Riley's Downfall [Brac Pack 29] (8 page)

“Don’t worry about me,” Eagle snapped. “Watch your hellhound.”
Riley snapped his head back around just in time to see the hound lunge at him. He couldn’t let the thing bite him. He didn’t know why, but if Eagle said biting was bad, then Riley was going to listen.
Riley reared up on his hind legs and slapped the dog in his face with one big bear claw as soon as the hound was close enough. The dog fell back to the ground, shook its head, and then circled back around.
Now that the guy was in dog form, Riley wasn’t sure where the mark that he needed to stab was. He dodged the dog’s snapping mouth and ran around to the other side of the tree where he had more room to fight when he stumbled backward, watching two men come flying down from the sky toward him.
The one with long braids trailing down his back snarled and then grabbed the dog Riley had been fighting, grabbing a sword from his back and fighting the hellhound, luring him away from Riley.
Riley shifted back into human form and took off toward the fighting pair.
“Stay back!” the man with the braids warned.
Riley skidded to a stop, glancing back to where Eagle was. The second man who had flown in was fighting the other hellhound, Eagle growling as he landed a few punches to the hound’s gut.
Riley felt stupid standing there with no one to fight. Everyone was engaged in battle but him. When the hound he had just been fighting stumbled back, Riley leapt on the dog and held on for dear life, locking his arms around the dog’s neck in a choke hold as the man with the sword charged toward them.
He prayed like hell the man didn’t miss.
The sword looked damn sharp as the moonlight gleamed off the polished metal.
“Now!” the man shouted, and Riley released the struggling mutt, rolling to his back and tossing his arm up to cover his face when the blood sprayed out from the dog’s body. That was so fucking gross.
“You dumb-ass fuck!” the man shouted in Riley’s direction as he sheathed his sword. “If that hound had bitten you, you would be fighting for your life right now.”
Like he hadn’t been doing just that.
“Don’t fucking yell at me!” Riley roared as he lowered his arm and stood. He had had enough bullshit for one day. He wasn’t about to let some stranger stand in the middle of the clearing and hand him his ass. He had fought with everything in him and didn’t deserve to be chastised for it.
The man growled as he tossed something on the beheaded dog and then the body burst into flames. Riley stood there numbly as he watched the flames lick higher and higher, wondering what realm of insanity he had just walked into.
Never in his life had he seen anyone set a body on fire. The smell was enough to make him gag. It was noxious and made the hairs in Riley’s nose curl from the pure stench that filled the air around him.
“Nice, dick,” the man said as he brushed past Riley and headed toward Eagle.
Riley growled low as he spun on his heel and followed. This asshole was asking for it. He wasn’t sure who he was, but Riley wasn’t going to let anyone walk all over him like he was a mere whelp. He could feel his claws itching to extend and teach this bastard a lesson.
The other hound was down, and his body was burning to a nice crispy fried Cajun meal as Eagle walked toward Riley.
“Pretty gross, huh?”
Gross
was an extreme understatement.
“What in the hell is going on, Eagle?” Riley snapped, glancing between the two dead bodies.
“In short,” he said as the two men who had flown in flew out, leaving Riley and Eagle with the mess,“those guys were Dog and Ruthless. They are winged beasts. You just had the pleasure of working with Dog.”
Riley wasn’t sure he wanted to hear any more, but he knew he needed to know what was going on around here. He watched Eagle walk over to the fey who was on the ground, lying as still as death.
“Those hounds we were fighting are from hell. Their bite is not only poisonous,” Eagle said as he lifted the man into his arms, “but smelly as all fuck. I know shifters have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the bite. Humans have zero. I’m not real sure about fey.”
Riley studied the man in Eagle’s arms and cursed. The male couldn’t be any more than sixteen or seventeen. Why on earth was the kid out here in the middle of the woods in the dead of night? Where were his parents and why had he snuck out?
Nothing was making any sense to Riley.
He felt as though he were the last man to be informed. He was struggling to put all of the pieces together. Why would hellhounds victimize feys? What had the elven people done to warrant such an attack, or was it random? Riley hated all of the unanswered questions spinning around in his head. He wanted answers, and the village was about to wake the fuck up and give them to him.
He was asked to come here and help out. But how could he help when no one was willing to give him a fucking clue as to what was really going on around here? Riley wasn’t stupid. He knew there was more to this than met the eye. He would get the answers he needed or pound the shit out of every resident in this backwoods place.
Eagle carried the man down the dirt path, his steps speedy, but measured. “We have to watch for fever. If he makes it through the next few hours and doesn’t develop a fever, he should be in the clear.”
Riley walked back toward the village, anxious to get to his mate. Sterling was human, vulnerable against the hellhounds. Fuck, he was vulnerable against any of the preternatural creatures that existed in Riley’s world. It hit home just how dangerous his life was for his mate.
Riley had been so damn terrified when he saw the man shift into a dog. If the hound scared him that badly, a bear shifter, Sterling didn’t stand a chance. Riley shuddered to think of anything bad happening to Sterling. The man was innocent, naïve, and wouldn’t know how to handle a large dog. Granted, his mate was great with animals, but Riley knew for a fact that this was one beast Sterling couldn’t tame.
“What about the burning bodies?” Riley asked as he glanced back in the direction they had just come from. Smoke was still billowing up from the freshly burned bodies.
Eagle shook his head. “There is no need to worry about them. Once they are done burning, there won’t be a trace of them anywhere.”
Huh.
As they neared the village, Riley noticed that there were onlookers standing outside their huts. Their eyes were locked onto the body in Eagle’s arms, their eyes narrowed.
“Whose child is this?” he shouted as he slowed his pace and then stopped, pointing at the child in Eagle’s arms.
No one responded.
Riley felt his anger hit an all-time high as he glared at the elves. “He belongs to no one?”
One lone man stepped forward, his face a mask of disgust and hatred. “He belongs to Ishka and Erowyn. You had no right to interfere!”
“Interfere in what?” Riley asked as his entire body chilled. What in the hell was going on around here? What were these people into? His took a few steps forward until he was standing in the middle of everyone, watching most of them glare back at him, while a handful looked terrified.
The man speaking to Riley pointed at the limp man in Eagle’s arms, snarling his words as he spoke. “He was a sacrifice, and you interfered. Now the hounds will descend upon us and kill every last man, woman, and child in our tribe, shifter. I hope you have a better plan.”
Riley ran his hand over his head, staring at the people he was supposed to temporarily lead, and knew he had to get the hell out of here before he himself killed every last bastard that had sacrificed this boy to those creatures.
Riley exploded with anger as Eagle carried the young man to his hut. He spun around, glancing at the hostile faces all around him, and then he threw his head back, his voice so loud it felt raw as he shouted. “Ahm!”

Sterling sat on the floor next to the bed the young man was lying on. Riley stood to his right, talking heatedly with some scary-looking white elven man. Chey had told him the man’s name was Ahm, but knowing the man’s name didn’t comfort Sterling.

The fey still looked like he could kill someone with just one glare. “Why didn’t you tell me they were sacrificing their own fucking people to the hellhounds!” Riley’s face was a mask of fury. Sterling had never seen the bear so mad before. Riley’s grey eyes were like stone as his jaw clenched tightly.

“ I had no idea,” Ahm answered calmly. Sterling didn’t trust that calmness. Somehow he knew it belied a storm inside the man. He just looked like the type who would kill someone with a calm smile on his face.

“ You told me they needed help, yet you don’t even know what’s going on around here?” Riley asked, the incredulity clear in his voice.
Ahm narrowed his eyes.“I am not their leader. The wood elves and shadow elves were at war not too long ago. A war they started, mind you. I don’t have to do anything for them. It was one of their very own people who raped and killed my sister, and you question me? I am not responsible for them. The only reason I went to Maverick was because I was tired of them showing up in my lands, looking for refuge!”
Wow
. Sterling was looking at the man in a whole new light. Even after the wood elves had done something so heinous, the leader of the shadow elves was still willing to help. He had a newfound respect for the man.
But he was still creepy.
And if the creepy man yelled at Riley again, Sterling was going to kick the man’s ass. No one yelled at his bear. Well, maybe Pa, but that was about it. He stood, ready to go over to Ahm and give the man a piece of his mind when Chey grabbed Sterling’s arm, giving him a thin-lipped expression as he shook his head.
Sterling snatched his arm away. He wasn’t afraid of Ahm…much. But he would brave the likely anger to defend his mate. “Don’t yell at my mate!”
The room grew deathly quiet as all eyes turned to Sterling. He swallowed and felt a slight shake begin, but he stood his ground. Riley was his, and he was going to stand up for his mate.
“Sterling,” Riley began, the warning clear in his voice.
“No, Riley,” Sterling began.“I am truly sorry for your tragedy, Ahm. But Riley had nothing to do with it. He was asked to come here as a favor to you. And when things get funky around here, you want to yell at him? You better be damn lucky he doesn’t pack his things and go home. He is the one that doesn’t have to do anything for them. But my bear is nice. He wants to help. So stop yelling at him…please.”
Riley’s brows shot to his hairline as Ahm stood there motionless, his expression stoic. Oh, hell, Sterling prayed the man didn’t open a can of whoop ass on him. No, he didn’t care. He was standing by his mate, even if it meant getting his ass handed to him by the creepy fey.
“Anything else, human?” Ahm asked, his voice unreadable.
“Yes,” Sterling said as he jutted out his chin and crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell Iam to stop trying to eat my pig.”
“I—” Ahm blinked and then looked at Sterling once more. “I’ll do that.”
“Thank you very much,” Sterling replied politely.
“There are serious problems here,” Riley said to Ahm, but kept glancing over at Sterling as if he couldn’t believe Sterling had stood up for him. Sterling gave his mate two thumbs up and a wide grin and then sat back down by the sick young man.
“I had no idea it was this serious, shifter. But I’m at a loss of what to do about it. I will not bring them to my lands. The wood elves have grown selfish and unreasonable. They think of nothing but their own hides. I can’t have that around my people. We are a proud race, but we live as peacefully as we can. The wood elves would destroy that.”
Riley turned to Eagle, a defeated look marring his handsome face. “Bring Iam in.”
Eagle gave a firm nod and exited the hut.
“Despite what they have done, we can’t leave them defenseless,” Riley said, sounding so damn tired that Sterling had an urge to run to his mate and hug him. “I’ll never understand how they sacrificed their own people, but I acknowledge why they did it.”
“They are leaderless and live in fear.” Ahm nodded. “But they could have found a better way. They could have gone to Maverick, or Zeus, or even told me about the vicious hounds. But they tried to handle it on their own and made matters worse.”
Sterling crossed his legs, feeling the tears gather in his eyes as he stared at the young boy. He looked so peaceful lying there. He couldn’t imagine being handed over to such hateful beings by his own parents.
What was this young man going to think when he woke up? Sterling wasn’t sure“I’m sorry” was going to cut it. This guy’s parents were supposed to protect him from the monsters, not hand him over to them. Sterling hadn’t known his father. The man died when he was two years old. But he was pretty sure his dad would have fought tooth and nail to keep him safe.
“Why am I being brought in here?” Iam asked as he shrugged Eagle’s arm off of him. Eagle didn’t look too happy, but released the man and took a stance by the door. Didn’t the guy know elves could pop in and out of places?
“Because we want an explanation,” Riley growled as he pointed toward the bed. “Why in the hell would you people hand over a child to those monsters?”
Sterling’s thoughts exactly.
Iam sputtered for a moment as if offended by the question, and then he sighed and his shoulders slumped. In that moment, he looked twenty years older. The lines around his face deepened, and Sterling noticed dark circles under the man’s eyes that he had never noticed before. “I tried to stop them.”
“Not hard enough,” Sterling growled.
“I am just one man,” Iam argued. “I can’t rein in an entire village. I told them not to make a deal with those hounds. I argued that they couldn’t be trusted. The tribe threatened to disown me if I didn’t comply.”
“So you just kowtowed to them?” Riley asked in disgust. “You just let them hand over your children?”
Iam shook his head. “No. The healer took most of the children and went into hiding. But some refused to leave their parents. I tried to reason with the young ones, but they wouldn’t listen. They insisted that their families would never allow any harm to come to them.”
“Why didn’t we know children were missing?” Max asked from the corner of the room where he had been standing quietly.
“I let it slip to Ahm that the healer was missing. I caused trouble with Ahm so he would interfere. They were feeble attempts for help so my tribe wouldn’t know I was actually seeking assistance.”
“What was the deal they made?” Riley asked.
“The deal was if the hounds stopped the vampires from attacking us, then we would provide them with one fey a month for their personal use. I don’t think the people in the village realized the trickery. I saw it for what it was. They weren’t going to stop the vampire attacks. Even the words ‘personal use’ should have been enough for them to fight the hounds, but they cowered in front of those vile creatures and agreed.”
“Why children?” Ahm asked.
This time Iam’s face clouded with anger. His dark-blue eyes turned into two pits of fire.“That was something that happened behind my back. As soon as I realized what was happening, I had the healer smuggle them out. The elven excuse was that the young ones were easy prey. They didn’t fight and…” Iam turned away, but not before Sterling saw the tears in the man’s eyes.
He wanted to go out there and pound the snot out of each and every person in the village. Sterling had never hated anyone in his life. But at that moment, he hated every damn person in the village who had given their child away to those things.
“What should we do to them?” Ahm asked.
Iam turned around, shock written all over his face. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because I think you would make a good leader,” Riley replied. “You just need to learn how to rule your tribe.”
Iam backed away, shaking his head. “I can’t lead them. They don’t even listen to me.”
“Then I will teach you how to make them not only listen, but obey your every command,” Ahm said adamantly.“Now, tell me which adults gave their children away.”
“There have only been two sacrifices involving the young ones, and Terrik is the second.” Iam pointed over toward the bed. “I can show you which adults are guilty.”
“And you will make an example out of them,” Ahm replied heatedly.
Ahm turned toward Riley, and something passed between the two that Sterling couldn’t decipher. But both men’s jaws tightened, and their lips turned down as if they were contemplating something really bad. Sterling didn’t like it, but he was finding that he didn’t like several things that had happened tonight.
“I had no idea it was this bad here,” Ahm said as he turned to look around the room.“I will send some of my shadow warriors to guard the village while Iam is taught how to lead his tribe. The healer will bring back the children.”
“I guess that’s my cue to pack my bags?” Riley asked.
A microscopic twinge tugged at the corner of Ahm’s mouth as he gave one regal bow of his head. “It is.”
“Thank fuck,” Max blurted out and then quickly turned away.
“Excuse my mate. He is a pampered lion,” Chey said with a grin.
“So,” Eagle began,“does this mean I don’t have to teach the elves how to fight?” Sterling could see the disappointment in the grey wolf’s face. He must have been really looking forward to the lessons.
“No, stay. Teach them how to fight and defend their village,” Ahm said. “They could use all of the help they can get.”
“Oh, hell,” Max mumbled.
Riley reached for Sterling, grabbing his hand and heading for the door at a fast pace. “Are we leaving?” Sterling asked as he jogged behind his mate to keep up.
“Not until we know the young man is out of the woods. But once we know he is all right, we’re going home.”
Home!
Sterling wanted to do a happy dance. He didn’t mind roughing it for a while here, but there was nothing like cable television and a flushing toilet. He was never going to take those things for granted again.