The thudding at the door didn’t stop until I yanked it open. I blinked against the bright sun, once, twice, and then my eyes went wide and my lips parted with horror.
Craig stood in front of me, his left eye black and swollen shut. There was a blood-crusted gash running down his right cheek, stopping at the base of his chin. His neck was covered in bruises, and Jesus, I could actually see individual fingermarks there. Beck and Landon were behind him. They didn’t look as bad, but each of them was sporting a nice shiner, and Mark, who stood off to the side, had a purplish bruise on his cheek.
“Where’s Aidan?” Tommy asked, his voice all rough edges. He didn’t wait for me to move out of the way before he started to shove the guys into the house, not too gently.
I blinked and cleared my throat. “He’s upstairs,” I said, backing up as everyone crowded into the living room. “In the shower.” I chewed on my bottom lip, scanning the guys over. “I don’t think I want to know what happened.” I swallowed down the dread that was climbing up my throat. “Do you want some ice? Or something for the pain? Or ... Or ... What the hell did Jared do this time?” God, it had to have been Jared. I just knew it. He’d been so pissed yesterday. He’d been …
“They’re fine,” Chris said in a lazy drawl, closing the front door. He flexed his arms, his biceps curling up thick, as he fixed a steady glare on the team. He was giving off a clear-cut vibe of a guy who didn’t tolerate any crap. With the way he carried his tall, bulky frame, I didn’t doubt for a second he wasn’t opposed to using his fists to make sure everyone understood it. “Start talking, boys. You’ve got a better chance of making it out of this alive if you talk to her before Aidan.” He smiled at me then, or at least I thought the rough curve of his lips was supposed to be a smile, and said, “She seems to have a soft spot for you boys.”
The four of them exchanged tight-lipped looks. Landon started to shake — literally — and when he tried to smile at me it was all wrong. My inner-wolf shifted and stirred, and I growled. It came out before I could swallow it, fierce and all animal. “What have you done?” I demanded. My imprint heated, my scent flared, and all four of them dipped their chins, casting their eyes to the ground.
Tommy’s shiny head took on a pinkish-red hue. “Please,” he started and then cleared his throat. “Jade, control yourself, please. You’re mated now, Aidan’s scent mixed with yours is …” He cleared his throat again and rubbed at it hard, as if he were trying to massage away a lump that was blocking his voice.
I pulled in a deep breath, forcing my inner-wolf to stand down, which was, as it turned out, a crazy amount of work. Sweat beaded along my spine and my hands trembled. But I managed to rein it in, if only a little.
Tommy sucked in a noisy breath and he shoved at Craig, growling, “Tell her.”
Craig stumbled, and fell to his knees. He wouldn’t look at me, and I didn’t know if it was because he physically couldn’t look up or if it was that he didn’t want to. “Jared,” he croaked, and winced. His voice sounded raw, as if he’d swallowed a handful of broken glass. “He knew where the bastards were, Jade. He’s known for a week.”
Heavy footsteps coming down the staircase and a deadly growl told me that Aidan had heard what had just been said. I wanted to turn away. I wanted to go to him, but I couldn’t move.
Craig might as well have punched me. It probably would have felt better. His accusations gutted me and left me raw and exposed and empty. “No.” I shook my head. “No, he would have told me. You’re lying. Jared’s a dick, but he loves this pack. He wouldn’t hide something like that. He wouldn’t.”
“You would scent that, Jade,” Beck said, giving me one of those crappy reasoning looks. “You know he’s telling you the truth.”
Oh, God, I thought. Was this really how the rest of my life was going to be? Lies and betrayal? Aidan was behind me, close enough that I could feel his breath teasing the hair on the top of my head. I could hear his steady breathing and the rhythmic thumping of his heart. His scent was calm and he was deathly quiet. It scared me a bit. As dread choked me, the only thing I could get out was, “Why?”
“Aidan took our father from us,” Mark said. His eyes were dull when he looked up, as if he had checked out and his mind was somewhere else entirely. “We wanted him to feel the same pain we felt when he died. Jared thought if he spent enough time with you, you’d mate with him. Aidan took something from us, he was going to take something back. He stalled on the hunt. We all did. We knew if you found them, you’d walk away from Jared. He just wanted more time to win you over.”
Craig cleared his throat. “We didn’t know he’d found them until this morning,” he said. The smell of his desperation left a bitter taste in the air. “I swear it. We didn’t know. He went ape-shit crazy when we told him we were done.”
“You helped him.” I was shaking all over. “You all stood by and helped him try to ruin my mate. You … you …” I growled. They all plotted against my mate. My mate. The people I trusted, my friends, my team. “How didn’t I smell the lies?”
“You never asked,” Beck said, again with that reasoning tone. “We never had to lie to you.”
Landon lifted his chin a little, and looked over my head. “Aidan, I thought she wanted him,” he said, and damn him, he actually looked ashamed. “All of us did. Her inner-wolf reacted like Jared was to be her mate. She was throwing off her scent for him. If we’d known she wasn’t into him, that it was just her wolf sensing his dominance, we wouldn’t have helped stall things. We wouldn’t have helped keep you from her.” He swallowed a few hard swallows and his face drained of color. “We stopped helping him when she submitted to you, when you took her from Jeff’s.”
There was dead silence for a long breath. It was violent and cold and when Aidan finally spoke, I found it hard to breathe. “You know I’m going to hunt him down, right?” Aidan’s voice was a lethal toned whisper behind me. I turned to him and looked up. His expression was both striking and brutal. He looked me in the eyes and said, “And when I find him, I’m going to kill him. You are not saving his ass this time.”
I knew I was probably supposed to reason with him, do the devil’s advocate thing, but I couldn’t. I wanted blood, too, so bad that my body lurched as my inner-wolf tried to break free. I’d always known Jared was loyal to a fault, I just never thought that loyalty could have been for Ray.
CHAPTER 32
~ AIDAN ~
It would have been better if Jade had defended him.
Jade didn’t say a word. Instead, she gave me a terrible blank look and stood perfectly still. Her heart was slamming fast against her ribs. I could hear it so clearly. I could smell her bloodlust, too, a thick bitter-sweet aroma that had my inner-wolf pressing against my skin.
It struck me then, I was finally going to get my chance to kill Jared, and she was going to let me. Damn, by the look of her, she wasn’t just going to let me. She wanted to do it herself. I really didn’t know how I felt about that.
“You won’t need to hunt him, kid,” Tommy said. “He’s challenging you for alpha. The pack has already gathered to witness.”
The laugh that came out of my mouth was cold. “He thinks he can challenge me,” I said, and shook my head. “He lost his right to do that when he put his needs before the pack.” I looked at the team. Their desperation, their fear, it all hung in the air like a pungent cloud of smoke. “But what should I do with you four,” I said, stepping around Jade. “I find myself stuck here. I get revenge and I can smell that you didn’t know what Jared was hiding, but you helped him. You knew the cougars wanted our females and you helped delay the hunt.”
Across the room, Beck shuffled his feet. “We meant what we said to you yesterday. You saved us from our father; I’m just sorry we didn’t see that sooner.” He raised his chin and stoned his face as he looked at me. “We will stand behind you if you’ll allow it and if you won’t, we will accept your punishment without a fight.”
“You knew she didn’t
want him, didn’t you?” I laughed coolly. “Yeah, you did. You were always with them training, weren’t you? You stuck close.”
Beck nodded. “Because Jared wanted to force her, and I wasn’t going to let him do that. No matter what, it was always her choice.”
I rocked back on my heels a little bit as a punch of adrenaline shot through me. Force her. Another blast of steamy adrenaline rushed to my head.
“Easy,” Chris said in a calm, low voice. “Easy there, kid, you need to think this one out. They came forward. They’re giving up their own flesh and blood for you, for your mate.”
I didn’t want to hear that. I didn’t care who they were giving up. Force her. He’d known. Beck had known that Jared was willing to force her. And he’d let the bastard sleep in her house, in her room. My inner-wolf’s savage nature took over. There was no logic to it. I was taken over by a possessive instinct.
At the sound of the first pop of bone, I heard a soft rasp and I glanced over my shoulder. “Aidan, stop,” Jade said. She reached out a hand to me and I ignored it.
A series of pops and snaps broke out. My clothes tore and fell, my body remolded. And then I was a wolf. My lips peeled back and I growled as I pivoted and stalked toward Beck.
Jade cut in front of me, and said, “Aidan, remember what I told you last night. Sometimes the best move a leader can make is to step back from a battle when the potential loss is too high.”
I heard a rustling, and then a series of soft thumps. I glanced away from Jade, curled my lips further, and growled at the team. All four of them were on their knees, their necks craned out, their eyes closed. The silent offer reaffirming what Beck had said. They would not fight me no matter what action I took.
“You are not this person,” Jade said softly. “Your fight isn’t with them.”
~ JADE ~
Jared had called me soft once, and yeah, maybe I was soft. By pack law, I shouldn’t have stopped Aidan, shouldn’t have stopped his inner-wolf from killing the guys. By pack law, death was what they deserved. But I just couldn’t let him do it. Not when they had willingly come forward. It may have been delayed, but in the end, they had done the right thing. And I knew he would regret it afterwards. I knew he was already bleeding inside from taking their father from them even if he refused to show it.
It took thirty long minutes for everyone to get their heads back together and another ten after the guys told Aidan exactly where the cougars were, for him to calm down enough to leave the house. I thought it was probably cold outside, there was a heavy wind, but I didn’t notice the temperature. I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything but the ice that shifted through my veins.
My werewolves were all gathered at the edge of the clearing, standing back — cowering — from Jared. He looked worse than the team had when they’d shown up on our doorstep. He was cut and bruised and his right elbow was bending the entirely wrong way. His eyes were on me, though. They were so black, like bottomless pits. His pain and outrage rose up around him, hanging like acid in the air.
In front of him, discarded like a piece of trash, was Richard. He was dead. His blood no longer pumped through his veins, his heart no longer beat in his chest, and no breath would ever be pulled into his lungs again. A primal and territorial rage filled me. What struck me as odd, though, was that I was not angry that the man was dead, but because his sentence had been taken from me, even if I had dreaded having to issue his death sentence, it was my right to do it. This was my pack.
Luken was there, too, Richard’s last guard. He was on his knees, although not because he wanted to be. He didn’t look as if he could have gotten up even if he wanted to.
As I scanned the scene in front of me, there were, I realized, different shades of hatred and until now I had only ever felt a ghostly shadow of that emotion before. I hadn’t really hated Dominic when he left me for the pack, although at the time I thought I had. I hadn’t truly hated Aidan for all his lies and manipulation, or Marcy and Dominic for helping him. And I hadn’t hated my father when I found out he was the devil. I’d been disappointed and hurt and angry and lost.
But, no, I hadn’t hated them at all.
That had been a tingling sensation with a pinch, like getting a needle at the doctor, or a blister. It was annoying and it burned a little when poked at, but it hadn’t been anything like what I felt in that moment.
Funny, but I never thought hatred would hurt so badly. It was like a scorching heat, burning me up from the inside out, but at the same time, from the outside pushing in; I was cold as ice. My heart pounded so hard that it felt as if at any moment it would just stop beating, as if it were about to give out on me. And God, did it hurt.
My mouth went dry, and I pressed closer to Aidan. His body was hot, solid, and strong against me. The silence in the clearing was voluminous. Aidan hadn’t said anything yet. He was too calm. And right then, calm was, well, calm was scary. I thought I would have preferred to see the outrage he’d shown at home. At least that I could understand. But he just stared at Jared, an intense kind of stare that would have made pretty much anyone queasy.
“Who do you think you are?” Aidan finally asked. His tone was freakishly composed. “You are not the judge and executioner for this pack.”
When Jared didn’t answer, Aidan paced forward, leaving my side. He clasped his hand behind him. He wasn’t looking at the dead body, strewn out on the brittle grass. His eyes were fixed on Jared, a controlled stare that gave nothing away.
Aidan was only a few feet away when Jared gave a reaction. He shrugged, and then winced from the movement. “Head enforcer is the executioner,” he said dryly, as if he were bored by the question. “And soon enough I’ll be alpha.”
Aidan barked out a laugh. “You really think you can challenge for alpha with what you’ve done.”
Jared’s face grew red and furious. “Thanks to my brothers,” he said with a venomous glare at them, “you will kill me if I don’t.”
Aidan seemed to consider Jared’s words as he visibly measured the distance between them with a darting, calculating shift of his eyes. “You’ll die either way, Jared.”
Jared shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, as if he were readying himself for a collision, but Aidan didn’t move.
This was cruel, I thought. Really cruel.
Aidan flicked a small glance in my direction, and as if reading my thoughts, his eyes narrowed in warning. I knew then that I had to say something, even if I didn’t want to.
Planting my hands on my hips, I stepped forward and I said, “Last night I told my mate that losing you would be a big loss to this pack. I defended you to him, again. I’m always defending you, Jared. You hid the cougars’ location from me. You wanted to force me to mate with you. Have you told everyone how you plotted against us? That you betrayed us to get even for Ray’s death? You tried to kill your own brother when he wanted to come forward. How am I supposed to defend you now? How? Give me a reason!” It all spilled out in a desperate tumbled mess, and I realized I actually wanted a reason to keep him alive. Maybe that was why the hatred hurt so bad; I honestly didn’t want to hate him, because somewhere under that cocky, jerk facade, he could be a good person. I had seen it. I knew it was there.
Jared groaned and rolled his eyes. Not the response I had expected and definitely not the one I wanted. “They don’t have to like me, Jade. They only have to fear me. And he’s not your mate.” He said it with a smile and a cocky wave of his hand.
I stepped closer, trying to not let my boiling hatred consume me. “Are you sure about that?”
CHAPTER 33
~ AIDAN ~
Jared’s first mistake was striking Jade, his second was shifting.
The second she moved in closer, Jared’s nostrils flared, catching the change in her scent which was growing stronger with every passing second. He sagged and his demeanor went from cocky to seething in a split second.
Jade was trying to give him a way out. She wanted him to live. I
could hear it in her voice, that hint of desperation. Jared knew it, too. His eyes flared and for a quick second he even smiled a sad tilt of his lips.
But then, he moved and got in her face. He lifted his hand and backhanded Jade, hard enough that she stumbled. And then he shifted.
If he had stayed human, he might have had a chance.
Jade may have given him a way out of this, but she wasn’t stupid. Thank God, she wasn’t stupid. She was out of her clothes a second later. She didn’t hesitate in her shift, letting her inner-wolf out in a breath. And I was right there with her, my bones breaking and snapping. Hair sprouted over my skin, my canines lengthened.
It only took seconds, and then we were both wolves, big and snarling, black beasts. We moved like killers, stalking around him, waiting and ready for the strike. We moved together perfectly, Jade and me, completely in sync.
Jared shifted back and forth, pivoting to keep us both in his sights. He looked for his opening. He waited. He even backed up a step. And we stayed on him, stalking him like the predators we were.
Jade’s breath was a constant growl, each inhale and exhale carrying the sound. At least until Jared looked her straight on and she froze stiff.
And that was the opening he had been waiting for. Jared launched at Jade, his lips curled, his teeth sharp, and his jaw open for the bite. That was his third mistake. It was also the mistake that solidified his death.
Males did not attack females. Especially not the alpha female.
My thirst for blood rose up, but I wasn’t the only one who felt it. Growls erupted all around us and wolves sprung forward from the sidelines.
Jade tensed, and a quick burst of her fear tingled at my nose. But her fear didn’t last. She dodged his lunge just as I launched forward, tackling him to the ground. There wasn’t time for anything fancy. I pinned his neck into the grass, with a hard press of my teeth. With a graceful leap, Jade was on him, too, planting her front paws on his chest, snarling down at him.