by SJ Himes
Burke shut his mouth with a snap and shook his head once, clearly telling Ghost not to ask. Ghost frowned but nodded, knowing this wasn’t the time. He would ask later what happened to disturb the Speaker so much.
“Burke,” Kane said, his voice a low rumble, slightly warped with his fangs elongated.
“Alpha?” Burke replied formally, cautious. Kane was still on the edge, though fully in control.
“Contact the Clan Leader, please,” Kane ordered, “tell him everything. Call until he answers, the Clan Leader of Ashland is there and he may ignore you.” Burke nodded once before walking a few feet away and pulling out his cellphone, presumably to call Caius. Ghost wanted to listen to Burke’s call, wanting to hear his grandfather’s voice, but Kane needed him too much right now for him to split his focus. Kane stared down at Claire, clearly thinking.
“Alpha Kane?” Ghost dropped his hand, and they all turned to Gabe, the young alpha of Ashland nervously shifting on his feet, vibrant green eyes flickering over the assembled wolves, landing the most often on the traitor at their feet.
“Yes, youngling?” Kane replied, his fangs slowly disappearing as he calmed, though his eyes showed his wilder side.
“May I speak to the traitor?” the young alpha swallowed loudly, nervous, and he was still gripping Ghost’s hand in a tight hold. He was shaky, and uncomfortable with all their eyes on him, but his shoulders were back, and his head up, eyes clear.
Kane waved his hand, stepping back, leaving Claire to Gabe. Gabe squeezed Ghost’s hand before dropping it, and walking the few steps to stand over Claire. She peered up at him, clearly confused, not knowing who he was. Gabe shifted once more on his feet, biting at his lip, golden skin flushed in the winds that were growing steadily harsher on the mountaintop.
“Do you know who I am?” Gabe asked, voice cracking a little. His hands curled to fists at his sides, shoulders stiffening.
“No,” Claire said, shaking. She was becoming petulant, her behavior showing that she saw the young wolfkin as no threat whatsoever. Gabe was an alpha, but he carried the scent of pain and fear on him, and though his head was up, he flinched when the bigger wolves moved. Claire could sense this, even in her weakened state.
“My name is Gabriel Suarez. My family was brutally attacked by unknown wolves a few weeks ago. We were taken, raped, beaten and drugged, and over half of my family is still missing. My youngest siblings were brutally abused and allowed to be assaulted by humans. Is Roman McLennan the bastard who did that to us?” Gabe was growling by the end of his words, biting them off as his eyes glowed, a fiery green that spoke of a terrible anger well-hidden under his beautiful features.
Claire paled even further, jaw dropping, crystal blue eyes growing wide with fear. She shook her head, though not in a negative, but in denial. “No! Roman would never do that to cubs, would never allow that to happen! You’re lying!”
Gabe snarled, and lunged, faster than a thought. Kane reached for him, but of all the wolves present, Ghost was not expecting it to be Andromeda who stopped Kane from reaching Gabe. The White Wolf pushed Kane back, and kept her hand on his chest as Gabe lifted Claire in the air by her neck, fingers warping to claws. He shook her, once, hard. She scrambled for a grip on his arm, scratching ineffectively until he dropped her back down.
She tried to run, crawling on her hands and knees through the snow. Ghost and Sophia went to grab her, but it wasn’t necessary.
“Stop!” the command snapped across the yard, the power behind the single word so formidable it rocked Sophia, Burke and Gerald on their feet. The command rolled over Kane and Ghost, and Andromeda appeared unaffected as well, but the White Wolf and the Heir were clearly startled.
Claire was not so lucky. She froze, collapsing to her stomach in the icy snow.
“Get back here!” Gabe ordered, and even fighting it, Claire reluctantly crawled back to where the young alpha stood, whimpering at his feet. Gabe’s eyes were alight, green embers of fury and hurt spurring on his nascent gift.
“Is Roman, son of Caius, the monster who attacked my family? Does he have my father and uncles?” Gabe demanded, putting a boot under her hip and flipping her to her back, her hands up as if to deflect the power of his words. Every time he opened his mouth, the strength behind each command grew.
“Yes!” Claire screamed, hands over her ears. “Yes, he did it! He steals wolves and gives them to Remus!”
“Where is my family!” he shrieked, words warped by fangs and fury.
“I don’t know! I never asked, he never told me what he did with them!”
Claire sobbed, but Gabe wasn’t done with her.
“Where is Roman? Where is Remus?” he demanded, and she shook her head, crying out. She’d already answered that she didn’t know where her lover and his partner were, but Gabe clearly didn’t believe her. Ghost didn’t blame him for that disbelief, but Gabe was going to do her injury if he didn’t rein himself in, and soon.
“Tell me where they are!” Gabe screamed, and Sophia, Burke, and Gerald all fell to their knees in the snow, Andromeda rocking back a few steps under the force of his command. Kane flinched but held his ground. Gabe was crying too, fists raised, mouth twisted in pain and anger, fangs lowered. His eyes were fully changed, fully wolf now, nothing human left.
“Gabe! Stop! She doesn’t know, she cannot answer you if she doesn’t know!” Kane shouted, striding to Gabe’s side, but the younger alpha shrugged him off and Kane fell back on his ass, surprised. Gabe roared, his pain escaping on that horrible sound, Claire’s scream climbing into the frigid mountain air in twisted accompaniment.
Ghost moved, as Claire writhed on the ground, Gabe commanding her to answer him. She was being torn apart under the rising strength of Gabe’s raw gift. The young alpha had the Voice and had no idea, no control. He was wild, lost in the power, his gift without a guiding hand. Ghost reached out, and with a gentle gathering of air particles, zapped Gabe on his temple with a pure bolt of energy. The bolt discharged with a crackle and a burst of light, and Gabe dropped like a stone to the snow.
Ghost knelt at his side and checked the youngling, satisfied he’d done no permanent damage. Gabe’s power was a roiling miasma of grief, pain, fear and a horrible anger that was looping endlessly. Even unconscious Gabe was being tortured alive by his emotions, and Ghost peered deeper. There was something Gabe’s mind was fighting, a red thread of foreign thought inserted within his own.
Hands other than his moved over Gabe’s supine form. Ghost looked up to see his mate, shaken and stricken. Kane put a hand over his mouth and dropped his head.
“He’s fine, Kane,” Ghost murmured. He put his hand on Kane’s and tried to reassure him. “I promise you, I didn’t hurt him. I just stopped him. His gift was caught up in his pain, and he couldn’t stop.”
“I didn’t know he had the Voice,” Kane gasped, clearly at a loss. “I never would have left him untaught if I’d known. He showed no signs of it, I thought him a regular alpha, unconfirmed in his strengths.”
“I don’t think he knew, either,” Ghost mused. Kane gaped at him, his powerful mate terribly shaken by the abused alpha’s actions the last few minutes.
GHOST waited until Andromeda was gone, her sobbing daughter in the grip of Black Pine betas, the Clan Leader following behind. He’d heard something about the cellar, and he might have asked what they were talking about if not for his uncle standing nearby, waiting.
“Alpha,” and he and Kane both turned to look at Gerald, his uncle pale and sweating, even in the cold.
“What?” Kane said, voice sharp. Gerald flinched, and Ghost gave his mate a glare. Kane made a visible effort to calm down and nodded to Gerald.
“Kane... Roman called me, right after... right after the earthquake the other day,” Gerald said, meaning the day Kane had sex with Ghost and he almost broke the park. “He never calls me, so I should have known then..
. I am so sorry, I told him Luca... that Ghost was here. I’m the reason we almost died in the explosion.”
Ghost tried to speak, to tell his uncle that he was not to blame for Roman’s actions, but Kane’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“Did you know he was the traitor?” Kane asked, eyes glowing.
“No, I swear,” Gerald gasped, fear building in his expression.
“Did you know he was killing our kind and working with Remus?”
“No, Alpha.” The truth was in Gerald’s every word and breath. His uncle was breaking under his guilt, and Ghost whined, wanting Kane to stop and fix it.
“Did you mean to place us in danger, your nephew in danger, by telling Roman that Ghost was here?”
“No! Never,” Gerald cried out and his shoulders shook as he began to sob.
Kane let go of Ghost and put both hands on the lesser alpha’s shoulders, straightening his back. Gerald lifted his head, and the two alphas made eye contact. Gerald winced, but Kane was peaceful, calm. He wasn’t angry, and Ghost waited, holding his breath, as Gerald saw what Ghost did in Kane’s demeanor. Kane did not blame Gerald for anything, least of all talking to his own brother, a wolfkin whom at the time he didn’t suspect of treason and murder.
“The second you became mine, I stopped believing the worst of you,” Kane whispered, and Ghost smiled at the wonder on Gerald’s face. “I now believe in you, trust you. Your love for your nephew makes me trust you even more, and your misplaced guilt is proof enough there is a decent, good man under all the layers of anger and pain you carry as armor. Gerald, my wolf, I don’t blame you at all.”
KANE PUSHED off the doorframe, arms crossed as he walked to the downed alpha’s bedside. His mother, whose name Kane still didn’t know, hovered at his other side, holding her son’s hand as he slumbered under the effect of Ghost’s knockout spell. The room was in shadows, the noonday sky darkened by a brewing storm that River was calling a blizzard. Red Fern was going in to lockdown, in more ways than one.
“Kane?”
Burke was at the doorway, beckoning. Kane spared Gabe one last look before leaving the room, joining Burke in the hall. He shut the door softly, and looked to his Speaker. Burke had his cell in hand, and gave it to him. “It’s Alpha Caius.”
Kane answered, holding the cell to his ear and walking a few feet down the hall, not wanting to disturb the Suarez wolves. Burke followed, his eyes gone gold and worried.
“Sir?”
“Is it true?” No need to ask what Caius meant; Burke already told him.
“Yes, Sir. Roman is the traitor. He sold out Gray Shadow to Remus Acquisitions, has been aiding Simon Remus for the last fifteen years in systematically hunting and killing our kind, and is the wolfkin who ordered his lover to blow us all up last night.”
“I sent my betas and the few greater alphas here in town out after Roman. Heromindes is here, and I have to tell him my son is the wolf responsible for the capture and torture of his relatives.” Caius sounded exceedingly unhappy about that prospect. Kane could agree with that, as Heromindes was a formidable alpha, and a Greater Clan Leader. “I expect Ashland to declare a blood feud with Black Pine over this if I can’t turn over my son.”
“Roman is nearby, Sir. He was outside Baxter yesterday morning, and I think he’s still in the vicinity. He wants Ghost, and for some reason me as well.”
“Ghost?” Caius asked, clearly confused. Kane bit back a curse, not wanting to explain why the Clan Leader’s grandson wasn’t going by his birth name. Telling Caius that Luca was raised by humans who thought him a pet and named him after a spiritual apparition wasn’t the best thing to do in the current circumstances.
“That’s Luca, Sir. He changed his name a few years ago.”
“Odd, but not important. I’ll discuss it with my grandson after I arrive. Expect myself and the Ashland Clan Leader by morning.”
“Yes, Sir,” Kane said, but he was talking to a dial tone. Caius had hung up on him. Kane thought about calling him back and warning him about the weather, but he was certain that he would only be hung up on again for his trouble.
“The Big Bad Wolf is coming, then?” Burke said, walking to his side, eyes still glowing. For Burke to show his wilder side like that meant his Speaker was seriously upset.
“Yes, Caius is coming, and Heromindes is as well,” Kane confirmed, and Burke echoed his rumble of displeasure. Things were about to get worse, not better. Nothing gummed up the workings of a clan faster than too many greater alphas in a small space, all trying to do things their way. Thank the Goddess for the White Wolf. She would keep the other Clan Leaders in line.
“What’s wrong, Burke?” Kane asked, and his best friend gave him a rueful smile, closing his eyes for a heartbeat. When he opened them, they were again a deep, peaceful brown.
“Can’t hide anything from you, can I?”
“No, and quit stalling,” demanded Kane, wondering what else could go wrong today.
“What happened out there, earlier? With Ghost?”
“Ghost knocked Gabe out…”
“No,” Burke interrupted, shaking his head. “I meant with you, when you lost your temper. What did Ghost do?”
“Ah,” Kane exhaled. Knowing immediately what Burke was referring to. “Don’t worry, my brother. Ghost just helped me regain control, nothing more.”
“He used the Voice on you, didn’t he?” Burke was smart, and knew Kane well. “He used your Gift, on you, and made you pull back on shifting.”
Kane saw no reason to deny it. Burke wouldn’t believe him anyway if he tried to lie.
“Yes, he did,” Kane agreed, smiling faintly as Burke blinked at him in consternation. “He pulled on the Voice, seamlessly and with a subtle grace that I don’t even think I could match. It was beautifully done, and he let me go as easily as he swept me under. It was so flawless I’m convinced Ghost has no idea he used my gift.”
“And that doesn’t bother you at all?” Burke exclaimed, voice getting a bit shrill. “He’s a stripling, an untested and untrained shaman who uses his abilities out of instinct instead of skill. He has access to the most devastating weapon an alpha can possess, and you aren’t even the slightest bit concerned?”
“I’m concerned we may find ourselves in a situation where he may need it, and if that’s the case, I may not be in any condition to help my mate. But am I worried about Ghost using it and hurting someone with the Voice?” Kane started for the stairs, wanting to hold his mate before Caius came howling into Baxter and disturbing their time together. “No, I am not at all afraid of that. Ghost has only ever acted out of self-defense or in the defense of others. His first instinct is to help, not harm.”
“I hope you’re right, but that doesn’t discount accidents, and you know it!” Burke said in a harsh whisper as they walked down the steps, pausing on the landing. Burke grabbed his shirt and tugged him closer. “What if he gets scared, or angry, or hell, he gets horny, and instead of shaking the ground he blasts your brain with your own damn gift?”
“That won’t happen, Burke. If you can’t trust Ghost not to hurt me, then trust me in knowing my mate best. It may only be a matter of days, but he’s so deeply entwined in my mind and soul I know him better than I do myself. We would not be soulbonded without reason. We would not be bonded if we were going to cause harm.”
“You’re asking me for trust and faith.”
“Yes,” Kane said, blunt. He needed Burke to believe in him, and trust Ghost as well. And if Burke could do neither, then to trust their Goddess.
Burke was silent for a minute, his eyes searching Kane’s face, looking for answers. Burke must have found what he needed, because his dearest friend soon let go of his shirt and wrapped him in a hard hug, squeezing enough to make his ribs complain.
“I love you too much, I can’t help but worry,” Burke sighed, pressing his face to K
ane’s shoulder.
Kane hugged him back, just as tightly, breathing in Burke’s scent.
“I love you, too. You’re my greatest friend, and I need you. Now more than ever,” Kane whispered, eyes burning with tears he refused to shed. Now wasn’t the time to start crying.
Once Remus and Roman were defeated, Kane and Ghost had the small matter of a potentially sacrilegious soulbond to survive. The second the Clans as a whole learned about it, chaos would erupt across the globe. They would both need their friends and family to make it through the coming turmoil.
“What worries me most is what Caius will do once he learns that I’m soulbonded to Ghost,” he said, murmuring his words into Burke’s ear.
“Me too, my brother,” Burke whispered back, “me too.”
When Storms Converge
GHOST SAT beside Gabe, both young wolfkin staring out over the view provided by the second floor balcony. The young alpha next to him had his legs dangling over the side of the balcony through the widely spaced railings, and Ghost followed suit, swinging his feet in the rising wind. Boot laces twirled in the twisting wind, and the smell of wet, fresh snow filled the air.
The park was growing darker, black clouds milling overhead while a chilling wind barreled through the valleys and glens where the cabins were nestled. Wolfkin in varied forms were hurrying about, some lugging in bags of supplies to the Clan Leader’s cabin, while the Black Pine wolves were standing sentry in their black tactical gear, armed to the teeth.
The traitorous Claire was under guard in one of the smaller rooms, two Black Pine betas making sure she didn’t attempt to escape, and that no one attempted to get to her before her fate was decided. While it did not seem she actively participated in the kidnapping and slaying of the dozens of wolfkin victims over the last two decades, she did play a major role in providing Roman and Simon Remus with detailed insider information at crucial times that resulted in the deaths of several wolves. Her refusal to tell her Clan Leader or her own mother about Roman’s activities was enough to garner Claire a death sentence, and the enmity of her birth-clan. Andromeda may have ordered her people to stay away from Claire, but Ghost could sense the rising ire and bitter need to avenge the fallen. Wolfkin led long lives, and many wolves in Black Pine territory older than the younglings were acquainted with each other, some friendships spanning a century or more. Claire was the first traitor identified, and while not the leader, she was the one on hand, and her death was a certainty if she was left unguarded.