Page 34 of Heartless

I ran trembling fingers over Jasper’s cold cheeks, then leaped to my feet, searching the trees. “Then we find Liam. Or we take him to his pack. Get someone who can make him shift.”

Trey had dragged my duffel off the back of the snowmobile and now tossed it beside me. Digging through Jasper’s bag, he pulled out a pair of jeans and a black sweater. “He’s the Clan Alpha, isn’t he? Either you find another wolf of his rank to work on him, or your wolf needs to bite him.”

I stared at Jasper’s pale face in despair. “I can’t. I’ve never been able to shift into a wolf.”

Trey paused, his brow pinched, but he spun around at the roar of a snowmobile engine coming over the ridge. The rear rider was off it before it had skidded to a stop, the guy in front pulling a gun from his hip. I recognized Jasper’s enforcer immediately, and pulled on my jeans and hoodie just as Liam reached our side. I watched him take in the dead wolves and the busted Ski-Doo, before he dropped to a crouch at Jasper’s side. He sniffed the air, then pressed a thumb to his neck, his whole body going rigid as he saw both the bite mark and the damage from the blood claw. “What the hell happened here?”

Liam was scary for a shifter; the fact he was strong enough to hold the position of Clan Enforcer pushed him over into terrifying territory. Right now, he looked like a thundercloud as he rose to stare at us, and I was tempted to duck behind Trey. But that wasn’t going to get Jasper off the mountain any faster. So I straightened my shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “The Denners attacked us. They shot Jasper with a dart, and while he was down, one of them started to slit his throat.” I swallowed thickly, the image of that blood claw forever burned into my soul. “Trey appeared and killed one of the Denners up near the SUV.” I pointed at the vehicle, fighting another shudder. “Then he came here and killed the one who was hurting Jasper.”

“And the third wolf?”

“Me,” I said with a grimace. I didn’t regret it, since I’d been fighting for my life, but it just reminded me of the meaty taste still lingering on my tongue. “I shifted and killed him.”

“Truth,” Liam said grimly. “And these bites?”

“Mating bites,” I said quickly, before Trey could confess to the one on my neck and make things worse. “Jasper and I are together.”

It wasn’t technically a lie, and it must have passed Liam’s sniff test, because he turned to the other guard. “We use their truck. Help me carry him.”

Everyone scrambled into action, although Liam hip-checked Trey when he stooped towards Jasper. I stiffened, waiting for Trey to say something cutting, but he just shrugged and grabbed our bags. I ran ahead to find the keys, relieved they were in the ignition, and not in the dead Denner’s pockets.

“We need to get him to the academy,” Liam said as soon as we were all in the truck. He was sitting next to the guard who was driving, while Trey took one of the middle seats and Jasper lay across my lap in the rear. It calmed me a little to have his head in my lap, but his stillness was like a cold hand around my heart. Liam must have seen the fear in my face, because he thumped the driver’s arm. “Drive like your fucking life depends on it, Charlie.”

The truck slid forward, the huge snow tires quickly finding purchase. There was a road of sorts under all this snow, but the safest route was following the tracks the truck had made earlier. Still, it didn’t eliminate the jolts and bumps, and I flinched as Jasper’s head bounced in my lap. I was so distracted trying to hold myself still, I didn’t realize at first he was staring up at me. Pain clouded his eyes, but they were still a heart-clenching blue, and I couldn’t stop myself pressing a kiss to his cold lips. It was only then I realized he was whispering against my mouth.

“Not the school,” I told Liam, my voice shaking as relieved tears spilled over my cheeks. “Jasper said to take him to the Clan Caves.”

Chapter Eighteen – Vail

I’d been to the Hunter Moon Clan Caves once before, on a school field trip I wasn’t likely to forget in a hurry. The other students treated it like a pilgrimage, but I’d just arrived at the academy, and was feeling lonely and out of place. Not only was I missing the Horn, but I was still in shock from learning the shifter world even existed. I had no clue about pack history, or the significance of the caves, and at the time wasn’t really all that interested in changing that. Especially when I was forced to take the tour with Pearl, who was really just looking for an opportunity to stake her claim on Jasper. And preparing to teach me a very public and humiliating lesson.

One minute she was pointing out their initials carved into a cave wall, and the next I was forced to strip down and wade through a waterfall. It was a kind of cleansing ritual for the wolves, with the added bonus of showing off both versions of their skin. Of course, like most duds, the only thing I gained from the dunking were a rash of goosebumps, wet underwear, and some nasty taunts from a triumphant Pearl. Which would have been the lowlight of the trip, if Trey hadn’t then tracked me down to the restrooms and verbally claimed me as the Barakat prize.

Crappy shifting control, and unwanted attention from the Devil of the Horn… The irony was that despite everything that had happened, not much had changed at all.

Jasper had drifted back into unconsciousness not long after we left the Horn. With him silent and unmoving in my lap, it was a stomach-clenching drive through the dark, every minute dragging like an hour. As we entered the Gateway, a sliver of moonlight cut across his face and I was terrified to see his sunshine glow had all but disappeared.

“Why can’t we take him to his mom?” I blurted out, my voice shaking with the realization we might not make it in time. At Liam’s hard look, I shrugged. Everyone knew his mom and I would never be BFFs, but she was fiercely protective of her sons. I had the memory of her handprint on my cheek to prove it. “She’s an alpha, right? Can’t she use her…” I waved a hand, trying to think of the motherly equivalent of alpha voodoo. “Doesn’t she have some kind of alpha power than can heal him?”

“Gwendoline’s not an option.”

Getting information out of the enforcer was always like squeezing water out of a rock – or my wolf out of a waterfall – but this was curt, even for Liam. But what did I have to lose by pushing the issue? My fingers tangled in Jasper’s damp hair, before sliding down to his clammy neck and the weak pulse that fluttered there. “Then we get help from Reed’s dad. He’s the next in line, isn’t he?”

Charlie made a huffing sound, which I figured was in disgust at my ignorance, but it was Trey who turned to explain. “They’ve gotta keep the fact he’s injured under wraps. Otherwise it’ll be open season on the top dog.”

I gulped. Open season meant more blood claw challenges, I was guessing. But would his alphas really betray him like that? After everything I’d learned about the packs and power, I couldn’t be sure.

Liam was sitting ramrod straight in his seat, but he turned at Trey’s words and it finally made sense. His reluctance to share wasn’t just about me. He didn’t want to talk about any of this in front of the Devil of the Horn. “There’s a healing pool at the caves,” he said finally, before adding with a glare in Trey’s direction, “and they’re also highly defensible.”

Both good reasons. But my vote was still for a private room at the best hospital in the country.

Not that this was a democracy. With Jasper out, I had to bite my tongue and hope Liam was right. And I could understand his viewpoint. The caves were remote, located deep in a private park in the Huntington Peaks. According to what Pearl had told me on the tour, they were the clan’s safe haven in times of war. Their history was literally written on the limestone walls, including every major battle back to the stone age. It was a place riddled with twisting tunnels and dark crevices, and while I understood it was a kind of spiritual home for the Hunter Moon wolves, it gave me the creeps.

When we finally piled out of the truck and Trey stopped abruptly at the edge of the cave mouth, I thought he wasn’t a fan, either. But then his hands flexed, and he turned to me with a grimace. “You need to invite me in, little V.”

My brows shot into my hairline, since this sounded a lot like the opening line to a vampire novel, but Liam just gave him a flat look. “Not a chance, Barakat. You’re not pack, and until the Clan Alpha says otherwise, we’re treating you as a hostile.”

Which was actually quite a polite way to describe the Devil of the Horn, but it still made Trey bare his teeth. “There’s more to this than just him.”

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