by J. L. Wilder
Sure enough, there was someone in the house with them.
It was Marx.
"Echo?" he asked. "You're...here? With him? I had no idea that you were...you know."
"Yeah," said Cutter. "I guess I really didn't either."
His expression turned hard.
"No fucking time for that," he said. "You need to tell me why the hell you broke in here in the middle of the night! You scared the shit out of us!"
"I was about ready to shift and rip you apart," Echo said.
"Sorry," he said. "I knew breaking in was going to be a bad idea. But what I came here to tell you is important."
"And what's that?" asked Cutter.
"It's Thorne," he said. "He's on his way."
"What?" said Echo and Cutter at the same time.
"What time is it?" asked Cutter.
"A little after two. And yeah, that means he's breaking the rules."
"Tell us what you know," said Echo. "Right now."
"I will, but I need to make it fast."
"Then do it," said Cutter."
"You saw me at the HQ," he said.
Cutter nodded.
"I came back into the area to check up on you guys and make sure you didn't get in over your head. Thorne's usually got parties like that going on, so popping in's not hard. Anyway, I did a little spying and heard Thorne and his lieutenants talk about coming here and taking you both out."
"But that would be against the tradition," said Echo.
"You think he gives a shit?" asked Marx. "Sure, some shifters might grumble about it, but at the end of the day he'd be the clear alpha of the clan."
"Should've fucking known," said Cutter, his words edged with anger.
"But I'm not about to let him pull that kind of shit," said Marx. "I wanted to warn you so you could get the fuck out of here."
"No way," said Cutter. "No way did I come all this way to give up now."
"Are you serious?" asked Marx. "Cutter, he's coming to kill you and take her—there's no fucking around about this."
"Wasn't planning on fucking around," said Cutter. "What time did he say he was coming?"
"A little after two," he said. "Which means that he's on his way now."
Cutter turned to Echo, his expression grave.
"Okay," he said. "That means you still have time to get back to the house. But you have to leave now."
Echo didn't hesitate for a moment before responding.
"No way," she said. "If you think I'm leaving you here on your own, you're fucking crazy."
"Echo!" he barked. "You ca—"
"The answer is no," said Echo. "This is my fight, too. I knew what I was getting into."
"She could help," said Marx. "Even the odds, you know?"
"Fucking hell," said Cutter. "Okay, then we need to do this right. You know anything about the plan?"
"Just that they're planning on surrounding the place and setting it on fire. Then, when you both come out, they make their move.
"Okay," said Cutter. "The best move to make is going to be letting them think their plan's still a go."
"Right," said Echo. "Let the burn the house and take it from there."
"Sounds good to me," said Marx. "But...you might want to put on some clothes first, big guy."
Cutter grumbled before throwing on his jeans and Echo hurriedly dressed before following the two men out of the house. Once outside, Cutter stuck his nose into the air and sniffed.
"Don't smell anything," he said.
"Me either," said Marx.
Echo followed suit. But unlike them, she smelled the pack.
"I do," she said. "There's five of them. And they're coming from...over there."
She pointed to the west.
"Probably about ten minutes away."
"How the fuck can you tell?" asked Marx.
"I...just can," said Echo. "Just got a good sense of smell, is all."
She didn't want to get into it, to reveal her hybrid nature. Not yet, anyway.
"Fuck," said Marx "If she's got a good nose then I'm not about to second-guess it."
"Right," said Cutter. "We shift and split up. I take the north, Echo takes the east, and Marx takes the west. When we see the house go up, we move in. Got it?"
"I'll take the west," said Echo. "Got a good feeling about it."
"Sure," said Cutter.
"Works for me," said Marx.
"Okay," said Cutter. "Let's do it."
Echo didn't need to wait another moment. She shifted into her wolf form as the two men took their own wolf forms. When they were ready, they headed off in their directions.
Echo tore through the woods, moving through the trees at a breakneck speed. She focused her senses, pinpointing where the group was. With each step she became more and more certain where they were, using their scents to track them as surely as if they were wearing GPS devices.
It wasn't long before she spotted them. She stayed in the shadows, watching the group of five men make their way through the woods. Once in a vantage point, she set to deciding what to do.
Three of us and five of them, she thought. Not good odds. But maybe if I even them...
She knew she had to play it carefully. Echo stayed behind the group, stalking from a distance as they made their way to the cabin. Once they arrived, the man she recognized as Thorne barked orders to the rest of the men, telling them to get to work on the fire.
Two of the men went around to the far side of the house, and she knew this was her chance. She slinked around the house, staying behind them all until Thorne and the other two men were on the other side of the building.
The two she had her eye on went to work, dousing the side of the house and setting it ablaze. As soon as the flames began to crawl up the side, Echo made her move.
She pounced from the shadows, rushing toward the man on the left and leaping at him. She snapped her jaw down on his neck and bit hard, the man not even getting a chance to scream before she killed him.
"What the hell?"
The other man turned and spotted Echo. She realized that these two men had been part of the group that had found her and Cutter in the woods.
Good, she thought. Makes this even easier.
The fire was raging by that point, and Echo leaped through the air, her dark fur illuminated by the fire.
"Holy sh—!" shouted the man right as Echo pounced, his words cut short by another bite to the throat.
Done, she thought. Now, let's finish the job.
"He's here!" shouted a voice she recognized as Thorne's.
Fuck, thought Echo. It's happening.
She broke out into a lope, rushing over to the other side of the house in time to watch Cutter and Marx emerge from the woods and take the other two men down.
By the time Thorne realized what was happening, it was too late.
"What the fuck?" he shouted over the roar of the flames.
Cutter and Marx had him up against a corner—he was screwed.
"Josh! Rick!" he shouted out. "Where the fuck are you?"
"Gone," Echo said after shifting back to her human form and approaching him.
"What?" he snarled. "You killed them? But...you're just a chick?"
Marx and Cutter shifted back.
"She's not just any woman," said Cutter. "Too bad you learned that too late."
"You motherfucker," growled Thorne. "You come back after all this time and think you can challenge me. Not on my fucking watch—I own the Saw Tooth clan now!"
He pounded on his fist with his chest to make his point.
"Not anymore," said Cutter.
"Let's fucking kill the prick and be done with it," said Marx.
"No," said Cutter.
"No?" asked Marx and Echo at the same time.
"Yeah!" said Thorne. "You're too good to kill a man when he's got his back up against the wall like this!"
"I am," said Cutter. "And that's why I'm going to do this right."
He raised his finger a
nd pointed to Thorne.
"Shift now," he said. "We're going to have the battle we should've had a long time ago."
"Cutter," said Marx. "You can't be serious—you fight him one-on-one and he might kill you!"
But Echo said nothing, knowing he was making the right call.
"Do it," she said instead. "Kill him and let's go home."
"Fine!" barked Thorne. "You want to do this all honorable? Fine—whatever results in me being able to break that fucking neck of yours."
The two men squared up, staring each other down with hateful eyes. Then they shifted, both changing into wolves. They made slow-half circles around one another until Thorne made his move.
He lunged behind him and grabbed a flaming piece of wreckage that had fallen from the cabin. With it in his mouth, he rushed towards Cutter in an attempt to burn him. But Cutter was too fast.
Asshole, thought Echo. Fighting dirty.
Cutter recovered after diving out of the way, Thorne dropping the flaming board and turning his attention back to him. With a mighty pounce, Cutter landed on top of Thorne and pressed him down to the ground. Thorne's jaw snapped, taking a chunk out of Cutter's shoulder.
But it was all he managed to get. Cutter lowered his snarling jaw down, down until he reached Thorne's neck. Thorne tried to fight him off, but he wasn't strong enough. When he was close enough, Cutter opened his mouth and bit into Thorne's neck.
There was a yelp, then a twist, and then nothing.
It was over.
Cutter backed off and shifted back, his chest rising and falling. Echo rushed over and threw her arms around him.
"You're safe," she said, relief gripping her.
"It's over," he said.
They stepped back from the flaming cabin, watching it crack and crumble to the ground.
"Well," said Marx. "You're the new alpha. Whether you want it or not."
"Yeah," said Cutter. "So much for isolation."
He turned back toward the direction of the rest of the tribe.
"I'm going to need to get there, tell them what's going on, tell them that they're going to go to war against the Hearteaters."
"Yeah," said Marx. "Gonna need some time to whip them into shape after what Thorne put them through."
"I need you to take her back to the estate, Marx," he said.
"What?" asked Echo. "You're sending me back? What about you?"
"I'll be gone for no more than a week—just enough time to get my lieutenants together and give my orders. Until then, I want you back at the house."
He stepped close to her and took her face into his hands.
"I won't forget what you did for me," he said.
Then he leaned in and kissed her softly, Echo kissing him right back.
When they were done, Marx cleared his throat.
"Come on, kid," he said. "We got a hell of a run ahead of us."
Echo nodded, regarding Cutter one last time before turning her back and heading into the darkened woods.
CHAPTER 25
ECHO
Three weeks later...
Echo sat with the men in the living room of the estate. It was late evening, golden light filling the massive, well-appointed room.
"Okay," said Jack. "Let's get some updates."
"Who put you in charge?" asked Mace, flashing a grin.
"No one's in charge," said Cutter, a glass of red wine in his hand. "We're a triumvirate."
"A what?" asked Mace.
"Fancy word that means ‘three rulers'," said Jack.
"And what about me?" asked Echo.
"You're the special advisor," said Jack.
"So, that's basically a nice way of saying that I don't do anything. Just sit here and stay out of the way."
"Listen, Echo," said Cutter. "This whole thing...we thought it was just going to be a couple of clans going to war..."
"But it's not," said Mace. "Not even a little. This spat with the Hearteaters is bringing all the old grudges out of the woodwork. Every tribe in the region is using this an excuse to get even with some other clan in the area that they have it out for."
"It's full-on war," said Jack. "Nothing's going to be the same when this is all said and done."
"But I want to help," said Echo. "I don't want to wait on the sidelines while this all plays out."
"We'll...find a place for you," said Cutter. "I mean...after what you pulled at the house the night, I killed Thorne."
"Wait a minute," said Jack. "What are you talking about?"
"She took out two wolves without making a sound," said Cutter. "And these weren't just any wolves—they were Thorne's lieutenants."
"Wait a minute," said Mace, standing up. "Back in Montreal. I fought that bear and you moved in to attack like I've never seen any shifter move. How the hell did you do it?"
"And when I found you," said Jack. "You'd just slammed into a tree on a fucking motorcycle. But all that was fucked up were your clothes."
"Yeah," said Cutter. "And when we were tracking Thorne's men through the woods—you had them pinpointed by scent down to the millimeter."
The three men stared at Echo, each of them convinced something major was up.
"What are you?" asked Mace. "You're not just any regular bear."
Echo realized that there was no getting around it—she had to open up.
And what wasn't the only thing she'd been keeping a secret. Over the last few weeks Echo had been sharing her time between the men, heading out to the woods or sneaking into their rooms at night. As far as she knew, not one of them knew anything about it.
Figure that out later, she thought to herself. More important things to worry about now, like the fact that they've figured out that you're different.
"Let's hear it," said Cutter. "No secrets."
No secrets? She thought. What about the fact that I'm screwing all of you behind all of your backs?
She shook her head, trying to focus.
Echo took a breath.
Now or never, she thought.
"You're right," she said. "I'm not a regular bear. I'm a hybrid."
"Holy shit!" Mace shouted. "It...makes perfect sense!"
"Yeah," said Jack. "The speed, the strength, the healing...you're a fucking hybrid!"
Cutter nodded slowly, as if processing everything.
"Knew there was something special about you," he said.
"What's the story?" asked Mace. "Where are your parents?"
"My mom's dead," she said. "Died in an accident when I was little. My dad...I never knew him. All I know is that he's a wolf. He and my mom had a brief affair when he found her in the woods. Then the Hearteaters took us in."
"And do they know?" asked Cutter.
"They do," said Echo. "And they always treated me like I was a freak."
"Shit," said Jack. "And you were fated to be Stone's omega."
"Yeah," said Mace. "If he managed to mate with an omega he'd have hybrid babies of his own. And tons of them."
"More than enough to make his own private army," said Cutter. "No fucking wonder why he's so keen on getting you back."
"But...none of you think I'm a freak?" asked Echo.
The men looked at her like she'd said the most insane thing they'd heard in their lives.
"Are you kidding?" asked Jack. "Echo, we're all freaks here. Why do you think we're living like this?"
"All of us Ronin shifters," said Mace. "Well, except for the new alpha here."
He reached over and slapped Cutter on the back.
"Alpha for now," he said. "Not sure for how long I'm going to be cut out for the position."
"But anyway," said Jack. "If you feel like you don't fit in, then you've come to the right place. We're all a bunch of misfits here."
Echo's couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you all," she said. "I...I don't know what I'd do without you."
But then, like some sort of mental invader, the thought of her three affairs returned. The men all sat with their eyes
on her, as if knowing she had something she wanted to say.
"We...we have no secrets here, right?" she asked.
"Right," said Cutter. "Everything's out in the open."
She took a deep, full breath.
"In that case, I have something I need to tell all of you."
"What is it?" asked Mace.
"I have no idea where even to begin," she said. "So...I guess I ought to just come out and say it."
The men waited attentively.
"I'm...kind of seeing one of you. I mean, all of you. At once. At the same time. And I like you all—in that way."
The words fell out of her mouth like enormous ball bearings, hitting the ground with thuds.
No one said anything at first, and for a long moment Echo wondered if the men were about to break out into a massive brawl.
But instead, they just laughed.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Hold on," she said over the sound of their laughter. "Do you all think this is funny or something?"
"It kind of is," said Jack.
"More than kind of," said Mace.
Cutter was the first to stop. He was such a serious man that Echo found the sight of him laughing almost strange.
"Do you really think you've been sleeping with all of us at once without us knowing?" he asked. "That you've been pulling one over on us?"
"Yeah," said Mace. "I mean, maybe you've got some hybrid sneaking around powers, but you're not that good."
"And even if that weren't the case," said Jack. "We've all known each other for years. You don't think that we don't talk to each other about stuff like this?"
Echo was thunderstruck. For several moments her jaw stayed slacked open—she couldn't believe their reactions.
"This is totally insane," she said. "None of you care that I'm...doing what I'm doing?"
The men glanced at one another, as if not sure where to start with answering her question.
"You want to go?" asked Jack to Cutter.
"Might as well be me," he said.
He cleared his throat and spoke.
"When the three of us came here...it wasn't just us."
"What do you mean?" asked Echo. "There was another man?"
"Not another man," he said. "But a woman."