Dark Instincts

  He snorted. “You’re patient?” At her growl, he quickly said, in a tone of total agreement, “You’re patient.”

  “Okay, so, where’s the jackal?” At the sound of Taryn’s voice, they all turned to see the Phoenix Alpha pair approaching with Dante and Jaime.

  “In the tool shed,” replied Eli. “Where’s Ryan?”

  “Jaime’s come in his place,” explained Dante. “She insisted on coming here to, and I quote, ‘smack the shit out of the bitch who tried to drug Roni.’ As you can tell, my mate’s painfully shy and has trouble expressing herself.” Jaime just snorted at him.

  Taryn smiled sweetly at Roni, but her rage was so profound it was almost tangible. “Well then, lead us to the tool shed.”

  Inside the wooden building that was roughly the side of a small barn, the peroxide-blonde jackal was struggling against her binds. She froze when all nine of them entered. Oddly, though, she didn’t seem scared. Roni would be happy to change that.

  “You’re awake. Good.” She slowly strolled toward the little bitch with Taryn, Jaime, and Shaya at her heels.

  When the males attempted to follow, Taryn raised a hand. “Hold it, boys. This one’s ours.”

  Dante gaped at her. “This is what I do, Taryn.”

  “It would trouble you to hurt a female, Popeye, and you know it,” said Jaime. “It would trouble all of you. But it won’t bother me or my girls here. Besides, you get to have your fun all the time. Don’t be so selfish.”

  Marcus shrugged at the other males and went to lean against the wall a little behind Roni, needing to be close to her. Jaime was right: it would trouble them to interrogate a female, might even make them go easy on her. She didn’t deserve “easy.” As long as he had Roni in his sights, he could deal with staying in the background. The guys must have reached the same conclusion, because they joined him.

  Pleased, Taryn smiled. “Good. Watch and learn, boys.”

  Roni cocked her head at the jackal. There was still no fear in her eyes or her scent, but there was wariness. “You can sense my wolf, can’t you? You can sense how much she wants to rip out your throat.”

  “Am I supposed to shiver in fear?” The blonde snorted, tossing her long, silky mane over her shoulder.

  Taryn smiled. “Yes, you should. You know who I am, don’t you?”

  “I know it’s pointless that you wear a bra. I mean, if you didn’t have ears, you wouldn’t wear earrings, would you?”

  “Your pack tried to take my son. Why?”

  “I won’t tell you shit.”

  “No?” Jaime sighed. “That’s too bad, ’cause we have a lot of questions.”

  “What’s ‘too bad’ is that you have curves like a racetrack.”

  Roni frowned at her fellow interrogators. “She seems to think her opinion matters to us. Weird, huh?”

  “You’re calling me weird? That’s rich. I mean, look at you. You don’t wear even a scrap of makeup. You dress like a boy. And haven’t you heard of a hair straightener?”

  Shaya looked at the jackal curiously. “You’re right, Roni. She thinks we care.”

  The jackal sneered at Shaya. “Oh, we have a ginger in the house.”

  “How many times must people be told it’s red?”

  “And why are you so pale? Tanning lotion is your friend.”

  “I think she’s entertained us long enough,” declared Taryn. “Let’s get started. We want to know more about snm.com. Did your pack create it?”

  The jackal looked surprised, which meant that Quinn clearly hadn’t admitted to her pack that he’d mentioned the website to Marcus and Roni. “You don’t like it?” she asked with a smirk.

  “It’s sick, and you know it.”

  “It’s just shifters acting according to their true animal nature.”

  “But even animals don’t do what those bastards did.”

  “Except dolphins,” interjected Roni. “They’re a race of violent predators who kill their own babies for fun and who have a predilection to gang rape.”

  “Dolphins, really?” Shaya pouted. “But they seem so sweet. Guess you never can tell.”

  “What had you planned to do with my son?” demanded Taryn.

  “Let’s just say he wouldn’t have survived it.” The blonde shrugged. “But I’m glad we didn’t get him. Kids annoy the hell out of me—crying over and over for their mommy and daddy, begging to go home, when no one’s coming to save them.”

  Oh, the twisted bitch.

  It was no surprise when Taryn slapped her hard across the face. “Where’s your pack?” But the jackal didn’t answer. In fact, she was smiling. “Where. Is. Your. Pack?”

  “Do you really think I’d ever tell you that?”

  “One can but hope.”

  The odds of the jackal answering that question were nonexistent. For a shifter to give up their pack to another was the ultimate betrayal, totally taboo. It would stain their family’s name, possibly lead to the entire family being ostracized from the pack simply because of what that one shifter did. By keeping that information to herself, the jackal was protecting her pack and her family.

  “I’m not answering any of your questions. There’s nothing in it for me—you’ll kill me anyway.”

  Jaime tilted her head, conceding that. “But we can do it swiftly and cleanly if you cooperate. If you don’t . . . well, that would be a bad decision.”

  “I’ve known pain. There’s nothing you can do to me that hasn’t already been done.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” growled Taryn, taking a step forward.

  Roni touched Taryn’s arm to stay her, taking a moment to study their prisoner closely. The jackal had four females in front of her who would happily put her through a world of pain before finally killing her. She should have been terrified, sweating nervously. But no. She just looked resigned. This was someone who’d known a lot of violence, who’d gotten used to it and knew how to shut out the pain. She wasn’t scared, wasn’t on the verge of talking. And that presented them with a problem.

  A tap, tap, tapping sound made Roni glance down. The jackal was moving her foot impatiently, making those clearly expensive stilettos tap on the floor. They were most likely just as expensive as the indecently short skirt and the strapless top, though probably not as expensive as the jewelry decorating her body. With her perfect hair, perfect makeup, and perfect appearance, she made Roni think of Eliza, Janice, Zara, and all of Marcus’s other exes: shallow, superficial people obsessed with their looks.

  And that gave Roni an idea.

  “Just give me a sec,” she told the girls. Then she walked to the wall on their right where a selection of tools was hanging. Grabbing the shears, she made her way over to the jackal.

  The bitch curled her upper lip. “Pain doesn’t scare me.”

  “Oh, I believe you,” said Roni, selecting a few strands of that peroxide blonde hair and holding them out straight. Fear of pain definitely wasn’t the jackal’s weak spot. But something else was.

  The jackal tensed. “What are you doing?”

  Snip. “I figured I’d put some layers in your hair.” Roni let the strands fall to the floor, and the jackal screeched. So Roni did it again. And again. And again.

  “Stop it, you bitch!”

  “I think that makeup might need removing,” said Roni. Instantly, Shaya opened her bottle of water and splashed it all over the screaming jackal, paying particular attention to her face. Then she scrubbed at it with a dirty cloth she found on the tool bench.

  “Those shoes look kind of uncomfortable, don’t they?” Taryn and Jaime each took a stiletto and slammed them against the wall, breaking the heels and totally wrecking them. “Her clothes look a little tight too.” They then slashed at the top and skirt over and over with their claws.

  Shaya fingered the Pandora bracelet. “Maybe we should take this off so it get doesn’t scratched or anything.” Using her shifter strength, she snapped it off and trampled all over it before making her way o
ver to Roni. “Let me have a turn. I am a hairstylist, after all.” Looking the ultimate professional as she worked, Shaya did some snipping of her own before handing the shears to a very eager Taryn.

  The Alpha female hummed a song as she moved, looking like a kid at Christmas. All the while, the jackal cursed and screeched. “Take it like a woman.” Snip, snip, snip, snip.

  “Ooh, can I have a turn? That looks fun.” Happily taking the shears, Jaime then proceeded to cut even bigger chunks from the jackal’s hair. “This is kind of therapeutic.”

  As the males all watched in morbid fascination, Trey quietly spoke. “I have to say, I did not see this coming.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much glee on Jaime’s face.” Dante shook his head in both wonder and amusement.

  Eli chuckled. “As unbelievable as it seems, it looks like what they’re doing is working; the jackal’s close to breaking.”

  Marcus nodded. “They found her weak spot, and they pounced on it.”

  “Do you think we should hide those shears when they’re done?” asked Nick. “They seem a little too fond of them.”

  Trey thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Probably for the best.”

  “Yep,” agreed Dante. “One thing we can learn from this is to never underestimate our females.”

  “You know, looking at them right now,” began Marcus, “it’s safe to say they’re all a little crazy and vicious.” Nick, Trey, and Dante all nodded in agreement, looking proud.

  “Yeah,” said Trey. “We lucked out.”

  The four females stood back and took a long look at their handiwork. The jackal’s makeup was smudged all over her face, making her look like the masked figure from Sinister. Her expensive clothes were now so stained and tattered she resembled a hurricane survivor. In addition, her hair looked like it had been attacked by a lawn mower. She was actually sobbing.

  Taryn tilted her head. “Looks kind of pitiful, doesn’t she?”

  Jaime nodded. “Bless her little black heart.”

  “Heart?” snorted Shaya.

  “Well, the hole where her heart should be.”

  Taryn stepped forward. “Who created snm.com?”

  The jackal didn’t lift her head as she sniffled, “My pack did.”

  “Be more specific.”

  Her shoulders shook with her sobs. “My Alpha, Lyle Browne.”

  “Anyone else involved?”

  “No.” Her voice was low, sad, and sluggish—she sounded defeated. “Sometimes people hire him to get rid of someone, and he uses them for the vids. But the website is his. It’s his baby.”

  “Speaking of babies, why did you go after my son?”

  The jackal shrugged, like it was simple. “The more notorious the pack, the more credit people receive if they manage to get their hands on one of them.”

  “Is that why you went after Roni?”

  “One of the reasons. I mean, she’s an enforcer, a powerful Alpha’s sister, and she’s fucking a Phoenix enforcer.”

  “And the second reason?”

  “She pissed someone off.”

  Roni snorted. “That’s a regular occurrence. Who was it this time?”

  “Lola McGee.”

  Jaime frowned. “Quinn’s mate?”

  “Motherfucker,” Roni bit out as all the wolves growled.

  Marcus came forward then, equally enraged. “How involved is Quinn? Does he know Lola sent you after Roni?”

  “I don’t know. She spoke to Lyle when he made his monthly call. I don’t know exactly what she said.”

  Marcus turned to Dante, his voice like ice. “Quinn had to have known.”

  “Not necessarily,” said the Beta male. “Lola didn’t go through Quinn; she spoke directly to Lyle—that might mean that she knew Quinn wouldn’t allow it so she went around him.”

  Nick came to stand beside Roni. “Where’s your pack?”

  The jackal looked up then. “Would you give up your pack? Nothing’s worth that kind of betrayal.”

  “They left you behind,” Roni pointed out. “When they saw a human was coming, they scampered. They didn’t try to fight me to get to you. They must know I’ve got you and that I brought you here, but they haven’t come for you. What does that say about them?”

  Taryn squatted in front of the jackal. “It says they have no loyalty to you. So why should you have any loyalty to them?”

  “Why should I have any loyalty to you?” the blonde retorted. “You’re going to kill me. You want to do it so badly, don’t you? I can see it in your eyes. You want to give in to the basic urges we all have. You’re like me. We’re the same.”

  “I’d never hurt a child. That makes us very, very different.”

  The jackal gestured at Roni. “She’s not different. I saw you in one of the videos. You were terrified, weren’t you? But I’ve got to give you points for one thing: you didn’t beg. No matter how much he threatened you, how much he screamed at you and ordered you to beg him to let you go, you just wouldn’t. You even spat in his face. I enjoyed that part.”

  Roni didn’t give the bitch the reaction she wanted. “So glad I entertained you.”

  “Your pack has a kill site,” rumbled Marcus. “Where is it?”

  “Ooh, well done. Lyle would be pissed if he knew you’d figured out that our attacks happen in one spot.”

  “The site. Where is it?” repeated Marcus.

  “I told you, I won’t betray my pack.”

  “For you to say that, the kill site must also be where your pack is hiding out,” concluded Jaime.

  “Maybe you should leave my pack alone and take a closer look at your own breed.”

  Knowing that statement echoed something that Johnson had told Nick, Roni exchanged a worried look with her brother. She didn’t want it to be true.

  Nick took another step forward. “Are you saying a wolf shifter is involved in this?” She nodded, her smile taunting. “But just a few minutes ago, you said this was Lyle’s baby.”

  “The idea is, yeah. But he needed someone to help him set up the website.”

  “Why would a wolf help out a bunch of jackals with something like this?”

  “Because he gets off on watching. Sometimes, he kidnaps young females and takes them to the site. Then he watches while my pack tortures, rapes, and kills them.”

  Sick piece of shit.

  “Who is he?” demanded Taryn.

  “I don’t know his name.” When Nick’s claws sliced out, the jackal shouted, “I don’t, I swear! Lyle just called him ‘the tech guy,’ or ‘the wolf.’”

  “What does he look like?” asked Shaya.

  “Tall, gangly, dark eyes, and he has a tattoo on his arm. They’re Chinese symbols, but I don’t know what they mean.”

  Marcus recalled seeing a tall male lurking in the background of the vids with such a tattoo on his arm, but none of the footage showed a clear image of him or the tattoo. They’d all assumed he was part of the jackal pack.

  “That’s all I can tell you without betraying my pack and endangering my family.”

  “Good enough.” Without warning, Taryn shoved her claws into the female’s stomach and twisted her hand sharply, slitting the jackal open. “That’s how it felt when I realized my son might have been taken from me. And that’s what every other parent will have felt when you took their child. You deserve exactly what you got.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  How did one go about calming a six-foot, brooding, pissed-the-fuck-off, dominant male wolf? Roni didn’t know.

  She had soothed her brothers’ anger many times, but her techniques were having no effect whatsoever on Marcus at the moment. He was pacing outside the barn, refusing to go inside the lodge with the others while he was in that state. His protective instincts were going crazy, feeding his rage, feeding his desire to invade McGee’s territory and, as he’d so eloquently put it, “tear his fucking head off his shoulders and feed it to his bitch of a mate.”

  Being the voi
ce of reason was hard when she kind of liked that idea too. “Marcus, we don’t know that he had anything to do with Lola’s plan.”

  He didn’t pause in his pacing. “She’s his mate. He had to have known.”

  “You know it’s not that simple.”

  “I think the bastard knew all about it. I think he played a part in it.” And Marcus would make him pay for it.

  “No, you want him to have known and played a part in it, because then you would have someone to take out all this rage on—you can’t hurt Lola because you wouldn’t hurt a female; it’s not in you.”

  He was aware that his smile wasn’t at all nice. “I’m tempted to make an exception after what she did.”

  “It’s hardly surprising that she retaliated in some way. I humiliated her—I’m a mere enforcer, she’s an Alpha female, and I overpowered her. It would have made her pack question her strength and suitability as their leader.”

  “So she should have challenged you, one on one. But oh, no, she plotted to have you killed—and then have the footage uploaded onto the net.”

  “Are you really saying you would have been happier if she had challenged me instead of doing this?”

  No, he wouldn’t have been happier. Roni was his. He didn’t want anyone or anything to hurt her in any way, shape, or form. “That’s not the point.”

  “I hurt her pride, Marcus. An Alpha’s pride is a big thing.”

  He slid his hands into her hair and pressed his forehead to hers. “That doesn’t matter to me. She doesn’t matter to me. You matter to me. And absolutely nobody gets to harm you. Not because I don’t think you can take care of yourself, but because the very idea of anyone targeting you offends me and pisses me the hell off. If anyone touches you, they die.”

  His wolf was so close to the surface, it was worrying her. “Okay, but just . . . calm down.” Unfortunately, the soothing tone wasn’t working. Remembering how Shaya, Taryn, and Jaime calmed down their males, Roni slid her hands under his T-shirt and smoothed them up and down his chest—occasionally dragging her nails along his skin. Eventually, a contented growl rumbled out of him, and she sensed his wolf drawing back.