Breaking Out (29 page)

I explored, checking the loft and looking
under the straw for a possible hidden basement. I came up empty.
“
Nothing at the stable
.” I gave the sisters a mental picture
and they arrived a heartbeat later.

“
You know of more places?”
Kaera
asked, looking around. Even though it was dark, there was still
some light from the half moon and the stars. We were crouching just
inside the tree line.

“
Two.”

“
Show us.” Kaera insisted.

“
There’s a building they used for a
temporary morgue, where they kept what was left of the two dead
bodies. I’ll go first.”

The smell made me want to gag all over again,
but the building was deserted and the wolves’ remains had been
removed. The sisters joined me behind a large oak.

“
Nothing.”

“
No one else is in this vicinity. Is there
another location?” Brina asked.

We huddled in the brush of the beach I’d seen
from the boat, watching a group of wolves busily at work, loading a
large cruiser with crates. There were also a few humans with dark
hair and tanned skin, nudged onto the craft by males holding
rifles.

Ms. Turner was there, giving orders.
“Quickly. They could be at the dock already. ”

We were hidden behind some blackberry bushes
that had crawled up a tree trunk, the berries long gone. “
You go
and get the others. I’ll stay.
”

They disappeared without an argument. Wow:
first time for that.

Someone was moving through the woods, four
feet, not two. A growl froze in place. My heartbeat speeded up.
There was a lot I could do to hide myself, but I couldn’t stop my
heart from pounding in my chest.

“
Wolves in wolf form at south
location
.
Moving to north side
,” I sent, taking the
lines to the woods on the other side of beach. Sometimes running
made sense.

The WPC had no intention of being stealthy.
This was official business.

The whole crew landed on the beach as a unit.
It was pretty impressive and it scared the crap out of the wolves.
Some of them took one look at Aaron, who was working his
I-Am-The-Alpha vibe, and knelt on the sand, submitting completely
to his authority. Franklin and Farrell gathered up their weapons
while the sisters drew their swords. Jay had already shifted to his
grizzly, and brother, if I didn’t know for sure he wouldn’t kill
me, I’d be peeing myself.

I made myself useful by staying invisible and
prowling for snipers. This was WPC business and now I was playing
backup.

“What are you loading on the boat,
Staci?”

“Alpha Green, I was just coming to greet you
at our regular dock. There’s nothing of interest, here. Two of our
families are moving to the mainland for medical reasons. These are
their possessions, nothing else.”

“Tell your people to lower their weapons or
my companions will use force to disarm them. Some may get
injured.”

“We’ve done nothing wrong.” She was backing
up as she spoke.

His voice grew in resonance and volume, the
commanding power of a top alpha was difficult to ignore. “Lower
them. Now.” She waved her hand and every wolf we could see dropped
the handguns and rifles they’d been carrying. “Knives too.” The
clatter and thumps were evidence of his control.

“Where is your mate, Alpha Turner?” Ginamarie
strode closer to the boat. She was tall and olive-skinned with dark
waves that fell to her shoulders. Kaera walked beside her, an even
taller beauty.

“He…passed. I have not had a chance to
announce the tragedy.”

“The council wasn’t informed.”

“He was ill. It was a difficult time for all
of us.” She pretended to look submissive before Aaron, but we
caught the real story.

“A lie.” Brina said. She stood next to
Jay.

“Did you murder him?”

“No.” She was suddenly wide-eyed with
panic.

“Truth.”

“Did you have someone else murder him?”
Franklin asked. As Aaron’s second, he’d dealt with the worst of his
kind.

“No, of course not.” Another step
backward.

“Lie.”

“Take her into custody, Franklin.”

I heard a growl in the woods up ahead,
followed by a male’s whispered voice, “Sh. I can get a good shot at
Alpha Green from here. But you need to shut your trap.”

I moved closer, the wolf growling once more.
Hopefully the two werewolves weren’t strong enough to communicate
mentally. All I’d need was the wolf in animal form telling the
other guy he heard me sneaking around.

Just a little bit farther…

Sending a jolt of demon magic to burn his
hands the way I’d done accidentally with Brina, I hissed, “Drop
it.” He screamed and his buddy in wolf form sprang, sensing my
direction based on my voice. I easily avoided him by taking the
lines to the other side of his now kneeling and whimpering
companion.

Kaera showed up a second later, knocking the
wolf out with the hilt of her sword. “Such a racket, Charles,” she
teased.

“I’m checking for snipers.”

“Excellent. I will come along.”

She was able to follow me in complete
silence. If I could only master that skill, my
invisibility-scentless-incarnation would be perfect.
“How do you
do that?”
I decided to try sending my question. I’d never
spoken to Kaera mind to mind and wasn’t sure I could.

“
What?”

“
You don’t make any noise at all when you
walk.”

“
That’s a fae secret,” she teased.

“
Yeah…and?”

“
What is your point?”

“
I’m half fae.”

“
And yet you choose to deny it at every
turn, using your demon magic to harm my sister.”
She stood in
front of me now, blocking my path.

I winced.
“I apologized. It was an
accident.”

“
If you’d disarmed her with fae magic she
would not have been burned. She would still have been hurt and
angry, but not harmed.”

“
It was an instantaneous decision. I
reached for what was closest.”

“
No, you reached for what was most
familiar, easiest. Demon magic is naturally more destructive. You
were still angry that Tellek had harmed your kelpie. Your anger fed
your choice.”

”
Brina tells you everything?”

“
We feel each other’s hurts.”

“
I told her she could beat the crap out of
me and I wouldn’t fight back.”

“
She would not stoop to such a thing,
however I am tempted to give you a sharp reminder so that every
time you sit you might muse over the way you use your
magic.”

I laughed at the thought of her stabbing me
in the butt—not lethal, but definitely uncomfortable
. “I deserve
it.”

“
Do you know that Liam shares your ability
to destroy someone’s mind?”

“
Liam?”

“
Yes. It is a rare gift passed from King
Finvarra to two of his children: Liam and Kennet. And now only one
grandchild—you. Liam rarely uses it, although Kellaine mentioned he
destroyed the Brownlow Alpha with his magic. He is also half fae
and a healer. Talk to him.”

“
Liam sees me as a thorn in my mother’s
side. I’m Kennet’s son. He can’t forgive me for that fact.”

“
You are not your father.”

“
Everyone says that, but I see
similarities.”

“
Would I have allowed my sister to take
you to her bed if this were so?”

My face heated like a brick oven. The fae had
no filters when it came to talking about personal stuff. Good thing
Kaera couldn’t see me.
“I’m sure Kennet wasn’t so bad when he
was young. He must’ve gotten worse as an adult.
” Oh god, what
would happen if I got worse?

“
My father told me that as a child Kennet
would steal the demi fey and keep them in cages—experimenting on
how long he could deprive them of food or sunlight.”

I shuddered. The demi fey were creatures of
light and joy, surrounding themselves with beautiful flower
gardens. To think of them trapped in cages or hidden from the light
was appalling.

“
I will say this one more time and you
will believe me or no. You are not your father. You are who you
choose to be each day you rise from your bed. Make the correct
choices and I will support you in everything you do. Hurt my sister
again, and I will hurt you in return.”

“
My guilt is worse than anything you could
do.”

She laughed at me. “
You are a child and
cannot know the depths of my anger.”

“
The future is unclear for Brina and
me.”

‘
I am not speaking of what is private
between you. But if you harm her with your magic, if you treat her
without respect, I will come for you.”
All I could do was nod
in acceptance. What happened with Brina and Tellek made it
perfectly clear that I wasn’t in control of my magic or my
emotions. I needed help.

Kaera and I subdued three more wolves in wolf
form, adding them to the group of prisoners gathered on the beach.
Brina had questioned every one, weeding out those who were
responsible for the Alpha’s death or the death of the two San
Gabriel wolves and leaving the rest to go back to their
families.

The four people being herded onto the boat
had turned out to be illegal immigrants. Aaron spoke to them and
found out they were being sold as slaves to another pack. The
crates were full of liquor and guns. All of this made more work for
the WPC, but was not Triad’s problem. We’d only signed on to find
out who’d murdered the two wolves and to try and get the kelpie
territory back from the Catalina Pack.

The coast guard arrived to pick up the
contraband and take charge of the immigrants. I watched the cruiser
pull away, hoping the four men could somehow get back to their
families. Aaron had a working relationship with the coast guard’s
supernatural division. They trusted Aaron to deal with the
remaining prisoners in a way that would keep the human population
safe and still ignorant. Supernatural law was harsh for very
specific reasons, the main one being our continued ability to live
close to humans without being “outed.”

At the Catalina Pack house, Aaron and
Ginamarie presided over an impromptu trial. Ms. Turner was found
guilty of three counts of murder, including the murder of her own
husband, the alpha. Aaron found out the names of the hit men she’d
hired and called the information into the WPC offices. They’d also
be dealt with.

Ms. Turner was given the choice to die in an
honorable—for a werewolf—duel or a sudden and dishonorable death,
which would involve Franklin breaking her neck. I wasn’t surprised
she chose to have her neck snapped. It was over quickly and her
body was burned in a bonfire on the beach. Everyone in the pack,
except the smallest children had been required to watch the
execution and the burning. It was a powerful lesson.

Aaron’s next announcement was a shocker. “The
Catalina pack land is being deeded to the kelpies whose land it had
been for many centuries. All of you will receive an equal share of
its value, compliments of the WPC.”

“What about us? Where do we go?” Tension was
high.

“You’ll form into family groups and then be
placed in various packs around the state.”

“But we’ll have to start at the bottom
again.”

“You can blame your alpha and his mate. Any
one of you could have contacted the WPC to report what was going
on.”

“She would have killed us.”

“Or our families.”

“Now you and your families will be safe.
Wolves live a long time. Rising through the pack hierarchy doesn’t
take long if you prove yourselves to be loyal and skilled. I’m
placing you in packs that will welcome you, not shun you.”

There was some grumbling, but packing had
already begun when Jay, Brina and I took the lines back to our home
base in LA. Making decisions as a leader was tough, but Aaron
always seemed to know what to say to get people to do what he
wanted. Yeah, he had that Alpha Aura thing, but still… I wondered
if I’d ever have that kind of easy influence without resorting to
magic.

Garrett and his grandsire, Francois, had that
kind of charisma, but I wasn’t related to them by blood. Fin
definitely had that magical pull and he’d passed it along to Caelen
and Aedus and some of his other kids and grandkids, but not Kennet
or Fionna. Maybe that was one of the reasons they were so uptight.
Nobody wanted to listen to them unless they forced them to. Isaiah
had his own brand of charisma, so maybe there was some hope yet. It
sure seemed to make giving orders easier.

I took off my very lived-in and smelly
clothes and stepped into the shower. Jay and Brina had already
showered and had gone to look at an apartment in the building next
door. She’d need her own space now that she was an official part of
the team. Brina and I hadn’t really spoken since we’d left the
island, except for me to agree to her joining Triad. I owed her
that much, and Jay was right. In the real world, a fae warrior in
your crew was the shit. But when had my life ever been normal?

A pleasant idea came to mind. If the
apartment next door had two bedrooms I’d send Ivy over there, too.
That way Jay could take over Ivy’s room and the girls could be
roomies. Then we wouldn’t have to hear complaints about the mess I
made.

As long as the two stubborn females didn’t
kill each other.

Man this being a leader thing was so not what
I’d envisioned. At first all I’d wanted was to explore the state,
practicing my magic once in a while, staying low-key. Then a week
before my birthday, Aaron had invited me over for a chat. I’d
broached the idea of taking off on my own with Jay and he’d been
supportive, offering to sponsor me if I’d consider helping out a
friend who was having some trouble. I’d called him from our first
stop after the Sierras and he’d arranged the appointment with Ms.
Turner.