“You’re doing what’s needed, for everyone’s future, including Mila’s. Damien is sending Blade in first to locate and assess. If Blade has the chance, he’ll pull her out. If not, he’ll give Damien the intel he needs. Either way, Damien has plenty of guards with him to fight. Several weak shifters volunteered to go too. He’s placed some of them on patrol.
Hayden stopped and turned to Callen. “On patrol?”
“They’re in groups of three, armed with knives, tools, anything to even the playing field.”
“Not the same. They’ll be cut down.” A sinking pit formed in Hayden’s stomach. It didn’t matter that many of those shifters didn’t care for him, they were still his responsibility and placing them on patrol it was a bold and dangerous move.
“Maybe, but there’s one thing I’ve learned is not to underestimate shifters who are determined. They may not have our strength or speed, but they can be quite resourceful. Kate proved that to me, long before she ever shifted.”
“You’re right. Mila’s wicked smart and respected because no one sees her as a weak shifter.” And she didn’t see that. Maybe if she had, she wouldn’t have lied to him. Maybe if he’d been more pro-active in changing the culture, she never would have felt the need to lie.
“Things are changing.”
“I want her safe, Callen. Even if she won’t come back to me, I need her to be safe.”
Callen placed a hand on Hayden’s shoulder but said nothing. There was nothing more to say. Damien would fight for Mila, just as Hayden would—by handing Drake over to Agent Sloan and securing peace between humans and shifters. Nothing would end the terror in Hayden’s soul though until he knew Mila was safe.
The moment they crossed the border into Drake’s territory they were met by two patrols. Hayden glanced at Callen. His enforcer’s face was placid as ever; he would betray nothing. The presence of two patrols was not a coincidence. Hayden didn’t know how, but Drake knew he was coming.
“How’s that sexy thing you fucked when you were here last, Ford?” Chitman said.
“That’s one,” Callen said, his tone ice-cold.
“One what?” Chitman asked.
“When you get to three, you die.”
“Callen, focus,” Hayden said as he took the lead down the path. Even after eight years away, he knew these woods like he had just finished a game of tag with Drake. This had been their playground as children, their hunting ground as teens, though not together, and a few areas he could still recall were ideal make-out spots as young men. All pleasant memories for the most part.
His entire body, even his wolf, felt almost whole here. This was home, always had been, always would be. One thing would make it complete. Mila.
Instead, Hayden had Chitman and two of his goons following him and Callen. They were from a branch of the Novak pack that Hayden had never associated with, for good reason. Lazy shifters who would do anything to get what they wanted except hard work.
“Callen, just enjoy the scenery and ignore him like everyone else in this pack does. Chitman’s not worth the time of day.”
Hayden blocked the branch before it could hit him in the back of the head. He yanked it out of Chitman’s hand. “My brother seriously made you his second? What was he smoking at the time? Drake’s done a lot of stupid shit in his time, but nothing as stupid as that. He must have been desperate.”
“I was,” Drake said from off to their left. The group stopped as Drake approached. “The shifter virus had just wiped out several of my best shifters, including Riggs. An alpha has to make do with what is available to him.”
Hayden didn’t tense, which surprised him, but nothing surprised him more than Drake’s calm demeanor. The few times he and Drake had crossed paths over the past few years, Drake had slung one slur after the next at him. Drake was planning something, Hayden was sure of it.
He stared at his brother for a minute. Most thought he and Drake looked alike, with their square jaws, dark hair, and dark eyes, but Drake was slightly shorter and broader than him. There was something about Drake’s low cheekbones, however, that reminded Hayden of their mother. God, he hadn’t pictured her in years. He’d been gone from his pack, from his home, too long.
“I’m not here to fight you, Drake.”
Callen’s head snapped toward him. “Hayden.”
Hayden held up a hand to silence him. “I know you better than anyone. You’ve fought your whole life to be respected. First in my shadow, when you tried to prove yourself to our grandfather who didn’t give you the time of day since you were second born, and then to Logan, who cherry-picked you from the entire camp to succeed him. But he never thought anything you did was good enough, which is why he pushed you so hard and you soaked up everything he said and did. You idolized him.”
“And you slaughtered him, took him from me, just like you did Reina.”
“I never touched Reina. Logan did. That’s why I killed him, but you’ll never believe me, because you can’t and won’t ever see him as anything but perfect. You would have to see him for the monster he was before you can see the truth. I’m sorry I let him steal you from me and mom. I was too weak to save you, Drake, and you paid the price.”
“The only one who will be paying for crimes around here is you, brother. I warned you that if you ever stepped back in my territory, you would be executed.”
“You can’t execute me,” Hayden said, imitating Drake by crossing his arms over his chest. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this, but it was clear his brother wasn’t going to listen to anything he had to say.
“I’m challenging you, Drake, for the position as alpha. This is my pack, and I have the right to lead. I challenged and killed our alpha before I was forced to flee for my life. You had your chance to rule, and you’ve started a war with the humans by creating a virus so lethal and dangerous that the Department of Homeland Security created an entire division dedicated to our extinction if I don’t hand you over. They’re going to kill us all, not just this pack or Damien’s and Liam’s. All shifters, everywhere, because of what you’ve done. No one here will stop me from challenging you.”
“I created the virus for leverage.”
“You slaughtered thousands of innocent humans!”
“Lies. You’re spreading lies to justify your actions as usual! You’ve always been jealous of me and everything I had. You were jealous when Logan took me and later when he started training me to succeed him as alpha. And then when Reina agreed to blood-bond me, you couldn’t stand it. You had to steal her from me, except she fought you. You’re sick, Hayden. You couldn’t have what I had so you killed her instead. And then you killed our alpha. You’re nothing more than a traitor, and that’s all you’ll ever be.”
“The DSA is holding Liam’s pack hostage. He’ll kill them and then order the military to kill the rest of us. All shifters, Drake! You want to deny me my right to challenge, fine, but be the alpha you claim to be and protect this pack. The humans will call off the operation if you hand over the HEV and the shifter responsible. Give them Ravirez if you’re too cowardly to face the consequences of your actions, but protect this pack!”
“Ravirez is dead.”
“Dead?” That was one problem solved. None of Drake’s people would have the knowledge or skills to produce more of the HEV. Drake wouldn’t have an easy time replacing Ravirez, especially if the military began tracking any movement out of the area. The only ones capable of following Ravierz’s notes in a two hundred square mile radius were Mila and Anna, but they weren’t here. And Alex was dead. This was good news. He could work with this. Whatever Drake had stockpiled was finite, and could be turned over to the Department of Shifter Affairs to destroy safely.
“He decided to think for himself,” Drake said. “I don’t like shifters who think for themselves. It causes problems.”
The desire to laugh along with his brother, to try and create a bond was strong within him, except he couldn’t. This wasn’t who he was. A part of him woul
d always love Drake, and see the boy he once was, but this man before him, this shifter who used others, who killed those who didn’t agree with him, was not his brother. Hadn’t been for a long time.
“You have two choices, Drake. Either turn yourself over with your supply of HEV or accept my challenge.”
“I have a third choice, brother,” Drake said with a smirk. He whistled, signaling to someone behind him. Two shifters stepped forward, one with a body-bag over his shoulder. The shifter dumped it on the snow with a noticeable thump.
“Go ahead. Open it,” Drake ordered Hayden.
Hayden’s gut clenched. He didn’t want to admit what he was smelling. This wasn’t happening. Lilac, blood, and the scent of decay, rot—death. Drake had been behind Mila’s kidnapping and he’d killed her, the beautiful shifter with the quick wit, sweet disposition, and compassionate heart.
“Hayden?” Callen asked, worry in his voice. He didn’t understand. He wasn’t downwind from the body bag to know Drake had murdered the one shifter who had given life meaning. Callen hadn’t conceived of the possibility, of this nightmare, any more than Hayden had.
After Hayden opened that body bag and said one final goodbye to his sweet Mila, he would end Drake, and then he’d end himself.
One of Drake’s guards unzipped the bag only a few inches. “Closer, traitor. You’ll want to see this.”
Hayden bent down as the shifter peeled away the thick vinyl. Mila’s eyes sprang open, filled with terror, her hair bloody and her face badly bruised. His heart nearly gave way from the shock, the realization that she was still alive.
The cloudiness of her eyes cleared as tears slid down her cheeks. Her face quickly morphed to recognition, and then hope as she focused on him. A white cloth had been shoved into her mouth and tied. Her left eye was swollen, and her cheek bruised.
Her eyes locked onto him, pleading, counting on him. It was all he could do to steel himself against showing any emotion. He could not ease her fear or give her the hope she needed. He had to destroy that hope, let her fear go on unchecked, even cause it to mount if he was to save her.
He couldn’t even see if she lay inside naked or clothed. The guard had only unzipped the bag as far as her chin. It was just as well. Hayden swallowed hard. He didn’t want to see, to think about what Drake and his men had done to her. Containing his rage, his fear was taking all the effort he had, especially with how his wolf was clawing at him to be released to kill those who had done this to her.
Hayden couldn’t give in to his wolf, no matter how much he wanted to kill Drake or anyone who had touched her. This was not the time to react, to show that Drake had the one person in his possession that meant more to Hayden than life itself. To let Drake know who he had would give him ultimate control over Hayden and put Mila in even greater danger. Quickly, Hayden schooled his emotions as he pulled his gaze away from his sweet Mila, leaving her alone and terrified.
“H-aa-en!” she screamed through the gag.
She was screaming his name. His beautiful Mila had been beaten and god only knew what else, and he couldn’t touch her or give her the comfort of knowing he wouldn’t abandon her. Even as she cried out his name, tears streaming down her face, he turned away, ignoring her as if she weren’t there, as if she was of no importance to him.
“I see you found the runaway,” Hayden began, not daring to glance back at her, despite her muffled cries and the sound of a guard striking her to be quiet. He didn’t know which of the five guards behind him had struck her. It didn’t matter. They would all be dead in time. Not yet, though. First, he had to get Mila to safety and take care of Drake, once and for all.
“Runaway?” Drake asked, mildly curious, but not convinced of Hayden’s lie.
“I could be wrong. Damien thought she had been kidnapped, even took some guards with him to search for her. A total waste of resources, but I don’t argue with him these days. It’s not worth the aggravation. He does his thing. I do mine. Regardless, as far as she’s concerned, last I heard, she had been flirting with one of her own. A weak shifter. Lars or Larry. I didn’t really pay attention. I’d had some fun with her, sure. But there was no reason to keep her around after I got what I wanted.”
“That’s interesting,” Drake said, which made Hayden wonder what was going on here. Drake didn’t seem to have all the facts. How exactly did he end up with Mila if he hadn’t kidnapped her?
“Is this little show supposed to mean something to me, Drake? A threat that the next body bag is for me? Or have you taken on a new venture, sex trafficking across the border using body bags perhaps?”
“Both good ideas, Hayden. You’ve been wasting your talents over there with Damien. I’ll get back to the female in a minute. After I explain my third option.”
“There is no third option. Your pack won’t stand for you denying a challenge. They’ll turn on you, and I’ll be waiting to hogtie and take you to the DSA. Give yourself up or I challenge and hand you over. The second will be more painful. I guarantee it.”
“Option three, dear brother,” Drake began in that sing-song voice of his that he used when he knew he’d won, “goes like this. Your enforcer is going to dig up Ravirez’ body. That’ll keep him busy for a short while. In the meantime, just to show my pack and the other packs I deal with that I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them, I’ll reach out to the DSA and give them the HEV material I have on hand, with an apology.”
“An apology won’t bring back all the humans you killed.”
“I won’t be apologizing for that. Where would you get such an idea.. oh, yes, that’s something Damien would do, feed you false information as fits his needs. You see, I’ll be apologizing for the machinations of my older brother, the shifter who’d been declared a traitor for murdering our alpha years ago. I’ll be sure to explain in great detail how after my own pack suffered an outbreak of SEV, killing most of our guards, my brother stole the HEV that we had unintentionally developed while researching the cure and vaccine for the SEV that the WSSO unleased on us. I never did have control over my brother, who used the HEV to kill the population of not one but two towns, then had the audacity to go to the DSA with a fantastic story blaming all the events on me, all in a bid to use the DSA to get rid of me so he—you, my dear brother Hayden—could take over as alpha of my pack.”
“Along with this apology, I’ll hand you over. You’ll be quite alive, Hayden. What’s more, you’ll confess to everything I just said.” Drake laughed as he held out his hand and one of his guards handed him a gun. Drake placed the muzzle against Mila’s head. The gag muffled her cries as she clamped her eyes shut and Hayden struggled to keep from shifting.
Without an ounce of empathy, Drake cocked the gun. “Option Three, Hayden. Do everything precisely as I outlined, or your female dies.”
Chapter Nineteen
MILA
Mila had never been so scared as when Vance walked away, leaving her with Travis as if she were a folding chair he was lending a neighbor for a party. Vance had chained her to a metal ring in the wall above the bed. The cuff around her neck had spikes pointed inward. If she shifted, she would impale herself. She couldn’t even sleep except sitting up. She must have nodded off because she woke up when one of the spikes cut into her neck, leaving a superficial wound.
Two shifters were arguing outside. One was Travis. The other voice she didn’t recognize, though it sounded familiar. The cabin door slammed open, and freezing cold air rushed in.
The shifter with dark hair and dark eyes reminded her so much of Hayden, except where Hayden had kind caring eyes and a slight grin when he was relaxed, this shifter had a coldness to him.
Drake.
His eyes roamed over Mila. Her capacity for words had long since left her. She was starting to think there was no escaping these white wolves, just like there had been no escaping Vance for all those months.
“Have Merrick and A.J. bag her. You did well, Travis.”
They stuffed a dirty rag into her
mouth, bound her hands behind her, and shoved her into a damn body bag. She nearly threw up from the smell of whatever dead body had last been inside.
She didn’t cry or scream. There was no one to hear her except the shifters tasked with disposing of her. By the time they dumped her on the hard snow, her heart was racing so fast she was sure it was going to burst or simply stop. She heard voices, but couldn’t focus on anything beyond the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.
Then the zipper slid open, giving her some blessedly fresh air. Someone peeled back the black vinyl.
At first, she thought she was dreaming. Surely she had to be. Hayden, her sweet Hayden was there! He had found her! She cried, silently begging him to release her from this nightmare, but he stood there, staring at her with no emotion on his face.
Nothing had changed since she had last seen him. He hated her. There was no other reason he just stared at her, as if he could care less what was about to happen to her. But perhaps that was just it. . . he didn’t care. She’d hurt him, but he couldn’t hate her so much that he wanted her dead, could he?
“H-aa-en!” she screamed through the gag. His eyes never once softened for her, even as he turned away.
A guard backhanded her, splitting her lip. She had been warned earlier that making any noise would be dealt with harshly. While her lip stung, along with all the other bruises on her body, nothing was as painful as watching Hayden turn away from her.
“I see you found the runaway,” Hayden said. There was no emotion in Hayden’s voice. That’s when she realized the awful truth. She meant nothing to him now, if she ever had.
Her head was pounding. Focusing was becoming really hard, but Mila strained to listen to Hayden’s voice.
“. . .last I heard, she had been flirting with one of her own, a weak shifter. Lars or Larry. I didn’t really pay attention. I’d had some fun with her, sure. But there was no reason to keep her around after I got what I wanted.”
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