Page 44 of The Kill

He’s appointed the two boys as my personal guards, and by the looks of their unsmiling faces and rigid postures, they’re taking their new roles very seriously.

With one last stoic look in my direction, Tyson straightens, lifting his chin high, ready to do what needs to be done. I’m grateful and scared and pissed off all at once. Pausing without looking in my direction again, he pins the two boys with a hard stare. “Defend our home, and keep her inside, using whatever means necessary. Tie her up if you have to.”

That asshole.

27

TYSON

There’s no way in hell she’s going to sit at home and wait quietly for my return. I only told her about Blake so she’d focus on his arrival, no doubt planning to convince him to get involved, maybe even bring her to the meeting, rather than follow me alone.

And the decoy seems to have worked.

As I back away, I can see Mandy’s shrewd mind running over the various options, none of which include doing as she’s told. She’s already spent a lifetime battling to stay alive and keep Noah safe. There’s no way Seth and Lucian will be able to keep her inside if she wants to get out.

Although watching them try would be hugely entertaining.

She’ll stay at home and wait, rather than fight with Seth and Lucian, before she’ll convince my brother to help me. Which he will, even if he doesn’t like me very much, because he’s a regular boy scout.

Except it will all be over by the time they can reach me, one way or another.

And I’d be willing to bet Blake is going to have his own distraction to deal with before the night is through.

Shifting into my black wolf, I race as quickly and as quietly as I can through the forest. Small animals scatter, and the birds fall silent as I approach, feeling my power and deadly intentions. I’m early, but I expect him to be also, along with the enforcers I have no doubt he’ll bring along.

It all comes flooding back to me as I approach the gorge, the hill sloping gently down toward the stream that meets the steep edge in a waterfall further down the mountainside. The events of that day come rushing back, as clear as if it had happened just yesterday. I’d come out here to sulk, frustrated that my mother refused to fight for my place as future heir to the pack.

In hindsight, I should have been patient. When it came time for one of us to step into the alpha position, a role that fell to Blake far too young in the end, I could have contested his automatic right to the position then.

Knowing what I know of him now, Blake would have dealt with it calmly and fairly. But I was a headstrong kid, reeling from the discovery that my biological father was not the man who’d raised me as his own, and it felt like the rug had been pulled from underneath me.

Walking closer to the edge, I scan over the deep gash torn into the side of the mountain and sigh. If I could go back, I’d also have done a better job hiding the body. At the time, I assumed Lee’s father was hot on their heels, but maybe I would have had time to hide the evidence if I’d been more level-headed.

Although what male with a mate in danger, getting further from him with each passing second, has ever remained composed?

Staring into the overgrown scrub below, I still can’t feel any sympathy for the man whose body I rolled off the edge. Gritting my teeth hard, I close my eyes, willing the red mist to subside so I can keep my wits about me. Because I’m going to need them. Even though Lee’s father knows who he’s meeting, I’m still hoping the element of surprise will work in my favour.

My feet take me in a wide arc around the site, one I’ve visited countless times over the years in the futile hope that it would bring me closer to her. Everything looks as it should. I don’t see anything that looks out of place. I settle against a broad tree set near the riverside clearing, where a small cross marks the spot where I spilled Lee’s blood.

From here, I can see someone coming from any direction. Resting my elbows on my knees, I lean back and wait. And wait.

The last of the light fades as the sun slips down behind the mountains and darkness washes across the forest. Shards of silvery moonlight bounce off the branches overhead which dance in the stiff breeze. It’s almost the full moon, but not quite yet. By the time the new moon comes, hopefully, this will all be over.

After what seems like hours, the snap of a twig in the distance has my ears pricking up. Then another a few metres to the left of it. The nearer they get, the more careless they become until, finally, Alpha Wilson marches into the clearing, his face purple and incandescent with rage.

Eyes narrowed, spit flying from his lips, Wilson loses his well-polished alpha facade at the mere sight of me with an arm propped against his son’s cross. He stomps out of the brambles circling the site where his son lost his life, arms raised, one finger pointed angrily in my direction.

“How fucking dare you?”

I thought this might be his reaction.

“Weston said someone had information for me, but if I’d known it was you, the coward that killed my son, who was dragging me out to this godforsaken place, I’d have burned the entire forest with you in it.”

“You thought the choice of location was a coincidence?”

When I scoff, his face goes an even darker shade of puce, and I secretly pray he does us all a favour and has a heart attack.

“I assumed this was the informant’s way of proving he knew what happened here. Not that it was actually you. It never entered my mind that someone could be that stupid.”

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