When he had to interact with people outside of Vape’s pack, he gave them a fake name. Even the women he sometimes hooked up with. It was safer that way.
Not only that, but he’d hit on Hannah. And then he’d followed her as she made her way down the street to the grocery store.
He knew he needed to put distance between them, quit talking to her, ensure he was as forgettable as possible, and instead, he told her exactly what he wanted to do with her. He hadn’t been lying, either, except maybe for the “little time” horizontal. Nah, that he wanted to last all night long. And into the next morning.
Maybe the next week.
He swiped his hand over his face.
It was still unnerving that she’d even noticed him in the first place. Not just in the alley, but at the Wolf Inn, too.
It was his job to fade into the background.
“No one else knows you’re in town?” Elias asked.
They were in the alpha’s garage, tucked behind a four-wheel drive truck with souped-up wheels. Darkness was approaching, and Ben was worried about what the hell Durango and Nick were up to, but he needed to talk to Elias. It had taken forever to lose his two compatriots and then track down the alpha and give him enough hand signals to figure out that they needed to meet.
Ben cleared his throat and winced; it was still raw from Vape’s manhandling. “No.”
Although, speaking of someone else being aware that he was in town… “What do you know about Hannah Montgomery?”
Elias’s eyebrows shot into his hairline as he crossed his arms and steadily watched Ben. “She’s a newer pack member. Been here…I don’t know, two years, I think.”
Yeah, that’s what she’d said.
“She was pretty messed up emotionally when she showed up here. Her brother had died, pretty tragically I gathered, although she’s never talked much about the details. Said she was looking for a fresh start, away from all the memories.”
Well, that sucked.
“She keeps to herself, mostly. Although lately, I’ve noticed she’s been going out, being social. Tends to hang with witches. She and Natalia are pretty good friends. Do you remember Natalia Vasquez?”
Ben nodded.
“She moved back about a year ago. Finally mated with Lyall, and now she’s running her great aunt’s herb farm. She and Hannah met, and I guess it was pretty much an instant friendship. Hannah works for her, out on the farm.”
Good to know. That meant she spent a lot of time not in town, potentially in the line of fire.
“Why do you ask?” Elias wanted to know.
“Ran into her today.”
“Thought you said no one knows you’re here.”
“No one I know does, except your team. Lyall and Natalia didn’t even notice I was in the bar last night.”
“Hannah’s a good kid.”
Ben wouldn’t exactly call her a kid. In fact, he’d wager they were pretty close to the same age. He’d hit thirty last fall.
“She also strikes me as pretty naïve, so, given what you’re doing, I’m going to ask you to steer clear of her.”
Okay, Ben hadn’t expected that. Last time he checked, Elias trusted him explicitly. Hell, Elias was the one who’d agreed to send him on this mission to infiltrate Vape’s pack five years ago. It would be nice if they could figure out a way to take the guy down so that Ben could retire from this lifestyle.
Interesting that he’d never craved a more normal existence until now. Hell, every time they’d gotten remotely close to breaking up Vape’s gang, Ben had wondered what he’d do with his life if he were back in Dark Moon Falls, living like a regular shmuck. It had never sounded appealing, and as much as he hated what Vape did to these new recruits he lured into his fucked-up pack, Ben had always assumed he’d just trade this ugly gig for another, similar undercover assignment.
Until now.
Gods above, what the hell was wrong with him? Two incredibly brief interactions with a beautiful stranger, and he was ready to hang up his secret agent hat?
“I have to get back before someone gets suspicious. But I needed to warn you. Vape’s talking about setting up shop here. This is bad, Elias. Really bad.”
“I thought that was why you made contact and I sent Samira and Luca out last night to make sure none of the younger guys from the pack were hanging out at the Wolf Inn. Because Vape was in town, looking for new recruits.”
“Yeah, that was the original plan. But I pushed too hard, made the pack seem too vulnerable. Now he thinks he can take over and settle down here.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly.”
“How big is his pack now?”
“Too damn big.” And too damn strong. Vape only recruited men and women who had, or at least could be trained to have, questionable moral compasses. Everyone who joined Vape’s crew went through a rigorous hazing ritual that would make a normal shifter lose his lunch. If they survived—many didn’t—they had to swear a blood oath to Vape. As part of that oath, they had to agree to do whatever he commanded, without question. No matter how daunting, illegal, or deadly.
“If he decides to invade, you can’t win,” Ben said.
Elias paced to the truck, clasped his hands behind his back, and appeared to study the streaks of mud stuck to the front quarter panel.
“So our choices are to convince him to leave, in which case you will have to go with him and keep looking for a way to bring him down, or figure out a way to fight his pack here, on our home turf, which you state is a losing proposition.”
Ben nodded. “Pretty much.”
“I want to take him down while he’s on our home turf.” Elias turned to face him, eyes blazing with determination.
Ben cupped the back of his neck. “We aren’t ready. His pack is too loyal. Once you’ve passed the hazing phase, you’re pretty much a zealot.”
“You aren’t.”
“I went in with an ulterior motive.”
“And you think you’re the only one?”
“Are you saying there are other spies in his organization?” That would be fantastic, frankly. It would be nice to have a comrade on the inside. It would also mean Vape wasn’t as powerful and all-knowing as he led everyone to believe. Every single day Ben feared his cover would be blown and he’d be killed.
With as little contact as they normally maintained, Elias wouldn’t even know of his death for weeks—months, possibly. And if Vape discovered Ben was really working for the other alpha, he’d attack while Elias was still clueless to what happened, blindsiding him. Ben doubted Vape would take any prisoners in that situation. The shifter was far too narcissistic to not exact the ultimate, most severe punishment for such a crime.
Elias shook his head. “No. I don’t know, actually, but I’ve never heard a whisper of any other pack even suggesting there was a way to take down Vape and his gang. The only reason you’re in there is because your talents are far too good to be wasted in a small town pack like this one. Hell, if I remember correctly, this was your idea.”
It was.
“What I’m saying is, I bet there are others on the inside who might want out. From what you’ve told me, that place is a cult, and that lifestyle isn’t for everyone. Even if it’s what they thought they wanted in the beginning. Wolves aren’t meant to be transient. They’re also not meant to live solo, which is what it sounds like happens, even though it functions like a pack.”
It was all true. Vape’s strict, no procreating rule went against every wolf’s natural instinct. Ben had never had the inclination to have pups—at least, not since he left to take this mission, five years ago—and even he hated that rule. It wasn’t fair to the couples who fell in love and wanted to have a family.
Not to mention, eventually, their bloodlines would die out if they didn’t bring pups into the world.
“So what do you want me to do?” Ben asked wearily.
“Do your damnedest to put off their attempt to take us over while I rally the troops and
try to come up with a game plan. Stay out of sight so your cover isn’t blown. When we’re ready, you’ll need to make sure we can get to Vape quickly, with as little bloodshed as possible.”
“Piece of cake,” he muttered, and then he nodded and slipped out the side door. Standing in the shadows, as still as a statue, he sniffed the air. He smelled shifter, of course, but no one from Vape’s pack.
Closing his eyes, he willed his body to transform from human to wolf. Magic danced down his spine, changing his bones, his skin, his organs. Fur sprouted on his back, his belly, his face; his ears elongated and his nails turned to claws. He dropped into a crouch as his legs shortened and his hands became paws.
Within seconds he’d become a gray wolf with a black halo of fur around his neck.
And then he took off at a trot, heading toward the mountain in the distance. Once he reached the cover of trees, he relaxed marginally, confident that if anyone were wandering about out here, it was probably someone from Vape’s pack.
Just as he had that thought, something barreled into him from the side, sending him rolling across the damp, leaf-strewn earth. Shaking off the attack, he leaped to his feet and bared his teeth.
Magic shimmered nearby and then somebody said, “Who’s there?”
Nick. Ben recognized his voice. Stupid kid. How he’d gotten past the initial hazing phase was beyond Ben.
He shifted and replied, “Ben.”
Nick began pulling leaves and sticks from his rust-colored hair. “Oh man, I’m glad it’s you. Sorry about slamming into you. I was running blindly, not paying attention to where I was going.”
“Why?” That was dangerous under normal circumstances, but ten times so when you were a member of Vape’s pack. Nick should never do anything blindly. Ever.
The kid—he was probably twenty-five or thereabouts, so Ben should probably not think of him that way—shrugged.
“Just chugged a bottle of Mountain Dew. Too much sugar, probably.”
Ben arched an eyebrow.
Nick shrugged again and rolled onto the balls of his feet. “Anyway, where have you been? Did you find out anything worthwhile?”
“Not really. You?”
Nick pursed his lips. “Yeah, actually. I saw a whole lot of young, virile—what a stupid word, by the way—shifters, which is exactly what Vape said wasn’t here.”
Shit. Ben hadn’t counted on Vape actually telling Nick and Durango about his report.
“Are you sure they’re local? This is a big tourist town, and lots of shifters vacation here at this time of year.”
Nick shrugged, which Ben was beginning to think was his reaction to everything. “Maybe.”
Crisis temporarily averted.
“Still, it’s concerning. It’ll be a tougher fight if we attack while all those tourists are here. Also, bigger repercussions. Like, do we kill them all, or do we let them go back to their hometowns and take the chance that they decide to take up arms against us?”
Ben was certain Vape would not let anyone go. He’d either execute them or insist they join the pack. And in order to do that, they’d have to be hazed. And half would die trying to do that.
Vape’s code was definitely not healthy for the growth of the wolf shifter population. On the other hand, he took the phrase “only the strong survive” seriously, which was why no one had been able to take him out. Hell, Elias was probably right in that no one else was brave—or stupid—enough to try.
Except Ben.
“Come on,” he said, nodding at the mountain looming in the darkness. “The first checkpoint is less than a mile. We can walk it.”
Nick fell into step next to him. “Where are you from, anyway?”
Ben winced. Good thing Nick was watching the ground for exposed tree roots and fallen logs, so he missed the pained look.
“I was in California when I joined Vape’s pack.”
Elias had initially sent him to attempt to convince Vape to head east instead of north, fearing the dictator would do exactly what he was now considering. His job was to figure out a way to destroy the leader from the inside without causing a shifter war.
Except now he’d taken too long, and he’d very possibly brought the damn war to his own doorstep.
Exactly what he’d been sent out to avoid, five years ago.
“Why’d you join?” Ben asked, needing a distraction. Maybe Elias was right. Maybe some of the other wolves in Vape’s pack were sick of the cult leader’s ways.
Nick shrugged. Again. “Bored with my life. Looking for adventure. Had no fucking clue it was…this.” He waved at nothing in particular, but Ben understood.
“If you could leave, would you?”
Nick barked out a laugh. “Is that a trick question? You trying to set me up? I didn’t think you were like that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Nick flapped his hand again. “Some of the guys, the ones closest to Vape, they go around testing the rest of us, checking to ensure we aren’t thinking about being disloyal. You’ve never had one of them test you?”
Ben shook his head. He was part of the inner circle. Vape knew he didn’t need to test Ben. Or so he believed.
“You’re right. I’m not like that. I guess, with Vape talking about putting down roots, it makes me think. About what life would be like. On the outside.”
Nick glanced around and dropped his voice. “If I weren’t in this pack, I’d be an enforcer. For a real pack.”
Ben did not miss the emphasis, although Nick did not strike him as someone who would want to go into law enforcement. Probably because he’d willingly joined Vape’s pack, which fully operated on the wrong side of the law.
“Instead, today I stole a bunch of food from the local grocery store.” Nick chuckled. “Just walked in, filled my bags, and walked out again, and because Durango was with me, no one dared stop us.”
Shit. Had Hannah’s trip to the grocery store been before or after Nick and Durango shook the place down? Damn it, if they hurt her…
“Did you guys fuck anyone up?”
“Nah. Durango apparently wasn’t in the mood, and that’s not my thing, if I can help it. We literally just went shopping, except we skipped the cash registers. It was pretty funny, actually. Other than—”
“Other than what?”
Nick shook his head again. “Nothing. Look, there’s Wade.”
The first checkpoint. Time to shut down the conversation. Nick was getting entirely too comfortable telling Ben things he probably shouldn’t.
But first, Ben grabbed Nick’s arm, stopping him. “Did anyone see you?”
Nick pulled what looked like a dark, knit cap out of his back pocket. “Nah. We wore ski masks.”
Ben nodded. “Good.”
“I’m going to go find Durango, make sure I get a pack of those Fruit Roll-Ups we snagged. Hopefully, he already gave his report to Vape so I don’t have to. See you around.” Nick waved at the shifter standing at the checkpoint.
Ben was an excellent judge of character, and he was now confident Nick was not one of the shifters who would unfailingly stand behind Vape if he had the option to get out.
How many others could he find before Elias was ready to fight?
Chapter Four
In a town this small, it wasn’t unusual to run into people you knew at the grocery store. In fact, Hannah would have found it odd if she hadn’t.
Her friend Tasha, who was from the local witch coven, was the third person she’d bumped into in the last half hour.
“Hey, Hannah,” she called out, waving from the end of the cereal aisle, except she looked like she was beckoning Hannah, not greeting her. “Come here. You’ve got to see this.”
Hannah had visited enough Walmarts in her lifetime to have a preconceived notion of what to expect as she hurried toward her friend.
Two men in ski masks, pushing a grocery cart, was not it.
Hannah cocked her head and stared at them as they filled their cart, seemingly
with no rhyme or reason. One of them was huge, like the shifter’s version of the Rock huge.
Wait a minute. She’d only ever met a shifter that big once in her life. Surely it wasn’t…
“Check out the one loading the shopping cart. He’s freaking massive,” Tasha said, her phone positioned in front of her face, the video recorder flashing.
“He sure is,” Hannah said weakly as a shudder wracked her body.
The two shifters didn’t appear to be hostile, but it was still awfully strange that they’d be wearing ski masks while stocking up at the grocery store. There wasn’t even snow on the ground. She and Natalia had begun spring planting.
“Do they look familiar?” she asked her friend, her voice higher than normal, which she knew was a result of desperate hope.
“Nope. Nobody that huge in the Dark Moon pack.”
Yeah, there was only one shifter who was that big: the man who’d killed her brother.
What the hell was he doing in Dark Moon Falls? Hopefully, he wasn’t recruiting for his rogue pack as he’d been doing when Hannah met him in Chicago. “Tasha, I think you should get out of here. Just in case.”
“In case what?”
“In case this goes badly. Something tells me these guys aren’t planning to pay for their groceries. And if anybody tries to stop them, it could get ugly.”
“No kidding. That one guy could flatten anybody in this store.”
Hannah stabbed her finger at her friend. “You stay out of their way. And stop that video. If they see you, they might come after you.”
She waited for Tasha to reluctantly put her phone away before continuing. “I’m going to the front of the store, make sure there isn’t anyone in the way of these guys exiting quietly. And also to find a manager and tell them to call the sheriff.”
The smaller guy looked up, and Hannah grabbed Tasha’s shirtsleeve, hauling her around the corner and out of sight. “Get moving,” she instructed before hurrying down the aisle toward the registers.
The front of the store was calm. Obviously, the masked shoppers had come in through the door down near produce.
A cashier was helping an elderly human couple pile their merchandise onto the conveyer belt. A harried witch was busy paying for half a dozen bottles of red wine and a couple bags of M&Ms.
Dark Moon Falls: Volume 2 Page 51