“Should I feel relieved that Red Donovan is fighting for his life?” Hayden asked tonelessly.
The shorter female leaned against the wall and surveyed the sorry-sight Hayden made. “Well, let’s hope he makes it. I couldn’t imagine the consequences if he dies in the hospital.”
She waited for Hayden to ask her what she meant, and when the blonde Alpha didn’t feel the need to humor her, Devan continued anyway. “Red Donovan has been protecting this town from Hunters for years. He does have family, you know. He may be retired, but they aren’t. If Red is killed by one of the werewolves, what’s stopping his family from taking revenge?”
It wasn’t as if Hayden needed anything else to feel guilty about. She hadn’t even thought about that possibility. By not telling Cole about Falco’s assault on Red Donovan the night before, she had not only let the attack happen this morning, but she could have also had a hand in inviting the Hunters to Albertville.
“Don’t be so upset over it. I’m sure Red will pull through.” Devan then held up a piece of paper, her crimson-painted nails still perfectly manicured even after weeks of use. “If it cheers you up, we get to go shopping to grab a few things for Addie.”
“You mean you get to grab a few things,” Hayden replied monotony, hardly missing a beat. She hated grocery shopping and she was hardly in the mood. “Blake and Addie just went to the store,” she exclaimed sourly. “Just the other day.”
Devan shrugged. “Fergus decided to eat the jar of sauce that Addie was going to use in the lasagna tonight. So we get to go to the grocery store.”
Wondering just what Fergus could have possibly wanted with plain spaghetti sauce, Hayden unwillingly shut off the television. “Do we at least get to take Cole’s car?” The grocery store was a bit further from town, which meant they could take full advantage of the car’s quick acceleration.
“Of course,” Devan replied. She flicked her short, brown hair away from her eyes. “But I’m driving. Cole hasn’t given you the stamp of approval to take the wheel yet.”
Grumbling after the other female, Hayden stomped into her shoes and ventured outside. Devan was obviously in a hurry, as she was already scrambling inside the car and slamming the door shut behind her. As if sensing Hayden’s stare, the other female looked up and impatiently motioned her to hurry. It took a great deal of restraint on Hayden’s part not to intentionally go slower.
“The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get this over with. Trust me, I don’t want to spend my night with you either,” Devan said sharply. As soon as Hayden closed to door to the passenger side, the woman backed out of the driveway and sped off down the road.
Hayden leaned back in her seat, her eyes wide as Devan pressed down the gas pedal. Sending off a short prayer, Hayden reached for the seatbelt and buckled herself in. Car accidents couldn’t kill werewolves, but she would rather stay clear of the windshield if they were to stop suddenly.
“And when did Cole give you the stamp of approval to take his car?” Hayden demanded as they whipped around the corner. She clung for dear life, her pulse beginning to race. “Obviously he was blackmailed into giving you the keys. Because if he ever experienced your driving, he wouldn’t want you five feet from—”
“Hayden, please shut the hell up.”
At the clipped order, Hayden’s eyes narrowed and she turned to assess Devan. The woman’s earlier good mood seemed to vanish and a nervous air took its place. The hands on the steering wheel were white-knuckled in order to stop the obvious tremors and her hazel eyes were dilated, tunneled, as they fixated on the road in front of her.
“Are you alright?” Hayden inquired doubtfully.
“After I get this over with, I’ll feel better than ever.”
The scrap of paper Devan had held up in the living room caught Hayden’s attention. She stared down at the list of groceries that sat between the driver and passenger seat, recognizing that there was nothing written on it.
And that’s when Hayden realized this wasn’t going to end well.
“You were so worried about your little human friend that you begged me to bring you to the hospital to see him. At first, I declined, thinking we shouldn’t get mixed up with the Hunters. But everyone will understand how convincing you can be.” Devan smiled grimly. “Cole will see the note we left in your room, explaining that we took his car to visit Red Donovan. He’ll be angry, but at least he would know we tried to make it to the hospital. It would explain why we crashed on the road leading to the main interstate.”
Hayden seized the inside of the car as Devan ran the only stoplight in Albertville, almost hitting a pedestrian in the process. They took another sharp turn, heading in the direction of the interstate but also away from the location where the Alphas would be gathered.
She understood Devan lured her out of the house, but she didn’t understand why. “So you’re going to kill us?” Hayden wagered a guess, wary. “You couldn’t just commit suicide by yourself, you had to pull me in as well.”
Devan delivered a look that would make any man or woman recoil. “Don’t be stupid, Hayden. Of course I’m not committing suicide. I’m only completing my side of the deal.”
That didn’t sound good at all. Hayden exhaled deeply, irritably pushing away the sense of betrayal and focusing on the situation at hand. There was a possibility she could talk Devan out of whatever the female was planning.
“You… you’re still not over Joseph, are you?” she guessed. “Did you make some sort of deal with him and Falco?”
The other female shook her head forlornly. “You are so clueless sometimes. I was never over Joseph and Joseph was never over me. And Falco isn’t even a factor in this outcome, he was only a scapegoat.” She glanced at Hayden from the corner of the eye. “Who do you think would organize all of this in return for you?”
Nicolas.
Hayden curled her hands into tight fists. “I don’t understand,” she said heatedly. “What’s in it for you?” She was shouting, but she could do nothing to stop the fear from taking over. “What could he possibly have to give you that would entice you enough to betray your pack?” It was hard to believe. Devan couldn’t have possibly been behind everything this whole time.
The brunette-haired werewolf hardly reacted to Hayden’s inquiry as she accelerated the car. They were entering deeper into woods and the gravel roads were beginning to narrow. It wasn’t the best road to go postal on, but Devan seemed to have the hang of it. Then again, Hayden remembered Devan mentioning something about an impending crash.
“You don’t have to do this,” Hayden continued frantically. What little control she had over her emotions had collapsed and she was trembling in her seat. At the speed they were going, the consequences of jumping out of the passenger side wouldn’t be any different from crashing.
Devan jerked the car around a narrow bend, her eyes determined but her mouth creased into a frown. “I know I don’t have to do this, but I want to do this.” She turned almost frenzied as she hunched closer to the steering wheel.
“My relationship with Joseph was on unsteady grounds when I was assigned Nathan’s mate, but we worked things out. We could handle the simple hurdle, and in the end, it would be worth it. It will be worth it.”
The extent of Devan’s betrayal wasn’t even a consideration to Hayden at the moment. She was more worried about what the other female was planning to do with the car and how fast she planned on going when doing it.
Fear curled its wicked hands around her throat, compressing it, but Hayden still managed to scream as Devan drove off the road and into the woods. The car nearly took a nosedive in the ditch, but it ended up making it to the other side of the trench. Bracing herself, Hayden angrily cursed Devan as they veered in the direction of a solid tree. They definitely weren’t stopping anytime soon and the tree was certainly not going anywhere either.
Squeezing her eyes closed, Hayden held her breath as they hit the tree head on. The impact sent her neck snapping forward and her w
hole body flew into the restraining seatbelt. Even her soul seemed to detach from her body and continue forward without its host. When it raced back into her, Hayden wheezed, breathless. Airbags deployed and smacked her in the face and head, disorientating her for quite some time.
“And we were driven off the road by a scheming rogue, imagine that,” Devan panted.
Hayden blinked open her eyes, the world spinning too fast for her to handle. Through hazy and weary eyes, she watched as Devan tugged her mangled fingers from the crushed steering wheel. Fighting the nausea, Hayden stared at Devan as she began cracking the crooked fingers back into place.
In the distance, the sound of an approaching car shook Hayden back to the present. She turned her head marginally in order to catch a glimpse. For a fleeting moment, she thought her misfortune would end. The car would stop and help them, saving Hayden from Devan’s insane clutches.
The car did end up stopping, but it was a dark van. Hayden’s breath hitched when she saw the identity of the two men who exited the vehicle. Blindly, dazedly, she groped for the handle to the door, desperately hoping to run away before they could reach the car.
“Not so fast.”
A sharp needle embedded into Hayden neck and she instantly slumped, her body turning boneless. Her tongue felt too big for her mouth as she slurred vulgar insults to Devan. Whatever earlier panic she had beforehand had been neutralized by the drug.
“You’re not going with Tracer,” Devan soothed when she noticed Hayden watching the approaching rogue with dread. “We just need his scent around the car to draw Cole in the opposite direction.” She then patted Hayden’s head mockingly. “I don’t want to bombard you with too much information. I know you find it difficult comprehending things.”
Bitch.
Hayden fell ungracefully out of the car when the door opened. Her pulse gave a heavy thump when his slimy hands caught her around her waist and hauled her up. Without much concern for her comfort, Tracer dragged her body over to the industrial van. On the way there, she tried her hardest not to look at her captor.
Once deposited into the back of the van, Hayden was forced to face the rogue.
“Hello puppy,” Tracer greeted with a wide sneer. He bent at the waist and considered Hayden’s subdued form. “Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you?”
Hayden gazed steadily back at him, her fear most likely palpable to the spectators. The last time she’d seen Tracer, he had a silver dagger shoved into his stomach. Considering what the silver had done to her thigh, even after immediate treatment, she would have thought Tracer would have died from his wound.
Devan sat next to Hayden in the van, her hands entwined lovingly through the man’s in front of her. “Do you have the scent suppressant?” she asked amiably.
Dismissing Tracer’s leering face, Hayden felt a rush of intense hatred as she looked at the second man involved in this kidnapping. Joseph was standing next to Devan, appearing almost as deliriously happy as Devan. He was stroking her hair endearingly, while passing her a familiar-looking serum.
They were all just magnificent actors. Just wonderful. It took an extremely cold-hearted person to pretend they were the victim, while putting their pack and family in danger.
Despite Devan’s insistence that Hayden couldn’t intelligently piece things together, she was able to grasp what was happening. Devan was setting up a fake kidnapping. When Cole stumbled across the crashed car, he would smell their scents and Tracer’s scent leaving the car and entering another vehicle. Cole would then hunt after the van as best as he could, thinking that he was tracking both Hayden and Devan.
However, they weren’t going to be with Tracer. From what Hayden could smell, or what she couldn’t smell, Joseph had no scent on him. He was most likely planning to administer the serum to Devan and Hayden. The three of them would then go in an opposite direction as Tracer.
It was a rational plan to lure Cole away from their actual location.
She remained slumped against the van, hardly able to keep her eyes open, let alone ward off the needle that was poking in her arm. The serum was pumped into her system and Hayden could hardly raise a finger to stop it.
As the trio of werewolves conversed around her, Hayden began nodding off. She temporarily wondered if Joseph and Devan were planning on going back to Albertville and pretending as if they had nothing to do with this. Surely, the others would be suspicious of Devan turning up unharmed when Hayden didn’t return at all.
Just as the serum started to work, a set of arms grabbed Hayden from the van and slung her over a broad shoulder. She fell unconscious to the sight of the thickening woods and the sky bleeding a sinister crimson.
15. Chapter Fifteen
The heavy cloud of unconsciousness began to lift as Hayden struggled to pull herself together. Steadying her breathing, she kept her eyes closed in order to scope out her surroundings undetected.
She was currently propped against a sturdy tree with a wire coiled several times around her torso. From the difficulty it took to breathe past the constraints, she knew it would take quite a bit of effort to break through. Even if her fatigued body did muster enough strength to do so, she didn’t know if she could escape without getting sliced open by the wire.
Reaching out further with her senses, she was aware of the close proximity of both Devan and Joseph. Their scents were nonexistent, but she could still hear the steady and subtle sound of their heartbeats. They seemed to be sitting motionless, most likely listening to their surroundings with just as much intensity as Hayden was.
“She’s awake,” Joseph informed softly.
Despite his awareness of her consciousness, Hayden kept her eyes closed as his quiet footsteps approached her. She couldn’t help but to growl lowly as his calloused hand checked her pulse and ran across her forehead. His ministrations were hardly gentle, and every bit uncaring.
“Her body handled the drug just fine, but it won’t be long until it wears off.” His voice came directly in front of her. “He’s late. By the time he gets here, she’ll be able to morph into her wolf. I don’t have a second injection.”
“Nicolas will be able to handle her,” Devan answered in a collected tone.
Hayden snapped her eyes open and stared into the deep blue gaze of Joseph. The man was crouching in front of her, an indecipherable expression on his face.
She’d hardly interacted with Joseph, but each time she saw him, her dislike for him seemed to increase rapidly. Whatever false pity Hayden felt for him earlier that morning had tarnished into ugly animosity. Everything had been an act. All of it.
“What did you drug me with?” she asked numbly.
Besides the scent suppressor, Hayden had originally believed Devan injected her with something that would knock her out. But based off of what Joseph said, the injection was something that would make it impossible for her to morph into her wolf.
While she did feel weak, she still felt as if her wolf was with her. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to morph, but at least she would have her other enhanced senses.
Hayden searched for Devan over Joseph’s shoulder, finding the woman sitting against a neighboring tree. The woods had darkened into deep blue and black hues, creating an unsettling environment.
Despite the shadowy veil, Hayden was able to discern Devan and her features quite clearly. Like Joseph, Devan didn’t seem to be showing much emotion. There was only a hint of uneasiness, which creased the corners of her eyes.
“It’s a drug that will weaken you and keep you from morphing. You may have enhanced senses in your human form, but you aren’t quite as superior as you would be if you relied on your wolf.” Joseph easily caught Hayden’s attention. “We made you vulnerable to the abduction. Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked after spying her astounded face.
Scent suppressants were one thing, but this was difficult to accept. “Only Alphas have the power to force their pack members to morph into their human or wolf forms,” Hayden reasoned. “Creating a chem
ical for that is impossible.”
Joseph flashed a mocking grin. “You’re still questioning it after experiencing it firsthand? Rogues, who have the sense to rise above traditional werewolves, also have that power.” The dark-skinned beta stood up. “The traditional werewolves are stagnant, underdeveloped. They refuse to change with the times. Eventually, they’ll get run over by their enemies.”
Hayden looked at Devan’s unmoved expression before narrowing her sights on Joseph again. “You sound like you’re supporting the rogues.”
The laugh that came from Joseph was bitter. “Do you even know what the rogues stand for? Besides the opinion of the biased werewolves around you, do you even have the slightest sense of what they’re after?” He sniffed haughtily and turned away from Hayden. “You have no idea.”
Hayden immediately went on guard. “I may not have an idea of what Nicolas is really after, but I know I would never betray my pack for anything. I would never frame my Alpha and I would never kidnap a pack member in order to deliver them to the enemy.”
As Joseph disregarded her, Devan was the one to stand up, her stance defensive. “I betrayed you, Hayden. How can I betray the pack when I never considered you part of it? The others will never have to know about what happened tonight.”
Hayden’s bound arms jerked against the wire and her fists curled at her sides. She wouldn’t deny it, the other woman’s remark was harsh and hurtful. “You were with me in the car. How are you going to explain your sudden reappearance to the pack when I don’t return?” Cole would find it suspicious, or at least Hayden liked to think so.
“So many questions,” Joseph criticized from his position. “I was too devastated to send my father off, so I stayed behind.” He waved his cellphone at her. “A member of my pack called shortly after we entered the woods. He informed me that they found Cole’s car destroyed with your scent leading into Tracer’s van. I reassured him that I would go out and look for you and Devan. Even if they do figure out you’re not in the van, it’ll be too late.”
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