Savage (22 page)

“I don’t know,” she lied, and she didn’t know how much she was going to tell him. “It’s hideous. Huge, with these big glowing red eyes and fangs. It didn’t look like a wolf. Or any kind of hound. I barely got away.”

He narrowed his eyes and she could read the skepticism there. “Then how did it talk to you? And why you?”

“It’s telepathic,” she said. When he frowned at her, she huffed at him. “It
is
.” She walked toward him and pushed his hand down, lowering the gun. “This won’t help.”

He swore. “Katelyn, it’s some kind of Gaudin trick.”

“It’s not. I have to talk to the pack. This is life or death.”

He paced, taking off his hat and running his free hand through his hair. “I’ll kill it. And those damned Hounds. Crazy lunatics.”

“They say they’ll start a massive fire and burn you — us — out.”

He snorted. “The ground’s covered with snow. There’s ice in the trees.”

“And we can change into wolves and the Hounds of God say they know about magic. So they can make the forest burn. Justin, you’ve got to . . .” She caught herself. He still considered himself her superior. “Please, tell me where the pack is meeting.”

He seemed to be making a decision. After a moment, he laced his fingers through hers. Despite the cold, they felt warm. “You’re supposed to be there, anyway. I’ll take you.”

“I can find it,” she insisted. “I can run fast. You have to wait for the others—”

“No, I don’t.” He leaned forward and nuzzled her cheek, pack mate to pack mate. “They’ve all arrived. I was just hoping . . . I was waiting for you.” He smiled grimly. “Nothing on my mind but you, and you caught me unawares.” He half lifted the rifle.

“I was downwind,” she said. She bit her lip, not sure what else to say. She let several seconds pass, the silence stretching deeper between them. Finally she whispered, “Thank you for believing me.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t say that. But I’m not letting you out of my sight until those bastards are put down.”

She didn’t know who he meant — Gaudins, the Hounds of God, the Hellhound. Maybe all of them.

“We can’t take them all on. We will lose.”

“We’ll see,” he said.

He walked, holding her hand, his rifle unslung. She fell into step beside him. His truck was parked on a slight rise, and he opened the door for her and held it as she climbed inside, the whisper of his fingertips against a tendril of her hair. She didn’t react, but she did take a steadying breath as he slid behind the wheel and began to drive down a practically nonexistent road.

“Tell me how you found them. Tell me every single detail,” he said.

The road was engulfed by trees and shadows, and Justin had to go very slowly around several hairpin turns to avoid sliding off into the valley below. Katelyn did the same with her explanation.

“It was during the attack on the cabin. I was looking for you. The hunters are out in the woods again. I was worried about the pack.” Her voice quavered.

He raised a brow. “Are you actually showing loyalty instinct?”

She gave her head a shake. “Okay,
you
. I was worried about you. And Jesse.” Before he could respond, she said, “Where I come from, we don’t let bad things happen to people we know.” She nearly choked when she realized how untrue that was.

“
This
is where you come from now, Kat,” he said.

She let that go. “I was driving and my car ran out of gas. I just happened to find the cabin—” When he raised his brows, she nodded emphatically. “I did, Justin. Can you just let me talk without doubting every single thing I’m saying?”

He pursed his lips. And then he nodded. “Gaudins on our land, hunters, and now the Hellhound? Things are coming to a head. I’m a werewolf. I’m not entirely rational on the subject.”

“This is really, really bad,” she said. “We have to make peace with the Gaudins. Now.” She looked through the rear-view mirror, the side mirror, everywhere.

He watched her. Justin watched her. Then he turned a corner, went up an incline, and flashed his lights. A figure standing beside a gate slowly opened it, and Justin drove the truck through.

Justin’s family home came into view. Not the Fenner house, but the one Justin and Jesse had left to move in with Cordelia’s family after the death of their father. It was a sprawling Victorian building — “mansion” would be putting too fine a point on it — painted in gray and white, and decorated with two beveled turrets. There were dozens of cars, some parked in a bowl-like meadow and others tucked everywhere a vehicle could be put.

The front door opened and a man peered out — Katelyn didn’t recognize him. He spotted Justin’s truck, raised a hand in greeting, and went back inside.

Justin turned to her and she said, “Let’s go in. I’m ready.”

And, surprisingly, she was, too. There had been so much fear and death and now she had a chance to put an end to it all; the last thing she wanted was to delay a minute more.

“It’s a firestorm in there,” he said. “The pack is completely out of control. You keep that in mind.”

She nodded.

Trick?
she called.
Ed?

No answer.

They got out of the truck. He opened the front door and went in first. She came in behind him into a foyer with a cathedral ceiling dominated by a spiral staircase. Justin turned to the right and led her through a door, into a large room lit by candles and camping lanterns. It was crowded with dozens of people. Katelyn wondered where everyone else was.

Heads swiveled toward them and conversation ceased. Arial and her dark-haired, rail-thin sister, Regan, were seated at opposite ends of the room, each with a cadre of people around them. They were like two rival princesses holding court. In a way, that was exactly what they were. Katelyn did a swift head count. It looked like equal numbers of werewolves had pledged themselves to each camp. Given the current state of things she was shocked that there wasn’t open civil war raging. The fact that there wasn’t might have had something to with the larger group that was clearly trying to be more neutral and sat clustered in the center of the space. Without that group neither one of Lee’s daughters could claim his position as alpha.

I can win them to my side
, Katelyn thought; the blood coursed through her veins.

“How dare you show your face here!” Regan hissed.

“Traitor!” Arial yelled.

At least the two women seemed to agree on one thing. They both hated Katelyn. Still, only one of them had sent an assassin to kill her. At least, that she knew of.

“She has something to say and we need to hear her out,” Justin said, his voice ringing out true and clear.

Unfortunately, that just seemed to be the signal for everyone to start talking at once.

Katelyn blinked at the chaos, the sheer cacophony of noise. She could hear people voicing myriad opinions, some of them logical, some of them downright absurd. To listen. To take her throat.

One thing became painfully clear. This was what a pack without an alpha was: pure anarchy. There was no cohesion, no order, no peace.

She blinked rapidly. She hadn’t realized just how much stability Lee had provided, even in his compromised mental state. Without a leader soon, the pack would tear itself apart.

“Quiet!” she bellowed at the top of her lungs, a half-human yell, half-wolf growl. The sound echoed around the room. All the talking ceased and everyone stared at her intently, waiting for her to speak.

They really
do
need someone to tell them what to do
, she realized in shock. Werewolves were different.

She licked her lips and then began. “There is a greater threat to the safety of this pack than the Gaudins. The Hellhound has partnered with the Hounds of God to destroy all of us if we don’t end this war now. I’ve seen him. And I’ve spoken with Daniel Latgale, the alpha of the Hounds of God. He offered me a place with them, but here I am, trying to save my pack.”

She saw a few people begin to nod, clearly appreciating her show of loyalty, just as she’d hoped they would. But she also spotted some rolled eyes — people who didn’t believe her.

“We need to put an end to this before they and the Hellhound kill all of us
and
the Gaudins. The existence of werewolves has to remain a secret, and they’ll destroy both our packs to keep it that way. The Hounds of God made that very clear to me.”

Arial laughed, a terrible, cold sound like cracking ice. “You must think we’re idiots. There is no Hellhound and even if there were, why should it partner with the Hounds of God? They’re a crazy, reclusive pack on some mission from God to fight demons. They know we’re not demons. So they have no reason to come here.”

“Well, they don’t see it that way,” Katelyn shot back. “They’re here and they’re making plans to move against us.”

Katelyn glanced around the room, noting the absence of Lucy and Jesse. She saw Steve, who had once hoped to marry Cordelia, and Myrna, who had tried to get her daughter married to him instead. They were both listening. She was reaching some of them at least. She just needed to reach more of them.

“You really expect us to believe this?” Regan asked.

Katelyn’s gaze rested on Justin’s face. He was the nephew of the fallen alpha, pack royalty. It would help her cause if he’d publicly show his support.

He gave her a long, slow nod.

Before Katelyn could answer, the door crashed open and a man Katelyn didn’t recognize fell through it, face-first to the floor.

Everyone stood as though frozen. Katelyn pushed forward, literally having to move a couple of people out of her way. She could scent blood all over the man. He smelled more dead than alive.

She halted and gently turned him over.

He was young. There were deep slash marks across his chest and his throat looked like it had been half torn away. The smell of the blood both sickened and excited her and she swallowed down her revulsion.

“Bobby,” Justin murmured, as he moved over next to her. “Who did this to you?”

The young man’s eyes were glazing over. He looked up at Katelyn and said, “She knows who.”

“The hell?” Justin murmured.

“I
don’t
know,” Katelyn protested. “Who are you?” she asked the man, but in that instant, the light left his eyes. He was dead.

“He was one of our sentries,” Justin said quietly.

Everyone else still seemed paralyzed with horror. Katelyn glanced at Arial and Regan. Both were standing, wearing stupid looks on their faces as they regarded the dead man. Katelyn forced herself to turn back to the body. If this was their sentry, then the Gaudins were close.

Either that or . . .

She glanced down and saw that one of Bobby’s hands was curled tightly around a piece of paper. She reached down and pulled it free. She unfolded it, ignoring the bloodstains on it, and scanned the contents.

Shaking, she turned to face the others and held aloft the note for them all to see. Then she read it out loud:

“It’s the Hellhound. He plans to kill us, just like I warned you,” she said, shaking the note for emphasis. “
Now
will you listen to me? The only way to save yourselves is to give up this feud with the Gaudins.”

“They are savages,” Arial said. “Ever since the descendants of the Fenris Wolf settled here in Wolf Springs, they’ve hunted on our land, murdered our people, and poisoned our streams. They’ve been looking for our mine for over a hundred years! And I
know
they’re the ones who have been butchering humans. And they were doing it to make my father look bad. Did the Hellhound communicate with
them
? I doubt it. It’s on their side. You know it is. They would do anything, say anything, to have what we have. They live in a
swamp
, for God’s sake!”

“Arial’s right,” said one of the female werewolves who had cheered Lucy on when she had challenged Katelyn.

Regan, however, was quietly listening.

Katelyn blinked, shocked. Was it possible that after everything that had happened, one of Cordelia’s crazy sisters could be made to listen to reason? It seemed absurd, but a tiny glimmer of hope flickered inside her. They could make this happen. They could all work out a way to live in peace.

A figure darkened the doorway next to Katelyn, startling her. She nearly jumped, but managed to control her reaction just in time. The newcomer was a woman and she was pale, her eyes fearful.

“Dom and . . .
she
 . . . have arrived under a white flag,” she announced.

Regan lifted a shaking hand and Katelyn held her breath. The next words out of her mouth would be crucial.

Regan let out a little moaning sigh and then she thundered: “Kill them both.”

16

“NO!” KATELYN PROTESTED
. “You can’t!”

“Are you challenging me?” Regan asked, eyes blazing in her pale face.

Katelyn felt as if the world slowed down and she became hyper-aware of every detail of her surroundings. She watched Regan’s pupils dilate. She could hear Justin’s heartbeat. No,
everyone
’s heartbeats. Some were slow and steady, others fast, agitated.