by Terry Spear
Tessa glowered at Hunter.
“What if he did? We can’t discount that he might be guilty.”
“He isn’t! What if it’s one of your kind?” Tessa choked on the thought. “You…you couldn’t have a lupus garou convicted, could you? Once the moon appeared, he’d change and you can’t have one incarcerated, can you?” Hell, even Ashton was one now.
“If we find one of them is guilty, we’ll figure out a way.”
She’d figure out a way. If she could just turn into a wolf and bite her brother in prison, the judge would have to have him released.
When they finally reached Hunter’s house, Tessa figured someone would greet them, but nobody did and her heart began to race.
“Stay in the Humvee. Do not leave until I say so,” Hunter ordered, his face dark and threatening.
Before she could respond, he slammed the door shut and strode to the front porch, then disappeared inside. She concentrated on the front door standing wide open and wanted to join him rather than worry about what was happening.
And then his face stormy, he stalked out to the Humvee and jumped in. “Jessup and his pack have taken them.”
She hoped Hunter couldn’t smell her fear, but she couldn’t hide how she was feeling.
“We’re to meet them at that burned out pine tree. I’m to hand you over to Yoloff and they’ll release my sister and the rest.”
Tessa looked behind them, but still didn’t see any sign of the Escort.
“I left directions.” Hunter pulled out of the drive and headed south on the coastal road.
“You can’t face all five of them, Hunter. We should wait.”
“They want us alone. I’ll do what I can.”
Stubborn damn alpha male. He was going to get himself killed and then where would she be? Just when she’d found the man she wanted to love forever. And what about Michael also?
Her skin crawling with anxiety, she looked into the backseat. No weapons. “What about the rifles at the house?”
“They must have taken them. None were there.”
The closer they got to where the pine tree was, the more Tessa felt she could lose Hunter for good. She looked into the backseat again. Nothing. Leidolf was a neat freak. Not even a hint of dust. But what about the trunk? A tire iron?
“No matter what, you’re staying in the vehicle. If they get the best of me, you leave.”
“But your sister, and the others?”
“They won’t harm them until they’re assured they have you. You return to my place, gather the forces, call Leidolf. Hell, have him notify Devlyn of the problem. These guys won’t be able to handle all that heat.”
“But you can’t charge in there and kill them all. Why can’t you wait for the others?” She studied the tension in his face and frowned. “You don’t think Jessup and the others will wait, do you? You think they’ll kill some of them. Rourke and Ashton.”
“I would have left you at my place, but I was afraid that they’d be watching and take you. So do as I say, Tessa. You’re no match for any of them without having a gun.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence and when they reached the designated place, Tessa couldn’t stop shivering. She wasn’t being an alpha, but she couldn’t change into a wolf, which even if she could probably wouldn’t have helped much against them. And without a gun, she was totally defenseless and useless.
Hunter pulled up and stopped. Yoloff and his brother stood as wolves near the burned up pine, watching them, waiting. Jessup stood farther away as a human, unable to shapeshift. He didn’t have a weapon that she could see. Where were Redmond and Butch? Probably guarding Meara and the others somewhere else.
Hunter squeezed Tessa’s hand. “Stay.”
“Who are you targeting first? Jessup? He’s their leader. If you take him out, maybe the others will tuck tail and run.”
“Yoloff and his brother. They’re the most dangerous in their wolf forms.” Hunter opened the door. “Lock it after me.”
Tessa climbed into the driver’s seat and locked the door. Jessup motioned to her to come out of the vehicle, but she ignored him and watched Hunter strip off his clothes, sure of himself, muscular, ready.
Even though Yoloff and his brother stood their ground, she thought they looked a little nervous, their ears flattening and their tails drooping slightly. Hunter didn’t take his eyes off Yoloff the whole time while he removed his clothes. Yoloff would die. She knew Hunter wouldn’t allow him to live this time. Maybe his brother, too. But she was certain Jessup didn’t intend to let Hunter rip him to shreds, if Hunter managed to best the brothers.
And then she saw the rifle leaning against one of the trees. Damn him. What if she could get to it while Jessup watched Hunter’s fight?
Hunter shapeshifted, but no one moved until he targeted Yoloff. Then Jessup made a move toward the Humvee. He motioned for her to get out. Like she’d listen to him. Then she had another idea. Could she run any of them over? Probably not because of all the trees. Jessup could easily duck out of her path, she’d ruin the Humvee, and be stuck.
The tire iron. Surely, Leidolf would have one to use in case he got a flat and had to change a tire. Had to be in the trunk.
Hunter ran at Yoloff and Jessup’s attention switched to the fight. Typical male. Forget the girl when there’s a good fight going on.
She didn’t want to take her eyes off the fight either, but she climbed into the backseat and looked into the trunk. Hell, if there was a tire iron, it must be hidden. She glanced back at the windshield.
Hunter and Yoloff clashed, their teeth bared and connecting, the growls reverberating through the woods. They fell to their pads and separated. Her skin prickled with anxiousness, her heart racing. She thought Yoloff’s brother might attack next, but he seemed to be waiting for the fight to be decided first. He was probably thinking he wouldn’t have to participate if Yoloff killed Hunter first.
But then Hunter did the unexpected. He whipped around and attacked Yoloff’s brother, startling him so badly, he dashed off in the wrong direction, close to the edge of the cliff with nowhere to back up, nowhere to run. Hunter rose on his hind legs, his teeth snapping at the gray and with no room to maneuver, the brother slipped off the cliff with a yelp.
Shocked, Tessa stared out the window. Everyone else seemed as stunned. Yoloff didn’t make a move toward Hunter and Jessup stood frozen in place. Yeah, bastard. After Hunter finishes off Yoloff, you’re next.
She climbed into the trunk and began lifting the carpet, looking for the tire iron she hoped was here.
But then Hunter targeted Yoloff, and Jessup went for the gun. Oh, hell. Not finding a tire iron, Tessa scrambled over the backseat and then into the front and started the Humvee.
As soon as Hunter bit Yoloff in the face, Jessup aimed the rifle. Tessa couldn’t reach him with the Humvee the way he was standing protected between the trees, but if she rammed the pines, she might be able to distract him enough. She threw the vehicle in drive and roared toward Jessup. He swung around and for a moment, she thought he might shoot her. But instead he jumped back, realizing he was protected by the trees, and turned the weapon on Hunter.
“No!” she screamed, and ran the Humvee into the pine. Because of the constant rain in the area, the roots were shallow enough that when she hit the tree, it toppled, but Jessup got off a round right before it fell.
Hunter yelped this time and she saw the blood on his hip. Ohmigod, no, Hunter. If nothing else, she’d wrestle with Jessup until Hunter destroyed—
Yoloff bit at Hunter and he retaliated, but they were too close to the cliff’s edge. Back up, back up!
Jessup aimed the rifle again, and Tessa jerked the door open and lunged at him, throwing her body at him, trying to knock him off balance to give Hunter time to take care of Yoloff.
And then her heart nearly gave out when she and Jessup stumbled over the felled pine, falling to their knees as Hunter took another bite at Yoloff’s face. Yoloff suddenly went for Hu
nter’s leg. They were both too close to the cliff edge! She wanted to warn Hunter away from the drop-off, drag him from the danger herself. But everything happened so fast she couldn’t react quickly enough to do anything.
Yoloff bit into Hunter’s leg, and Hunter snapped at Yoloff’s neck. But Yoloff’s back paws lost purchase on the crumbling soil. He slipped off the edge, pulling Hunter with him.
“Hunter!” Tessa screamed and ran for him, but Jessup grabbed her arm and yanked her back. She kicked and thrashed back and forth, trying to break free, to save Hunter.
“Butch will be pleased,” Jessup darkly said, and jerked her toward the edge of the cliff.
Only when she saw the direction he was going did she go willingly to see Hunter, to ensure he was all right. She prayed he was.
Down below, both Hunter’s and Yoloff’s wolf forms lay still as death. Yoloff’s brother was gone. Her heart splintering, she stifled a sob.
“Come on. Time to clean up the last of the loose ends. You’ll tell us where the gold is hidden on your property, and we’ll let the others go.”
With tears streaking down her face, she didn’t believe it for a minute, although it wouldn’t have made any difference because she didn’t have a clue if there was any gold anyway. All that mattered was whether Hunter had made it or not.
Jessup tugged her in the direction of Bethany’s house, but she fought him every step of the way, wanting to climb down the cliff to Hunter. He had to have survived the fall like before. He had to have. And she had to go to him.
But Jessup tightened his grip on her, cutting the circulation off in her wrist, her hand numbing. He hurried her faster to the house, forcing her to run to keep up. What about Hunter’s pack? Where were they when they needed them most?
Jessup shoved the front door open and yanked her into the house. “She’s yours, Butch. Just like you wanted.”
“The others?” Butch asked, offering Jessup a beer.
Jessup forced Tessa onto the couch next to Meara and Cara, their hands and mouths bound, their eyes wild. Ashton and Rourke were bound, but unconscious on the floor. Meara looked at Tessa, trying to read her expression, but Tessa sobbed, attempting to appear so inconsolable that she was useless, and so that they wouldn’t tie her up also, while she looked for another weapon. Not that her tears and upset weren’t genuine, but she tried to keep a clear head until they were able to destroy the men before they harmed anyone else. And then she had to go to Hunter.
She spied a poker next to the cold fireplace as Redmond took a seat at the dining table. If she could just slip over to it.
“Hunter took care of Yoloff’s brother first. Although he worked on Yoloff in the beginning. His tactics threw all of us. Especially, when Hunter forced Andreas off the cliff.” Jessup took a swig of beer.
But then Tessa worried that if she got the poker, Jessup still had the rifle and three men against one woman wouldn’t do. If she could free Meara, she could shapeshift, whereas no one else could. Tessa had to chance it. She moved closer to Meara and began working on her bindings.
“But Yoloff’s gone also?” Butch asked.
“Yeah, Hunter got him, too, only he had the last laugh. He pulled Hunter off the cliff and both hit the rocks below.”
“You’re sure Hunter was dead? He survived before,” Butch warned.
“Yeah, he was dead. Last time, he hit the water and managed to swim to Tessa’s beach. Not this time.”
Her heart in her throat, Tessa felt the ties loosen on Meara’s wrists. Meara quickly yanked them free, then tugged her clothes off. Tessa dove for the fireplace poker and Meara shapeshifted.
As a wolf, Meara targeted Jessup, the leader, and Tessa went for the rifle, poker in hand.
But no sooner had Meara’s teeth clamped down on Jessup’s arm, making him drop the can of beer, than Butch dove for the rifle.
No, no! Tessa swung the poker at Butch’s head and knocked him out cold. But somehow Redmond had managed to slip by her in the shuffle and went for the rifle.
Growling furiously, Meara lunged for Jessup’s throat, while he grabbed onto her muzzle to keep her from killing him. Tessa froze as Redmond grabbed the rifle and pointed it at her. He could shoot her, but she wouldn’t die. Yet, Tessa couldn’t let go of the fear that Meara could. Meara was their only real chance at survival, and Tessa had to protect her. She prayed her lupus garou genetics would save her and leapt forward, swinging the poker at the rifle.
Her hands and mouth still bound, Cara had managed to slip behind Redmond and gave him a shove. The bullet fired into the carpeted floor.
Before Tessa could take another swing at Redmond, a different wolf growled low. She turned and saw Hunter, his hip bleeding. Alive! Tears filled her eyes and she wanted to rush to him, to hug him, proving he was really real.
His fur smelled foul, like he’d rolled in a bed of rotting kelp. He quickly targeted Jessup, and Meara swung around to get Redmond.
But even over the growling and the sound of a porcelain lamp crashing, Tessa heard a vehicle driving up. Finally, Hunter’s people had arrived.
She ran to help untie Cara, but Butch came to and grabbed Tessa’s ankle.
Redmond slid down next to her, his throat ripped out. Hunter didn’t hesitate to make short work of Butch. Jessup was already dead.
“Hello?” a man called out.
Hell, it was the sheriff.
Still in their wolf forms, Hunter and Meara looked in the direction of the front door, then raced out back.
Tessa continued to work on Cara’s bindings.
“What the hell,” the sheriff said, his gun drawn.
“A pair of wolves saved us from these men,” Tessa said, her voice and hands shaking.
“Ashton?” The sheriff ran over to help his son.
“These men knocked Ashton and Rourke out. They planned to kill the whole lot of us.”
The sheriff stared at Butch and Redmond. “Hell, those two were seeing Bethany.”
Staring at the sheriff in disbelief, Tessa untied Rourke. All the time he’d said Michael had lied and Bethany hadn’t been seeing anyone. What if one of these guys had killed her?
Ashton moaned and rubbed his head. “I thought you said no one had been seeing Bethany, that Michael had made it up. How do you know they’d been here?”
The sheriff appeared flustered.
“How?” Ashton asked his dad again, his eyes slightly glazed, his tone threatening.
“Who the hell do you think you are, questioning me?” The sheriff glanced at the men and added under his breath, “The little whore.”
Ashton’s face lost all its color. “You were the one who discovered her body. No one questioned you because you were the sheriff. You said she’d called you because she worried Michael might kill her he was so angry. But she didn’t, did she? You used her phone to make the call. You killed her. Why?”
Tessa’s skin chilled.
“Because,” Hunter said, stalking in through the back door with a limp, his pants leg bloodied, blood on his sweatshirt, his face bruised, his expression deadly, “Bethany reminded him of his unfaithful wife. Isn’t that right, Sheriff? Didn’t want a two-timing woman to hurt your own son?”
Dying to hold Hunter tight, Tessa’s eyes filled with tears of joy that Michael could be exonerated. But the menacing look Hunter gave the sheriff warned her to keep her distance.
What about Meara? Her clothes were lying on the floor next to the couch. Cara’s gaze followed where Tessa looked, and Cara left Rourke, grabbed Meara’s clothes, and headed outside.
“You must have staged the phone call,” Hunter said.
The sheriff reached for his revolver.
His look feral, dangerously challenging, Hunter asked, “What are you going to do? Kill all of us? It’s over, Sheriff. Time to be a man and face the judge and jury.”
Chapter 17
SEARCHING FOR THE GOLD IN THE AREA BEYOND the house, Tessa tried to settle the way her stomach flip-flopped. Thankful Judge
Graydon had obtained Michael’s release and agreed to try Sheriff Wellington for Bethany’s murder, she still felt badly for Ashton, who was torn between hating his father and still loving him. But now Devlyn Greystoke was speaking privately with Hunter inside her house about Hunter making Tessa his mate without her cousin’s permission, and he was pissed.
Tessa hoped to God the two could settle the matter without bloodshed, but she was annoyed they’d dismissed her like she didn’t have any say in the matter.
Although, secondary to all that was the fact Hunter was still perturbed with her for biting her brother and changing him. As if she’d go through life without sharing it with her brother.
She took a deep breath of the salty air and of the sea kelp rotting on the beach she normally despised. But if it hadn’t blanketed the rock where Hunter had fallen, he probably wouldn’t have survived. Where Yoloff and his brother had fallen, the tide had cleaned the rocks, leaving them bare and deadly. The police had eventually found Andreas’s body on a different beach, thank God.
She poked around the tree roots of a massive pine, the water and unusually high winds having washed away a ton of soil, the snow long since melted away and something had drawn her attention. Metal? Something shining in the pale light of the moon.
The gold!
Footsteps approached, crunching on the fallen leaves and she looked up to see him—Devlyn. Their mutual great-grandfather, Seth Greystoke, was known in these parts as the gray devil wolf, and Devlyn had taken after him. Right now, he looked fearsome enough to hold the title. A strap of leather tied back his coffee-colored, shoulder-length hair, his equally dark brown eyes studying her, no hint of a smile on his stern face, as rugged as Hunter’s, and he had the same kind of sturdy jaw. Tall and just as broad-shouldered, his unyielding posture gave her the impression he was a commanding alpha, not one to disobey.
His eyes raked over her and his gaze focused on her hair, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. But then the scowl returned. “It appears I’m too late to take you under my wing, dear cousin.” His words were tight and terse.