Out of Smoke and Ashes

  Blackie let out another snort. “Let’s get moving. I’m sick of standing around with my thumb up my ass. It’s time to put this asshole in his place once and for all.”

  * * * *

  Callie felt her nervous tension grow as the time for the confrontation drew near. Not because she would get to be in the same room as Rodolfo Abernathy.

  But because she could sense Daniel would stripe her with a cane in a bad way for taking this as far as she had.

  She also knew Daniel had left the mating challenge until the last item of the meeting. It took nearly ninety minutes before she faintly heard him announce the final agenda item.

  Trent and Ken shifted nervously in place beside her in the closet. “I don’t like this,” Trent whispered to Kent. “This is going to go to shit and we’re going to get caught in the middle.”

  “Shut up,” Ken growled. “We’ll be out of here soon enough.”

  “Let’s just let her go now and fucking get the hell out of here.”

  “We will get out of here. If we leave now, he’ll fucking hunt us down. I don’t want my family to spend the rest of their lives on the run and looking over their shoulders.”

  Hmm. I think I will let these two live. They did buy me breakfast. And they didn’t hurt Mom.

  Callie heard an increase in rumbles and growls out in the main meeting hall as Abernathy apparently started speaking. She closed her eyes and cast her senses around the conference room outside. There was only one door in and out, to the hallway leading to the main meeting hall and the side exit they’d brought her in through. A couple of windows, but due to the way the land steeply sloped on this side of the building it’d be nearly an eight-foot drop for anyone jumping.

  They’d have Rodolfo and his fake wheelchair ass penned in.

  Callie took a deep breath as another round of rumbles echoed throughout the building, as if it had a pulse and lungs, breathing in the agitation of the occupants and expelling their outrage through its rafters and walls.

  Beat…ass.

  She almost let out a snort. Sir’s outrage had grown to nearly epic proportions, and while fading in and out, she’d caught part of his thoughts.

  She also knew it was her ass that would get soundly beaten later. And not in a good way.

  Finally, a few minutes later, she faintly heard the sound of a gavel on the dais.

  Here we go.

  * * * *

  Rodolfo fought to keep the grin off his face. “If you’re going to rule against us anyway, then at least allow an uncle a few moments alone to talk with his niece.”

  “She’s not going anywhere alone with you, asshole!” the Pardie bitch had the nerve to yell at him.

  One of her mates, who was now apparently part of the Council, frowned from where he sat on the dais behind Blackestone.

  Some Prime. He can’t even control his mate. It didn’t matter, though, because she’d responded exactly the way he’d anticipated, playing right into his hands. “Casper is a reasonable man,” he said. “He stipulates that Elain Pardie can accompany his niece to the meeting.”

  Blackestone frowned at him from the dais and had to slam his gavel a few times to quiet the various rumbles from around them. “Elain? It’s your call.”

  “I’ll go,” she said, turning to face Rodolfo with a sneer he hoped to soon make her regret. “He’s just an old man in a wheelchair. He doesn’t scare me.”

  Oh, you egotistical bitch. You won’t be thinking that when I have you tied up tonight and I’m fucking your brains out and filling your womb with my seed.

  “See? What harm could come of it? Isn’t there a small conference room, if my memory serves me? It would be perfect, and we can get my chair into it, if I’m not mistaken.”

  * * * *

  They all knew it was a setup, knew Rodolfo thought he was playing all of them.

  Elain struggled to keep the laugh out of her voice. “Then let’s do it, asshole.”

  Don’t smile. Do not smile. Not until they had this fucker dead and buried in his grave.

  But first, they had to make sure Callie was safe.

  She glanced at Brodey. When he winked at her, she again struggled not to laugh.

  If they could make it through this without wetting themselves from holding in their laughter, it’d be a miracle.

  She glanced toward the double doors leading to the vestibule. The Montalvo brothers slipped out, ready to take their positions to snag Abernathy once she, Mai, and Callie were in the clear.

  Daniel sent her a look bordering on a glare. She suspected he wished she could read his thoughts, but it wasn’t hard to guess how worried he was about Callie. “All right. But I am officially dismissing the challenge to Mai’s mating.”

  He pointed his gavel at Casper Gallatin. “For your information, douchebag, I talked to Conner. You know him, right? The head of your Clan? He damn sure knows about you. Not to mention he doesn’t have a damn thing good to say about you. He told me he doesn’t have a problem with Mai’s mating and agrees with my prior ruling. So if you ever darken my damn door again on this matter, I’ll personally throw you out on your ass. Do I make myself clear?”

  When Gallatin tried to stammer a rebuttal, Daniel gaveled him silent. “Listen, this isn’t your mother’s Clan Council anymore. I’m not going to be polite when assholes come here wasting our time and harassing our Clan members. Again, do I make myself clear?”

  He looked at Abernathy, who glared at him. Gallatin must have realized he was outnumbered. “Yes,” he mumbled.

  Gallatin pushed the old bastard’s wheelchair down the main aisle and toward the vestibule. As Elain reached for Mai’s hand, Daniel stepped down from the dais and grabbed her arm.

  “Let the jaguars have him,” he whispered in her ear. “And remember, we want to try not to kill Trent or Ken. That’s Carla’s request. So unless they try to interfere or hurt someone, don’t kill them.”

  She nodded and with all three of her men and both of Mai’s hovering close behind, they followed Abernathy.

  * * * *

  Callie heard the conference room door open, followed by the sound of voices, and then heard it close again. She had a slight moment of panic as the closet door opened when she couldn’t remember if she’d kept herself looking like Carla.

  Apparently she had, because no one said anything as Ken and Trent let her out and went to stand beside the door.

  Elain stood in front of Mai, blocking the smaller woman’s body with her own and keeping her close to the door.

  “Mom!” Elain said.

  Abernathy smiled. “Yes, I thought you might like a reunion. Keep your voice down, however. I have a deal for you.” He smoothly rose from his wheelchair and walked over to stand behind Callie.

  Callie winked at Elain and noticed how her friend’s chest briefly spasmed, as if trying to hold back a laugh.

  But Elain’s fierce expression never faltered as she maintained the ruse. “What do you want, asshole? Let her go.”

  “Oh, I will, dear.” He placed his hand on the back of Callie’s neck. She tried not to wince at the overpowering aroma of his aftershave. “I have a deal to offer you. You for your mother. Or I turn her into my mate and you’ll never see her again.”

  Callie couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Dude, does any part of this deal involve you taking a bath and washing off that horrible odor? Because, day-amn, how can any wolf stand to smell like that?”

  She glanced over her shoulder to see Rodolfo’s expression freeze as he pulled his hand away from her. “Oh, seriously?” she asked. “No one’s ever told you how gross you smell with that damn aftershave? What, did you burn out your sniffer doing coke or something? How the fuck can you stand it?”

  His eyes widened. She took that moment to look at Ken and Trent. “I suggest you two run now. It’s your only hope of staying alive. We don’t want you, we want him. And you were nice enough not to hurt Mom. We’ll let you go. This time.”

  The two men had frozen in
place, staring at her.

  She shifted back to herself and turned to Rodolfo. “Fucker, you picked the wrong momma to mess with.”

  Elain grabbed the door and threw it open, shoving Mai back out into Micah’s arms as Trent and Ken headed for the opening.

  Callie grinned at Abernathy. “Ready to tango, asshole?” Gallatin backed away from them and cowered in the corner.

  As Daniel and Ain rushed through the door into the room, Rodolfo spun around and grabbed a fire extinguisher from its bracket on the wall. He discharged it at them, temporarily concealing him from their view.

  Before Callie could react, she heard glass shatter. The sudden influx of air made the fire extinguisher residue swirl in an eerie whirlpool in mid-air.

  “He’s going out the window!” she yelled. “Someone get outside and get after him! Don’t let him get away!”

  * * * *

  Liam shoved his way into the room in time to hear glass breaking and Callie’s warning that the bastard was running. He, along with Ain and the others, finally managed to jump through the window in time to see Abernathy yank his driver out of his running limo and get in. Tires squealed as the old wolf gunned the car and peeled out of the parking lot with a spray of gravel.

  “Now, Sir?” Callie asked Daniel.

  He glanced behind them. “I don’t see the jaguars yet. Yes, now, pet. Stop him, but don’t kill him.”

  She stepped forward and Liam heard her yell something in an ancient language as she raised her hands toward the car, which approached a bend in the road.

  A black swirl of dirt and leaves coalesced into a ten-foot-tall monster in the path of Abernathy’s limo.

  She caught him by surprise, because the car swerved, the right front wheel dipping off the road and into the deep ditch along the side. The limo rolled three times, coming to rest almost two hundred yards away at the base of a large tree.

  Elain let out a shriek of fury as she shed her clothes and shifted, heading for the wrecked limo at a dead run.

  Liam touched Ain’s arm. “No. Call her back, lad.”

  “What?”

  His face hardened. “Call her back. Edict her if ye have to, but call her back.”

  “But—”

  “This isn’t her fight, lad. ’Tis mine. And it’s long overdue.”

  Ain hesitated only for a moment before turning. “Elain!” he roared in full-on Prime Alpha tone that carried across the distance. “Stop!” He looked at Brodey and Cail. “Go bring her back.”

  * * * *

  Elain almost didn’t realize what was happening at first. She heard Ain yelling at her, then her feet seemed to stop of their own will. Stopped so suddenly, in fact, that her momentum carried her tail over teacup and sent her somersaulting across the grass in a four-legged tangle.

  Before she could get to her feet, Brodey and Cail were on her. She shifted back, not giving a shit that she was naked, and struggled against them. “No! I have to get the bastard!”

  Liam strode toward them, shedding his clothes as he went. “No, daughter. This fecking arsehole is mine to deal with.” He shifted mid-stride, angrily breaking into a run and heading toward the wrecked limo, which still lay on its side against the tree.

  The driver’s door opened and a figure emerged, climbing out and falling onto the ground.

  Rodolfo Abernathy sprang to his feet in a crouch, lips drawn back in a tooth-baring snarl. He ripped his clothes off and shifted just as Liam hit him at a full run, slamming them both back into the underside of the limo.

  Abernathy let out a howl of pain as Liam had him pinned against the muffler. The smell of burnt fur and flesh wafted to them. Elain watched as Liam tried to grab hold of Abernathy’s throat, but then he managed to twist just right and free himself.

  He streaked into the woods with Liam on his heels.

  “Let me go after him!”

  Ain and Blackie caught up with them. “No,” Blackie said. “Liam and the jaguars can have him.”

  The Montalvo brothers came running from around the other side of the building. “That way!” Blackie yelled as he pointed to where the two wolves had entered the woods.

  Almost faster than she could see it, the three men stripped, shifted into their jaguar forms, and raced off into the woods after the two wolves.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As much as he despised it, Rodolfo knew running was his only option. Pardie was a much younger, stronger wolf than he was.

  The memory of what Pardie’s bitch daughter did to Paul flashed into his mind. He knew the father would be far less charitable than his daughter.

  And so would the Montalvo jaguars, if they had their chance.

  It’d been a while since he’d had to run this fast, but he did, flying through the underbrush as fast as four legs would carry him, winding across paths and over fallen logs and hoping he had enough in him to get away.

  Not that being caught was an option.

  It was his focus on his lead that distracted him, perhaps. But when he pulled up short at the rocky ledge, he whirled around as Liam Pardie broke through the trees behind him with a triumphant howl.

  Nowhere to run! He fought back hysterics, refusing to believe this was his end, his fate.

  It couldn’t be.

  He shifted. “Listen, we can talk about this. Surely you see my point of view. Your family was bound by the blood oath for generations!”

  Liam didn’t shift back. Instead, his lips curled as he snarled, baring canines. He slowly advanced on Rodolfo.

  When he tried to feint to either side, to hit the woods again, Pardie blocked him at every move.

  He knew he couldn’t take the younger wolf in a fight, and he was all alone. No backup, no weapon.

  Then the eerie shriek of a jaguar sounded in the woods, close by, answered by Liam howl.

  Below him the river raged, thunderstorms further up in the mountains sending a torrent of water high along the banks.

  In front of him lay certain death. No doubt Pardie and the jaguars wouldn’t quit until he died.

  He jumped.

  * * * *

  Liam shifted back and raced to the edge, cursing as he stared down at the water. Rodolfo’s body had already disappeared into the river, no doubt swept along with the uprooted trees and other debris the angry torrent carried along its path.

  It was a precipitous drop of nearly a hundred feet. He supposed it was possible for someone to survive it…

  But he doubted it.

  The three Montalvo brothers raced into the clearing and shifted back.

  “Where is he?” Ortega said.

  Liam spit over the side. “Good riddance, to ye, ye bloody bastard. May the bowels of hell prevent yer soul from having a moment’s rest.”

  “Are you sure he’s dead?” Ortega asked.

  Liam met his gaze. “I bloody well hope so. I don’t see how anyone could survive that.”

  “We’ll check. Come on.” The brothers shifted back and headed downstream.

  Liam watched them go before he looked down into the river again. Then he shifted back to wolf form and returned to where he’d left the others.

  Elain had put her clothes back on and was pacing along the edge of the woods when he arrived. She dropped to her knees and threw her arms around his neck before he even had a chance to shift. “Oh, thank god!”

  He shifted back to hug her even as Ain and his brothers raced to join them. “It’s all right, Elain. It’s over.”

  She broke down crying in his arms. Ain knelt next to them, his grey eyes boring into his.

  Liam nodded. “Fecking coward jumped into the river rather than face me and the Montalvos.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I didn’t see his body, no. But it was a pretty tall ledge for someone of his age, wolf or not, to survive. River’s runnin’ high and fast, full of debris. Whether it was the fall or drownin’, I can’t imagine he made it. The Montalvos are looking for the body now.”

  “We need to help searc
h,” Ain said.

  Blackie agreed. “Let’s get on it. Liam, you’ll need to show us where.” His gaze narrowed. “I want proof that wolf’s dead, and I don’t care how it happens. Elain, I want you, Mai, and Callie back at the cabin with Mom. Right now.”

  When Callie tried to protest that she wanted to help search, Liam snickered when Blackie grabbed her by the hair, spun her around, and delivered an unrestrained swat to her ass.

  He bent over and growled an edict in her ear. “Mate, you are already in far too much trouble to argue with me. You will go back with Elain and stay at the cabin until my return. Understand?”

  Liam barely heard her meek, “Yes, Sir.”

  Blackie pulled her back up and kissed her. “Good girl. Enjoy sitting today while you can. You won’t be tomorrow.”

  Somehow, Liam got the distinct impression that she wouldn’t mind that at all.

  * * * *

  Coughing, he clawed with his hands at the bank for purchase against the frigid current threatening to sweep him away again. He didn’t know how long he’d been in the water, but it felt like forever. He’d waited to get out to help put distance between him and the pursuers who would no doubt be searching for him, to throw them off his scent. But now he had to get out or risk succumbing to hypothermia.

  Finally, he managed to get a purchase on a small sapling and drag himself out of the water. With most of his body numb except for the agonizing burn in across his back, he rolled onto his side and tried to summon the energy to shift into wolf form. He might still be wet, weak, and half dead, but his fur would provide him with a little warmth, at least, as well as the shift would help with the healing process.

  He lay there, shivering and drifting in and out of consciousness. He couldn’t believe he was alive and still wasn’t altogether sure he’d make it out of the woods breathing.