Bold Mercy by Laken Cane

Chapter Fifteen

Rick and Joe were standing in the street, waiting for me. In Rick’s eyes I saw relief follow swiftly by a half-irritated sort of acceptance, but in Joe’s eyes there was only satisfaction.

I couldn’t help but grin to see them both. No, they weren’t wolves, but they were my people. My tribe. And in a few seconds, they both returned my grin, and neither of them shrank from me when I wrapped my arms around them and pulled them into a hug.

“Careful there, boss,” Joe said. “I’ve got a machete.”

I laughed. “Yeah you do.”

Rick pulled back to search my face. “You’re cut up, Kait.”

“I’m okay.” I felt the healing wound pull tightly when I smiled. “I’ll heal.”

He only nodded.

Behind me, Wyatt cleared his throat. “We need to get Brian’s body back to Shadowfield.”

Rick looked at him. “What are you?”

I turned sharply to Wyatt and held my hand out. “Wait—”

“Wolves,” he said. “We are wolves.” And he lifted his chin, straightened his back, and stared the detective down. God, the pride in his fierce wolf stare.

And at that moment, I felt it, too. Rick and Joe were my people, but so were these wolves. Pride shivered through me, and without thinking, without hesitation, I gripped Wyatt’s arm with the hand I’d held out, only seconds before, to stop him.

“Wolves,” I whispered, and finally, I turned to look at the two human men—Joe with his sharp, bloody machete, which he’d lifted to lay across his broad shoulder, and Rick with his suit and his gun and his cold cop eyes.

There wasn’t any surprise in either of their stares.

“Damn, Kaity Bug,” Joe said. “I knew it.”

I laughed, and even I heard the relief, pride, and the tiny, tiny droplet of fear and shame that yet lingered. “You didn’t.”

“Well, no,” he admitted, then shrugged. “I just knew you were special.”

Honestly, that brought tears to my eyes.

Rick said nothing, but he pulled an honest to God handkerchief from his pocket and began swiping at the blood on my face. “Come back inside. I’ll patch you up.”

“Can’t,” Wyatt said, speaking for me. “Neighbors are watching. Someone called the cops. We need to get out of here.”

We all heard the sirens, though who was to say they were coming for us? The city was loud with the sound of sirens and full of constant emergencies. We weren’t going to be high on their priority list. Still, Wyatt was right. We needed to go.

There was a dead wolf who needed returned to his family. And there was a mutant vampire I needed to catch.

Eli strode toward us, dressed in a pair of borrow pants two sizes too small for him. He came straight for me. “Turn your nose up if you must, Kait Silver, but when my alpha gives me an order, I will follow that order to my death.”

I nodded. “I know, Beta.” But I wouldn’t apologize, because his actions meant Avis was still out there, killing people. I didn’t say that, either, because he knew—and he was as angry at his alpha as he was at himself. “You won’t be hunting with me again, though,” I said, instead.

“I’m good with that.”

“The alpha won’t let her hunt alone,” Avery muttered. “He thinks she’s the—”

“Shut your mouth, wolf,” Eli growled.

She shut her mouth.

“Avis fucked you up,” he told me. “Do you want to take time to sh—”

“No,” I interrupted quickly. I just wasn’t ready for him to say the S word in front of Rick and Joe. Not yet. Just…not yet.

“I’ll meet you there,” Joe said. “You know I’m hunting with you, right?”

I sighed, somewhat regretful that he was human. “I’ll leave you in the dust, Joe.”

He grinned and hefted his massive machete. “I know. But I’ll follow you, Kait. And if you’re lying half-dead in a dark trench somewhere, I’ll find you. Eventually.” He lost his grin. “I swear it.”

“Dammit, Joe,” I whispered, as weepy as an old lady. I clasped Rick’s hand for a few seconds, then climbed into the car. I needed to get to the woods of Shadowfield, shift, and get my emotions under control. I didn’t tell anyone to be careful. Avis would take some time to regroup, I was nearly certain. She’d clawed me up, it was true, and badly, but I’d damaged her, as well.

Vampire—sort of—or not, she was going to need some time.

No one said a word all the way back to Shadowfield. I stared out the window as Eli drove, my stomach hurting as I witnessed my beloved city being battered by evil. I clenched my fists, suddenly raging. I was tempted to tell Eli to stop and let me out, but he’d have argued, and besides, I wanted to be with the alpha when he saw his dead wolf.

In my old pack, it wouldn’t have hurt my alpha to have lost a wolf. It would tear Jared up. And I would be there with him, though he might not want me to be.

He was waiting when we pulled into Shadowfield, standing with a long line of wolves behind him, waiting. Eli parked my car, and when I didn’t move, he surprised me by patting my knee. “It’ll be okay, Kait.”

“One of our wolves is dead,” I murmured. “That’s not okay.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Jared won’t blame you.”

I pointed my chin at the wolves behind him. “They will.” I met Jared’s stare through the window, and though his expression didn’t change, his lips tightened and his eyes went so carefully blank that I knew he was hiding an enormous amount of emotion.

Zach stood beside him, frowning, and then he broke from the little crowd and walked toward the car. Jared didn’t try to stop him.

Eli opened his door. “Come on. You can help me carry Brian to them.”

I jerked my head around to look at him, my breath whooshing out. “I can?”

Wyatt and Avery had already left the car and stood at the back, waiting by the hatch. I wanted to help Eli carry Brian’s body to their alpha, but that wouldn’t have been right. I didn’t know him, not really. I wasn’t his friend. Wyatt and Avery were.

“Let them take him,” I said.

He nodded. “Jared is right. You’re a good person.”

Eli and I bracketed the two warriors as they carried their brother to the alpha, and Zach halted before he reached us to watch us come. There was a question in his eyes, and I gave him a nod to let him know I was okay, despite the way I looked. And even before we reached the knot of wolves, I could hear the soft cries of a woman.

“Bring him inside,” another woman said.

Jared stared down at the body for a few seconds before nodding. “Take him home,” he told Wyatt and Avery. “Eli, Kait. With me.”

Zach didn’t ask if he might accompany us—he simply walked beside me, his shoulder brushing mine, offering his support, should I need it. Jared didn’t take us to his house but to his office in the admin building.

The room was bright and warm, but the pall of death and rogue vampires hung heavy in the room. Finally, Jared looked at me. “How did he die?”

“I wasn’t there,” I said. “I was battling Avis Vine in another location.”

He scraped his cold stare over my wounded face. “Eli,” he said.

Eli tensed. “I wasn’t there either,” he said. “I was chasing after Kait. I attempted to protect her and failed to protect the ones who needed it a whole fuck of a lot more than she did.”

Jared narrowed his eyes and took a step toward Eli, his rage flaring to life. Both men were hurting, and both of them would express their pain as anger.

Damn wolves.

I did something then that I shouldn’t have done. Knowing didn’t stop me from doing it, though. I got in the middle of a couple of angry, powerful wolves. “Listen to me,” I said. “Brian’s death was the fault of the bloodsucker who killed him. Not yours, and not Eli’s. And from now on I’m hunting alone.”

Jared’s pupils contracted and for a second, there was such blackness in his eyes that I believed he might start killing people—starting with me—and not stop. “Do not,” he bit out, “get between me and my wolves.”

I moved hastily out of his way. Let them kill each other, if that’s what they needed to do. I’d had enough. I needed to shift, heal, and get back out there. I frowned, suddenly remembering that Joe was supposed to meet me. The second I thought it, though, my cell vibrated.

I turned my back on Jared and Eli and read the text from my mother.

I just heard. Are you okay? I’m outside keeping Joe company until you get here.

Relieved, I tapped out a quick reply. I’m okay but having a delay. Be there soon. Tell Joe?

I didn’t want her to know I was going to shift before I went hunting, because she’d only worry. Zach was so quiet I’d almost forgotten he was in the room, but when I looked at him, he gestured toward the door. Without hesitating, I dropped my phone back into my pocket and gave him a nod. I was more than ready to exit the testosterone-laden room.

“Kait,” Jared said, as I put my hand on the doorknob. “I want to talk to you.”

I yanked open the door and strode out, Zach at my back. I didn’t answer him, so Zach answered for me. “Come find her when you’re done being an asshole.”

But it didn’t bother me that the alpha was an asshole. Most alphas were assholes. It bothered me that he obviously didn’t think of me as one of them. He didn’t want me sticking my nose in pack business. And he for damn sure didn’t think of me as his equal. To him, I was just another of his wolves, and he’d proven that.

That was why we hadn’t had sex, despite the fact that I’d thrown myself at him. He’d told me I wasn’t ready. Ready to…what? Accept him as my lord and master?

Fuck that.

It royally pissed me off that I cared so very much, when he cared not at all.