Haunted Wolves: Green Pines, Book 2 (10 page)

As much as he wanted to give her a moment, instinct wouldn’t allow it. Colin finished erasing any proof of their presences as best he could, and was just easing the meat locker shut when he heard angry male voices.

Then Lorelei shouted his name.

Adrenaline surged. He didn’t remember turning around, but he was lunging into the main room in the next moment, barely aware of the interlopers, all of his focus on getting to Lorelei.

Getting in
front
of Lorelei.

It left him facing off against four angry wolves, and the tallest spoke. “Whatever ideas you’re cooking up in your head, forget it. We don’t need you here.”

Colin wanted to edge away, to force Lorelei farther from the newcomers, but he couldn’t show any hint of retreat. He
couldn’t
, not with four-on-one odds and the men facing him bristling with aggression.

But not strength. The tallest one was also the strongest, an alpha wolf with enough magic to hold loyalty, but the others lacked that spark of dominance. If Colin had to, he was confident he could take out all of them. He relished the idea of a purely physical fight.

Except he wasn’t alone, and he couldn’t fight with Lorelei right behind him. Colin spread both arms, showing empty hands and making a wall between Lorelei and the other wolves. “We’re just passing through.”

“Just passing through, and happening to visit every place Christian Peters called his?”

The fact that they’d been tailed explained his unease, but not why he hadn’t noticed them. “You always follow strangers around town?”

“When they look like they might want to set up shop in my city? Hell, yes.”

Colin didn’t take his gaze from the leader as he addressed Lorelei. “Do you recognize any of them?”

“Maybe.” She eased closer. “They’re Madisons, I think. The family pack downtown?”

He could feel her against his back, smashing against his control. He’d never been cornered like this, facing an enemy he couldn’t simply fling himself against because he had to worry about what happened if one slipped past him.

“I’m an enforcer,” he said carefully, taking a step forward and praying Lorelei didn’t follow him. He needed room to maneuver, and a clear head. If he attacked now, with the need to protect boiling in his blood, he’d leave corpses on the ground where there could have been allies. “We’re headed out of town this afternoon. We just had to make sure Peters and his men were gone for good.”

The wolf in charge eyed him suspiciously, but he made no threatening moves. “He’s gone. Vanished weeks ago.”

This was a moment where a line could be drawn. If he’d been on his own, he might have announced their sanctuary, backed it with bluster and dominance and his fists, if necessary. Now was the time for caution. Diplomacy.

Jay’s strengths, but Colin tried. “Peters was a sadistic, murderous bastard, and got what comes to that type.” He inclined his head toward the room with its fridge and its bodies. “And it looks like he gave the same to a few of his followers before he vanished. That’s all we wanted to know. Now that we do, we’re gone.”

“You’d only know what became of him if you’d done it.” The man took a step forward, rounding Colin to look at Lorelei. “You were one of his. I remember you.”

Colin thought he heard the audible
snap
that accompanied the destruction of his self-control. Only in retrospect, because though time had slowed, he’d lost a few vital seconds. The rage-blanked ones that led to him having his hand around the leader’s throat, fingers digging in so tight the man was on his toes, wheezing, and Colin’s arm trembled with the effort it took not to close his hand and tear out the man’s windpipe.

“Colin.” Lorelei was clawing at his arm, her voice shaking. “Colin, no. Please don’t.”

Taking a deep breath didn’t help, not when it dragged her scent into his lungs, along with those of his enemies. “Back,” he snarled at the other three wolves. “Get back.”

They scrambled away—even Lorelei, before she covered her face with her hands and turned away.

Christ. Colin focused on relaxing his hand, on easing his grip, one finger at a time. The wolf stumbled, and Colin let him go, not pressing his advantage but not retreating either. “You don’t talk to her. You talk to me.” Almost the same words Jay had used to Christian’s men, but they sounded hollow from Colin. He’d probably scared her worse than they had.

The wolf didn’t speak again—hell, for all Colin knew, he couldn’t. He and his packmates went for the door, slamming the warped metal behind them with a clang that echoed through the empty warehouse.

The echoes faded into silence, a silence broken only by Lorelei’s quiet sobs.

Colin started toward her then stopped, scrubbing his hand against his jeans. He could still feel the other wolf’s pulse throbbing underneath his hand, the frantic, terrified rhythm. He could have shoved them all off with nothing but words and power, but the bastard had taken a step toward Lorelei, and Colin had reacted like a killer.

Her crying tore at his heart. “Lorelei?”

She shook her head. “We should go. Can we go?”

They’d done all they could here, and even if they hadn’t, his answer would have been the same. “Yeah. We can go.”

Chapter Seven

Five minutes after climbing out of Fletcher’s car and watching Colin drive away, Lorelei was still standing outside the diner, her hands clenched into fists. She weighed the possibility of having to face people inside versus the indignity of climbing up the fire escape.

Walking through the front door barely won.

Caught between lunch and dinner, the diner was mostly deserted. A few older residents of Clover glanced up from coffee or newspapers when the bells above the door chimed, but most turned their attention to their meals as she headed for the long counter at the back of the restaurant.

Eden’s father, Austin, smiled at her approach and tossed a towel over his shoulder. “Lorelei, sweetheart. Can I get you something to eat? Some pie?”

He took such care with them, all the time, walking the fine line between solicitous courtesy and smothering pressure. Lorelei smiled through her tension and cleared her throat. “I need to see Zack. Is he here?”

“Upstairs.” Austin waved her around the counter. “Follow the hammering sound. Last I looked, he was building something for Mae and Kaley.”

The narrow stairwell with its close walls almost blocked out the sound of woodwork. When she reached the top, she traced the noise to a door at the end of the hall. She knocked, but pushed open the door without waiting for an answer.

Zack stood inside, bent over a makeshift worktable made from an old door balanced across two sawhorses. A small twin bed tucked in the corner was covered in plastic, sawed boards of various sizes and boxes of nails, with tools spilling onto the floor. A chaotic mess, nothing like the neat work area Zack had kept in Memphis—but at least he was on his feet and doing something.

It beat the hell out of staring at the wall.

She closed the door with more force than necessary. “Colin and I just got back from Memphis. I thought you should know.”

Zack’s knuckles turned white where he gripped the hammer. “They shouldn’t have dragged you there.”

“Someone had to go.”

That made him flinch, but he tried to hide it behind that blank mask. “Are you all right?”

“Me? I’m fine.” She circled the table and jerked the hammer from his hand. “I’ve even got some good news. Jonas is dead.”

Zack stilled, his gaze wildly searching her face. “How?”

God, he couldn’t even work up any
relief
. “Christian. Everyone who didn’t come with him when he attacked us. He killed them all and put them in one of his freezers.”

A shudder worked through Zack, and he squeezed his eyes shut. “So they were dead all along. Dead since before—” He bit off the word and clenched his jaw.

“That’s right. There’s no one left there, no one trying to hurt us.” She dropped the hammer on the makeshift table and took a deep breath. “So stay away from her.”

Zack’s eyes flew open. “Stay away from who?”

Lorelei barely managed not to grind her teeth. “Don’t give me that, Zack. I saw her climbing out your window yesterday. And I know that was Kaley, not you, but you need to
understand
.”

He shoved a hand through his hair with a rough growl. “She was shaken up, that’s all. It’s habit. She’ll get over it once she starts to trust Eden and Jay.”

She hadn’t told him the truth before because it had seemed pointless. But now, in the face of his denial, it was all Lorelei could do not to shake him. The truth would hurt, but he needed it. He
needed
it.

“The night that Christian took you, he didn’t just take you,” she began. “He had his men pick us up, Kaley and me. You didn’t know because you were already unconscious.”

Memories rose up, the smell of blood instead of fresh wood and the sounds of fists and boots on flesh. Lorelei swayed, and she braced both hands on the worktable before continuing. “Kaley put herself between you and Christian, but all I could think was that even if you were dead, you’d never forgive me for not dragging her ass out of there before he killed her too. So I did.”

Zack dropped his hand and stared at her, the tangle of emotions behind his eyes as conflicted as his power—hurt and bleeding. “Jesus Christ, Lorelei, why didn’t you say anything?”

“To what end?” she asked helplessly. “I wouldn’t be telling you now, except you don’t seem to get it.” And how could she make him? “She would have died trying to protect you, even if it was too late. You can’t let her down easy. You have to make it stick, or she’ll be climbing right back in your window.”

“Easy? You think this is
easy
?” His laugh was torn up too. Jagged. “I’ve already hurt her more than I can stand to and keep on breathing. I don’t have it in me to kick her harder.”

His pain was palpable, rolling through the room like fog, and Lorelei steeled herself against it. “You have to, for her sake. If you can’t be there, all the way, then you need to cut ties—for now. And maybe you’re right. Maybe she’ll get over you.”

“She has to.” He curled his hands into fists and pressed them to the banged up old door. His head fell forward, shaggy hair in need of a cut shielding his eyes. “I swear to God, Lorelei, I haven’t crossed the line with her.”

“I know you better than that.” It was the same assurance he always gave when it came to Kaley, and Lorelei’s response was almost a habit by now. “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re right.” He hadn’t moved, and she could trace his tension in his arms and shoulders and feel it in the magic he couldn’t quite choke down. “She needs to turn to Jay and Eden. She needs to accept them as her alphas, and maybe she never will if I’m here.”

“That isn’t what I said,” Lorelei argued. “If you leave, she’ll follow you. That’s my point.”

Zack lifted his head, and his eyes were tired. Maybe broken. “I know. I have to kick her.”

“You could tell her the truth,” Lorelei whispered. “She’s alpha, after all. If you tell her she’s hurting you, she’ll do anything to—”

“I get it,” Zack bit off. “But it’s not the truth.”

How could it not be? She’d watched him struggle, torn between the weight of responsibility and the need to shield Kaley from pain. He’d pushed and pushed, but never enough. But they’d all been through so much. Maybe he couldn’t, literally
could not
bring himself to harm the girl further, to extinguish her spark, the fire even Christian Peters hadn’t been able to crush out.

Lorelei knew her place. An alpha’s job was to protect. As a beta, it was up to her to manage, in whatever way necessary. She’d cleaned up blood, buried bodies. Traded herself for a few nights’ peace and safety for the others.

Next to that, having Kaley despise her over this seemed almost noble.

“I’ll handle it,” she told him.

Zack ground his teeth together so hard she heard it. “No. I put too much on you. You’ve taken so much…” He looked away again, his voice dropping. “I’m sorry, Lorelei. God, I’m so sorry for all of it. I keep thinking I can put myself back together. All the pieces have to be here, I just can’t make them fit.”

“It’s okay. They’re all there, and you’ll put them together.” She swept up the hammer, held it out to him and eyed the project on the table. “What are you building?”

He blinked, but not at her. Past her, his gaze fixing on the empty spot to her left for a moment too long. His lips parted as if he was about to say something, then flattened as he jerked his attention to her and grabbed the hammer. “Soap molds,” he said, his tone eerily mundane.

Hallucinations. In the first days after his return from captivity at Christian’s hands, Zack had been good at hiding it. No more than momentary lapses then, flashes of misplaced attention that would have been easy for most people to overlook. But she’d seen it before.

She’d lived it before.

Lorelei grasped both of his arms and peered up at him. “You can get better. I did. We still need you, Zack.”

He smiled at her, slow and unsteady, like it hurt. “Soap molds,” he repeated. “I remember Mae saying she wanted some with hinges.” He evaded Lorelei’s gaze, focusing on her forehead. “Soap molds are easier to put together than people. I need to start small.”