Alec followed on their heels, the sick feeling in his belly growing stronger by the minute. He climbed into his cruiser and peeled out of the parking lot, determined not to let Todd and his brother out of his sight.
Darkness was falling fast and he flipped on his lights. When Todd"s cruiser left the hardtop to follow the gravel road, his jounced along behind it.
Deeper into the forest he traveled, toward the old town hall-the original building the first settlers had built when Dark Mountain was chosen as the new home for the battered pack. Fresh off the boat and determined to save their heritage and species, they" d sought refuge far from any human settlements, content to make their own insular community until progress had caught up with them.
The newer town hall was reserved for show and political meetings-but the old log building was their true town center. Alec knew the rugged road to the hall like the back of his hand, so he was surprised when Todd veered sharply left ahead of him. He was following so close, he almost didn"t hit his brakes in time to miss the pickup at the side of the road.
Its hood was raised. He"d recognize the battered blue paint anywhere. Eyeing Todd" s disappearing taillights, he cursed and pulled his cruiser in front of Stasi"s truck.
He climbed out and walked back to her truck. Stepping on the foot rail, he peered into the cab, but didn"t see her inside. He walked around the back, but still didn"t see a trace of her.
Perhaps she"d already gotten a lift. a.s.suming she was headed to the meeting as well, he strode back to his cruiser.
"Hey there, Sheriff."
Stasia"s soft greeting tightened his body instantly. G.o.d, would he ever grow inured to her appeal? He hoped not.
He turned and his heart stopped.
Stasia stood naked beside her truck.
He swallowed, fighting for the proper reserve. "Not afraid of hurting your feet on the gravel?"
"I welcome the pain," she said softly.
"I"m guessing you aren"t headed to the meeting."
"I was planning on being there after they get past the formalities..." She lowered her gaze and added. "If that"s agreeable with you."
Christ, what timing. Here she was, giving him the subservience he"d demanded, and he didn"t have time to show her how pleased he was.
"Stasi..." He stepped closer to caress the nipple pointing right at him. "I can"t do this now. I have to go."
Her head came up, her dark almond eyes pleading. "I was hoping you"d let me service your c.o.c.k before we go into the meeting. To relax you."
That full upper lip pouted, teasing him. He"d waited forever to see it closing around his d.i.c.k. "Baby, you know I"d love that, but now"s not the time."
Her hand cupped him through his pants, sliding to trace his length. "Five minutes? I can get you off quick, I promise."
A groan nearly escaped his throat. He"d never enjoyed this particular s.e.xual act with her before, although he"d dreamed about it often. He"d been wary of letting her teeth get too close to the most vulnerable parts of his body.
"I can"t. Really," he said, trapping her hand beneath his, but not moving it off his c.o.c.k-it felt too d.a.m.n good. "Need a ride to the meeting?"
Stasia stepped closer and her t.i.ts grazed his chest. "My truck works just fine." Her fingers toyed with the b.u.t.tons at the top of his shirt. "You sure?"
His c.o.c.k protested, filling despite his best efforts to will it into remaining tucked against his thigh. "Get your clothes on before someone else comes along," he said, regretting the words came out more harsh-sounding than he"d intended.
Her crestfallen expression had him hoping she"d still be as malleable later.
But the feeling of dread that had ridden his back since he"d received the call, hadn"t lessened. "Get dressed, Stasi. Hurry it up!"
She shoved at his chest and flounced away, her bottom jiggling as she walked around the back of her pickup truck and into the bushes to retrieve her clothing.
The sound of another car coming down the road rumbled in the distance and her head popped up, her eyes rounding. "Do you want them to see me?"
Startled by her question, it took him a moment to realize she was still his willing slave, asking whether he wanted her humiliated for his pleasure. "No, Stasi. Get into the bushes and dress. I"ll be right here. But get a move on."
The car came into sight surrounded by a cloud of dust and slowed to a stop beside him.
Amos Hughes, an old-timer in the pack, squinted at the truck. "The McGwyre girl havin" a bit a trouble?"
"No trouble at all. She"s, um...relieving herself."
His bushy gray eyebrows rose when his gaze dropped to the prominent ridge of Alec"s c.o.c.k. "Sure she is." He winked and continued on his way.
Alec gave Stasia a couple more minutes then stomped into the woods after her. "Dammit, Stasi! I don"t have time for games. Where the h.e.l.l are you?"
When she didn"t respond, his heart beat hammered faster and he retraced his steps back to the truck and carefully stretched his wolf senses to hunt for clues where she"d gone. He found her panties wadded in the brush beside the road and put them in his pocket. Unfortunately, her footsteps were indiscernible due to the heavy layer of pine needles covering the forest floor.
So, he followed her scent as best he could without changing to his wolf form.
As the minutes grew longer, his panic rose. He beat the brush and crawled through ravines calling her name. At last he heard a quiet sob in the distance and followed it.
Stasia sat at the base of a tree, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her face was buried against her knees.
Concerned, he knelt beside her. "Baby, are you hurt? Why"d you come so far?"
That only made her cry harder.
He lifted the hair that fell across her face and pushed it behind her ears.
"Stasia... baby, what"s wrong?"
Her shoulders jerked with her next sobs, but she kept her face averted. "You"re gonna hate me," she said, her voice thick with tears. "I only helped him to save you. But you"re gonna hate me, now."
Alec sat back on his haunches and the haunting sense something was terribly wrong nearly smothered him. She"d deliberately acted as a decoy. But for what purpose?
Frustrated and stunned by her betrayal, he bit out, "Stasia, you"d better start talking right now."
"Max... they"re gonna stop Max from talking to the overlaird. I was supposed to keep you away from the meeting." She covered her face with both her hands, her shoulders shaking with her wrenching sobs. "But I think I made a mistake. I shouldn"t have trusted him."
"Who?" he said gripping her shoulders and shaking her hard. "Who, Stasi?"
"My brother... and the Nantahala wolves... "
"The Nantahala clan?" A chilling thought exploded in his mind. "Are they the ones who attacked The Compound?"
She nodded, tears spilling down her face. "They came to him. Offered to help him regain his position-if he"d help them get an audience with the warlaids."
"The warlairds aren"t going to give my position to someone who"s helping stone-cold killers! He lied to you, Stasia. They have something else up their sleeves." His hands squeezed hard on her upper arms. "Why didn"t you come to me? What the h.e.l.l were you thinking?"
She shook her head, knowing everything he said was true. She"d been a fool.
"d.a.m.n you to h.e.l.l!" Alec shot to his feet. "Get up, Stasia! Or I swear I"ll leave you here. They"re gonna kill Max!"
Chapter Eight.
S tasia quaked in the shadow of his rage. He jerked her up, nearly wrenching her arm from her socket, and took off at a run, dragging her behind him. She tried to keep up, tried to keep her feet beneath her, but he knew where he was going, could see the holes small animals had dug, see fallen branches she hadn"t the time to avoid. Each time she fell, he yanked her back to her feet, not once looking back to see how she fared.
She was surprised he didn"t leave her in the forest, but maybe he wanted her at the meeting to see what her actions had wrought. And she knew the results wouldn"t be good. With her brother involved, it might get downright twisted and ugly.
After Todd"s gut-wrenching revelations, she"d been in shock. She"d surprised herself, sleeping so heavily it had taken him pounding on her door to wake her up to lay the trap. She hadn"t time to reconsider the plan. Nor to think through Todd"s motivations to figure out what he wasn"t telling her.
She"d gleaned bits of the information from the conversation she"d overheard between Max and Alec, but not enough to understand the bigger picture.
So, why had she listened to Todd?
Because, somehow, he"d discovered and touched on every one of her vulnerabilities. Her despair that she hadn"t been born a breeding wolf. Her lack of self-esteem when it came to her ability to attract and hold an alpha male. Max had abandoned her without once looking back-why wouldn"t Alec do the same?
Her burgeoning love for Alec.
Todd had recognized it before she had. His fierce jealousy should have clued her in, but she"d been too busy building defenses against Alec"s seduction.
She stumbled over a rock and Alec yanked her to her feet again, never slowing his pace. Suddenly, they were out of the forest and standing beside the road. When he reached her truck, he let go of her hand and gave her one hard stare. "Go home, Stasia."
She shook her head. She couldn"t let him go into that meeting alone.
"Go home!" His expression was shuttered, his lips thinned. "I don"t have time for any more of your games." He turned on his heel and stalked to his cruiser.
Stasia didn"t move until his door slammed shut and gravel sprayed from his back tires. Then she shook herself and scrambled into the cab of her vehicle.
Coward! That"s what you are! Too afraid to love him.
But not too afraid to disobey. She started her engine, stomped on the gas pedal and followed his cloud of dust.
Alec"s panic wasn"t lessened one bit when he found Todd"s cruiser parked in front of the meeting hall. He skirted the building, keeping to the shadows in case anyone else was watching and peeked into a window.
His blood ran cold at what he saw.
Max was on the floor. Todd"s booted heel rested on the back of his neck, and his revolver was drawn and pointed at the back of Max"s head.
Only that wasn"t the end of the madness. Men dressed in camouflage hunting gear and cold-weather masks surrounded the council who"d been forced to their knees as well. The townspeople sat erect with their hands gripping the pews in front of them.
"What the f.u.c.k?" he whispered, disbelieving.
"What we have here is a coup." Todd"s voice rose above the dead silence inside the town hall. "We have a chance to make things right for all wolves, and these old men," he said to the audience of frightened spectators, "want us to give up our last chance at survival."
Alec crept past the windows, ducking low to avoid detection, working his way through brambles to the back door of the building.
"You all heard what we have in our hands now. "Though they"re G.o.dd.a.m.n vampires, these scientists can give our women back their ability to breed us wolf cubs. They"re geneticists and fertility experts. Haven"t we had enough misery? Our women have cried for their barren wombs. My own sister was shamed into mating, without a husband, because she can"t bear his children.
"We can change this now. We can take back the territory we"ve lost to the bloodsuckers-"
"But what about our council? Our overlaird?"
Alec squeezed his eyes tight for a moment. "Keep out of it, old man," he prayed.
Then he edged up to take another look inside the hall.
Amos Hughes came to his feet despite the clicks of multiple chambers and the barrels aimed his way. "They"ve already said what these men did was wrong and they would be punished. Are you going to ignore their ruling?"
"They"re a bunch of scared old men!" Todd shouted. "They"d sooner quiver in their beds at night than risk comin" up against the vampires."
"You gonna kill "em?" Amos asked, his shoulders shaking with rage. "We"ve lived by the order of our laws all the time we"ve been on Dark Mountain. Would you risk the lives of the people here for your scheme? What if it fails?"
"What if it doesn"t?"
Another voice rose at near the doorway of the hall-sweet, but quavering. "Would you really kill our elders, Todd?" Stasia stood in the doorway, her face drained of color. "Would you murder them where they sit? "Cause it sure looks like that"s what you and these men intend."
Todd"s expression screwed tight in frustration. "We came to parley."
"If you only came to talk, then why are your friends afraid to show their faces?"
One of the masked men stepped behind her and shoved her with the b.u.t.t of his rifle, pushing her farther into the room, down the aisle that divided the spectators" seats.
Alec bit back a blistering curse and hurried again to the back of the hall while their voices carried in the stillness surrounding the log building.
"Don"t you hurt her!" Todd yelled.
Alec rounded the corner, but was drawn up short by a pistol shoved under his chin. The blonde woman who held it pressed a finger against her lips, signaling silence. He"d never seen her before, but recognized what she was by the fangs curving over her bottom lip.
Stasia"s heart pounded so loud she knew the wolf nearest her could hear how frightened she was. Her gaze swept the hall but found no trace of Alec-he had to be outside, trying to figure out a way to prevent what was shaping up to be a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre.
Max was sprawled on the floor, his hands manacled behind his back and his body slack. Blood seeped slowly from a wound at his temple-but he breathed. So far no one had gotten killed. There was still a chance this could end without an irretrievable act of violence.
As she drew closer to her brother, she noted the wildness in his eyes-a wildness he rarely displayed to anyone other than those closest to him. He"d backed himself into a corner with the warlairds and wouldn"t be open to conversation with them, but would he listen to her?
"Todd, you can stop this now," she said, keeping her voice calm despite the terror making her hands shake. "You can order these men to put away their weapons and end this now."
He shook his head, sadness tugging down the corners of his lips. "Baby-girl, it"s gone too far. They wouldn"t listen, now I have to seize control of this situation myself."