by K. de Long
ALLIANCE
K. de Long
Rebecca Hamilton
Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
About the Authors
Alliance © 2016 K. de Long and Rebecca Hamilton
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Chapter 1
The bare earth was saturated with blood. The tang of it almost overwhelmed Tessa, making her nostrils flare and bile rise in her throat. If it was any other creature’s blood, it would ignite adrenaline and excitement, the thrill of a long hunt ended. But the blood of a shifter had an acrid bite that stung her nose, removing every other aggressive instinct.
And this wasn’t just any shifter. This was Samus—a Kumori hunter. A friend of her father’s. A man she’d known for twenty years, who’d dandied her on his knee under her parents’ watchful supervision. Someone who’d given her her earliest lessons in unleashing the wolf within and controlling her during the hunt.
One of her pack.
She heaved a sigh of relief to be bound to human bones for the moment; in a lupine nose, it would be ten times as strong, and she might have lost her lunch. Even if she had been on the hunt recently, to have absinthe still in her blood, the carried-over experience of that smell would be unbearable. And throwing up at the sight of carrion would hardly be a vote of recommendation for the new alpha female. She might have been her mother’s deputy for years, but the pack was still waiting to see what mark she would leave, now that she had claimed her right as the full packmistress.
Samus’ body was long cold, eyes closed as though asleep. If she couldn’t see the mangled mess where his stomach was torn open, she might even think he was peaceful. And it was a more peaceful death than it might have been, had the slashes not gone deep enough to kill him almost immediately. Sepsis was never a pretty demise. With treatment, shallower slashes might have let him live, but Tessa doubted he’d have made it far enough to get the healing poultice to apply to his infected wounds. No. It just would have been an uglier death, one that would make even his mate fear to look upon his body on the pyre.
Had she been there, she would have put him out of his misery. Instead, he’d managed to walk… damn…the trail of blood seemed to lead for more than fifty feet, around a corner. How much farther might it stretch, out of sight?
Tessa would have to ask Erin, the fellow hunter who’d found the body. Perhaps they could even follow it to the site of the attack, though she doubted that would be terribly useful for figuring out what had happened here. A handful of muddy pawprints might tell her how the attacker had struck him, but they wouldn’t tell her who it was.
That no one had reported the body sooner, but it was still completely cold, meant the trail would have dissipated beyond even the powerful noses of all their best hunters. The murderer's scent had all but disappeared into the chilly morning air. Even shifted, she’d doubted it was strong enough to be followed or even fixed to memory in case of future killings.
Erin bit her lip, and Tessa eyed her back warily. She’d seen her share of blood, and Tessa had no doubts about her capability, but this wasn’t simply the remains of a rabbit after the hunt or an injured male who challenged the alpha. This was something different. Erin had been right to bring Tessa in to see. No doubt the locals had simply been too frightened.
Tessa swallowed hard. Sadly, this wasn’t the first body she’d seen like this. Frictions had been escalating, and that always came with collateral damage. But this wasn’t a corpse abandoned in the woods far from their homes, picked off as he returned from hunting in enemy territory, or by an enemy who didn’t wish to be caught hunting in the Kumori’s turf. Nor was it in an abandoned back alley, either. They were standing in the middle of an out-of-the-way but well-used thoroughfare.
“His attacker didn’t finish him off,” Erin said. “You think that’s a punishment for deflecting, or refusing to join up? Or a message? The wounds are too clean; his assailant knew what he was doing. It’s no accidental swipe or incompetent gnawing.”
“It could be either. Theoretically. But I doubt it.” Tessa wrinkled her nose again, this time an expression rather than a reaction to the blood’s tang. “If it is, then we have to stomp hard. Picking off deflectors is one thing, but targeting people in the pack is another. If Elias is so brazen, we have to step things up. This isn’t near his territory; this is an entirely different kind of aggression. If it’s him…”
“More patrols?”
“Patrols won’t do any good. Not in a setting like this. Unless we’re willing to kill Elias outright, simply knowing when and where he’s coming and going won’t help. If we kill him, his pack will be on us like fleas, draining us dry. We need subtlety. I have to talk to Dad.”
Erin bowed her head. “I’ll leave that to you. I think Alder would flay me if I delivered this news.”
“Oh, don’t be a coward. He’s a pussycat if you know how to handle him.”
“The rest of us don’t. Why’d’ya think he’s still alpha after all these years?” Erin rolled her eyes.
“Bawk, bawk, bu-cawwwwwww!” Tessa clucked, striving to lighten the situation. Her attempt fell flat as Erin cast an uneasy glance toward her. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it. Leave it to me. It’s hard to shoot the messenger when you’d have your wife after you for all her hours of labor being wasted.”
“Thanks,” Erin said. “I’ve been thinking… What if the Nefari did this? Marrock might think—”
“Why would they? It’s not Marrock’s territory, either. It makes more sense that Elias’s balls just grew a few sizes, and he needs someone to step on them, let him know it’s not all good. Things are rough with the Nefari, but this would be an act of war. I doubt he wants to pick that fight on two fronts.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It was a stupid thought. I just…Marrock’s closer. His people come through more. If it was him preparing for war…”
Tessa didn’t like the look on her friend’s face. Correction: she wanted to claw it off her. The beast inside her clamored at such cowardly talk. Her family had helmed the Kumori shifters for ge
nerations, and some big-fanged alpha from upriver wasn’t going to change that. Not on her watch.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” At least Erin had the common sense to hesitate before she spoke.
It had been a year since Tessa defeated her mother to rise to the alpha bitch rank, second only to her father. And true, she’d never faced a challenge like this before, but a vote of confidence would have been nice. Her insides all but sang with fury, the wolf wanting to emerge and punish Erin for her lack of faith.
“If you ask me that again, I’ll carve the answer into your chest,” Tessa said with a smile, her light tone countering the harsh sentiment. Erin would understand why that was such a dangerous question to ask, with her already on edge from their examination of the body. “Just stay with Samus’ body and keep people away until we can get someone here to scrape him off the ground. And tell any of the others who come by to go to ground until we know what’s going on. Stay in groups, blah blah blah, you know the drill.”
Tessa turned away, trying to avoid looking at the crusted blood staining her forearms. Dad would have some idea of where to go from here. She just knew it.
When Tessa entered the room, all of the pack elders looked up. Her eyes narrowed; to have them all in one place like this was unusual.
She’d expected her father to possibly be in a meeting with one or two, but for there to be a delay as he gathered the others. She wanted to glare from face to face, but that would do her no good. Although she technically had a higher rank in the pack than them, some of the older ones had more limiting ideas about an alpha-female’s role in the hierarchy. She would make no friends if she let her emotions be known.
“Dad, I need to report in,” she said, her voice carefully neutral. “Samus died. I just came from his body. We suspect it’s—”
“Later, Tess,” he said, his eyes somewhere over her shoulder, toward the far end of the room.
She cocked her head, unhappy to be dismissed so easily. “It’s serious, Dad. We need to call the others into a lockdown—”
“In a minute, Tess,” he said, his lip curling in a half-snarl.
She was on thin ice, but still she opened her mouth to protest. Her mother had always said she didn’t know when to stop, but usually that was one of her better qualities. “I—”
Her dad gestured over her shoulder and addressed someone she hadn’t seen. “We’re not alone.”
Tessa stared into the shadows, picking apart a strong jawline with just enough scruff to scratch under her fingertips and a pair of dark eyes. Their owner leaned forward, and the light cut across his face.
Her eyes widened as she recognized Marrock in profile. She hadn’t been in the same room as Marrock since she was a preteen, but she remembered him well. The dark sheen of his hair, his sharp eyes. If the other packs’ alphas were a broadsword, he was a razor. Just as deadly, but even more intentional in his capacity for violence and destruction.
Tessa’s hackles rose. “What is he doing here? Why wasn’t I told? If we’re in the middle of a diplomatic meeting, it’s my right as—”
Her father waved a hand, pressing his fingers to his temples. “Ugh. Can you give it a rest, Tess? We’ve got important things to talk about.”
Marrock was here. In the heart of her pack’s home. What had possessed her father? And for him to shush her like that, treat her opinion as disposable...it wasn't like him.
Marrock leaned forward, staring at her with wild, gray eyes. He knew something she didn’t. What were they keeping from her? And why? She wanted to make them pay for the disrespect, with claw and fang, if she must. She wouldn’t need to hurt them, per say. Placement was more important than ferocity…
“Marrock has an interesting off—”
“Later,” Marrock interrupted. “We still have things to talk about before we get to that. Let the lady speak.”
Her hands curled into claws, as she wished she dared let loose with the real thing. Her inner beast wanted his agony for the insolence. How dare he give her permission to speak? In her own home? No doubt about it; the rumors were true: Marrock was an arrogant prick. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of accepting his benevolent gesture.
“Oh, I’m good. Plainly the big boys were talking big things. Far be it for me to interrupt.” She spat the words at her father, until she noticed her mother sitting on his other side. Her mother had no place at a meeting like this, not anymore. What the fuck were they thinking, disturbing the chain of command this way? No wonder the other pack elders looked uneasy. Tessa’s lips trembled from the effort of restraining her wolf, ignoring her body’s demands for punishment.
“Tessa,” her dad said in a low, exhausted voice. “Please.”
He looked so old, so frail, as sacrilegious as it was for her even think that.
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “Okay, fine. Erin was on patrol, and found Samus. Dead. Murdered. And now you’re here, with him, and you expect me to not see a connection?”
Tessa glared at Marrock, letting him know that while the others might be eating out of the palm of his hand, she never would. Not in a million years.
A younger leader would have transformed on the spot, left marks in her flesh for her incivility. But her father had other food on his plate, apparently. The other elders blanched, murmuring between themselves about her insubordination. She shot them a glare of their own. Obviously they didn’t know when to keep their fool mouths shut. They could take a lesson from him.
“Tessa,” her dad growled, his patience wearing thin.
She gave him a cocky smile, all but daring him to discipline her.
The news of Samus had hit the elders hard, and her aggression had enabled them to feel confident in expressing their own dissent.
“If you’d just kept control of your own damn pack,” one of them snarled toward Marrock, “Elias wouldn’t have half your men, and a third of ours.”
Hear, hear, she thought to herself. Her father had always supposed that Marrock and Elias had been in cahoots, merely playing at the appearance of rivalry to avoid needing to confront each other outright. She’d always held that Marrock was simply incompetent.
Marrock raised an eyebrow, starting out of his chair. His form blurred midair, and by the time he landed on the heavy oak conference table, he had fully shifted, without his lupine bulk losing even a little motion. The man who’d spoken—Josiah—was fighting to transform, but it had been a quarter of a century since he’d had to brawl like a pup. He didn’t stand a chance.
His chair fell backward as Marrock’s weight hit his chest, teeth at Josiah’s throat. He raised his hands in supplication, trusting that it was merely a lesson, not cause for a diplomatic incident. Such things were comparatively commonplace, with so many hot heads and hard hearts in the same room. Tessa didn’t even start forward to pull Marrock off the man. Let him twist on the line a little, first.
She snorted, a little admiration creeping in despite her antipathy. That must’ve felt good. She’d been itching to take Josiah down a peg ever since she’d ascended above her mother. Marrock had good taste in enemies.
Marrock backed away, the fur melting back into his skin, and his bones shifting back into a human skeleton. He turned away as though nothing had happened.
“Does anyone have anything else to say to me?” he asked, his voice a dangerous purr.
She squared her shoulders, not liking the way his baritone rasp resonated in her limbs, her head spinning as it made her blood roar through her veins before settling between her legs as a fierce heat…
No. She wasn’t going to have such thoughts about him. He was a fucking asshole. Perhaps she was wrong, and malevolence was more likely than incompetence. That was a good thing to know, since she’d undoubtedly face him down again. But she wasn’t going to waste even one lustful thought on Marrock.
Even if he did move like a true hunter, like a true leader. Like someone who could make her own wolf howl and moan and tremble.
Whyev
er she was here, she would find out in time. In the meantime, she’d learn what she could from observing Marrock, and air her grievances with her dad later. Together, they needed to focus, because the recent events spelled out one undeniable fact.
War was coming.
Chapter 2
Liam Marrock stretched, easing the kinks of his abrupt transformation. Ryker would have his head when he found out Marrock had wasted a dose of absinthe on a petty squabble, but it had been worth it, not the least for how Tessa Lacroix’s eyes had lit up when he put that snide vulture in his place. Her vibrant emerald eyes, bright with restrained violence and approval… It was an honor to put such a look on such a woman’s face.
His woman, if all went well.
That thought still sounded strange. He disliked the arranged mating rituals used to solidify and bind power; as an avowed bachelor, he’d long avoided any treaty that smacked of such manipulation.
Until now.
“The other thing,” Alder Lacroix said, “is that we need to come out on top. Marrock’s here to share information. Offer a truce. We believe we have a way we can consolidate our strength and—”
“Out of the goodness of his blackened, shriveled heart?” Tessa asked, flashing a sardonic grin toward him. His heart skipped a beat.
“My reputation precedes me,” he quipped, bowing his head.
Her smile softened. Maybe there was hope for this yet. The smile fell off her lips abruptly. Perhaps not, then.
It was just as well. He didn’t know that he could respect her if she was the type of person to play along with such a calculated ploy. The offer would solve a lot of problems, and was intriguing, besides, but it had a long ways to go before it became a true possibility, with the stubborn woman glaring around the room at each person in equal measure.
“Out of the goodness of my shriveled heart,” her father said, obviously used to her dour humor. “We’ve all had casualties, and I want there to be no more of them. Especially if—” He pursed his lips as though to hide his grief at the newest one. “I approached him with the possibility, and we were hammering out specifics when you—”