Pack 11 - Wolf Whisperer

by Karen Whiddon

  A stab of pain made him realize why he normally shut his mind down whenever he started thinking about them—because it hurt too damn much.

  Next to him, Kelly shifted in her seat again. Glancing at her, he saw her attention was focused on a group of people who were taking seats close to the front. He spotted Ian’s red head and realized they must be her family.

  For the first time he realized Maggie’s brother most likely would be there also. He’d have to be careful not to run into him or else he’d be outed as a non-Tearlach.

  As he leaned over to whisper this to Kelly, a muscular older man with longish silver hair took the stage.

  “That’s my uncle Danny,” Kelly told him, keeping her voice low. “He appears to be in charge of all this, doesn’t he?”

  Mac nodded. The overhead lights flickered on and off, signaling all those who were still standing to take their seats. In a flurry of motion, everyone rushed to do just that.

  “Welcome,” Danny McKenzie said into the microphone, his Scottish accent lending a burr to his words. “I’m glad to see so many of you were able to make it.”

  Several people cheered.

  “Many of you are aware of female family members that have been taken. Most of you probably think this number is limited to two or three, all within your own clan. This is not the case. As of today’s date, thirty-seven young women have been abducted.”

  As one, the audience gasped. Mac sat up straighter in his seat. Around him, people began to talk among themselves.

  “Holy crap,” Kelly muttered next to him. “This is unbelievable.”

  Someone from the other side of the auditorium shouted out something similar, demanding to know what was being done about this.

  “I don’t have any answers.” Danny spread his hands. “We don’t even know who is behind the abductions. We set the hotel alarms off this morning, trying to flush them out. We’ve hired private investigators around the world, even approached the Pack Protectors—”

  At this, many gasped again. Several shouted out curse words or denials.

  Looking serene, Danny waited until the group had once again grown quiet before continuing. “Despite having the best people in the world working on this, we have been unable to obtain any answers.”

  “That doesn’t seem possible,” Mac muttered in Kelly’s ear. “The Pack has lots of resources. Surely they would be able to—”

  Kelly shushed him, inclining her head toward the stage, where Danny was asking them for silence.

  “This is the reason we’ve decided to all get together. Perhaps we were wrong splitting up the families. We’ve never faced a threat of this magnitude before. Maybe there is better safety in numbers.”

  “What does our council plan to do about this? These are our daughters, our sisters. We need answers!” someone from the audience shouted out.

  Expression sad, Danny scanned the audience, making Mac wonder if he was trying to find out who had spoken so he could single the man out for retribution.

  “No, that’s not it,” Kelly spoke beside him. “He’s not like that.”

  “Not like what?” Mac whispered back, once again forced to wonder if she’d read his mind.

  “He’s not evil,” she said, her attention still focused on the stage.

  “Therefore,” Danny continued, “our council has decided to put it to a vote. A ballot has been drawn up and will be distributed among you. We can ask the Pack Protectors to use their considerable resources to assist us, but as you know, their help comes with a price.”

  Again the crowd erupted with noise, everyone speaking at once. Several yells of why were heard over the racket.

  “We have several theories, but we really don’t know why.” Danny had to shout to be heard over the crowd’s noise. “Some think it’s some kind of breeding program, though we all know that would be futile. Another hypothesis is some kind of black magic ritual. Many more ideas have been tossed about, though in my opinion they keep getting stranger and stranger.”

  “Alien abduction?” someone cried out, causing more than a few snickers in the crowd.

  “That was one of them, yes. There are a few more, but to be honest with you, we don’t understand why. We’ve had a few threats—if we try to locate the missing women, they’ll be killed—but no demand for ransom or anything like that.”

  He looked so frustrated that Mac caught himself feeling sorry for the guy.

  “We’ve set up a toll-free number for you to make reports. If you have a family member missing, a friend, hell, even an acquaintance, call and report everything you know. The smallest details can mean anything when they’re put together.”

  A woman in the third row stood up. “Have you compiled statistics? What is the primary age group of the targets?”

  “They are all young women, all of childbearing age, between eighteen years old and twenty-nine. They’ve been taken from every continent, every country. However, most of them—a staggering thirty-three percent—have come from the United States.”

  This time, the audience sat silently absorbing this information.

  From another section, another woman stood. Danny dipped his chin at her, indicating she should speak.

  “Have they all been virgins?” she asked, her strained voice conveying her nervousness.

  “To the best of our knowledge,” Danny answered, “yes, they have.”

  Stunned, Mac listened as everyone started talking again. While he heard the words witchcraft and black magic repeatedly bantered about, no one seemed to find it strange that so many virgins aged eighteen to twenty-nine existed.

  “That’s because we are forbidden to mate until we’ve found our true mate,” Kelly murmured.

  Startled, Mac stared at her, the implications of what she’d said clear. “Are you reading my mind?” he accused.

  Shaking her head, she returned her attention to the front of the room.

  On the stage, Danny tapped the microphone, repeatedly asking for silence. “The council—and myself, of course—has determined that we have few options. We can ask the Protectors for assistance to find our missing women, or we can continue to try to do this on our own.”

  He held up a hand, indicating he hadn’t finished yet. “And finally, there is a third option. We hesitated to mention it, because it will be quite distasteful to many of you. The Vampire Council has offered to help, as well. Their Huntresses will use their considerable skills to find our missing people.”

  More shouting again, though this time people leapt to their feet, shaking their fists. The outrage over this suggestion was three times as strong as when Danny had mentioned the Protectors, which Mac was glad to hear.

  Personally, Mac found the idea abhorrent himself. Vampires and shifters were rarely able to work together, never mind achieve results in an enterprise of this size.

  This time, Danny waited a moment or two before tapping the mic and asking them to listen. When the noise level shrank, he announced that the ballots would be handed out and that they should use their code name and number as identification.

  “This will, of course, be matched with our database to ensure fairness. Only one vote per person,” he said. With that, Danny exited the stage and the houselights flashed back on.

  Everyone began talking to each other at once.

  Mac exchanged a glance with Kelly. “I need to know who they have contacted at the Protectors. We don’t require payment when we help someone. Or, in this case, a group of people.”

  Her steady gaze never wavered. “Really? That hasn’t been my experience. Every single Protector they sent to me wanted me to join the Pack.”

  “So?” Confused, he frowned. “But that’s not asking for payment.”

  “Isn’t it? If we were to become Pack members, that would give you access to all of our powers.”

  He’d had enough. “What powers?” Leaning in close, he went nearly nose to nose with her. “You keep hinting that you people are some kind of supershifters or something. I read
the dossier. Yes, you can protect someone, keep them from dying, like you did with me. But what else can you do? What makes you so valuable that someone is kidnapping your young women?”

  Though the answer to this question seemed vital if they wanted to find out who was doing this and why, she wouldn’t answer. Instead, she would only shake her head.

  The woman two seats to his left handed Mac a stack of papers with instructions to take one and pass them on. The ballots.

  Though Mac knew he couldn’t vote, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, so he kept one, along with one of the stubby pencils. Kelly did the same.

  “Vampires,” he said with disgust, reading through the ballot. “He was really serious.”

  “He wouldn’t have mentioned it if he didn’t mean it,” Kelly said, sounding distracted. Since she still held her ballot and her pencil, her preoccupation had to be on something else.

  Looking up, Mac saw her attention was focused on one of the exit doors. Since it was empty, he didn’t understand why.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  As his gaze met hers, she stood, panic flashing across her face. Voice low and urgent, she spoke. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now.”

  Another premonition?

  Pushing to his feet, he gripped her arm. “Tell me. What’s wrong?”

  Tossing her head back and forth, her agitation appeared to have made her unable to speak. He looked around at the rest of the crowd, and saw several others had stood and were behaving the same way.

  So many did share Kelly’s predilection for premonition. While he filed this information away to examine later, Kelly pulled him forward.

  “Come on, let’s go. Hurry,” she urged him.

  Moving quickly, they started up their row.

  But they were too late. Before they even reached the end of their row, several men wearing black trench coats with matching black fedoras pulled low over their faces appeared in the doorway.

  They were carrying MG 34’s, light machine guns that were completely illegal. A quick check revealed they stood in every doorway. Blocking them in.

  “Crap.” Kelly’s entire body sagged. “I wasn’t quick enough. If anyone tries to leave, they’re going to shoot us with those guns.”

  “Yep, and I bet they’re armed with silver bullets,” Mac said, pulling Kelly back down into an empty seat. “Keep low. Try not to attract their attention. I have a hunch.”

  Someone screamed. The crowd, most of them intent on their surveys, looked up. Mac could almost see the ripple that went through them as they all noticed the newcomers.

  To their credit, no one panicked. If they did, Mac had no doubt the intruders would mow them down.

  “What’s your hunch?” she whispered.

  “They’re here to gather more captives. The ones in real danger here are their targets—young women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, he saw a sort of calm resignation that scared the hell out of him.

  “Like me,” she said.

  As if they’d been hypnotized or something, the entire room went silent, staring at various exits. Mac looked around for their fearless leader, but Danny appeared to be conspicuously absent.

  Figures. Mac just bet Danny and his immediate family had gotten clean away. But no, he spotted Ian, climbing up to the stage.

  “What’s he doing?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I just hope he’s not doing something foolish.”

  Watching her cousin’s self-assured movements, Mac had a dawning suspicion that he was part of this somehow. Then, as Danny strode out to join his son, he knew it deep in his gut.

  From the stricken look on Kelly’s face, she realized it, too.

  Ian’s next words confirmed his suspicion. “This meeting was actually a ruse.” Ignoring the angry murmurs rising from the crowd, he continued, “We needed a way to get you together, all in one place.”

  Then, as everyone stood frozen, uncertain how to act, what to do, Ian tapped the mic. “Kelly McKenzie, please step forward.”

  “No way,” Mac snarled, grabbing her arm. “Slide down in your seat so he can’t see you.”

  “It won’t do any good,” she said, sounding miserable.

  “Please,” he urged, as a spotlight came up and began sweeping the audience, row by row.

  “Fine.” Though she did as he’d asked, her expression reflected her fear. “He’ll find me anyway.”

  “Not if I can help it,” he promised grimly, crossing his arms and pretending to be as interested in what was going on with the spotlight as everyone else.

  “Kelly, I know you’re here.” Ian spoke too close to the microphone, causing a feedback that squealed so loudly it hurt the ears.

  Someone jumped up from a section to the left of the stage. “Kelly left early,” she said, speaking loudly so her voice would carry to the stage. Rose, Kelly’s mom. “She’s going to meet me for dinner later.”

  “You’re lying.” Ian sounded calm. “We’ve checked the hotel. She and her Pack friend came here.” He spat the word Pack as though it tasted vile on his lips.

  “She’s gone,” Rose insisted. “I watched her leave myself.”

  Danny stepped forward, grabbing the microphone from his son. “Rose, we’ve known each other a long time. It’s perfectly understandable that you would try and protect your daughter, but she has broken the law of our people and must be punished.”

  “Punished?” Rose’s voice grew stronger, more strident. “By whom?”

  “By our enforcer. My son, Ian.”

  Rose wasn’t backing down so easily. “What law did she break?”

  “You know which one,” Danny softly chided her. “She has become the mate of one outside our race.”

  Chapter 11

  Listening, Mac toyed with the idea of standing up and shouting out the truth—that he wasn’t mated with Kelly, and she’d simply saved his life. Normally, he was all for being honest and up front, but in this instance of bizarre-land, he thought it better to remain invisible and let the situation play out.

  Now he had a better understanding of why they’d taken his children. Apparently, Kelly’s uncle Danny and his son had elected themselves dictators over the Tearlachs. And it didn’t appear to be a benevolent dictatorship, either.

  Not only did they want complete control over their own kind, but they wanted to punish anyone who broke the rigid set of rules they’d made. He wondered what they considered punishment. Torture? Death? Involuntary sterilization? Or incarceration?

  At the options, any of them, he winced. While he’d been aware that mating with non-Tearlachs was considered a bad thing among them, he hadn’t known such a deed was actually punishable.

  And why? Just because they said so didn’t cut it with him. And from the looks of things, many of the others were having similar issues with that. Eyeing the two crazies up on the stage, he realized their quest for power had most likely been built up over time. Kelly had said twelve years had passed since her father died. No doubt Danny had been plotting ever since then, if not before.

  He wondered what other rules they’d set in stone and would no doubt try to enforce. Soon they’d be trying to tell people how to dress and act. Did they really think they could treat people like serfs and get away with it? So far, it looked like they had. Up until now, it seemed clear that no one had even been remotely aware of them pulling the strings behind the scenes.

  Though from their ranting and raving today, their worst infraction appeared to be the one of which they believed Kelly guilty of making—mating with a non-Tearlach.

  Forbidden. Punishable. This had to be a fairly recent development. After all, Mac had been married to a Tearlach. He couldn’t help but wonder why this hadn’t been an issue with Maggie. While she’d been ostracized due to their marriage, no one had ever wanted to punish her. If they had, he would have known about it.


  Wouldn’t he? He had to believe he would.

  Then he had to wonder if this offense was the reason Kelly’s sister, Bonnie, and the other girls had been taken.

  The spotlight kept making its slow sweep of the room, row by row.

  “You know I might as well give up,” Kelly whispered urgently, tugging on his jeans. “When that damn thing shines over here, he’s going to know.”

  “Not if you stay down,” he muttered from the side of his mouth, still pretending to be as interested as the others who were watching the slow, deliberate search. “That thing can’t shine through seats or illuminate the floor. Stay down and he won’t see you.”

  “Maybe not, but he’ll see you,” she said. “Wearing sunglasses in the dark. That’s suspicious enough. And you can’t take them off or your eyes will give you away.”

  Cursing under his breath—the thought hadn’t even occurred to him—he watched the sweeping spotlight get closer and closer while he tried to figure out what to do.

  As if she sensed his dilemma—and who knows, maybe she did—Kelly’s mother once again stood and challenged Danny and Ian.

  “You say this meeting was a ploy to make us all gather together, but you haven’t explained why, other than your sick desire to ‘punish’ my daughter,” she shouted, her chin raised in a gesture Mac recognized.

  “I would think that would be obvious.” Danny spoke with great dignity, acting as though he were insulted that she even had to ask. “We must keep our race pure.”

  “That smacks of the Aryan Nations,” Rose replied. “I would think you would welcome fresh blood to mingle with ours. We are a dying people and this is the natural evolution of things.”

  “Natural?” Danny sneered, practically spitting the word. “Such a thing is a travesty, an aberration against our kind. How dare you believe it otherwise.”

  Rose continued to regard him calmly. Face red, eyes bulging, the man looked on the verge of a coronary.

  “Last time I checked, I live in a free country,” Rose pointed out, adding gasoline to the fire, Mac thought.