“You’ve met Alpha Kin?” Caius asks, inching toward the female.
Her son is wrapped around her legs again, his face buried into her thigh as he tries to rumble for her in the same way I did for him.
It comes out as a grumble more than a purr.
Because he’s not a Carnage Wolf.
“Alpha Bryson… he… he lets Kin…” Her violent tremble tells us all we need to know.
Jimmy clings to her tighter and she clears her throat.
“There are two Carnage Wolves that he introduced to certain members of our pack. Always in secret. He didn’t know that I…” she trails off, clearing her throat again. “He never knew that I saw it happen. I was only six the first time. But I saw what that Alpha did to Serena. His scent haunted me for years. It’s how I knew when he returned. And then, one day, he brought Kin.”
“Do you know the name of the other man? The one you can scent?” I ask, gentling my voice.
She shakes her head. “I only knew Kin because he made Evelyn scream his name while… while he… he killed her.”
I understand what she’s saying. He forced his knot on her.
“What did he smell like?” Caius infuses a hint of his purr in his words.
“Like sour mud,” she whispers.
My brow furrows. I’m not sure any of our wolves has that scent. “Thank you. We’ll find him and make him pay for what he’s done.” It’s a vow I intend to keep.
She nods again, her cheeks pink as she fights more tears. “I’m sorry, I know you need to go to Clove.”
“We do,” Caius confirms. “But we’ll be back.”
“And we’ll bring her with us,” Volt promises.
My throat constricts.
It’s a promise I hope we can keep.
33
CLOVE
They’re here.
It’s an intrinsic reaction, one that causes the hairs along my nape to stand on end.
Alpha Dirk must sense it as well because he perks up in his chair.
“They’re going to try to kill you,” Alpha Ebony tells him conversationally.
“I know,” he replies with a sigh. “I probably deserve it.”
“You don’t,” she replies.
And I agree with her.
After Tieran’s howl came through the phone, Alpha Dirk fell to his knees and bowed his head.
Not for Tieran.
But for me.
He remained that way as we listened to the aftermath of that howl, overheard Tieran’s conversation with Alpha Crane, and his inevitable frustration over the phone not working on his end.
Not once did Alpha Dirk stir.
As the phone went quiet, my wolf started to move, sniffing the alpha male with interest.
He didn’t move, allowing her to circle him while scenting the air for any signs of malcontent.
She found none.
I eventually stepped away from him with a grunt.
Only then did he start to sit up, his dark green eyes intense. “I won’t hurt you, Clove. But I’ll accept whatever punishment you wish to deliver. It’s my responsibility to manage those in my clan, and I failed.”
His words still swirl around me now, along with the astute disappointment in his tone and the sadness of his failure.
He blames himself for Alpha Kin’s crimes.
I almost shifted back to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but logic kept me in wolf form.
It is partially his fault. He should have suspected Alpha Kin’s nefarious intent. I can’t imagine Volt or Caius being able to do something so horrible beneath Tieran’s nose.
So in that regard, I do blame him.
But I won’t let him bear the punishment of another’s sin.
I sit on my rump by the door, waiting for my intended mates to find me. I sense them prowling, hunting, their Alpha energies an aphrodisiac calling to my very soul.
They’re coming, my animal is saying, her excitement palpable. They’re coming. They’re coming.
We’ve been sitting in the dark down here for hours. No phones. No way to communicate. Using our enhanced night vision to see.
Alpha Duncan is dead. And Alpha Ebony is healing, thanks to Alpha Dirk removing the bullets from her skin.
He did the same for Alpha Edwin, but he’s still unconscious on the couch.
“Kin took out the telecommunication tower,” Alpha Dirk said earlier. “And he cut the power to the island.”
It’s what tipped Alpha Dirk off that there was a problem—he could smell Alpha Kin’s essence all over the sabotage. So he went looking for him.
And found him with me.
“I didn’t think, I reacted,” he told Alpha Ebony shortly after she woke up. “I ripped his throat out.”
“Good,” she replied. “He fucking deserved it.”
They discussed a bit about what they thought happened, comparing notes between Alpha Dirk’s observation of events and Alpha Ebony’s pre-established knowledge of Alpha Kin’s betrayal.
“He must have found the secure line that Alpha Caius and Alpha Pan set up,” Alpha Dirk said at one point. “Or maybe he had his own surveillance set up to detect interference. Regardless, it’s clear he warned Bryson since they were working together.”
He uttered that last part through his teeth, his fury at the situation a palpable presence in the air. He clearly didn’t know about that link until Alpha Ebony voiced it.
And now that he knows about it, he’s still angry.
But he’s remaining mostly calm at the desk, awaiting his fate.
Alpha Kin and Beta Gafton’s remains are sitting in the hallway as a pair of gifts—something Alpha Ebony suggested they do. “It’ll give them enough pause to perhaps consider talking to you before ending you,” she said after voicing the recommendation.
Alpha Dirk didn’t necessarily agree, but did what she told him to do after I grunted in agreement.
They fell into a brief conversation about my former father, wondering how he even managed to get here. Then Alpha Dirk confirmed something I already knew. “He wasn’t of sound mind,” he said. “He was under his Alpha’s control. I could see it in his crazed eyes when he attacked Clove.”
Which explains why he stood still as a statue after putting a knife to my throat.
But doesn’t exactly tell us how he arrived on the island.
“Someone must have helped him,” Alpha Ebony said, voicing my concern out loud.
The question is, who?