Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
The flashing blue and red lights reminded me of a scene from a movie or some horrible news clip on television. We were still far away, but the lights were almost blinding in the darkness.
Killian groaned, still in pain. “This night keeps getting better. I’m covered in blood and injured. Isn’t that bad enough?”
“It’s nice to see my alpha being so strong and brave.” Sierra snorted.
“Well, we can’t leave the Navigator there. It’s already been over twelve hours at this point.” Griffin’s knuckles turned white as he clutched the steering wheel.
Ugh. Once again, it felt like we were in an impossible situation. My mind began to race, causing my sanity to crack. I was so damn tired of us being put in difficult positions.
No. I couldn’t break down. Not now.
“Let’s park somewhere downtown and take the woods into the school,” I suggested. “We can climb over the fence relatively easily.” The huge gate and fence were only for the front part of the campus, in order to appear secure for the humans coming to visit, despite them never being admitted. This was a supernaturals-only college, but I knew they had to keep up the charade that everyone had a chance of attending. In truth, because of Griffin’s father leading the charge, supernaturals from all over the world could attend. The admissions staff just weeded out the human applicants. Living this close to a powerful, hidden supernatural city would raise human suspicions and threaten to expose our races’ presence to the human world.
Though we were much stronger than humans, they outnumbered us by leaps and bounds. And the few humans who had learned about us had developed weapons that could take us out. We didn’t remain hidden for noble reasons—it was a means of survival.
“I can’t go in there,” Julius insisted. “We need to go somewhere else and forget about your damn cars.”
“Except that Killian and Griffin disappeared, leaving their cars behind. This could be all about finding them.” I had been so arrogant. I’d suggested they get a rental car so they could follow me without easily showing up on the enemy’s radar. I’d thought that we’d return before nightfall, but I’d underestimated my enemy and might have caused this new situation. “If that’s the case and we don’t get their cars now, it could escalate things. You two should check in with your packs.”
“Then how are you going to explain me?” Julius’s voice took on a wild edge. “The people who are hunting you—well, now us—have spies everywhere. I can’t be spotted.”
“Killian introduced me at the university, and it wasn’t a huge deal.” He was freaking out over being seen, which made me wonder who was involved. Maybe this was a bigger group than we realized…or there were more people we trusted who could be wrapped up in this. What had those people done to Julius? “It’s not like they’re going to be able to tell you’re a silver wolf on sight. If that were the case, they would’ve known about me.”
Julius snapped, “We need to keep a low profile, which is the opposite of strolling up to police officers with a new person in tow, another who’s been missing for weeks, and a Shadow Ridge alpha who’s been shot up.”
My stomach dropped, and bile rose in the back of my throat.
“What are you trying to say?” Griffin stopped the car in the middle of the road and turned toward the back. “That we run and hide? You obviously don’t know Carter well. If none of us show up with his brother, he’ll start running his mouth to anyone who’ll listen.”
“Regardless, if they’re looking for Killian and Griffin, the longer we wait to show up, the more cops they’ll have searching everywhere, which means you could be discovered, anyway,” I said.
“It’s not like I can hide in the trunk. They’ll smell my scent. I guess I need to make it on my own.” Julius’s nostrils flared.
“Not happening,” Griffin growled, and his eyes darkened. “Do you think that after you tried kidnapping Sterlyn multiple times to hand her over to some self-absorbed prick, we’re going to trust you and let you go? There’s no way in hell. In fact, you’re going to tell us who the prick is, or we’ll beat it out of you when we finally get back to the house.”
“He must think we’re idiots.” Killian’s face tightened, and he glanced at Julius, giving a small flinch as the only sign that his shoulder pained him. “Maybe we should just kill him and lose the threat.”
“That wouldn’t be smart.” My chest squeezed at the thought of something happening to Julius, but I couldn’t let my emotions factor into this any longer. I needed to keep my head on straight but make sure I didn’t lose my heart.
Dear God, if Dad knew how many times I’d repeated his little teaching moments that I used to roll my eyes at, he’d tease me and tell me he was smarter than I ever gave him credit for. But that was the problem with pure warriors who pushed their hearts aside. For whatever reason, they left their hearts outside the equation and made decisions based on logic, and that was when what was right became blurred concerning what they wanted done. Both parts were equally important—one shouldn’t outweigh the other. “Right now, let’s figure out our first problem, because he’s afraid.”
Julius’s gaze met mine, and his pointer finger tapped on his leg.
He was uncomfortable that I’d called him out. Being afraid was hard for silver wolves to admit. Being confident and steadfast was ingrained in us.
“Okay, she has good points,” Sierra jumped in, surprising me. She normally stayed out of strategy conversations. “So what do we do?”
“I still say kill the asshole,” Killian grumbled and scowled. He looked a little green and sweaty, and I wondered if his wound was feeling worse.
Randall lifted a hand. “Hey, if that’s what my alpha wants, who am I to disagree?”
Despite the horrible situation, his response made me smile. There was a little bit of Carter’s smart mouth in him after all.
The sound of fluttering wings notified me that Rosemary was near. She tapped on my window, and I rolled it down.
She crossed her arms as she glared at me. “What the hell is going on? You’re sitting in the middle of the road, stopped after midnight, not far away from a school crawling with Shadow City and Shadow Ridge guards.”
“Shadow City?” Griffin leaned back against the headrest. “I figured it was only Shadow Ridge.”
That could mean they were looking for Griffin. “What do we do? We can’t show up with Julius as our prisoner and Killian injured.”
“I’ll take Julius with me to Griffin’s.” Rosemary rolled her shoulders as she prepared for his extra weight. “And I’ll heal Killian. As long as you have an extra shirt, we should be good.”
I kept forgetting she could heal. “Are you sure? You’ve been sticking your neck out for us a whole lot more than I could ever ask of you.”
“That’s one reason I don’t mind doing it.” Her gaze softened, and her beauty became even more breathtaking. She was so gorgeous that someone should have erected a statue of her. “You embody everything Mom told me about silver wolves, and thus, it’s an honor to help you.” She cleared her throat, seeming uncomfortable with her moment of vulnerability, and yanked open the back door on the passenger side. “Pull your shirt off,” she ordered, and leaned over Randall toward Killian.
“Uh...” Killian seemed baffled for a second, and he swallowed nervously, still looking a bit green. He moved toward her, lowering his voice as if that would make any difference with all our supernatural ears. “I mean...I’m not saying no, but is now the time? Maybe a date first—”
Uh...does he have a thing for Rosemary? I snorted, somehow keeping the noise solely inside mine and Griffin’s heads.
Griffin’s shoulders shook, and his amusement flowed into me. Not that I’m aware of, but who knows? I ’ ve never heard him say something with so much sincerity.
I knew they ’ d gotten closer, but I hadn ’ t realized it had come to this. Normally, races stuck to their own kind, but the thought of those two being together didn’t bother me. They’d make a great team.
“Oh, dear God.” Rosemary’s eyes sparkled with humor before her perfectly veiled expression snapped back into place. “Didn’t you just hear that I’m going to heal you? Your shirt is drenched with blood, and it works faster if I touch the actual wound.”
Killian laughed loudly and winked, but I suspected he might be trying too hard to convince us. “Of course. I totally knew that.”
He slowly removed his shirt, and Rosemary made a point of locking eyes with me as if she were making sure we knew that she wasn’t watching him, which seemed odd. Something has to be going on between those two.
“Damn it.” Killian groaned as he pulled the shirt over his head. “That still hurts a lot. Shouldn’t I be healed more by now?”
“They laced their bullets with wolfsbane,” Julius muttered. “To make you die more painfully.”
Great, we had sick, sadistic assholes hunting us. No wonder Killian still looked shaky. I shouldn’t have been surprised—they did want to capture me to either force me into birthing babies or kill me. Little did the general wolf population know that silver wolves reproduced at a slower rate. That was one reason why Dad and Mom had only me...and, well, Cyrus. Even the males were affected by a low reproductive rate. A regular wolf could birth a baby a year, but it took a silver wolf ten years, if not longer, to conceive once we began to try, and our window of fertility was drastically reduced, as well. Realistically, Griffin and I would most likely have only one child, two max. My pack had been the only one in existence, and we’d kept how little we could reproduce a secret. We were already living in hiding since we’d always feared people would hunt us for this exact reason—to manipulate us and use our strength and magic against everyone else to control all the races.
Dad had told me that we were gifted by the moon to not only be stronger but to also make us pure in intent. Great power comes with responsibility, and magic had a way of balancing itself. Silver wolves would never want to rule over the supernatural world because we wanted the best for everyone, not just ourselves or our race.
“Lovely,” Rosemary retorted as she placed her hands on Killian’s wound. Her hands glowed an iridescent white as she pushed her magic into his injury. “Thankfully, that won’t impact my magic.”
“Oh, thank God.” Killian sighed as his body began to heal in earnest. “That was almost unbearable.”
She kept her hands on him for a few more seconds, then dropped them and stared at Julius. She commanded, “Get out. You’re coming with me.” Glancing at Griffin, she added, “And get the hell out of the middle of the road. You’re lucky no one else has come through here yet.”
“It’s the middle of the night.” Griffin lifted both hands. “We should be good.”
Julius blew out a breath and squeezed past Randall out of the car.
Rosemary still blocked most of the doorway, proving I was right to trust her to take the silver wolf. She knew that if she moved even a foot too far away, Julius could take off. Yes, she was fast, but on a full moon, he could outrun her. Thankfully, she could outfly him, but she needed to stay close and always on alert.
When he climbed from the SUV, she grabbed his arms and took off toward the sky. “I’ll meet you at Griffin’s!” she called, but they were out of sight before I could respond.
I watched as Sierra climbed into the far back seat by Killian then started digging through the trunk as Griffin followed Rosemary’s instructions, pulling to the side of the road.
“Here. Please.” Sierra tossed Killian a shirt and covered her eyes with her hands. “You’re like a brother to me, and I prefer you clothed.”
I cringed, trying to keep my eyes averted. Killian was an attractive man, but I viewed him as family now. And no one wanted to see their brother naked.
“Me too,” Griffin deadpanned and winked at me, trying to help with the emotions he could feel brimming inside me.
I loved him so much for it, but I wouldn’t feel at ease until we were back home safe in our bed. “It might be best if Sierra and Randall don’t come to the university with us. Maybe they can hang out in the woods until we come back and pick them up. It would be safe for them here, especially in wolf form.”
“We can shift and run back to the pack neighborhood. It’s only about a twenty-minute run from here,” Sierra said as she stretched and patted Randall’s arm. “I can drop Randall at his house. And I bet I’ll still beat you back to your place.”
“Yeah, I linked to Carter now that we’re close enough.” Randall rolled his eyes. “He’s a hot mess and needs to see me. I love him, but damn, he can be high maintenance.”
“Thanks for that.” Killian groaned. “He’s been nagging nonstop.”
“Wait...isn’t it supposed to be the younger brother bugging the older one?” Sierra climbed back to the middle row and gestured for Randall to get out.
Randall laughed, but it held an edge. “Yeah, that’s what I always thought, but that hasn’t been the case.”
“I hate to ask, but before you go...” I turned my body, wanting Randall to feel my sincerity. “Do you know or remember anything that could help us?”
“I don’t think so.” Randall exhaled and grimaced. “I mean…it was those five guards most of the time. Julius only dropped by every now and then. They talked about some guy in charge that only showed his face to Julius, but they were all promised large sums of money and a nice place to live. Other than talking shit about each other, they were kind of tight-lipped.”
That didn’t surprise me. They wouldn’t want to divulge too much in case Randall did get free. But I’d had to at least try. “Well, if you think of anything later, let us know.”
He opened the door and got out, then paused. “Thank you all for saving me.” His attention locked on me. “And I know it’s because of you that I got out. If you hadn’t seen me…” He trailed off, and his face filled with horror. “I...I don’t know what would have happened.” He moved out of the way, heading to the tree line.
“I’ll see you at Griffin’s.” Sierra climbed out of the car, but before shutting the door, she stuck her head back in. “And be careful. The three of you attract crazy like I’ve never seen before.” She slammed the door and hurried after Randall.
“You know, you could go with them.” Griffin put the car in drive but didn’t press the gas. “And keep an eye on them.”
In other words, he wanted me to stay protected. But they were safe in the woods, and we both knew it. The enemy wouldn’t have regrouped yet. They would attack again—and soon—but not tonight. “Did you mean it when you said you want us to lead your people together?”
His shoulders tensed, knowing his answer would only reinforce that I should go with him. Instead of answering, he blew out a breath and turned back toward the university.
“If you’re going to be mad at anyone, it should be fate.” Killian chuckled behind me, but it was devoid of humor. “She’s the one who put you together with a headstrong, independent fighting machine.” I heard shuffling as he moved from the far back onto the middle seat.
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Griffin rubbed his eyes and sighed. “The truth is, we protect each other. Not just her and me, but you, too. We’re stronger together.”
The truth of his words hung in the car the entire way to the university. We were stronger together. The three of us were not just friends, but family…a pack. It was about damn time we started seeing each other that way. The divide among shifters, particularly our kind, only weakened us. It was a self-inflicted injury.
The university came into view as we followed the black wrought-iron fence to the empty guard station. Griffin pulled the entry card from the rental’s glove box and scanned it, opening the gates.
He slowly pulled to the front of the main office building. Guards shouted at our approach, not familiar with the SUV, and Dick Harding marched out in his black suit with a guard right behind him.
I sucked in a breath. Of course Dick would be here. He was a council member and vying for Griffin’s top spot, even though my mate hadn’t quite figured that out yet. But he was beginning to.
If that asshole was on campus, that meant he was using whatever situation we’d just driven into to gain more control. But I wouldn’t let Griffin fall victim to some narcissistic, power-hungry douchebag. It was time to take a stand together in front of everyone. The moment to show that Griffin and I would lead together without outside influence was now.
In other words, it was time to take back what was rightfully Griffin’s.