“Survive,” Brenton whispered. “It’s all we can do. And trust Riley to keep going. To get far and never come back.”
He locked eyes with his Alpha. Sorrow, misery, pain. He hadn’t seen emotions like those in Brenton’s eyes since the Caroline incident. Brenton might be a hard ass on the brothers, but he had been completely wrecked by the accident. He had felt so awful for not being the father the brothers needed to help them mature, even though he was only barely an adult himself.
And now he was wrecked over the fact that Riley was alive and, still, they had lost her.
“So, which one of you was with… Riley?” Chris pointed between them. “I can understand the familial scents of pack or pride between you but…”
“We all were,” Andrew. Desolate. He sounded drier than the Sahara.
“And that’s all you need to know,” Zachary growled from his cage, bringing the wolf Alpha’s attention over to him. “Don’t ask for anymore.” It wasn’t the wolf’s fucking business, and he wasn’t in the mood for the judgment against Riley.
Even gone, she still owned his fucking heart. She would own it until the damn thing stopped beating and long past that into whatever fucking afterlife he was destined for.
Chris nodded and stepped back. He shifted into a wolf and laid down, promptly falling into a sleep.
Zachary knew better than to try for sleep. He would never be able to get any.
The hours ticked by and night fell outside, only black sky filling the few windows they had in the warehouse.
Riley had survived and that’s all that mattered.
BRENTON
He was filled with real pride. He was going to die in here, but she wasn’t. They were all going to die in here eventually, but Riley was gone.
The next dawn, the leader came back and dropped a stack of papers at the front of Brenton’s cage.
“Well, well,” he smiled at Brenton. “You and your little group of friends are quite popular.”
Brenton didn’t respond. They weren’t popular, they were more infamous. Not that same thing.
“I mean, CEO of Kingson, Inc goes missing and suddenly every major organization in the nation is like ‘oh no’, like they don’t know what a monster you are.” He chuckled down at Brenton, who stayed seated in the back. “I wasn’t going to take this job, you know. You’re a high-risk target, too high. You and the rest of your pride.”
“Then why did you?” Zachary growled from his cage. Damn it. Brenton had wanted the leader to keep going on his own.
“I was told about little Caroline and what happened. She goes on vacation and meets up with you lot. Then she comes back in a coffin. I got in this for the fun.” he shrugged. “But you guys killed a girl and I realized that the other more… serious hunters have a good idea. Kill all of you off before you become a bigger problem than you are. I might not totally agree with it, but culling the population of the worst is definitely a valid option.”
“Plus, you’re going to make great money off us, aren’t you?” Brenton kept his tone and expression neutral. “I am a businessman, I get it.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. Tell me, how much do you think you’re worth?”
“I know I am worth three point two billion dollars,” Brenton rolled his eyes. And then he remembered the wills. Oh God, Riley was going to be a billionaire. She was going to get it all and be able to keep herself safe and happy. They’d done that at least. She was going to be taken care of. Maybe she would find someone who made her happy, too.
“Well, to me, you’re worth only about eight million. That’s how much someone is paying for the privilege to kill you,” the leader laughed. “For your entire pride, except the female, fourteen million. We send you out in two days.”
Jesus.
“You got ripped off,” Zachary grinned viciously. “Sad. You obviously aren’t a businessman.”
The leader looked pissed at Zachary’s insult.
“You’re fucking animals. At the end of the day, your worth is the worth I assign you,” the guy then spat on the cage floor at Brenton’s feet. “Humans could use that money, money you have no right to.”
“Yes, well now it all belongs to our female. So, still not a human,” Brenton grinned, baring his teeth in something more of a snarl. “And my family has been earning that money for centuries, so I think I have more of a right to it than most. I do run the fucking business.”
“You have humans run it for you,” the hunter growled. “You are just a fucking animal. And one day, someone is going to remind you of that, even if it’s not me.”
“Good luck,” Zachary laughed. The entire pride did for a moment. Animals? Oh, Brenton’s grin turned malicious, they knew. They always knew.
The animal in them was always just beneath the surface. It was in the back of their minds and under their skin. It prowled, waiting for its chance to claim, kill, and survive.
The only thing that made any of them remotely human was the fact that they looked human. One day, Brenton thought, someone would remind this son-of-a-bitch how dangerous wild animals could be.
RILEY
She woke up slowly, trying to move and find out where she was. Hard ground but not concrete-
“Hey, hey,” a rugged voice filled her ears. A scent washed over her, a wolf, male. Only a few years older than her. A hand touched her shoulder. “Don’t push yourself, cheetah. You need the rest.”
She pushed away the hand, a cold sweat breaking out over her skin. She shivered, nearly uncontrollable, from it and stumbled away from the wolf.
“Please, I don’t…” she’d hit a wall, so now she knew they were in a cave.
She couldn’t do this again. She couldn’t be at the mercy of another male she didn’t know. Being a shifter didn’t make him safe, anymore. He was just another enemy to run from, hide from. Another enemy to kill, if necessary.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the wolf growled. “I was waiting for my brothers to escape and found you.”
She looked up at him and was lost in blue eyes that were so like Zachary’s. That piercing ice of the frozen north. An iceberg that was floating through the ocean, most of its mass and substance hidden beneath the depths. She thought for a moment they were Zachary’s.
But everything else was off. She blinked and tried to get her vision to focus. Dark brown hair, only about six feet tall. Nude, covered in scars from fights. Brenton and Zachary each had a couple of those, but none were so prominent as this wolf’s.
“You related to the other wolves in there?” She tried to stand again and hissed at the pain from her soles.
“Yeah, brothers,” the wolf was trying to soothe her. Trying to keep her calm. “Good guys, really but… they get a bit snarly when they’re stressed so I can only imagine the impression they gave a girl like you.”
“Oh yeah, they were real good guys,” sarcasm was her last defense. She shouldn’t have. This guy didn’t need to bring her back here and give her shelter.
“Sounds like them,” the wolf chuckled. “I’m Thomas Marek, second of the South Dakota wolf pack. You got a name?”
“Riley. Riley Stern. Fourth of the Kingson Pride,” she heard a sharp inhale of air at her name and then a curse at her pride.
“Does your Alpha know you were taken? Is he coming to find you?” Thomas growled, watching her. He ran a hand through his hair, and she nearly laughed at the thought.
“My entire pride is in that fucking warehouse,” she felt the tears come again.
“Oh fuck,” Thomas had narrowed his eyes to the mouth of the cavern, nothing was there. “The Kingson Pride, down for the count.”
“They aren’t down until they’re dead,” Riley hissed but after a moment, she had to cover her mouth to hold back the sob. “Not until they’re dead, not like me.”
“You aren’t down either. You aren’t dead.” He growled at her. “If you give up now, then there’s nothing, absolutely nothing you can do. But if you keep living, there’s fucking hope. Alwa
ys hope. You got out before they put a bullet in you.”
“They weren’t going to put a bullet in me,” she whispered.
They were silent for a long time.
She could smell the change in his scent the moment he figured it out.
“Are you okay, Riley?” His tone was gentle, but he didn’t come closer to her. “If I had known, I would have… I don’t know, kept my distance while you slept. Wouldn’t have been so near that you would wake up terrified.”
“A male lion I don’t know was going to pay them fifteen million after they…” she sobbed. “After they b-b-broke me.”
“Ah, little cheetah,” Thomas’s voice broke. “I’m sorry.”
“F-f-f-fifteen million. T-t-that’s what I’m worth! Not to kill but to own. That’s the p-price another shifter would put on me,” she bawled, covering her face and sliding down the cave wall. “He-He t-t-t-touched me...”
She cried for a long time. Longer than any time she could remember.
Thomas didn’t come closer to her.
She couldn’t stop it from coming back.
Couldn’t forget the stench of the room.
Couldn’t ignore the bruises on her wrists, the taste of the metal and leather muzzle that flooded her mouth.
Couldn’t forget his hands.
Couldn’t forget that smooth, unconcerned voice in her ear where one of her guys should have been.
Would her pride still love her if they truly knew what had been done to her? Would she still be precious to their eyes, or just a piece of damaged goods who couldn’t defend herself?
She cried herself out. She didn’t know how long it took, but she recovered that wonderful hollow feeling.
Nothing was in her. No emotion, no sense of self.
“So, what now?” she finally asked Thomas, who was building a small fire as the night grew close and the cold came. It was November so no matter where they were, it would get pretty frigid. And they had nothing to wear. Thomas might have been a wolf, but she was an African cheetah, so she didn’t have the coat or body fat to stay warm in below freezing temperatures, if it got that cold.
“You were asleep for a long time. All day and night, then most of today,” he looked up to her and she saw the pain in his eyes. “You can leave. Find someone to help you get back into civilization and go home. Hide. Whatever you want to do. I’m staying here and waiting for my brothers to either die or escape.”
“Wait…” she mumbled. “I was asleep for an entire day?”
“Yeah, you were exhausted. This is your second night back in freedom,” Thomas shrugged.
“My pride is being sold in two days.” She tried to stand, her legs felt better, but they needed to be stretched out. She would kill for a massage from Andrew at that moment. “I have to go back and -”
“If you go back, they will capture or kill you,” Thomas pointed the stick he had at her. He’d been poking the fire with it.
“So?” Riley growled. “I can’t leave them in there to die. You might be okay on this side of the fence while your pack is hunted down like wild animals but…”
“Don’t ever,” Thomas was pissed, she could see his pulse in his damn forehead, “assume I’m okay with fucking anything. You don’t fucking know me. My fucking brothers and I have been in captivity for a fucking month. They killed five of our own. Our brothers in everything but blood.”
“Then you know why I have to help my pride,” she hissed.
“You’ll get yourself killed, or worse,” Thomas growled. “My pack made a deal. Escape and wait, form up. I’m the only one who’s made it so far.”
“Too bad. But my guys won’t be hunted here. That fucking shifter is going to buy them and then they’ll be gone.” Riley snapped. If this fucking wolf thought she was just going to run, he’d lost his fucking mind. Something hot and dangerous was in her soul and heart. She was fucking angry. She was fucking tired of running. She might have been damaged, but she wouldn’t let her fucking men get hurt.
“Just run. Go home to your family-”
“They are my family,” she yelled at him. They were the only family she had, damn him.
“You mother or fath-”
“My mother? Ha, fucking please.” Riley’s bitter laugh filled the cave. “Isabella Amelia Gordon doesn’t give a damn about me. And I don’t give a damn about her.”
She watched Thomas pale.
“I heard rumors she was back in action,” he whispered. “I had no idea-”
“She wasn’t Isabella when I was born. Lily fucking Stern died in a car accident when I was six. My mother and I reconnected earlier this year and I told her that if I ever saw her face again, I would kill her.”
“Christ,” Thomas stared at her wide eyed. “Your father?”
“Doesn’t matter either,” Riley hissed. “Now, I’m running out of time. I’m going to get my pride back. I won’t leave my family in there.”
“They would want you to live,” Thomas whispered to her.
“Doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “A life without them isn’t living, and I’m not going back to that.”
They had saved her countless times. The kidnapping was obvious, but there was so much other stuff.
The self-defense they forced on her had kept her alive with Cameron and then again with the hunters in the diner and house. So many times, so many attempts on her life because of who she loved. Who her mother was. And her pride, while they might blame themselves, gave her the last thing she needed to keep her alive.
Their love.
“I’m doing this,” Riley stretched her legs and arms. They were sore but none of the open wounds were bad, just small scratches typical of a hard run. Her hands and feet troubled her since in cheetah for she would be on all fours. Possibility of infection was most concerning.
But she wasn’t physically broken. She didn’t break any bones or pull any muscles. Long hours of training with the guys had seen to that. She was more toned than she’d ever been, even if it currently hurt to flex or test her strength.
She was angry and in love. Those two things fed her like nothing else. None of the injuries or exhaustion were going to stop those two things from sending her back in that compound and saving her fucking pride.
She was angry, and she was going to take her mother’s advice again. She was going to fucking win. She didn’t think more on it, only driven to her goal with an insane need to take the fucking hunters out and get her men back.
“How?” Thomas asked her softly, watching her intensely.
“Break back in, open all their cages. Kill anyone who gets in my way,” she snarled.
“Terrible idea. Let’s come up with something better,” Thomas walked over and watched her the entire time. Any minute, it would be total nightfall.
“Oh?” She scrunched her nose.
“I’m going to help you. If you’re going in for your pride, I might as well help you so my pack… my pack has a real chance.” He waved her off. “Plus, I was once in the Marines, Recon.”
“Huh, so you know how to do these things,” she frowned. “But you hadn’t thought about it yet?”
“I couldn’t do it alone. Hell, two people probably can’t do this, but it’s double the odds of one,” Thomas growled. “Of course, I fucking thought about it. I stewed over it my entire first night out here but… sticking to the plan was safer.”
“How long have you been out here?”
“A few days. They don’t hunt every day, more like twice a week, then they go out and catch more. Everyone brought here has pissed off the SHS so bad that they were going down, no matter who they are. Even then, I never thought someone would fuck with Kingson. His reputation…”
“What did your pack do?” She wanted to know this fierce wolf. He seemed like a good man the more she spoke with him. He could be a good friend and a possible ally.
Possible ally? She was starting to think like Brenton. It both warmed her heart and sent a rush of misery through her.
“We took out an SHS Chapter with force for displaying our skins on the walls, both wolf and human,” Thomas grinned but it was full of resentment and regret. She could smell the dark emotions in the cave. There was nothing bright here. “It was stupid and foolhardy. We fucked up and pissed them off without thinking of the long-term consequences. We were just enraged and tired of it. We were tired of the political game we needed to play to keep our secrecy. No telling the world what these fucks do just so the world doesn’t know we’re real.”
“That’s awful,” Riley felt a little sick. Their skins. She’d heard of it but couldn’t imagine seeing one of the guys’ skins on the wall. It would have killed her, and she probably would have tried the same thing the wolves did.
“You?”
“That’s a long and complicated story,” Riley evaded, not sure she was willing to say much about Troy or Gabe’s lives to the wolf. “Tragedy. Revenge. Eight dead hunters out of thirteen who invaded our house. The… ‘Elites’ caught us on the highway three weeks later.”
“Sounds bad,” Thomas mumbled as he drew things in the dirt.
“It was…” she watched him but couldn’t figure out why he was doing it. “What are you doing?”
“I’m making a floor plan based on what I saw between the back, where we were released, and the main warehouse where the cages are. You remember anything?”
“Oh,” Riley frowned and shook her head. “No… I was… incredibly distraught.”
“No problem. It’s… how a lot of us probably are when we’re hauled off for a hunt.”
“I bet,” Riley whispered, looking back out the cave into the dark forest.
“So, I don’t know the path you took to get out, but I actually headed north east the moment I was let loose. I made it to the fence in only two hours, at a strong jog with running intervals.”
“Way better than I did,” Riley sighed heavily. “So, we follow your way back?”
The wolf nodded to her and then pointed to his little dirt map.
“We can just follow my scent. We need to keep our eyes and ears alert for any patrols that might be wandering around. Memorize this map. Do it now.”
Wild Fire (The Kingson Pride Book 2) Page 19