by Fel Fern
While most of Logan’s pack decided to check into an inn, Raul insisted he stay with them. He wanted Logan close by, especially since Logan stubbornly insisted on getting Bran by himself, with or without anyone’s help.
“Northfield’s neutral territory,” Dino said, giving him a look. “Raul, you understand the pack won’t be involved in Bran’s rescue? Alessio and Sergio are still wary of Logan and his pack.”
“I know Michella’s been getting a lot of heat lately,” Raul muttered.
“The pack’s divided. On one hand, some don’t see Logan and the rest as a threat. The others simply can’t trust outsiders,” Dino mused, a thoughtful gaze still on the two figures on the couch. Raul knew what Dino was thinking. He never expected his Logan to become so close to Michella either. Dino continued, “I’ll come with you.”
“What?” Raul asked, frowning.
“You’re planning on heading to Northfield to gather more information, right? And you’re not planning on telling Logan either.” Dino cracked his knuckles. “Well, if you manage to sniff out these mercenaries, I imagine you won’t wait. Don’t you think it’s wise, having backup?”
Raul blistered. “Sometimes, I hate how you know me so well. I’ll be fine on my own.”
“I’ve already told Billy to take over my duties.”
“What did Michella say?”
“She’s fine with us meeting our contacts in Northfield.”
Raul crossed his arms. “You’ve kept the part about us heading there with the intention to kill.”
Dino grinned. Raul returned the smirk.
“I sense a sinister aura coming from you two.”
Raul jumped at Michella’s voice. Somehow she’d found her way to the kitchen, leaning against the doorway to peer at both of them.
“Sinister? That hurts, babe,” Dino pointed out.
“What are you two conspiring about?” She crossed her arms, tilting her head at them.
Raul kept his face neutral, hoping his bloodthirsty emotions didn’t leak out. Like Dino, she knew both of them far too well, too. Like peas in a pod, some of the pack members would say. Somehow, over the years, they’d all grown codependent. Dino and Michella’s approval of him taking his own path with Logan meant a lot.
Right from the start, he planned on killing off Logan’s monsters so his sweet Omega had nothing to worry about. Eventually, Logan would stop having nightmares about failing Bran and his former mate.
“Nothing you should be worried about,” Dino said smoothly, edging his way toward her and pulling her into his arms.
“Oh?”
“Is the popcorn ready?” Logan called from the living room.
Michella untangled herself from Dino, patting his arm while Dino frowned at her. She passed Raul, tiptoeing to get microwave popcorn from the cabinet.
“Raul, I know you’ve been looking forward to this hunt. Be careful,” she said, not looking at either of them, placing the bag inside the microwave.
Why did Raul bother keeping this to themselves? He expected her to protest, stop them, but she said nothing else. Sometimes, she was a little sister to him, more often his other best friend. Most times, she was the Gamma who saw and felt far too much. Of course she wouldn’t say anything, but he detected something he didn’t think possible—fear for Dino and him. Losing David made it hard for her to lose anyone else, which was why she turned reckless when someone else’s life was at stake.
“You’re taking Logan to see Mrs. Hall today, right?” he asked. Raul turned his head to see Logan on the couch, controller in hand. “And you don’t have to worry. Dino’s got my back.”
“It’s silly of me to worry, right? You two are the strongest guys I know.” She looked distant. “Yes, I’m taking Logan. Billy and Blake will be with us. I have a meeting later in the afternoon, but Billy will shadow Logan.”
“Thank you,” Raul said with some relief and then mussed her hair. She scowled at him. Satisfied, Raul left the kitchen to return to his Omega.
“Scoot,” Raul told Logan, picking up the spare controller.
“The couch’s not big enough,” Logan protested. “Besides, no one’s occupying the armchair.”
Chuckling, Raul squeezed himself in, loving the way Logan’s body rubbed against his. His Omega started grumbling under his breath. Raul looked at the TV.
“Let’s see. I’m going to kick your ass at this game,” Raul declared.
Logan let out a huff. “Please. I’ve been practicing. It’s on.”
“Remember, pup. If you lose, you’ll have to do something for me,” Raul said.
Logan swallowed. “Why do I have a feeling it’s something embarrassing?”
“Embarrassing for you,” Raul corrected.
“Oh. I’m so going to win. If that happens, what do I get?”
Raul raised his brows. “What do you want?”
“You.” Logan’s cheeks and neck turned red at the admission.
Win or lose, Raul would have Logan in his bed one way or another, but he wasn’t about to tell Logan that. He heard Dino and Michella talking quietly in the kitchen. Leaning back against the couch, Raul reached out, rubbing Logan’s thigh. These past three days had been nothing but wonderful.
Raul could imagine living like this. He could see Logan and him getting an apartment close by. At least once a week, they’d come over here for dinner, or Dino and Michella would come to their place. They had the pack, work to do, but at the end of the day, Raul could come home to Logan.
“Raul, is something wrong?” Logan asked.
“It’s the exact opposite, pup. Right now, you here with me, it’s fucking perfect.” Raul just hoped nothing would ruin their newfound happiness.
Chapter Fourteen
“I’ll see you tonight, or maybe tomorrow,” Raul said, sounding oddly serious.
After an unhealthy lunch of microwave popcorn and chips, the four of them went downstairs to their own separate ways. Raul tugged him close for a tight hug. Logan began to relax into those warm, solid arms and then frowned at Raul’s words.
“Do you have a job for the pack?” Logan asked.
“Something like that. Dino’s coming with me. That’s why Blake and Billy will be accompanying you guys,” Raul explained.
“You’re only telling me this now?” Logan asked, exasperated. He was surprised though. Usually, Dino was always by Michella’s side. What were these two up to?”
“It’s for your own good, because you worry too much.”
“Once you get back, we’re going to have an important talk about communication,” Logan mumbled, making him laugh.
Raul released him. “Be good, pup.”
Logan watched him and Dino take Dino’s car. He turned, seeing Michella speaking to Blake.
“Ready?” she asked, noticing him.
“Yeah.” Logan gave Raul and Dino one last lingering look.
“Don’t worry. They’ll be fine,” Michella reassured him.
“I’m not worried.” Logan sighed. She could probably tell he was lying.
“Should we get going?” Blake asked, turning to Michella.
When Blake glanced at Logan, he took an uncertain step back. The huge guy seemed like a mute shadow, always in the background but never speaking. With the exception of Kian, Blake frightened Logan’s other pack mates.
Logan was a little familiar with Billy, but Logan didn’t know much about this werewolf. Like most of the Gamma’s wolves, he was huge. Blake didn’t look like the kind who smiled often either. Three diagonal lines, claw marks, bisected Blake’s left cheek, lending him a frightening appearance.
“I guess we should before Esther takes her afternoon nap.” Michella patted Blake’s arm, not intimidated at all, but Logan supposed she knew her men best. “You’re looking chipper today, Blake.”
Blake grunted, tailing behind them as they approached Billy’s white Toyota.
“Hey, Logan,” Billy greeted by the wheel.
“Afternoon.”
It took him a second to realize what was odd. It wasn’t either Raul or Dino’s familiar cars they took, but someone else’s. The car started rolling. Michella was usually all business when she wore her Gamma mask, multitasking and juggling pack issues. Now though, she looked distant, silent, staring out the windows. It wasn’t just Logan who noticed. He saw Blake trade a silent look of query with Billy, but Billy only shook his head.
“Will Dino and Raul be all right?” Logan asked, breaking the silence. “I mean, it’s unusual neither of them are with you.”
When she didn’t reply immediately, he asked gently, “Michella?”
She blinked, as if realizing she wasn’t alone. “Sorry, I was a little distracted. Right now, Raul needs Dino.”
By now, Logan guessed if she dodged questions like that it meant pack business she couldn’t talk about with outsiders. He didn’t push it, although Raul pulling him into a hug bothered him. Why did it feel like Raul went on a dangerous mission?
“Do you have your questions ready for Esther, Mrs. Hall I mean?” she asked.
“I do.”
It was a long shot going to the seer. Michella mentioned Mrs. Hall’s memory was failing her and they might get nothing out of her. Since Raul’s contacts hadn’t come back to him with news, it wouldn’t hurt to look at other venues.
To distract himself from worrying about Raul, he said, “Raul mentioned she mentored you.”
“That feels such a long time ago.”
“You’re making yourself sound old again,” Logan reminded her.
She laughed. “I was so angry then, but Esther helped me a lot. I hope she gives you the answers you’re looking for.”
Billy killed the engine in front of Hall’s Bread and Balls.
“Nice name for a bakery,” Logan remarked, getting out with the others. “Every time I go out with you, it feels like I’m part of a mafia.”
He nodded to the ever-silent Blake and Billy with his easy smile tailing behind them.
“Men can get overprotective sometimes,” she answered. Michella paused by the glass door, turning, scanning the neighborhood, but not looking at Logan or her wolves.
“Is something wrong?” Logan asked.
“Gamma?” Billy asked.
“It’s faint, a good distance away, but I feel terrible bloodlust. So much anger.” She rubbed at her temples, looking like she nursed a headache.
“I’m calling for backup,” Billy automatically said.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” She gave Billy a tight smile. “I’ve been getting a lot of intense emotions from the pack lately. I think it’s been messing with my abilities.”
Worried, Logan grabbed her arm when she swayed slightly on her feet. He wondered how much she’d been keeping from Dino and Raul. “I’m getting her inside,” Logan told Blake, who nodded. Billy was on the phone.
He nudged her inside. Smells of bread caressed his nostrils. Mrs. Hall sat behind the cashier, reading a gay romance novel. A low growl came by the seer’s side. A huge, golden blur came at them with claws and teeth, stopping short when Michella stepped forward.
“Relax, Cain. We’re friends, remember?”
This must be the seer’s familiar Michella mentioned. The cat sniffed at Michella’s offered hand and glared at the rest of them with amber eyes before returning by Mrs. Hall’s side.
“I apologize for him. He’s usually such a sweet kitty,” Mrs. Hall said. The seer adjusted her glasses. “Let me get a good look at you, dear. I see your two usual fellows aren’t by your side again. It’s been a while hasn’t it?”
“Logan’s here, too,” Michella said, smiling.
“You look worn out, Michella. That isn’t good for a young lady. Now then, young man, I remember you. Come have a seat.”
They helped her pull out folding chairs from the storeroom and sat around the cashier. Logan noticed Blake stood at one corner, arms crossed, while Billy was still outside on the phone. Mrs. Hall didn’t seem concerned a customer would walk in and buy bread.
“Well, then. What would you like to know, Logan was it?” Mrs. Hill asked.
“I’ll leave you two to chat, I need to ask Blake something,” Michella said.
Left alone with the old woman and the growling mountain lion, Logan swallowed.
“Before, you told me what I’ve been looking for is right under my nose. What do you mean by that?” Logan asked.
Mrs. Hall blinked. “Did I? I apologize, young man. My memory’s been failing me.”
“I think you were talking about my friend, Bran. You see, he’s been taken.” Logan gave her a short summary of how he and his pack arrived at Darkfall.
Mrs. Hall’s eyes turned a milky white. She reached for his hands with her wrinkled and trembling ones. Logan reached out, wondering if direct touch heightened her gift. “Your friend,” she mused. “Brown, was it?”
Excited, Logan nodded. “Bran has brown fur in wolf form.”
“He’s very afraid. Caged. There’s a shadow pacing by him, and the presence of a second. A trained warrior.”
“You mean another mercenary?”
Mrs. Hall shook her head. “Different. That man’s no longer there in that house, but somewhere else. There’s something on his cheek, a tattoo, no a symbol.”
“What do you mean?” Logan frowned. He wished she’d go back to talking about Bran and his location.
“The image’s a little fuzzy, but I think it’s a large X, no some kind of weapon.”
Michella swore, stopping her conversation with Blake. Logan didn’t think he’d ever heard her curse before.
“Order of the Knife,” she whispered.
Blake growled. It was the first time Logan saw any reaction from the huge werewolf. Logan racked his brain, wondering where he heard those words before. Order of the Knife wasn’t real, but a made-up organization of bogeymen used to scare young werewolves into obeying their pack. Michella looked a little pale though.
Were they real? According to the stories, these cold-blooded killers were born human. Trained from youth, they endured special training to be able to stand toe-to-toe with any shifter. That wasn’t the fearsome thing. When one assassin died, another would take the killer’s place. The organization wouldn’t stop sending hunters until their target was dead.
Mrs. Hall turned her milky eyes back to Logan. “Where’s Raul? He should be with you, little wolf.”
“What? Why?”
The tiny bell connected to the door chime.
“What happened? I heard Blake,” Billy said. “Michella?”
Michella looked out of the glass display of the bakery again, not seeing any of them.
“The Order of the Knife is real?” Logan asked Billy instead.
“They’re real,” Blake said. There was heat in his voice as he stroked his scarred cheek. “Fucking hell, Billy. What if those fuckers are working with Alpine Industries?”
“We need to go,” Michella murmured, softly at first.
“Michella, what do you mean?” Billy asked.
“Now.” The last word came out as a firm command from the Darkfall Mountain pack Gamma.
The bell chimed again. Everything began moving in painful slow motion then. Logan glimpsed the tall man in a bulky jacket wearing a cap stroll in. His wolf, normally docile, started screaming at him to get away. For some reason, his entire body started to tremble with fear. The intruder smelled human, but there was something off about him. It took Logan a second to realize he didn’t smell like prey.
“Hello, I came here to buy bread.”
A wide and obscene smile spread across his lips. Billy and Blake tensed, reaching for the guns in their belts. Logan caught sight of the man’s face, crisscrossed with scars, but what drew his eye was the ink on his cheek. It was a pair of crossed knives, exactly like what Mrs. Hall described.
“Don’t move.” The man yanked his jacket open, revealing what made up the bulk inside.
“Shit,” Billy whispered.
Logan couldn’t identify what the man from the Order had strapped on. Red cylinders were attached to straps, and there was a timer on his chest. It was a suicide vest, but that couldn’t be true. Things like this didn’t happen in real life, right?
Mrs. Hall’s mountain lion snarled softly, but the old woman tugged at her familiar’s fur, keeping him close.
“Has the Order stooped so low they would resort to using weapons favored by cowards, or ally themselves with scum like Alpine Industries?” Michella asked. Her voice was calm as always. Billy and Blake edged closer to her, halting when the man pushed the button on the timer.
The numbers appeared on the screen. Five minutes.
Oh, God. In exactly, three-hundred seconds, Logan would die.
“I said don’t move, animals,” the man said, hand on the button. “If you make me repeat my order one more time, I’ll press this button again and we’ll all go ka-boom. Oh, and just so you know, this pretty vest is special. I’ve strapped on enough explosives to take every single one of you down.”
He continued, “Don’t you dare talk to me about honor, bitch. You animals killed my brothers and sisters, no slaughtered them and mailed us their parts. Where’s the dignity in that?”
Logan’s blood turned cold. Was that true?
“You blind asshole. Your own Order did that to keep its pawns in line,” Blake hissed. He looked like he had plenty more to say, but Michella touched his shoulder gently, shaking her head.
“It’s no use, Blake. Reason’s beyond this one.”
“Your time is coming to an end, shifters,” the man said.
Keeping one hand on the button of his vest, the man pulled out something else from his inside pocket. Logan stared at the transparent case containing what looked like a syringe containing a transparent liquid.
“Is that it, then? After all those hours of research and experimentation, that’s the secret weapon Alpine Industries drew from our kind’s genes, flesh and blood?” Michella asked.
Logan never heard such quiet rage in her voice.
“Oh? You’re pretty informed, bitch. According to the mercenary, this will make me faster, stronger. He didn’t see me taking another sample and mailing it back to the Order. I never had any intention of using this shit. I’m only here for one thing.”