by Ruby Brooks
“Let it go, Cole. The alpha will help you shift back.”
I rested my head on my paws in shame. I shouldn’t have to rely on my alpha to help me with my shifting anymore. I was too weak to save Hayley, and now too weak to save myself.
Stop the fucking pity-party.
I clenched and unclenched my jaw the whole journey back to Weymouth.
“Out,” Tristan barked, opening the boot door. I hopped out, my legs stiff from the journey. “Shift.”
I growled. I couldn’t shift back.
“For fuck’s sake, Cole.” The energy shifted in the air and I could feel Tristan’s influence weighing on me, urging me to submit to him. “Shift back into your human form, now.”
I still didn’t shift.
My wolf pulled its teeth back in anger while I desperately try to control him against doing that. We were supposed to one and the same, but for the past few years we were disconnected. I was scared of shifting into my wolf form because I knew this was going to happen one day.
“What the hell is going on?” Kian said, coming outside to join us. His clothes were rumpled as though he was sleeping recently, and I caught the moon in the distance. Fucking hell, I was losing track of time as well as my sanity.
“Get inside, Kian.”
“No. You said you want me involved in more pack business. Cole?” His jaw dropped when he noticed it was me. “Oh, I’m staying for this,” his lips were curled in a grin and I bet he thought this was a joke.
Tristan shook his head and turned his attention back to me. “What am I going to do with you?”
I made my wolf bare his neck in submission, but he snarled doing it. I was so going to pay for this. Tristan crouched down in front of me and grabbed my muzzle to look into my eyes.
“I can’t keep ignoring this anymore,” he admitted softly. “I’m going to have to let you go.”
“Go? What the fuck, dad?” Kian ran over to join us. “Where is he going to go?”
“It’s time Cole found his own pack.”
My wolf growled in agreement while Kian gasped, protesting. “No. I need Cole. He’s going to be my second when you let me take over the pack.”
“No, he isn’t. He’s an alpha, Kian. He just ignored the full weight of my influence. Do you see any wolves around here?”
Tristan didn’t channel his influence just on me, he did it pack-wide. This is where his alpha influence was stronger, and no one had ever ignored it before. Only when they wanted to challenge the alpha to take over.
I didn’t want that – did I?
My wolf growled in agreement and the tension in the air became stifling.
“Cole, please don’t do this. This is my dad. You can’t kill him.”
My eyes flicked to Tristan’s and he gave me a slight shake of the head. Kian still didn’t know I had killed my own parents.
I tried to look at Tristan through my human eyes. This man was a father figure to me, like no other, and I couldn’t betray him like this. I needed to make myself packless.
“I’m not going to kill him,” I growled through my wolf. “I’m going to become packless.”
“That’s even worse,” Kian cried. “Tell him, dad. If you are packless… you will never shift back as a human, and you will be like a wild animal, killing all the time. The hunters will come after you.”
“Kian get inside. Dane?” Tristan snapped.
Dane tried to pull Kian back, but Kian used his own influence to get Dane to back down. Fucking hell, I was upsetting the internal hierarchy, too. The shame was swallowing me up and I focussed on trying to find the pack bond.
I wanted to cut the bond myself. Grant Tristan that one mercy as a thank you for saving my life.
“I’m sorry, Cole. This has to be done. You’ll thank me one day.” Tristan commented.
“What about Hayley?” Kian asked and my anger was rising again.
“Wherever Cole is, Hayley will follow. When she returns, we will let her go to Cole’s pack.”
I closed my eyes to block out the men. I appreciated Kian trying to fight for me, but Tristan was right. This had been brewing for a while and if I was mated to Hayley already… we wouldn’t be here. We would be in the mountains and the forests, exactly as she described it.
I was going to find that place for us.
The pack bond that held us together was close and I could practically feel it. While the men still argued, I gave it a harsh tug and cried out in pain, howling. The yard fell silent. Each man turned their eyes to face me, and I could look at Tristan full on. He wasn’t my alpha anymore.
“Cole,” Kian said, sinking on his knees. “You’re my best friend. How am I supposed to do this without you and Hayley?”
I forgot he was hurting too. I didn’t stay to say my goodbyes, I couldn’t face the rest of the pack. I launched myself into the trees as fast as I could, making my way north. If Anthony was right, and that was a very big if, I needed to find Hayley’s dream place north.
I could still hear Kian and Tristan arguing and the trees stirred with an alpha’s influence. The pack members let me pass immediately at the boundary line and the taste of disappointment lingered in the air that they didn’t fight for me. Why would they? I reckon they were afraid of me.
My wolf caught the scent of a deer and I knew we had to eat at some point. Remembering some vague lesson from when I was a pup, I was only allowed to hunt on neutral ground. It was going to be swarming with all sorts of packless and clanless shifter and I realised how rash I was in my decision.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Look what you have done, I spat at my wolf.
“This is a good thing.”
How is it a good thing?
“Tristan can’t stop us from finding Hayley. We can get her by ourselves.”
And how do you suppose we do that?
“Hunters.”
My wolf went silent after that. The prick. It was typical of him though and he would soon find something else to complain about.
As we hunted down some food in the neutral lands, the idea came to me. I looked down at the ring that was hanging around my neck, incredibly managing to survive this whole ordeal.
I would have to make myself the prey.
Chapter 13
Hayley
An alarm blared above my door and I dived out of bed, my fists ready. I lowered them and snorted to myself when I realised it must have been for the training. When the alarm stopped, there was a knock at my door.
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes this morning?” Micah quipped. He held out a plate of food. “You missed breakfast. Didn’t Mo tell you what to do?”
“Um, no.” I stepped back to let him in but made sure the door was staying open, just in case.
“Oh. You are supposed to call when you want something. The kitchens are running all the time and will make you something whenever you want.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Cut the shit, Micah. What the fuck is going on?”
“What do you mean?” He had the audacity to look confused.
“I was in a prison cell,” I seethed. “Now you are telling me I can order food from the phone whenever I want?”
“Look, don’t shoot the messenger. Your problem is with Nathan, bring it up with him. From where I am standing, you are lucky to be in here. You were supposed to die yesterday.”
“You knew?” I gasped, lowering myself onto the bed. It was one thing to suspect it, but another to hear it aloud.
“I know everything,” he said. “I also know if you don’t get a move on and eat, you’ll pass out. Today is going to be a tough session.”
“What am I supposed to be doing?” I started wolfing – no pun intended – the food down. I didn’t even taste it, I was too desperate to have a full meal for a change.
“You’ll be training with Carl. Today is Tuesday, so it’s hand-to-hand combat.”
I snorted. “That’ll be easy.”
“Oh, yeah? Look at you. Can you ev
en hold up a can of beans?”
“Fuck off. There's a thing called muscle memory, you know.”
“Well, you better hope it works out. The training hall is directly above your room. Put on the clothes in the middle drawer,” he said, pointing to the dresser.
Before I had chance to question him further, he turned on his heel and slipped out the room. I ate the rest of my food as fast as I could, but I didn’t know what to do with the plate. Given how clean this room was, I hoped they had a housekeeping service.
I opened the drawer and pulled out some black leggings and a thin, long-sleeved black top. This was the same clothing the men wore that came to attack me and my grip tightened on the clothes. I wanted to feel angry, but I felt… empty.
I nearly died yesterday.
I pushed the thought aside and dressed quickly, braiding my hair so there was one braid either side of my head. Despite being underweight, I still looked fierce.
Good.
I could have sworn I heard my wolf, but when I reached for the bond there was nothing there.
Marching into the corridor, I headed down to try and find the training room. I had a chance now to reinvent myself and show these other trainees a different side of me. At school I was weak, timid, and often hid behind Cole or Kian.
Here, I was going to be a fucking warrior. Even if it killed me to try and keep up with them.
The training room wasn’t difficult to find as the doors were open, and the sounds of punches hitting the pads echoed around the hallway. I couldn’t believe the amount of trust the hunters had given me overnight, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Everyone stopped when I stepped over the threshold, and a dozen pair of eyes regarded me. I felt their gazes assess me and I made sure to keep my back straight and my chin up.
Don’t show any weakness.
I kept repeating the words like a mantra until the instructor finally gave me his attention.
“Name,” he barked, his jaw snapping around some gum.
“Hayley Morton.” There was a sharp exhale throughout the room and the instructor gave me a smug smile. “You must be Carl?”
“Good to know someone around here know who I am. Grab a pair of gloves and work that bag over there.”
I nodded and made my way to the other side of the room where there were some more punching bags set up. I was excited to be training again and I hoped the muscle memory would actually kick in. I couldn’t afford to draw any more attention to myself that my name already hadn’t.
My first few punches were sloppy, but I remembered all the advice Cole and Mia gave me. My eyes were burning with unshed tears and I transferred that energy into the bag. I was so fucking angry. I lost everyone that was close to me in my life, and now what did I have left.
I wiped the sweat from my brow as Carl approached me.
“You’re better than I thought you would be.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, my breathing laboured. I didn’t stop and continued delivering different punches.
“Do you know any kicking moves?”
“Of course.” I delivered a clean front roundhouse kick and smirked when I saw the group watching. I went on to also perform clean front and turning kicks. My muscles were burning from the exertion that they were no longer used to, but I ignored it.
No point doing a roundhouse if you can’t do the basics, Hales. Watch and learn.
Cole’s voice echoed through my mind and my breath caught on the pain of the memory.
“Impressive,” Carl nodded, running his gaze over my body again. “Make sure you eat more. I can’t let you on the field until you have more stamina, regardless of how strong you are.”
“The field?” I stopped what I was doing and pulled the gloves off, needing to flex my fingers.
“Yeah, missions. I decide when people are ready on a given number of factors.”
“What sort of missions?”
He looked at me as though I had grown another head. “Hunting missions, obviously. What do you think this place is?” He shook his head, muttering to himself as he walked off to talk to another recruit.
Given the fact my wolf wasn’t available, I couldn’t detect if the others in the room were shifters, either. A girl gave me a shy smile and I wandered over to her.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Ella. I’m quite new here, too.”
“Cool. Mind if I watch you?”
“Um, okay?” She got to work on the bag, and I had to stop myself from cringing.
“Here, like this,” I demonstrated the way she was punching compared to the way I did. We worked together for a short while before she got the hang on it, and she actually whooped when Carl gave us a nod of satisfaction.
“Wow, thank you. Although, I should have expected you to be good.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re a Morton. I’ve heard all about them. We all have.”
“Excellent,” I muttered. I pulled a bottle of water out of the ice box and took a deep guzzle. Of course, everyone would know my parents better than me.
“I bet they taught you to fight like that,” Ella joined me, retying her red hair into a ponytail. She had a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and looked about my age.
“No, they didn’t,” I thought back over Cole and ignored the lump in my throat. “How did you end up here?”
“Same as you, I guess. They kidnapped me from my pack.”
“Which pack?”
“Anthony Clarke’s. It’s not far from here, actually. I’m a panther shifter.”
“Fuck. I’m so sorry,” I shook my head. I did in fact feel sorry for her. “What is everyone else’s story?”
“I’m not sure. Andrew, the guy with the shaved head?” I nodded when I spotted him. “He’s a wolf, too. Rumour has it, he went packless after failing to join the Steelman pack in Weymouth. The hunters caught him and brought him here instead.”
Andrew winked at me when he caught me looking and I quickly adverted my gaze. “Anyone else?”
“No, sorry. I don’t know. Be careful though, Hayley. They are dangerous.”
Andrew decided to make his way over to us. The way he conveyed his arrogance irked me, and I tried not to be a bitch.
“I wouldn’t bother with her,” he said. “She’s useless. I’m Andrew, a wolf shifter also.”
“Cool, thanks for your opinion, Andrew. I’ll be sure to ask for it the next time I give a shit.”
“Fiesty,” he commented, sliding his eyes over my body. “You’re good with the bag, but I’m not sure you could handle one of us.”
“I’m pretty sure I can.” I turned my back on him and dumped my now empty water in the bin. I contemplated telling him I was part of the Steelman pack, but I wanted to keep my cards close to my chest.
He reached out to grab my shoulder, but I was anticipating it. I spun on my heel, caught his arm, and twisted it behind his back. He cried out in surprise and swore at me. Everyone in the room turned to look and I focussed my gaze on Carl, despite my words being aimed at Andrew.
“You listen closely, because I will only say this once. If you try to sabotage me in any way here, I will fucking end you. I may look weak, but believe me, I am not.” I increased my pressure on his arm, making him cry again. “Consider this your warning.”
I released him and pulled my gloves on, returning to the bag. My face was flushed from my little show, but I hoped people watching would think it was exertion. I wasn’t strong enough to take anyone yet, but I didn’t want anyone to think that.
Carl crossed his arms, giving me another smile I couldn’t decipher.
✽✽✽
“Everyone out,” Carl barked. “Eat enough. Sleep enough. Tomorrow it is one-on-one, and I’m doing knockouts. Next mission is on Friday so will switch knives to Thursday so you can rest a bit.”
There was a collective groan as I dumped my gloves in the bag I had gotten them from. I began stretching out my muscles and I couldn’t wai
t to get under the hot shower in my room, and eat everything the hunter kitchen had to offer.
My stomach grumbled in agreement.
“Hayley, you can stay.”
For fuck’s sake. I bit back a retort and continued stretching while I waited for everyone to leave. Carl crossed over the room, closing the doors behind the final recruit.
“What do you want?” I asked, feigning boredom. I was tired and, whatever this was, I wasn’t interested. Even if it was about my parents.
“You were incredible today. When I heard you were coming from the cells, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on you.”
“Excuse me?”
He crossed over to where I was standing, and I kept my back ramrod straight. Carl was barely an inch taller than me and I could tell it irked him.
I’m sorry I’m not the petite little bitch you were hoping for.
He reached out, sliding his fingers up my arm. Thank God I was wearing a long-sleeved top because my skin was crawling under his touch. What the fuck was he doing? His hand came up to cup my neck and it took all my self-control not to headbutt him.
“You’re beautiful. With your hair like that, and the fierce expression on your face, you look just like your mother.”
He knew my mother. Great. “Get. Off. Me.”
His grip tightened slightly, and he closed the gap between us. I could feel his warm breath on my face and I wanted to recoil. “I’m quite liking this, aren’t you? Don’t you crave the affection? You have been alone for so long. I wonder, has a man ever touched you?” His other hand slid around my waist.
I lowered my voice to a husky whisper. “Did you really think my threat wouldn’t extend to you?”
“I was counting on it, Hales. Strong women turn me on, can’t you tell?”
I snapped. No one called me Hales, only Cole. Fuck this man for touching me, but fuck him even more for using that name. I was planning a more strategic way of getting out of this as soon as he touched me, but a knee shot to his balls was a great start to immobilise him.
I delivered an upper cut to his jaw, and grabbed him by his hair, pulling his head back to meet my eyes. He was half-crouching, cradling his balls while a split lip was forming. I was relishing in it. Apparently, isolation in a prison caused my violent tendencies to occur. Who knew?