Twisted (9 page)

She swallowed. “I could eat.”

The party went on for hours, and the band played the entire time. Maggie danced with Terrent, with Gerald, and with several other wolves. Being among her own people filled her with a lightness she hadn’t realized she’d missed. Sure, she loved the vampires. But this pack might be home.

She and Terrent stood to the side, drinking cider after a rather ambitious two-step. Her toes might never recover from his huge boot landing on them. Of course, she’d tripped the poor guy several times. “I told you that klutzes shouldn’t dance.”

He surveyed the area, always on alert. “I had fun.”

Throughout the night, he’d loosened up and had even par-ticipated in several discussions with folks about the war.

With the kids, he’d seemed comfortable from the beginning.

Little Toby had hung around him for quite a while until his mother had taken him to bed.

Terrent took a deep breath. “Did you enjoy your tour earlier?”

Instinct raised the hair on her arms. “Yes. Very interesting place.”

“Did you find any clues, Sherlock?”

Maggie jerked her head to meet his gaze. “Clues?”

“Please.” He brushed her forehead with warm lips, his focus on a group of men arguing about football scores. “Any clues on who messed with the drugs?”

She swallowed. “You knew? I mean, you knew the king sent me to investigate?”

A dimple flashed in Terrent’s cheek. “Yeah. I knew. Find anything?”

Her shoulders slumped. “No. You?”

“Nope. The entire situation is a mystery. An odd one.”

Gerald hustled up. “We have a problem. The Ausgel Alpha just contacted me with another offer to buy the mountain. If we don’t sell, he’s going to attack.”

Terrent straightened. “When will your soldiers be home?”

“End of the week.” Gerald rubbed his chin. “We should be fine, but this time of transition is over. I’m turning over leadership to Roger tonight.”

Terrent shook his head. “You should wait until your soldiers get home.”

“No. We need stability.” Gerald sighed. “I put together a defense plan in the lodge. Will you take a quick look at the diagram? I’d like to implement what we can starting tomorrow morning.”

“Sure.” Terrent handed his glass to Maggie. “You okay here?”

“Yes.” She waved at Bobbi, who was doing the cha-cha with a lumbering wolf.

Terrent left with Gerald. Maggie wandered around and grabbed a cookie from the table. The sound of the festivities rose in the air, the feeling light and happy. The entrance to the rock stood quiet and dark. How easy would it be to get inside and poke around? This was the last night anybody had to mess with the drugs—so if it was going to happen, it would be soon. Maybe she should set up inside and wait out of sight. Then she could report back to Terrent without even having to confront anybody. Now that was a plan.

Smoothly angling around the table, her foot only catching once, she maneuvered to the cave entrance. Nobody seemed to notice.

Her breath heated. Goose bumps rose on her arms. She could investigate like the best of them. Moving backward, she allowed the cave to consume her.

Winding through the quiet hallways, she paused before making the final turn where the guard was stationed. Darn.

She should’ve brought him some punch or a cookie. Oh well.

Too late. Plastering on a fake smile, she breezed around the corner.

And stopped short.

Her entire body stiffened. Adrenaline flooded her system.

The guard was down.

Passed out, his head at an odd angle. Maggie crept toward him, dropping to one knee in order to feel his neck. She sighed in relief at the strong, steady heartbeat. Thank God.

Shoving his neckline to the side, she revealed twin burn marks. A stun gun? An injection site swelled an inch away.

So the poor guy had been stunned and then injected with what had to be a rather powerful sedative.

She gulped in air, her gaze going to the metal door, which stood partially ajar.

Getting help seemed like the best idea, but she couldn’t let whoever was inside mess with the inoculations. Or get away.

The gun in the guard’s holster fit easily into her grip, and she stood on shaking legs. Toeing open the door, she slid inside like a cat burglar. A smooth, graceful cat burglar.

Sweeping the area with the gun as the vampires had taught her, she inched closer to the glass door, which was also open. Some sort of cover hung over the top of it, hiding the interior.

Her hand shook. She edged her elbow inside the door and tugged, quickly slipping inside. “Freeze.”

A startled “Ack” echoed through the space.

She started. The world froze. Cloudiness filled her mind.

“Andrea? Shannon?” She began to lower the gun.

The girls stood over one box of serum with syringes in their hands. Andrea finished injecting yellow liquid into one vial and tugged free the needle. “Well, crap.”

Maggie lifted the gun. Though they were teenagers, both girls were taller than she and probably more fit. Plus, they were wolf-shifters and undoubtedly trained. “This is treason.”

“Well, duh,” Shannon muttered. She tugged her Egerton cheerleading sweatshirt down.

Maggie shook her head. “Terrorist cheerleaders? Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

Andrea snorted. With her dark hair in pigtails, she looked like an everyday teenage girl. “Terrorists. Right. If we were terrorists, somebody would’ve been harmed.”

“And we wouldn’t have gotten caught,” Shannon said, slowly closing the lid of the container. Her curly hair was mussed up, probably from stunning the guard. “So, what now?”

“What did you give the guard?” Maggie kept her gun leveled between the girls.

“A horse sedative.” Shannon grinned, showing even white teeth. “He was already down from the stun gun.”

“I stunned him.” Andrea levered up on her toes and back down.

“This is crazy.” Maggie slipped the safety on the gun.

She’d hate to accidentally shoot one of them.

“Not crazy at all.” Wisdom shone in Andrea’s sparkling eyes. “I think our plan worked. Well, maybe.”

Maggie coughed. “What worked?”

Shannon sighed. “It’s obvious. We messed with the drugs whenever someone from the Bane’s Council was here. So, they had to investigate.”

Maggie shook her head. “You wanted to make Terrent come here?” At their nods, she raised her eyebrows. “You, ah, want Terrent?”

Andrea wrinkled her nose.

“Ew, no. I mean, he’s like,
old
,” Shannon said.

Well, he wasn’t that old. The guy looked thirty, but that was probably old to teenagers. “I don’t understand.” Maggie slipped the gun into her waistband.

Shannon sighed and rolled her eyes. “Come on. Think.”

Why would they want Terrent at wolf headquarters? Wait a minute. “Oh.”

“Yeah. He likes us, we like him . . . and Gerald is leaving.

Roger sucks.” Shannon moved toward the door to yank down the sweatshirt. She tossed the shirt to Andrea, who quickly put it on.

As a plan, well, it didn’t suck. Maggie bit her lip. “You have to come clean.” Maybe if Terrent realized what lengths they’d go to in order for him to stay, maybe to be Alpha, then he’d consider the job. And if he stayed . . .

“No.” Shannon opened the glass door. “Motives aside, this is treason. Any Alpha would have to take responsibility and take care of us.”

“Yeah. Besides, we have nationals next month.” Andrea followed her friend. “If you tell, you sign our death war-rants.”

“You’re being dramatic.” Maggie followed them out.

“Nobody is going to kill you.”

Shannon sighed with feminine angst. “Might as well if we’re forced to miss nationals. I mean, really.”

Maggie paused by the downed guard. “What about him?”

Shannon shrugged. “Leave him. He’ll be fine in a couple of hours, raise the alarm, and things will get interesting.

They’ll find the damaged drugs and toss them.”

The girl was a criminal mastermind. “Good thing you’re on the right side. Well, kind of.” Maggie’s mind spun. What should she do? Terrent and the king needed to know the truth, needed to know a traitor didn’t walk among them.

“Your hearts are in the right place, but the military leaders are concerned. They don’t have time to worry about a non-threat. You must tell Gerald the truth.”

They emerged into the night just as Gerald and Roger walked into the clearing.

“Oh, shit.” Shannon moved into the moonlight. “We’re too late.”

As ceremonies went, the transfer was short and sweet.

Roger pledged to protect and lead the pack, and then thanked Gerald for his service. The crowd was quiet, and several people moved to congratulate Roger when the change was over.

Terrent watched from afar, his face inscrutable.

With the ceremony finished, Andrea turned toward Maggie. “We can’t tell now, can we?” Tears filled her eyes.

“Things are gonna change.”

“This sucks,” Shannon agreed.

Maggie grabbed another cookie on her way toward Terrent. Reaching him, she finished the chocolate treat. “So, Roger, huh?”

“Guess so. He’ll learn to lead—the pack is strong enough to teach him.” The moon glinted down to highlight Terrent’s predatory face. “Plus, the guy can fight. So if the Ausgel pack attacks, he’ll come in handy.”

The band started to play a slow song.

Terrent took her hand and tugged her around. His palm pressed her lower back, and his head dropped to the top of hers. “Dance with me.”

She sighed and relaxed against him. So much heat, so much strength. “You would be happy here.”

“I’m happy wherever you are.” His breath brushed her forehead. “Always have been.”

She snuggled closer. “I’d imagine that being the only survivor of an entire pack might lend itself to some survivor’s guilt. Such guilt might force somebody to wander alone, never trusting himself to belong to another pack.”

He kissed the top of her head. “You shrinking my head, now?”

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “Something to think about. You were only a baby and have nothing to atone for.”

“Hmmm. I have plenty to atone for, believe me.” He swallowed. “Maybe you should’ve been a shrink.”

“I don’t really have a job.” For ten years, she’d trained and tried to regain her memories. Maybe they were lost forever.

“What did I do before I was taken?”

“You taught physics.” He pulled her closer. “In fact, several of your theories have improved the way the Realm fights werewolves. In just the year that we dated, your research resulted in strategic moves for the Bane’s Council that saved my life more than once. Very impressive. And I guess you liked teaching.”

She could see that. “Too bad I don’t remember physics.”

“Relearn physics, or learn something else.” His chest shifted against hers.

Her nipples sprang to life. “I might do that, considering my career as an investigator has stalled.”

“Don’t worry about the saboteur. Whoever has been messing with the drugs is well trained. They didn’t leave a clue. Besides, we have security measures in place now. The drugs are safe.”

She coughed. Guilt swirled through her abdomen. “Terrent—”

“Vilks!” Roger called out. “I need to speak with you.”

Terrent stiffened but didn’t turn around. He leaned back and brushed a curl off her face. “Apparently the new Alpha would like to speak to me.” He waited just long enough to be barely insulting before pivoting toward the lodge and taking her hand. “Why don’t you come with me?”

“Am I supposed to cheer you on or keep you from hurting him?” she asked.

Terrent lifted a shoulder.

They entered the lodge and went to the same conference room as last time. Roger seated himself at the head of the table. Gerald sat to his left, worry darkening his eyes. Nash guarded the door, his expression blank.

Maggie slowed. The tension in the room shot right to her ankles. Tingles swept up her legs. She breathed in quickly and held the oxygen in her lungs. The moment passed, and she dropped into a chair.

Terrent remained standing. “What?”

Roger leaned his elbows on the table, his eyes a dark brown. “Felix McClure from the Vaile pack will be here tomorrow morning with his enforcers to fetch his missing pack member. I’ve agreed to turn her over.”

Gerald shoved back from the table. “This is why you in-sisted on taking over tonight?”

“Yes,” Roger said calmly. “A treaty with the Vaile pack, with the best assassins in the world, will only strengthen us.”

The muscles rippled in his neck as he leaned back. “Maggie is a member of their pack, and they have the right to claim her.”

Damn it. Maggie struggled to breathe evenly. “I refuse.”

Gerald sighed. “You can’t. As a member of their pack, you are subject to their laws.”

“Let’s go, Maggie.” Terrent pulled her chair back.

Roger stood. “Just so we’re clear here. If you run, I will send every soldier in our pack to assist the Vaile wolves in finding you. Every. Single. One.”

Nash growled. “You’d leave the land and the rest of the pack unprotected?”

“In a heartbeat.” Roger leaned toward Maggie. “If you want that on your head . . . run, wolf. Just run.”

What a complete ass. Fear for her new friends overcame the panic sweeping her body. Barely.

Terrent shifted his stance.

Maggie jumped up and grabbed his arm. “No fighting.

Not right now.” Her mind spun. She had to figure out a solution. “Let’s go, Terrent.”

“Be back tomorrow at dawn,” Roger drawled.

A lumbering echoed from the hallway. Seconds later, the guard from the underground secured site stumbled into the room. “I was attacked, and I think somebody messed with the serum.”

Terrent took her arm and led her to the doorway. “You have something to deal with now,
Alpha
.” He nodded to Nash as he walked by. “I’ll talk to you, soon.” He eyed Gerald. “Check the inoculations for tampering before the trucks arrive tomorrow.”

As they maneuvered through the building, Terrent tightened his hold. “Did you want to tell me something while we were dancing?”

Maggie blinked. “Just that you’re a good dancer, Terrent.