Treachery (3 page)

Logan piped up. “Have you so little faith in us, Ansel? What we’ve taken away we can give again.” The quasi-delight in his voice pulled my gaze to him.

The shaking began at the base of my neck, creeping slowly over my shoulders, gripping my arms. In moments, my entire body was close to seizing up.

“Breathe, Ansel,” Ren murmured.

Logan’s smile curved with pleasure.

“But it’s gone.” I could barely whisper. “You killed it. Killed that part of me.”

“That’s true.” Logan nodded. “But you’re forgetting your history. Once, there were no Guardians. The first wolf warriors had to be made. Do you think we’d be careless enough to lose that magic?”

I swallowed hard, clenching my fists with what little strength I had as I tried to gain control of my limbs. “You’re lying.”

“He’s not,” Ren answered.

The smoke from Logan’s cigarette had filled the airless room. I wheezed, but Logan shrugged, flicking ash from the burning tip.

“It’s not worth my time to concoct a lie for you,” Logan said. “We’re on a timeline here and if you want to be whole again, I can offer you a deal.”

“What do you want?” I squinted through the haze of clove-scented smoke.

“Your sister has chosen some unsavory allies,” Logan said, grinding his teeth. “The Searchers have deluded her with their lies. We need to put a stop to their collusion before matters get even worse.”

“She’s with the Searchers?” I couldn’t imagine how that was possible. Running away was one thing, but seeking refuge with our enemies? “That’s insane,” I muttered.

Logan laughed. “That’s the consensus we’ve arrived at as well. We think Calla somehow convinced herself that she’s in love with Shay and that by offering to help the Searchers, she can be with him.”

A quiet growl rolled out of Ren’s throat.

“But we’re going to fix that.” Logan looked at the alpha. “Aren’t we, Ren?”

“Yes, Logan,” Ren answered.

Logan stood up, dropped his cigarette, and put it out with his heel. With his hands folded behind his back, he paced the cell. “We need to get your sister and Shay back. In order to do that, we first have to find them.”

“How can I help with that?” I asked. “I’m worthless.”

“Actually, in your current state, you’re quite priceless.” Logan smiled. “Though your sister is a traitor, I’d wager she’s also guilt ridden about leaving her family behind. She knows how our punishments work.”

Ren growled again, louder this time. I glanced at him, but he turned his back so I couldn’t see his face.

“If you don’t know where she is, how am I supposed to find her?” The more I talked, the easier it became, as if my vocal cords were remembering how to work.

“An apt question,” Logan said. “We’ve known for some time that the Searchers have a hideout in Denver, from which they pester us in Vail. But the precise location is cloaked by enchantments. We have to break down those spells so we can attack.”

“So why don’t you?” I frowned.

“These sorts of enchantments can only be dispelled from within,” Logan said. “Obviously, we can’t get inside the Searchers’ hovel if we don’t know where they are.”

Logan threw a sharp look at Ren. The alpha pivoted to face me, crouching low to be at eye level with me.

“Calla will want to help you, Ansel,” Ren told me. “You can get inside.”

“But I don’t know anything about Denver.” I balked at the idea. I could barely stand, much less hunt down Searchers—who would kill me on sight if they knew who I was.

“Leave that to us,” Logan quipped. “Being the wretched creatures they are, it wasn’t too hard to narrow down the parts of Denver where they might be. We’ll send you out into those areas one by one, until they pick you up.”

“What if they kill me before I get to their hideout?” I asked.

“We consider that an acceptable risk” was all Logan said.

I sat silently, my head trapped in a vise of confusion, sadness, and futile hope.

Beside me, Ren said, “You have to, Ansel. You have to bring her back.”

Looking at Ren, I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to kill her?” I hated that I harbored mixed feelings about the question. Calla had left us all behind. Left us to imprisonment, torture, and death. But she was still my sister.

Ren shook his head, but I kept searching his face for signs of deception, not knowing if I could really trust him.

“We don’t think killing Calla is our best course,” Logan interjected. “After all, we’ve already lost one alpha female in this debacle.”

“But she’s a traitor,” I said to him before I’d even thought about my words.

Logan attempted a somber nod, but he couldn’t stop himself from beaming at me. “She is, Ansel. But we think with time that Calla can be . . . re-educated and eventually brought back into the fold. Don’t we, Ren?”

Ren’s answer was little more than a snarl. “Yes.”

“So you see,” Logan purred, “you’re not only
our
best hope. You’re Calla’s
only
hope.”

One more question lingered in my mind, but I was afraid to ask it. I looked to Ren rather than Logan.

“Bryn?” Her name was all I could manage.

Ren spoke curtly. “She’s fine.”

“I want to see her,” I said. Just knowing that she was alive gave me a jolt of audacity I wouldn’t have imagined possible.

Logan stepped into my line of vision. “I don’t think that’s something we can do.”

I hung my head, but Logan continued to speak. “Not until you’ve shown us where your loyalties lie.”

Glancing at Logan, I asked, “If I do this, will you let me see Bryn?”

“Of course,” Logan answered, with a careless wave of his hand. “You’ll see all your packmates.”

Swallowing hard, I continued, “And will you . . . will you swear to me that if I make it back . . .”

My heart felt like a sharp rock cracking against my ribs with each beat.

“Will I swear what?” Logan asked, irritated with my stumbling words.

“I want to be with Bryn,” I blurted. “Mated to her.”

Logan stared at me, his eyes wider than I’d ever seen. After a moment he recovered, and gave a throaty laugh. “Well. Well, well, well.” He lifted an eyebrow at Ren. “Did you know about this?”

Ren bowed his head and I squeezed my eyes shut. How could I have asked such a stupid question? In an already hopeless situation, I’d made things that much worse.

“So many secrets.” I was surprised that Logan didn’t sound angry, but rather like he’d heard the funniest joke of his life.

Trying to salvage anything from the wreck I’d made, I said, “It wasn’t Ren’s fault. We were together before he knew anything about it.”

“Don’t worry about Ren,” Logan told me. “Worry about yourself.”

I banged my head hard against the wall, not caring that it made my vision blur for a moment.

“Now, now,” Logan coaxed. “You act as though I have no heart.”

My guts twisted at the irony of having to rely on Logan’s compassion. His words weren’t far off the mark. I’d suspected more than once that he lacked anything resembling a heart.

Meeting my wary gaze, Logan smiled. “Please understand: there’s only so much I can do. No matter how much I might pity your case.”

When Logan looked at Ren, his jaw tightened. “Who is your master, Ren?”

“Efron. Your father.” Ren’s eyes remained downcast.

“And why is that?” Logan asked.

Ren glanced up, surprise written on his face.

Logan’s laugh was brief and sharp. “Go ahead. I’ll forgive you. Tell him what I
know
my father told the Guardians.”

With some hesitation, Ren spoke, but he kept his eyes on me, not once sparing Logan a glance. “Efron told us that the Haldis pack wouldn’t be formed. Not without Calla. And he said that Logan wouldn’t rule a pack. That he’d failed to rule us as a packmaster should.”

“So you see, Ansel,” Logan said, “I’m being punished too. And this mission that I’m sending you on—it’s one of the ways I can return to my father’s good graces. We can all get what we want. If we work together.”

I nodded as I realized that the repercussions I’d feared because of my outburst weren’t coming.

“And you want Bryn . . . among other things.” Logan pursed his lips. “You can see that I can’t give orders about pairing you up. But I can probably persuade my father to keep what would have been the Haldis pack without mates for a while. He’s promised that I can be restored to mastery of your pack if I prove myself to him.”

“And that starts with me,” I said quietly.

“It started with Ren,” Logan told me. “But our alpha is sorted. You’re the next step to making things right.”

It wasn’t much. It wasn’t even a promise. But it was something. At this point I would have taken anything. He couldn’t give me Bryn, but he could make sure she wasn’t given to another wolf.

Filling my lungs with air, I used all my strength to push myself upright. Though I had to brace myself against the wall and my legs trembled, I’d managed to stand. Slowly, carefully, I tipped forward, bowing deeply to Logan.

When I’d straightened, he was smiling at me.

“Tell me what to do,” I said.

“First, I’m sending in something decent for you to eat,” Logan told me. “There are details to take care of. While I’m making arrangements, you eat. For reasons that should be obvious, we can’t clean you up, but you will need to be able to walk. Good food will give you some strength back.”

Logan’s smile broadened to a grin. “You won’t regret this.”

He walked briskly to the door, gave a sharp rap on it, and when it opened he was gone, leaving the door still ajar and me standing beside Ren.

I felt a hand press into my shoulder and I turned to meet Ren’s piercing gaze.

“When you see her, don’t forget what she did.” His canines were sharp. “To all of us.”

“I won’t,” I told him. “I’ll never forget. And I’ll never forgive her.”

“Neither will I,” he said. As if to remind me of what I’d lost—what Calla’s choice had cost me—Ren shifted forms. His deep gray wolf bared its teeth at me before darting from the cell.

The door slammed shut and I sunk to the floor, my leg muscles quaking from the effort of standing.

I’d meant those words when I said them, but I wondered if they were entirely true—if Ren asked me not to forget what Calla had done because he knew what it would be like to be face-to-face with my sister. With someone whom I’d always trusted and always loved.

But I couldn’t imagine forgiving Calla.

Exhausted from the effort of standing and talking for longer than I had in days, I lay on the cold metal floor. Sleep crept over me, and I hoped I might dream something other than the nightmares that had dogged me until now.

Before I let go of the waking world, one last thought slipped through my conscious mind.

If Ren wanted to be sure I couldn’t forgive Calla, was it because he was afraid he could?

PHILOMEL BOOKS
A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Published by The Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada),
90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.). Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand,
London WC2R oRL, England. Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green,
Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd). Penguin Group (Australia),
250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division
of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd). Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community
Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India. Penguin Group (NZ),
67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson
New Zealand Ltd). Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa. Penguin Books Ltd,
Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R oRL, England.

 

Copyright © 2012 by Broken Foot Productions, Inc.

Orion Constellation copyright © iStockphoto.com/peresanz. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher, Philomel Books, a division of Penguin
Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.
Philomel Books, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. The scanning, uploading and distribution
of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the
publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic
editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted
materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. The publisher
does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author
or third-party websites or their content.