Opening the Cage (16 page)

“Granny.”

No.

No way.

Grandma Minnie was eternal. She couldn’t be gone. When he looked past Junie he could see Mesa, standing with his hands on his knees, head hanging.

Oh, God.

“Is Sammy okay, brother?”
The baby?

“She’s okay.” Mesa’s voice was blown, like his throat was raw. It probably was.

“Good.” Okay. Okay, he had to get up. He had to get his mates. Now. He tried to climb to his feet, but nothing would work. “Mesa, help me.”

“You’re hurt, brother. Rest. Everyone’s hurt. Everyone that’s still alive.”

“My mates are out there.” Pure rage finally got him to his feet.

“Our Pack is here. We need you.” Mesa looked at him, a huge gash covering his face. “I need you here, Canyon.”

He knew that. He was Mesa’s second, for Christ’s sake. The clan protector. “I can’t stay here and let him kill them. Any more than you could stay if it was Kody and Sammy.”

“Canyon, these people, they’re your family, damn it. I need you.” Mesa was beginning to growl and Juniper was crying harder, rocking.

“He got what he wants. He won’t come back here.” He had to go. “Mesa, please understand. I have to go.”

“She’s going to have a baby, I need my second here!” The roar was half fury, half pain.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’m pregnant, not stupid. Are you two finished having a goddamn pissing contest?” Sammy came in and went to Junie, gathered his sister up in a hug. Granite was right behind her, with Kody coming next.

Canyon looked at Granite, who was bleeding and ragged, but upright. “I need your help, buddy. I need you to watch over the pack for me. Be Mesa’s second now.”

“What?” That was Granite and Mesa both, looking at him like he was insane.

Canyon went to Mesa, putting a hand on his brother’s chest. “You said it yourself. They’re not your pack, and no second can have two mates. I’m not your pack anymore, either. Granite needs a new place.”

The words fell between them, harsh and hard, and Juniper howled for him. He hated this, it broke his heart, but it was truth.

He was Riana and Wend’s Alpha. Even if he never had more pack than that under his wing, he was Mesa’s equal. He couldn’t stay.

His body felt weak, and he was shivering, his hands and feet freezing. He let himself stand there and soak in Mesa’s heat through his hand for a few more seconds before pulling away.

“I love you all, you know that,” Canyon said before he turned to head back to his house one last time. He had to gather up what he needed and go after Wend and Riana. Before it was too late.

Juniper’s howl chased him, but it was Kody’s steps that followed, Granite close behind. “Canyon, Canyon, wait.”

His shoulders went up, but he stopped. “I’m going after them.”

“Okay. Sure. They’re your mates, but you’re our Canyon, our family, and I can help you get things together. Mesa says to take his truck; it’s in better shape.”

Granite nodded, growled. “I’ll be your second, if you ask, man.”

Canyon wasn’t much for big shows of emotion, but tears stung his eyes. “Thanks. Both of you. Mesa needs you, Granite. If you come with me now I can show you my place, show you what I have set up for security.”

Granite nodded. “How are you going to take him down, Canyon? That…what happened to him?”

“To who?” Canyon didn’t really understand. That monster had hurt so many, killed.

“The Alpha. Markus. He used to be…He wasn’t always like that.”

“Jesus, man. I don’t really know for sure, but Alicia and the witch convinced him to change somehow.”

Granite nodded. “I’d know his scent anywhere. I was his second. That used to be him, a good man.”

“The witch…” He thought Granite ought to know the witch and Alicia were dead.

“Lorena.” Granite growled, deep in his chest. “My Jewel hated her.”

Canyon noticed that Granite didn’t call Jewel his mate.

“He killed her. Up on the mountain. I think she was mainly behind this.” He forgot, sometimes, how much Granite had lost. He packed things into bags: clothes, food, medical supplies.

“I think, somehow, your mates were.”

He spun around, growled, and Granite held his hands up.

“Hey. It’s true. It's not their fault, but it is their blood he used. Lorena may have told him how to use them, but he is using them and whatever their special power is. Jewel told me about April’s sister, told me she was just a white wolf who couldn’t change. Why would they lie?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know her.” None of it made sense. Not the witch or April hiding Riana all those years or where the hell Wend even came from.

Then the thought of Grandma Minnie being gone hit him, in the pit of his stomach.

He wanted to just collapse and howl and bite something. Instead, he kept moving.

“You won’t stay away forever, though, right? You have to still be my friend.” Kody squeezed his fingers.

“Fuck that, we’re family.” He yanked Kody into a hug, needing to hold on to something for a moment.

Kody squeezed him. “He’ll miss you, so he growls. He’ll always have your back, Canyon. Forever.”

“I know. I know. I have to go.” Steeling himself, he pulled back, leading Kody and Granite to his laptop, showing them where to get the information they would need.

He needed to go get his mates.

* * * *

Riana looked at Wend, stared across the bars of the cage. Wake up.

Nothing.

Wend? Love? Wake up.

She needed out. She needed Wend out. She needed to make sure her mates were safe.

Wend didn’t even twitch. Why couldn’t he wake up?

Canyon? Canyon, can you hear me?

All she heard was silence. Riana whined, chewing at the wire of the cage she lay in. Out. Out. Out.

She wasn’t going to stay in the cage anymore. Damn it.

She looked at the lock, trying to figure out if human hands could work it open. There was a hole in it, which meant it needed a key. So, no. Not her hands, at any rate.

Wend moaned a little, his feet flexing.

Wend? Wend? Wake up. Wake up. We have to get out. She rattled the wires of the cage, so frustrated.

Wend’s eyes popped open, his panic rising; she could feel it easily now.

There you are! She stared at him. We have to get out.

Where? Canyon? He scratched at the cage, scrabbling weakly.

He won’t answer. She threw herself at the wires, needing to see him, see if he was hurt. Wend?

I’m all right, Ri. I’m all right. My head hurts.

She hit the wires again, then stopped when a shadow blocked out what little light there was. “Oh, my children. Did you honestly think you could escape me?”

The thing—because he wasn’t a man, not anymore, maybe not ever—stood over the cage, misshapen and scarred, lumpy and wrong. She growled softly. She did think they could. They had. Twice. If she could get free with her mates twice, she could three times.

Maybe this time forever.

Wend struggled up, standing, head low, tail stiff. We need to go.

We will. She hit the cage again. He had to let her out to bite her and he’d have to bite her again, to be the monster. She felt stronger now that Wend was awake, felt more aware every second. Then she could get the key from that thing, and she would let Wend out.

What would happen if she bit him? Would she become a monster? She would do it, if it would get Wend out, let them find Canyon, even though that she remembered this man, before the witch made him bad.

She crouched, waiting for the monster to make his next move. She was concentrating so hard she almost missed Canyon’s faint call.

Riana? Wend? Can you hear me?

Canyon! Mate! He has us!

I’m coming. I’m coming, love. Just stay safe until I come.

I’m going to bite him. He’s right here.

No. No, love. No biting, Just try to hold him off. I can find you now. I love you.

Love.

Wend looked over at her, and he whined softly. She heard the keys jingling and she whimpered, crouching back before something inside her had her lunging toward the gate, her teeth flashing.

The monster jumped back, out of range of her teeth. “No, no, my poor child. You don’t need my blood.”

No biting! She growled, head down, and she didn’t flinch because this wasn’t her Alpha.

No biting. Canyon was out of the truck now, running in the high country, coming to them.

“Bitch!” Her cage was shaken, and she stumbled, but kept her feet, snarling and snapping.

Wend barked, slamming against his crate hard, trying to get to her.

He sent her cage tumbling, her body crashing around. “Listen to me, you silly bitch. You give me what I need or I’ll bite him. You think your mate will heal?”

She climbed to all four paws, staring through the cage at Wend, who was panting, hitting the wire of his cage over and over.

No. Not her Wend.

He snarled, shook her cage again, hard. “I will tear his tail off, take his balls. He’ll live, broken.”

No!

No. All he wanted was her blood. He could have some. She would heal. Then Canyon would kill this monster.

No. Riana, no.

Hush. She growled at Wend. Canyon, the monster, he’s coming.

And it would be her fault.

Chapter Fifteen

Canyon ran like he’d never run before. He took the truck until the road ended, then he ran. The pads on his paws cracked and bled, and he kept running.

He could feel his girl, her pain, hear her screams. Hear Wend’s hysteria as he fought to reach her.

Then there was just Riana’s warning. The monster was coming, not for them but for him. He was ready.

He headed for the bright beacon that was his Wend, his Beta, the one that drew them together. His strong, smart mate. He hadn’t heard Riana call for him until Wend had been awake. That was humbling, and a little frightening.

He could hear the monster coming, the weird shuffle-drag sound, the way the trees crackled as It pushed through.

Canyon slid to a stop, crouching low. He wished that he could have moved fast enough as a human, so he could have brought a weapon. He had to get to them, with or without. He had to see his mates.

Free them.

He moved slowly, belly to the ground, not making a sound.

The monster wasn’t stealthy and the stench was stunning, making his nostrils flare.

Don’t see him. Don’t see him.

He could hear his mates, feel their joined will surrounding him.

Yes. Don’t see me. He’d never tried that trick before, but it had worked for Wend.

The creature—even less like a wolf than before, Canyon thought, now like a hulking, furry, slavering thing—stepped close, close enough to touch, close enough that the wiry hairs brushed his whiskers.

No. No, Mate. Don’t look. Don’t see him. You can’t see him, and he can’t see you. He can’t see you.
Wend sounded so sure.

Canyon almost closed his eyes. Good thing he didn’t, as he would have crept smack into a rock.

His mates were close. So close. Everything inside him begged him to move faster, find them. Free them.

Cautiously, he began to move faster again, confident that the thing was on his back trail, chasing him the wrong way.

Canyon. Canyon, hurry. Hurry, she’s hurt.
He could feel Wend’s urgency, the need to get to Riana.

Canyon ran, his feet pounding on the earth, his ears flat back, listening. No one followed.
Soon. Soon.

The mouth of the cave wasn’t hidden at all, the stench of the monster fierce. He growled as he saw Riana’s body, limp and still, her cage torn open, the scent of her blood making him dizzy. Wend was in another cage, dancing, trying to get to her.

He went to Riana first. The lock on Wend’s cage would take some time, even if he went human.

The bite was brutal, her shoulder and neck torn.

Canyon whined, going to lick the wound.

Mate. Please
. Wend whined, paws bashing at the cage.

I’m trying.
He nuzzled Riana one last time before going to Wend’s cage, trying to figure out the lock.

The clothes. They’re in the clothes. Hurry.

Yes.
So smart, his mate. He had to think about it hard, his instinct to remain a wolf strong. Canyon finally changed, though, and sorted through the stinking mess for the keys.

He found them, gagging the whole time. Wrong. This was so wrong. Why would anyone do this? It was…God. Canyon fumbled with the keys and got them over to Wend’s cage.