Jennifer Lynn Barnes Anthology (112 page)

I
T TOOK US AN HOUR TO GET TO THE CLOSEST AIRPORT
, a tiny little strip of a thing that didn’t fly commercial. I’d been willing to commandeer a plane by force if necessary, but there was no need: pilot, plane, and a small white envelope bearing my name were waiting for us when we got there—courtesy of Callum.

He’d known we’d come here, and he’d known where we’d be headed—and why. Any doubt I might have clung to that he hadn’t foreseen Chase’s death—hadn’t already
apologized
for it—evaporated.

There wasn’t an apology in the world—before, during, or after—that could make this right. A plane and a pilot and the Stone River alpha’s reassurance—via note card—that he would be glad to send Devon’s father to stay at the Wayfarer in his son’s stead did nothing to change what had happened.

What Callum had let happen.

I didn’t bother calling him. I sent permission for Lance to
enter our territory via text. Then I closed my eyes and waited—for the plane to land, for Shay to realize that he’d pushed the wrong girl too far.

Devon met us near the northern border of Shay’s territory. I was betting that to get to Maddy’s hideout, Shay would have had to take his pack north, up and around Cedar Ridge, and then down into Shadow Bluff territory and over. Even at werewolf speed, the return journey would take time—more time than it took Devon to get here from the Wayfarer, and more time than it took Lake, Caroline, and me to fly.

In a fair race, I wouldn’t have been able to outrun Shay, but werewolves had a tendency to forget about things like planes, and I was done with
fair
.

Now was the time for playing dirty.

“This is what you want?” I asked Caroline.

“It is.”

I didn’t ask her if she was sure—didn’t need to be told that the answer was yes. Digging my fingernails into her flesh, I made good on the assurance I’d given Shay in the mountains: Caroline wasn’t just any human.

She was ours.

With little ceremony and only Devon and Lake as an audience, I made Caroline a member of the Cedar Ridge Pack. I tied her mind to mine, to the others. I Marked her, the way that Callum had once Marked me.

She didn’t flinch, and I got the feeling that Caroline would
have gladly gotten in bed with the devil himself if it meant taking Shay down a notch.

Hurting him, the way he’d hurt us.

“So that’s it, then,” Caroline said. “I’m one of you.”

I got a vague and fuzzy sense of her thoughts on the other side of the pack-bond—not nearly as clear as they would have been if she was a Were. I heard enough to know that this was not a place she’d ever expected to be.

Welcome to the club
.

She startled at the sound of my voice in her head, and I figured it wouldn’t be long before she learned to shut me out, the way Ali did, the way I’d shut Callum out, growing up.

Let’s do this
.

Even with the addition of Caroline, four was a small number to represent our pack, but Devon was my second-in-command, and at the moment, he was bleeding power, anger,
pain
.

Our eyes met, and his took on the sheen of tears. He crossed the space between us and opened his arms. I’d been intent on staying strong, on keeping my emotions in check, but seeing Devon undid something inside of me. He’d been there when Callum brought me home to the Stone River Pack. He’d been the reason it had started to feel like home—and he’d been with me every step of the way since then.

It was killing him that this time, he hadn’t been there, that I’d been gutted, and he wasn’t there to stop it.

Without thought or hesitation, I launched myself into
Devon’s grasp. I buried my face in his shirt—purple silk that smelled like him, felt like him. I didn’t cry, but my body shook like I was sobbing.

Devon murmured to me, held me, hurt for me. Through the bond, I could feel his emotions, and I felt him feeling mine. We only stayed that way for three seconds, maybe four, before I stepped back, sending a death glare around the group, daring them to comment.

No one said a word.

I went over the plan—again and again. It was simple, but we couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.

We were going to do this by the rules.

Eventually, Griff joined us. He didn’t ask what had happened or what had brought us to Snake Bend territory. Maybe he’d been watching. Maybe he’d tried to see Maddy again and had realized she was with Shay.

Maybe he saw all he needed to see in Lake’s eyes.

“We have a plan?” he asked.

Two werewolves, two humans, and a ghost up against the third-largest werewolf pack in North America?

“Yeah,” I said. “We have a plan.” I outlined the details, the rules. “Think you can handle damage control?”

I hadn’t counted on Griffin’s presence, but having an ally who was impervious to the fangs and claws of our opponents wouldn’t hurt—though if things went according to plan, there wouldn’t be much of a fight.

“We’re really doing this,” Lake said. It wasn’t a question, or a complaint. She punctuated that fact with a low whistle. “This is big.”

She was right.

This wasn’t defense.

This wasn’t waiting for Shay’s next move.

This was war.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

D
EVON AND
L
AKE SMELLED THE
S
NAKE
B
END
P
ACK
coming long before I felt their presence registered to the part of my brain that was alpha.

Foreign. Wolves
.

Foreign. Pack
.

Devon, Lake, Caroline, and I spread out in a line. Behind us, Griffin faded from view: invisible, but present. Our secret weapon.

Shay came around the bend first. I saw surprise in his eyes, then delight. Apparently, he thought I’d done something stupid.

He hadn’t seen stupid yet.

“You,” he said, stepping over the border and relishing the words, “are trespassing.”

“No,” I said, my voice an exact echo of his. “You are.”

It took a moment for my words to sink in.

“Take a deep breath, Shay.” I gestured around. “Does this smell like Snake Bend territory? Does it
feel
like it’s yours?”

I hadn’t been able to ship my pack off to Callum’s for safety because territory was only territory as long as it was occupied and protected.

“What I don’t understand,” I said, “is why you took your whole pack after Maddy.” I pretended to mull it over. “You must have made deals with the other alphas—the ones whose territories border yours. You wouldn’t have just left your land completely unprotected unless you were
sure
no one else would come after it.”

I shrugged and smiled. “Whoops.”

Shay had never seen me as a threat. He’d never even considered the possibility that I might strike back.

“You think that four children can stand against my entire pack?” Shay’s lip curled upward in disgust. “You think I’ll let you take what’s mine?”

I smiled. “I don’t think you have a choice.”

Shay had left his territory. His pack had left their territory. He’d gone after Maddy with everything he had, stacked the deck in his favor in the event of a confrontation with my little ragtag group.

He’d done it to intimidate me.

To remind me that he had the power.

That I was nothing.

Well, look who was nothing now.

“While we were waiting for you, the four of us went for a little run in the woods,” I said, my voice downright chipper.
“And our peripherals? The ones you’ve been more or less stalking from your side of the border for the past year?” I turned to Devon. “Remind me where they are again?”

“Well,” Devon said, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “I believe that Phoebe is in Minnesota, and Sage is running the border in Iowa, and Jackson was just telling me that he’d always wanted to see Missouri.…”

The plan had never been just to take North Dakota from Shay.

I wanted it all.

The man I’d taken it from stepped toward me, every muscle tense, violence and rage battling for supremacy in his eyes.

“Nuh-uh-uh,” Devon told him. “Our alpha’s really been very understanding about the issue of trespassing, but I’d suggest you stay where you are.”

Shay’s pack had been quiet up until now, but I could hear the murmurs starting—growls and grunts and human words, hushed to whispers.

They were the third-biggest pack in North America, and now they had nowhere to go.

“Seven people cannot claim a territory.” Shay spoke through clenched teeth, and his jaw trembled. He was fighting the urge to Shift.

If I kept pushing him, Senate or no Senate, Callum or no Callum, rules or no rules, he was going to kill me.

I summoned my knack, channeling every fear I’d ever felt into this moment.

Let him try.

“Is that what your instincts are telling you?” I asked Shay facetiously. “ ’Cause that’s the funny thing about werewolf laws—it’s not about numbers per se. Four people can be a pack if they’re bound as a pack. A human can be alpha, if she’s the one the others look to for leadership. And seven people
can
claim a territory, if they represent enough of the pack.”

Cedar Ridge had twenty members. Counting the peripherals, there were seven of us in this territory—including the alpha, the second, and the strongest female. That was more than enough. We
were
the pack, and standing there, flanked by the others, I could feel the power humming between the four of us.

Pack. Pack. Pack
.

The bond that connected us to each other was the same thing we’d used to mark the land. It was why this place smelled like us, felt like us.

It was why the Snake Bend Pack registered as foreign to our senses, when this land was once their home.

Pack. Pack. Pack
.

Ours. Ours. Ours
.

“It’s been nice chatting,” I told Shay, “but you have five seconds to get the hell off my land.”

He lunged at me. I saw it coming, and my knack, already active, already waiting, came online full force.

Fight. Fight. Fight
.

Run. Run. Run
.

Survive
.

One second he was flying at me, human teeth bared like fangs, and the next, I ducked out of reach. I felt air against my face, felt his teeth snap an inch away from my throat.

His human hands encircled my neck.

I can’t breathe
.

I fought—fought dirty, fought hard, rode the power like it was a wave. I had to get out, had to get away, had to stall—

Shay’s body flew backward. A growl echoed all around us, and phantom claws dug into Shay’s flesh.

Thank you, Griffin
, I thought.

In retrospect, it was a really good thing he was there. Flashing out let me push my body to its limits—but the limits themselves were still there. I would never be as strong as a werewolf. I would never be as fast.

Luckily, being attacked by an invisible opponent took Shay off guard, and in the moments it took him to recover, Devon came to stand directly in front of me.

The message was clear: you want her, you go through me.

Dev?
I knew what he was thinking, knew that the moment Shay had attacked me, there was no other way this could end.

Devon reached back to grip my hand, briefly, then dropped it, settling into a position that Callum had taught him, the same way he’d taught me.

“You’re trespassing on Cedar Ridge territory. You just
attacked the Cedar Ridge alpha.” Devon’s voice was loud and deep, and the words sounded like they were spoken through him as much as by him. “You’ve just saved me the trouble of having to transfer to your pack to kill you.”

Inter-pack aggression wasn’t allowed. An alpha could only be challenged from within—but Shay had broken the rules first, and there was nothing more animal, nothing more basic, than retribution.

He’d attacked me. Devon could kill him. End of story.

Shay’s pack—spread out along the border like the crowd at a concert—responded to Devon’s words like an intense electric shock. Some of them Shifted. Some of them growled.

None of them came forward to help their alpha.

“You really think you can take me?” Shay asked. He climbed to his feet, dripping blood from wounds that were already healing. “Take us?”

There were so many of them, too many, and if Shay ordered them to fight, they’d have no choice, Senate or no.

Callum would kill them—kill him—but by that time, Devon would be dead.

No. I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t lose him, too.

“Are you saying you can’t take me on your own?” With the skill of younger siblings everywhere, Devon delivered the taunt with one arched eyebrow. “Are you saying you’re scared to accept the challenge of fighting me head-on?”

That was the magic word.

Challenge. Challenge. Challenge
.

I could feel it, in the air. My pack could feel it. The Snake Bend Pack could, too. Devon wasn’t one of them, but he’d challenged their alpha.