Chapter 20 Heath
HEATH
“And what were the grounds for the challenge?”
Aiden stared at the Council investigator like he was the dumbest supernatural being he’d ever beheld.
“Was I supposed to stand in front of a near-feral Alpha wolf and ask him politely to shift back and state his case? We can only assume things, given our history, as my brother has already explained to your colleague.”
His colleague, dressed in the same matching polo shirt and slacks as the man in front of me, was standing over the deceased wolf body, snapping pictures with his phone.
As was natural for shifters who died in battle as beasts, Mahoney had not reverted to human form and would be given burial rites as a wolf.
The investigator pursed his lips, irritated at being spoken down to by Aiden but powerless to do anything about it because Aiden was a Blackwell.
He looked to be somewhere in his thirties and had the aura of an ordinary wolf, of which there were many in shifter law enforcement.
He was clearly tired, unhappy to be dragged from his bed at this late hour to deal with hotheaded young shifters killing each other in bar parking lots.
“Just give me the gist for the official record, please.”
I cracked my neck, and he winced. The guy was a decade older than I was, but I was still an Alpha.
“As I’ve said, my quad was enjoying a drink in the bar when a classmate informed us that one of our Support Squadron members”—a reminder that not only was I a Blackwell, I was also a Guardian—“and Kace Mahoney had gotten into a fight out back. We came out here just in time to witness Mahoney shift into his wolf and attack a much weaker fox shifter.”
The investigator frowned. “Quite the loss of control for an Alpha.”
“Quite,” I agreed. “The fox managed to shift and escape, but instead of de-escalating at the natural end of the fight, Mahoney chose to attack Aiden.”
“I hardly had time to complete the shift,” Aiden added, sounding bored. He adjusted his sleeves. “It was fortunate I had extra clothing in the car.”
“And the Alpha went straight for the throat?” the investigator asked.
“He did,” I replied. “A blatant challenge to the death. We can only assume it was due to a grudge he still carried from back in our Guardian training days. He and his trio were spineless cowards and worthless teammates. We let them know it.”
“We also let Ward Gale know it,” Aiden added. “Who, as you may remember, is both the head of the Guardian training program and the father of our quadmate, Wyatt. It is entirely possible Mahoney blames us for the fact that his trio was dismissed from training last semester.”
The investigator grunted, typing notes on his tablet. “And why, out of all of you, would he challenge the jaguar?” He glanced up from his typing, pinning me with as forceful of a look as he could muster. “Why not challenge the head of the quad, who also happens to be an Alpha wolf?”
Aiden scoffed, and I returned the investigator’s look with my most withering stare.
“Because he knew without a doubt my wolf would crush him,” I said.
“So he rolled the dice against Aiden’s jaguar, and he lost. Or do you think it would’ve made more sense for him to try his hand against the basilisk? ”
I waved a hand at Elijah, who was leaning against a lamp pole nearby, still shirtless and casually flipping the dagger that’d killed his mother in one hand. He grinned, flashing his sharp canines at the investigator, his yellow eyes bright and unsettling.
The investigator swallowed roughly and then decided he had other places to be.
Aiden and I watched as he went to confer with his partner.
“Masterful work,” Aiden murmured. “Plausible story, delivered with authority.”
“And it’s in his nature to trust me as an Alpha,” I replied. “We lucked out there.”
Aiden blew out a breath, his shoulders sagging as he let the exhaustion and stress show for the first time tonight.
I could afford no such luxuries. Not yet. I was an immovable rock until this entire scene was cleaned up and the Council investigators left the premises.
Only then would Avery be safe.
The past month had been the longest of my life, and that was saying something considering how unbearable the end of the spring semester had been.
Ward’s plan to stick Avery with us as a permanent fifth had mellowed our beasts enough to get through the daily camp activities without further property destruction, but each day remained a quiet torture that was slowly driving us all mad.
We’d never been closer to our mate, while also feeling like there were oceans between us.
But my own personal exercise in self-control was about to be at an end. Having to stand by and watch as a piece-of-shit Alpha tore into the flesh of my mate’s beautiful beast was going to be the thing that broke the dam.
It didn’t matter that Avery’s tiger was one of the strongest felines I’d ever seen.
It didn’t matter that, even though Avery was unable to shift except under rare circumstances, she was an elegant and efficient fighter unmatched by anyone in the Guardians.
It didn’t matter that I’d had zero doubts about my mate’s ability to crush Mahoney’s wolf.
I was at my limit.
When we returned to camp, Avery would be lucky if I didn’t march straight to her cabin, pin her to the bed, and tell her this bullshit space we were giving her was over. I’d convince her to let me bury myself inside her so she could feel how we belonged together.
I surfaced from that agonizing fantasy to find Elijah studying me intently. “Are you going to need me to handcuff you to the bathroom pipes when we get back to camp, Captain?”
Elijah always could read me like a book.
I scoffed. “Like that would contain me.”
“You brought your handcuffs to camp?” Aiden asked him dubiously.
Elijah waggled his dark brows. “You never know when they might come in handy.”
I pinched my brow, feeling a headache coming on. Elijah had procured silver cuffs through means still unknown to me that he’d used when interrogating players possibly connected to his mother’s murder. Prolonged exposure to silver cut off access to the beast for all but the strongest of us.
Unfortunately for Elijah, repairing our relationship with Avery wasn’t the only thing that’d stagnated over the past month. We’d had no real breakthroughs on his mother’s murder, either, with what little time we’d had to devote to it.
“Hey there, big brothers,” Clara chirped, slinking over to us. “Is everything going to be okay?”
My headache intensified. “Yes, Clara. Honestly, you’re lucky this situation is taking all of my energy. I have none left to lay into you about whatever you and the Gale girls were up to tonight.”
“This is not why we agreed to share our locations with you,” Aiden added. “That was for your safety.”
She tossed her dark hair over her shoulder with a dramatic huff. “Please. You guys have been acting so shady. It was only natural that Willow and I wanted to figure out why. The fact that you haven’t been dating does sort of affect me, you know.”
I grasped her hand. “Clara, I swear to you that your safety and well-being has never stopped being our priority. It’s just that our plan is… more fluid. Whether I end up challenging Dad or not, we’re not letting those little Nelson fucks bond with you.”
Aiden nodded and patted her shoulder. “We’re going to take care of it. I promise.”
She grinned. “You changed plans because of Avery.”
Neither of us opened our mouths to deny it.
“I knew it!” She hopped up and down on her toes. “She’s so awesome. But I don’t think she’s on board with becoming your central. She seems kind of mad at you guys, actually.”
“Understatement,” Aiden muttered.
Elijah licked his lips, and then he narrowed his eyes at my sister. “Clara darling, did you and the girls talk about anything in particular with Avery this evening?”
A flash of guilt crossed her face. “Maybe. What’s said in the Beemer stays in the Beemer.” She lifted her chin, tossed her hair again, and turned to leave. “You four need to fix whatever you broke with her. I’m not helping you.”
My temples began to throb. “Thank you for the advice,” I managed to say with the world’s most rigid jaw. “Please take Willow and Winona and go home. Willow still doesn’t have a moondamned shirt on, and she’s lucky Wyatt’s inside dealing with the bar’s owner.”
She was already walking away. “Fine, byeeeee.”
The three girls climbed back into the car. Willow flipped us off before she peeled out of the parking lot, the screeching tires one last shot to my aching head.
“Did I suddenly sprout gray hair?” Aiden asked as we watched them go. “I feel like I did.”
“You and me both.” I straightened my spine as a sleek black van, sporting the Southeastern Council crest, pulled into the lot. It came to a stop, and then two burly men in dark jumpsuits exited.
They were here for the body.
As the investigators joined the team from the van, Ian and Brody came trotting out of the shadows near the building. Ian had managed to put his clothes back on, and the two of them were holding hands. All was forgiven, maybe, at least with respect to Brody.
If I knew my mate, she would make her brother sweat a bit longer.
Ian gave a cursory glance to the team loading Mahoney’s wolf into the van, as if it was hardly interesting to him.
Brody elbowed him, and after a put-upon sigh, he turned to me.
“Thank you, Blackwell. Obviously I did not intend for my sister to get involved in this, and I don’t regret breaking that motherfucker’s face in four places before he lost it—” Brody cleared his throat.
“—but in hindsight, it was rash. I appreciate you fixing this and covering for her.” He looked at Aiden.
“And I appreciate you taking the burden of the kill.”
Aiden dipped his head. “I would kill an extraordinary number of people to keep Avery safe and not lose a bit of sleep over it.”
Ian blinked at him.
“Well, if that isn’t the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” Brody said, sighing. He elbowed his boyfriend again. “Isn’t it, Ian?”
The doors of the van slammed, and then its engine sparked to life. We were all quiet for a moment as we watched it slowly roll out of the parking lot.
“Sure,” Ian replied. “But you know what would’ve been more romantic? If my sister’s so-called mates had taken care of Mahoney the second he walked into the bar.”
“You think we didn’t want to?” I growled. “It took the full power of my wolf and seven shots of whiskey to keep Elijah’s beast from erupting in the bar. Unlike you, we have to be more strategic about these kinds of things.”
“And my dove had already left when Mahoney arrived,” Elijah said. He flipped the dagger in his hand again. “We would’ve never allowed that wolf to breathe her air.”
“How gallant,” Ian said dryly.
The investigator from earlier strode over, closing the cover of his tablet and sticking it under his arm as he walked.
“The Council should be able to close this one quickly enough,” he reported.
“Seems to me like a run-of-the-mill challenge between Primes. At any rate, a shifter who decides to challenge a quad with two Blackwells and a basilisk as members is going to get what’s coming to him. ”
“On that, we agree,” I replied. I held out a hand, and he shook it, his grip entirely too firm.
After he and his partner had loaded themselves into their nondescript SUV and left, I finally let myself slump under the weight of the events of the night. I raked a shaky hand through my hair and released all the air from my lungs. “Fuck.”
I didn’t want to be here in this parking lot.
Staring at the pool of blood smeared on the asphalt.
Ignoring Ian’s judgmental stare.
Worrying that my brother wasn’t as okay as he seemed about the fact that he’d had to kill one of our peers.
Wondering what the hell was taking Wyatt so long.
All while bracing against the chill still emanating from Elijah.
The only thing I fucking wanted was to be somewhere quiet and safe, holding Avery in my arms.
And I wasn’t going to get that tonight. There was a chance I wouldn’t get that ever in my life. My wolf howled in agony at the thought.
“All right,” I rasped. “Let’s get the hell out of here—”
A small blue sedan stopped in front of the entrance to the lot.
Drew—the lanky panther shifter who was part of Mahoney’s trio—climbed out of the passenger seat.
After a wink and a wave at the girl behind the wheel, he slammed the door and swaggered in our general direction, the car taking off behind him.
He reached the pool of blood, and his cocky gait came to an abrupt halt. His nostrils flared and his eyes widened. He looked around, harried, and he quickly zeroed in on Ian. His green eyes went nuclear, and black fur sprouted along his neck.
“You!” he bellowed. “What the fuck did you do?”
Before he could lunge for Ian, a dagger with an ornate floral hilt sprouted from his stomach. He staggered, falling to his knees on the pavement.
A weary sigh left me. This hellish night wasn’t over yet.