Savage (32 page)

“You would do anything to protect your brother. I’ll bet you even killed your own father. Lee didn’t do it, did he? Did your father threaten Jesse?” Katelyn asked.

“Kat,” Justin said, turning his attention toward her. Those blue eyes. She remembered the day he had dropped his motorcycle in front of her grandfather’s oncoming truck to save the life of a little girl. He’d had nothing to gain by that. “Darlin’, I pledged myself—”

“And Mike?” she asked savagely. “Did you do that so Trick would get blamed? Because everyone knew he and Mike hated each other? You thought you’d throw some doubt into the mix so you could play the big worried hero of the pack
and
get rid of ‘that boy’?”

“I killed him because he came after you,” Justin said. “I’m from the hills, darlin’. That’s what men do.”

The branches of the nearest tree moved, and Katelyn moved swiftly toward them. As she passed Cordelia, the other girl stood beside Trick, quivering with rage.

“All this time, you’ve been manipulating everyone. And
you’re
the werewolf that needs to be put down,” Cordelia said.

Katelyn parted the branches and found Jesse with his hands over his head. He threw his arms around Katelyn.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s okay,” Katelyn said woodenly. It wasn’t. It was horribly far from okay.

“Then where’s Lucy?” Jesse begged her.

She kept hugging him with no idea what to say. They stood pressed together and he whimpered like a little puppy.

No, like a wolf cub.

“I killed her, buddy,” Justin said. “I’m sorry. She came out of the darkness and she scared me. It was an accident.”

The werewolves gasped. Heads swiveled toward Katelyn, who had been her rival. Katelyn just held Jesse, waiting for him to lose control the way he had when Lee Fenner had died. But to her surprise, his face went slack and ashen and he shut his eyes. He began to shake, and she was afraid he was going into shock.

“Jesse, I’m sorry,” Justin said. “Oh, God. I tried to keep him quiet. I told him I wanted to make a mate for him. That it was a special secret.” He covered his face with his hands, then dropped his arms to his side. His swollen eye was nearly normal-sized again. His injuries were healing.

He would soon be at fighting trim.

“Alpha, what are you going to do?” one of the werewolves asked Katelyn.

“It’s not the alpha’s problem,” Trick growled, stepping forward. “It’s mine.”

Justin and Trick locked gazes; both shifted fast as lightning. Justin, a large gray blue-eyed wolf — she would have gone to her grave swearing he had not been the werewolf that had bitten her. Trick, huge and night-black and monstrous. The werewolves screamed and scattered as he bore down on Justin. He swiped his claws at him, and Justin howled with rage and pain as bloody paths striped his flank.

Justin defiantly snapped at the Hellhound’s throat, fangs missing by the barest margin. Trick’s claws slashed again and in a matter of seconds, Justin was on the ground, morphing back into his human form horribly wounded, panting. Trick stood over him, one massive paw pinning him down with supreme ease.

“Vladimir,” Mordecai said, stepping forward, “it’s time.”

Trick — she had to think of him that way — waggled his ugly head. Smoke poured from his eyes. Saliva roped from his fangs as he looked back down at his victim. From a safe distance, everyone stood in horrified silence, holding their breath.

Justin was bleeding in a dozen different places. Katelyn thought back to the first time he came to the cabin and she rode into the forest on his motorcycle. How he had trained her to survive, and helped her, and did love her.

He did love her, in spite of everything.

Slowly Trick began shifting back, massive head beginning to shrink, smoking, blazing eyes to smolder. Claws and fangs started to retract.

“Doc,” Trick said quietly. He spoke the name like a question.

A request.

“No,” Katelyn’s grandfather said. “It’s got to be done. You’re my apprentice, and you took an oath before I made you what you are.”

“Just do it,” Justin muttered. “Get it over with.”

Trick’s never killed anyone before
, Katelyn realized with a thrill.

Trick loomed over Justin. He was distraught.

Yet determined.

A shape hurtled forward and then stopped directly in front of Trick. It was Jesse. Fear and awe mingled on his face, but he stood his ground. Slowly, Trick began to shift back to his Hellhound form, and Katelyn shouted, “Jesse, get back!”

Jesse seemed dazed as he looked down at his brother. Tears streamed down his face and dripped from his chin.

“Softly, softly,” Jesse muttered, sliding to the ground. He cradled Justin’s head in his lap and stroked his hair like the fur of a pet. Like LaRue, the cat he longed to own but couldn’t because he might pet it too hard and break its neck.

Katelyn realized what was coming and leaped toward him, but it was too late. Jesse grabbed Justin’s head and twisted hard.

Katelyn heard the pop above the gasps and screams, and Jesse’s wails as Trick morphed back to human form and reached his arms out to Jesse. Cordelia flew to Jesse and rocked him as he let out a low, mournful howl.

No pack member answered him.

Until Katelyn did. She let out the same howl she had heard the first day she had arrived in Wolf Springs. Maybe it was wrong to salute Justin’s passing with the gift of grief, but she did it anyway.

Then the howling died away, and Jesse kept sobbing in Cordelia’s arms.

Time ticked by dangerously fast. The fire crept closer. Katelyn’s ears picked up the whine of a fire engine far below . . . but on its way, and she finally found her voice and said, “This is what happens when old customs collide with reality. We
have
to live differently.”

“But how?” someone asked fearfully.

“Leave Wolf Springs?” another voice fretted.

“I don’t know,” Katelyn said. “Yet.”

She looked over at her grandfather. His stern expression softened and he grabbed Trick’s hand, marched him over, and placed it in Katelyn’s. Her skin tingled where it touched his, and she sucked in her breath.

Mordecai McBride surveyed the werewolves and lifted his chin. “I approve of this,” he announced.

“Hellhound?” Trick said cautiously. “What are you doing, sir?”

Her grandfather shrugged as if it were obvious. “We’re immune to silver,” he said. “They aren’t. But she is.” He brushed his fingertips against her cheek, not quite, but almost, a pack greeting. He looked like her father, and the complicated love that seemed to pass down in each generation of her family wove itself into her careful joy.

“She is immune, and she’s right. The old ways need to die,” he said.

“I didn’t say
that
,” she blurted.

“More or less.” Trick squeezed her hand. “I’m with Doc on this one.” He was blazing with happiness. “If you are.”

She cleared her throat. “This is a private conversation we need to have.” Then she faced the werewolves, who were agog.

Cordelia stepped forward. “This is
our
alpha. We’ve lost so many pack members today. Dominic and Luc Gaudin are both gone. My sisters are both dead. There aren’t very many of us left. I say it makes more sense to band together than to fight.”

Cordelia knelt. After only a moment’s hesitation Daniel Latgale pushed Jack Bronson down and followed suit, and Katelyn knew it must have cost him dearly. Maybe he could do it because he considered her silver immunity to be a sign of holy favor.

The rest of the Fenner clan and the Hounds of God fell to their knees as well. The Gaudins remained standing. Then an older Gaudin male gestured to Trick and said, “Even if she’s not our alpha, she is a Hellhound’s mate.” He knelt.

Then one by one, the others hit their knees, until Katelyn, Trick, and Mordecai were left standing.

And awestruck by what had just happened.

The war was over.

And Katelyn had won it.

22

THREE HOURS LATER
, Katelyn, Cordelia, Daniel, and two high-ranking Gaudin and Fenner werewolves entered the McBride cabin for their first summit meeting. The orange glow of the dying fire tinged the night sky. The little fire department and police force of Wolf Springs had finally managed to arrive, but by then the fire had all but died. It had been started and fueled by magic, and Daniel Latgale and the Hounds of God killed it with magic as well.

The police did not know about Jack Bronson’s guilt. He would never return to the Inner Wolf Center; he would never return to human company. Katelyn hadn’t countenanced his death, and the Hellhounds had no jurisdiction over him. The Hounds of God had agreed to take charge of him, and she thought he was delighted with his outcome. She resented his happiness, though. He didn’t deserve it.

Trick and her grandfather stayed out of the proceedings as she parlayed with the other werewolves. They remained in the woods, prowling in Hellhound form to make sure that Katelyn and her people were safe as they worked to form a merged pack. The negotiations went better than Katelyn could have hoped. Having a Hellhound as a mate was proving to be very convenient.

Dawn was coming, metaphorically and in reality, and the meeting broke up. Then Trick and Mordecai returned and her grandfather made coffee. It was so weird to see him bustling about in the kitchen; Katelyn caught Trick staring at her and he chuckled.

“I know, right?” he said.

Katelyn started laughing, and laughed until she cried. Later she would probably do some real crying, too, mourn for those who had been lost.

Justin
.

Not now
, she told herself.
Not now
. She didn’t have the capacity to deal with that now. But she would.

Cordelia laughed, too. It was the most relaxed Katelyn had ever seen her. Out from under both her father and Dom, Cordelia looked free for the first time.

When they finally stopped laughing, Cordelia reached over and hugged Katelyn.

“I can’t believe it’s all over,” she said.

“I know,” Katelyn said, although in reality things were just beginning. But Cordelia was right about the nightmare being done.

“And I still can’t quite believe everything that’s happened,” Cordelia added.

“Join the club,” Trick drawled.

Cordelia gave him an eye sweep. “And you, Hellhound Junior.”

“And you, Werewolf Princess.”

“No wonder we couldn’t stand each other,” Cordelia said. Before Trick could answer, she said, “That seems so long ago.” Then she sighed and smiled at the two of them. “It’s right, you two becoming mates.”

Katelyn fell silent as her grandfather brought over steaming mugs of coffee. He said, “I’m not pleased with the lingo. ‘Mates.’ But is it what my Katie wants?”

For a fleeing moment she thought how she’d love to see the look on Kimi’s face when she got her invitation to their wedding. That was coming all too soon. She was seventeen years old. They had yet to make sure that things would work out.

And there were other questions to be answered first.

“If Justin was a regular werewolf, and he was the one who bit me, how come I’m immune to silver?”

“You were attacked,” Trick said slowly, as if going over that horrible night. “And you told us it was a dog that bit you.”

“I did,” she agreed. “And then the stitches came out by themselves—”

Cordelia nodded. “So, antibiotics? The rabies shots? You have to be bit in, then get some kind of medical treatment?”

“I have a theory,” her grandfather said.

He and Trick traded significant looks. Trick put his hands around his coffee cup and studied the steam while his godfather set down his own mug and leaned forward slightly. He looked left and right as if ensuring they were the only ones in the room.

“New Hellhounds aren’t made like werewolves,” he began. “It’s not a bite.” He hesitated. “It’s nothing physical.”

“So, it’s by magic then?” Cordelia asked excitedly. “Like the Hounds of God say they’re created?”

“We have our own secrets,” Mordecai said.

“In other words, we can’t say,” Trick finished for him.

Katelyn’s grandfather cocked his head at her. “You might not remember, but when you were real little I was out visiting and you took a tumble on your roller skates. You had a head wound and you were bleeding so much you needed a small transfusion. I was so scared for you I volunteered because we were the same blood type. Since being a Hellhound isn’t transmitted through blood or saliva I didn’t think much of it. But I guess you must have gotten something from me, namely the silver immunity.”

Like Trick, Katelyn watched the ripples in her cup as she swirled the hot beverage. “That sounds logical. I know my father wasn’t immune.”

There. She’d said it.

Her grandfather looked stricken and the pain on his face was so great that she couldn’t stand it. She set down her coffee and covered one of his gnarled old hands with both of hers.

“I understand and I forgive you,” she whispered.

He put down his own cup and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing so tightly she was afraid her ribs would crack. She didn’t complain, though. Her bones would heal by themselves but the relationship with her grandfather wouldn’t.

When he finally let her go, he stood up. “I’ll do one last patrol before bed,” he said gruffly.

As soon as he was out the door, Cordelia stood as well. “I should return to the Gaudins, to reinforce the fact that we are of one pack. Then in a couple of days, I’ll go home.”

Katelyn caught the confused look on Cordelia’s face. Father and sisters dead, cousin dead. Where was home?

“To Jesse,” Katelyn said softly, and Cordelia nodded as if to herself.

Katelyn walked Cordelia to the door. Cordelia lingered there in the early light.

“I would never have wished this on you, Katelyn, but you’ll never know how grateful I am that Justin bit you.”

Katelyn nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and gave her a final hug before Cordelia slipped outside. Katelyn closed the door and turned around.