Page 60 of Secrets and Ruin

“We brought silver and iron of every weapon we could carry. We confuse him with our scents in a place where we can’t lose the paths. Here works well. We empty all our ammunition in him to slow him down and weaken him. The silver should be fatal, but he’s juiced with fairy magic, so I don’t know how effective it is against him anymore. They like silver.”

“And moon cursed like iron, unlike the fae,” I said, nodding.

“So, we use it all,” Landon continued. “Once he’s properly fucked up, we rush in with swords—”

“I can Change, and Dirk could shoot,” I said, hoping for that idea. I fought better in my werecat form. There was a reason werecats were considered one of the strongest supernaturals in terms of raw physical strength.

“I actually don’t want you to,” Landon said, frowning at me. “We don’t know what sort of magic this place has. Dirk and Niko grew up with it and adapted to it, but I don’t feel comfortable considering my own Change right now. If I lost control,” Landon shook his head. “It feels wrong.”

“You have good instincts, Landon. Neither of you should Change. Not here, not with everything going on.” Dirk slid down the wall, forcing Landon to stop holding him. “I would love to. Running on all fours, we’re faster, but I can’t do it, thanks to him.”

“What exactly is wrong with it?” I asked, leaning down. “Please, Dirk. I don’t understand, and I need to.”

“It’s nothing specific. Niko gave me a rule. I followed it. Sorry. You’ll notice even Niko’s brother isn’t using his wolf form. Niko wasn’t either when I saw him.”

“Something feels off. It’s my recommendation.” Landon looked at me evenly, almost daring me to ignore his recommendation.

I glared at him. He was capable with weapons, and I could shoot straight most of the time, but I didn’t trust myself with a dagger or knife, much less a sword.

“Fine,” I said, giving up on it for now. If they weren’t comfortable, I wouldn’t push it. I didn’t get the same vibe. Everything was bad. Everything felt bad. Changing forms didn’t seem as if it would change that except to put me in a better position to fight. “Landon, I like your plan. Do we want to set it up here?”

“This is probably the best place we have for it. We can spread our scent around, and make him wonder where we’re hiding. He’ll probably think we’re hiding in here. He’s not a fool. He’s an old wolf. There’s a chance he’ll figure out what we’re doing, but hopefully, he won’t be able to stop us until it’s too late. He’ll want to investigate, even if he thinks it’s off and that something will happen. In the end, we’re the stupid ones for trying this, but it’s all we have.”

“This is a serious question…What’s the worst that could go wrong?” I asked, looking mostly at Dirk.

“The fae get more involved,” he answered immediately. “I bet they won’t choose sides. We’re in their territory, and they get hungry.”

“I’ve never heard of so many fae who actually eat people,” I said, sighing heavily. “I knew some were out there, but this feels concentrated.”

“Why wouldn’t it be? They have easy access to humans who might go camping or hiking or cars breaking down on the side of the road at night while driving past. It’s prime hunting territory, and it appears…very little oversight.” Landon made a face. “I can smell them. Everywhere, all the time, and when I think one of them might be watching, my hair stands on end, but I can never see where they are.”

“Yeah, that’s normal. Let’s just hope they don’t get involved, and if one does…don’t engage. Get away from it, ignore it, anything.”

“We had one try to talk to us early on. It said there were worse things deeper in the forest, but we haven’t really seen anything except the riders since.” I frowned. “They’ve had plenty of time to bother us.”

“Something to theorize about later. Let’s get this ambush set up,” Landon said. “We don’t have much time. Who knows if he’s running full speed or taking his sweet time.”

25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

We worked fast, jogging around the area and dividing up our weapons so Dirk was also armed. He was more skilled than I was with half the stuff I was carrying, so it made sense, even though he was struggling through his injuries from Rainer and the silver in his blood. Once Dirk was armed, and we had everything as ready as we could make it, he let Landon look over his injuries again. There were bruises on his ribs and abdomen, splotchy things that made me growl softly in anger as Landon revealed more scattered on his back.

“He took out his anger on me a couple of times, like right before he let us run,” Dirk admitted. “That was the only time he didn’t apologize right after it happened. It was insane, and I didn’t trust him to look me over when he tried.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Did he…act like Fenris instead?” I asked, not wanting to believe it was even possible.

“I wouldn’t go that far. One time he ranted about how the Black Forest Pack was gone and couldn’t come back, but another time, he promised not to kill me because I was the only werewolf left who had any claim to it.” Dirk shrugged, and pain flashed on his face.

“You saw him at his meanest. He’s erratic, though. That’s why I’m so fucked up. I could never really tell what I was about to get. He was hard to read…I kept wondering why Fenris had done this. I hadn’t realized he was never really the werewolf we knew. Before it all started, I told him if he took me back to Berlin, no one would have to know about this. That you’d forgive him and guide him to healing from whatever happened to him.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, choking on the words. I meant them, but they were hollow, meaningless. I’d let this happen to Dirk. I was the one who had the wool pulled over my eyes. Even though Landon tried to tell me this wasn’t entirely my fault, guilt was still eating me alive as I looked over what had been done to my nephew.

“Hey, at the end of the day, Niko was the one who didn’t make sure he was dead,” Dirk said, giving me a half smile that didn’t brighten his expression at all.

“Poor taste,” Landon muttered.

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