The Alpha's Fight: Huntsville Pack Book 3 (22 page)

"Me too. I can't believe whoever killed them just left them there like that." She crossed her arms, going cold at the memory of being surrounded by so much death.

"My guess is we were supposed to find them." Talon grimaced. "Someone's playing a game."

"And what game would that be?"

"I don't know yet."

A loud rumble filled the air. Lia looked up expecting to see storm clouds, but the sky remained clear. "What was that?"

Another rumble hit, this one louder than the last.

"Get down!" Talon threw an arm around her and hurried her toward the van.

An explosive boom roared in her ears and rushed over her body like the wind from a hurricane. Lia screamed, but couldn't hear herself over all the noise. Talon kept her moving and got them both behind the van.

It began to rain, but not water. No, this rain consisted of small stones and bits of aluminum siding that pummeled them from the sky. Nothing was large enough to present a serious hazard, but the debris was sharp and hot as a frying pan. Lia covered her head with her hands. When the fallout slowed and there'd been no new booms, she peeked around the van's bumper and gasped at what she saw.

Smoke filled the air, but couldn't cover the rubble. "The club—"

"Exploded," Talon finished for her, his voice terse.

"Maybe we weren't supposed to find anyone. Maybe no one was supposed to know," she said, yelling so she could hear herself over the ringing in her ears. She exchanged wide-eyed glances with the healer who re-emerged from under the steering wheel of her little hatchback.

"It sure looks like that, doesn't it?" Talon waved to his team. "Get ready to move out. The police are going to come on this one and we don't want to be here." Turning to Lia, he said, "You want to ride with the healer or come with us?"

"I'll drive the Charger. You don't want the police to find it here, right?" she said.

"Yeah, good point." Raising his voice, he said "All right, load up everybody. Time to go."

Lia made for the Charger as everyone hopped into their respective vehicles. 

Talon went and knocked on the passenger window of the healer's car. When she rolled it down, he said, "We're following you. I suggest you step on it. We don't want to be anywhere near this once humans start to pay attention to it."

The healer nodded and didn't wait for Talon to even get into his van before peeling out of her parking space and heading for the road. Lia gunned the Charger's motor and followed, the car's tires spitting gravel like a hailstorm. The sheriff hustled after her, the van skidding as he forced it to go faster.

Sirens wailed in the distance behind them. Lia gripped the steering wheel tight and watched in the rearview mirror as the steaming pile of rubble that had once been the strip club receded in the distance. Once again, she'd escaped death by a hair. She couldn't decide if that made her lucky or unlucky, but she sure as hell wished it would stop. She wanted off this ride.

T
he healer lived in a snug cabin that sat inside a ring of pine trees. A flock of ravens arrived just as she pulled into the drive way, filling the tree closest to her front door like a shadow.

"Shoes stay on the porch. You've been walking in too much blood for them to be in the house." The healer took off her practical hiking boots and dropped them on the mat to the side of her front door.

Once everyone was inside, she waved to the guy carrying Ryder. "Follow me. I'll show you where he goes."

Lia stuck close to Ryder, taking in the healer's home as she went. The main living area had an open floor plan with a small aisle kitchen to the side. Bunches of herbs she didn't recognize hung on the walls in various stages of freshness. Some were dry and dull, while others still held flashes of green. A long pine shelf on the back wall held more herbs and a variety of cobalt blue glass vials.

The kitchen flowed into a little breakfast nook surrounded by windows on three sides. On the other side of the cabin sat a couch, upholstered in forest green, and positioned so anyone sitting could see out the enormous bay window on that side of the cabin.

The back of the cabin held a tiny bathroom and two cramped bedrooms. The healer directed them to one.

"Just set him on the bed there," she said. "And then meet me in the kitchen."

Lia nodded that she'd heard the healer as she checked on Ryder, carefully pulling the patchwork quilt on the bed up to his shoulders. His skin held more warmth than before, but still had a ways to go to reach normal. Pressing her lips against his forehead in a light kiss, she left him to rest.

"You will be safe enough here. Just sit tight. I'll be in touch," Talon said. He stood by the kitchen counter, watching as the healer laid out various herbs on a wooden cutting board.

"Be careful," Lia said. The sheriff was a good man and she didn't want him hurt.

He flashed a smile. "I'm always careful. Don't worry. My mate says if I get myself killed, there will be hell to pay, and trust me, I've learned—the hard way—not to cross her."

The healer laughed. "Gretchen has the spitfire of a dragon. I've always wondered about her blood line. There might be more than wolf in her."

"I can believe that. She fought me tooth and nail for the longest time about our mating."

"Ah, well. I can't blame her, can you?" Marie shot him an impish look.

"No, not really. But it's all good now."

"Sometimes what's at the end of the journey is all that matters." She gave a knowing smile.

Lia frowned. Even though there were bigger problems on her plate, she was still curious. "How did you two meet?"

"Through work. There was some trouble between a stray and her father. They were drugging shifters and forcing them into bets they couldn't win." Talon ran a hand through his hair. "So Gretchen came to me asking for help, but I was in the middle of dealing with a human who had caught one of us shifting on video. He had big plans for that video and actually ended up kidnapping Gretchen."

"What? Are you serious?" She gave him an incredulous look and decided she wanted to meet Gretchen. They were sisters in surviving seriously messed up situations.

"Yeah, it wasn't a good scene. But it ended well. We try not to think too much about how our mated bliss came about, you know?"

"Does this kind of stuff happen a lot in Huntsville?" Lia asked.

"What kind of stuff?" Talon gave her a puzzled look.

"Kidnappings, blood slaves, drugs and shifter thugs. Is that, like, a run-of-the-mill thing?"  She turned to her sister, who'd curled up on the couch. "Is it like this for our home pack?" The idea terrified her. She wanted a peaceful, happy life, not this shifter-crime-of-the-week crap.

"Shifters are shifters, child. No one's perfect," Marie said.

"No, it's not like this at home," said Adele looking just as shocked as Lia felt at the laundry list of bad things that happened in Hunstville.

"Oh, thank the moon," Lia breathed.

"Well, I'm going to head back to the office. I want to follow up with the Pack Council and find out what's what." Talon headed for the door, his men trailing after him. "You'll be safe here. I'll be in touch if there's anything you need to know."

Lia held out her hand. "Thank you so much. You saved my sister."

"You did some of that, too, you know. It wasn't all just me." He shook her hand.

"Here, sheriff. This is for Gretchen." The healer gave him a brown paper bag.

"What is it?"

"Better to ask her, my dear." She patted him on the shoulder.

"Yes, ma'am. Will do." Talon gave a little salute and headed out, those of his crew that had come in with him going as well. The cabin had seemed too small with him and his men in it, but now they were gone, it felt too big.

***

T
he healer beckoned for Lia and Adele to join her in the kitchen. "All right, girls. You two are going to make bone broth. It'll give you something to do."

Lia stepped behind the kitchen counter where Marie had laid several items out in a neat row, a package wrapped in white butcher paper, a stock pot and several different vegetables; carrots, celery, potatoes.

"I'm exhausted," said Adele, not moving from the couch.

The healer fixed Adele with a steely gaze. "So? There are people who need you. Your sister is ailing and so is her mate. Are you saying you don't want to help?"

"No." She heaved herself off the couch and joined them in the kitchen, her expression sour. Picking up a carrot and the peeler sitting next to it, she got to work. "I'm just tired. I almost died."

"So did she. The difference is you chose your fate, she didn't." Marie extended a second peeler to Lia. "You start the potatoes and I'll tell you something about healing. You can't be sick. Healing doesn't come from a sick heart. There's no messing around with this either. Do it right or quit now before you hurt someone. If you're here, you've made the choice to be here. No excuses. The door," she gestured to the front of her cabin, "is over there. No one is making you stay."

Adele looked at the healer with wide eyes. "Wow. Harsh much?"

"Medicine can be bitter," Marie said as she filled the stock pot with water. "Life isn't rainbows and cotton candy and neither is healing. It can hurt worse than the injury and break you into so many pieces you don't know how to put them back together."

"Sounds awesome," Adele muttered as she hacked at the carrots with the peeler.

"Pain is life. All we can do is make that pain count for something." The healer pulled out a large, stainless steel roasting pan. "Have either of you made bone broth before?"

The sisters shook their heads in unison. "I don't think so. I know I've used cake mix, but that's about it," Lia said. "If I'm a five-star chef, I've lost that along with my memory."

"I don't kitchen. The closest I've come to cooking is meth," said Adele with a glum expression. "And it blew up."

"Are you serious?" Lia gaped at her sister, utterly stunned.

"You don't remember?" When Lia shook her head, Adele said, "Hmm. Maybe there's an upside to losing your memory. You won't remember any of the stupid things I did. But yes, I did cook meth. Once."

"Why?"

Adele shrugged. "To get high. I thought I could make my own formula. Shifters burn off drugs so fast, it takes constant hits to keep a high going. I wanted something that would last and meth seemed like a place to start. You can get everything you need to make it in a big-box store."

"You can? I had no idea."

"You used to know. Mostly because I used your credit card to pay for everything." Her sister flushed. "I didn't think you would notice the charges, but it turns out you budget your money down to the penny."

"You stole my credit card?"

Adele ducked her head, refusing to meet Lia's eyes. "Maybe it's better if we don't bring up the past."

"What about now? Are you still an addict?" Lia wanted to know how closely she should watch her purse.

"Addiction never stops. It's like having a second beast inside you," said the healer. "But you can keep it from eating you and the people you love."

"How?" Adele asked. She waved her knife. "By making soup?"

"Yes. By making soup." The healer held Adele's gaze with hers. "When you're thirsty, what you drink determines if you live or die. I will teach you how to feed your addiction in a way that builds you and your pack up. You won't crave the drugs anymore."

"I don't crave them now. The vampires helped—"

The healer cut her off with a sharp motion of her hand. "No. They didn't help you, they just gave you something new to crave."

"Is that true?" Lia asked.

Her sister focused on the potato in front of her, scrubbing out a brown spot with the peeler. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"One that almost got both of you killed. If you deal with death, you might end up doing the dying, too," Marie said.

"They were nice to me. Way nicer than my home pack. Nicer than even...you." Adele shot a glare at the healer. "And they did help me."

"You were sold like a piece of meat. If I hadn't come, they would've never let you go," Lia said.

"I didn't know that until later." She started to chop the carrots, taking the time to make uniform cubes. "They hid it from me at first and by the time I realized what was happening, we'd shared blood. I couldn't run away. I was lucky to find a phone and send you a text."

Lia snorted. "Is that how you define nice?"

Her sister stiffened. "That part wasn't, but vampires are good and bad just like anyone else. Or did you want me to judge Ryder the same as Mason? Or should shifters look at you and think you're the same as me?"

"For being such good 'people,' those vamps had no problem leaving you to die," Lia said. "Do you have any idea what I went through trying to save you?"

"Do you have any idea what I went through trying to save myself?" Adele slammed her first on the cutting board. "I came here because I wanted to get better. To
be
better. I was duped. I didn't choose this. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've been selfish and deceitful, but what happened here in Huntsville? Had nothing to do with that."

"Okay. You're right," Lia said. "I'm sorry."

"I thought I was going to get real help. I came out here believing that." Her sister blinked away tears.

"The water's boiling, let's get back to our broth," the healer said, her tone mild. "Making bone broth is simple enough. "First, you roast the bones. Get the oven nice and hot." Marie stepped over to turn on her stove. "After a couple hours, you add it to the stock pot with your veggies. And then finish it off with this herb packet." She pulled a small plastic bag full of dried herbs out of a cupboard.

Lia went and added the bones, which were large joints that looked to be from a cow, to the roasting pan while Adele put the vegetables in the stock pot.

"I think some tea is in order. I have something that might help with your memory, Lia." Marie filled a copper tea kettle and set it on the stove to brew.

"Really? That would be wonderful." Lia couldn't help but be excited. Now that she had her sister, she wanted her memory back more than ever. There were so many important things she needed to know. Like how bad her sister's addiction really was and what her history was with it.