Surrender (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 2) (6 page)

“It doesn’t seem possible that your dad and brother are rogues, especially since you’re so… not a rogue.”

He cocked one golden eyebrow at her and his grin lit up his entire face. “Not a rogue? That almost sounds like an insult. I think I should be insulted, actually. Aren’t the best guys rogues?”

“Some girls do like bad boys, yes.” She couldn’t help but be amused despite the seriousness of the situation. “I’m not one of them, though. I want to be a prosecutor, remember? If you ever come up against me in court I’ll have to toss you in jail.”

Sebastian gave her a leer. “I would wear a pair of handcuffs for you — just not furry pink ones. I have faith in my masculinity at all times, but that would be pushing it.”

“Oh, stop! You are awful!”

“Hey, it’s worth a try. The handcuffs, I mean, not being awful”

Cara shook her head. What she going to do with this sexy and absolutely incredible guy?

Correction — Wolf?

They couldn’t be together. Even if it was possible, even if the Tribe would accept one of the Fallen in their midst — and there was no way they ever would — she would probably be Queen before the night was over. Even now the Elders were gathering! That made her even more afraid. If the police arrested her father and the rest of the true Tribe members, they would not be present at the circle and that would be a major problem.

To her relief, she heard motorcycles crank and Sebastian tilted his head, listening intently.

“I wonder where my father is.”

“He’s coming down the hall now.” Cara looked over at Sebastian, surprised. How did he know that? Did he have a sixth sense too?

Sebastian read the question on her face. “I have extremely good hearing and a keen sense of smell. People can change their face, their name, just about everything else — but they can’t change their smell. They can try to cover it up with soap or perfume, but underneath all that, people always have their own scent.”

She had to know. “What do I smell like?”

Sebastian leaned very close to her. His lips almost brushed hers for a second; her eyelashes fluttered toward her cheek. Her heartbeat accelerated and she could feel her breath sliding out of her mouth and she knew she was forgetting to inhale but she couldn’t help it. She wanted him to kiss her; she wanted it desperately.

Before he could kiss her or answer her question, the doorknob rattled and the door opened. Sebastian and Cara quickly put some distance between themselves as Nico and several other Tribe members, including hardcases, stormed into the room. Sebastian was up on his feet in a flash and Cara could tell by his posture that he expected to have to defend himself.

She stood, raised a hand and said, “He saved my life. What’s more, he did his best to save the life of our Queen.”

“We know all that, Cara.” It was her Nico who was spoke. His face was stern and there were lines of fatigue drawn on it. “We still can’t let him go; you know that. There’s too much at stake now.”

Cara took a step in front of Sebastian. What was she doing? Her heart was pounding and she was certain that she was going to pass out. Was she really going to say what she was thinking? Could her father hear her thoughts? “I love him.”

There, she’d said it. It was crazy, it was completely wrong, and it would never work, but it was true anyway. She was in love with him and she would protect him, even if it meant protecting him from her own family.

Darva spoke. “You can’t choose a Wolf over your family Cara.”

“I’m not choosing a Wolf. I’m choosing him, and yes, he’s a Wolf, but he’s more than that.”

Cara couldn’t bear to look over at Sebastian. Here she was, pouring her heart out in his defense, and she didn’t even know how she felt about her! For all she knew, she just been some fling for him. Or worse, maybe he really was a spy, sent to worm his way into her heart and into the Tribe’s good graces.

She pinned her eyes on her father’s face, searching for a clue as to what he felt, but his expression was inscrutable. It was Sammy who finally broke the silence. “What do you mean he’s a Wolf?”

Sebastian stepped forward. “Why don’t you tell them, Nico? Tell them what they’re up against. They need to know, because if they go in there unprepared, they are going to get killed in a hurry.

“Also, you have my word that there are many who are not involved in this. I’m aware of who the rogues are, just as you are, and I swear to you that I will kill them myself if I have to. I don’t want the truce to be broken any more than you do, or the pack. The covenant has been a blessing for the many who don’t want to go rogue.

“Surely you see that in the Fallen, there is about to be anarchy, a Civil War. We don’t need any more enemies; we sure as hell don’t need the Tribe coming after us. What’s more, I don’t need the Hunters. If there’s one here, there’s more — you know as well as I do that Hunters never travel alone.”

Cara’s breath felt like it was being squeezed through the head of a pin. She could barely draw air into her lungs. She felt like she was about to jump right out of her skin, which had somehow grown far too tight. Her gut was quivering and her pulse was racing so strongly, she could feel it beating against the small silver chain she wore around her neck.

“You’re right, Wolf,” Nico said.

“I’m Sebastian,” Sebastian said.

Nico turned to the men gathered behind him, true Tribe and hardcase bikers and he said, “Most of us know already that the Fallen are wolves. Werewolves, to be exact. In case you’re wondering, the ones who attacked your brothers are rogues. Once you’ve eaten human flesh, you break the Covenant that was created many centuries ago, and you cannot shift back to your human shape…”

“That’s not true anymore.” Sebastian spoke softly but seriously.

Nico nodded. “Yes, I know. Somehow, some way, it seems that some of the rogue wolves have discovered the way to shift back and forth.”

Dog stepped forward, his ebony skin gleaming with perspiration. “This ain’t no surprise to none of us. Most of us grew up here in New Orleans. We know that crazy shit happens all the time. Hell, my grandma was a voodoo priestess. What I want to know is, how come you never told us before what we was up against?”

There was a murmur from the rest of the men. Cara stepped just a little closer to Sebastian. She didn’t like the way that many of them were looking at him. She had never really been comfortable with her power, and she’d used it more in the short time since she’d met Sebastian than she’d ever used it before in her life. She wasn’t sure how to be comfortable with it, or even how to direct it. Nevertheless, she would do whatever she must to protect him.

“I didn’t think you need to know,” Nico said. “It would be a little difficult to explain.”

“So what are you?” Dog asked. “Are you a werewolf too, dude? Or are you a zombie or some shit?”

“No, I’m a plain mortal, just like you,” Nico said.

It wasn’t exactly true, but Cara and Sebastian and the rest of the true Tribe members didn’t bother correcting that statement. “I thought all werewolves could turn back and forth whenever the moon was up,” Sammy said suspiciously.

“Only the Lycans,” Sebastian said. “And most of them were killed during the wars with the vampires.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, man, but what the hell’s the difference?”

“Lycans only turn at the moon. Werewolves are shape-shifters who can turn at any time. It’s why we wear the silver — it inhibits our turning and keeps us in our human shape. Without it, we would turn constantly. We don’t eat human flesh — to do so would be to break the most sacred of laws. Rogues, on the other hand, never come back to their human shape. Or at least they shouldn’t.

“The Lycans were our Elders. They were subject to the tides of the moon, but as they mated and had children, we mutated — we became immune to the moon, in a manner of speaking and began to shift without it.

“Hoping for a solution, the wolves struck a bargain with a magic queen, and we were placed under a Covenant.  We agreed to not hunting humans. The punishment for breaking the Covenant was to be a rogue wolf forever, to be always outside the laws of nature and man, never again in human form. This is different. I have no idea how this happened, or who could have been able to do this, but I think there’s an answer to it somewhere.”

“So what are these dudes we’re chasing, these rogues? I mean they ain’t really rogues if they can change back to humans, right?”

It was Tick who asked the question. Nobody answered. Nico looked at Sebastian who shrugged his shoulders helplessly. Finally, Sebastian said, “We’ve never seen this before. By we, I mean the Wolves. It’s never even been heard of before.”

“Maybe we should figure out what we’re fighting before a whole bunch of folks get killed.” That was Nico, and his face was grim.

“Father, the Queen said something to me,” Cara said. “Something about legend…”

Nico held up one finger and said, “I already know what she told you. I can read it in your mind.”

“What the hell’s she talking about?” Sammy said. Neither Nico, Cara nor Sebastian missed the belligerence in the old biker’s voice. None of them blamed him for it, either.

Cara said softly, “The woman that was in that bed was the queen of our Tribe. Not just Tribe as in the bike club here, but the Tribe that has been around for centuries — longer, even. We’re not immortal or anything near it. Most people call us Gypsies, but we don’t really like that. Most people don’t know where we came from; we keep it that way on purpose because we made our own pack, years before the wolves came along.”

“In a way, we were the original outlaws, Sammy,” Nico said. “We were the original knights, and it was our sacred duty to protect the world from darkness.”

There was a long silence, then Dog spoke up. “Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

The ensuing laughter broke the tension and Cara found herself marveling at the resilience of these hardcase bikers. They just been confronted by the fact that they were being chased by the rogue werewolves, that the people that they rode with were descended from Gypsies, and they had shrugged it off like they shrugged off hot water and soap.

“I’m going to take Cara with me,” Sebastian said.

Nico glared. “I’m not allowing my daughter to go anywhere with you, Wolf.”

“I can protect her,” Sebastian said calmly.

“We can protect her far better than you,” Darva replied. “We don’t have to worry about her being betrayed while she is with us.”

“Can’t say that for sure. Ion is a traitor — who knows how many others there are?”

“You’ve got a point there,” Nico admitted, “but I’m still not entrusting you with my daughter.”

“I’m really getting a little sick of the two of you talking about me like I’m not even here,” Cara said.

Every head in the room turned to face her. She drew her shoulders up and said, “It’s not like I was raised to be afraid or weak. Besides, I’ve got magic, remember? It also seems that I’ve gotten pretty good at using it.”

“If I’d known that Ion was a traitor I would have let you finish burning him to death in the garage this morning,” Nico said. “He’d be missing a whole lot more than just an eyebrow right about now.”

Dog began to laugh. “Did you do that? I thought maybe he’d taken a tumble or something.”

“When did you ever see somebody hit concrete hard enough just to scrape off one eyebrow?” Sammy jeered.

“Hell, I’ve seen guys hit concrete hard enough to take off one leg of their pants and nothing else!”

A good-natured argument began to break out. It quickly degenerated into a series of stories of one-upmanship and the proud displaying of biker scars. Sebastian watched with amusement. It seemed that both true Tribe members and their hardcases were no different from the Fallen in many ways. That thought gave him pause. What if they weren’t really all that different? What if all the fighting and anger and resentment over the centuries had been for nothing?