“I’m not locked up anymore.”
“You will be when they find you here, your parents dead in the same way your friends were killed and you, guilt ridden, mentally ill and shot by your own hand. I wanted you to be here to watch them die. Abominations deserve pain—you reap what you sow.”
He thinks you can die. And she really didn’t know for sure that she couldn’t, or how fast she’d recover. She could only hope that Jinx rescued the Blackwells in time.
Let him go to report back to the pack that she was dead. He was obsessed with the twin curse, knew nothing of the ability.
I could trail him to find my twin.
She freed her hands from under her thighs and Uncle Sam told her not to move.
She stood anyway, moved threateningly toward him, aware that Sister Wolf was ready to take the reins. Her canines were already elongated and she was never more sure of anything than this.
The bullets ripped through her chest and she crumpled after taking a few more steps. Her breath grew harsh, her eyes hazy and the last thing she saw were the Blackwells’ faces before she closed her eyes.
Her final thought was of Jinx and then everything went black.
* * *
Gwen had to fight Rifter to be allowed to come on this stakeout. Now that the Dires surrounding her began to drop, she was so grateful she’d followed her instincts.
“Gillian,” Jinx cried out. “She’s been shot.”
Gillian’s death didn’t fell the other Dires immediately, but they all stopped moving within moments, their bodies pained. It had happened before, many times over the years and it always hurt like hell, but this time, Jinx wasn’t upset.
It meant he’d been right—Gillian was immortal. Of course, he’d kill her later when he talked to her about what a chance she’d taken.
“What now? If she’s dead, there’s no one to protect her parents,” Kate said as they stared into the window at the scene in front of them.
“She wouldn’t know that when she’s killed, the others die too and they recover together,” Gwen said. “Kate, stay here with them—Liam, come with me.”
Gwen’s wolf was eager to come out but she didn’t want the Blackwells to see a wolf coming at them. Instead, she slammed through the bulletproof glass with her foot, then leaped through the rest, not stopping for a second, moving over furniture to pin the man down seconds before he shot the Blackwells.
Liam was shouting, grabbing the gun, and Gwen raked her claws across the wolf’s left cheek so he’d be easy to find—and then she let him run.
“Tell Cyd to stay close to him. If he gets and keeps his scent, maybe he can lead us to Gillian’s twin,” she instructed and Liam called Cyd and did just that.
She moved to where the Blackwells were passed out, but alive. She smelled the chloroform he’d used and wondered why he hadn’t killed them on the spot.
“I hope Kill comes to soon, because he’s got to plant some new memories,” Liam mumbled.
“Or maybe not,” Gwen said. “Maybe they have a right to know.”
“And maybe you’ve gone crazy.” But he was smiling as he said it.
* * *
Cain tore through the woods behind Cyd. Keeping up with the Dire wasn’t easy, but the strong scent of his fear certainly helped. And suddenly, Cyd stopped on a dime, Cain skidding to a stop behind his twin.
Cyd shifted fast, as did Cain and they watched the Dire pull out a long sword from behind one of the trees. He’d done this purposely, known someone would try to track him.
“I failed,” he said to no one in particular.
“We’ve got to stop him,” Cyd said, leaped over the brush to get to the Dire before he ran the sword through his heart. Cain watched as his twin got there just in time, surprising the Dire just enough so the sword flew. But Cyd was no match for the Dire—hell, both Cyd and Cain combined weren’t. And holding the sword to him wasn’t much incentive, because the Dire wanted to die.
“Where’s Gillian’s twin?” Cain demanded. The Dire smiled.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” were his last words before he ran straight to Cain. The force of his body hitting the sword slammed Cain into the tree behind him. He watched helplessly as the wolf died in front of him.
* * *
Gillian woke slowly, painfully. Gwen was standing over her, putting cool water on her face and Gillian sat up. Too fast, because the room spun.
“Gillian, it’s okay. Your parents are safe. Cyd’s tracking the Dire. Everything’s okay,” Gwen assured her and Gillian gripped the doctor wolf’s hand.
“Thank you.”
“You started it.”
“And you finished it,” Gillian said. “Where are the others?”
“Here,” Jinx said, limping in.
“What happened?” Gillian asked, confused as all the Dires walked in behind him like the centurions they were.
“When you die, they all . . . die,” Gwen explained.
“Shit, I had no idea,” Gillian said.
“Maybe next time, explain things thoroughly, Jinx?” Vice said. “And you wonder why I told her about the mating.”
With Gwen’s help, Gillian got off the floor and went to hug Jinx. Gwen told her that her parents were in the other room, resting.
“I have to see them,” she said and Jinx held her hand as they walked in. They looked all right, but shaken.
“Baby girl, can you ever forgive us?” her father asked. She hugged him first, then her mother.
“I already have. And I’m sorry I scared you all these years.”
“I don’t understand why that woman’s family would do such a thing to her,” her father said.
“The less you know, the safer you’ll be. Just please, get the search for me called off. Clear me. Get my face wiped from the news.”
“You can say this was a robbery gone bad,” Jinx said. “You’ve been on the news so much and everyone knows how much money you’re offering. I’m sure the police will be here soon, so let’s get the story straight.”
Which meant they needed to leave. Gillian hugged her parents again and her mother said, “Will you visit? Both of you . . .”
Jinx nodded and Gillian embraced her mother again. The only one she’d known. It hadn’t been perfect but it had been hard on them too. “We’d like that.”
Chapter 41
Cain dialed the phone over and over, hitting the buttons more frantically each time. No answer. Mailbox full.
It didn’t make sense.
Panic raced through him and, for the first time since his original moon craze, he couldn’t control his wolf. He shifted in the middle of the Dire living room as all the other wolves around him growled and surrounded him. He was prepared to fight each and every one of them to the death if it meant getting outside.
He was desperate. Growling, frothing at the mouth and he shoved at Rifter, who shifted and rose on his hind legs.
Cyd lunged then, but at Rifter. And Cain took that opportunity to crash out the side window that hadn’t yet been repaired, splintering wood as he went.
The scent was getting fainter than it had ever been. Why was that happening? He swore he could hear the man in his ear, but that was wishful thinking.
Angus, where are you?
He ran through the woods, searching every corner and crevice frantically, did so for hours, barely aware that the other wolves were following him. But they weren’t interfering.
Finally, he hit on a spot and he sniffed and dug . . . and then he found it. His wolf howled uncontrollably and he wanted to stop, to make calls, to be sure. But until Vice’s hands touched him, didn’t let go even when Cain bit his hand deeply, he couldn’t calm down.
Vice’s ability was his extremes of emotions. He was worried too, but he managed to push himself in the other direction and the pendulum swing of calm forced Cain to be so as well. In a matter of minutes, he was able to shift, and when he did, he bit out, “Angus is gone.”
“What do you mean, he’s g
one?” Vice asked, still calm so Cain could be. The other wolves shifted and moved around him.
“Someone dragged him out of here. He’s not answering his phone—and it’s here—crushed.” He pointed and they all looked at the destroyed cell, covered in Angus’s blood.
Cyd had an arm around him. “We’ll find him, brother. If it’s the last thing I do.”
Cain could only nod, because he was reeling.
“How protected is he?” Vice asked.
“A little. But we didn’t mate, yet. We were waiting until . . . tonight.” His voice broke on that word and the last thing he remembered hearing was Vice cursing as Cain shifted uncontrollably into the wolf again. And then he ran.
He might never stop. Not until he found Angus.
* * *
Angus woke in the back of what he assumed to be a van. He was hogtied, but not gagged, and he wasn’t alone. He turned and let his eyes adjust to the light so he could see Bobby, his old partner. And try as he might, Angus had no memory of why they were together in this van.
“Bobby, what the hell?” he asked and Bobby opened his eyes and stared at Angus in the darkness.
“I thought you’d never wake up,” Bobby said. “It’s the trappers.”
“Trappers? What are you talking about?”
“Weretrappers got us, Angus. Two up front, probably four more in the car following. I only got a quick look before they bashed my head in.”
Maybe trappers were a new gang? Angus shook his head, trying to clear it, but that was a mistake. The dizziness overtook him and he gagged, trying not to throw up.
“Dammit,” Bobby cursed. “They hit you hard. You’ve got a concussion. You need to stay awake, Angus.”
But it would be so much easier to just close his eyes and sleep. “Were we on a case? Did you let our sup know where we’d be so he could send backup?”
“Angus, you’re not in the FBI anymore.”
“What do you mean, Bobby? Have you lost your mind?”
“Don’t you remember? We were in the woods, hunting Weres. Wolves.”
“I never liked hunting.”
“Shit. Don’t you remember Cain? Do you think he might be able to help us?”
“Is Cain an informant?” Everything was swimming in a jumbled mess in his mind. He felt fear now, and at the same time, he began to shiver. The motion of the van was making him seasick and he got onto his knees, tucked himself into a small ball like he was trying to disappear.
If he was lucky, maybe he would.
Chapter 42
The Dires gathered in the woods, along with Liam, Cyd and Cain, who still wore silver chains to stop him from erratically shifting. The past weeks, days, had been so hard on all of them, but they were out here under the moon, bruised and a little worse for wear, with big worries hanging over their heads.
But, as Rifter pointed out, with great sorrow must come great joy. He told them it would be irresponsible not to celebrate. That it would be a slap in the face to Dire tradition, and to the traditions that they’d created together.
“We’re going to make more of our own,” Rifter promised now. “It’s time. We have to break away from the old enough to let in some of the new.”
The baby on Vice’s shoulder made a cooing sound, as if in total agreement with the king. Jinx put his arm around Gillian’s shoulders and let the goodness of that sound seep into his soul.
This naming ceremony would also be a mating blessing. The Elders were called for, but none came.
“What does that mean?” Gillian asked him.
Vice wanted to say that it meant the Elders were assholes, but Harm spoke first.
“We’re here. And we’re the ones who count,” Harm said, and his voice was sure and firm. “I’d take Rifter’s rule over them any day.”
Rifter nodded and moved in front of Jinx and Gillian. He blessed the union with a prayer in the old language as Gillian held tightly to Jinx’s hand, her eyes sparkling. They kissed, everyone clapped.
They would run under the moon after blessing the baby.
“Dire, do you have a name for your son?” Rifter asked, and it was the first time anyone had called this baby Vice’s son. He didn’t bother to hide the tears, cleared his throat and said, “He will be called Niclass.”
Rifter smiled. “You gave him a Dire name.”
“He is, for all intents and purposes,” Vice said. “We’ll call him Nic.”
“His name means victory of the people,” Rifter explained to those who didn’t know. And then they all chanted a prayer and protection blessing for the little one.
“Now, we run,” Rifter proclaimed and they all headed deeper into the woods. Rifter and Gwen shifted first, and the others followed in quick succession. The last ones with Vice were Jinx and Gillian. Vice wanted to shift, but he wouldn’t leave Nic.
Maybe he could come up with some kind of sling for Brother Wolf.
Now, Jinx and Gillian stood on either side of him.
“You two need to run,” Vice told them.
“Maybe this is our new tradition,” Jinx told him.
“I like it,” Vice told them. He put the baby in Gillian’s arms and Nic cooed. “He likes you.”
“I like him, too.”
“Gillian, don’t ever give up your search, okay?” Vice told her. He hadn’t, thousands of years later, still hadn’t. Nic was in his arms and he knew this was the right thing to do.
Liam had come far in a short time span. Vice would take none of that credit. The fact that Nic would be with him through all his years . . . that was something that scared Vice. But he’d always liked a challenge.
Together with Nic, they walked farther into the woods as the shifted Dires cavorted around them. The moon shone above them, bathing them in all things good and warm. And no matter what would happen, what could, they were family.
Epilogue
N ot all who wander are lost.
Eydis had read the Lord of the Rings books and watched the movies so many times, she knew many of the lines by heart.
That particular one struck her every single time. She was a living, breathing example of that wanderer. No matter how lost she wished she could be, it would never happen.
She could still scent Vice, had never stopped being able to, even when she was killed by her own Dire pack and ascended to the Elders. Many times, she’d wished she’d simply died, but she’d always been able to comfort herself by knowing she could watch over Vice.
The other Elders had always been able to torment her in turn by tormenting him. But this last favor she’d begged for the immortal Dires who walked the earth, and in order to have her promise granted, she’d done the proverbial put up or shut up. And now, she was back here, an immortal, unshifted Dire walking the earth.
Even if she was allowed to see Vice, how could she explain the choices she’d been forced to make?
The choices you did make. There was no going back, but there was no forgetting either. She’d accepted her punishment easily, knowing how lonely it would be.
If you go to the Dires, we’ll make your life a living hell, the two remaining male Elders had promised.
Like it hadn’t always been, she’d told them.
If you go to the Dires, we’ll make their lives a living hell. We’ll take away anyone and anything that’s ever been important to them had been the final threat, the one that made her accept that being alone, for the rest of her immortal life, was the only path she could wander.
Don’t miss the first book in Stephanie Tyler’s
exciting new romantic suspense series.
SURRENDER
A Section 8 Novel
On sale now from Signet Eclipse
Please turn the page for a preview.
Prologue
Zaire, twenty years earlier
The explosion threw him forward hard, the heat searing his body, debris cutting into his back as he covered his face and stayed down. Darius didn’t need to look back to know what had happened�
�the bridge had exploded. Simon had purposely cut off their last means of escape. It would force their hands, Darius’s especially.
“Darius, you all right?” Simon shook him, yanked him to his feet and held him upright. His ears would continue to ring for months.
“How much ammo do you have?” he called over the din. Couldn’t see the rebels yet, but he knew they were coming toward them through the jungle.
“Stop wasting time. You go.” Simon jerked his head toward the LZ and the waiting chopper about thirty feet away, crammed full of important rescued American officials and the like. Already precariously over capacity. “Go now and I’ll hold them off.”
Simon had always had a sense of bravado and a temper no one wanted to deal with, but one against twenty-plus? Those odds were not in the man’s favor. Darius shook his head hard, and it was already spinning from the explosion.
“You are no fucking help to me,” Simon told him. “I can’t watch your back this time, Darius.”
“Fuck you.”
“Leave. Me. Here.”
“If I do that, I’ll come back to just a body.”
“You’re never coming back here.” Simon’s teeth were bared, ready for battle—with the rebels, with Darius, if necessary.
“If we both fight, we’ve got a better shot,” Darius told him.
“You would tell me to leave if things were reversed, Master Chief, sir.” Simon stood straight and tall, hand to his forehead, and Darius growled, “Don’t you dare salute me, son.” Their old routine. Simon managed a small smile, one that was as rare as peace in this part of the world.
“Don’t take this from me, Darius. Let me save your goddamned life. You have your son to think about—I won’t take you away from Dare.”
Dare was in middle school—his mother had already left them both, and pain shot through Darius at the thought of leaving his son without a parent.
Simon knew he had him, pressed on. “The team will always need you, and me—well, you can always find someone who can fight.”
Dire Desires ewc-3 Page 26