Dean went to bed as soon as he got home and slept until morning when the enforcers he left to watch Kiera reported that she’d run them off close to dawn. They saw nothing that would lead them to believe anyone other than her was out there.
Kiera lived alone in a cottage that shared a road with the Rocking Horse Saloon. It originally was used by the first owner of the Rocking Horse, but the current one preferred to live in town. Kiera often opened and closed the bar for him when he wasn’t there or needed to leave early.
No other buildings were near there and the town was a good twenty minutes away by car. She was alone out there.
“Fine, go get some rest. I’ll go see her again this morning when I can.”
“Dean, you have things to do for the pack. You can’t be running around after a Lycan through the neutral zone. Your presence threatens the denizens.”
“Oli, that is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard you say, and you have a few doozies, if I remember correctly. She’s part of the pack and she’s in crisis. I don’t understand why others aren’t up-in-arms about it. But someone has them believing she’s not worthy or something of continuing as a member of my pack. I never accepted her leaving us and it’s my pack. I’m the only one that can release any member. Well, and my Luna if I had one. The point is, she shouldn’t have been able to leave the pack like that.”
“Well, it proves she doesn’t belong with us if the Moon Goddess allowed it. Heck, we don’t even know if the Moon Goddess recognizes them. I don’t think she does.”
“She recognizes us. We’re all created by beings, just different beings at different times. Why are we blaming them when it was yet again humans that have changed the way we live again? There’s too many changes to blame the Lycan where the Lycan don’t exist. Oli, be reasonable. She’s lost and we’re failing her. If we fail her, who’s next?”
Dean looked at Oli’s blonde head as he bowed it. Dean hadn’t lied or exaggerated anything about what he said.
Oli saw where Dean was going with, and his words reminded Oli that his words were helping repeat history. “Hey, I’m the one telling you how the wind is blowing inside the pack. We have to do something. They’re shifters or not. She was a wolf shifter and now what is she? A bloody dire wolf and I don’t know any other wolf shifter who can stop their shift halfway through the process.”
“For all we know there are, but they keep it quiet. You can see the outrage right now. But she’ll be hungover, and Don claims this is a regular occurrence. That points to a crisis. I know some things said about her from Don. What else I have said to hurt her? Why are people lying about this? Have you seen her shift since she returned? I’d say that’s more control than most of us have. She’s not hurt a single person, but someone has the pack worrying that she’ll harm the pups like some crazed monster.”
Oli didn’t reply because he’d said something to that effect in passing before Kiera arrived. Could they have blown his offhand remark out of proportion? “I wouldn’t know who ran with that idea or exactly where it came from. I’ve heard so much from so many people. We won’t be able to track the gossip back to the original person after such a length of time.” Oli hoped it wasn’t him and he’d hate himself if this was his fault. “Fine, we’ll go there, talk to her and then be back before lunch. Then you can get back to leading the pack. We have the gym booked for our usual sparring session. Then there’s planning the monthly pack run too. You need to look over the latest crap James sent over in response to the land dispute.”
“If that land didn’t block our water source, I would just give it to him just to end all of this.”
“Yeah, but he could block our water access and we’d have to leave.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“I think everyone agrees.”
“I’ll deal with it when I get back. You want to come with me? I want to wake her up and then show her she needs pack. We need to bring her back here. I’ll need to find some way to speak to the pack at the next run about this. We can’t name names, but I can make it clear after this run it won’t be tolerated and I will hand out punishments for it.” The two men left the study in the packhouse and headed to the garage, where a couple of enforcers waited for them with an SUV ready to go.
It didn’t take long to reach the little cottage. They stood in front of the small building for a moment. The place was quiet right now. She must be asleep still. It was too quiet for anything else.
Dean sent the enforcers out to petrol the area for trouble. It was routine, better safe than sorry.
He knocked, and then a few minutes later, rang the bell. Oli was peeking in the living room’s main window when Dean’s senses told him a pack member was experiencing a shock. His phone rang not long after that. It was one enforcer reported that the back door was open and there’s glass everywhere in the kitchen.
Oli looked at Dean. He’d really misread this entire thing. “Maybe she accidentally shifted inside before going for a run?” Dean gave him a look that said that wouldn’t be the case. The two shifters moved quickly around to the back of the building. The enforcers waited for them before entering. They said they’d heard nothing from inside.
Dean didn’t know why, but he didn’t pause or wait. He went right in. There were five hours between the time his people left and now. Anything could have happened during that time.
The kitchen was a mess and Dean knew the old Kiera was a neat freak.
It didn’t take long to go through the small home. She wasn’t there. He knew she should be there.
“I’m calling Trisha. Maybe she knows where Kiera went.”
Oli nodded distractedly as he looked over the kitchen. “Is it normal for her to leave a shotgun lying on the floor in a pile of broken glass?”
Dean already had his phone to his ear, waiting for Trisha to answer, and followed Oli’s discovery.
“It’s been fired. You can smell the gunpowder in the room. But I don’t think she shot out the window and the door must have been opened. She missed whoever she was shooting at. There’s no blood.”
“Hey, Trisha. Do you remember Kiera saying she was going somewhere this morning?”
“Dean it early. My head hurts. I don’t know. I don’t think so. Why? What’s going on?”
“Can you try to contact her?” Dean watched Oli go into the bedroom and Dean’s stomach dropped when a phone rang in there. Oli appeared with it in his hands.
“She not answering. Kiera goes nowhere without her phone. Dean, I’m scared. What aren’t you telling me?” Dean could hear the dread and feel it himself. She knew he’d found something very wrong here.
“There are a few places she might go. I’ll check them now. I will call you as soon as I know something.” Trisha hung up, seeming to have forgotten her hangover and ignoring the fact he was about to tell her she’d do no such thing. She should have told him where and he’d have sent someone to check, or he’d do it himself.
She didn’t answer when he called back. When he looked back at Oli. “Can I rely on your nose to find her? Maybe you’re right?”
“I think we’re passed that and on to calling in Sheriff Morton.” Oli didn’t like saying this, but something was really wrong here and he’d not accept this for an enemy, let alone her.
“Not yet. I want to exhaust all avenues first. I don’t trust the humans to not mess up any evidence because they don’t know better.”
“Fine, then. Where are we looking for her?” Oli hated the idea that this wasn’t over.
Trisha tossed back some painkillers and grimaced. She found the day was overcast again because, as a wolf, she couldn’t wear sunglasses to avoid the worst of the sun until the headache left.
Three hours later, Trisha came to a pond where they used to hang out. Kiera still came here when she wanted peace. Trisha didn’t because this was part of the contested land.
She was looking around for some type of evidence that Kiera was here or nearby. While Trisha was looking about and turning up nothing, a familiar voice sounded behind her and sent her heart pounding in her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was fear, excitement, or a combination.
“I know your brother told you to stay out of my territory. So, tell me, what has you risking punishment for you to risk punishment for trespassing?”
“Do you know where Kiera is? She’s missing.”
“Kiera’s probably at home sleeping like you should be.”
“She’s not and Dean’s right now. He won’t tell me what he found. I came here to see if she came here to think. It is one of her favourite spots before she…”
“Come along then. I will contact your brother.”
“What? Wait? Why?”
“I’m arresting you.”
“No, I don’t have time. She could be in danger.”
James shook himself and ushered her toward an ATV. “What would happen if they took again her, and you encounter the people who have her? What’s stopping them from doing the same, or worse, to you?”
Trisha groaned while she ignored Alpha Duncan’s tirade. “I failed to see that. Ugh, why does my hair hurt? I took something to fix that.”
Now Dean couldn’t reach Trisha. What was it with these women? He didn’t have time for this. Oli stayed right beside his alpha, and had prudently kept his mouth shut. He didn’t know half of what was going on, and what he knew he couldn’t be sure what was lying. Oli still thought that Kiera was a Lycan now and she should stay with her people. When he’d posed that to Dean, he’d reminded Oli that her people were far and few. None of them were secure. No one could point to a place and say that’s Lycan territory. Just because they are the first shifters to possess a third form didn’t mean they weren’t a form of shifter. They even spoke of the violent streak the Lycan appeared to have as well. Dean’s views were definitely food for the thought Oli needed. They traumatized the Lycans in those labs. They knew wolves and many other shifters had a strong fight-or-flight response. With that viewpoint in consideration, fighting could be the first response because the lab tried
Dean stood there in the damaged cottage that belonged to Kiera. He held the phone out to Oli, completely distracted by his thoughts after he’d heard James make his demands. The land or Kiera, it should be a straightforward decision but his mind rebelled. There was no way he would give up the land. That would give James the last thing he needed to drive Dean and his pack from his territory. No one could live without water. So, the other possibility was Kiera. Find her and hand her over to James. His mind hated this idea. In a protective and possibly territorial way. Why? He thought his attraction to her died the day that they returned her to them changed. How could he feel the hollowness in his soul now, after all this time? There was no way he could explain it. No way he could give into this either. The backlash of mating with a monster was impossible to contemplate with several pack members opposed to her living within pack territory. “Oli,
Oli made the arrangements to get the neutral zone cottage fixed. It was more difficult than first thought. He needed to find tradesmen who would work for a Lycan and then assign a security team because of the neutral zone’s lawless reputation. It was all a pain in the butt. What if she was dead? Or they never found her? It was better to find a way to force the Jasper Sounds Alpha to hand over Trisha. Oli was completing the work orders when an enforcer entered the study. “Aren’t you supposed to be on front gate duty, Joe?” “I drew the short straw. This was delivered to the front gate a few minutes ago.” Joe held out an envelope and a dagger to Oli. “You can give it to Alpha Jonas.” The enforcer seemed eager not to be the deliverer of this news. “What’s with the dagger?” Oli took the two items from the dark-haired enforcer with his confusion clearly clear on his features. “We figured the mode of delivery might be important. A silver SUV stopp
Kiera came back to consciousness slowly. Her headache ached like it rarely had in a long time. Alcohol didn’t hurt like this. When she touched the back of her head, she winced and frowned. There was a weight around her wrists, which could only mean one thing. Handcuffs. Sure enough, she was chained to a wall in a room with a small, barred window near the ceiling. Other than the light coming in through it’s grimy panes the room she lay on the cold hard floor. Then she remembered vaguely the open back door, and the broken glass on the floor. She might have shot at something, but she didn’t know if she hit anything. Then a sharp pain in the back of her head… Someone knocked her out. How? She would have had to pass them if for them to hit her from behind and there wasn’t any place within her small cottage to hide like that. Who did this? Dean? James? She wouldn’t put it past either of them. Well, stuck to the wall as she was and sensitive to the dull light
Dean and Oli looked at each other over the phone in horror. “Keith, you have to get him calmed down. We didn’t send that message. In fact, we have one here right now. It says we have to take our copy of the deed to, and get this it’s weird, Elderswoods. We wouldn’t have called it that. It’s Jordan’s Run these days, not Elderswoods. I think we have a third-party trying to force a war between us.” “Oli, I’m his Beta and I can’t get near him. Look, it’s chaos over here. I have to go. I don’t know what’s going on, but Trisha is down here. I need to go intervene. If I can, I’ll call you later to tell you what happened.” Keith hung up there, leaving Oli and Dean in a state. Go find out who sent the note? Or rush in to save Trisha? * * * Keith dropped his phone on his desk, and it bounced before it landed on the floor. He didn’t care. He could hear the woman’s voice as James, and she yelled at each o
“James, you don’t want to do this. You’d be forcing yourself on me. That’s not what you want, is it?” Trisha found herself backed up against the back of a love seat by James. His gaze now showed his hunger. Trisha couldn’t hide that fact that in this enclosed space with her secret desire for him. His scent was the tipping point for her. Clearly, he’d hit his tipping point a while back. His growling revealed his need to fuck, and he stalked her, hunting for a willing partner. Trisha couldn’t deny she’d secretly dreamed of passing her time making out with him. Heck, not just making out with him. She’d woken several times as her body orgasmed at the thought of fucking him. “By the time I fuck you, you’ll be begging me to finish.” She had to think of something to bring him to his senses before she lost hers. He was right, he probably could get her to a state she’d beg him to fuck her. “Well, do a good enough job and I’ll think about keeping you. Never m
Sure enough, the old man came back. However, he was upset to see that Kiera hadn’t eaten any of the food. She wasn’t a fool. Kiera was experienced in this situation. It wasn’t her first rodeo, and she wouldn’t risk being drugged, either. Henry was so furious he kicked the tray aside against the stone and grout wall. The plate shattered, where the shards and food scattered over the grimy floor. “I gave you peace and quiet to eat. This is how you thank me? Ungrateful wretch. I am the father of many alphas, and they will not defy me. You want to go hungry, then fine. No more food for you.” He was livid, his over reaction was to an extreme Kiera hadn’t expected. Though it was very revealing to her. He was obsessed with his sons being alphas and he claimed at least two as his blood. He wasn’t an alpha himself, so he lived his rank through his sons. He was a sad creature, and she expected the more she learned, the more disgusting she would find it. The man was deluded an
Dean and Oli called in all their enforcers, and he had everyone getting ready to beef up their territory’s protections. That’s when Oli’s phone rang. “It’s Keith.” “Answer it.” Dean needed to know what was happening to his sister. Actually, she was his half-sister. They shared a mother, but he knew they had different fathers. She never spoke of either males. Dean didn’t know either males’ names, and she’d not left the information with anyone or written anywhere. “Keith, what’s going on? It sounds like the yelling has stopped.” “It’s only just stopped and one of them barricaded the door. We still can’t get in and they won’t respond. But you won’t like this. I still don’t know if he’ll go through with any attacks, so I don’t know if he’s accepting the threat of war. But I can’t say whether they’re mated either. It was brutal listening to whatever happened in there.” “Well, that was the last thing I expected to hear from you. Will we be seeing you at Jordan’s