by M. Limoges
“Don’t kill him. I think he has guts. I want him around. At least for now.”
“What?” Colt shook his head. This wasn’t how things were done. He’d come to make a challenge. Drew needed to listen. “Drew Tao, I….”
Gee stepped out from behind the bar. If the Bear thought to throw him out again as he’d done ten years earlier, he could go ahead and try. If he landed on the street, Colt would shout his challenge from there. One way or the other, he would fight Drew for control of the pack. Hell would freeze over before he’d follow his cousin’s lead.
Drew walked toward him, but when he would have faced him, he headed for the exit instead. Was he cowardly? Is that why he left?
Colt had thought his cousin would be many things, but afraid hadn’t been one of them. Anger warred with frustration, and he growled, feeling his teeth elongate in his mouth. Colt had been waiting for this fight since the day Drew had taken off for who knew where and left them all to suffer at the hands of Magnum.
“Drew—
A whack to his head brought him up short. What the hell? Several seconds passed before he realized Gee stood behind him, holding a baseball bat. Stars passed in front of his eyes while Gee moved in front of him.
“Pup. Pass out. I don’t want to hit you again.”
“I’m not a pup anymore.” Why was it so hard to talk? The whole world went black.
***
Eleven years earlier….
“Where is he?” Colt needed to pound out his anger. Magnum Tao had gone too far. Alpha or no Alpha, he didn’t get to haul the unmated, young females in front of him like a sexual cattle call to determine who he and his disgusting followers would eventually mate.
If they waited to claim them at all….
“Colt,” Tasha Moore’s voice called behind him, and he turned to see her rushing up behind him.
He smiled at her approach, some of his temper cooling with her presence. She was fourteen years old and sweet. A lot of the young juveniles developed tempers as their dominant tendencies warred with the human rules the pack self-imposed on themselves so they could exist in the world without discovery. But not Tasha. At least not yet. He suspected she would end up a true non-dominant Wolf, the kind that made all the strong shifters want to take care of her; the reason wolves like him had been given such protective instincts.
“Tasha?” He stared at her pale face and the dark circles under her eyes. “What’s the matter?”
“Don’t.” She placed a hand on his arm, and he smiled. In addition to being calming, she had the true and rare quality of being one of the kindest shifters he knew.
“Don’t do what, sweetheart?” He was only five years older than she, but in their world, that meant a monumental difference.
She narrowed her gaze. “Don’t go there and make Magnum mad. Since Drew left, there’s no stopping or controlling him. Look what happened to Brick. No one has seen him since. Please. We need you. If you die or he throws you out, what will happen? All of the dominant males can’t disappear. What will happen to us?”
The frantic tone of her voice made his skin crawl, and the acrid smell of her fear burned his nose. “Honey, I’m not going to die. I’ll tell Magnum to leave you all alone, and then if he won’t, I’ll do what every capable male here should be doing. I’ll stop him one way or another, but not from an Alpha challenge. No one wants that.”
He would find a way. His uncle couldn’t continue to be allowed to torment the young females as if they were toys to use and discard. The fact that he wanted to in the first place meant their Alpha had transitioned from menacing to disturbed. Magnum had once possessed a mate. He’d been a father and a competent, if not kind, leader. Now? The abhorrent man had dragged all of them into his pit of misery.
Worse, he was Colt’s uncle, and Colt wouldn’t allow him to continue to disparage their family the way he’d been doing. Colt Hannigan would never be that cowardly.
“No.” Tasha shook her head. “He’s the strongest. I don’t know how to make you understand this. I don’t think I can. But I have the ability to feel all of you differently than most Wolves. Because I’m not dominant, I can tell when I’m around you what your strengths are I can also feel who can take care of me, who is strongest, who is able to fight. I know. He can beat you in a fight, Colt. He’ll rip you apart.”
He patted her on the shoulder. “I think you’re confused because you don’t really understand your instincts yet. They’re only starting to come through. Beta Wolves can’t tell who the strongest dominant in the room is. That’s not possible.”
She put her hands on her hips, an unusual show of temper from such a passive juvenile. He grinned at how irritated she appeared. “Or maybe the Beta Wolves simply don’t tell you everything. Maybe there are some things we generally keep to ourselves.”
“Tasha, you can’t even tell if you’re a Beta yet. You have years before you’ll be fully in control of your Wolf side.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “Did you ever not know you were dominant?”
Tasha made a good point, but he didn’t want to stand around and debate semantics. Not when Magnum could be bothering more of the young females while they argued.
“I appreciate your concern. I really do. But I got this.”
She huffed. “No, you don’t.”
With her final proclamation, she took off running in the opposite direction. He watched her long brown ringlets sway as she disappeared into the distance. Someday, she’d grow up to be quite a beauty.
He shook his head. Sentimentality couldn’t have a place in his heart today, and Tasha made him too calm. Colt needed his anger to face his uncle. The man was old, but not so ancient he couldn’t still put up a good fight.
Colt picked up his pace as he got closer to the barn Magnum and his cronies had turned into their personal lair. Once upon a time, the place had actually been a functioning building, filled with horses, hay, and other tools they’d used to help keep their town self-sufficient.
Red with white shutters and a giant door that had to be yanked open before he could go inside, the barn no longer housed anything but greed and corruption. Anything that happened within its walls spread out into the pack, mimicking an infection Colt wanted to kill.
He pulled open the door and stepped inside without knocking. The sounds of the rowdy party that never seemed to cease were not present. Instead, he immediately scented his uncle and the pack enforcer, Ryker, inside.
Magnum looked up from his reading when Colt entered, but Ryker didn’t turn around. The enforcer stared out the window, and Colt wondered, not for the first time in his life, what the scariest member of the Black Hills Wolf pack thought about during his perpetual silence.
“Do you think you can come in here without knocking because you’re my sister’s boy? Because I’ll kick your ass from here to the other side of tomorrow for barging through my door as if you own the place.”
Magnum’s scorn struck like a million bee stings assaulting Colt’s body all at once. He gritted his teeth against the pain. No matter what happened, he couldn’t back down from what had to be done. Too many people depended on him and, as Tasha had pointed out, with so many dominant males being shoved out every day, there would soon be no one left who could make things right.
Not even Ryker, who still hadn’t looked at him, could stand against Magnum. The enforcer’s blood oath prevented his interference
Well, Colt had no such problem. Alpha or no Alpha, uncle or no uncle, he couldn’t allow Magnum’s evil to fester any longer. He’d stop it.
“Uncle, my Alpha.” He wished he didn’t have to use the Alpha phrase, but Magnum still held the title. If Magnum could be reasoned with, then none of this had to progress any further. He deliberately didn’t answer Magnum’s remarks. He had to speak with the Alpha whether the Alpha wanted to be spoken to or not.
“What?” Magnum turned his head to Ryker. “Can you believe the balls on this kid? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me fro
m this kind of nonsense?”
Ryker turned around, one eyebrow raised. “I will protect you from all threats that are unacceptable. Right now, the inconvenience of your nephew is not really a concern.”
Colt fumed, hands fisted. Ryker didn’t think he could be a threat? Damn, Tasha hadn’t thought he could be either. Fuck Ryker. He could handle himself.
“Careful, pup.” Ryker’s voice traveled across the barn, and the sound fueled Colt’s anger even more. He wasn’t a pup anymore. Nor a juvenile. Hadn’t been for over a year. Why would they treat him the way they did? It was so unfair.
“Magnum, Uncle, Alpha.” He cleared his throat, starting again, “I want you to stop harassing the older juvenile females. They’re not ready for you. We need to protect them, not parade them around in an unacceptable manner.”
There. He’d said it. His uncle would have to listen. Certainly, the man could be reasoned with. Maybe he simply didn’t understand how creepy what he had been doing had become.
“You want me to stop?” Magnum snarled, stalking forward until he grabbed the front of Colt’s shirt and jerked him up against his chest. “You come in here, you sorry excuse for a Wolf, the son of my bitch sister or I would have had you put down at birth, and you make a demand of me in a way that only a man, only a trusted advisor, would dare? Even Ryker knows better than to use that tone with me, boy. How old are you? Seventeen?”
His heart rate had kicked up, and he knew his uncle would be able to smell his fear. Still, he didn’t care. If Magnum pushed him, he would make a challenge; he wouldn’t be the wimp his cousin had proven himself to be.
“I’m nineteen.” Certain his uncle knew exactly how old he was. The man wanted to throw him off, wanted to make him uncomfortable, unsure of himself. His mother had told him before she died—was killed—that Magnum was an expert at mind games.
“Ooh.” Magnum laughed, a long cold sound. “All of nineteen and such a man, coming in here to tell me what I can’t do with my juvenile females. They’re all mine. All of you. You live and die in my care. If I’m not happy, you don’t eat. And guess what? It’s time for me to take a new mate. I want my complete options. So, I’ll parade around whomever I want to, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do.”
He shoved Colt backwards, and he fell back a step until he righted himself. Heat infused his cheeks. He could not, would not make this so easy on his uncle.
“Colt.” Ryker called out his name. “Go home. Someone will talk to you later.”
“No.” He snarled even as he tried to keep his temper in check. Anger, he needed. Rage would get in the way. “Magnum, if you won’t leave the juveniles alone, then I will stop you. Physically, if I have to.”
Magnum turned to Ryker. “Is that not a threat? Still not a threat?”
Ryker shook his head but didn’t utter a word.
“How dare the two of you dismiss me? I’m strong. And I will not be discounted. You will leave the girls alone. I’m going to make you.”
Magnum growled, and Ryker rolled his eyes before turning around.
“He issued me a challenge,” Magnum roared. “And now, I will tear him to small pieces and feast on high carnage tonight.”
Behind him something banged, but Colt didn’t have time to turn around and see what it was. Not when he had to concentrate. His heart had never slammed against his rib cage so fast; his breathing seemed shallow. He needed to shift before Magnum did.
Magnum moved fast, changing quicker than Colt had ever seen him do before. One second he was a man, the next the huge Wolf that had led the pack into disaster time and again. So much for shifting first.
“No.”
The voice shouting from behind him caught his attention, and he whirled around to see Tasha charging into the room, followed by Gee. What the hell? Magnum slammed into his back, and he hit the ground with a thud, cutting his chin. Blood pooled onto his lip, and he didn’t give a shit. All he could focus on was Tasha as she threw herself, still in her human form, onto Magnum.
Oh, by the spirits, no.
Colt rolled over, suddenly free of Magnum as his uncle turned his attention to Tasha. He darted to his feet. His body ached, but he didn’t have time to consider why. Growls sounded in the room. Both Ryker and Gee had shifted, and the giant bear charged Magnum, who still attacked Tasha in her human form. He could smell blood, and he knew his cut chin wasn’t causing the odor.
Magnum would kill Tasha, and Colt would be at fault for not insisting she stay away, for not making sure she did. He lunged toward the fight, but Ryker had already pulled Tasha free. Her eyes were closed, and red covered her entire face. How badly had she been hurt?
His heart fell into his stomach. Let Magnum kill him, let him eat him from the outside in while he stayed awake to endure, let the sweet girl be fine.
Ryker growled, but Colt didn’t have time to figure out why. With Tasha removed from his path, Magnum turned his attention to Colt. He could see death in the Alpha’s eyes, and he knew, he finally understood, he hadn’t been old enough to do this; he hadn’t been ready.
Magnum Tao was evil, and Colt could count his own death among the many the man had been responsible for.
Gee roared, his aggressive bellow resounding off the rafters of the barn. Colt couldn’t figure out Ryker’s roar, and he certainly had no idea what Gee’s noises meant. Had he ever seen Gee shift before? He vaguely remembered some incident when he was a child where Gee had shifted in front of the whole pack, but other than that, he had never personally witnessed Gee in his Bear form before.
What a funny last image to have….
He looked at the Bear. “Please make sure she’s fine. This is my fault. I didn’t understand. But I need her to be fine. Please.”
The Bear roared again, this time swiping forward with his giant claw and catching Colt on the head. The world spun, becoming black, before he hit the ground. At least he wouldn’t have to feel Magnum killing him. Maybe that made him cowardly, but there wasn’t anything he could do.
***
Colt came to slowly. He raised his head and looked around. The sound of cars whirling by caught his attention, and he realized he leaned against some brick building he’d never seen before.
He sniffed the air. Everything smelled different, stale, metallic, burning his tongue. Colt darted to his feet. Where the hell was he? He’d only left Los Lobos once to go to a neighboring town with his father to buy some building materials. He’d certainly never seen anything similar to his current location except on television.
People passed him on the street without looking at him. They were all human.
How had he gotten wherever he was? The last thing he remembered was challenging his uncle, seeing Tasha so hurt, Gee as a bear….
Colt grabbed the arm of an older man who passed by. With gray hair and a thick belly, Colt felt he could take him, if need be, in a fight. “Sir, can you tell me where I am?”
The man laughed, pulling his arm free from Colt’s grasp. “How much did you drink last night, kid?”
“Drink?” Oh, the man meant alcohol. Humans sometimes overindulged. He knew that. From television. “Yeah. A lot.” What else should he say?
The guy patted him on the shoulder. “You’re in Reno, son. Get some sleep.”
Reno? That didn’t help much. Colt needed to get to a map. Reno was where? Colt put his hands in his pockets. Sometimes he left money in there accidentally. If he had enough to find a bus, then he could get home and see if Tasha was okay. Somehow, he had to make sure she forgave him. She was a nice, kind Wolf. Why had she darted between him and Magnum? What had she been thinking?
Tears threatened to plunge from his eyes, and he pushed them away. Dominant males didn’t cry. He felt his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. For a second, he stared, dumbfounded, at the loot. Where the hell had he gotten so much? He’d never had any money in his life. He’d acquired five hundred dollars?
On top of the stash was a note he had to read twice.
&n
bsp; Don’t return unless Magnum is dead.
—Gee.
Colt took a deep breath, but couldn’t steady his hands. He was banished. Sent away. Dropped, he would bet, by Gee in some place called Reno. What was he supposed to do? How would he live here?
He raised his eyes to look around. Tasha was hurt, and he’d never find out how badly. If she lived or died would remain a mystery. Maybe forever. And all because he had stood against Magnum. He never should have been the one the responsibility fell to. Drew, his cousin, had abandoned ship and left no one to take the reins.
The whole pack was doomed.
He clenched his jaw and forced his mind to concentrate. Someday he’d return, and then he’d be ready; he’d find a way to undo what had happened. For all of them.