Chapter 9 #2
A shiver jolted from my neck to my toes as the woman’s hand seemed to warm on my belly.
Brandt tensed beside me, but he didn’t chase her off.
She repeated the same words several times and then bowed her head and backed away.
I continued to stare at her even as Scarlett waved us forward again.
She was waiting on the porch of the only trailer with a red door.
When we got close enough, I could see her smiling down at both of us.
“Looks like Fedosina has given you her blessing,” she said, her words coming out like silk.
“Told you,” Brandt whispered and kissed the side of my head.
My free hand rested across my stomach. Why had the old woman touched me there?
Was she trying to tell me something? Was I pregnant?
I immediately shook that thought from my mind.
There was absolutely no way I could deal with that right now.
And as we followed Scarlett inside, I swear I could feel something different deep within my soul.
The trailer was lighter than I’d expected. White wash walls and large windows on the side let in ample sunlight and helped make me feel at ease. Scarlett gestured for us to sit down at the small kitchen table and disappeared into the hallway.
“Do you know what she’s doing?” I asked.
“Getting her alpha, I suspect.”
“Oh,” I whispered and sank back into the chair closer to Brandt.
A moment later, Scarlett helped an older man out of a room and into the kitchen, where we waited.
His chin-length black hair was mostly gray, his face wrinkled from old age.
He seemed frail and in pain, but the moment he saw us, he stood tall on his own.
“Brandt Callaghan. It’s been a long time,” the man said.
Brandt rose and extended his hand across the table. “Peter Kani. Thank you for having us.”
My bear cringed at the contact between the wolf and the grizzly, but I pushed her down the second Peter snapped his head in my direction.
“This is Emma Davis. My mate.” Brandt said, trying to alleviate some of the tension.
Peter nodded and Scarlett helped him sit. I was very surprised that Peter would allow us to see the extent of his frailty. I also wondered why no one had challenged him for alpha yet.
“Scarlett has informed me that you recently lost two of your own, including your father.” Brandt nodded. “And she has also told me that someone is making it look like we are responsible for their deaths.”
I tensed but Brandt stayed calm. “There was a note, with a lone wolf print on it, left beside the mutilated body of our second. We found him yesterday, and some members of the clan are ready to come after you.”
“I see.”
Brandt continued. “My brothers and I do not believe that your pack had anything to do with this. And then I received Scarlett’s note this morning and thought this would be an opportunity to get some answers.”
Peter paused and looked at Scarlett, giving her permission to speak. “I’ve been watching your clan lately,” she said. “There seems to be a divide among you.”
“You’ve been watching us?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“Yes,” she smiled. “And welcome back.”
Brandt squeezed my thigh in warning to be silent. “Why have you been watching us?” His voice rumbled with displeasure, and I was sure both Peter and Scarlett picked up on that.
“For security,” she said flatly. “If there is something amiss in your clan, it has the potential to trickle down into our business and our privacy.”
“It is no secret that we had been…working with your father to secure a say in the happenings in these mountains,” Peter said. “But our negotiations didn’t always end favorably.”
Brandt hung his head. “I did not know this.”
“I assumed as much,” Peter continued. “And we are willing to open these discussions with you again, should you become the new leader.”
Scarlett studied Brandt for a moment before speaking. “You do not have the support of everyone, correct?”
“Correct.”
She nodded. “Well, I believe you are being tricked into inciting a war with us to see you fail.”
“Why do you think this?” I asked. Brandt tensed beside me but said nothing.
“Your bears like to frequent our establishments and they also like to talk.” Her establishments were the three strip clubs the pack owned in the neighboring towns.
“Son of a bitch,” Brandt growled. “So you didn’t kill Dixon?”
“Of course not,” Peter said. “Nor did we have anything to do with your father’s death.”
“You need to look at one of your own,” Scarlett said, then added softly. “And I’m sorry for that.”
As a leader, she would understand what it felt like to be betrayed by someone you trust. Or by someone who, by blood and pack, should be trusted until the day they died.
Brandt rose from his chair, ready to jump into action.
“Thank you for telling us this.” He then pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and laid it on the table between us.
“I was going through my father’s things and found this contract.
Should I become alpha tomorrow, I would like to offer you what’s rightly yours. ”
Peter glanced down briefly and then grinned. “I shall wish you success in your challenge tomorrow.”
Scarlett grabbed the paper and read the highlighted part. Her lips turned up in the corner, and she gave Brandt a wink. “I look forward to talking to you again about this.”
We both made our way around the table and waited for Scarlett to open the door. “I’ll walk you out,” she said.
There seemed to be nothing else to say, and Brandt used the silence to digest what we had just learned.
I could see it in his tensed jaw and raised shoulders.
I had no doubt he was scrambling through the list of everyone in his mind, wondering who would be stupid enough to kill their alpha and their second.
Scarlett caught up to us and stood beside Brandt. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, she froze. I smelled it at the same time as a wolf howled in the nearby woods. “Someone’s here,” she growled.
The dirt road in front of us was empty, but just a few seconds later, the dust kicked up around our truck as two giant grizzlies charged full speed toward us.
“Shit,” Brandt growled, stepping forward in an attempt to ward them off. He lifted his hands and shouted at them. “Stand down now!”
Scarlett started taking off her clothes, a signal of her impending change.
The bears didn’t stop running, and if they continued on their path, they’d destroy Brandt.
I tried to call out to him, but suddenly found myself flying face-first into the ground.
I screamed in pain when a pair of grizzly teeth crunched down over my shoulder and lifted me into the air.
Brandt spun around and charged at us, but the bear holding me in its grip shook me violently from side to side in warning. Pain seared down my arm as my human flesh ripped into pieces and blood splattered all over my face.
“Let her go!” Brandt yelled.
The bear didn’t listen. Instead, he dropped me to the ground and stood, with two paws, on my back. It crushed my stomach and ribs, making it very difficult to breathe. I closed my eyes, fighting through the pain so that Brandt wouldn’t do something stupid and get himself killed.
“Joshua,” Brandt warned, taking a step closer. “Let her go.”
Joshua huffed, his hot air blowing against my torn skin and lifting the hair off my face.
He placed both feet on the side of my head, relieving the pressure on my torso for just a few moments.
Droplets of drool fell on my face, wretched breath smothering my senses.
I heard something scuffle off to my side, but I couldn’t see. Had that been Scarlett? Or Brandt?
“Joshua,” Brandt warned.
But I knew the grizzly above me had no intentions of obeying Brandt. I could feel it in the air, the angry and defiant scent of a crazy person.
“Joshua, don’t!” Brandt screamed out in fear a second before I felt it.
Pain ripped through my neck when Joshua clamped his jaw over the back of my head and picked me up again.
I think I screamed, but I couldn’t tell anymore.
The fear of being mauled to death by one of my own suddenly became a reality, and I froze.
Joshua shook me viciously back and forth, back and forth.
And then I was sailing through the air. I landed on the other side of the road and rolled until I hit a lawn ornament on one of the lots.
Blood poured from my neck, the light in me quickly seeping into the ground.
I managed to focus, ever so briefly, on Brandt, just in time to see him burst from his skin and leap at Joshua.