Chapter 13 #2
“No, your husband hit you,” I corrected, lifting her chin up to meet my eyes. “I was right here, Solana.” Her tears spilled over, and I saw the shame and grief in her eyes. “You’re okay,” I promised her. “I’m right here.”
The door opened, and Brand walked in. One look was all it took for him to know what had happened, and I saw his face settle into a cold mask.
“Let him go,” I told Axel as I stood and faced Hollis. “Hit me.”
Hollis sneered at me but didn’t move.
“I said, hit me.” I walked closer. “Please,” I said, the tic in my jaw pulsing. “Do it.”
He charged at me, and I knocked him down. One clean, hard punch, and he was on his back, staring up at me with fear and hate.
“I almost want to let you try again,” I muttered as I stood over him. “I think I could punch you all day and never grow tired. Is that how you think when you beat your wife?”
“Alpha, my hus—”
“Don’t lie, Solana,” I murmured, not looking at her. “I can’t stomach lies.”
You are a shifter, I said to her. Why did you not fight back? I heard her whimper. I’m not judging you, I added, and I hoped that I wasn’t. You are strong, healthy. Tell me why you stay?
I waited for a long moment. Hollis never moved, and Brand and Axel stood like silent sentinels on either side.
He would have hurt Annabel and Aren.
I glanced at the piece of shit on the floor of my office. “He will never hurt your family again.” I looked at Axel. “Get the boy. I know why he didn’t tell me.”
Axel nodded and slipped quietly from the room.
Aren lived with the threat of his father hurting his little sister every day. A note to betray his pack over the safety of his sister from the monster of his father. I wouldn’t have slept either.
Hollis went to get up, but Brand put his foot on his chest, not pressing, just a light touch, and the older man stayed where he was.
“Solana, tell me everything.”
“The bitch knows nothing; all she’s good for is cleaning and whoring.”
Solana winced as if he’d struck her again.
Rage pulsed through me, and for the first time, I didn’t hesitate as I used my Will. Don’t speak, lie there like the dog you are.
Much like I had done to Aren, I crouched in front of Solana. “Tell me everything.”
Her lips parted, trembling, but the words didn’t come at first. She glanced at Hollis, then back at me. Her hands twisted in her lap, fingers trembling as she fought the instinct to hide.
“Solana,” I said again, softer this time. “You’re safe. He won’t touch you, or your children, again.”
My Will pressed Hollis to the floor like the coward he was. Not enough to hurt him—just enough to keep him still. He grunted low in his throat, unable to move or speak, eyes wide with a hatred that didn’t intimidate me at all.
Solana swallowed. Then spoke. “The notes?” she asked softly.
“Yes.” Notes? Plural?
She sighed, and her eyes filled with tears.
“He started to use Aren to pass the notes,” she told us quietly.
“I think he did it himself before, but like everything with him, he got lazy.” She glanced up at me.
“He kept them hidden in the back seam of his jacket. Aren never read them, just passed them along like he was told.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know. I only saw one of them once—a man in a dark coat, who smelled like sour ash and wet stone. He wasn’t of this pack.”
My pulse picked up. Sour ash? That was rogue scent. Old rogue.
“How long has it been happening?” Brand asked softly so as not to upset her.
“Two moons,” she said. “That I know of. Maybe longer. I think it started in earnest after you came back. He said the pack was changing, with Malric on the way out. Said he’d make sure the old ways didn’t disappear.”
I stood slowly. Old ways. That was always the excuse the weak used when power shifted out of their reach, when the wrong people started to lead.
“Who else within the pack is working with him?” I asked her.
“Kirk,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
I’d already killed him, and his family had left the next morning. Still, it was worth checking out. “Anyone else?”
She dropped her head once more, and I watched tears fall rapidly onto the back of her hands. “You’re safe, speak to me.”
“There’s someone, I don’t know who.” She swallowed hard. “He…he…” She sobbed. “He gives me to him.”
Brand growled low in his throat, his boot pressing harder on the chest of the fucker on the floor.
“And you’re unwilling?” I asked, my rage coursing through me.
“Yes! I’m not a whore, Alpha.” She was crying heavily now. “I took my vows beneath the Heartwood; marriage is sacred.”
Damn traditions had a lot to answer for. I knew their benefits, but they could also be as much a noose around an unhappy couple’s neck as they were a blessing.
Keep the boy from the office, I sent to Axel. Keep him close, but don’t let him come in here.
I felt Axel’s fury. He already knows, Wolfe. He told me everything. He’s not acting; he practically pissed himself with fear.
Tell him he’s safe. His mother and sister are too. I have their father, and he’s going nowhere.
I turned my gaze to Hollis. “You thought you could control a pack through fear, like you control your family. Through blood and threats. But you’re done here.”
His eyes were wider now. Not with anger. With fear of being caught. With fear of lying on the floor and not being able to move as an alpha stood over him.
I turned back to Solana. “Do you feel safe to take your children and go home?”
She watched me cautiously. “No, I don’t.
” Tears spilled over. “I don’t know who the male is who comes into my room.
He,” she glanced at her husband on the floor, “rubs an ointment under my nose, it’s…
it’s nauseating, I can’t smell anything other than it, before the male comes.
I don’t know who it is. I’m not…we’re not… ”
“You will be safe,” I assured her. “But I understand that it will take time.” I shared a look with Brand, and he nodded. “Stonefang may be best for you right now.”
She looked at me, hope in her eyes. “Alpha? My pack is here.” Her protest was weak; she wanted to be anywhere but here right now.
“I know, but I think it’s time you and your children had a change of scenery. How does that sound?”
Solana swallowed hard. “Please.”
“Okay.” I tried my best to smile at her, even as my wolf snarled under my skin, eager to sink its teeth into the fucker on the floor. “Wait in the kitchens. Axel and Aren are waiting for you there with Annabel.”
I nodded to Brand. “Go with her. Come back with Axel, and leave two guards with them. Only Stonefang. They stay with them until I say otherwise.”
Brand moved instantly, boots silent on stone.
“Aren is not in trouble?” Solana blinked fast, rising to her feet, like she didn’t trust what she’d heard. “You’ll protect him?”
“Yes,” I said. “Brand has some questions for him, but I will protect your children and you.” I sent a calmness I wasn’t feeling through the alpha bond, feeling her receive it, seeing her nerves settle as she let out a low breath. “You are my pack,” I told her. “I protect my pack.”
Solana followed Brand out, and I turned to Hollis again, letting the Will lift just slightly—enough for him to choke in a breath.
“Your time in the Hollow is over,” I said, low and final. “You’ll be tried for betrayal. And if I get so much as a whisper that you moved your hand toward that family again?” I crouched next to him, letting him see it in my eyes—what I meant.
What I promised.
“I will end you myself.”