Meg moved out from behind Brock. He could see her body shaking, her eyes wide and skin pale. She took a step toward Roy.
“Meg,” Brock said. “You don’t have to obey him anymore. You get to choose, remember?”
Roy laughed. “You don’t understand us at all, traitor. Meg follows the natural order. Dwellers do not turn on each other. We work together. And werewolves always follow their alpha—even mindblind little bitches like this one.”
It was too much.
Brock lowered his head. The reflected glow from his eyes obscured his vision. The sound of Tessa pounding on the window covered Brock’s spine popping.
“You think I don’t understand being a leader?” Brock unbuckled his weapon’s harness, letting the sheathed swords slide down his back. He held them out to Meg and smiled at her when she took them. “It’s not just about control. It’s about worthiness to lead.”
“You think you’re more worthy than me?” Roy said.
“I know I am.” Brock laughed. “I get why you left Marcus in the chamber. Pack hierarchy is based on how hard you fight when you’re turned? Even he has more scars than you.”
Roy growled.
Perfect. He was as easy to bait as Brock expected.
“You’re a fucking coward,” Brock said. “Preying on the people you were supposed to protect.”
“Like you’ve been using your replicants?” Roy said.
The words stung. Brock didn’t let them push him over the edge, though.
“Yeah, I used to control my brothers to get them to do what I wanted,” Brock said. “But at least I have the excuse that I was trying to help them fit in with society. To teach them how to help people and not hurt them.”
“You made them kill other dwellers,” Roy said.
Brock nodded. “Hunters, too. Human hunters—if they were killing dwellers indiscriminately. And I didn’t just mess with my brothers’ heads. When I wanted to, I would override control of their body. Use it as my own. It’s a neat trick, once you learn how to do it. It has a price tag, though.”
Brock reached up and tore off his shirt, tossing the shredded fabric on the floor. Roy’s eyes widened as he took in the scars that covered Brock’s torso. Brock just chuckled as he kicked off his shoes.
“Judge, jury, and executioner,” Brock said. “That’s who I am. As to what I am? Well, not even I am sure of that anymore. But I promise you one thing.”
Brock reached up and pulled off his glasses. Blue and gold light reflected back at him from their surface, casting his hand in an eerie green glow. He tossed the shades aside as he looked up at Roy and smiled, running his tongue over his fangs.
“I’m not the easy target you expected,” Brock said.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What the hell did you do, Meg?” Roy’s eyes blazed with fury.
Meg had seen that look too many times to mistake it. Always right before a beating.
That wasn’t what scared her, though. Brock was with her. He’d do anything to protect her. Anything. And that was absolutely terrifying.
She wouldn’t let him die for her.
Roy vs. Brock was a no brainer. Brock would win. But adding Tessa to the mix changed everything.
Brock would pull his punches. And between Tessa’s cybernetic arm and Roy’s influence over her, Brock wouldn’t stand a chance.
Communications were cut off. Without being able to warn the others, Roy could kill Vaughn, wake up Marcus and use Tessa to get him to comply. Three werewolves against the three replicants outside… She wasn’t sure who would win.
She had to protect her pack—her real pack. And she had an idea of how to do it.
Brock wasn’t going to like it, though.
“You told me to stay close to Brock by any means necessary,” Meg said.
“So you turned him?” Roy yelled. “You’re the fucking omega. You don’t get to turn people. How did you even—”
“I didn’t,” Meg said. “There’s no way an omega could turn the head of a hydra.”
“Then explain this abomination.” Roy gestured toward Brock.
“Brock split again,” Meg said. “He made two new replicants. I was able to infect this version of him right afterwards.”
It was a misleading truth that she knew Roy would take the way he wanted to.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Brock said.
Meg took another step closer to Roy, even though every part of her was screaming to stay near Brock. She knew it was what Roy would expect, and she needed him off guard.
“Another fucking replicant,” Roy said.
“Meg, what are you doing?” Brock turned to Roy. “I am Brock.”
Meg shook her head. “I know you believe that.” She turned back to Roy. “He’s confused. He’ll make a great fighter for the pack, but right now, we need to get to Brock before the others can move him to safety. I can help you get to him.”
“Stop it,” Brock said.
Roy’s lips curled away from his teeth. He’d never doubted her word before. Why didn’t he believe her now?
“You’ve been keeping secrets from me.” Roy pointed at Brock. “You can transform. You say that you’re mindblind, that you can’t hear the pack, but maybe you’re just not letting us in.”
“I only transformed to change him, and I’m not even sure I could do it again.” Desperation laced her voice. “Please, Roy.”
The corner of his mouth twitched up in a smile.
That was the issue. She wasn’t acting enough like the omega.
Ducking her head, she took another step forward, hunching her shoulders. “I was only trying to help. Please don’t be mad.”
Her stomach churned hard enough to raise bile to the back of her throat. Had she really acted like this? For years?
Brock tried to reach out to her, but she leapt away. Toward Roy.
The look on Brock’s face broke her heart.
“You’ll understand soon,” she said, praying it was true. “When you find your place in the pack.”
When she looked up at Roy, he was smiling. Hope fluttered in her chest, a bittersweet contrast to the pain she knew she’d just caused the man she loved.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, Meg?” Roy said. “After everything I’ve done for you, how I saved you and gave you a home and a family, you wouldn’t lie.”
“Never.” She forced her face into the closest semblance to adoration she could manage, remembering how she used to look at Roy. It was nauseating to think of, but she had to convince him she was earnest.
“Meg, you don’t have to do this,” Brock said.
She ignored him, along with the ache in her chest.
“If we don’t go quickly, Brock will get away,” she said. “You sent me here to heal our pack, remember?”
“I did.” Roy nodded. He reached out and gently stroked the side of Meg’s head. “Tessa, change of plan.”
Tessa stopped banging on the stasis chamber and turned around. Blue light rippled over her body as fur sprouted from her skin. Her joints popped and cracked, muscles rippling as the change swept over her. The thin gown she’d been wearing tore and floated to the ground at her feet.
“Kill this one,” he said, nodding toward Brock.
“What?” Meg yelled. “No, he’s one of us.”
Roy grabbed her hair and yanked her close. “I choose who joins our pack. Not you.”
“Let her go,” Brock yelled.
The change swept over Brock so quickly. Meg was amazed at his mastery of his new form. In one smooth movement, Brock tore his pants away and leapt toward Roy, fur sprouting over his body.
Brock’s claws glanced off of the metal of Tessa’s arm. She was already in front of them, moving faster than Meg could track.
“An alpha never fights alone.” Roy smiled.
“Do they fight at all?” Brock said. “Or just hide behind others?”
Roy snorted. “That’s Brock’s specialty. But he’s run out of p
laces to hide. Cut off the true head, and you kill the hydra. It’ll be interesting to see if you go with them. Tessa can have some fun with you until we find out.”
Tessa slashed and snapped at Brock, forcing him to retreat. He was holding back even more than Meg had feared he would.
“Don’t,” Meg screamed. “Please, he’s one of us now. He’s pack.”
“For all his talk of worthiness, this thing is unfit to join our pack.” Roy tightened his grip on her hair, dragging her toward the door. “We’re leaving. We need to reach Brock before his little roaches can stick him in some other hole where we’ll never find him.”
A sob tore through Meg as Roy picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her from the room. The last she saw of Brock was him blocking a vicious sweep of Tessa’s natural claws, opening four lines of blood along his forearm.
Meg couldn’t help him like this. She had a plan, and it was a good one—she hoped. For it to work, she had to pull herself together. The sooner she did, the sooner everyone would be safe. She just hoped it would work.
“We’re going the wrong way,” she said, sniffing and wiping her eyes to clear them. “We need to get outside.”
Roy threw her to the ground, hard, then pressed his hand on one of the palm scanners. A hatch opened that led out to the cave.
“I know what I’m doing,” he snarled. “Never second guess me again.”
She wouldn’t have a chance to. In a few minutes, he’d be dead. She scrambled to her feet and followed him out of the ship.
No trolls lurched up from the ground to attack them. She couldn’t hear any fighting nearby. That was bad. For her plan to work, she needed help.
An alpha never fights alone.
The view to the elevator was blocked by mounds of dirt, but Roy must have known which direction it lay in. He started heading toward it.
Jon, Nathan, and Dexter must already be in the ship. They’d find Brock and Tessa and hopefully save them both. Meg just had to keep Roy busy until then, maybe loosen his hold on Tessa by distracting him. Meg also couldn’t let him reach the sublevels where Porter and Eli were.
Once they were in sight of the elevator, the camera would pick them up. Porter could lock the elevator doors or trap them inside. At least, she was pretty sure he could.
Roy veered off toward the emergency stairs.
Her plan was starting to seem like less of a good idea.
“It’s this way.” Meg pointed to the elevator.
“Don’t be stupid,” Roy said. “We’re not getting in a tiny metal box filled with cameras and microphones that other Blades have full control over.”
“But that’s how they took Brock away. I’m sure of it. There’s no way he could have taken the stairs. And we need to follow his scent.”
“I thought you knew where they were taking him.”
“I do. I mean, I know the whole base, but I just think the elevator is the best idea.”
Roy stopped, then slowly turned toward her. “Are you trying to betray me, Meg? Because, that might be something I have a hard time forgiving.”
She couldn’t bring herself to lie. The words stuck in her throat.
“I wouldn’t betray my pack,” she said.
“Your pack is me.”
“What about Tessa and Marcus?”
Roy stalked toward her, his lips curled up in a snarl. “If it wasn’t for Marcus, our pack wouldn’t have been decimated in the first place. And Tessa is a freak, contaminated with curator technology.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re not supposed to understand,” he roared. “You’re supposed to obey. Only those who know their place belong in my pack.”
Her blood seemed to freeze in her veins. “You’re going to kill them, too. Marcus and Tessa.”
“They think themselves an alpha pair. I’ve seen it in their thoughts.”
“And what about me?” Meg said.
“You need to learn your place again.” Roy sneered at her. “I’ll be more than happy to remind you again and again as soon as we’ve finished the Blades once and for all.”
A stone rolled down one of the mounds of dirt behind Roy. It could have been a coincidence. It could have been a troll. But Meg had a feeling it wasn’t.
“I already know my place,” she said, straightening her shoulders and standing tall. She held his gaze, eyes glowing bright enough to cast his features in golden light. “And you’re right. Marcus and Tessa are not the alpha pair.”
As she expected, Roy snarled and lunged at her.
“You bitch,” he yelled.
Meg dodged away, spinning past his grasp. The hill was at her back.
“I never really had a place in your pack,” Meg said. “But I’ve found another. This is my pack, and I am mated to their alpha. Brock.”
“You lied to me,” Roy said.
“Careful,” she snarled. “An alpha never fights alone.”
She heard more rocks skittering down the hill behind her. Lots of them. And she didn’t need to see the pair of warriors at her side to know they were there. She could feel Jon and Nathan flanking her.
“You think you’re an alpha?” Roy said. “You weak, pathetic—”
She heard metal rasp against metal as the twins drew their swords. Cocking her head to the side, she said, “You were saying?”
Roy glowered at them, his shoulders hunching as claws sprouted from his fingertips. His gaze flicked to the ship, and Meg knew he was trying to get Tessa to come to him.
Finally, after all this time, Meg saw him for what he truly was. A coward.
She had pushed him. She wanted to push him. Because she knew just what it would take to send him over the edge, bringing all of his attention here.
If he had to make an effort to reach Tessa, she was still busy at the ship. Brock was still alive. Meg intended to keep it that way.
“These are my packmates, Jon and Nathan,” Meg said. She gestured toward the third man standing in front of the hill and smiled, baring her sharpening teeth. “And this is my friend, Dexter.”
Dexter’s voice was as smooth as melting butter. “I believe you’ve been looking for me,” he said.
Roy’s eyes widened till she could see the whites all around them. The change tore through him, his wolf form bursting through in a flash of blue light. She actually felt the energy of his transformation hit her, like the shockwave from the explosion earlier.
Roy leapt at Dexter, swiping at Meg as he did. She was surprised Roy could divide his attention once Dexter was brought into the mix. Luckily, Nathan was there, pulling her out of harm’s way. He held her against his chest, his arms a cage that both protected and trapped her.
“Help them,” she said.
Nathan didn’t budge. Maybe she wasn’t quite the alpha she thought she was.
“Please, Nathan.” She rested her hands on his chest and looked up into his dark and white eyes. He only held her tighter.
How could she convince him to join the fight? The scent of blood hit her nose, tinged with fallen leaves. She looked over her shoulder and saw blood dripping from a gash in Dexter’s shirt.
Roy was using the terrain to his advantage, leaping over the replicants, just out of reach of their blades, and dashing in with his heightened speed to strike at them.
Jon was a split-second too late lifting his sword to block Roy’s attack. Roy’s claws raked him across his stomach. Dexter was breathing heavily.
Meg didn’t understand. Dexter had defeated the entire pack single-handedly.
Except not really.
His might have been the only replicant body in the room, but he was probably using the link to draw on the others, like Brock had explained the night Meg arrived. And now, Dexter didn’t have that link to help him. The replicants’ skill was incredible, but as Dexter had said, he was diminished.
It had never occurred to her in her wildest fantasies that in a fight with a single werewolf, Dexter might lose.
H
er plan was going to get him killed. It might just get all of them killed. Everything hinged on Dexter being able to kill Roy.
If the replicants couldn’t do it for her, she would do it herself. She tried to push away from Nathan, but he held on tight.
This was not happening. She would not stand by and watch them die.
“Let me go,” she said.
Nathan didn’t budge. If anything, he tightened his grip again, hugging her closer against his chest, like he was trying to protect her.
“Your brothers need you,” she said. “If Roy kills them, he’ll come for you, and then me. If you really want to keep me safe, you’ll let me fight to protect myself and all the people I love,” she said. “We’re pack. All of us. Let me fight with you.”
He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but then shut it again.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she snarled, letting the change flow over her. “But I can make you let me go.”
She pushed against him with her fur-covered arms, not using even half her strength. Nathan’s eyes widened, but he let go of her and stepped back. He glanced at the fight, then stared at her, gaze moving up and down her wolf form.
Reaching over his shoulder, he drew a blade.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Tessa, this isn’t you.” Brock dodged another swipe of Tessa’s claws. Her left set didn’t worry him as much as the right. He’d seen what her cybernetic arm could do, and those claws looked absolutely wicked.
“Roy is the puppetmaster,” he said. “He’s been messing with your mind all this time. But you can fight him. I know you can.”
He ducked, making her punch land on the wall instead of his face. Sparks flew where the metal connected with the bulkhead. Her hand made a series of garbled beeping noises and was dented all across her knuckles.
For a moment, he thought he might have lucked out. If that hand stopped working, it would be a lot easier to incapacitate her without hurting her—or pushing the limits of his new werewolf healing abilities.
She lifted her arm, staring at the odd angles her fingers protruded in. More sparks crackled as she wiggled them, snapping them back into place. The chrome started to smooth itself, the dents in her knuckles popping back out.
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