Bad Blood (3 page)

“An encounter? What happened? Did you fight him? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine. He was—so strong,” he said, ignoring the question about what happened. He wasn’t ready to share
that
little episode and might never be. “He ran off though there,” he continued, pointing through the thickest trees, “but incredibly fast. We’d never be able to catch up to him.”

“What the hell does he want? Why was he spying on us?”

“I don’t know.”

“What the hell
do
you know, Blaine?” Colby flushed as Blaine gave him a sharp glance. “Sorry, but you’re not making much sense. Is this guy a threat to the pack or not? He’s definitely not alone—the scouts have seen a lot of tracks up on the north face of the mountain.”

“I don’t know, Colby. We didn’t exactly sit down and have a chat. He’s a wolf shifter—an alpha, I’m almost sure of that. If his pack is anything like him, we have a problem, depending on what they want from us. He-he said he’d see me again.”

“See you again? What the hell, Blaine? Are they trying to take over our territory?”

“Damn it, what part of
I don’t know
do you not understand?” A hard shiver shook Blaine again and the feeling of being watched was back. He glanced nervously over his shoulder. “I’m freezing—we’ll talk about this when we get back down the mountain. We’ll try to figure it out.”

He fell to the ground and shifted back to his wolf, aware that Colby was doing the same beside him. As soon as his vision cleared again, he sprang out of the clearing and back down the trail. All the way down the mountain the feeling of being spied on persisted, but it felt almost as if he were being watched over this time. It was an intense and possessive observation, and he couldn’t help but glance back over his shoulder from time to time. There was nothing there, only long, dark shadows gathering and closing in on the trail behind him.

****

“I say they’re here for a reason, and we need to find out what it is,” Colby said, pacing back and forth in front of Blaine’s desk. “They want something from us, and I think it has to be our territory!”

It had been two long days since the encounter with the big wolf in the forest above the lodge and they were no closer to finding out who he was and why he and his pack were in their territory. Colby had insisted on a meeting to discuss the situation, and Blaine sat now across from his cousin, along with a few of the gamma leaders who had shown good judgment in the past. Colby was enflaming them with his words, however, and Blaine needed to put a stop to it.

“I’m worried, Blaine.” Colby was saying. “Michael, tell him about the campsite you saw on the other side of the mountain.

“Well, it was yesterday afternoon,” one of the gammas said. “And I was coming back from town. I was driving my old Jeep, and I’d made a side trip to go see a mechanic who’d been recommended to me. He was supposed to have some parts I needed. Anyway, he lived way out of town, near the edge of our property, and on the way I noticed an old campground called Mountain View by the side of the road. There was like twenty motorcycles pulled up in there with tents all down to the stream. Musta been twenty or more of them too—those little ones, you know, the ones they call pup tents. Anyway, this one huge guy came out of one of them and looked over at me as I passed by. I was going kinda slow, you know. Just lookin’. I caught a strong scent of wolves, Blaine. Like nothing I ever smelled before, though. They weren’t our kind, anyway.”

“Not our kind? Not shifter, you mean? I don’t understand.”

“No, they were shifters. I’m sure of it. But not Grays. Nor Reds either. Some different kind of wolf, I think, but I didn’t know what to make of it. That big guy just stood there and stared at me and then a couple more came out to stand beside him. They were just as big as he was. They looked mean, so I took off.”

“I don’t like this, Blaine.” Colby said. “Who are these guys and what are they doing on our land? They’re up to no good. I know it.”

“Calm down, Colby. We don’t know anything yet. They weren’t on our land at the campsite, obviously, even if they were close. Maybe they’re just passing through—went out for a run on the mountain and got curious. It may be nothing more than that.”

“And it might be that they want to take over our territory. I have a family to defend now, and I want answers.”

As if on cue, the loud rumble of motorcycles coming down the road to the lodge began to filter into the room. They all stared at each other in stunned surprise for a moment before jumping to their feet. Blaine almost leaped for the door, but Colby beat him to it and raced down the steps in the lead.

The main part of the house was very old, dating from the original cabin built in the late seventeen hundreds, when the threat from the various Indian tribes was a real one. That was before the local tribes realized what they were dealing with, of course, and later kept their distance. But the original design had included wide, high windows that opened to allow rifles to be aimed at intruders outside.

Blaine saw that Colby had raised one of these windows and was already calling for his shotgun. He stepped up behind him and grabbed his shoulder. “What the hell are you doing, Colby? Put down the damn gun. I’m going out to talk with them. We have to see what they want.”

“It doesn’t matter what they want. They have no right to be here on our land. Even showing up here like this is an act of aggression in my opinion.” Several of the gammas standing by him nodded their agreement, making soft snarling noises in the backs of their throats.

“Everyone calm down!” Blaine yelled. “We have the women and children to consider.”

“I
am
considering them.” Colby replied furiously. “I say, shoot first and ask questions later.”

“I’m the alpha of this pack, Colby, and I’m telling you to stand down. All of you.” Blaine glared around at the group gathered in the foyer of the big lodge. Most of them, except for Colby and his closest friends, lowered their gazes. “I’m going out to talk to them—don’t do anything unless I give a signal. I mean it, Colby.”

Colby looked as if he wanted to argue, but finally dropped his gaze and turned back to the window. “I’ll cover you. If you get in trouble, give me a sign.”

Blaine huffed out his disapproval, but nodded shortly and went to the door, pulling it open and stepping out onto the porch. The motorcycles were pulling onto the circular driveway in front of the lodge and most of the riders had stopped their bikes and were idling their engines. There were no females or young ones, which was a bad sign and indicated they’d come prepared to fight if they had to, though no one was looking particularly aggressive at the moment.

At the front of the pack, sitting on a big black Harley was the man Blaine “met” on the mountain—Kerrick. He was dressed in black leather pants and jacket, and the corners of his mouth lifted a little as Blaine stepped to the end of the porch.

“Hello, Blaine,” he called out over the roar of the motors.

“What are you doing here, Kerrick?”

“I’ve come to renew our acquaintance, pet.”

Blaine tightened his lips angrily at the name. Unbidden, the image of lying naked and writhing underneath Kerrick filled his mind. He knew without a doubt that Kerrick had put it there, but how?

“Who are you? What kind of wolf? You’re not like anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Kerrick looked lazily around at his friends. “No, I’d guess not. We’re Dire Wolves, Blaine, and we’re looking for a new home. We came out of the far North, heading south to start a new pack. We need mates. Too many of us are closely related, and we’re a long way from any other Dire Wolves. We’re tired of being on the road—we’ve decided to find ourselves some Grays and settle down. Maybe start a whole new pack. Maybe even a whole new breed. We decided we want to join you.”

The door behind him burst open, and Colby strode forward, a shotgun raised to his shoulder, pointed toward Kerrick. Several other members of the pack crowded out behind him, each carrying a weapon.

Blaine stepped up close to Colby and said spoke to him quietly to avoid his losing face. With his back to the Dires, he pulled sharply down on the barrel of Colby’s gun. “What are you doing? Are you crazy?”

Colby jerked the barrel away and stepped around Blaine to shout toward the Dires. “I knew that was why you were here. You’re on
our
land, assholes,
our territory
and we have no interest in sharing anything with you. Get out of here before I open fire!”

Kerrick swung his leg off the motorcycle and stood up, crossing his arms over his chest. He glared menacingly at Colby. Two of the wolves closest to him jumped off their bikes and stepped over next to Kerrick, assuming a protective stance.

“I thought you were the alpha, Blaine. Who the fuck is this?” Kerrick looked past Colby to where Blaine was standing and raised an eyebrow.

“Never mind who I am, you son-of-a-bitch!” Colby shouted. “Now get back on that bike of yours and get out of here, or I’ll make you wish you had.”

Kerrick strode lazily toward the porch, not hurrying, but not backing down an inch. He glared at Colby. “That’ll be the day. You know that’s the second time you’ve called me a name, and I don’t think I like it much. Come out from behind that gun and face me like a man.”

He was halfway up the sidewalk by this time and one of Kerrick’s friends quickly came up beside him and touched his arm. He glanced down at him, but growled and shook him off. Taking another step toward the porch, he taunted Colby again. “Well, motherfucker? You talk big behind that gun. Let’s see how you do when you put it down.”

“Colby,” Blaine said, his voice full of warning as he stepped in front of the gun again. He still kept his voice low so no one could overhear. “Put it down. You don’t have to prove anything. Just stop this now before it’s too late.”

Colby’s hands were shaking, but he did lower the gun a fraction. “I know what you’re trying to do,” he shouted, dodging around Blaine, “but it won’t work. We have no interest in joining your pack or allowing you anywhere near ours. This is our land. Now get the hell off it.”

Kerrick gave him a long look and then angled one at Blaine, his lip curled in contempt. “Maybe I did make a mistake at that. I was under the impression that you were the alpha, not this piece of shit. Maybe the blood of this pack is too thin and weak to join with ours.” He turned his back on both of them deliberately and sauntered back toward his bike.

Things seemed to happen then in slow motion. Colby made a choking noise deep in his throat and raised the gun back up. This was an old shotgun so he had to manually cock the hammer before he could pull the trigger. Blaine heard him cock the weapon and saw his finger trembling on the trigger. He made a leap for the gun and wrenched it out of his hands, but as he pulled it away from him, his finger hooked on the firing mechanism.

A deafening blast made them all reel back in surprise and horror. Blaine fell back against the front door with the shotgun clutched to his chest and Kerrick grabbed the side of his neck and fell forward.

His men caught him in their arms and lowered him to the ground, bending low over his body and making little outcries of horror. Blaine could hear the soft cries of pain Kerrick was making too, and they made his stomach clench in horror and sympathy. He was on the verge of jumping off the porch to go to him when Kerrick struggled back to his feet. He wrenched his gaze toward where Blaine still stood on the porch, and he saw the look of surprise and fury come across his face. Blaine was still clutching the gun to his chest.

Kerrick leaped forward and ran toward the porch, his gaze never leaving Blaine’s, his face a mask of rage. Blaine’s mind filled with images of violence. Blaine’s gammas surged in front of Blaine from all sides to defend him, while Kerrick’s men did the same for their own alpha, jumping in front of Kerrick and forcing him back with sheer numbers. The whole pack of huge wolves were off their bikes by this time, shouting vows of vengeance and baring their teeth. They bore Kerrick away and made it back to the bikes. There were too many wolves around Kerrick for Blaine to be able to see him well, but he caught an occasional glimpse of Kerrick’s face, flushed with strong emotion, with blood spilling down his shirt from a wound on the side of his neck.

They jumped on their bikes and roared back down the way they’d come, an obscene red stain left behind them on the grass.

For a long moment, no one spoke or even moved. Then Blaine threw the gun away from him with a muffled cry. Furiously, he rounded on Colby. “Look what you’ve done. They’ll be back, you idiot, and next time they’ll take whatever they want. You’ve destroyed us, Colby. Destroyed our pack.”

Colby met his furious glare with one of his own. “It was your finger on the trigger. We’ll fight them. We won’t just lay down for them and give up our home.”

“Did you see the size of them? And their numbers? We don’t have half as many men!”

Colby flashed him a look of bitterness and scorn. “Our grandfather was wrong to make you the alpha. You’re afraid of them. Afraid to do what you have to do. They were trespassing on our land and spoiling for a fight. They came here to take over. I defended our people today, and if you hadn’t interfered, I could have killed their alpha. They would have scattered then.”

“Can you really be so stupid?” Blaine shook his head, running a hand over his face. “If you’d killed Kerrick, they would have destroyed all of us. We’re not murderers. We’re better than that. You didn’t give me a chance to negotiate with them.”

“Negotiate? Negotiate what? Which of our wives and daughters they can have? How much land they can steal from us? They want our home and our mates, and they’re not getting either one. If you can’t handle doing what needs to be done, then step aside or make me alpha. It’s time to man up!”

Quietly, Blaine narrowed his eyes at him. “I have no intention of giving them anything. We have no choice now but to fight. They’ll be back soon to finish what you started. Thanks to you, Kerrick thinks I tried to kill him. He’ll never let this go, Colby. Not ever.”