Chapter Ten
They’ll still come and I’ll still kill them.
Stomach in knots over Eli’s matter-of-fact declaration, she wasn’t prepared for Zach’s announcement. Terror gripped her. It had to be Holden or the others. They were here.
None of the Sin brothers seemed surprised or particularly upset by the news.
Didn’t they understand how much danger they were in?
Her throat hurt as she suppressed the urge to yell at them.
Instead, she strove for calm. “What happens now?” They were the experts on this.
It was time to trust them. She no longer had a choice.
Leaving was out of the question, not with the enemy on their doorstep. Part of her was glad the decision had been taken out of her hands. Another part despised her for her weakness. They were all in danger and she was to blame.
Eli was right about one thing. He was no knight in shining armor.
No, he was wrath, pitiless, cold, and unstoppable.
A shiver raced down her spine and chilled her blood.
To protect her, he’d become the very thing he’d dedicated his life against becoming.
The calm dispassion he’d shown in the fighting ring and when they’d met had vanished, replaced by an icy fury.
She’d almost feel sorry for her former pack if they hadn’t brought this on themselves.
Cyrus had pulled out his phone and was reading something.
“What’s going on?” she asked, refusing to be left in the dark.
“Zach’s surveillance equipment sent us an alert.” Eli showed her the readout on his phone. “Lower west quadrant picked up a single intruder. Might be a hunter or lost hiker. We get them occasionally, but it’s rare. And given the timing, I’d say unlikely.” He tucked the phone away. “I’ll handle it.”
“I’m going with you. This is my fight,” she reminded him.
“Levi, you join Josiah on the eastern border. “Noah, you hunker down here with Zach. You know what to do. You two,” Cyrus pointed at her and Eli, “come with me.”
She had no idea where he was going but followed with Eli right behind her.
He led them into a large office. Instead of going to the desk, he went to a closet and pulled open the door.
Another door, this one steel, lay behind it.
He spun the lock, input the combination, and yanked it open to reveal an arsenal unlike anything she’d ever seen outside a movie.
“Guns?” No wolf she’d ever known used human weapons.
Cyrus tossed a shotgun toward Eli, who plucked it out of the air. “Yup. We deal with humans. Can’t rip them to shreds now, can we? Well, we could, but that would attract unwanted attention from the authorities.”
Having checked to ensure it was loaded, Eli held it out to her. “You ever use one?”
She put her hands behind her back and shook her head. “No. I’ve only seen them on television and in movies. Werewolves are fast,” she reminded him.
“Maybe, but they’re damn sure not expecting a bullet, not from us. And a headshot or heart shot can be lethal.”
He wasn’t wrong. Decapitation was the best way to kill one of their kind, but heavy blood loss from a catastrophic wound could kill a wolf before there was time to heal.
This situation had just stepped from the realm of nightmare into stark reality.
People were going to die. Either people she’d known her entire life, or Eli and his brothers.
She locked her knees when her legs trembled.
Now was not the time for weakness, but for action.
“If it is a hiker or hunter, this will deter them. We don’t need locals on the mountain.”
“I didn’t think of that,” she confessed.
It hadn’t occurred to her that this could spill over to the outside world if they weren’t cautious.
Packs were careful to keep their disputes among themselves, but neither her uncle nor Holden were exercising good judgement.
Otherwise, they’d have let her go. “My uncle is acting irrationally.” Her daddy might have been able to talk sense into him, but he was no longer around to temper his brother’s reckless streak.
“His actions go beyond irrational. He’s endangering his entire pack.” Cyrus didn’t add over her, but she heard it nonetheless. He closed and locked the gun safe before slinging a shotgun strap over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“You sure you want to do this?” Eli asked as they followed Cyrus out of the room.
She didn’t want anything to do with guns or a pack war, but short of going back in time and changing her actions, there was no way to stop this.
She gave a curt nod, praying she looked more confident than she felt.
“I have to.” Staying safe at the house while Eli faced the enemy was not an option.
She didn’t believe any more than he did that it was a lost hiker or a hunter.
Eli stopped her by blocking the front door. “You sure I can’t convince you to stay with Noah and Zach?”
She shook her head.
“Then keep behind me. If I tell you to run, you damn well run.” Since she had no intention of doing either, she simply stared at him. The corners of his mouth tightened. “Stubborn. Just don’t get killed.” He brushed a hand over the top of her head.
She grabbed his hand. “You be careful too.”
“You two done yet?” Cyrus called from the edge of the drive. “Time’s wasting.”
He was right. The farther away they kept whoever this was from the house, the better.
She slipped around Eli and jogged toward the tree line.
“I can keep up,” she assured them. Last thing she wanted to do was give them an excuse to leave her behind.
She had to show them she was capable of being an asset and not a liability.
Taking her at her word, Cyrus set off. “No talking from here on. Fast and silent. If you can’t do that, stay here.”
“I eluded you last night,” she reminded him.
Eli’s lips twitched at the reminder. “So you did, but he’s right. We’re moving hard and fast. This isn’t the same as evasion and escape.”
“Will you two shut up or I’m leaving you both behind.”
Eli winked at her and they followed Cyrus. She was a werewolf, had run in forests her entire life, but she’d never experienced anything like the punishing pace they set. And she had the distinct impression they could have gone much faster, if necessary, would have if she hadn’t been with them.
She jumped over downed trees, skirted large boulders, ducked under low-hanging branches, and went down steep inclines and back up even steeper hills, as they wove a path steadily westward.
The muscles in her legs burned, but she kept up.
She estimated they’d covered several miles of rough terrain before Eli began to slow and held up his hand.
The forest was silent. Kinley struggled to control her breathing, winded by the mad dash down the mountain.
She was in excellent shape, but her previous lifestyle hadn’t prepared her for this.
A long loping run was nothing like a full-out sprint.
She listened intently. A fox scurried through the nearby underbrush, a blue jay squawked and took off from a tree, but she didn’t detect anything out of place.
Eli glanced at Cyrus and canted his head slightly to the right and down. They’d heard something she hadn’t. Frowning, she tried again but didn’t pick up on whatever they had.
She was afraid to move, not wanting to do anything that would give away their position.
Eli pointed to a large oak. Stepping carefully, she positioned herself behind it.
She held her breath as he began to move steadily downward, disappearing from view.
Claws slid out from the tips of her fingers and dug into the thick trunk of the oak.
Her wolf wanted out, wanted to race after him.
She bit her bottom lip to keep from calling him back.
This is what he does for a living. No matter how many times she repeated it, it didn’t calm the pounding of her heart or the nervous jitters in her stomach.
A loud scuffle erupted in the distance. Abandoning all caution, she rushed toward it. Please be all right. The plea echoing in her brain, she skidded to a stop. A man lay facedown on the ground. Eli stood above him with the barrel of the shotgun pressed against the back of his skull.
“Move and I’ll blow your damn brains out. You might be a wolf, but not even you can recover from a shot this close.”
Eli was safe, but the same couldn’t be said for the person he’d captured. Relief flooded through her, followed by disbelief when she took a good look at the person he’d captured. “Ridge?”
****
Eli tamped down the anger that threatened to erupt. What was Kinley doing here? She was supposed to stay put and out of harm’s way. He scowled at Cyrus who simply shrugged.
The intruder was one of the men who’d accosted her outside the motel room. Eli had gotten a jump on him and taken him down with little trouble. It would be easier to kill him and be done with it—one less enemy to fight—but they needed information.
Ignoring Kinley, he nudged the back of the man’s skull with the tip of the barrel. “Where are the others?”
“I came alone.” The voice was muffled against the ground.
He nudged him again, this time harder. “You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth.”
“Eli.” Wide-eyed, Kinley cautiously approached. “This is Ridge Turner.”
“I know who he is.” Surely, she wasn’t about to defend the guy. “He’s the guy who wanted you to go back to your pack and mate with that fucker Holden. How did he put it? You should go home where you belong. You should accept your fate because it’s just the way it is.”
“I remember.”
Knowing Cyrus would watch his back and take whatever action was necessary, Eli shoved his boot into Ridge’s side and heaved him onto his back. “Talk fast.” He kept the weapon aimed at his head to show he meant business.
The bastard had the nerve to sneer. “Wolves don’t use guns.”
“Haven’t you heard, we’re outliers? We do whatever the hell we want. My trigger finger is itchy and you’re trying my patience.”