Snow Wolf: Wolves of Willow Bend (Book 9) (20 page)

Another long, drawn out silence left her wanting to claw something when a smile suddenly split across the local Alpha’s grim expression. He offered a hand and Diesel accepted it. They shook, hugged once then clapped each other on the shoulder.

The two men sat at the same time, the foreigner taking a chair that put his back to the road. A woman exited the shop and delivered more hot tea without looking at any of them, then cleared away their plates and vanishing back inside.

“Dove,” Diesel said. “This ugly bastard is Leonid Petrov.”

“Ugly?” Leonid said with a booming bear laugh. “Who are you calling ugly you thin pasty-skinned shank?”

Since Diesel only grinned at the remark, Ranae let herself relax a fraction.

Leonid spared her a brief look. “What he does not tell you is that we are cousins, and he has sent a devilish woman to heckle me from my bed for this meeting.”

So that was where Dallas had gone.

“No, I suppose he didn’t mention it.” It was the best she could come up with. One hard and fast lesson she’d learned over the years—when dealing with dominants, especially those more dominant than her, was don’t play the game unless aware of all the rules.

“Cagey. I like her,” Leonid said, then took a long swallow of his tea. His friendly demeanor waxed to a fiercer one. “How much would you take for her?”

“You can’t afford it,” Diesel’s tone remained mild.

“I don’t know Maxim, I have much money and many land deals. Lebeninsk is very profitable for family. How much?”

“Your head and your balls. Are you willing to part with them?” A very real promise of violence lurked in those words. Ranae had little use for being bartered about, but she had to admit, Diesel’s cutthroat attitude really did it for her.

Instead of being offended, Leonid appeared to mull the idea and rubbed his chin. Then with another glance at her, he offered an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, pretty wolf, but you are not worth stealing away for my balls.”

“Not a problem,” she replied in the same levity. “It wouldn’t have ended well for you, anyway.”

Leonid let out another boom of laughter and slapped his hand to the table. Their drinks jumped, but even Diesel’s proprietary smile held elements of humor.

“And enough foreplay because you are in a hurry. Your gifts were received, Maxim, and not all were so amused by your thoughtful reminder that you’ve already claimed North America.”

It took real effort for her not to gape at the statement, but Diesel merely shrugged. “Apparently they were also not paying attention.”

“Eh, what can you do? Some wolves, they need a firm hand and others, they need their brains bashed in. These wolves harassing you…Alexandrovich has placed a bounty on them in Moscow. The word is already being spread. The Volchitsa will be hunted in Russia. This may not be so good for you.”

“No,” Diesel agreed, stretching his legs in front of him. He settled a hand on her thigh, and she relaxed further at the contact. If he wasn’t worried, then she would still be watchful but not paranoid.

The street around them remained far too quiet for her peace of mind. Maybe it was the presence of two Alphas or perhaps it was simply a normal occurrence. Either way, it put her teeth on edge.

“If they are hunted here, it will drive them into other territories. We know this and I think Alexandrovich is annoyed that you did not contact him privately. Then again, perhaps he simply wanted an excuse to get rid of the riff raff. He does not talk to me of these things.”

“Are they in your city?” Nothing friendly lived in Diesel’s inquiry.

“If I were to answer you, cousin, you would feel compelled to hunt them and spill their blood. My public works budget is limited, so I would prefer to not scare the people with gory stains on the stone.” Leonid took a sip of his tea. “To that end, I must advise you to leave as quietly as you arrived.”

“If I don’t?”

“Maxim, Maxim, Maxim.” Was that Diesel’s name before he’d taken Diesel? “You are not in your North America here. This is my city…my rules. I have given you the courtesy of asking you nicely. It is what one does for family. Do not make me ask you not so nicely.”

Diesel’s response came in Russian, but she didn’t need to know the words to read the other man’s irritation at it. He answered, then began a rapid fire exchange she couldn’t follow, but the aggression which swept through them earlier amped higher.

Her wolf raked claws along the inside of her skin. It wanted out. More it wanted to shift positions so she could shield Diesel’s exposed side. Something pulled at her attention and she jerked her head around to gaze at the surrounding buildings. She’d noticed something, a movement? A flash of light?

Ignoring the debate between the two men, she studied the area. What the hell had she noticed? Another flash, and she saw the extended barrel just peeking over the edge of a building.

Instinct kicked in even as the first pop exploded the glass behind her. She hit Diesel sideways and took the table with them. They rolled onto the pavement as more bullets sprayed the area. Stone chipped and flew. More glass shattered. A thunk slammed into the ground right next to her head then rebounded and a streak sliced across her cheek.

Hot blood seemed to scald her cool cheeks, then she was on her feet. Diesel hauled her around the building with him and Leonid.

“So, maybe I help you find the bastards and gut them in the square,” Leonid said, then a scream ended the rain of bullets and a crash ended with a sickening splat. Diesel braced her with one hand as he glanced back, then she followed him around the corner.

A wolf lay in the street, the contortions of his body promising he was already dead. Above on the rooftop, Trask leaned against the stone, his expression grim. A few feet away on another rooftop, Etienne pointed two fingers at his eyes, then east.

“We will collect your other female on our way,” Leonid pulled a phone from one pocket and a handkerchief from another. When he offered the second to her, she raised her eyebrows. “You’re bleeding,
milaya devushka.
”

Diesel took it, then pressed the cloth to her cheek. “A scratch,” he told her. “Excellent reaction time.”

Not excellent enough
. She should have located the threat before he fired. Still, Diesel’s compliment warned her.

“Come,” Leonid said, the phone still to his ear. “I’ve called a healer to check on those in the shop. Let us be quick about this.” He jerked his head to the side and Diesel touched a hand to her lower back so she would precede him. They left the body in the street. So used to having Diesel take her hand, she almost paused to reach for his. It would have to wait; they weren’t on a casual stroll anymore.

No, they were hunting.

S
ending
Dallas ahead to roust Leonid proved an excellent plan. His cousin could be unpredictable. A hothead with a big heart and a vicious temper he could turn on a dime and he hated to owe anyone anything. Less, he hated to be asked to do a favor. His presence at the scene of an attack, however, earned the Volchitsa one more enemy.

In this case, the enemy of his enemy made a damn fine ally who knew the city and its inhabitants. The cut on Dove’s cheek angered him, but her swift, fierce response pleased him. Even now, she strode ahead of him, a warrior on her way to battle. She had no idea where they were going, nor what awaited them, yet she took him at his word and followed his instructions. The sway of her hips drew his gaze to her ass, and what a fine ass she possessed. Muscled and athletic, she radiated confidence and sensuality. Both attracted him. Yet it was the way she worked around him, tried to think through it all

To be done with everything so he could claim her once and for all. He wanted her returned to Tikaani, her training continued with Grinder and where he could spend his nights learning her every curve, and every day showing her his pack and the wonders of his land.

“If the goal is to drive me crazy,” she murmured over her shoulder. “You’re succeeding.”

“Good.” It hadn’t been his intention, but he appreciated knowing he affected her every bit as much as she affected him. They reached the Krasnyy sector easily enough. More wolves appeared, and they were not mere bystanders but guards, or at least some of them were.

“Pathetic.” Leonid laughed at the men, as he passed more than one sitting or leaning disheveled and bloody.

Above Trask and Etienne tracked them, but they didn’t join them at ground level. Each wolf had a part to play and theirs was simply to provide backup and support should he require it.

Killing the sniper proved he’d required it.

At the entryway to the club, Dove halted and shot him a glance. He read the question in her eyes and nodded. He appreciated the gesture, but he wanted her inside with him. They fought better together than apart.

The interior featured standard lighting, and harbored no shadows for possible attacks to lunge at them. Inside, Leonid stripped off his coat as he walked toward a table where Dallas rested with her feet up and a glass in her hands. In addition to her bloody and barked knuckles, she had a swelling black eye, bloody nostrils and a split lip.

“Diesel, the next time you ask me for a favor, I’m going to remember this.” She grinned, then tossed back the drink. “Leo, your men suck.”

“So I see.” If the Alpha was upset, he didn’t act it. Instead he rolled up his sleeves and gestured to the far wall. “Bring me the Volchitsa scum.” The last he delivered in Russian.

Grabbing a chair from one of the other tables, Diesel swung it over so his Dove could sit. Though Dallas wasn’t his to protect, she had come to his assistance at personal risk to herself. “Do you require anything?”

“Nope,” she said, pouring herself another drink. “I beat the shit out of all of them myself.”

Leo scowled. “And now you drink my best vodka.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t bust all your bottles of good vodka, Leo.” Then her grim expression cooled to something friendlier. “But we’ve known each other a long time, so I decided to drink it instead.”

“We shall all drink vodka,” Leo stated, then clapped his hands together when his wolves returned with four prisoners, all in chains, and all looking not the worse for wear.

“They’re children,” Diesel said, disgust curling for through him.

“They are Volchitsa,” Leo growled. “They come here for their pack. They steal, they take it away. Sometimes they come to fly other places. Like this one…” He pointed to the tallest of the four. “He was taken at airport with ticket for Australia. Russian wolves do not go to Australia. Most likely, he take another flight.”

Dove leaned forward, staring at the captives. None of them tried to meet their eyes, or growled—or showed any real signs of resistance. They looked…defeated.

“How long have you held them?”

“Since you send me such a lovely tongue kept cold in a box.”

Good to know the express shipping option worked. Diesel folded his arms and stared at the teens. If any of them were a day over eighteen, he’d eat his shirt. Their age troubled his Dove. Kids should never be in the middle of a war, yet inevitably it seemed to be where they always ended up.

“Have you questioned them?”

Leo spared him a dour look, then in Russian asked, “What do you want to know from them?”

“What do they know about the wolves sent to the U.S.—their destination and their goals?”

One of the boys in the middle jerked a little at the question, somewhere in his midteens if Diesel were to judge, the kid fidgeted.

“So, I think maybe that one wants to answer your question.” Leonid used a sub vocal tone, one too low to carry to the prisoners. With a wave of his hand, and a slight increase in his voice, he ordered, “Bring us that one.”

The kid struggled as soon as they dragged him forward. Dallas for all her causal posed, ceased drinking and Dove curled her hands into fists.

“If you tell us a lie, I will kill one of your friends,” Leonid’s tone made the statement a fact not a threat. “If you refuse to answer, I will kill one of your friends. Do you understand?”

Wide eyed, the kid nodded jerkily.

“Good. Who sent you to Lebeninsk?”

Though he’d much rather handle the interrogation, he was still a guest of Leo’s and their very thin blood relationship only gained him so much leeway.

“Dominik.” The boy answered, pointing to the older of the four. The wolf in question snarled at him.

“So, he sent you here, why is he here?” To give Leo credit, he honed right in on a way to ask the kid for more information which condemned only one of his associates.

“To make deals, to buy information, sell information…” The kid shrugged. “I am just a runner. I take packages, I pick up packages. That is all. I promise.” Not one ounce of lie clung to him. Terrified, the kid seemed determined to cooperate.

Leo nodded, approaching the kid. “Who is your Alpha?”

The youth licked his lips and swallowed once before saying, “We are Volchitsa. We are not allowed an Alpha.”

With a swift strike, Leonid backhanded the boy. Dove shot out of her chair, but Diesel clamped a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back against him rather than let her complete the lunge. Dallas’ feet were no longer on the table, but she still held the bottle in her hand.

“Shh,” Diesel said against her ear. “Their pack, their city, their rules.” He disliked it intensely. Beating children served no purpose. He also didn’t have a city of several thousand to deal with either.

“Not a lie,” Leo said, his voice calm as though he hadn’t struck the child. “But also not the answer to my question.”

“Forgive me, sir.” The boy’s lower lip trembled. “If I answer you honestly, I tell you all Volchitsa have broken the law. If I tell you a lie, you will kill my friends. I have no answer I can give you.”

Though they all spoke in Russian, his Dove didn’t seem to have any trouble empathizing with the child’s emotions. Even seeing the necessity of distance didn’t assist Diesel in the matter.

“True…so I give it to you to decide, but you must choose.” With his hands spread wide, Leonid eyed the boy. “You must choose now.”

“Volchitsa,” the youth said, his quavering voice gaining in strength and tempo. It was like watching the moment when a youth achieved adulthood. “Do not have an Alpha.”

Leo nodded, and Diesel had to bite his tongue to keep from warning Dove to look away. The youngest of the four hit the floor, neck snapped. At least it was a merciful death.

Twice more Leonid asked the same question. Each time, the boy answered the same way. When all of his companions lay dead, he kept his chin high and his over bright eyes narrowed. Bravery—or foolhardiness—Diesel couldn’t determine which held more sway.

“Leonid—whatever you are asking him, please don’t ask it again.” Dove said, her tense frame so rigid in Diesel’s arms he worried she might snap in two.

The Lebeninsk Alpha paused to look at her. “You are right he will probably give me the same answer.”

“Then would you mind asking him if he wants to live?”

Shrugging, Leo looked at the youth and said, “The very beautiful American wolf worries for you. Your lies make her heart weep. She wishes to know if you want to live.”

For the first time since he’d been dragged forward, the boy looked at Dove briefly. He didn’t disguise the naked curiosity in his expression. “Tell the American female to save her tears. I do not want them or need them. She should cry for her own, because the Volchitsa will have a home, even if we have to take it in blood.” With a crack of his teeth, he spit something. Swinging Dove out of the way, some of the liquid spattered on his jacketed arm. It sizzled, but even as Diesel stripped off the jacket—Leo let out a roar.

Acid.

Dallas grabbed a pitcher off the table and sloshed it in Leo’s face. The other wolves scrambled when she barked an order for more water. The boy didn’t make it another step, his mouth burning and his face becoming a rictus of pain before he to, fell over and collapsed.

His heart ceased beating a moment later.

A wolf hurried over to Leo as Dallas poured more water onto his face. Diesel checked his Dove over but so no evidence that the acid touched her. Dropping his jacket on the floor, he hurried over to help brace the Alpha. He roared, his pain adding to his power.

Behind him, his Dove whispered, “What the fuck was that?”

T
he journey
from Lebeninsk was far more sober than their venture inside. They also left knowing even less about their enemies than when they’d arrived, except whomever lead those wolves held such sway, that children would rather die than betray him. More horrified than she could begin to describe, Ranae walked hand in hand with Diesel. As when they’d entered the city, they left in ones or twos, though they gathered together once they hit the edge of the woods.

Dallas’ injuries looked pretty bad but she waved off any concern. They’d filled Trask and Etienne in on what transpired inside the club. Four dead youths, an acid burned Alpha, and only a pain-filled oath that the Volchitsa would pay.

“I don’t get it,” Ranae said finally into the quiet. They’d walked for over an hour and no one shadowed their trail. Both Etienne and Trask had shifted, retraced their path and returned. They ranged around them, making sure nothing surprised them in the rapidly descending dark. “What the hell kind of pack believes in sacrificing kids?”

“A pack with nothing to lose,” Dallas answered though Diesel squeezed Ranae’s hand as though to offer comfort in the situation. “Volchitsa aren’t a pack like at home or even like here in Lebeninsk. They’re outsiders, roamers, they have no territory. They travel throughout, taking jobs and resources where they can until the locals run them off again. Occasionally they strike out for Europe or south to Asia, and now, to America.”

“Why not merge with another pack here?” She still couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea. Even when Toman hadn’t let them go to A.J., he’d never have done the same to a child, had he? It truly baffled her.

“Because, they aren’t wanted,” Diesel told her, then touched a finger to her cheek. “We will clean this again and bandage it at the plane if it is not healed.” The fact they would all have to shift and run back hadn’t been lost on her either.

“They’re children…”

“Sometimes they are children and sometimes they are far more mature than you realize, Dove. That young man in there made a choice, as did all the wolves with him. They knew Leo was capable of executing them, yet none gave him the information he requested.”

She sighed, weary as hell. “That’s fucked up.”

“Yes it is,” Dallas said. “When you run alone, and you don’t have much, what alliances you do have are far more valuable. You never betray them.”

“You sound like you admire what the kid did.” Sure the lady was a lone wolf, but she’d not been born that way. She knew what a pack was like, what was important. Right?

“I admire his will and commitment. I think there were better ways out, but then my goal wasn’t killing the Alpha of Lebeninsk.” She shrugged. “They knew we were there and they didn’t care about us. They were destabilizing the city, that was their plan or maybe it was simply their backup if they were caught. Either way, it’s not our problem anymore.”

With that, she increased her speed and strode ahead.

“I think she means that,” Ranae said.

“She has a right to. I asked her for a favor, repayment on a very old debt. She did what I asked. Now we go home.”

“Where Julian is probably going to try and kill her as soon as we’re on the ground in Seattle.” Ranae grimaced, and while she once believed strongly the law was the law, she was starting to get the feeling that nothing was ever what it appeared. Everything had mitigating shades of gray.

“Don’t worry about Dallas, Dove.” Diesel raised her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss to it. “She is quite skilled in looking after herself.”

Eager to talk about anything that might wipe the images of dead and dying teens out of her mind, she stole a glance up at him. “Maxim?”

The Yukon Alpha gave her a faint smile. “The name my mother gave me when I was born. It is how Leonid knew me. Our fathers were cousins. We met for the first time when we were boys when my parents took me to Russia to meet some of my father’s extended family. They were not rulers of Lebeninsk yet, nor was it entirely a wolf controlled city—close, but not fully. We stayed there a month one summer, then the following for four years, I spent a month every summer with them. My father insisted. He wanted me to know where I’d come from, how strong my blood was.” An air of poignant melancholy clung to him. For his parents? His childhood? It didn’t matter other than it made him sad.

“And you learned Russian.” She wanted to ease the burden of his unhappiness, earn a smile from him.

“
Da
,” he said with another of those small, very genuine smiles. “I did.”