Chapter 13 Ezra
EZRA
"That's not happening."
The words were out of my mouth before Viktor finished speaking. Stay with him? Like hell. Reign wasn't going anywhere near the Stravon compound, replacement or no replacement.
Viktor's gaze connected with mine, and I sensed he was daring me to look away.
“You don't have a say in this, Grey. Kalen's debt must be paid.”
“I don't give a shit about that.” I stepped forward, sensing my brothers moving with me. “Reign is my mate. He's not responsible for his father's mistakes.”
“Ezra.” Boaz was at my shoulder, but he was looking at Viktor. “Let’s hear what the Alpha has to say.”
“There’s nothing to hear. Reign stays with me.” Boaz may have been my brother and Alpha, but he’d found his fated mate. He must understand I wasn’t handing Reign over to the people he’d escaped.
Kalen spat on the grass, a disgusting habit, but it was him signaling what he thought of me especially. “Do you have any idea what you've cost me? What will Viktor do to me now that the arrangement is broken?”
I wasn’t certain who Kalen was talking to. Me, his son, or all of us.
“You should have thought of that before you sold your son.” There was steel in Maynard’s voice.
“I didn't sell him.” Reign’s father scuffed his foot on the grass. “It was an arrangement, one that benefited both Viktor and myself.”
“Oh, come on, Kalen.” Viktor scoffed. “You sold your son. Let’s not pretend this was anything else. You have debts and a past that was catching up to you. Giving me your son so he could marry Hawthorn would have cleared your debts.”
Kalen lost his outrage and blood drained from his cheeks. He avoided looking at Reign who whimpered, and I whispered that I’d make this right.
“What debts and what’s in your past that’s so heinous you were willing to give up your son’s happiness?”
Reign’s father put his hands in his pocket and stared over our heads. My wolf wondered if he was hungry and wanted an apple or pear.
Viktor turned his attention to me. “Kalen made some unfortunate enemies over the years. He owes money to people who don't forgive debts. When he came to me, I saw an opportunity, and I seized it.”
This was what my brothers and I had talked about. That Viktor had a hidden motive for wanting Reign married or mated to his son.
“An opportunity for what?” Boaz asked.
Viktor was quiet for a moment. He looked up at the clouds and then at Reign. “I needed someone who could shoot.”
“What?” my brothers and I yelled.
That made no sense. We were shifters with a fierce beast in our belly.
While Reign may have been a good shot—I was probably better, and Maynard was a hitman for fuck’s sake—a human’s sight, hearing, and reflexes were no match for a shifter’s.
Viktor had to have another reason, and he was hiding behind this BS.
But how did he expect to get away with it? We all knew he was lying.
“I can shoot,” Reign found his voice. “It's a sport. I competed in college. But I don't understand what that has to do with your son and me.”
Viktor waved his hand as if to swat away Reign’s argument. “I need your skill.” He looked at each of us in turn. “One that all of us need, if I’m honest.”
“You’ve got to explain,” Boaz insisted. There was a testy edge to his voice, a sign he was losing patience.
Viktor crossed his arms. “Tell me, Alpha, have you heard the name Calloway recently?”
All five of my brothers went rigid. Maynard bent as if he were out of breath. Riggs cursed, and I lost the power of speech.
“Why would we? Didn’t he go to prison? He's been locked up for a while.”
“Was. He was in prison for a short time,” Viktor corrected my brother.
“He escaped three months ago, I assume by using his extensive connections and greasing the right palms, but there were some odd stories surrounding him.
I disregarded them as fantasy. And now he's out there, somewhere, rebuilding his empire.”
Thiago fell to his knees, mumbling that if Calloway was free, he would make his presence felt soon enough.
The name Calloway was enough to make any shifter's skin crawl. I scratched my arms as if to rid myself of what I’d heard.
“Who's Calloway?” Reign tugged at my arm.
“A hunter.” I hated saying that word. “But he’s… well, he has special skills.”
“He kills shifters,” Maynard blurted out. “He has some kind of ability to detect us and track us.” He went on to say that normal people couldn’t tell shifters from humans just by looking, but Calloway could. And he had techniques specifically designed to take us down.
“He's killed dozens of our kind.” Boaz’s shoulders slumped. He was probably recalling the devastation Calloway caused the last time he was in our vicinity. “Maybe more. We thought he was done when he went to prison, but if he's out…”
“He's a threat to every pack in the region,” Viktor finished. “And he's coming back.”
Reign looked at me, his face begging me to provide an answer to this madness.
“What was I supposed to do? Meet him for a duel at dawn? Walk ten paces and turn?” His voice was getting higher and more frantic.
“Did you expect me to put a bullet in him?” He tugged at his hair.
“You’re shifters. Your beasts could maul him or take off a limb. ”
“We were expecting you to protect our pack.” Viktor finally confirmed the purpose of the arranged marriage.
As we’d suspected, Reign was a pawn, but what was shocking was that he wasn’t to be hidden away to bear babies and support his man. He had to save the entire Stravon pack.
“You’re human and Calloway can’t detect you like he can a shifter. To him, you’re a nobody, and he’d never suspect you.”
“So you were expecting Reign to get close to this psychopath and take him out. And then what? Live the rest of his life lolling by the pool, tormented by what he’d done?” Lake summed up the situation into a neat package.
“You were going to turn my son into an assassin?” Kalen's shrill voice was rich coming from the man who'd traded said son in the first place.
Victor ignored Kalen’s outburst, but said the debt still had to be cleared.
“This is bonkers.” Reign’s voice shook, and even me holding his hand didn’t comfort him. “I’m not a killer. I shoot targets, and I've never held a gun outside of a range.”
“Which is why you need training.” Viktor appeared pleased with himself at presenting the solution to all our problems.
While I loathed pulling the alpha card in a relationship, I told Viktor my mate was not going anywhere near Calloway and not training to assassinate the guy. “Find another sucker to deal with him.” I stood between my mate and Viktor.
But even as I said the words, I understood Calloway was an us problem and not a Stravon one.
“Hire a human mercenary,” Lake suggested.
“And how do I explain what they're hunting without revealing what we are?” Viktor shook his head.
“But I didn’t know about shifters until Ezra revealed who he was.”
“But you, dear Reign, were someone I could control. And if you were married to my son, you’d have a vested interest in seeing Calloway eliminated.”
My mind was racing. Calloway was a nightmare. If he were really back, every pack in the region was at risk. But I couldn’t ask my mate to endanger himself so he could save all the shifters in a hundred-mile radius.
“What would it involve?” I’d never heard the strength in that voice previously. My mate was speaking, his mouth was opening and closing, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying other than the initial question.
“Reign, no, you can’t.” That was a Boaz command.
My mate turned to me. “You told me you were an excellent shot. Is that true?”
“Ummm, yeah.”
“Then you train me.” He glanced at my brothers. “We’re all family now, so maybe six people helping would be better than one.”
“You don’t have to do this.” I took both his hands and envisioned my life without him after Calloway killed him. But I was thinking selfishly. There was more at stake than my happiness.
“I can with your help.” He squeezed my hand.
No, no, no. This can’t be happening. My wolf pleaded with me not to allow this.
Every sinew in my body told me this was a terrible idea that could end in disaster with my heart ripped out and Reign lifeless at the hands of Calloway.
“We’re a team. We can do it together.” My mate held my gaze until I finally said okay.
I beckoned my brothers’ closer. “Are we in?”
“You want to put your mate in danger?” Lake looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
“I want to eliminate the threat before it reaches him,” I corrected him. “Before it reaches any of us. This isn't just Viktor's problem anymore. This is about protecting our pack and our family.”
Reign already had the fundamental skills. I could teach him combat shooting, strategy, and how to handle himself in a real-life situation.
Boaz was watching me carefully, his Alpha instincts warring with his brotherly concern. “If we do this, it's not just Ezra. We all train him.”
“Agreed,” Maynard said immediately, and my other siblings joined in.
“And when Reign is ready and we move on Calloway, the Stravons provide support. Intelligence, resources, whatever we need.” Boaz wanted guarantees.
“And if your human fails?” Viktor asked.
“I won’t.” Reign stood tall, just like his name. “Because Ezra and the others will make sure I’m ready.”