I could run all damn night, but I couldn’t outrun this wolf.
And he’d known that all along.
What will you do when you realise outrunning me is futile?
I rested my forehead against the cold rock, balling my hands to fists.
Damn it all.
I’d face him. That’s what I’d do.
Bracing myself, I left the safety of my crevice, peering through the forest. Where was he?
“Greyson,” I called with a calmness I didn’t feel.
Dirt crumbled on my head. Whirling, I stared at the huge dark-brown wolf resting on top of my hiding place.
Yawning, he rose to his full height and I swallowed hard at the massive creature. He leapt down and I shrieked, tripping over a rock to land on my ass.
The wolf limped to stand over me, honey eyes burning.
He lowered his head to mine and growled. Gasping for breath, I arched my neck, straining to get away from him.
I froze as he moved his teeth to my neck. Hot breath coated my skin, and I whimpered at the brush of teeth against my throat.
“Please don’t,” I whispered.
Greyson growled louder, taking my throat in his mouth.
I shuddered against the impulse to pull away. “Do it then, fucker.”
His teeth cut into my skin, and I really stopped moving then. “What is it you want? Submission? Fine, you fucking win. You—” I broke off, feeling the truth of my next words to my very bones. “You caught me.”
And the physical part of that capture affected me the least.
He released his hold and I fell heavy to the ground.
Greyson licked a long line up my neck. I shoved at his shoulders and he yelped, backing away.
Oops, his wound.
Cracks and pops sounded as the wolf shifted.
I hugged my legs to my chest, staring at my knees. When I lifted my head, Sascha crouched. Naked.
He wasn’t smiling. The Luther looked about as grim as I felt.
“You are captured, mate,” Sascha said in smooth tones.
I arched suddenly, cheeks flushing. Heat flooded my body, and I swept my hands down to my thighs, moaning at the feeling.
His words meant nothing. He needed to touch me.
Sascha.
I locked eyes with him, and he went predatorily still, nostrils flaring. Rising to my knees, I parted my lips, battling with the wave of lust consuming me.
My chest rose and fell fast, and a low cry tumbled from my lips.
I wanted him.
More than anything, I wanted this man. Inside me. On top of me. Beneath me.
I—
He stepped forward, and I panted, slapped with a molten wave that sent me sprawling to the ground.
I had to—
I clutched my head and rolled to put distance between us. Distance.
The position.
On my knees, I bowed my head, extending my hand, palms up to either side like some sorry version of Cleopatra.
What were the words? My legs shook with need.
I moaned the chant. “Doore koh e baka.”
Heat drained from my body in a rush, and my sigh of relief was half sob. I lowered my chin, panting hard.
It was over.
A warm hand tilted my face. Sascha crouched before me. Weary beyond measure, I didn’t resist his touch, peering into his bright honey eyes.
“You’re safe, mate.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Sascha’s eyes flickered.
Whatever my fears, I could appreciate that he hadn’t asked for this either. I believed him on that front. There was no sane reason for Sascha to continue this farce unless he had no power to stop it.
I placed my hand over his where he still held my chin.
He shuddered at my touch.
“Thank you.” I whispered.
“You’re welcome,” he murmured, searching my face. “Might I ask what for?”
Air lodged in my throat. “For showing me how to protect myself. I know you didn’t ask for any of this either.”
He seemed entranced by the feel of my skin as he traced my jaw. “I’ll rest easier knowing you did so even as I yearn for another outcome in my heart.”
My lashes fluttered closed. This was so messed up. “Is your shoulder okay?”
“It will be, little bird. Don’t worry about that.”
The blood covering his entire body said otherwise. And he wasn’t using that arm to touch me.
“Let go of her, dog.”
I jerked, spinning on my knees. “Uncle Herc!”
Sascha wrapped an arm around my middle, drawing me against him. I elbowed him, trying to establish distance.
This didn’t look good. Fuck!
“There’s something we must discuss, Hercules,” Sascha clasped me to his front.
Herc trained his gun over my head. “Oh, I’m well aware of what this is.”
I stilled. “You know?”
He didn’t look at me. “I’ve heard of it before. Release her now, Luther. Or I shoot. I’d rather lose a grid than see this happen to her.”
Lose a grid? What did he mean?
I studied his gun, stomach churning. The weapon was far smaller than our tranquiliser guns. “Uncle Herc. Is that a real gun?”
“Yes. Release her. Andie, come here.”
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I said in desperation. “It’s something that Sascha isn’t in control of either, but if we move through these meets, and I say no, it will go away.”
Herc met my gaze then, and it was like looking at a stranger. “Is that what he told you?”
I stiffened.
Sascha’s grip was borderline painful. “She will always have a choice.”
“Against monsters, there is no choice. You’ve shown my family that time and again.” White fury filled the lines on his face, and I was far less scared of the werewolf at my back than my uncle in that moment.
“It’s okay, little bird,” Sascha whispered in my ear. “You’re safe. Just stay back here for me.”
With a rush of wind, he moved. The grip on my middle disappeared.
A gun fired, and Sascha jerked.
“No,” I screamed, knees buckling.
Uncle Herc’s gaze slid to me, and I read the confusion there before Sascha swiped, sending him flying backward into a tree.
He rolled, bringing the gun up again. I rushed forward, stopping short as my uncle trained the gun on me.
“What are you doing?” I lifted both hands.
“Your argument isn’t with her, human,” Sascha snarled, clutching his stomach wound.
Herc’s voice shook. “This isn’t one-sided.”
My breaths were shallow and fast. “What do you mean?”
“You almost had me convinced.” His eyes shifted to Sascha.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My voice climbed higher.
“Tell me, niece. I’m going to kill this beast. Will you stop me?”
He aimed at Sascha once more, and I couldn’t help my panicked shriek.
My uncle smiled. “I thought not. But we can still fix you. You can live without him.”
“That’s a lie,” Sascha growled.
“Oh, but it’s not,” he said grimly. “I’ve seen it.”
He fired.
I moved to insert myself between them. Ridiculous. I couldn’t beat a bullet. But every fibre of my being tried to.
Sascha blurred and a third shot rent the air before a sickening crack summoned a silence I’d only experienced once before. All sound from the forest fled, and a finality crawled out from the earth like a disjointed horror.
Just like the silence after Mum’s death.
Sascha dropped Herc to the ground, and I stared at the abnormal angle of his neck.
A numbness seeped into my bones as a cannon boomed in the distance.
The black-eyed Luther glanced at me, face impassive.
“You killed him,” I sa
id, unable to tear my gaze from my uncle.
The werewolf staggered, dropping to a knee.
“You killed him,” I repeated as footsteps pounded toward us through the forest. “You killed my uncle.”
Leroy crashed through the trees, looking at me first before dropping to Sascha’s side. He swore at Herc’s body.
His body.
That unlocked me.
I staggered forward, tripping over a rock before I managed to crawl to my uncle’s side. My eyes fixed on his head, reversed on his shoulders, part of it torn clean off the body.
My breath shuddered high in my throat as I reached—needlessly—to feel for a pulse.
“Uncle Herc?” I whispered.
Others gathered behind me. I didn’t care.
“Where is she?”
I jerked. Rhona.
I died inside.
Rhona.
Wiping my face, I grabbed Herc’s head. No child should see their parent ruined like this. Gagging at the sound, I twisted until he faced upward.
His blue eyes were wide and for a moment, they looked into mine, his disgust and accusation blasting into me in death.
I turned to face the silent Luthers. A wolf I didn’t know tended to Sascha.
I didn’t care.
Rhona burst into the clearing alone. She breathed a sigh of relief as she caught sight of me.
“Rhona,” I said.
She stopped in her tracks, looking closer. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
I’d never done this. I’d been in the my mother has a long-term illness position. Not this. Never this.
Crossing to Rhona, I blocked her view. Taking my cousin in my arms, I held her tight. “There was a fight.”
She pushed away, gripping my forearms. “Andie, where’s my father?”
Tears flowed down my cheeks. I forced the words out. “He’s gone.”
She stared past me, a low cry leaving her as she spotted his limp form.
Closing my eyes, I listened as my cousin began to scream.
33
I sat beside my cousin in what used to be her father’s office. It would be Rhona’s now, when she took up the mantle.
The Luthers had agreed to a week off Grids for the tribe to grieve.
And for Sascha to heal, no doubt.
“The people in this valley loved your father,” I said, watching dust trickle through the sunlight streaming inside.
She gripped my hand tighter. “They did.”
Three days and Rhona hadn’t spoken much. I couldn’t blame her. She’d lost her sole remaining parent. She’d become an orphan.
All I felt was anger.
Anger at myself.
Anger at Sascha.
Anger that Rhona had started to heal, and the world dealt her this blow.
Herc’s death was my fault. Maybe I didn’t intend for this to happen, but I should have told him what was going on.
It was my idiocy that got us here. My determination not to accept help.
I’d never forgive myself.
And yet an idiot I still was—because I couldn’t bear to tell Rhona the truth.
Not yet.
How could I ever say the words?
“Can you tell me what happened again?” she croaked.
Only I got to see her this way. Outside of four walls and a shut door, she was the same old Rhona.
It made me realise just how much of a mask her adopted persona was.
It made me realise that Herc was wrong about his daughter.
She was a leader.
I breathed in, running through a story I’d told at least ten times to her and the head team. “Sascha Greyson ran after me into the forest and I hid between two rocks. It was quiet for so long, I crept out. He was there—in wolf form. Then Uncle Herc arrived with a gun. He shot the Luther, and the wolf attacked. It all happened so fast, and then he was just gone.”
I dropped my chin to my chest. “It’s my fault.”
She squeezed my hand tighter. “Whatever this was, it was not your fault. I should have protected you. You were my charge.”
Herc had ordered Rhona to hold the lines when she tried to follow me.
“Dad knew that bastard had something planned for you. He had to. I’ve never known him to carry a real gun anywhere. Especially not onto the grid.”
The head team had handled the negotiations in the wake of Herc’s death. He’d brought an illegal weapon into the game. Sascha’s injuries were serious and sustained which would usually mean a loss of points for us, but he’d killed Herc which meant the loss of a grid for them—a lucky thing, as they’d won Sandstone by three points.
The Luthers had argued that their leader was protecting himself. We’d argued that I’d needed Herc’s protection from him.
I just couldn’t believe a person had died and his life was being quantified like that.
“I’m going to kill him one day,” Rhona whispered low. “I’ll win the game first. Then I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”
If someone murdered my mother, I’d want vengeance. “Rhona. I can’t play Grids anymore.”
She faced me. “No.”
“I’m a liability.” The capture meet was over, but there were more meets coming, and I had no idea what they involved. This thing between me and Sascha Greyson wasn’t over. He considered me his only mate.
Herc was right. I’d never have a choice in the end result.
With time, I could find an out. I had to find an out. But I couldn’t bring more harm to my cousin or the stewards.
Rhona gripped my hand. “You’re blaming yourself for something that was out of your control.”
I squeezed my eyes closed.
“What you consider a liability could prove a strength for this tribe. If Sascha wants revenge for you spying in his stupid casino, we can use that to our advantage.”
I met her gaze, so like my own. “I can’t bear for anyone else to be hurt because of me.”
Her lower lip trembled. “My father knew the risk of being a Thana. He knew that our reason for being here in this valley meant more than our lives.”
I’d rather lose a grid than see this happen to her. What Herc saw and assumed about me and Sascha had disgusted him.
I was disgusting.
“Promise me that you won’t leave me, Andie,” Rhona said, voice cracking.
With my thumb, I brushed away her tears. “What did I tell you? I won’t let you down. Not ever.”
“I already let you down. And Dad.”
“I can tell you categorically that you didn’t let anyone down. No one. You obeyed your father’s order. You think he’d have wanted you there in danger’s way?”
“Maybe things would be different if I was there.”
The hollowness of her voice crushed my chest. “What ifs will kill you. And you already know that.” I took her hand. “The world hasn’t been kind to us.”
Rhona choked on a bitter laugh. “Orphans before twenty-two.”
We were silent for a time, dressed in black. I assumed someone would collect us when it was time to go.
Uncle Herc’s will would be read before all stewards and Luthers, which seemed unimaginably cruel. But what affected us, affected them too. Tradition wouldn’t be denied.
“We can be kind to each other.”
Roused from my stupor, I regarded my cousin, too tired to do much else. Guilt was a strong insomniac.
She did her best to smile. “The world hasn’t been kind to us, but we can be kind to each other. You and I.”
Oh, god. My shoulders shook as tears slipped from my traitorous eyes. “Yes,” I whispered thickly. “We can. We will. I love you, cousin.”
“I love you too.”
I dried my cheeks at a knock on the door.
Eleanor popped her head in. “The car is ready.”
“Thank you,” Rhona answered in a strong voice that broke my heart a little more.
I had to be there for her now.
Stand
ing, I extended my hand down. “Let’s go.”
“I’m not ready for this. I fucked around. They won’t respect me.”
“Look at me, Rhona Thana.”
She obeyed.
“You are ready for this. These stewards have watched you in Grids for five years. You are the best of the best. Don’t ever doubt yourself.”
“Or what?”
“I’ll raid the chocolate stash you keep in your doll’s house.”
She cracked a smile and took my hand.
I held it tight. “Let’s go, cuz.”
The silver Bentley waited for us. The manor was empty and quiet, the others already departed ahead of us. I slid into the driver seat, arranging the pleats of my scallop-neck, black dress.
I headed out to Lake Thana. There was a hill there, the official location for peaceful gatherings between Luthers and stewards.
The drive went too fast.
I gazed sadly at the dirt road that led to the steward’s secret spot on the lake, continuing past it, and then past the pier that drew the tourists like flies.
“Turn here,” she said.
This dirt road wound up a rise, and Lake Thana soon extended below us. Cars covered the flat top of the hill, lining the road on both sides.
Sascha would be here.
I’d have to look at him.
At a murderer.
I swallowed down bile.
“Andie?”
“Yeah?”
“If I try to kill him, can you stop me?” she asked.
My heart lurched. “Sure. Got any weapons that I should know about?”
A ghost of a smile touched her lips, but as I drew the car to a halt, the swelling crowd rendered us both silent.
The divide was obvious from the back. Stewards to the right. Luthers to the left.
I listened to Rhona’s breath and looked at her. “Ready?”
She clenched her jaw and dipped her head.
I walked just behind my cousin through the middle of the two sides. Toward the front, someone had set up chairs like some kind of sadistic wedding.
A hushed quiet descended as we passed, and heat crept over my jaw at the Luthers’ regard.
Where is the bastard?
It was impossible not to look for him.
My gaze skimmed over Mandy, Hairy, and Leroy, until I found the person who’d killed my uncle. He watched with shadowed eyes, standing slightly in front of his trusted pack members.
Shifter Wars: Supernatural Battle (Werewolf Dens Book 1) Page 34