Chapter 27
Wrecker
Ihanded Parker her phone. The thing felt heavier than it should in my palm.
She took it with her thumb and index finger, delicate, surgical, as if it might detonate on touch.
Her lips pressed together in a colorless line.
She scrolled to Axel’s number, then paused.
For one solid heartbeat, I thought she’d change her mind and throw the phone straight through the war room window.
She didn’t. She called, and the line clicked to life with the sound of her own breathing, doubled by nerves and the phone’s shitty compression.
The call went to voicemail the first time, but on the second, he picked up. “Yeah?” Axel’s voice: nasal, impatient, even through the speaker. Parker took it off speaker and pressed it close, but I could still hear both sides of the conversation.
“Axel, it’s me.” Her voice was small, hollowed out with panic and fatigue. “Where the hell are you?”
“Why, you need money or something?” He tried for a laugh, but it came out like a crow choking on wire.
She took a breath that I could hear across the table.
“No, I just—” A sob, raw and barely faked.
“I came back. I tried to fix everything. It’s too late.
The antidote wasn’t enough. Bronc—he’s on a vent.
Wrecker’s barely alive. They put us all on lockdown.
Everyone thinks I’m the one who brought this down. ”
“Gee, that’s rough,” he said, with the total lack of empathy of a man checking the weather for a city he’d never visit. “I told you not to go back there. Fucking told you, Parker. Iron Valor will always use you up.”
“It’s not like you gave me a choice.” Her anger was an undercurrent, just enough to make it real for him.
“They said you stole from them. That you put me in this position. But I lied for you, Axel. I fucking lied for you, and now—” She coughed, wet and ugly, like she’d learned to do from the ward full of sick wolves.
“Just tell me what you want. What Dagger wants.”
There was a shuffle on the line, like he’d moved to a quieter room.
“You need to get out,” he said. His voice dropped to a whisper.
“Look, they’re gonna finish you. Dagger is going full fucking psycho.
Word is he wants to kill everyone, but you most of all, because they think you’re the one who took out Silas. ”
I could see her jaw lock, the muscle twitching in her cheek. She didn’t say that she’d known Silas was dead, or that she was the one who put him down. She let Axel fill the silence with his own noise.
“You think Dagger gives a shit about you?” Parker asked, her voice rising. “He’s the one who sent you to steal in the first place. Or did you forget that?”
“Don’t put this on me,” Axel snapped, but he sounded more scared than mad now. “I did what I had to do. It was either that or end up in the river. You know how they play, Parker. No one survives long unless they’re useful. You gotta get out. I mean it.”
She pressed the phone so hard into her ear I could see the shell of it going white. “What are they planning?” She said, low and urgent. “Is it tonight?”
Axel hesitated. Then: “They want to hit the compound at dawn. They think the pack’s too weak to fight back.
Dagger’s got a demon backing him now, too.
And fucking vampires, but who knows with those fuckers?
All I know is, if you don’t leave Iron Valor territory, Dagger’s gonna string you up outside the club. For real. You need to go, Parker.”
She let herself break, just a little. “Where would I even go, Axel? You already burned every bridge we had. You’re with Greenbriar now, so I’m sure you don’t give a fuck, but there’s nothing left for me out there.
Nothing.” She choked on it, and I wondered how much of the desperation was acting and how much was real.
“I never wanted this,” Axel said, and for a moment he sounded like a brother who cared, before the gambling, the debts. “But you picked the wrong side. You always do.”
She almost laughed. “I picked my family, asshole. You’re the one who left.”
Axel was silent a long moment. “Doesn’t matter. If you’re not out by dawn, you’re dead. Dagger’s got a death list, and you’re at the top. He’s calling himself Alpha now, by the way. Silas is gone, and nobody’s contesting it. That’s just how it is.”
“Fine,” she said. “When I hang up, I’ll be gone. You can tell Dagger you did your brotherly duty.” She paused, then in a softer voice: “Stay safe, Axel. If you can.”
He hung up without a word.
Parker stared at the phone, her thumb still hovering over the screen.
I waited for her to break, or scream, or do anything that wasn’t just sit there and vibrate with rage.
Instead, she set the phone down, picked up a pen, and scribbled something on the edge of the notepad: Dagger. Dawn. Possible demon help. Maybe vamps.
“You okay?” I asked, knowing it was a stupid question.
She didn’t look at me. “It worked. He bought every word.”
“Of course he did. He’s never not fallen for you.” I tried to make her smile. She didn’t.
She shoved the notepad across the table at me. “Dawn. That’s hours, Eli. We need to tell Bronc.”
“We will,” I said. I wanted to reach out, to touch her hand, but her energy was kinetic, dangerous, already pulling away. She was already gone, racing ahead to the next move.
I watched her walk out of the room, the little black dog limping after her. For a second, I envied the simplicity of the animal: it wanted only to be near her, to protect her, even if it cost everything.
I closed my eyes, tried to savor the moment: we had the intel, the trap was set, and all that was left was to make it through the morning alive.
I opened them again, and the war room was empty, save for me and the cold blue light.
I didn’t trust dawn any more than I trusted fate.
But I’d walk through hell with her, if that’s what it took.
We drove to Bronc’s place with the heater blasting and Parker’s hands buried in Rocket’s fur, the air between us thick with the residual cold of her call with Axel.
Even Rocket—usually thrilled at any car ride—sat with his head on her thigh, ears flattened like he sensed the storm brewing at the edge of the horizon.
Bronc’s cabin was a massive timber house with a large front porch that spanned its entirety, on the highest point of the compound.
A large wrought-iron pendant light hung over the front door making the house feel welcoming and warm.
The yard was already ringed with security lights, the front porch swept clean, the window glass dark as a tombstone.
There were six cars in the drive and two bikes on the walk, all the good guys accounted for.
I parked by the curb. The grass was stiff and brown; the soil rutted—a sign of winter.
Parker paused before the door. I reached for her hand, and she let me, just for a second, before she pulled away to knock. It was Bronc who opened, blue eyes clearer than I’d seen in days, the silver streaks in his hair looking almost staged in the porch light.
“Come on in,” he said, voice pitched low to keep the house calm. “Everyone’s waiting.”
Inside: Bronc, Juliet, Savannah, Menace, Papa.
The air reeked of coffee, lemon, and the wet wool scent of nervous wolf.
The women clustered on the sofa, Juliet with a notepad, Savannah curled around a mug, Menace perched on the armrest looking less like a wolf king and more like a disgraced quarterback.
Papa sat in the corner, silent, hands steepled over a crossword.
I led Parker to the big oak table in the kitchen, the conference spot for anything too dire for the war room.
The wood had knife marks and rings from a thousand bottles.
Bronc slid into his usual seat at the head, Juliet scooted in beside him, and the rest of us scattered like chess pieces.
Parker stood for a moment, eyes flicking to the window, then leaned against the counter, arms crossed.
She looked like a prisoner giving her own testimony.
“Tell ‘em,” I said.
She did, voice sharp and precise: “Axel says Dagger’s new Alpha. Greenbriar will hit at dawn. They’re hoping we’re too weak to fight. Dagger’s got demon backing, maybe more. They’re going to kill everyone, but me most of all, because they think I killed Silas. He said I should run.”
Menace exhaled. “Classic move. If you’re on the list, Parker girl, they’re going to be coming hard.”
Bronc leaned in. “So, at dawn?”
“That's what Axel said. He didn’t know if there was a countdown, but he made it sound like they’d be ready as soon as they saw an opening. I painted the grimmest picture I could. Told him you were on a vent.”
Bronc looked at her and grinned.
Juliet put her pen down. “Do we think Maltraz will show himself? Or is he still just sending minions?”
Menace snorted. “Demon’s a coward. He’ll never risk Council eyes on him. He likes to work the shadows and let the wolves tear each other apart. If anything, he’ll send his right hand to supervise. Adramal. But even that would be a tremendous risk to him.”
I remembered the demon from the last time: his suit, his teeth, his eyes like ground obsidian. “He’ll just be waiting for the call when it’s done,” I said. “Pussy that he is. He’ll let Dagger and the other sick fucks do the dirty work.”
Savannah looked up, lips tight. “Do they have witches? Or vamps?”
Papa said, “If they did, we’d know by now. They’d want credit for it. Vamps don’t work with wolves unless it’s a suicide mission. And with the witches—most of them remember what happened the last time the packs tried to get them involved.”
Parker spoke up. “I think vamps could be involved. I remember seeing three at one of the meetings I was required to attend. They didn’t speak, but there was no doubt they were vamps. Axel mentioned them in passing also, but he didn’t sound certain.”