Steel Heart

by R. J. Blain

  Maybe I’d demand a bounty payout anyway on top of whatever they’d offered to mercenaries and bounty hunters for my retrieval, assuming my aunt had moved forward with her plan as we’d discussed. I hoped so.

  The first thing I’d do with the money involved the removal of any scars, and then I’d share it with the women in Ferdinand’s pack, making sure they had a solid future. As that wouldn’t be enough, I’d recruit help from my family and stubborn friends to make certain they had a good life beyond their unfortunate imprisonment in an unwanted pack.

  Ferdinand hadn’t even comprehended his plans, foolish in all ways, had been doomed to fail from the beginning.

  The wolf had gone against my grizzly of an aunt, my tiger, and his former guild master, and he’d lost.

  I had claimed Anatoly the day I’d met him, and I had obsessed over the tattoo I’d left as a warning to other assassins. I still did. He was mine in life, and he was mine until death. If anyone tried to take him from me, I would use the scar above his wrist and my assassin’s mark to justify the hell I would rain down on any responsible.

  Ferdinand’s death was only the beginning.

  I’d have to explain to Todd, the one last, albeit terrifying part of Ferdinand’s demise. I held some hope he’d understand about Marie. He’d already known of her behavior. I would have to hope he would progress through the stages of grief without our friendship being sacrificed in the process. If I couldn’t get through to him, my aunt would talk to him.

  So would others.

  I could only hope Todd’s relationship with me and my tiger survived the upcoming days—and that I somehow managed to deal with Ferdinand’s wolves before they snapped and killed me if the power of the bastard’s bite overwhelmed them.

  So far, so good. They hadn’t turned on me yet.

  The wolf’s body cooled at my feet, his blood still flowing from the jagged tears across his throat. The surprise in his expression pleased me. He’d bitten me so many times he had believed, right up until end, that I belonged to him.

  I had never belonged to him, but the rest of the women of his pack had.

  They hurt, too.

  I straightened, aware of the crimson dripping from my claws to the ground, darkening the soil. All I could do was test the turbulent relationship I had with the pack of wolf women freed from Ferdinand’s bite. “I know someone who can help you.”

  Todd would never forgive me for inviting a pack of wolves into his herd, but Marie couldn’t pay for her crimes anymore, and he could undo some of the damage she had caused with her machinations.

  In a way, I resented the circumstances leading to so much suffering. It would be hard forgiving the stallion for making a home with a pit viper, but I did believe she had fooled him as much as she had fooled me—even with my aunt’s warning of her possibly treachery. Still, it would be a long time until I let go of what Marie and Ferdinand had done.

  I still needed to unearth her body and move it somewhere better than beneath a pile of stones to keep the animals off it. If given a choice, I wouldn’t bother, but I wondered if Todd would want her body back.

  We’d lost so much because of her.

  I still remembered closing my agent’s eyes for the final time, his skin cooling in death. Had Randal survived? Had anyone?

  Ferdinand had done a good job secluding me from the world and coercing me into obedience through threats. The stench of fear from the women he’d claimed as his own, so many of them pregnant, had brought me into line, as had my aunt’s request to dig for more information on the bastard.

  The wolf women had been stolen, too.

  I reminded myself of that, and I would continue to do so until the whole mess was behind me.

  Instead of fear or anger like I expected, I smelled blood and anguish, and I wondered how I’d fix the damage I’d done to them through Ferdinand’s demise.

  I lifted my chin, and I repeated, “I know someone who can help you.”

  Todd loved women, and Todd loved children. Wolves and horses would bicker, they’d fight, and things would become insane in the manor he called home, but Ferdinand’s children would have a stallion for a father and a childhood worth remembering.

  I’d beg it of him if needed.

  And if, for whatever reason, Todd did refuse, I would turn to Anatoly for help.

  Todd was the better choice.

  He understood women and children.

  “Who?” Lauren asked. I almost smiled at the edge in the woman’s voice, unable to do anything other than admire her. While she had bowed to Ferdinand’s magic, she had found ways to fight the bastard, dodging his orders through loopholes and subterfuge. She’d been in the background, nudging and suggesting when Rachelle should let me off my leash a little more, helping to give me the opportunity to rid the world of Marie.

  Both of our actions had led us to the moment I’d turned on Ferdinand and ripped this throat out with my claws.

  To make it clear what I thought of him, I turned and mule kicked his body hard enough his corpse rolled over. “I know a stallion. I killed his lead mare, the woman who was his informant from Charlotte. Ferdinand had betrayed him and our friends. Stallions live for foals, and they don’t necessarily care if they are horse, wolf, or something else. He will welcome you.”

  “The woman Ferdinand had been meeting was this stallion’s mare?”

  “She was before I killed her for her treachery.”

  Because of Marie, I would never again see Simmons or any of the other Secret Service agents who’d lost their lives protecting their principals. I could only assume others had lost their lives. I remembered the sounds of combat.

  In that, Ferdinand and Marie had lost.

  Their ploy had brought destruction, but they had killed the wrong people. They hadn’t killed me. I refused to believe they had killed my family. I wouldn’t stop until everyone connected to their scheme fell, no matter where in the United States it took me. I would finish what they had begun.

  I flexed my hand, and my tiger’s claws shrank back to human fingers. One day soon, I hoped everything would stop hurting all the damned time. Returning to Charlotte and sequestering myself with my tiger for several days might help, too.

  Lauren growled, drawing my attention back to her. “This stallion has been betrayed, too, then.”

  “Yes, he was betrayed. He’s respected in Charlotte, so Marie would have been able to get good information for Ferdinand.”

  “You speak of the Lancers’ guild leader, then. The black stallion who rules over Charlotte. Rumor says he is close friends with the other guild leaders in Charlotte, despite their status as rivals.” Lauren’s expression eased. “I’ve heard of him and his prowess. He has many foals and a strong herd.”

  “He’s an egotistical asshole, but he loves women and children in equal measure. He will dress you as queens until you find your feet, and he will sing praises at you until you believe him. And then he’ll treat your pups as his own, because he doesn’t know how to do it any other way.”

  They could trust Todd. I could, too, although I would be braced for his wrath when I told him of his mare’s fate and how I’d killed her for her betrayal.

  For all I’d found balance between my lives as Runs Against Wind and Jesse Alexander, I still remained the Water Viper, and I’d tattooed my mark on her brow to declare the kill as mine. Per my aunt’s request, I’d left Ferdinand’s body untouched. If anyone found her, they would know her killer long after her flesh decayed away. I’d carved my serpent to the bone, making sure her skull declared her guilt, as I only killed the guilty.

  Some things I refused to change.

  Of all of my kills, of all the bodies I’d left rotting in my wake, I walked away from Marie’s body without remorse or shame.

  I would stare into Todd’s eyes and declare I’d taken her life with pride, no matter the consequences. I foresaw it going one of two ways. He’d either ruffle my hair and tell me I’d gotten worked up over nothing, or he’d storm
off and come back a few days later before ruffling my hair and telling me he understood.

  Either way, the bastard would ruffle my hair, because he liked screwing with Anatoly.

  Lauren frowned, and she looked me over head to toe before focusing on my bloodstained hand. “You’re sure of this?”

  “He would have taken me into his herd without question for all I’m a predator, too. I am not suited for pack or herd life.”

  “Tigers have clan siblings,” Lauren replied. “That’s similar. Their clans function as packs in a way. But you are right. It is not the same, and you’re not suited. Ferdinand was a fool, and he deserved his death.”

  The other wolves murmured their agreement, but the stench of their fear still hung heavy in the air.

  “If I can get to a telegraph station, this will be over quickly.”

  “It can? Why do you think so?”

  “I’m a Siberian, and my mate is on the Clan Council.”

  It didn’t hurt my aunt was likely flipping her lid, I didn’t want to think too hard about what Anatoly was doing, and my uncles, both grizzly and insane rabbit, would be neck deep in the hunt, too. The attack would have solidified their purpose, and not a one of them would quit until they won.

  If Todd joined in, along with both Lancers’ Alliance and Dawnfire, I pitied Ferdinand and his little army. The pair of grizzlies would clean up half the mess without help, the damned rabbit with a predatory side would take care of the other half, and everyone else would complain they’d been robbed of their chance to join in the slaughter.

  The wolves stared at me with wide eyes.

  Lauren recovered first, and she pointed at my throat. “But Ferdinand bit you.”

  “While painful, these bites mean nothing to me. I’ve already staked my claim on my tiger, and a weak bastard of a wolf can’t do anything to me. I faked it, Lauren. I pretended he had influence over me. I did it all for this moment, all so I could take what I learned of his plans and destroy everything he’s worked for. I still need to figure out where he intended to take me and what his full plans are, but I’ve learned enough.”

  The timeline for him to act needed to be enough, along with my knowledge that he needed the Hope Diamond to succeed.

  The damned fool, even after death, sickened me.

  “And we will help you,” she announced, and she shot a glare at the other women. “We all will. We are not broken. We will never be broken. And we will undo some of what he has done now that we are free.”

  One by one, the wolves nodded their agreement.

  Well, that would make things a little easier. I turned to Rachelle, aware her baby was at the highest risk and she needed safe, easy work—and a lot of good meals. “You will handle communications. I will not endanger your baby. We will give you work, but it will be work that keeps you and that puppy safe. And I will find that little one a father worthy of both of you.”

  I’d always thought Paulus would make a good father, and he had a lot of years left in him, too stubborn to give up the ghost and die. He probably danced at death’s door for the fun of it—and to give his guild master gray hair.

  Sometimes, I pitied poor Todd for what he had to put up with.

  “I had always heard tigers are the most stubborn of shifters, but you are more stubborn than I expected. To endure so many bites all as part of an act? Some of them still bleed.”

  I touched the bite from earlier in the morning, and sure enough, the damned thing still bled. Sighing, I shook my head. “They’ll heal, and I’ll beat every mystic I know until they strip the scars if I must. It’ll take time, but they’ll heal. A real bite scars quickly.” As I’d already told them the truth of having a mate, I showed them my upper arm and the faint white mark branding me as Anatoly’s. “Ferdinand ignored this scar because it’s so much like all the others I have, isn’t it? But this is where my mate bit me. I bit his arm, too.”

  I had plans to bite Anatoly a few more times to make certain nobody doubted my claim. After I finished biting him, I’d drag him off for something far more intimate and long overdue.

  “Clever tiger. Everyone else bites the throat. You had scars on your throat, too. He must have believed your tiger hadn’t marked you at all.”

  My damned tiger had marked my soul from the day I’d met him, I just hadn’t realized how deeply he’d sunk his claws into me until later. Then he’d marked me ruthlessly with his nips and nibbles, invisible bites, but bites all the same. I supposed for tigers, intention mattered more than anything else.

  In a way, I had to thank Ferdinand for confirming everything I hadn’t wanted to believe because of fear and uncertainty. For all I was I killer, I was a killer capable of loving others.

  I loved Anatoly.

  I loved my aunt.

  I loved my uncles, for all they drove me crazy whenever I crossed paths with them. I loved Todd, too, despite the ups and downs we’d faced over the years.

  Through them, I loved the parents I’d never met. When I found my way home, I would ask my aunt about my mother again, but I wouldn’t ask for just information.

  I’d demand a meeting, and I wouldn’t let them distract me from it. I didn’t even care if bringing my parents into the same room together resulted in a brother or sister. If anything, I desired having a brother or sister.

  That my parents would still want each other after so long meant I’d been born from something more than just a contract, that my mother had found value in my father and their time together, and that my father had found worth in my mother, too. I’d ask for a chance to have what I’d always believed impossible.

  I’d stop being my own worst enemy.

  My thoughts returned to Anatoly, who’d haunted me from the day Ferdinand and his accomplices had taken Simmons from me along with so many others. “He’s going to be quite angry.”

  “Who? The stallion? Your tiger?”

  “My tiger, Anatoly. If he gets his hands on Ferdinand, he will tear his body to pieces, I expect. While roaring.”

  The women exchanged looks, and after a while, Lauren grinned. “Do you think he could get here before the bastard rots too much? I’d pay to see that.”

  My worries of them hating me for killing their mate evaporated. “We could toss him in cold storage and let him thaw after my tiger gets here.”

  “Or we could just hack him apart and feed the fish. There’s a river nearby.”

  “He might poison the fish,” I countered.

  “That’s true. I vote we just leave his body to rot. Let the vultures have him. He deserves nothing from us.” Lauren joined me, and she kicked Ferdinand’s body. “And if your mate becomes upset over those marks on your throat, we’ll correct him. What do we do now?”

  What could we do? I thought back on my life as a mercenary and a courier. Knowledge won wars, and the best I could do for my family was provide as much information on the wolf’s plans as possible. That left us with one choice. “We raid wherever Ferdinand has an office, get all of the information we can, and find out how deep this rabbit hole goes. Depending on what we learn, we’ll make plans. There are plenty here who hate Ferdinand. We can recruit their help to stop whatever plans he has.”

  “He was after the government. He wanted to bring in new powers, and he wanted to be a part of that,” Lauren replied. “He meant to change the presidency first. It surprised me when he stopped talking about his goals after bringing you to the pack’s house.”

  “I’d guessed that when he attacked Charlotte, likely attempted to murder the President, and kidnapped me. But this goes deeper than just that, and I plan to figure it out—and destroy everything he built. That will be my revenge for what he has done to us. And your final revenge will be to live happily without him. I know a good wolf with a strong pack who would love to have you and your baby, Rachelle, and I know other good wolves without mates who would love your children like their own. And there’s always the herd with Todd, too.”

  Paulus and the many other single wolves
in the guilds of Charlotte could offer everything Ferdinand had not.

  It occurred to me that somehow, despite the circumstances of my birth and the life I had led, I knew a lot of good people who could transform disaster into hope.

  I grinned, wondering which one of the women would win Paulus, much to his shock and astonishment.

  Compared to Ferdinand, Paulus would be a treasure they’d fight over.

  “You know a lot of people.”

  “Trust me on this one, I find that as unbelievable as you do. If you think what I’ve told you is bad now, wait until you meet my family.”

  It would be chaos.

  Lauren’s expression saddened. “He targeted us because we don’t have families.”

  “Well, I do, and I’m happy to share them with you. Maybe you’ve lost your mate, not that he was a good one, but you won’t be alone. That much I can promise you.”

  Even if I had to adopt them all myself, they would never be alone again.

  They’d suffered enough.

  We took everything except Ferdinand’s clothes, and we went to the townhouse he’d claimed as his own, the one place he kept from his misfit pack of disgruntled women forced to serve because of his bite. They’d learned of its location through subterfuge.

  Ferdinand hadn’t told Lauren she couldn’t follow him, and she’d ghosted his steps late one night to learn where he lived.

  The place reeked of rotting food, sweat, and sex, and the other women snarled at the evidence of even more betrayal.

  “Would you like to go back to his body and tear into him for a while, ladies?”

  “No, but I want a mystic to make sure I didn’t catch anything,” Lauren grumbled, shaking her head. “What a dick. He may have bitten more women, then. Or just hired some whores, I guess.”

  A desperate wolf would hire whores, but he’d learned how to force his pack to attend to his every desire. I’d escaped his lust, but only because he’d wanted to break me first. His delusions I would beg him for the pleasure of his company would haunt me for a long time.