“You don’t want that.”
“Sure I do. He’s my brother. My twin brother, surely that means I care about him as much as the girl who spurned him for another.”
Blood didn’t always mean love. “You hate your brother. You scarred him.”
“Oh, that little thing.” He touched his face in the spot where Hunter had his long scar. “That was simply a misunderstanding.”
“You don’t care about him.” I balled a hand into a fist. “Don’t pretend.”
“I do, but that’s beside the point. The Society has him. It’s time to break him out and bring him home.”
“You want to take down The Society.” Denny’s eyes darted around, and I assumed he was checking our surroundings for more people.
“Surely after they kidnapped your sister your views on the organization have changed. You understand that they must be stopped at any cost.”
Denny shook his head. “I believe the hunt has to end. We need to show that we will not be pushed around.”
“And we will. We’ll all make Hunter proud.” Fielding grinned.
“Hunter doesn’t want a war.” Gage kept his arm firmly around me.
“How would you know?” He glared at Gage.
“He’s right. He doesn’t want that.” I echoed Gage’s sentiment.
Fielding laughed. “You can’t talk about his wants either. You haven’t taken the time to get to know him.”
“I’m not his family. It wasn’t my job to get to know him.” Maybe antagonizing him wasn’t the best idea, but playing nice wasn’t going to help either.
“Oh? You’re the ideal member of your family then?” Fielding shifted his weight from foot to foot.
I shivered again, as the cold night and Fielding’s words set in. “I try to be.”
“Is that why you’re running around with Dires instead of returning to your parents now that you have the chance?”
“I can’t leave Gage to his fate.” I was tired of people expecting me to just leave.
“Why not? Because it’s your fault he’s no longer human?”
“No. Because I love him.” Why not get the truth said out loud?
“It’s the guilt propelling you, not love.”
“How would you know?” It was my turn to question him.
“It’s easy to read someone who is a lot like you.”
“We have nothing in common.” It was bad enough when Hunter tried to make us sound similar, but now Fielding?
“We’re both calculated in our decisions, passionate about the wrong things, and reckless at the worst times.” He counted off each point with his fingers.
“You don’t know me.”
“Of course I do. As I said, I’ve done my research.”
“That’s not like knowing Genevieve’s name. That takes knowing me.”
“Or watching you.” His eyes twinkled with amusement.
“When were you watching me?” I shivered again. I was already aware that he knew about me, but there was something about the way he said it made it worse.
Gage growled.
Fielding laughed. “That’s for me to know. I can’t reveal all my secrets. What would be the fun in that?”
“Will you help us get Hunter out? That’s all we want to know.” Denny’s jaw clenched.
Fielding shook his head. “No.”
“Great. We’re done here.” Denny turned his back on him.
“I haven’t finished.” Fielding smirked.
“What is it?”
“I will allow you to watch while I get him out myself. I merely meant I wouldn’t go along with whatever plan you had.”
“Your plan is going to get us all killed.” Denny’s face was completely serious.
“How do you know? I haven’t even told you about it yet.” Fielding tossed a coin in the air and caught it. Who even carried coins anymore?
“I just know,” Denny grumbled.
“You’ve never trusted me.” Fielding caught the coin and closed his fist around it. “Never.”
“You’ve never given me a reason to trust you.”
“Wait. How old are you?” Genevieve asked.
“Why?” Fielding asked with an amused smile.
“You two sound like old men, but you look like you’re in your mid-twenties.”
“Early twenties.” Fielding corrected. “I guess I’m not aging well. How does Hunter look?”
“You’ve seen him.” I answered even though he wasn’t asking me. “You already admitted to stalking me.”
“It’s not stalking, and I have seen him, but I also never thought I looked older than my years.”
“I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him yet.” Genevieve put a hand on her hip. “But I hear he’s looking fine.”
“Mary Anne is attracted to him.” Fielding challenged me with a wicked smile.
As if my ill will against the guy needed to get worse. “My attraction to anyone isn’t the issue.”
“She doesn’t want to admit it, but she is. She wants her college boy more, but if he wasn’t in the picture.” Fielding shrugged. “It’s beyond me why Hunter kept you.” He pointed at Gage. “I’d have gotten rid of you so I could keep the girl myself.”
Gage growled and his body shook.
I grabbed his arm. Shifting and starting a physical fight with Fielding wasn’t going to help matters. “And that’s why you’re not Alpha.”
Fielding glowered at me, and anger rolled off him in waves. For the first time since meeting Fielding I was legitimately scared for my safety. “Be careful what you say.”
“I thought you weren’t going to hurt me?” I attempted to calm my shaking body. Gage wrapped me up in his arms.
“I wasn’t.” Fielding stepped toward me. “But you seem to be looking for trouble.”
“I’m not.” I leaned back into Gage.
“How did you meet Hunter anyway?” Fielding watched me.
“You already know.”
“Are you sure I do?” He smirked.
“You do.” I was completely sure he knew everything. Every little detail from that night.
“Refresh my memory.”
“We had an accident.” Memories from that night were fresh in my head after seeing the old woman again.
“Oh that’s horrible.” He shook his head.
“Driving in the snow.”
“So sorry to hear that.” He spoke with fake concern.
“It was your fault.” The words flew out without a filter, but I knew they were true.
“Excuse me?”
I forced myself to pull out of Gage’s arm before I spoke. I needed to do this standing on my own two feet. “You are behind everything.”
“How could I be? We’ve only just met.”
“Yes… but you admitted to watching me.”
“I wasn’t the one who caused the accident.”
“Were you there?” I watched his face carefully, looking for any slip or any hint.
“No. I haven’t watched you every second.”
Denny nodded. “Of course you weren’t there yourself. That wouldn’t be your style.”
“I don’t like what your insinuating.” Fielding crossed his arms.
“Don’t worry, we all know the truth.” Denny dug his boot into a pile of frozen snow. “It was one of ours.”
“Exactly. You should be blaming Hunter, yet you’re siding with him.”
“Because he needs to finish changing Gage.”
“I could do it too. We’re twins, we have the same genetics.” He smiled.
“You’re not Alpha.”
“Are you going to start that again?” He rubbed the back of his neck.
I had to take a calculated risk, and I hoped Gage and Denny didn’t screw it up.
“Do you really think you can help us?”
He grinned. “Absolutely.”
“We have to think about it.” I found Gage’s hand behind me and squeezed it. He needed to go along with everything I sai
d.
“Having second thoughts?”
“You’re right. Hunter is the reason we had the accident. He may not have been the one to cause the accident, but he controls his pack.”
“Exactly. And especially his second in command. He listens to everything Hunter has to say.”
“Yes, Chet is completely loyal to Hunter.” I needed to tread carefully, but I needed to break through. That wasn’t part of the plan, but I needed to hear him admit it. To admit he’d caused everything.
“Of course. Chet would do anything for Hunter. He’s even given up his own happiness waiting for him to find a mate.” He tossed the coin again. “Silly tradition isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” I hoped playing stupid would work for me.
“Chet wants to mate with Marni, or didn’t the two love birds whine about it to you?”
“I didn’t know that. I thought Marni was into someone else.” I was improvising and hoping I was right about him having feelings for Marni.
“Who else?”
“Someone who wasn’t with the pack anymore. That’s all she told me.”
He paled slightly. “Oh. I thought she and Chet were together. My mistake.”
“I guess so. She seemed determined to end up with this other guy. Girl talk, you know?”
“Yes.” He gave a slow smile. “Girl talk.”
“So back to changing Gage?” I squeezed Gage’s hand again. “Are you ready now?”
“We should get the others out first. It might be better if Hunter did it.”
“Would it be?” Gage asked. “I thought you said you could do it as well.”
“I assume so, but it’s a gamble.” He put his hand in his pocket.
“Then we’ll wait.” No matter what we had to get Hunter out of the prison. There was no way in the world I was trusting Fielding to touch Gage. I was positive he’d kill him, and to make it worse, he’d do it with a smile.
25
Hunter
I needed to go faster. I slammed down on the accelerator and wove in and around the few cars on the turnpike. We’d been driving for hours and had only stopped once. Darkness had set in, and although it was usually my favorite time of day, this time it worried me. Fielding was dangerous day or night, but under the cover of darkness he could get away with far more.
“She’s going to be okay.” Michelle spoke softly, but I heard it loud and clear.
“You don’t know that.”
“She’s not alone.”
“No, she’s not.” I clenched my jaw. She was with Gage.
“Stay focused. We are almost there.”
“I am focused.” I tightened my grip on the wheel.
I was worried about Mary Anne, but I also couldn’t shake Jocelyn’s words about Chet. Why would he have been talking to Isaac without me? She’d implied it was an important conversation. No matter what it was, I had to get to Fielding now.
I turned off at the exit for Baymill and only slowed down slightly. I glanced at Michelle. She was staring straight ahead. A few minutes later I saw the weathered service station on the left side. A black SUV that looked like something Denny would have procured was the only vehicle in the parking lot. I parked a few spots down. I unbuckled and jumped out. Michelle followed.
We followed the drive back around to the side of the building, and we found everyone. Mary Anne was cradled against Gage with another girl and Denny at their side. Fielding was standing in front of the rest of them, holding court. He was all about being the center of attention. He had been since day one.
I walked over, and he heard me approach.
“Hello, brother.” Fielding grinned. “We were just talking about you.”
“That conversation will need to wait, because you and I need to talk.”
“We do. I’m so glad you made it to our fun get together.”
“Let them leave. We can talk about everything else as a pack.”
He laughed. “As a pack? I left your pack years ago.”
“Yet you always seem to be nearby.”
“Seems like you are following me right now.”
“It’s done.” I gritted my teeth. “Over.”
“What is?” He feigned innocence.
“All of this. The hunt would be over if you could just stop—”
He laughed. “Oh, little brother. So naïve. The hunt will never be over as long as the Pterons are in power.”
Michelle tensed where she waited beside me.
“Who’s your new friend? Gave up on the former redhead already?” He smirked.
“This is between you and me.”
“Except it isn’t.” He strut over.
“It is.” I stared him right in the eyes.
“You made a new cub I see.” He gestured to where Gage stood holding Mary Anne. The discomfort of watching them was second to my relief that he was keeping her safe. Someone needed to, and I needed to focus on Fielding.
“This isn’t about me turning someone. It was life or death and completely my choice.”
“Everything is your choice, brother. Isn’t it?” His eyes were dark, almost soulless. He was so full of anger that he seemed to have lost everything else.
“You have made plenty of your own choices.”
“I have.” He stepped toward me. “And I plan to make many more.”
“Make the right choice for once.”
“Like you?” He sneered. “Where are Chet and Marni? Or did you leave them to rot in The Society prison? Some Alpha you are.”
Denny looked at me worriedly.
“Marni is safe,” I assured Denny before turning back to Fielding. “I had to get out, with or without them.”
“Ah. And your new friend is one of them too.” He turned his eyes to Michelle. “A Pteron?”
She glared back at him. “Yes, so watch it.”
“Oh, a threat. This one is fun.” He clapped. He had lost his mind truly and completely.
“Leave her alone, Fielding. This doesn’t involve her.”
“Then who does it involve?”
I locked eyes with him, searching for something of his soul, but I found nothing. “Us.”
“No, I think it involves a whole lot more.” He winked at Mary Anne.
Gage growled.
“Oh little cub, how cute.”
“Leave her alone.” Gage pushed her behind him.
Fielding only laughed.
“We need to talk as brothers.”
“We haven’t been brothers since you stole my pack.”
“I stole nothing. It wasn’t my choice.”
“You should have abdicated.”
“I was born to be Alpha, and I was born to end the hunt.”
He chuckled. “Some job you are doing at both. Can’t even keep your second in command on board.”
“What do you mean?”
He grinned wickedly. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”
“That you’ve been working together.” I knew how Fielding worked. I wouldn’t play his games. If things didn’t unroll the way he wanted, he’d get sloppy.
His eyes widened in surprise. “Very nice… maybe that’s why you left him.”
I shook my head. “I left Marni too.”
“That you did. You were always good at leaving people.”
“Not as good at you are.”
“So you say.”
“What the fuck?” Gage yelled as Mary Anne screamed out in pain.
I looked over, and could see nothing, but by the look of agony on her face, something had to be going on. I dashed over, but Gage grabbed for her first. His body jolted, and he fell to the ground as though he’d touched some sort of invisible electric fence. He immediately transformed into a massive grey wolf and stood back up. He was larger than the last time.
I turned to Fielding, warring with my desire to change, but determined to get the answers from Fielding I could only get in my human form.
“You aren’t the only one who likes to play with witc
hes, Hunter.” He grinned.
Vanessa walked around the corner with an older woman I didn’t recognize. “Nice to see everyone again. Especially you, Sprinkles.”
Gage lunged for her, but he was jolted to the ground in the same way he’d been with Mary Anne.
“Vanessa?” I stared at the witch who’d betrayed me.
“Hi, baby. Nice to see you too.” She smiled, revealing two rows of sparkling white teeth. “Miss me?”
“Let. Her. Go.” I seethed before running toward Vanessa. As soon as my body made contact with hers I was hit with a searing pain and my entire body jolted. I fell to the ground.
“Come on, you can’t still be hung up on this girl. She doesn’t even have red hair anymore.” Vanessa snickered.
“Please let her go. She has nothing to do with this.” I slowly returned to my feet.
“So? What does that matter?”
“She’s innocent.” I pointed toward Mary Anne who stood frozen as if she were a statue.
“As though that has ever stopped me before.” Vanessa turned to the older woman. “And there’s why we didn’t work out. He never took the time to get to know me.” She gave a fake pout.
“Who are you?” I demanded of the old lady.
“A friend of a friend.” Her eyes twinkled.
Before I could ask more questions Mary Anne screamed again. I didn’t think, I transformed and lunged for Vanessa. She was doing something to hurt Mary Anne, and I had to stop it.
I was electrified in midair and once again found myself on the ground. Vanessa laughed again, and in my Dire form it was louder and rang through my ears.
She walked over to Mary Anne. “I thought I’d gotten rid of you, but turns out Hunter liked you after all. Not that I’m surprised. I did send you straight to him.”
Mary Anne seemed to be trying to open her mouth. She was frozen and unable to talk.
“Wait, you don’t still think it was random that Chet caused your accident do you?” Vanessa laughed. “That’s so adorable.”
“What are you talking about?” Was she somehow part of their accident?
“You must realize by now that Mary Anne ending up on your doorstep wasn’t an accident. Can’t even keep your second in command on your side. Fielding is right. You were never meant to be Alpha.”
“Oh shut up.” Michelle’s eyes darkened and large black wings spanned out of her back. I’d never seen beauty in a Pteron before, but that’s what her wings were. She flew toward Vanessa and the old lady, and she slammed them both to the ground.
Dawn (The Dire Wolves Chronicles Book 3) Page 18