42. Shane
Chapter 42
Shane
T wilight has faded to full dark, except for the soft glow of the interior lights of the cabin and a strand of decorative string lights over the deck. I’m still at an impasse with Colton and his pack members while the sky rumbles with encroaching thunderheads. He inspects my cabin, riffling through my belongings while his boys keep me standing in the yard seething, one on either side to keep me in line. The scent of the storm tickles my nostrils as lightning flashes its warning. Before long the rain will begin. By the time this is over any blood spilled will have washed away.
Lana lays quietly on her side in the grass. They removed the hood, but the fight has left her since I haven’t challenged Colton. Her hazel eyes, the same color and shape as my own, plead with me, pupils blown from whatever they drugged her with to keep her calm.
I know what she wants me to do. She thinks if I challenge Colton for his rank as alpha, I’ll win and take his place. It would effectively end the blood feud he’s pursuing. But I’m not interested in killing anyone else. It broke something in me when Logan Ross stopped struggling against me that night years ago. The rage that blinded me over Ethan’s death immediately faded with Logan’s last breath, and all I felt was regret and misery. I’ve felt it ever since.
“So, what’s the plan, Colt? I know you didn’t kidnap my sister and drive for a day and a half to chat on my lawn. What do you want?”
I try to focus on my enemy, but my eyes flicker to the darkened driveway where I watch helplessly as my broken phone screen illuminates over and over with incoming messages. It’s late enough that my absence at the gallery is noticed. My chest aches thinking about how badly Kaycia will be hurt waiting for me to show up. But I couldn’t risk putting her in harm’s way.
“Seems like you’ve done real well for yourself, McKinley. Nice little place here in the woods, fancy apartment in the city, well known cycle shop. Found this”—he holds out one of Kaycia’s shirts that she left behind, holding it against his face and inhaling dramatically. “From the looks of things you’ve even been playing house. Doesn’t seem like you’re still mourning or being punished at all. I don’t think that’s fair, do you boys?” Colton directs his rhetorical question to his buddies. “I’ve been missing my brother and his murderer has been having a grand time in the big city.”
“Are you going to monologue some more, or get to the fucking point?” I snarl.
“I’m taking you back with me.” Colton grabs me by the collar and shakes me like a wayward pup. “The pack wants a piece of you, and I want to show Cameron that the truce between us is over. I’m going to get the justice that should have been had years ago.” He releases me, pushing me sideways in an attempt to knock me off balance and raise my hackles.
“Fuck you. I’m not going back. As soon as you take me into the territory, I’ll be violating the exile, and it will make it legal in both packs’ eyes for you to kill me without repercussions.”
I give a vicious grin. I’d suspected his scheme, but he’s just confirmed it. No matter how much he wants to take his revenge, he’s still trying to keep his hands clean as the new alpha. He knows by seeking me out and pursuing me, he’s violating the terms of the exile as much as I’d be if I went back home.
“You’re too big of a pussy to just handle it yourself, aren’t you? What did you think? You’d toss me out on the side of the road near the hollow and say I’d returned?”
Colt’s jaw flutters, but his sneer hides any hint of further emotions. I press on with a scoff, “Is my sister, right? Do you think I’d win? You’ve already shown your lack of honor by not letting Lana go when you said you would. Afraid to tarnish it more in front of your boys when you get your ass handed to you?”
“Your bitch of a sister would just as soon attack us if we let her go as anything else,” Baseball Cap remarks, on guard closest to Lana. She gives a lazy grin in response, her eyes hateful but growing clearer as she watches.
“She’s twice the wolf you are, and she scares all of you, doesn’t she?” I respond, then turn to Colton. “I’m not going to challenge you, but I’m sure as fuck not going home with you either. So, sounds like you have a choice to make about what happens next.”
I take a few steps back toward the deck as thunder echoes again. Caleb tenses as the first drops of rain begin to pelt us in the twilight. He’s not the only one of the Ross men who looks nervous. They’ll all be complicit if I’m dragged back, and they’re already guilty of abducting my sister. If they’re questioned after dragging me along it would be my former pack’s right to punish them all. My father and mother would be allowed first blood.
It would end violently.
“You and your boys are going to have to man up and deal with me here. Or else you better leave my sister and get the fuck off my land.”
“Have it your way,” Colton snaps, eyes flashing as he dips his chin.
The two shifters closest to me spring, Tattoos grabs at me while Caleb blocks me from running the other way. I land a punch to Tattoos’ ribs, grabbing his hair and pummeling his gut until Caleb grabs me from behind. The rain soaks through my clothes and causes me to slip on the wet grass. The three of us go down in a mass of bodies, wrestling and clawing in the rain. If I shift, I could slip through the woods and come around the other side to attack, but shifting in the middle of a fight is tough and risks precious moments of vulnerability.
Time passes in snarls and punches before Ripped Jeans joins the fray and pulls me up by the back of my shirt. Between the three of them, they knock me to my knees, landing a few blows to my jaw and kicks to my ribs and gut, while Colton watches with a smug smile. When blood drips from my face, pooling on the grass at my knees, Tattoos and Ripped Jeans hold my arms, preventing me from getting to my feet.
“It’s been a while since you’ve fought hasn’t it, McKinley? You look a little rusty,” Colton gloats walking toward me as the rain cleanses the blood from our already healing wounds.
Breathing hard, I struggle for a moment, my fangs threatening to break free as the shift calls to me. It always does when there’s blood and violence. But the urge dies as soon as I hear a shout from the bottom of the drive.
“Shane? Shane! ” Kaycia shrieks over the storm as she runs up the driveway wearing the jacket I gave her.
Where the fuck did she come from? How did I not hear her or scent her?
“Kaycia, no!” I struggle harder, trying to make her understand. Tattoos twists my arm harder behind my back. My shoulder threatens to dislocate and the searing pain steals my breath. “Run!” I croak.
“Well, look here. A little leverage to encourage you. Grab her,” Colton says, directing Caleb to retrieve Kaycia with a pointed nod. Ripped Jeans stalks behind him, his scent telling me he’s excited for a chase.
Before I can get free, hell breaks loose.