Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
Brandon’s mouth dropped open. “You mated Amy?”
Rowan wouldn’t look away from Garith. “You can kill me, but leave Amy alone.”
Nix and Megan were on their feet instantly.
They ran back to Rowan without a second glance at me.
But that was fine. The man was being stupid.
Rowan’s eyes danced around the crowd, his eyes meeting mine for a fraction of a second, but I could see his thoughts.
We were outnumbered. He wanted me to slink away undetected until I was safe.
He would give up his life for me instantly if he knew I could leave safely.
Shannon growled. “Why does everyone fucking care about Amy?” She screamed my name like it was a curse.
“So what if she is a female Alpha. She’s ugly, and fucking useless. She can’t even keep a man.”
Rowan laughed. He struggled to sit himself up, and his head lolled. I went to grab for him, but Nix busted out of the trees. He’s playing them.
I froze. What do you mean?
Nix panted. He was trained like you were. His dad made sure he could withstand silver. He is fine. But he is trying to give us a way out. He is telling us to run.
Fuck that. I turned back to Garith.
Nix snorted. My thoughts exactly.
Rowan finally pushed himself into a position to look at Shannon. “Since I’m about to die, allow me to illuminate a few things for you.” He raised an eyebrow and waited for Shannon to nod. “She never wanted Brandon.”
“Of course she did. He’s an Alpha.”
“A weak one.” Rowan countered. But he raised a hand to stop her words. “You want to know how I know?”
Shannon’s eyes glared back at him. “Sure.” She huffed out a laugh as if he were lying.
“Brandon was rejected in the first year of school, when he was in the cafeteria, surrounded by hundreds of she-wolves. Right?” Rowan turned his head to Brandon and waited for his answer. “Am I right?”
Brandon glared at him but just nodded. “I’m assuming she told you.”
Rowan smiled. “She did, but not for the reason you’re thinking.” Rowan turned to Garith. “You are from the same family, so you can tell if I’m lying.”
Garith’s eyes tightened. “What are you on about?”
“Your mother passed down a gift to her child, one that you passed down. You live your life…until you die. And you come back for a second chance. Right? You have the chance to correct whatever happened that caused your death, right?”
Everyone gasped. But Shannon cackled. “That’s insane.” Everyone joined in. I heard a few people whispering about how the silver must have gotten to his brain already.
Garith snapped his head toward Verity. “Is it true?”
Everyone stopped laughing. “What?”
Verity paled. “I thought…”
“You thought what? That it was normal for someone to die and then come back to life years beforehand?” Garith stood. “When?”
“When I was reborn?”
“When was I reborn?” His voice was high-pitched and mimicked Verity. He slammed his fist onto the wooden pew. “Of course! When did you come back?”
Verity looked around. “When I was twenty. I died after my mate found out I was a bastard. He killed me right as my mother told me about you. So when I came back, I found you first, and rejected my mate.”
Garith stared at her. “You played me.”
“No…I just thought it was a blessing from the Goddess and kept it a secret. You never told me you’d come back before.” She cried, but he silenced her with a hand.
“Later.” He glared at her for a second before he turned back to Rowan. “So Amy came back?”
Rowan nodded. “Her first mate killed her when she was twenty-four.”
Garith’s eyes tightened. “What does that have to do with today?”
Rowan smiled. “Everything. You see, Amy met her mate on her eighteenth birthday. She mated him within a month and then became a Luna. She did everything she could, but she never shifted in her previous life.”
“She never balanced her magic and wolf.” Garith snorted.
“She was never told how. Her father was killed before she found out in her first life.” Rowan coughed. “But that didn’t matter. She was still a strong Alpha.”
“Who fucking cares.” Shannon growled.
“I promise there is a reason.” Rowan chuckled.
“Her mate betrayed her with Shannon, killing the pup that they had in a fit of anger.” Shannon furrowed her brows, but Brandon grew still.
“So when she woke back up on her eighteenth birthday, she ran to her father’s pack.
He helped her find her magic, which I am sure you knew about. ” He turned to Garith.
“No.” Brandon’s whisper was soft, but Rowan clapped.
“You figured it out.” Rowan chuckled. “You made the same mistake twice.” He cackled. “You threw away your Alpha mate for her whore sister. So she rejected you in college. And then used your pathetic chasing to get close.”
“Why?” Brandon whispered.
“To breach our servers.” Vince’s voice was ragged as the realization settled around his shoulders. His face held a dawning horror that was amazing to watch.
“What did you say?” Garith turned to Vince, and puffed out a breath, clearly lost. “Why do you look like that? Why does it matter?”
Everyone turned to Vince and saw what Garith was talking about. Vince was pale, too pale. Sweat was beading on his forehead, and his hands were balled into fists. “Our servers…” His heart rate picked until it sounded like it was pounding in his chest.
“I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about, Vince. What the fuck is a server? EXPLAIN.” Garith lost the tiny grip he had on his anger. His aura slammed out, and everyone trembled on their feet. I had to force myself to drop to my knees.
Vince stumbled closer, clearly affected by the other Alpha’s power. “My server that I had Rick managing.” Garith waved his hand in a circle.
“You are still not making sense.”
“The members of the brotherhood. Our plans. The kill list. EVERYTHING WE HAVE PLANNED IS ON OUR SERVERS.” I watched as Vince lost his mind. I had to force my lips into a pinched line so I wouldn’t smile.
Garith pushed up off the pew. His voice was low. “What do you mean?”
“I had Rick create a private server for my pack. No one could hack into it because there was no way in. The server wasn’t connected to anything else.
It was closed specifically so that no one outside of the pack house would be able to connect to it,” Vince rambled.
“I had everything backed up there. All our plans — the hideouts, the attack strategies. EVERYTHING.”
Garith’s eyes flashed, and he held up a hand. “Let me see if I got this straight. You took all our conversations and what? Typed them out?” Vince swallowed and nodded. “Then you put them into your unhackable server for safekeeping.” Vince nodded again. “Then how did my granddaughter have access?”
Vince turned to Brandon, who looked like he was staring at a silver bullet. His voice was a whisper when he answered. “I asked my dad to hire her.” His mouth flapped open and closed. “She was going to be my mate…and she just went to school for computer science. I figured Rick could use the help.”
Garith let out a growl. “You were fucking her sister! What the fuck do you mean she was supposed to be your mate?” He kicked Derek’s dead body, earning a giggle from Lynn.
“Did you think she was just going to accept the fact that you were fucking an unranked wolf?” Garith whirled.
“But Rick would have stopped her, right?” Vince’s hands trembled while he stared at him.
I watched as Garith’s eyes tightened. “Right?”
Vince dropped his head. “Rick went missing…”
Garith kicked Derek again. “And you waited until now to tell me?” He roared into the night sky. “Are you fucking serious?”
Brandon flinched. “It’s fine. She probably didn’t get in.”
Garith whirled and got in Brandon’s face. “You don’t think that the girl who spent three years learning computers and then came to work in this pack got any information?” Brandon shook his head.
“Even if she knew how to hack…which I am sure she didn’t, there is no way that she got all the way through the security features Rick put in.”
Verity snorted. “The man who went missing when Amy took off? You still don’t see how Amy might have gotten past your security?”
Her father wheeled on her. “You knew?”
Verity held up her hands. “Vince called me when Rick went missing. We activated the contingency plans.” She cut her eyes at Brandon. “His entire family is dead. But I didn’t know that they gave her the fucking keys to the front door.”
Garith rubbed his head. “I am surrounded by fucking DUMBASSES.”
Rowan laughed and dropped his head against the back of the pew.
“You really are.” Garith growled low, but Rowan held up one finger.
“Let me just sum it all up for you. Amy came back from her first life, already knowing you were her mate, and that you would cheat on her with Shannon. She ran to her father to find out the truth. She had magic and learned to shift into Nix. She purposefully took computer science because Gavin told her to.” He flopped his head to look at Vince.
“Because Gavin already knew that you had a closed private server and knew he needed someone on the inside to get in. Spent three years learning the inside and out of computers, and hacking. Then convinced your idiot son that she had fallen in love with him, using her first life as a blueprint to make him fall for it. She then came to work, and spent seven or eight months pushing back the mating ceremony, learning your system.” Rowan chuckled.
“She saved those people. Rick, his family, the Omegas. Just so you couldn’t use them against her once she stole all your information. ”
Vince shook his head. “No way.”
Rowan smiled. “She really is that amazing. And I have to thank you for fumbling her not once, but twice.” Rowan rolled his eyes at Brandon.
“If it weren’t for your stupidity in choosing Shannon over there, I would have never found my queen.
My Goddess-blessed mate.” He pulled his shirt completely off the mate mark.
“Everything is in place for her to take over in my stead.”
“You know I will just kill her, right?” Garith smiled.
Rowan threw his head back and laughed so hard he started to cough. Garith’s face grew dark. “You can try.” Rowan held up his hands. “But she is stronger than you think she is.”
Garith smiled. “It’s fine, I can get my son-”
“The one in the caves with Aurora?” Rowan lifted a brow. “Yeah…I don’t think he will be around for long. She’s already dead, and he doesn’t seem like he has a lot of survival skills. If you know what I’m saying.”
Garith’s face paled. “No.”
“I mean, Vince did say she wanted your servers.” Rowan smiled.
Garith pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Pick up.” He turned and shouted to the crowd. “Grab them.”
Everyone converged on the front. A few females wove in between the men as Garith tried to dial again. Lynn grinned. “No answer?”
Garith growled low. “I will kill you if he is hurt.”
Lynn snapped her fangs. “I’m already dead, remember.” She cackled as he dialed one more time.
Finally, the call connected. There were screams in the distance. “Dad?” Garren’s voice rang out of the speaker.
Garith’s hand tightened on the phone. “Garren, what is going on?”
“The caves…the caves are under attack.” There was a howl, and Garren’s voice hardened. “Aurora is dead. A tracker killed her the other day. I was able to get some out, but a lot of the exits were covered by other packs.”
Garith turned to face Rowan, who was smiling. “Did I forget to say that?”
“Garren, listen to me. Leave the rogues. Just get yourself out.”
“Dad, you know I can’t do that. I’m their Alpha.” Garren’s voice sounded flat.
“Yes, you can. Do what I say, boy.”
There was a pause on the other end before Garren’s voice came back. “Fine. But I’m saving as many as I can.” Then the phone disconnected.
Garith stared down at his phone for a second before he threw it against one of the pillars, shattering it into a million pieces. He whirled back to face Rowan, who was smiling. “I’m going to kill you.”
“You can try.” Rowan pushed up from the pew and rocked back and forth on his feet.
Garith smiled. “You think this is going to be a challenge?” He tossed his head and laughed. “You are stupid, just like your father.” He looked around at the crowd. “Grab him.”
A few guards and one female grabbed Rowan, holding his arms behind his back as Garith stepped closer. “I’m going to have them hold you down as I cut your heart from your chest.”
Brandon’s face furrowed in confusion. “Why not just use your Alpha command or magic?”
Verity rolled her eyes. “They won’t work. Commands and magic will only go so far, but if a wolf feels like it is in danger, then it will break free and fight for its life.”
Brandon pointed at Derek. “Obviously not. Derek was stuck in place as that fucking whore sliced into him.”
Verity sighed. “No, your Beta is just a dumbass.” Verity kicked at Derek’s hand.
Brandon growled, but she rolled her eyes.
“His wolf was just as delusional as he was. They had convinced themselves that they weren’t in danger because he didn’t see females as a danger.
He could have gotten up at any time. But he stayed there because he thought he was going to heal. He was stupid.”
Brandon stared down at his best friend’s body. “He could have gotten up?”
Garith chuffed out a chuckle. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, boy.
He was gone as soon as the second blade went in.
After the silver was that close to the heart, it wouldn’t have mattered.
He was already dead; his body just had to catch up.
” He turned to me and waved me closer. I walked up beside him and held out the toolkit.
“Now, back to the important bit.” He grabbed another knife.
“You are such a good girl.” I smiled softly.
“Thank you.” I slipped a knife out of this kit as he turned his back to me. I watched as he stepped closer to my mate. “I try my best, Alpha.”
“If only my family members were this useful.” He trailed a knife over Rowan’s face. “Now…I think it’s about time.”
“Well…” I smiled softly. “You’re in luck.” Garith froze for a second.
“What?” He looked at me as the mask I untied fell from my eyes.
“I said you’re in luck…Grandpa.” I turned and slit one of the guards’ throats.