Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Griffin's eyes glowed brightly in the dark room as his wolf surged forward. "What do you mean? I thought the guy who kidnapped you killed himself."
"Well, yes, but he wasn't the one who knocked me out at the coffee shop." The memory of the familiar footsteps replayed in my mind, followed by the prick and the apology. "Carter injected me with something."
"What?" Griffin growled. "When I reached the coffee shop, trying to find you after you asked for help, he told me someone took you."
"Because the bear shifter did take me. He was the one driving the car." The betrayal sat hard on my chest as the reality of the situation landed on me. I got that Carter and I only worked together, but I’d thought we were at least somewhat friends—and I hadn’t sensed any bad vibes from him. The next words hurt to say. "He knocked me out for him."
"I'm going to inform Killian, since Carter’s part of his pack, and then kill him." Griffin stood, and a vein popped between his eyebrows as his body tensed with anger. "I'll rip him limb from limb, starting with his dick."
Okay, he actually went to the male appendage first, but I had to admit the thought had merit. Even though Killian was Carter’s alpha, technically, Griffin ruled over the pack because he was the Shadow City alpha. So, Griffin could yank Carter’s dick off without penalty.
I rubbed my arms, trying to fight off the cold sinking into my bones. I was even more exhausted; I'd almost been asleep when the memory woke me. The day had been long and hard—both physically and mentally—but this was something that couldn't be ignored.
"Killian should know." Griffin opened the bedroom door and marched down the hallway toward the living room. Each step rattled the pictures that hung on the walls.
"Dude, what the hell?" Killian asked, alarmed. "Are you trying to wake up the dead?"
"The only thing louder than your walking would be someone playing the drums," Sierra complained. "I was almost asleep."
I realized I better get in there before Griffin did something stupid. I forced myself to get up and hurried into the living room, despite my legs feeling like they weighed a hundred pounds each.
"Sterlyn remembered something about her attackers in the coffee shop," Griffin rasped. "And we've got a huge problem."
I joined them in the living room as Sierra sat up on the couch and blinked, asking, "Sterlyn?"
Yeah…we had to be more careful, or we'd wind up having to tell her everything. "That's my real name."
"Thank God. Dove is atrocious. Sterlyn fits you so much better with your hair and silver-purple eyes." She grinned. "Your parents nailed naming you."
She had no clue how true that statement was.
"‘Attackers?’" Killian’s brows furrowed. "As in plural?"
"Yeah, I thought there was only one, but when I was dozing off, a memory came back to me." I dreaded telling Killian who it was. He and Carter had some kind of bromance I didn't want to interfere with, but we were working as a team, so they all needed to know.
He scowled at me. "Well, then who attacked you?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Griffin cut me off, "Carter. Your bestie."
"What?" Killian scoffed and shook his head. "No way. He linked with me and told me that someone took her."
God, how many times was I going to have to hear the same thing? "Because the bear shifter took me. That was the only thing he could say without his lie coming to light. But he injected me with God knows what while I was in the pantry, getting the coffee beans that he asked me to get. He even apologized before I completely passed out."
"That doesn't make any sense." Killian pulled his phone from his jeans pocket like he was going to make a call. He set it on the edge of the recliner and grimaced. "Look, I'm not trying to be a dick here—"
"Normally, when someone starts off with a comment like that, they're going to be a dick." Sierra placed her feet on the ground and got upright. "So don't even try to qualify it. Just own your damn statement."
Killian glowered at her. "You aren't helping."
"I didn't know I was supposed to." Sierra crossed her arms as she leaned back on the couch.
"Just say what you want to say." I wanted this conversation over with so I could go back to bed. I was struggling to stand on both feet at this point.
Killian scratched the back of his neck. "Are you sure it was Carter? If you were drugged—"
The question stung. "Do you honestly think I would accuse someone if I wasn't one hundred percent sure?" My feelings were hurt that he was second-guessing me. I got that he’d known Carter longer than me, but I thought we'd developed a bond. Maybe I'd misread the situation.
"Dammit, I didn't mean it like that." Killian ran a hand down his face. "You were drugged, and maybe your memory got distorted. That's all I'm trying to say."
"Dude, if Sterlyn says that he did it, then why are you trying to brush it under the rug?" Griffin wrapped an arm around my waist, glaring at his best friend. "Are you really willing to ignore what she remembers because you don't want to consider the possibility that your pack member hurt her?"
"I don't mean it like that." Killian groaned with frustration. "It's just…Carter and I have been friends since childhood. We grew up in Shadow Ridge together. I know his entire family, and that just doesn't sound like him."
"Maybe he didn't have a choice." Sierra lifted a hand, trying to be the voice of reason. "There's no telling what happened, and I agree with Griffin. Sterlyn is no fool, and if she remembers something, we need to check it out."
My heart warmed from both Griffin and Sierra having my back. Usually, I could count on Killian—but not now. My emotions were raw from the entire day, so I couldn’t help but feel vulnerable. Being objective wasn’t possible for me right now.
"You're right." Killian's shoulders sagged. "I'm being a dick and not thinking objectively. So, there's only one way to find out, and I want you all to hear what he says to me." Killian swiped his phone.
"No, don't call him." I understood that Killian wanted to confront him, but that wasn't the smart way to handle it. "If you call him and ask, he could disappear. We need to see him in person so we can get a good read and he can't hide, lie, or warn whomever he might be working with. If he is involved, he won't hang around just because you two are friends."
"Then how the hell do we get him here?" Killian threw his hands up. "I can't wiggle my nose and make him appear."
"You do seem kind of witchy." Sierra stuck out her tongue at him. "Especially tonight, so maybe it could work."
Those two really did act like siblings. It was clear that they had grown up together.
"I have Rosemary's number." Griffin paced in the center of the room. "I'll call her and see if she's willing to bring him here."
"Why would she help us?" Sierra arched an eyebrow. "You know she's one of the more difficult angels, seeing as who her parents are."
"Who are her parents?" That could mean so many things.
Griffin exhaled. "They’re council members who oppose me. They think I'm not strong enough to be the overall leader of the Shadow City and Shadow Ridge wolves."
"I'm not sure what that even means." They tended to forget that I wasn't raised in Shadow Ridge or Shadow City and didn’t know the hierarchy.
"From what I’ve gathered from my history classes, it's similar to the humans’ political structure that you’ve grown up with." He rubbed his hands together. "Like the House and the Senate. Technically, I'm the Senate, while the other two wolf representatives are in the House. So I can veto anything they bring to the table."
"So, what is Rosemary's family?"
"Her mom and dad are the House of Representatives, with Azbogah being the Senate. So, he can't get anything passed without at least one of them agreeing, and vice versa. They’re kind of at odds and at a standstill. Nothing is getting passed on the angel side of things because they’re fighting one another."
"Which means I doubt Rosemary will want to get involved with wolf stuff." Sierra waved a hand. "All it would do is cause more of a divide between the angels if they found out."
Interesting. No wonder she was trying to be discreet about helping us. "She and I have an understanding." I wasn't willing to go into more detail than that. "Besides, she'll be willing to help out because of all the attacks going on. The more wolves who are attacked, the more likely a civil war will start."
"True, and if the council members find out that some of our own people who are supposed to be loyal to the city are working against it, things will escalate across the board." Griffin sighed. "Ever since Dad died, things keep going from bad to worse."
I understood that sentiment all too well. "Look, if Rosemary grabs Carter now, his entire family will know something is up. Why don't you call her and see if she can run by the coffee shop in the morning and pick him up? He won't be able to get out of it that way, especially with everyone around as witnesses if he makes a scene."
Griffin's face fell. "I want to question him tonight."
"I know." I did too, but sometimes you couldn't let your desperate need for answers ruin a sound strategy. "But I'm exhausted, and I could really use some sleep. If we aren't well-rested, then we could miss things when talking to him."
"She's right." Killian yawned, though his irises darkened with concern. He was still struggling with the thought of Carter hurting me. "Just call the angel and see what she says."
"Fine." Griffin pushed some buttons, and soon, a phone was ringing on the other end.
Rosemary answered on the second ring. "Is everything okay?"
"Of course not," Griffin said, annoyingly. "Why else would I be calling?"
This conversation was already starting off great. Be nice.
"You call me and then get rude within seconds." Rosemary scoffed. "Give the phone to Sterlyn. I'm done talking to you."
"Gladly." Griffin held the phone toward me.
Well, all right then. I took it and cleared my throat. "Hey, sorry we're calling so late."
"What's wrong?" Rosemary asked, as a door shut on her end.
"I remembered something about the attack earlier." I wasn’t sure why, but I didn't dislike her as the others did. She was blunt and said exactly what was on her mind. Maybe the protector side of me appreciated that, because what she said and how she acted mirrored what I felt from inside her; she tried to do the right thing, even when it was difficult. In a way, she was a warrior like the silver wolves.
She remained silent, waiting for me to continue.
"Carter’s the one who drugged me."
"That's why the idiot was freaking out." Rosemary sounded disgusted. "He tried to pretend it was because you’d vanished, but I wasn't buying it. I thought it might've been because Griffin was panicking about you being missing, but this makes more sense."
Just like that, she believed me. "Do you think you could run by the coffee shop in the morning and…grab him?"
"You don’t want me to get him now?" Rosemary asked, with surprise.
"They could be watching him." The last thing we needed was for her to alert whoever was hunting me to our location. "So it'll be safer if we wait until morning."
"It'll be easier for me too," Rosemary huffed.
"We have to be careful." Bringing him here was risky. "He can’t know where we are. We either need him brought here in a way that he can’t figure out our location, or we need to meet you somewhere else. But if we do the latter, he could have backup following him."
"Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. He won’t have a clue where you are," Rosemary reassured me. "Text me your address, and I'll be there early."
We hung up the phone, and I sent her the address.
Then Griffin and I went back to bed…and I fell fast asleep.
A loud banging woke me. My eyes popped open, and I sat upright, trying to remember where the hell I was. It took a second for me to realize that I was actually in my room back home.
"What the hell?" Griffin grumbled as he stood, and almost tripped over his feet.
"I don't know." I glanced at the clock. It was barely after eight in the morning.
Carter's voice sounded high-pitched. "Where are we? Why did you kidnap me? I need to get back to work."
"Shut up," Rosemary grumbled. "Before I make you."
"You can't just take someone without their permission," he said wildly. "Wait until your parents find out what you did!"
That was wild, coming from him. Granted, he had no clue what he was walking into.
"They aren't going to know," Rosemary bit back, as she pounded on the door again. "Because you aren't going to tell them."
We needed to get out there before Rosemary killed him; I needed answers before she slit his throat.
Rosemary opened the front door as Griffin and I joined Sierra and Killian in the living room. Carter's shaggy brown hair was a knotted mess, and his moss-green eyes almost bulged from his face when he saw the four of us standing there. He spun around, rushing past Rosemary to try to get away.
Rosemary grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him into the house. He stumbled backward, tripping and falling on his ass in front of everyone. As he stared up at us from the ground, he looked more like a child than a twenty-year-old man.
"Uh... Why did you bring me here?" he asked Rosemary, as she shut the door and twisted the lock.
"You know why," she said as she rolled her shoulders and looked at me. "And you owe me. I had to fly his ass here to make sure we weren't followed, and he screamed the whole way."
"Wolves aren't meant to fly," Carter yelled. "They are meant to have their feet on the ground. It's unnatural, what you did to me."
"I'll show you unnatural if you don't shut the fuck up," she sneered.
"Come on, man." Killian held his hand out. "Calm down. There's no reason to freak out."
"Yeah, okay." Carter’s arm shook as he took Killian's outstretched hand to stand up.
But his initial reaction proved that my memory was sound. Which meant I had to get a confession from him before he somehow manipulated Killian into believing whatever his story was. That was one thing that I loved about Killian—he was as loyal as they came…but that was also his weakness.
"Yeah, there is." I shifted my weight and placed a hand on my hip. "Because I want to know why you drugged me and handed me off to a bear shifter."
Carter's mouth dropped open, and he took in a shaky breath. "What? No, I didn't."
The sulfuric scent of a lie wafted in the room, confirming what everyone except Killian had already known.
Killian’s face twisted into an expression of disappointment, and he closed his eyes.
"You son of a bitch," Griffin yelled, as he punched Carter in the jaw.