Something moved. The air between them shifted as she pressed. Excitement lit through her. Could she have the power? Killian was the Pack Alpha. The power technically belonged to him. She wondered if she pulled it through him and the mate bond he always declared, or if it was truly a last gift from her father.
Either way, the shifter who had stepped forward, Jax, let his arms drop to his side. “We will celebrate when you tell us why we should celebrate. What makes you think you can take the Vancourt territory this time?”
She wished Jax would have chosen his words better, but as Killian stalked toward him, she knew there was nothing else she could do. He’d done as she asked.
“Brave words,” Killian accused.
Jax moved to shrug, but some of the feral shifters had stood. They now moved toward the submissives with hunger in their eyes. He glanced from shifter to shifter, his brazen countenance falling into worry.
“I get it,” Killian said, suddenly standing up straight and nodding. “You want me to put my money where my mouth is, right? No one can blame you for that.”
Both Joanna and Jax shared a confused look until Killian slung his arm over Jax’s shoulder. She caught the murderous look in Jax’s eyes. He was close enough to kill the man who claimed to be their Alpha. She met his eyes with a stern look, forcing her will toward him. Again, it worked.
If Jax took this moment to attack Killian, the rest of their pack was at the mercy of the feral shifters. It was a chance she would not take. Jax’s face twisted with disgust, aimed at her and only her. Didn’t he understand what she was trying to do? All she wanted was to keep them safe.
“So, you should know,” Killian began, “I have reason to believe the Vancourt Bear might be dead and gone! Now, if that isn’t a cause for celebration, then I don’t know what is.”
Jax nodded, as if in agreement, even though his eyes betrayed his fear when he looked back at Joanna. She couldn’t tell him Sampson wasn’t dead. The Bear of the East Coast was nothing more than a breathing corpse. There was no arguing that he would die, and soon.
But, it did mean one thing. Without the Bear of the East Coast to hold him back, how far would Killian go to stretch his power? What kind of horror would he leave in his wake? It was only a matter of time before the humans found out about them if he kept on the way he’d been going. The attack on Paul’s Mart was only one example of the lengths Killian was willing to go.
Joanna sucked in a deep breath. Killian released Jax’s shoulder and motioned to someone to turn the music up. He gave in to the guitar riff that lit through the back yard. If the air hadn’t been as chill as it was, Joanna thought she might burn to ashes right then and there.
The Bear’s sons would not stay and help. What they were doing in Stonefall was beyond her, but it was clear they wanted nothing to do with responsibility. Same as before, she thought.
Jax spun away from Killian to resume his place among her old Pack. As he passed, the look he gave her could have killed. It was clear none of them trusted her to help them. That was fine. She didn’t need their trust to get the job done.
She kicked a feral shifter out of a chair and sank into it, her eyes on Killian as she pondered the ways to be rid of him.
Chapter Eight
A keening whine and scratching on her door woke her. Joanna curled into a tight ball and willed the sounds to go away. It was the feral shifters’ favorite way of waking her. The sound pervaded every inch of her bedroom. It crept into her mind when she covered her face with a pillow. The scratch of claws on wood made her skin crawl. Despite the locked door that barred them out at night, they still found ways to invade her space.
Unable to ignore the sounds any longer, she kicked off the sheets and stormed to the door. When she flung it open with a growl, the coyotes scattered. Their nails slid along the hardwood floors as they fought for traction, leaving behind gouges.
Staring down on the floor, she sighed. If she ever rid herself of the monsters, she’d have to sand the floors to get rid of the evidence that they’d ever been there.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.”
A chill ran up Joanna’s spine. She fumbled to grab a pair of pants and shrug them on before Killian marched into her room. There’d been a time that he’d seen her naked, but that was long before he revealed his true nature.
Head high, he walked in like he owned the room and took a seat on the edge of her bed. She wanted to kick the smug smile off his face. He was the one who’d asked the damn coyotes to wake her and she knew it.
“What do you want?” Her voice was unchecked, bolder than usual.
Killian arched a brow, but his smirk only deepened. Did he want her to challenge him? She was the last thing standing between him and her former Pack. There was a sense of ownership that kept him from challenging her, as if he was waiting for her to bend and submit to his mate claim. The very thought made her lip curl.
She thought of Archer. His body was built for violence, yet she could see the gentleness in him. It was now buried under a few years of bitterness, but it hadn’t left him. Her shoulders dropped. The past was the past, yet she couldn’t let go of her anger toward him. If only he’d stayed.
“I want everything you know about the Vancourt Bears.” Killian stood up and closed the space between them. She turned her body toward the window when his face came too near. He played with a tendril of her hair, wrapping it around his fingers. “You were engaged to one of them, weren’t you?”
She snorted. “It was all of five minutes before he got himself outcast from the Vancourt pack.”
Killian tugged on the tendril of hair. She fought against his pull, a dull ache starting in the side of her head. “What did the sons of the Bear of the East Coast do to get themselves outcast? Were they too dangerous to contain? Did Pops fear losing his title to them?”
Joanna would have shaken her head if Killian didn’t have ahold of her hair. What she did do was laugh. The boys had done the oddest things to follow their brother after his show of rebellion. The reasons Killian wanted to hear, the prospect of destroying or corrupting the brothers, wouldn’t happen.
She felt his hand tighten in her hair, the sharp pull, when an SUV roared into the driveway outside the window. It skidded to a halt, smeared with mud. Killian’s eyes darted out the window, distracted for a brief second. Joanna took the moment of confusion to retrieve her hair from his grasp and sidestep his reach.
Outside, a familiar shape leapt out of the driver’s seat and casually stalked toward the front door.
What the hell was Archer doing here, Joanna wondered?
“I guess if you have any questions, you could ask Archer yourself.”
His knock on the door shook the entire house. Killian’s face took on a particular hue of near purple that Joanna had never seen before. Their eyes met, and she could tell she would be paying for Archer’s indiscretion later, but it was worth it. The lynx purred in agreement as they watched Killian storm out of her room.
Meanwhile, Joanna stood by the window, trying to figure out what reason Archer would have for coming here. This was not his territory. Then again, none of this was. He was an outcast, a shifter with no claim to any home. As long as he behaved himself, Killian had no reason to kill him. Not that Killian observed tradition.
She snapped back to the present and jogged to catch up with Killian just as he opened the door. A smooth smile was pasted on the Alpha’s lips, but she could see the anger in his eyes. This was an insult and Archer would likely pay for it. Behind Killian, the coyote shifters gathered, their small forms made threatening because of their large numbers.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t buy Girl Scout cookies in this house,” Killian said.
Archer offered a wide smile, showing teeth. “That’s too bad. You could use a bit of sugar in your life.”
Killian’s brows dropped, clearly confused by Archer’s retort. Joanna swallowed the snicker that tried to escape her. Archer’s eyes drifted to her, brightening for a mo
ment. She felt her lynx rise in return, overjoyed to have his attention.
“Anyway, I’m here to talk to my fiancée.”
Joanna felt her stomach crash through the floor beneath her. The world tilted, and her eyes shot to Killian again. The corners of his eyes crinkled with anger and his lip twitched, but he had nothing to say. Archer just winked at her. Gone was the man she’d encountered the night before, once buried beneath responsibility. There was humor shaping his lips as he scratched at the skin beneath his beard.
It was a façade. Perhaps what he presented was a facsimile of the potential for happiness, but it wasn’t real. He was only trying to goad Killian. She tried to warn him with her eyes. If he pissed off Killian, she and her Pack would pay the price later.
The coyote shifters swarmed around Archer’s legs. She could see in his face the desire to kick them after what had happened in Paul’s Mart. It wasn’t the break of tradition, hiding from humanity, that bothered Archer. It was the violence of it all.
“I have to say,” Killian said once he regained himself, “I’m not sure I know who you’re talking about.” He moved to make a sweeping motion to the house behind him. “As you can see, it’s just my mate and my Pack here. Unless you’re engaged to Patty. If that’s the case, then I feel sorry for you.”
One of the coyotes yipped and snapped at Archer’s fingers at the sound of her name. Joanna felt the sudden urge to kick the wolf sized shifter across the yard. The lynx rose with a growl in her throat, protective of Archer to this day.
Archer looked around and shook his head, faking his confusion. “I don’t see your mate anywhere.”
Killian growled. He moved to fill the space in the doorway. Their word games were going to start a fight and Joanna didn’t want to have to choose. She knew which side she would find herself on if it came down to it and she didn’t want to betray what was left of her Pack. So, she stepped up.
She laid a comforting hand on Killian’s shoulder, revolted by the contact of skin on skin. “What is it that you want to tell us?”
Archer’s gaze was caught on her hand where it touched Killian. There was anger in his eyes, but she watched him move past it. Was that an echo of what they’d been before he left? She thought back to the kiss they’d shared behind Vancourt house. It’s been surprising and life altering, but nothing more than that.
Just a kiss.
***
She was touching him. It was the gentle touch of a lover trying to console another. It made his bear thrash in his mind. Just the sight of it enraged him. He thought she hated him. He thought she despised what Killian had done to her pack.
Yet, here she was trying to console the sad excuse of an Alpha.
Archer had to pull himself back. He gripped the reins tight and tugged, trying to bring the bear to reason. The bear didn’t want to listen. It wanted to taste Killian’s blood. It wanted to pound the man in pieces on the floor.
Archer sucked in a breath through his nose and let it out before he forced a smile onto his face. He met Joanna’s eyes. He’d come to shake things up and test Killian’s patience to see how long it might be until he decided to move onto Vancourt territory. Yet, he’d managed to test his own patience.
He also wanted to talk to Joanna about the attack on Paul’s Mart. He’d barely been able to sleep while his mind worked over everything. Joanna had haunted his mind, more often than not, but another thing had entered his thoughts. Something he knew they should both worry about.
Something he did not want Killian to know about. And, it wasn’t like he had her phone number anymore. Even if he had, he didn’t know if Killian was the kind of man to go through her messages. He sure looked like it.
Archer knew he could have tried calling the number that first brought him back to Stonefall, but it didn’t seem right. Though the voice felt familiar, he didn’t know if he could trust her with the information.
He could trust Joanna, though. She would make a fine leader once he cleared the way for her. If he could, he would take down not only Killian, but as many of the monsters that followed him as he could. In the eyes of his bear, they were small, weak things. He would destroy them with one swipe of his paws, with one snap of his jaws. He smiled down at them with that knowledge and saw a couple of them take a step back.
Good, he thought. You should be afraid.
If they met again before he challenged Killian, he would ask her. First things first, they needed to get the Vancourt Pack in order. He would need as much help as possible to end the war between the packs.
“I can’t come and say hello to my new neighbor?” Archer asked. He was done playing with Killian. The man was a ticking time bomb and if he pressed any more, it might spell bad things for her. He didn’t want to put her through any more strife than he already had, so he reached into his pocket for plan B.
His fingers brushed paper.
Joanna moved to push past them, but Killian’s arm struck out and barred the way. She stumbled back, and Archer had to swallow the growl that rippled through him. His eyes slowly moved back to Killian. He knew there was a cold and murderous look in them, but he couldn’t hide it.
They spent a moment, eyes locked in a war. Killian’s body vibrated with the promise of a violent fight. His fingers curled around the doorframe, the wood splintering. He wanted to put Archer in his place. He wanted a reason to attack, but held back.
It made Archer wonder what kind of animal lurked beneath the man’s skin. Killian knew what kind of shifter Archer was. Most of the East Coast knew of the Vancourt bears, but Archer knew little about the bronze skinned man before him. If Killian held back, Archer guessed his animal was smaller than his. It wasn’t hard. Just about any shifter was smaller than the Vancourt bears.
He pulled his hands free of his pocket and held them up in the air, empty. “I didn’t mean any offense today.” He tried to catch Joanna’s gaze, but it was stuck on the ground near his feet.
“You had a message?” Killian arched a brow. He knew Archer never meant to speak to him, but his arm was still firmly planted across the doorway, barring Joanna behind him.
At least she wasn’t touching Killian anymore. It had enraged him more than he thought possible. The sight of her hand on Killian’s shoulder made his vision bleed red, made the bear roar. It’d taken a moment to pull the bear back. He was surprised at the way the bear reacted to her. Maybe it was the shifter pheromones. He hadn’t had a good lay in a long while and the smells in the air were getting to him.
Archer knew he could take Killian in a one on one fight, fix his mistake and run back to Illinois, but he couldn’t afford to be impulsive. Not only would his coyotes chase him to the ends of the earth, but the Vancourt Pack would still be without a proper Alpha.
So, he forced a smile onto his face and pretended he was dealing with a jilted husband. All he had to do was keep Killian’s attention on himself long enough for Joanna to notice what he’d done. What he’d come to say had been delivered if only she would see.
“About my message,” Archer said, as he leaned into Killian’s space. “I came to say your days are numbered.” He started folding fingers on his raised hand, ticking off the days.
Killian’s face grew red. Just when Archer thought he would attack, Killian stepped back and slammed the door in Archer’s face. Damn it, he thought. Part of him had wanted him to attack. He wanted an excuse to rip into the shifter.
Beyond the door, he could hear the shifter roaring. The urge to bust down the door held him in place. He had to trust Joanna could hold her own against him. The bear wanted him to rush in, but the message had been delivered.
Chapter Nine
Killian howled with rage. His fist crashed across the table, sending bottles and cans to the floor. Glass shattered in every direction. Her feet quaked beneath her, but she held her ground. She’d seen what Archer had done. Her eyes drifted to the door, but Killian moved to fill her vision.
His lips pulled back from his teeth. The corners of hi
s eyes were filled with red veins as he sniffed the air around her.
“Excuse me?” Joanna asked, trying to feign confidence. She didn’t know what Killian was going to do next.
“You aren’t fucking your old boyfriend behind my back, are you?” His hands slammed into the wall on either side of her head.
As her breaths grew shallow, she wanted to press her lips shut, to hide the kiss she’d shared with Archer, but she forced herself to speak. “Boyfriend?” she scoffed. “That’s the asshole who left me behind. Why would I do that?”
Killian studied her face. He seemed to approve of what he saw, because his hands fell away. They grazed her arms, making her stomach churn. She knew what Killian wanted. He’d laid claim on her as his mate, but she hadn’t given him the satisfaction of solidifying that bond.
He was playing a patient game with her, but with the arrival of Archer, she feared he would lose that patience. Killian would force her to submit to make sure she would stay his. That, or… she didn’t want to think about the alternative. He already had power over the Pack and the territory. What did he need her for?
Joanna ducked out of the room before Killian could move. She threw herself back into her room and locked the door just to catch her breath. The arrival of the Vancourt brothers could spell good things, but it could also turn into a disaster. If Killian ever figured out he didn’t need her, it was game over.
But, when he didn’t follow her, she realized Killian must still want her for something. It sent a shiver through her body, her stomach threating to expel bile. Able to breathe again, Joanna threw on clean clothes and ventured back into the hall. The coyotes had disappeared.
Killian’s eyes tracked her through the house as if she were a mouse. Joanna wasn’t a mouse, though. She was a cat and she knew the games. She had to remember that.
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