Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles #2) (38 page)
Read Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles #2) Online
Authors: Nancy Holder
“Where have you been?” Arial demanded, staring at her. “If you’d been there, if you’d shot Dominique Gaudin, Daddy would be all right.”
Katelyn tried to remember the last time she’d had the gun. Justin had shot Luc with it and she didn’t know what had happened to it after that.
“Doug,” Katelyn said to Justin as she set her down. “He’s on the other side of the bayou. He’s hurt.”
“Where?” Justin asked.
“I’ll show you,” Katelyn said.
“No,” Arial insisted. “Stay here and protect the alpha. He’s more important than some bit-in human.”
So that’s how she feels about Doug. And me
, Katelyn thought. She knew Arial’s priorities were misplaced. The pack wasn’t supposed to protect the alpha. The alpha was supposed to protect the pack. Someone else needed to stand up and lead. She glanced at Justin, whose face was drawn. His eyes were watering, and he was studying his uncle.
“Arial,” he said, “I’m taking over.”
“Oh, no, you’re not!” she cried, cradling her father’s head. “This is a Fenner pack. My father is our alpha. He just needs a few minutes.” She looked down anxiously at Mr. Fenner.
“I’m a Fenner,” Justin said.
“Don’t even start with me.” She bared her teeth.
“Arial! Justin! Where’s Doug?” Regan yelled hoarsely, coming up behind them. She looked at Katelyn. “Where have you been?”
“Doug’s hurt,” Katelyn told her. “Come with me.”
“We have to get Daddy out of here,” Arial insisted. “He’s hurt.”
“Someone needs to wait for us,” Regan said.
“We’ll get Doug and leave in my truck,” Justin said.
Katelyn scrambled out of the truck. She gestured to Justin and Regan to follow her as she began to retrace her steps. Behind her, the truck carrying Arial and Mr. Fenner roared to life and peeled out. She heard more departing vehicles and doubled her pace. Behind her, Justin and Regan struggled and coughed, their erratic heartbeats pounding in her ears; the silver was doing a job on them.
Through the smoke, she saw a handful of Gaudins in human form wearing gas masks. Their side of the bayou was practically empty. The Gaudins were leaving the scene of the massacre they had brought down on the Fenners.
Doug was lying where she had left him, his face turned the other way. She approached, detecting no heartbeat at all. Alarmed, she reached him first, fell to her knees beside him and peered at his face.
His skin was blackened as if he’d been burned. His bloodshot eyes were open, unseeing. She hesitated, then touched his carotid artery with two fingertips. There was no pulse.
She felt someone standing over her and looked up. It was Justin, grim-faced, pasty, exhausted. He whirled around and caught Regan in his arms.
“He’s gone, Regan,” he said. “Don’t look.”
Regan threw back her head and screamed. The scream became a howl. The bayou echoed and more voices raised in unearthly crazed shrieking, howling, weeping. Regan rained fists on Justin’s chest, fighting to get free, but Justin held her. She coughed and choked.
“Kat, get up. We have to get out of here,” Justin said. “Now. The silver is killing us.”
“Let me see him. He’s not dead!” Regan cried. “Let me go, Justin!”
Katelyn got up. “Justin, we can’t leave him here,” she murmured. Where she’d seen Regan only as a cruel, devious bitch, now she was seeing her as a girl with the man she loved — unwilling to leave him, distraught with grief.
“Do you have the strength to carry him?” Justin asked her.
She didn’t.
“No!” Regan yelled. “I won’t leave him! I’m staying!”
“You’re not.” Justin kept hold of her. “They already have one hostage. Cordelia. We can’t let them have another daughter of the alpha, even though you won’t be as valuable now that he knows where Uncle Lee stands.”
“What are you talking about?” Katelyn asked.
Justin kept a tight hold on Regan. “Dom offered to stand down — stop this fight — if Lee forgave Cordelia.”
Katelyn was speechless. “And Lee didn’t?”
“He didn’t.” Justin turned to Regan again. “They might just kill you, Regan. But they sure won’t let you go if they capture you.”
“I don’t care,” Regan said, breaking his hold and flailing her arms, trying to kick him, as he attempted to recapture her. “Let me go to my husband, you cheating, lying bastard!”
Justin wrapped himself around Regan, but Katelyn could tell he was tiring. He said, “Regan, I’m sorry.” She kept struggling. “Kat, in my pocket,” he said. “Gun.”
Katelyn wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. He looked over at her with a cold, steely gaze. “I have a gun. Get it out.”
“And do what with it? Shoot her?”
“No, hit her with it, knock her out. I can’t hold onto her much longer.”
“Doug!” Regan screamed. “Let me go to Doug!”
“You’re not your own person, Regan,” Justin bellowed. “You can’t just do what you want! You’ll hurt the pack. Damn it, Kat, get my gun!”
“No,” she shouted at him, backing away. “Let her go to him! He’s her husband!”
“Kat, I let you have your way,” he said. “In the forest. You know what I mean.”
He was talking about Babette. She sucked in another breath, hoping Regan was too upset to pay attention.
“Now we do this
my
way,” he said. “We have to leave
now
, and we can’t leave her here or she’ll die.”
Katelyn shook her head. It was too much, all too much. And she wouldn’t be a party to it anymore. She whirled on her heel and bolted.
“Kat!” Justin shouted. “Come back here
now
!”
Shaking her head, eyes tearing up, Katelyn ran into the thick bayou. How could he do such a thing? Even
think
of doing it?
She heard the roar of engines and hurried toward them. Steve was limping toward an open door. A werewolf in wolf form shot past her.
“Kat,” said a voice. Arial’s husband Al stepped into view. “My God, Kat.”
“You don’t know what’s happening back there,” she said, panting. “Doug’s dead, and Justin’s making Regan leave him there.”
“Doesn’t matter right now. We have to get you out of here.” With an oily, anxious smile, he reached out a hand. “C’mon.”
And then she remembered that she was their secret weapon.
Images of what her life was going to be like crashed around her like the walls of her house. Something to be fought over. Someone’s hostage. A Fenner hostage.
She couldn’t do this. Wouldn’t be a part of this.
“Hold on,” she said to Al. “I need to get the gun.”
“Kat!” he shouted, as she started walking away. Walking only, so he wouldn’t realize she was trying to escape. She glanced at the idling cars loading up with Fenners. She could see into the back of the truck where Arial was crouching over Lee. The alpha was spasming, his whole body flailing, and then it just stopped. And she knew, deep down, that he was gone. Then fresh howls of grief pierced the sky. Lee Fenner was dead.
So many emotions spilled through her — rage, despair, relief — that she wheeled into the trees, pushing at the branches, gasping in the poisonous, smoky night. Stumbling and fleeing. Denying all of it.
This is not my world.
I am no one’s secret weapon
.
Al shouted her name, and yelled for others to help him find her. As she barreled through the forest, his voice grew fainter and fainter. She kept going with no thought but to keep going.
I’m leaving, she thought giddily. It’s happening. I’m really going
.
She left the Fenners behind, and the moon, as the treetops huddled together above her and threw her into darkness. Her vision kicked in and the woods were covered in white light. A fairyland. Safe haven.
She looked over her shoulder. No one seemed to be following her. There had to be a road somewhere. She could hitch a ride. Make a call. Get a plane ticket. Live. Call Trick and ask him to come to her.
Be free
.
“Yes,” she said under her breath.
Then the forest went dark. She was only mildly disappointed; it had happened before. Often.
And then the darkness unfolded and reared up. It was a massive shape, a
monster
, towering above her. Its head was enormous; its huge, fiery eyes were smoking. Teeth — fangs — glistened white and dripping as it opened its mouth. She smelled the stench of its breath, felt the heat as it poised in the air and studied her for a heart-stopping second. The forest went dead silent.
Hellhound. Come for a disobedient werewolf.
Like me
.
Katelyn fell to her knees.
And then it attacked.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, my deepest thanks to Debbie Viguié, my wonderful co-author and dearest friend. My gratitude to our agents, Howard Morhaim, Kate McKean, and Caspian Dennis for all you do for us, and to HMLA assistant Alice Speilburg as well. Becky Stradwick, our editor extraordinaire, thank you so much for all your insight and support. I am grateful. Thanks to my family, especially my daughter, Belle. You make me howl with joy.
— N.H.
To my brilliant co-author Nancy Holder, thank you for keeping it all fun. Thank you to our agents Howard Morhaim, Caspian Dennis, and Kate McKean for their tireless efforts on our behalf. Thank you to our fantastic editor, Becky Stradwick, for all her support. Thank you to Alice Speilburg for helping to keep me sane. Finally, I need to thank Mandy Winn, who has always embodied the spirit of the wolf and is a good friend.
— D.V.
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