Bound to the Prime (Bound to the Pack, #3) (10 page)

“So, I must plan to ambush her with a ring? And she would prefer this to occur, specifically,
during
a meal? One that should also be expensive?” The look my sister gave me at my questions could have cut stone.

Some time later Kris threw her hands up in frustration and glared at me as if I were deliberately misunderstanding. “I can’t believe you’re making it this difficult. Is this your attempt at humor? No? Then pay attention, it isn’t this hard!”

“Apparently it is,” I sighed, rubbing my eyes. We’d been talking about this for over an hour and I was developing quite the headache.

“Fine. Look. You just show up where and when I tell you, say what I say, and do your best to do it right.” She continued to glare at me, she clearly felt I was being intentionally difficult.

“She’s everything to me and this is important to her. I need to do this the correct way.” I looked at my sister pleadingly and she surprised me by chuckling.

“It’s a good thing you really do love her, she’ll be happy no matter what you do.”

“Then why go through all the trouble of...” Kristen’s glare cut me off and answered my unfinished question. Just because Jen would be happy regardless of how I proposed didn’t mean I shouldn’t do my best to do it properly.

A few taps at the door were followed almost immediately by Jen poking her head inside. Seeing that Kris and I were both here and awake she moved into the room wrapped in her blanket, sat beside me, and rested her head on my arm.

“Was wondering where you disappeared to,” she mumbled quietly, eyes closed. “My clothes too. Laundry?”

“Yeah,” Kris smiled at Jen as she spoke, though Jen never opened her eyes to see it. In fact, it looked as if she was already well on her way to falling asleep again.

“As adorable as the two of you are, I think it’s past time for us to figure out what, if anything, we should be doing about Troy.” Kris stood as she spoke and moved to the hall. “I’ll go grab our clothes, they should be dry by now.”

Jen took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then opened her eyes and pulled away reluctantly. “My turn for a shower. I’ll be quick, I’m still a bit hungry from your little draining trick last night.”

I caught her hand as she stood and began to walk towards the bathroom. A quick tug and she dropped easily onto my easily onto my lap, laughing softly. Wrapping my arms around her I held her close, savoring the feel of having her right there.

“Mmm,” she sighed, resting her head under my chin. She adjusted herself slightly in my lap, sparking memories of the morning’s activities and getting a more physical response from me as well. The reaction was obvious to her as well, she chuckled mischievously and began repeating her adjustments on my lap.

She moved slowly, rhythmically, and quickly had my heart racing. The towel did little to hide my obvious desire but before I could act upon it in the slightest, the sounds of Kristen’s return reached us and Jen slowed to a stop.

“Time for that shower,” she smiled slyly as she stood. “I’ll be right back.” She leaned in and gave me a quick kiss as she caressed the bulge under the towel with the barest whisper of a touch.

Kris entered and paused, taking in the scene just as Jen stepped away. Rolling her eyes she tossed my clothes at me, put Jen’s clothes on the bureau, and walked back out into the hallway. A soft click followed as she went into Jen’s room to change, shutting the door behind her.

A short time later the three of us sat, clean, dressed, and ready to plan the end of Troy. Jen’s father had gone out to pick up some food for us all and would be returning shortly, though he wouldn’t be participating in the planning.

He seemed to be a good man, for a human, but this was outside his realm of experience. He took it all in stride when Jen had asked for privacy. He trusted her and her judgement and he knew she would ask him for help, if needed.

Unfortunately, hours later, we still had nothing.

“I still say the only option is to use me as bait,” Kris said yet again. “We have
zero
idea what he’s planning, when it’ll happen, or where it will be.”

“We aren’t using you as bait,” I sighed.

Jen sat in the chair beside me, elbows on the table and her hands cradling her chin as she stared off blankly in concentration. Seeming to come out of a daze she leaned back and rubbed her eyes.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just call him?” She continued, changing the tone of her voice to sound unintelligent. “Um, yeah, hey Troy! We want to, like, know where you are so’s we can come by and stop you ‘n stuff. KayThanksByeeee!!!”

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” Kris looked thoughtful.

“Kris,” Jen chuckled, “it was a joke, I wasn’t serious.”

“I know.” Kris shrugged then took her phone out. “But since our only other idea is one we won’t use this is, sadly, the next best thing we came up with after a full day of trying.” She dialed his number and held the phone to her ear.

None of us really expected him to answer, yet he shocked us all by doing just that.

“Hello Troy, you piece of shit.” Kris’s face darkened as she spoke.

“Hello my dear. You sound well.” Troy’s oily voice was barely audible to me, even with my enhanced senses.

“Don’t call me that, asshole.” Kris’s voice was strained, her teeth bared as if she were about to attack. “You tried to kill me. Tell me where you are so I can return the favor.”

“I’ll be at the mine in Upstate New York. Kristen, you remember where it was, yes?” Troy answered simply and we all stared at each other in shock. Had he really just told us where to find him? It had to be a trap. “Can I expect to see you all there tomorrow then? Say, late afternoon or early evening?”

“We’ll be there,” Kristen hissed, “and we’ll bury you.” She ended the call, breathing heavily and glaring at the wall.

“I don’t believe that worked. It
has
to be a trap.” Jen’s voice was low, strained.

“Well, let’s go spring it,” I spoke with determination.

One way or the other this was the end.

T
he crunching under the tires slowed to a stop as we reached our destination. A light layer of snow covered the loose gravel of the dirt road leading to what appeared to be a mobile office for the mine.

“ I think I’m just about ready to take a few months off from being in cars.” Jen stretched in the passenger seat. “In the past two weeks we’ve done what? A few thousand miles up and down the east coast and Canada?”

“Something like that,” Kris replied absently as she looked around.

There didn’t seem to be anyone around, shifter or human, though there were several trails of footprints leading to and from the small building. It may have all been made by one person, Troy, but there was no way to verify that until I was able to get a closer look.

“We’ll, we’re here,” Jen said as she opened her door. “Let’s get this over with.”

“You’re staying in the car,” I growled. “You need to stay safe.”

She just laughed as she moved out of the vehicle. My mate! Laughed at me! “I’m serious...”

“Give over Liam,” Kris spoke softly. “She’s not going to be left behind and she’s far from defenseless.”

Kris got out of the car as well and I followed suit. We walked towards the office and had our suspicions confirmed: The tracks were all carrying Troy’s scent. I examined them and quickly found the freshest set leading away.

“There,” I pointed at the trail, “he went that way maybe half an hour ago.” I began to slowly lead the way along the path Troy had taken, it was well traveled; he had clearly walked to and from wherever this led several times.

As the trail turned upward I couldn’t help but think about the oddity of the tracks themselves. They were definitely all from Troy, yet every last impression was from a booted foot. There wasn’t a single cougar imprint among them.

All alone, miles from humans, and he hadn’t once shifted.

There was something unnatural about that, literally. It was in our nature to spend almost equal time in each of our farms. Even Kris, who was well integrated into human society, used to frequently spend her weekends running around the mountains purely in her wolf form.

Troy was truly broken.

As if thoughts of him were a cue the breeze shifted slightly, bringing with it his scent. I motioned behind me for quiet as we slowed to a more cautious pace and approached the crest of the small hill we had been climbing.

Troy stood, facing away from us at the edge of a massive hole that stretched around to either side and off into the distance. A huge wound in the earth that was littered with piles of loose dirt and boulders. Gigantic human machines dotted the area, all a uniform yellow.

Straining my senses I searched around for any signs of an ambush or trap and found nothing. The only tracks and scents were from Troy, the only disturbed snow was the path we had followed. The only sounds that reached my ears were the sounds of our breathing and the sigh of the wind moving through the trees.

It was a curiously serene location for what was to come. It was time to spring the trap.

I stood slowly, Kris and Jen following suit. Jen’s worry spiked, quickly quashed by resolve; Kris’s anger was a constant burn just below the surface. Together we moved forward.

“I thought you all would be arriving around now.” Troy spoke without turning to face us. “Welcome one and all to my clan’s ancestral home.” He gestured with both hands towards the mine.

“So
this
is why you originally came to New Hampshire.” I spoke softly, some anger transferring from Troy to the humans that had destroyed that which had once been sacred to all shifters. “Humans and their greed.”

“It’s all Troy’s fault,” Jen spoke angrily beside me. “He was the one that told the humans about this place. About the gold.”

Troy inclined his head, still not turning to face us, but not denying the accusation either. He simply stood watching the sun across the chasm slowly making its way to the horizon.

“It’s where he got all of his money.” Jen continued, her voice growing firmer as outrage flared within her. The scent of it was sharp and heavy, even Troy reacted to it by slouching slightly.

“He sold out his clan, had them all
murdered
, just for the money to have his human comforts.”

“Almost right Jen.” Troy finally twisted to face us. His eyes were red rimmed, bloodshot, and burned with a feral intensity that didn’t affect his tone. “I didn’t do it for the money. I did it for love. The money was just a pleasant bonus.”

Troy’s face darkened as Kris laughed a wicked laugh. “Love? What the hell do
you
know about love?!”

“I sacrificed
everything
for love!” Spittle flew from his mouth as he ranted, his wild eyes trying to burn my sister where she stood.

“And then,” Jen spoke darkly, “your ‘love’ sacrificed you, didn’t she.
She
was in it for the money.”

“I SACRIFICED
EVERYTHING
!!!” Troy’s yell echoed off of the bare rock walls in the mine. The reverberating yells crashed into and over themselves to create a cacophony out of his words that washed over us. For the first time I could remember, his eyes matched his voice.

“Love isn’t about sacrificing others.” Kris returned Troy’s glare with equal intensity. “It is about
self
sacrifice. Something you know nothing about.”

“Enough.” Troy growled through his clenched teeth. “This ends here, where it all began. I have come full circle.”

“Well I don’t know about all of that.” A new voice spoke and I spun around to find a large group of men standing a bit further down the hill. All of them had guns and they were all pointed our way. A man took a step forward from near the center of their line.

“But you were right about this ending here.” He looked around at all of us on the hill, then focused on Troy. “You think we’d just let you get away with it? That trap you led my boys into down in West Virginia? Lost a lot of good men there. Rest of us are here now to make sure you pay for it.”

“That was no trap,” Troy waved a hand dismissively. “And I paid you all
very
well for it already. Maybe if your men had been better trained they could have handled two wolves.”

“Wasn’t just no wolves what done that,” one of the older men spoke. “My boy was
torn apart
. You ‘bout to get the same!” He finished angrily and spat to the side, glaring at Troy.

“Right.” The first man looked to the others of his group then back to us. “It’s a good thing one of the survivors from that.. incident had the presence of mind to follow your truck. In any event, time to die. Monsters.”

A gunshot rang out, then another, and soon they were all firing. I dove between the men and Jen, reaching out to grab my sister as well, but I wasn’t fast enough.

Kris fell to the ground clutching her chest and red blossomed from her leg. I wanted to get to her but Jen had been hit as well. The sharp sting of her pain filled my nose as tears welled in her eyes, her right hand holding her left shoulder as I brought her to the ground and shielded her with my own body.

I grunted as a bullet hit my back, another my arm, and a third again in my back. I was too large a target to miss.

Steeling myself against the pain I looked into Jen’s eyes. My mate, my love. I would do everything I could to protect her, even if it cost me my life.

“I love you,” she said simply.

“I love you too.” I leaned down and kissed her softly, trying to put every ounce of the love I felt for her into it. Puffs of dirt and snow popped around us as bullets continued to fly, I lost count of the ones that had hit me.

The gunfire slowed before finally coming to a stop. I had been hit too many times and felt light headed. There was no single point of pain, my entire body felt on fire. Jen was alive though, that was all that mattered.

“Use my energy,” she whispered and winced. The pain in her shoulder was bothering her more than she was letting on.

“What?” It was getting hard to see, harder to think.

“My energy!”