Den of Sorrows
Authors: Quinn Loftis
Den of Sorrows
Book 9
The Grey Wolves Series
By Quinn Loftis
Den of Sorrows
Book 9
The Grey Wolves Series
Published by
Quinn Loftis
© 2016 Quinn Loftis Books LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher
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Photography and Cover Design KKeeton Designs
Dedication
For all of those who have stuck with this series and loved these characters as much as I have.
Acknowledgements
There are so many people that contribute in some way, big or small, to the writing of a novel. It isn’t just the author that writes the book, but also her husband who takes care of three boys by himself, late into the evening, so that the book can be finished on time. It’s also the beta readers, who take their time to read the rough words and muddle through the non-edited work to distinguish whether it’s pure gold or something a little less shiny. It’s also the editors who proofread, proofread, and proofread some more. It’s also the personal assistant who stays late to help the author get ready for a book signing, which happens to be taking place the same week that the book needs to be completed. It’s also the each reader who emails, messages, tweets, or posts somewhere in social media that they are ready for the book, that they are excited, and that they can’t wait to see the story unfold. It takes all of them, working with the author to get the book to you, the reader.
Thank you Bo for being that husband who takes care of everything while I write and for being the editor who reads and rereads until you’re quoting Jennifer Adams like the most devoted fan. You amaze me, you humble me, and I love you.
Thank you Shelley, Jessica, Candace, Nancy, Sara-Ann, and Kelli for beta reading for me. Thank you for the comments, encouragement, questions, and suggestions. You gals are amazing and I am so thankful to have readers I trust with my work, who are willing to take the time to honestly critique it.
Thank you Melissa for getting the book edited on such a tight schedule. I know this one was cutting it close and I so appreciate you.
Thank you Brittney; you’re unfired for now. You are a fantastic PA and I’m so thankful that you’ve agreed to work for me. We’re a great team and not only do you work hard, you are also a joy to be around. Love ya, sis.
There are a few readers who have stuck out in my mind as I wrote Den of Sorrows and I want to let them know just how much their comments on excerpts and posts mean to me. Thank you Tawny Rhodes, you are such a precious woman and faithful reader and I am truly thankful for you. Thank you Michelle Crawford-Gonzalez. Thank you so much for your constant encouragement and cheers. Thank you Carolynn Parker for having some of the funniest responses to my posts; you bring a smile to my face. Susan Burdorf, you are such a light and I am so thankful to hear from you and see your posts. Thank you so much. Kaadee Bohler, thank you for all your responses to posts and excerpts and for your love of my books. What you guys don’t realize is when you show excitement about my characters and stories it makes me excited. An excited author is a much more productive author. There are many, many more but it would take more than this entire book to get them all. So thank you to all my readers. I am able to keep writing because you guys keep reading my books and telling others and that humbles me beyond words.
Thank you to God, my creator. I am found speechless because of your works and blessings. Thank you, Lord. Just, thank you so much.
Synopsis
The Romanian and Serbian Canis lupus rest in an uneasy peace. One of their own, Sally Miklos, the young and powerful gypsy healer, aids Perizada in her quest to defeat Volcan, a long forgotten nightmare returned to our world. These two packs watch as their brothers across the world, wolves from Spain, Ireland, and America, join their own forces in the battle against the evil dark fae. At the same time, the packs hope against hope that their presence might reveal a mate bond between a pack member and one of the five recently discovered gypsy healers.
While Jacque and Jen miss Sally, their longtime best friend, they have bided their time dealing with their own domestic issues. Jacque and Fane are anticipating the birth of their first child and Jen and Decebel face the challenges of caring for an infant. Both girls are eagerly awaiting Sally’s return, and have Perizada’s word that she will be back in time for the birth of Jacque’s baby.
Vasile and Alina, the Alpha pair of the Romanian pack, are enjoying this time of peace. But Vasile did not become the most powerful Alpha in centuries by being a fool. He has lived long enough to know that there is always another battle on the horizon. As long as evil exists in this world, his race must step forward and stand in the gap, shielding those who cannot protect themselves. But the battle he is anticipating is bigger than he could have ever imagined.
As Perizada has recently discovered, creatures of the night that have for so long remained hidden from the human realm, have slithered from their underground lairs and begun preying on the young and innocent. The high fae has declared war, and she expects Vasile and his wolves to be the ones to carry out the attack. The Alpha is more than happy to oblige. But with his first grandchild on the way, and the gift of five vulnerable healers coming under the wolves’ protection, he understands that he must be very careful not to place any of them in harm’s way.
Such is the job of the Alpha, protector, and provider. He and those he leads must stand as sentinels and warriors to safeguard those they love, and the humans who know nothing of the supernatural world. It will be their job to destroy the creatures that threaten to expose them all. And if they fail, the world as they know it, both human and supernatural, will never be the same.
“Some say there is no sweeter joy than being reunited with a friend after time apart. I would beg to differ. I’m pretty sure I could find something much sweeter than Sally’s big, brown-eyed mug. Like my mate, for instance, covered in chocolate and holding a blindfold with a wicked gleam in his eye. Wait, did I just say that out loud? My bad. What I meant to say was,
Welcome home, Sally
.” ~Jen
“
T
hree children are dead, Vasile. Three!” Alina snarled. His mate stood in the middle of a room splashed in red. The walls cried out with the blood of innocents. The sounds of horror that had no doubt filled this room some time earlier now filled the Romanian Alpha’s mind. It was a room that should have only seen purples and pinks and only heard nursery rhymes and giggles. But now it was a tomb. Death had come to the room of the Marshal triplets, and it had not left empty-handed.
The blankets were pulled back on each of the beds, as though the girls had simply been getting up to get a drink of water. The bodies were not violently slung or haphazardly thrown onto the floor. Despite the presence of blood splattered everywhere around the room, this wasn’t a thoughtless act or an impulsive crime. It was meticulous. It was deliberate. It was meant to be seen, as though the killers had known they would have an audience.
The three bodies of the little girls were sitting around a small play dinner table. They were posed as though having a tea party, complete with cups, saucers, and a tea kettle. The vase in the center of the table held three flowers. Blood coated the flowers, and its weight caused them to bow over, appearing to weep over the bodies sitting before them. Each of the girls held something in their laps that made it abundantly clear just who the audience was. Rosie, Jill, and Bethy each held a stuffed wolf in their delicate cold hands.
“The parents are untouched, still sleeping in their beds,” Perizada of the fae said as she appeared in the room.
“They’re not dead?” Vasile’s head snapped toward the high fae? He lowered his voice, wondering how they hadn’t woken the couple when Alina had let out her cry.
Peri shook her head. “There’s magic at work on them. They aren’t in a natural sleep.”
“What does that mean?” Alina asked, her eyes still wide with shock and her body trembling with the rage coursing through her. Vasile had only seen his mate lose her control a handful of times in their long life together; he had a feeling he was going to see it again very soon.
“It means someone, at some point, taught these damn devils how to wield black magic,” Peri bit out through clenched teeth.
Vasile’s own wolf was howling inside of him at the injustice of what they saw before them—innocent little lives ended way too early, and way too horrifically. The world had always been a dark place, but it seemed that the amount of darkness was increasing lately. After centuries of fighting, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, Vasile felt as though he and his wolves might not be enough to quell the onslaught—not this time. He lowered his head and whispered a fervent prayer to the Great Luna to watch over the souls of the three children killed that night. He asked her for wisdom and guidance and the fortitude to withstand whatever it was that they would be facing.
“There’s more,” Peri said suddenly. “But it’s not something we need to discuss here.”
“More?” Alina breathed.
Peri let out a tired sigh. “It’s bad.”
Vasile’s wolf growled within him and the human had to fight to control the rumble from exploding out of his chest. “Remove the magic from the humans. Call the authorities with an anonymous tip. And for mercy’s sake, get this damn room cleaned up. We can’t have the human police finding the girls in such a state. There would be too many questions and that’s the last thing we need right now.”
His mate started toward the bodies and he snarled, “Mina.”
“Don’t, Vasile Lupei,” she barked back. “I will hold them each one time, because the last thing their precious forms should have on this earth should not be the touch of violence. It should be one of love.”
He watched as she picked up the first girl. Alina carried her over to the bed and laid the still form gently into it. She pulled the covers up and pressed a kiss to the girl’s forehead. Vasile’s heart broke a little more as he listened to his mate begin to hum the lullaby she use to sing to their son when he was but a pup. She repeated the gesture with each of the other two girls, and when the three of them were tucked back in, his mate knelt at the foot of the last bed and bowed her head.
He walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She shook and her thoughts bombarded his mind. She wanted justice, she wanted restitution, but most of all she wanted what he couldn’t give her. She wanted them back—alive, happy, singing, playing, and having tea parties. Alina wanted Bethany, Jill, and Rosie to have birthday parties, pillow fights, sleepovers, and broken hearts from boys who didn’t return their crushes. She wanted them to have scraped knees, bad haircuts, arguments with their mom, and cry sessions with their best friends. Her heart ached with a level of pain that only a mother could feel.
“This isn’t right, Alpha,” she whispered through the tears that she could no longer hold back. “They shouldn’t have had to go through this. We failed them. We, who have the strength to protect them, failed.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly and then stood. When she turned to face him, Vasile wasn’t surprised to see her wolf eyes glowing back at him. “Tell me it won’t happen again.”
“I can’t,” he admitted.
“Then what can you tell me?”
“I won’t stop until I lay their murders’ carcasses at your feet.”
“What if there are hundreds, thousands, even?” Alina asked through narrowed eyes.
“Then, perhaps, you had better stand in a large field with lots of room, because there will be many bodies laid before you.”
“It won’t bring the girls back.”
“No. But it will prevent more from dying in such a way. That is all I can give you.”
A final tear slipped from her eye and she gave a slow nod. “Then that will have to be enough.”
P
eri worked her magic as the alpha pair dealt with their pain. She focused on removing the horrific scene while trying to keep her emotions under control. Her own anger and hurt over the deaths matched that of Alina’s, even though she had no children of her own. Peri knew how precious the young were. They were the hope of the ones who had gone before them and screwed the world up. The younger generations of any race had the ability to fix the things that had been broken and change the things that needed to be changed. To see them taken before their time was to see hope begin to dwindle until nothing but despair was left in its place. She’d given some thought to the idea of Lucian and her having young, but Peri didn’t know if she could justify bringing new innocents into the world. Then again, if good people didn’t bear children, would there be any hope at all for the future generations?
Pushing all of those thoughts aside, Peri continued her task, and once it was finished, she pulled out the cell phone her mate insisted that she carry in case something happened and he couldn’t get to her. She dialed the emergency number humans used when they needed help. “Yes, I need to report some suspicious activity. I was driving by a house on Emerson Street and saw a man climbing out of a window. He ran in the opposite direction of my car but he was dressed in dark clothing and seemed to be frantic.” She paused and listened to the emergency operator. “No, I don’t live on the street. I did note the address as 6517 Emerson Street. No, I’m not there any longer. Thank you.” She hung up and had been careful to keep the authorities from being able to track the cell phone to their location.
Peri turned back to the Alpha pair. “We need to go.” She held out her hand to both of them, and as soon as they touched her, she flashed them back to Vasile’s office at the pack mansion in Romania.
She took several slow breaths, steeling herself for the things she needed to tell them. “You should probably call Decebel and let me go get him and anyone else you might want to utilize for this problem.” She looked up at them and knew that the fear and pain was written all over her face. “I will help you when I can, but I have two brand-new healers in the snare of a demented high fae. I will need Lucian and the other pack males until Volcan is defeated. You are on your own in this. Though I think it would be wise to keep it as quiet as possible.”
Peri waited while Vasile called Decebel, Fane, Costin, and, to her surprise, Cypher, the warlock king. Once he was done making the calls, he gave her a solemn nod and she flashed, off to gather each of the males. She didn’t ask why he hadn’t included any of the females. Jen had a young infant and Jacque was expecting. News of children being murdered, drained dry by vampires, wasn’t news they could really deal with at the moment.