Scarred Wolf by Charlene Hartnady
29
Everleigh
The soundof that voice sinks in. Gritty, gravelly. Similar, but not the same. The man staring down at me may be a carbon copy, but it’s not him. Not Jaxon.
Jaxon’s dead.
I feel another wave of pure grief.
The man who is not Jaxon reaches in and grabs my upper arm, hauling me up roughly. I make a point of hanging loosely in his grasp. They haven’t bound me, and I think they’ve assumed that whatever they injected me with would keep me incapacitated. But even now, I can feel the strength returning to my legs. If I can get free, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to make a run for it.
And then what? It occurs to me that these men are like us…me and Jaxon. They’re wolves too. Would I be able to escape them? And if they caught me, what would they do? Nothing pleasant, I’m certain of it.
The one looking at me has to be related to Jaxon. The resemblance is uncanny, though he’s older. Streaks of silver shoot through the hair at his temples; harder lines around his eyes and down-turned mouth. Jaxon’s mouth is beautiful…was. I long to reach out to him now, but what’s the point? He’s gone. He’s lying in his own blood. I suppress a sob. I don’t know how many hours have passed since that moment – how long I was out of it. Must be hours. Darkness has descended and the waning moon has risen high enough to provide some light. I need to be strong. We need to be strong. Smokey and me.
“Well, well, well,” the man says now. “Look what we have here.” His lips curl up at the sides. A cruel smile flashes sharp teeth and something that looks like loathing glitters in those silver eyes. He hates me. Why would he hate me? This makes no sense.
He’s got me on my feet, and I let myself remain as limp as a rag-doll, which seems to satisfy him.
“That stuff did the trick,” he says over his shoulder. “She’s like jello.” He gives a laugh. Evil bastard. “Pretty, though, I’ll say that much. No wonder the pup couldn’t go through with it. Damn fool. I never imagined him to be governed so thoroughly by his dick. I never thought he would betray me like this.”
I try not to frown. Pup? What is he talking about? Betrayed by who? He can’t be talking about Jaxon. Surely?
He puts his finger under my chin and angles my head into the moonlight, examining my face. “Spitting image of her mother,” he mutters. “Vile bitch. Going to feel good to put this one down.”
What does my mom have to do with any of this? My blood runs cold hearing him say it. He sounds so…angry. It’s not as if I hadn’t guessed these men mean me harm, but if all they had in mind was to kill me, why not just do it back there along with Jaxon? What horrors do they have planned for me? And why? My conversations with Jaxon left me with more questions than answers. He’d been forthcoming about the changes I’ve been going through, but when I asked about my family, parents, he clammed up and shut down. Now I’m sensing that whatever he wasn’t telling me is the reason I’m here. And the man who has me in his grip has some sort of score to settle. I think back on our conversations. Does it have something to do with… No, it can’t be. It can’t!
Well, I’m not going to make it any easier by cooperating. I deliberately let my knees buckle, feeling myself crumpling to the floor.
“Fuck it,” he grumbles, yanking me up with a hand under each armpit. “Tanner, get over here,” he says, glancing around and a man steps out of the darkness.
“Warden?” the man responds, and I recognize the smell of him…one of the men who took me. Smokey gives a low growl within me and though I suppress it, keep myself silent, he hesitates, looking apprehensive.
“Carry her,” says the man holding me. Warden…that’s his name. A name I can pin to the man who ordered Jaxon’s death. The death of someone who must be his own flesh and blood. This makes no sense to me. Who would do such a thing? “I don’t want the stench of her on me.” He gives a snarl when the other man remains unmoving. “Come on, man, she won’t bite. Not with that shit in her veins.”
He passes me to the one he called Tanner as if he’s handing over a particularly noxious bag of trash. Tanner obeys but takes me gingerly. I notice him swallow hard before he swings me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I let my arms dangle down past his ass. I’m facing his back, my vision obscured, but I can sense others around us. Several of them. Aside from Warden, there are at least the remaining three from the group who took me. And more. Something tells me four or five. Around ten in all. Too many to go up against, I imagine, even if I seem to have some sort of edge over them. I think back to those moments before, when they took me. I’m pretty sure I could have done a lot more damage if they hadn’t injected that stuff into me.
I wonder how big this wolf community is. The structure of it. I know so little about where I’m from, how I fit into it all.
The men have fallen into single file, making their way onto an overgrown trail through the trees. The undergrowth is dense here; it’s slow going as they navigate the thick vegetation. Brambles and thorns hook into my hair, tear at my skin. Tanner isn’t taking too much care in how he carries me, allowing my head and arms to bump against trunks and branches as he ducks and weaves through the trees. We travel like this a while, moving mainly in silence aside from the occasional quiet warning of some unseen obstacle. These men seem accustomed to working together like this. I almost get a sense of some sort of military unit.
Finally, the trail becomes easier and I feel us picking up the pace as the trees begin to thin, no longer a thick tangle of brush and saplings. It’s no relief to me, though. I’ve been using the time to try to figure out what to do next. Part of me wishes I’d had the guts to break loose and try to get away using the heavy vegetation to my advantage. But I’m pretty sure this is territory that’s well known to them. They’d have the advantage over me while I tried to make my way out of these woods. My head is still fuzzy. I’m not sure how fast I would be.
Now, as we burst into a clearing, I see that we’ve come out into an area that’s been deliberately kept clear. Though I can’t see much past my abductor’s broad back, I can see that trees have been cut down, and the ground has a covering of fine grass, as if someone has turned it into a small, secluded garden.
“Put her there,” Warden instructs Tanner, and I feel myself unceremoniously dropped to the ground. I sneak a glance around and take in my surroundings. There’s a small structure at the far edge – something that looks like a compact cottage. We’re in the middle of the clearing about twenty yards from it, and I’m lying in a circle of what seem to be sweet fragranced white flowers. Flowers? The thicket we’ve come through didn’t seem to have anything like this. It’s definitely man-made. Wolf-made? Whatever.
I lie in a heap, looking up at the sky, surprised at how bright everything is. My senses were always fairly good, but since the first time I became the wolf, the whole world has become brighter, crisper. I want to look around more but I’m afraid to risk it; they’ll know I’ve regained my ability to move, and that might force their hand. I need time to figure things out.
The men have formed a loose ring around me, and Warden steps up, looming over me, his face still filled with hate.
“This is where it all went down, Moone,” he says, his voice flat and hard.
Why does he keep calling me Moone? I think he might have the wrong person.
“It started right here where you’re lying. The nightmare your line turned my life into when they took my sweet Jasmine from me.”
I realize now…I’m lying on a bed of jasmine, the creeping tendrils laden with tiny scented blossoms. His Jasmine? His wife? Was this Jaxon’s mother who was murdered? I’m getting more confused by the second.
“Those flowers grew from soil soaked with her blood after they tore her limb from limb,” Warden goes on, something flickering in his eyes. “And now yours will mingle with it as her bloodline ends yours. The bloodline that tried to destroy our pack. These men around you each share that connection. Cousins, brothers…mate.” He sets his jaw. “Joined now, to rid the world of the last accursed Moone, in the same way as your parents took her.”
My parents? What the hell! This guy might be Jaxon’s dad, but he’s crazy. He’s lost it. Jaxon told me he was broken. I don’t think Jaxon realized just how broken his father really is.
I sense changing around me, the men altering, shifting. I’m surrounded by wolves, the circle closing.
I want to tell them that they have the wrong person. That they are wrong! I hold back. The only edge I have is that of surprise.
Warden’s silver eyes are gleaming as he steps closer. I see fangs.
This is it. My last moment to defend myself before I’m torn to pieces. This man is clearly insane. Whatever he thinks my parents did, he’s blaming it on me. I curl my fingers into the earth, preparing to leap to my feet and—
“Stop!”
My breath catches in my throat. I know that voice. Jaxon! But it can’t be. I saw them kill him. My nostrils twitch as I pick up his scent. Warmth floods me. Jaxon is alive. He’s alive!
Warden spins around to the source. The others do too.
“Father, stop! You can’t do this.” Closer now. He’s at the edge of the group. I know Jaxon will set the record straight.
“Keep out of this, pup,” Warden snaps back. “I should have known you weren’t strong enough to do the job I sent you to do. I’m finishing it myself. But I should thank you, because it’s better this way. I’d prefer to have her die brutally by my own hand, as she deserves.”
My blood runs cold. This man is Jaxon’s father – I suspected as much. But what is he talking about? What job?
Something coils within me, gathering energy as I try to make sense of things.
“You’re wrong! Dad…you’re wrong. She’s not like them. You’re making a mistake,” Jaxon says.
“Bullshit!” Warden bites out. “You’re blinded…thinking with your cock! You’ve allowed it to dull the memory of your mother and what those creatures did to her! How could you forget it when that beast left his mark over your heart?”
I think of the scars that he bears. Is he saying my father did that? That my parents killed Jaxon’s mother? I can’t believe any of it. I won’t. And Jaxon…he said he didn’t know about them.
No, he didn’t. He said next to nothing. It seems that all I got were half-truths.
I feel like I’ve been slapped across the face. I’m reeling.
Warden is still talking. “I sent you to get rid of her, to avenge your mother’s death. And you landed balls deep in the enemy!”
“She wasn’t to be killed!” Jaxon snarls back. “It was an antidote, not a poison. You told me—”
“Cut the crap, Jaxon,” Warden interrupts. “Did you really think we’d send you to her to let her live? You knew…of course you knew. If you’re denying it now, it’s because you’re too much of a coward to admit it. Don’t try to make me believe that’s how I raised you.”
Jaxon came to kill me? I’m hit with a memory. The vials. The ones in the shower. I thought they were steroids, but what does a wolf shifter need with steroids? He was there to kill me. I can’t help myself; I choke out a sob. It can’t be true. But when I think about it…it makes perfect sense. I don’t want to believe it, though. I don’t! I’ve allowed this man into my world…my body. My heart. I shut my eyes as I feel tears begin to burn. The sound of his voice hurts when he speaks again.
“She is innocent! Nothing like them. She’s gentle and sweet. You can’t do it, Dad. I’m begging you…please…” Despite his words, my chest still feels like it’s being crushed. Lying to me. He’s been lying to me all along. The half-truths somehow make it worse. He could have told me everything. He had every opportunity.
“It’s an act, you idiot,” Warden replies. “Innocence doesn’t run in those veins. She’s pure evil. Like her mother and father before her. I burned them out of this world with that fire all those years back, and I’m taking their unholy spawn out, too. You’re either with me or against me. What is it, pup?” I think he is saying more, but I’m not hearing.
The fire…
They killed my parents.
The fire that took their lives was no accident; these people did it. And Jaxon has known it all along, complicit even. Hurt splinters through me, slashing me from the inside out. Choking me. Suffocating me! Then something else. Something white-hot and molten.
There’s a snarl of alarm behind me as I leap to my feet in fury. Warden spins around, confusion in his eyes.
A voice nearby rings out. “It can’t be! She shouldn’t be able—”
Warden is glancing toward the source, but I give a scream of pure tortured rage and his attention is back on me. I sense him coiling and know without a doubt that he’s preparing to attack. And then he’s flying toward me, half man, half wolf, all muscle, fangs and murder.
“No!” Jaxon cries out. He’s charging into Warden’s path and the pair goes down. For that split second, it’s as if everyone is frozen by the horror of what’s unfolding. Jaws snap, bones crunch, blood splatters as father and son tear into each other without mercy. They’re evenly matched, although Jaxon has youth and strength on his side. But Warden is driven by madness. The man is on his back, fangs snapping as Jaxon gets a grip on his throat.
“Dad…” I hear him groan. And in that second of hesitation, Warden lunges, flings him clear, and then he’s on his feet and charging toward me.
Through it all, I’ve been standing, arms outstretched at my sides, as if I’m using them to keep the other wolves at bay. They haven’t come any closer, so it seems to be working. I look down and realize that I’m completely enveloped in a blue-white light. Warden sees it too, because there’s a flare of surprise in his eyes. But it’s too late. The momentum of his headlong rush carries him to me. I reach forward, snarl, and my palms make contact with his barreling chest. There’s a blinding flash of light and then Warden is flying backward through the air, howling. He whimpers as he lands, body spasming and arching. And then he’s still.
I don’t know what the fuck I just did, but the power of it has left me panting. I smell charred flesh and boiling blood. Jaxon is on his feet, standing between me and the motionless figure of his father. He looks at the fallen man and then at me, his face a blood-spattered mask of horror. That beautiful, terrible face.
I’ll never forgive him.
“Everleigh!” he chokes out, taking a step. I hold out my hand and he stops, shrinks back. I should kill him, but that’s not within me. Despite knowing what I know now – the extent of his betrayal – I just can’t do it. Smokey releases an agonized howl. This hurts more than the sight of him lying dying. He’s ripped my heart open, trampled all over it. I stare at him; my unspoken accusation and rage enough to wither him.
“Betrayer. You no longer exist to me.” I don’t say the words out loud. I speak them into his mind, and his expression shows the weight of it. A second of eternity drags by in silence.
I feel my wolf take over. And then I’m running free, through the trees. Leaving them all behind.
