Page 48

Alex

“Whose place is this?” I ask, casting a suspicious glance at the two-story house near the edge of the woods.

“It belongs to our family,” Wesley replies, “but no one’s lived here for a long time.”

Unsurprising. It looks like it’s been deserted for a while based on the decaying front porch and the cracked tire swing hanging from the massive oak out front.

Brantley is next to the two motorcycles, on his phone while Aiden digs around in his trunk and emerges with a set of body armor similar to mine. Then he produces the same Desert Eagle he almost used on Jay Rhinehardt before I talked him out of it.

I pull my vest on and start fastening the straps, having been in such a hurry that I just threw it in my truck and took off. But, now, from the looks of Wesley donning a tactical helmet with night vision goggles, we’re gearing up for war. I know I am, and I can feel it in my muscles as the phantom electricity works its way up my torso.

“Is she coming?” Wesley asks as Brantley rounds the Lexus and tucks his phone in his pocket.

“She’ll be here.”

Brantley reaches into Aiden’s trunk and pulls out his own helmet with the same attachments. They don’t bother with body armor, leaving their bike vests on and strapping one pistol to a thigh and tucking another at the back of their waist. Clearly, this is protocol.

“OK, where’s Dallas?” I’m done wasting time and if they aren’t ready, I’m leaving to find her myself.

Before Brantley can answer, a pair of headlights flashes in the distance and a large vehicle starts speeding through the tunnel of trees, engine roaring. I draw my weapon, prepared to fight my way out of whatever roadblock this is.

“Finally,” Wesley mutters, seemingly unconcerned.

“At ease, merc,” Brantley chuckles. “She’s with us.”

I lower my weapon and raise my hand to the blinding headlights. Soon, a shiny black Suburban comes barreling out of the trees. It comes to a halt in front of the house and just sits, idling in the yard. Nobody exits the vehicle, concealed inside by the extreme tint job.

“Who is it?” I ask him.

But Aiden suddenly appears at my shoulder. “The boss lady,” he smirks, chambering a round.

It’s weird, but I don’t have time to care, we need to go.

“A quarter of a mile northwest,” Brantley points through the trees, “that’s where she’ll be. There’ll be a barn and a shed in the middle of the woods, and maybe a hog pen if it hasn’t fallen down by now. The barn’s old, and he hardly ever comes out this far. They all have newer outbuildings closer to the houses. Follow this path straight in and keep going. We’ll seal off a radius—” he reaches up and pulls his goggles down, “and kill anything that moves.”

“Who’s he? Whose property is this?” I ask.

Brantley pauses. “Garrison’s.”

I arch a brow. “Your property adjoins his?”

“We were here before him, and we’ll be here long after,” he adds with disdain.

Bowen’s gone but someone still took Dallas to his property?

Aiden and I start jogging toward the trees. But, in an instant, Brantley and Wesley leap past us and tear across the grass in opposite directions. I hesitate, struck by how quickly they move and how long their strides are. In the darkness, they don’t even look human. The way they move seems more…animalistic.

“I’m surprised they came with you,” I comment as we dodge in and out of the brush.

Aiden glances over his shoulder, “I heard alliances change by the day.”

After a while, the trees thin out and the black silhouette of a large structure appears in the distance. We draw our weapons and creep through the darkness, heads on a swivel as we approach the clearing. I don’t hear any sound to indicate where the Rhodens are, but there haven’t been any gunshots, so I assume they haven’t run into anyone.

We stop behind a pin oak with a thick trunk, peering at the barn. The windows are boarded up, blocking out any light that might exist inside.

“I’ll go,” I whisper. “Hang back, keep your eyes open, and do not come in until I give the all clear.”

“Why don’t you just stroll up to the front door?” Aiden snickers.

“What do you think I’m—” But then I stop short, hearing a muffled noise in the distance.

A moment later, it erupts into screams from inside the barn.

Scrapping the plan, we both take off across the clearing. The sliding door is latched and secured with a padlock, and the person door next to it is sealed off with layers of plywood. All the same, I brace myself in the frame and land a solid kick in the center.

It shudders, but the wood holds firm.

I give it another kick as Aiden continues around the side of the barn, only to return seconds later.

“There’s a cellar door, but it’s locked from the inside,” he calls.

I spin around, eyes searching while the screams assault me in the worst of ways.

Dallas’s screams.

Tearing off toward the next building, I crash through the door of the shed and start tossing things out of my way. Unrecognizable junk scatters across the wood planks; trash, spare machinery, and broken tools. I toss it all around like a twister, shouting and cursing and threatening to take the whole thing down with me. That is, until I see something familiar in the corner. And, for a brief moment, I wonder if it’s real.

Am I in the middle of these woods in the dead of night or am I still back in the desert, trying to get home?

Either way, I’m running out of time. She’s running out of time.

I throw everything else aside and grab the ax covered in rust and wood rot, hoping it’s still sharp enough to get the job done. And even if it’s not, I just need it to stay in one piece long enough to bust through the wall.

Aiden barely steps out of the way before I take a running leap and sink the blade into the wood. I reel back again…and again…and again…

“Ten seconds!” Thatch’s voice echoes in my head.

I’m back there, a world away, and I can hear his voice, smell the basement, see the blood, and feel the wood buckling beneath my hands.

Eight…

I swing again.

Six…

And again.

Four…

“Break it! Now!”

Two…

One.

The ax blade slices through the mangled wood, sending splinters flying into the barn. As soon as I see the edges come away from the frame, I give another kick, tearing the plywood from its nails and screws.

Leaving Aiden outside, I duck through the hole. But, as soon as I stand up, there’s a pop followed by an ear-splitting scream. My back slams into the wall and my body goes rigid to keep myself upright. The barn fills with Dallas’s hysterical screams.

“ Alex! Nooo! Nooo! ”

I glance down at my chest, at the small hole punched in my vest on my left pec, about the size of a 9mm slug. Pain radiates through my muscle beneath the impact site, but my skin is still intact. My shock quickly turns to adrenaline-fueled contempt when I look up to see Austin Bostwick pointing the barrel of a gun at me.

My eyes dart to the right of him and my heart sinks when I see Dallas, naked and bound to a metal rape rack. I can’t see her face, covered by her long blanket of hair almost sweeping the ground. Now, instead of her screams, all I hear are pitiful whimpers as her muscles twitch against the restraints.

What…the fuck?

My fists tighten around the ax handle with white knuckles as I step away from the wall. Bostwick’s eyes betray him, awash with fear as I start across the room. I lock onto my target, speeding up with each stride. There’s another pop, then another, and another. Bostwick fires the gun, landing two more shots in my center of mass and grazing my forearm with another.

Amateur.

Blind and numb with rage, I close the distance and wind up. Before he can get another shot off, I sweep the ax upward and sink it into his chest with a sickening thud. But I don’t stop, pushing him backwards toward the wall. I try to reel back again, but the blade sticks in his rib cage. I jerk the handle toward me and give his torso a swift kick with my heel to dislodge it, spraying blood across my vest as it gushes out of his chest. Bostwick hits the wall and falls to the floor, only for me to wind up and bring the ax down again.

And again.

And again.

Soon, the only sounds to be heard in the sweltering barn are my grunts and the thud of the blade hitting the dirt as I hack through Bostwick’s body. My chest heaves as I glare down at his carcass, nothing more than an unrecognizable pile of tattered flesh.

Having neutralized the threat, I spin around and leap across the room to Dallas. Her shoulders shake with sobs and her muscles tremble as I tear at the buckle securing her neck to the apparatus. Crouching down, I lift her head, brushing her hair away from her wet and swollen face. She tries to smile through her tears, but her face contorts, toggling back and forth between terror and relief.

“I’m here, Dal. I found you,” I murmur, leaving chaotic kisses across her cheek. “I’ll always find you. I promise, I’ll always find you.”

“ Alex! ” Aiden’s frantic voice calls through the hole in the wall, if Aiden could sound frantic.

“We’re alright, just wait!” I call back before he can set foot in the barn.

Alright is a relative term, but I won’t let anyone else see Dallas like this. I move quickly over her wrists, then her waist, and both ankles, unbuckling each strap as fast as I can before carefully lifting her off the top. She clings to my shoulders as I gently sit her down in front of me, inhaling slow and steady breaths while I tear off my vest and pull my shirt over my head.

As soon as I get it off, I grab Dallas and pull her to my chest. She throws her arms around my neck, clawing at my back as she releases one loud, long, and final scream of horror. At the risk of suffocating her, I hold her as tight as I can, covering her body with as much of mine as possible as we rock back and forth. Finally, she pulls away for a moment, streaks of blood smeared across her chest and neck from my bleeding arm and splatter from Bostwick.

“I thought you died again,” she squeaks, leaving dirty smudges on her face as she wipes her eyes and lets me help her into my shirt.

“ Mariposita, ” I smile for the first time since I found her, “if anyone’s going to kill me, it’s not going to be some bratty kid with an inferiority complex.”

I help Dallas into my shirt and she holds tight as I lift her off the ground. She gazes around the dim barn, but before she sees Bostwick’s body, I gently catch her head and turn her face back to me.

“He’s done,” I say, leaving it at that. “We’re coming out!” I call out.

Exhausted and overwrought, Dallas tucks her face into my neck as I carry her toward the door.

Aiden saunters in, tucking his gun back into its holster. “There’s no one else here.”

“Anywhere?” I ask with disbelief.

Brantley suddenly appears in the door. “Nothing out there, not even the deer,” he says, surveying the inside of the barn.

“Because they know the werewolves are out tonight,” Wesley snickers as he pushes past him.

The Rhodens split off, walking the perimeter until they meet at the carnage on the other side of the room. Brantley draws his weapon, throws open the one door that leads to the lower level, and disappears down the stairs.

Wesley crouches down. “ Mmm, fresh meat,” he quips as he examines Bostwick’s mangled corpse.

It’s not long before Brantley reappears at the top of the steps. “Nothing else here,” he glances at the ground, “except this sorry motherfucker.”

“Someone will be searching for him,” Aiden picks up the bloody ax off the dirt floor, “but Bowen won't lead them here.”

“Unless you want to file a report,” Wesley smirks at me.

“What now?” I clip, wanting to clear this up and get the hell out of here as soon as possible.

“Raf’s right,” Brantley tucks his gun back in its holster, “Garrison won’t lead them to his backyard. I’d just as soon leave this dude here and let Canaan sort it out, but that’s not the Rhoden way ,” he says with a hint of irritation.

“You don’t want to go against the big man?” Aiden grins.

Brantley shoots him a pointed look. “Listen, I’ll be the big man one day, and I’ll decide who gets left on the side of the road for the crows. Until then, I’ll bide my time and play maid to keep the peace.”

“But you’re such a cute maid,” Aiden snickers.

Brantley points his finger at him and shoots him a warning look.

Just from what I’ve seen so far, the notion of any Rhoden keeping the peace sounds ridiculous, but I need to focus on getting Dallas out of here. I have no choice but to trust them.

I follow Aiden out of the barn and back through the woods, Brantley and Wesley trailing behind with their weapons drawn. The black Suburban is still idling in front of the house, just where we left it.

Aiden jerks open the back door and motions for us to get inside. “We’ll take your truck and Dallas’s car and meet you back at your place after we’re done here.”

I don’t argue, handing him my keys before setting Dallas on the seat and sliding in after her. Aiden shuts the door and rounds the front of the SUV to the driver’s side window. Now that I’m inside, I see the driver is a woman with long hair, her profile obscured by the darkness and a camo hat. I listen to them speak in hushed tones, only able to make out a few words here and there while I cradle Dallas across my lap.

“Throw it in back.” The woman nods to the ax Aiden’s still holding. “I’ll take care of it.”

The cargo door opens behind me and Brantley and Wesley start unloading large storage totes secured with locks. Less than 60 seconds later, they’re heading back into the woods with them. I glance behind me and watch as Aiden grabs an empty tote and tosses the bloody ax inside before snapping the lid back on and slamming the door.

Without a word, the woman flips on the headlights and starts driving the Suburban across the yard, back through the tunnel of trees. I let out a breath when we finally turn onto the county road, headed back toward the city. I look down at Dallas, tucked against my bare chest, her fingers still grasping my shoulder. Fortunately, her breathing has slowed and her muscles are more relaxed now. I take a deep breath of relief and glance around the cabin, but suddenly do a double-take when my eyes gloss over the rearview mirror.

Two sharp, vibrant eyes stare back at me with such intensity that I can’t look away. And even as I stare back at her, her expression remains unchanged. My concentration is interrupted by Dallas stirring in my arms. She lifts her head and looks up at me with a faint smile.

“How did you find me?”

“My mom told me where to find you.”

Her eyes round in astonishment. “ What? ”

“Well, at least where you dropped your necklace…” I smile, “with the tracker attached to the back.”

Dallas lets out a haggard breath and settles back into me. “Austin—” Her voice catches. “He did something. But I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet.”

“You don’t have to. Not until you’re ready,” I say into her hair. “You’re my everything, Dal. I’ll always take care of you. And the only person I’ll ever go to war again for is you.”

“But—”

“No.” There are no buts, no ifs, no questions, no caveats. “Remember what I told you,” I say firmly, so each word etches deep in her mind. “I was your first—mind, body, and soul—and I’ll be your last. Nothing else in between matters.”