The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2

by C. C. Masters

  “To do what about it, exactly?” I asked irritably. Lori was eighteen and as much as her teachers might disapprove, she was an adult and could make her own choices. Human law was very clear about that.

  Grayson shrugged. “I doubt they’ll really do anything. But I think it’s best if we smooth things over and make it so no one in town worries about Lori.”

  Kannon looked hesitant to speak and Grayson honed in on him. “Did you have something else to add?”

  Kannon folded under Grayson’s heavy stare. “There are rumors going around school. A couple of the guys asked me if they were true.” Kannon looked apologetically at Lori. “Someone’s been spreading the rumor that Lori…um,” Kannon looked really unsure at how to finish the statement.

  “That I’ve been sleeping around town with everyone, not just the four of you,” Lori said boldly. Kannon flinched but Lori gave him a reassuring squeeze of the hand. “There’s no need to tiptoe around it. Everyone in this room knows it’s not true, but that doesn’t mean that people won’t keep gossiping about it.” She shrugged. “It’s a pretty juicy story.”

  I admired Lori for how nonchalant she was being, not many females would be able to handle that. But my heart bled for her. I had gone to a human high school and I knew just how cruel females could be to one another. I was getting the picture that high school might actually be a private hell for Lori. “How do you feel about homeschooling?” I asked her.

  Lori’s eyes widened in surprise. “I doubt that would make us look more normal if I quit school and just hung out here all day.”

  Grayson nodded. “People aren’t going to forget just because she’s out of sight.”

  “So what do we do?” Kannon asked softly.

  “We treat this as a PR project,” I offered. Lori looked like she was following along but the rest of the guys looked confused. “Public relations, there are plenty of celebrities and companies who get bad press but manage to come back from it.”

  Lori rolled her eyes. “I’m not a celebrity.”

  Kannon looked at her thoughtfully. “You kind of are, though. At least right now. You’re the pretty new girl in school that everyone’s talking about.”

  Lori’s eyes widened in surprise and then blushed quite prettily. Did she not realize that she was beautiful, inside and out? It seemed ridiculous that anyone would believe those rumors. Anyone who spent more than a minute in Lori’s presence could sense the goodness radiating from her. I admired how strong she was. Her past could have made her bitter and angry, but instead it made her just want to be even stronger.

  Grayson looked at me. “So how does this PR stuff work?”

  Lori shook her head. “That won’t work, not in a town like this.” She smiled sadly at me. “The first day that I came here, I knew this town liked to gossip. I thought it was just harmless fun, but it’s not to the people on the bad side of the rumors.”

  I opened my mouth to argue but she didn’t give me a chance to say anything. “I don’t want you guys trying to fight this battle for me,” she said sternly. “I need to make a place for myself here, just like I would need to make a place with the other females if I was coming into a new pack. No one will respect me if I don’t do this on my own.”

  Grayson nodded at her. “You’re a strong female, and I have no doubt that the humans will back down once they realize what they’re dealing with.”

  Doubt flooded me. Humans weren’t like us. They didn’t lose a battle and accept their place in a pack. They constantly circled around, looking for an opportunity to stab you in the back and take everything you had. They also didn’t fight fair and wouldn’t hesitate to team up against Lori.

  Lori spoke to me as if she had heard my thoughts. “Humans don’t fight physically for dominance. It’s all about mind games.” She smiled at me reassuringly. “They might say mean things to me or ostracize me, but they won’t actually hurt me. I’m perfectly safe there.”

  I knew I was in trouble when she smiled at me and my heart skipped a beat. This was not good. The plan was to get the attention off of her so that we could live in this town peacefully, but my heart was telling me that there was more to my motivations. I wanted to see her smile.

  “And Reaven?” Corey asked with a scowl.

  Grayson looked at him pointedly. “You stay far away from him. He’s going to lay low with his tail tucked between his legs after the beating he got. I would like to say that he learned his lesson and will stay away from Lori from now on. But unfortunately, I think tonight will just make him more cautious and more determined to do her harm.” Grayson turned his gaze to Lori. “I need you to stay away from him. You should be safe while you’re in school, but stay close to one of us if you’re not.”

  “And especially if your old pack master is still out there,” I added darkly. I didn’t like the thought of anyone lurking in the shadows with the intention of harming Lori.

  Lori raised her head to me. “We don’t know that he is.”

  “I think we should contact the lamia to see if they know anything about another wolf coming to town,” I said reluctantly. “I hate involving them in pack business, but-”

  “But they’re already involved,” Grayson stated. “Believe me, it won’t take long for us to find out what the cost will be for keeping this incident quiet.”

  Both Corey and Lori looked guilty and I hated that I had the urge to reassure them that everything would be fine. Luckily, Kannon did it for me. Sweet, optimistic Kannon who had no idea how the world really worked. This was most likely the beginning of the end for us. We had been fools to think that we could ever build a life here and fit in with a crowd of humans. But what else were we going to do? Where else could we go? We were trapped here. We were trapped financially with a business that was doomed to fail and we were trapped in an agreement with the lamia. They would never just let us walk away.

  Kannon and Lori disappeared upstairs after Grayson ended the meeting, but I stopped Corey with a hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t do anything that I wouldn’t have done.” Corey looked at me, surprised at my words. “And I’m proud of you for holding back.”

  Corey met my gaze and gave me a slow nod. It wasn’t an apology for anything that had happened between us in the last year, but it was the start of a new bridge being built over the ashes of the old one. And as much as I hated to admit it, our fresh start might be partly Lori’s doing.

  Chapter 16

  Lori

  I woke up with a gasp, my blanket practically strangling me. I tried to calm down my heart as I laid here alone in my bed, but I could already tell that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. I was done sleeping for the night. Kannon was sleeping peacefully in the bed next to mine and I could hear the others breathing steadily, so at least I hadn’t woken everyone up with my nonsense.

  I sat up slowly in my bed, but when no one else stirred I crept out of the room. I saw the sleeping forms of Grayson and Wyatt as I passed, but Corey’s bed was empty. I closed the door to the bedroom where we all slept and saw the reason why. Corey was standing at the tall windows in the empty room that we called ‘the living room.’ His eyes were on the dark street below us, but I knew he heard me coming.

  I walked to stand beside him and gazed down at the empty town. The street we were on was mostly businesses and we were the only full-time residents. I guess that was what happened when you lived in an old firehouse in the center of town. The town around us was unsurprisingly quiet. From the outside looking in, this really did look like a perfect family town. There were no rowdy bars, no gangs, and most people didn’t bother to lock their doors at night. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t ugliness here.

  When I had first looked down at this town, I had high hopes. I had thought that Hollow Crest would be like the Star’s Hollow town in the Gilmore Girls. Everyone would know each other, I would make new friends, and I would eventually assimilate myself here. This was supposed to be my second chance. I was supposed to be living the life
that my mom and I had dreamed about for so long. I was supposed to be making her proud from wherever she was now. I was definitely wrong about everything. What I had found was a town with a crooked sheriff, sleazy business owners, judgmental townsfolk, and a school full of mean girls.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” Corey murmured to me, not taking his eyes from the window.

  “Nope. You?”

  Corey shrugged. We stood there for a few moments of silence. I was still shaking off the nightmare that I had just had, reacclimating myself to the fact that I was safe in my home and surrounded by my pack. I knew that what I had with these guys was the real deal. If someone came in here trying to hurt any of us, they would have to deal with a whole pack of angry wolves.

  “I keep having this strange feeling that someone’s watching us,” Corey confessed. “Like tonight, I thought I saw the shadow of someone out there.”

  I froze. “Are you sure there’s not?”

  Corey shook his head. “I’m not sure about anything anymore.”

  “You already know my deal,” I whispered to Corey. I didn’t have to tell him that I relived my mother’s death every night. I saw her pleading eyes as she begged me to get away without speaking. I watched as the life drained from her and I was helpless to stop it. I heard the evil laughter of Baracus, Robert, and his other cronies as they mocked us for thinking we could ever escape them. I felt Robert’s powerful jaw crushing my throat as he held me down, his teeth causing blood to trickle into my coat.

  Corey knew all of that.

  But he never told me about his nightmares. I knew it was more than what the guys had gone through in their last pack. Corey had the same look that I did. He had watched someone he loved die, and he had been helpless to stop it. I saw the grief and guilt in his eyes because it matched my own. I knew when he woke up panting and covered in a cold sweat - because I did the same. He and I had gone through something that not everyone could understand. He had lost someone that the rest of the pack hadn’t. He was alone in his sorrow, just like I was.

  Corey took a deep breath. “Her name was Jayna,” he whispered, almost too quiet for me to hear. “She was human.”

  My breath hitched and I knew that he felt my surprise because he turned his grey eyes towards me. “Relationships with humans weren’t allowed unless they were approved by the pack master ahead of time. The other guys didn’t know how close I really was with her. I played it off as something casual and we weren’t together twenty-four hours a day like we are now. We all had our own things going on.”

  I nodded. I could already guess where this story was going. Pack masters could be cruel and heartless when keeping their pack in line. Disobeying would have harsh and unforgiving punishments. “Everything was fine until…”

  “Until your pack was taken over?” I guessed quietly.

  He gave me a short nod. “I don’t know for sure who turned me in, but I can guess.” His jaw flexed with anger. “The same bitch that turned us all in for being rebels.”

  I gave his hand a squeeze. The guys had already told me about the female that had pretended to want to escape with them, but had turned them in at the last moment. She had traded their lives for a role as the pack master’s mate. The only thing that had saved the guys from being executed instead of cast out was the threat of mutiny from the rest of the pack.

  Corey’s eyes glazed over and I knew he was reliving the moment that he lost her. “They wanted to make me do it-” His voice cracked and he shook his head. “There is nothing in this world or any other that would have made me do something like that. Because I refused, they made it worse for her.” Corey’s eyes became shiny. “Her screams…they made me beg to end her life. They…”

  Corey’s shoulders shook and I pulled him into my arms. I rubbed his back as he let out his broken sobs. We held each other tight in the darkness, clinging together as if that was the only thing keeping us sane. Eventually, I felt a sense of peace flow through Corey and I knew this was something that he had needed for a while.

  He had kept this pain inside of himself for so long that it had started eating away at him. It had corroded his relationship with his brother, it had damaged his connection with the other guys, and it had eaten away at his soul. Letting it out wouldn’t put an end to the nightmares, the guilt, or the grief, but I hoped this would give him a place to start healing.

  He wasn’t alone in his pain anymore. As fucked up as it sounded, we had found each other because of our heartache. By sharing each other’s anguish it had made us stronger, made us believe that there was something else out there. That maybe there was a future worth living for.

  I held his hand as we crept back into the bedroom and the darkness felt a little less lonely. I let go of Corey as we passed his bed and he quietly slid under the covers. I grabbed my pillow and curled up alone on my bed but I could feel Grayson’s eyes on me. He didn’t say a word. But he didn’t have to. He gave me a slow nod and then closed his eyes.

  Grayson had probably heard everything, but he would never say a word. What happened between Corey and I would stay there. A secret shared just between the two of us.

  Chapter 17

  Lori

  Weeks went by but life didn’t get any better.

  I never really made any friends at school. Lynn avoided me whenever she could and the mean girls still occasionally targeted me. They spread a rumor around school that I had framed them for the locker incident and Tiffany cornered me in the bathroom with accusations that I was trying to get them kicked out of school. They retaliated with more petty rumors and pranks but I didn’t back down and give them any ground, so I think tormenting me was less fun than they thought it would be. All of the other students either hated me because of my reputation or were afraid to be friends with me in case it made them a target instead.

  The one bright spot in the time I spent in school was Kannon. I don’t think anyone really forgot about all of the rumors about me, but it did become a little difficult to believe the stories about me sleeping with everyone that crossed my path. Kannon and I lived together, worked together, went to school together, and ran cross country together. How would I even find time to cheat on him? It didn’t stop the rumors that I was sleeping with the rest of the guys that I lived with, but it was undeniable that Kannon and I were a couple. I think that we just became that annoyingly in love couple that everyone kind of thinks is cute but they also hate. We held hands everywhere we went and our affection for each other wasn’t fake.

  At some point, I think I realized that I was actually in love with him. It might have been when he uncharacteristically threatened to stab Wyatt with a fork for trying to take the choicest cut of meat when Kannon had been saving it for me. Or it might have been when he made me dark chocolate brownies with little heart shaped sprinkles just to cheer me up one day. It could have been when I realized just how much he always stood up for me at school, especially when I wasn’t around. Or when I realized that the only time I was able to truly get a restful sleep was when he held me in his arms. But most likely, it had been when I gazed in his eyes and realized that he genuinely loved me. That was when I let go of all of my fears and reservations and finally just let him in.

  I also thought that both Corey and Grayson were softening towards me, but Wyatt was a different story. He had noticed changes in Corey but hadn’t said a word to me about it. I knew that he saw that Corey had started looking at me differently, how Corey would give me a touch of affection when he thought no one else was looking, or when Corey and I snuck off together to listen to music and battle our demons. Wyatt was never rude or mean, but he did always hold me at arms-length.

  Wyatt and I had managed the customers all day today. Kannon and I didn’t have a cross country meet this weekend so we were able to help out with the busy Saturday crowd. Our business was starting to slow down. We had an initial rush where a lot of the town had been putting off maintenance because of Gus but were willing to give us a chance. There were also a lot of people t
hat just wanted to check us out and see what was different from the mechanic that they already knew. We did our best to make everyone happy, but that was an impossible task.

  I was cleaning up the waiting room while Wyatt was in the office doing paperwork, Corey and Gray were cleaning up the garage, and Kannon was getting started on dinner. I should have known that the past few weeks had been too easy on us. My stomach dropped when the little bell on the waiting room door pinged and Pierce stepped through the door.

  “Wyatt, I need you out here,” I called to him with our pack bond.

  I tensed when Pierce strode into the waiting room and took off his dark sunglasses to examine the room.

  “Can I help you?” I asked with a frown. I had never heard of any of the lamia coming into the town for any reason and now I had seen Pierce twice in one month.

  He flashed a smile at me that was more of a threat than it was friendly. “You’re being summoned. Time to pay up.”

  Wyatt came out of the office and faced off with Pierce. “Lori isn’t going anywhere without us.”

  “We’re expecting the whole pack anyway,” Pierce said dryly. He leaned against the wall and tilted his head to look at me, his eyes roving up and down my body.

  I cringed internally but didn’t let it show on my face. I wasn’t going to huddle in on myself and try to cover up just because this guy was an asshat.

  “Lori,” Wyatt said stiffly. “Why don’t you get the other guys while I keep our guest comfortable?”

  It would have been just as easy for Wyatt to call the other guys with our pack bond, but it was clear that he wanted to get me away from Pierce. I didn’t argue, because honestly, I wanted to get out of Pierce’s sight just as much. I gave Pierce a hard glare, just to show that I wasn’t intimidated and then spun on my heel to leave the room. I felt his eyes follow me until I disappeared through the door that led to the garage.