Warner greeted him by biting his muzzle lightly, and Drew returned the greeting. War nudged the fallen tree, jiggling it, and several excited yips were his reward.
When Noah emerged and saw Drew in his wolf form, the pup launched himself at his father. What he was trying to do, Drew couldn’t know. But the excitement in his eyes was evident. He even smelled like joy.
Warner burst into a run, and he and Noah followed. He noticed the older wolf wasn’t running hard, he was running just fast enough that Noah had to work a little to keep up.
They ran until the ground beneath them was nothing, until they were running on air, the wind carrying them through the forest. They twisted this way and that, covering every old native trail, every whim, for hours. Just as dawn broke pink and soft against the eastern sky, they were drawn close to the edge of their immediate territory.
It was War who stopped first, just before they crossed the boundary.
A black cloak lay seemingly forgotten and innocuous beyond the border. It was anything but, because from the scent, Drew knew it was his. Sebastian Monk. He’d told Emmie he’d see her soon.
This was a blatant threat.
War changed back to his human form. “You know this is either a threat or a trap.”
Drew had changed into his warrior form, bipedal and ready to fight. “I know,” he rasped.
“Get control of yourself, nephew.”
“This is control.”
“I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with that one true mate crap at my age.” He shook his head. “This is how we deal with this, and something that human bodies are good for. Longer range.”
Warner was pissing on the cloak. “Marking my territory, showing my derision at the same time.”
Noah was little boy shaped again and looked up at his father and uncle with big, round eyes. “Mama says we don’t do that.”
“We do what Mama says, but this is a special occasion.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed, and soon he’d joined in the fun.
When they were finished, Drew said, “But maybe she doesn’t need to know about this part.”
“This is boy stuff.” Noah nodded solemnly.
He knew then that just as he had found his son, he was going to lose him. They’d have to send him away to Academy, at least until this threat had been dealt with.
In times of extreme stress, wolf children developed faster, calling on their wolf blood to bring them to maturity to fight. Noah was already losing some of the baby roundness to his cheeks and more importantly, the innocence in his eyes.
To give him a childhood, it would have to be away from both of them.
Whereas only moments ago, his heart had been cracked because it was too full, it had been crushed to pieces because it the loss of him made it hollow. But it was better to give up a year or so with him than for Noah to have to give up those years of childhood.
He didn’t know how he was going to get Emmie to agree. Maybe if she saw the changes in Noah, she’d believe him.
“Let’s run back to the house before your mama gets up.”
“We were out all night. We’re going to be in so much trouble.”
Warner laughed. “No, pup. You were with your pack. You were safe. And most importantly, your mama knew where you were. I’ll race you back.”
Warner and Noah ran toward Aphelion as if they were the hounds of hell themselves. Drew couldn’t resist looking back at the now urine-soaked cloak. He wondered just what Sebastian had in store for them and how best to protect his family.
Drew liked running, but never in his long life had he ever wanted to run away. He’d advised Blake on more than one occasion to retreat, to regroup, but then to go on the offensive was the defense was solid.
But this sensation in him now, he wanted to take Noah and Emmie and hide.
He felt like a bitch. Not a she-wolf, as they were fierce and strong. But a bitch—weak, whiny, and ineffectual.
And the worst part was that he was sure Monk knew it.
He was grateful for Blake’s return today and his solid advice as his brother and his Alpha.
Drew pushed hard to catch up to War and Noah. He needed to get him in the bath and to bed. When they all reached Aphelion, Noah was a yipping ball of noise and dirt. He resumed his human form and scooped him up, taking the excited, wiggling pup to his room.
The roman bath had anticipated their needs and was full of steaming water and bubbles. Noah leapt right in.
“Hey, hey… it’s time to be a people again, kiddo.”
“Don’t wanna.”
“Yes, you do. People get pancakes and sausage before they go to bed.”
“I thought that was when they got out of bed.”
“Not tonight. Maybe next time we’ll hunt a deer.”
“A bambi?” He peeked up out of the water.
Damn Disney. Making it hard to raise little werewolves since 1942. He was sure the mermaids had it worse. “Would it bother you to eat a bambi?”
“Not if I was really hungry.” He hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I lied. I don’t wanna eat a bambi.”
“You know what? You don’t have to. There’s plenty of other things to eat.”
“I don’t have to? Uncle War said I have to.” He splashed around, magick sponges scrubbing him down, cleaning him of the evening’s dirt.
“You can werewolf however you want to werewolf.”
“Is Mama your mate?”
“I…what?” Oh Goddess, he wasn’t ready for the birds and bees and the mates discussion.
“Your. Mate. Are you going to bite her?”
He choked and spluttered. “I really think that’s up to your Mama.” Hopefully, that answer would hold him for a little while longer. He wanted to share his knowledge with his son, but he and Emmie weren’t ready to even begin to define what they were to each other.
Well, she wasn’t ready.
“I like that answer.” He yawned. “Can I have my sausages when I get up?”
“Yes, you can.”
He crawled out of the bath and Drew wrapped him in a towel and dressed him in a pair of pajamas.
Drew allowed the magick spells and enchantments to clean him. He wanted a shower, but he didn’t have time for that luxury. As soon as Noah was asleep, he was going on patrol. He had to talk to Westwood about reinforcing their perimeter and see if she knew anything about the black tendrils. He didn’t want to upset Emmie before he had to.
“Can I have a story?”
“Yes, but only one.”
“Did Mama warn you?” He narrowed his eyes.
Despite the turmoil in his head, he laughed. “No. I just know how much I loved stories. What kind of story would you like?”
“Any story, but I like the scary ones.”
“Oh, I see.” Drew considered for a long moment. “Once upon a time—”
“I like this part.”
“Me too. Now, shh. Or I’ll forget, and you’ll have no story. Once upon a time, in the dark, dark woods, there was a dark, dark house.”
“Oh!” he squealed. “Is this about Aunt Lennie? She went to the dark, dark house, and she killed the bad werewolves, and she met my mama before she was mama.”
Drew cocked his head to the side. He knew of Lenore’s trials in the woods, how’d she’d stopped those rogue wolves, defeated the demon wolf of the woods… Emmie hadn’t been there.
Had she?
“Maybe you should tell me the story.”
“No, you tell it.”
“I don’t know it.”
“Yes, you do. In the dark, dark house there was a girl in a red cloak…”
And so he retold the boy the legend of the hunter who is the fated mate of the ancient Luchtaine, slayer of the demon wolf, a modern red riding hood—and his “Aunt Lennie.”
Once he’d fallen asleep, Drew set out to patrol. He planned to give the interior of the estate a once over and then take to the grounds—
and he needed to teach Noah the secret passages sooner rather than later.
He hadn’t been roving the halls long before “Aunt Lenny” cornered him.
“I have to talk to you.” The expression on her face was one he imagined few people ever saw. Lenore Breslin didn’t do fear.
Her scent was unnerving. It was exactly fear, but it definitely wasn’t sunshine and roses. When he’d launched himself at her before and taken her to the ground, her scent hadn’t changed. Not even a bit. She hadn’t been distressed or afraid, but whatever it was she had to talk to him about was apparently more concerning than being taken to the ground by a raging werewolf.
Drew would listen very carefully to whatever it was she had to say. “Would you like to step into the boardroom? I need to speak with you as well.”
She nodded and he led her to the place where his brother, the Alpha, held meetings for both the pack and the family.
“This is fancy,” she said stepping inside. “I guess it’s true what they say, that money never sleeps. Or werewolves.”
He pulled out a crystal decanter and two tumblers.
“Make it a double, please.”
He obliged her and then sat in his usual seat at the right hand of the empty chair at the head of the table.
“What is it?”
Lenore sat without ceremony and downed the brandy, then refilled her tumbler. “I’ve already told your witch, and she’s assured me all will be well, but I’m going to lay this on your shoulders, too. Do you love her?” She held up her hand. “And don’t give me any bullshit about how you just met or whatever else. Is she your mate? Please say no.”
At first glance, his impulse would be to take a swipe at her for implying he wasn’t good enough for Emmie and, coming from a hunter, he’d assume it was because he was a werewolf. But this was something else.
“Well, I’d rather not lie.” He took a sip of the brandy.
“Fuck.” Her eyes were haunted.
“Just tell me, Lenore.”
The hunter’s eyes teared, and she blinked hard. “I’m going to tell you a story. It was once upon a time, but not a long time ago. At least, not for you. For me? A lifetime. Do you know how hunters are tested?”
“I actually just told Noah that story before he went to sleep. Your story.” He eyed her. “He thinks you hung the moon.”
Lenore inhaled deeply, held it for a long moment before exhaling a shaky breath. “I love that kid more than my own breath. You know that, right?”
“Of course I do. I’m proud that you’re his aunt. Never doubt your welcome in this pack.”
“I’ll admit, when I realized you were his father, I thought I was going to lose him.” She took another swig.
“Did you think I’m that much of an asshole?” Or was it because of what he was?
“No, not an asshole, but I have to say, if I was a werewolf and there was a hunter hanging around with my kid, especially a hunter related to Peter Breslin, I’d kill first and ask questions later.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Drew squeezed her shoulder. “That’s not who you are.”
“I don’t know.” She put her head in the bowl of her hands for a moment before pushing her hair out of her face. “Do you remember the illegal hunting parties that were quite the thing with wolves?”
Drew’s stomach twisted on itself. “That’s a foul corruption of who our people are. It’s the human evil tainting the purity of our wolf spirits.”
“I know that,” she reassured him. “When I went to the proving ground, I saved a Woolven wolf by the name of Kate Rouen from one of those parties. She’d managed to escape her cage and, when two of the hunting party came for her, we took them down. But it didn’t stop there. She went back to the camp where they were keeping their other prey, and she helped me take down the whole ring. We saved a lot of people, and we were determined to save more. We traced the money to Royce DeVayne.”
Drew was silent at the mention of DeVayne, but that knot that had twisted up in his gut seemed to double in size. DeVayne was the worst kind of predator, and his drug of choice was other people’s pain.
“I was still a young hunter. I took down that pack before I’d even passed the test. DeVayne was the first op I’d tried on my own. Kate demanded to help. And I couldn’t tell her no. I should have, but I didn’t because I was afraid.”
“Of course you were. Jesus, you hunters are just kids when you’re tested.” Drew thought it was rather brutal to test children so young.
“You may not have as much sympathy for me when I tell you the rest.” She looked down at her hands with a sigh. “Because if I’d been strong enough, brave enough to do this myself, Emmie wouldn’t be in the position she is now. She’d never have married Peter. He was the only one I thought could protect her. But I didn’t know. I just…” she shook her head. “I didn’t know.”
She exhaled again, but was silent.
He’d never seen her like this. She was ripping herself open telling this.
Drew prodded gently. “It’s okay. Tell me.”
“I keep telling her that when she remembers, she’s going to hate me. She swears she won’t.”
“Have you told her all of this?”
“No, that’s the thing. She knows something about a Kate, and the damndest thing is she wants to remember, but we can’t let her. Not ever.”
“My guess is Sebastian Monk will do everything in his power to make her remember.”
“I used to know a hunter named Sebastian. He died on this op.”
“Apparently not.”
“Whatever that thing is you guys saw, it’s not Sebastian. It can’t be. He was ripped apart, too. Hunted down, torn limb from limb.”
“The guy we met, he smelled like magick, werewolf, and death.”
“Sebastian Monk was a hunter. He knew Kate before I did. They met at a college party, if you know what I mean.”
Drew narrowed his eyes. “That piece of shit had his hands on her?”
“And his silver.”
“What?” he roared.
“No, no. He didn’t know she was a wolf. He was just kinky. When he realized what she was and she realized what he was, she transformed and escaped through the window.”
“Tell me the rest.” He steeled himself for the rest of Kate’s story.
Lenore downed another and finally, it seemed to steady her. “We stalked Royce to this club and he invited us to his country house. We thought the op was going so well.” She shook her head slowly. “He knew exactly why we were there. The party at his country house he’d invited us to? It was another hunt. That part we knew. He drugged me and put me in the dungeon to wait until the silver was gone from my blood. He was going to turn me. You know, the big slap in the face to the Breslins. To make my brother hunt me down and kill me. It was worse for Kate, though. She didn’t go down without a fight. She took many of his soldiers with her.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing of this? If she belonged to the Woolven nation, we’d have acted.” He hand curled into a fist.
“Your brother knows everything up to Kate’s torture. While she fought well, she was caught. I couldn’t help her. They tore her apart over and over and over again. They allowed her to regenerate. To heal. Only to hunt her again. They did terrible things to her, do you understand what I’m telling you?”
They’d raped her. They’d killed her. They’d revived her and did it all again. He couldn’t get the imagery of them doing that to his Emmie out of his head and it was almost enough to push him past the point of control. His beast raged beneath the surface, clawed at his skin to get out.
But Lenore was telling him this for a reason. Some reason that had to do with Emmie. A reason that his logic had already latched on to, but his heart didn’t want to hear. His prime directive was to protect her and his son. Giving his beast free rein wouldn’t be in the best interest of that directive and it was enough to keep him caged, for the moment.
“I see your beast beneath your
skin, Drew Woolven, and I need you to get a grip on that shit right now. I’m not done. What I have to tell you gets worse before it gets better.”
“I’m listening. My beast understands I can’t help Emmie or Noah if we surrender to the rage.”
“Good.” She gave him a half smile. “I like a logical beast.”
He tossed back the amber contents of the tumbler and poured himself another. “I’m ready.”
“Another hunter was undercover with DeVayne already. He’d worked a long time to get there. Starting in prep school. Long con, you know? He blew his cover to help us. He slipped me some silver so when my guard came to bite me, he was poisoned. Bastian got me to a witch who was able to pull the infection out of my blood, but in the meantime, he’d left Kate.” She pressed her lips together. “I’d left Kate.”
“You went back for her.”
“I did. And she was beyond broken. Physically, mentally, and spiritually. Sometimes, I wonder if I should’ve let her die. It would’ve given her some measure of peace. But I took her back to the witch.”
His brain made the connection again, but didn’t want to accept it.
“The only thing to be done for her was to wipe those memories away. Change who she was at her core. Even on a cellular level.”
“Emmie?” he whispered, his voice broken and hoarse.
“Yes. Kate became Emmie. When she awoke, she had the false memories of a new life the witch had given her and a deep, abiding fear of werewolves. The Alphas were told that Kate became someone—something else. But no details. To keep her safe.”
Something inside of him shattered. Instead of manifesting as rage, instead of shedding his human skin, he did something incredibly human.
He cried.
The tears fell and he was unashamed. Only a monster would be unaffected by the knowledge, and he was not a monster. The idea of his mate suffering so, abandoned and alone in the hands of a demon like DeVayne, it stabbed him a thousand times. He wished with every part of his being he could go back in time and save her.
Or even now, he would bear that pain, those memories for her.
He also knew without being told he could never, ever Turn her.
The Werewolf Tycoon's Secret Baby (The Woolven Secret Book 2) Page 11