Dire Needs: A Novel of the Eternal Wolf Clan (36 page)

“Jesus Christ,” Rifter muttered.

“Liam’s human needs to go,” Cain said. “Not because she’s human, but she’s not loyal. I don’t trust her.”

It was the most Cain had ever spoken at one time. Rifter stared at the young omega—he and his twin had come far in the year they’d lived here and trained with Jinx. “That’s up to Liam.”

“I know that. I’ve already told him my piece. I can’t be under a leader who doesn’t listen to opinions.” Cain jutted his chin. “Liam’s cool with that. We’ve got some other Weres coming here—Cyd and I will vet them outside. If need be, we’ll help you with this situation with the ghost army.”

“Good job, wolf.” Rifter put a hand on his shoulder and couldn’t help but notice the small, pleased smile on Cain’s face. It might’ve been the first he’d ever seen.

He turned his attention back to Gwen, who was staring into space. Shifting took a hell of a lot of energy, and he sat next to her now, took her hand.

“I’m okay?” she asked.

“You’re awake and you shifted to wolf and back. Just took you a little while.”

He took the cup of tea with honey Cyd handed him, and she took a grateful sip.

“How’d
you know my throat would be so sore?” she asked.

“The howling.”

“Oh.”

“It gets easier,” he told her.

“It almost killed me.” Her words were blunt, and he winced. “Sorry. So how much damage did I cause?”

“Enough,” he told her, although he kept his voice steady. “But you couldn’t have stopped yourself if you wanted to.”

“How?”

“You’re a little moon crazed. New wolf is hard to control. In this case, it happened to work in your favor,” Rifter wheezed. The silver weapon had caught a lung, and it would burn like a bitch until it repaired. His hands were burned. And Gwen’s next shift could kill her.

They were alive but vulnerable. Forced to be hidden away while the supernatural world was about to be at war. Balances were shifting, and with Mars dead, there would be hell to pay. And he was no closer to Seb than he had been earlier, which meant Rogue was still trapped in hell.

“Have you healed?” she asked. He lifted his shirt—the bleeding had stopped but the wounds were still deep. It hurt to breathe, but he’d been through worse. Much worse, when he thought he’d lost her.

“Mars’s police officer brother is rumored to be next in line to lead the trappers. He doesn’t care if he outs the wolves,” Stray told them now. “According to the trappers’ site, they’d rather it be that way. Humans will be scared of us and the trappers will offer protection.”

“Yeah, okay.” Vice snorted but he didn’t look at ease.

The noose was slowly tightening around them. Soon, they would be completely pinned down if they didn’t act fast.

“Gwen’s the top priority,” Jinx told Rifter. “Bring her
to the compound and let her shift.”

“No, not now.” God, who knew what kind of reversal spell Seb might be putting in place?

“Now or never,” Gwen corrected him. And as much as he hated to admit it, she was right.

W
hen Rifter and Jinx put their heads together, Gwen went upstairs to confront her father.

This time, no one stopped her. That was good, because she felt like she was running out of time. Maybe Rifter did as well.

When she entered the room, Harm turned swiftly, as if ready to fight. His ankle was still chained, and it looked as raw as Rogue’s ankle had. Her throat tightened, but she swallowed it because no one was getting off that easily today.

“You’re bruised—what happened?” he demanded immediately, and her hand went to her neck. She’d forgotten that Mars hadn’t gone down without a fight, although she couldn’t be sure if the damage had been done by him or his wereguards. “Did Rifter do that?”

“No, of course he didn’t.” She paused. “I tried to kill Mars. Rifter finished the job for me.”

Harm just stared at her like she’d lost her mind, so she continued, “Now he’s really mad at me.”

She expected Harm to keep staring or maybe tell her she was wrong. But his words surprised her. “He’s used to doing the saving. He doesn’t know how to handle a woman who can do that for him. He’s never even had the hope of that, because he didn’t
think there were any Dire females left.”

“I don’t even know if I can shift again and live. And then I’m taking away Rifter’s only chance at a mate ever, and I shouldn’t do that. And I don’t know why I’m telling you this… because I think I hate you. I should hate you.”

“Yeah, you should.” Harm gave a lopsided smile that had made him the hard-rock poster boy for many of her friends growing up. She thanked God at this point that she’d been more into classical music, because that would’ve made things really awkward now. “The first shift is hard. And yours, harder than most because you’re half human.”

The shift had been like a brilliant swirl of rainbow colors bursting—painful and exquisite at the same time. “I’ve killed people.”

Harm actually looked… proud. “A wolf’s got to be able to defend herself.”

She stared at her hands. She’d learned a long time ago when she’d started dealing with doctors and hospitals that hands could cause both life and death.

Only to people who want you dead,
Sister Wolf whispered.
You’ll see.

“Do you paint, like your mom?” he asked her.

She shook her head, confused. “I don’t. Wait, the paintings were done by my mother? My aunt always said she painted them when she was younger, and they even had her signature on them.”

“She was keeping you safe, like she was charged to do. I gave her cash and sent her away so there was no trail. I always knew where you were, though. I had guards—Weres—around the area. I knew you wouldn’t have noticed.”

She hadn’t, of course, but she’d never felt anything but
safe with her aunt and uncle. “I miss my mother,” she blurted out.

“Your mom… Lucy… she was so beautiful. Like you.” She noticed Harm’s fingers shake as he pulled a picture from his wallet. It was yellowing and wrinkled.

It was obvious he took it with him everywhere. She held the paper by the edges carefully. It wasn’t the only picture of her mom she’d seen, but it was the only one the woman seemed happy in. “How long were you two together?”

“Not long enough. I was taking a break from touring. Three months in the mountains and she was there, painting.” He had such a faraway look in his eyes that it brought tears to hers. “When I came back from the next tour, she was gone. She’d left a note—she was scared. Wanted to protect you. I didn’t know the trappers had been following me because of a witch named Cordelia. I was so stupid.”

At the mention of Cordelia’s name, Gwen shuddered. “My mother knew what you were?”

“It was impossible to hide it from her. No, that’s not true—I stopped wanting to. At first, she was terrified. Disbelieving. I explained that I couldn’t be with her because of the wolf side, but she told me that she could handle anything. She did, but I was very careful.” He paused. “I didn’t know about the baby—about you—at first. When she told me, it was because she needed money to hide from the weretrappers.”

“To hide me?”

“Both of you. Since she’d been impregnated by a wolf, she didn’t know if they’d force her to carry more half-breeds.” He stared at the picture from over her shoulder. “I gave her everything she needed, and the trappers still got to her. You’re lucky you were at the hotel where your
aunt and uncle were staying—your mom called them in because she was worried. Knew she was being followed. And they weren’t really your aunt and uncle, but close friends who’d been told everything. And you stayed safe for a really long time.”

“How?”

“Seb. It worked for a while—I made a pact without Rifter’s knowledge. But when things turned bad between wolf and witch… shit, Rift and Seb were so close. I never thought…”

She wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but technically, that wasn’t true. She wanted to forgive him, but she wasn’t there yet. “She was very brave,” she said instead.

“She was willing to do anything for you. In the end, she did.”

“And you weren’t.”

Something dark and painful skittered across his face. “I tried. After Seb went to the weretrappers’ side, I did everything in my power to keep you safe from them. But they wouldn’t take me instead of you. I figured I was better served staying out and watching over you.”

“Why didn’t they want you?”

“They wanted Rifter and Rogue for their abilities in particular. I had to make a choice—my daughter or my brothers. They could fend for themselves. You would have never survived with them.”

“And yet, you don’t want me to survive. To shift. You hate being a wolf.”

“I hate not being able to mate with anyone I want to—there’s a difference. It’s a hell of a lonely life. And I like humans, Gwen, more than I like most wolves. The fact that your mother was able to get pregnant by me—that was a goddamned miracle. And I couldn’t be with her. It was so unfair.” He stared at her. “I guess you won’t have that problem.”

“Don’t
you think, with so few of us left, you should try to make up with them? If nothing else, for my sake?”

“Never going to happen. They can’t stand me because I like humans.”

“I think you missed the mark on that one. They can’t stomach the fact that you didn’t trust them enough to tell them all of this. You didn’t come back to help them. You have so few of your kind left and you turned your back on them. On me. I’m half human, so what’s your excuse?”

Harm’s mouth pulled into a tight grimace. “Right—you’re half human and my daughter. Do you think they’re going to treat you any better than me?”

“They already have,” she spat.

“Because you can kill them. Once they take a step back and wrap their heads around how truly dangerous you are if captured… don’t think they’re going to treat you any differently than these silver chains.” He pointed to his bonds, and his eyes looked lupine even though his tone was sad.

She stared at him, the anger making her head pound. How could Rifter not hate her? No doubt a part of him did, but she couldn’t believe what Harm was telling her.

Or maybe she just didn’t want to.

T
he police cars lined the area around the Dire house, prepared to do a thorough search of the surrounding woods. They wouldn’t come to the door and demand entrance, though, because they couldn’t see the house. Thanks to a protection spell Seb had gifted them years ago, the only people who could see the house were wolves, and only those who hadn’t betrayed the Dires. It was a complicated, irreversible spell—pure, unadulterated magic. Sometimes the Dires would sit there and watch the police actually walk through their house, unencumbered by the surrounding furniture and walls.

But the Dires still took nothing for granted and had built a space to go to during such emergencies after Seb went over to the dark side—and hired a Were bail bondsman who could get Vice and Stray out of jail, if need be. The underground lair was built on hallowed church ground—demons couldn’t touch the place.

Hopefully, the police would look on them as troublemakers and not delve much further. The weretrappers had made a stupid move turning the Dires in—as dangerous for all of them as it was stupid.

The stakes were their lives as they knew them—it
would take all their strength and abilities, working together, to pull their asses off the line.

Rifter barreled up the stairs in time to see Gwen leaving Harm’s room, a hand over her mouth. When she looked up at him, he knew Harm had opened his big mouth, talking shit she wasn’t ready to hear.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” he told her. “Whatever he said, it isn’t true.”

“How can you even stand to look at me… knowing I’m the reason for Rogue—for your nightmares,” she started, but he pulled her close before she could say another word.

“It’s not your fault. I’ll take time proving that to you, but the police are here now, scouring the property. We’ve got to go.”

“I’ve brought you guys nothing but trouble—how can all of you be so good to me?”

“It’s not hard at all, Gwen. It hasn’t been from the beginning.”

“Even though I can kill you?”

“Yeah, even though.”

She looked like she wanted to say something more on the subject, but she let it drop for the moment. “The police are here because of Mars and his brother, right? God, I messed everything up.”

“No, you saved me. Always remember that. You have to calm the hell down—you can’t afford to shift now. Come on, let’s go now—we’ll talk about this, okay?” He kissed her—hard. “You’ve done nothing wrong.”

She took a deep breath, but her eyes were changing. He could see she was having a tough time holding it together, like any new wolf.

But she was far from any new wolf, and the agitation was rolling off her in waves. “Let’s go.”

He took her hand and led her to the basement, where
Jinx waited by the door, ready to seal it back when they passed him. It looked like a flat wall, and if tapped, wouldn’t sound hollow. When Jinx opened it, he pulled her inside and they started to walk along the dimly lit corridor.

When the door slammed behind her, she jumped.

“It’s okay—this leads to an underground compound about a mile from the house. We rarely need it, since the house is invisible to humans.”

“It never was to me,” Gwen told him.

“If you’d said that earlier, it would’ve been my first clue that there was something going on with you.”

They walked in near silence, Gwen’s harsh breathing jarring him with every step.

If she shifted here, it would be so dangerous for both wolves. He turned and held her—they had half a mile to go, but he couldn’t go on with her so upset. He kissed her until she stopped resisting, until he felt the tears on her cheeks dry.

“Baby, it’s okay,” he murmured into her neck.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t hate me when you found out.”

“No, I didn’t. I couldn’t. You’re an innocent in all of this. Harm was trying to save you, the same way I did when I turned myself over to Mars.” He paused. “I can’t fault him. As much as I want to, there can’t be any lies between us.”

She nodded. “I’m sorry—you don’t need my breakdown right now. Let’s get to safety and you can make your plans.”