Red: Into the Dark (11 page)

Red

It’s been nearly a week since the attack, and I’ve all but forgotten about the threat looming over me. Yeah, Nash makes me train with him each day, but when we’re not sparring or running, we’re fucking, so it doesn’t seem so bad.

Finally, I’m not spending every moment of my life feeling afraid. He shifts and runs through the woods as a wolf. I strap on my tennis shoes and follow in my underwear. I’m sure I won’t be seen running through the woods in the nude, but I can’t get over the idea of running naked. It’s just not my style.

Though I’m having the time of my life with Nash, the truth is that I know time is running out. Nash has a plan for getting rid of Jeffrey, but it’s going to take more than just the two of us. It’s going to take help from inside the pack.

“When are we meeting them?” I ask.

“I know a few guys inside the pack who still keep in touch with me. It’s all off-the-record, of course. If the Alpha knew they were still in contact with me, they’d already be dead.”

“He’s that extreme,” I comment, but it’s not a question. We both know he is.

“Next full moon,” Nash promises. “They’ll meet us here and we’ll come up with a plan. We have to take him down quietly without causing a lot of fuss or there’s going to be a revolt.”

“Why is that such a bad thing?” I ask. “You don’t even like the pack.”

“No. I like the pack. The pack is my family, Scarlett. I don’t like the Alpha. I don’t like what he’s done to them. He’s turned a group that once was strong and carefree into horrible creatures. He’s turned them against each other and against the world. Jeffrey needs to be stopped. You need your life back and I need mine.”

He says is so adamantly that suddenly, I wonder what he sees for us in the future. Will there be one? Once Nash is back in the Silent Canines, will he still want to be my friend?

My boyfriend?

Can I even call him that?

Suddenly, I’m struck with a huge dose of insecurity as I realize that we’ve been playing house, but neither one of us has really laid it all on the line.

The truth is that I don’t want to go back to my life. Things were fine, but they were boring as fuck. My job was so mundane that I could do it in my sleep. Yeah, I worked long hours and I made good money, but at what cost?

Grandma is dead and I have no one.

No one.

I don’t have any friends to miss me. I don’t have a boyfriend to come home to. I have nothing. Now, for the first time, I have someone, and I don’t want to let him go.

I also don’t know if Nash would let me keep him.

I think
keep him
, but I know he’s not some tame wolf to be kept. He’ll always be wild, but would he be wild and still be mine?

I don’t know.

We haven’t gotten there yet.

We have a few days until the next full moon, and we spend all of our time eating, running, sparring, and fucking. He takes me every way imaginable and then he takes me just a little bit more.

He pushes me.

He stretches me.

He helps me explore just a little bit more than I’m comfortable with, just a little more than I ask for.

Somehow, that makes me feel safe. I know Nash isn’t just protecting me. He’s guiding me, too. He doesn’t want me to face Jeffrey unprepared, so he’s teaching me the skills I need to survive.

I know Nash plans to challenge my brother as the pack leader. I know he plans to kill him or die trying. Somehow, it doesn’t bother me. It may be wrong or morally apprehensible but I can’t accept the idea of Jeffrey being able to hurt anyone else.

I won’t.

“Why now?” I ask him as we rest in a clearing. We’re lying in the grass, facing the clear blue skies, and it’s just the two of us.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you going to challenge him now? Why not after Elise died?”

“A lot went down with the pack at that time. I had to leave. If I had stayed, things would have been bad. I was sick, I was weak, and I was emotionally distraught. I was in no place to lead the pack. Even if I could beat him, which I couldn’t at the time, I wouldn’t have been a good leader.”

“You never actually told me what happened with your cousin, you know.”

“Nobody knows exactly what happened with her. Jeffrey claims her death was an accident. No one really believed it, but most of the pack is too scared to say anything. I’m the one who found her. She had just died.” He pauses, his voice full of emotion, and my heart breaks just a little bit more.

He found her?

Losing someone you love is hard enough. Finding them just a few minutes too late?

How do you ever get over that?

No wonder Nash is so damaged, so broken. He’s had a hard life, a tougher time than anyone should ever have to have. Still, he’s strong. He keeps fighting. He keeps going.

“These friends of yours, the ones who want you to challenge him,” I speak slowly, trying to find the right words. “You can trust them?”

“With my life?”

“Then where have they been?”

“We meet on the full moon,” he says. “They missed the last one. The next one is tomorrow. They’ll be there. They have to.” He balls his hands into fists, then releases them, as if he’s quietly trying to convince himself that everything is going to be okay.

I place my hand on Nash’s and he loosens his grip. Everything is going to be okay. I try to convince him through my touch. I try to show him just by being here.

Everything is going to be okay and we’re going to get through this together.

“The thing about shifters is that there are still politics at play. They’ve had to lie low in order to keep as much peace as possible in the pack. They knew I planned to come back, but I needed to gather more information about Jeffrey, needed to find out more. Before you came along, I didn’t even know his real name, love. You filled in so much back story for me that now I feel like I actually have a fighting chance.”

“What do you mean? I’ve barely told you anything.”

“The kind of man who would kill his grandmother isn’t the kind of man who should be leading a pack, baby. You showed me that. Before you came, there was still part of me that wondered if I was overreacting. Part of me still wondered if I wasn’t just a little bit crazy for thinking these things. Now I know. Now I know he has to be stopped. He’s not going to go away. He can’t be ignored. He’s been so bold and he’s getting more so. I can’t help but think he has some really bad plans for the future, Scarlett. I don’t want to give him the chance to let anything happen.”

Nash’s words sink in and I close my eyes. Suddenly, the bright sky doesn’t seem so bright. He’s right and I know it. Jeffrey has some evil plans. Neither one of us knows what his end game is, but we both know it can’t be anything good.

The time has come to fight.

And fight we must.

Right now, though? Right now, I just want to think about me and Nash. I just want to think about how good he makes me feel. I just want to think about how this week, I’m on top of the world.

“You’re it,” I whisper suddenly, and tap his shoulder. Before he can move, I hop up and start running, laughing as I hurry into the woods. I’ve gotten to know my way around pretty well since I moved into Grandma’s old cabin. When she invited me to spend a few days with her here, I wanted to.

I thought we could both use the break.

I was so caught up with work and trying to get ahead that I wasn’t slowing down to just enjoy life. She knew that, though. She could tell. There was a part of her that was still looking out for me even when I was struggling to make it through.

While I don’t admit it to myself, my job was sucking my soul away one day at a time. I was good at it, for sure, but did I love it?

Not really.

Now that I’m running freely through the forest, hopping over twigs and dodging bushes and listening to tiny animals scamper away, I finally feel free.

And when Nash catches me and pushes me against a tree to kiss me hard, I realize there’s really nowhere I’d rather be.

Nash

Scarlett makes me question everything. Is that what love is? I don’t want to even start thinking about that word, but knowing I might die trying to save her doesn’t bother me. I’ve only known her a short time and already, I would do anything for her.

Anything.

Elise used to tell me that when I met the right girl, I’d know. She used to say that all my flings, all my one-night-adventures, all my youthful indiscretions would be pointless when I met “her.”

I never believed her.

And then Scarlett, my darling Red, walked into my life.

She’s wearing her cloak with her hair down over her shoulders as we walk to the meeting place. It’s time to finalize our plans. It’s time to make sure this thing is going to work.

I knew I would try to fight Jeffrey one day, but I didn’t realize that day would come so soon or mean so much. I’m the only one who can take him, but I can’t do it alone. My pack needs me and I need them now more than ever.

There will always be those wolves who don’t want to take sides, who don’t want to choose between the Alpha and the new guy, but I’ll win them over eventually.

Tonight, though, all I want to do is figure out how I can take him out quickly without losing Red.

“When we get there, don’t talk,” I warn her. “My guys are going to be nervous enough without trying to figure out what to tell you.”

“Okay,” she whispers, and I squeeze her hand in what I hope is a reassuring gesture.

“Don’t be nervous,” I tell her. “You’re going to be fine. We’re just getting together to finalize plans. There’s nothing you need to worry about. Not yet.”

“I’m not,” she says. “I know you’ll take care of me.”

My heart soars when I get her vote of confidence. I’m starting to fall hard for Scarlett and part of me hopes she’ll decide to stay if I can actually beat Jeffrey. I don’t want to get my hopes up when it comes to this fight because I know it won’t be easy.

But if I do it?

If I win?

I want her by my side.

We settle in by a small group of trees near a creek.

“Where are they?” She whispers, but I press my lips to hers to silence them. They’ll be here They have to. They let me down last month, but I know these guys and I bet they have a damn good reason for sticking close to the pack. What trouble is Jeffrey up to? What has he done now? I hold my girl and I wait, quietly, for my friends to arrive.

Soon we hear a rustle and I know they’ve shifted. We never would have heard them in wolf form. Red is the only one dressed as we peer across the little creek at the two men who are standing on the bank.

Ryder and Thorn have shown up as promised.

“Where’s Markus?” I ask, wondering where my former best friend is. Markus and I were always close, but my last few months in the pack, he’d been distant. I could sense him pulling away, even though I wasn’t sure how or why he was doing it.

Ryder and Thorn exchange heavy looks before Ryder speaks up.

“He isn’t coming,” he answers. Ryder glances at Red, then back at me. He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything else.

“Where were you last month?” I ask, suddenly feeling like we’re playing twenty questions.

“Trouble at camp,” Thorn says. His eyes are heavy.

“Alpha trouble?”

“What else would it be?” Ryder spits and crosses his arms over his chest. “Things have gotten bad, brother. Worse than they’ve ever been. You think we had it bad before Elise? Things are ten times worse now.”

“What did he do?” I ask, knowing I don’t really want to know the answer, knowing it’s going to push me over the edge.

The two men exchange weary looks again, communicating silently without words to one another. I know whatever they’re going to say is going to be heavy, but they need to just spit it out. I can’t take much more of this. I need answers and I need them now.

“Who’s the girl?” Ryder stares suspiciously at Scarlett. He eyes her up and down and even though she’s covered up with that damn cloak of hers, I want to leap in front of her and tell him that she’s mine. I can’t go all caveman or full-on wolf right now, but I want to.

Thorn chuckles and jabs Ryder in the side.

“That’s his girl, man. Damn, what a growl. Haven’t heard you get like that in a long time, Nash.”

Thorn jumps across the narrow creek and holds his hand out to Scarlett. He’s completely nude, but she manages to do an amazing job
not
looking at his junk. She has no idea how much I appreciate that, how much it means to me that she’s not oogling my buddy. She wouldn’t do that, I don’t think, but I appreciate it just the same. I’m not insecure about my body, but Thorn is hung.

Like, really hung.

“Thorn,” he says, and she shakes his hand.

“Red.” Her voice is sweet and sends a jolt of heat straight between my thighs. I want to get her back to the cabin and run my hands all over her body. I want to touch her, play with her, lick her. I want to-

“You okay, Nash?” Ryder’s voice brings me back to reality.

I look at him, but he’s eyeing my dick. I glance down. Sure enough, little me decided to say hello to everyone.

Scarlett just giggles.

“We’re ready to move forward,” Thorn says, turning to me.

“When can we make this happen?” I ask.

“There’s a gathering tomorrow,” Thorn says, his deep baritone voice sounds heavy and weighted. “Everyone is getting together for the big announcement.”

“What big announcement?” I ask. I haven’t been gone from the pack long, but I’ve been gone long enough to be completely out of the loop. It’s amazing how fast things can change before you even realize what’s happening.

Ryder raises an eyebrow.

“About Nightfall.”

“What about Nightfall?” The other pack is known for being quite tame compared to the Silent Canines, but the leader of the pack, Jordan, is no one to be trifled with. I’ve known Jordan since he was just a kid. Jordan’s father was the Alpha before him, and like his father, he ruled with a heavy hand and a kind heart.

He isn’t the kind of guy you should mess with unless you know, without a doubt, that you can win.

“He wants to merge the packs.”

“You mean he wants to attack them.”

“Basically.” Thorn says gruffly. “He’s got this idea that he’s going to get everyone all riled up and head over there.”

“It’s going to be a bloody massacre is what it’s going to be,” Ryder adds.

“You have to stop him,” Scarlett places her hand on my wrist and looks up with pleading eyes. “You can’t let him do this.” She’s insistent, and both Ryder and Thorn look at her.

“Uh, by the way, guys, she’s the Alpha’s little sister.”

Ryder and Thorn both start talking at once, both to each other and to me. One of them makes a move to grab Red, but I punch him in the face. It’s Thorn, and he goes straight down.

“What the fuck, Nash?” Ryder says angrily. “When were you going to tell us this? Why the fuck are you hanging out with the enemy?”

“Fuck me,” Thorn mumbles, climbing back to his feet, rubbing his nose, which is bleeding angrily. I shrug as I look at him, not really feeling as bad as I should. He was about to touch my girl, and
nobody
touches my girl but me.

“I just found out he had a sister,” I tell them, which is sort of true.

“Don’t worry,” Scarlett tells them, crossing her arms over her chest. “We aren’t close.”

“No offense, kid,” Thorn says, still wiping at his face. “Do you expect us to just take your word for it? How do we know you aren’t going to try to screw us over.”

I glare at him and he shrugs again.

“I said, ‘no offense.’”

“He killed my grandmother in front of me,” she says, and I’m so proud of her for being bold and blunt. That’s my girl. She’s been through hell, but she keeps moving forward. “And he wants me dead for money.”

“How much money?” Ryder says with a smirk, and Scarlett slaps him in the face. “Hey!” He rubs his cheek. “That hurt.”

“Good,” she says with a little growl. Oh yeah, that’s my girl. “Don’t be a dickwad.”

“That’s not a real word.” Thorn looks proud of himself for that one.

“We don’t have much time,” Scarlett turns back to me. “We need to stop him before he hurts that other pack, Nash. We need to beat him before he can hurt anyone else.”

She seems desperate, and I don’t blame her. Not one bit. Jeffrey has hurt a lot of people and now there’s the chance that he’ll hurt even more. She’s right. We have to take him down before it’s too late, but now I have something to lose, and I desperately don’t want to.

Scarlett is perfect and I won’t let anything happen to her. Jeffrey has already taken everything else important to me. I won’t let him take her, too.

I won’t.