Bare feet padded over raised bumps intended to provide traction on the spray-slick deck, and we nodded our greeting to dock workers uninterested in our carless presence and mismatched clothes. Immediately, one-bodies in orange vests shut off the opening behind us, drawing a netted chain across the expanse to prevent any vehicle or person from falling off into the sea.
The ferry’s engine rumbled to life as our rescuers’ car turned to drive back the way they’d come. White water churned behind as we eased out from between huge wooden pilings, then the massive people-carrier angled south toward the final easily accessible island even as the setting sun glowed golden against the darkening horizon.
With the fading light, air temperature also plummeted. Too cold for one-bodies, but not for shifters tuned in to their inner wolves. So rather than retreating to the passenger lobby in the center of the ferry, Sinsa, Ginger and I sat cross-legged just behind the netted barrier, watching land recede as salt spray licked at our skin.
Unlike my wolf-natured companions, though, I shivered. My inner beast was still missing in action and our continued voyage seemed to lack any purpose other than the relentless urge to continue putting one foot in front of the other. After all, every clan head was now arrayed against us and the gathering would have already begun by the time we arrived. What was the point of going on?
“I couldn’t get through to Cinnamon,” Ginger admitted quietly once the deck was devoid of one-body ears. In silent reaction, Sinsa slipped her arm around the other young woman’s shoulders, more used to lupine gestures of encouragement than she was to human words.
“I haven’t heard from Lupe or Hunter either.” I’d been trying not to think about the radio silence. Trying not to think of the way Nina’s twins were still missing and Arborville’s mayor would be even now regaling the assembled townspeople with tales of humans growing fur and sprouting claws.
And that was hoping for the best. Worst-case scenario, neither twins nor Amanda were still alive.
Before us, land rose out of the water as our destination came dimly into view. A whiff of seaward breeze carried the strong scent of shifter and Sinsa cocked her head to one side with interest.
There was no reason to hope Wolf Landing would be voted into existence tonight. No reason to think I’d be accepted as an alpha or even admitted onto the gathering site.
Meanwhile, I was sore all over. My brain ached from Stormwinder’s intrusive compulsion, I’d been picking cactus spines out of my feet for the last fifteen minutes, and my torso quivered in search of some much-needed heat.
Despite all that, I realized I hadn’t once asked myself “What would Wolfie do?” Because the answer was finally obvious. Wolfie wouldn’t ask. Wolfie would do.
So, shaking off a bone-deep weariness, I rose to my feet and pulled my companions up behind me. “Let’s show them a bitch attack force at our best,” I said, imbuing my words with heart-felt confidence.
Beside me, the other females stretched their spines into prideful alertness and raised their chins to the breeze. And when the ferry’s crew slid the chain barrier to the side, dragging the clanking metal across the ridged deck and opening up the pathway to land, we were first in line to debark.
Finally, eyes trained on the future, we did.
Chapter 29
“NOT SO FAST.”
We’d smelled the waiting shifters from the ferry, but I hadn’t expected them to attack so swiftly. Not while cars were streaming past, headlights occasionally flickering over to light up the darkness and expose our shenanigans to one-body eyes.
The enemy’s expediency didn’t make much difference, though. Because we’d decided not to fight. After all, we didn’t even possess shoes and underwear, let alone weapons.
So I didn’t resist as I was swung around to land forehead to window glass against the side of a parked car. I didn’t resist as I was pushed into the backseat of the same vehicle, squashed up against a seething Ginger while two enemy males flanked our opposite sides. A third shifter slipped into the front seat, revved the motor, began to drive.
Only once the testosterone-laden air began to clear did I realize I’d lost track of Sinsa in the scuffle. I’d initially assumed she was being pushed into the car alongside us. But there was no one in the front passenger seat, and the only scents currently apparent were a healthy dose of male aggression nearly overwhelming Ginger’s milder, spicy aroma.
Shit. Immediately, I closed my eyes and attempted to feel for my youngest companion along the pack bond. But my wolf and her associated abilities were still missing, the tether connecting me to my pack mates impossible to grasp onto. In the end, I forced myself to relax and watch the dark tarmac flicker to life in front of the vehicle’s twin headlamps as we journeyed down the only road this part of the island had to offer. There was nothing to do but wait.
Then we were parking, one male clenching my arms behind my back in an iron fist as he marched me up the unimproved trail in pitch darkness. I stepped on a sandbur, hopped on one foot in an attempt to dislodge it, then gave up and let the woody spine work its way into the arch beneath my big toe with every step.
Despite the pain, though, I smiled when I caught Sinsa’s scent wafting up from behind at last, resolving my only true worry. Separate, we were weak. But, together, my companions and I would find a way to make the All-Pack leaders listen to what we had to say.
Because we were being taken to All-Pack. I could see the bonfire surrounded by shifters as soon as we crested the dune, orange lights glittering against the star-filled sky. Human and wolf bodies alike mingled and drifted around the edges, fleeing smoke but drawn to warmth. After a moment, someone fed the flames with a chunk of saltwater-imbued driftwood and colorful sparks leapt into the air like a cascade of fireworks.
Then, with a howl, two males swung a hefty bundle back and forth between them to gain momentum before releasing the object to soar into the heart of the fire. Stormwinder, I realized as the wolf’s mangled body hung silhouetted for a split second against the fire’s glow before sizzling its way from once-living flesh to charcoal before my very eyes. I could barely believe that the grizzled shifter who had become such a presence in my mate’s life was now gone forever, no longer a danger to our eager young pack.
I found it even harder to believe that the shifters congregated on this isolated beach had chosen to howl a hero’s farewell for a murdered shifter who I’d thought long since abandoned to hungry crow beaks and to the desiccating effects of the winter sun. But the males behind and around me raised their own voices to join those of the shifters already circling the fire, and I did my best to soak up the event so I could relay every detail to my mate. Perhaps the show of respect would help fill what I knew would grow into an aching void in his surprisingly tender heart.
Actually, Stormwinder’s funeral pyre wasn’t the only thing that surprised me at the present moment either. I’d half expected to be stuffed back onto the next ferry as soon as I disembarked, to have to slink and hide and find my way to this gathering by hook or by crook. Our captors hadn’t been gentle, but they had brought us exactly where we wanted to go. Why?
Then I was being flung forward to land on my knees in front of the assembled pack leaders. Sand chaffed at elbows and shells bit into hands as I braced myself to break the fall, and I soon found myself peering up at the other alphas from the vantage point of a supplicant kneeling at the feet of a king. The posture, more than the sand burn, stung.
I remained silent, though, waiting to see where we stood...or rather knelt...and what these pack leaders planned to do with the only three females present tonight. Because Ginger’s accumulated data hadn’t prepared me for the energy swirling all around us, and this All-Pack gathering was nothing like the ones I’d attended among the mountain clans by Wolfie’s side.
There, All-Pack opened as a semi-civilized mating frenzy, all courtliness and pageantry with pack princesses attracting unmatched males like moths to an open flame. Here, in stark contrast, the sea b
reeze carried only the scents of testosterone and danger.
Two-legged participants were a finger’s breadth away from shifting, intent upon keeping face and winning silent struggles for power. Meanwhile, four-leggers threatened to succumb to the same wild frenzy that had turned Slate Franklin into a murderer a few hours back.
Speaking of Franklin, the alpha in question had regained his human form during the time it took for my pack to reach the island, and I was glad to see that he now lacked the crazed expression he’d sported after sinking his teeth into Stormwinder’s unprotected neck. Nearby, Big and Little Bill spoke quietly together while passive-aggressive Acres hung back, a hint of a smug smile widening the latter’s mouth even as he subtly straightened his suit and tie. Most of the gathered shifters were naked for ease and speed of transformation, but the southern gentleman was as well dressed as Stormwinder would have been...had the latter not ended up dead at the jaws of a wolf.
I didn’t know the other two clan heads by sight or smell, but I could guess at their identities. Hoyt Taylor had a hint of Stormwinder’s scent about him, the younger cousin uncertain of his standing in the aftermath of his protector’s death. In stark contrast, Ron Brooks stood tall and commanding, his back ramrod straight and his inner wolf so rampant even the other alphas gave him a wide berth.
“I thought we’d agreed the females would be turned back if they made it to the ferry terminal alive,” Brooks said now, his words a mild rebuff broadcast to the younger males behind me. Even without turning, I could feel the addressed shifters cringing away, their heads bowing and their inner wolves rolling over to display their bellies in response to the reprimand. With Stormwinder dead, Brooks had become the strongest alpha present and weaker wolves quailed in the face of his displeasure.
Well, most did. One, though, stepped forward to stand beside me, his bare feet dark against the paler sand. I assumed from skin color alone that the brave shifter had come with the Byrds’ contingent, but his words proved me wrong. “That was your order, Dad,” the younger male agreed easily. “But I thought you needed to see this.”
The older Brooks raised bushy eyebrows, his face clearly suggesting that Ginger and I weren’t worthy of interrupting the ceremony currently underway. And appearances definitely backed up his silent assertion since we were a ruffled and rumpled bunch.
For my part, I was still kneeling in the sand, foot throbbing and head aching in the face of the day’s traumas. Ginger, in contrast, had managed to shift midair while being flung earthward, slipping out of her borrowed sundress in the process. Still, despite the low growl emanating from between sharp teeth, the subtly stooped line of my companion’s back was proof that we were both outfoxed and outmatched.
I half expected Brooks to poke fun at our unconventional attire or excessive X chromosomes, but he clung to the moral high ground even as he eyed us like shit stuck to the bottom of his boot. “I needed to see this?” he said, turning his son’s words into a question. Clearly, Brooks wasn’t quite ready to dis his offspring in front of the assembled clan heads. Equally clearly, he was unimpressed by the presence of females at this previously all-male gathering.
“Yes,” Sinsa said, and this time I couldn’t help swiveling around to take in the speaker. Unlike Ginger and myself, the bloodling teenager wasn’t being restrained, and I couldn’t help thinking she resembled a goddess as she stepped forward into the firelight with only a scanty cover-up to hide her nakedness.
“He thought you might want to see me...” She paused, took a deep breath, then added: “...Dad.”
WITH SINSA’S WORDS, the tide of All-Pack shifted in our favor. Later, I would learn that Brooks’ request to secede from the region three years prior had been squashed by a very astute round of blackmail on Stormwinder’s part. Unlike many parents of bloodlings, Brooks hadn’t relinquished his infant daughter willingly—instead, the pup had been spirited away during the turmoil surrounding her mother’s death. So when Stormwinder professed to have discovered the missing daughter’s location, Brooks hadn’t been willing to take a chance on the Tribunal member harming his lost child, not for the sake of mere political maneuverings.
Instead, despite his relative strength, Brooks had stepped aside from statecraft at that time, allowing my mate’s mentor to take the lead in his place. Later, the mourning father had slammed the gates of his clan home in my face when I’d come to woo him as an ally, and he’d similarly refused Franklin’s attempts to draw him into their coup. Personal feelings about Stormwinder aside, Brooks had resolved to do anything necessary to protect the wolf pup who’d been stolen from his pack years earlier.
Now, Sinsa and her father were reunited. And the pure joy on the latter’s face gradually transitioned into iron-clad support for Wolf Landing’s territorial rights. “All in favor?” the alpha asked half an hour later, once Sinsa had whispered her recent history into his waiting ear. Brooks barely seemed interested in pack-leader business, actually, rushing through the motions of All-Pack so he could relax into building a relationship with his newfound daughter.
But I was interested in the vote. In fact, during the half hour I’d spent in limbo, I’d barely been able to prevent myself from rushing around the circle of alphas to beg each one for his potential support.
Instead, I stood beside Sinsa, her hand slipping into mine as a rumble of “aye”s filled the air. In the end, Little Bill voted in our favor, as did Hoyt Taylor, a flip-flopping Slate Franklin, and Brooks himself. Big Bill broke with his son and voted nay while the passive-aggressive Acres rode the fence and abstained.
I spared a wince for the splintered ties within the Byrd family unit—I had a feeling Little Bill would no longer joke about his father’s nickname in the same easy manner as before. But I couldn’t prevent the glow of triumph that lit my eyes as I realized we’d won the concession we’d come so far to seek.
I was officially an alpha and Wolf Landing was officially a pack.
Brooks left while I was still wrapping my head around the change in stature, his son and daughter flanking him like bookends. And I caught a hint of something via the pack bond as Sinsa walked away. A promise to come find us again, perhaps. Or a thank-you for reuniting her with the family she’d long ago forgotten.
I couldn’t quite tell, though. The words, if they existed, drifted through my mind like a half-heard and long-forgotten melody. Only the young woman’s eyes meeting mine as she glanced back over one shoulder suggested I wasn’t imagining the whole thing.
“You know you’re top dog when you don’t even have to stay for the real vote,” Ginger said a moment later, having shifted back to human form before linking her arm through mine. Actually, though, my friend was very much wrong. Because there was no second vote to name the newest member of the Southeast Tribunal. It was simply assumed that Brooks, as the strongest alpha left standing, would represent us all on the regional council.
Meeting adjourned, a few of the younger males attempted to sniff around Ginger’s feet, but she banished them with a regal wave of one manicured hand before drawing me away into the darkness. Together, we strolled in silence along the wet sand just above the waves, each footprint lighting up a circle of bioluminescent algae that glowed blue against the deepening night.
We’d each been awake for over thirty-six hours at that point, so we didn’t try to speak. Our wolves simply needed to walk beside another member of our pack, to be alive together for a few minutes at least before we returned to the reality of having no place to sleep and no way to travel back to the home we’d fought so hard to secure.
Then a dark figure materialized out of the night. His broad shoulders blocked out the rising moon and his husky voice carried below the crashing of the waves. “You ladies need a ride?”
“Is the pack alright?” I asked my mate, falling into his sassafras-scented arms and not minding one bit that Ginger had collapsed onto the same chest right alongside me. If she felt the way I did, the twin could use a little help keeping her legs straight an
d her body upright.
“The twins are safe. Goodpasture is in custody. And the pack is fine.” Hunter paused to drop a gentle kiss onto my brow. Then, to my delight, he knelt at my feet, prying the sandbur I’d nearly forgotten out from beneath my toe and slipping socks and boots over sore soles. He finished by installing one throwing knife into each ankle sheath then rising to pull his own shirt off his back and drape it around my chilled shoulders.
“No fair, I don’t get the Cinderella treatment,” Ginger groused. She wasn’t actually annoyed, though. In fact, I was pretty sure the young woman negated her own words by pressing closer against the uber-alpha whose strength currently buoyed us both up.
“If you want a Prince Charming, you’ll have to hunt down your own,” my mate growled. But even in the dim moonlight, I could see his lips quirking up at the corners into a smile. “Perhaps,” he added dryly, “you should give Amelia a call.”
And I smiled too. Because, now that Wolf Landing’s territory was assured, we could afford to bring additional one-bodies into the fold. Ginger could tell Amelia about her animal half and hope the human’s love was sufficient to survive the shock of finding out her significant other was a wolf. The most important roadblock standing in the way of their budding romance was a roadblock no longer.
Of course, the task would still take bravery, but I didn’t doubt the female at my side one bit. After all, Ginger was a pack princess, a trouble twin, and a member of my clan. Bravery was what she did best.
Chapter 30
I COLLAPSED INTO THE hotel room Hunter rented for us and slept most of the way home the next day as well. Which might be why I didn’t realize everyone in my pack was withholding very important information until much later that afternoon.
Alpha Underground Trilogy Page 57