Page 44 of Resurgence of the Pack

He gave a little laugh. ‘Well, it looks like you’re not as incompetent as I expected. That’s a shame because we were really hoping to dothis the easy way. But no, you had to turn us down.’ His voice held no warmth. ‘They’re going to kill you, you know.’

‘They can try,’ Greg snarled, ‘but they won’t get past me.’

Andrew Kearns snorted. ‘You’re a brawny one, that’s true enough, but you of all people are going to be conflicted when the chips are down.’

‘My loyalty is to Lucy. Always. There is no conflict.’

‘We’ll see,’ Kearns said, then he opened his mouth. It stayed like that, frozen wide.

‘He’s trying to bite down onto his back tooth,’ Bastion said. ‘I’m stopping him because it turns out he really doesn’t want to die.’

‘Well, we’ll see about that,’ Greg snarled. He pulled a pair of pliers out of his pocket.

‘Gently,’ Bastion said, ‘or you’ll crack the tooth as you extract it and kill him anyway.’

‘This isn’t my first rodeo, Sam,’ Greg grunted. ‘Hold him.’

Mouth still wide, Kearns surged to his feet. He was looking for an escape route but Tristan and Liam were on him in a blink. Tristan shoved him back into the chair whilst Archie tied him to it and Liam held his head still.

‘I can pull out thetooth if you tell me which one it is,’ Greg said conversationally to Kearns. ‘Or I can pull out all your back teeth, just to be safe.’

Bastion grunted. ‘He has zero inclination to talk so I can’t coax him to speak. He knows that if he blabs the Domini will kill him and his family and he’s not risking that. Sorry, but we’re not going to be able to coax the answers out of him.’

‘That’s okay,’ Greg said grimly. ‘We can do it the old-fashioned way. Hold his head still,’ he ordered Liam, then leaned in to extract the poison-filled molar tooth from somewhere in the back of Kearns’ mouth. He removed the same one that Ramsay had bitten down on first and then, just to be sure, he removed the other bottom back teeth while Kearns screamed.

When the bloody teeth and roots had been removed, Archie untied the ropes holding Kearns to the chair and re-tied his arms behind him. He unshackled Kearns’ ankles, leaving them unencumbered so that he could walk.

Together Tristan and Liam heaved the man up. ‘Take him to the dungeons,’ Greg ordered.

Wait? We had a dungeon? It was on days like these that something told me I wasn’t the good guy. Not any more.

Chapter 24

‘We have a dungeon?’ I asked Greg when Kearns had been hauled out.

‘More like a couple of small cells,’ Greg admitted. ‘But that doesn’t have the same intimidation factor as calling them a dungeon.’

‘It used to be a proper dungeon,’ Bastion volunteered. ‘Back in the day, that’s where Reynard held the witches he found who’d cursed the wolves. Things are a little more civilised now – at least on the surface.’

‘But beneath the surface?’ I asked.

‘Oh, it’s as hellish as ever,’ Bastion promised darkly. ‘Worse, in some places. Human rights are slipping further than ever, particularly for women. I take a certain pleasure in accepting contracts on the worst misogynists because, as a father, I feel like it’s my duty. But for every bastard I kill, there’s another waiting to take his place, to spout hatred and darkness.’

‘Fantastic,’ I said faintly. ‘It’s a wonder you getanything done when you’re shovelling around all that optimism,’ I added drily.

‘I prefer to consider myself a realist.’ Bastion stood up, swayed slightly and reached out a hand to steady himself. That made me grimace.

‘Bastion, if you’re a realist you have to be honest about your condition,’ I admonished. ‘The black witch’s curse is killing you.’

‘Every day we’re all a step closer to death.’

‘Jeez.’ I pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘Please stop spouting all this flowery positivity.’

He’s right, we’ll all die eventually,Esme said.And if we don’t restore the artefact, I’ll be going to the afterlife rather than to the Great Pack just like the other wolves that have died since it was stolen.

Her comments hit me hard. She was right. I was fucking about with Kearns and the Domini when my focus should be on the damned orb. With our rightful air power restored, the werewolves would stand much more of a chance against the shadowy cadre.

Bastion stood. ‘Let’s go question our guest.’ Greg nodded.

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