I slammed my fist into the wall, cursing everything. Fuck. If he was unconscious, this wasn’t a good thing. And I had no doubt how Ace was managing to keep him that way: by beating the shit out of him continuously.
“Where’s my cousin now?” Each word was accented by a deep growl.
“Somewhere on the compound. He’s killing people, Zane.”
I didn’t doubt for a moment that he had expected Maria to make this call. That he wanted me to come. I’d be on his turf then; his men would easily outnumber me. And that would be the coward’s way.
I glanced at Aria, who sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for me.
“Where are you, Maria?”
“I’m hiding in the safe room in the house.”
“Ace doesn’t know about it?”
“No. Cain never shared that with anyone but me. And you.”
He hadn’t trusted Ace fully. He never had. Guilt tore through my chest.
“Okay. You stay there, Maria. Do not come out until I come to get you, understand?”
“Yes. Yes, I understand.”
“Cameras still work okay?” My father had installed state of the art equipment to keep his family safe in case of any attack.
“Yes. I’ll watch for you.”
“I’m coming. And I’m going to kill the son of a bitch.”
“Zane, there’s one thing, just in case you don’t —”
“I said I’d be there.”
“Please.”
“What is it?”
“Your father…he didn’t order Bryan’s murder. He was telling you the truth. He was torn up about it. I was there. I saw him. I know.”
I paused, things falling into place, my own mistakes and failings heavy on my conscience. “I’m on my way, Maria. He’ll make it.”
He had to.
“What’s going on?” Aria asked.
“My father’s hurt.”
“What?”
“Ace. He didn’t quite kill him, but close. He probably didn’t want to take a chance on alerting me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Technically, I’m Alpha when Cain dies. That’s the natural continuation so even if I don’t accept the role, I’d feel it if he died. I’m going to the compound to confront Ace.”
“What? You can’t!”
“I have to.” I turned away from her, dialing Fly. He answered on the second ring.
“It’s three in the fucking morning. Guessing this ain’t good news you’re calling with.”
“Cain’s hurt; he’s been locked up. Ace thinks he’s taking over.”
“On my way.”
“No. I need you to take Aria. Hide her.”
“No. I’m going with you!” Aria tugged on my arm.
“No, you’re not. It’s what he wants.” I may have claimed Aria, but Ace didn’t play by the rules. If I didn’t survive this, then, without my protection, she’d be his for the taking, and he’d not only have Savage Blood, but he’d have Xander at his mercy, too. He’d use Aria to bring Rage to heel. Fly needed to hide her.
“Be there in fifteen minutes.”
“I can’t wait for you, but Xander has men outside.”
“Make it ten then. Go, man.”
“Thanks.” I disconnected the call.
“You’re not leaving me behind, Zane. I’m coming with you.”
“No, Aria, you can’t. I’m shifting. I can get to him faster that way. Fly will be here in ten minutes.”
“I can follow you in the truck.”
I stopped, rubbing her arms, walking her backward to the bed and sitting her down. I knelt on the floor, holding her hands in mine. “Aria, I need you to stay, do as I say, and let me handle this. It’s going to be a bloodbath. I can’t protect you and deal with Ace on top of it.”
“But I can help.”
She wasn’t going to listen.
“I know you want to.” I stood, kissing her, opening the nightstand drawer as I did and quietly retrieving the handcuffs I kept there. I wrapped one around her wrist, and, before she realized what was happening, I closed the second one around a rung in the headboard.
“What are you doing?”
Straightening, I set the keys out of her reach on the dresser and picked up her cell phone, handing it to her. “Call your grandfather. Tell him what’s going on. Tell him Fly is coming for you, but he needs to come, too. Tell him I need his help at the compound. To send men.” I hated to do it. I hated to ask for help, especially from Xander. I’d be in his debt.
“Zane —”
I looked at her sitting there, so vulnerable, so human. This was bigger than me. I needed Xander’s help if I had any hope of winning.
“I love you, Aria. I’m sorry for everything.” I kissed her, the tears on her face making mine wet. Then, without another word, I left, waiting just outside until I heard Fly approach, knowing he’d keep her safe while I returned to my home to confront my enemy once and for all. To salvage what I could, hoping I wasn’t too late.
Chapter Nineteen
Aria
I watched him go, the image of him blurry through my tears, his last words to me sounding like just that: final words. With trembling hands, I picked up my phone and scrolled to find my grandfather’s phone number. He answered within moments.
“Aria?” I could hear the panic in his voice.
“I’m okay.”
“Thank goodness.”
“But Zane’s not.” I sniffled, wiping a hand across my nose. I heard the downstairs door open.
“Aria?” It was Fly.
“Up here.”
“Who is that?” Xander asked.
“It’s Fly. He’s here.”
“What’s going on, Aria?”
“Maria called. I don’t know who she is…”
“She’s the woman who raised Zane after his mother passed.”
It still baffled me how interwoven our lives were.
“Cain’s been hurt. Ace, Zane’s cousin, hurt him.”
“That’s a long time coming. Cain was a fool.”
I didn’t care about that. “He needs you, Grandfather.” It was the first time I’d called him that. First time I’d said that word to him…ever. “He went to the compound. He’s alone.” My voice cracked at that, at the thought he’d face all those men, all those men who hated him, alone.
“Aria, you okay?” Fly walked inside, his eyebrows rising at the handcuffs.
“He left the keys over there,” I said to him, wiping my face.
“Who are you talking to?” my grandfather asked.
“Fly’s here. Zane asked him to stay with me.”
“I’ll be coming to pick you up myself.”
“No. Please. Go help him. He needs you there. I’m safe. Fly will keep me safe.” I looked at Fly as he released me from the cuffs. “I trust him.” Fly almost smiled then nodded, turning away when I stood wearing only a T-shirt.
“You’re most important to me, Aria, not Zane.”
“I can’t live without him.” A sob shook me. Fly put his hand on my shoulder, and I wiped my face yet again.
“Your men are here already. They’re outside. Alert them. Send more if you want, but, please, go help him.” My grandfather was the only one who could.
I could hear him take a deep breath on the other end. “I’m sending more men to you. And when this is over, you’re coming home with me, understood?”
“Whatever you want. Just don’t let him die.”
We hung up.
“Shitty situation, huh, kid?”
“Couldn’t really get shittier.”
“It can always get shittier. Come on, get your jacket. We’re going to the bar.”
“The bar? Why? Zane said to stay here.”
Fly shook his head. “I’ve got something there Ace wants.”
“My grandfather is sending more men.”
“Leave a note,” Fly said, rolling his eyes.
I got dressed as fast as I could and followed Fly o
ut to his bike, hugging my leather jacket to me as we stepped out into the cold but clear night. Fly climbed onto his bike and patted the seat behind him, holding the single helmet out to me. I strapped it on my head, got on, and held tight as he tore out onto the road and toward the bar. By the time we arrived, my blood felt like ice running through my veins, but Fly just got off the bike as relaxed as usual, not seeming at all bothered by the cold.
“Let’s get inside.”
“What’s here that Ace would want?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Of course. Story of my life.”
“Sounds like you made up with Granddad there.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Zane needs him. I don’t know how he thinks he’s going to go up against a whole — pack — on his own.”
“He’s got something powerful on his side: vengeance. Cain didn’t order the killing of your brother or mother. It was Ace. I’ve been trying to tell him that for fucking years. Ace is the rotten apple in that family. Not Cain.”
“How do you know?”
“He approached me once, wanting me to talk to Z. To change his mind and make him believe.”
“But why do you believe? How can you be so sure he wasn’t lying to you?”
“Because Cain is responsible for Derek’s death. He put the hit on his own foster brother.”
I stared, unbelieving. Fly obviously didn’t see my expression though because he continued.
“He was young, manipulated by men he trusted. Knows better now, but didn’t do much to save your dad, did it?” He stepped behind the bar and got me a beer and a glass of water for himself.
“He had my father killed? Zane’s father is responsible for my father’s murder? For my mother running all those years?”
Fly stopped, realizing his mistake. Tears burned my eyes as I lowered myself onto a stool. He put his water down, coming around the bar to take my shoulders.
“Shit.”
“Shit.”
“You didn’t know?”
I shook my head, meeting his gaze.
“He’d been trying to make up for it. Sending Z to bring Bryan back. To eventually coax Heather into coming back with you.”
“Did Zane know this? Has he known who was responsible for my dad’s murder all along?”
Fly hesitated, searching my eyes, and, in that hesitation, I saw the answer.
Chapter Twenty
Zane
I knew there was a problem as soon as I got onto the grounds. It was too quiet, too dark. They were waiting for me; they had to be. That was fine, because I’d come for them. For Ace.
I should have done this years ago. I should have taken care of my cousin when the rumors started. Instead, I’d buried my fucking head in the sand and hidden from the truth like the coward I was. And now, my father and my pack were paying the price.
I went directly to the jailhouse, remaining in the shadows, which was easy considering all the lights were busted. Stalking noiselessly, I reached it without trouble. More warning signs. It shouldn’t have been this easy. They should have tried to take me out at the border or, if not then, once I set foot on the grounds.
The windows had bars over them and the door was fortified. I remembered that from years before. If I was going into the building, I’d have to shift back to human form, which I did. Still uninterrupted, I stepped up to a window around back. I saw him then saw my father lying on a cot in a fortified cell, chained to the wall, passed out.
They’d stripped him naked.
They’d stripped their Alpha naked.
My blood ran cold, and my hands curled into fists. It took all I had to suppress the roar building inside me.
They would pay. I would make these traitors pay.
I took in the two men who stood carrying arms just outside the metal bars. Other than that, the place appeared deserted.
I considered my options. Two men. I could easily take them. They’d need more than one bullet to take me down, and I’d be quicker than them. But just as I reached to open the door, a handgun cocked behind me, cold steel touching my skull.
“We’ve been expecting you.”
“Glad you could make it, Z.”
I turned, not recognizing the voices. They were obviously Ace’s men, and it wasn’t just two of them. There were about seven outside and, when the door opened, I saw the two inside weren’t alone either.
“To what do I owe the honor of such a large welcome?” I asked.
“You mean to who.”
“Whom, actually, I believe is proper English,” I corrected.
“Fuck you, asshole. How’s that for proper English?” He couldn’t have been more than eighteen, this kid. But they all had guns, and all of them were trained on me.
It all happened so fast then. I thought I had time. I thought I could save him. But the order came — four words: kill the old man — so unexpectedly that everything seemed to move in some other dimension. I stood locked in place, still processing the words as someone aimed the gun at my father’s head, my father who lay unconscious and naked on the cot, and fired. I felt it as if it had been me in that moment of death, heard myself scream, saw blood splatter onto the wall as a second shot was fired, my father’s head jerking with each one, the bullets killing him. The third and fourth shots weren’t necessary. Even the second hadn’t been. But it took me that long to process what they’d done. In a fury so hot, so filled with years of hate, I heard nothing as I annihilated my enemy, killing them all as shots fired, injuring me, the fire of my wounds only churning that of my rage, of my blood lust, hotter. I didn’t stop until they all lay on the bloodied ground at my feet, dead or dying, gurgling, choking as life drained from them.
Finding the key to the cell hanging on a wall, I unlocked it, my ears still ringing as if the sounds of bullets still ricocheted off the walls. I knelt beside his cot, his bloodied, bruised body too damaged to heal, his brain shot out, permanently ending his life. Tears streamed down my face, regret at my own fucking stupidity killing me! Killing me along with him. I was sorry. I was so fucking sorry. But it was too late. He was dead. My father, Cain, Alpha of Savage Blood, had been killed like an animal by men not worthy to lick his boots. By a man he had taught. Had trusted. He had been betrayed, again, and, this time, the betrayal had cost him his life.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Kneeling beside him, I wept, my head on his belly, my hand holding his to the top of my head, seeking absolution I did not deserve, seeking the forgiveness of the dead. Of all I’d forsaken. All whom I’d failed.
A gurgle from behind me came at the same moment as that final thought.
Aria.
She was still alive.
I hadn’t failed her.
Not yet.
Hands fisted, I rose and turned to where the sound came from, to a man not quite dead. I kicked him in the gut first, hate curling my lip, making my face into something hard. Something to be feared. I knelt, fisting his hair, forcing him to look at me.
“Where is he? Where is Ace?”
Nothing but a groan. I noticed how a part of his throat was missing.
“Where the fuck is he?”
He opened his eyes and looked at me, and even in his agony, he smiled. “He’ll take Rage’s princess. He’ll take it all, traitor.” He attempted to spit on me then but choked on his own blood. I released him, rising, finally understanding the depth of my stupidity.
Chapter Twenty-One
Aria
For hours, I sat at a table in the corner of the bar. Fly worked around me, unloading things, cleaning. Again. He kept an eye on me but didn’t approach. Didn’t try to engage me in conversation.
I nursed my third beer, processing. Zane had lied to me. Or at least omitted some pretty important information. He knew who had killed my father, knew who had started this whole thing — this craziness that put my family on the run — only to be found and brutally murdered. I’d escaped. For a long time, I’d wondered daily if
I was also meant to die that night. And now I knew who it was. Who had wanted us gone. The reasons behind it were pathetic. A waste when the price was human life.
Power.
Revenge for some insane sense of betrayal.
That was it. Those were the reasons my parents and brother had been killed, their lives worth nothing to the man who had set this unending cycle of murder into motion. Of all the people in the world, it had to be the father of the man I loved.
And that man had lied to me.
He’d left out crucial information. I remembered the day he’d told me, how he’d asked me to let him tell me his way. How he hoped I wouldn’t hate him. I hadn’t thought it possible to hate him then.
As far as his part in this, I still believed Zane had been manipulated. But it did not excuse his omission and the fact that this was his pattern.
But there was one piece of the puzzle I still had to figure out. Who was Obsidian and how did he play into this?
Something caught my eye out the window. It was Mark, driving my car, top missing, into the parking lot. How shiny and new it looked. I stood when he walked inside, smiling. He greeted Fly then came over to me, handing me my keys.
“Good as new, almost. New top should arrive in another week or so. I’ll get it on there as soon as it is.”
“I don’t have any money to pay you.”
He shook his head. “Not asking for any. Z takes good care of me.”
These men were loyal to Zane.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I realized I could leave. I could simply walk out the door, get into my car, and drive away. I could leave everything behind. I’d found what I’d been looking for — mostly. I hadn’t found Obsidian, but, at this point, did I need to? Did it matter? Cain Von had been the one who’d initiated it all. Blood stained his hands. The men who’d actually carried out the killings were dead. Zane had taken care of that. Somehow, the need for revenge had faded. In a way, knowing — understanding — had given me the power to make some peace with their deaths.
But could I walk away from Zane? He’d lied to me. Omission was a lie that seemed to be habitual with him.
And what about my grandfather and what he’d expect? I’d promised to return with him. Was this the life I wanted? A princess in a world of werewolves? Did I want to create more of these creatures or did I want a normal, quiet life?
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