Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (38 page)

‘Have you mated
with her?’ he asked; his voice as dark as the night around them.

Rhett cursed
bitterly under his breath. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘What do you
mean, you don’t think so?’ Brax offered sarcastically from the back seat.

Rhett threw him
a dangerous look and Brax had the decency to squirm in his seat. ‘I don’t know
what’s involved in a mating, so I don’t know,’ Rhett eventually said, looking
out at the road in front of them. They were well into Dragos territory by now,
and they had to keep their eyes open for possible scouts.

‘Did you share
blood?’ Vaile asked, turning towards him in his seat. Rhett glanced at him
quickly. If he said yes, they would know that he’d fed her since her
transformation. He might as well just pull the car over now and offer his head
up to Sabel.

‘No.’

Vaile sat back
into his seat. ‘You’re not mated then,’ he rumbled, narrowing his eyes and
looking around the streets they passed. If what Vaile had said was true, then
technically they were mated, and didn’t that make Rhett want to puff his chest
out with pride. When he looked into the rear view mirror, he saw Brax mouthing
the words
you fucking liar
.

Rhett had called
Brax after he and Indi had finally had sex, telling him everything that had
happened when she fed from him. He was the only one who knew the truth, and he
was also begging Rhett to let Indi bite him. He said he wanted to feel what it
was like. Rhett’s hands cranked down harder on the wheel.

It started to
snow as Rhett drove them to the same place they’d parked before when he and
Brax had done their initial recon. Instead of leaving the car exposed on the
road’s shoulder, they moved it into the woods via a narrow dirt road, and
covered it with fallen branches. Sabel did the same with his motorbike, pushing
it further into the scrubby underbrush.

Sabel and Colton
undressed and shifted. They were going to go around to the west side of the
cabin while Rhett, Vaile and B were going to come in from the east. Sabel
barked softly and took off at a run; Colton trailing after him.

‘You two shift.’

‘Why?’ asked
Rhett; his skin prickling. This was supposed to be his show.

Vaile pulled his
police-issued gun from the small of his back. ‘One of us needs to stay human
just in case.’ He loaded a new magazine of silver rounds into the gun and
cocked it.

Wordlessly,
Rhett and Brax undressed; folding their clothes and putting them into the back
of the car. Brax shifted first around one side of the car while Rhett shifted
into his wolf’s skin on the other. Once the final waves of pain subsided, he
stood up and stretched out his new body.

Rhett trotted
into the forest with Brax on his tail. Vaile followed at a slower pace, and
although the moon was just a sliver of silver in the bruised sky, he had no
problem keeping up. Even in their human form, a lycanthrope’s senses of sight
and hearing were much better than the average human. Brax stopped at Rhett’s
shoulder when they reached the clearing where the cabin was. A few moments
later, Vaile appeared—sweating, despite the plummeting temperatures.

The dilapidated
building was lit up—every window in the small place was shining—and they were
making a hell of a noise. At the front, was the van Leona had told them about.
Suddenly, there was a bang like the front door had been opened too hard.
Someone marched down the rickety porch steps, heading towards them.

‘No, she hasn’t
got a clue,’ the man said into the phone. ‘No doubt they’re here right now. I’m
sure she’s already fed them the information.’ Rhett realised he was talking
about Leona. They’d set her up. Marcus knew all along what she’d been doing.
‘Don’t worry Marcus. I’ve got patrols out looking for them now. Just leave it
to me and I’ll call you when I reach Dorian’s.’ The guy snapped the phone shut,
turned and sloughed through the snow back to the cabin.

The wind picked
up, blowing a gust towards Rhett, Brax and Vaile. The man’s scent twisted in
Rhett’s nostrils. It was Connall. Rhett growled, and Vaile nudged him angrily
with his leg.

Rhett and B’s
ears swivelled towards a cracking sound heading their way. Vaile noticed and
looked too. It sounded like someone tracking across branches. Vaile motioned
for B and Rhett to push back about ten yards to take cover behind a fir.

The
unmistakeable sound of someone crashing through the underbrush got closer and
closer. Rhett peered around the large trunk, looking for Vaile. He couldn’t see
him. The man appeared then. He stopped where they’d been standing only a few
moments ago. Placing a two-way radio to his mouth, he said ‘Nothing here.’

The radio
crackled with static before Connall’s voice came over the line in a harsh hiss.
‘Keep fucking looking. They already know this is the place, and I don’t want
any surprises.’

The man dropped
his hand to his side and cursed. He kicked at a loose stone and while he was
distracted, Vaile emerged behind him from the undergrowth. He was so quiet and
ruthless that he had his huge bicep around the man’s throat and his hand over
his mouth before the guy realised he was up shit creek.

The man thrashed
against him, screaming behind Vaile’s meaty palm. A blade glistened in Vaile’s
free hand. Vaile wrenched down on the guy, throwing him off balance and putting
him flat on the ground. The blade reflected the small amount of moonlight as it
was repeatedly thrust into the man’s chest. The smell of freshly spilled blood
made Rhett’s vision lose colour, and he struggled to regain control.

Vaile motioned
for them to return after a minute. When Rhett and B came back, there was blood
everywhere; the wounds still weeping crimson tears. Wiping the blade on the
rival wolf’s leg, Vaile put it back into a thigh sheath that Rhett hadn’t seen
because it blended in with all the other black he was wearing. Vaile pressed a
finger to his lips, motioning them back to the edge of the clearing, but to
remain quiet.

Obviously nobody
had heard what had happened. About a quarter of an hour later, the door of the
cabin opened again and two other wolves came out. One was tall—maybe six
foot—with dark hair and eyes that shifted nervously from black to silver. The
other wolf was shorter than the first, but only by an inch or two. His hair was
red, his face covered with freckles. His eyes stayed a solid blue for the most
part, unless he heard a noise in the woods, and then they shifted to violet and
back again.

They both
slumped down onto the porch step, their heads in their hands. They both looked
exhausted; dark circles under their eyes and their hair rumpled like they’d
just been woken up. Connall was back, pushing through the screen door so hard
that it slammed against the side of the house.

‘Now,’ he told
the taller wolf who stood up and went back inside. The redhead remained where
he was, staring out into the forest and looking dejected.

Rhett wanted to move
closer to get a better look, but Vaile shot him a look as soon as he moved an
inch. He sat back down with Brax at his side. Snow drifted down onto his coat
slowly, sitting on top of his dark fur before melting away. He didn’t know how
much time passed before the taller, dark-haired wolf came back out again—this
time with a rifle under his arm. Both Rhett and Brax growled.

Vaile spun
around, putting his finger across his lips. ‘It’s a tranq gun,’ he hissed,
glaring at the both of them. ‘Everything seems to be going according to plan so
far.’ They all looked back at the cabin when the door slammed. Following the
silhouettes moving behind the curtains from room to room, they all saw the same
two men making their way down to the basement. But without getting closer to
look through the small window set into the foundation, they had no idea what
was really going on down there.

Every muscle in
Rhett’s body was taut. If they used the wrong amount of tranquiliser drugs,
they could kill her. She was already weak. One more stress on her body could be
lethal. More tense moments passed. B whined softly next to him, pawing at the
ground.

‘Not yet,’ Vaile
rumbled without looking back at him. ‘Wait until Leona makes an appearance and
takes out the lesser wolves.’

Just then, the
two wolves came out of the shack carrying Eaton. One had her by the feet, the
other by the shoulders. The door to the van was already open, waiting for them
to dump their cargo. They manoeuvred her inside, setting her down a lot more
gently than he thought they would have. Another wolf came out of the place, and
this time it was Leona. She looked around at the forest cautiously before walking
quietly towards the back of the van. The two wolves loading Eaton hadn’t heard
her yet. She glanced around again before pulling her Browning Hi-Power from her
thigh holster and moving a little closer.

The two new
wolves didn’t even see her coming. She was quick—shooting them both
point-blank-range in the back of the head; the suppressor doing its job. She
lifted their slack bodies into the back of the van and slammed the door shut;
holstering her gun and walking back towards the cabin. At the bottom of the
steps, Connall was waiting.

‘Have they
loaded her, Lover?’ he asked in a drawl, eyes darting towards the van before
settling on her face again.

‘Yeah. They’re
in the back waiting to go,’ she lied smoothly; her body language relaxing. She
was no longer the snivelling, bowing, scraping Leona Rhett was used to dealing
with, but a calculating, murderous version—the real version. She gave Connall a
long, appreciative look before stepping closer to his body. ‘We’ve got some
time before we have to be there. You want to finish what you started before?’
she asked; her voice lilting up a little at the end. She traced a finger down
his chest. Connall smiled at her, showing his sharp canine teeth.

‘Finally come
around, have we, Lover?’ he asked smugly, running his finger down her bare arm.
‘I suppose this is the last chance we’ll have together.’

She nodded
solemnly. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking resisting you for so long,’ she
purred back. ‘So, what do you think?’ she added, biting down on her lip.
Connall’s smile was more like a sneer now. He leaned down, catching her mouth
with his. He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, his fingers
tightening. Rhett suddenly felt like a voyeur.

He looked away,
but when he looked back, they had broken their kiss. Connall had taken the
Browning from the holster on her thigh, and was now holding the muzzle to her
temple.

‘You’ve made a
huge
mistake crossing Marcus, Lover. And you’re going to pay for it,’ he hissed into
her ear. ‘Brayden, Avery; get your asses out here now!’ Connall yelled at the
cabin.

Rhett watched as
two more wolves filed out of the cottage. Brayden was from the Vanaheim pack,
and Avery was a Fenrir wolf. Brax whined quietly beside him.

‘Shut it, Brax,’
Vaile snapped, pinning him with a steely glare before turning back to Leona and
the clusterfuck she’d just found herself in. ‘We can take them,’ he added,
still looking at the wolves.

Connall said,
‘Open the van. Check on the other two.’ The two ring-in wolves obeyed, walking
around to the side of the van. They opened the door, and blood dribbled out
onto the snow.

‘Dead,’ Brayden
called.

‘And the Helheim
whore?’ Connall called back.

Vaile palmed his
gun; creeping a little closer to the edge of their wooded cover. Rhett pulled
at his shirt. Vaile ignored him. Rhett watched Vaile edge closer to the tree
line, closer to the van and the two wolves. Raising the gun, Vaile took aim and
squeezed the trigger. Avery went down, blood blooming from the front of his
shirt. Brayden whirled to run for cover, but got a bullet in the back instead.
He slumped down onto the snow, bleeding out all over it.

With Leona by
the neck, Connall frog-marched her around to the side of the van. Brandishing
the gun still, he changed his target from Leona’s head to Eaton’s, who was lying
unconscious on the floor of the van with two dead wolves at her side.

Connall’s eyes
narrowed. ‘I know you’re there, Vaile. That move was fucking typical of you.
Why don’t you all just do us a favour and come out, you coward.’

Vaile motioned
for Rhett and Brax to stay where they were and stepped out from the cover of
the trees.

Vaile stepped out from the cover
hoping to fuck that he was doing the right thing. Snow from the branches fell
onto his jacket as he brushed them out of his way, holding his arms out in
front of him; his Glock pointed up towards the sky, his finger resting outside
the trigger guard.

‘Eject the
magazine,’ Connall spat, pressing the muzzle of the Browning into Eaton’s
temple. He was going to leave a bruise, and Vaile was going to make sure he’d
pay for it later.

With his right
hand, Vaile pressed the magazine release catch, dropping the magazine into his
left hand. He threw it to the ground.

‘The one in the
chamber, too,’ Connall called, holding the gun steady on his alpha’s mate’s
head. Vaile sneered at him, but cocked the weapon and ejected the round. It
fell into the snow at his feet.

‘Throw it over
to me.’

Vaile threw the
gun down, kicking it into the slush the van’s tires had made. Connall’s smile
was smug.

‘Antain send you
alone, did he?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ Vaile
replied casually. He looked at Leona. Connall’s fingers dug in as a flash of
jealousy careened through his luminescent eyes.

‘We suspected
she was helping the enemy,’ he drawled with a forced casualness. Leona
whimpered, drawing Connall’s gaze back to her. ‘I guess our little play session
wasn’t enough of a deterrent for her.’