Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3) (20 page)

Jade, Tommy, the girls, they hadn’t gotten out yet, but still, I didn’t like what I was seeing, and I could tell that the group with me didn’t like it either.

A man, not much older than me, approached the truck, and Jade rolled her window down.  She said something to him, something that made him stiffen, a
nd his hands curled into fists.

Everyone else froze.  The talking, the arguing, all of it just stopped.

Dominic nudged my side and whimpered quietly.  He swung his head toward the truck.  I knew exactly what he wanted.  Damn, we all wanted to move in, but the kids ...

I thought I heard something, and I froze.  So did the others.  And a half second later, I knew I heard something.  A light, almost delicate, thump, and then another, and then another, all coming from right behind us.

I exchanged a quick look with the others, and as a unit, we pivoted, teeth bared and deadly growls rolling out.

~ JADE ~

Dead silence.  My stomach lurched.  Everyone outside was frozen, staring at me.  And that infectious, friendly smile on the guy standing at my window was changing into something not so friendly — something dark.

He leaned in closer to the window and the look on his face was hard.  The door latch popped and he yanked it open.  “Get out.”

I glanced at Tommy.  He gave me a small nod, and I turned back to the guy.  “Um, yeah, sure.  Is my dad here?”

“Depends,” he said, and gestured for me to get out.

“Depends on what?” I asked, as I swung my legs around to hop down.  I guessed I wasn’t moving fast enough for him because his hands circled my waist and he lifted me out of the truck.

Tommy growled.  It was low and rough and fierce, and by the time my feet hit the ground, he was already out of the truck and beside me.
His hand closed around my wrist, yanking me away from the smiley face guy.

“Tommy, I’m good,” I said, attempting, and failing, to shake off his too tight grip.  “Seriously, let go.  I’m good.”

He didn’t let go, but did loosen up a little.  They stared off for an angry moment, and I was uncomfortably aware of the werecougars moving in around us.  I also thought I heard a whimper coming from where I’d spotted Aidan, but it was hard to be sure.  My blood was pumping fast, my heart, pounding in my ears, and my head was starting to get a little fuzzy from the continuous stream of adrenaline that flooded through me as my inner-wolf fought to come out.

“I want to see my dad,” I said, and tried to sound demanding.  It probably would have been more convincing if I wasn’t so frazzled.  “He told me to come here if I changed my mind.”

The guy raised his eyebrows and his green eyes sparkled with cold amusement. “I bet he told you to kill some of my pack mates and bring them with you, too.”

“No,” I said shortly, staring first at him, then at Tommy.  We exchanged a look that I didn’t understand and I shrugged helplessly.  “Look, it was either me or them.”
I sighed, looking back to the guy.  “I didn’t have much of a choice.  But I figured you guys might want to bury them or something so I brought them.”

“How considerate of you.”

I shook my head in response and found myself looking at Tommy again.  He turned his head and looked at me briefly, and I hoped he caught the huge
what the hell?
in my expression.  But if he did, he ignored it.

The men were still inching in and I eased back, shaking off Tommy’s hand.  No one else was talking.  Not even a whispered sound had passed amongst the werecougars since I’d mentioned my name.

The guy, who I assumed was the official werecougars’ spokesperson, let out an assumed chuckle.  He looked like he was about to say something I wasn’t going to like, but froze when Tommy grumbled, “She brought a peace offering.”

Tommy glanced at the SUV and waved a hand, then leaned back against the truck, folding his arms over his chest, and watched the proceedings with what looked like detached interest.

Erika was the first to come out.  She didn’t hesitate, strutting toward us, chin high and shoulders back.  Laura was next and attached to her was one of the werecougars.  She was giggling and smiling and if I hadn’t known any better, I would have sworn she was actually into the guy.

One by one, my females came forward, smiling, offering little waves.  They pushed their way into the circle of men surrounding me and Tommy and the truck.  But the two werecougars we’d brought back didn’t follow them.  They paused and blended into the circle around us.

And still not a sound from the others.  They were detached.  Quiet.  Watching.  It was ... confusing.  I licked my lips.

I was suddenly hoping that Aidan had found the children.  That any second now the SUV would speed away and my pack would descend on the werecougars, because this quietness
... I didn’t know what to make of it.  It was worse than seeing aggression.  At least I would have known how to deal with that.

I turned to face the smiley face guy, who was looking at me thoughtfully.  “What did you change your mind about?”

I blinked and shook my head, thrown off for a second.  “Oh,” I said, and glanced back at the women.  “I’m ready to make the deal.  I’m giving you some of our females.  In exchange, you all stay the hell out of Dog Mountain.”

“Thought they were the peace offering,” he said, eyeing me carefully, if not critically.

“Some are,” I said, and shrugged. “But you don’t get them all until I get confirmation from my dad that the deal is still on the table.”

He cocked his head slightly, shifting his gaze toward the woods, and then he leaned in close to my ear and said, “Did you hear that?”

I did.  It had sounded like a strangled whimper.  And a snarl.  A vicious snarl that ended in a surprised yip.  More whimpering, some growls.  Cracks and creaks and crunches.  Leaves crumbling.  Twigs snapping.  The sounds came from every direction.  But I looked at him blankly and asked, “Did I hear what?

He was smiling again.  The nice one.  The infectious one.  And it made my blood run cold as ice.  “That, Jade Shaw,” he said, and his smile grew wider, “is the sound of your pack dying.”

~ AIDAN ~

My father wasn’t a thinker.  He had a problem, he fixed it — usually with unnecessary violence — but he didn’t think about it.  He acted.  And as much as that had bothered me in the past, right then I was seeing the wisdom in his impulsiveness.

I’d taken after my mom, though.  I liked to have a plan.  I liked to know what I was getting into.  But the thing with having a plan was that you think you’ve got the situation covered.  You lose that rush that keeps you on your toes.  You miss things.  You get cocky.  And sometimes planning and strategizing and overthinking gets you to a place that you can’t see a way out of.

And right then, I was in that place.

The wolves around me looked a little confused about what they were supposed to do.  Dominic was crouched down next to me, a continuous growl rumbling from his chest.  Cougars were falling from the trees, surrounding us.

I remembered, with a sharp feeling of alarm, what Jade had said about the claw marks in the trees.  She’d known.  She’d told us.  We’d even discussed it.  And in all the planning and all the scouting, no one had paid attention to it.

They’d known we were coming. 
Dammit
!  They’d probably been watching us the whole time while we scouted out the location.  I should have known they’d have some kind of security in place.  Jeff wasn’t stupid.  I should have …

No.
  I wouldn’t think about that.  I couldn’t think about that.  Because if I thought about it, I’d realize that they’d been hiding in the trees all this time and that we were probably staggeringly outnumbered.  And if I thought about that, if I let those numbers get into my head, I’d start to worry about Jade and my females who were trapped and surrounded and alone in there.

The wolves in my group were pacing, circling, dodging, growling.  Waiting for the signal.  Waiting for my command that the fight was on.

I let instinct take over.  I channeled my scent and gave the signal to attack — to fight.

And they did.

One of the wolves let out a full-out vicious snarl, and then everything happened quickly.  Wolves moved, cougars pounced, and all I could do was hope that the kids were tucked safely in that cabin and they stayed put.

More whisper soft thumps.  Wolves and cougars cried and screamed and snarled.  It came from everywhere all at once.

Something dropped beside me and I pivoted, crouching down, and bared my teeth.  I felt an ugly mix of anger and hatred churn within my belly, and I growled at the beast as it stalked toward me, with all the confident grace of a house cat.

It hissed.  I snarled.  It circled right.  I circled left.  I launched forward, and it slipped back.  Playing with me.

My blood was pumping hard and fast, and a furious energy twisted and curled throughout my body.  The sounds of flesh ripping, tearing, pulling, pounded through my ears.  Hisses tormented me, a growl filled my chest.  I could almost taste the blood that was being spilled all around me.

The cat lunged for me, a blur of beige in the colorful forest, and I twisted and dropped to my belly.

The cougar missed me, landing with a hard thump to my right — not far away, but not on top of me, either.  He let out a wail, and spun around.  His eyes were wild and his lips were curled back.

I slammed into its body, hard enough to knock it down to the ground.  I didn’t have long once he was down; the shock of the impact wouldn’t keep the beast at bay for more than a second or two.  It flinched, trying to shimmy and roll back to its feet, but I didn’t let him.  I pushed off, landing on top of him and bit down hard.  In a second, the cougar went limp, falling face down, into the dirt.

I shot up quickly, scanning the area around us.  More wolves were joining our group and seeing them sent a surge of hope through me.  If they were joining, maybe,
maybe,
there hadn’t been that many cougars in the trees.

A high pitched screech came from my le
ft, and I spun toward the sound.  A bird — a large, black bird — dove at me.  His talons sunk into my flesh near my neck and I snarled, tossing my body to the ground and shaking him loose.

The bird let go and
then dove at me again, but as it lowered, it started to change.  It got bigger.  Fur replaced the feathers.  Paws replaced the talons, and when the beast hit the ground, its wings seemingly melted away, and I was suddenly standing face to face with a cougar.

Jeff.
 
I knew he wouldn’t have run.

I growled, curling my lips back and baring my teeth.
  He tensed, bracing himself, as I crouched slightly, leveling my eyes with his.  He didn’t make a sound.  No hisses, no snarls.  His eyes looked as if they were laughing, full of humor, and I found myself growling again.

It’s another game,
I told myself. 
He’s playing with me. 
I was sure of it, but his calmness made me uneasy and for a moment, it kept me rooted in place.

A loud, pain-filled howl erupted
from my right, and my eyes darted to the side, just a quick look. I spotted Dominic, falling, tumbling, down.  He tried to get up, but he wasn’t quick enough.  A cougar landed squarely on his back, pinning him.

My heart twisted inside my chest.  I glanced back to Jeff
, but he was … gone.  Melted into to chaos that surrounded me.

Another agonized howl tore from
my best friend, and I launched myself toward Dominic.

A
flash of pain rushed through my back leg.  I stumbled, fell, and as I started to roll, I felt something sharp dig into my leg.  It was crippling.  It felt like my leg was being ripped off.  I snarled.  More pain.  Sharp, hot pain.

The cougar tore into Dominic’s back, and my hope sputtered and flickered and died.

~ JADE ~

I
kept my breathing under control, mainly by sternly telling myself that I had to remain completely together.  The wolves around the hunting camp weren’t my problem.  They each had a leader.  They each had someone watching their back.  My problem, my responsibility, was the women with me and Tommy.  I had my breathing more or less managed by the time I spun from the guy, who was still smiling, a far too friendly smile, and I was able to say, “Shift,” without making it sound like I was panicking at all.

But the truth was, I was a little panicked.

“I wouldn’t do that,” a man said, and pulled a handgun from the waist of his jeans.  He levelled it on me.

That was, for some reason, kind of a shock, because, well, he was a werecougar.  He could shift and kill me.  The gun just seemed really ... unnecessary.  “You’re kidding me, right?”  I blinked.  “You’re pulling a gun on me?”

“It made them stop, didn’t it?” the man with the gun said, his voice sounding antagonistic and a touch condescending.

I could smell Aidan.  His alpha scent, that sweet green scent, was rising up around me.  Commanding our wolves.  The sounds were getting louder.  Snarls and painful whimpers.  They were in trouble.  They hadn’t reached the kids.  The plan was falling apart.