Page 3 of New Blood (Werewolf Alliance #1)
S everal Hours Later – Marin County, California
The private jet, one of many owned by the Werewolf Alliance, touched down on a private airfield near San Rafael. During the flight, Jude had briefed his team on what to expect in California and what they needed to accomplish.
His team was made up of himself and his brother Austin, as well as six werewolves he’d worked with for a long time and had known even longer.
His cousin Mason Storm Beaumont, or just Storm as almost everybody called him, was one of them.
They were accompanied by Wendell Loveland, a black werewolf of massive proportions both in his humanoid as well as his animal form, Ransom Howe, an Asian man originally from San Francisco, and Francisco Ramirez, who was Hispanic.
Parker Monroe and Grant Decker, two werewolves from Montana, had also made it to the jet in time to join them on this mission.
Each of the seven men accompanying him was fiercely loyal to the Werewolf Alliance and their mission to protect their way of life.
This meant protecting their secrets so humans never found out that werewolves existed and jeopardized said existence.
Their discovery would only cause fear and chaos among the human population, resulting in many unnecessary deaths.
When the jet came to a halt on the tarmac, Jude unbuckled his seatbelt and rose from his seat. As he walked to the front of the plane, the door to the cockpit opened, and Clive, one of the pilots who worked exclusively for the Werewolf Alliance—and a werewolf himself—appeared.
“The chopper is already waiting across the tarmac,” Clive announced. “Good luck, guys! Wish I could join you.”
While his team members hurried past him with their small travel bags and backpacks, Jude stopped for a word with Clive.
“How far by helicopter?”
“Seven minutes. He’ll put you down in a clearing about a half mile from the Gallagher mansion. You’ll have to run the remainder of the distance. Sorry.”
Jude nodded. “Not a problem. It’s best they don’t see us coming too soon anyway. Thanks for the ride.”
He followed his men out of the jet and sprinted across the runway.
He could already see the helicopter. It was a Sikorsky S-76, which carried up to eight passengers in addition to the pilot.
It too belonged to the Werewolf Alliance and was operated by one of the many Werewolf Alliance members stationed at various hubs throughout the United States, from where they could be deployed at a moment’s notice.
They called these members lone wolves because they didn’t live with a pack.
It took a special kind of werewolf to apply for this kind of job within the Alliance, because not everybody was suited for a solitary life away from the pack.
Because werewolves were pack animals, the lone wolves only operated in this position for a few years in their youth, before returning to a pack and turning their helicopter over to a younger wolf.
The helicopter blades were turning, churning up the air around it, whirling up dry vegetation and dust. Jude hopped into the chopper, let himself fall into the last available seat, and slid the door shut. A second later, the chopper took off.
The sun had set in the meantime, which meant the vampires were probably already attacking the Gallagher estate. Despite the tailwind they’d had all the way from Bozeman, they hadn’t been able to get here any faster. He could only hope that they weren’t too late.
He glanced at his team and noticed their grim expressions. They, too, were worried that they would be too late. He looked out through a window to get his bearings. It didn’t take long before he saw a dense forested area in the distance and a small clearing just beyond it.
“Get ready,” the pilot said through the headphones. “I’ll set you down in about ninety seconds. Get out as fast as you can, so I can lift off right away. I can’t stay here for long. They probably have security cameras everywhere.”
“They’ll be too busy fighting off the vampires to come and investigate why a chopper is landing on their estate,” Jude said calmly.
Everybody got ready, gripping their bags. The moment the chopper touched down, they opened the doors to both sides of the helicopter and jumped out. It didn’t take longer than fifteen seconds for all the men to be out, and with a thumbs-up gesture, the pilot took off just as quickly as he’d landed.
They were on their own now.
Jude gave the sign, and they all ran in the direction of the Gallagher mansion.
They were all in great shape, and nobody broke a sweat.
Within minutes, they reached the edge of the forest and could see the mansion rising just behind it.
From their vantage point, they could see the house, a portion of its front entrance, and the side wing where a car was parked on a gravel path, its door open, its motor running.
But that wasn’t what made Jude stop for an instant.
Rather, it was the noise of wind howling and thunder and lightning coming from the front where the vampires were attacking the pack.
“Fuck, the vampires brought witches!” Austin grunted. “It’s a trap!”
Jude moved his arm, blocking Austin from doing something stupid. “It’s not a trap. Striker said they had a couple of witches in their employ.”
“You coulda mentioned that earlier,” Wendell said from his other side. “I hate witches.”
“What werewolf doesn’t?” Jude said with a shrug. “Time to intervene. Everybody, shift!”
They quickly shed their clothes, then shifted into their wolf forms. It was time to stop this battle and prevent unnecessary bloodshed.
Jude let out a howl, one that every werewolf would recognize as a command to surrender, before they emerged from the shadows of the forest and raced toward the battle.
Without having to give his team specific instructions, they spread out and sprinted to strategic points from where they would be able to corral the Gallagher pack while at the same time cut them off from the attacking vampires.
Jude was about to head for the front when he saw two werewolves locked in an unequal fight.
A black, male werewolf was pinning a chestnut-colored female to the gravel path, the car’s headlights illuminating them in every detail.
There could only be one reason why a werewolf of the Gallagher pack was fighting another werewolf.
Although he’d never met anyone from the Gallagher family personally, he knew this had to be Cameron, who was trying to subdue the female he’d turned against her will.
And none of the vampires were able to come to her aid.
A few yards away, a vampire and a female supernatural creature whose aura he didn’t recognize were fighting a huge werewolf, while a bald vampire was battling it out with another member of the Gallagher pack.
Jude charged toward the two werewolves on the gravel path, his strong hind legs practically catapulting him forward. Cameron already had his fangs in the female’s neck. Another second, and he would rip her throat out, killing her.
Almost flying now, Jude lunged at Cameron, digging his claws into his thick fur, while he plunged his sharp fangs into the back of his neck.
Cameron’s reaction was reflexive: he released his hold on the female’s neck and reared back.
But Cameron had no chance of shaking him off, because together, they flew several yards farther down the path.
The moment they hit the gravel, Jude pinned Cameron to the ground with his razor-sharp claws and his full weight, while he drove his fangs deeper before ripping the wolf’s throat out.
Blood spurted everywhere as Cameron’s blood rapidly drained from his body, leaving only a lifeless shell behind.
A shell that now turned back into the form of a man.
Jude looked down at his victim and recognized the face from the pictures he’d seen.
This was Cameron. He was dead now. Not a danger anymore.
Still in his wolf form, Jude raised his head to look up into the night sky where the full moon hung heavy and howled.
A howl of triumph, indicating to his team that their prime target had been eliminated.
Other howls reached his ears. One came from the woman Cameron had tried to kill, and by the looks of it, was gravely injured.
His gaze snapped to her, and he watched her body cramp and spasm until she’d finally shifted out of her wolf form. With it, her preternatural aura disappeared: she was fully human again. Human—and bleeding profusely.
The vampire closest to her screamed, “Fallon!”
The vampire ran toward her, pulling the naked woman into his arms, his fangs already extending. He bit into his own wrist, then pressed it to Fallon’s mouth for her to drink the blood that dripped from it, while he pressed his other hand onto her neck wound to stem the bleeding.
Jude howled again, this time so loud that the entire forest could hear him.
His team members joined in the howling, indicating to the Gallagher pack that it was time to surrender.
Jude looked toward the front of the house and noticed that, slowly, the wolves as well as the vampires stopped fighting.
Jude shifted from his wolf form into his humanoid body, and his team, as well as the Gallagher pack members he could see from his vantage point, followed his example.
Stark naked and unconcerned about it, he made a few steps toward the vampire holding the human woman.
He noticed the vampire stare at him, or more precisely, at the tattoo on his chest. It was that of a wolf with the words Lupinotuum Societatem—meaning Werewolf Alliance—written beneath it.
All members of the Werewolf Alliance had the same tattoo.
“Will she live?” he asked the vampire.
He nodded. “Thanks to you.”
“And your blood,” Jude added with a nod at the vampire’s wrist.