Chapter Fourteen

It was a long, exhausting drive. Rusty went with them, taking turns behind the wheel with Savannah, and Austin squeezed into the back seat of the pickup truck with his brothers to keep Roy under control.

Savannah and Rusty tried to nap when the other one was driving, but with Roy waking up on a regular basis and wrenching them from sleep with his howls of fury, they were both groggy and tired by the time the sun came up.

No matter how many times they knocked him out, he woke up again within an hour or two, and the battle started anew.

They had three cars full of the Bronson Pack’s members following behind them, but if Roy broke out, they wouldn’t be able to help much. Austin suspected that Roy would be able to kill every last one of them without breaking a sweat.

There was no safe way for them to drive faster. The road wound over mountains, around hairpin curves, and down steep slopes. Every time they passed another car, they had to hug their side of the road and creep along at a snail’s pace, wheels on dirt, rubbing up against underbrush and tree branches.

“Road trip from hell” had been way too optimistic a description.

As the sun rose, they pulled over at a rest stop to fill up on gas and take a bathroom break. Savannah slumped in the passenger seat, napping. Roy was unconscious…for the time being.

Austin kept a careful eye on him and nursed an extra-large black coffee as he leaned against the side of the truck. The hot, bitter liquid burned its way down his throat.

Cliff and Grant were standing about twenty feet away from him, talking to each other irritably, in low, angry voices. Austin was too tired to bother eavesdropping.

His brothers were just too Alpha to be living in the same territory. They loved each other as much anyone in their dysfunctional family could, sure. But force them into close proximity with each other for too long, and somebody was going to bleed.

Not his problem. He was part of their family in name only.

Or was he?

They’d come through for him. They’d saved his life. Cliff seemed to be trying to make amends for past misdeeds, with his attempted explanation of his behavior back when Austin was a teenager.

He couldn’t tell if Cliff was running some kind of con on him, but if so, what was it? There was nothing that Cliff needed from him, so why would he be trying to trick him?

But then again, why the hell was Cliff still keeping secrets? How could he fully trust his oldest brother if he wouldn’t come clean?

It really seemed as if Cliff had come out here to help him. If Cliff had wanted to kidnap Austin and lock him away, he’d had every opportunity when they’d freed him from the concrete bunker.

Savannah wouldn’t have been able to stop them.

He nursed his coffee and rubbed his temple with his free hand, trying to clear the fog from his brain.

Had things really changed? Did Cliff really believe that he was a Seer, rather than a lunatic, and if so, how did he know?

It wasn’t impossible to believe that Korbin had betrayed his oath as a Healer and deliberately mis-diagnosed Austin. But then, why wasn’t Austin seeing real visions? From what he’d always been told, Seers could see snippets of the future. They were rare, so he didn’t know a lot about them, but he’d certainly never heard of them seeing crazy warped visions like what he’d been cursed with.

There was something about that…the implications of Austin being a seer…something wrong, somehow. Austin was too tired to think about what it was right now, though.

And Roy was stirring in the back seat of the truck again.

Fuck.

Austin gulped down the last of his coffee, shuddering at the burn, then walked around and opened the door.

“Hey,” he said to Roy. “Listen. I’m sorry about what I said about your mate. That was off-limits, and it was uncalled for.”

Roy’s eyes flew open and he stared up at Austin. “You really think that’s going to save your hide, boy?”

“No, you fucking asshole,” Austin snapped. “I don’t even think it’s going to make you behave with the slightest bit of decency, because that’s clearly beyond you. I’m apologizing because since realizing that Savannah is my mate, if, God forbid, I lost her and someone spoke about her that way…well…I can’t even think beyond the horror of losing her. It was a dick thing of me to say, especially when you were chained up and couldn’t defend yourself. I’m apologizing because…well, because Savannah makes me want to be a better wolf, honestly.”

Austin looked at her, lying there with her head resting on the window, the strain of exhaustion showing on her beautiful face. She had circles under her eyes, and even in sleep, her brows were pinched with worry. That made him feel like crap. She was his. He should be taking better care of her.

Austin expected Roy to start hollering, to start threatening, to wake her up. He braced himself to call his brothers for help.

Instead, Roy fixed him with a look of contempt. “Fucking sad-ass loser. I’ve got half a mind to bust out of these chains and rip your jugular out just so she can find someone who deserves her.”

“Excuse me?” Austin said, astonished. “I’m sorry, Dr. Phil, let me get this straight – you’re giving relationship advice now?”

“Quit trying to pretend you’re anything like a good mate, when you’re nothing but a whiny little coward. ‘Oh, boo hoo, I don’t want to see the future!’ You know how many times and how many ways you told that girl she’s not worth fighting for?”

So Roy had been awake when they’d thought he was out.

“Thanks for weighing in, when you don’t know shit about what’s happening,” Austin snapped. “I don’t see the future. I see monsters and nightmares. And I fight the visions until I practically puke and pass out. There’s nothing to be done about it.”

“Shit on a stick, just when I think you can’t get any fucking dumber,” Roy spat at him. “When you fight the visions, it warps them. Visions are a gift, you ungrateful sack of turds. You know how many people would love to see the future? Seers sit there and study for years, learning to call up visions. Ass-face.”

“How the fuck would you know?” Austin barked at him. Savannah started, then sat up. Damn it.

“Sorry,” he called out to her.

“S’allright,” she mumbled. She yawned, stretched, and opened the car door, sliding out.

“My mate was a Seer,” Roy said coldly. “And yes, she saw that she was going to die of cancer. Didn’t tell me about it until the end, though. But she saw it coming.”

Before Austin could say anything, he realized that Cliff and Grant had gone silent. A car was pulling into the parking lot – a car full of members of the Hidden Hills Pack.

It was the Elders. Interfering little bitches, so old they farted dust, and obsessed with pack honor and pack law. Their appearance couldn’t be good news.

“Stay put,” he snapped at Roy.

“Blow me.”

“I’ll watch him,” Savannah said wearily. “I’ll shout if he tries to escape.”

Rusty strolled up, holding a cup of coffee. “I got it,” he said to her. “I’ll watch him. Stand by your man.”

Austin glanced uneasily at the car, then linked his arm through Savannah’s and walked over to his brothers.

The Elders piled out of the car and stalked over, scowling.

He kept expecting to hear Rusty shout for help, but he heard nothing.

The Elders were giving him an odd look. Oscar, Phineas, Sylvester and Minnie, who’d stood against Cliff during the Alpha Trials a couple of years ago, were looking especially sour. They’d never liked him, but now there was open hatred on their faces.

Back at you, Austin thought contemptuously. None of them had lifted a paw when his father was kicking his ass.

Their hostility didn’t really make sense, though. Austin avoided the pack completely. He wasn’t a problem for them, because he never set paw on the family property.

Herbert, Maurice and Juliette, who’d backed Cliff during the Alpha Trials, stood off by themselves and looked at him with pity.

What the hell?

“Cliff, did you get any of our text messages?” Oscar, the oldest, demanded.

“I did not,” Cliff said coolly. “Sorry. Reception sucks balls out here.”

“Hmmph,” Minnie snorted, her face curdling as if she’d just gulped sour milk.

“Something in your throat? Surely you’re not calling your Alpha a liar?” Grant growled at her. A minute ago they’d been fighting, but facing a common enemy, now the two brothers were putting on a united front.

“No matter. We’re here now,” Oscar said icily. “We got an urgent message from Jason Washborn. Do you know what he said?”

“I can’t imagine,” Cliff said, his expression bored. “But I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

Oscar raked him with a look of utter contempt. “He said that Austin is his older half brother. He says that his father Christopher had an affair with your mother, and Austin is his little bastard.”

Austin’s brows flew up to his forehead. That was absolutely the last thing he’d expected to hear. Jason was his brother? God, how disgusting.

“What?” Savannah cried out in shock.

Austin looked at Cliff, who stood there, arms folded across his chest, not saying a word.

“That’s got to be a lie,” Savannah protested. “If that were the case, then Austin being the older brother…wouldn’t he be eligible to challenge Jason for the position of Alpha?”

“According to their specific pack charter, the oldest male descendent of the Alpha inherits the position unless any other male descendant chooses to challenge,” Oscar said coolly. “So Jason has no reason to pretend. But we can do DNA testing if necessary. By the way, word’s getting around that Austin has been either going crazy or seeing visions. The Seer gene is only passed down from father to son. Lloyd, as we all know, was not a Seer. But Christopher was. His talent was being able to predict stock market fluctuations – that’s why the pack is so rich.”

That was it! That was what made no sense about Cliff telling Austin that he was a Seer! Because, although there were both male and female Seers, the gene was only passed down through the father.

Which meant that Lloyd could not possibly be his father.

Austin stared at Cliff, who actually shuffled in place and dropped his gaze.

It was true.

That was why Lloyd had hated him so much. He hadn’t known the truth, of course, or he would have just ripped Austin’s throat out as a baby. But he’d sensed it on some level.

“If I were a Seer, why wouldn’t it have shown up until now?” he asked, his mind whirling.

“Most likely because you instinctively repressed it,” Oswald said. “It wouldn’t have shown up until your teens or early twenties anyway. But any male descendent of a Seer begins training from a young age, to encourage his abilities. You never had that training, but there were probably signs. Did you always have vivid nightmares?”

After growing up with parents like mine? Hell, yes.

“Don’t answer that,” Grant snapped. Grant was the pack’s lawyer. He had the pack charter memorized to the last apostrophe.

Oswald looked at Cliff. “How long have you known? How long have you violated our laws by protecting him? You convinced his father to send him to military school in case he started showing signs of being a Seer, didn’t you? You didn’t want anyone in the pack to know.”

“Excuse me,” Savannah said hotly, her eyes blazing with anger. “Why would protecting him be violating the law?”

“Who, exactly, are you?” Oswald said haughtily. “This conversation has noo— aawwwk!” Austin’s hand closed around his neck, and his face went purple.

“Stop him!” Minnie screamed, but she didn’t move a muscle to help.

“Austin. Don’t kill the Elder,” Cliff said in a mild, very unexcited tone.

Austin let go of Oswald, who staggered backwards, choking and frantically rubbing his throat.

“I’m his mate, you senile windbag,” Savannah said. “Why would Cliff be violating the law by protecting his brother?”

“Half-brother,” Oswald wheezed. “And he would be violating pack charter by protecting the bastard issue of an adulterous affair. Jessica Bronson dishonored her Alpha by cheating on him and bearing a child who was not his. The pack charter is very clear on this. If they were still alive, Lloyd would be within his rights to put them both to death. And if they managed to escape, they could never set foot on pack property again.”

“Excuse me, your pack was okay with Austin’s father cheating, but not Jessica? Why wasn’t Lloyd Bronson kicked out of the pack for cheating on his mate?” Savannah’s face was flushed with anger.

“Because the pack charter was written hundreds of years ago,” Grant said wearily.

Oswald’s gaze fixed on Austin. “His very existence is proof of the dishonor done to our Alpha. By pack charter, he is forbidden from setting foot on pack property. He is forbidden from inheriting. He is forbidden from associating with pack members.” He gave Cliff and Grant a glance loaded with meaning. “If you associate with him, you forfeit your position as Alpha,” he informed Cliff. “And like him, you would be exiled.”

Grant grimaced. He looked at Austin. “I’ll go back over the charter, but basically…what he’s saying is correct.”

“Pack charters suck,” Savannah growled, hands on her hips. She scorched Oswald and the Elders with a look of disgust. “Austin is too good for you twat-waffles anyway.” The haughty, offended looks on their faces were priceless.

Austin slung his arms around Savannah’s shoulders. “I know you think you’ve scored some kind of big victory there, but frankly, this doesn’t change shit,” he said to Oscar. “I haven’t set paw on the pack lands in years, and you all knew I was never going to take a cent of pack money anyway.”

There was a storm of emotion swirling inside him. He’d apparently just traded one asshole dad…for another asshole dad.

But he’d gained a brother.

For most of his adult life, he’d thought that Cliff had betrayed him just so that he could be assured of the Alpha position – a betrayal that had festered and burned inside him.

And all along, Cliff had really been watching out for him. Cliff had kept his secret for all these years, not wanting Austin to be cut off from the pack forever. Even if he never got to talk to Cliff again, he’d always have that.

Cliff’s rejection had stung so much that he’d cut himself off from all of them, even Grant. He’d lashed out at them again and again, and let them know that he didn’t need them any more than they needed him.

It hadn’t been true.

He’d never let himself acknowledge how much their rejection hurt, but now that he knew why, he felt as if the poison in his soul was evaporating. He felt a heavy weight lifting from him – a weight he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying.

“You also cannot continue accompanying him the rest of the way to the Washborn pack,” Oswald said, with a smug tone that set Austin’s teeth on edge.

Fuck. He’d just lost the protection they’d promised for Tully’s pack. And he was going to have to figure out how to transport Roy back to the Washborn pack without their help, and without tranquilizer darts.

Jason had known exactly what he was doing when he’d called the Elders and spilled his ugly little secret.

And even though Jason’s leadership was now in question, Austin was still going to have to honor the agreement. He wouldn’t be able to unseat Jason right away; there would have to be DNA tests, maybe a formal challenge. Tully’s pack might be dead by the time the dust settled.

And also, Roy was a fucking lunatic. It wasn’t like Austin could just let him go.

He glanced back at the truck. Rusty was still hovering nearby, watching. So far, for whatever reason, Roy wasn’t flipping his shit.

“I will say goodbye to my brother,” Cliff said.

Austin, head swirling, looked down at Savannah, who still had a slightly stunned expression on her face. She slid her arm around his waist and hugged him.

“I’m glad you’re not some poofy billion-were anyway,” she told him. “Rich people are weird. I think. I’ve never actually hung out with any.”

He hugged her back. “We’ll forage for nuts and berries together,” he said with a wry grin, but he loved that his mate loved him, not his bank account. And it was a good thing, because after he’d emptied it out to pay Savannah’s mother all those bounties, his bank account was quite anemic these days.

He inclined his head at his brothers to follow him, then started walking towards his truck. Cliff and Grant hurried after him.

“One minute!” Oswald yelled. “After that, you forfeit pack membership!”

The other Elders were all looking away, faces creased with varying expressions of unhappiness or disapproval. Even the Elders who’d stood behind Cliff hated that this was happening, because the honor of the Alpha reflected on the honor of the pack – and Austin was a living, breathing, walking testimony to how their late Alpha had been shamed.

“After one minute, you can kiss my furry taint!” Grant yelled back at Oscar. “There’s no provision for this in the pack charter, so we’ll take as long as we damn well please!”

“All right, tell me everything,” Austin said to Cliff when they reached the truck.

Rusty leaned in, a puzzled look on his face.

Cliff nodded, his expression resigned. “Christopher was Jessica’s true mate. They went to high school together. She rejected him for Lloyd, because at the time Lloyd was wealthier. Christopher moved to Washington, married, founded his own pack, and started using his Seer power to make money. They say that Seers have power that relates to what matters most to them. For Christopher, it was money. That’s why he did so well on the stock market, why his pack is so wealthy. What do you see in your visions?”

“Things that affect my friends and family.” He glanced at Savannah.

Cliff glanced back at the Elders, who were scowling at them, then returned his attention.

“You understand now why I was trying so hard to keep you from visiting the pack?” he asked Austin. “If you started showing any sign of being a Seer, it would be obvious Lloyd wasn’t your father, and we’d all be cut off from you forever. You’d lose your inheritance. We’d never be able to back you up if you needed help.”

“I get that, but why didn’t you at least tell me?” Austin demanded.

“Because you’ve got your stubborn, stupid pride and you would have said something,” Cliff said with exasperation. “If our father had found out, while you were alive, he would have taken out a hit on you. And after he was dead, I was afraid you’d just be such a stubborn ass that you’d tell everyone, and then be cut off from us forever.”

Austin nodded, his mind reeling as his entire life history rewrote itself.

“How did Jessica end up banging my dear old dad?” he asked, bitterness dripping from every word.

“Well, Lloyd was an asshole and not her true mate, so our mother was miserable, and she ended up having an affair with Christopher. I caught them at it, in the woods.” He shuddered. “God, I still cannot unsee that. Anyway. They didn’t know I’d spotted them. And then nine months later, you were born. Jessica hated you because you reminded her of the man she really wanted and couldn’t have. And my father hated you because he somehow sensed something was off with you.”

“Holy…” Rusty stared at Cliff and then at Austin, his eyes bugging out. “Damn. I feel like I’m watching one of my mate’s soap operas.”

“That’s it,” Savannah said suddenly. “That’s why I was staring at you guys earlier. You two look alike, but Austin…there’s something different about his looks. Subtle, but there.” She patted his arm. “Way more handsome,” she added, and Austin winked at her.

“Jason apparently found out somehow,” Cliff continued. “Maybe his dad told him. And he knew that means that legally, since Christopher is dead, you are now Alpha of the Washborn Pack.”

“I don’t want to be Alpha of anything!” Austin said angrily. “I may have the Dominus gene, but I hate politics, and I barely even know those people. And I would absolutely suck as a leader. I’m hot headed, impatient, and I hate planning ahead.” He shook his head. “I do want to see Jason gone, though, so I have no problem challenging him. It’s just a matter of staying alive long enough to deal with this.”

“Yeah, but from what I gather of their pack charter, as long as you’re alive, Jason is no longer legally the Alpha,” Cliff said, frowning darkly. “You’re going to have to deal with that when you show up. Jason knows that, obviously, now that he’s revealed who you are. His pack Elders are likely preparing some kind of formal motion, and they’ll investigate, and if they get a chance to prove your parentage…well, Jason’s going to do his best to make sure you’re not alive long enough for that to happen.” He chewed his lower lip. “And officially, I can’t do a thing to help you.”

Austin glanced at Savannah, whose face had gone grim and determined. He wanted to tuck her away somewhere safe until he’d resolved all of this.

But she’d never let him do that.

“I’ll find something,” Grant said quickly. “I will study our pack charter inside and out and find a way.”

Austin grimaced. “I appreciate it, Grant, I really do. But I don’t think you’re going to find any way around it.”

“If you don’t want to come back to the property, that’s totally fine. But I’m not giving up contact with my brother. My kids will play with your kids. We will visit. I will be the world’s most annoying houseguest. I’ll blast your TV, drink all your beer and clog up your toilet. And so will Cliff.”

Cliff laughed grimly. “I happen to be an excellent houseguest, but then I’m not an uncultured swine like certain brothers of mine. But we’ve got more pressing problems. You know Jason is leading you into a trap of some type, right? He expects Roy to kill you, but if Roy doesn’t, you’ll never make it off their pack lands alive.”

“Meet him in town, or if he insists you go to pack property, stop at the pack entrance,” Grant said. “Make sure there are witnesses.”

Then Grant flashed a defiant look at the Elders and pulled Austin in to hug him.

When he let go, Cliff threw his arms around Austin. Austin stiffened at first, then relaxed and returned the hug. It felt good to finally be able to hug his asshole brother. Hard. Really hard.

“My ribs,” Cliff grunted.

“Pussy.” Austin grinned and let go of him.

Cliff snorted. “When I figure out a way to come visit you – not if, but when – I will make you eat those words.”

“I think that was just one word, wasn’t it?” Savannah said. “Let’s go, babe. We have a long, hard drive ahead of us.”

Cliff and Grant gave him regretful half-waves as they walked away. Rusty kept pace with them.

And then he and Savannah looked with dismay at the trussed-up killing machine in the back seat of his pickup truck. And Roy peered back at them with a cold, calculating gleam in his eyes.