Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (19 page)

Rhett saw her
looking. ‘Antain’s office. Never go in there without an invitation,’ he
murmured, leading her up the stairs.

On the landing,
there was a long hallway stretched out in front of her.

‘The room at the
very end of the hall is my aunt and uncle’s room. My room is next door. The one
next to that is free if you want it.’

Indi nodded
mutely just as the blond wolf brushed past her.

‘Where do you
want it?’ he asked. Indi looked up when Rhett didn’t answer, realising that
Colton was talking to her. Not trusting her voice yet, she pointed at the door
Rhett had shown her. ‘You got it,’ he grinned, pushing past Rhett without an
apology. A low growl broke out; the noise vibrating through Rhett’s chest. She
didn’t have to look at his eyes to know his wolf was lurking close to the
surface.

‘Watch it,’
Rhett warned in a low, crawling growl. The sound of his voice set the hairs on
Indi’s arms on end.

‘Sorry,’ Colton
sneered, continuing on his way along the hallway.

‘What’s his
problem?’ she asked, following Rhett.

‘I told you
everyone hates me in my pack.’

Rhett led her
into her new room. Colton was rifling through the garbage bag Indi had packed
her life into. ‘Out!’ Rhett ordered Colton. Colton’s lips peeled away from his
teeth, but he complied. Rhett closed the door after Colton left them, slumping
against it. ‘I’m sorry. He has no concept of boundaries.’

‘It’s fine,’ she
replied, sitting on the edge of the queen-sized bed. ‘It’s not like there’s
anything interesting in there anyway.’

‘He shouldn’t be
touching anything that belongs to you,’ Rhett growled. He looked over at her
and sighed. ‘You must be hungry. I’ll go get you something to drink.’

Indi shook her
head. ‘I’m not hungry. I already ate, remember?’ She smiled at him, but his
expression remained pinched.

‘Don’t remind
me,’ he grumbled. ‘The bathroom is behind that door,

and—’ Rhett was cut off by the
sound of his phone. He pulled it from his pocket and read the message. ‘Fuck.’

‘What is it?’

He ran a hand through
his hair, staring hard at the screen. ‘It’s nothing.’ He kissed her gently on
the forehead. ‘I won’t be long.’

Rhett closed the bedroom door
behind him, unable to really believe that Indi was with him now. When he’d
received the warning text from Leona, he’d left B’s place and raced to Indi’s.
The thought that it was a trap crossed his mind briefly, but even that didn’t
stop him. If Indi was in trouble, then he’d be there no matter what. But when
he’d walked into her apartment, he wasn’t expecting to see what he had.

Indi was deep in
the throes of bloodlust, drinking from the vein of the Dragos wolf until she
was glutting on his blood. Jealousy had ignited a fire in his veins. It had
felt like the ultimate betrayal, but as soon as the idea surfaced, he’d pushed
it away. Thinking like that could get Indi killed.

Making his way
down the hallway, he knocked on Antain’s office door, waiting only a moment
before he was told to come in. Rhett closed the office door behind him. Antain
was sitting behind his desk, a squat glass of whiskey in front of him. His eyes
were golden; both fierce and exhausted at the same time.

‘Rhett,’ he
nodded. ‘How’s Indi settling in?’

‘Fine. I need to
talk to you, Uncle.’

Antain’s golden
eyes were unwavering as he waved Rhett into the seat opposite him. ‘What’s on
your mind, son?’

Rhett’s heart
was pounding hard. His hand made a trip through his hair. ‘Something strange
happened to me today.’

‘Oh?’

‘Leona contacted
me.’

Antain’s
eyebrows rose. ‘The Dragos Captain?’

Rhett nodded.

‘What did she
want?’

Rhett swallowed
thickly. ‘She claims she has information on Eaton’s whereabouts.’

Antain laughed
humourlessly; a harsh sound. ‘No doubt she does. What did she say to you
exactly?’

‘She wants to
negotiate a deal in exchange for the information.’

Antain’s eyes
narrowed infinitesimally. ‘What kind of deal?’

Rhett shook his
head roughly. ‘I’ll let her tell you herself.’

Antain’s lips
thinned out to a severe line. ‘When do I get to speak to her?’

‘Now. She’s
waiting for me at the front gate. I think everyone should be here to find out
exactly what she knows and what she wants. Where are Vaile and Sabel?’

‘Out on patrol.
Colton is home though. Take him with you.’

‘You got it,’
Rhett replied darkly, leaving his alpha’s office to collect his pack mate.

‘Where are we
going?’ Colton asked, pulling a t-shirt down over his stomach. Rhett had found
him in the basement doing crunches.

‘That doesn’t
concern you. Your alpha wants you to come with me, so you come with me. You got
it?’

Colton’s stare
bored holes into Rhett, but he was getting good at ignoring shit like that.
‘Follow me.’

Colton trailed
after Rhett like a petulant child until he caught Leona’s scent on the wind
near the property’s boundary. He instantly dropped into a fighting stance, his
eyes ratcheting back and forth between the edges of forest on either side of
the gravel driveway.

‘I smell Dragos
wolf,’ he said, his voice transformed into a rough representation of a human
sound.

‘I know,’ Rhett
replied, looking hard into the shadows. ‘Leona.’

She appeared
suddenly like she’d just stepped out of one of the shadows Rhett had been
scanning. Colton’s chest vibrated loudly; his wolf’s eyes peering out. ‘What
the fuck is she doing here?’ he snapped.

‘She has
permission to be here,’ Rhett answered absently. He turned to Leona. ‘You still
want to speak to Antain?’ he asked her. She nodded once. ‘Come with me then.
Colton, stay at her back.’

Rhett turned and
began walking back down the driveway with Leona sandwiched between him and
Colton. Her fear was an acrid stench that he couldn’t escape.

‘You got my text
then?’ she murmured into Rhett’s ear. The hair at the back of his neck stood on
end, but he didn’t respond. Yeah, she’d given him the heads up, but that didn’t
mean shit. The farmhouse came into sight again, and the menacing shadow his alpha
cast onto the frozen ground from the porch seemed to crank a few more notches
of anxiety and fear out of Leona. Rhett climbed the steps to stand next to
Antain while Colton remained behind Leona.

‘Rhett tells me
you wanted to speak to me, that you have information concerning my mate.’

Leona kept her
head bowed, her eyes lowered to the ground. ‘Yes, Antain. Thank you for
agreeing to see me.’

‘Don’t thank me
yet. I might still tear you apart for crossing onto our pack’s land.’ With his
words still echoing around them, he turned and marched back into the house.
‘Search and disarm her,’ he called over his shoulder.

‘Hands on your
head,’ Colton snarled, kicking her legs apart to pat down her bottom half while
Rhett took her Browning from the holster on her hip along with the two
silver-coated daggers from the leather sheaths on her wrists.

‘Have you got
any other weapons on you?’ Rhett asked, passing the small arsenal to Colton.
She shook her head. ‘Where’d you get the scar?’ he asked, looking at her cheek.
She hadn’t had it when he saw her in the park only a couple of hours ago. She
lifted her chin defiantly, but said nothing.

Rhett looked
over her shoulder, nodding at Colton. He pushed Leona in the back, shoving her
into the house ahead of him roughly.

‘Sit,’ Antain
said to her when she was finally in the office. Leona took the seat directly in
front of Antain’s desk; Colton and Rhett flanking their alpha behind the desk.
Leona was dripping in fear now and rightfully so. She had metaphorically
offered her jugular to a rival alpha.

He spread his
hands wide, his palms up. ‘I’m all ears,’ Antain rumbled, drilling her with
calculating tawny eyes.

Still not
meeting his eyes, she said, ‘I know where they’re holding your mate.’

‘Rhett has said
as much. Are you going to tell us exactly where though?’

‘Yes, I will,
but … I need something from you first.’

‘You’re in no
position to demand anything from me,’ Antain replied in a carefully controlled
voice.

She licked her
lips; a nervous, jerky movement. ‘Forgive me, but you’re in no position to
ignore my request either if you want your mate back.’

Both Colton and
Rhett sucked in a hiss. Nobody spoke to an alpha like that. Antain pinned her
with a hard stare for a long time. Rhett was sure he was going to tear her
apart on the spot.

‘Tell me what I
need to know. Then we’ll discuss your request.’

She shook her
head. ‘No. I need a guarantee from you first.’

‘Well, you’re
not going to get it.’

Her eyes raised
a fraction. ‘Then Eaton will die.’

‘We already know
that she’s on Marcus’s land. We’ll find out exactly where she is ourselves and
get her back,’ Antain replied dismissively. ‘We don’t need you.’

‘They might move
her soon, and you’ll need me to tell you where. You
need
me on the
inside.’ Leona’s voice was still flat, but Rhett heard the desperation she was
trying to hold back.

Antain sat back
into his leather chair, steepling his fingers under his chin; his wolf’s golden
eyes driving into her. ‘What do you want?’ he asked eventually.

She swallowed
visibly and licked her lips. ‘Sanctuary.’

Antain’s eyes
narrowed. ‘You want to join our pack?’

‘Yes.’

Antain leaned
forwards in his chair, placing his palms face down on the desk. ‘You are
willing to swear fealty to me?’ Leona nodded, and Antain’s eyes narrowed even
more. ‘Why?’

Antain wasn’t
the only one wondering that. Rhett couldn’t figure out the motives behind it
himself.

Leona’s eyes
darted nervously around the office. ‘I c-can’t tell you everything right now. I
need you to trust me that I’m telling the truth. I will help you get Eaton
back. In exchange for my help, I want stability and the right to choose.’

‘The right to
choose what?’ Rhett asked, interrupting.

Leona looked at
him, chewing her lip before dropping her eyes to her lap. ‘Marcus wants the
félvair to boost pack numbers. We have the females to breed, but Marcus wants
me to give up my position in the pack. I refuse to bare anyone’s children. If
you give up the félvair, my fate is sealed. I’ll be nothing more than a brood
mare. I want to join the Helheim pack.’ She looked up. ‘There is talk of how
merciful you are, Antain,’ she said, glancing at Rhett for a fleeting second
before settling her eyes in her lap again.

‘Should I accept
you, would you fight for position? Because I can tell you right now, I would
kill you before I let you challenge my Captain.’

Leona looked up
at him then—her wolf’s yellow eyes staring out. ‘I’m afraid threats of death
don’t faze me anymore, Antain. I learned long ago that there was more to fear
in life than death.’

Rhett looked to
his alpha who was studying Leona’s face. ‘I need to think this over. Rhett will
contact you with my decision.’

Leona nodded,
rising out of the chair slowly.

‘Colton, escort
Leona out past the front gate and come straight back.’

‘You got it,’ he
drawled.

‘Make sure she
gets her weapons back,’ Antain called out after him.

Rhett dropped
onto the couch. ‘So, what do you think?’

‘I think she’s
genuine. Leona is a good enforcer. She’s honest and ruthless and she would be
an asset to the pack.’ Rhett gave him a speculative look. ‘We knew the only way
to get Eaton back was to have a wolf on the inside, and that’s exactly what we
got.’

‘What about her
request not to breed?’

He shrugged. ‘We
can’t force our females. If we did, we’d be no better than Marcus. If she
swears fealty to us, she’ll have a choice. She deserves a choice.’ Antain stood
up to pour himself another glass of whiskey.

‘Do you trust
her?’ Rhett stood up to pace. Both he and his wolf were uneasy about the whole
Leona thing. It was a rarity that a Bitten wolf would willingly leave their
pack.

His uncle took a
sip of whiskey, eyeballing Rhett over the top of the glass. ‘No.’

‘So you’re not
going to consider her request?’

‘I didn’t say
that. I might not trust her, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t see how useful
she is. If she can get us the information we need,’ he shrugged, ‘then we’ll
use it. If she holds up her end of the bargain, we’ll hold up ours. We may not
have many members in our pack, but we all have our honour.’

The office door
opened and Vaile, Sabel and Colton filed in.

‘Any trouble
tonight?’ Antain asked Vaile, sitting back behind his desk.

‘We came across
half a dozen.’

‘Half a dozen
vampires?’ Rhett asked. ‘Just tonight?’

Vaile nodded
stiffly, sinking down into the open space beside him. ‘Yeah.’

Antain asked,
‘Branded?’

‘No, they were
immara
.
We’ve been coming across more and more of them while out on patrols ever since
Nox was killed.’

‘Any idea why so
many?’ Antain asked.

Vaile shook his
head. ‘We don’t waste time chatting with them.’

Antain nodded
and took another sip from his glass.

Vaile cleared
his throat. ‘I have a theory though. What if the sudden influx of vampires into
the city is connected to the recent ritual killings I’ve been investigating?’

‘How?’ Antain
asked in a smooth voice. He seemed completely unruffled by the news that more
and more vampires were calling Buxton home. Rhett, not so much. At least Indi
was safe now that she was out of the city.