Twenty-Eight – Jasper
Barakat was a ghost.
Liam and I personally covered every inch of the woods between Vail’s window and the Academy border, and it was as if he’d sprouted wings and flown away. And then to add to the frustration, the only footage of the attempted abduction was from Reed’s personal security feed; something I didn’t even know he had in place until my mom told me. He sent me a snippet – Vail running from the woods and being tackled by a pair of guards – but when I’d told him to send me the whole reel, he’d gone suspiciously quiet.
We stopped at the hunting cabin to check Wentworth hadn’t flown the coop, too. There’d been no sign of Barakat, but at the mention of his name, the omega gave me a long probing look. It was enough to rub my already raw temper the wrong way, and I used more than a little of my alpha power to make him talk.
Five minutes later, he’d admitted he didn’t take Vail home on Hunter Moon. If the fucker wasn’t already on his knees, I would have put him there with my boot. “You handed her over to Barakat? That’s what you call taking care of your own?”
Wentworth’s face contorted at both the force of my power, and the waves of fury rippling off me. “It was arranged with her father. He wanted her safely off campus and Trey Barakat was more than motivated to help out.”
I shot Liam a frustrated look. It confirmed what Callum had said about Barakat’s scent being at the mineral pool. Once again, I seemed to be the last to know when it came to Vail and her safety. “How? I would have smelled the lie on you.”
The omega held my gaze, despite the fact he was kneeling at my feet. “You didn’t speak to me directly, if you recall. I just fed the information through a text message to Ms. LaRue.”
Truth. I ground my teeth. And of course Pearl hadn’t been motivated to question him; she’d just wanted Vail gone. I forced the issue aside and focused on the current problem. “And who the fuck is Barakat then? Not his rap-sheet, either. What’s his bloodline? Because I’ve seen his den, and he’s no wolf.”
Wentworth pulled a pained face and sat back on his heels, his shoulders slumped. “No. He’s something else. At first, I thought he was human. A mercenary, maybe. He brought others with him, and they had skills… But I now believe he is a different kind of shifter.”
I tapped my foot impatiently. “A feral? A rogue? Be specific, Wentworth.”
“Most likely a void. Or perhaps a different animal entirely.”
I laughed at him, and it was more scorn than humor. Because, give me a break… “A non-wolf shifter? Let me guess; it looks like a bat, sleeps in a wooden crate, and likes to suck your blood.”
He looked away and I thought he was embarrassed until I saw his focus settle on his bookcase. One thing I hadn’t confiscated was his library – because it wasn’t like it was filled with instruction manuals on how to escape captivity – and I walked over and plucked a familiar book off the bottom shelf. Marrow’s The Wolf Bane – Ferals, Voids and Rogues . We had a copy at the Arras Estate, but that’s not why it pulled at my heartstrings. Wentworth had loaned it to Vail before she even knew she shared a bloodline with its infamous writer. She’d been trying to research everything she could about voids; information I could have given her without wading through the whole book. Because unlike ferals and rogues, there wasn’t a lot known about voids. Which made them the most persecuted of the cursed wolves. Born, not made, they had the resilience and heightened senses of pack, but they never shifted, and their wolf was never sensed by another.
My father had called them imposters.
In more primitive packs, it was a title slapped on any wolf the rest of the pack wanted to condemn to an early grave.
And Marrow’s own research claimed they weren’t a wolf-human hybrid, but a human mixed with a species lost to time. Something our Irish cousins called the scáth deamhan . The Demon Shadows.
Poetic fuckers.
“Void is a label for a broken wolf,” I told him flatly. “There is no other shifter species.”
Wentworth dropped his eyes to study the perfect seam in his pants. “Either way, I didn’t know Mr. Barakat was connected to your enemies, Clan Alpha.”
Truth. But it was too little, too late. “Our enemies, Omega. The Black Den Pack are the mortal enemy of the Hunter Moon Clan. And while you came to this school under a Marrow banner, you’re now on my land. If you cross me again, I can be a lot more ruthless than just taking away your tea and crumpets.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He was still wincing, but he lifted his chin and stared back at me. I’d always considered him soft, those gray eyes weak behind his glasses, but right now they looked like they were made from pure steel. “But remember I was born a long way from your academy. Things are very different in the European packs. Older roots. Murky bloodlines. Survival sometimes means working with wolves who’ve put your ancestors in the ground.”
More truth. I studied him for a moment, then tapped the cover of the book. “You’re a descendant of the Marrow who wrote this, right?” He gave a careful nod. “Then channel his wolf and find out what Trey Barakat is. That’s an order, Omega.”
He looked down at the torn knee of his fancy trousers. “I never thought otherwise, Clan Alpha.”
***
It was almost dawn when Liam and I left the cabin and headed back towards the school. My skin was crawling with agitation, and even if my wolf hadn’t been fixed on Omega House, my feet would have taken me straight there. Because all I wanted to do was check on Vail. I was going to chew her out for going to Barakat – not for the first time, it seemed - but then I planned on handing the rest of the bullshit off to Liam. And spending a few hours with my face buried in her hair.
But when I got to the lobby, my mom was waiting, my brothers curled up on the sofa beside her. The two guards at her shoulder were overkill, since the building was surrounded by security, but I let it pass. She’d had the kind of shock a mother reserved for her worst nightmares. Something which made me drop to my knees by my brothers and watch them twitch through their puppy dreams.
“Did you find him?”
“No.” I breathed in their puppy scent, interwoven with my mom’s, and even a whiff of Vail’s fresh laundry perfume. “Did you sleep at all?”
“I had a meeting. With someone you should have already met with, I might add.”
I sat back at the sting in her tone. My mom was often pissed, but rarely at me. And never in front of the help. She was an Old Pack wolf down to her core and believed in clear lines between ranks. A united front. Family above pack. It made her rigid, and even ruthless at times, but I figured her strength had helped me win the claw challenge against my dad. I didn’t just have his blood in my veins, but my mom’s, and I had to respect the edge that had given me when I needed it most.
But I also knew my mom would overstep the line without a second thought. Because she knew best. And because my ascension opened doors she felt were her due. “You’re talking about Alpha Marrow?”
She’d been pushing for it since I became Clan Alpha, so I wasn’t surprised when she gave a pleased nod. “It was over the phone, obviously, but he was very concerned to hear about our security breach. We discussed some ways forward, and we’ve agreed his granddaughter will go to his estate for the holidays. She’ll be days off her eighteenth birthday, and he has plans for her immediate future. It will be the safest option for everyone concerned.”
I absorbed this without expression, though I knew my eyes were alpha gold. “You discussed my school’s security with the Marrow Alpha?”
She looked nonplussed by my reaction. “Only in the context of my sons’ safety. And the threat his granddaughter posed to every Hunter Moon pup…”
“She rescued Rowan, mom. She went out into the night and brought him home safe.”
Her eyes snapped with blue fire. “He was only in danger because of her.”
It was probably true. Barakat’s obsession was with Vail, and my brother had been a means to an end. But she’d still gone out after him, not knowing if she was walking into a trap. Or that’s what I wanted to believe, anyway.
I was mulling over the other, nauseating possibilities, when my mom said, “She’s not as helpless as you think, Jay. She bit one of your guards.” She gave a vague wave over her shoulder. “You told me she hadn’t shifted, but there were distinct canine wounds on his hand.”
I froze, my wolf suddenly so close to the surface I felt my gums throb. “That’s not possible.”
“I know a wolf bite when I see it.” My mom leaned forward to grip my shoulder. “This is a good thing, Jay. If she hadn’t, she’d still be our problem. Marrow would never claim a dud as kin.” There was a curl to her lip that was all for me, since I’d done exactly that. It didn’t matter Vail was now a Marrow princess; I’d claimed her before she had a bloodline to boast about.
“Then he’s a fool,” I said shortly, before an awful thought struck. “Did you tell him she’d shifted?”
“Of course.” She was completely oblivious to my mounting tension. “He was prepared to take her off our hands immediately, but I suggested we wait until the semester break. There will be the Marshalls to talk to, I suppose. Assuming Alana really did breed with that insipid West wolf.” She sat back and studied her nails. “She’s with the alphason now, you know. In his room. She’s been there on and off since Den Night.”
I looked at Liam for confirmation. He had drawn the two guards away and their body language confirmed they’d been following the conversation. Or that’s what I thought until I joined them and Liam showed me something on his phone. I stared at the little green dot, my stomach tipping into my boots. “That’s her?”
“She was tagged with a tracker at approximately five am. Carter Barren took her back to Alphason Marshall’s room and she’s been there ever since.”
I swallowed, and I felt all three alphas lean away from me a little. But it was the guard with the gauze on his hand who took a hasty step back. “I can smell her on you,” I told him quietly. “Her vomit. Her fear. Do you understand what you’ve done?”
“Yes, Clan Alpha. But…”
“You have one chance to get out of range of my wolf.” I looked at the other guard. “You’re going to tell me everything that happened. If it’s as bad as I think it is, you might want to report to my enforcer and take your chance, too.”
While Liam dragged the guards away, I looked from my sleeping brothers to my mom’s cold face. I knew in her mind, she’d engineered the only outcome that put her family first. But she’d fucked with me and mine in a way I wasn’t sure I could forgive. “No more meetings with Marrow, Mom. You’ve already caused more damage than you know.”
***
“You don’t want to go there right now, Clan Alpha. ”
I turned on my heel and stared at Liam. We’d just reached the main academy building and students were starting to crawl out of their dorms. Everyone was giving us a wide berth, maybe because they’d heard of the security breach, but most likely because of the fury still rippling off me. If anyone else had tried to stop me in that moment, they’d be writhing on the ground. But my enforcer was standing firm, even though he could see my wolf peering out at him with murder in his eyes. I swallowed with effort. “Reed needs to be warned.”
“By you, or by Marrow?”
I gritted my teeth. “He needs to back off right now.”
My body language told him he was about to get the same message, but he just shrugged. “Think about it. Would it be so bad if she chose him?” At my glare, he held up a hand. “I mean the Marshalls already have a blood bond with her. If she and the Alphason were to enter into an arrangement, she’d be doubly protected. Reed could claim it was blood calling blood. Instinct over politics. And the Alpha Marshall is no fool. He’s not going to let an asset with her bloodline slip through his fingers.”
That part was true. Reed’s dad was a wily wolf in sheep’s clothing. “You heard your mom,” Liam went on. “Marrow is going to mate her off as soon as she’s eighteen. And you know his connections. It’s either going to be some shady outfit like the Denners for services rendered, or it’ll be one of his allies or competitors. The Crimson Claws. Or the First Ridgers. Maybe even one of the European packs. But if Marshall claimed her, she’d be safe. And still part of your clan.”
I tried to picture it, but my wolf was so twisted up at the idea, I was having trouble breathing. Liam clapped me on the shoulder, as close as my enforcer got to a show of sympathy. “Michael Warren’s plan still applies. We have to keep her away from Marrow, especially until she’s of age. This might be the safest way to do it.”
I tipped my head back, staring at the lobby roof. “How is it, I’m the Clan Alpha, and the only one who isn’t allowed to protect her?”
“You know why.” He thumbed on his phone, and with one swipe was on the email I’d received the same day Vail slipped through her grandfather’s fingers and ended up back on my doorstep. I didn’t need to read it. I’d already memorized every word. “This is the real warning,” he reminded me. “You claim her without Marrow’s blessing – which he’s never going to give - and it’s an act of war.”