Chapter Twenty:
Reese

 

The ring he’d given Daniel glinted in the light from the top of his dresser. Reese stared across the room, unable to look away. He’d gotten it out when Ashton had left him, and he hadn’t been able to put it away. The loss of his lover weighed down on him anew, like it was a fresh wound all over again.

Had he talked to Daniel? He thought so, but that had been before the loss had destroyed his entire world. Things had been different then. He wasn’t over the witch, no matter how much he wished he was.

That was why he’d been able to be talked into that assassination, wasn’t it? Because he desperately wanted to believe in justice?

Even if it was flimsy as hell, and he knew he’d been manipulated.

Then again, wasn’t that to be expected when it came to Elias Ivers? Being manipulated didn’t mean he’d been lied to, though. There was no telling what Ivers knew.

As though summoned by his thoughts, his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, but after everything that had happened, he could imagine a few people who might be calling him from an unfamiliar number.

“Ivers,” Reese guessed in greeting.

There was a long moment of silence on the other end. “Mr. Dorsey.”

He’d been right, and it seemed like that had startled the Elder — former Elder, probably, considering the Council had been all but decimated. Good. For once, he had the upper hand. It probably wouldn’t last long, but he’d take it.

“What do you want?”

“Don’t take that tone of voice with me,” Elias warned from the other end of the line.

Reese scoffed at him. “Or you’ll do what? Throw me into Tartarus?”

He could practically see the witch gnashing his teeth on the other end of the line.

“You and your pack have a responsibility to protect me, if you may recall?”

“No.”

“Pardon me?” Elias asked, his voice hard and cold.

“I said no, Ivers,” Reese said, thinking about the way Ashton had looked when he’d found out Reese had been working with Mays. He’d lost Ashton because of his fucking stupidity, and now he was left alone, staring at the only thing he had left of his dead lover.

“You agreed—”

“I don’t care what I agreed to anymore,” Reese said, suddenly feeling very tired. He closed his eyes and sagged heavily against the headboard of his bed. “It’s over, Ivers. You’ve got nothing on me.”

“You assassinated witches,” Elias retorted. “You killed members of your own pack.”

“And no one fucking cares about that now,” Reese snapped. “They’ll only care that you ordered me to do it. Elder Kipling is pretty interested in what’s going on with the pack.”

“Malone Kipling is a traitor. You’ll regret it if you follow her lead,” Elias warned him.

“And you’ll do what? Admit it, Ivers. It’s all gone, all of it. There’s no treason anymore, not when there isn’t a Council. Werewolves will stick with their own, and vampires will protect their own asses. You want protection? Don’t ask for help from me.” Reese didn’t open his eyes. Maybe he was signing his own death warrant, but he wasn’t afraid of Elias Ivers anymore.

He’d lost that fear when Tartarus had fallen, and he didn’t think he was the only one. Add to that the fact that he was pretty sure Malone Kipling had sided with the rebellion, and he was pretty sure he and his pack would be okay.

In theory.

“I’ll remember this,” Elias finally said from the other end of the line.

“I hope you do,” Reese said. “It’s about time someone—”

The line went dead.

Elias was shit out of luck if he thought he was going to use Reese’s pack to get what he wanted. Reese’s pack. It meant he had to step up for real this time now that he wasn’t a puppet of a sadistic megalomaniac.

He tossed his phone onto the bed, not particularly caring where it landed, and stared out into the fading light.

Pack law would apply again — the real pack law, not the mockery they’d been following since the Takeover. That meant he could confront Scott and Mays. He could get rid of them without consequence… and there would never be repercussions for the other deaths he’d inflicted.

Maybe he’d be frowned upon for using a gun to take over his pack, but that was about it. Until someone actually challenged him and won in a fight, he wasn’t going anywhere.

His phone rang again, and he slowly picked it up.

“Dorsey,” the female voice said. “Have you decided?”

“It’s nice to speak to you too, Kipling.”

Malone Kipling made a very unladylike noise on the other end of the line. “Don’t fuck with me, Dorsey. I have a lot to do.”

“Yeah, I’ve decided,” Reese said. “As long as Mays and Scott Eastin get tried under pack law for raping a human.”

A human.

Not his human, not anymore.

Then again, maybe Ashton never really had been his.

“Of course,” Malone said. She sounded surprised, though whether it was from what he’d said or the request, he didn’t know.

“Then yeah. We’re throwing in.”

“Good. Meet us at—”

“Ivers called me,” Reese interrupted.

“What?” Malone asked sharply.

He could nearly feel the intensity of her full attention even through the phone line. “Yeah. Just a few minutes ago. He wanted me and the pack to go protect him.”

“Did you find out where he was?” Malone asked.

Silently, Reese berated himself. If he wasn’t such a politically stupid leader, he might’ve thought about tricking Ivers — about agreeing to meet with him to protect him and kill him.

Fuck. No wonder Ashton had left. He was a goddamn moron and a shitty leader to boot.

“No,” Reese admitted.

“He’ll turn up,” Malone said. “There are only so many places he can hide, and I have a feeling all the enemies he’s made are going to be a lot more active in looking for him than his allies.”

Reese was pretty sure of that too. He wanted to thank her for not bitching him out, but he kept the words to himself. “Yeah. I don’t think he had many options left when he called me. I don’t know how he thought he was still going to have a hold on me.”

“Because he’s Elias Ivers,” Malone said dryly. “He’s convinced he rules the world. There’s nothing he can’t do. Remember?”

Reese snorted. “Oh, he’s gonna find out pretty quick just how many things he can’t do without his precious Tartarus.”

“Yep,” Malone confirmed. “We’ll take care of it. The packs, together again. Yeah?”

“Kipling?”

“Dorsey?”

“Where’s Odessa fit into all this?” Reese couldn’t help but ask of the only other surviving Elder.

“323 Oakwood Lane at 11 p.m.,” Malone said. “Be there.”

She hung up on him, too, and Reese was left in the silent darkness again. Alone with his thoughts, he could do nothing but stare at the dresser.

He’d told Ashton that he couldn’t tell him pack business, had acted like he’d cared more about the pack than him. He hadn’t, and he didn’t. But Ashton had left, and the only way he was going to get him back was to act like something the human would be proud of.

It meant he had a lot to do, including becoming a good leader of his pack. Then…

Then, he’d find Ashton, and they could try again.

Until then, he was alone.

No, he wasn’t alone. Not when he had a pack to call upon. He grabbed his phone, dialing his second-in-command. When she answered, he told her, “Tell everyone to meet at the pack hall. We have a meeting with Malone Kipling in a few hours.”

Liz was quiet for a moment. He’d never called a meeting before. He’d never really acted like a pack leader before, either. “Yeah,” she finally said. “I’ll tell everyone to show up when they can.”

“Now,” Reese insisted. If he was going to do this, he was going to do things right. “Tell them to drop what they’re doing and get their asses to the pack hall.”

She hesitated again, then said, “Yes, Pack Leader.”

This time, he was the one to hang up. He lay there for another moment before he rose, crossing over to his dresser. He slid Daniel’s ring back into its little box and tucked it away in the top drawer before dressing and turning for the door.

It was time to prove just what he could do.

It was time to see just who he could be.