Chapter 30 #2
I barely didn’t laugh at the pathetic attempt at a threat. That Conrad Mallin believed he could do things worse than my own mother had done was truly preposterous.
I maintained my obstinate stance until the echo of the door closing at the top of the stairs dwindled into obscurity. Grateful to be alone, I sank into the chair, drained. Normally, the altercation itself wouldn’t have been taxing, but I’d yet to fully recover from the oaths being re-administered.
I used what remained of my waning strength to shift the chair to the far wall, where I could monitor the only entrance and mitigate the likelihood of being surrounded when they inevitably returned.
The chair creaked in protest as I fell unceremoniously into its unforgiving embrace.
I fixed my gaze on the faint outline of the door at the top of the stairs and fought what I knew to be a losing battle.
My eyes were already heavy from the decided lack of sleep I’d gotten over the course of the last two days, on top of the soul-deep exhaustion that plagued my body.
It was only a matter of time before slumber overtook me, then Mallin would have all the advantage he needed.
Elijah
“We have to go after him,” I said, pushing to my feet.
Eric shook his head. “You know what will happen if you do, Red. That could be considered open rebellion. He won’t even give the pretense of a hearing if you do that.
Also, he’s not alone. There will be witnesses, and not the kind you need.
Dylon, Neevah, and Cara are all extremely loyal to Conrad. Why else do you think he brought them?”
I stared at my hands and asked myself for the thousandth time why I hadn’t followed Eric’s advice and just challenged for the pack before I’d left for the trial.
If I had, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.
I wouldn’t have to convince Conrad and a cluster of backward-thinking elders that the sacrifices Josh had made for this pack far outweighed the crimes he’d committed.
He walked over. “We can’t do anything rash. We need action, but we’re going to have to be smart about this.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”
“Don’t look at me like that. Just because I’ve been pushing you to overthrow that asshole for ten fucking years doesn’t mean I’m incapable of more moderate action.”
“Ooh, someone’s got a mouth on them.” Both of our heads swiveled around at the unexpected intrusion of Remus’s voice. He took in our confused expressions, his brow furrowing. “What? The door was unlocked.” He held up a case of bottles. “Plus, I brought booze. Now, where is the lucky bastard?”
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach as I connected why he was here. Eric, meanwhile, glared openly at Remus’s casual enthusiasm.
“Would it kill you to fucking knock?”
“Pfft.” He threw an arm around Eric’s shoulders. “What’s the matter? You look like someone kicked your kitten.”
Eric snarled and threw off the arm. “You over-muscled, pompous son of a—”
“Josh isn’t here,” I interjected before Eric could start a full-blown Beta fight in the middle of my living room.
Remus’s face only fell for a moment before it hardened. “Where is he?”
“Conrad took him,” Eric growled, still bristling from their interaction.
“The Klamath Alpha?”
I nodded.
Remus’s face clouded with dark intensity. “I can have the team here in less than an hour.” He immediately brought up his communication screen from his embedded bio-ware.
“Wait!”
He rolled his eyes at my shout. “What? If Alpha is in danger, then I’m going in there to get him. Do you know where he’s being held?”
Eric and I shared a look. “Yes,” I offered reluctantly.
“Then what are we standing around for? Security can’t possibly be that tight. Data shows that no one in the Klamath pack has military training. Bennett here should be able to bluff his way through. And…” He gave Eric a once-over, “you’ll do.”
Eric immediately bristled again at the implication. “That’s it. I don’t care what kind of training you have. I’m gonna skin your damn tail.”
I hastily stepped between them. “Enough.” The tension in the room stayed tight, but neither pursued the bubbling hostility. “It’s not that simple.”
Remus stared at Eric for another minute before turning to face me. “What’s the problem?”
“Conrad will leverage this hearing to keep me in line. We don’t know how much he knows about anything.”
“You mean the bond.”
Eric looked ready to throttle Remus anyway, despite my order to stand down. “Would you keep your voice down? That’s not exactly public knowledge.”
Remus gave a dismissive wave. “Fine, we can assess first. Have you called him yet?”
“Called who?” I asked.
“Detective Hart. He’s been gone what,” he sniffed the air, “a couple of hours at most? Patience doesn’t strike me as your Alpha’s strong point. He’s likely already started questioning him.”
The contents of my stomach turned sour, and I landed heavily in the nearest seat. “Torture. You think Conrad would torture Josh?”
Remus shrugged. “If you’re worried, call him. Also, we all have extensive training in resisting interrogation. Josh isn’t likely to tell them anything he doesn’t want them to know.”
I pulled up Josh’s encrypted number. The number had been blocked for so long, it was no wonder it hadn’t occurred to me. When the line connected, I almost hung up in shock. “Josh?”
There was an indistinct mumble.
“Moonbeam, it’s me.”
“Elijah?” My name came through muffled and thick, as if I’d woken him from a deep sleep.
I let out a sigh of relief. If he was safe enough to sleep, then he was okay. “I need to ask you a few questions. Do you think you can answer them?”
He hummed sleepily.
“I know you’re tired, but I need you to focus, my love.” No response. “Josh?” I checked the connection. It was still live. “Can you hear me?” I glanced at the others.
“What is it?” Eric asked.
“I think he fell back asleep.”
Remus snickered. “It’s a soldier’s life.” Eric smacked him, and he laughed again.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream poured through the connection. I shot to my feet, adrenaline pumping through every inch of my body. “Josh!” I shouted, and then the line cut out.
“What the hell was that?” Eric asked, looking visibly shaken.
Remus growled something that sounded disturbingly like dismembering people, then said louder, “That’s it, I’m calling the cavalry.”
I held out a shaking hand and wanted to die at the word leaving my mouth. “No.” Even Eric looked aghast. “You can’t call in your team.”
“Why the hell not? We all heard that. I am not standing by while—”
Anger surged through me, giving me a needed dose of strength. “Josh just evaded charges of misusing his position. Bringing in your unit would undermine all of that work and prove them right. Not to mention a good chunk of your team is lycan.”
“So?” Remus asked, his hand still poised to call in the troops.
“So, what happens if he’s genuinely in danger? He’s an Alpha, Remus.”
“Shit.” Remus spat out another muted curse and closed the contact hologram. “We’re just going to sit on our tails and wait then? That’s not a plan.”
“Look, this isn’t your pack. You don’t understand how tenuous everything is,” Eric attempted to clarify.
Remus crossed his arms and glared right back at Eric. “This became my pack the second my Alpha married him.” He pointed accusingly at me. “Either you start coming up with viable options or I do what I do best.”
“And what’s that?” Eric snapped right back.
“Supernatural Threat Elimination, Acquisition, and Mitigation.”
“Enough with the pissing contest already. We have bigger problems.” To my amazement, the two appeared thoroughly cowed by my outburst. I looked at Eric. “We stick to the original plan. Tomorrow morning, before the entire Klamath Pack, I’m going to make a case to spare Josh’s life.”
“And when that fails?” Remus asked.
I hesitated. “I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it. In the meantime, I need you to do me a favor. How are you at reconnaissance?”
Remus’s toothy grin was exactly the response I was hoping for.
Josh
Rage blew through me as the silver manacles closed around my wrists.
I snarled at the were taking malicious glee in my pain.
If it wasn’t for the chains holding me fast to the chair, I’d have beaten him within an inch of his life.
I was too sleep-deprived, hungry, and frankly pissed to even attempt to corral my increasingly manic state.
“Seems we finally have your attention, Detective.”
I transferred my glower to the insipid Alpha leering back at me.
Had I realized the drastically under-funded Klamath Pack was in possession of magic-imbued silver restraints, I might have reconsidered this asinine plan to do nothing.
As it was, I was already committed to inaction, and I refused to jeopardize whatever plan Elijah was working on.
“Maybe now you’ll be more amenable to my questions.”
I stared at him.
Mallin grabbed his wrists behind his back and stared levelly right back. “How long have you been working with Elijah? When did he find you? How much is he paying you?”
Paying me? And what’s with all the questions about Elijah? Does he not even care about what I’ve done to Tommy? Levi? Keith? Zeke?
“Answer me. When were you planning to overthrow me? Was the attack by your supposed mother even real, or merely a ploy to undermine my authority?”
Is he fucking kidding me?
My mouth remained firmly shut, but my face was less than quiet. A skeptical eyebrow rose of its own accord at the blatant paranoia accosting me. Mallin clearly didn’t care about the pack, only that he was in control of it.
He gestured to the were standing beside me, the one that had awoken me with the burn of spelled-silver being wrapped around my body. I was a little disappointed to see that my previous playmates had been replaced with stouter stock.
“See if you can help loosen his tongue.”
The brute’s ham fist smashed into the side of my face without a whisper of hesitation. Stars exploded across my vision, and my ears filled with a sickening crunch of bone.
“Not his face!” Mallin fumed.
The brute glanced from my rapidly swelling jaw to his alpha. “But the rest of him is covered in silver.”
“Then move the chains.”
The were grunted, but donned the gloves he’d previously used to handle the restraints.
I spat out a mouthful of blood at his feet, then showed my teeth when it met with no reaction. These morons seriously had no idea who they were fucking with. Elijah help them, they’d be unidentifiable masses of bodily fluids by the time I was done with them.
The blow that landed in my gut lacked follow-through, but didn’t want for overall power. I gritted through hit after hit, not bothering to restrain my grunts or growing snarl. Each punch further crystallized my rage.
I am a Lycan Detective, for fuck’s sake. The most elite soldiers in the world and the deadliest of lycans have cowered at the mere mention of my name. And these… these cretins think they can treat me like this? Not even hell will save them from my wrath.
Outrage boiled in my veins and I shot the lycan about to throw yet another punch a withering glare.
He faltered, and the were beside him instantly slid in to resume where he’d left off.
I doubled over and panted through the aching pain dominating my abdomen.
Werewolf healing could do a lot, but even it had its limits, and it did nothing to anesthetize.
“Stop.” Conrad Mallin’s command was both unexpected and unwanted. I could handle anything these untrained lycans put out, and I intended to return every iota of it twofold at the first opportunity.
I straightened up, doing my damnedest not to betray how weak my core was after the repeated abuse. The two thugs stepped back, massaging bruised knuckles. I curled my lip in distaste at their lack of discipline.
Mallin walked back to the entrance of the room where he quietly poured a glass of oddly tinted water from the pitcher he’d brought with him.
Once the cup was full, he crossed the room yet again until he was standing a scant meter away.
He held it out to me, its contents sloshing out to land in a bluish puddle on the unfinished floor. “You must be parched.”
I put every ounce of loathing I could muster into my glare. He could have me tied to a chair and beaten, but I could make his death last for hours, days if I was patient.
“No?” He took a sip and held it back out, closer this time. “Are you sure?”
My nose twitched. Whatever was in that glass mostly smelled like water. There was a hint of something eerily familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Maybe if black spots weren’t dancing across my vision, I’d be able to focus enough to pin it down.
Either way, whether he’d drunk from the same cup or not, I didn’t trust anything he offered me.
In a move that had my middle screaming in protest, I brought my knee up and knocked the cup clear.
Liquid splayed across the room and splashed against the far wall as the cup itself rattled to the ground.
Anger flashed across Mallin’s face, only for him to immediately hide it with a mask of indifference. “So be it. I don’t need your confession. The entire world knows I’m free to do whatever I want with you. In less than fourteen hours, Elijah Bennett will beg for your life.” He paused for effect.
I didn’t give him the satisfaction.
He sniffed. “You should know, there is literally nothing he could say or do to sway me to spare your miserable existence. You made your bed the moment you stepped foot on my land.” Mallin leaned down to get in my face, the stench of his arrogance clogging my already swollen nose.
“Tomorrow, in front of the entire Klamath Pack, you will die… and then so will he.”
Panic briefly eclipsed the throbbing agony dominating my body.
Does he know about the bond? How did he find out? Who could have possibly told him?
Mallin straightened and waved for the others to follow him topside. The door at the top of the stairs thudded shut, and all of my control went up in smoke.
I fought in vain against the chains that held me.
Each violent lurch brought a fresh wave of searing pain as the spelled metal found rejuvenated skin to burn.
I continued to struggle, nearly toppling the chair, until there was no fight left in me.
A howl of hopelessness stuck in my throat.
I choked on it, unwilling to give Mallin so much as a syllable of my suffering, and wept in silence.
Please, Elijah, please find a way to live.