Devil's Mate (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 1) (6 page)

CHAPTER 9

Ion was standing near the front door when Cara returned home. His handsome face was contorted into an expression of contempt and she had no doubt that contempt was for her.

“You’ve been off with your
gadjo
again. I see it all over your face."

“It’s not your business.” She tried to move past him, her hand reaching for the doorknob, but he shouldered her away and put one hand out, gripping her upper arm tightly.

“You may not feel as if it is my business, but I saw him today. There is something about him. He’s not just
gadjo
— he's more than that. He stinks of Wolf.”

Sebastian was a Hunter; of course he would smell of wolves. She had smelled it herself. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Get the hell out of my way and let me into my home.”

“You’re going to be sorry when you discover that he’s just using you. He might have you fooled, Cara, but he is not tricking me. I can see him even if you can’t."

Cara didn’t answer. The glow she felt from the lovemaking had not abated and she wanted to go to her room, to sink down into her bed and re-live those tender and powerful moments all over again.

She pushed past Ion and walked into the house, slamming the door behind her. She heard his muffled curse from behind the solid wood-and-silver door and smiled slightly. That would teach him.

Up in her room, she did indeed stretch out on her bed, but her mind would not settle where she wanted it to. What if Sebastian was killed? Hunters died every night. Or, worse, what if he was bitten, what if he survived a bite? Unless a pack took him in and made him part of their Covenant, protected him by their blood oaths, he would remain a rogue. He would be doomed, and not even silver could save him or protect him from changing.

She could not lose him now! She’d just found him!

There was a commotion downstairs and she sat up, listening intently. When the noise got louder, she got up and headed downstairs determined to find out what was going on.

The entire Biker club known as the Tribe stood in her living room — or what was left of them anyway. Many of the non-Kris looked either terrified or incredibly angry. Sammy stood by the sofa, a large glass of what looked like straight whiskey in his shaking hand.

Nico held his hands up to quiet them and asked, “Who can tell me what happened?”

Sammy stepped forward. He took a long gulp of the liquid in his glass before speaking. “We were at the clubhouse, and everything seemed normal. Joe and Little Ray were in the backyard tinkering on that damn Cessna. Why they want to learn how to fly a plane is totally beyond me… ” He swallowed hard. “Not that they ever will. Out of nowhere these big-ass black wolves showed up. They attacked Joe and Little Ray and ate them.”

Tears ran down the grizzled old biker’s face. Nobody spoke. The Kris all looked at each other, their uneasiness showing in their eyes. A hard thrill ran up Cara’s spine and she saw the look on Ion’s face — it was accusatory, and it was aimed at her.

“How could that happen?” Tick asked. Tick was a scrawny man whose frame belied his strength. He had once been a chemist, but a divorce and a love for prescription pills had sent him spiraling into a life of cooking crystal meth for whoever paid him the best. At the moment that was the Tribe.

“Those wolves ripped them apart.” Sammy swallowed the rest of the liquid in the glass and set it down onto the bar. “Why would they do that?”

“Because I killed one of them.”

All heads swiveled toward Cara. She looked at her father, who looked back at her steadily. She knew him well enough to know when he wanted her to speak and when he wanted her to be silent. He was not telling her to be quiet, so she spoke, although she left out much of truth.

“I killed one a few nights ago and I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want anyone to think I was in danger. I wasn’t — I had help killing it. A man whom none of you know. He helped me.”

Ion made as if to speak, but Nico held up a hand in a gesture that the younger man understood all too well. Nico knew that she had killed a rogue, and that she had killed it with Sebastian, even if he did not know who Sebastian was.

“But what does that have to do with anything?” Tick asked. “Wolves are known to be vengeful, but if they were trying to track you down to get even, how did they wind up in our clubhouse eating some of our guys?”

Riley, one of the hardest men many of them had ever met, turned away suddenly with one hand over his mouth. The sounds he made as he ran for the bathroom told them that he was about to be sick.

“I’m going to tell all of you this and only this,” Nico said. “Those wolves were turned loose on you by enemies of ours. You’ve heard of the Fallen by now."

Most of the men nodded their heads. Tree, a man with ebony skin and gold teeth that gleamed every time he smiled or spoke, stepped forward. “Are you saying these dudes keep wolves as pets? I mean, I know we got our girls back from their club, but are you saying that pissed them off so much that they set wolves loose to eat two of our dudes?"

“Dick was out there too,” Sammy said. “He got away because he ran like hell and made it back inside the clubhouse before they got him.”

“And where is Dick now?” Nico asked.

“All I saw of him was taillights headed west,” Sammy shrugged.

Cara drew closer to her father. Fear coursed through her body; she could not recall having been so afraid since she was a little girl and she and her mother had been attacked by several rogues in the backyard of their house in the Hollywood Hills.

“Yes, Tree,” Nico said. “That is exactly what I’m telling you. If you want to go, any of you, I understand. You have my blessings. There are other clubs out there and all of them would be happy to have you. This is some deep shit and it is not yours to walk in if you do not wish to.”

Cara wanted to protest. Now, more than ever, they needed these men around them. They needed protection from the Fallen. The magic that they possessed shone like a beacon and these men were the shade that kept it hidden. If they left, the Fallen would be able to see them from miles away.

That cowardice made her ashamed. She was asking others to risk their life to save her and it wasn’t fair. Those who were not true Tribe had no dog in this fight.

“Is wolves the worst they got?” Sammy asked.

“Not by a longshot,” Nico said grimly.

Some of the men looked down at their feet and then around at the men standing beside them.

Then Tree spoke up. “I don’t know about the rest of these bastards, but I didn’t join up with this club to sit around wearing slippers and sipping hot cocoa. It sounds to me like the Fallen are some hardcase motherfuckers. That’s okay with me, but what ain’t okay with me is them sicking overgrown dogs on my guys. I’m hanging. The rest you can run if you want to.”

Tick, so named because his drug habits had left him with a decided tic on the left side of his face, spoke up. “Oh hell, who wants to live forever?”

“I say we go get these mothers and teach them what pain really is,” Sammy said.

“First we have to find them,” Ion jumped in. “They got some kind of hideout that we can’t seem to locate. First things first, we need to break into patrols and start going everywhere they do business. It’s time to start smashing some heads. Someone knows something and we are going to make them talk.”

The non-Kris began to yell and cheer at Ion’s bold words. To her dismay, Cara saw that quite a few of the Kris men who were just as enthusiastic. The few who noticed that Ion had stepped past his leader and made a decision that was not his to make looked angry, but Cara couldn’t tell if they were angry that Ion had taken charge, or if they were angry that Nico had not given the orders first.

Either way there was a storm brewing.

CHAPTER 10

The next afternoon, Cara met Sebastian as she had promised, at the coffee shop where they’d had their first date. He came striding through the door, his long legs tucked into an incredibly sexy pair of jeans. His silver necklace caught the overhead light and sent it back in a winking sparkle. His blond hair was messy and there was a slight jingle from his boots. She looked down and her mouth went dry; he wore heavy engineer boots with silver spurs and straps on the feet. Those boots made her lower body ache with desire. Everything about him made her ache with desire but the boots… there was something about them that just increased her already burning passion.

Sebastian took the seat across from the table she sat at and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Cara was surprised by the question. Were her emotions so transparent? She didn’t like to think that they were — she always prided herself on being difficult to read. “What makes you think there’s something wrong?”

Sebastian was not about to tell her that he could smell it on her. “You look… distracted. And worried.”

Her face cleared slightly, but it was obvious that she was still worried. Sebastian had no way of knowing that Cara could see his aura and had always been able to see it. It was a bright white shot through with bolts of silver, cobalt blue, and red. When he’d been making love to her, it had turned almost completely red and silver, and now it was mostly lavender. That meant he was truly, genuinely concerned.

It was his aura that convinced her to speak. “I have a problem.”

He leaned forward. “What is it? Maybe I can help.”

“Two rogues killed men who ride with my father. My father belongs to a motorcycle club, it’s not a big deal — it’s not like they’re bad or anything.” Okay, so she was sugarcoating. What should she say? That her father ran one of the most notorious clubs in the Southeast and beyond? That he was engaged in all sorts of illegal activities? That he was descended from a royal bloodline and so was she?

“I see. When did this happen?”

“Yesterday, in the middle of the day. How did that happen? Sebastian, how can they attack in the day?”

They were both speaking in very low tones, aware that people around them might spy on their conversation. Sebastian sipped the coffee she’d already ordered for him. There was a look on his face that she didn’t like; he looked as if this wasn’t much of a surprise to him.

“Some rogues can attack in the day. The thing about rogues that most don’t understand is that rogues actually eat human flesh, whereas most werewolves don’t. It’s forbidden by the Covenant they made after the vampire wars ended.”

“I know all of this.”

“What you don’t know is that in many of the packs, the Covenant is being broken. There are a few who simply miss freedom and the taste of flesh so much that they can’t resist. They don’t care that going rogue and breaking the Covenant means never been able to reside in human form again. They don’t even care that it’s a death sentence for them.

“If they’re attacking in the day, they’ve gotten bolder, and that means they no longer even care who
knows
they are breaking the Covenant. They think they are powerful enough to go against those who would uphold it.”

“But how can they not be afraid?” Cara said. “Once they go rogue they’re trapped forever in wolf form. They have to know they’ll be hunted and found. Without their human form they’ll have nowhere to hide.”

Sebastian said, “I think there may be at least one who can shift back and forth without being found out.”

Her mouth fell open. He was being honest, but there was something troubling in his aura, and in his face. There was knowledge there that he did not want to share with her. What was he hiding?

“That’s impossible,” she said.

“I’d like to think so. We all would like to think so. But I don’t think it is true — not anymore. “

“Even if it’s true, they’ll be found. Right now the men that ride with my father want to hunt down the rogues and kill them.”

Sebastian noticed that she did not mention her father hunting the rogues down. It was forbidden for one of the Tribe to kill a Wolf protected by Covenant. That was part of the Covenant. But once a Wolf went rogue, they were no longer protected from the Tribe or their magic. She’d had every right to attack a rogue, and her father had every right, too. So why wasn’t he?

Sebastian knew he should leave her alone. She was Tribe and there was a huge battle brewing. There might even be war over this. He had no doubt that this was Gregory’s doing. Would Gregory have deliberately sent rogues after the bikers that rode with Cara’s father?

Yes, he would have. He may even have been one of them. Sebastian had been keeping his suspicions about his brother to himself for a long time because he knew that most would never believe him. It was unheard-of for a wolf to be able to go rogue and then revert back to human form. Eating human flesh put one outside the Covenant.

Eating human flesh was considered boundaries of decency these days, but maybe the ones who had done so long ago didn’t see it that way, any more than he thought it was wrong to eat a good steak.

But a steak wasn’t a human being.

There was one way it could be done, but he didn’t know how to explain it to her without giving himself away. If the magic that kept the Covenant in place was weakening, it might be possible. The Queen would have to be very sick, or dying, and if that were the case, the Tribe would already be gathering and the Fallen would know of that event. It was too momentous not to notice.

The Fallen and the Tribe were old enemies. Ever since the Tribe had cursed the first wolves, the Fallen had hated and feared them, and with good reason. In the centuries past, when magic still lay unfettered in the earth, the Tribe was strong enough to send a wolf into Hell with just a simple spell.

These days they mostly lived in a fragile truce. It was uneasy and often broken by incidents brought on by one side or the other, but it was still a truce of some sorts. The Tribe was no longer hunted the way it had been in the past, although the Fallen would never let them rest no matter where they roamed. They didn’t deserve peace themselves — after all, they’d ensured the Fallen would never know any.

Centuries ago, killing one of the Tribe was a rite of passage and eating their flesh was considered a mark of honor.

He was thinking such thoughts when the woman across from him, the woman who stirred his very soul, was Tribe.

“They attacked my family,” Cara said stubbornly.

The rogues had not attacked true Tribe members; they had attacked their foot soldiers, but it was an attack nonetheless. It was bold and it was something that would bring about the very anarchy he feared. It was definitely a move Gregory would have pulled. How had he managed the transition? And who was the second wolf?

“I’m going hunting,” she said.

“Cara, you can’t go hunting alone.”

He saw the anger on her face and he also knew its cause. If she had magic (and she did) and she was of the Tribe (and she was) than the odds of her having any time to herself were slim. He knew she simply had not gone home from class yet, which is why it was easy for her to meet him here.

It was obvious that she was tired of being told what to do and it was equally obvious that she was upset over what had happened. But he could not let her go hunting down two rogues alone.

“I didn’t mean to sound like an overbearing asshole,” he continued, giving her his best and most disarming smile. “I just meant that you are not experienced in Hunting rogues.”

Her jaw took on a stubborn tilt. “You are.”

“Yes, I am. I wish I wasn’t, to be honest.”

Cara leaned back in her seat. There was a deep blue swirl running through his aura now: sorrow! Hunting down and killing rogues wounded him! But why?

The more she knew about Sebastian, the less she understood him. It was clear that she did not know him as well as she would’ve liked to, and how could she? They’d not had enough time together yet.

“Why does it hurt you so badly to kill rogues?” she blurted out.

“What makes you think that it does?”

“I can see it on you.” She didn’t bother saying that she could read his aura.

“Why does it bother you to use your magic?” he shot back.

“I won’t bother asking you how you know that it does.”

“Good.” He drummed his long fingers on the table. The coffee shop was mostly deserted, but there were a few people clinging to the corners, working on their laptops or reading books, and he didn’t like having this discussion with people near them but he knew there wasn’t much else she could do.

“All my life, I’ve been special because of my magic,” she admitted. “It’s too big for one person to control, or at least it’s too big for me to control. I don’t really want it, either, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I’m special for having it. It’s like nobody cares what else I’m capable of. Even being a lawyer seems to be somehow connected to my family.” She clamped her lips together before she could say anything more about her family.

“Why is it hard for you to control?”

“After my mother died, my father didn’t want me using it. He thinks that her magic got her killed. Most people with magic are taught early on how to use it by their mother or grandmother, but I didn’t have that.”

Sebastian was intrigued by that comment. Her mother and grandmother were both dead, but yet she had all the women of the Tribe around her, so how was it that nobody taught her to control her magic? Why was it nobody told her she was special for any other reason? That last made him angry. She
was
special! She was beyond special, not just for her magic, and if the people who were her family could see that, they didn’t deserve her!

He jerked himself out of those thoughts quickly.

“I just wish I didn’t have it.” She stared down into her coffee, her upper teeth sunk into her bottom lip. Her hands twisted on the table and her fingers pedaled with a heavy silver ring on her right index finger. Eventually she sighed and said, “I guess you think I’m foolish. Most people think I’m stupid for not wanting the great big gift, but to me, it’s not really a gift.”

“It’s also a huge responsibility.”

“I don’t think I can handle it.” Cara had never admitted that out loud. It wasn’t like she could go to her father or any of the other people in her Tribe and admit to them that her power felt too strong for her. If she had, they would’ve made light of the situation or taken great pains to assure her that it wasn’t, but nobody would’ve asked her why she felt that way.

Her mother had had a huge amount of power and that had not saved her. If Cara was indeed stronger than all of the other women of the Tribe who might be Queen, how could she save any of them?

“Maybe you just haven’t been taught how,” Sebastian suggested.

“There’s no maybe to it, Sebastian. I have power that I can’t control and that I don’t want. I have never been told that it’s okay to want just what I do want and nothing else.”

He reached across the table and took his hands in hers. The warmth of his hold immediately calmed her fears. “What you want is not so odd. You want to be yourself. It sucks when you have to deal with being whoever your family decides you have to be, or the person that everybody thinks you should be, just because they know who your family is.”

How had he known that? She couldn’t have put it better herself.

“Will you help me find these two rogues?” she asked.

Sebastian sighed. “You said there are others who want to Hunt them. Why not let them?”

“Because they don’t have anything to help them. They’re just ordinary people, and those wolves will tear them apart. That’s not fair. They don’t deserve to die that way. What’s more, you know the consequences of being bitten and surviving. I don’t want to meet one of the other Hunters in an alley some night just to find out that they’re also rogues.”

She had loyalty to the humans, even though she could’ve turned her back on them. She wanted to be a lawyer and a prosecutor. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Was it possible that she was of Queen Carida’s line?

If she was Kris, everything had just become even more complicated. He was a werewolf, one of the Fallen. She was his sworn enemy and he knew it, and yet he had mated with her.

Now she wanted to hunt down two rogues, one of whom was possibly his brother. He should walk away.

If he had any sense at all, he would walk away.

Why wasn’t he walking away?

Because he couldn’t walk away from her. Everything about her captivated him. But how long would she want to be with him when she discovered his true nature?

Maybe he should just tell her. Maybe if she knew, they could find a way around it. Or maybe she should come clean and tell him she was Tribe. She would not do that now and he didn’t blame her for that. For all she knew he was a simple Hunter, and most Hunters rarely crossed paths with the Tribe if at all possible. They were as cursed as the Fallen, in their own way. That thought softened his heart.

“If they just fed yesterday, they will probably not be out tonight,” he said.

“I think they will be. I think they’re out to destroy as much as they can and as quickly as they can.” Cara’s voice was strangely calm. She didn’t feel calm at all. There was a raging bloodlust inside her, one she had never known she could possess.