Evangelina Green (19 page)

And possibly die.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Keaton thought leaving his pack in Montana
was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but leaving Lina, especially
after hurting her so cruelly, was tearing his heart straight out of
his chest. He couldn’t breathe and his limbs were leaden and weak.
His thoughts were scattered, but they centered on Lina. He was a
mess.

He had a duty to his pack and couldn’t fail.
Yet he felt his duty to his mate also, to protect her and to see to
her needs...his needs. His heart was being torn in two directions.
He could actually feel it. He hadn’t fully mated her but she was
his in all other ways. The pull to complete the mating ritual was
strong but so was he.

Sheer willpower had prevented the pack war
years ago. He needed that willpower now. That strength had defeated
the assassins sent to kill him and his second, Gerhardt. The
killers intended to not only eliminate all those in line to lead,
but wanted the pack leaderless and in chaos so they could take
over.

It was the way of wolves and packs but the
process of deciding on a leader was done with ceremony and within
boundaries. Women and children were sacred treasures, not part of
the politics of pack law. When the assassins tried to take out
Gerhardt’s mate and their twin sons, they’d clearly crossed a line
of no return.

The attempt on their lives
failed but then the pack was divided. The pack was torn between the
old ways and the band of misfits bent on bringing all the shifters
out to the world. This new group of misfits targeted mostly the
young and untested shape shifters. They called themselves
Outers.
They were
totally unaware of the problems or the dangers they faced. The
humans were not ready to meet shifters. There were more than just
wolf shifters that needed to be hidden from man.

Keaton knew how humans
reacted to anything different. It was long ago when humans were
superstitious and afraid of anything not
normal
by their archaic standards.
And if not condoned by the Church, they were doubly afraid. The
priests themselves were the most superstitious of the whole
lot.

Only one wolf had shown himself and all for
the love of a young village woman. She died in his arms as he
shifted back to human. She’d been killed by the village’s pious
leaders. Idiots, all of them. Now she was dead because of him. She
loved him with all his faults and maybe loved him more because of
them. She was his mate. He knew it and she’d felt it, but it was
not to be. He died for her that same day but not until he took his
revenge. That only solidified the humans against the wolves.

The Hunters were born on the day he died.
Their only tasks—their only thought—kill all wolves. They
slaughtered thousands and not one was a shifter. The pack mourned
the loss of their wolf-kin every night as they called out to each
other and moved farther and farther away from the only home they’d
ever known. Only a few hundred of them remained.

Once the entire pack arrived in the land now
known as Siberia, the leaders met and decided to divide the pack to
keep the species safe and alive. At least some would survive if
others fell victim to the Hunters. They would carry on. The alphas
of each pack could communicate telepathically with each other. That
would be the only way anyone in the pack would know the fate of the
others.

Some moved toward the forests of Germany.
Some traveled eastward toward the ancient land bridge of Russia to
Alaska where they settled. Packs went farther into Canada and some
went south to what is now the American Rocky Mountains, near
Montana. Thus began the four Clans. Within each Clan there were at
least two packs—living near each other, yet separate. Again, to
ensure safety, if one pack is attacked, the other was close enough
to offer assistance. This was also the best way to keep the in
breeding to a minimum. There were only so many eligible females due
to their numbers having dwindled on the trek from Europe and the
battles they had encountered. To complicate matters, an
unprecedented number of male births in the years that followed had
caused an imbalance in the packs. They needed mates for their
men.

Keaton’s grandfather had ruled for 400
years. Some of that rule was spent in Europe, but most of his rule
was where they ended up living, in the Rocky Mountains. This was
long before the white man arrived. Keaton’s father ruled another
423 years, when the Indians began to appear. They thrived together
and lived productive lives. The Indians revered the wolf for many
years and they all lived in peace.

Trappers ventured west long before the wagon
trains and the military. They were a vicious example of humanity
and stopped at nothing to gain what they wanted. They went through
the mountains killing anything and anyone in their quest for
fortune. They killed for pelts and meat. They fought for gold and
guns and scalps taken from the Indians they’d murdered.

Seldom did they have a
reason to kill. They just killed. Keaton had his revenge but
learned a valuable lesson also. They cannot be discovered by
humans. They must remain hidden,
especially
from the
humans.

His father died in battle
with the first white men. Keaton became Alpha, although he
had
never
wanted
to become their leader that way. He still mourned his
father.

Now some of the Canadian
packs from the two northern clans had broken away with the notion
that humans were ready to meet their betters. Someone was prodding
them along. This was someone who didn’t know the history of the
shifters or wasn’t sharing the truth with these young shifters.
The
Outers
had it
in their minds to not only come out into the open, but to rule.
Everyone.

They thought themselves
superior and in many ways the shifters were correct. They had
better hearing, sight, and sense of smell. They moved faster, even
in human form. Keaton and his wolves were almost too fast to be
seen with human eyes. The bear shifters were super strong. The cat
shifters were cunning and lethal. The
Outers
were mostly from the wolf
packs. They were really just kids and someone had promised them
power. They were hungry for that power, thinking it would give them
the freedom they thought they wanted. Kids that were mad with the
need to take over everything and everyone—no matter
what.

They had traveled to Keaton’s Mountains and
had recruited other believers. Those pack members that were tired
of hiding and wanting more freedom. Most were young, uneducated in
their history and ignorant of their ancestry. Angry at their
leaders for keeping them cooped up and away from the cities. None
of them understood they were facing disappointment and possible
death.

The Hunters of old times
had spread and grown in numbers and fervor. That was just one of
the dangers out in the
real world
They Hunters tracked down any who were different.
Some humans had been butchered only because they were odd or
different. Some had simple deformities. Often an odd walk or a
missing limb, a facial deformity that might make them appear
wolfish, immediately made them targets. Others had some psychic
abilities and those people needed more protection than most – they
were possible mates. Only those with some magic in them could mate
successfully with a shifter.

Most of the Hunter’s targets where totally
human, but believed themselves to be witches or were
vampire-wannabes. In reality, they were just Goths with wild
imaginations. Their odd clothing, even more odd makeup combined
with their late night activities, made them easy targets for the
Hunters. Most were killed right away but others were taken for
torture—to gather information on the real shifters and
vampires.

Eventually they all
confessed to everything and anything just to stop the pain and
agony. Shifters were too wary to ever be caught by the Hunters. All
their victims, so-called
monsters,
were just innocent humans. The Hunters were
vicious and voracious in their appetite for violence. None of it
matter to them.

The Outers had quickly moved through Denver,
Kansas City and St. Louis, headed for Memphis and Little Rock.
Keaton had heard of mutilated bodies being found in alleys and on
country roads, leaving authorities to believe they had a traveling
serial killer on their hands. Keaton was determined to have them
continue with that vein of thought. The killer was moving south,
probably to New Orleans, but they had to go straight through the
area where Lina and her sisters lived which meant they had to be
stopped.

Keaton was the nearest responsible Alpha and
being unmated, until having recently met Lina, he volunteered to
find and stop the Outers. His second in command, Gerhardt had a
mate and with two male heirs was quickly dismissed as available for
this dangerous mission. That simply meant Keaton was
expendable.

Now however, having met his mate, he was
concerned. His focus was divided and at times he doubted he could
do the job he’d been sent to complete. He had never been anything
but confident in his ability to defend himself and his pack. Now he
had to protect his mate also. How could he do it all?

He took a deep stabilizing
breath and remembered Lina wasn’t just any human woman. She had
magic in her or they couldn’t be mates. A pure human would never
survive the change. With that thought and vision of Lina’s green
eyes looking at him full of love, he felt stronger. He did have a
stubborn streak and he used that iron will and the promise of a
possible life with Lina, to spur him on to the battle ahead. Maybe
if he lived, he would beg her to forgive him. He’d take the rest of
his life and devote it to her. She deserved that and so much more.
He thought of her crying and when she sobbed,
I love him,
he’d actually heard his
heart crack. For the first time in years, his entire adult life, he
wept.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Where to start?
They had pages and pages of clippings, old
photos, eyewitness reports, and in the latter years some
investigative reporters adding to the fable, as most called it. It
seems that shortly after the mansion had been built, strange things
began happening in town and the surrounding areas.

Most of it was centered on the mansion and
since it was remote, Lina had to take a lot of the reports with a
grain of salt. Why would people be out here spying? And if they
were spying they had to return with a good ghost story didn’t
they?

One report however, caught her eye as she
scanned the documents. A passerby on his way to New Orleans got
lost and ended up on the mansion road. It was getting dark and he
needed to find a place to stay the night, when he saw the home.
Before he could get half way down the drive he felt a bitter cold
wind blowing into his face—as if to drive him back—away from the
house. Being a stubborn sort, or later folks would ask if he wasn’t
just stupid, he continued forward and went up the front steps.

Lina stopped and thought of Keaton and their
first meeting on those very steps. An ache formed in her chest,
around her heart. She pulled a deep breath and continued
reading.

The wandering stranger
claimed to see colored lights in the window of the parlor, the
living room of today. Curiosity getting the better of his good
sense, he peered through the window, sure he would be shot if
caught peeping in others windows. He saw a man holding his arms out
in front of him, pointing or stretching toward a mirror. The mirror
was ringed with colored lights. Later he said it was gems that
radiated light, in blue, red, green, and yellow colors. He
explained the light as coming from the man’s hands and not the
gems. He could only recall the four colors, although he described
it as a rainbow of light. Lina thought,
maybe they looked like modern day lasers?

So her dreams of the green light in the
attic might have some basis in reality? She made a decision to
check it out in the morning. It was too dark now and she was not an
idiot...usually. Again, she thought of Keaton and how quickly she
had become attached to him.

Morning came way too early for Lina’s taste.
Always did. However, she knew she had things to do and not much
time to do them. Construction would resume on the mansion today. It
had been delayed when Tashi had been kidnapped.

They’d reported the incident, most of it, to
the authorities, knowing they could do very little to help. Keaton
had left two days ago with the intention of hunting down some
people who might hold information on the mansion and possibly Tashi
and Victor. He’d said he hoped to return by the weekend. Five days.
Lina hated to admit she missed him, because that just made her feel
vulnerable. She did miss him though. She thought of him often
during the day but especially at night, when she’d hear an owl hoot
or a wolf howl.

The silver wolf had been spotted a couple of
times lately—but never close to the house or grounds. Folks in town
had seen it from great distances, but all thought it was just a
large dog.

"We are safe and for now unharmed. I will
contact you tomorrow at this time.”

Lina sat straight up from slumping over the
newspaper documents.

"Victor?"

She felt sure it was him but how and what?
She had a thousand questions but he made it clear with the
abruptness of the message that the one-sided conversation was
concluded.

"Netta? Are you up? Come quick!”

Even though Netta was ill, she seemed to be
in better spirits lately and she actually ran to Lina when she
heard the call.