“Whatever you want,” Joanna lied.
She saw the betrayal ripple over the faces of her Pack. There was no way to tell them they weren’t alone. She was there for them, no matter what she said. And, now, Archer would be there for them, too.
Chapter Sixteen
When the battle was won, Archer prowled through the house. He searched high and low, but Joanna was nowhere to be found. He didn’t know what he expected. She made it clear she had no intentions of staying, but he’d hoped nonetheless. He’d hoped she would choose safety over the right thing. It’d been a selfish thought.
There was no room for selfish. Not even when his soul screamed to hunt her down, to drag her back into the protection of his arms. She was strong, and she knew what she was doing. Archer had to trust her. While he pulled together the Vancourt Pack, she was looking out for her own.
Before he could storm into Killian’s territory, Archer needed to get everyone on the same page. They needed to present an organized front and he needed Cohen to lead it. Cohen would be the Alpha when all was said and done. He was the only one with the strength to do it.
So, Archer bit his tongue and stormed back into the kitchen where the rest of the shifters waited. His body, his beast, screamed at him. It tore him in half and made him irritable, but he knew he couldn’t rush. He needed to do this, for her.
Neither Gage nor Cohen was very happy with Archer’s decision. Most of his life, he’d been selfish. He’d rebelled before even thinking of how he might hurt someone else. He didn’t think of how his brothers might follow him and what it would do to their relationship. It made Cohen feel so alone, he pulled away from civilization. It made Gage so bitter that he shoved the world away.
He hadn’t realized how he’d also hurt Joanna. Not once had he stop to think of how she might have felt about their engagement. At the time, he’d felt shackled and smothered. He thought that was how she must have felt, too. Not that, maybe, they’d been meant to be together from the beginning.
That was how he was starting to feel. She found a way into his heart, a thing he’d long thought dead and defunct. It was the way she put her pack before herself, the way she tried to stand tall for those who counted on her. He wanted to bask in her presence, to wake up beside her and see her smile.
But, the best he could do was make sure she and her pack had a future. He might not be a part of it, but at least she would have one.
“Oh, hell to the freaking no,” Gage shouted, slamming his mug onto the counter. It splashed its contents everywhere and released the smell of liquor into the air.
There was a pile of hog tied coyote and hyena shifters stacked against the back wall of Vancourt house. Some of them groaned and growled while they struggled against the tight bindings. If they tried to shift back to their human forms, the tight ropes would force their body into the wrong shape, keeping them under control.
It’d taken an hour to get Cohen under control again. Gage and Archer tried to subdue him, but the massive beast had been untamable. It refused to give in and shift back into Cohen. The Vancourt Pack had to surround him, lowering their bodies to the ground, showing submission on all sides. After that, the bear had thrown his head back and let out a cry of victory, then and only then, letting Cohen return.
Archer knew his brother had trouble with his beast, but he hadn’t quite understood it until then. It was a force of power that could have challenged their father before he’d fallen ill. It made Gage look at his brother with new respect.
Now, a tired Grover leaned against the shattered doorway. A few wolves laid on the floor, too exhausted to shift back just yet. Archer felt a surge of pride as he looked at them. They’d come when he called. Now, if he could only get them to follow him into battle. Then, maybe then, he would make it out of this alive.
“You don’t get a say in this.” Archer shook his head and tossed out a loophole. “We aren’t a Pack. Neither of you can tell me what to do.”
“Like hell we aren’t. You’ve been my pack since day one.”
Cohen set down his own mug, practically glowering at the thing. He was quiet, as usual, but Archer could see the furious war raging behind his eyes. His brother wanted to stay out of it, to tell the Vancourt Pack to straighten up and then crawl back to wherever he’d been hiding. But, they both knew that time was over.
“This is my mistake,” Archer reminded them. All of this, the chaos in either pack, was Archer’s fault. He hadn’t wanted to accept responsibility and that dropped everyone into uncertain states. “I got a call, asking me to fix what I fucked up and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“You got a call, too?” Cohen asked, his voice low and even. He didn’t even look up from his coffee.
Archer nodded. Gage admitted he’d gotten one, too.
“It seems our messages were different,” Cohen acknowledged.
“Yeah, mine told me to get my ass here because Archer was going to die if I didn’t. Look at the idiot now, still trying to die even though I’m here.”
Archer was struck. He remembered the way the phone had answered itself, the voice that was hauntingly familiar. There’d definitely been magic that night. Could the caller have seen something of the future?
He shook his head. No. He would not involve them in his fight. He would do it on his own and stop destroying the lives of those around him. These two had to stay and help the Vancourt pack. The people that came to help them would need a leader, one strong enough to keep them in check when times became stressful.
Archer wanted to tell them that, but they heard a hobbling on the stairs that drew them into the living room. Sampson was fighting his way down the steps, forcing his thin limbs to obey as he’d forced his Pack to obey. There was a grimace lining his face and a tremble in his body that none of the boys wanted to see.
“Fuck off back to bed,” Gage said, showing a surprising amount of concern. He even took a step forward, as if to help Sampson turn around.
“If you take one step closer to me, I will give you Grover’s job. Is that what you want?” Sampson’s threat held a note of humor. Grover’s job was always meant to be Gage’s.
“You can’t tell me what to do anymore, Old Man. You aren’t my Alpha.”
“No, but I’m sure as hell still your father. There’s no denying that.”
So, the three men stood at the base of the stairs and tried to give their father the respect he deserved. Each of them were tensed to move, should Sampson fall or stumble. Once he reached the final step, they let out a collective sigh of relief. They would argue over who would carry his sorry ass back to bed later.
Sampson straightened. It was then they realized each of his sons had grown to be as tall as he was. They’d even become as wide, their shoulders taking up a considerable amount of space. They were each a force to be reckoned with, but together the Vancourt brothers would rule the world.
It was no wonder he’d raised them to be his soldiers, Archer realized. Sampson knew what they would become, the powerhouses they would grow into with his genetics. And, so, he’d tried to make sure his sons would always be under his thumb. He’d beaten their position into them and tried to make them submit. Too bad it had backfired.
Perhaps, it was for the best that it had. The Vancourt brothers had left the Pack and learned valuable lessons in the real world. They’d learned to lead on their own, to walk their own paths. If they’d stayed, Archer didn’t know if any of them could have taken up the space Sampson was about to leave. He knew they were ready for it.
Archer would lead his brothers toward taking responsibility. He knew they would follow him, just as they’d followed him eight years ago.
“I am still Alpha of this Pack,” Sampson decreed.
Behind them, Grover stood up straight and the wolves rose to their feet, paying the old man an honor they hadn’t in months. Archer wanted true apologies out of them, especially Grover after he’d openly admitted to wanting to kill their father, but he would accept this for now.<
br />
Sampson turned toward Archer, a softness in his eyes for the first time. Archer had never seen anything like it and it brought an odd mix of emotions to the surface. There was no time to pick through all of them, so he tried to keep his attention on his father, noticing the small box in his hand for the first time.
“And, as Alpha, I still have power.” He slapped the box into Archer’s hand, his own bony hand atop Archer’s. “Don’t think for a moment that I don’t know what is good for you. I knew she was good for you from the moment I set eyes on her.”
Archer felt his heart twist. It wrung him dry and left him empty. “Hell, Old Man, why didn’t you just say so?”
“Do you really think you would have listened to me? Not a damn one of you fools ever wanted to listen to me.”
Sampson wouldn’t acknowledge that he screwed up when raising them. A burning ember in Archer’s chest remained because of it. Maybe the old man did know something about him and Joanna, but it didn’t make up for the rest of their lives. It solved nothing, the bridges between them still burnt and rotted.
Archer looked down at his hand. His fingers tightened around the box, guessing what was inside.
Right now, Joanna would be lying to Killian about them. She would be telling him about how Archer and his brothers held her captive for the night. If she was creative, she could explain the way his scent was all over her skin or why her voice was rough and husky. He had to believe she was doing alright, holding her own with her wits while they gathered themselves.
But, just as he reassured himself, his phone buzzed. He expected the mystery caller again, perhaps dropping in to relay something new, but the number on the screen was unfamiliar. It didn’t answer itself while it buzzed in his hand so he had to swipe across the screen himself.
“Killian knows,” Joanna whispered. Her voice was low, as if trying not to be heard, and trembled with fear that he couldn’t stand to hear. The bear roared in his ears, so loud he could barely hear what else she had to say. “I don’t know what he has planned for me, but he’s hurting my people.”
There was a pause, footsteps echoing in the background. Archer growled into the phone. He would reach through it and hurt whoever threatened her, if he could.
“I’m… I’m trusting you to help us.”
In the background, he heard a door slam open. Footsteps thundered toward the phone, toward Joanna. The sound of her breathing disappeared. His teeth clenched, the bear ready to spring free and fight.
“If you come anywhere near here, I will make sure every single one of her Pack is dead. The Red Moon Pack will rise, and she will stand beside me. Still… I don’t think she needs all her fingers to stand. Right?”
The phone went dead in his hand. The phone crunched beneath Archer’s hand. It fell to the ground in pieces, scattering in every direction. The bear pushed and shoved. It roared for freedom, roared to protect her. Archer slammed his fist through the counter. The solid wood butcher block splintered and crumbled.
He would tear Killian apart limb by limb. He would destroy everything the man worked for. And, if he so much as hurt a hair on Joanna’s head, he would make Killian watch while he did it all.
He hunched over, clutching the broken counter as he struggled to keep the bear in check. The bear wanted release. It wanted to protect what was theirs. Joanna had always belonged to the bear and the thought of her in danger set him ablaze.
Arms clamped around Archer’s chest. He saw nothing. He knew nothing. Joanna needed him. He needed to go. She needed him.
“Calm down, brother,” Cohen whispered in his ear. “You can’t help anyone like this. Find your center. Find your chill.”
The words sank into Archer. It was like water over a fire. The flames banked, but the embers still burned beneath it. The anger was there, but Archer could distance himself from it a little better. His heels touched the ground again and Cohen stepped back, one hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Better?”
He looked to his older brother, wondering how he’d managed to master the voice of an Alpha when he’d been living alone. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise when he’d seen the bear Cohen lived with. The beast must take every ounce of energy the man had to control.
“Let’s go get your mate,” Gage said, slapping his brother on the back.
Mate?
His heart stuttered, but he saw the truth of what his brother said. Mate. Joanna was his mate and no one in the world could tell him otherwise. She was everything that had been missing in his life. Honesty and laughter. Strength and determination.
And, most importantly, love. She loved her pack so much she cared little to what happened to her. Now, it was up to Archer to love her, to put her before himself. It was an odd feeling, nothing like what he’d once thought love to feel like. How could he be surprised to realize he knew so little about it? Love wasn’t something Sampson Vancourt passed down to his children.
It was something they built on their own.
“Call the rest of the Pack,” Cohen told Gage. “We’re going to need them.”
The younger brother arched a brow in defiance, but when they both looked to Archer again, Gage shuffled to obey. Archer still had difficulty controlling his breathing. His wide chest rose and fell, each breath releasing with a low growl.
“No one is answering,” Gage grumbled. “Damn cowards don’t know their damned traditions apart from their own selfish needs.”
Grover stepped up. “Not everyone is prepared to fight. We’ll follow you into this fight.” His chest deflated as he let out a long breath. “It’s the least we owe you.”
Archer could wait no longer. He would accept Grover’s help as an apology for his earlier transgression and nothing more. Archer stormed out the door with the bear pressing against his skin. It pushed and clawed at him from the inside out, but he wanted to be able to talk to Killian.
He wanted to tell the monster exactly what he was going to do to him. A roar rumbled, rising from the bear to escape through his throat.
***
Killian chucked her phone across the room. She’d been waiting for him to search her after his shifters locked her away. It was about time, she thought. They were alone, no one else behind him to back him up. There were no hostages in the room.
Just him and her.
She was going to tear his throat out. She leaned her head back, her eyes on the target. All it took was one, smooth shift and a solid bite. The flesh of the human body tore easily. Her teeth would sink into it and he would be no more.
But, before she could start the shift, Killian laughed. It caught her off guard. The words he’d spoken to Archer didn’t scare her. The laughter did. Her heart leapt into her throat and blocked her air.
“What?” she asked, forcing courage she didn’t feel into her voice. “What’s so funny?”
“You serve so many wonderful purposes, kitty cat,” Killian purred as he leaned toward her. His breath washed over her face, but she tried not to flinch. “Your presence alone is bringing the Vancourt bears to my doorstep. Once I get rid of them, absolutely nothing stands in my way.”
He pulled back, his eyes sparking with something frightening. Joanna didn’t want to know. She wanted this to end. The mistake had gone on long enough. As he moved toward the window, as if the brothers would show up at any second, she took the opportunity to stand. She inched forward, her mind playing scenarios at lightspeed. Could she do it? Her hands shook as they rose.
Archer entered her mind. She could feel the press of his body against hers. She wanted a future in which he stayed. The first step toward that was ridding herself of Killian once and for all. But, when he turned around, her hands fell once more. He eyed her with wariness for a long moment, as if he knew exactly what was going through her mind.
Perhaps he did know. He most likely knew exactly what he did to her, tormenting her until she was at the edge of a precipice. If she were stronger, she bemoaned. If she were braver.
Ki
llian saw her confidence waver and a sharp smile split his lips. He grabbed her by her chin, hard enough to bruise, and yanked her forward. She stumbled, off balance, and his lips crashed into hers. Bile burned her throat as her stomach clenched.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been doing, kitty cat.” His fingers tightened. “I can smell the bear all over you. I can smell his scent inside you, no matter how hard you try to cover it up.”
***
The brothers were prowling through the woods around the Bart residence when Archer became aware of another presence. He saw figures darting between trees, different shapes and sizes surrounding them. His heart stuttered. He had not planned for this, but a scent touched the air that calmed him.
A smile touched the corners of his mouth. Cohen and Gage looked about, noticing the figures, too. They paused, tension in their muscles as they prepared to strike. Archer reached out and laid a gentle hand on Cohen’s arm.
Pack. He mouthed the word. The smells mingling in the air reminded him of the Pack meeting. If he stopped to focus, he could pick out the smoky scent of Nancy’s shot gun. He didn’t blame her for carrying it when her form was that of a small house cat.
Archer looked back at the Pack with pride. Even though he was no longer considered Pack to them, they’d answered his call. Those who’d honored tradition eight years ago were willing to lay it by the side. Shifters arrived by the dozens, some on two feet while others arrived in their animal forms. They might not have answered their phones, but they’d answered the call.
Together, they pressed forward. This was the night it would end. No longer would Killian terrorize anyone. No longer would the Packs fight over territory. Archer would spend his last night on this earth making sure of that.
He motioned for the shifters to circle around the back. There’s been more coyotes than they’d expected at Vancourt house. Archer would not underestimate how many other feral shifters this Alpha might have still protecting the house. They listened, breaking apart to approach the back of the house.
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