Rogue Alpha (Jacky Leon Book 7), page 14
“Does that mean Tywin knows…”
“Tywin will know he lost thirty-seven werewolves tonight,” Heath said, his eyes growing bright. “To an Alpha he knows is more powerful.”
Ranger whined. Heath looked down, his nostrils flaring. I sniffed the air, too, wondering how Ranger was feeling.
“Is he saying something?”
“No. I haven’t given him permission to speak because I want everyone to hear what he has to say.” Heath sighed. “He smells anxious, worried, and scared. Those aren’t normal for Ranger.”
“Yeah, he does. What do you want to do next?”
“Amputate his leg and get him into human form.” Reaching around me, he opened the door. I walked out, getting out of the way. Heath walked to his work wall—that wall nearly everyone had in their garage with power tools and all manner of things—and grabbed a saw. My stomach twisted. Then he grabbed a set of keys and opened a small safe. I wanted to be sick as he took out a metal muzzle, then closed it again.
“I am sorry about this,” Heath said softly to the wolf, who was trying to stay on his feet. The wolf did nothing but look at the items in his Alpha’s hands.
Heath gestured for me to follow him back inside the house, and I did until he stopped in the kitchen. Ranger limped behind us, clearly struggling, but Heath made no move to help him and I didn’t think I was allowed to. He put the saw and muzzle down, his eyes haunted as he grabbed cleaning supplies.
“We just need the island,” he said, spraying it down.
I joined him, grabbing paper towels to wipe up the spray he was using. It was pristine by the time I stopped scrubbing it. I didn’t throw the trash away, though, just leaving it scattered on the ruined floor. Heath lifted Ranger, who had no fight in him, and laid him on the kitchen island. He grabbed the muzzle quickly and secured it on Ranger.
“Hold him,” Heath ordered.
“Heath—”
“Please, hold him,” Heath said, his voice rough. “You’re the only person strong enough if I don’t call Landon down… and I can’t ask Landon right now.”
“He will have to Change really fast,” I pointed out. “The muzzle… bleeding out…”
“He’ll do it because I’ll order him to,” Heath said, gently putting a hand on the leg as he picked up the saw with the other. “You just worry about holding him down, Jacky.”
I put my weight on Ranger, wrapping my arms around his chest. He was thin. Heath and Landon had a lot of meat to them in wolf form, but Ranger’s coat had hidden how thin he was. I felt the bones of his rib cage like they were only covered by skin. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on this wolf.
The sound of the saw going through Ranger’s leg would give me nightmares. He thrashed, instinct from the pain, but I was stronger. Heath didn’t order him to be still, letting him fight. It felt like it took hours, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at what Heath had to do.
“Change,” Heath finally snarled. “Now, Ranger!”
Ranger’s jerking changed, and I pulled him off the island and laid him on the floor. Heath pulled the muzzle off as Ranger’s face changed from wolf to human.
Twenty excruciatingly long minutes later, Ranger became a man once again.
“He’s…” Heath was surprised by something. “Someone was starving him…”
“I felt how thin he was when I was holding him,” I admitted as we saw the last few minutes of the Change. Ranger looked up, breathing hard, then passed out.
“Should have known that would happen,” Heath said, picking Ranger up from the floor as if he was no heavier than a small child. “He’s probably fifty to seventy-five pounds underweight for his size. Luckily, I’ve amputated a few werewolves, so there shouldn’t be complications.”
I finally dared to look and saw that Heath had removed everything. It didn’t heal fully, just like my injuries hadn’t.
“It still needs a bandage,” I pointed out. “He was too weak for it to heal fully.”
“I saw that. I’m going to put him in my office and get some clothes on him, so he’s decent when he wakes up. He’s my wolf now, so he’s no danger to us or anyone here.”
“He’s not a danger to anyone,” I mumbled as Heath walked out with him. Looking at the island, I decided I should handle the carnage we left. As I grabbed what I needed, I checked the time.
“Has it really only been an hour?” It felt like dawn was supposed to come any minute. It was still Carey’s birthday.
Growling, I scrubbed the island of Ranger’s blood. I found the leg, carelessly thrown aside by Heath, and put it in a trash bag—thankfully still a wolf leg—then threw it in the trash can, wondering if that was the right place for it.
“I’ll take it,” Heath said as he walked back in. “I need to burn it.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, pulling it back out. “Um…”
“Do you want to check on Dirk while I handle this?”
I nodded, and he kissed me, then gave me a soft push toward the stairs. I went up as he went into the garage. I knocked gently on Landon’s door, and it swung open. His eyes were filled with fire, but he moved to the side and let me in.
I didn’t know what to ask or say as I walked in. Oliver was in a chair, curled up with a blanket around him. He was awake, but he didn’t move. Landon closed the door, then sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at Dirk, who seemed to be peacefully sleeping.
“I’m sorry,” I finally said as I moved closer. “I’m so sorry.” I reached out to him, not caring that Landon was there. I ran my hand over Dirk’s head, his shaved brown hair that he refused to grow out for anyone or anything tickling my palm. He didn’t move. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I looked at his sleeping face.
“It’s too early,” Landon said, not giving me any of the fire I had seen in his eyes. “We’re lucky he’s unconscious.”
“I know. I was unconscious for mine. I’ve heard it’s better that way. I don’t remember it at all.”
“Most people don’t fall unconscious. They just scream until they Change, or they die.”
“I know,” I whispered. “Unconscious, his body will do it without him fighting, or he’ll go peacefully.”
“Or he’ll wake up and start screaming,” Landon retorted.
“That, too. Let me know…” I closed my eyes and leaned over. “Let me know if anything happens.” I put my head on Dirk’s chest for a moment, and Landon rubbed my back.
“You said you were sorry? This wasn’t your fault. Dirk… I don’t know if Pa passed it along yet, but Dirk said… He made this choice. We told him to go into the safe room, and he decided he would rather risk himself than Carey or Oliver being at more risk. He wanted you to tell Niko that. That he made this choice. He, uh, also said he knew his chances. Said you would know what that means.”
I stilled, then sat up slowly.
“Say that last part again,” I ordered, turning to Landon.
“Dirk said he knew his chances. Does he mean the fight—”
“Don’t ask questions I can’t answer,” I said quickly.
Landon’s eyes went wide, going from my face to Dirk in his bed.
“He knew… his chances to…”
“Stop talking,” I ordered as panic raced through me. “You heard nothing. You know nothing. Dirk won’t ever explain to you what he was talking about. The words weren’t meant for your ears. They were meant for mine. Whatever you do, don’t look for answers, don’t tell anyone else what he said, and never repeat them in front of my family.”
Landon nodded, his expression losing its surprise and shock, turning hard and serious.
“I see,” he whispered.
“You only think you do,” I countered. “Be grateful for that.” I looked at Dirk again. “Tell me one thing. Did he seem hopeful or…”
“He seemed… decided,” Landon said softly. “And that could go either way.”
“Yeah.” I ran my hand over Dirk’s head one more time. “Come on, nephew, son of the Traitor. Don’t leave me now.” As I grew weepy again, Landon tapped the box in my pocket.
“So, he finally asked you?”
“You knew?”
“Clearly. Are you going to break my father’s heart?”
“No,” I said with a tired smile. “No, I won’t do that. I won’t give you intimate details about our relationship, but I can tell you one thing. He didn’t ask. He declared his intention to marry me when I was ready and told me to keep the ring as a promise.”
“That sounds like him.” Landon chuckled, a little sad, a little annoyed, and very loving. “What prompted it? Tonight, well, it’s not the night I would ask someone to be my partner for eternity.”
“He brought Ranger into the pack—”
Landon snarled, then went quiet.
“Finish. I’m sorry,” he said, his jaw clenched.
“I have… issues with Heath taking new wolves because I’m worried one day I’ll lose him to his responsibilities as Alpha with a pack. He wanted to make sure I knew it would never happen.” I reached down and touched the box in my pocket. “Now, I know.” I had never had more confidence in my relationship with Heath than at that moment.
“Good. I kind of like having you around.” Landon looked away from me, his eyes on Dirk. “You’ve…”
I reached out and gently touched his shoulder. He was stiff for a second, then pulled me into a hug. Once it was over, I went to Oliver and bent to his level.
“Are you okay?” I asked gently.
He nodded but said nothing.
“Oliver…”
“I killed someone.”
“You may have saved Dirk’s life,” I reminded him. “Do you want to stay here, or do you want to go home?”
“I want to stay here,” he said softly, curling tighter to himself. “I tried to help earlier, but… I couldn’t manage for very long.”
“He came up here on the verge of a panic attack,” Landon explained softly, pulling me away from my human. I resisted the urge to fight him. Now wasn’t the time for instinctual pissing matches. “I’m as stable as I can be if I stay here. Oliver is safe with me, and he needs that right now.”
“Oliver?” I searched my sweet manager’s face, and he nodded. “I’m sorry about you, too,” I said, swallowing guilt, anger, and so much pain.
“You don’t…” Oliver shook his head. “You don’t have to be sorry. I think once I know if Dirk is going to make it, I’ll take a couple of weeks off and… maybe see my family?”
“Yeah, you can do that. And I’m going to make sure my territory is safe for you again.”
“Thank you.”
I walked out, my head pounding. Heath was outside the room.
“I’m going to check on him, then start… cleaning up to kill time. Would you help me? I need to get all the blood up before sunrise in case someone who lives close by comes to check in on us. Nosy southern neighbors.”
“It’ll pass the time.” I certainly couldn’t sleep.
17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Heath and I cleaned for nearly five hours. Mops, towels, bleach—if something could be used to clean, we used it. We had to run the laundry to make sure we didn’t run out of washcloths. The mops turned red and brown, the water was perpetually red, and our cleaning gloves were stained. We put the doors and other destroyed furniture into the backyard, building a burn pile.
“The dead in the woods… I never showed you where they were,” I said as we broke up the dining table for kindling. It had to go.
“You took a long shower,” Heath replied. “I had time to run out there and mark them for the BSA.”
“Do you trust the BSA to burn the bodies?” I didn’t.
“They’re required to by law. Werewolf bodies for disposal aren’t for scientific research unless the werewolf agreed to it beforehand and the Alpha of that wolf’s pack is okay with it. They haven’t tried sneaking a body into research without our permission since the nineties,” Heath explained. “I understand your fear, though. It took werewolves a good twenty years before we had a,”—he grimaced—“working relationship with the BSA where everyone tried to stay in their lanes. It’s only the overzealous ones who step out of line now. Mahoney is overzealous. So is Johnson, the one who stared you down. The others? They won’t let those two do anything stupid, especially since Bethany was there.”
“Why is Bethany important?” I asked, breaking a table leg in half then tossing it on the pile.
“Her and you,” he said, throwing in the last bit of the table. “You two complicate things for the rest of them. The only known werecat and the human who deals with her? They can’t screw around with you two being part of the situation. They can threaten, try to test our limits, but once Bethany put her foot down, the rest couldn’t do anything. They’re more replaceable than she is.”
“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure they’re going to reassign her and find someone who is less easy to work with. I might get annoyed with her, but she could push harder, dig deeper, and she doesn’t.”
“They won’t risk you disappearing by putting a hardass on your case.” He shook his head. “They would go from a silent werecat who wants to be left alone to no werecat. Imagine how many people would get fired if that happened.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point.” We started walking back inside. “So, they got the bodies out of the woods.”
“Yeah, I found them all,” Heath confirmed. “The cleanup crew actually got them first before coming to the house.”
“Did you… uh… recognize…” I didn’t know how to ask. Ranger was in the group. It made me wonder if I killed any other wolves I knew about.
“I did,” he answered but didn’t offer names.
“Heath, I met some of them… I need to know,” I said as we went through the back door.
“You didn’t know the wolves out there,” Heath said softly, looking at me with a small smile. “You didn’t kill someone you used to call a friend.”
“You can talk to me,” I told him gently, putting my hand on his arm. “Heath, I might not have, but…”
“Jacky, thirty-six werewolves, who I once called friends, died tonight.” He patted my hand, then pulled it off his arm and kissed my knuckles. “They’re not the first werewolves I’ve killed who were once my allies or friends, and they won’t be the last. Werewolves are very good at finding reasons to kill each other. We always have been, and we always will be.” He leaned in and kissed me. “I’ll be okay. I won’t lie and say I’m okay right now, but I will be.”
I kissed him back, nodding. We went back to cleaning every nook and cranny, spending another hour to make sure there was no evidence left of the fight. Even when it was all cleaned up, I could still smell blood beneath the bleach. Luckily, the night breeze was blowing through the house.
“At least we don’t have to leave the doors open to air out the house,” I said, getting a laugh out of my lover.
“I’ll have to live with Landon until this is all fixed,” he said, pulling off his cleaning gloves and tossing them on the kitchen counter. He leaned on the same counter as he ran a hand through his hair. “You’ll have to take Carey. It wouldn’t be dangerous for her, but I think, in the long run, it would be better to have her with you until Dirk is adjusted.”
I don’t know what came over me, but I said the words before I even considered the implication of them.
“Don’t repair. You and Carey should move in with me. Permanently.”
Right after they left my mouth, I started mentally justifying them. He’d practically proposed. Why would I marry a man I had only lived with for a short period while my house was being repaired? We should move in together. My home was the safest in the entire territory, and now we were clearly targets, and someone was willing to act.
“Are you sure?
“Yeah.” I went into the kitchen, stopping in front of him, and pulled the ring box out of my pocket. “You gave me this. Consider my home your own… to a point,” I added as he smiled. “I added rooms. One is for Carey. I added it for her. And I have an office. We can turn the other new bedroom into your office, or you can use the office at Kick Shot. It’s a short walk. Beyond that, I mean, do you think you and Carey would be happy living here after this?”
“Okay.” He didn’t even seem like he was hearing what I was saying, though.
“Okay? Heath? You in there?”
“Yes, Jacky, I’ll move in with you,” he clarified, his smile growing. His eyes focused on me as I smelled his pure joy. “Though… you have a lot of land. Maybe we should expand the security building into an armory and office building with one for each of us—”
“You haven’t even moved in and you’re trying to build on my property?” I stepped closer to him, and he spread his legs as his arms wrapped around my waist and yanked me in the rest of the way.
“Forgive me. My mind wandered off as I started thinking about the life we could build,” he whispered in my ear before nipping it. He kissed the spot then kissed down my neck.
“You gave me an engagement ring, and you hadn’t considered us moving in together?” I asked in surprise, pulling my head and neck out of his reach.
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I just wanted to marry you, so no one else could sweep you out from under me,” he admitted, grinning like a fool.
“No one is going to sweep me away from you,” I promised, putting the ring box back in my pocket and leaning into him. We stayed there for a long time until we heard thumping upstairs. A snarl made us let go of each other.
