End of Lies

by Sara Dailey

  I didn’t see them coming, but I definitely heard them. The members of Red Ridge truly were on my side and came to my rescue just in time. Two wolves I didn’t recognize, Kendall, and a wolf I immediately knew had to be my girl, Cami, came barreling through the crowd surrounding me.

  The sounds of teeth snapping and bones breaking filled the air. With Cami’s help, I was able to fight off the wolf the closest to me while Kendall and the other two easily took care of the rest of my attackers.

  As things cleared, Cami pulled me out of the mess to safety. She rubbed her head into my neck and pressed herself against me. I tried to reassure her, to show her that I was okay, but she wasn’t having any of it. I gave up and let her take care of me.

  Gradually, the snarls and yelps stopped. The Crescent Hills wolves had been beaten at their own game. I watched as the ones that could still get up ran away. They ran as fast as they could and didn’t look back; all of them except one. Noel. Noel turned around and looked at her son one last time. With eyes full of both love and regret, she lowered her head slightly, apologizing in the only way she could…before taking off and leaving him and the estate for good.

  Cade motioned for us to block the exits and not let anyone else escape. Jake and Aiden took the front doors, and Dane and Phillip took the back exits. Luke shook out his fur and moved to stand next to Cade. My wounded arm was already healing, so Cami and I walked over to join them.

  Looking around, the lodge reminded me of a bad horror flick. The wounded wolves lay on the floor shivering and howling in pain. A few unlucky wolves lay motionless…soundless. I tried to be hard and not let my emotions get the best of me, but at one time, those lifeless wolves were my pack, my family. They were definitely in the wrong, and they were trying to kill us, but it still hurt me to see them like this.

  A loud crash came from the back, and we all turned to see Phillip growling and forcing one of the Crescent Hills wolves back into the main room. I knew exactly who it was. Looking around, I realized there were only two Crescent Hills members remaining…Drew and Kendall.

  CHAPTER 60

  Kendall

  Well, this didn’t exactly turn out how I thought it would. Sure, I knew Red Ridge had the home-court advantage and the numbers on their side, but I had planned on tucking tail and running for the damn hills long before this battle was over.

  Yet, here I stood, surrounded by Red Ridge’s finest—with Drew by my side, no less. I was so screwed. Royally screwed. My luck had finally run out. Kendall Avery Stuart’s time on this earth was up. If only I could go back in time and do it all over again…

  I watched as Cade disappeared down a hallway, and then in human form, covered in only a coat, came back in the main room and told the majority of this pack to report to the infirmary if they were seriously wounded or to head home to rest and heal if not. Then before he shifted back, he turned his attention to Drew and me and said, “We have a pressing matter to attend to.”

  As soon as the lodge cleared out, I did the only thing I could think to do, the one and only thing that might give me the slightest chance of surviving this little debacle I’d found myself in. I shifted back to human form. Even Cade would have a harder time killing me as a human than as a wolf, and he hated me more than any of them.

  Quickly, I grabbed the nearest coat I could find and shrugged it on. No one should have to plead for her life completely naked. It just didn’t seem right. Even with a body as perfect as mine, there was something completely humiliating about standing before your judge, jury, and executioner in the nude.

  Surprisingly, Drew followed suit, but apparently not for the same reason as me. As soon as he had the ability to speak again, he immediately started yelling, but not at Red Ridge wolves. At me. Standing right in front of me, staring me down like one of his minions, Drew cruelly unleashed his wrath.

  “You stupid, stupid bitch! This is all your fucking fault! I should have known better than to get mixed up with a Red Ridge cast-off whore like you!”

  I grabbed the nearest coat I could find and threw it at Drew, hoping he would cover himself, as I shouted back, “My fault? How is any of this my fault? Look around, Drew! Your pack did this! Your desperate attempt to take over this place failed, and you have no one to blame but yourself. You’re the alpha now. At least for the next few minutes, anyway, because I seriously doubt either of us are walking out of here alive!”

  Drew reached out and grabbed me by the hair. Wrapping a chunk of it tightly around his fist, he pulled my hair up, forcing me to face the wolves surrounding us. “Look at them, Kendall. Where is he? Which one? You know exactly where he is, don’t you?”

  Tightening his grip, he moved my head around to slowly scan the area and then stopped our search when he found the wolf he was looking for. “There he is. Gavin fucking Reed. Your hero! That is why this is your fault. Do you really think I didn’t see you help save his sorry ass? Do you really think I don’t know how you feel about him? How you’ve always felt about him. You sad, sorry slut! You love that stupid piece of shit, and he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you! He never has. He used you! He used you for intel, and you gave it to him! And then you fucking saved him! You’re pathetic.”

  Tears welled up in my eyes, and I hated myself more than ever for letting his words hurt me. A single tear slid down my face as I closed my eyes, refusing to look at any of them.

  Drew released his grip on my hair, and I almost fell to the floor, but he caught me before my legs could buckle. Using my body as a shield, Drew wrapped his forearm around my neck and said, “But you aren’t useless. You, my dear, are my ticket out of here.”

  My eyes shot open as Drew tightened his grip, and instinctively, I clawed at his arm, which only made him chuckle like the madman that he was. Speaking to the wolves encircling us, Drew warned, “We are walking out of here alive. Don’t test me. This girl means nothing to me, and I won’t hesitate to snap her neck like a fucking twig if you make a move. Do you hear me? I will kill her!”

  This was it. My last few moments here on this earth. I was going to die at the hands of Drew Barnes, which would have probably made me laugh if I would have had enough air to do so, because somehow I’d always known that it would be him that would kill me. Somehow, someway, I just knew that Drew would be the death of me. And this was it.

  But before I left this world, I couldn’t stop myself from taking one last look at the only guy that I’d ever truly cared about, maybe even loved. My eyes connected with Gavin’s. He held my gaze, and for the first time since all of this began, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  Peace.

  CHAPTER 61

  Cami

  We’d formed a semicircle around Kendall and Drew and were slowly closing in. Panic surged inside of me, knowing it would only take half a second for Drew to kill Kendall, and as much as I hated Kendall Stuart, I didn’t want to stand here and witness her death. Even she didn’t deserve to die, especially not at the hands of that psychotic prick.

  But Drew was right. Kendall was his one-way ticket out of this room, and if he killed her now, there would be no way he’d make it out of here. Drew needed her alive in order to survive.

  But then it happened. Kendall’s eyes met with Gavin’s, and as soon as they did, I knew this wasn’t going to end well.

  They held each other’s gaze for what felt like an eternity. I watched as a small, sad smile crossed her face. It was as if she was apologizing to Gavin with that smile. But it wasn’t until Kendall scanned the room looking at all of us, her former pack, her former family, with the same expression on her face, that I realized what she was about to do.

  “Kendall, No!” I screamed inside my head, but being in wolf form, what came out of my mouth sounded more like a cry. Then Kendall just snapped. She started kicking and clawing savagely at Drew’s arm as she screamed, “You stupid motherfucker! I’m going to kill you! You’re a dead man, Drew Barnes! A dead man. I hate you. I fucking hate you.”

  Our c
ircle grew tighter as Drew tried to gain control of Kendall in her fit of rage, but even as he did, Drew warned, “I’ll do it. I’ll kill her right here. I swear it! Even if it means I’m dead too. I’m taking this bitch down with me. So stay back. I mean it. Stay back or she’s dead!”

  Kendall continued her rampage, her claw marks leaving trails of blood down Drew’s arm, as she shouted every profanity known to man, repeating her hatred for him over and over again. She even added in what a lousy lay he was and that his dick was the size of a prepubescent boy’s. Kendall knew how to cut to the core, and if I could have laughed, I just might have.

  When I noticed Gavin stepping back and walking around behind the circle, I followed. Gavin had positioned himself directly behind Drew. Kendall’s eye’s shifted to the side and met mine, and I nodded my head, trying to let her know that Gavin was ready to do whatever he needed to do.

  Doing the most un-Kendall-like thing imaginable, she actually mouthed the words thank you to me just before she let out an ear-piercing shriek and threw her head back, hitting Drew squared in the nose.

  Drew released the hold he had on Kendall and stepped back as the room grew quiet. Drew and Kendall stood only a foot away from each other. The obvious hate they harbored for each other flowed off of them in reeking waves that threatened to turn my stomach. Drew’s nose was bleeding, but the sinister grin on his face told me that he didn’t feel a thing.

  Before anyone even realized what he was doing, Drew snatched Kendall by the bicep, spun her around to face Gavin, and snapped her neck.

  I held my breath, as her lifeless body crumbled to the ground near my paws.

  The angry growls from the wolves around me grew to a deafening roar as we tightened our circle around Drew. With a howl from Cade, Luke snarled as he stepped forward, forcing Drew back. Gavin reared up on his hind legs and attacked. His front claws landed on Drew’s shoulders as his teeth clamped down onto the side of his neck. Luke attacked from the front at nearly the same time.

  Kendall’s body lay under all the horror, her eyes still open as if she was watching the devastation. Quickly, I clamped my teeth around the coat that she was wearing and drug her away. When I turned back, the bloody scene was almost too much to witness.

  The others had moved in, and within seconds, Drew Barnes had been ripped to pieces.

  CHAPTER 62

  Gavin

  I didn’t know what came over me, or why I felt the need to avenge Kendall’s death, but I did. Maybe it was because she came to my aid when I needed it. Or maybe it was because deep down I had always thought that Kendall wanted to be a better person than she was. Either way, I certainly didn’t want to see her dead.

  I couldn’t say the same about Drew, although I wasn’t proud of the fact that I was the one that led the attack that ended his life. Unlike my father, I never wanted to have anyone’s blood on my hands or their deaths on my conscience, but I saw an opportunity and I took it. This wasn’t how I expected it to end, but now that it was over and Drew was dead, I felt nothing but relief.

  Seeing that some of the pack had already started changing back to their human forms, I quickly followed suit. There was a fresh stack of folded blankets on a chair near the front of the room that Teagan had brought in once Aiden had released her from the cell downstairs.

  I immediately went over and grabbed one to wrap around my waist. I stood there by the chair and looked around the room. The lodge looked like a war was fought inside of it. I guess there kind of was.

  Blood stained the walls and the floor. My father’s body was still where he had fallen. I wanted to feel something for him. At least, I thought that I should—sadness, regret, guilt, but there was nothing. Anything that I might have felt for my father didn’t die with him, but died the moment he decided that my sister was expendable. There was grief and sorrow on some of the faces in the room, and I wondered if anyone could tell that I felt void of those emotions. Would they think less of me if they knew?

  Over by the wall, Kendall’s body lay all alone. Her arms were by her side and her eyes had been closed. She looked nothing like the strong, fearless girl she once was. Suddenly, I felt incredibly sorry for her. No one, not even her, deserved to die like that, alone in the world, at the hands of a madman. And not in Red Ridge, a place she once called home.

  As I turned away, my eyes finally found the one I was looking for. Cami had just shifted, and Scarlett walked over to hand her a blanket. Watching as Cami quickly covered herself, I couldn’t force my feet to move. I just stood there while Cami spoke softly to my sister. I couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but she looked…well, she looked unreadable, and I didn’t like that. When Scar walked away from her, I expected Cami to look my way, but she didn’t. She stood there, squeezing her blanket around her so tightly that I could see the white in her knuckles.

  I realized that she was probably sorting out the day in her head. All I knew was that she was okay. She was okay, and she was mine. In that moment, something inside me flickered. It was as if someone flipped on the light switch, and I was coming out of the dark. Colors grew more vibrant. The sounds in the lodge were even sharper than before. My eyes filled with unshed tears. I hadn’t realized what I could have lost. My mate. Somehow in the midst of all of this madness, the most beautiful thing in the world was suddenly clear. Cami really was mine. We belonged together, and it was a forever kind of thing.

  My girl was safe. My sister was safe. I had everything that I would ever need right here in this very room. It was hard to believe that the hell we’d been through was finally over.

  Unable to stand the distance between us any longer, I forced my legs to move, and I walked over to her side. When I took her hand in mine, she wouldn’t look me in the eyes. Instead, she looked down at our fingers entwined together, and she began to shake. I released her hands and lifted her chin with my fingers. Her beautiful brown eyes were shimmering with tears. It was like a knife in my heart to see her so vulnerable. I needed her to know that she was safe; that she would always be safe with me. I pulled her into my arms and held her tight. I could feel her sobs, her body trembling. I held her tighter.

  “Shh, baby, it’s okay. I’ve got you,” I whispered.

  She pulled back and looked up into my eyes. I couldn’t resist any longer. I lowered my lips to hers, kissing her with every ounce of fear, hurt, loss, anxiety, and hope that I had experienced in the last twenty-four hours.

  “How is your arm?” she asked when she finally pulled away. I shivered as Cami ran her fingertips along my arm, careful not to touch my already healing wound.

  “I’m good. I’m good…now that I have you in my arms,” I said, wrapping her back up in a hug. “It’s over, baby. It’s over.” I didn’t know if I was trying to comfort her with those words or myself, but it didn’t matter. It really was over, and I was going to make the most of my new beginning with my mate.

  CHAPTER 63

  Cami

  Sitting in my window seat, I stared out at the empty street below. It seemed like a lifetime ago since I’d sat here just thinking and watching as our once quiet little pack carried on with their everyday lives.

  It was all just so surreal. As the events of the morning flashed through my mind once again, I closed my eyes, unable to believe it all really happened. Any of it. And now it was just over, and we were all supposed to just go back to our normal lives. Just like that, we’d all be expected to just go back to school again like normal teenagers.

  Gavin would have to go back to school too. He would be leaving. He had a normal life to live too. And as much as I wanted it to be, his life wasn’t here.

  A knock at my door tore my eyes from the window. Trying to keep the sorrow out of my voice, I said, “Come in.”

  Gavin opened the door and smiled. “You ready to head to the lodge?”

  Cade had called an evening meeting after he’d sent everyone home this morning. I figured he wanted to address the situation and assure the pack that he had everyth
ing under control, but at this point, I just wanted to crawl into bed, cover my head, and pretend it was all a bad dream.

  I returned Gavin’s smile, but knowing he’d be leaving soon, it was a bullshit smile, and Gavin probably knew it.

  “You okay?” he asked with a furrowed brow.

  Yep. He knew it.

  I nodded my head. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s get this over with.”

  When Gavin and I walked into the lodge, my jaw dropped. “Oh my God. How did he do all this?”

  “I guess they’ve been busy since we left,” Gavin answered as he looked around the room that had somehow been completely transformed over the course of the day. Not only had the room been completely cleaned up, and I mean completely—no remnants of the bloodshed that had taken place could be seen—but all of the pews had been moved out. Instead of rows of pews all facing the alpha’s podium, tables and chairs filled the space, and the podium, which had always been the focal point of the room, was now gone.

  Our pack stood around talking, seemingly unsure of what to do. A few minutes after our arrival, Cade spoke up over the crowd and said, “Everyone, have a seat. Let us begin. We have a few things to discuss.”

  Like it was the most natural thing in the world, everyone settled in at a table. Gavin and I were about to sit with my parents when Luke waved us over to their table. My father nodded his head as if to say go ahead, and we took our seats at a table with Allison, Aiden, Teagan, Luke, and Scarlett.

  Cade stood next to the empty chair beside Allison, and with unwavering confidence, began his speech. “First, I want to apologize to each and every one of you for the hell you’ve all been through, and I want you to know that I will do everything in my power to never let anything like this happen to our pack again. If there is a silver lining, it is this. We now know where our weaknesses lie. We now know how we can better defend ourselves. And most importantly, we now know that in order for this to never happen again, we must stand together as one, united, and truly depend on one another so that we can be an even stronger pack than we once were.”