by Kari Cole
A howl filled the air, energizing and impossible to ignore.
Rally cry, his wolf whispered, sounding awed.
Suddenly heat flooded his chest and his heart pounded with such force it shook him. A new pressure, like the sweet weight of his mate’s arms, enveloped him, though she wasn’t here.
Mine, a voice he had never heard before whispered in his mind.
Sugar?
Mate, his wolf corrected, leaping for joy.
And then, the impenetrable dam Isabelle had built between them cracked and shattered into dust. Her wolf mentally touched his and Luke shuddered.
All around him, cries answered her howl. A dozen voices, more. The pack. His pack.
A cascade of new sensations flooded Luke. Behind his eyes, for the first time, the pack glimmered like moonbeams on water, fluid and rippling. Individuals rose up like little islands. He felt them. Everyone in the yard. The others...all the others.
And Isabelle, shining as bright as the moon herself. “Get up. Get up!”
The sound of her voice ringing in his head filled his heart, too.
Ours, his wolf said.
Luke’s eyes snapped opened and he wrapped his hands around Stefan’s biceps. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t breathe. He was Alpha and had the power of the pack behind him.
As Luke’s grip tightened like a vise, he found the traitors through the pack bonds. All of them. Like snuffing out a candle, he severed their connections to the pack—there one instant, gone the next.
The beast fled from Stefan’s eyes. Pale blue irises, full of fear stared back at Luke. He pushed Stefan’s shaking arm away from his throat. “Don’t call me ‘pup,’” he said, right before he punched the bastard in the jaw just like his mate had shown him.
Stefan flew up in the air and landed fifteen feet away. Luke didn’t give him time to recover or speak. He didn’t say a word either. What was left to say?
He pounced, and with a quick twist, broke Stefan’s neck.
Luke didn’t have time to feel upset or satisfied, because as soon as he stood, he was tackled by a silver-and-white werewolf.
“Whoa, whoa,” he said, laughing as she repeatedly licked his face. “I’m okay. I—” He coughed. She whined and snuffled his ear. All right, he sounded like he’d swallowed porcupine quills. His neck hurt, his chest and legs were on fire, but he’d live.
He dug his fingers into thick, soft fur and ran his hands down her flanks, reassuring himself that she was real, before sitting up and pulling her into his lap.
Around them, the battle had ended, or at least was winding down. A few of the pack ran into the woods, chasing a pair of wolves. On the lakeshore, Vaughn slumped against a tree, holding a cloth to his neck.
Isabelle wiggled. “Shh,” he told her. “I just needed to hold you for a sec.”
Power danced over his skin, and a few seconds later, he held a very naked human female. He grinned at her. “That was fast. Gotten the hang of it, huh?”
Wide amber eyes narrowed on him. “You could have died.” She slapped him on the shoulder. “You almost did die. You jerk! Don’t do that again.”
Tears glistened on her lashes, so he didn’t offer a crisp salute. Instead, he stroked her cheek. “I’ll do my best, sugar.”
“You’d better,” she sniffed.
“Izzy!”
Isabelle leapt up. “Mom!”
At a dead run, Abby swept Isabelle into her arms and held her so tight, Luke was sure they’d both have bruises. He was also sure neither of them would complain.
* * *
“Oh! Oh, my Izzy-girl.” Abby hugged Izzy so hard she could barely breathe. “Are you all right?”
“I’m—I’m naked,” she said like an idiot. Of course she was naked. That’s what happened when you tear your clothes to pieces shape-shifting into a werewolf.
Abby shoved the sleeve of her sweater up Izzy’s arm. “Here, turn—okay. There you go.”
Izzy blinked stupidly at the cream-colored cotton that now hung down to her knees. How had Abby put that on her so fast?
Reading her face, Abby laughed. “I’ve wrangled plenty of recalcitrant children into clothes in my day.”
Izzy stared at Abby. At her hair blown every which way by the wind and battle. At her brown skin, rendered black in the gathering dark. At her big brown eyes, wide with concern, not fear. At her mouth tipped up into a soft, welcoming smile.
With a sob, Izzy threw herself at the mother of her heart and was rewarded with another fierce embrace.
“Hush now,” Abby said, rubbing circles on her back. “It’s okay.”
“B-but...if—”
“Shh.”
Angry voices shook Izzy out of her hysterics. A crowd had gathered on the deck and the ground below. In the glow of the exterior lights, Daphne stood backed against the wall of the house, surrounded by more than a dozen people and wolves.
A few feet away, Luke watched, his face as still and hard as stone. When he looked at Izzy, it was the wolf looking back.
“Go,” Abby whispered.
Without hesitation, Izzy went to Luke and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He took a sudden, shuddering breath and the golden glow faded from his eyes. Weariness settled on him like a lead coat. “I have to—”
“It’s okay. I’ll go with you.”
Together, with Abby on her other side, they walked across the torn-up yard. The copper penny scent of blood drifted on the wind. In the moonlight, they saw the horrifying aftermath of the battle. Several bodies, including the asshole grizzly who’d attacked her and Rissa in the basement, lay in the bloodstained snow.
As they passed Terry’s crumpled form, Izzy’s empty stomach flipped over as she got a look at the bloody ruin of his face.
“Sweet Jesus,” Abby said before she pressed her face to Izzy’s shoulder.
Luke grunted and dragged them on. “Guess Marianne kept her promise.”
At the foot of the deck stairs, Dean waited for them. Blood-soaked and shredded, his clothes hung from him like tattered prayer flags. He looked like he needed a stretcher, but without a word, he climbed the stairs in front of Luke. The crowd parted to let them through.
Slashes on her face, arms, and side, Daphne bared bloody teeth at them in a mockery of a smile. Lena, Marianne, Rissa, and four other females stood in front of her. Silent tears ran down Rissa’s face.
Marianne sighed, sounding exhausted. She’d lost her shoes, and her curly hair looked like she’d stuck her finger into an electrical outlet. “Why, Daphne? Why did you do this? How could you hurt your baby sister?”
Daphne shrugged one shoulder. “She was in the way.” She said it as if she’d knocked down a spider’s web—a housekeeping matter and nothing more. “Stefan was worried taking out Greg and Darren wouldn’t be enough.” She sneered at Luke. “Technically, Stefan was the gamma wolf, but he wanted some insurance in case Luke and Dean decided to grow up. Or Vaughn.”
“That’s because he could never win in a fair fight against any of us,” Vaughn said, coming to stand with his Alpha.
Daphne shrugged again, and Izzy growled at her. That nasty sound bubbling out of her own throat should have freaked her out, or at least it would have only yesterday. But now it felt right to give voice to her wolf’s fury.
Luke squeezed her hand.
“So Maggie was killed to weaken Dean,” Marianne said. “Because your pathetic partners couldn’t take him on their own. That still doesn’t explain why you hurt Tara, your own sister.”
“Because of us. She killed Tara to hurt us,” Rissa said, her voice a harsh rasp. “They knew Lena would be a mess when Greg died, and they wanted to take you and me out of the picture. We’re the next strongest females, and Liz doesn’t want to lead the pack.”
“You got it all fig
ured out,” Daphne said. “Do you know how easy it would have been for Rick and me to kill you after the crash? There you were, all weak and pathetic. Mooning over your human.”
Growls echoed everywhere. “I want to know about the money,” Luke said over the din. “There’s no way Stefan and Terry came up with enough to fund a mining operation on their own. Not even if they were robbing the bank blind. Who else is part of Apex?”
Now Daphne’s eyes flared wide and she trembled. Even Izzy could smell the pungent fear pouring off her.
Daphne shook her head. “I—”
There was a crack of rifle fire, and a neat, red hole appeared in her forehead. Her head snapped back, blood and worse spraying over the side of the house. Time slowed to a crawl as Daphne sank to the deck.
Then it exploded into double time.
Luke pushed Izzy down flat, and covered her and Abby with his body.
More gunfire cracked near the water’s edge.
Screams filled the air.
Luke shouted commands and the deck vibrated from running feet.
Izzy managed to pull her head out from under the bulk of Luke’s arm and catch sight of half a dozen pack members running into the woods in pursuit of the killer.
A minute later, except for the pounding of her heart and people panting in shock and fear, silence reigned.
Luke stood, rage and grief contorting his features. Lifting his face to the heavens, he howled. The low, keening wail echoed off the mountains, sending birds into flight to blot the moon from the sky.
* * *
Caine held the rifle close to his body as he ran through the forest. His heart pounded from simple exertion rather than fear. There wasn’t a shifter here who could offer him a decent challenge. Still, he almost slowed his steps just to give the pack a chance to catch up. It’d been a few weeks since he’d been able to really cut loose.
But that wasn’t part of the plan.
He reached his car and hopped in, taking a moment to lay the rifle on the floor and cover it with a blanket. He had no worries the local cops would scrounge up someone who saw him driving down the road. He’d stolen the car four days ago, north of the border, in Calgary, and switched the plates twice already. He’d ditch it before he reached Missoula, sticking yet another set of plates on it.
When he was several miles away, he picked up his cell. He paused before hitting Send. No one liked delivering bad news.
“Speak,” his employer said.
“They failed.”
Silence.
“All the players are dead. I killed the last one who could have talked.”
Silence.
Again, Caine hesitated. Cold sweat forming on his skin, he said, “They have the name Apex.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
The next night, Izzy wandered around a strange bedroom on the second floor of the pack house. When Luke had asked her to wait for him here, she hadn’t asked why this room and not the one they’d slept in last night. It’d seemed important to him, so she decided to go with the flow.
Maybe she should call the place a suite, because it took up most of the of the west wing. The peaked wood ceiling soared twenty feet overhead. Oversized chairs begged to be curled up in with a book. A cheery fire danced in the stone fireplace. There was enough closet space to thrill that Sex and the City chick, and a bathroom bigger than Izzy’s first apartment. She couldn’t decide which feature was the most jaw-dropping: the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the lake and the rugged beauty of the Cabinet Mountains or the fairy-tale bed.
The bed had to have been custom-made. Like everything else in the room, it appeared to be built for giants. Crafted from a caramel-colored wood, the headboard didn’t simply rest against the wall, it grew out of and up the wall to spread over several feet of the ceiling like a great tree god.
It was the most unique and gorgeous bedroom she’d ever seen. Yet it felt empty, as if no one had occupied it for ages.
A set of French doors led onto a balcony. Izzy opened them and stepped out into the cold. It didn’t bother her as much as it used to. Guess that’s what eating right did for you.
Moonlight silvered the lake and treetops and shone like a spotlight on the bare ground in the yard below. They’d had to shovel and scrape up the snow and dump it into the lake to get rid of all the blood. It’d been a grim job.
As her anger ignited all over again, the bedroom door opened. Luke walked in, closed it, and headed for her. His nostrils flared and he cocked a brow at her.
Before she bitched at him for pulling the bloodhound routine, she checked herself. She wasn’t pissed at him.
Yesterday, his whole world had fallen apart. He’d been betrayed in the worst way and lost friends. At the end of the fight, three of his loyal packmates lay dead in the snow, including Dev. She’d barely known the man, yet tears filled her eyes just thinking about him. How much worse must it be for Luke, who had known and admired the man his whole life?
Plus, they hadn’t found the guy who’d shot Daphne, or discovered anything more about Apex. She was ready to punch some holes in walls. Luke must be beyond frustrated.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Luke took her hand and led her back into the bedroom, drawing her over to the fire. “For what?”
“For what happened to you and your family. For being such a pain in the ass.”
“None of that was your fault. Why were you so angry just now?”
Throwing her hands up, she said, “I don’t understand that freaking woman.”
“Who?”
“Daphne. The ungrateful bitch. She had everything. Safety, security, a family who loved her. And what does she do? Kills her own sister.” She scowled at the fire. “I’d have done anything to save my sister.”
“Isabelle.” He pulled her into his arms.
“I was just so mad, you know. At Bess.” Tears ran down her face. “She left me. She killed herself and left me alone.”
“You’re not alone,” he said fiercely.
“I know that now.” She rubbed her forehead against his chest. “In a weird way, Daphne did me a favor. I hadn’t realized how furious I was with my sister. But now I understand. I forgive her.”
Luke stilled. “What?” she asked.
“Cameron Beck, the Chicago Alpha, sent me an email. The man you saw when Bess—”
She sucked in a sharp breath. God, did she even want to know? “Go on.”
“Beck thinks they’ve figured out who it could be, but there’s a problem.”
A bigger problem than a guy murdered by a werewolf in downtown Chicago? “What?”
“There’s more than one possibility. A lot more.”
“What?”
Luke sighed. “Yeah. He has a lot to deal with. He wants to speak to you, see if you can narrow it down.”
Well, shit. “I’ll do what I can.” It was the least she could do for the dead man, and for her sister.
“Thought you’d say that. When you’re ready.”
They stood before the fire, holding on to each other. Several minutes passed. Finally she asked, “Has everyone gone home?”
The house had filled throughout the night and day, until it was bursting at the seams. Just as steadily, it emptied again as people were patched up and felt safe enough to return to their own places. Her parents—it felt so weird and awesome to call them that—had left after dinner to go back to Freddie’s.
“Yeah.” He released her and walked to the wall of windows. “Marianne left just before I came up here. My mom went with her. She’s going to stay there for a while. Might look for a place closer to town.”
“Doesn’t she live here?”
“This is the pack house,” he said, as if she didn’t know. “The Alpha is supposed to live here.”
“But you don’t. Rissa s
aid you refused to move in.”
Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “After my dad died, it didn’t feel right. Everyone tried to get me to move, but...this was his place.”
“And what? You didn’t feel like you belonged?” When he didn’t answer right away, she walked over to him. “Here? Or as the Alpha?”
“Both, I guess,” he said.
Her wolf snorted and Izzy said, “Well, that’s dumb.”
Luke laughed and hugged her. He kissed the top of her head and pulled back to look at her. The laughter faded, and gold swirled in the liquid green depths of his eyes. “Did you know Alphas can sense their packs? Like tell where they are or when someone’s hurt.”
“No.”
“Well, they can. But I couldn’t,” he said. “When I became Alpha, my sense of everyone through the pack bonds became much stronger. But even so, I didn’t know where Vaughn was when he went missing and I didn’t know when Sam died.”
He rubbed his chest like it hurt, but she didn’t think the problem was the numerous stitches he’d received. Taking his hand, she kissed it. Then she kissed the spot he’d been rubbing, right over his heart.
“Sugar,” he breathed, caressing her cheek. She leaned into his touch, letting him take comfort from her presence. To know she could do that for him was a gift.
When he spoke again, his eyes were clear of the darkness. “Until yesterday, I never felt what I should have. I never saw my pack in my mind’s eye, glowing with life. I never felt their purpose and strength. Until yesterday. Until you shifted into your wolf, threw open our mate bond, and called the pack.” His smile was one she’d never seen on his face: full of light and happiness. “It’s like you blew away all my guilt and bullshit.”
“That’s me: Hurricane Izzy.”
“Yup. Never knew what hit me.”
She punched him in the arm. Lightly. “Jerk.”
He snagged her fist and kissed her knuckles, grinning unrepentantly. “So, your parents are staying for a while, huh?”
“Yeah. They’re thinking of moving here.”
“Makes sense,” Luke said.
“So that’s why you wanted me to wait in here for you? You’re moving in and wanted me to give a thumbs-up on the room?”