Heat Rising: A KinKaid Wolf Pack Story (17 page)

Having obtained a weapon from one of the enforcers in the room, Evin headed out the door behind them, leaving a furious looking Mason inside.

“Shit.” Mason dragged his palms over his face. “He asked me stay with you. I love you guys, but I can’t stand to sit back and let him risk his life alone.”

“He’s not alone.” Rosa walked over and took his hands inside hers. “Kaleb and Landry would never let anything happen to their alpha.” They would die first. Of that, she had no doubt. Her stomach twisted into a sick knot, but she swallowed back the bile. Problem was, how would her world go on with the loss of even one of them from her life?

Landry and Kaleb raced along with the alpha toward the burning building. Up ahead, several pack members with water hoses aimed at the flames had already beaten them to the scene.

Evin targeted one of the shifters who appeared to have taken charge and ran up to him. “Was anyone inside?”

“No, sir,” the male with salt and pepper hair stated, then shouted at one of the younger shifters. “Get some water around back.” He glanced over at the alpha. “Luckily, this building is mainly used for housing supplies, and at this hour, no one was around.”

“This was just a bruise to grab our attention,” Landry mumbled to Evin.

The alpha nodded in agreement. “When you arrived on the scene, did you see anything suspicious—someone you haven’t seen around here before?”

“You mean like one of those Gregorsons?” The older male frowned, deepening the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes.

“What did you see?” Landry closed in.

“I didn’t get a good look, but I could have sworn when I arrived, which was seconds after the explosion, I saw a couple of guys hightailing it out of here
on foot. I called out for some help, but they kept running. After that, there was so much damn chaos trying to get this blaze under control, I didn’t have time to think about who they were.” The elder shifter hung his head and sighed.

“You did the right thing.” Evin slapped the other male on his shoulder. “You got a handle on the fire. Finding out who’s responsible is our job.” He turned to Landry and Kaleb. “Do you have your cells on you?”

“No, sir,” Kaleb answered. “Haven’t been home yet. We came straight to the mansion.”

“I need you to get back to the main house then, and make sure every enforcer is up and alert for any suspicious activity on the grounds. There’s no telling how much destruction they’ve planned for tonight.”

“We’re on it,” Landry said and started to leave when Rosa’s voice called out inside his skull.

“Landry! Kaleb! They’re here.”

He jerked, spun, his gaze finding Kaleb’s. But his partner beat him to the punch.

“Did you hear that?” Kaleb’s brow lifted.

“Yeah.” Landry’s fingers curled into a fist. “I did.” A knot the size of his fist lodged in his throat. He’d heard it was possible for a mated pair to be able to communicate telepathically. Yet, up until tonight, it hadn’t occurred between either of them.

At that moment, Evin cursed and bolted in the direction of the mansion. “It’s Arick!” he yelled over his shoulder.
“He’s in the house.”

Landry and Kaleb charged after him. Mason must have called for Evin along the pair’s connection as well.

Within seconds they approached the mansion, but this time instead of going to the front, they followed Evin to one of the side entrances. Evin punched in a code on a keypad, and the door
snicked
open. With a wave of his hand, the alpha gave the all-clear, and the two enforcers slipped inside behind him.

Ahead, where the corridor split off to separate wings of the mansion, two enforcers lay unmoving on the floor. They crept up on the bodies, watching, listening for any sign of movement. Evin dropped onto his haunches beside one of the fallen males, and Landry did the same with the other. Both reached over and checked for a pulse along the victims’ necks. The alpha gave a quick shake of his head, indicating his enforcer was dead. A couple of more seconds passed, and still no familiar thump-thump resonated beneath Landry’s fingers. Frowning, he glanced up at Kaleb and Evin.

Fuck. How many more shifters were going to lose their lives to this insane bastard?

He and the alpha stood, stepped over their deceased comrades, and headed toward the last known location of their mates.

A few feet deeper into the dwelling, additional members of the alpha family’s security team lay executed. Evin’s blue eyes flashed red with rage. Pulsing veins stood in sharp relief along the male’s neck, and every adrenalin-fueled beat of his heart punched the flesh in rapid succession.

Closing in on the front of the house, Rosa’s presence buzzed under Landry’s skin. Her anxiety was an electric spark inside his brain, driving his thirst for blood higher. His fingers curled, claws extending. Sweat beaded on his forehead and rolled down his temples, stinging his eyes. He hungered for his piece of Arick. And not in the way the other male wanted. Landry didn’t want his dick. He wanted the shifter’s head for what he’d done to his mate and his pack.

“I know you’re there, Landry.”

Landry froze in his tracks along with the others. It was Arick.

“Why do you think the three of you have made it this far? I want us all to have another meet and greet. Come on in and join our little party.”

Evin turned, facing them. “What choice do we fucking have,” he bit out. “He has my family. Everything I live for.”

“You don’t think we feel the same about Rosa?” Kaleb snarled.

“Toss your weapons down the hall,” Arick demanded. “You’ve got five seconds to comply, or my enforcers will pull the triggers on the guns aimed at this
lovely
collection of shifters you’ve left behind for me.”

“Fucking hell,” Landry mumbled under his breath, frustration eating away at his gut like toxic waste. The damn shit had been growing, multiplying, ever since he’d first laid eyes on the sick male. It was as if Arick was a cancerous lesion Landry couldn’t seem to excise from his life.

Landry sent his weapon skating over the wood down the hall. Kaleb and Evin followed suit, the metal landing with a thud against the baseboard. Seconds later, two Gregorson enforcers appeared in the doorway. Laser sights beamed off the muzzles of the male’s pistols and down the corridor, landing on their chests.

“We’re not armed,” Evin growled, holding his empty palms up.

“Forgive us if we don’t take your word for it,” one of the males snapped, sneering their way. Landry had seen the shifter before—his name was Carl. He’d been one of the male’s who’d broken into Evin and Mason’s home.

The guy’s brother, Walter, kicked the guns over to his brother. Carl lowered and gathered them into the wide pockets of his black cargo pants. “Now move!” He waved the weapon at the door.

Together, they strode into the room, and the sight greeting him there boiled Landry’s blood. Rosa sat with the muzzle of a gun flush against her temple. She looked their way, and while an edge of fear resided in her gaze, what amazed him was the dominant amount of fierce determination staring back at him. Damn, their mate was astounding. Any other female would be crumbling under the threat of imminent death. But not theirs. Her expression said she wanted to kick the reaper’s ass for annoying her.

“Let them go, Gregorson,” Kaleb growled at the blond male standing between Rosa and the loveseat containing the elder KinKaids. “This is between us. You want someone to hurt.” He marched a couple steps in front, and t
he sound of more bullets chambering sang out in the room. “Hurt me,” he spat.

Landry snagged
Kaleb’s biceps. What the fuck was he doing? Landry yanked hard on the other male, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Hmm?” Arick tapped his chin. “Such an inviting offer.” He sighed. “But the thing is you see…” Arick strode closer. “This isn’t between you and me—not really—it’s between me and him.” Arick’s hard glare fell on Landry. “The fact I’m going to gain the KinKaid pack along with its lead will just make it all the more sweeter.”

“You’re mad,” Landry snarled. “I’ll never be yours, Arick. What we had was over before it ever began. It was a mistake,” he shouted. “Get that through your head. It should have never happened.”

“Shut up!” Arick bellowed, spittle flying. “Get those two over here and on their knees.” The crazed shifter waved his firearm at Kaleb and Evin. The Gregorson team shoved Evin toward his father and mother. Sitting in a chair opposite of Rosa, Mason looked as if he was about to spit bits of enamel. Like Rosa, the blond shifter was forced to sit helpless and watch with a weapon trained on his head.

After placing Evin in front of his mother, another of the assault team positioned Kaleb on the floor beside Rosa.

“Excellent,” Arick said. “I’m going to make things easier on you Landry, you see.” He waved his pistol between Landry’s mates. “Much less complicated for you, since from what I’ve seen you have some kind of misguided affection for these two.”

“Misguided?” Landry scoffed. “You have some damn balls to stand there and judge anyone on their actions.”

“There you go, talking dirty, Landry.
Fuck
,” he groaned. “I remember the things you could do with my balls.” Arick licked his lips.

Kaleb growled, his canines flashing.

“I do think your pet is jealous.” Arick feigned a shiver. “I’m scared.”

“You should be,” Landry stated matter-of-factly with a lift of an eyebrow. “If it weren’t for the guns on the innocent, Kaleb would kill you with his bare hands before you ever saw him coming.”

“Please.” Arick rolled his eyes. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?” He faced Rosa, placing the muzzle of his gun directly at her forehead. “So you tell me, lover.” Arick glanced over his shoulder at Landry. “Who do I kill first? Your female?”

“No!” Evin yelled and lunged from his spot on the floor.

“Rosa,” Sable cried out, her voice cracking on a sob.

But Walter’s booted heel knocked the alpha back, and Carl retrained his gun on Evin’s head. The elder female’s whimpers filled the room.

Arick moved his arm left without missing a beat. “Or your male?”

Dear God, how could he have fuck up so badly? How could someone love two people so damn much and yet hurt them so terribly in the process? Why couldn’t Arick have just targeted him—kill him? They didn’t deserve this.

“Me,” Landry groaned. “Put your bullet in me.”

A laugh born from madness bubbled up from Arick’s throat. “Sorry, lover. You’re not on the list.” He shook his head. “I have plans for us.”

“Why them, when it’s me you want to hurt?”

“You’re right.” Arick shrugged. “I do want to hurt you for how you treated me,” he snarled. “But afterward, I think we can get past all that. We were so fucking good together.” His eyelashes lowered as if he’d been transported into a blissful fantasy world. “No one had ever, or has since, gotten me like you do.” He lifted his lashes, his blue eyes glassy. “We can have that again.” He nodded and turned his attention back to Landry’s mates. “But we have a little ugly business to take care of fist.” Arick squared his shoulders. “Now, where do we start, so you and I can move forward?”

Bile surged up from Landry’s gut, burning a path of anguish through his chest. Inside his fists, Landry’s nails bit into his flesh. He couldn’t allow what the three of them shared to end like this. Kaleb and Rosa would
not
be the ones to die tonight. That was a fact.

With his gaze targeted on Arick’s gun, Landry inhaled deep. All he had to accomplish was to get the gun off his mate’s. If Landry were the one to absorb the bullet, so be it. Those who mattered would live.

Landry flexed his fingers and tightened his hold on his jaw, preparing to make his move.

A loud
pop
sounded in the room.

Rosa screamed.

A red dot the size of a bull’s-eye bloomed on Arick’s forehead.

What the fuck?

The dark-haired shifter tittered on his heels. Then as if a hard gust of wind had snaked through the room, hitting him squarely in the chest, Arick succumbed to gravity.

“Thank God, I could finally shut him up,” an unfamiliar voice declared behind Landry.

In a quiet rush, all heads swung toward the newcomer.

“All hail the Gregorson’s pack new alpha,” Arick’s murderer drawled, grinning. A well-tailored male sauntered further into the room, elbow bent at his side, his pistol up by his ear. The stranger surveyed the room, his hazel gaze taking in each member as if he were a prodigal son waiting for his welcome home.

As he neared, Landry discerned the male was an inch or two taller than himself with long, dark hair bound at his nape, grey sprinkling his temples. Stopping in front of Landry, the male’s gaze scanned him from bottom to top, then to Landry’s surprise, the other shifter’s smile quirked.

“Well, aren’t you going to thank me?”

“For killing Arick?” Landry cocked his head.

The guy’s eyes widened. “That, and for saving your friends. They must have been special to you—your weakness—since Arick was exploiting them to his benefit.”

“I would, thank you that is, if you hadn’t stolen my opportunity to take him out myself.”

Laughter rolled out the stranger. “Ah, spoken like a true Michaels.”

“Who the hell are you?” How did he know his name? And what stake did this guy have in their war?

The former alpha slowly stood, as did Kaleb and Evin. “Caine,” Barron said, the single syllable barely audible.

Someone downshifted the spin of the earth, and time slowed to a snail’s pace. “What did you call him?” Landry cranked his head around toward the former alpha.
It couldn’t be…