Force of the Dark Wolf (Force of Nature Series) (36 page)

Tom laughed.
“I’ve already got her
,
you moron.
What the hell else could you possibly offer me?
And as soon as that cunt of a shifter shows up I’ll have her as well.
You,” Tom said as he pulled out a gun, “have outlived your usefulness to me and my cause.”

The sharply barked “no” was all that Paddy was able to say before the gun went off.
A second shot, this one not nearly as loud
,
sounded almost the same time.
When Tom dropped to one knee Alexis thought he had fallen
,
but it seemed someone had shot the man.
Paddy fell forward as a gun slipped from his fingers.

Alexis could only stare as Tom pulled his long sword free and took Paddy’s head from his shoulders.
A scream from Darcy brought Alexis from the nightmare.

The wolves coming to help were too far away when Tom suddenly turned toward Darcy.
He had his hand raised with his sword coming toward her
.
Alexis knew that if Darcy was going to be saved it had to be now and it had to be her.
Dropping to the ground
,
she shifted and landed at nearly the same time.

~~~

Gordon nearly shifted to go after her when he saw her dropping.
He knew that for the rest of his days
,
whenever he thought of her falling to the ground
,
he’d still have shivers of terror run through him.
But when she stood behind the vampire and swiped at him, Gordon knew that she would conquer.

“What have we here?
Another wolf?”
Gordon moved closer as Tom spoke.
“You know that I have a fine collection of beautiful pelts at home and your silver one will fill it out nicely.”

Alexis growled low and deep
,
masking any sound the pack made running faster now toward them.
Gordon reached out to his brother and alpha.

“
If you don’t get here in the next several seconds I’m going to have to move in without you.
He has my mate and I’
m
afraid he’s going to kill her.”
Gordon moved closer still.
He wasn’t afraid of the pack
,
but he was afraid for the safety of his mate.
If he made the wrong move they’d kill her because of their vast number.

“I’m coming.
Did you have to do this all the way across our land and the other side of hers?
Christ, we’re moving as fast as we’ve ever moved.”
Gordon snarled at his brother’s comment.
“Calm down
,
Gordon.
You’ll do none of us any good if you get either of you killed. I’m coming.
We’re all coming.”

The pack hit the wolves with the vampire as one.
Nearly fifty fully grown and not so grown wolves had more than half of the wild wolves killed before they could get away.
In a matter of seconds the ground was covered in blood.

Gordon leapt up and was after Tom when the man turned with Alexis as her wolf suddenly in front of him, his huge hands wrapped around her throat.
Gordon stopped so suddenly that dirt flew up at Tom and sprinkled his face and hair.

Gordon couldn’t shift fast enough.
He was standing before the two of them.
He looked at his mate then at the man who held her.

“You harm her and I will hunt you down, stake you to the ground
,
and roast marshmallows over your burning body when the sun comes up.”
He took a step forward when Alexis whimpered.
“Let her go and let’s take care of this man to man.”

Tom laughed and spittle ran down his chin as he licked Alexis’ furred cheek.
“You think to threaten me then you want me to do something for you? You’re very stupid if you think your puny little wolf is going to scare me.
I know what a wolf of her caliber is worth.
Wh
at
do you think I wanted the brat for?
I turned the father as a lark
. H
aving his daughter to breed will make me rich.”

The movement beside him didn’t make him turn
. H
e’d know his brother
’
s scent anywhere.
Smiling, he looked Tom up and down then to his face again.
He was terrified if he let himself think about
where Alexis was and how this man could hurt her
,
so he tried not to look directly at her.

“Turning a human without permission is a crime punishable by death.
You don’t really think that the alpha around here is going to let you do that
,
do you?
I mean
,
first off, she’s merely a child, secondly…well secondly
,
I’m going to kill you so all your plans are for naught.”

At least he hoped so.
Gordon took a step forward and Austin moved with him.
His wolf was so large that he reached nearly to Gordon’s hip at the back.
Alexis whimpered again and he looked at her.
When their eyes connected she looked to his left then back at him.
She did this twice more before he felt the other vampire.

“Hello
,
Tom.
It’s been a very long time.”
Gordon glanced at the newcomer and didn’t have the slightest idea if the man was friend or foe.
When he spoke again Gordon felt his world tilt.
“I’ve come to claim my rights as your maker.”

“Maker,” Gordon said about the same time he saw Phil come into view.
“I don’t think you have any rights, maker or not.
He has my mate and things are going to get nasty really fastlike if he doesn’t let her go.”

The man put his hand on Gordon’s shoulder and he felt the immediate connection.
There was something very…warm he supposed
,
about the man’s touch
,
almost as if they’d known each other for a very long time.

“Gordon
,
please let my father have his say. This will go a good deal quicker if you do.”
Phil stood on his left as the stranger kept where he was on his right.
“I called my father when I heard the name.
It took him some time
,
but he remembered his child after some help from my mom.”

“She most certainly did not help.
If truth be told
,
she was more of a hindrance th
a
n help.”
Mr. Campbell paused a few seconds before he continued.
“And if you tell her I said that
,
I will deny it with my last breath.”

“It well may be your last breath
,
you old turd.
What is the meaning of this?”
Mrs. Campbell, Gordon thought
,
looked over at the man who still held Alexis. “Tom, you’d best listen or Rod here will be forced to take serious action.
And just so you know, the council is very interested in the murder of a local human.”

“I did no such thing.
And I think you are all missing the point here.
I have this she-bitch and I’m not letting her go until I get what I need.”
Tom looked down at Alexis before he looked back at them.
“You come any closer and my death will be nothing compared to this bitch.”

It only took a second, a mere blink for things to go from bad to over.
The silver wolf in Tom’s hands was suddenly gone
;
fur tangled in his fingers
,
but the wolf herself was nowhere to be seen.
The screech of the hawk high above them had each of them turning skyward.

Gordon had a second
,
no more
,
to realize that she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen before she was soaring toward him, her wings wide.
When she narrowly missed him as she landed on the ground just inches from him
,
he watched as she hopped from one foot to the other before settling.
She didn’t take her eyes from Tom.

“She’s a shifter,” Phil’s father said softly, almost reverently.
“Phil said that she was
,
but to see her…holy Christ, no wonder he wants her so badly.”

Tom turned and
,
as he started forward again, the cane he always carried seemed to morph into a long sword.
As it moved toward him, the air seemingly slicing open
,
he didn’t have a second to ponder his own death and the los
s
of his life with Alexis.
But the blade didn’t touch him, nothing did.
The sound around the forest stilled.
And before hi
m
lay Tom Richards, his throat sliced from ear to ear.

Chapter 20

Alexis poured the last of the soap into the forms.
She watched the hot liquid fill each section of the metal and smiled when she thought of the people who would be using this very soap by end of the week.
She glanced to her left when she heard Gordon cussing again.

“This is shit.
Every
time I follow your directions all I get is shit.
What am I doing wrong?”
He didn’t look to her like he was helping so much as he was trying on what she sold.
He was covered from head to toe in white powder and bits of herbs he’d tried to cut up for her earlier.
Before she could set down her pot Darcy came to his rescue.
Again.

“Look
,
Uncle Gordon, I showed you before.
If you don’t let it get to temperature then it won’t get hard.
And if it doesn’t get hard
,
nobody will buy it from Aunt Alexis. Then where will we be but out on the streets selling this poop to anybody who will give us a penny for it.”
Alexis thought she heard her say
, “
if somebody would give us a penny for it
,”
but wasn’t sure.