Heart of the Wolf (The Heart Chronicles Book 1)

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  She nodded. “Ok that's not complicated. I gathered that much from Matheson.”

  “It’s not a human organization.” I watched carefully for her reaction.

  Her eyes widened slightly, but she otherwise didn’t react. “It’s going to take me awhile to get used to the words ‘not human’, but I’ve seen people shift into wolves. I have no trouble believing this organization is a bit different, but what kind of non-human organization is it?”

  “A secret one.”

  “Yeah? Are you going to expand on that?”

  “A very secret one.” So secret I still didn’t really understand what it was.

  “That’s not expanding, that’s repeating.” She folded her hands on her lap. She was relaxed, and I took that as a small win. She felt safe enough to let her guard down a little.

  “I wish I could tell you more about it.”

  “You can.” She frowned “I know plenty already, there’s no reason to hide anything now.”

  She was cute when she was frustrated. Hell, she was cute all the time. Well, way more than cute. “Actually I can't tell you more because I don't really know anything about it.” Admitting that tidbit wasn’t fun.

  She narrowed her eyes. “How can you be working for an organization you don't know anything about?”

  “Like I told you, it's complicated.” And embarrassing. Admitting how little I knew wasn’t easy. I was supposed to be strong and in charge, but I probably seemed the opposite.

  “That's not complicated.” She rubbed her temple. “It’s weird.”

  “Weird?” I parroted back. “You should know all about weird. You're the one who came to a deserted island to look for your friend. Because that's normal.” I grinned to let her know I was only teasing. I did want to know more about how the Wellingtons convinced her to come though.

  She shook her head. “If you knew Mirabella, you’d understand.”

  “I wish I did know her.” There were so many questions she might be able to answer. Was she involved more than just being the little sister and best friend?

  “Why?” Anger marred her gorgeous face.

  “Not in any way that you think.” I quickly let her know Mirabella would never be a friend of mine. “Because I have a feeling she can answer a lot of our questions, and that she is even less innocent than she would want you to believe.”

  “Is that how things work in this organization? You just go with your feelings?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “Very funny.”

  “I never said any of this was funny.” She pulled her knees to the side of her. “None of this is funny. And I go with my feelings too. At least I did this time. I’m here with you, aren’t I?”

  “And I’m glad you are, but...” I had to ask the question. Her expression worried me. “Did he hurt you?”

  She shook my head. “Not in the way you’re thinking.”

  “In any way?” What he did was horrible enough, but I needed to know if he’d done even more. “I need to know.”

  “You don’t need to know, but I’m okay. Freaked out and ready to go home, but okay.”

  “I’m going to get you home as soon as I can.” And hopefully that wouldn’t also be a goodbye.

  “Somehow that implies it won’t be right away.” She ran her fingers through her tangled blonde hair as if trying to comb it.

  “Ok, it’s time to explain some things to you.”

  “I thought you didn’t know enough to explain everything.” She was annoyed, not that I could blame her.

  “I don’t know enough about the organization I work for to explain it, but I know about some other things.”

  “Some other things?” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

  “The containers.” I pointed to one of the large crates.

  “Yes?” She leaned forward. “The ones full of weapons, I’m listening.”

  “They aren’t normal weapons.” Here came the hard part.

  “What are normal weapons? Or rather what makes a weapon non-normal?”

  “These have been enhanced with magic.”

  “Magic? These are magic weapons?” She moved away from the crate she was leaning against and turned around to face me.

  “No, they are weapons enhanced with magic. I think there’s a difference,” I explained.

  “Once again, you think?” She sighed.

  “I’m sorry I don’t have more definite answers, but I promised to share what I know, and that’s what I’m trying to do right now.”

  “So these weapons enhanced with magic, are they bad?”

  I nodded. “Very.” Matheson had backed up Asher’s description. One bomb could wipe out an entire city of humans.

  “And what does the magic do?” She moved to her feet.

  “I don’t exactly know, but…” I jumped in before she could interrupt. “I do know the goal is to hurt humans.” I couldn’t bare to use the words wipe out unless I had to.

  “Hurt humans? Like kill them?” I stood up.

  Ok, she wasn’t going to let me merely beat around the bush. “Yes, the goal is to kill all of them, or so I’ve been told.”

  “Then what are we doing with them? Why not destroy them?” Her eyes were wide with fright.

  “We have to find out who the Wellingtons are selling them to. This load Is bad, but it’s not the only one.”

  “But what happens if you can’t fight these guys? And they get the weapons?”

  “We can’t let that happen.” I wasn’t failing. There was far too much at stake. If the backup didn’t arrive on time, I’d have to take care of the mess myself.

  “Is there any way to get rid of the magic on them? I mean clearly they’d still be dangerous, but could we make them less dangerous?” She jumped to her feet.

  “From what Matheson told me, no. At least he and I can’t. Maybe they can. But that would be a problem anyway, because they might notice the change and stay away. We have to play this carefully to make sure we don’t scare the buyers off. That’s why we can’t dump the weapons or anything. If the buyers find them when we aren’t around… well I don’t want to think about that possibility.”

  “Who’s they? I mean you said you don’t know who the Wellingtons are dealing with.”

  “I don’t, but I also mean the Wellingtons. I guess I also need to explain why they are special wolves. Well, that I am supposedly one too.”

  “Oh my. Special wolves?” She laughed dryly. “This keeps getting better and better.”

  “I know. I said that wrong. But we’re wolves that can manipulate magic. Of course I’ve never done it, but in theory I can.”

  “So you’re a magician on top of a wolf?”

  “Not a magician.” That word sounded odd.

  She started to laugh.

  “You’ve seen men shift into wolves, yet it’s the magic part you are having trouble with?” I tried to understand her reaction.

  “I’m not having trouble with it; I’m just struggling to understand. All of this is very new to me.”

  “If it helps, the magic part is new to me too.”

  “That doesn’t really help.”

  I shrugged. “I figured telling you was worth a shot.”

  “Ok, so we can’t get rid of the magic, but what about the weapons?” Her eyes lit up.

  “What about them?” I loved the excitement on her face, but I had no idea where her train of thought had gone.

  “Are they computer based? I bet they are. That’s what the cover was for. I bet they made all the computer components and then added them to weapons later.”

  Understanding dawned on me. “And you know how to deactivate the parts?”

  “Maybe.” She nodded as if trying to convince herself. “And you can help. You do work for a covert organization.”

  “I could kiss you right now.” She had a plan, a real definitive plan, that did not involve sitting around and waiting.

  “Then do it. I’ve been waiting for you to do it all day.” There was
a challenge in her words I could not ignore.

  I cradled her head with my hand and gently brushed my lips against hers. I felt a spark jump between us and knew I had to go in for more. I pulled her tightly against me as I kissed her harder, hungrier. Her hands tangled in my hair as I tipped her head back ever so lightly, pressing my tongue against her lips, asking for access that she eagerly granted. I ran my hand up and down her back, before letting it settle on her hip, once against pulling her against me.

  The kiss was fire, intense and smoldering, and ending it became impossible when her hand slipped underneath my shirt and ran over my stomach and then my chest. Each touch of her fingers intensified the fire brewing inside me and between us.

  Finally a sobering realization hit me, and I gently eased away. She was kissing me without knowing my true name. That was wrong and had to be rectified before anything could go any further.

  She blinked a few times and licked her lips. “Uh, what were we talking about before all that?”

  “The weapons. Fixing the weapons. But first, I need to talk to you about something.”

  “About what?” She looked down.

  “Oh, nothing like that,” I quickly dispelled any worry that I was about to try to let her down easy or anything like that. It was quite the opposite. I now knew it was going to be impossible to let go when all of this was over.

  “Then what is it?” She crossed her long legs at the ankles.

  I studied her face, her bright blue eyes, and her cheeks that were still slightly red from our kiss. “My name is not Ryan. Well, it’s my last name. My first name is Carter.”

  She looked startled at first, then the surprise quickly turned to laughter. “Your cover was to reverse your names?”

  “I’m not the one who chose the cover.”

  “Oh yeah? Was that decision in the hands of your secret organization?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “Ok. So technically I haven’t been calling you the wrong name. Lots of people go by their last names.”

  “Technically, yes.”

  “But you’d prefer I call you Carter?”

  “You can call me either. I just couldn’t let things go any further until you knew the truth. I don’t want you to feel lied to.”

  “I was lied to.” Her words hit me straight in the gut. “I should be mad about it, but I get that you probably had no choice. You did what you had to do to get me off that island. To get me away from Justin.” She shuddered as she spoke his name.

  “Exactly.”

  “And right now we are also in a no choice situation. As much as I’d like to see where that kiss could go, we need to take care of the weapons.”

  “We do. Immediately.” My wolf disagreed with me, but I was the one in charge. I ignored the howl that was getting dangerously close to the surface.

  “How safe are these weapons to handle?” She eyed the closed crate closest to us warily.

  “Probably not safe.”

  “Once again with the probably. It’s almost as bad as ‘I think.’”

  “Ok, I’ll call it as it is. It’s not safe, but then again being next to them isn’t safe.”

  “They will be even less safe when they are used by the wrong people.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “Let’s do this.”

  “Let me handle them first.” I put my hand on the lid of the crate. “Step back.”

  “Do you really think stepping back is going to help me if you set off one of the bombs?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “No, not at all.”

  “Ok then.” She wove her hand in the air. “Proceed.”

  Fifteen

  Hope

  I really hoped I knew what I was doing. I may have exaggerated my knowledge of the computer parts to Ryan—Carter, that is. It was going to take me awhile to switch around his name in my head. I still couldn’t quite believe they’d given him such a silly alias. It’s what made me so determined to face my fear and examine the weapons. We couldn’t rely on this organization to protect us.

  Carter popped off the lid, carefully laying it on the ground next to the box.

  I stayed back a little, not because I actually thought it would protect me, but because I didn’t want to needlessly annoy Carter. We were both in a highly stressful situation, and I didn’t mind his insistence on protecting me because it wasn’t out of believing I was weak but something else. He cared. He wanted to keep me safe, and that made him asking me nicely to stay back seem less annoying than it normally would.

  “Oh, wow.” The words flowed from Carter’s mouth as soon as he looked inside.

  “What?” I joined him by the side, first trying to step on my tippy toes to look in, then jumping, then relenting and allowing Carter to lift me up to look in. “Oh my.”

  “That’s one giant bomb.”

  “That’s a different one from the drawing.” I had gotten a good look at that one, and this one was double the size.

  “Well, from the first drawing.” He pulled out the stack of papers. “I think this is the diagram that matches.” He selected the diagram and handed it to me.

  “Ok. This will help.” At least I hoped it would. I searched the paper, grateful when I found what I was looking for. “Ok, there are some things in here I recognize. I’d assumed they were for the processors we were producing, but clearly they had another use.”

  “Do you have an idea of how we could take them apart?”

  “Maybe. The problem is how can we possibly do this for all the boxes? There are tons on this floor and the level above.”

  “Is there anything centralized? Connecting these?”

  “Let me see what I can figure out.” I took the roll of diagrams and started to unroll them on the ground. Luckily most of them unrolled easily, only a few of them kept rolling back up on me.

  There were over a dozen different diagrams. They were mostly bombs with two missiles. Just looking at the diagrams made me shudder.

  “They all use the same centralized automation system. That’s what makes it possible for them to be activated remotely.”

  “Activated meaning blown up?” Carter leaned over my shoulder.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s not exactly reassuring.”

  “No, but it means we have to figure this out.”

  “Is there a way we can deactivate them from here?”

  I pointed to a spot on the diagram. “Yes. The chips can be deactivated on site. Of course they will still be bombs though, and could be reactivated once someone else got their hands on them.”

  “I have one other idea.” It wasn’t a pretty one, but after flipping through the diagrams and mentally counting up how many bombs were on the boat, I didn’t see much of another choice.

  “What can I do?” Carter asked.

  “Take out that bomb and set it in front of me.” I didn’t want to touch the thing, but there was no other choice. Deactivating bombs wasn’t in my wheel house, but I had read the research on the remote activation chips these bombs and missiles held. It wasn’t really part of my job description, but when a mid-level manager asked me to read up and write reports I’d done it without question. In the end my inability to say no to work assignments might be the only thing that would save us.

  “Are you sure?” Carter hesitated by my side.

  “Do you doubt me?”

  “Doubt you?” He shook his head. “Not by a long shot.”

  “Then you have to trust me on this. I know what this chip is. I thought they were designing them to make it easier for companies to control their computers no matter the workspace they were in, but clearly it was designed for another reason.”

  “Ok. Where do you want it?”

  “Over there.” I pointed to the biggest open space I’d seen. “Although we should probably move some of these other boxes over more.”

  He pushed two of the crates before returning to the open crate and pulling out the bomb. He set down the silver object on the floor
as I’d asked him to.

  “Something about this is bothering me.” He looked down at the bomb.

  “Many things about this are bothering me. What part are you referring to?” I was nervous and anxious, not a good combination.

  “Why make chips with this fail safe? They don’t seem like the type to leave open such a worrisome possibility.”

  “I don’t know. I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe this will all blow up in our faces, but we have to try.” Then my choice of words hit me. “Not really blow up. Ok, that is a possibility, but that’s not what I meant at all.”

  “I know what you mean.” He smiled and made no other comment. I appreciated that he didn’t ask more questions. “Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”

  “I will.” I sat down and crossed my legs. Ok, I could do this. I examined the metal casing. “You wouldn’t happen to have something I could use to open this, do you?”

  He kneeled down next to me. “A screwdriver or something?”

  “Yes.”

  “I have this.” He pulled out one of those Swiss-army knife kind of things. “Will it work?”

  “Yes.” I accepted the tool and used the small knife option to unscrew the tiny screws.

  I could feel Carter’s breath on my neck as I worked. Normally that would have annoyed me, but instead it kept me relaxed. I needed to do this perfectly. It wasn’t only my life on the line if I somehow set off the bomb. There were lots of other lives on the line if we failed to deactivate these things.

  I set aside the metal casing and looked at the myriad of wires and chips inside. I had to get this right. I closed my eyes and pictured all the reports I read. I was right about this. It was the chip with the little green spot on it. The problem was I had no idea what wires needed to be disconnected. I also had no clue what would happen if I tried to take out the chip. There was always a chance the bomb would go off.

  “We don’t have to do this.” Carter put a hand on my shoulder. “We can find another way.”

  “What other way? We can’t just sit here and wait. No offense, but I don’t have the highest faith your bosses can take care of this.”