White Knight (3 page)

“They’re keeping the man alive for now,” Bishop said. “Until they can get more information out of him.”

Knight didn’t want to imagine how the Iowa run’s enforcers were going about that little task. He honestly didn’t care. The murderer could rot. Five more lives had been added to the death toll. Five more souls gone from the world because of Knight.

“Stop it,” Bishop said.

Knight blinked. “Stop what?”

“Stop blaming yourself for their deaths.”

“I know, I know, it’s the hybrids’ fault, not mine.”

Bishop frowned. “Hearing you say it and believing you mean it are two different things.”

Knight ignored the spot-on comment by checking his phone for the text. “We’d better haul ass, or we’ll be late for your meeting.”

“We’re going into the next room.”

He double-checked the text. Library, not the office. The library was one door down. Bishop’s office was half a mile away, in a rented trailer that they’d installed in the auction house parking lot. With the actual auction house burned to the ground, and rebuilding stalled because of an insurance investigation—no one was accusing them of arson, but the insurance company needed that on record—the trailer was a temporary measure. It gave Bishop a place outside of the house to deal with official run Alpha business.

Since he was in the house, it made more sense to bring the meeting to him.

Grateful for an end to their conversation, Knight left the conservatory for the library. He bypassed the two leather couches and matching armchairs, choosing instead to stand by the window. He preferred having a view of the backyard when the hybrids came up. He liked seeing freedom.

The library quickly filled with the usual suspects. Rook didn’t have a smile in sight, but something still shined in his face. Pride and joy he had to hide for a little while, so they could deal with this latest drama. Devlin Burke came in next, grim and stiff. Despite being married to a lovely young lady named Rachel, Devlin hadn’t cracked a single smile in the month since his cousin Winston was killed. Jonas Geary and Mason Anderson arrived together, their conversation ending at the library door. Both Black Wolves, the pair could easily challenge Devlin and Rook as their strongest enforcers.

Jillian and Bishop entered last. Something in the room changed with the arrival of the Alpha couple. A shift of energy and respect that Knight had often felt when their late father walked into a room. Somehow it was stronger with the pair of them.

Bishop filled everyone in on what he’d already told Knight. Knight ignored the looks tossed his way, not interested in their concern or sympathy.

“All of the other Alphas are being informed,” Bishop said. “Everyone is tightening security now that we know the hybrids are expanding their reach.”

“Are we certain it’s the hybrids who are initiating these attacks and recruiting the half-breeds?” Jonas asked. “Fiona was the brains of the operation and she’s been dead for almost two months. The other three never struck me as planners.”

“You think someone else is helping the two hybrids?”

“They’ve had allies before.” The hard edge in Jonas’s voice made Knight take notice. Jonas had been one of only nineteen survivors of the Potomac run, which had been attacked and devastated by the four hybrids only days after Shay’s run was decimated. He and his people had been folded into Cornerstone with a small amount of trouble, because some of the survivors were half-breeds. The first in Cornerstone’s history.

Jonas had become an irreplaceable ally, working hard to overcome the fact that his late father, Alpha Mitch Geary, had aligned himself with the hybrids in exchange for Jonas’s safety. Mitch was one of the loup responsible for Rook’s scars.

“What about Archimedes Atwood?” Rook said. “He had a hand in their creation.”

“Atwood told Brynn that they escaped his lab and he hadn’t had contact with them,” Bishop said.

“Maybe he lied.”

Archimedes Atwood was a Prime Magus within the Congress of Magi and a fire elemental. He was also Brynn’s biological father and the man responsible for kidnapping Chelsea Butler twenty-five years ago in order to conduct offspring experiments with her White Wolf physiology. Brynn originally came to Cornerstone because she’d had a vision of Rook standing over her father’s bloody, mangled body, and she’d known nothing about his extracurricular activities. She’d confronted him once she realized her own half-loup heritage, and he’d confessed to his part in the hybrids’ creation.

He’d also sworn to his daughter that he’d lost contact after they’d become uncontrollable, and that he hadn’t heard from them in months.

“It’s also possible another Magus is helping them,” Jonas said. “Atwood wouldn’t have been the only one taking part in the experiments.”

“We may need to talk to him again,” Bishop said. “Directly this time. Not through Brynn.”

Rook nodded his silent agreement. Brynn wouldn’t be happy, but she’d understand the need. “Should we make this official? Through the Congress?”

“I’ll get back to you on that.”

Smart move. Going through the Congress directly meant potentially alerting Atwood or his co-conspirators ahead of time. Going directly to Atwood meant fewer surprises, but it also made the request for information far less formal than a run Alpha asking the Congress as a whole.

“Has the Skydale Alpha requested any assistance?” Jonas asked.

“Not from us, no,” Bishop replied. “I honestly don’t expect them to reach out in our direction anytime soon, so we can keep our focus here. Nothing has changed in our patrols or our search patterns. Questions?”

None came, so Bishop dismissed the meeting. Knight focused on a small chip in the window frame, not there the last time he’d stood in that spot. He listened to the footsteps and voices leaving the room, unsurprised when the door creaked shut with someone else still in the library with him.

“We didn’t meant to scare you out of the doctor’s office,” Rook said. He stood across the room, hands in his pockets, bizarrely tentative.

“I love you both, but I didn’t need to hear you discussing your sex life with Dr. Mike.” Knight smiled without feeling it. “I don’t think I said congratulations before.”

“If you did, I wouldn’t have heard you. I was a little overwhelmed.”

“In a good way?”

“Absolutely a good way.” Rook’s grin dimmed. “I’m also scared shitless.”

“I think most fathers are the first time around.”

“Most fathers have some idea what to expect from the pregnancy. Brynn and I are floundering in the dark here. There’s no way to know what will happen next.”

“Dr. Mike will do everything in his power to make sure you both have a healthy baby girl.”

Rook quirked an eyebrow. “You know something I don’t?”

“Nope, but I relish the idea of a little girl one day giving you fits when she discovers boys.”

His brother groaned. “You’re a mean man.”

“Doing my duty as your big brother.” Knight stepped away from the window. “Seriously, though, Rook. I’m really happy for you both.”

“Is it weird that I’ve never thought that hard about having kids?”

“Not really. You’re only twenty-two.”

“For a long time the only thing I cared about was my music career. Even after I flushed that down the toilet and came home, I didn’t think much past the whole Alpha thing.”

“And then you met Brynn.”

“Yes, but I knew from the start that she was a half-breed. I had no reason to believe she could have children, so we didn’t really talk about it. Hell, we didn’t even bother with protection, which is probably why we’re pregnant in the first place.”

Knight grinned. “Probably why?”

“Okay, so definitely why. Never thought I’d be the first one of us to be a dad.” Rook’s eyes went briefly wide. “I mean . . . shit.”

“It’s not even close to the same thing.” Knight never wanted Rook to feel badly about his upcoming trip into fatherhood. “It’s also over and done with. I’m trying very hard to put that part of my life behind me, and I can’t do that if you feel guilty every time we talk about kids.”

“Sorry.”

“I know. But it’s the past. I want it to stay there so we can all move forward.”

“Dunno if that’s possible until the hybrids are taken care of.”

“They won’t be a threat forever.” Knight knew that in his heart. Sooner or later, the last two months of sneak attacks and brawls would come to a devastating end. Nothing would be the same afterward, but it would be over.

Rook kicked the heel of his boot against the floorboards. “Killing your enemy doesn’t make the hurt they caused disappear.”

“No.” Knight held Rook’s gaze as clearly, as forcefully as he could. “But it guarantees they won’t hurt you or your family ever again.”

And that, more than anything else, was the endgame for Knight. He’d see his family safe, or he’d die trying.

The scent of roasted meat roused Shay from her endless napping, her stomach twisted with hunger. A tray sat on the floor near the bed, and a black-haired shape stood by the crib. Shay sniffed hard, placing Desiree’s unique marker on the girl, who was otherwise physically identical to her sister. Shay ignored her captor in favor of tumbling off the bed and scarfing down the overcooked steak she’d been brought.

The meat was tasteless, but it soothed some of the ache in her gut. She gulped the water, too, grateful for an entire gallon this time. Yesterday it had hurt to urinate, and she’d screamed for water through the door for close to an hour. She never knew for sure when the hybrids were around to hear her.

Desiree twirled around the room while holding the infant, cooing nonsense like she often did. She visited more frequently than Allison, but she was just as psychopathic and cruel.

“Sorry your last meal was so late, sister,” Desiree cooed. “We were out of town.”

“My quarterly. Please.” Shay hadn’t the energy to explain it all again. She tugged at the tight collar, then winced as the motion irritated her skin.

“We’ve discussed this. The collar stays on, period. We need you here, not running away.”

“Don’t want to hurt the baby.”

“You won’t. If you do, you’ll be punished. Remember how?”

Brynn. They would kill Brynn. She didn’t know for certain if they’d kidnapped Brynn, too, only that her half-sister had been in the McQueen house at the same time as Shay. If the hybrids had her, too, they’d make good on their threat.

“The quarterly is violent,” Shay said. “I can’t control it. My beast does.”

“Guess you won’t be shifting and getting violent then.”

“Please.”

“Stop asking.”

Shay hurled the food tray at the wall, finding no satisfaction in the heavy thud or in the crack when it fell to the floor. The baby began to cry, the irritating noise scraping down Shay’s spine.

“Stupid girl,” Desiree said. She put the squalling child back into the crib, then moved to squat in front of Shay.

Shay glared, her beast’s rage bubbling to the surface. She was exhausted from being held here, never told why, given nothing to do but change diapers and feed an infant that wasn’t hers. She wanted her freedom back. She wanted her mate. Shay spat on the floor near Desiree’s foot.

Desiree smiled. “You still have your spirit. Good.”

“I hate you.”

“I don’t care. Just take care of that baby.”

“Whose is she? Did you steal her?”

“Hardly.” For a flash of time, Desiree looked sad. Then she stood. “You know what happens if you hurt her.”

“I won’t be able to control myself.”

“You will, Shay. You will. One day you’ll stop fighting us and be part of our family.”

“Never.” Shay might share blood with Desiree, but Desiree was half vampire. The scent of decay clung to her in these close quarters, making her mixed heritage more obvious and more disgusting. Desiree was a murderer and a conspirator. Shay would never accept her or Allison as her family.

“You can’t stop what will happen. One day your kind will be like the vampires. Nearly extinct. A rarity spoken about in whispers and never seen. Don’t be on the losing side.”

“You should take your own advice.”

Desiree sighed. “Mother wouldn’t want us to fight.”

Shay hauled her aching bones back onto the cot, because she wouldn’t be on the floor while Desiree taunted her. She hadn’t the strength to stand yet but she was no one’s bitch. “Don’t talk about my mother.”

“Our mother, Shay. Remember, I knew her. I lived with her for many years. Not you.”

Anger rippled across Shay’s skin. The words were horribly true. Shay had no memory of her mother. She’d disappeared when Shay was only an infant herself—kidnapped, she knew now, by the Magi for their experiments.

“Why didn’t you ever help her escape?” Shay demanded, fury lacing her words.

Desiree blinked. “Why would we have? We were cared for there. She was cared for and looked after until she died.”

“Until they killed her. The Magi had no use for her once she couldn’t birth more hybrid children for them.”

“That’s a lie.” Desiree’s shout was nearly as loud as the baby’s cries. “She took care of us until she became sick and died. And then Fiona looked after us.”

The name of Brynn’s dead half-sister made Shay’s beast snarl. Fiona was the one who’d led the attack on Shay’s home in Connecticut. She’d orchestrated Rook’s kidnapping. She’d been responsible for Knight’s abuse. She was the cause of all of their recent pain and suffering. “Fiona was a monster.”

Desiree’s expression went fierce. Deadly. Animalistic. “Fiona saved us. She didn’t let them hurt us like they hurt her.”

Information. Shay was desperate for it. She didn’t care that Fiona had suffered, but it could be important somehow. “Who hurt Fiona?”

“I’ll tell you when I think you actually care.”

“Please, Desiree.”

“I like hearing you say please. Still. No.”

“Please take the collar off.”

“No. I don’t want to break you, Shay, but I will. I will if that’s what it takes.”

“It will.” Shay wouldn’t lie down for them. Not ever. She was the daughter of an Alpha. The annihilation of her entire run had nearly broken her. Knight had brought her back and helped her begin to heal. If that hadn’t destroyed her completely, then Desiree would have to do a lot worse than lock her up.

Missing her quarterly might be the thing that Shay couldn’t come back from.

“So be it,” Desiree said with a sneer.

Shay waited for the right moment, but Desiree was too fast. The door was shut and locked from the outside before Shay could reach it. She slammed her shoulder into the wood, her joints screaming with the sudden movement.

“Let me out of here!”

Her screams only fueled the baby’s wails. She shouted a few more times, until her throat ached. Resigned to either calming the baby or listening to her crying, Shay comforted the wriggling, unhappy thing as best she could while her beast scratched at the back of her mind, desperate for release.

She couldn’t be certain without a calendar but Shay knew the signs. At sunset, her agony would begin.

***

Rook McQueen strode into Belle’s a little after eight in a last-ditch effort to locate Devlin. He’d been searching for his friend for the last couple of hours, incensed that the man wouldn’t answer Rook’s various texts or phone calls. Devlin’s wife, Rachel, had received a handful of “I’m okay, need to be alone” texts from Devlin, but he wasn’t on patrol until midnight and apparently the jerk didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Today Rook wasn’t just anyone, and disappearing wasn’t Devlin’s standard operating procedure.

Then again, he hadn’t been the same since Winston’s death last month. None of them had.

Rook, Knight, Winston, and Devlin had grown up together, their ages all within a four-year span, and they’d always been close. Losing Winston so violently had broken something in Devlin that even the Alpha’s death hadn’t. It had brought the hybrids’ violence directly into Dev’s home.

Something Rook understood too damned well, which was why he wasn’t letting Devlin get away with it much longer. If loup garou didn’t deal with their negative emotions and stress, it led to forced shifts. Knight had barely survived his forced shift, and he’d only come back because of the strength of Shay’s Black Wolf.

Devlin loved Rachel, that was clear to everyone. But Rachel was a half-breed. She’d never once shifted into her beast, and she had admitted once to Rook that she had never actually sensed it, either. She wouldn’t have the strength that Shay did.

So it was tough-love time for his best friend.

Belle’s was the closest thing Cornerstone had to a neighborhood dive bar, only it wasn’t dirty or dive-y, it welcomed residents of all ages, and the only thing it had on tap was soda. Pretty much any flavor or type of soda imaginable, because alcohol metabolized too quickly in a loup garou’s body to do much good. By the time a loup drank enough to feel it, he or she’d be one sip away from alcohol poisoning, so it wasn’t worth it.

During his four years in college and playing in a rock band, Rook had learned how to fake being drunk. One of the best things about being home again was no longer lying about who he was. He was free to be himself and to embrace the beast within.

He found Devlin in the rear of Belle’s, in a small room off to the side that had pool tables. Dev was alone with the tables. The scattering of patrons was ignoring him, probably sensing the usually congenial enforcer’s black mood. Rook felt it the moment he got within ten feet of Devlin, like a flashing sign that demanded he stay the hell away.

He marched right over and grabbed a cue off the wall.

Devlin ignored him as he lined up a corner shot. The balls cracked loudly, and the nine-stripe zinged into the corner pocket.

“Who’s winning?” Rook asked.

“I am.” Dev examined the table, then angled the four-solid that Rook would have gone after. “Fuck off.”

“No.”

He made the shot, but the ball dinged off the edge of the pocket and bounced away. “Shit. Go away and stop distracting me.”

“Not a chance.”

Devlin’s glare might have worked on anyone else, but not on Rook. He held his friend’s gaze until Dev looked away.

“You can ignore me all you want, but you know how stubborn I can be,” Rook said. “Plus you work for me, so the instant I think you’re emotionally unable to handle being an enforcer, I will bench your ass.”

That got Dev’s undivided attention. He slammed the cue down on the table, almost hard enough to snap it. “Bench my ass? Excuse me for giving a shit that Winston’s dead.”

Rook bit back the instinct to snap again, to remind Devlin that they were all grieving. It wouldn’t help. “You’re allowed to give a shit. What you’re not allowed to do is keep it all bottled up inside, instead of grieving properly, because that leads down a dangerous road.”

“Maybe Knight couldn’t handle what all he was going through last month, but I’m not him.”

Damn right you’re not him.

Rook wasn’t sure which details Devlin did and didn’t know about exactly what Knight had been dealing with. None of it had been Rook’s place to tell. He knew Knight well enough to know he hadn’t told Devlin about the sexual assault, so he probably wouldn’t have known about the baby Victoria had been carrying. All Devlin—like the rest of the enforcers and most of the town—knew was that he’d been held captive, tortured, escaped, and taunted because Knight had been the grand prize for the hybrids.

Knight had felt every death, taken each one personally, and the fact that he’d been responsible for the emotional stability of the rest of the run had only compounded his stress. Losing their father and knowing for sure Victoria was pregnant had broken Knight in a far worse way than anyone outside of the immediate family knew.

And Rook couldn’t tell any of that to Devlin. If he heard it from anyone, it had to be from Knight.

“No, you’re right,” Rook said, picking his words carefully. “You aren’t Knight. You and him aren’t dealing with the same things, so no one expects you to react like he did. But you and I both know what can happen to a loup who lets the bad emotions bottle up.”

“I’m not going to force-shift.”

“Maybe not, but what about Rachel?”

Something very much like a challenge sparked in Devlin’s eyes. “What about her?”

“You might not force shift, but you could still lose your temper, and what if you do it with her? She’s half human. She can’t defend herself against you.”

Devlin bristled, fingers curling around the thick end of the pool cue. “How dare you imply I’d ever hurt her. I love her.”

“I love my wife, too, Dev, but I’m not stupid enough to let myself be unsteady around her. We’re Black Wolves. We’re strong, we’re emotional, and we react to stress with anger and force. It’s in our nature. It makes us strong run protectors, but it also makes us dangerous.”

“We’re loup. Every one of us is dangerous.”

“But not to each other. Not to the people we care about. Not if we’re in control.”

Devlin let go of the cue and leaned his hip against the side of the table, arms loose by his sides. Still angry, but less ready to damage something. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, Rook. Why do you think I’m avoiding everybody?”

“If you let it out, it won’t make you think you could hurt someone. Winston’s dead, and you have to face that.”

“We were raised like brothers.” Devlin’s voice was raw, shaken. “How do you say good-bye to your brother?”

Rook sent silent thanks to whatever deity looked over loup garou that he hadn’t found that out yet. He’d come so close these last two months, but both of his blood brothers were still alive. His brother by choice was standing there hurting. “I don’t know. I didn’t know how to say good-bye to my father, either. It’s something you let your friends help you with.”

Devlin exhaled long and hard. He and Winston had both been strong, supportive presences in those first dark days after Thomas McQueen’s death. Everyone in Cornerstone had pulled together as one people to support the family, as well as support Bishop as the new Alpha.

“I want them dead,” Devlin said. “The last two hybrids. I want to see their bodies torn and bleeding.”

“So do I.”

And so did Knight. Rook had never heard him as bloodthirsty as he’d been a few hours ago. Knight wasn’t the same man he’d been prior to the forced shift. He’d returned to them angrier, with a shadow in his eyes that never seemed to go away. Rook missed the easygoing man Knight had once been, quick with a smile or a flirty joke for the human girls who used to visit the weekly auctions.

So much had changed so quickly. Devlin was married to a half-breed. Rook was married with a child on the way. Bishop was married and now the Alpha, and Rook was genuinely okay with losing that position. Their father was dead, his business burned to ash. Half-breeds lived in Cornerstone for the first time in its history. Three loup garou sanctuary towns had been destroyed, their populations decimated, while a fourth had been targeted.