TheAngryDoveAndTheAssassin (8 page)

Chapter Eight

Grey, Simon, and Toby waited with the soldiers from the Wolf pack for Chris’s word to attack. Off in the distance was their target—the warehouse that stored the kind of weapons that were used against the pack den.

All around him, Grey could feel the angry simmering from the Wolves. Not that he could blame them. Many of them had lost loved ones in the assault, and for what? So this asshole inside could make some money by selling illegal weapons to Rand and his pack.

Grey hoped that they could all keep their cool once the battle began. While his old master had been a brutal bastard, he had taught some good things to Grey. One of them was that you could be your own worst enemy in a fight. If you went in there and let your emotions get the better of you in a battle, you could lose before the fray even began.

Chris held up his hand. “You all need to keep your heads on straight when you get in there. I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be, but if you go in there all jacked up, you’re not going to be of any good to yourselves, let alone the pack.”

Proof yet again that Chris was a good Alpha. Grey was once again glad that Shane had found them and convinced them to work for Chris’s pack. While at first Grey had done it for the pay, now he was staying out of respect and loyalty for the Wolf. He turned and could see the same admiration in Simon’s gaze. Even Toby seemed impressed and that said a lot.

Chris raised his hand. “Okay, ready. Attack!”

They all moved as one, some of them in their human form, others as Wolves. There were guards stationed outside, but the pack was so quick and vicious that they didn’t have time to call out much of a warning before they were taken down and ripped apart. They left the bodies behind them and forced their way inside the warehouse.

More men were inside, and they were armed to the teeth, too. They fired off several shots. Grey dodged a bullet before he took one of an enemy down with a slice of his dagger. The man fell with a gurgling sound.

Grey didn’t know if they were suffering any casualties on their side, but he knew the arms dealers were going down fast. The ones that weren’t being killed by weapons were being mauled to death by Wolves. Soon the only one left was the leader. They all stood back and let Chris take care of him. As the Alpha, it was his right.

Chris walked up to the man. The arms dealer was small in stature and seemed to grow smaller the closer Chris got to him. For some reason, the dealer was unarmed, which was the biggest irony of all.

“Your weapons killed a lot of my people,” Chris said in a deadly calm voice.

“I swear I didn’t know what he was going to do with them,” the dealer whined.

“The fact that you know who I’m here about tells me that you’re lying,” Chris growled back.

He then shifted into his Wolf form. Grey let out a low whistle. Chris was one hell of a big Wolf. He sure wouldn’t want to tangle with him. The dealer let out a scream and covered his face, but it did little to protect him. Chris attacked, going for the man’s jugular. Within seconds, he was dead.

Chris transformed back to human, wiping away the blood from his mouth and making a face as if the blood was the foulest tasting thing in the world. “Blow this place the fuck up. Let it send a warning to anybody else who may be thinking of doing business with Rand in the future.”

“Will do, Alpha,” Toby said with a respectful nod of his head.

He and Simon began to move around the room, setting up explosives in various areas. Grey rolled his eyes since he could almost smell the giddiness wafting off the pair of them. It was like Christmas had come early or something.

Once they had the charges all in place, Toby turned to the group, “Okay, we have ten minutes to clear out of here before everything goes boom.”

“Won’t the local PD and Fire be pissed at you?” Grey asked Chris.

Chris grunted. “Let them be. It’ll teach them for not keeping a better watch on this area and letting this operation run right under their noses. They should be thanking us for shutting it down.”

They all regrouped, grabbed their wounded, then got the hell out of there. They had gotten into their vehicles and hit the freeway when a loud explosion filled the air.

* * * *

Caley continued to pace the floor of the common room as he waited for Grey and the others to return from the mission. He was worried sick about the Wolf, and time seemed to crawl by at a snail’s pace. He put a hand to his stomach as he wondered how much longer it would be.

“I don’t know how you guys do this all the time,” he said to Alger and the other mates who were gathered to wait with him.

Alger gave a shrug. “I wish I could tell you that it gets easier, but it doesn’t.”

“If anything, it gets harder,” Miles said.

“Yeah, I still feel sick whenever Wright leaves,” Braxton added.

“If this is supposed to be a pep talk, it really isn’t working, guys,” Caley groused.

“Sorry, we’re just telling you the truth,” Alger apologized with a half-smile.

“I just wish they would get back,” Caley said as he wrapped his arms around himself.

“Why are you so worked up anyway? You just met Grey,” Alger asked with a curious expression on his face.

Caley paused mid-pace. Why did he care so much? He had only known the Wolf a few days, yet Caley knew that if Grey didn’t come back, he would be devastated. Caley also knew that so long as he had Grey in his life, no other man would do. In fact, he didn’t want a life without Grey.

“I care a lot about him,” Caley finally admitted.

“How can you when you just met him?” Alger asked.

“You knew right away with Nico, so don’t act like it can’t happen,” Caley snapped.

Alger held his hands up in way of apology. “Okay, sorry. I just never thought that it would happen to somebody like you, and with a Wolf, no less.”

“Why not?”

“Well, you are a bit jaded when it comes to us,” Miles said.

Caley started to argue that one but realized that he couldn’t. He then came to the startling conclusion that he’d painted all Wolves with the same blood-coated brush just because of what had happened to his family. Here this pack had taken him in, given him his own work studio to work out of, and he had continued to shun them. All because he couldn’t let go of his past hang up. Suddenly, Caley felt like a big jerk.

“You’re right. I have been, and I shouldn’t have been that way. I’m sorry,” Caley told the Wolves in the room.

Miles gave him a hug. “It’s okay. If we had the same thing happen to our family, we would probably react the same way.”

“Maybe, but it still doesn’t make what I did right.”

“No, but at least you were man enough to admit that you were wrong. That’s more than a lot of people would do,” Braxton said.

“So, how do I make it up to the pack?” Caley asked.

“I would just start hanging out here and other places more. Don’t keep yourself cooped up in your workroom all the time,” Alger said.

“You could also offer to teach some sewing classes. I’ll bet there are a lot of pack members that would love to learn from you,” Braxton added.

“I know I would take some classes from you,” Miles cut in. “I can’t even sew on a button.”

“I would love to be able to sew my mate’s uniforms,” a female Wolf cut in.

“So would I,” another added.

“Really?” Caley asked.

Several of the Wolves in the room nodded. Caley could hardly believe it. Even though he had been a snob to them all, they still wanted to learn from him and were being friendly toward him. It just showed him how wrong he had been about them all along.

“I would love to teach you,” Caley said, surprised that he meant it.

“We’ve always liked you, Caley. We know that you were just afraid of us,” a small male Wolf said.

“What’s your name?” Caley asked.

“Fabian.”

Fabian didn’t look to be a day over twenty. He had dark hair like most of the other Wolves did, but he’d chosen to put red streaks through his, making him unique. What did make him different was his eyes weren’t brown, they were amber.

“Why aren’t you out fighting with the other soldiers?” Caley asked.

Fabian blushed. “I’m not that good at fighting. Computers are my thing. They’re teaching me to be part of the communications team, but until then, they left me here to guard the mates. Not that I would be much good if anybody were to attack. But I would protect you all with my life.”

Somehow Caley could see the small Wolf doing just that. Caley could also see himself becoming good friends with Fabian, too. “You need to come to my workshop. We could make up some really cool things to go with your hair.”

Fabian smiled. “You think so? I was thinking about updating my wardrobe. What I have now is pretty boring.”

“Trust me, when I’m done with you, boring will be the last thing people will say when they look at you.”

“Thanks, I’d like that.”

Soon after that, other Wolves came up and introduced themselves. While Caley had always had work before, he soon found himself overwhelmed by even more orders. He didn’t know how he was going to keep up until another Wolf stepped closer. This one wasn’t much bigger than Fabian. He had longer dark hair that hung in his face, and he looked so timid that it seemed he would run if Caley raised his voice to him.

“Hi, I’m Darius. I was wondering if you were looking for any help or an apprentice of sorts?”

The suggestion was so unexpected that Caley didn’t know what to say at first, then he thought about all the new orders he had and he jumped at the offer. “Of course I am. Do you have any experience?”

Darius nodded. “My grandmother taught me how to sew. I’m not as good as you, but I’m not bad, either. With you teaching me, I’m sure I could become great.”

Caley smiled, liking the young Wolf’s spunk. “Well then, consider yourself hired. You can start tomorrow morning.”

Darius grinned. “Thank you. I promise not to let you down.”

Caley turned to Alger. “Can you believe this?”

Alger cocked a brow at him. “Look what happens when you come out of your cave. You actually start making friends.”

Before Caley could think of a smartass remark to that, a flurry of activity from the front of the room alerted him to the fact that the soldiers had returned. Rushing forward, he craned his neck for any sign of Grey.

As soon as he spotted the assassin, Caley didn’t even think. He just ran forward and threw himself into Grey’s arms. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“If this is the kind of greeting I’m going to get, I’m going to go on missions more often,” Grey said, returning the embrace.

“Don’t even say that,” Caley said.

“Gag!” Simon called out.

Without even looking at the Tiger, Caley gave him a one-finger salute. He hugged Grey for a few moments longer before pulling away and looking up at him. “Come with me, I have a surprise for you.”

Grey cocked a brow. “What kind of surprise?”

“Not that kind, you dirty-minded Wolf. Although I’m not saying we won’t be doing plenty of that later on. This is something different.”

Taking Grey by the hand, Caley led him through the crowded room and back to his workshop. Once they got there, Caley couldn’t help but look at the very table where they had first made love. He would never forget that moment, even if he lived to be a thousand years old.

“What is this big surprise?” Grey asked.

“Here it is.”

Caley pulled out a new assassin uniform that he’d stayed up all night working on. Grey walked over and gently ran his fingers over it. “It’s beautiful. I think it’s the best one I’ve ever owned.”

“Of course it is. I made it. Nothing is too good for my man.”

Grey glanced up. “
Your
man?”

Caley felt a heat come over his face as he realized he’d just had a major case of slip of the tongue. “What I meant was…I just…oh, shit.”

Grey reached out and pulled Caley into an embrace, then kissed him even more senseless. Pulling back so their lips were only inches apart, Grey said, “If it’s any consolation, I feel the same way about you, Dove.”

“What are we going to do about it? We’ve just met each other. We can’t be this serious about each other already.”

“Let’s just take it one day at a time and see where it goes.”

That sounded just fine to Caley.

Chapter Nine

It’d been a month since Grey arrived at the pack, and things were going well. While they still couldn’t find Rand, they had him running in circles enough that there weren’t any more attacks on the dwelling. More importantly, he hadn’t shown his face or issued any more challenges to Chris. Grey was beginning to hope that maybe the Wolf had decided to move on and pick someplace else to terrorize.

In the meantime, he and Caley grew closer than ever. While neither one of them had said the mate word yet, Grey had a feeling it was just a matter of time and that it wouldn’t be long before the Dove moved in. Or at least, he hoped so. Every time he brought up the topic, Caley changed it. He worried that the Dove was having second thoughts. But Caley seemed as affectionate and devoted as ever. So maybe he was just having trouble making that one final step of leaving the living quarters he shared with his friends.

All-in-all, things were going pretty good. Which was why Grey should have known trouble was coming their way. In the shifter world, things never, ever stay rosy for long.

He, Simon, and Toby were on patrol when they found it. And boy, was it bad.

The three walked the perimeter of the dwelling, just checking to make sure that Rand didn’t have any of his lackeys hanging around. Not that there had been any of those lately. The last one had been a week after the warehouse bombing. Toby had taken that guy out and left him where he’d killed him as a warning to others. So far, it had worked to keep anymore from coming.