23. Deacon
Chapter twenty-three
Deacon
I follow Noah away from yet another empty building. Night is falling, and so far, we’ve come up empty, though apparently some of the other teams have been luckier.
There were no scents to pick up, so I think that one’s been abandoned for a while. My phone buzzes as I slide into the passenger seat of the car, and Noah pulls away from the kerb as I fish it out of my pocket.
It’s Kieran, letting me know he and Drew are on their way to the pack house. I lean back in my seat, tapping out a reply, then idly scroll through other messages as we go. Vasile sent me a text earlier to say he was going to the clan house but not to worry.
I am worried, though I’m certain he’s safe. Our bond is weak, but I’d know if he was injured.
Well, badly injured.
Still. One of the vampires would have been in touch if something had gone wrong. I’m surprised it’s taken him this long to get out of the building. He doesn’t like being cooped up, and with Tamesis doing whatever he likes…
“Everything okay, alpha?” Noah asks when we stop at a red light.
“Hmm. Fine.” He’s done a good job tonight; no less than I expect of him, but still, it’s part of my job to take note of that. “How many did Orion say they have?”
“A dozen, last I heard.”
A dozen. It’s a decent number, hopefully enough that we’ve put a bit of a dent in Tamesis’ forces. We won’t have long before we have to lure him out—maybe a day or two—and I’d like the odds to be on our side as much as possible when that happens.
When we arrive back at the pack house, Kieran and Drew are already there, waiting in my office. Chaya is waiting with them, which means Orion is likely with the wolves who have been found.
“Alpha,” Kieran says.
I look him over for a moment, thinking of what Vasile said to me last night. He’d be fine if I wasn’t here. One of the other alphas would step up and take over, likely Rhea, but maybe even Chaya or Orion. I don’t think anyone would challenge them if they did.
Drew keeps his eyes low until I drop into the seat behind my desk and sigh.
“We found no one,” I say. “Some of the other teams had better luck?”
Chaya nods, and Drew darts a look at me. He’s not scared of me; he’s just still nervous and being here to identify members of his old pack is likely making him more so. “We have eleven members of your old pack, we believe,” she says to Kieran and Drew, “and one of Alpha Hale’s betas.”
Drew goes still, and Kieran sits up straighter in his seat. “You didn’t say that when you called.” His tone is cautious, not confrontational, but Chaya grimaces all the same.
“I know. I’m sorry. The wolves who brought him in didn’t remember him from your challenge. It wasn’t until Orion and I got there that we realised who he was.”
“Is he with the others?”
“Yes. We’ve kept them all together so you can look them all over and talk to them at once.”
It makes sense; we have places to put prisoners—which we don’t really have, more wolves who are misbehaving and need a place to cool off—but not lots of them. And these wolves are dangerous if their bonds are still being influenced by Tamesis.
“I’ll talk to him as well,” Drew says, and Kieran shakes his head.
“No, I can do it. I’ll recognise wolves from our pack. Not like Dad was letting anyone new in.”
“They need to speak to someone they know,” I say as Drew frowns. “Tamesis’ influence cannot be overstated. Drew has a better chance of getting through to them, and you know it.”
Kieran sighs, leaning back in his chair again.
Drew nods. “I can do it. I came because Quinn can’t. It’s not like he can get to me.”
“No,” I say quickly, voice dangerous. “He absolutely will not.”
Drew nods again. “Yeah, okay. Can we go now?”
He stands before he’s finished the question, and Chaya stands with him, smiling at him softly. He’s come a long way since he was last here, and it’s not entirely down to his mates or his brother.
We head through the pack house, down into the cellar, where a handful of cells are. The building is deceptively large; the alpha before me bought three of them and knocked them through, creating all the space we’d need.
Sure enough, Orion is waiting down there, leaning against the wall as he scrolls on his phone. He stands when he sees us, expression betraying his boredom.
“Any trouble?” I ask.
“Nah.” He jerks his chin at the cell that holds Hale’s beta. “He’s the mouthiest one, but he’s pretty easy to ignore.”
“Kurt,” Drew mutters.
Kurt’s glaring at Drew, narrowed in on him out of all of us.
“Breaking their pack bonds will keep them free from Tamesis’ influence, won’t it?” Kieran asks. He doesn’t bother lowering his voice; they’d hear him anyway.
He also already knows the answer to that question. Quinn’s made it clear he can’t feel anything from any of them.
“Yes,” I reply. “He will no longer be able to control them.”
Drew nods. He moves, stepping up to the cells that contain his old pack members, putting his back to the cell with Kurt in it. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end at the sight, but when I look at Kieran, he’s wearing a faint smirk.
When he won his challenge, I thought he’d learnt how to fight wolves from his father, too. I already knew he could kill vampires.
In a way, I think he did. He took every skill his father taught him—and a few more, considering the guests who came here to see him fight—and turned them against him. Against any wolf who might cross him.
“Drew?” one of the wolves asks. She’s a young woman, a little older than him. “You’re here?”
“Yeah,” he says. “What were you all doing?”
“We can’t help it,” another says. “It’s like he’s stronger than the alpha. He tells us what to do and we—”
His eyes flash silver and he lunges for the bars. Drew doesn’t move, even as the wolf growls at him and the others in his cell retreat.
“You need to break your pack bonds.”
They all—aside from the wolf still snarling at the bars—exchange horrified looks. Being a lone wolf is no easy feat. It’s the rare wolf who chooses it for themselves, and most who go through it resolve to never leave a pack again. We’re not built to be alone.
“We can’t,” the woman says. Tears fill her eyes. “Drew, sorry, but we can’t—”
“If you don’t, he’ll still control you. He’ll use you to hurt the wolves here, and they’ll fight back. You know they will.”
“How many are we missing?” I ask when she doesn’t reply.
Drew shakes his head. “So many. Dad’s betas, every fighter…” He glances over his shoulder at Kurt. “He’s the only one you’ve got who I’d usually consider dangerous.”
The wolves from his pack don’t deny it. They’re either young like Drew—strong, sure, but likely to not be fully trained, if they’re fighters at all—or much, much older.
“Children?” I ask.
Drew shakes his head. “I-I haven’t—We didn’t have many pups anyway, but—”
He’s trying not to think about it. With any luck, Tamesis has simply left them with their parents, but considering what happened to Quinn’s family… I look at Kurt, and when I step between him and Drew, his eyes snap to me. “What did Tamesis do with the pups?”
His lip curls back. He wants to shift, and he can do that if he must, but he’s clearly interested in learning what the pack wolves will do.
He can’t fight the command in my voice, either, which means Tamesis’ attention is elsewhere. He’d feel his curiosity, if not. After a moment, he shrugs. “They’re still alive,” he says. “Helps to have another way to keep unruly wolves under control.”
Drew turns to face him. “You mean like Quinn?”
“Sneaky little fucker,” Kurt growls. “We thought we’d lead you into a trap. Hale will still have you, you know. He knows you haven’t completed the mating bond yet.”
Drew doesn’t react, and I look over at Kieran, who’s watching Kurt with as much disdain as I am.
“Can we join your pack?” the woman behind us asks, and Kieran’s eyebrows go up when he realises she’s talking to him. “If we break our bonds?”
“Not right away,” he says, and her hopeful expression drops. “We need to finish this first.”
“What about Quinn?” I ask.
“He’s not part of our pack yet either,” Kieran says, at least letting me know he’s considering it. “He needs time. You all will. It’s not an easy thing to break that bond.”
Wolf or not, Kieran’s done it before, and the woman realises it at the same time as I do. Drew lets out a heavy sigh, brushing their shoulders together. “He’ll ask you,” he murmurs.
“I know.” Kieran flashes him a smile, sad though it is. “I was surprised he wasn’t two steps behind you when you came to London.”
We need to get this done. I ignore Kurt, looking at the wolves in the other cells. “If you break your connection to your pack, then I can move you to other packs around the city and we’ll do our best to keep you safe from Tamesis. I know that’s a big ask. But our only other choice is to keep you here because we can’t trust you when Tamesis can influence you via the bond.”
They all cluster together, speaking in low tones, and I do my best not to listen, watching Kurt instead. Kieran has his attention split between the group of wolves and Kurt, but Drew is ignoring him completely, and Kurt doesn’t seem to like that at all.
“He’s coming for you,” he growls, and when Kieran takes a step forward, I shake my head. Drew doesn’t look back. “Hale. He’s going to make you pay for turning him down.”
Drew does look over at that, his expression impressively mild. “How?”
“I—What?”
“How is he going to make me pay?”
“He’ll kill your mates.”
“You know he won’t manage that.” Drew puts his hands behind his back. I see a tremble in his fingers, but I can’t smell fear on him. Seems he learnt just as well as his brother. “Sam doesn’t even have to get close to him to kill him.”
“A mage?” Kurt scoffs. “He’ll tear him to pieces, and that vampire, and—”
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself?” Drew asks, and the tilt of his head, the speculative glint in his eye…
It’s all Sam. I glance to the side, catching the smile Orion turns his head to hide.
“What?”
“I don’t know where Hale is, and sure, he might manage to sneak up on one of us, but we’re obviously all more worried about Tamesis than we are him right now. But you’re… here. You got caught.” Drew takes a step towards the cell. “You failed.”
Kurt growls, lunging at the bars, and silver floods his irises a moment before he shifts. As a wolf, he has to struggle out of his clothes and snarls and snaps at Drew, throwing himself against the metal.
It will hold him. He’s not even close to the most impressive wolf we’ve had to hold down here.
“Dickhead,” Kieran mutters. He looks back at the wolves in the other cells. “Have you made up your minds?”
“Yes,” the woman says. “We’ll break our bonds. But we need to know we’ll be kept safe.”
“We’ll endeavour to do our best,” I reply. “We deal with a few lone wolves, so we can look after you that way for now. If my betas believe you can be trusted, you’ll be moved to different packs. You won’t be able to join any until we’ve dealt with Tamesis, but they’ll care for you in the meantime.”
She nods, closing her eyes as she turns her attention inwards. All the others do the same, and we all ignore Kurt, who’s still snapping and snarling, in favour of watching them.
It’s easy to see when the bond breaks. Their expressions change from concentration to pain, one of the younger men letting out a little cry as he leans against the wall. The woman opens her eyes again first. “It’s done.”
“Good.” I’m not planning to let them out right now, but they can be dealt with tonight. “Let’s speak outside. Orion will be back with you in a moment.”
She looks as though she wants to argue for a second, but Drew shakes his head. “It’s okay, Val. They’ll look after you.”
She nods, then looks at Kieran.
“They will,” he says, and she drops her eyes.
“Thank you, alpha.”
I don’t know which one of us she’s talking to, and I don’t stop to ask. Orion, Drew, and Kieran follow me out of the room and down the hallway.
“What do you want me to do with them?” Orion asks.
“Talk to each of them one-on-one,” I say. “We need to be sure none of them are secretly working with Tamesis. I wouldn’t put it past him to have a regular spy.”
Drew frowns, chewing on his lower lip. His hands are still shaking, but he crosses his arms over his chest like he doesn’t want us to see.
He doesn’t need to be ashamed of it. We all saw him at the challenge, and both Orion and I understand his fear. He did an admirable job in there.
He doesn’t need me to tell him that, either.
“You did great,” Kieran whispers, squeezing his arm gently.
“They’re not bad people,” Drew says. “Well, besides Kurt.”
“We just need to be sure,” I reply. “I can’t send them to other packs without knowing I’m not introducing a new danger.”
He nods.
“Rhea might be the best choice,” Orion says. “Or Axel. Levi’s got enough to be getting on with.”
“I’ll call her and ask.” There are at least a couple of them I’m certain are not working for Tamesis, so we might as well get the ball rolling.
“We’ll head back,” Kieran says. “If you don’t need us for anything else? I want to know what Sam and the others are working on.”
“All right. I’ll talk to Levi and see if he’s got everything sorted at Bite.”
“You’ll be by later?” Kieran asks, now wearing a shit-eating grin. I sigh and roll my eyes when I realise it’s a mirror of Orion’s expression.
“Yes, probably.” We all know I will be, and even Drew looks faintly amused.
Kieran takes Drew by the arm, ready to leave, when Chaya comes rushing down the stairs. Her eyes are wide, panicked, and her scent—
“What’s happened?” I ask.
“It’s the clan,” she says, gaze darting between the four of us. “The clan house is under attack.”