Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (31 page)

It took thirty long minutes for everyone to get their heads back together and another ten after the guys told Aidan exactly where the cougars were, for him to calm down enough to leave the house.  I thought it was probably cold outside, there was a heavy wind, but I didn’t notice the temperature.  I couldn’t feel it.  I couldn’t feel anything but the ice that shifted through my veins.

My werewolves were all gathered at the edge of the clearing, standing back — cowering — from Jared.  He looked worse than the team had when they’d shown up on our doorstep.  He was cut and bruised and his right elbow was bending the entirely wrong way.  His eyes were on me, though.  They were so black, like bottomless pits.  His pain and outrage rose up around him, hanging like acid in the air.

In front of him
, discarded like a piece of trash, was Richard.  He was dead.  His blood no longer pumped through his veins, his heart no longer beat in his chest, and no breath would ever be pulled into his lungs again.  A primal and territorial rage filled me.  What struck me as odd, though, was that I was not angry that the man was dead, but because his sentence had been taken from me, even if I had dreaded having to issue his death sentence, it was my right to do it.  This was my pack.

Luken was there, too, Richard’s last guard.  He was on his knees, although not because he wanted to be.  He didn’t look as if he could have gotten up even if he wanted to.

As I scanned the scene in front of me, there were, I realized, different shades of hatred and until now I had only ever felt a ghostly shadow of that emotion before.  I hadn’t really hated Dominic when he left me for the pack, although at the time I thought I had.  I hadn’t truly hated Aidan for all his lies and manipulation, or Marcy and Dominic for helping him.  And I hadn’t hated my father when I found out he was the devil.  I’d been disappointed and hurt and angry and lost.

But, no, I hadn’t hated them at all.

That had been a tingling sensation with a pinch, like getting a needle at the doctor, or a blister.  It was annoying and it burned a little when poked at, but it hadn’t been anything like what I felt in that moment.

Funny,
but I never thought hatred would hurt so badly.  It was like a scorching heat, burning me up from the inside out, but at the same time, from the outside pushing in; I was cold as ice.  My heart pounded so hard that it felt as if at any moment it would just stop beating, as if it were about to give out on me.  And God, did it hurt.

My mouth went dry, and I pressed closer to Aidan.  His body was hot, solid, and strong against me.  The silence in the clearing was voluminous.  Aidan hadn’t said anything yet.  He was too calm.  And right then, calm was, well, calm was scary.  I
thought I would have preferred to see the outrage he’d shown at home.  At least that I could understand.  But he just stared at Jared, an intense kind of stare that would have made pretty much anyone queasy.

“Who do you think you are?” Aidan finally asked.  His tone was freakishly
composed.  “You are not the judge and executioner for this pack.”

When Jared didn’t answer, Aidan paced forward, leaving my side.  He clasped his hand behind him.  He wasn’t looking at the dead body, strewn out on the brittle grass.  His eyes were fixed on Jared, a controlled stare that gave nothing away.

Aidan was only a few feet away when Jared gave a reaction.  He shrugged, and then winced from the movement.  “Head enforcer is the executioner,” he said dryly, as if he were bored by the question.  “And soon enough I’ll be alpha.”

Aidan barked out a laugh.  “You really think you can challenge for alpha with what you’ve done.”

Jared’s face grew red and furious.  “Thanks to my brothers,” he said with a venomous glare at them, “you will kill me if I don’t.”

Aidan seemed to consider Jared’s words as he visibly measured the distance between them with a darting, calculating shift of his eyes.  “You’ll die either way, Jared.”

Jared shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, as if he were readying himself for a collision, but Aidan didn’t move.

This
was cruel
, I thought.  Really cruel.

Aidan flicked a small glance in my direction, and as if reading my thoughts, his eyes narrowed in warning.  I knew then that I had to say something, even if I didn’t want to.

Planting my hands on my hips, I stepped forward and I said, “Last night I told my mate that losing you would be a big loss to this pack.  I defended you to him, again.  I’m always defending you, Jared.  You hid the cougars’ location from me.  You wanted to force me to mate with you.  Have you told everyone how you plotted against us?  That you betrayed us to get even for Ray’s death?  You tried to kill your own brother when he wanted to come forward.  How am I supposed to defend you now?  How?  Give me a reason!”  It all spilled out in a desperate tumbled mess, and I realized I actually wanted a reason to keep him alive.  Maybe that was why the hatred hurt so bad; I honestly didn’t want to hate him, because somewhere under that cocky, jerk facade, he could be a good person.  I had seen it.  I knew it was there.

Jared groaned and rolled his eyes.  Not the response I had expected and definitely not the one I wanted.  “
They don’t have to like me, Jade.  They only have to fear me.  And he’s not your mate.” He said it with a smile and a cocky wave of his hand.

I stepped closer, trying to not let my boiling hatred consume m
e.  “Are you sure about that?”

~ AIDAN ~

Jared’s first mistake was striking Jade, his second was shifting.

The second she moved in closer, Jared’s nostrils flared, catching the change in her scent which was growing stronger with every passing second.  He sagged and his demeanor went from cocky to seething in a split second.

Jade was trying to give him a way out.  She wanted him to live.  I could hear it in her voice, that hint of desperation.  Jared knew it, too.  His eyes flared and for a quick second he even smiled a sad tilt of his lips.

But then, he moved and got in her face.  He lifted his hand and backhanded Jade, hard enough that she stumbled.  And then he shifted.

If he had stayed human, he might have had a chance.

Jade may have given him a way out of this, but she wasn’t stupid. 
Thank God, she wasn’t stupid.
  She was out of her clothes a second later.  She didn’t hesitate in her shift, letting her inner-wolf out in a breath.  And I was right there with her, my bones breaking and snapping.  Hair sprouted over my skin, my canines lengthened.

It only took seconds, and then we were both wolves, big and snarling, black beasts.  We moved like killers, stalking around him, waiting and ready for the strike.  We moved together perfectly, Jade and me, completely in sync.

Jared shifted back and forth, pivoting to keep us both in his sights.  He looked for his opening.  He waited.  He even backed up a step.  And we stayed on him, stalking him like the predators we were.

Jade’s breath was a constant growl, each inhale and exhale carrying the sound.  At least until Jared looked her straight on and she froze stiff.

And that was the opening he had been waiting for.  Jared launched at Jade, his lips curled, his teeth sharp, and his jaw open for the bite.  That was his third mistake.  It was also the mistake that solidified his death.

Males did not attack females.  Especially not the alpha female.

My thirst for blood rose up, but I wasn’t the only one who felt it.  Growls erupted all around us and wolves sprung forward from the sidelines.

Jade tensed, and a quick burst of her fear tingled at my nose.  But her fear didn’t last.  She dodged his lunge just as I launched forward, tackling him to the ground.  There wasn’t time for anything fancy.  I pinned his neck into the grass, with a hard press of my teeth.  With a graceful leap, Jade was on him, too, planting her front paws on his chest, snarling down at him.

Jared thrashed beneath us, growling and snapping.  From the corner of my eyes, I saw the pack circling, watching with hunger.  Growls pierced through the air.  The team had shifted, too, and closed in on us, but they did not attack, did not try to save their brother.

The pack moved in closer, snarling viciously.  And I knew right then that if I didn’t kill him, they would.  The scent of savagery and bloodthirstiness clung all around them.  Jared was not walking out of this clearing.  The pack wasn’t going to let him walk after attacking Jade.  But then, neither was I.

Jared bucked hard, fighting with everything he had.  Just like his father.  But this time I did not wait for his submission.  I knew it would never come.  No, this time I ended it fast, burying my teeth in his neck, and biting down until he laid still.  Until he was gone.

~ JADE ~

When Jared took his last breath, I backed up in a rush.  Aidan let go of his neck as soon as I moved and looked up at me.  It was a slow, searching look and he didn’t break it, not once, as he shifted back to human.

Wolves were howling all around me.  The pack who had hated me had shifted to protect me.  I’d seen them do it and rush in when Jared launched at me.  And now they howled, a sad, pain-filled song.  My insides shriveled and twisted listening to it.

Aidan rose up and his eyes were still on me.  He moved slowly as if he was scared I would run.  He found his pants, tugged them on, and then he was standing over me.  He dropped down to his knees.  His hand trembled ever so slightly, as he reached out and ran it along my fur.  He pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around my neck and he hugged me close.  His murmurs were soothing sounds, not really words, and I almost missed it when the words actually came out.  “I’m sorry.”  His voice was raw.

I ached for him.  I knew he really was sorry.

But it wasn’t his fault.  Jared could have made a graceful retreat.  I would have let him bow out of town.  I would have made Aidan let him, too, no matter what his crimes were against the pack or against us — the alpha pair.  For that one desperate moment, I would have let him go.  But he hadn’t wanted that.  He had wanted revenge.

I shifted in Aidan’s arms, and he didn’t let go, not even as my bones snapped and moved under my skin.  I didn’t respond right away, when I was back to my human form.  I simply gazed at him, hoping he would see that I understood.

“Thank you for making it quick for him,” I whispered after a long moment.  “I’m not sure the rest of them would have.”

His gaze fell and he nodded.  His throat bobbed with a few quick swallows and he released me from his arms.  As he rose from my side, the pack began to shift back to human, and as they did, cheers rose up loud and quick.  I took to my feet, and swallowed down the bile that rocketed up my throat.  My insides were twisting and clenching with pain.

They were cheering over his dead body.

“How can they be happy about this?”  My voice was a whisper.  I didn’t expect an answer.  I didn’t really want one.

“They’re not cheering because he’s dead, Jade,” Beck whispered from behind me, as a windbreaker wrapped over my shoulders.  “They cheer because the alpha pair is together.  They cheer for your union.  They cheer that you fought for them.  That you didn’t let them fall into the hands of Jared.  They cheer for you, not for him.  Never confuse that.  It’ll kill you if you do.”  The heartbreak in his voice made me ache for him.  He slid in front of me and pulled the jacket closed.

Landon drew close and he touched my arm.  “Jared was already dead, Jade,” he said.  “My brother died the same night my father did.”

I nodded, because really, I couldn’t do anything else.  Craig came forward and so did Mark.  The four of them surrounded me and then I was in their arms.  I don’t know how long we stood there, finding support in each other’s embrace, but by the time we let go, the cheering had dried up.

The pack had circled us, dressed once more.  There was no malice in their movement, and I had the distinct impression that the circle they formed was one of protection.

I slid away from the guys and looked for Aidan.  He hadn’t gone far, just a few steps away.  When my eyes landed on him, he smiled, although it didn’t look real at all.  I couldn’t guess what he was feeling.  Most likely because I was choking on my own emotions and he had that calm fearless expression back in place.

He came to me, his warm weight settling in behind me, and his arms went around my waist.  He squeezed me and pressed a kiss to my cheek and then, he addressed our pack.

“Thank you, my friends,” he said, his voice loud and strong.  “Today you’ve shown me that despite our differences, we can truly be a pack.  You all didn’t hesitate to rush forward when my mate was threatened, even though not all of you felt she was worthy of alpha, and I thank you for that.  I will not forget it.”

I looked out over the pack standing around us.  I searched inside myself for a connection to them, that
little thread of feeling that I had come to depend on.  I found it in Dominic’s hazel eyes, and Marcy’s sorrow-filled gaze.  I felt it in Trevor’s protective arms that encircled his human mate.  I saw it in Erika as she looked at me with regret and admiration.  I found it in all of them, that little piece of me.  That sense of belonging, of possession, and of unyielding protectiveness.  It swelled in my chest, expanded my heart.  We may have been splintered, but we were a pack.  We were together, and together we would support the cracks while they healed.