Wolves of Haven: Lone (29 page)

Once the last of the heart was
gone, she sucked on her fingers, licking the remaining blood from
them as she headed across the open space of what she realized was
the old mill on the outskirts of Haven. She slid the rolling door
open on the backside of the building and turned to the camera above
the exit. “Next time introductions will be in order, but until we
meet again,” she said before smooching her lips in a single sided
kiss then headed outside.

Eve smirked, freedom was only a few
yards away, the rushing river along the back of the mill would hide
her scent so she could make her escape, when a clicking sound
accompanied her next step. She looked down at her feet and the
strategically placed piece of plywood that she had unwittingly
stepped on. “Fuck,” she huffed then jumped, trying to clear the
explosion that followed.

The force of the explosion hit her
body, sending her flying through the air, the flames and debris
washing over her back before she landed in the river. Her head
smashed into a rock, rendering her unconscious, and her body
floated face down along the rushing river. The mill exploded, the
single detonation causing a chain reaction that showered the area
with burning wood, metal and debris; the night illuminated as
bright as day when a ball of fire shot high into the
sky.

The strong current smashed Akia
into rocks and trees, pulling her body under the surface more than
once before it eventually resurfaced. She looked like a pale,
bleeding, lifeless doll. The burning mill was soon far behind her,
only the angry orange glow illuminating the darkness in the
distance marked the start of her journey, and the end would
conclude with violent rapids and sharp drops that even the best
rafters failed to navigate in the daylight.

Flanking the river on both sides,
darkened figures ran along the banks, shadowing the lifeless doll
being thrown and smashed into everything as the swells started to
pick up causing their target to slip farther away from
them.

When an earthen bridge appeared in
the distance, one of the wolves shadowing ran even faster, trying
to make it to the bridge before the swells pulled Akia under again,
and he was halfway across before pivoting then jumped. She
disappeared under the water when the large, black wolf landed on
top of her, and as quickly as his thick hind legs wrapped around
her, they were replaced by smooth olive toned thighs and strong
arms that pulled her into him and protectively held her tight,
struggling to keep her head above water.

The rushing of water filled his
ears, the first set of grade five rapids quickly approached, and
Damian fought to grab onto something, anything they passed, but he
couldn’t get a handhold. “Forgive me,” he whispered before the
whitewater consumed them, smashing and pulling at the couple,
throwing the two into large rocks as they went.

Damian struggled to catch his
breath each time his head broke the surface, but every time he
opened his mouth it was flooded with icy water. The feeling in his
body went from unimaginable pain accompanied by burning from the
strain on his muscles as he struggled to hold onto the woman in his
arms, to numb from the icy river that was sure to be their watery
grave. He hadn’t completely recovered from last night, and his wolf
was barely able to keep up with Adam and the others, but he had to
try, even if it killed him.

The next boulder they were thrown
against, his back cushioned the blow, and it was accompanied by a
large, strong hand grabbing his arm when they started to roll past
it. Damian looked up, struggling to wrap his hand around the thick
arm trying to pull them from the water, but he couldn’t see past
the darkness he was shadowed in.

“Take her,” Damian stammered, his
teeth chattering uncontrollably from the cold.

“Shut up,” Varg growled, struggling
to pull them up.

“Take her!” he repeated, hoisting
Akia’s lifeless body up within Varg’s grasp.

As much as Varg wanted to, he
couldn’t live with Akia hating him for allowing her annoying
boyfriend of the moment to die.

But then again, it would get rid of
the competition…

Varg growled and released Damian,
grabbed Akia by the arm and pulled her up on the boulder, and
Damian lost his hold on her and disappeared under the water but
quickly resurfaced when he was pulled up by the hair. The large
hand knotted in his water logged curls and nearly ripped them
out—which Varg would have enjoyed immensely—before Connell and
Ulrik finally joined them and pulled Damian from the water and up
onto the boulder.

Connell started cardiopulmonary
resuscitation on his baby sister.

Damian coughed and gasped,
struggling to expel the water in his lungs. Absently he slapped at
the rock until he found the ice cold hand of the woman he loved and
squeezed it. “Come on, Latria Mou, wake up. Please wake up,” he
whispered as Connell continued to do chest compressions and breathe
for his sister. “Please wake up, Latria Mou,” he pleaded over and
over.

The soft sob that was followed by a
choked gasp was the sweetest sound he had ever heard, and it echoed
in his ears as the darkness of unconsciousness consumed
him.

“
And everything is taken care of
and contained?” Arno Manikas asked, checking his reflection in the
tinted window of his private car.

“It was,” Superintendant Manning
said, his voice echoing throughout the interior of the car through
the blue-tooth handset. “The body of the real Officer Clarence
Leclair was located in the chest freezer in the garage at his
home.”

“I do not give a damn about some
human that was stupid enough to get himself killed by a talentless
Stray,” he interrupted.

Manning wasn’t amused. “The body of
the Changeling, as your son coined him, wasn’t recovered, but it
was completely incinerated in the blast that effectively covered
all proof of the crimes. The survivor of his last abduction attempt
confirmed that he was victim to his own means of defense and was
killed by them prior to escaping.”

Arno rolled his eyes; his son was
still on his shit list for the lack of containment. Damian was
supposed to supply proof of death, that was, after all, why he was
sent to Haven. Instead all Damian did was nearly get himself killed
and is now indebted to the wolves of Haven, a pack of inferiority,
yet are vastly connected in the old world. “You know that what I am
asking is if the problem has been effectively dealt with,
contained, and that the humans are none the wiser?”

Manning growled under his breath;
he did not appreciate his tone or the fact that Arno made him do
his beckoning from the shadows, moving pieces around a chess board
that went beyond their pack’s borders and authority, and now he was
undermining him and his position on the force and in their pack.
“It was contained and nearly cost two of my best their
lives.”

“You were the one that allowed that
woman to put her nose in a case that she should have never been
permitted to participate in,” Arno retorted.

“de Wolfe would have been
suspicious if I had pulled her from the case she stumbled across
while on vacation, and yet forced her superior to assist in that
very case,” Manning said with a bit of amusement. “The FBI and RCMP
were more than happy with the work the two did, and it will look
favorably on your son’s resume for future advancement in his
career.”

“
My pain in the ass son will be
lucky to see retirement,” Arno scoffed. “His term in the light will
approach its end much faster than he is prepared for it to, but
that is for me, as the Alpha, to address with my heir. If there is
nothing else,” he said, disconnecting the call.

“We’re here,” the driver said,
coming to a stop outside of a mansion in Beacon Hill.

Arno nodded and stepped out of the
car when the doorman opened the door for him. He smoothed his suit
jacket down as he headed through the front door, and waited in the
grand foyer for the butler to return from announcing
him.

William Winterfeld the Third joined
him. “Arno, please tell me you come bearing proof,” he said,
shaking the retired Police Superintendant’s hand, then motioned him
towards the study where they could have privacy. He closed the
doors behind him as his guest made himself comfortable in one of
two leather chairs across from the oversized desk centered in front
of the back wall.

Arno sighed, shaking his head. “I
am so very sorry for your loss, my old friend,” he said, his tone
soft and flooded with concern. “How are you and your lovely wife
handling Arianna’s death? Do you need anything, anything at all?
The pack is here for you both, as am I.”

William sat, pushing his hand
through his thick, gray hair. “My wife isn’t handling it well. We
knew Arianna would not out live us, her heart was progressively
getting weaker and weaker, but this… You have proof of death?” he
asked, changing the subject, so he didn’t appear weak in front of
the Alpha.

“The Stray that killed your
precious Arianna, he was contained,” Arno confirmed. “My own blood
took care of it, ripped his heart from his chest while the vile low
life watched. I can confirm that life visibly extinguished from his
eyes, my heir witnessed it.”

It wouldn’t bring his daughter
back, but William found a sliver of comfort knowing that the
bastard who killed his precious little girl was killed by someone
of his pack, someone that made sure he suffered as his daughter
had.

“The heart?” he asked, holding his
hand out. He would devour the heart of the beast that took his
heart from him.

Arno shook his head. “There were
complications with containment,” he explained. “The Stray had
rigged the building to blow, and I nearly lost my son as a
result.”

William softly growled; that wasn’t
what he wanted to hear, but the favor he asked from the Alpha was a
personal one, a favor that nearly cost the Alpha his heir, which
would have resulted in a forfeit of his own life if the Stray had
claimed just one more soul. “I am sorry to hear,” he eventually
said, trying to maintain a strong front; his reputation was that of
a business savvy, take no prisoners man that was fearless. The only
weakness he had was his daughter, his little girl, the first child
he had ever had. She was his world and made him believe that he
wasn’t as big of a bastard as everyone had said he was; in her eyes
he was perfect and could do no wrong, just as she was perfect in
his eyes.

But now he didn’t have his precious
daughter to reassure him that he wasn’t the big, bad wolf of real
estate as the media had coined him…

Now he was simply the big, bad
wolf.

Arno reassuringly patted William’s
hand. “I am sorry we weren’t quicker,” he said. “If only we would
have had more guards with her, those that were soldiers in both
worlds, this might have been avoided. Those that failed you?” he
asked.

“They have been dealt with
accordingly,” William said in a cold, detached tone. They were now
two wolves down in the pack. He got to his feet, signaling that
their business was done and Arno’s invitation, regardless of being
the Alpha, was revoked for the evening.

Arno nodded then headed for the
door. “Again, my friend, if there is anything that I can do,
anything at all, please let me know.”

William simply shook his head, his
attention across the room to behind his desk where framed pictures
of his daughter covered the built-in bookcases behind it. “You have
already been more than generous with me. It is I who should be
asking what it is that I can do for you since you dropped
everything to help bring justice to my precious Arianna, and in the
process nearly lost your own child.”

Again, Arno nodded. “We are a pack,
and the pack sticks together. I will be in touch to check on you
and your wife. Please, if you need anything at all, let me
know.”

William closed the office doors
behind his guest then returned to his desk and looked over each
picture of his daughter, and the strong front he had struggled to
maintain crumbled, and he screamed, swiping his arm across his
desk, sending the items once covering its surface flying across the
room before flipping the granite and oak desk up in the air. His
howl of anger and rage quickly turned into sobbing that dropped him
to his knees.