As Luke charged Stefan, he put aside his thirst for vengeance. Survival was all that mattered, because he and his allies were all that stood between Stefan and the rest of the pack. There were too many who were vulnerable: the children, the elderly, the human mates, and the hapless innocents—like Eric Conroy and the Spokane mechanic—who had unwittingly wandered into the rogues’ hunting area.
Luke couldn’t believe that he’d ever thought he should’ve let Stefan and Terry take over. If they made it out of this alive, maybe he’d have Isabelle punch him again.
Stefan tried to evade him, but Luke was faster. He crashed into the traitor, struggling to grab hold of something vital, but a deafening roar rent the air, shocking him. Luke slipped, and Stefan slithered out of his grasp.
Cold terror froze Luke as an enormous grizzly swung a platter-sized paw at Dean’s head. Dean ducked under the swipe that could have killed a full-grown bull moose and slashed the bear with a quick strike to the side.
The distraction almost cost Luke his own life when Stefan took advantage and tried to disembowel him. Luke bent backward, narrowly avoiding a second attempt. Snapping out a kick, he caught Stefan in the hip, making him stumble back. Panting, they circled one another.
Shouts and snarls and the thwacks of bodies hitting bodies rang all around. A shotgun blasted near the house. Was that Isabelle’s?
Focus, his wolf said. Can’t help Mate if we’re dead.
Right. Besides, his mate was a warrior. She could handle that piece-of-shit cat. Right?
She had to. They needed her.
“You can’t win. You don’t even understand the power that’s right here under our feet,” Stefan said, sneering. “Money is power, and this territory is sitting on billions in copper and silver. Billions, pup. And your stupid father refused to touch it.”
A sheen of red hazed Luke’s vision. “You tried to destroy your pack for money?”
Like a damned green kid, he let his anger get the best of him. He lunged and Stefan kicked him in the thigh hard enough to shock the muscle. His leg gave out. Falling to one knee, he barely deflected the bastard’s foot as it sailed toward his head.
Before Stefan could regain his balance, Luke slashed him across the thigh. The scent of blood brought a feral smile to his lips.
Stefan growled. “The pack doesn’t know what’s good for it. The fact that they chose you as Alpha is proof. And I’m tired of pretending you’re in charge.”
Luke hopped back up only to be bulldozed by a tawny wolf he didn’t know. Stars burst behind his eyes as his head slammed into the ground. For a harrowing second, he thought he would pass out.
Then things got worse.
The wolf leapt on top of him. Claws raked his thighs and chest. Jaws snapped at his face, and Luke just managed to keep the beast away from his throat.
As quickly as the wolf had attacked him, it was gone. Luke gasped for breath, trying to get up, but someone kicked him in the side. He rolled away, and caught a quick glimpse of the action near the lake’s edge, where Dean and Vaughn fought the grizzly together. One of Vaughn’s legs didn’t seem to be working right, and Dean’s face was a mask of blood.
Another kick landed on Luke’s side, and something cracked. As he tried to get his hands and knees underneath him, he saw Terry punch Marianne in the face.
Rough hands pushed Luke onto his back. “Told you you couldn’t win,” Stefan said with a twisted smile. He leaned down and pressed his forearm against Luke’s throat. Black ate at the edge of his vision.
I’m sorry, sugar. Goddess, he loved her, his brave Valkyrie. He should have told her how proud he was to be her mate. Even for a short while. He sent a quick prayer to whoever was listening that they keep Isabelle safe. She’d be okay. She had the pack now; he’d given her that much. And he was even happy she’d cut off their mate bond. Maybe with it blocked, she wouldn’t feel his death.
A howl filled the air, energizing and impossible to ignore.
Rally cry, his wolf whispered, sounding awed.
Suddenly heat flooded his chest and his heart pounded with such force it shook him. A new pressure, like the sweet weight of his mate’s arms, enveloped him, though she wasn’t here.
Mine, a voice he had never heard before whispered in his mind.
Sugar?
Mate, his wolf corrected, leaping for joy.
And then, the impenetrable dam Isabelle had built between them cracked and shattered into dust. Her wolf mentally touched his and Luke shuddered.
All around him, cries answered her howl. A dozen voices, more. The pack. His pack.
A cascade of new sensations flooded Luke. Behind his eyes, for the first time, the pack glimmered like moonbeams on water, fluid and rippling. Individuals rose up like little islands. He felt them. Everyone in the yard. The others...all the others.
And Isabelle, shining as bright as the moon herself. “Get up. Get up!”
The sound of her voice ringing in his head filled his heart, too.
Ours, his wolf said.
Luke’s eyes snapped opened and he wrapped his hands around Stefan’s biceps. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t breathe. He was Alpha and had the power of the pack behind him.
As Luke’s grip tightened like a vise, he found the traitors through the pack bonds. All of them. Like snuffing out a candle, he severed their connections to the pack—there one instant, gone the next.
The beast fled from Stefan’s eyes. Pale blue irises, full of fear stared back at Luke. He pushed Stefan’s shaking arm away from his throat. “Don’t call me ‘pup,’” he said, right before he punched the bastard in the jaw just like his mate had shown him.
Stefan flew up in the air and landed fifteen feet away. Luke didn’t give him time to recover or speak. He didn’t say a word either. What was left to say?
He pounced, and with a quick twist, broke Stefan’s neck.
Luke didn’t have time to feel upset or satisfied, because as soon as he stood, he was tackled by a silver-and-white werewolf.
“Whoa, whoa,” he said, laughing as she repeatedly licked his face. “I’m okay. I—” He coughed. She whined and snuffled his ear. All right, he sounded like he’d swallowed porcupine quills. His neck hurt, his chest and legs were on fire, but he’d live.
He dug his fingers into thick, soft fur and ran his hands down her flanks, reassuring himself that she was real, before sitting up and pulling her into his lap.
Around them, the battle had ended, or at least was winding down. A few of the pack ran into the woods, chasing a pair of wolves. On the lakeshore, Vaughn slumped against a tree, holding a cloth to his neck.
Isabelle wiggled. “Shh,” he told her. “I just needed to hold you for a sec.”
Power danced over his skin, and a few seconds later, he held a very naked human female. He grinned at her. “That was fast. Gotten the hang of it, huh?”
Wide amber eyes narrowed on him. “You could have died.” She slapped him on the shoulder. “You almost did die. You jerk! Don’t do that again.”
Tears glistened on her lashes, so he didn’t offer a crisp salute. Instead, he stroked her cheek. “I’ll do my best, sugar.”
“You’d better,” she sniffed.
“Izzy!”
Isabelle leapt up. “Mom!”
At a dead run, Abby swept Isabelle into her arms and held her so tight, Luke was sure they’d both have bruises. He was also sure neither of them would complain.
* * *
“Oh! Oh, my Izzy-girl.” Abby hugged Izzy so hard she could barely breathe. “Are you all right?”
“I’m—I’m naked,” she said like an idiot. Of course she was naked. That’s what happened when you tear your clothes to pieces shape-shifting into a werewolf.
Abby shoved the sleeve of her sweater up Izzy’s arm. “Here, turn—okay. There you go.”
Izzy blinked stupidly at the cream-colored cotton that now hung down to her knees. How had Abby put that on her so fast?
Reading her face, Abby laughed. “I’ve wrangled plenty of recalcitrant children into clothes in my day.”
Izzy stared at Abby. At her hair blown every which way by the wind and battle. At her brown skin, rendered black in the gathering dark. At her big brown eyes, wide with concern, not fear. At her mouth tipped up into a soft, welcoming smile.
With a sob, Izzy threw herself at the mother of her heart and was rewarded with another fierce embrace.
“Hush now,” Abby said, rubbing circles on her back. “It’s okay.”
“B-but...if—”
“Shh.”
Angry voices shook Izzy out of her hysterics. A crowd had gathered on the deck and the ground below. In the glow of the exterior lights, Daphne stood backed against the wall of the house, surrounded by more than a dozen people and wolves.
A few feet away, Luke watched, his face as still and hard as stone. When he looked at Izzy, it was the wolf looking back.
“Go,” Abby whispered.
Without hesitation, Izzy went to Luke and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He took a sudden, shuddering breath and the golden glow faded from his eyes. Weariness settled on him like a lead coat. “I have to—”
“It’s okay. I’ll go with you.”
Together, with Abby on her other side, they walked across the torn-up yard. The copper penny scent of blood drifted on the wind. In the moonlight, they saw the horrifying aftermath of the battle. Several bodies, including the asshole grizzly who’d attacked her and Rissa in the basement, lay in the bloodstained snow.
As they passed Terry’s crumpled form, Izzy’s empty stomach flipped over as she got a look at the bloody ruin of his face.
“Sweet Jesus,” Abby said before she pressed her face to Izzy’s shoulder.
Luke grunted and dragged them on. “Guess Marianne kept her promise.”
At the foot of the deck stairs, Dean waited for them. Blood-soaked and shredded, his clothes hung from him like tattered prayer flags. He looked like he needed a stretcher, but without a word, he climbed the stairs in front of Luke. The crowd parted to let them through.
Slashes on her face, arms, and side, Daphne bared bloody teeth at them in a mockery of a smile. Lena, Marianne, Rissa, and four other females stood in front of her. Silent tears ran down Rissa’s face.
Marianne sighed, sounding exhausted. She’d lost her shoes, and her curly hair looked like she’d stuck her finger into an electrical outlet. “Why, Daphne? Why did you do this? How could you hurt your baby sister?”
Daphne shrugged one shoulder. “She was in the way.” She said it as if she’d knocked down a spider’s web—a housekeeping matter and nothing more. “Stefan was worried taking out Greg and Darren wouldn’t be enough.” She sneered at Luke. “Technically, Stefan was the gamma wolf, but he wanted some insurance in case Luke and Dean decided to grow up. Or Vaughn.”
“That’s because he could never win in a fair fight against any of us,” Vaughn said, coming to stand with his Alpha.
Daphne shrugged again, and Izzy growled at her. That nasty sound bubbling out of her own throat should have freaked her out, or at least it would have only yesterday. But now it felt right to give voice to her wolf’s fury.
Luke squeezed her hand.
“So Maggie was killed to weaken Dean,” Marianne said. “Because your pathetic partners couldn’t take him on their own. That still doesn’t explain why you hurt Tara, your own sister.”
“Because of us. She killed Tara to hurt us,” Rissa said, her voice a harsh rasp. “They knew Lena would be a mess when Greg died, and they wanted to take you and me out of the picture. We’re the next strongest females, and Liz doesn’t want to lead the pack.”
“You got it all figured out,” Daphne said. “Do you know how easy it would have been for Rick and me to kill you after the crash? There you were, all weak and pathetic. Mooning over your human.”
Growls echoed everywhere. “I want to know about the money,” Luke said over the din. “There’s no way Stefan and Terry came up with enough to fund a mining operation on their own. Not even if they were robbing the bank blind. Who else is part of Apex?”
Now Daphne’s eyes flared wide and she trembled. Even Izzy could smell the pungent fear pouring off her.
Daphne shook her head. “I—”
There was a crack of rifle fire, and a neat, red hole appeared in her forehead. Her head snapped back, blood and worse spraying over the side of the house. Time slowed to a crawl as Daphne sank to the deck.
Then it exploded into double time.
Luke pushed Izzy down flat, and covered her and Abby with his body.
More gunfire cracked near the water’s edge.
Screams filled the air.
Luke shouted commands and the deck vibrated from running feet.
Izzy managed to pull her head out from under the bulk of Luke’s arm and catch sight of half a dozen pack members running into the woods in pursuit of the killer.
A minute later, except for the pounding of her heart and people panting in shock and fear, silence reigned.
Luke stood, rage and grief contorting his features. Lifting his face to the heavens, he howled. The low, keening wail echoed off the mountains, sending birds into flight to blot the moon from the sky.
* * *
Caine held the rifle close to his body as he ran through the forest. His heart pounded from simple exertion rather than fear. There wasn’t a shifter here who could offer him a decent challenge. Still, he almost slowed his steps just to give the pack a chance to catch up. It’d been a few weeks since he’d been able to really cut loose.
But that wasn’t part of the plan.
He reached his car and hopped in, taking a moment to lay the rifle on the floor and cover it with a blanket. He had no worries the local cops would scrounge up someone who saw him driving down the road. He’d stolen the car four days ago, north of the border, in Calgary, and switched the plates twice already. He’d ditch it before he reached Missoula, sticking yet another set of plates on it.
When he was several miles away, he picked up his cell. He paused before hitting Send. No one liked delivering bad news.
“Speak,” his employer said.
“They failed.”
Silence.
“All the players are dead. I killed the last one who could have talked.”
Silence.
Again, Caine hesitated. Cold sweat forming on his skin, he said, “They have the name Apex.”