A Wolf in the Fold

  “Hey, they do sort of look like road runners,” Brodey said. “Although really evil, fucked-up ones.”

  Mai softly growled. “Brodey Lyall, if you make any Wile E. Coyote cracks about me, I’ll pee on you.”

  Lina snickered from where she sat next to Mai. “Beep, beep.”

  Mai raised an eyebrow at her.

  Lina threw her arms around Mai. “Aw, come on, little sis. You knew I had to go there, right?”

  Mai’s lips finally curved in a smile. “You’re about the only one I’d let get away with that, you know.”

  “I know. Why’d you think I did it? Saved Elain from having to smell Brodey all the way home.”

  “Hey!” Elain protested, turning from where she sat in the front passenger seat to look at them. “Why would I get stuck riding home with him if she peed on him?”

  “He’s your mate,” the other three women said in unison, punctuated by giggles.

  “You know,” Brodey said with a scowl, “I think I’m getting picked on.”

  “That’s only because they love you,” Elain said.

  He sniffed. “Sure. If you say so.”

  They pulled onto a dirt fire road leading into a state forest, where they parked. Twilight was falling, coating the woods in a dim purple light.

  “They’re about three miles from here,” Kitty said, spreading the map on the hood of one of the vehicles. “We’re here.” She tapped the map. “Shouldn’t take us long shifted.”

  When Lina cleared her throat, everyone looked at her.

  “Ya know, not to throw a wrench in this, but some of us are shifting challenged. When you said we were hiking in, I thought you meant two-legged.”

  “I thought you could do that teleportation thing,” Kitty said.

  “I can, but it’s not a guaranteed outcome. I’m still a little iffy in that department. Fire and ice? Got that covered. Poofing in and out, still not the best. I wouldn’t want to arrive early or late and mess shit up.”

  Oscar stood leaning against a tree. “I’ll carry her.”

  Lina arched an eyebrow at him. “You?”

  “Yeah, me. You can ride me.”

  Brodey snorted.

  Elain backhanded his shoulder. “That’s not funny. Be serious.”

  “It was funny,” he said. “Someone play the Rocky theme. ‘She’s ridin’ the tiiiiger.’”

  Lina cleared her throat again. “You sure Gigi isn’t going to have a problem with that? I don’t want to be on a pissed-off former Immortal’s shit list.”

  “Hiking in two-footed isn’t an option,” Kitty said. “We need to go in as quietly as possible.”

  Wally laughed. “And you brought my ass, babe?”

  Kitty scowled at him. “They’re used to hearing bears. Look, it’s not like we can call in an attack helicopter to strafe the place, okay?” She smacked the hood with her hand. “We need to get in there and take them out.”

  “Okay, fine.” Lina shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be grrrreat!”

  “Now see?” Brodey complained. “Why doesn’t she get complaints about her puns?”

  “Because she’s a Goddess,” Mai and Elain echoed before laughing.

  * * * *

  Inside the farmhouse, Cameron sat up. He and his wife, Aliah, had only gone to bed an hour or so earlier. He hated sleeping in a strange place anyway. They had a crappy trailer down in Georgia on a cousin’s hunting property, but he’d needed the money and agreed to come back to Maine to help out someone from another nest and try to build their bank account up again.

  Otherwise, they’d be royally fucked. They’d used up what little savings they’d had executing the Yellowstone job.

  And that had certainly gone tits-up in a bad way.

  I never should have let my brother talk me into that. Then again, he couldn’t blame him. He’d agreed to it, had been eager for a chance to take that fucking bitch out.

  Cameron got out of bed and looked out the window, but didn’t see anything.

  Still, there was…something niggling at him. The same kind of something that niggled at him in Yellowstone before he reached their hideout and found everyone else dead.

  The same kind of something that made him cash out early on the Louisiana operation and get the hell out before that one was destroyed, too.

  Fuck. I’m going to end up with a target on my head from my own people if this shit keeps up.

  He got out of bed and slid his feet into his shoes. He’d slept fully dressed the past several weeks while they’d been at the farm, insisting his wife did likewise. Maybe he was just nervous ever since Yellowstone, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

  Shaking his wife awake, he didn’t turn on the light. Instead, he grabbed the duffel bag sitting packed and ready in the corner. When Aliah tried to speak, he shushed her.

  She took the hint and was standing next to him just seconds later, ready with her own bag slung over her shoulder.

  Quietly, they walked through the house to the front door, careful not to disturb any of the twelve other cockatrice in the house. The lookouts stationed outside around the property and the people in the barn wouldn’t stop them. They were free to come and go as they pleased, so he wasn’t worried about that.

  Sure, they could take their time waking everyone, warning them, but this wasn’t their home nest. They weren’t even related to them. They owed them nothing. They’d begged him to come help them set up the meth lab, their own Heisenberg for hire. He was doing them a favor and wasn’t entirely sure they might not kill both of them when they were finished rather than pay them.

  Now was as good a time as any to get the hell out, at least for the night, while his senses told him some serious shit was about to go down in a really bad way.

  The front yard looked clear. Motioning his wife to stay low, they bolted for their truck. Moments later, they were speeding down the driveway toward the road without their lights on.

  “What was it, Cam?” Aliah whispered, just loud enough he could hear her over the sound of the engine.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. Just a feeling. Maybe nothing. But I don’t want to be there anymore. Not tonight.”

  “Where are we going to go? We don’t have enough money to make it back to Georgia.”

  “Away from here for right now. I’ll come back tomorrow and see what’s going on.”

  “They’ll be upset we left like this.”

  “Fuck ’em.” He glanced at her and tried not to pay attention to how worried she looked. “I’ll demand they pay me tomorrow, even if they only give me part of it. I’d rather move now than stay here with the way my gut’s screaming at me.”

  She nodded and remained quiet on the issue.

  * * * *

  Some of the shifters had brought backpacks. Guns, clothes, and other things they’d need were shoved in them before the shifting commenced. Elain felt only a brief wave of embarrassment before she started stripping.

  No one’s paying any attention to me, anyway.

  Lina caught her eye. “You feeling left out?” Elain asked her.

  “Not quite.” She smirked. “Ask me that when I’m lobbing fireballs and y’all aren’t.”

  Kitty broke in. “Lina, try not to set fire to the place until after we get a chance to search it. We need to see if we can dig up any other information first.”

  “There you go, being all logical,” Elain teased to ease the tension.

  To ease her tension, at least. Beneath the surface, her Alpha longed to break free, to run, to maim.

  To kill.

  At least she’d finally drawn a smile out of Mai, who looked very ill at ease despite her insistence at being a part of the operation.

  “We found this nest due to information I recovered from Louisiana last year,” Kitty said. “It took me a while, but it paid off. So please corral your instincts to blow shit up before I’m ready.”

  “Picky, picky, picky.” But Lina smiled.

  Brodey looked concerned. “You all
right?” he softly asked Elain.

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  Glancing around, he led her a short distance away. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I do want to, and I have to.”

  “If this is going to do something bad to you—”

  “I’m okay. This is the kind of thing I want to use my Alpha for.”

  His green eyes searched her face for a moment before he finally nodded. “Okay. If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “It’s going to be dangerous.”

  “Duh.”

  He smirked. “You get hurt, I’ll be spanking your ass.”

  She poked him in the chest. “Yeah? Well, that goes both ways, mister.”

  He pulled her in for a kiss before releasing her. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  He glanced over to where Mai was softly speaking with Lina. “Do we want to take bets that Micah and Jim won’t want to let her out of their sight when we get back?”

  “Again, duh.”

  “Let’s move out,” Kitty called.

  Brodey shouldered their pack, fastening the waist strap before he shifted. Elain took a moment to help him adjust the straps again before she also shifted.

  Lina shouldered her own pack, as well as held another full of extra ammunition. “Did everyone remember to silence their cell phones?”

  One of the other wolves, who’d already shifted, let out a barking growl before shifting back and taking off his pack.

  Kitty smiled. “I’m going to forbid you to carry a damn phone, Bill.”

  He chuckled. “Fuck you,” he lightly said. He got the phone set and stowed it in his pack again.

  Then they were on their way, following Kitty through the woods. Elain thought Wally might be left behind to bring up the rear, but Oscar, with Lina astride, fell in line behind the shifted grizzly. She realized the big bear was nearly as fast on his feet as any of the other shifters.

  Brodey used their mate-bond to talk to her. “Grizzlies are fast. He can’t keep that speed up over long distances like we can, but he can sprint like a motherfucker.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Most people don’t. That’s why they end up getting too close to bio-bears and get themselves killed.”

  The group moved silently through the woods, Elain’s nerves ratcheting up with every bit of ground they covered until they crested a wooded hill, coming to a stop near a rocky outcropping.

  Kitty turned and let out a low chuff. She raised one front paw at the group, then spun around and raced down the hill.

  They waited. Elain fought the urge to dance in place, every smell in the woods coming as sharp and strongly to her as the things she saw around her with her enhanced lupine night vision. Being in wolf mode was a kind of sensory overload.

  It also meant she wanted to hunt.

  Lina had used their Triad connection to show Elain what had happened in Brussels, at her old house with Edgar, and in Yellowstone with Lenny, what the cockatrice looked like, what some of them could do.

  “Assume they can all shift,” she’d warned back at the cabin before they left. “And assume they can all throw fireballs or do other weird shit we might not even know about. They’re tricky bastards. Assume they’re all armed, dangerous, and out to kill you, because they are.”

  Kitty returned a few minutes later, shifting back to human form as she knelt down and motioned everyone close. “They’re still there,” she whispered. “Small farm site, just like I showed you on the satellite pics. I sensed at least two guards on the perimeter on this side of the property, but not sure how many there are altogether. Several people moving around the house and barn.”

  She looked at Lina, who’d climbed off Oscar. “The meth lab is in the barn. Remember, that’s like a bomb waiting to happen. So—”

  Lina held up her hands. “I know, keep the fireballs to a minimum. Spoilsport.”

  “At least until we’re done and ready to head out of there. We can burn it to the ground before we leave, but not until then.”

  Lina looked at Elain, who’d remained shifted. “Sheesh,” she joked. “You accidentally burn down one cockatrice nest in Brussels, and they never let you forget it.” She grinned.

  They worked their way down the hill, Kitty giving another signal when it was time to shift back. Working silently and not speaking, everyone retrieved their clothes and weapons.

  The nine millimeter Brodey had equipped Elain with felt heavy in her hand, but…

  The feel of flesh under her fangs would seem so much more natural. To punch through skin and rip out entrails.

  She shook the thoughts away and focused on what they were doing. It would be too damn easy to get hurt, or get someone else hurt, if she was standing there daydreaming instead of focusing on their mission.

  To kill.

  Kitty had already told them to take out any guards they found around the perimeter. It would do no good to keep them alive. They’d only slow them down and take up valuable manpower guarding them until they took out the rest of the compound. And, from her experience, they either didn’t know anything, or they wouldn’t tell it anyway.

  Seemed coldly logical to Elain. The fact that she didn’t disagree with Kitty’s logic was something she filed away for future contemplation.

  * * * *

  Ain sat on the cabin’s back porch and stared out at the woods calling to him. It would be a perfect night for a run, hard and fast, wearing himself out so he might possibly be able to sleep.

  It would also take him out of cell range.

  He stared at the phone in his hand, knowing it wouldn’t ring for several hours, at least, and still unable to make himself go back to bed.

  Brodey will take care of her. He’ll protect her. He’d die before he let something happen to her.

  Ain also was a realist and knew that, despite the best of intentions, sometimes things didn’t go the way they were planned.

  And he didn’t want to lose his brother, either.

  I’ve buried enough family.

  He tried not to think about his sisters, about what he’d done to avenge them, but the solitude and the night combined to bring the memories flooding back with horrific clarity.

  With Elain’s powers growing, it was likely only a matter of time before she figured it out.

  Or asked him about it.

  And he was unable to lie to her, to his mate. He knew he could edict her not to ask him about it if the subject came up, but he refused to live his life like that.

  Would she have fallen in love with us, our One or not, if she knew about our pasts then? What I did?

  He wasn’t surprised when the backdoor opened and Cail stepped out onto the porch. Without a word, he took a chair next to his brother and stared out at the woods, too.

  “Sorry I woke you up,” Ain said.

  “No, it wasn’t you. I think you’re awake for the same reason I’m awake.”

  “Yep.”

  They stared at the woods in silence for another few minutes. The cool night breeze blew scents to them, a raccoon somewhere nearby, pine, a fecund layer of leaves decomposing on the forest floor, preparing the way for new growth.

  Cail propped his feet up on the porch railing. “We’re going to have a lot of nights like this, I bet. Maybe where it’s even the three of us waiting up to hear back from her. Like Montana.”

  “She had the jaguars with her, then.”

  “She’s got Brodey with her now.”

  “I’m worried about him, too.”

  “But mostly about her?”

  “Tell me you aren’t and I’ll call you a liar.”

  “No, I’m worried about her, believe me.” Cail laced his fingers together behind his head. “But it’s the three of them together. Lina and Mai and Elain. I think that, between the three of them, they’re far stronger than anything they’ll ever come up against.”
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  “What about the vision Lina had in Yellowstone? A fucking bomb. How do they defend themselves or the rest of us against that?”

  “They stop it before it happens.” Cail finally looked at him. In the dim light, his brother’s brown eyes appeared black. “I know they will,” he softly said, but the firm finality in his tone spoke volumes.

  “You can’t know that.”

  “Yeah, I can.” He faced the woods again. “Because I refuse to think they’ll fail.”

  Ain lapsed into silence. He wished he possessed his brother’s confidence, but he’d be lying if he said he did.

  Just come home safe, babe. Please, come home safe. Life’s not worth living without you.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The farm sat in an isolated hollow at the base of a hillside, in the middle of three hundred acres of land at the edge of a state forest. Heavily wooded all around, the pastures lay empty and overgrown, some small saplings already beginning the slow reclamation process. The closest neighbor was over two miles away, a foreclosed property with no human residents, just lots of four-legged woodland squatters.

  The chained and locked gate at the end of the rough and rutted driveway led to an ungraded dirt and gravel road that was nearly as bad. In the spring and thaw, it was likely a mud pit that only the most hardy and determined four-wheel-drive aficionados would dare attempt.

  Or determined cockatrice who liked their privacy.

  The meth operation, according to Kitty, was a fairly new one. Apparently a couple of the people involved in this had left other nests she’d already destroyed, missing getting caught by her.

  Which likely meant they might have been involved in the Yellowstone incident.

  For that alone, Elain was more than happy to help the fuckers meet whatever passed for an almighty maker in their eyes.

  Nobody messes with my family and gets away with it.

  Kitty had scouted a better staging area, closer to the farm, requiring absolute silence from them as they walked. They followed her, single-file, down to the clearing where the shifters changed back into human form, got dressed, and readied their weapons.

  Except for Oscar. He stood there, naked and leaning against a tree.