Rogue Wolf (24 page)

Our
, not
my
.

“You do not hold territory, Rogue.” She hardened her tone and straightened. “You are answerable for your crimes here and in Italy where the Seven Hills Alpha has issued a hunt for your blood.”

While not entirely true, her words had the desired effect. Rayne’s eyes tightened. The blond-haired wolf flicked his gaze to the side, the barest hint of movement and a woman appeared behind him, moving with deliberate purpose. The other wolves fidgeted and began to withdraw—then halted completely.

“Go back,” Rayne said, his voice so soft even Margo had to strain to hear him, but the woman kept coming. She ran her fingers down his bare arm then strode out before them all. Long, silky black hair framed the olive skinned beauty. The striking resemblance to Salvatore couldn’t be ignored—nor could the power rolling off of her. Wearing only a sundress, she moved with a predatory calm. The others looked to her, even Rayne. The connection between them couldn’t be missed. Instead of waiting behind her, he paced her. Where his gaze dropped before, everything about him vibrated protectiveness.

Fuck. They are definitely mated.
Only a blind wolf would miss the signs.

“Luciana Esposito.” She deliberately left off the Barrows name. If she was going to provoke her, might as well go for the whole shebang. “Your brother has ordered you home. If you obey, we will not hold you to the contempt of our laws and I won’t execute you.”

The world seemed to slow. Ten feet away from her, Luciana paused and power seemed to gather into her, around her. Definitely the Alpha and, worse, she’d bonded the pack. Power flowed from every wolf present into her and her wolf shone in her eyes. The weight of it slammed into Margo, and she raised her chin, locked her legs and stayed on her feet.

“Considering how much you smell like him, Enforcer, I don’t doubt for an instant he sent that message. But you will
leave.”
The order’s compulsion hit her and sweat trickled down her back. She’d held her own against Alphas before, but not under the full weight of their command. The pressure intensified as she locked gazes with Luciana, but Margo refused. She had only one Alpha she ever intended to bow before, and it wasn’t because he was a damn Alpha. A ghost of a feeling traveled up her spine and the power broke, trickling around her as though she were the rock in the center of the stream.

Luciana frowned.

Movement rippled at her side and the great black wolf with his dipped in silver fur appeared. Half the wolves at Luciana’s side fled. They didn’t even pretend to try and stay.

Placing her hand on Salvatore’s ruff, Margo steadied herself further. Luciana’s power tasted of jasmine, citrus, and foreign blossoms—the strangest combination of river and moss yet familiar at the same time. The power continued to crackle in the air and Luciana let out a shout, then cursed in Italian.

The stream of words flowed out of her as Salvatore focused on his sister. He growled and the woman clenched her fists. Alpha to Alpha—the woman was a power in her own right, but Salvatore’s was stronger. He had the edge and still his sister didn’t back down.

“Fine, I will speak in English.” She sighed. “You should not be here. You rule the Seven Hills. You rule all of Italy! Why can I not have this place to myself? I have harmed no one.”

Salvatore growled. Considering one of Luciana’s humans took a shot at Margo just a couple of days before, it was possible she wasn’t even aware.

“They are a disparate people, left alone and abandoned by their packs. Bullied by ones such as she, at your side.” Luciana fought to hold her brother’s gaze. Despite her own power, she was no match for Salvatore. “I wanted this for myself, for Rayne. For these lost wolves. Can you not understand that?” Though heavy emotion discolored her words, Luciana’s spine remained erect, drawing all the focus toward her.

Drawing their attention… Margo shifted her stance. Other wolves had ghosted out of the town and headed toward them, converging on her and Salvatore. Rayne had also moved away from his mate and hurtled toward them, toward Salvatore. Not pausing to think, Margo raced toward Rayne and slammed into him, striking with a fist right to his throat. He choked and then caught her with a backhand, but she rolled with it, spinning to take the force then slammed her elbow into his kidney.

He stumbled, and she locked her arms around his neck while ramming her foot into the back of his knee. The bone popped and he went down. Tightening her grip, she fixed her gaze on Luciana. “Back off and back your people down or I will snap the Rogue’s neck.”

The other wolves froze. Luciana snarled, her beautiful face turning vicious. “I swear I will kill you.” One moment she was human and the next she changed damn near as fast as her brother. She lunged for Margo, but Margo kept her grip on Rayne tight. He wasn’t moving. Her shoulder burned where she pulled at the freshly healed muscle.

Salvatore collided with his sister and the smaller black wolf went down. The sound of snarls and battle continued, but she didn’t look away. Four wolves were suddenly between Margo and the others as the battle continued.

The rogue pack didn’t know how to respond. The wolves spun, struggling for supremacy and Margo understood—something inside her gleaned Salvatore holding back. No matter how bad her choices, Luciana was his sister. He didn’t want to hurt her.

The silver tipped wolf flipped the smaller black, his jaws closed on her throat and a howl split the air. Wolves began to shift all around them and Rayne screamed. Fur rippled beneath Margo’s arms and she had two choices—snap his neck or let him go.

Son of a bitch…

Chapter Fourteen

Until the moment his sister tried to enforce her will on Margo, Salvatore had nursed the hope she wasn’t behind the madness of this sixth pack. Even then, he believed it possible all she needed was his presence to back down from the untenable situation she’d created. Her temper, her unwillingness to lower her eyes, and her wolves attack decided him.

His baby sister, the delicate and fragile flower of his mother’s eye, had lost her mind if she thought for one second he would allow her to threaten his mate. She’d scented him on Margo, so she had no excuse. When Margo disabled Rayne, Salvatore recognized the fight before him. He struck with efficiency, he intended to put his sister down—cripple her if necessary, but not kill her.

If she surrendered, they could still rectify her error. Yet even as his jaws closed on her throat, he felt the pulse of power as she called to her wolves. Around them they all began to shift. Below him, Luciana’s eyes filled with a ferocious light. She wouldn’t surrender. She’d die first.

Fury ripped through him at his sister’s selfish actions. His Centurions converged when the battle began, placing themselves between Margo and the rest, but if his nose was correct, they would soon be facing insurmountable numbers.

A gunshot ripped through the air. The loud bang enough to make him cringe at such close range. A second shot, then a third.

Flinging his sister away from him, Salvatore spun to find Margo with the gun pointed at the half-shifted Rayne. Luciana shuddered, but she rose to her shaking legs and stared at Margo—hatred in her eyes.

“Let me be very clear,” Margo said across the sounds of bones crunching and bodies reforming. “Back the fuck off, Luciana, or I will end your mate. I don’t want to. I would rather we had settled this peaceably. I’d rather you hadn’t chosen to break every law
my
packs hold dear. You
are
the interloper. You have also formed a pack on U.S. soil. You are a sixth pack, and the fate of your pack is not mine to decide as an Enforcer.”

Truth clung to every word.

“But Salvatore is
my mate,
and I will kill yours if I have to. This fight is
over.
Do you understand?” Margo radiated pure power and her voice resonated with it. Pride filled him at his mate’s prescience. His Centurions framed her. No other wolf would be able to approach without facing one of them and they were all powerful wolves. She controlled the battle, and she knew it. She was also giving him a gift, a way to not kill his sister.

Something his sister refused to grant.

Luciana’s pack was still young. Her
pack
. Salvatore lowered his eyelids then glanced at his sister. She trembled, everything in her focused on her mate. She had mated the wolf—mated him, married him, then fled with him to America to make a new life for herself.

Did she hate him that much?

Slowly, Luciana pulled her attention from her mate and Margo to focus on him. He saw the kindling of reason return to her tortured eyes. Her lips peeled back from her teeth, and she split her attention. Margo held Luciana’s heart in her hands, Rayne had completed his shift, but he remained literally under Margo’s gun while Giovanni faced him, teeth bared and ready to take him out.

One word and she would shatter his sister. No question existed within him to the result of Margo pulling the trigger. Salvatore understood, because he’d tasted fear for the first time when the bullets struck Margo. Despite Luciana’s choices, he could not inflict the same harm to her soul. Margo lived, therefore Rayne would live.

Without bowing her head, Luciana retreated a pace. Then another. The wolves behind her fell back further. Agonizing step by agonizing step, Luciana created distance between them. Only when she began her shift did Salvatore. The speed took energy, but he had it in abundance even with the cost he’d already spent hiding his wolves from them.

Nude, Luciana faced him and Salvatore picked up her sundress from where it had fallen to throw it at her. She made a face, then raised her eyebrows. “Really? You’re worried about them seeing me naked?”

“No. I don’t want to see you naked. You have embarrassed me enough.” The verbal reprimand drew blood. Her cheeks went scarlet. Rebellion marked her stance as she held the dress but didn’t put it on. He folded his arms and waited. His sister’s stubbornness was no match for his. With a slew of Italian imprecations, she finally dressed.

“Happy?”

“Not even a little.” Disappointment in her weighed on him heavily.

“Fine, release my mate.”

“Send your wolves away. Then we shall talk.” He would not remove the bargaining chip until her wolves were no longer a threat to Margo.

“Oh, so I send mine away, but you keep yours?”

She didn’t deserve an answer, so he didn’t offer one. The standoff continued for several long moments. Her wolves grew agitated, and he felt Luciana’s power testing his. Impressive as she seemed, she was still too new, her wolves too recently bound, to be a true threat. Only her age gave her an edge. Four years younger than him, she was a power to be reckoned with—the other Alphas in the U.S. would have trouble with her once she’d established her pack.

“
Porco dio
, I hate you sometimes.” She spit the words, then waved her hand to the wolves around them. “Go. Go to your homes. Leave us. Do not return unless I call you.”

Still confused, her wolves did as she ordered them. Some paused to give her considering looks. Perhaps they saw what Salvatore did—an arrogant brat instead of an Alpha. Once the wolves were gone and he no longer scented them, Salvatore strode toward his mate and her vehicle.

“Go,” he told his Centurions. “Watch the others.”

The wolves obeyed without a second glance. At the car, he opened it and pulled out his jeans. Margo had taken his clothes at the rest stop. After dragging them on, he walked over to his mate and glanced down at Rayne.

Margo’s gun hadn’t wavered, not once. The wolf on the ground flattened his ears and snarled, but unlike his sister, the wolf couldn’t hold his gaze.

“I should kill you,” he told Rayne, aware of his sister’s fear beginning to sour the air. “You were my guest and you dishonored my home, my pack, and me.”

“Salvatore…”

“Silence.” He cut his sister off with a wave of his hand. “You brought shame to our family and to our pack. Not by mating this cur, but by your deception. With your actions here in the States, you may have incited a war…a war you will have to fight on your own.” It hurt him to cut her off, but it had been her choice.

“What else was I to do?” She walked toward him, real tears in her eyes. “I love you, and I have followed you nearly all my life. But I wanted to live in my own pack, by my own rules, not yours.”

“I could have given you a pack.” Did she not truly comprehend? “You could have taken Florence or Venice…if you had but asked.”

“That is just it, brother. I wanted
my
own. Not a pack where I was still subject to your will. I had only two choices—fight you and kill you or leave. I chose to leave. They have Lone Wolves, they have so many lost. Rayne told me of his old pack, of the female Alpha and how the Delta Crescent wolves follow her without question. We have no female Alphas. Even now, you say you would
give
me a pack, as though I could not take one on my own. I do not want to rule as your puppet, but as my own self. These wolves? No one else wants them, not even their Enforcers.” She spit the last word. “They would kill Rayne for mating me. They would turn on these others for making friends or for seeking others to run with. We are
wolves
Salvatore. They need this. I
need
it.”

“You still don’t understand.” Anguish filled him. Some for the little girl who used to run to him, some for the young woman who teased him out of his black moods, and more for the mature woman who’d once offered sage advice of her own. “You chose to lie, to steal, to deceive—and your people, these lost and disparate wolves? They tried to kill my mate to prevent her from enforcing the laws.”

Shock rippled over Luciana’s expression before she could hide her reaction. The surprise did Salvatore’s heart good. Had his sister known—he did not want to think about his reaction.

“You didn’t know.”

“No.” Her voice firmed, honest conviction echoing in the word. “No one was to be harmed. We offered, and those wolves who turned us down were not touched or bullied. I forced no one. When the humans approached us with their offer in Italy, I agreed but only to those who wanted to come with us. So many did. We have been gathering them from all over the country. The friend of a friend, the lost sibling, even a child or two.” Luciana swallowed. “Please believe me,
fratello
, I ordered no deaths and no attacks. I will find out who did it,
guiro su dio
, and I will turn them over.”