Seeking Pack Redemption (11 page)

“Can you
drive?” he asked her as he scanned the forest.

“Why?”

He lifted
her into the driver seat. “I want you to get out of here. There’s money and a
phone in the glove box. Drive as far as you can. When I make it out with my
friends I’ll call you.”

“You want
me to just abandon you?”

He leaned
in to start the motor, his arm brushing her lap. She shivered.

“I want
you to get to safety. Don’t worry about
me and the boys
.
We’ll be fine.” He pulled away from the door and slammed it shut. He shot her a
smile before turning to face the woods.

The
temptation to leave, to put the pedal to the floor was strong. She looked at
him: he stood straight and tall as he waited for his friends, willing to put
his life on the line for her.
For me!
Calling herself all kinds of stupid—
maybe
he’s a psycho, maybe he’s taking me to another vampire
—she rolled
down the window.

“I’m not
leaving.”

He whirled
around. “What do you mean you’re not leaving? Get out of here while you can.”

“Not
without you and your friends.”

“Don’t be
stupid. You need to protect yourself and the baby.”

A sad
smile twisted her lips. “Oddly enough, I think sticking with you and David’s
brother is probably my best option at this point.”

“We will
protect you. I will protect you.” Intensity imbued his tone, and her breath
caught at his gaze.

And as if
his declaration had conjured them, four snarling monsters sprang from the forest.
To her shock, Darren didn’t change shapes.
Probably because
he would be too vulnerable during the shift.
Or so she assumed. He
acquitted himself well, but against four, he couldn’t prevent the scratches
from marring his torso.
Staring down at the gun still tucked
in her lap
,
she wavered
.
What should I do?
She raised it. She’d never fired one before, but
the premise seemed simple. Aim. Pull the trigger.

She’d not
counted on the recoil spoiling her shot.
Or the deafening
noise.
With her ears ringing and hand throbbing from where it cracked
off the steering wheel, she stared in shock as one of the wolves broke away
from the fight with Darren to face her.

With a
slow, measured step, snarling and eyes blazing, the beast approached her.

Do something, you idiot.
This time when she
fired, she used both hands to hold it. The first shot grazed the wolf’s side.
He yipped and charged. Screaming, she fired again and again until the weapon
clicked. Tanned hands plucked the empty weapon from her hands.

“It’s
okay, honey. You got him,” Darren murmured. “It’s over. You’re safe.”

“I—I—”
She couldn’t manage to squeeze anything out, her throat tight, her eyes
burning.
I killed him. It.
It didn’t
matter. She’d taken a life. The shock of it rendered her mute. Darren opened
the door and leaned in to grab a box from the center console. As he jammed
bullets into the chambers, he talked to her in a low, soothing tone.

“It’s
always hard the first time, honey. That moment when you realize it’s you or
them. But you did it. You saved yourself. You were so brave.”

“I was
scared,” she whispered.

“Only an
idiot wouldn’t be,” he replied, flipping the chamber back into the gun.

“Do you
get scared?”

The grin
he flashed her was so mischievous, it eased some of her tension. “Honestly? Not
much scares me, but then again, I never claimed to be smart.”

The
crackling of foliage made him whip around, gun pointed. A russet-colored wolf
bounded into the clearing followed by the golden and dark-haired one. Their
paws no sooner hit the graveled surface than they shifted.
Thea
averted her eyes. Even with everything she’d been through, staring at a bunch
of naked men just seemed wrong.

She
crawled into the backseat as it suddenly occurred to her as they quickly donned
pants and shirts, that given their size, cramming three of them in the back
would be a cruel way to repay them for saving her.

Moments
later, they piled in, Trent taking the wheel, while a mixed man took shotgun.
Darren climbed in the middle row on one side of her, while the redhead claimed
the other spot, or tried to. Squeezed tight, the last man in grumbled as Darren
shooed him into the back where he popped up a seat from the floor after shoving
some stuff aside.

Tires spun
on the loose surface as they sped out of there. For several minutes, silence
reigned as Trent drove at a breakneck speed down the winding road leading out
of the park. Surrounded by the overly large males, inundated with their
presence,
Thea
shrank in on herself. What previously seemed
like the right thing to do now seemed monumentally stupid.

As if
sensing her trepidation, fingers curled around hers and she glanced sideways to
see Darren wearing a soft smile.

“It’s
okay, honey. Nobody in this truck will hurt you.”

“It’s in
the code,” said a voice behind her.

She peeked
at the redhead. “What code?”

“The hero
code of course. It is our duty to save damsels in distress,” he said with broad
smile. “At your service, milady.” He leaned over the seat to pick up her loose
hand and brought it to his lips, brushing a kiss across the top. A tiny tingle
went through her, and she didn’t protest when he kept her hand enveloped in his.

“Thanks
for carrying me.”

“My
pleasure.”

She peered
over at the man who’d run with her down the mountain. “I’m sorry. I never
properly thanked you. You put your life on the line for me. You all did.”

“No thanks
needed, honey. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” She returned Darren’s soft
smile, at ease with him, yet not understanding why. When he tugged her closer
to him, she didn’t protest, the warmth of his body welcome, dispelling the
chill in hers.

“I’m
Jaxon
by the way,” the beautiful mixed man offered from the
front. “And the grim one driving is Trent.”

Trent
grunted instead of replying.

“We met
already. He’s David’s brother.”

“Excellent,”
the one called
Jaxon
said. “So, now that we’re no
longer strangers, care to tell us what happened?”

“I—I—”
The words to her story stuck in her throat as the enormity of it all came
crashing in on her. The hands holding hers tightened.

“It’s
okay, honey. Take your time.”

“Fuck
that. I want to know what happened to my brother,” Trent bit out.

His
brusque tone sparked her anger, especially considering
who
he was asking about. “I told you. David’s dead.” She didn’t add
good riddance
, but her tone implied it.

“I know you
did, but you also said he killed himself.”

“Yup.” She
didn’t elucidate any further.

“How?”

“Claw
across the throat.” She turned her face into Darren’s arm as the memory of it
flashed through her mind.

Trent
slammed the steering wheel. “Fuck! How could this have happened? He must have
been really desperate to do that. I’ll bet it’s those rogues’ fault. I want to
know why those bastards have been allowed to fester in those mountains, preying
on other wolves like my brother.”

“Stop
talking like he was a victim. Your brother was one of them. He knew what he was
doing. Who he was hurting.” Her flat answer saw the SUV swerving as Trent
craned to glare at her.

“Like
fuck
. David would never belong to a group of psychos like
that, and he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Sorry to
break it to you, but he did. He’s the one who went crazy all of a sudden. Who
killed my neighbor then hit me and took me to that place. Who gave me to that
fucking
monster.
He’s the one who didn’t lift a finger
to save me or our child and then took the cowardly way out by killing himself.”

“You’re
lying!”

“I wish.”

“Leave her
alone,” Darren growled. “You asked for answers. She’s given you some. If you
don’t like them, too fucking
bad
. Or have you
forgotten that you didn’t know David as well as you thought? He lied to you for
what, three, four months?”

“There’s
got to be a reason,” Trent muttered, taking a sharp turn that saw them skidding
on to the main road. The momentum shoved her into Darren, who let go of her
hand to tuck her under his arm.

“The
reason is Roderick,”
Jaxon
supplied. “I told you that
vampire could command wolves.”

“You know him?”
she asked as she faced forward, surprised they knew of the monster.

“We’ve
met, yes. It didn’t work out so well for me,”
Jaxon
replied. With him turned to speak to her, she saw the sadness on his face.

“But you
escaped him? It’s possible then. He told me I could never hope to be free. That
I could run as far as I wanted, he’d always find me.”

“That is
probably the only true thing that vampire has ever said,”
Jaxon
replied.

“Don’t
listen to him,” Marc interrupted. “Now that we’ve got you, we aren’t letting
anyone get you back. Even pointy toothed undead things that aren’t supposed to
exist.”

She
slumped. “I’m screwed.”

“Why would
you say that? I already told you I would protect you, and Marc’s also
volunteered. Once Trent gets over his snit, I’m sure he’s going to want to help
out, too.”

A bitter
chuckle emerged from
Jaxon
. “But she’s right. She is
screwed. Unless you can get her into the safety of a pack, you won’t be enough
to stand against him. Even then, a pack might have a hard time keeping her from
his clutches if he’s really determined.”

“We won’t
get any help from the pack. Nathan, our temporary alpha, declared us rogue for
leaving,” Trent said, showing that despite his anger and focus on the road he
paid attention to the conversation.

“Call him
up and tell him we’ve changed our mind,” Marc answered. “You found the answer
you were looking for, so there’s no reason to stay away anymore.”

Jaxon
shook his head. “Once they learn you’ve come in contact with the
vampire, they will probably shoot the lot of you on sight. Nathan and the rest
of the council have learned that only those with the strongest minds can resist
Roderick’s compulsions. And because he can hide his tainting presence so well,
they won’t trust any of you. Even the girl.”

Trent’s
gravelly tone slid into the conversation. “Then I guess there’s only one
solution then. We need to kill the vampire.”

Why did she
get the impression the expression “easier said than done” applied in this case?

Jaxon
laughed, a derisive sound. “Oh, yes.
Because we’ve
not tried that one before.
Holy water? Yeah, that’s only for the movies.
Bullets, even to the head?
Brings him down for only
moments. I’ve yet to get close enough for a decapitation or wooden stake, and
flame throwers are hard to find.”

“There has
to be a way or the world would be overrun with the fanged fuckers,” Trent
growled.

“Why don’t
we ask another vampire?” Marc added.

Several
pairs of eyes turned to regard him. He shrugged. “You can’t tell me that a
society that’s managed to keep itself secret for thousands of years other than
the occasional bad flick is going to be happy about one of their kind running
around killing people, pissing off wolves, and kidnapping pregnant women. Hell,
wolves are a violent, not easily controlled group, and we still managed to
create laws and enforce them.”

Darren’s
answer emerged thoughtful and slow. “He has a point. Someone created him. So
there must be someone who knows how to unmake him.”

“But how
do we find them?”

That was a
question no one possessed an answer to.

Finding a
motel several hours later with an adjoining room proved easy. Getting rid of
the emotions churning in his mind, not so much. When Trent embarked on his
quest to find his brother, he never expected it would end in tragedy. How could
David be dead? How could he have turned from the shy and gentle teen he knew
into a man capable of violence toward a woman, and if she could be
believed—and his gut said she could—worse? As if that weren’t hard
enough to swallow, he’d apparently killed himself. What horror had his little
brother endured to take such a cowardly route? Trent needed to know more, which
meant talking to the woman his brother impregnated, mated with, and hurt. Knowing
the next step didn’t stop him from stalling.

Thea
scared him. Not scared in an I’m-afraid-she’s-gong to-kick-my-ass” way,
but in a “why-do-I-think-she’s-hotter-than-hell way, which seemed totally
inappropriate for a lot of reasons. For one, in spite of the battle, the danger,
and the mission, as well as her refugee appearance, he took one look at her and
wanted her. Wanted her fucking badly—naked,
skin to skin
.