Forbidden Secrets (Lee County Wolves Series) Book #5

by Teresa Gabelman

  “What do you have to say for yourself?” Hunter started on him as soon as the door closed behind the women. He came off the porch to stand almost directly in front of him. “She has a madman after her, a huge fucking bounty on her head, and all you can think of is getting in—”

  “Don’t say it.” Taz’s eyes narrowed in warning; his words came out in a growl.

  “Oh shit,” Steve said, but Taz ignored him.

  “—her pants.” Hunter finished, as if daring Taz to do anything about it.

  Taz did instantly. He punched out, hitting Hunter square in the mouth. “Don’t ever talk about her like that.” Taz was too busy running his mouth to see the counterpunch coming his way. It hit him like a brick, sending him stumbling backward. He shook his head, then wiped the blood from his mouth with a smile. “That all you got?”

  Curses from the porch surrounded Taz and Hunter as they went for each other. Taz heard Leda screaming, but was too busy dodging blows and getting hit. They ended up in the water.

  “Stop them!” Leda screamed, with Janna doing the same thing.

  “Let them get it out of their systems.” Garrett’s voice carried to Taz.

  “Leda, get back inside,” Taz ordered between punches. One hit him in the jaw, and he heard a tooth crack. “Fuck!”

  “Stop.” Leda trudged through the water trying to get to them. Taz leaned back and kicked Hunter in the stomach, sending him flying back and under the water. He grabbed Leda, picked her up and sent her out of the water to safety before Hunter was grabbing him and dragging him backward. “No!”

  “Oh, for shit’s sake.” Jill stomped down to the water’s edge.

  “Jill!” Slade warned. “Stay out of it.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, when have I ever stayed out of anything?”

  “Never!” Steve answered.

  “Shut it, Steve,” Jill hissed.

  Taz was trying to keep an eye on Leda while he was fighting for his life. He heard and saw everything. “Steve, get her out of here.”

  “Dude, I’ve wanted to see you get your ass kicked for a long damn time.” Steve grinned, making Taz growl. “I ain’t missing this for nothing.”

  Before Jill could do her thing and separate them, Hunter yelled, “Shit, is that a snake?”

  “Why yes, yes it is.” Katrina grinned, then winked at both Hunter and Taz, who looked her way. “I’d get out of there if I were you. They’re a little grumpy.”

  Taz looked around to see dozens of snakes hit the water, heading their way. “Fuck this.” Taz and Hunter practically killed each other getting out of the small pond.

  “Never seen a shifter walk on water before.” Jared chuckled, giving Katrina a high five. “Good job.”

  “Thanks.” She grinned at a glaring Hunter and scowling Taz. “I’d stay out of the water for a while, boys.” She gave them a finger wave, then disappeared inside the house.

  Taz spat blood on the ground, using his tongue to check the damage to his teeth. Only one felt loose.

  “Are you okay?” Leda approached him, then leaned over to look into his face. With a frown and curse, she went over and punched Hunter in the stomach.

  “Hey!” Hunter bent over. “What the hell?”

  “I love him,” she growled at Hunter. “Dumbass.”

  Taz grinned, then saw the tears of hurt in Leda’s eyes. Anger surfaced quickly at her pain. He reached over and pulled her to him. His eyes sought Garrett as Taz walked toward him, Leda by his side.

  “We are mated,” he said as he stopped in front of Garrett, his eyes nor his voice wavering. “Nothing you do or say will change that. I should have done it the correct way, by asking your permission, and for that, I apologize. That’s the only thing I will apologize for. I knew from the first time I met her that I would be mated to her. Last night was unexpected.”

  Taz paused, looking every single person there in the eye, leaving Hunter for last. “I wouldn’t change it for the world, and I definitely will not let anyone here or anywhere insinuate what we did as adults is anything other than pure and true.”

  Jill sighed loudly, her hand to her chest, as did Ross, Emily, and Katrina, who had come back outside in time to hear what Taz had to say.

  “I love Leda. I will cherish her more than my own life.” Taz’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Having your blessing means a lot to her. As my former alpha, it means something to me. But as a man, I don’t give a fuck either way.”

  Everyone but Garrett cringed at his last words. Garrett’s eyes went to Leda. “You feel the same way?”

  Leda’s chin rose as she leaned closer to Taz. “I do.”

  Garrett nodded, but his eyes also narrowed, matching Taz’s. “Know that if you ever hurt her, I will hunt you down and kill you slowly.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything different.” Taz reached his hand out and waited for Garrett to take it.

  Finally, Garrett shook Taz’s hand, then held his arms out for Leda. “As long as you’re happy, I approve.”

  “Thank you.” She hugged him tightly.

  “Okay, now that the butt-pucker moment is over, can we eat?” Steve announced, jumping down and hugging Leda. He shook Taz’s hand. “Hurt her and I will eat you and spit you out.”

  Marcus was next with a warning of his own. “Treat her wrong, expect me to show up, fucker.” He shook Taz’s hand, then hugged Leda. “Congrats.”

  Hunter walked up, dripping wet, blood dribbled from his nose. “Hurt her and you know what’s coming from me,” he growled as he shook Taz’s hand, then hugged Leda tightly, getting her clothes wet. He laughed. “That’s for scaring the shit out of us, disappearing and hooking up with this dipshit. Congrats.”

  “Welcome to the family.” Janna walked up and gave them both a hug. “They like you. They just have a weird way of showing it,” she teased, then wrapped her arms around Garrett as they disappeared inside the house.

  As soon as everyone had their say, Taz and Leda found themselves alone.

  “Regretting me now?” Leda whispered, looking uncomfortable and a little embarrassed.

  He clipped her chin gently, raising her eyes toward him. “Babe, I would walk through Hell for you. This was nothing, and something I expected.” He kissed her softly. “The only regret I have is we have to wait until tonight for me to have you again.”

  A large smile spread across her face as she glanced toward the house. “I know a place.”

  Taz chuckled with a shake of his head. “You’re trying to get me killed, aren’t you?”

  Before she could answer, they heard an excited yell from inside the house. The back door opened and out ran Sam. “I knew it!” He ran toward them. “Ma-ma-mates! Now I ha-ha-have a brother.”

  Sam tackled Taz, who fell dramatically and rolled around on the ground with the kid he was becoming attached to. They were his family now, and nothing would ever change that.

  Chapter 21

  Allen Kingsman stared at his smoldering house, ignoring the bodies rotting all around him. His eyes shifted downward, spotting what looked like a wig and frame of some kind. He took a step while his eyes once again refocused on what used to be not only his home but his operation that was just getting off the ground. His brother’s money was almost gone, and he needed another source of income. Stolen goods were a perfect source of fast cash.

  With a curse, he looked down to see a short blonde wig laying over a frame. Using his boot, he pushed the thing aside. To say he was shocked was an understatement. His eyes widened as he stared at the image of his niece. “No.” He couldn’t believe she could do this, but obviously she, or someone who wanted him to believe it was her, had just turned his fucking world upside down.

  “All the houses are empty,” Bailey said, coming up behind Allen. “But I found this asshole sleeping one off in the Watkins’s house.”

  Allen turned to see Bailey pushing Minor toward him. “What in the fuck happened to my house?”

  “She set it on fire.” Minor pushed back at Bail
ey with a growl. “And took everyone. Killed our guys. It was a clusterfuck.”

  “And you didn’t call the fire department?” Allen slapped Minor across the face, twice. “Are you a fool?”

  “I didn’t think you’d want the cops here.” Minor rubbed his cheek.

  Allen cursed as he glared at Minor. He had a fucking point. He didn’t want the cops anywhere near here. “She didn’t do this alone. Who helped the little bitch?”

  “Those VC Warriors were with her, and the Lee County wolf pack.” Minor’s eyes widened. “One of the Warriors is the one who set the house on fire with his fucking hand. I about shit myself. They killed all of them.” Minor looked around the ground.

  Allen let that sink in. Jesus, she’d gotten the Warriors involved. She must be serious.

  Suddenly, a smile spread across his face. Jason’s little bitch wanted a fight? Well, she was about to get one, and the great thing about that was he wouldn’t have to pay out fifty thousand dollars of his brother’s money. He’d collect her life himself.

  “How in the hell did you survive?” Allen asked, looking around at his dead men.

  “He probably ran like the little pussy he is,” Bailey sneered, giving Minor a look of disgust.

  “I had to stay alive to let Allen know what happened,” Minor defended.

  “Was her brother with her?” Allen asked. Seeing Minor’s confusion, he sighed. Minor hadn’t been around that long, and the only reason Allen kept him was that the idiot would do anything he asked of him. “A kid. Did she have a little kid with her?”

  “No.” Minor shook his head. “But Malcolm was helping her, and so was my bitch, Jamie.”

  Rage overtook Allen’s senses as he stared at Minor. Nothing pissed him off more than someone who wasn’t loyal. Yeah, he knew that was hypocritical of him, but fuck it. His brother always treated him like shit, and Allen never had any loyalty for the asshole. Fuck him. Jason had stolen the woman he loved right out from under his nose. Jewel should have been his. But as soon as she’d seen Jason, he’d lost her. And yet, Allen still loved her to this day.

  Yeah, he’d killed her, but that was more for his brother’s benefit. Plus he knew that after killing Jason, she would never have forgiven him, so once again he’d thought, fuck it, and ended her life. He still had a part of her out there somewhere, and he would find him, raise the boy as he should be raised. Sam was a part of him, and he’d be damned if the Lee County fuckers would raise his son or his brother’s daughter, Leda, the bitch.

  The night he had approached Jewel with a deal that he would leave Kingsman was a night he would never forget. The image of Jewel naked underneath him as he fucked her hard would never leave him. He had kept his deal for years. Once she gave him her body for one night, a night that still made his dick hard at the memories, he’d left the pack. He would have given her the world if she just would have loved him and not his brother.

  Turning, Allen glared at the house, then walked closer. It honestly wasn’t the house. It was the bedroom where he had fucked her over and over again while his brother was out on a hunt. Toward the end, he had known she had started to like it. Her body had started defying her mind and heart as it moved against his, begging for his touch.

  Reaching down, he adjusted his cock that stirred in his pants. He had kept that bedroom untouched; only he could enter it. Why? He didn’t know. Morbid? Probably. Maybe it was because he had wanted everything his brother had, his wife included. But nothing was given to him, he took it. All of it without remorse.

  “Fuck!” Allen bellowed, then kicked a burnt piece of wood. Taking a closer look, he frowned and bent over. Holy shit. “Minor, get your sorry ass over here.”

  “What, boss?” Minor stopped beside him.

  “Get down in that hole and tell me what you see in the basement.” Allen pointed toward the hole. “Hurry the fuck up.”

  Minor reluctantly wedged himself down there and then yelled as he dropped. “Dammit!”

  “What do you see?” Allen called down through the hole.

  “Not much. It’s fucking dark,” Minor called back. “Hold on, let me use my lighter.” There was a small pause. “Hey, nothing’s really burnt down here. A few things where the floor fell through, but it doesn’t look bad.”

  “Go find a rope,” Allen told Bailey as he started to lower himself into the basement. “If we’re lucky, none of our shipments got ruined.”

  Allen dropped, landing easily on his feet. Seeing Minor’s lit lighter, he headed that way and was relieved to see all the boxes but a few untouched. Heading farther down where light shone through, he glanced around to gauge where he was when he saw a large hole in the wall.

  “What the fuck?” He frowned and then stopped, shocked. He knew exactly what this was. He looked around the floor to see things broken and scattered on the ground, items that were on the shelves that used to be there. Glancing up, he saw what remained of the shelves on the ceiling, with a strap handle at the bottom. Reaching up, he started to pull it down until it began to fall apart, so he let it go, but he finally understood the truth of something that had always made him wonder. “That son of a bitch.”

  Allen went farther until he stood just inside the hole. He fumbled for his own lighter in his pocket and flicked it, moving it around to see a door that had been left open, he assumed deliberately. Leda wanted him to see it, made damn sure he would see it.

  He moved the lighter around, spotting the lights at the top of the tunnel.

  “Wow, did you know this was there?” Minor stood behind him, using his own lighter to look around. “That’s pretty cool.”

  “Yeah, real fucking cool.” His shadowed face was a mask of rage. “I want every fucking member here in the next hour, and tell them to bring their friends.”

  Minor rushed out to do as he’d been told while Allen continued to look at his brother’s work and what Leda had left open for him to find. This was how she’d escaped with his son. “Oh, I see it, little girl,” Allen hissed. His lighter went out. “And I will be seeing you very soon.” His voice rumbled in the darkness.

  Allen stood in front of his destroyed home staring out at his pack. They’d survived the fray, as he’d given them a night off to kick back before heading back to Kingsman. None of them were happy with being called back from their partying and fucking whores to find their town empty and the main house of the alpha burned to the ground.

  “As you see, we have all suffered a personal attack,” Allen began, his voice ringing out so everyone could hear him. “This attack was instituted by my little bitch of a niece, who had help from the VC Warriors and Lee County wolves.”

  A murmur went through the crowd, which Allen expected. “In one hour, I am leaving for Lee County to avenge the wrong that has been done to this pack, our home. Who is with me?”

  There was a moment of hesitation, but soon agreements to follow him rang out.

  Allen wasn’t certain how this would go with the vampires being involved. Most alphas wouldn’t blink going after another pack, even the Lee County bastards, but the pack who followed him were loyal to him and rarely cared who they had to kill. It’s why he’d welcomed them into his pack.

  He held up the picture Leda had left for him. “I want her alive, and brought to me. I don’t care what it takes, I don’t care who you have to kill to get it done, but I want her alive. There will be a bonus for the man who achieves this, and believe me, I have a feeling she will be heavily guarded.”

  “What’s the plan?” someone in the back shouted.

  Looking around at them all, he smiled and then laughed loudly. “The plan, my friends, is to kill as many motherfuckers as we can.”

  “That would be a big mistake,” a voice said through the crowd.

  “Malcolm!” Allen grinned without having to look around. He knew exactly where the bastard had been. “I was told you betrayed me.”

  Laughing, Malcolm glanced at Minor, who was standing near Allen. “By who, Minor?” Malcolm shook hi
s head. “He’s an idiot. I know where they are, how many there are, but more importantly, I can hand Sam to you. So is that your plan? Ride in and kill them?”

  Allen stepped off what was left of his porch steps and walked toward Malcolm, shaking his head. “You really think I’m that stupid? Minor may be an idiot, but he’s loyal. You were loyal to my brother. I’ve always known that and have never trusted you.” Allen stopped in front of Malcolm and tilted his head. He reached to grab Malcolm’s phone. Looking down at it, he tsked, holding it up. “Who were you streaming this to? Jamie? A Warrior? Leda?”

  Malcolm didn’t answer; he just stared at Allen with hate. “You’re going to lose.”

  “Oh no, you’re going to lose, and so are they.” Allen nodded as four men grabbed Malcolm, dragging him away. “Rough him up a little, but keep him alive.”

  Allen held the phone up and smiled at the red recording light. “Oh, Leda, you have truly fucked up,” Allen said. “You should have stayed in your hole and not played with the big boys. See you soon. And to the bastards who killed my men—payback’s a bitch.”

  Allen tossed the phone to Minor. “Send this to your whore,” Allen ordered as he turned his back to walk away. “I want them to know exactly who is coming for them.”

  Chapter 22

  Tension was high, and the mood around the pack became subdued as they waited for retaliation from Leda’s uncle. They all knew it was coming. Early that morning, it was discovered that Malcolm had disappeared. No one knew where he had gone, not even Jamie.

  Taz was short-tempered and pissed the fuck off. For that son of a bitch to slip out without any of them knowing was his fault. He should have kept a closer eye on him, but he had failed. He didn’t take failure well, especially when it could deeply affect the people he cared about. He left Leda at Garrett’s as he ran the perimeter, looking for any signs of trespassers.

  There was nothing.

  “Jamie hear from him yet?” Steve ran toward him, his usual carefree attitude not present.