2
Ricky crouched in the undergrowth outside of a camp that smelled like rot. A fire glowed in the center of camp, but it was growing cold. There hadn’t been a single movement since the Howlers crept in and that had been an hour ago.
“All clear.” River’s voice whispered over the wind. River was the alpha of the pack and the president of the Howlers MC. he was deadly and he was just and he kept all of the crazy wolves in the pack in line. They needed him.
Ricky stood and stretched his stiff muscles. He was reluctant to move. He knew that camp held nightmares and he wanted to put off introducing them into his already screwed up mind for as long as possible.
He saw Dice move in first and when he doubled over and vomited on the pine needles that littered the camp, Ricky knew it was worse than he’d imagined. He forced his feet forward and willed himself to see the brutality that had been heaped on these poor people.
What he found was more than even his mind could comprehend. There were bodies, tied to the ground, staked out like dogs. Each body had a chain around their neck that tethered them to the stake in the ground. The bodies were naked and emaciated and Ricky could smell the Sickness in the air.
“What the hell is all this?” Pie asked and his normally cheerful voice was flat, devoid of all feeling.
River shook his head. “I don’t know. Place smells like Hyena, but these aren’t hyenas.”
“What are they then?” Clothesline bent to examine one of the bodies. “Fuck. Shit...hybrids...fucking kids too. I bet not one of them is over sixteen. Four girls. Three boys. Holy shit.” He was pale.
Ricky looked to each of the men he called brothers. They were all pale and sick. The world was falling apart. Hyenas were sick and desperate to save themselves. It was a war, but it wasn’t being fought in a way the Howlers understood.
“Why the fuck haven’t these fuckers died yet?” Dice paced away, running his hands through his inky black hair.
His son was suffering from the same Sickness the Hyenas had and he would die an agonizing death if Lucian Everly didn’t find a donor. There was a girl, a woman now, that was a perfect match, but she was missing, most likely dead, but Dice couldn’t believe that. He was searching and clinging to hope that she would be found.
“They are dying. That smell is more than just seven starved kids. There’s a pile of hyenas over there. They just piled them up and set fire to it. Looks like they have been doing it for a while. The top of the pile hasn’t burned up, but the bottom is ash.” Books put in as he stepped into the circle.
“What are we looking at here?” Ricky asked. “It looks like this place has been used for a while. What the hell were they after and why didn’t we find it until now?”
“One is missing.” Clothesline pointed to where one of the wooden stakes held and empty chain. Whatever they were after, they must have gotten it and split. As for us no knowing… Happy didn’t want us to know. He’s still smarter than we give him credit for and it seems he may have an alternate source of the damned serum because he hasn’t lost a step.”
Books crouched near the empty pole. There was an old sleeping bag on the ground and he used his nose to gather more information. “It was a girl. Smells… fuck. River get over here and tell me if you smell what I do.” Books stood back in horror. His eyes glowed as he watched his alpha take a deep inhale of the sleeping bag. Their eyes met.
“They are making their own hybrids. They have a pregnant hybrid.” River frowned.
“What the fuck does that mean? What will they get from that?” Dice frowned.
“I don’t know.” River’s brows furrowed. Looks like they would just get a shifter. Hell. We need to get Lucian out here. I can’t make heads or tails.”
Dice nodded and pulled his phone from the holster at his belt.
The tiger would know what it all meant. He knew everything.
“If they are shooting for kids, why have the boys?” Pie asked.
Books shook his head. “Maybe it was an accident.”
“Lucian will figure it all out.” Dice breathed and Ricky could tell that it still chapped his ass to admit it. There was some scary shit between the tiger and Dice, shit that still twisted Dice up from time to time, but he was coping. He was coping better now that he’d found Mallory.
Ricky wasn’t sure how he felt about Lucian. He mostly thought of him as a mad scientist, but he had a feeling he was missing something. Lucian had his fingers in all the pies and there were times that Ricky seriously wanted to see just how tough the monster was.
“On his way. Nick is over with Mall and Sam.” Dice spoke, but Ricky’s eyes were on a little boy.
Blue eyes stared up at morning sky lifelessly. He was bruised and filthy. Dark hair, greasy and standing up all over his head reminded Ricky of another boy, one that had been several years younger.
Tim.
Ricky stepped back. His hands shook as he looked at the naked body of the little boy. He couldn’t see him though, he saw his own little brother, sick and fighting the Sickness as his father screamed at his mother.
Whore! Did you think I wouldn’t know that he wasn’t mine? Did you think I’d never find out?
The slap of his father’s hand hitting his mother’s face had Ricky snarling and fighting for control. At the age of nine, Ricky’s wolf had already been a scrapper, but his father was a beast. There was no way he could protect his mother with his father in the room, the dominance was keeping him from moving more than an inch at a time. His mother could change, why wouldn’t she change?
Another slap rang through the room as Tim shivered on his cot.
Who is the father? I will track him down and I will rip him apart. You fucked some human? How could you sink that low? I leave for a little while to get my head together and you just jump into bed with anyone? You are mine!
I will never tell you. I loved him. He was my mate, not you. You left us! You think just because you come back that you can pick up where you left off. You’re a fool! Get out. You will never be a mate to anyone.
The laugh was more frightening than the violence.
Well, you can kill him yourself then. He’s got the Sickness. It’s what happens to the weak. You kill that little bastard and know that I’m laughing. You deserve it. Ricky is mine, you can count on me making sure he’s raised right.
I will never kill my son!
Then he’ll kill you. No loss either way.
That’s when Tim’s wolf had taken him. He was bigger than he should have been, stronger and he launched himself at their mother. Ricky had tried to stop him, but his father had caught him and made him watch as his snapping brother took out their mother’s throat.
Now you kill the little bastard. Has to be done.
Ricky couldn’t deny it, had known it for weeks, but his mother had begged him to let her handle it.
He watched his father’s face soften. He is your brother. You need to honor him with a good death.
Change.
River gripped the back of Ricky’s neck. “Snap out of that shit now Ricky. We need you here.”
Ricky took two steps and emptied his stomach in the bushes. That hadn’t been the last time he’d had to kill and it wouldn’t be the last, but it had been the first and the one that had haunted him the worst.
“Sorry Riv...just…”
River knew the story, he knew them all, had to. He knew the stories and he kept them to himself, but he knew.
“I’m ok Riv. I’m ok.”
“I know that, but you need to put it away right now. These kids deserve to be seen for who they are, not the ghosts that haunt us.”
Ricky’s eyes met River’s. They all had ghosts and River was right. These kids deserved respect.
“You got it boss.”
It took them more than three hours to get the camp broken down. The bodies were loaded into vans to be transported to Lucian’s lab in the belly of the caves of Lost Lakes. Ricky stood naked in his bathroom and tried to get his mind to shut off so he could catch a few hours of sleep.
Then his phone rang.
Sleep could wait.