing someone he would rather see dead than forwarding his family’s bloodline.” He slowly shook his head. “I never dreamed Marston would ever stoop to such a bloody low thing.”

  “Well,” Elain said, “if he ever crosses my path again, he’s dead. I don’t care if there are witnesses, I don’t care where it is. I’m killing him.”

  Brodey tried for levity. “Lina might get pissed off she doesn’t get a hand in it.”

  “I don’t care,” she quietly said. “This is bullshit.” She looked at the three men. “You’re all thinking the same thing I am, that Abernathy is behind kidnapping Mom. We all know he’s not giving up just because Daniel and the rest of the Clan Council said so. The only rule of law he respects or bows to is a more powerful opponent.” She slammed her fist on the table, making it and the men jump. “He wants a damn fight, I’ll take it to him.”

  “You’ll do nothing until I say so,” Ain said from the doorway.

  She glared at him. “We now have a name for Fat Boy and Mr. Creepy. Marston Hill. It can’t be a coincidence he showed up in town and then Abernathy filed his challenge. And now Mom’s been kidnapped. I’m sorry, but the only reasonable answer is he’s working with Abernathy.”

  “And I’m not saying you’re wrong. But unless we get hard information that will allow us to find Mom, we have to wait until Blackie gets back to us to figure out our next move.”

  * * * *

  Elain needed to be alone for a few minutes. With another stiff rum and Coke in her hand, she took her cell phone out onto the patio and called Lacey’s cell. The Seer had gone back to Tampa with Zack and Kael to stay for a few days to help the nervous new parents out. Lina and the babies were scheduled to be discharged from the hospital the next morning.

  When Lacey answered, she sounded wary. “Hello, Elain. Any news?”

  “Not about Mom, but I need to talk to Lina, if she’s able.”

  “I wouldn’t right now unless it’s an absolute emergency. She just laid down for a nap. Why?”

  Elain quickly detailed the facts she’d fit together in the bloody puzzle of her family’s history. “My granduncle,” she said, her voice now trembling, “is the one responsible for all those deaths. My aunts. My guys’ cousin. Kael’s family.” The tears finally broke through. “And now Mom’s missing and I can’t help but think he’s got something to do with it. What if he kills her, too, before I can find her and rescue her?”

  Lacey let out a sad sigh. “What do Daniel and Callie have to say? Callie has powers none of us do.”

  “They’re not home yet. They aren’t answering their phones, so they’re probably still in the air.”

  “I think you need to have faith,” Lacey quietly said.

  “No offense, and I love and respect you, but that’s got to be the stupidest damn thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.”

  “Elain,” Lacey barked before her voice changed back, “listen to me. Carefully. The future isn’t written in stone until it’s the past. But in the things I’ve seen of the future, the glimpses I’ve had, your mother has appeared in them. Alive, well, and healthy.”

  She let out a gasp. “Really?”

  “Again, this isn’t a promise of things to come. But I don’t think I’d keep getting glimpses like that if it wasn’t the most likely path. Yes, sometimes my visions have been wrong on occasion. Considering the number of them I’ve had, I can’t believe I’m wrong on this. It would be the first time when this many visions are involved.”

  Elain closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing. The Alpha wolf reared its head again inside her. “I think I’m losing control,” she quietly admitted. “I’m scared about what that means.”

  Compassion colored Lacey’s tone. “Elain, this is an emotional time for you. Lean on your men. Trust them, and yourself. You will never hurt the ones you love. Ever. Especially not innocent children.”

  She felt tears slip down her cheeks, hot and heavy. “How can you be sure?” she whispered.

  “Because in the few snippets I’ve seen, you’ve been a wonderful aunt…and mother.”

  * * * *

  Lina called her back an hour later. She sounded as exhausted and emotionally wrung-out as Elain felt. “Hey, sweetie. Any news?”

  “No, but I think Fat Boy now has a name.” She filled in the gaps.

  Lina went silent for a moment. “I can’t see anything,” she sadly admitted. “I think that’s the best guess we have to go on, though. As soon as we’re out of here, we’ll head back down there to help.”

  “No,” Elain said before she realized she was saying it. “You need to take care of yourself and the Beasts. We don’t have any information to go on. So being down here isn’t going to do anything but keep you from your own bed.”

  There was another moment of silence from Lina. “I’m sorry,” she softly said. “I feel like a damn failure. I just can’t see anything that would be helpful. I’m a horrible Goddess. I can’t even help Mom.”

  “Stop that. You’re not a horrible Goddess,” Elain said. “I saw firsthand how good you are, so don’t sweat it. Lacey said she keeps seeing Mom alive and well in the future. I’m going to hang my hopes on that and believe we’re going to get her back.”

  Chapter Eight

  Daniel tried to close his eyes and sleep on the last flight of their journey home. He felt exhausted, mentally and physically. And he hated flying, but no way in hell was he driving.

  If this is what being head of the Clan Council does to a person, no wonder Jocko wanted someone young for the job.

  Beside him, Callie sat reading her Kindle. I know I’m tired when the thought of giving her a spanking can’t even raise a spark of interest.

  The unexpected highlight of the trip was, of course, Lina giving birth to the Beasts.

  One day. Not anytime soon, but one day.

  There was too much to deal with at the moment without adding a baby to the mix. Between Abernathy and the cockatrice, he didn’t want to pile any more stress on his plate. He needed time to settle things before focusing on starting a family of his own.

  Not to mention Callie’s nightmares seemed to be growing more intense and frequent. He definitely wanted to get to the bottom of that, and soon.

  Anyway, he was having way too much fun with his new mate.

  Once the plane touched down and taxied to the gate, he and Callie, as well as most of the other passengers, switched their phones back on. Various beeps and tones filled the cabin.

  It was the flurry of activity from not just his phone, but Callie’s, too, that concerned him. He looked at her and their eyes met. He didn’t need their special mate connection to know she felt just as worried.

  “What the hell?” he said as he looked at his phone again. Over two dozen voice mails, and twenty texts, filled his inbox.

  “I’ve got messages from Ain, Elain, and Lina,” she said.

  He nodded. “I’ve also got Jocko and Lacey. Oh, joy, and Rodolfo Abernathy. Let’s get off the plane and into the terminal and see what’s going on.”

  Once they were disembarked and standing out of the way of other passengers, they started going through texts first.

  “Shit,” he muttered as he read the first text from Ain. CALL ME ASAP! MOM ABDUCTED!

  Callie’s expression turned hard. “Yes. I hope you don’t plan on keeping me on a tight leash, Sir,” she muttered.

  “Until we get all the information, we’re not doing anything.” He scrolled through his texts, which were all along the same tone. “Come on, let’s get our luggage. I’ll call him from the car.”

  * * * *

  It was almost dark when they pulled into their driveway. Callie left Daniel sitting in the car and talking to Abernathy. He’d already called and talked with Ain. She’d already called and had a quick conversation with Elain to see how she
was holding up, and another with Lacey to see if she had any insights. She’d already tried, and failed, to find Babs or Gigi to see if they could offer assistance.

  Callie’s own rage bubbled beneath the surface every bit as much as Elain’s Alpha wolf. She also knew if she sat there too much longer she was liable to lose her temper and do something she would definitely regret later.

  Disobeying her mate and Master wasn’t an option. And sitting there, listening to what little she could hear of Abernathy’s tone through the phone, made her want to track him down and rip his guts out through his throat.

  If he was behind Carla’s abduction, Callie knew that wouldn’t help get her back. Like everyone else, she suspected he was.

  Damn, I need a spanking. She fished her keys out of her purse and unlocked the door. As she towed her rolling suitcase in behind her, she noticed the light was on in the kitchen.

  Hmm. I could have sworn that was off when we left.

  Then she felt it, the presence of someone else in their house.

  She dropped her suitcase and carry-on bags, every sense in her body tingling. There was definitely a stranger in their house. Now that she was paying close attention, she could smell them. A wolf.

  A female wolf.

  Callie’s fury built as she slowly walked toward the hallway. Behind her, Daniel was still on the phone, now with someone besides Abernathy, but she couldn’t shift her focus long enough to tell who.

  As he came through the door behind her, Callie charged at the figure who appeared in the hallway opening. Yes, a female wolf. Who looked plenty ready to do battle with her.

  Callie had just reached her, hands outstretched to wrap around the intruder’s throat, when Daniel roared out an edict in full-on Alpha tone. “Stop, pet! Now!”

  Callie froze, her hands inches from the intruder as shock filled the other woman’s face.