Chapter Fifteen

As his pack’s cars drove out of the parking lot in a long row, Austin felt his phone vibrate. He hadn’t looked at his phone in a while. He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled it out.

Somebody was calling from an unknown number. He was about to answer, but then he saw that there were also six missed calls from Barry at the Watering Hole, so he sent the unknown call to voicemail.

“I’m going to make a call really quickly,” he said to Savannah. “If he even looks at you wrong, yell.”

Savannah flashed him a despairing look.

Yeah…and then what?

Without the tranqs, there was no way for them to get Roy to the Crescent Moon Pack’s property. Was it worth even trying? He’d be risking not just his life, but Savannah’s.

Then again, could he talk Savannah out of it? Unlikely, which meant they had to head out on a trip that was doomed to failure.

Once Roy decided to start fighting back again, it was just a matter of time before he wore Austin down.

He felt sick to his stomach as he stepped away from the truck and punched in Barry’s number. Why had he called so many times? His stomach twisted with tension as the phone rang.

And he was rewarded with Barry’s grouchy morning voice and a string of curses.

“Do you ever call at a normal hour, knob-head?” Barry yelled.

“You called me like six times!” Austin protested. “I thought it was an emergency!”

“I called you like six times yesterday! Not at the ass-crack of dawn.”

“And? Why did you call? You miss my pretty face?” Austin said irritably. He’d been genuinely worried, damn it.

Barry groaned. “After what you told me, I brought my shotgun back behind the bar and loaded her up with silver bullets. And I hired a couple of guys to work security. And night before last, two rogues burst into the bar with guns, tried to rob us, and we killed them. So, free beer for life, my friend.”

“Really?” Austin said, astonished.

“Well, maybe not for life,” Barry mumbled. “Yeah, that’s a little much. Okay, free beer for a…year? A month. A month sounds good. I mean, you really do put them away. I think you got a hollow dick. Leg? Is it leg? I can’t think this early.”

“No, I meant, really, my vision came true?” For the first time in a long time, Austin felt a flare of real hope.

If his hazy vision had sort of foreseen the future, then, impossible as it seemed, he really must be a Seer. He truly wasn’t going crazy.

“You have visions that show the future? I don’t suppose you see lottery numbers?” Barry suddenly sounded very interested.

Austin barked out a laugh. “No, jerk. Only friends and family. And asshole bartenders. I see a lot of visions about asshole bartenders.”

“Well, now you hurt my feelings,” Barry grunted. “Free beer for a week.” And he hung up.

Austin flicked a glance back at the pickup truck.

Roy had said that Austin shouldn’t fight the visions. And given that Korbin had lied to him about the fact that he was a Seer, he would very likely have given Austin the worst possible advice – telling him to fight the visions when he should have been relaxing and accepting them.

Of course, Roy was a lunatic.

But what did Austin have to lose?

He needed to know what the Washborn Pack had planned. He couldn’t lead Savannah into an ambush.

He flicked a quick glance at the truck to make sure she was still all right. She was standing there, hands shoved in her pockets, staring into the back seat of the truck.

He closed his eyes and pictured himself driving up to the entrance of the Washborn Pack property. He imagined his pickup truck driving through the huge arch of vines, gliding down the road, pulling up in front of the big brick mansion where Jason Washborn lived, picking Roy up and setting him on the ground, driving away…

Nothing.

Nowhere in that whole mental sequence did he see anything going wrong. And he didn’t think that could possibly be true.

Maybe the visions didn’t come on command, or at least not without years of training. Because there was no way that—

Family and friends… Seers see visions about things they care about…

He closed his eyes again and did his best to relax. He rolled his shoulders, letting his tense muscles loosen.

He focused on Savannah. This time he pictured her in the driver’s seat, driving through the arch. Tension started to clench his muscles again. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Mentally, he sent her down the road, with Roy lying in the back seat… She was going around a sharp curve…

The truck running over a row of stopsticks and swerving madly…smashing into a tree…

Dozens of Jason’s men pouring out of the bushes…swarming over the car, smashing the windows… Austin bursting out of the truck in animal form and being surrounded by twenty wolves…

Savannah’s body lying on the ground, vacant eyes staring at the sky, throat torn out…

A grenade explosion of rage and panic detonated in his gut. “Nooo!” he howled. His fangs burst from his gums, itching to sink into flesh, and his whole body instantly went furry. His bones and muscles warped and rippled as his wolf fought to burst out of his skin.

Jason’s men were going to ambush them and make it look as if Roy had killed her. And him too, of course. Who would even question it?

He staggered, blind with fury. He’d kill them. He’d kill them all.

“Austin!” Savannah’s voice wrenched him back to reality. He followed it, staggering towards her.

The haze cleared away from his head, and he sucked in deep breaths. Savannah isn’t dead. She isn’t dead.

He blinked hard. He was standing twenty feet from the truck, and he was leaning on Savannah, who was swaying under his weight.

“I’m okay,” he said slowly.

“Did you see something bad?” Savannah looked up at him, her brow creased with worry.

“Just us being slaughtered by Jason and his men,” he said grimly. “No big deal.”

Savannah had started to answer when a shrill voice rang out from behind him.

“Austin Aloysius Bronson.”

Who the hell even knew his middle name? That sounded like the way an angry mother would address him.

He spun around…and found himself looking down into the furious face of Savannah’s mother, Laurel. Right before she drew back her fist and clocked him in the jaw, surprisingly hard for a short, roly-poly woman in a gingham dress and sensible shoes.

“Mom! No! Don’t hit him! What are you doing here?” Savannah cried. She grabbed her mother’s arm just in time to stop her from punching him again. “Why are you punching him?” she yelled as her mother wrenched her arm free.

“Because I can’t punch you! And because he let you take this incredibly dangerous job! How could you?” Laurel yelled at her.

“I left you a note,” Savannah mumbled.

“Yes, telling me you needed a week off! How stupid do you think I am?”

Savannah stared at a crack in the asphalt. “Um…not enough, unfortunately? Ow!” she added as her mother socked her in the arm. “I thought you said you couldn’t punch me?”

“I changed my mind! Transporting the most dangerous prisoner in the country? What the heck were you thinking?” Laurel’s face scrunched into a furious red knot, and she clenched her plump fists.

Austin would have jumped in and put himself between Savannah and anyone else in the world, but he couldn’t get between her and her mother. He stood there, shoulders hunched, wincing in sympathy. He’d have to let her fight her own battle with this one.

“I was thinking I’d save our family home and restaurant, and I’m a grown woman, and I can make my own decisions!” Savannah’s face was turning red as she yelled. “And Austin had no say in it whatsoever, so do not blame him, and do not hit him!”

“Savannah! I can live without the house, I can live without the restaurant! Do you think I can live without you?” Laurel burst into tears. They ran down her plump cheeks in little rivers, and her shoulders quivered, and her whole body shook with sobs.

Savannah flinched, looking mortified. Austin didn’t blame her. He almost wanted to start blubbering himself, he felt so badly. He knew that Laurel was piling it on thick, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t working.

“Damn it, Mom. Don’t cry,” Savannah said, her voice drenched in misery. “Couldn’t you just punch me again? Right in the face?”

“Don’t tempt me.” Her mother pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and dabbed at her eyes.

Savannah hugged herself, staring glumly at the ground. “Who’s watching the restaurant?”

“I was forced to leave your sister and Niall in charge.” Her mother’s brows pinched together. “Not an ideal situation. Oh, and Anthony’s back there, with his brothers. They’re sleeping in the living room and helping to wait tables.”

“Oh. Right. Anthony. I guess he told you everything.” Savannah winced.

“After I twisted his ear half off? You bet he did,” her mother said fiercely.

“Hey,” Austin said, a bolt of alarm shooting through him. “If you’re over here, who’s watching Roy?“

“Oh my God.” Savannah went white.

The three of them raced back. The door of the truck was open, and Roy was gone. Just gone.

They ran around to the other side of the truck.

Roy was leaning on the side of the truck, free, in human form – with shattered chain links lying all around him on the ground.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” he said, his lips curved up in a sarcastic smile.

Austin clenched his fists and snarled. Savannah froze where she stood.

Laurel marched right up to him and slapped him in the face.

Savannah cried out in horror, and Austin leaped forward, standing right by her side, ready to fight. But Roy just smirked and rubbed his cheek.

“Mom!” screamed Savannah. She ran over to her mother and grabbed her arm. “Have you gone insane? You can’t run around hitting everyone! Especially crazy wolves who are going to kill you for it!”

Then she looked suspiciously at Roy as Austin moved again, angling his body between Savannah and Roy.

“Why aren’t you killing us?” she demanded.

“You want me to kill you?” He looked annoyed. “First you’re shooting me with tranqs so I can’t kill you, and your boyfriend is threating to skin me if I even look at you wrong, but now I should kill you? And people think I’m fucked in the head. Ow!” he added as Laurel hit him in the arm. “Damn, woman, you’re twenty pounds of crazy in a ten-pound bag.”

“I have no idea what that means. Watch your language in front of my child,” Laurel said huffily.

“You’ll have to excuse my mother, she’s not usually quite this demented,” Savannah said.

Austin cocked an eyebrow and made a “maybe, maybe not” motion with his hand. “Jury’s still out on that one.”

“I slapped you because you threatened my daughter. Anthony told me what you said,” Laurel said angrily.

“So you’re the lady who made the sandwiches? Did you bring some more?” Roy looked at her with interest.

Laurel just glared at him.

“Okay, okay. I apologize for threatening your daughter. I have changed my mind. I’m not going to kill anybody here. Mostly because with the way these two idiots are going—” he gestured at Austin and Savannah “—I won’t even have to. They’ll die of their own stupidity.”

“That did not earn you a sandwich,” Laurel said coldly.

Roy shrugged. “Worth a try. So here’s the deal,” he said. “New terms. Before you turn me in, I want to talk to a Truthmaker, and not from the Washborn Pack. And I want an Alpha from another pack as witness. I want them to compel me, and question me about what I’ve done since my pack fell apart. I did not kill the family of hikers.”

“Why do you care what anyone thinks of you all of a sudden?” Austin asked, scowling at Roy with suspicion.

“Something your much, much, much better half said to me.” Roy flicked a glance at Savannah. “I will not dishonor the memory of my mate anymore. I accept that I may be put to death, but I will not have false accusations tarnishing my name, because it tarnishes her name as well.”

“Did you kill the poachers?” Austin asked.

“Oh hell, yeah.” He grinned fiercely, his eyes gleaming with enjoyment at the memory. “I’d do it again, too. It was stupid of me to let myself be seen in wolf form, but my head wasn’t in the right place at the time. I caught them torturing a deer they’d wounded, making it scream, taking selfies while they were doing it, and I just ripped them to pieces.”

“It doesn’t sound like you’ve actually committed any death penalty offenses,” Savannah said slowly. “Letting people see you in your wolf form was bad, but you could argue your case on that one. You could have escaped any time, couldn’t you? This entire trip.”

“Well, the tranqs really did work on me.” He shrugged. “And I probably couldn’t have knocked out all three Alphas. But other than that, yes.”

“So why did you spare our lives?” Savannah looked at him narrow-eyed and put her hands on her hips. “I know why. You’d given up. After losing your mate, you just didn’t care. You were basically using us to help you commit suicide. Trying to provoke us into killing you because you couldn’t do it yourself. Asshole.”

She moved quickly out of her mother’s way. “You do not get to hit me more than once per day!” she said, ducking behind Austin.

Austin frowned at Roy. “Why should I trust your word?”

Roy snorted. “Seriously. You think you have a choice? It’s that or I head for the hills again.”

Austin shook his head in frustration. Roy was right. He wasn’t capable of forcing the big, crazy wolf back into his truck.

“I’m going to go buy myself a coffee and a sandwich and hit the head,” Roy informed him. “If you’re still here when I come back, I’ll assume we have a deal. You know what I want. Truth-maker. Alpha. Waiting for me in town near the Crescent Hills Pack headquarters.”

“How do you know you can trust me?” Austin demanded. “What if I say yes but then call in backup to have you killed?”

Roy snorted again. “You? You don’t have it in you to be a back-stabber. You like to think you’re all badass, but underneath that wannabe stone-cold killer facade, you’re just an oversized wimpy Boy Scout.”

“How do you even still have your wallet?” Savannah asked, looking at his shredded, dirty jeans and filthy T-shirt.

“I found it on the floor of the car. Seriously, everything that’s going on here, and that’s your question for me? You’re weird, lady.” He looked at Austin. “Your mate is weird as fuck. Hey!” he barked as Laurel’s arm twitched. “Do not hit me again. You get one free shot per day.” He pulled out his wallet, opened it, and dropped a five-dollar bill in her hand. She stared at it in confusion. “Start a swear jar,” he said. “You can use your purse for now. And every time I fucking swear on this fucking trip, I’ll put in another five dollars.” He dropped two more fives in her hand. “But for your information, lady, your little girl’s all growed up, and she’s probably heard the word ‘fuck’ a few times in her life.” He dropped another five into her palm. “Anybody want anything from the store?” He bared his teeth at Laurel in an alarming grin. “Can I buy you a soda?”

“After the way you spoke to my daughter a couple of days ago? You can kiss my furry behind, is what you can do,” Laurel growled at him. She held her hand straight out, looking at the five dollar bills as if they were dead rodents.

“You’re right. Again, I apologize.” He strolled off towards the store as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Oh God. I think a crazy wolf just flirted with my mother.” Savannah clutched at her chest. “And I am not sure how I feel about that. Pretty sure I hate it, though. Mom? Your thoughts?”

“I’m trying to think what kind of soap I’ll buy with this money. I need it to wash his mouth out.” Laurel glared down at the five-dollar bills.

Austin threw up his hands in despair. They were contemplating a road trip with a psychopath, and his mate and her mother were talking about buying soap.

Roy was right, his mate was weird as fuck. He loved her, he couldn’t wait to leave his claiming mark on her, but she was so weird she almost made him look normal.

He watched the big, crazy wolf trotting across the parking lot, calm as could be. Then he realized that Roy hadn’t answered one very important question. He yelled out after him, “If you didn’t kill the hikers, who did?”

Roy paused and glanced back over his shoulder. “Jason Washborn.” Then he ducked his head to get through the doorway of the rest stop convenience store.

Jason Washborn?

“What the hell?” Savannah gasped in horror, and her mother didn’t even smack her. “Why?”

“I can guess,” Austin said. “I think Jason did it to frame Roy, so he’d have an excuse to send me after him. And so it would paint Roy as an out-of-control killing machine. That would make it easier to kill us and make it look as if Roy did it.”

“Over my dead body,” Laurel said fiercely. She glared at her daughter. “I can’t believe this. You’re grounded until you’re a million.”

Austin pulled his phone out.

“Who are you calling?” Savannah asked him.

“The nearest Truthmaker.”

He was still on the phone making arrangements when they saw a car screeching towards them. Austin tensed up until he realized that it was Grant.

He pulled up next to the truck, parked, and climbed out.

“What are you doing here?” Savannah demanded just as Austin hung up and hurried over to them.

“Excuse me. You seem to be short one psychopath,” Grant said. He looked at the empty truck with alarm, then back at Austin and Savannah. “One, two…yep, definitely short one psychopath. There should be three.” He glanced at Laurel, who was still scowling. “And you I don’t know, but you look just like Austin’s mate, so I’m guessing you’re her mother. Hello, I’m Cliff’s brother Grant. And where the hell is Roy? Is there a reason nobody’s panicking?”

When Austin explained their new arrangement, Grant looked over at the rest stop as if expecting it to burst into flames at any moment. “He’s a psycho. I don’t like it.”

“He could have killed us,” Savannah pointed out.

Austin glanced at her. “There’s something you need to prepare yourself for. If it turns out that Roy is innocent, then there’s no bounty.”

A look of weariness and resignation settled on her face. “I know. I accept that. But if he’s innocent, and I think he is, then I wouldn’t take the money from turning him in, and we can’t let him take the fall while Jason walks free.”

Admiration swelled inside him. That was his girl. She’d give up everything she had to do the right thing.

Austin glanced at the rest stop. He could see Roy through the window, calmly talking to the man at the cash register.

“I agree,” he said to Savannah. “I don’t think he’s guilty. And I know Jason’s setting me up. We’re going to meet with Mason, the Truthmaker from the Idaho Pack, and his Alpha, Shelby, in Idaho. Shelby’s going to bring a whole squad of men with him, armed with AR-15s with silver-coated bullets. If Roy’s guilty, even he won’t be able to survive that. If he’s innocent, which I think he is, then Jason will have a death order put out on his head. And he won’t have the authority to order anyone to hurt Tully’s pack; he’ll be running for his life.”

“I’m still coming with you,” Grant said firmly.

Austin felt a swell of gratitude rising in his chest, but he shook his head. “Grant. No. I can’t allow it. I can’t let you give up your inheritance and your place in the pack for me. Also, you smell funny, so I don’t really want you in my truck.”

Grant punched him in the shoulder, grinning fiercely. “I smell delightful. My mate told me so. She says I taste even better. Stop making that retching noise. Cliff and I talked about it, and agreed that one of us has to go with you, and it’s better if it’s me. First of all, technically, we don’t know for sure that you are Christopher’s son, because nobody’s done a DNA test. And the charter was written hundreds of years ago, so there’s no specific provision for that. All we have is Jason’s claim, and Jessica’s not alive anymore, so we can’t compel her to tell the truth. The Elders are going to demand a DNA test, and if it shows that you’re not Lloyd’s son, then at that point, they can forbid me from associating with you. Not before then.”

“But they might still be able to argue that you lose your place in the pack,” Austin protested. “They’ll put it to a vote.”

Grant’s gaze drifted off to the distance. “I think I was on my way out of the pack anyway,” he said. “Cliff and I are too alike. Too dominant. He’s already firmly established running the company, and I guess he doesn’t suck at it, so he needs to be the one to stay. We fight too much – I can’t even work with him anymore, much less live with him. I need to find my own pack. Make my own way.” He glanced across the parking lot. Roy, holding a paper bag, was heading towards them. “Heads up. Your own personal psycho is headed our way.”