Shattered Pack

by Erin, Aileen;

  “Hi. I’m Meredith.”

  “I know who you are.” He looked me up and down, stopping only to sneer at my hair.

  Maybe my mom had a point about the blue streaks, but I didn’t care. If this Were didn’t like me because I dyed my hair, then I didn’t like him either. “Right.” I really had to start paying closer attention to my surroundings. Especially here. He shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on me so easily. “And your name is?”

  “Feidhelm.”

  The word was clipped and I didn’t love his tone, but he had offered to help. “Actually, yes. I need to find a book on the fey.”

  “We have a card catalog here.” He motioned to what I’d thought was a low bookcase, but now that I looked closer, I could see the drawer pulls.

  I remembered learning about card catalogs at some point, but I’d never actually seen one. The Irish pack was stuck in the past in a lot of ways.

  “Is there something specific you need to know about the fey or…?”

  “Bhrunyz. I need information on a fey called Bhrunyz. Anything you have would be great.”

  “This is about John,” Feidhelm said as he moved past me. It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes.” I took a sniff. “You smell…” Like flowers. Only werewolves didn’t smell floral.

  “I’m half fey.” Before I could ask any questions, he cut me off. “Let me pull some stuff for you. Sit.”

  Interesting. I wondered if maybe his curls and round baby face came from a sprite, but I pushed his looks out of my mind. It didn’t really matter. All I needed to know was how to stop the fey monster. “I can help if—”

  “I’m the curator here. Wouldn’t want to have to undo any missorting you made to my books.” His sneer was back.

  Maybe he was particular about his books, but he was still being a dick. “Fine.” I bit the word out. “I appreciate the help.” This was third pack member that I’d actually talked to, and I had to make a good impression. Even if he was being rude.

  Feidhelm grunted and started up the closest staircase. “Sit.” He pointed again.

  Obeying his command wasn’t something I could do. Not unless I wanted it getting out that the pack librarian was more alpha than me. Which he wasn’t.

  I leaned against one of the tables. “I’ll wait here.” As soon as he started piling books in front of me, I started reading.

  Hours later, I finally gave up and sat down. The mountain of books surrounding me was so tall I couldn’t see around them, and I still hadn’t found one mention of Bhrunyz. I was starting to wonder if this Feidhelm was helping or just bringing me random books.

  “This should hold you for a while.”

  It would hold me for a decade. “Thanks.” The word was sharp, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. I waited until he turned his back before saying, “You know, the whole card catalog thing is really outdated. You could get computers for that. It would be much faster.”

  He glanced back at me with a haughty look. “We have a computer, but it’s only for pack members. Which you are not.”

  The library door slammed behind him, leaving me in perfect silence.

  What an asshole. Not a pack member? I would be soon, and then he and I were going to have a serious talk.

  But honestly, I was glad he was gone. Having him stare over my shoulder had been getting on my nerves. And now that he’d left, I might actually be able to find something. Only, it would take me forever to go through all these books on my own.

  I didn’t trust Feidhelm. Not one bit. And not just because he was rude. It was almost as if by giving me too many books—and maybe not even the right books—he was covering something up.

  I stood, taking a stretch, and moved toward the stacks. If only I was at St. Ailbe’s. They had an extensive library, and all the books were listed on the intranet and tagged by subject. I picked up one of the books on top of the pile. “Healing the Soul by Ty Bannon. How in the hell was that supposed to help me?” I threw the book to the side. Feidhelm was a jerk.

  After three more books that were clearly off topic, I called Adrian. Maybe I couldn’t get to St. Ailbe’s to do my research, but he could. He was still on campus, except he wasn’t answering. When I looked at the time, I realized why. He was probably starting his evening patrol.

  But there was one other person I could try. She was still at St. Ailbe’s while it was officially closed. I put my phone on speaker while the call tried to connect.

  “Claudia!” I said as soon as she picked up.

  “Is everything okay?”

  I winced. “Uh, kind of not really, but I’m alive so, it’s all good.”

  “Yeah. Alive is good…”

  “I’m sorry to ask, but I need help.” I gave her the quick version of what’d happened since I got to Ireland. “Any chance you can look up some stuff for me about Bhrunyz? I know you’re taking off for Peru soon, and I don’t want to keep you. I just need book titles. I probably have copies here, but I can’t sort through everything, and I have no idea how to use this card system or if it even has an index as extensive—”

  “Yes,” she said, cutting off my rambling. God, I was getting tired. “Of course. I’m up now. I’ll go straight to the library.”

  I sighed as I slouched into the nearest chair. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

  “I’ll add it to your tab.”

  I laughed. “Let me know when you find something.”

  “As soon as I do, I’ll call you. Or I guess if it’s late your time, I could email?”

  “No. I don’t have any internet access here. Just call anytime.” I needed the information as soon as she had it and not a second later.

  “Okay. Talk soon.”

  “Bye.” I hung up and went back to the table with my mountain of books. Eenie, meenie, miney… I grabbed a random book from the third towering stack. The Fey Courts: An Introduction to Fey Policies and Politics.

  Yeah. Not helpful, library douche.

  My phone vibrated on the table. I answered, putting it on speaker. “You found something already?” I switched over to my notes app, ready to take down names of books.

  “Not exactly,” Claudia said. “Lucas knows of Bhrunyz.”

  I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I guessed that made sense. Lucas was an old Alpha. But still, it was a hell of a coincidence. “Really? You can’t be serious.”

  “Really.” There was a little lift in her voice. She sounded excited. “He was listening when you were talking. I’m sorry if I wasn’t—”

  “Claudia. It’s fine. I’m a Were, too. Remember? I know how good his hearing is.”

  She laughed softly. “Right. Sorry. Um, so he says that—”

  “Hi, Meredith.” Lucas’ deep rumble came through the line.

  “Hey, Lucas. What have you got for me?”

  “I’m wondering what’s going on with Donovan’s home pack that this beast was able to kill his second inside the stronghold.”

  “The pack’s a mess.”

  “That’s not surprising. We’ve all wondered how he’s balancing so much.” Lucas paused, waiting for me to fill in, but I wasn’t about to gossip about my own mate. “The important thing to know is that Bhrunyz can transport.”

  Fear chilled me to the bones.

  “But even with that, he cannot enter quietly or leave without notice. The beast is loud. Bhrunyz was used to hunt enemies that the Lunar court wanted dead. He’s given a scent, and then tracks and kills his target. If not given the order to kill on sight, he takes his prey back to his lair and tortures the poor victim until fear floods their blood. But I was told that he never kills without an order to do so.”

  “So Bhrunyz had to have been specifically sent after John and Thomas.”

  “Exactly. And if I were to guess, someone in the pack is giving him orders. Do you have ideas who?”

  If only that question were easy to answer. “Donovan has some serious problems. We’re working on figuring that out, but it might take a while. In the meant
ime, I’m hoping to take Bhrunyz out of the equation.”

  “That’s not going to be easy,” Lucas said. “I lost a lot of good fighters going after him. It’d be best if you find out who’s controlling him. Fast.”

  More good news. I rested my head on a pile of books.

  “Meredith,” Claudia called out. “Whoever it is, they have to be very close with the fey or else they wouldn’t have known about Bhrunyz or how to control him. If Lucas wasn’t here, we might not have known anything about this beast. That said, I’m still going to do some digging in the library.”

  “Awesome. Thank you. Anything you can find will be a huge help.”

  “My pleasure,” Claudia said, and then hung up.

  I flipped open the closest book. Twenty minutes later, Claudia texted with a list of titles and a promise that she was going to start doing some reading, too.

  It was a start. I could do this.

  No. I had to do this.

  If I failed…

  I couldn’t even think about that. I wasn’t going to fail. I was going to kill this thing before it killed me.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I managed to find exactly one helpful book in the million that cherub douche had picked out for me. It took me three skims to find one measly mention.

  Also created by Melyn, the beast Bhrunyz, who—on demand from the Incan werewolves—is to remain in underhill indefinitely.

  That was it. Nothing that Lucas hadn’t already told me. Which meant, my last hope was somehow deciphering the catalog system to find the other titles Claudia had sent.

  I grabbed the only book left in the pile that I hadn’t flipped through. It wasn’t on Claudia’s list, but I still felt like I had to check. Just in case. I flung back the cover and cringed at the loud rip that echoed through the library.

  Oh, crap.

  I slouched down and looked around. I was still alone in the room, but shit. The book smelled old and was probably valuable. And now that I’d touched it, my scent was on it. Feidhelm was going to know who’d ripped the cover.

  I held up the book. The front cover was hanging by one measly little thread. There was no fixing it, so I hid it between a few other books, hoping library douche wouldn’t notice. Although I was sure that was a total pipe dream. There was no way he wouldn’t check every single book he’d handed me for dog-eared pages. If he didn’t like me for my hair, he definitely wasn’t going to be happy with me when he realized I’d maimed one of his books.

  Time for a break. I got up from the table. My back popped as I stretched.

  It was getting late. Dinnertime. I was seriously hungry, but I needed to find at least one clue. I didn’t want to leave here empty handed.

  Moving over to the card catalog with all its pretty bronze pulls, I started opening the drawers. They were deceptively deep and filled with note cards listing book titles and subjects. Each card’s corner was marked with a bunch of numbers.

  I opened three more drawers, but they were all the same. There had to be billions of cards. How in the hell was anyone supposed to find anything?

  Slamming the current drawer shut, I opened a new one, but my strength got away from me again. The drawer went flying through the air, slamming into the wall. Cards rained down all over the floor.

  “Fuck.”

  “You’ve made a right mess.” Donovan laughed.

  I sighed as I turned to face him. “Don’t tell the guy who runs this place.”

  Donovan raised a brow. “Me? Don’t tell me? I think we’ve passed that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not you. Feidhelm.”

  “It’s my library, not Feid’s. No matter what he thinks. This is my stronghold. And what’s mine is yours.”

  “You nicknamed Feidhelm? The douchey dude who looks kind of like a cherub and totally hates me already?”

  Donovan chuckled. “Cherub. He’d love that.”

  “I’m sure he’d absolutely love anything I called him.”

  The humor in Donovan’s face drained away and his voice dropped low. “Was he other than helpful to you?”

  “It’s fine.” Donovan coming to my rescue about this wouldn’t do me any good. My stomach rumbled.

  “That’s why I was coming to find you. It’s dinnertime. You must be starved.” Donovan grabbed my hand, but I tugged him to a stop.

  “But the mess. I should—”

  “Don’t worry about it. Feid will set it to rights.”

  So he said, but I’d been hoping to fix it before Feid noticed. But I had no idea how to put the cards back in the right spots, so it wasn’t like he’d be happy with my effort anyway. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  “Grand. Ian’s waiting. He went to fetch something for me.”

  “Cool.” I hoped he was getting something that could help us, because I had come up with nothing.

  Donovan grinned, his blue eyes sparkling. “Let’s go.”

  By the time we hit the door, Ian was about to walk in. “Ah, ready then?”

  Donovan nodded and led the way to their dining hall.

  My stomach let out the biggest rumble ever. It literally echoed in the hallway.

  “You’ve not been taking care of your mate,” Ian said from behind us.

  “Hey now. Even if I couldn’t take care of myself just fine—which I can—he does a great job as my partner. It’s my fault I didn’t stop for lunch.” I had no idea where to find food in this monstrosity of a stronghold, but if I’d really wanted to, I could’ve figured it out.

  Ian held up his hands. “I’ve no doubt the one Donovan picked can take care of herself.”

  I waggled my finger at Ian. “Hey. I picked him and he should thank his lucky stars for that. Or else he’d be stuck with psycho bitches who throw shit.” I turned and started walking backward so that I could see their faces. “Can we just go back to that for a second because I’m still processing it? Dude. Vivian threw a vase at me. She’s seriously out of her goddamned mind.”

  Both guys laughed, and on the inside, I was laughing too. But on the outside, I looked appropriately outraged. After two murder scenes and that talk with the lovely Helen, we all needed a laugh. Desperately. I was happy I could provide one.

  “She just said you should thank your lucky stars for her.” Ian slapped Donovan’s arm. “You. The great Donovan, one of the Seven, Alpha of the Irish pack.”

  If I had more of an ego, I probably would’ve been insulted by that, but it was the truth. I had no idea why Donovan wanted me. It blew my mind. But that didn’t mean I was going to let Ian get away with talking down to me. “Hey! Clearly, you don’t know me well enough yet to know that I’m pretty amazing. I slay demons with one hand and rip the decayed hearts out of vamps with the other, all while keeping up some damned witty repartee.” I looked him up and down. “I’d be happy to show you how I could take you down.” He was a fourth. On my own, I could maybe do it. And if I pulled power from Donovan, no contest.

  Donovan closed the distance between us, and I stopped walking. His eyes twinkled with mischief, and I couldn’t help but grin at him. His arms wrapped around my middle, and I had a moment to melt before he picked me up and threw me down the hall.

  I tucked my legs, flipping twice, before landing on my feet.

  I raised my arms in the air, giving my best gymnast impersonation. “Thank you. Thank you, very much. I’ll be here all week.”

  “I thought she was going to hit the fecking wall.” Ian had frozen in his spot. “You warned her through the bond?”

  Donovan shook his head. “She’s had more training in her eighteen years than most wolves have in their entire lives. Her four brothers made sure of it. Trust me. I’m not the first person who’s thrown her across a room in the last day or so.”

  I remembered slamming into the media room wall. “Very true. Max did toss me…” God. Was that only two days ago? “And that time I did hit the wall. And then Micah did, too. But this time there was more room. That got my blood pumping and I’m not feeling quite so wolfy
.”

  “You’re welcome.” Donovan closed the distance between us. “See? I take care of my mate, Ian,” he said without looking away from me. “And I do thank my lucky fucking stars.”

  I pressed my lips to his. “As you should.”

  “Don.” The sound of Vivian’s whine broke us apart, just as she intended. “You rushed off without me this morning. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m your second now. You should consult with me before you take any actions to find who killed Thomas. If you care enough to do anything about it. Running off with a non-pack member while all of this is going on and kissing in the hallway?” Vivian stepped between Donovan and me to run a fingertip down his arm. “What’s that say to us? And I’ve heard she’s been cursed. You with a cursed wolf? Seems like you’re making a lot of wrong choices these days.”

  That was it. I’d heard enough.

  I grabbed Vivian’s arm, turning her toward me, and then slammed my fist into her face. I moved to the side as blood spurted from her nose and she crumpled to the ground.

  “Oh, whoops. Did that hurt?” I squatted next to her and grinned as she moaned. “Next time, don’t throw home furnishings at me and don’t touch my mate. Ever.” I paused to let my words sink in. “I’m Donovan’s mate, and you might have warmed his bed once a long time ago, but that’s the past. I’m here now. I’m his true mate and I outrank you. Never forget that.”

  “You bitch. You’re not worth half of what I am.”

  What was she even talking about? Power? Financially? Who cared?

  I stared her down. “I’d get moving to wherever your medic is hiding. Your nose is healing crooked, but if you want me to break it again, I’m always ready and able.”

  She screeched, and the madness thickened in her eyes. Her face contorted with rage. “You bitch.” Spit flew from her mouth as she whispered fiercely at me. “Come at me again, and I’ll make what I did to Ciara seem like a dream.” She whispered the last few words so softly I could barely hear them, but she’d forgotten that Ian and Donovan were right behind me. If I could hear her, so could they.