The Rift (31 page)

Lionel gave Thad a look, and Thad took
Tessa’s hand and led her out of the kitchen. No one moved until we
heard the front door swing shut, then Jed’s body drooped as the
tension left him. The pain and regret in his eyes, made my heart
ache. “I’m sorry, Kelsey. That wasn’t me.”

I went to him and wrapped an arm around his
waist. “I know, Jed. It’s okay.” But I couldn’t help wondering what
might have happened if Lionel hadn’t been there. It was going to be
a long three months.

“Doc, I’m not sure now is the best time for a
session,” I said.

Doctor Veronica looked so tired I was sure
she’d be grateful for a reprieve, but she shook her head.
“Unfortunately, Kelsey, after what I just saw, I think it’s
imperative we have a session, now.”

I looked at Jed, and I saw fear in his eyes,
fear that he wouldn’t be able to hold it all together. “I
appreciate it, Doc, but I just need to be alone with Jed right
now.”

I dragged Jed back to my room, shut the door
and pressed him against it. I kissed him and held on as tight as I
could. “I’m with you, Jed. I’m not going anywhere and I need you to
believe that.”

“I love you, too, Kelsey, but I’ve changed.
I’m not a telekinetic who kills people for a living anymore.” He
stopped and raised his eyes to the ceiling as he considered what
he’d just said. “Actually, being a wolf might be an
improvement.”

I laughed and took his hand. “I think it
could be. It won’t be easy, but I think we can make it, if we trust
each other and fight for each other. It’s only a few months, Jed,
and I’m not going to complain about having to touch you for a few
months. If you keep trying to kill my friends, though, we’re going
to have a problem.”

He nodded. “You sure about this? I’m not the
easiest guy on a good day.”

I smiled. “I love you every day, Jed, and
we’ll figure it out. I can’t promise we won’t argue, but we’ll make
it work.”

He leaned in and kissed me gently.

When Henry knocked on the door fifteen
minutes later, I was snuggled up against Jed trying to live in the
moment and enjoy how good he felt next to me.

“Everyone’s back and we thought it would be
best if we all met in here to talk,” Henry said, when I opened the
door.

I nodded. “Yeah, bring everyone in here.”

Henry disappeared and reappeared in moments
with Lionel, Tessa, Thad, Wraith, Jeremiah, Tucker, and four men
and two women with amber eyes, who I’d never seen before. The rest
of the West Coast wolves left shortly after the battle, but Lionel
stayed to help Jed. Henry, Thad, and I were the only ones who knew
Tucker was there, and I wanted to keep it that way. He sat down
next to me as the others filed in. “While you were out the mayor
was reaped,” Tucker said.

“That was fast,” I said, under my breath.
Knowing wolf hearing they’d know what I’d said, but I could have
been talking about them assembling in my room.

“He was an alcoholic,” Tucker said. “Still,
it seemed too easy. I think they’ve had their eye on this town for
a while. Probably since Wraith moved in. They like to keep tabs on
the more powerful among them. There are twenty new reapers in town
and they’re targeting anyone who has any kind of money or power.
There aren’t a lot of those, so I expect there will be some
infighting over who gets to reap whom, but that isn’t our
problem.”

I glanced at Tucker and raised my eyebrows,
silently asking him what the problem was. “I suspect the reapers
chose this town because they expect Wraith to allow them to do
whatever they want, and I’m almost certain they’re wrong.”

That surprised me and I looked at Wraith, who
was watching me closely. He wasn’t stupid and he probably knew
exactly who I was talking to. Wraith stepped up and introduced me
to the new wolves. Hugh and Lila were rogues who’d shown up on his
doorstep, and the other four, Slade, Boss, Pyre, and Feral, were
pack who’d been reaped by Wraith’s reaper friends. I welcomed them
and the room fell silent, everyone waiting for something and, after
a few moments, I realized they were waiting for me. Even Jed was
looking at me, expectantly, since he had no idea about the reaper
situation. “Thanks everyone, for squeezing in here,” I said.
“Wraith, Jed and I would like to join your pack, if that’s okay
with you. I know it’s not what you’d hoped when you first
asked—”

“It’s fine, Kelsey,” Wraith said, his smile
careful. “I welcome both you and Jed to my pack. I have been told
that Jed has chosen you as his mate and I’m happy to have you both
until Jed comes into his full power.”

“What does that mean?” Jed asked.

Lionel smiled. “I suspect Wraith is referring
to your strength. I have also sensed that you will likely be an
alpha, once you’ve gained control of your wolf and your mating
instinct. There isn’t room for two alphas in a pack.”

“And I will allow you to join my pack, with
the understanding that you will walk away when that day comes and
not challenge me as alpha,” Wraith said.

Jed nodded. “I will agree to that, as long as
you agree to let Kelsey leave with me when that time comes.”

“That will be up to Kelsey,” Wraith said. Jed
growled low in the back of his throat and I gripped his hand. We
needed to stay together, and Wraith was our best hope for that.
Even though Wraith was technically new at being a wolf, he was
still an alpha and, after seeing Jed attack Thad, I believed Jed
needed an alpha to keep him in line. Wraith smiled, but didn’t look
away from Jed. “I promise I will do nothing to make her stay with
me against her will.”

That seemed to calm Jed, and the tension left
his body. “Okay, thank you, Wraith,” I said. “So, the problem now
is that reapers are taking over the town and we need to decide what
to do. Tucker has told me that the mayor has been reaped and there
are twenty more reapers in town who will be going after anyone with
power or money. Personally, I don’t like to allow anyone to be
reaped, but as a member of Wraith’s pack, I defer to his judgment.”
It hurt to say that last bit, but I understood the necessity.
Lionel winked and gave me a nod.

Wraith sighed and ran his hand through his
hair. “This is exactly why I wanted you to join me, Kelsey. I have
a history of being…kind to other reapers and they see my presence
here as an opportunity to take what they want with no
repercussions. I came here to start over and get away from that.
Does Tucker know who reaped the mayor?”

“Lorelei,” Tucker said.

“Lorelei,” I said, without looking at Tucker.
The wolves might have noticed a pause before I answered, but they
couldn’t prove anything.

“Shit.” Wraith dropped his head to his chest
and shook it, before looking up. “Gentlemen, let me warn you to be
careful who you f—” He looked at me and stopped himself. “Sleep
with. Lorelei has become a bit obsessed. She’s only a decade or two
younger than me, she’s ruthless, and she’ll be unhappy when she
discovers I don’t want to pick up where we left off.”

“Is the mayor a woman?” I asked, feeling
sexist for assuming the mayor was a man.

“No,” Wraith said. “But Lorelei will not see
gender as an impediment to resuming our love affair and, even if I
did take back up with her to keep her happy, she’s crazy and would
make a horrible mayor. We must get her and her people out of town,
and we must do it in such a way to deter others from attempting the
same takeover.”

“Not out of any sense of morality on your
part, of course,” I said. “But because you want to run the town.” I
probably should have kept my mouth shut, but that had never been my
strong suit.

Wraith inclined his head and smiled. “You
have enough moral fiber for all of us, Kelsey. You don’t want
reapers moving into town and claiming whoever they want, either. So
our option is to turn a blind eye and find a new place to live or
to fight and get rid of them in a particularly dramatic way.”

“Is that possible?” I asked. “Varius won’t
send us more people, and Harvest One is now fully on the side of
the reapers.”

“We’ll have to use what advantages we have.
It would be best to get rid of them in a thoroughly violent and
splashy way, then we may not have to fight anyone else.” Wraith
looked at Jed when he said that, and Jed’s arm tightened around
me.

“He’s talking about torture, Kelsey, and
deletions, destroying them completely.”

I shuddered, but I couldn’t argue with
Wraith’s logic and, in that instance, our goals were the same. I
didn’t want the reapers to gain any more ground and, as much as I
wanted to relieve them of the territories they already had, we were
in no position to fight that war. I swallowed hard and accepted
that what we were planning to do would probably give me more
nightmares and make me hate myself, but I didn’t see any way around
it. “Okay, I’m in. What’s the plan?”

Wraith studied my face for several long
moments, and a growl start to shiver through Jed’s chest. I placed
a hand on his thigh and squeezed. “We’re partners now, Kelsey, so
you need to understand what you’re agreeing to do,” Wraith said.
“Lorelei has reaped the mayor, but I doubt more than two or three
other people besides have been fully reaped. That means we may have
to kill people who are just being borrowed.” He put a hand up to
stop me from interrupting him. “I know what you’re going to say,
but we don’t have the people or the time to push out the reapers
and save the living person. This needs to be a takedown so
spectacular that every reaper who survives it will fear us and
every reaper who hears of it will think thrice about trying to
cause us any trouble.”

“What if we just spectacularly punished
Lorelei? Would the others flee in fear?” I asked.

Next to me, Tucker sighed. “Lorelei isn’t the
only powerful reaper in town. As soon as she falls, others will
move in to take her place. I’m afraid I agree with Wraith on this
one. Jed needs a few months of peace to accept his wolf and get
over the craziness the mating instinct is causing. Wraith’s plan
might give you a hope of that, but if you show any sign of mercy or
weakness, others will try to challenge you.”

Lionel spoke at the same time Tucker did, and
I only caught part of what he said. “… The same thing with rogue
wolves. Hard and fast is the best way. Especially with the team we
have.”

All the eyes in the room were on me and I saw
sympathy in them, even pity, and, in one or two, disgust. These
were people who made hard decisions all the time, and if I was
going to be a part of that team, I had to buck up and be ruthless,
too. “Okay, I understand. So what’s the plan?”

They filled me in, and I tried to ignore my
misgivings. Lionel wouldn’t be participating. The West Coast pack
didn’t get involved in reaper conflicts, and his flight was leaving
in a few hours. I listened to the plan, added my input, and agreed
with every ruthless and gruesome detail, but when everyone had gone
and it was just me and Jed again, I couldn’t help asking, “Is there
really no other way?”

Jed, who was curled up with me on my bed,
squeezed me tight. “No, there’s no other way. I’m sorry. I wish I
could change things, but Wraith’s right. He needs to send the
message that he’s not going to be a friend to the reapers
anymore.”

I sighed and stared at the ceiling, trying to
figure out how I was going to get through the next week with my
sanity intact, but all I could handle was thinking about the next
few hours. “So, I guess you’ll be moving into my room,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, too. We just got
together and I’m the clingy boyfriend from hell.”

I twisted in his arms to face him. “You’ll
just have to figure out some way to make it up to me,” I said. “If
you fulfill my every whim and tell me every day how wonderful I am,
I can probably resist the urge to run screaming from you.” I was
joking, but Jed’s expression was serious.

“You are wonderful. Most girls would have
already run screaming, not just from me, but from what we’re going
to have to do in town to stay here together. You are the bravest
person I know.”

After the stress of the day and everything
I’d had to take in, his words actually brought a lump into my
throat and tears to my eyes. I leaned up and kissed him, and he
kissed me back so gently and urgently that, for a little while, I
forgot all about being sad and scared.

Everyone agreed that Jed and I were our
biggest weakness. If the reapers knew we had to be touching or he’d
fall apart, they’d target us. We were left behind, eating pancakes,
while the others went to town to scout the situation.

It was so easy, in that empty house with the
scent of spring flowers drifting in through the open windows, to
forget what we were there for and to laugh and relax like we were
on vacation. So, when we heard the knock, we didn’t reach for a
weapon or even hesitate, we just went to the door and answered
it.

Holly, an operative from Harvest one, was at
the door, and she was holding a gun. A very big, very black, very
scary gun that was pointed at both of us. She sneered. “I wouldn’t
have expected you two to make this so easy.” She raised her gun and
fired a shot into the ceiling. I flinched and jumped back, but Jed
tightened his grip on my arm and stayed steady.

“What the fuck is going on, Holly?” he
asked.

“Take me to a warded room, now,” she said in
a low voice. “Move it, both of you.”

Jed spun on his heel, dragging me along with
him, and walked us all back to our bedroom. Once the door was shut
behind her, Holly dropped onto the bed, placing the gun down beside
her. “Could you two idiots be any dumber?” she asked.

Jed stood his ground, but my knees had gone
weak, the adrenaline and fear that Holly had inspired wearing off
and leaving me shaky. When I pulled, Jed sat down with me on the
floor. “What’s going on, Holly?” He asked again.