Bound to Secrets (13 page)

“I’m here to see Logan,” he answered.

“Name?”

“Dr. Connor McNair.”

He waited, tapping his fingers on the wheel while the guard spoke into his phone. Impatience built inside him. He didn’t even know if Keira had these secrets she’d spoken of. She’d never mentioned them before. Maybe it had been a story to give them more time. Give him a chance to survive, while she sacrificed herself.

But how long would it buy them?

It would take them a while to reach Keira’s keep; they would have to walk the last few miles. He was hoping he’d make better time—if he survived this next meeting.

The guard turned back to him, nodded and the gates glided open. Connor drove through, along the tree-lined drive and pulled up in front of the house. As he turned off the engine, the front door opened and a man stepped through and onto the terrace. Connor recognized him immediately.

He climbed out and walked slowly toward the other man.

“Did you know you have no shoes on?” Pete asked as Connor came to a halt in front of him.

Connor glanced down. To be honest, he’d totally forgotten. He got straight to the point. “I need your help.”

“Mine personally?”

“No. The whole pack.”

Pete shrugged. “Then you’ll have to ask Logan. And I’m warning you, he’s not particularly helpful.”

“I could offer him money.”

“He has plenty.”

It had been worth a try. “Let me talk to him.”

Pete rested his hand on Connor’s arm before they entered. “One thing—if he does accept your challenge, he’ll move fast. He knows you’re strong.”

Connor’s wolf became instantly alert as soon as he stepped into Logan’s presence. The alpha sat on a chair at the far end of the room. The blonde woman from the previous meeting knelt at his feet, a leather collar around her throat, tied to a leash in Logan’s hand.

Asshole.

Connor’s wolf stalked inside the confines of his body. He wanted to be free. He wanted to fight, but Connor wouldn’t go that route if he could avoid it. He’d always sworn he would never accept being one of the monsters, and this would be the last, final step down that road.

As he stopped in front of the other man, he tried for a passive pose, but wolf clawed at his insides making him wince. “I need your help.”

Logan ignored the comment. “I told you what would happen if you were seen in my territory again. Unless you’ve come to pledge your allegiance to me?” He studied Connor out of narrow black eyes. “But I think it’s too late for that. Pete, take him out the back and get rid of him.”

Connor took a deep breath. He could do this. He had to do this.

“I challenge you.”

As the words left him, he knew he was saying goodbye to his old life and finally accepting the new. Relief flowed through him as he finally and fully accepted what he was.

Logan’s eyes widened. “But I don’t accept your challenge. Pete?”

Connor turned to look at the other man. Pete gripped his pistol in his hand. The weapon wasn’t aimed at Connor but at the group of other men in the room. “Don’t interfere,” he said.

“You’ll die for this,” Logan snarled.

“Maybe.”

Connor stood half turned away from the alpha, but he was expecting Logan’s move. The man hurled himself at Connor, shifting as he flew through the air. Connor released his wolf and had already changed as Logan smashed into him. They went down in a flurry of claws and fangs. He rolled, coming up on all fours then hurled himself at the other wolf. Teeth snapped close to his face, but he didn’t slow, getting a grip around the other’s throat, his fangs sinking into flesh and bone.

Logan heaved him off with a scrabble of claws. Connor lost his grip, and he crashed to the floor.

For a minute, they circled, Connor growling as the metallic scent of fresh blood filled his nostrils.

Finish it.

Everything inside him screamed to end this now.

He leapt for Logan. This time, as his teeth sank into the flesh, he knew he had a death grip. Clamping his jaws closed, he held on, shaking the great black wolf, then pressing him down to the ground. He felt the spurt as his teeth severed the artery. Blood sprayed, blinding him for a moment and his mouth filled with the sweet coppery taste. And still he maintained his grip until the life went out of Logan and he lay still.

Connor loosened his hold and backed away, sniffing at the body.

Then the wolf disappeared, and Logan lay on the ground naked, an open wound at his throat that spilled crimson on to the tiled floor. Logan was dead, and Connor threw back his head and howled as a tidal wave of exhilaration swept over him. For the first time he knew what it was to be wolf.

Finally, he looked around the circle of men. They stared from him to Logan.

“There’s not a mark on you,” Pete murmured.

Connor stared into his eyes and growled.

“You need our help?”

Connor inclined his head.

“We’re yours to command now.”

Connor wasn’t sure he wanted anyone to command, long term. But right now, he needed their help. All around him, the air filled with magic. The pack was shifting. More entered the room until there must have been thirty wolves.

Connor led them out into the night and then they were racing across the moor.

***

Darla shoved the phone in her pocket and turned to face Keira.

“There’s no answer. Looks like your boyfriend’s done a runner and left you to it.”

The tension seeped from Keira’s muscles. She’d known the only way Connor would survive this was if he escaped. Once she handed her secrets to Darla, she had no doubt the order would be given to kill him. Keira only hoped he would get far away from here before that happened.

Well, most of her hoped that, but she didn’t really believe it. Connor would come after her and even if he’d got weapons from his guards, it was still one against six. The cuffs bound her hands in front of her and she was less than useless. Perhaps she could try and shift, but she wasn’t sure how fast she would be. Not fast enough to save herself from a bullet, she reckoned.

No, her only hope of saving Connor was to hand the stuff over and get out of there as fast as possible.

Life wasn’t fair. To have found Connor, to have seen a glimpse of another life, only to have them snatched from her. Darla would take her back to the Agency and sooner or later, they would complete what they set out to do so long ago and end her life. She suspected she’d come to hope for “sooner” in the time ahead.

“Come on, get this information, and let’s get the hell out of here,” Darla muttered and shoved her in the side.

The night was cloudy, no moon or stars broke through the solid darkness, and the only light came from the torches the guards carried. It had taken two hours walking and a lot of swearing to get to the place, but now they stood outside the keep. Keira led them around the side and then pushed away the branches covering the entrance. She ducked to enter, ignoring Darla who followed her inside.

“Now, where?” Darla snapped. Her temper had become shorter as the night progressed.

Keira crossed the room and nodded toward the wall. “Behind the stone.”

She stepped aside as Darla tugged at the loose rock. “If I break a fingernail, I’ll be pissed. And believe me you wouldn’t like me when I’m pissed.”

“I don’t like you now.”

“Ah, got it.” She dropped the stone to the ground and pulled out the notebooks hidden behind it. She flicked through them. “What is this shit?”

Keira shrugged. “Everything I remember. Everything I got from people’s minds back at the Agency. Presumably in there is the information they want me dead for.”

“Interesting,” Darla mused, flicking through the pages.

“I’ll tell them if you read it. Then they’ll kill you too.”

Darla shot her a filthy look, but slammed the notebook closed. “Let’s get out of here.”

She led the way out and Keira followed her, casting a last look at the place that had been her home for so long. She doubted she would see it again. But as soon as she stepped out into the night, the magic enveloped her, wrapping itself around her. Deep inside, her wolf stirred eager to be free. She paused, trying to identify where it came from, but the sensation surrounded her.

Connor?

Darla turned to her, eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

“Nothing.”

Should she shift? Before she could make the decision, Darla grabbed her and shoved the gun to her throat. “Move a millimeter and I shoot.” She turned to the guards. “Go check it out, see if anyone’s out there.”

“Can’t you tell?” Keira asked, wincing as the gun jabbed her. She reached out with her inner eye and found only their little group close by. Darla obviously came to the same conclusion. Her tense figure relaxed and the gun eased off a little.

The guards came back. “There’s no one out there.”

“No, there isn’t, is there?”

Keira felt her probing at her thoughts and slammed down a wall. Darla had tried once or twice to pry into her mind. So far, Keira had kept her out.

“What are you hiding?” Darla asked.

A sharp pain blasted her in the brain. Obviously, Darla hadn’t tried very hard up to now. A hot poker probed Keira’s mind, dropping her to her knees as the agony threatened to overwhelm her. She had to keep up the wall. She couldn’t let Darla see the wolves inside her head.

“Let me in,” Darla murmured. “And I’ll stop.”

Blood trickled from her nostrils as the pain kept up, unrelenting. Keira knew she should shift, but her wolf cowered somewhere deep inside her, and she didn’t know if she had the power to call her. Darkness encroached on her mind, blotting out the light until all that remained was a pinprick. She knew if that went out she would be dead, and she fought to concentrate on the tiny spot. She collapsed to the ground on all fours, clumsy in the handcuffs, her fingernails digging into the soft soil.

Would Connor arrive only to find her already dead?

“Shit,” Darla growled. “Stop being so fucking stubborn.”

Then the night exploded around her. Guns and growls filled the air.

And the pain cut off abruptly.

Keira pushed herself up. Next to her, a huge black wolf crouched on top of Darla, its teeth close to her throat.

“Connor, don’t kill her,” Keira said.

The wolf backed away a little but kept one front paw resting on Darla’s chest. Blood oozed from a wound at her shoulder, but she managed to turn her head to stare into Keira’s eyes.

“Tell him to let me up or I’ll burn your brain out,” Darla snarled, her voice hoarse with pain.

Agony flooded Keira again. But this time she knew how it was done; she’d seen into Darla’s mind, and she countered with a blast from her own.

Darla screamed and rolled onto her side away from her and the pain in Keira’s head dimmed. The power pouring from her swelled and grew until Darla’s screams shrank to whimpers and then nothing.

“Keira, it’s okay, you can stop. She’s unconscious.” Hard hands gripped her shoulders, pulled her to her feet, and held her close. “Come on, stop. You don’t want to kill her. She’s your sister.”

She forced the power back into her own mind and slammed the door, breathing hard as she stared down at the woman on the ground.

“Is she alive?”

Connor released her, crouched down and touched his hand to Darla’s throat. “Just. But I bit her—she’ll be a wolf if she survives.”

“Not good.” Darla as a werewolf was something she really didn’t want to think about right now.

Connor straightened and turned back to her. He was naked and Keira had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. He held out a hand and she slid her palm into his and allowed him to pull her close.

“I thought I was too late,” he whispered the words against her skin. “I thought she’d killed you.”

His voice was rough with remembered panic. She buried her head in his chest and reveled in the knowledge they were both alive and—for the moment—safe. But who knew how long that would last. Raising her head, she stared into his dark eyes. She needed to say this just in case…

“I love you, Connor.”

He dropped a too brief kiss on her lips. “I love you too. Now, let’s get out of here.”

Letting her go, he turned back to Darla, rummaging in her pockets and producing a small silver key. He un-cuffed Keira and rubbed her wrists. “Are you okay?” Reaching up, he wiped her face with his finger. “You’re bleeding.”

Her head ached a little but happiness was bubbling inside her. “I’m alive. Right now, that’s way more than enough. How about you?”

“I’m okay as well. More than okay. Fantastic.”

Keira glanced around. The guards were all down. Dead she presumed. And there were wolves everywhere. Some paced, some sat on their haunches. All were focused on Connor. “Who are they?”

He followed her gaze. “They’re my pack.”

She heard the pride and acceptance in his voice. At last, Connor knew who and what he was.

“I’ve been thinking,” Connor said. “How would you feel about coming back here to live? I don’t mean in the keep. But we’d find somewhere close to the moors.”

“I thought you hated the moors,” she said but hope grew inside her. Those days and nights in the cell had made her realize how much she loved the wildness of Rannoch Moor.

He wrapped his arms around her and turned her so they faced to the east. Dawn was coming, the sun rising on a new day, streaking the sky with color, casting a warm, almost welcoming glow over the desolate moors.

“Let’s just say, it’s growing on me. In fact, I think it might be a bloody good place to live.”

Epilogue

“So what do we do with her?” Sebastian murmured to the room in general.

Connor stared at the woman on the monitor and felt a rush of hatred. She had come so close to killing Keira. The memory still had the power to make his heart skip a beat.

At the same time, she looked so like her twin he couldn’t completely separate his feelings.

How could two sisters be so different?

What had been done to Darla to make her as she was?

He’d studied genetics, but he also knew people were way more complicated than a few strands of DNA. As much nurture went into the forging a character as nature, and he reckoned Darla hadn’t had much nurturing in her life. All the same, he found it hard to feel sorry for her.