The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Return (8 page)

“It’s not like that at all,” Maribel protested. “I don’t use my body to close deals like you do. I genuinely like Seth.”

The words coming made Seth smile, but the cocky grin on Ms. Wilson’s face kept his rage level high.

“Of course not,” Ms. Wilson said, rolling her eyes. “You’d never close a deal.”

“Speak now about the meaning of this interruption,” Seth growled, barely able to contain his dislike for this woman. Was this the kind of person that Sokolov Enterprises employed? To this point he hadn’t really cared about anything except the money, but he wasn’t sure he wanted these people wandering around his town and interacting with his people. The protective alpha instinct he’d tried to squash for so long was finally scratching its way to the surface.

“The security team found something,” Ms. Wilson said, turning her attention back to Seth. “I saw your motorcycle, so I came to get you.”

As he stood there staring at the intruder, his ears began to pick up on something—something they should have been picking up on from inside the house. Was a woman this much of a distraction? Did having a mate really dull your senses this much? He knew the answer to his question. His wolf had been so consumed by its animal instinct and he by his lustful desires that his other senses had dulled. It wasn’t until Ms. Wilson had pointed it out that he’d begun to detect the sound of gunfire and men shouting several houses down. They were trying to use suppressors, but those never silenced a gun completely.

“My god,” Seth said, springing into action as soon as his senses returned. He sprang off the porch past Ms. Wilson and began to run towards one of the houses down the street. His nose had kicked into high gear now and he could smell the gunpowder in the air. He vaguely heard Maribel and Ms. Wilson shouting for him to slow down and wait for them, but there was no time for that.

The security team was shooting at something in his town. The agreement he had signed had given them carte blanche to do something like this, but he still didn’t like this kind of wild firefight occurring without his knowledge.

The house in question stood still and dark. The gunfire was emanating from the back yard, which was surrounded by an eight-foot wooden fence. Seth sprang from one foot, clearing the fence completely, and landing in the back yard behind three men led by Jacko who were firing into the alley behind the house.

“Stop this!” Seth screamed, but the gunfire continued.

Finally, after his subsequent commands were ignored, he walked over to the closest man and grabbed the barrel of his handgun, forcing it towards the ground. The man turned in protest, a foul word beginning to originate in his throat. Seth chose instead to head-butt him as hard as possible in the nose. The sound of the man’s nose breaking rang through the yard almost as loudly as the gunfire.

The man never got a chance to get his curse out of his mouth. His eyes rolled back and he hit the ground. He’d had it coming, Seth decided. This was Seth’s town, no matter what Jacko thought, and he wasn’t going to allow them to put so many people at risk by indiscriminately firing in a residential area.

“Hold your fire, goddammit!” Jacko screamed at the other two. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Stopping you before one of my citizens is killed in your insane crossfire. You tell
me
what the hell you think
you’re
doing!”

“My job!” Jacko shot back, bowing up to Seth. He was at least a foot shorter than Seth, but that didn’t stop him from getting right up in Seth’s business. “You signed the security agreement. We were attacked, goddammit. I was defending us.”

“Your agreement didn’t say a damn thing about turning my town into a warzone. Whatever you’re shooting at obviously isn’t there anymore, yet you’re still firing. Do you really think you can take the combined force of Bucklin? Because that’s what you’d have to do if your Rambo horseshit killed one of my people.”

“I’m not scared of any wolf,” Jacko said with a smile that sent a chill down Seth’s back, a sensation no man had ever made him feel before. “Bring them on.”

“That’s not why we’re here!” Ms. Wilson shouted. She and Maribel had come through the gate and entered the back yard, finding Seth and Jacko ready to throw down. “We aren’t here to kill werewolves. We’re here to build a casino.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Jacko said, turning to Ms. Wilson. “Not as long as we’re under fire.”

“Explain,” Ms. Wilson demanded.

“See for yourself,” Jacko said, then pulled out his flashlight and shone it on the other side of the yard.

“Oh my…” Maribel began before turning away to throw up the alcohol Seth had filled her with.

Seth shook his head in disgust and looked back at Jacko. One of his men lay on the ground, ripped to shreds by what appeared to be a very large animal—at least the size of an alpha wolf. It wasn’t a good sign—it was a terrible sign, actually.

“What happened?” Seth asked somberly.

“A wolf attacked us while we were running drills,” Jacko said. “A very big wolf. It was on Chalmers there so fast we didn’t know what was happening until he was dead. We shot at it, but I don’t think we hit it. It ran into the alley, but it taunted us for a bit before it disappeared right before you got here.”

“How did you alert Ms. Wilson in all that commotion?” Seth asked. “She came and got me at your behest.”

“I have a radio,” Jacko said. “It runs directly to her cell phone. I started shouting commands and she went on the move.”

Something isn’t right,
Seth thought, surveying the scene and trying to put it together.
Something isn’t adding up here. Why was she…

His thoughts were interrupted by Maribel sidling up to him and burying her face in his side. “It’s horrible, Seth. I can’t look.”

“Go home,” he whispered. “We’ll meet about this tomorrow. We’ll get it figured out.”

“You’d better get it figured out soon,” Jacko said. “We’re going after the monster tomorrow.”

“Monster?” Seth asked. “You’re talking about my people.” Although for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why any of them would attack the security team.

“Your people?” Jacko asked. “No, mate, that wasn’t one of your people. I would recognize the description of that big-ass wolf anywhere.”

Seth didn’t like where this was going. He winced as Jacko said the name and smiled—obviously deriving some sort of sick pleasure from the name bomb he had just dropped in Seth’s lap.

“Rowan,” Jacko repeated. “It was Rowan, and that’s a fact.”

Seth gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Impossible. He’s at least a hundred miles away and has no claim to this place anymore. How would he know what was happening here, anyway?”

“I don’t know, buddy,” Jacko said. “But it was him. I always know a job before I go on it. That was your half-brother.”

“We meet at eight in the morning, sharp,” Seth said, turning to walk out of the yard. He had to process this and call William.

“I hope you have a plan, Seth,” Jacko said. “Otherwise I’m going to do my job and there won’t be any family reunions after I finish. Bank on it.”

Seth could only nod. He had signed the agreement, and there was nothing he could do to hold Jacko back. He had to figure this out before Jacko did, otherwise there would be a lot of dead wolves in Bucklin…or a very dead security team.

Chapter 9

“And that’s why I’m recommending we receive clearance from corporate to go on a special mission to hunt Rowan and his warriors down in the national forest so they won’t cause us any additional problems. I’m talking scorched earth here. No survivors. It’s my belief that they’ve placed a territorial claim on this place and they wish to defend it to the death.”

Seth leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as Jacko laid down his plan to hunt down and kill Seth’s half-brother. He still refused to believe that Rowan had been involved at all. Ever since Jacko had set foot in his town he had been uneasy and the events of the night before had done nothing to assuage those feelings.

“Very good,” a voice on the speakerphone in the middle of the table said. It was a voice with a thick Russian accent that carried power and finality with it. “I approve of the extra force needed, and of course I approve of the mission. This job is going to be a big money maker for us and I don’t want any distractions.”

Seth rubbed his temples and tried to tune out Mr. Sokolov’s voice. He only had the information Jacko was giving him—which was dubious at best.

“This is all of, course,” Mr. Sokolov continued, “with the approval of our partner in this: the City of Bucklin.”

“I think we can easily approve that,” William said. “We can’t let anything interfere with the operation we have here in Bucklin. Isn’t that right, Seth?”

Was this the moment he would stand up and create his own legacy? It was now or never—he had to say something. Seth leaned forward in his chair and placed his hands on the table, taking a deep breath as he prepared to make the statement that would probably define the rest of his life. “No.”

“Excuse me?” Mr. Sokolov asked as a murmur went through the room, coming from the city council and Sokolov’s representatives.

“Yes, Seth,” William said, leaning forward and talking through gritted teeth. “What do you mean, no? I love your brother as much as anyone else, but goddammit, he’s stepped over the line. He has to be stopped.”

Seth stood up and looked down at William with all the fury and might of an alpha. Seeing Seth’s searing intensity, William sat back and almost shrank in his chair. “Are we really going to believe everything this mercenary has to say without verifying it? When did we become so alarmist and weak that we refuse to get our hands dirty and solve problems on our own?”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Jacko asked.

“Not at all,” Seth said, giving him the most disingenuous smile he could muster. “But I don’t know you; you have to admit that. You’re asking me to take something about other wolves at face value. Something very critical, something that could shape our future. Do you really want me to believe you without verifying these facts on my own? I would be a terrible leader if I did that, wouldn’t I?”

“Now, you listen here,” Jacko said, flexing his muscles and pointing right at Seth. “You signed an agreement that gives me authority to handle security as I see fit. I’m telling you what needs to be done to protect your shitty little town and goddammit, I’m going to do it.”

“Hold on,” Mr. Sokolov said. “The mayor does have a point. Verification is required in this case, especially for their peace of mind. What do you propose, Mr. Mayor?”

“Goddammit,” Jacko started to say.

“Enough, Jacko,” Mr. Sokolov said. “I pay you to follow orders, and I’m giving you one now. Stand down.”

Jacko threw himself back in his chair and slapped the heavy conference table with enough force to rock it, but he remained silent.

“Thank you, Mr. Sokolov,” Seth said. “It’s very simple, actually. Allow me to enter the forest and find Rowan myself. I’ll talk to him and find out what his true motives are. I’ll find out if it was even him or someone who looked like him, for that matter. Allow me to do an independent investigation and report the findings back to you. I want my town to prosper as much as you want to make money. I have no reason to lie to you. I have no attachment to Rowan; I wasn’t raised with him. I simply want to see it with my own eyes and make my own judgment.”

“Very well put,” Mr. Sokolov said. “Please do your investigation and report back to me. I’ll wait to hear the results.”

“No problem,” Seth said. William threw his hands up like he was completely confused by Seth’s actions, but Seth just ignored him and leaned back in the chair. He was the victor.

“One more thing,” Mr. Sokolov said. “Please take Maribel with you. It’s time she got her hands dirty with a little field work, and I want her present while you conduct this investigation. I trust her opinion over everyone else’s.”

Seth placed his chin in his hand and thought as he stared across the table at Maribel, the girl who had managed to capture his heart so quickly and easily. Would he be able to concentrate on the mission at hand if she was out there with him? Would he be able to keep her safe? His wolf growled its approval, reasoning that she would be forced to fall for him once she had seen his mighty strength and his ability to always protect her.

“Very well,” Seth said. “I’ll keep her safe.”

“See that you do,” Mr. Sokolov said. “She’s very special to me and she’d be difficult to replace.”

Maribel had been listening to everything Seth had to say and she was already shaking her head in protest. She had too much respect to speak out against Mr. Sokolov, but finally the desire to say what was bothering her took over and she blurted it out. “I can’t go with him, Mr. Sokolov. I’d never survive. What if Rowan is rabid? He could kill me easily.”

“That’s why Seth will protect you,” Mr. Sokolov said. “He talks about a need to verify with his own eyes, correct? I need to do the same. I’m sure you understand, don’t you, Mr. Mayor?”

“I understand perfectly,” Seth said, winking at Maribel, who looked like she was going to cry.

Mr. Sokolov disconnected the call and left them all to think over what had been said. It didn’t take long for everyone to file out. Jacko looked like he was ready to murder someone, while William looked confused and upset. Ms. Wilson also looked a bit confused as she followed closely behind Jacko, glancing back at Maribel before she finally left.

Soon it was just Seth, sitting calmly in his chair as he looked at Maribel, who had not taken her eyes off the table in front of her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m going to die,” she said quietly.

“You won’t die,” he assured her. “I’ll be there and I’ll protect you. I promise.”

“Will you protect me, or try to screw me?” she asked, glaring at him.

“Excuse me?” Seth asked.

“I know you want to claim me,” she said, catching him off-guard. “I figured it out last night.”

“Whoa,” Seth said, becoming perturbed by her attitude. “You wanted me just as much as I wanted you. You were the one sitting on my lap, grinding back and forth.”