“Someone shot Zach,” Kaden said simply.
“I didn’t do it,” Eva said between clenched teeth. “Maybe one of those Cerulean bastards got away and is hiding in the woods.” She snorted. “That hunter got what he deserved for threatening me.”
“He got what he deserved?” Kaden glanced over her. “I don’t see a scratch on you or anyone else, Eva.”
She laughed. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore, Kaden. The man I trusted a year ago is in bed with the hunters, and now he’s accusing his own pack of shooting the very people who hunt and kill our people.”
Kaden wanted to clench his fists, but he held himself in check. Things had changed, but he was still the alpha, and the protection of this pack always came first.
“Trust, what an interesting word,” he said to Eva. “We’ve been running for years and hiding from the humans. I’ve been bitter like you, and I’ve wanted to kill every single one of them for what they’ve done to us.” He looked at everyone else who listened to him. “But a single moment can change your perspective on right versus wrong, on what is more important: either accept your enemy and strive for peace or kill each other. My father Tobias didn’t want us living like that. Those of you who remember him should know this.” He paused. “When I met Zach McGinnis, Cyn’s brother, I was prepared to kill him once I knew what he was. He came to my emergency room with a knife wound. Instead of killing him, we talked for a long time about his dying sister. I saw a side of the hunters I’d never seen before: profound grief. A drive in a man to do anything to save what was his own. Just like I feel about all of you.”
“So you made a deal with that hunter,” Naomi said with crossed arms.
“Yes, and I don’t regret my actions. Zach did keep up his side of the bargain. His job was to keep freelancers away. Any attack from the Cerulean clan was our undoing. Our mistake.”
He refused to place blame on his brother Bastian. Even if Bastian had rendered the killing blow on the Cerulean hunter. He wondered if Bastian had a role in the attack on Zach as well. No matter, they were a pack. They had to move on.
He continued. “I’ve learned a lot from the hunters. They are capable of generosity and selflessness. Many of them are inhuman, but not all of them. The day we become animals and strike out in fear is the day we become as bad as the ones who attack us without an afterthought.”
Some pack members nodded while others remained quiet with doubts. He didn’t need to read their body language to know what they felt. He had been in their place before he’d met Zach and Sinister. It really was amazing what one encounter could do to change perspective.
As the alpha, it was up to him to show his pack the possibilities and let them decide for themselves.
***
Two days passed. For Cyn, they came and went in a blur.
The pack was preparing to leave, and Zach was still in bed. Once her brother had become stabilized, Kaden moved her brother from Naomi’s cabin to theirs. Their prisoner was relocated with a portable propane heater to what was left of Rhys and Eva’s cabin. The building was in pretty bad shape. No one was using it.
There wasn’t much for her to do except make sure her brother’s wound was properly cleaned. When she got bored, she finally began to pack her meager belongings.
Stowing away her clothes in her hospital bag was soothing. Folding and arranging her belongings helped. All the while, she spoke.
“Zach, you won’t believe the gun room they have here in camp,” she said to him. Her brother had awakened briefly a few hours ago for broth and painkillers. He was asleep more often than awake.
“They have Bouncing Betties, Z.” She tried to smile. “How come none of those suckers went off during the attack? I wonder if Sinister is slipping. He told me he sprinkled those things all over the place like they were tinsel on a Christmas tree.”
Speaking of Christmas trees, there was no way she could take the McGinnis tree and all the ornaments with her. There were only so many snow cabs, and it was far more important to transport life-saving supplies like food and ammunition.
Her heart tugged. So many memories would have to be left behind.
“Why did you have to bring the whole tree?” she asked him.
Because you needed a real sign that your brother had brought you here, her heart replied.
She touched Zach’s forehead for maybe the fiftieth time. He was cool to the touch as usual.
Once she was satisfied, she tried to select a few shirts for Zach from Kaden’s clothes. The two had the same height, but Kaden had a more muscular build. Zach would definitely need a belt if he wore Kaden’s pants. Cyn shuddered at the thought of any poor souls seeing Zach’s pants fall to expose his knobby knees.
She picked up his coat to get an idea on size and noticed something hard in an inside pocket: Zach’s cellphone.
Now this was familiar. Her brother tended to enjoy old school rap, but when it came to the latest and greatest in smartphone technology, Zach was the first one to buy it. Yep, even werewolf hunters lined up outside the electronic stores in the dead of winter to get shiny new devices.
“I can’t believe you tried to get me to switch to Android,” she remarked as she brushed his hair out of his face. “You’ll have to pry my iPhone from my cold dead fingers, thank you very much.”
She sat on the edge of the bed and turned on the phone. She wasn’t surprised when the device, with its red military grade case with crossbones on the back, flicked to life and booted within seconds. Getting past the password screen was easy enough—he’d always used Mom and Dad’s names as one word.
He had hundreds of pictures in the photo app. She browsed through them, laughing when she caught familiar faces: Clive the hairless armorer, Old Bartholomew the clan sage, and Quincy. Not much to say about Quincy other than the fact that he was the clan groupie. Couldn’t shoot or hunt to save his life, but if you needed your boots shined, Quincy was there with an eager grin.
So many of these people represented family. Drinking buddies for the hard times after a long fight. In each picture, Zach showed her how much he’d done well after she had moved here.
There had been so many things she’d missed. The Red hunting clan’s winter barbecue in Old Bart’s backyard. She laughed. Now that was a blast. A gang of hunters hanging out in an average, quiet neighborhood backyard, shooting the breeze. In the dead of winter. With beer, burgers, and brats sizzling on a grill. The drinking contest was legendary. Five kegs downed in less than five hours. She never won, by the way.
The next picture made her suck in her breath. Zach had taken a picture of a faded photo in a frame. One of the few pictures that had survived during their countless moves: It was the last picture they had of a thirteen-year-old Ty smiling.
Chapter 5
Five years ago
Sooner or later, Cyn knew this day would come, but today seemed like the wrong day.
“You don’t have to go in there.” The hand placed on Cyn’s shoulder was a large one, a steady one that could have held her up in case the weight of the world grew too heavy. “We can tell them your parents aren’t coming back.”
She couldn’t breathe. She’d never felt so dizzy in her life. Maybe if she let go and collapsed in the corner, she’d find relief. And yet, after looking into Old Bart’s rheumy light blue eyes, she straightened her back. Old Bart never comforted. He was a tall, thickset man who strengthened the weak and made them into soldiers prepared to face anything.
I’m hurting, but I have to be strong. She repeated those words to herself over and over again as she entered the North Vancouver home right off the water. If she closed her eyes, she could hear the Indian River beyond the deck that wrapped around the house.
Entering the house’s living room and walking up to her brothers passed in a blur. Most fifteen-year-old boys like Zach cried at the loss of their parents, but Zach simply nodded, hugged her, and left the house without further words. He coped in his own way.
Ty just stoo
d there and didn’t move. Finally, his lower lip trembled, and the need to take his pain away clawed at her very being.
“I’m so sorry, Ty,” she choked out.
“Were their bodies found?” he finally asked. At thirteen, Ty’s voice still had a high-pitched squeak that seemed childlike. Tears formed in his hazel eyes like shiny pools of amber.
Her mouth moved and she struggled to speak through her grief. “We don’t know yet.”
“Then they aren’t dead,” Ty ground out. “Dad is coming back. He always comes back. Mom will be back.” He advanced on Cyn as if to strike her.
Old Bart tapped her brother’s shoulder. “Channel that anger in the right place, boy. The day of your vengeance is coming.”
Cyn reached out to comfort him, but the look of hatred on his face made her shrink back. He’s angry. Let him vent, she reminded herself. But she was hurting, too. Her insides had been scraped out and all she had left was a hollow feeling that made it hard for her to stand. To breathe. To continue living.
“The day will come when we’ll set fire to every place those vermin lay to rest,” Old Bart whispered to him.
Ty’s hands formed fists, and his body trembled.
As Cyn left the house to go check on Zach, she heard Bart say one more thing, “And the ones who scatter into the darkness will fear you and your wrath as you break down every door to seek them out.”
***
Now
When the tears stopped flowing, Cyn dared to keep going.
She went farther back into the past. The hospital pictures were next. She didn’t want to see those. But instead of flicking her finger faster, she slowed down. There were pictures of her in bed. In one in particular, she presented her middle finger to Zach for sneaking a picture.
“Ugh. I look like shit, Z.” She presented the phone to his sleeping form. “You’re dead meat for taking this one.” Her finger hovered over the delete button, but she sighed and kept going. He’d saved it for a reason. It wasn’t her place to get rid of it.
Even farther back, she saw when she was well. In some photos, she saw a girl. Now this was new. None of the recent pictures included the pretty brunette.
“Nice taste,” she said. “Classy and educated.”
It was as if something had happened between her brother and this new girl after Cyn had fallen ill. Her grip on the phone tightened. Her brother had better not have broken up with this girl over her. Her heart would break to think of such a thing. Zach had already sacrificed so much for her.
As tempted as she was to look through his text messages and play the role of a nosy big sister, she left the text messages app.
She almost put the phone away, but a thought came to mind. With a single phone call, the Red clan could be called to take Zach away to a hospital. Maybe the pack could leave him by the side of the road and the clan could take him away. The thought came and left just as quickly. She shuddered. Keeping Zach safe was important, but there was no way the clan would simply take him away without following through.
There’d be an investigation, and, sooner or later, someone would find out about Zach’s deal with the Windham pack.
She placed the phone in her pocket and told herself this was for the best. Zach’s life, like her own, was in Kaden’s hands.
She had to trust him.
Chapter 6
Every time Kaden circled the perimeter of the camp, fear bounced around his head. He searched for any signs that their time to leave had run out.
They’d be leaving by dawn. The very idea tried to shake him and he always focused on something else. As he approached Sinister’s cabin, he expected an unoccupied structure, but something was amiss.
The door was open a crack.
He slowly approached the door, taking care to walk along the quiet floorboards. The door opened with a yawn. He searched the room. Captain Crunch was gone.
A few days ago, when he’d swept through the camp, searching for others, the tabby cat had hid under the table in fear of the beast that looked through the window into his domain.
And yet, when Kaden lingered near the door, he didn’t smell any traces of the cat along the doorway or the porch. So where had the cat gone?
A faint sound from the back room reached his ears. Kaden stormed into one of the two backrooms. The bedroom was pitch black. This place was where Uncle Damien slept.
In the far corner, someone pointed a gun at him.
“Do you always point a gun at friends who are looking for you?” Kaden drawled.
Sinister sighed.
A few feet into the darkened room, and now Kaden smelled blood. Rich and coppery. Kaden lit a lantern and Sinister looked away. He rested his bald head against the back of the wall. One hand clutched his arm.
Stealth was Sinister’s good friend.
“You’re hurt.” Kaden reached for the light switch, but the hunter spoke.
“Not. Yet.”
This wasn’t unusual, so Kaden waited where he stood. He’d played this game with Sinister before. Except two years ago, he’d been the prey and Sinister the hunter.
“Fair enough.” Kaden crossed his arms. “Where’s Captain Crunch?” Light conversation usually put the hunter at ease.
“After shit went down, I got him outta here.”
Kaden didn’t ask where. Sylvester had his secrets. As long as they didn’t endanger the pack, he let his friend keep them.
“How long have you been here?” He took a step toward Sinister. The man’s pain flared up and bounced against Kaden. Sinister tried to keep his breath even, but Kaden could hear the change.
“About two hours.”
He was getting closer. Sinister’s gun was still pointed at him. Not aimed in his direction, but the gun had been placed on Sinister’s leg and could easily be used.
Something must’ve happened to him to set him off like this. The hunter’s heart hammered in his chest like a woodpecker.
The attack on the camp.
By the time Kaden knelt before Sinister, the man’s finger continued to rest near the trigger. In a flash, he could raise the weapon and fire on Kaden.
Their eyes met, and Kaden didn’t hesitate to push Sinister’s hand with the gun to the side.
Kaden didn’t speak. Instead, he whistled a tune that made Sinister grunt.
“I hate that damn song.”
Right on cue. Five bars into Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds always made Sinister’s ears bleed. Kaden smiled as he pulled Sinister’s coat open. There was a knife wound in his shoulder, but that wasn’t the main problem. “They always seem to catch you there. You shouldn’t be using this spot like a shield.”
“No shit.”
“I thought I took care of this shoulder a while ago.”
“I guess you did a shitty job, Doc.”
Kaden chuckled. “My handiwork is the best. Most folks who have ripped shoulder cuff tendons and broken legs are out of commission for a while. You managed to walk out of the hospital overnight.” He shrugged. “You couldn’t chase after me and kill me if your good gun arm wasn’t working.”
“I can shoot well with both hands.”
Kaden rested his hand on Sinister’s shoulder as the healing energy flowed into his friend. “Bullshit. You trailed me for what? Two years? And you only managed to shoot me twice. Once in the ear. Some marksman.”
Sinister winced when Kaden repaired a nerve. “I don’t attack my targets in public. You hid well.”
“I was a resident at a city hospital. I had to be in a public place. What about an alley?”
He caught a smile on Sinister’s face this time. “I’ve seen nuns and priests go to shadier places than you did.”
Sinister relaxed against his hand and some of the tension along his muscles faded a bit. Using his hand, Kaden checked Sinister’s older injuries. Many of them he had inflicted. On one night in particular, though, Sly’s hunting had gotten him into big trouble.
“I’m glad you were there that day,” Sinister
blurted.
“Me too. I turned down a hot chick at a bar to go home early for my next rotation. If I had gone home with her, you would’ve been a dead man.”
Kaden remembered that night well. The bars that night had been packed, but after a long shift, longer than even werewolves could stand, he was ready to retire. On the way home, he spied a form lying in one of the alleys. It was then that he realized that his usual trailer, Sinister, hadn’t followed him that night.
Another pack had been here. At least three werewolves had walked away no more than ten minutes ago. The ground was wet and the smell of garbage almost masked the smell of human suffering.
He found Sinister slumped against a wall that was covered in graffiti. His face was a mess and he gasped with each breath. At that very moment, Kaden could’ve walked away. Here was the very man who had tried to kill him multiple times. Now, the hunter had become the hunted and what was left of him was dying next to garbage.
Instead of letting him lie there, Kaden placed his hand on Sinister’s body. Just like today.
“If you keep singing that song, I’m gonna choke the shit outta you,” Sinister complained.
“I caught you humming John Lennon’s Imagine to Captain Crunch a few weeks ago.”
“Now that was a man I respected.”
“Same old Sylvester.” Kaden didn’t have enough in him to heal his friend completely, but he’d taken the razor edge off the pain. “You’ll have to immobilize that arm until your tendons are healed.”
He stood and fetched the blanket off the bed. “We’re preparing to leave soon. Stay here for now. I don’t want the others to know you’re here yet.”
“Too late for that,” Naomi said from behind him.
Chapter 7
As much as Kaden wanted to stay behind to see his sister have a few words with Sinister, he left the room as soon as his sister’s black gaze told him to get the hell out.
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