Savage Surrender: A Dire Wolves Mission (The Devil's Dires Book 1) (4 page)

T
he late winter
sun blazed bright in the western sky as Bez pulled up outside the lake house. The place looked surprisingly well-kept considering how long it had sat empty, though there was a definite air of abandonment to the property. Not that Bez cared much for whether the house was visually pleasing—the location sat close enough to where the Omega was being hidden to use for a stronghold. That detail outweighed any other factors. Hell, Bez would have picked a hunting platform in a tree if he’d had to.

Like all of Blaze’s personal properties, the lake house offered privacy, positioned far enough from any other houses to keep nosy neighbors away. A necessity when dealing with men who could turn into wolves at the drop of a hat. Perched on a slight hill and looking over one hundred yards of grass in the three directions away from the lakefront, there was no way to stage an attack on the single-story home without being seen or heard first. An easily defendable location that, if the records Bez had read about the property were still accurate, was filled with weaponry and emergency evac supplies…exactly what he needed.

He used the keypad lock by the garage to gain access to the house, satisfied with the steel fire doors. They wouldn’t necessarily keep a shifter out if one wanted in, but they’d slow him down and make his entrance loud instead of stealthy. Perfect for those inside the house.

As expected, the kitchen contained numerous containers filled with non-perishable food and bottled water. Enough for three people to survive for a couple of months at least. Blaze didn’t do anything halfway. Bez grabbed a bag of beef jerky and continued through the house, sniffing out every possible hiding place and peeking behind every door.

The ringing of Bez’s phone interrupted his investigation, though. He snorted when he saw the name of the incoming caller.

“What’s up, old man?” Bez asked, leaning against the bedroom wall and peeking out the window overlooking the lake.

Deus, one of his Dire Wolf brethren chuckled. “Fuck off, kid. At this point, the fact that you’re two weeks younger than me is a nonissue.”

“That’s your opinion.” Bez walked back out to the living and dining rooms, pacing through the two, anxious. “What’s doing?”

“Why the fuck are you down in Louisiana?”

“You stalking me again?” Bez shook his head. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Deus had every one of the guys outfitted with chips in their phones and cars. Mammon liked to joke that the man would have them all microchipped like some puppy next.

“Nah, just got a ping from one of Blaze’s lake houses down there, and it coincided with your GPS location. Figured you were gator hunting or some shit.”

Bez spun in place, looking harder at the walls and fixtures, wondering what door or motion detector had set off a notification to Deus. And how he hadn’t noticed it. “Negative. Got a mission from Blaze.”

“Anything you need me for?”

“Not yet. I’ve got a solid plan in place and some of our brothers chilling in the wings.”

“All right, then. Call if you need us.” Deus hung up, not giving Bez a chance to reply. The man never did stay on any one subject long, too busy with his computers to bother with people most of the time.

Determined to find the supplies he needed, Bez set back on his investigation of the house. After almost a quarter-hour of snooping through closets and behind doors, he found the cabinet filled with guns and weaponry. Shotguns and automatic rifles stood at the ready, and large metal drawers housed ammunition, handguns, and explosives. In a bottom drawer, Bez found his personal favorite. Large, flat brass rings lay on a wooden support with a dowel shooting through the center. Designed off the Indian throwing rings known as chakrams, the rings practically glowed in the light, beautiful and polished to a sheen. A very deadly sheen. Dire Thaus, the weaponry expert of the group, had taken ancient chakrams and reworked them to fit the hunting style of the Dire Wolves. Light and easy to throw, the rings fit across the width of Bez’s hand. Perfectly weighted for flight. Perfectly sharpened to cut through even the thickest of enemy flesh in near silence. Perfectly designed to fit in the pocket of his black fatigues, which was right where a few of them were going. Just in case.

His phone rang again, though this time, the caller’s name made Bez roll his eyes.

“What, kid?”

“Why you gotta do me like that, bro?” Levi laughed, a near-constant sound from that particular brother. “I got a buzz from Dante that I need to stick close to you for a bit. What’s doing?”

“Mission. Another Omega missing.”

“Motherfucker.” Levi didn’t laugh again, not that Bez expected him to once he knew what the mission was. The Dires were pissed as hell about the attacks on the ones they saw as their kin. Even Levi, the jokester of the group—the one who partied harder than all the rest and took advantage of all the world had to offer a six-five, muscular, good-looking kid like himself in terms of women, liquor, and adventure—raged whenever word reached him that another Omega was in trouble. They all had a soft spot for the shewolves, though Bez had a theory that Levi’s soft spot was bigger than anyone else’s. He seemed to take each disappearance as a personal challenge to take more risks, stroll into even more dangerous situations all in the name of finding the shewolves. Something that made the rest of the team nervous, including Bez. To accomplish their missions, they all needed to be on point, on plan, and in control of their instincts. Levi pushed every boundary they set and quite possibly endangered every mission.

“What’s the plan?” Levi finally asked, his voice rough, his anger clear underneath the words. A man ready to lock and load. But Bez couldn’t risk the girl to Levi’s cowboy antics.

“I hunt. You stay close as assigned.”

“I can come down and hunt with you. I’m not that far—could be there by tomorrow morning.”

“Negative. Protocol in these situations states the initial hunt should be solo.”

Levi growled loud enough for Bez’s wolf to push forward. To growl back at what he saw as a challenge.

“Fuck protocol. We’ve got an Omega in trouble. Let me help.”

Bez considered telling him the full story—about how the captors killed her pack and how she was just a child—but he didn’t want to set Levi off any more than he already was. Loose cannons rarely won wars. “Stand down, Leviathan. I’ve got this covered. You be my shadow and keep your ass close.”

Levi was quiet for longer than a pause, but Bez knew he was reining himself back in. The kid had been through just as much military training as the rest of the Dires, but he still struggled with execution on missions. Bez couldn’t have that sort of unknown element with this assignment.

“Fine,” Levi finally spat. “I’ll be at the three-hour mark from your coordinates.”

“Four.”

“Three, or else I’m showing up on the motherfucking front porch and eating your snacks while you hunt.”

Bez growled and slammed a drawer closed. This kid was trying his patience. “Leviathan—”

“I can full name you, too, Beelzebub. Now quit being a dick and accept that fact that three hours away is plenty far enough.”

Bez closed his eyes, fighting to control his temper. “Fine. But not a mile closer.”

“Fine. Now get your ass out there and hunt, ya lazy wanker. I’ve got a long drive ahead of me to get into position.”

“Three hours, Levi. I’m not fucking around.”

“Duh, you never do, asshole.”

The phone disconnected, Levi having hung up. Bez glared at the device in his hands. As much as he loved his brothers, he found Levi to be the most challenging. He was the youngest of the seven by nearly fifty years, and he’d never really grown out of that little-brother attitude. At least not enough for Bez’s preference.

With a deep breath, Bez pocketed his phone again and got back to work. There was nothing he could do about Levi, and he may need the help later. The kid was better than nothing.

Bez secured the majority of the weaponry back where it belonged before moving toward the large metal box brushing the rafters of the space. Like a shipping container made of highly polished steel, the box sat in the attic along with the closet of weapons. Both accessible only by a pull-down ladder tucked inside an access panel in the ceiling of the back hallway of the house. The attic was nearly airtight, making it difficult for even a shifter with Bez’s strong senses to get a read on what was up there. Even with the access panel opened, Bez could hardly smell the scents of the floor below him.

The box turned out to be a simple but secure safe room. With a thick, steel ceiling, armored walls, and keypad entry door, there was no way even someone as strong as a wolf shifter was getting into the metal box without being allowed access. The perfect spot to stash the Omega while Bez and his team hunted the shifters who’d taken her. But first, he had to find her and get her out of the swamp. Alive.

Bez stood in the kitchen and finished his snack before drinking two bottles of water. When finished, he felt fully fueled and antsy to start his search. His wolf had been pawing at him all day, the call of the swamp too much to resist. The animal within needed to hunt, to find, to destroy. Those were his goals, his mission. Bez knew once he let the beast out, there’d be no caging him until he’d succeeded. There was no way he was stopping to rest or coming back empty-handed. He’d hunt through the swampy land for days if he needed to.

And his wolf would love every fucking second of it.

After securing the property, Bez stripped on the covered porch. The sun had dropped a bit in the last hour, marking the time as late afternoon. A time when wolves liked to be lazy and sleep. Bez could take advantage of the wolf’s natural tendencies to do a little recon on the camp in the bayou, once he found it. And he would find it. There was no doubt in his mind. Blaze hadn’t sent him on this mission without reason. Bez was a natural tracker, a long-time soldier in Blaze’s army, and a Dire Wolf. Bigger, badder, and stronger than any other wolf shifters out there. If Blaze wanted him to find the Omega, he
would
find her. Failure was not an option.

Stretching one last time, Bez shifted to his wolf form, shaking out his fur as his paws landed on the wood planks of the porch. His senses heightened, and his brain quickly caught up with the extra input. This was it, his first chance to find the camp. He wouldn’t stop searching until he had their location pinned down. Until he had eyes on the Omega.

With nothing more than a chuff, he took off across the green grass, heading for the woods.

Heading for the hunt.

“
W
hat should we do today
?”

Sariel dangled her foot off the cot, letting her toes drag back and forth across the wood floor. “I was thinking of heading to the pool. Maybe soak up some sun, work on my tan, and have the cabana boys bring me margaritas all afternoon.”

Angelita giggled, a sound that brought a smile to Sariel’s face. “No, silly. What are we really going to do?”

Sariel’s smiled dropped. “Same thing as always. Sit here and wish we weren’t sitting here.”

Angelita went quiet, and the room filled with a tension Sariel could feel. Shit. She hated when she lost control of her calm around Angelita. She was just a girl, a young, scared girl who needed someone to look out for her. That had become Sariel’s job, and she sometimes sucked at it.

“I was just kidding,” Sariel said, trying to keep her voice light. “We could play cards again.”

Angelita stayed silent for a moment long enough to make Sariel’s heart race. The girl had a way of seeing through everyone around her, including Sariel. If she tried too hard to be upbeat and positive, Angelita withdrew. If she tried too little, the girl would pester her until she reignited her belief that they’d get out of here. Sariel never knew what direction the girl’s thoughts would go.

“You know what I want to do today?” Angelita asked in her soft voice.

Sariel turned her head to peer at the girl, assuming she’d be playing cards or checkers or something equally as mind-numbing within a few minutes. “What’s that, little one?”

“I want to get off this boat.”

The air in the room grew heavier, thicker than just the humidity could cause. Sariel closed her eyes and took a deep breath, putting her words together. Looking for an answer or response that made sense. That would help Angelita refocus on what they could control instead of things out of their reach.

But eventually, Sariel scoffed. They were trapped on a houseboat in the middle of a damn swamp under guard twenty-four seven. As positive as she could be, Sariel had to admit the options for escape were pretty much nonexistent. She dug deep, searching for that hope she had found just a few days before, but it was gone. Blown out by exhaustion and fear. Extinguished.

“Me too,” she whispered, curling into a ball on her cot. “By the gods, Angelita. I want off this boat, too.”

“If we want it bad enough, we’ll get it.” Angelita mimicked Sariel’s position, drawing her legs up on her own cot as if to sleep. “That’s what my grandpa always said. I’m an Omega, and so are you. If we want things bad enough, we’ll get them.”

Sariel bit her lip, wishing hard that those words were true. Knowing that sometimes, wanting things wasn’t enough to actually get them.

“Want with me,” Angelita said, her voice low but firm. “Let’s take a nap so we can dream of all the things we’re going to do when we get out of here. A shower, food, and a big, strong shifter to spend time with…remember? That’s what you said. Want with me, Sariel. If we want it bad enough, we’ll get it.”

“I don’t know if I believe all that, Angelita.” Sariel slid her arm under her ratty pillow, pulling up every image and thought of what she wanted. Of all the things she’d do once they got off this fucking boat. Of simply surviving another day. She was tired, worn out by the heat and the stench and the desolation she felt. The helplessness. But she could want. If Angelita thought it would help, she would want all fucking day for the kid. She had to.

“Then I’ll believe enough for both of us,” Angelita said, the squeaking of her cot joining her voice as she turned over. “I’ll believe, and we’ll both think about all the things we want to happen.”

Sariel closed her eyes, letting her thoughts fly, allowing herself to truly, utterly
want
for the first time since she’d woken up in this hellhole.