Surrender (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 2) (3 page)

Nico’s hands were faster than Ion’s. He grabbed the younger man by his t-shirt and pulled him very close. His words were a low and dangerous hiss, but even from where she stood Cara could hear them see the violence simmering between the two men.

“If you ever lay a hand on my daughter again, I will kill you myself and damn to the consequences,” Nico growled. “You were promised nothing. The old traditions have all started to fall down. While some of that’s a shame, not all of it is. Cara is capable of deciding for herself who she wants.”

“Even if it’s a Wolf?” Disbelief showed on Ion’s face. “Would you have her bed a Wolf?”

“No… but I can’t undo what’s been done and neither can she. What I can do is make it very clear to you that you do not own my child. Nobody owns her. She is her own person.

If her powers are as great as we believe — and I think the missing eyebrow on your face proves that they are — it will take somebody with a calm head on their shoulders to stand beside her. I don’t think that is you.”

Cara’s heart pounded. Her breath was gone and she wanted to interfere but she knew better than to do so. She wisely retreated to the shadows; this was between the two men and that they would both feel emasculated if they knew that she had witnessed what was happening. It was that stupid, stubborn machismo that the Tribe men took so much pride in.

She waited a few minutes, then slammed the door noisily, pretending to reenter the room. He turned to her and she saw the fear written on his face, fear that had nothing to do with the young man standing beside him.

She’d almost forgotten what it was that she had come to tell her father, but that fear made her remember her vision of the night before. “Father, I had a vision. I need to talk to about it.”

Nico flicked his long fingers at Ion, a gesture of dismissal that the younger man could not ignore.

Nico and Cara both watched him stalk out of the room and Nico let out a long sigh. “He’s going to make a powerful enemy.”

Cara was startled. “What do you mean, father?”

He gave her a sad smile, “It doesn’t take magic to see when somebody is discontent, or to read a man’s longings. That one wants to be leader of the Tribe. Not just this family, but the entire Tribe.” Nico sighed. “I fear he will do whatever it takes to get himself there too. I’m going to have to give him some plum job to make up for this one and hope it’s enough to keep him quiet for a while.”

Cara wanted to offer reassurance, but her news was so bad that she knew it would only make her father even more nervous. She had to tell him; a vision was not to be taken lightly. Sometimes they came because the events they prophesied were immutable, but other times they came because the events could be changed. She wasn’t sure which one this was.

Cara looked into her father’s eyes. “I dreamt that we had to create the circle early because the rogue attacked and ate the Queen.”

Nico’s face went pale. This skin below his eyes turned dark, and at that moment Cara realized that her father was an old man. She’d come along when he was already close to fifty, and despite his almost lineless skin and straight bearing, age had crept up on him.

“Are you sure, Cara?”

“I wish I wasn’t. I don’t know that it will happen, or that is true. I don’t know that it’s unchangeable either.”

“We must hope that it hasn’t happened. There’s only one reason for a rogue to eat one of the Tribe’s flesh.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe nothing. It’s an old legend, and while I’ve never heard of it being done before, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be.”

“Father, if you’re going to talk in riddles, could you at least give me a hint as to how to solve them?”

“There’s an old legend that says that if a rogue eats the flesh of a true member of the Tribe, then they can live outside of the spell.”

Cara’s mouth fell open. “What? Do the wolves know of this legend?”

Nico shook his head. “I don’t think so. It was mentioned once, in an old story that was only told to a few of the Elders. Most of those Elders have long since died and they were all sworn to secrecy anyway. The only reason I know about it is because my great–great grandfather, Queen Carida’s husband, told my father.”

“And Grandpa told you?”

“Yes. He thought it was important for some reason but I never knew why, at least not until right now. If it’s true, and you’ve just had this vision then perhaps… then perhaps the wolves know the legend too. We have to protect the Queen.”

“Nobody even knows where the Queen is, Tati.”

Nico gave her a smile. “Cara, if the wolves know of that legend, than it’s because somebody within the Tribe told them. And if someone of the Tribe is willing to tell them of that legend, that person is also willing to tell them where the Queen is.”

CHAPTER 4

Sebastian headed for his father’s study. He’d disposed of the remains of the dead biker and had thoroughly cleaned the area around the chains. His mind was burdened by the knowledge that whoever had taken Little Rat down there had premeditated the kidnapping. They had taken out the time to prepare the space: that was a sheet of pure silver bolted securely to the floor. Who would’ve dared to do that? How had they kept scent of blood from coming up to the noses of the rest of those in the house?

Little Rat had told Sebastian that he had been somewhere else before he’d been brought here; that made sense, because otherwise, everyone in the house would’ve smelled his blood long before now. So where had he been? Why had he been brought here? And why now?

Brand was sitting in his study, facing the windows that overlooked the lush gardens that had given the district its name years ago. He didn’t turn around when Sebastian entered the room but he spoke. “What is it?”

“There was a member of the Tribe being held downstairs. He’d been bitten. I think he was one of the ones that Gregory and his crew took. Father, surely you can see that Gregory has been enticing others to go rogue.”

Brand still did not turn around. “The human was brought here on my orders.”

Sebastian was astonished. “But… why would you have a man who’d been bitten brought here? Did you hope to take him in, to give him blood and make him a member of the Fallen? There was no way he would’ve turned his back on his brothers, even if he is not true Tribe…”

“Don’t question me.”

Sebastian paused. There was something unusual about his father’s voice, a roughness and a slight snarl that put him on edge. He took a step closer to his father’s desk, one hand automatically dropping to the silver blade at his side. “Father, what’s going on?”

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“Everything concerns me when it comes to this pack. Have you forgotten that I’m your heir?”

“He hasn’t forgotten it; he’s just decided that you would make a lousy king.” Gregory had come into the room so silently that even Sebastian’s incredibly good hearing had not picked up the sound of his footsteps.

Sebastian turned to see Gregory leaning against the door frame, a sarcastic and vicious smile on his face. Sebastian wanted to punch him in the middle of that toothy grin. Were his suspicions correct? Was his half-brother capable of shifting between human and Wolf at will? And if he was a rogue who ate humans, how was he managing to return to his human shape?

Sebastian kept his face impassive and his tone steady as he said, “No, I will make the best king that I can be. Are you attempting a coup, Gregory?”

Gregory smile grew even nastier. “I’m not attempting anything, big brother.”

Brand still did not turn around. Fear began to flutter along Sebastian’s nerve endings. Something was very wrong here, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. He’d expected this from Gregory — he’d even been warned by his own sister, Moira.

Moira had known that Sebastian was not directly responsible for her husband Liam’s death, even though he’d been the one to kill him. Liam’s death had been caused by whoever had convinced him that going rogue was preferable to maintaining the pack.

Both Moira and Sebastian had suspected that Gregory was to blame, motivated by his all–consuming lust to be king. And now, there was proof.

“If you want it that badly, Gregory, you’ll have to kill me to take it.” Sebastian flexed his fingers. He was older, he was stronger, and what was more, he was smarter. He knew he could get the best of Gregory in a fight, even if Gregory decided to shift in the middle of it.

Gregory smile faltered a bit around the edges. He’d seen the willingness in his brother’s eyes to fight for his birthright and he was rethinking his own position. Sebastian knew that rethinking would not last long. Gregory had something planned, and whatever it was, he intended to see it all the way through.

“Leave us right now, Sebastian,” Brand said.

“Father, surely you must see reason — ” Sebastian began.

“Leave us!” The words were almost a low rumbling growl. The hair stood up on the back of Sebastian’s neck and fear filled his stomach. His father still would not turn away from the windows, but at that moment a precise slant of sun and glass converged to create a reflection of Brand’s face in the window.

Brand was not wearing a human face. Or at least not completely human — his nose had begun to form into a muzzle and his lips were pulling back to show long, fierce fangs.

Sebastian’s first thoughts were of his sister and his nephew. He had to get them out of the house. Whatever Gregory was planning, the first step would be to make sure that any who stood in his path to the throne were destroyed.

It was obvious that Brand would be of no help to his daughter or anyone else. Whatever was happening here, it had already begun and was too far along to stop.

Sebastian turned and left the study. He closed the door behind him, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver bar. He carried it everywhere and he needed it now. He curled his fingers around it, then reached into his other pocket and pulled out the silver knuckles.

The knuckles had been a gag gift from Liam, his jokester brother-in-law. When Sebastian had first begun hunting down rogues, Liam had told him he needed something he could punch with. “In case you ever get into a bar fight with a pissed-off rogue and you can’t buy him a drink to calm him down.”

Sebastian missed Liam terribly. He wondered if Liam, wherever he was now, forgave Sebastian for having killed him. He hoped so.

With both his hands armed with silver, Sebastian started up the stairs.

But halfway up the stairs Sebastian paused, his booted right foot caught in mid-air. His skin prickled and the hair stand up on the back of his neck once more. He lifted his nose and sniffed. He smelled blood, but he also smelled the stink of old perspiration, and lots of it. Mingled with that almost crackling odor was an even stronger scent: fear.

The silence grew thicker and that was when he knew he had missed the first clue, something he should’ve noticed immediately.

When he’d found the biker downstairs, he’d wondered why nobody else had smelled that blood. The silence told him why: there was nobody in the house. He was too late.

He strained, listening hard, but he heard not a whisper or cough or breath. Of all the Wolves in the pack, Sebastian had perhaps the best hearing. It was one of the reasons why he’d taken on the role of rogue hunting — rogues could be very tricky and very silent.

But he had not heard Gregory enter the study either. He set his foot down on the stair and pondered that for a moment. He was getting old. He’d passed the double-century mark. Maybe the hearing really was the first to go.

Amused by that thought, but still focused on the fact that he seemed to be alone in the house with his father and Gregory, he began once more to ascend the staircase.

Where was his sister? Where was his nephew? He checked every bedroom, and they were all empty. He saw obvious signs of struggle here and there: a mussed bed, torn sheets, a few stray splatters of blood on one bedroom wall, what looked like fingernail marks deep in the door frame. That last he examined carefully, trying to ascertain that they were not, in fact, Wolf claw marks. Embedded into the frame of the wood was a piece of a fingernail that had broken off.

The woman who had slept in that bedroom was named Janine. She’d had a fondness for red nail polish and matching lipstick. He could smell terror in the air and as he moved into the room, he began to smell blood.

He spotted a large splash of drying gore below the window. He examined it more closely and found a few long, wavy blonde hairs caught in the window frame itself. He touched the glass and then tested the frame. The window was unlocked. If Janine had gone out this window after a fight, and he strongly suspected that she had, the window would’ve closed back behind her automatically. The windows were old and double-paned; the only way to keep them open was to prop them up with a small stick. Brand always insisted that at some point he would have those windows changed out, but they never got around to it.

Backtracking silently, Sebastian went to the garage where most of the Fallen parked their bikes. The big chrome beasts leaned on their kick stands. A few still had helmets dangling from the handlebars. So the Fallen had come in, or at least this many of them had. One look at the bike told him whose group this was.

The bikes that were parked in the garage belonged to the younger wolves. The ones who followed Gregory eagerly and happily. Where were the bikes that belong to the older of the Fallen? Where the hell were they?

There was a loud rumble and he turned to look toward the sidewalk. Two bikes were peeling off — they’d been heeled over near the street when he’d arrived.

He swung his leg over his own bike to follow them. The heavy chrome was still warm from the sun and his feet went to the pegs.

The bike rumbled to life and the garage door opened. He headed out behind the men who rode for Gregory.