Page 12

Chapter twelve

Dirus Morales

Rios took longer than I expected. The pup was brilliant with tech. He could build and dismantle things in a moment. It was one of the few reasons I allowed the green pup on my team.

I stood hidden in the cave opening, making sure he didn’t upset her or have issues with the task.

Instead, I found him moving slowly and deliberately, careful not to startle our vicious rabbit. She eyed him with confusion and curiosity.

When the collar fell off her neck, her scent poured out of her. So it was the collar hiding what she was. Some of the pups growled with excitement.

Her presence as an omega was solid now that we could smell the stars on her.

Nowak and Wallace snarled and growled deeper in the cave. Some of the pups couldn’t handle the sudden onslaught of an omega’s presence. Most of them had probably never smelled a celestial before, and Astria smelled like a drug specially made for us.

I heard yips and whines that told me Wallace and Nowak had to snap at least two wolves back in line.

I stayed ready to teach Rios a lesson if he let his wolfish impulses win out over reason. I was surprised he managed to hold himself together. She insisted she pay him in some way.

When he patted her head, she didn’t even flinch. He managed to build some semblance of fragile trust.

Now just to build on that.

He came into the mouth of the cave and found me. Surprise lit up his eyes, but he didn’t jump out of his skin the way most of my men would.

“Boss.”

“Good job, pup.”

I watched her reevaluating her knowledge of how the world worked. The pup opened the door. Now we had a foothold to wrench it open. No doubt the door would be as heavy as her baggage, but wolves were strong. It may take time and lots of effort. But it was possible now.

The words made him recoil back, as if a superior had never said that to him before. Which couldn’t be true. He was top of his class in the academy. Several teams were fighting over him.

My longtime rival and dependable ally, William Swanson, almost got him before I put my request in. I hope Swanson appreciated the robbery, probably not. I grinned, thinking about how chapped his ass was over it. Fucker.

I walked out, not wasting time for him to respond. I waited until her eyes moved from Rios’s back to me to speak. “We think the engineer is behind this. He’s a known rogue and your people haven’t been able to find him.”

“Then why is the job to find the source of a leak and not to search for Matthius?”

“That’s a good question, and I’m sure we’ll figure it out the deeper we dig.”

“Why are you even going along with this? If you can leave, just leave. Don’t stay here.”

“Because I’ve got a job to do, and it will be easier to do with the governor, unconcerned with my presence.”

A second celestial witch was already located. We needed to make sure there weren’t more. “Does anyone else have magic like yours?”

“No,” she lied expertly, but she couldn’t quite hide the tension in her shoulders.

“Someone other than your daughter.”

She swallowed harshly and lifted her head back to meet my gaze with golden eyes that twinkled like stars, despite how serious she was; ready to challenge me.

“Anyone else? You promised information.” I didn’t dare move. No doubt I’d initiate her attack mode if I did. “I don’t care that you tried to protect your daughter. I just need to know if there are any others.”

“No,” she finally answered, but then tilted her head to the side. “Well…”

“Yes?”

“You and your men have similar magic, but it’s…” She visibly struggled to find an appropriate word. “Not active.”

“Because wolves were created by celestial magic. It’s what gives us our abilities.” It was why celestial witches were the highest priority. They were the closest things we had to a goddess.

Her curiosity disarmed her, but she didn’t ask any of the thousands of questions swimming in her eyes.

“I want you to pick up your daughter and bring her here instead of wherever you left her. In the event we need to flee, we don’t need to make a pit stop for her,” I told her. “I can escort you.”

“No. We will have fewer eyes on us if I go alone.”

I gestured for her to leave, and Wallace poked his head out, sensing that I needed him. That wolf was so in tune with me, it wasn’t funny. I yanked my head for us to follow.

“Nowack, you’re in charge,” Wallace said softly.

“Yes, Sir.” I heard from the depths.

We followed at a large enough distance to not bring any attention to ourselves.

She danced around the potential threats like a master of her craft.

“Boss, you know she won’t be safe in the Grandpack either. At least here she knows the enemy,” Wallace spoke up softly.

No. The Grandpack would be dangerous. Our current celestial didn’t share the spotlight, and anytime another celestial appeared, they conveniently died sooner rather than later. Before they could even have a pack declared for them.

I’d been suspicious of Nadine the Golden for some time.

“I know.” But I also couldn’t leave her here.

A few more turns and from our vantage point on the rooftops, we realized she was surrounded. Six men were slowly converging in a circle around her. We called it a kill box, and she was right in the center of it.

I signaled for Wallace to get on the other side of the path she chose, and I jumped down off the house roof we’d been following her on, to land in the shadows behind her.

She knew she wasn’t safe. She kept to the shadows, trying to not be seen, but the men were already hunting her like a pack. The one in front of her stepped toward her, and she back tracked into the one coming from behind.

He was quick to try to capture her, but Wallace was already breathing down his neck.

Wallace didn’t say a thing. He was a humongous motherfucker that towered over everything, including me. All Wallace had to do was narrow his eyes, and the men ran in the other direction.

For a moment, Astria stood there slowly tilting her head back as she acknowledged the giant in front of her. She trembled as she craned her head all the way back until she could see his face.

“Shit,” she squeaked under her breath, but it wasn’t quiet enough to keep us from hearing it. She barely stood to his chest.

Wallace was six-foot-ten, and I hadn’t met many who were bigger than him. Even when we were kids, he towered over everyone. Add in the thick bulges of muscles covering him and there weren’t many who didn’t cower before him.

Her hands slid into her skirt pockets, and I knew she was ready to fight. Even when a shiver of terror traveled down her spine. She was so fucking brave.

“I’m sorry to startle you, my lady,” Wallace apologized in a soft voice he reserved for women and children. He smiled to make her more comfortable. “I’m Kadeem Wallace, Morales’s second in command.”

She backed away, still unnerved, but didn’t become violent.

“I’m behind you,” I warned her, hoping to avoid a rerun of earlier. I skirted to the side, so she wouldn’t feel trapped. “We’re ensuring your safe passage.”

Wallace pressed himself against one of the wooden houses so he wasn’t blocking her either. She eyed him like a snake and put as much space as she could between them to pass. To be fair, Wallace could reach out and snatch her up without taking a single step.

“Thank you, Sir.” When she went around the corner, we climbed back up to the roofs.

“I wasn’t the guy to bring for this,” Wallace told me. “The poor thing was terrified.”

“She’s always terrified.” She was usually better at hiding it.

“The pup would have been a better option. She wouldn’t have been ready to piss herself if it was him.”

“I trust him to calm her. I trust you to protect her.” I chuckled. “Don’t get too cocky fucker, she was ready to fight you with every ounce of her soul.”

His deep laugh was softened as he controlled his volume. But that booming laugh of his had been a comfort to me since we were children. Something about him laughing always soothed the edges.

Like when the headmaster of our orphanage beat us with a bamboo rod until we couldn’t sit for two weeks. He laughed and made some stupid joke, and that carried us and his brother, Elijah, through the pain of our punishment.

Then he risked his life to get us something to eat when they tried to starve us after. Wallace was the big brother I never had and the best friend I could have ever asked for.

“She’s a fighter. I respect that.” He nodded his agreement as we followed her to the house where she’d stashed her kid. She snuck into the back door with a key that was hidden in a giant plant.

“If anyone had a chance of surviving at the Grandpack, it’s her.”

“But.”

His disapproval was its own entity, and it’s always pricked at my skin before he ever even showed it to me. “She doesn’t need another fight. She needs to heal.”

“So what, leave them here?”

“No. But we need a plan to protect her once we get there. Don’t get cocky, fucker.” He spit my own words back at me, and if it was anyone else, I’d dominate them until they kissed the floor.

“I’ll fight for her.”

“Think, Dirus.” His dark eyes landed on me. “You’re one man.” Then he shook his head. “Well, two at least.”

Even when his eyes were daggers and there was a whispered ‘fucking moron’ at my back, I knew he had my six. If I left the Grandpack to protect this omega, he’d be right there with me.

“If you’re taking the lead here, you have to do it right. The same way you would do a job. She’s had enough impulsive, shitty leadership. Don’t make her suffer anymore idiotic dick swinging.”

“When we leave, we’ll make an emergency stop at one of our drop points, and I’ll take the time to think it through. I’m not going to save her from the pan and toss her into the fire.”

“I understand why you’ve picked her. She’s everything you admire in a person, without the pressure of being compelled to challenge it.” He smiled at me. “Definitely better than Nadine. I’d take her any day too.”

“I haven’t chosen her,” I reminded him.

“I heard you the first time, asshole.”

“You are testing my last nerve today, Kadeem.” As if he cared about that. He was only here listening to me because he wanted to be. Not because I had any power over him. “She’s been in there for too long.”

I pulled out my binoculars from the pocket of my cargo pants and looked through the window. The husband was up and moving around. She was stuck behind the couch, waiting for an opening to escape.

I went to the front door and knocked on it. He opened it, and his eyes grew wide, especially when he noticed Wallace behind me. It was always hilarious to watch a grown man tip his head all the way back, just to try to see his face. He swallowed harshly.

“Yes?”

“Sorry, sir, I know it’s late, but I’m desperate for more of that herb I bought from you. It’s for the governor.”

When Astria heard my voice, she tip-toed across the room toward the back door.

The man blubbered, trying to get his thoughts reorganized. “If it’s for the governor, it’s no problem at all.”

“Good.”

The door creaked when she tried to open it, and I snarled to hide the sound. The man leaped out of his skin. I hit my fist against my chest. “Sorry about that.”

“Elizabeth,” he yelled without turning back. His wife came out of the kitchen. I looked over the scar on her face more thoroughly than when I was in the shop. Astria was stripping me of my ability to compartmentalize, and I was seeing things I willfully ignored.

They branded Astria, but this woman was cut over and over again. Deep repetitive gouges like whoever did it never wanted her to have a face again. The other side of her face gave me a guess of what she looked like before.

I eyed the cane the man used. This was who Astria mutilated. I was willing to bet a thousand bucks he was the one who did that to the kind woman. A woman willing to hide and care for a kid that wasn’t hers for her friend.

Her bright blue eyes were human. She was a person. One that didn’t deserve that.

Before I left, I should murder every man here. But I needed orders to do something like that. Otherwise, there would be more than a spanking waiting for me back home.

Fuck. Fuck. Stuff the morals and ethics in the back of your head. Like you always tell the pups, Morales.

“He needs more of that stuff. I don’t know where you found it, but find more.”

She rolled her eyes behind his back before she remembered me there and blushed. “I’ll get it.”

He didn’t hear the rest that she grumbled under her breath. “From the garden, where I grew it.”

She opened the back door, and they all slipped out.

“He’ll pay extra for the inconvenience.” The names on my list of people to kill if an opportunity presented itself grew again.