He was halfway out the door by then, and it seemed like his brain was full to capacity when he paused to glance back at me. "I have to take care of a few things. Find out who left the rose."
"You mean which werewolf?" I was going for a chuckle, but my voice broke.
"Something like that."
"What am I supposed to do in here?" But he"d closed the door by then, and I sat down on the couch, trying to make sense of, well, everything.
Chapter Six.
Zane I told Fly to keep an eye on her and left the bar. I needed to figure out who was after Aria and why, which meant that, for the first time in six years, I"d have to return to the pack. I"d have to face the man who had lied to me. The man who had betrayed me. As I walked out the back door and into the woods, stripped off my clothes, and shifted, I couldn"t help but wonder what my reception would be like.
I wasn"t sure how Aria had taken what I"d told her. Actually, it hadn"t gone as badly as it could have, I supposed. I got it that this was as farfetched a story as they come, but it"s not like I had experience explaining what we were to others. Not like I"d ever had to tell someone that shifters exist and right under their own noses so be f.u.c.king careful. Anyhow, it didn"t matter. She was in danger so I couldn"t send her away. And maybe if she knew the truth about the monsters that exist out there, she"d be more likely to listen.
Doubtful, but I could hope.
It would take me almost the whole day to get to the compound and my thoughts shifted to Cain. How would he react when he saw me? He"d tried to reach out to me that first year after everything happened. Tried to tell me it wasn"t him, that he hadn"t ordered the killing, but it was the only thing that made sense. Xander wasn"t going to put a hit out on his own daughter and grandson. And he would kill anyone in his pack who did. No, it had to have come from Savage Blood. We"d killed Aria"s father, after all. And he was our own.
The sun was setting when I approached the property line. Slowing, I listened. He"d be protected. They wouldn"t leave their leader unguarded. Shifting to my human form would make things easier now, but it would also leave me vulnerable. I stalked slowly closer. The compound was large and housed several members of the pack, although most were spread throughout the United States. A twig broke as I left the cover of wood and stepped out into the quickly darkening night. Low growls surrounded me, alerting me to their presence. There would be no doubt as to who I was, though - by scent, if not by sight - which could be good or bad, depending.
I didn"t have to wait long to find out because a wolf stepped into my line of vision, joined quickly by a second and a third, the rumbling in their throats a warning. I rumbled back, taking a step toward them. I was bigger, stronger, but they had me outnumbered. Still, I had a reputation here. Most would be afraid.
Slow circling began, three against one, turning, keeping eyes pinned on eyes. I hoped not to have to fight. This had been my pack once, but when I"d killed those who"d murdered Bryan and Heather, I"d been blacklisted. I"d heard the rumors that had spread about me those first months after it had happened. Cain had even had the nerve to question whether I was the one who"d killed Bryan. He still denied having sent his soldiers to do his dirty work, but his hands were bloodied.
One of the wolves shot forward then, lunging toward me. But I was faster, and my attack had him on the ground, whimpering, as I closed my fangs around his throat. I wouldn"t damage him, not permanently, but he needed to understand with whom he was dealing. One of his friends was wise. He stepped back. But the other, not so much. He joined the fray, and, within moments, the sound of three wolves battling echoed around the compound, followed quickly by a thunk-thunk-thunk like a thousand horses approaching at a full gallop.
But before the attack I expected came, a single word command was issued: "Stop!"
I was amazed at the instantaneous response. I had forgotten the power of Alpha. It was...something. But the draw for me to obey was no longer there. That was something else entirely. I"d felt myself pull away from them six years ago, and now, no connection remained. It shouldn"t have made me sad, but it did. I was alone.
Straightening, I followed the direction the command had come from. There, among a collection of wolves and humans, a full head taller than most, stood Cain Von, Alpha of Savage Blood. My father.
Our eyes locked, his an oily midnight, mine a shade of black too dark. Too wrong.
"Son." It was a statement of fact, not a term of endearment.
As if he"d given a silent command, the wolves around me backed away. Cain turned on his heel and walked toward his house. A woman left a pair of jeans and a T-shirt on a bench before following him. I shifted, eyes boring into my back, watching from shadows, the aggression around me thick, the hatred for the one who would have been Alpha, the one who had turned his back on his pack.
The moon lit the path to my childhood home. It had been six years since I"d been here, and it felt strange now. There was a sense of regret, of loss, now that I was back and walking up the porch steps to the front door. Mourning the loss of my family and my pack was something I hadn"t really done, hadn"t given any thought to. When those feelings came up, I shut them down, forcing myself to remember the betrayal. It was the one thing that kept me going, that kept the guilt at my part in things from eating me alive.
The front door was open and a light on inside. A woman"s voice whispered, followed by that of my father telling her to go. It was Maria, the woman who"d raised me after my mom had pa.s.sed. She met me at the door on her way out and looked at me, her eyes still holding that tenderness I remembered. Without a word, she cast her eyes down and walked around me and out the door.
That hurt. I understood why, but it still hurt.
I was an outcast. I"d exiled myself.
Steeling myself, I walked into the house and toward my father"s study. He sat behind his desk waiting for me, his face hard, his eyes cold, as if I"d been the one who had betrayed him.
"It was a dangerous thing for you to come back," he said.
There was a chair, but I remained standing. "I realize that." He wanted more. He wanted a thank you, but I wasn"t in a grateful mood.
"It"s good to see you." My father wasn"t a polite man; he wasn"t a sentimental man. He was the Alpha of one of the largest packs in the United States. He ran a well-oiled, well-disciplined organization. Some of the pack"s activities were even legal.
"It"s good to see you." I bit the words out, the anger I"d felt for six years as potent as ever. I"d never confronted my father for his betrayal. I"d simply left, my rage enough to kill. "How are you?"
He studied me, his eyes revealing nothing. He was in his sixties now, and the black hair he kept long was graying. His skin had an olive tone weathered by too many years in the sun, and, sometimes, looking at him, I saw myself as I would be, as I would someday look. We shared similar features, but seeing him after all this time brought that home. When I left, he"d still been taller than me, but now I nearly matched him in height, and build. Two generations of Alphas.
"Good." He gestured to the chair before the desk, and I sat. "You look good."
I nodded. "I look like the son of an Alpha."
He paused at that, but I had no more to say. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"Aria Hale."
Something pa.s.sed through his eyes when I said her name.
"She showed up at the bar last night after receiving an anonymous communication about the killer of her family." I studied him as I spoke, hoping I"d see if he already knew about Aria, about the letter or the rose. "This morning I found her car had been broken into, a black rose inside it. The tear to the canvas roof was not done by any sort of knife." They"d been claw marks. I wasn"t sure if Aria would have noticed that.
He inhaled sharply and opened a desk drawer, turning his attention to whatever was inside, taking out a stapled packet of papers.
"And you"re asking me if it was Savage Blood? You think I would order a hit on an inconsequential girl."
"You and I both know she"s not inconsequential."
He snorted.
"Did you order the hit?"
He set the sheets on his desk and pushed them toward me. "I"ve been aware of where Xander hid her from the start. If I"d wanted her dead, she"d be dead."
It was true. The pages contained the address of the school Aria had been attending along with information collected monthly over the two years she"d spent there.
"Did anyone else in the pack have this information?" I asked, pushing the page back to him.
"No. Only me. Your distrust in your brothers sickens me."
Well, I guess he"d picked up on what I was thinking. Many of the pack hated the Hales. And Aria wasn"t inconsequential. She carried powerful genes to create powerful heirs. Heirs who would belong to both packs.
"Funny side effect to betrayal. It makes you distrust people you thought you knew," I said, my insult the direct hit I"d wanted judging from the narrowing of his eyes.
"Those murders were not initiated by me."
"Then why were the two who committed the crime from Savage Blood?"
"You mean the men you killed. Your brothers."
"They were not my brothers. Not after what they did."
He lifted a hand to stop me. "Enough. Past is past. The damage done irreparable. I did not order a hit on Aria Hale. My business with the Hale family was over the day Bryan died. My intention was only to bring him into the pack he belonged to. His father"s pack."
"You mean his father whom you had killed?"
He stood, his fist slamming down on the desk so hard it made the room rattle. "Enough! You speak of things you have no understanding of. Times were different; the packs were different. And sometimes, as Alpha, you have a duty, even if that duty opposes everything you stand for." He sat down. "But what would you know about duty?"
The last sentence was delivered with fatigue rather than malice.
Cain had been Alpha for a long time. My grandfather had died early, and Cain had risen to power at eighteen. He"d had no mentor, no guidance, and I believed he thought he"d done the best he could. But ordering the killing of his foster brother? How could he live with himself?
I had heard the story from several sources and, from what I gathered, Cain"s grandfather had taken Derek in when his parents had been killed during fighting with a rival pack. He"d treated him like a son and loved him. Cain and Derek had been inseparable for a time. But when Derek married Heather, some had considered it a betrayal to Savage Blood that he"d take a daughter of Rage, their fiercest rival, as mate, and in doing so, as next in line if anything happened to my father, he posed a threat. My father had been young and his decision perhaps swayed, and that was something I could understand. But ordering the killing of Bryan and Heather Hale after sending me to find and befriend them? That was unforgivable.
A thought nagged at me. Had he been trying to make amends by saving the son when he"d condemned the father? Was he telling the truth?
No, I would not entertain that thought. Bringing up the images of the bodies wiped out any sympathy I had for this man.
"I know about trust. I know about allegiance and I know about friendship, Father."
"Alpha!" Footsteps running into the house had me on my feet, but it took me a minute to recognize the man who filled the doorway. He, too, stopped dead, his eyes narrowing on me, taking my measure.
It was Ace. My cousin. He"d changed, too. He"d gotten bigger, wider. And there was one more thing. I understood it when he walked to stand to my father"s right. He was being groomed to take over as Alpha. He would take my place.
The pang of jealousy I felt surprised me. I didn"t want this, didn"t want to be Alpha, didn"t want anything to do with the pack. But to see him standing beside my father like that, like he was his son, made me angry.
"Zane, good to see you," Ace said, his voice smooth, his words, as usual, calculated.
"Ace." I acknowledged with a nod. I wasn"t going to lie. It wasn"t good to see him.
"Zane was preparing to leave," Cain said. "I did not order the hit. Savage Blood is not involved and won"t harm the girl. But to keep her truly safe, you know what you have to do."
I stared at him. Was he serious?
"Go back home and claim the girl," he finished.
"Because that kept Heather safe?" I couldn"t help asking.
My father"s face didn"t change, didn"t harden at the accusation. He remained studying me.
"Alpha," Ace began, "the girl is a carrier. She could be valuable..."
Cain held up his hand. "I said Savage Blood will not harm the girl. Zane will claim her as his. She will be allowed to live as his mate."
Women were carriers, they weren"t shifters, but there were fewer of them than men, and not all matings produced shifters. Women within the packs were protected. Or they should have been. Aria would be protected, if she was mine, or so my father claimed. But if I chose to claim her, I"d be choosing her destiny for her. She"d never have an even remotely normal life.
"No one within my power will touch a hair on her head. Is that understood?" Cain asked, addressing Ace.
Ace"s hands fisted and I wasn"t sure if my father felt the tension rolling from him. He must have, but maybe he felt like he could control him.
Ace didn"t lower his head when he acquiesced. "Yes, Alpha."
Something about this exchange was not quite right.
"Son," Cain said, turning to me, "claim her, and you have my word."
Chapter Seven.
Aria An hour in Zane"s office with nothing to do was enough. And I was hungry. I went out into the bar to find Fly stocking the shelves.
"Is there any food here?"
He glanced up at me then at the clock. "Lunchtime." He got up and wiped his hands on his pants. "Hope you like bologna."
"Bologna? They still make that?"
He winked. "Sure do, princess."
I followed him into the small kitchen. He took sandwich bread and bologna from the fridge.
"How long have you known Zane?"
He set two plates out and started to make our sandwiches. I found I didn"t dislike Fly. He"d come off pretty harsh last night, but I kind of got that he was protecting Zane.
"Five years."
"You met here?"
Fly nodded and handed me a plate, leaning back against the counter to eat. "He needed a bouncer back then. I fit the bill."
"Somehow, I can see that."
"What about you? What did you come back for? You"ve got your whole life ahead of you."
"Can"t live in the present until I can understand what happened in the past. Why it had to happen."
He nodded. "You ever heard the expression "there"s no power in understanding"?"
"Yeah, oddly enough, from your boss."