by CJ Cooke
I nodded in agreement with her. She was right, and she’d just needed to admit it to herself. Technically we knew they were out there in town, that was, after all, how James had ended up hurt. But we were acting like they weren’t really a threat and going about our everyday lives as much as we could. The pack needed to go into lockdown, and as soon as I saw Grey, I was going to tell him the same. Until we had things under control, we needed to keep everyone close.
I was about to try and gently break that news to Calli when she shuddered in my arms, and a sensation almost like running water ran down my spine.
“What the fuck?” Aidan gasped.
When I realised he’d felt it too, I knew it could only be one thing.
“Someone’s come through the wards,” Calli gasped, turning to the door and taking a step forward.
My hands grasped her upper arms and tightened to stop her in her tracks. When she turned her head to look at me, I knew I was about to get it with both barrels, so I quickly jumped in with, “Just let us go first. Please?” I begged, but I didn’t care. I knew I couldn’t stop her, and part of me didn’t want to. One of the reasons why I loved Calli was that she didn’t need to hide behind anyone. But I’d never survive losing her, hell, I wasn’t sure I’d survive her being hurt. I needed this one thing, and as she searched my eyes before she spoke, she must’ve seen the same thing because she gave a brisk nod.
Aidan slipped in front of both of us, and I cocked my head to the side as I took in this new protective side of him. Something about Calli triggered it.
By the time we walked to the front door, the first screech of anger had filled the air. At first, I feared one of the shadow demons had finally crossed through the wards. The sound was filled with so much anger and was almost animalistic in nature.
What we saw when we stepped outside couldn’t have been further from the truth, but it was still a shocking sight nonetheless.
Nash and Holly both stood in front of the house with the children sheltered protectively behind them. I could see Hunter moving silently through the shadows from the pack cabins towards the house, moving to support the pack.
Tanner was closing up the garage, and Blake would probably be staying with Jean. That just left…
“What is the meaning of this?” Grey boomed from behind us.
His hand trailed along Calli’s arm as he stepped past us and then stood at the top of the steps, facing down the person who’d stepped onto our packlands uninvited.
“I’ve come for my son,” Kelly sneered, holding her head high. “I will not let you keep him from me. He belongs to me.”
Kelly looked so different from when we last saw her. Her hair hung in greasy ropes around her face, and her eyes were red with grey circles framing them in her sallow skin. She’d lost a lot of weight, and the white tank top and leather mini skirt she wore practically hung from her body. It wasn’t hard to guess what the cause was. Even if the track marks on her arms didn’t give it away, the sour stink of drug-tainted blood filled the air. I could practically feel my wolf wrinkle his nose in disgust as I breathed it in. Sometimes being a shifter really had its downsides.
“You handed Coby to the pack when you left. He is where he wants to be, with his own kind.”
Kelly screeched again, going as far as to stomp her foot in rage.
We all saw her move, but I didn’t think any of us expected her to be reaching for a gun until she whipped it out from behind her back and pointed it at Nash’s chest who was holding Coby protectively behind him.
Coby clung to the back of his shirt in a death grip, and I could see him shaking from where I stood. The kid was absolutely terrified.
“You will give him to me,” she screamed. “I’ll tell, I’ll tell everyone who will listen what filthy fucking animals you are. That you’re all freaks! And then what do you think will happen? Personally, I think they’ll put you in cages to torture rather than hunting you like the animals you are, but I’d be fine with either option.”
Grey stepped down off the porch, and Kelly swung the gun to him. Her arm was already shaking from the strain of holding it up. I felt Calli step against my back in concern, and I wrapped an arm around her to hold her there. There was no way I’d take the risk of her stepping into Kelly’s aim, and I knew how pissed she’d get now Kelly was threatening her mate.
“Actually, here is what’s going to happen,” Grey said, stepping closer. I could see what he was doing, and it was dangerous as fuck. “You’re going to put that gun down, and then you’re going to walk your drug-addled ass off my fucking land, and just in case you didn’t fully understand this, you’re going to be doing that alone.”
“I’m the one with the gun,” she laughed, “what makes you think you’ve got any say in this?”
Her grip tightened on the gun, and I saw the moment she made her decision as her eyes tightened a fraction. Calli went to throw herself around me, seeing the same thing I had, but I tightened my grip to hold her in place. A growl burst from her mouth just as Hunter dove out of the shadows and tackled Kelly to the ground.
The bang as she squeezed the trigger echoed through the air and around the packhouse, and time seemed to stand still for a moment. Everyone froze where they were, and a collective sigh of relief gushed out as we realised the shot had gone wide.
Hunter had Kelly pinned to the ground as she screamed and writhed, fighting him with what little strength she had.
Completely ignoring her, Grey stepped up to Coby instead. “Hey, if you want to go with her, we won’t be upset, okay. But if you want to stay with the pack, I will make sure that no one ever takes you away from us.”
Coby’s grip eased from Nash as he peered out to look at Grey. It was obvious he didn’t want to go with Kelly. It was also obvious she had absolutely no business caring for a child in her current state.
Coby whispered something to Grey, who nodded and stood up.
“Take the kids inside,” Grey told Nash as he strode past him to where Hunter still had Kelly pinned to the ground.
Nash and Holly gathered the trembling children up and brought them past me into the house.
“I’m going to go and check in with them,” Calli told me softly before I felt her pull away and go inside. Turning to make sure she wasn’t using it as a tactic to get to Kelly, I watched her disappear through the front door, Aidan trailing behind her.
By the time I’d moved off the porch and made it to where Grey and Hunter were, they’d already got Kelly up off the ground, albeit without the pistol, and Hunter still had hold of her arm.
“Shifter laws give me the right to end you here and now,” Grey told her coldly.
“I’m not a shifter. You have no right over me. If you killed me, people would come looking.”
Grey laughed, the anger that filled it ran a cold shiver down my spine, and even Kelly seemed to be looking like she doubted herself right then.
“Look at you, Kels. No one’s going to miss you. Wallace dumped your ass without a second thought, didn’t he?”
“I left him,” she said stubbornly, lifting her chin in the air. “I was sick and tired of being around you filthy animals and wanted to go back to my own kind.”
“Looks like it’s working out really well for you,” Grey sneered. “Here’s the thing, Coby has been with us for over a week. So you’re out of your mind if you didn’t think we’d know by now what was happening to him in that cabin. I wouldn’t give him to you if you were the last person alive. That pup would be better off alone. Thankfully, he’s not alone. He’s pack, and the pack protects their own.”
“And you’re so good at it. You think you’re so superior and special but look at what happened right under your nose without you even realising it. You’re nothing; you’re pathetic. And you call yourself an alpha. Anyway, the kid was only disciplined in the way he needed to be. You have to be tough with animals, so they know who’s in charge.”
The malicious glint in her eyes was something I’d never see
n before. Kelly had always had a mouth on her, but she’d seemed happy in the pack. Happy with the way her life was going. I’d never have suspected that deep down, she had so much hate for the pack and shifters. I suppose all we were was a free meal ticket for her.
“Take her to the border,” Grey told Hunter. “If we’re lucky, one of the shadow demons will pick her off.”
Kelly’s face blanched even though she had no way of knowing what we were talking about.
“And Kelly, if I see you here again, if you even try to contact Coby again, the hole I’m going to put you in will be deep enough that no one will ever find you. If you’re lucky, I’ll kill you before I put you in it, but I’m not exactly feeling that generous right now.”
The alpha power rolling of Grey thickened the air with malice. This was an alpha who was riled up with the need to protect one of the pack pups. If she did come back, there’d be no way any of us would be able to stop him from following through on this promise, not that any of us would want to. We’d all just assumed Wallace was Coby’s abuser, but now I wasn’t so sure.
Kelly didn’t even struggle or argue as Hunter started to walk her to the wards. She hadn’t come in a truck, so she must have parked at the top of the driveway, if she had any car at all.
“She’s going to be a problem,” I said as we watched her walk away. “She could bring the human authorities here to take Coby back to her. Accuse us of kidnapping him.”
Grey’s eyes narrowed as he watched her walking further away. Maybe it wasn’t wise to point that out to him when he was still riding on the wave of rage that was currently consuming him. Kelly didn’t really deserve this chance at life that Grey was giving her, though, if she was guilty of what I thought. I was poking the bear—well, the angry wolf.
“She gets one chance, but you’re right, we need to make it official in the humans’ eyes that Coby belongs with us.”
“I doubt she’s going to sign him over to us,” I winced. “I don’t know how we’re going to go about getting something like that done.”
“Talk to Nash, see if he has any ideas. I want it to be his top priority going forward. Come on, we need to talk to the others. Calli needs to fess up about what happened while she was out, and we need to get the pack organised with how we’re moving forward. As soon as Tanner is home, we’re having a pack meeting.”
I gazed at Grey through the corner of my eye. We’d never had a situation in the pack where he’d had to go full alpha with us. Up until meeting Calli, we’d all just got along fine. Yes, he’d had to make some decisions, like where we were opening the garage, buying the house and how we were going to go about renovating. But he’d never gathered the pack for a formal meeting like this. He’d never had to organise us through a threat. Everything that happened with the witches happened so quickly we didn’t really have the time. Not to mention the fact we had zero experience in all of this. Life had been relatively easy on us up until now, and as a result, we’d grown soft. That needed to change, though, and it needed to change fast.
We found the kids in the kitchen with an enormous package of cookies in front of them and Aidan pouring out glasses of milk. They were quieter than usual, but they were together. Coby seemed more worried about Abby, sitting protectively next to her and keeping an eye on the door. God help the poor girl if she ever decided to date someone other than the two of them when she was older.
Calli was sitting next to Jacob, nibbling on a cookie, but she was white as a sheet.
Grey stopped at the table and surveyed the pack members in the kitchen. “When Tanner gets back from the garage with Maverick, we’re having a pack meeting in the dining room, and everyone needs to be in attendance. Holly, I know you aren’t pack, but I’d be grateful if you’d attend as well.”
Holly’s cheeks flushed, but she nodded in acceptance. It was only a matter of time before Nash manned up and Holly became formally associated with the pack. We all knew it. In fact, I suspected as soon as we got the next cabin up, it wouldn’t be sitting empty for very long.
“In the meantime, Nash, River has something he needs to go through with you in the office, and I need to speak with Calli.”
His voice softened as he said Calli’s name. Perhaps spending some time with her would soften his mood a little. Until she admitted about the shadow demon, then I was pretty sure Alpha Grey was going to be here for a while. I needed to catch up with him about what Sean had said. While he wasn’t doing too bad right now, I wasn’t sure how the pack would take it when his mood swings had him taking it out on one of us again. And God help him if he turned it on Calli again.
Nash gave Holly a squeeze and whispered something in her ear before giving her a kiss on the cheek and headed towards the office. I should follow him straight away, but I wanted to check in with the kids first. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a million jobs on the go in there anyway.
Crouching down between Calli and Jacob, I rubbed my hand on Jacob’s little back. It was hard to remember he was so small when he acted grown up all the time.
“You doing okay, little man? That was pretty scary outside.”
Abby slipped off her chair and came and sat on one of my knees, wrapping her arms around me and snuggling in against my chest. I could feel the way she was trembling still. This would be hard for all of them. Coby because I suspected he’d just faced his abuser; Jacob, because the scene was so reminiscent of the day Wallace took Calli, and poor little Abby because of whatever she’d gone through at the hands of the witches.
“Why did she want to take Coby away from us?” Jacob asked quietly.
Coby’s spine straightened, and a look of shame crossed his face. As soon as Calli opened her arms, he was off his seat and straight to her, clinging to her while she whispered something in his ear.
“She wanted him to be with her, but she isn’t the right place for him. Coby wants to stay with us, and we don’t want him to leave here either,” I told the kids.
“Can she take Coby away?” Abby asked, looking over at Coby in concern.
“Not if we have anything to do with it,” Calli told her before I could say anything. It wasn’t exactly what I was going to say, and I hated the thought of making promises to the kids that we didn’t know we could keep. But she was right; we weren’t going to let that happen if we had the power to stop it.
“I need to go and speak with Nash about something. Try not to eat all those cookies okay,” I joked, trying to break the mood a little.
“I save you one,” Abby told me before she hugged me and jumped off my knee.
Calli’s hand squeezed my shoulder, and she gave me a smile and a nod as I reluctantly left the kids behind. We should do a movie or something tonight so we could all snuggle with the kids and soak up some of the comfort of being with them. But for now, I had a job to do, and we had to find a way to make sure no one was going to take one of our pups away from us.
38
Grey
Tanner was held up at the garage with a walk-in that just needed an oil change. After having it closed for a couple of days, we couldn’t afford to turn people away, and we needed to keep the town’s goodwill if we were going to stay in business, so he was quickly taking care of it before heading home.
Calli and I had been sitting in the library going through more books which were now spread out across the old table I’d brought up from the basement. It actually looked kind of nice in here, but I knew Calli had her own plans for the room, so I’d haul it away again soon.
“Aidan mentioned that Jean had originally intended to homeschool Coby,” she said casually as she was flicking through the pages of the book currently in front of her.
“That’s what you want to talk about right now?” I asked in amusement.
She’d been shuffling about awkwardly for the last five minutes while I waited in silence for her to break and tell me what she’d tried to avoid over the telephone earlier.
“Fine!" She huffed, shutting the book with a thud. “We
had a slight incident at Sam’s Club in the car park, and I didn’t want to worry you at the time, but then...”
I kept looking at her, not wanting her to try and talk herself out of actually telling me what it was rather than making excuses.
“There was a shadow demon at the truck when we came out of the store,” she added quietly, looking down at the table and not meeting my eye.
The first thing I felt was panic as it slammed into my chest and stole my breath away. Panic that she’d been so close to one of those things and I hadn’t been there to protect her, again! Then it was rage, the anger that something was not only threatening my pack but also my mate.
“It killed a man in the car park. It just ran through him and then he was gone. It didn’t even stop, or do anything, it just killed him.”
I cast my eyes up to the ceiling as I took in a huge breath and held it for five seconds before slowly inhaling it out. Spinning out of control now wasn’t going to help us. We knew what they were here for—what they did. It had happened, and she was fine. Logically, I knew if I’d been with her, she’d have been in even more danger. The shadow demon would have been attracted to me, and she could have gotten hurt when it came for me. But I hated this; I hated feeling weak and useless against this unknown threat. We needed more information, and even with all of these books in the library, we knew nothing.
“Okay,” I finally said.
Calli’s head whipped up in surprise as she repeated, “Okay?” clearly confused at why I wasn’t slamming around the room like an enraged bull. To be honest, I was pretty surprised myself.
“I’m trying to be all zen-like and shit about this,” I shrugged.
“And how’s that working out for you?”
“It’s like trying to contain a bubbling river of raging lava inside me,” I admitted.
“Okay… that sounds like a hugely healthy way to deal with your emotions,” Calli smiled at me.