Chapter 34
SILENCE HANGS HEAVY, MY brEATHING the only sound above the crazed whispers of the first rogue we passed by. Inside the cell before us, the cocky rogue lies dead, his eyes wide open, the life sapped from them.
Seconds tick by, each one heavier than the last. Alpha Isaiah stays rooted to his spot at the gate, gripping the bars, his gaze downcast in disbelief. Dad hasn't moved either. He hasn't said a word.
The initial rush of adrenaline quickly begins to fade, and I expect to feel panic, even shock at what I did. Instead, all I do is look at my hands which up until a few seconds ago, have never taken the life of another so directly and effectively.
When the haze lifts, the adrenaline subsiding, the logical half returning to the driver's seat, I can only frown.
I don't feel regret over my rash actions.
I don't feel remorse for the life I easily snuffed out.
I can't muster up a shred of shame over the messy aftermath of my actions or how much harder I've made it to break the remaining two rogues.
I don't feel anything except relief that a threat to Jace's life no longer exists.
The break in wasn't coincidental. It's not unrelated to what happened at Lativa on Monday night. Both are linked and whoever hired them to trespass into Lativa and hunt Jessi down, sent another to terrorize Jace and his family.
To lure me out.
He's coming for all of you.
Soon, you'll get to watch that boy die.
He hired mercenary rogues to go after Jessica – the daughter of Marcana's alpha, and the mate to Lativa's new alpha. He sent a rogue to the Conner's.
There's only one son of a bitch I know who's insane enough to mess with Marcana.
"It's Jessop."
I'm sure of it.
Dad is first to snap out of it, turning to look at me. I catch the worry on his face because my actions were excessive. I know that look because it's the same one he give me when control starts to slip, when the animal instincts push to the surface and logic ceases to exist.
Maybe there was a momentary lapse of control, but I don't feel a shred of guilt over it.
That rogue was provoking us, taunting us.
He taunted Alpha about Jessica. He taunted Dad and me about being able to save anyone, those words deliberate because everyone in town knows the tragedy we walked away from twelve years ago.
The fine layer of black hair that covered Alpha's arm before and his canines have disappeared. He was in a state we call half-shift and it's when our canines and claws come out, a fine layer of thick fur covering parts of our bodies.
Alpha Isaiah wipes a hand over his face. "What makes you so sure?"
"Is that really a question?" I scoff. "This has Jessop Atkinson written all over it. He hired those rogues to go after Ezra's mate and my mate. Isn't that kind of his M.O.?"
Dad sighs wearily, signaling Eric Vega to come forward and deal with the dead rogue. He'd been staring in disbelief too, rooted to his spot over how easily things flipped. He snaps out of it and rushes up the stairs to get someone to help him with the body.
"When you put it like that," Dad says, glancing at the dead rogue. "It makes sense and that's worrying because if it is Jessop, then there's another war coming."
"You and Beta Chad are Councilmen. Beta Chad's the mayor. Couldn't you arrest him and stop another from happening in the first place?"
"It's not so simple, Sky." Alpha steps away from the gate as Dad and I do when Eric Vega returns with two other warrior Weres in tow. The conversation pauses long enough for the three men to get inside the cell, two of them hauling the corpse out to put into a body bag.
When they leave for the morgue at the pack's hospital where Dr. Kevin Turley will officially declare the rogue dead and process the paperwork, Alpha turns back to me.
"Technically, Jessop hasn't broken any laws since he got out. We checked. If he is stirring up trouble, we need to find evidence, reasonable proof that he's connected to at least one of those incidents."
"Trust me," Dad chimes in with a scowl. "I'd enjoy nothing more than wrangling in that old bastard myself, but we can't barge into Lativa, guns blazing, and arrest Jessop without a valid claim.
There are laws, procedures we have to abide by, and there's also the flimsy truce between the two packs.
Arresting him without evidence would be in bad taste. "
"This is such shit," I growl out, wiping a hand across my face, frustration bubbling like a vat of hot oil beneath the surface.
It's like a nagging feeling, incessant and sure, a physical grip around my entire body that has the hairs on my arms, the back of my neck, standing on end.
The certainty of it has my heart pounding out of fear and eagerness, pushing me closer to the edge of a breakdown.
"I know, buddy," Dad leans in, patting my shoulder as Alpha turns at the sound of the doors up on the platform overlooking the holding area opens. Lianna's parents peer over the railing at us, hurrying down the stairway we used earlier.
Dad makes a low sound of irritation at the back of his throat, but his weary expression stays fixed on Lianna's parents – Anne and George as they approach. Subordinate Weres no different from civilians as they hold no particular rank of importance within the overall pack hierarchy.
"Here comes more trouble," Dad mutters quietly.
"Easy, you two," Alpha warns, patting my shoulder for extra measure, a warning not to fly off the handle like I did earlier with that rogue.
When they're less than a foot away, Alpha motions for them to follow us to the cell were Lianna lies curled up on the sorry excuse of a mattress – more like a cot given how worn it is.
The thin blanket is pulled up to her shoulders, a head of dark hair peeking out from under it.
Her cell has a light bulb over the gate, so the space is illuminated well considering I had the opportunity to toss her into a dark cell.
Dad slams a fist against the bars. "Wake up! Alpha's here to see you." His command booms in the thick silence, reverberating off the rock walls and startling the girl inside her temporary station. The blanket topples off her shoulders, Lianna sitting bolt upright, eyes wide and suddenly teary.
Immediately, I'm irritated. I'm ten times more irritated by her mother's wobbly voice and her father's arrogant demeanor – his glare that I want to slap off of his head.
"Mom! Dad!" Lianna weeps, hurrying across the cell to the gates, arms outstretched and reaching for her parents.
"Give me a break," I mutter, feeling sick at Lianna's pathetic display of a wronged soul. My hands fist tightly in the pockets of my jacket when Anne pets her daughter's hair and shoulders and hands, cooing at her like she's an innocent pup.
Anne turns to Alpha Isaiah, her voice pleading. "Alpha, please release my daughter. She hasn't done anything to deserve a sentence this harsh."
I tilt my head, flitting my gaze from Anne and George to Lianna who keeps her teary-eyed stare pointed to the floor of her cell, unable to look in my direction.
"Harsh?" I challenge, crossing my arms over my chest. "This is a standard sentence. She's being treated better than the other inmates. Three meals a day, water. Thirty minutes to stretch her legs." A malicious grin turns my mouth upward. "That's luxury in comparison to what I would've given her."
George takes a menacing step forward, his fist raising, teeth gnashing. "You son of a bitch! You did this!"
George's fist flies toward me but I sidestep it, gripping his wrist in a crushing hold, twisting his arm behind his back. George slams against the iron bars of his daughter's cell, the impact rattling iron. Lianna and her mother gasp, the former stepping away from the gate.
"Try that again and I'll toss you into one of these cells myself," I warn, letting him go with a harsh shove. He stumbles, then catches himself, whirling around to confront me again but stops short when Alpha steps in front of him.
"George," Alpha Isaiah warns, "what did Lianna tell you about why she was incarcerated?"
George points a finger at me, glowering. "That little punk tossed my daughter in here. Without reasonable cause!"
"Answer the question," Dad commands, irritation written tight over his face, leaking into his command. He's quickly reaching his wit's end with this family and honestly, so am I.
Lianna is making me fully regret ever looking at her with a shadow of lust.
"She told us," Anne pipes up, flitting her teary gaze from her mate to her daughter and finally to the alpha only for a second before she settles on me, her stare piercing over my father's shoulder.
Curiosity prickles my skin and now I'm all ears.
My head tilts in wait for this most riveting explanation.
I can already tell it's shit.
"She told us she went on a stroll through the woods. That's when she ran into Sky and he just...lost it. He attacked her and dragged her here."
I blink, ignoring the perfect what-the-fuck expressions on the faces of the alpha and my father as they turn to look at me then back at Lianna's parents.
I turn to Lianna, stepping closer to the bars, gripping one so tightly my knuckles become white.
Don't snap her neck. Don't snap her neck.
"Is that what you told them?" I hardly recognize my voice – low and heavy.
Halfway drowned in the haze of red that colors my vision, the mist of the rising, roiling animal instincts that beg me to lash out and punish her, the sound of my voice is foreign.
Fuelled with controlled rage like I've never felt before, the urge to kill her has never been stronger.
Not like that day at my house when Jace was stranded because of the storm. Not like when I found her chasing my mate through the woodland.
It scares even me. Yet, I welcome it.
"Scared mommy and daddy will think differently if they know how shameless and desperate their perfect daughter is? Why did you lie, Lianna?"
Reluctantly, she looks up from the floor, right at me first with shame that quickly gives way to fear. I can't imagine what the hell my face looks like for her to have that reaction but it's bad enough that Dad's hand is on my shoulder a second later.
"Buddy, stay calm," he warns, stern but patient.
"I am calm." Too calm, if you ask me, but who's checking? I don't break eye contact with the girl behind the bars and whatever she sees on my face is enough to make her fa?ade start crumbling. "Answer me!"
She starts crying again but for a different reason.
Ugly tears streak down her face, her eyes turning red around the edges, apologies and pleas for forgiveness tumbling out in a viscous word vomit.
She lunges forward, gripping the bars, one arm outstretched, reaching for me.
I step away, revulsion so strong it causes a visceral reaction, and I barely resist the urge to shudder.
"I'm sorry! Please, I never meant for this to happen. I was only trying to scare him a little! Please, Sky!" she weeps, reaching for me again. I slap her hand away and she whimpers, retracting her hand to her chest, rubbing her thumb where it banged against the iron bar.
"Please, Sky," she whimpers pathetically. "Let me out. I don't deserve this treatment."
My nostrils flare. "You're fucking disgusting."
"You little shit!" George fires, nostrils flared as he comes at me, fist flying.
I dodge the hit, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and slamming him back first against the gate.
Dad steps forward to help me restrain him and even while he has George secured with his arms twisted behind his back, I don't let go of the subordinate's shirt.
"You want to know the truth of why I dragged her here?
" I seethe, flicking my gaze between Lianna who has returned to staring at the floor – a sobbing mess now – and her parents.
"The cottage she strolled by just happens to be the one Jace Conner and his parents were staying in.
She strolled by in her wolf form and in case you forgot, shifting anywhere within their vicinity was strictly prohibited during their stay. "
"So what? She shifted in front of some humans," George taunts. "That hardly calls for a punishment like this."
A menacing rumble echoes in my chest, my grip on his shirt tightening. I can't figure out if this arrogant asshole is being daft on purpose or if he truly is arrogant in his stupidity.
"She did more than shift in front of a human.
She chased him through the woods in her wolf form.
But do you want to know what's the fucked-up part that really put her in here?
What's more fucked up than the potential shitshow you two want to bring to Marcana by taking this to the Council without all the facts? "
"Sky, please..." Lianna whimpers, peeking up at me from her cell with pleading eyes. A silent request not to blast the truth. She's got some nerve.
"Jace Conner is my mate."
George's eyes widen in disbelieving shock. He whips his head to the side to look at his daughter, the same as his mate. Lianna starts crying again.
"I didn't know," she weeps. "I swear, I didn't know he was your mate – I was jealous –"
"Cut the bullshit," I growl, and her tears cease, her sobs dying on her tongue as she stares at me with owlish, shining eyes.
"You knew damn well he's my mate since this isn't the first time you've targeted him." Shoving her father aside, I reach through the bars and wrap a fist in the front of her standard issue white jersey, pulling her close until mere inches and the iron bars separate us.
"I let you off with a warning last time and still, you persisted. You disobeyed the alpha's orders, endangered the life of a human who happens to be my mate. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you too."
Trembling lips and voice, teary wears, Lianna swallows hard. "You're not a killer," she whispers, amusement fluttering through me – warm and poisonous.
"That dead rogue they carried out would say differently."
Letting go of her jersey, she stumbles back with a shove.
My fists tight at my sides, I slip them back into the pockets of my jacket, leveling Lianna's parents with a glare I wish would smite them where they stand.
The sight of them alone makes my skin crawl, pushing me off balance when I think about what they intended to do.
"I'd rethink taking your bullshit claim of maltreatment to the Council. She's lucky I didn't kill her when I found her in those woods." Gods know, I almost did it.
Turning on my heel, ignoring the bewildered expression on Alpha's face, and the worry etched firmly into Dad's, I head for the steps. Between that dead rogue, Lianna, the break-in, and Jace in general, I need to clear my head before I do something else everyone will regret.