He held out his hand to the guardian, who glared at him with suspicion before accepting the silent offer of assistance. Matthias hauled him to his feet.
“What is that supposed to mean?” the guardian rasped.
Matthias narrowed his eyes. “You don’t think it’s odd that the rest of the pack has disappeared, but only the elders and the pups remain?”
“Matthias,” Trinity whispered, and he glanced over at her. Her eyes were dark, the shadows under them obvious. Little lines appeared to bracket her mouth, and suddenly, he knew. He had suspected, but Trinity’s haunted expression confirmed it. She knew something, and from the looks of it, and it was possibly worse than he’d initially thought. Damn, that Rafe Woodland was a psycho, and needed to be put down.
“What are you saying?” the guardian snapped.
Matthias tilted his head. “It means your alpha prime destroyed your den, Guardian, and took the pack, but left those who would slow him down to perish.”
Chapter 18
“You dare to question Rafe Woodland’s honor?” Dion grated. Trinity watched as Matthias’s eyes widened briefly in disbelief. Zane and Nate started to walk over, and a few of the Alpine guardians shifted closer. Dion was the Woodland Guardian Prime, and he was built beautifully for his role, but even he wouldn’t stand a chance against Matthias and his men. The damn guardian was just proud enough to take them on, though. The elders wouldn’t be able to sit by and watch that happen, and the elders were no match for guardians in their prime.
“What the hell is in the water, here? Are you all so damn deluded?” Matthias shook his head. “You think we are the bad guys. Good grief.”
One of the elders, Gilbert Downing, rose from his perch on a log, his gray eyebrows low over his forehead. Agatha, another elder, did the same.
Dion straightened his shoulders, and Trinity could see the determination in his gaze, the clenching of his fists. He would not back down. No guardian prime would let another slur his alpha prime. Matthias smiled grimly as he read the Woodland guardian’s stance.
“You seem to forget a little incident of your alpha prime organizing the assassination of my alpha prime—or were you also involved in that?” Matthias stepped forward, his broad shoulders and forbidding expression giving him a menacing air.
Dion’s gaze shifted, and he shook his head just once. Matthias’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t know, did you?” he breathed. “You didn’t know what your alpha prime had planned, what he’d set in motion. Tell me, do you stand by his actions?”
Dion’s chin lifted. “I am loyal to my alpha prime,” he stated; his gaze flicked briefly to Trinity. “I don’t betray my pack.”
“Neither do I,” she snapped. “In fact, I will do everything in my power to protect it, not put it in danger. Rafe has risked the pack too often.”
Dion’s eyes widened, but Trinity refused to lower her gaze from the Woodland Guardian Prime. “You turn your back on Woodland?” His voice was low, angry, yet she could hear the undertone of hurt there.
“Trin,” Dalton said softly as he limped over to them.
“I’m not the one who evacuated the den,” she pointed out softly, saddened by what she’d learned, and for the news she had to deliver to her guardian prime. Dion was a decent guy, when he wasn’t acting like a dick. He would have a similar reaction to her.
Dion frowned. “He didn’t evacuate. He took all able-bodied family for a combat training session.” He lifted his chin toward Matthias and his men. Zane and Nate now stood shoulder to shoulder with their guardian prime. “We’re in the middle of a war, remember,” he muttered.
“A war of Rafe’s making,” Trinity snapped, conscious of Gilbert’s and Agatha’s shocked reactions. Her words would be considered treasonous by the elders, but for once, she didn’t care. Rafe had acted like a monster, and she didn’t want to be part of a pack that honored and followed the monster.
“Matthias is right. This all started when Rafe conspired with that human, Armstrong. He didn’t trust his pack—he didn’t trust you, and you’re his guardian prime.” She knew her words would hurt Dion, but she had to make him see. “He plotted to kill another pack’s alpha prime. On purpose. If another pack did that, we would shun them.” It was such a terrible deed, so full of hateful intent, of insult to another pack.
“He had his reasons,” Dion said in a low voice, his blue eyes dark with something that Trinity would almost call sadness.
“And what are they? None of us know,” she said, indicating the elders who were gathering behind Dion. “What possible reason would justify the killing of another pack’s alpha prime?” She challenged him, finally putting into words the thoughts that had plagued her since this whole situation had flared up. She folded her arms. “He knew I was out in the woods during that parley session. I’d had to clear it with him. He knew there were pups in the woods, and yet he still started a battle that could have harmed them.” She shook her head. Assassinating Jared Gray? That was low. Putting the pups at risk? That was low, too, but this time Rafe had outdone himself.
“Tell me, we heard an explosion yesterday. What was that?”
Dion frowned. “One of the tunnels collapsed. You know the structure was weakened. Rafe took everyone out for a session, and the elders were to hold a history class with the pups.” He waved a hand toward Dalton, who by now had reached Trinity’s side. “Dalton and I remained to work on the tunnel supports.”
She slid her hand into her pocket, and pulled out the cable. “I found this beneath the rubble,” she said quietly, lifting it for Dion to see. Dion’s eyes widened, and the blood drained from his face. He shook his head.
“No.”
She nodded. “I smelled traces of the explosives he used, and I smelled him. I had to dig a little, but I found this. You know what this is.” Only a select few would know or still remember, but she saw the recognition in Gilbert’s eyes, the lowering of his shoulders as he comprehended what she was saying. Remnants from the copper mine they once worked in the mountains. Her father had insured all explosives were locked in a cave deep in the heart of the mountain, away from the den. Only the alpha prime bore a key to those particular supplies. A key that Rafe now carried.
Dion shook his head. “Rafe wouldn’t do that, not to his own pack.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “But he did.”
He’d left behind the ones who would slow him down. Dion rubbed his hands over his face, his disbelief slowly sliding into sorrow, hurt and disappointment.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, clinging to the illusion of honor.
Gilbert stepped forward, his expression grim as he placed a hand on Dion’s shoulders. “It’s time, Dion,” Gilbert said quietly, his voice rough with age.
Dion shook his head as Trinity’s eyebrows rose. “No. It’s—it’s not right,” Dion muttered, and Gilbert shook his head.
“No, it’s not easy,” the elder corrected. He looked at Trinity. “Rafe isn’t well.”
She frowned. It was no excuse for what he’d done, but it could be an explanation. “He’s psycho, deranged,” she conceded. “Ever since he visited Armstrong’s shadow breed medical clinic and had his fangs enhanced, he’s been on a Scary Mary power trip.” She glanced at Matthias. “It’s no excuse, but yeah, he’s sick.”
Matthias arched an eyebrow. “That’s an understatement.”
“He’s my alpha prime,” Dion protested.
Trinity stepped forward and reached out for his hand. “He’s our alpha prime,” she told him sadly. “But he’s slowly killing our pack.” She indicated Dalton. “He left you two behind. He wanted you both dead,” she said quietly.
“And we both would have died in there if Trinity hadn’t found us,” Dalton pointed out, folding his arms. Then he grimaced. “And if the Alpines hadn’t dragged us out.” He looked as tho
ugh that admission was burning a hole in his gut.
“What are we supposed to do?” Dion whispered, glancing over his shoulder at Gilbert.
The elder eyed Matthias.
“That depends,” the old lycan said quietly.
Matthias frowned. “On what?”
“On what happens when we find him.”
* * *
Matthias ran through the woods, following Trinity as she tracked the Woodland pack through their home territory.
So this was how the tracker worked when committed to her task. She was amazing. Her abilities made his look like a juvenile’s. He’d lost the trail twice already, but Trinity had followed it unerringly, setting a grueling pace.
They’d decided to pursue Rafe and the pack after a night of rest. Zane ran alongside him, and the Woodland Guardian Prime was just behind him. Matthias shook his head. This was—weird. He’d never imagined he’d be running with the lycan, but it seemed there was a noble streak buried deep inside this one. It gave him hope for the rest of the pack. He still wasn’t about to trust them, though. His gaze fastened on the she-wolf with the stamina of a guardian. All except one, perhaps.
She slowed down and held up her hand. Each of the guardians accompanying them halted at her signal. Matthias had had to split his squads. Some of them remained at the site just outside the Woodland den, tending to the injured and clearing out some of the rubble. Dalton had remained back there; his leg still wasn’t healed enough to walk on, let alone run. Nate had left for more supplies, and Kai was there to oversee the elders and the pups, and to supervise any trips into the den. Structural engineers would have to check the integrity of the cave system before the Woodland den could even be considered safe for repairs.
Matthias told himself it wasn’t his problem. He was here for Rafe, not for a pack of lycans who should know better than to put their trust and loyalty into a psychotic alpha. He was going to ignore Gilbert and Agatha, and the rest of the elders, their shoulders burdened with the knowledge that their alpha prime was toxic to his pack.
Trinity paced back and forth, surveying the ground.
“What’s the matter?” he asked her past his panting.
She shook her head, her chest rising and falling, but her concentration on the terrain around her, not on catching her breath.
“It’s all muddled,” she panted. “It’s like they got to this point and deliberately scuffed everything. It’s a mess.”
“Maybe they stopped to catch their breath,” he suggested meaningfully. His men were fit, but he still wanted them to have some fuel in the tank for when they finally caught up with the Woodlands.
Trinity shook her head again. “No. See how you guys stand in a spot? You might take a few steps, but where and how you stand,” she said pointing to Zane who was leaning over, hands on his knees as though he was going to throw up a lung. “See, that leaves a deeper imprint. You might shift a little, take a step or two, but then off you go. These tracks...” She frowned. “It’s almost like—” her eyes widened in realization, and understanding dawned in Matthias at the same time. Her gaze drifted up above them.
“It’s a trap,” he said, backing up to turn to his men. “Eyes and ears—”
Something thudded onto his back, and he fell to the ground under the weight of it as growls and snarls erupted in the small stretch of woods. He grunted as a fist connected with his back, just below his kidneys. He rolled, pushing against the weight, until he was on his back on top of whoever had dropped on him. Brief impressions of dark figures jumping from the branches above onto his men, the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, the grunts, yells and shouts as attacked and attacker fought, the metallic scent of blood teasing at his senses, stirring his beast. A hand snaked around his throat, and the sunlight glinted on a ring on the man’s finger. The Woodland crest.
Rafe.
Jabbing with his elbow several times into the wall of muscle beneath him, he heard the soft grunts with each contact, Rafe’s breath gusting past his neck and shoulder.
White-hot pain speared into his neck, his teeth gritting as he realized Rafe was using those weird fangs on him. The damn lycan bit him—in human form. He raised his foot and brought it down hard on Rafe’s knee.
Rafe pulled back, yelling in pain. Matthias jerked his head back, head-butting him only hell knew where, and Rafe’s grip loosened.
Matthias rolled and was back on his feet instantly, arms out as he faced his nemesis, because that was what Rafe had become to him. The ultimate enemy. For what he’d done to his friend Jared and what he’d done to his own pack, to Trinity.
He scanned the forest, dodging the punches that Rafe threw at him, looking for his she-wolf. He first saw Dion, dodging blows as he tried to talk to his own guardians. The blows aimed at the Woodland Guardian Prime were halfhearted, as though the men were struggling with attacking one of their own. Dion could look after himself. It was Trinity that he was worried about. She was lighter, smaller than the average guardian, and not trained for combat.
There. She was under attack, successfully blocking the strikes of a guardian. He could see her shock, her fear, as she stepped back in an effort to dodge the blows.
Rafe’s fist connected with his jaw, and he spun with the momentum, using it to backhand the Woodland Alpha Prime with a sharp crack as hand met cheek. Rafe’s eyes flared with anger, and with a strange satisfaction, as he slowly wiped the blood from the resulting cut in his lip.
“You’re more of a fool than your alpha was, Marshall, I’ll give you that,” Rafe said, grinning, his teeth bloody. “No lycan would dare come into my territory uninvited.”
Matthias lashed out with a kick, which Rafe dodged, but the alpha didn’t dodge the second spin kick Matthias dealt, as he leaped into the air and turned, the sole of his boot connecting with Rafe’s jaw.
He landed, braced and centered on his feet, his arms up in a classic defense pose. Matthias grinned. “Well, it looks like I dared. I came, and I’m kicking your ass.”
He ducked the punch that Rafe threw, but wasn’t quick enough to dodge the next one, Rafe’s fist hitting him in the side of his ribs. He sucked in a painful breath.
Rafe grinned, his eyebrows waggling. “I can tell you I had no intention of wiping out a pack’s entire prime hierarchy, but the idea is growing on me.” He kicked, his foot connecting with Matthias’s knee, making him drop to the ground on the injured joint.
Matthias put his arms up, blocking and catching the next kick aimed at his head, then punched Rafe’s thigh. He was aiming a little higher, but Rafe tried to jump out of the way. Matthias grabbed Rafe’s foot and twisted, but the agile alpha turned with the movement, preventing the snap of his ankle. His other foot caught Matthias on the top of the head and Matthias rolled, briefly stunned.
He rose to his feet, shaking his head to clear the soft cloud of darkness, then raised his arm to block Rafe’s punch.
“Give it up, Rafe. I’ve got your tracker. I’ve got your guardian prime. Your elders and pups are being cared for by my men. I’ve got you.”
Rafe’s eyes narrowed, and Matthias nodded. “Yeah, you heard me. Your elders didn’t die, and they sure are pissed at you.” He briefly glanced over his shoulder. Trinity was pinned to the trunk of the tree, a guardian’s fist raised against her.
Rafe laughed, although it was more of a breathless chuckle. “You think I care what those old dogs think? They are weak. They can’t defend us. They are not strong. They are a waste of space. We are Woodland. We have to be the strongest. The feeble, the frail—the powerless. There is no room in Woodland for that. I have spent my life proving our strength to all of the breeds. Nobody can conquer us. You can have my guardian prime—I don’t like traitors. He was working up to a challenge. But the tracker?”
The alpha prime rolled his wrist in an intricate move that turned Matthias and twiste
d his arm behind his back, all in a blur. Rafe wrapped his other arm around his throat, and held him pinned against him. He turned them so they could watch Trinity shake her head, pleading with the guardian who even now stood over her, ready to deal a violent blow.
“I can smell her on you, Guardian, and I can smell you on her,” Rafe rasped. “You will never have her. I’m just trying to make up my mind—should I kill her, and let you live with the burden for the rest of your life that you cost your mate her life? Or should I kill you, and let her pine away, just like her father did for her mother?” His grip tightened. “It has a certain kind of symmetry, don’t you think?”
Rage swelled through Matthias at Rafe’s words. The threat to his mate was like a shot of adrenaline. He roared in anger, in indignation, and reached behind his head to grasp at Rafe’s face, pressing his thumb into the soft, fleshy part of the eye socket.
Rafe reacted instantly, jerking his head back, his grip around Matthias’s throat loosening. Matthias brought his foot down, raking the heel of his boot down the alpha prime’s shin and stomping on his foot. He used Rafe’s natural bend reflex to his advantage, also bending. He stepped out, grimacing at the wrench in his shoulder. He straightened his arm, although Rafe still held it at an angle behind his back. The alpha prime applied pressure, forcing Matthias toward the ground.
Matthias dropped and rolled forward in a somersault, going with the natural movement as opposed to resisting and getting his arm snapped out of its joint. The move surprised the Woodland alpha. Matthias jerked him off his feet, rolling with him, and they wrestled on the ground, striking, kicking and punching where possible.
Matthias roared when he felt Rafe’s fangs pierce his forearm, and pulled away. He levered himself up, his fist raised to smash into the alpha’s face.
Trinity’s cry halted him, and he looked back over his shoulder in time to see her held by the guardian, her neck pulled to an uncomfortable angle. Just the slightest pressure, and that guardian could snap his she-wolf’s neck. He turned to end it with the alpha, and his blood chilled in his veins as Rafe smiled up at him, his fist curled around his chain.
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