Un.Wavering (Claimed Series Book 3) (7 page)

“You are rather thick, aren’t you?” Swiftly and silently, Nicolas appeared behind Tracer. His blue eyes were uncanny and bright, focused steadily on the back of Tracer’s head. “She belongs to me, or don’t you remember?”

Hayden watched as Tracer’s expression soured. Clearly, he didn’t think highly of Nicolas, for he turned and raised his palm, ready to strike.

“I’m—”

He hardly had a chance to begin his tirade, for Nicolas unexpectedly lifted a hidden gun and fired pointblank between Tracer’s eyes. Hayden flinched horribly, completely taken off guard at the unforeseeable action.

Shivering, she scrambled to her hands and knees and dodged Tracer’s falling figure.

Her heart pounded in her ears, the gunfire both earsplitting and jarring. Tears sprang to her eyes, though she didn’t understand why. Perhaps it was all her emotions coming to head, or perhaps she thought she was next on Nicolas’ list.

He was going to kill her.

“
Stop
. Stop.”

A foot fell on top Hayden’s back, pushing her into the snow. A suffocating weight pressed down upon her, preventing her from crawling any further or shifting into her wolf.

“You’re not going to retreat this far into our rescue mission, are you, pup?”

Hayden shuddered and clenched her eyes shut. Her relief was overwhelming, but her suspicion also threatened to take over. “You can’t be serious. It was all an
act
? This… it was all an act…” she trailed off, a loss for words.

Only an inhumane man could risk the lives of innocents just to achieve his goals.

Nicolas sighed and removed his foot from her back. “I hadn’t thought he’d be foolish enough to send his pack of puppets away. It’s moving along more quickly than I anticipated. You will stay here and I will retrieve Cole.”

At the proclamation, Hayden lunged up from the ground, grabbing the edge of Nicolas’ coat. “I’m coming with you,” she hissed fiercely. “I don’t trust you with him.”

He hardly looked threatened and every bit frustrated. Assessing her blood-covered form, and her delirious eyes, Nicolas stepped forward and grabbed her around the throat.

She tensed and squirmed, but he tightened his grip. He lifted her from the ground with ridiculous ease, the toes of her boots just brushing the ground.

“I am on a short schedule,” he informed, a snarl lacing his words. “My charade can only go on so long before Celeste catches wind of my presence here. There are men underground in the hideout that could and will pose a threat to both you and I if they learn about my deceit. It will be easier to extract Cole if I go alone.”

Hayden curled her hands around his wrists. How had he fooled Tracer in the first place? Hadn’t Celeste informed him and all her men that Nicolas was now the enemy?

“Cole is recovering,” Nicolas suddenly reassured. “I tried to wean him off the silver last night when I arrived. He will still be out of it for a few days, with all the drugs in his system, but he’s cognitive enough to follow me out of the base.”

She released his hands at the admission. He was telling the truth. She knew.

Her connection with Cole was faint, but it was stronger now than it was since Celeste abducted him. It could only mean that Nicolas really had weaned Cole off the silver poisoning.

“Stay,” Nicolas ordered more firmly after releasing her neck. “Considering the trouble you attract, it would be best if you don’t
move
.”

Hayden simply watched him, her emotions haywire. Instead of meeting her gaze, Nicolas lowered his eyes and counted the number of bullets in his gun. Clearly satisfied with the amount, he snapped the magazine closed and headed towards the entrance of the compound.

He never glanced back.

She released a suffering breath, refusing to get her hopes up. She’d been faced with enough roadblocks to know nothing ran as smoothly as expected. 

Numbly, she glanced around at the bloody field, staring at all the fallen bodies. Her eyes zeroed in on a crumpled figure, dressed in a familiar leather jacket with a long, sword lying next to his lifeless hand. A gold band glittered on his left ring finger, bringing with it the horrible realization of the man’s identity.

Hayden slowly advanced forward, trying not to look too closely at the decapitated head. She issued a choked sob, her face crumbling. She hardly knew him, yet she mourned his loss.

Jax must have been the first and only werewolf to follow her when she attacked Tracer’s puppets. He’d had her back, just as he’d promised. She hadn’t known he was so close behind her. She’d been blinded by her rage.

There was someone inside the rogue compound that loved this man and relied on him to save her. There were
many
someones inside the compound that had their chance of a rescue taken from them because of Nicolas’ brilliant scheme of backstabbing.

Bending down, she picked up the sword that belonged to Jax’s wife. She considered taking it, but then thought better of it. Her guilt would make it too heavy to carry. She felt responsible for Jax’s death and she wouldn’t be able to properly honor the sword.

It belonged besides him, even in death.

She curled Jax’s lifeless fingers around the hilt of the sword, making sure he had a proper grip. Hayden closed her eyes, her fingers lingering on Jax’s wrist.

A choked, shuddering gasp suddenly sounded and Hayden’s eyes snapped open, her hopes high as she looked at Jax. Maybe she hadn’t seen right. Maybe his neck hadn’t been entirely decapitated—

But it wasn’t Jax who was gasping for air.

Another wheeze sounded and Hayden stood up, snapping her neck around to search for the source. When her eyes fell on Tracer, her body grew rigid.

Slowly, she stalked toward her fallen Sire. Celeste’s venom made him indestructible. Nicolas’ bullet should have killed him instantly, but he still grasped for life.

Hayden stared down at the struggling man, feeling…
nothing.

She crouched next to him, catching and holding his mismatched eyes. “You deserve to suffer,” she whispered. “You deserve every bit of pain that comes your way.”

Whether subconsciously or not, Hayden pressed her knife to his exposed throat. He grunted, too much in pain to form a coherent plead. She imagined him to be pleading if he could. He’d gotten this far without dying. Ironic
she
now held his life in her hands.

“You’ve ruined so many lives…” Hayden smiled without humor. “It’s only appropriate that you meet the same end. Don’t you think?”

As she pressed the knife further against his throat, a hand suddenly curled around her wrist, stopping her from cutting mercilessly into Tracer. It was strong and it was commanding.

“
No
.”

Hayden blinked, taken aback at Tracer’s unexpected savior. She turned, staring into deep green eyes. Her hostility abruptly crumbled and turned into shock.

“This is not you, Hayden.” Cole tightened his hold on her wrist. “This is not vengeance, its cold-blooded murder.”

Her hand opened around the knife, letting it fall to the ground. “Cole.”

She lunged at him, embracing him tightly. He embraced her back just as fiercely, nuzzling her cheek fervently and brushing his lips across her jawline. Though he’d been the one held prisoner for days on end, it was Hayden who sunk into him and let him hold her.

She’d never known relief like this. It made her knees weak and her body limp. To have such a large and solid figure encasing her made her strength disintegrate.

“Endearing, really,” Nicolas praised somewhere outside the fog. “But we need to move. And quickly.”

Cole shifted and squeezed Hayden’s shoulder. “We can find our own way from here.”

“Now isn’t the time for dramatics,” Nicolas countered. “You can’t even stand on your own two feet, let alone defend yourself and your mate. You need my help.”

At the man’s proclamation, Hayden pulled away from Cole to properly look at him. Scars claimed the inside of his elbows, appearing like injection points from needles. Black and blue bruises lined his arms and his skin appeared pale and ashen.

“It’s time you held up your end of the deal.”

Nicolas was not speaking to Cole, but to her, Hayden realized.

Cole lifted his lip, revealing a sharp canine. His eyes dilated and appeared fevered and glazed. “What did you blackmail her with?”

It took Hayden a moment to reference Nicolas’ words. Earlier, he said he needed her to tame Cole and convince him to stay south for a few more days. She was supposed to be the mediator, someone who could persuade Cole to listen to his brother.

Nicolas
claimed
he wanted to show Cole their parents’ past.

“From what I’ve seen, she is more than capable of defending herself. Something as simple as blackmail would hardly deter her efforts.” The appraisal in both his tone and eyes were hard to miss and it riled Cole up even further.

But that was Nicolas’ aim.

Hayden never realized how difficult it would be to stand between two Alpha males.

“I don’t think this is the best place or time to discuss it.” Hayden intervened before Cole exploded. “We need to get out of here—”

And then chaos erupted. Again.

A suctioned
pop
sounded and a needle-like bullet soared past Hayden. It graced her cheek just barely, the proximity causing goose bumps to dance across her skin. She gave a startled yelp, touching her cheek.

“
Go
,” Nicolas ordered sharply. As he made a move toward the forest, he stomped on Tracer’s chest and aimed his gun at the wounded werewolf.

He was going to finish Tracer off, Hayden realized after she picked up her discarded sword and knife. Only, as Nicolas pulled the trigger, nothing happened but empty clicks. There were no bullets left in the gun despite being nearly full before entering the rogue compound.

The man looked at Hayden and something passed between them.

It unnerved her that she knew what Nicolas was thinking. They’d only been traveling together for a couple of days, after all. Nonetheless, using a quick backward toss, she gave him her sword.

In one fluid motion, Nicolas caught the blade and ended Tracer’s life.

Hayden tried not to meet Cole’s eyes. The weight of his observance was stifling, yet she somehow managed to look past him and toward their assailants. She compared them to zookeepers, because that’s what their objective was; keep the beasts confined.

They were the ones responsible for holding dozens of werewolves captive.

She knew they were the brains of the organization, simply because their weapons were meant to stun and not kill. The object that had brushed Hayden’s cheek had to have been a tranquilizer of sorts.

The other figures that emerged from the compound, however, were not zookeepers, but aggressors. And their weapons were far less friendly.

A warm hand curled around the nape of Hayden’s neck and abruptly pulled her out of her stupor. She stumbled as he pushed her towards the woods, desperately trying to regain her footing. As she recovered, she offered Cole an unabashed look.

She didn’t need him to remind her to retreat.

They hadn’t been apart for long, but she’d forgotten about Cole’s smothering protection. Hayden didn’t know whether his insistent safeguard insulted or charmed her. She supposed it depended on his intentions; was it underestimation or a sense of duty?

She sprinted alongside Nicolas and Cole, not needing to look at the latter to know of his exhaustion. He put up a brave face and matched Nicolas’ and Hayden’s speed with equal vigor. However, compared to his usual stride, it was heavy and lacked the grace of a stealthy hunter.

Hayden dodged into the surrounding forest, the long, wispy needles of the evergreens scraping her face and exposed skin. Snow from their branches showered down on top of them, settling in the crevices of their clothing and on top their heads.

“We’ll never outrun them,” Nicolas commented from behind Hayden. “Cole is too weak in his current state.”

Dissatisfaction stemmed from Cole, yet the Alpha male remained silent to Nicolas’ words. It unnerved Hayden to see him so weak and abused. Usually the man was
her
cornerstone. Times like these were a vivid reminder to reality.

Cole was not as indestructible as he seemed.

“And what do you propose we do?” Hayden asked, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Climb the treetops and hope they don’t sniff us out?”

Nicolas chuckled lowly, appeasing her. “No, my dear. We simply split up.” He held up a hand, already sensing Cole and Hayden’s passionate rebuttal. “We have a better chance of getting rid of them if we force them in two different directions.”

“Two.” Cole repeated darkly, already assuming where Nicolas was headed.

“Hayden will go one way. You and I will go another.”

Though it was a struggle just to keep up, Cole had enough energy to leer mockingly at his brother. His teeth gleamed threateningly in a contemptuous grin and his eyes sparkled manically.