Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) (36 page)

Raego appeared like a shadowy nightmare, ripping off the head of one of the attacking dragons, and swallowing it in a single gulp. His wings snapped out and the air imploded in a shockwave of force that catapulted the other dragon into the side of the house. Purple motes rained down around him as he dove to Misha and her daughters.

But he was too late.

I turned to the werewolf before me. My body quivered with the power threatening to overwhelm me in order to destroy everything within a hundred paces. The werewolf seemed to smile, if that was possible, but he didn’t turn to look at Raego. The Dragon Lord landed on the ground with the thud of a monstrous tree falling to the earth, and the sudden roar that split the night told me everything I needed to know.

Misha was gone.

A female’s scream seemed to shatter my eardrums and a Grimm went sailing over my head, slamming into a rock fountain, shattering it, and landing on his face, skidding across a good fifty paces of snowpacked earth before striking a tree. The tree trunk cracked, and began to fall.

It was a big tree.

Which told me Tory had just discovered her lover’s fate. And was no doubt destroying anything between her and Misha’s body.

What was left of my heart blew away to ashes.

And the bastard before me laughed, almost humanlike, as he suddenly shifted to his human form.

I saw the terror in Ashley’s face instantly replaced with disgusted horror as Tory’s scream dawned on her. Her eyes instantly welled up, but she didn’t move. Gunnar let out a howl of mourning to match Raego’s, and he crouched, ready to lunge at the werewolves before us. I laid out a hand on his back and he flinched, but remained by my side.

Geri stood before us, a dark grin on his face. “Surprise…”

Gunnar’s muscles locked under my arm, preparing to pounce. I squeezed. Hard. He yelped instinctively, which caused me to release my grip. I must have unknowingly used magic to squeeze him hard enough to actually hurt him. But he got the point.

“What is the meaning of this, Geri?” The werewolf merely stared at me, and then Gunnar. He waved his hand, imploring Gunnar to shift back to his human form. Gunnar hesitated for only a second before complying. He stood from a crouch,
Bowflex
body tight and steaming from exertion.

And covered in yet more blood.

His face was as pitiless as a gravestone. “I will floss my teeth with your tendons. As you watch.” Gunnar whispered in a tone that made me cringe.

I had never before heard him speak such words, or in such a tone.

Ashley let out a sob, and then a gasp as another werewolf snorted down the back of her neck in warning. Drool liberally dripped down her shoulder. Gunnar’s icy gaze merely looked at them, but their shoulders sunk a bit.

“It’s about time our Alpha had a true mate.” Geri said absently. Everything happened at once. Geri snapped his fingers and Gunnar lunged, but he was too late. He struck an invisible wall and bounced back, shaking his head. The werewolves gripping Ashley hesitated. I knew this because I was staring at her, dumbfounded as to why I could suddenly not use my magic.

Then they bit down.

I heard bone crunch.

Ashley screamed.

Blood dribbled from the wolves’ jaws.

Then they let her go, heads down as they backed off, tails between their legs. The two wolves eyes were wet, as if they were crying. I frowned at that, still hammering against the invisible walls blocking me from my magic. I glanced to the side to find Ichabod staring at me and I scowled. God damn it.

Ashley kept right on screaming as the werewolf gene hit her. The next few days would tell if her body accepted it at all or if she was to die a slow, painful death. And even if she
survived
the change, whether or not she was strong enough to control her beast or if she was doomed to become a mindless thrall to the change, hungry only for blood, more beast than human. It was a fifty-fifty chance. Gunnar hammered into the wall again, knowing how futile it was. But doing it anyway. Again. And again.

And again.

I did the same.

The pack shifted uneasily behind Geri, looking torn. How was this even possible? Gunnar was their Alpha. This shouldn’t have been possible. Not even counting Geri’s word, which was worthless. I knew quite a bit about werewolves, thanks to my father studying them before helping Gunnar. What Geri had said rang true. This shouldn’t have been possible.

Unless… the man Gunnar had killed hadn’t been the Alpha.

But that was impossible. I had met him before. Met his pack. He was definitely the Alpha.

My mind raced, suddenly alarmed about Indie. She had been with Death, and I severely doubted anyone could have pulled one over on him. It was impossible.

But there was a lot of that going around.

“You are no wolf. You wouldn’t be able to go against your alpha’s command so easily.” And I said the only thing that made sense. “Wilhelm.” I growled.

“You got me.” Then he shifted to a doppleganger of
me
. A perfect copy, and my blood froze. “Whoops, wrong one.” He shifted to his true form, the man I had fought at Alistair’s house. His eyes as black as midnight.

Everything fell into place. The man I had seen on video – me – quitting Temple Industries, and sending it into a freefall had been Wilhelm. Voice, looks, mannerisms, and dress all perfect. The only answer I could come up with was that at some point in his life he had encountered a skinwalker of some kind – one of those shifters that could change into
any
form. They were rare. And dangerous.

And Wilhelm had killed one.

Which meant that his amulet let him appear as the Geri. He had begun a chain of events leading Gunnar to kill the Alpha, but Geri had been no wolf, so his words had been a lie. But how were the wolves not forced to follow Gunnar? And whom else had he managed to copy lately? Had he been one of my friends the entire time? Maybe even listening in on my plans? No wonder we had never stood a chance.

“You and I are going to have a talk. A long one. At least, it will feel like a long talk to you. Pain and torture does that to one’s perception of time.”

“Oh, I know all about time perception… and manipulation. How do you think we got here so…
fast
?” His eyes glittered with humor. “I froze time as soon as you left. It took a bit of effort, canvassing that large of a place, and of course, the Academy stepping in helped. Gave me a few more minutes to get everyone here. We had to go by car. I am not familiar with your disappearing act. Yet.”

My vision was steadily, solidly blue. Darker than I had ever seen. Almost black. But I couldn’t touch my power.

It had been Wilhelm impersonating me, destroying my company. My father’s company. This man had destroyed every facet of my life. No doubt behind the theft of my ring, destroying my company, turning supernatural groups against me. And he had been doing it for months, apparently. My stock options had been negotiated months ago. By me, speaking to my broker in person. Even then, Wilhelm had been setting this up.

This world of dominos.

And the first tile had been flicked.

It boggled the mind. Talk about your long con.

Wilhelm was grinning at us. “Now that that is settled.” He turned to face me. “I wouldn’t want you to feel left out, Nate. Your woman is with my brother, Jacob as we speak. And we have the…
gift
your dragons were guarding. Talk about silver lining!” He grinned excitedly. “Meet us at sundown to finish this. I’ll give you the chance to at least watch your woman die. I’ll make it convenient for everyone.
Chateau Falco
. We’ll be needing to gain access to the Armory after our… chat.”

Then he disappeared. As did all the other Grimms. The wolves remained. My power flooded back into me like a tsunami, sending me crashing to my knees. Then again, a gentle breeze could have done so at that point.

Indie was taken.

Ashley had been turned.

They had the books.

Operation White Knight
had failed miserably.

And they wanted my Armory.

Gunnar was suddenly at Ashley’s side, picking her body up as it convulsed. He yelled into the sky, and Tory’s instant cry was a perfect complement, the sounds melding together in a damning harmony.

I fell face first into the snow, crying, my vision pulsing from red to blue. Then to black as I pounded my fist repeatedly into the snow.

Chapter 37

I
finally lifted my head. After another second I managed to climb to my feet. Every single werewolf was on his knees, but only one spoke, softly, to Gunnar’s retreating back as he carried Ashley in his bulging arms.

“If it means anything, they told us that since your woman was a Regular, they wouldn’t kill her. Just turn her. If we hadn’t complied they promised to force one of us to kill her instead. Not that it matters to you.” Gunnar’s shoulders stiffened, and Ashley let out a soft whimper of pain, very much alive, as if punctuating the werewolf’s words. He carried on, voice heavy with both guilt and the burden of accepting full responsibility. “I have a daughter. Two years old. They… took her. They took all of our children.” Several answering sobs and growls responded to this comment. The man continued on.

“They killed my son. I… they let me choose which child would live.” A soft sob escaped his dry lips, and I saw his eyes wet with unshed tears, but he wasn’t begging. He spoke clinically, not asking for forgiveness from Gunnar. Just stating the facts to his Alpha. “If you want to take my life, I submit myself to you, Alpha. Just… just look after my girl. She’s innocent… Even though her father is a coward… The choice to act was mine and mine alone. Don’t punish the pack for my actions. Punish
me
…
please
.” He never lifted his gaze, just turned so that his throat was available for a quick strike. Now he was begging.

But not for his own life. He was begging to sacrifice his life for the pack.

Gunnar’s chest heaved and the pack was silent.

My friend finally shook his head and continued on his way.

The man let out a breath, whether in regret or relief, I couldn’t tell. I don’t think anyone else could tell either. The pack looked at each other thoughtfully, guiltily, and then they began to round up, murmuring softly as they helped the pleading werewolf to his feet. He called out to Gunnar one last time. “Call on us when you need warm bodies ready to die. We owe at least
that
to you.”

“You owe me nothing, because to me, you
are
nothing.” Gunnar growled over his shoulder, almost too softly to be heard. But we were talking about werewolves here. Supernatural hearing. They caught it and the emotion under the surface. And their shoulders sagged even further, a pitiful sight. Then they nodded once to Gunnar and began to lope off in pairs.

I snagged the pleading werewolf’s arm. He looked down at my hand, and then very calmly at my face. I wisely let go.

“What happened?” I asked softly.

“Our Alpha was forced to obey the Grimms after they took our offspring and women. Then Gunnar killed one of us in the sewers and sent our Alpha into a rage. He wanted a duel. Anything to show the pack that he wasn’t defenseless. We didn’t know that Geri was a Grimm. We had no idea. Not sure what happened to the real Geri. Probably dead somewhere.” His eyes grew distant.

“That doesn’t explain you guys here.”

He nodded sadly. “When Gunnar refused to accept us, he left us without an Alpha. He didn’t say the words.
You are mine
. The new Alpha has to say the words to the Geri. No one really thought about it until after you left. That’s when Geri told us if we ever wanted to see our kids again we had to go with him. That’s when we realized we had been played. But we couldn’t do anything about it. Pack first.
Always
Pack first. And without an Alpha, our pack was our
family
, and the Grimms had them. We had no choice.” He spat, not venomous with accusation, but with the fury of a man helplessly condemned.

I nodded, patted his shoulder, and spoke. “I’ll talk with him. We will need you, despite what he said. Can you do that? As a favor? Without him saying the words?”

The man stared at me, and then shook his head. “Sorry, Master Temple. Pack first. Which means our families.” His shoulders sagged. A thought crossed his features. “How come your spirit wolves didn’t fight today?” I somehow managed a smile, and decided to be honest in hopes that it might gain both his respect and possibly his help.

“They never existed. It was just magic. And some cool boots.” I admitted, smiling wider at his incredulous expression.

“Magic. And cool boots.” He repeated, staring at me, a small smile slowly creeping over his face. “I can’t believe that all this time we feared your invisible pack of wolves.” He shook his head with a weak laugh. “Well played.” I nodded in acknowledgment.

“Change anything?” I asked, voice hopeful.

He shook his head sadly. “Pack first.” He recited. And then he loped away to rejoin his brethren. I couldn’t blame him, but it sucked.