by Celia Kyle
“Oh, that was rage. Pure emotion. Made me sloppy.” The words were matter of fact, as if he’d come to terms with his failure and attempting to kill an innocent woman was no big deal. “I boiled over with it. I had my chance and I wanted it. I leapt too soon. Now though…” Reid met his gaze and then turned his attention to Kira.
A rumbled growl formed in his chest, but he pushed it down. So far, the ex-alpha had been calm and almost cordial. There was no reason to destroy Kira’s home by shifting and going to battle. Yet.
“Now, it’s more of a simmer.” The wolf turned his head, looking past him, and Isaac glanced back to find Zoey curled against Bates on the couch. “When something’s simmering, it can go one of two ways. It can calm and relax, settle into its flavors, or it can boil, foam and roll over the edge, destroying whatever it touches.” Reid focused on Isaac. “With Terrence’s therapy bullshit, I’m a simmer. Ready. Waiting. I’ve got death on my left shoulder and pain on the right. Both of them are more than ready to tear into that pack just as soon as someone tells me what I need to know.”
“What do you need to know?” Kira’s voice broke the widening silence.
“Which one of ‘em should die first.”
Chapter Eighteen
Kira sat sideways across Isaac’s lap, head on his shoulder as she snuggled close. Her best friend adopted a similar position with her new mate. Well, mate but not. Zoey was still recovering and the two of them hadn’t “sealed the deal” quite yet.
Based on the woman’s snuggles and happy sighs, Kira didn’t imagine it’d be much longer. Not if Zoey and Bates had their way.
Reid on the other hand… If he got what he wished for most, it’d probably mean Bates’ head on a platter. He’d taken his new job as big brother a little too seriously.
Staring at the massive male, Kira wondered if the ex-alpha’s therapy really had done anything for him.
“I’m sure you told Bates, but walk me through it.” Reid’s voice was hoarse, from this inner wolf, emotion, or both.
Zoey sighed, but recounted her story, bringing their small group with her as she relived the last few days.
Days. Days. Zoey traveled across the country, Carve tearing her apart, for days.
Kira wasn’t sure how the woman had survived.
“Mitchell was pissed. I mean pissed, and Kira wasn’t there and she’s…” Zoey hesitated, so Kira picked up the slack.
“I’m his favorite victim. His favorite pet.”
Two things happened at once. Isaac gave her a reassuring squeeze, but it was Reid’s reaction that shook her. He shot her a look that contained both rage and regret.
“And Mitchell is?” Reid jotted the name down and kept his attention on her.
“My brother.” Kira grimaced.
The ex-alpha’s movement ceased. “Brother?”
“Yes.”
“Which makes…” His voice trailed off, but the question was there.
“Which makes Alpha Clarke my father.” She jerked her head in a stiff nod.
“He condoned your brother…” Disgust filled his features.
Kira shrugged. “I’m prey amongst wolves. I mean, how strong can an alpha be if he sired a mole. He probably would have been happy to see me gone.”
Why can’t you just die? Mitchell yelled those same words more than once.
“It’s the biggest reason I left. I kept working up the nerve to run and finally Zoey…” Kira looked to her friend, the woman who’d helped her flee the pack and suffered because of it. “I wish I would have stayed.”
Her best friend was quick to shake her head. “No. Never wish for that. They would have done it at some point. We just managed to get you out first.”
“Zoey? What else?” Reid’s attention went to his half-sister.
“I think…” Zoey focused on Kira. “I think he found you. When you left and he couldn’t locate you for a few days, he was pissed. When I told him you were gone, he was enraged. Like, oh my God furious. Then he was suddenly happy. At least, for a little while. Then he got pissy again. That’s when he came after me.” Her friend nibbled her lip. “Did something happen? Did you see anyone following you?”
A wolf on the other side of the room snorted at Zoey’s choice in words. Isaac tensed beneath her, hands tightening as if to move her aside. Dammit, he’d already shattered one window in her home.
Before Isaac had a chance to hunt and kill the offending male, Reid pushed to his feet. He rose slowly, body unfolding from her small chair with unhurried care. With the same speed, he turned toward the source of the snort and moved forward. The crowd parted for him, eventually revealing a single male cowering against the wall.
“A-A-A-Alpha Bennett—”
Reid didn’t give the male a chance to utter more than his name. Nope, because then the wolf was up and out. As in, Reid literally lifted the large werewolf over his head and threw him across the room. And right out the window.
Dammit.
Reid brushed off his hands, sliding one against the other as if touching the male dirtied him, and then carefully returned to his seat.
“Continue.”
“Um…” Continue? As if he hadn’t just tossed another wolf without breaking a sweat? Wow. That’s all she had. Wow. “There was,” Kira furrowed her brow. “The only thing that’s really happened was Vanessa.” She shrugged. “I mean, I was bitchy and she was sort of ‘I’ll kill you now, you she-whore’ back.”
Zoey narrowed her eyes at Kira. At least, that’s what she imagined. The scents from her best friend indicated Kira must have had “idiot” tattooed on her forehead at some point. “Vanessa? You said a bear gave you a hard time, but Isaac’s brother took care of things. You forgot to mention killing to me, KK.”
She winced and nodded. “Well, I hypothetically, may or may not have, kinda sorta stretched the truth a tiny bit.”
“Kinda? Like you’re a little bit blind?” Zoey snapped, Isaac chuckled and Bates released a censoring whisper. “What?” Annoyance and disbelief filled the woman. “It’s not like no one knows she has trouble seeing. It’s like Isaac’s scar. Just because you don’t talk about it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Keeping quiet doesn’t magically make it disappear. And if you think I’m wrong, you’re stupid and a fat head and I don’t wanna mate with you anymore.”
Bates’ growl was clear, as was Zoey’s answering snarl, and then Reid joined the party.
Kira snapped her fingers at Zoey. “Hey, puppy, chill the fuck out.”
Silence met her statement and she suddenly realized what she’d said. The first word wasn’t a big deal, neither were the last few. It was that whole middle part that gave her pause.
“Puppy?” Reid’s voice was smooth.
“Puppy?” Bates’ was right behind Reid’s.
“Fuck you, you blind rat. I am not above setting traps in your garden, bitch.”
“Rat?” Good Lord, now Isaac was growling.
“For the love of fur, everyone needs to take a breath before I bite all of you.” Kira snarled and they all quieted. She wanted to believe it was because she’d frightened them. In reality, she knew it was because prey threatened a handful of predators.
Whatever. They weren’t talking, so she called it a win.
Kira huffed. “Yes, Vanessa was a tiny bit deadly and destroyed the garden while chasing me.”
In truth, she was more upset by the garden than the bear trying to stomp her to death.
“That’s why it looks like a cat’s sandbox… I’d wondered. Your garden is your one good thing.” Zoey’s voice was soft and quiet.
It was. Out of every shitty thing in her life, the garden was her haven. At least, it had been.
“Yeah.” She cleared her throat, pushing down the growing knot. “So, she came after me, but Isaac intervened. She had Carve on her claws.”
“What kind?” Zoey’s question overrode the men’s inquiries.
“Weapons grade.”
“Dammit.” Her best friend his
sed. “So that’s why he was happy.”
“You think she got it from…”
“Yup.”
“Small words for the slow ones in the class,” Reid drawled.
Kira put the meaning behind her exchange with Zoey into words. “He went from pissed to happy to pissed again. Which probably coincides with him realizing I was gone, then finding me along with someone who’d happily see me dead—Vanessa. When she failed, he was angry again and took it out on Zoey. Until then, he’d kept his playing focused on me.” Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back. “I’m so sorry he turned on you. I thought he might try to follow me, but we never imagined…”
Zoey’s touch was familiar and soothing as she stroked Kira’s hand. “Hush. I’m fine now and we’re in a good place, huh? You have your Isaac and I have a new pack. A good pack. We’re all right.”
“You have me, too,” Bates grumbled.
Reid spoke up. “That doesn’t explain away everything though. Like why was a half-hyena wolf from the south sent to them? Why did that pack then send weapons grade Carvrix to her home hyena pack?” The wolf shook his head. “Why are Kira’s father and brother so intent on killing her? They followed and probably sent this she-bear after her, but why? Did anything else happen?”
Kira glanced at Isaac. “The forklift?”
Isaac gave her a flat look. “The male from your Arizona pack and the forklift.”
“Male from our pack?” Zoey spoke up and everyone ignored Bates’ growl that the Arizona pack was in Grayslake. “Forklift.”
Kira told the story of the strange male she didn’t recognize and the incident at the home improvement store.
“Questions, but no answers,” Isaac murmured.
Reid pushed up from his seat and towered over them all. “Oh, there will be answers.” The weight of the man’s gaze settled on Kira, heavy and oppressive. “How many times did you endure pain from him?”
Kira shook her head and chuckled. “When didn’t I?”
Zoey drew their attention. “Before you were eighteen, that’s when.” Kira furrowed her brow, trying to think back. “Remember? He hated you, but Alpha kept Mitchell in check. After your birthday, when the pack recognized you were an adult…”
Now she remembered. Remembered the first searing wave of pain, the first mark Mitchell burned into her skin. It wasn’t the deepest, not by far, but it was the one she could recall with startling clarity. Her first taste of Carve. Her first, but not her last.
“Yeah,” she shoved back the emotions crowding her throat. “Yeah, I remember.”
She just didn’t want to.
*
Isaac would never let her go again. Not with the heavy weight of danger looming before them. Especially not when the truth of her past was laid at his feet.
He’d been a whiny bitch about a couple of scars marring his body and face. There were many, but they’d emerged in one massive sweep. Well, two. Regardless. Fight and it was done. Nothing lingered besides the stigma of his injuries.
Yet Kira. Dear God, how had she survived day after day, year after year?
Whispering low, he voiced the question that’d been burning his mind. “Why didn’t you leave?”
She sighed and leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder. The others continued talking, Zoey giving Reid background and insider information about her old pack.
“I was a coward. It wasn’t a normal life. I know that. It wasn’t normal or right or anything else that said ‘this is what you can expect for the rest of your days.’ But it was what I had, and fear of the unknown is a very strong motivator to endure. Between that and the lack of destination, I felt stuck.” She shrugged and he fought to contain the growing anger inside him. “Zoey got me out.”
“Why Grayslake?” Another question. “You said you didn’t have a destination…”
“The Alpha’s fear. I overheard him talking to someone and he said he’d do what they asked, but didn’t want to get pulled into ‘Grayslake bullshit.’ There was so much fear there. The emotion nearly had me crumbling to my knees. If the town scared him, then I thought I’d be safe here. I didn’t know anything beyond that and it was enough for me.”
“I’m glad you came.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and drew her scent into his lungs.
“Me, too.” She nuzzled his chest.
Reid’s hard voice and harsh words had him focusing on the discussion at hand. “I’m fucking going.”
“She’s my fucking mate.” Bates volleyed back and Isaac had to admit, the male had a point.
“She’s my fucking sister.” Yeah, Reid had a point too.
They kept doing that, snarling and growling at each other while the pack members shuffled and shifted in place in agitation. Hell, if something didn’t defuse the situation they’d soon have a whole lotta violence in the middle of Kira’s kitchen.
Isaac pulled his lips back and released a harsh whistle, the high-pitched sound snaring the attention of the two alpha wolves. “One thing you need to think about while you’re whipping out your dicks and comparing…” Kira and Zoey snorted. Isaac held back the urge to do the same. Barely. “If a wolf takes out the alpha and his son, that man has to take on the job.” He raised his eyebrows at Bates. “I imagine Zoey doesn’t want to leave Kira or go back to her old pack.”
Zoey’s murmured “no way” had an immediate effect on Bates. While the male glared at Isaac, Bates also released some of his anger. The wolf realized he wasn’t going to be the one to take down the Arizona pack.
“Now,” Isaac continued, “if the wolves are killed in a fight with a bear, even if his status as a bear is a technicality and not a physical reality… Well, your territorial alpha is just gonna have to suck it up and find a new alpha for the pack.” He focused on Reid. “I don’t know anyone crazier and more deadly than you. Feel like killing a couple of crazed wolves?”
Reid nodded. “Yeah, lemme tell Terrence I’ll need an extra day.”
The wolf was a cocky son of a bitch, but if anyone could destroy a good hunk of that pack, it was Reid.
“You might want to tell him you’re about to take out a pack’s inner circle.” Isaac drawled.
“Eh, I guess I can tell him that, too.”
That was one crazy motherfucker.
Reid turned from the table and strode toward the hallway. Every wolf pressed against the wall, making way for the dangerous ex-alpha.
“That is one crazy motherfucker,” Kira whispered, echoing Isaac’s thoughts. “Do you think he can do it? Isaac, they don’t play fair.”
“He knows.” More than anyone in the world, Reid knew about not playing fair.
At least now it’d be sanctioned. Sort of. Retribution couldn’t be denied and between Zoey’s and Kira’s testimony, he didn’t think there’d be trouble. Well, much trouble.
With the dominant wolf’s departure, the rest of the crowd broke up, wolves wandering away, leaving them alone once again.
“What now?” Kira voiced the question tumbling through Isaac’s mind as well.
“Now, we stay vigilant and keep you two safe.” Bates was quick to respond. “As much as I hate to let Reid have all the fun, we’ll wait to hear from him and be on the lookout for anyone from your pack or other shifters who might be a threat.”
Isaac didn’t like the idea that others from his clan would have been swayed by Mitchell’s smooth talk and convinced to go after Kira or Zoey.
But it’d happened with Vanessa, hadn’t it? An idea planted in a jealous, half-crazed woman’s mind and then the she-bear was going after his mate.
“Do we keep them here? Or back to our own dens?” Isaac murmured the question and noticed both women tense.
“We aren’t going anywhere.” Kira spat the words first and Zoey nodded her agreement.
“We’d be at an advantage on our home turf, baby. I’d have the whole clan to protect you.” He rubbed a hand down her back, trying to rid her of tension.
“And we’d hav
e the whole pack,” Bates added.
“But we’d be separated,” Zoey whispered.
“And we’re not stupid. We know how to sit in a house surrounded by a bunch of deadly shifters,” Kira huffed and turned her ice-blue gaze on him. “He’s already driven me out of one home, I won’t let him steal another.”
“Kira, baby…” He sighed and pressed his forehead to hers. “You’re set on this?”
His bear snarled at the idea that she’d be exposed to danger. Hell, his human side balked at the idea.
“Yes.”
“Fine.” He took a deep breath and begged his bear to remain calm. “But I’m talking to Ty and having a few guards sent over. He needs to know what’s happening and I need you protected.”
“I can send over a few wolves,” Bates interjected.
“And I appreciate that.” He truly did even if he wasn’t going to take the man up on his offer. “But—no offense—my bear would feel better with a few men from our clan.”
“Fair enough.”
That seemed to signal the end of their small meeting. Bates urged Zoey from his lap and Isaac did the same with Kira. While the two women embraced with promises of phone calls and popping over for breakfast, Isaac shook the wolf’s hand. With their mates being best friends, he figured he’d be seeing a lot of the male.
When the ladies began planning breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he knew “a lot” was an understatement.
It took five tries to get them away from each other, but they finally managed to part the chattering women, and Isaac tugged Kira toward the door while he had his chance. He nudged her outside, smiling when a yipping Ebenezer bounded over to them, tongue lolling and butt shaking.
“Hey, Ebie PiffleWaffle.” Kira stroked the pup and Isaac groaned.
“Can’t you give the guy a little respect? You already forced Ebenezer on him.”
Kira squeezed his hand, the touch trembling as she pulled him to a stop. The pup paused along with them, Ebenezer lapping at her free hand.
“Ebie is…” She shook her head and he realized the dog might just be more than a dog to Kira. “He’s hope for me. You know A Christmas Carol when Ebenezer Scrooge was hateful and mean? Then he changes and becomes a good person. One who’s nice and loving and…” Kira stroked the pup’s head and he saw what the animal meant to her.