Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3)
Read Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3) Online
Authors: Ashley Stoyanoff
Deadly Trilogy Book 3
Ashley Stoyanoff
By Ashley Stoyanoff
Published by Ashley Stoyanoff Books
www.ashleystoyanoff.com
Copyright 2014 Ashley Stoyanoff
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
Edited by Kathryn Calvert
Cover design by Liudmyla Supynska
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
For Hazel, because you kept me sane.
An enormous thank you goes to my family and friends. Thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement. I’m truly grateful to have you all in my life, and I love you all.
To my husband, Jordan, thank you
for having so much patience and understanding, especially when I ignored you for days while working on
Deadly Pack
. You are the best!
And to my editor, Kathryn, I couldn’t have finished this book without you.
Thank you for being an invaluable member of my team.
Last, but not least, a huge thank you to all of my fabulous readers. You guys rock!
The Soul’s Mark Series
The Soul’s Mark: FOUND
Waking Dreams, A Soul’s Mark Novella
The Soul’s Mark: HUNTED
The Soul’s Mark: BROKEN
The Soul’s Mark: CHANGED
Deadly Trilogy
Deadly Crush
Deadly Mates
Deadly Pack
~ AIDAN ~
A ghost of a smile touched Jade’s lips as I reached over and squeezed her hand. Wispy strands of hair framed her face, pieces that had worked their way loose from the twisted knot that was piled high on her head. Her scent was cluttered with emotions, the dense, sour-sweet aroma of sorrow being the most prominent.
Her
gaze was calm, though, as it slid around our clustered circle, stopping for a beat on each face, before moving on to the next. She held onto my hand with a loose, dry grip, and nodded her agreement as plans were made and strategies were formed. She hadn’t really said much of anything since the pack had left, and I didn’t know what to think of that. Jade wasn’t really the quiet type and, dammit, her silent agreement to everything was unnerving. It made me think she had her own plans brewing inside that beautiful head of hers.
We were standing in the clearing, hashing out the last few details of what needed to be done.
Dominic paced a few feet away, his phone glued to his ear, arranging Jared’s cremation. Jade had been adamant about that.
“Jared’s claustrophobic,”
she’d said.
“He wouldn’t want to be buried, trapped underground, inside a small box. We’ll spread his ashes here. He loved this place.”
It had been the only words she’d uttered in the last twenty minutes that had held any trace of emotion; every other mumble that came from her lips had been blank and toneless.
Across from where we were gathered, Jared
’s body was being loaded into the back of Tommy’s pickup truck. I didn’t miss the fact that Jade was trying hard not to look, and I also didn’t miss the way her throat worked hard when she caught sight of Tommy from the corner of her eye as he lifted the lifeless wolf form and carefully placed it onto a blanket in the back of the truck. Her nose was screwed up, wrinkling along the bridge, and her eyelashes fluttered quickly as she tried to fight against the fresh spring of tears that glossed her eyes.
Her inner-turmoil was unbearable to watch. And
it completely sucked that I didn’t know what to do to make this easier for her.
Her gaze followed
Tommy as he began folding the edges of the blanket over, cocooning Jared within it. A painful, gasping sound fell from the back of her throat as the blanket was draped over Jared’s face, and in a beat, she swiveled, turning into me, and buried her face into my chest. Her hands fisted my shirt, and she held on to me as if I were her lifeline.
And my h
eart cracked, splintered, broke, as my strong, independent mate started to fall apart.
The guys fell silent
as I wrapped my arms around her waist, giving her a moment to pull it together. I felt her body quake against me. She was breathing deeply, but raggedly, her shoulders lifting and falling, and she pressed her face further into my chest.
I rested my chin on her shoulder, brushing my lips against her ear. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” I murmured. “It’s okay.” The words felt impersonal and they sounded like a lie. I really didn’t know if it would be okay. I didn’t know if she’d be able to get past this, but I did know that I would do everything I could to make
this easier for her. “Tell me what you need from me and I’ll do it. Anything. Tell me how to help you deal with this.”
Jade didn’t answer for a long moment, so long that I really didn’t think she was going to, but then she whispered, “I’m okay, Aidan.
” Her voice was thick and raw, and her breath hitched on a hiccup. I felt her throat constrict and bob against my chest as she swallowed, and then she said, “I’m good. Promise. I’m just overwhelmed and a little ... um ... scared?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?” I asked, strokin
g my hand up and down her spine as I held her close, trying to soothe her. She sounded so lost, nothing like the fierce, feisty, bullheaded girl that I knew.
She craned her neck
back and looked up at me. For a second, I saw her pain and anger blazing in her eyes, but it didn’t last. She blinked a few times, smoothed out her expression, and pasted on a cool, fake smile. “I’m scared,” she said with certainty.
My heart squeezed tight
, as if someone had wrapped it in an elastic band. Scared wasn’t good. Fear could turn the best laid plans into a disaster. A disaster that the pack (and the town) seriously didn’t need right now. I squeezed her tightly and muttered, “Fear is only excitement in need of an attitude adjustment.”
Chris chuckled
and my gaze snapped up to his. His eyes were dancing with humor, most likely remembering the first time my dad had said those words to me. He’d been there, so had Tommy, standing beside my father. I’d been just a kid and I’d been terrified when they’d decided it was time for me to learn what an alpha’s scent could do. Those words had been my dad’s version of a pep talk, and I seriously couldn’t believe that I was actually using them now.
Jade
huffed and wiggled out of my arms. Her lips thinned and she attempted (and failed) to give me a fierce scowl. She placed a hand on her hip, her bottom lip still trembling. “Are you saying I need an attitude adjustment?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow in question.
I
nodded, grinning down at her. “Yep.”
The guys stood motionless, watching Jade
warily, as if they were all waiting for her to flip out on me. The truth? I kind of was, too. Actually, I wasn’t just waiting for it. I was hoping she would. I needed to see something other than the gut-twisting pain that marred her pretty face, and anger would have been better. It would give her something else to focus on, something other than fear.
But Jade didn’t flip out
. Instead, her lips stopped trembling. The corners of her mouth quirked up a little, and the elastic band that had been squeezing my chest snapped at the sight of her small smile.
The silence lingered for a long moment
, but as Jade’s smile grew, Marcy broke it and asked, “Is that a smile?” She inched closer to us and tried (unsuccessfully) to stifle a nervous giggle.
“No,” Jade said
, shaking her head, and turning around to scan the group. “Definitely not a smile.”
“It looked like a smile,” Mark
said. He was smiling, too, but it didn’t come close to reaching his eyes. He had the hood of his sweater down; his crazy mop of curls were flipping all over the place in an unruly mess. He held Jade’s eyes for a moment. His softened a little and his pained smile tugged up a bit further.
Jade
groaned, and looked away quickly to hide the new flood of tears that pooled in her eyes, I assumed, and she said, “This is not the time for smiles, guys. We need to focus here.”
“There’s always time
for smiles,” Mark countered. “Life would be pretty damn depressing without them.”
An
d I thought Mark was right. No matter how bad it got, making time for laughter and smiles definitely helped.
I knew the smiles I saw curving the team
’s lips were for Jade’s benefit. They were trying hard to make her okay, to show her they were okay. And even if they weren’t directed at me, those smiles, although small and pained, made it pretty damn clear that they weren’t holding Jared’s death against me. Well, at least that was how my brain decided to read them and I found myself seriously hoping that my brain was right.
“It
’s all set,” Dominic said, and he thumbed his phone as he made his way back to the cluster surrounding Jade and me. “They’ll do the cremation today and we can pick up his remains tomorrow.”
There it was. The last piece we’d been waiting for before moving out.
The smiles faded, blurred, died, replaced by solemn expressions, and a determined vibe spread through the air. The hardness returned to the enforcers’ gazes. We knew where the bastards were now. There was no more waiting. No more excuses.
“
Time to move,” I said, taking Jade’s hand and giving it a little squeeze. “Landon, Beck, Craig, and Mark, you guys are with Tommy and Chris. Get as close as you can, but not close enough that they’ll pick up your scent. You’re just confirming what Jeff told us, nothing else. Seventeen cougars and no women. That’s it. Then come straight back and report. Got it?”
I waited for
the nods, watching them closely to make sure that they got it, but they didn’t nod. Nope. Lips thinned, anger spiked in the air. And I found myself thinking — again — that sending them out was probably not the best plan. Not only did they just watch their brother die, but each one of them had been helping Jared screw me over in one way or another while he tried to get revenge for their father — another family member of theirs that was dead because of me.
I was about to voice my thoughts, tell them I’d find another group to go
, when Jade said, “Guys, I know you’re ready to take them out, but seriously, you’re just confirming the location. Tell me you’ve got this because I cannot focus on what I have to do if I’m worried about you guys.”