Lone Wolf (The Westervelt Wolves, Book 8) (12 page)

She turned to smile at the fisherman. “Leave as fast as you can. Do you understand? Don’t turn around. No matter what.”

He nodded. “Do you need any help getting off onto dry land?”

“You’re a full-service boat, aren’t you?” She shook her head. “No, thank you. I have great balance.”

In two steps she leaped over the side and onto the dock. If her transporter thought this odd he had the good sense to not make a sound as he pulled his boat away from the dock, leaving Westervelt behind.

She stood completely still, breathing in and out through her nose. Twelve wolves.
Wow
. Considering how low she’d heard their numbers were the fact that they wasted twelve wolves on her meant they really weren’t fooling around.

“Okay.” She called out into the night. “I can shift and we can fight. Believe me, my wolf wants it, Theo. Or you can take me to Tristan.”

A laugh sounded out from the woods in front of her. Theo Kane, looking nearly the way she remembered him except for a few gray hairs on his nearly shaved head, stepped out into the clearing. Behind him stood eleven other wolves. One of them was female; the other ten she knew quite well. A lump formed in her throat and she shoved it away with sheer force over her emotions. She’d never been a crier. She wouldn’t start now.

“You have me at a disadvantage, lady.” Theo put his hands on his hips. “Or maybe not. You’re one wolf. We have twelve. So, disadvantage isn’t the right word because we would kill you in a fight. I guess it would be more appropriate to say you have me stumped. You know me but I don’t know you.”

“That’s unfortunate. I think I’ve secretly been hoping that the second you saw me the spell preventing you from remembering me would float away and our years of training together would come rushing back to you.”

Theo growled, his wolf showing in his eyes. “I’m not falling for that crap. You go back to Kendrick, who I smell all over you, and you tell him that he isn’t getting near Tristan, no matter how much he preps his Trojan horse with the right things to say.”

“I wish it were that simple and I hate that I smell anything like him. But living in one of his facilities for forty years will do that to a girl.” Their conversation had headed in a direction she didn’t yet want to go. At least not with Theo. Somehow, some way, she had to get to Tristan. “I see that you’re mated. The gray looks good on you. Feeling old?”

“You’d better get to your point.” He cocked his head. Theo’s wolf wasn’t going anywhere. She’d be dead soon if she didn’t make him believe her.

“I’m Gabriel’s mate. I have been for forty years. You don’t remember me because that’s what your father wanted. I haven’t aged like I should have because of the spell he put on us. I’ve been stuck with him and Gabe’s been going slowly crazy ever since.”

Theo opened and closed his mouth.
Aha
. So she’d hit on something. Gabriel’s behavior had been noticeable.

“I know where he is. Kendrick has him. He’s done another spell. Well, Drea, his bitch-witch, did it and if we don’t do something soon Gabriel is going to lead Kendrick’s creatures here and fight all of you. So I know you don’t know me but if you’re the Theo I knew so long ago then you will take this to Tristan. You’ll find out. Do I smell like I’m lying to you?”

The woman Carrie didn’t know stepped next to Theo. “She doesn’t smell like a liar. If she wanted to trick us, she wouldn’t have arrived like that by boat.”

“I don’t trust anyone.” He rubbed her arm. “You know that.”

“And it keeps us alive.” The woman must be his mate. Carrie’s heart turned over looking at them. Theo had found someone and Carrie didn’t know her. In another world, could she and Gabriel have been like that? Could they have fought side by side?

“But you’re right. We need to hear what she says. Tristan will be upset if he doesn’t get a chance to question her.” Theo waved his hand behind him. “Malcolm, you take her. If she gives you any trouble, kill her.”

Malcolm had been a child when she’d left. Hell, she had known his mother. When his father had shown up with a human, speculation had abounded that they would leave Westervelt to live in the human world. But, that hadn’t happened. Carrie had missed watching him grow up to become a very tall, scowling wolf.

“You look like your mother with your father’s height.”

Malcolm grunted at her, but she saw a flash of uncertainty in his eyes for a second before he grabbed her arm.

“You’re with me.”

She growled and felt her own wolf display in her pupils. The dryness that always accompanied that event made her want to scratch out her eyeballs. “The name is Carrie. Once upon a time, you called me Miss Carrie. And if you’re going to haul me around, you can be gentle about it or I’ll rip out your throat. Got it?”

Malcolm laughed. “Whatever you are, you’re amusing.”

Theo walked to her other side with his mate coming up behind her. Smart moves. They were flanking her so if she got away from Malcolm they could take her down.

The trees around them were broken. Branches were strewn everywhere and some of them appeared to have been burned. The fisherman had told her about the fire, and the damage must have been truly extensive. Had they lost people? What had started it?

Who do you think? I have no doubt it’s your father-in-law
.

The odds were that her wolf spoke correctly. Who else would burn Westervelt? She would never put it past the psycho to scorch the place he hoped to conquer.

“It looks so different from the last time I saw it.”

Theo hissed. “Quiet. You’ll get your chance to speak later.”

The woman with him disregarded his instructions. “When was the last time you were here?”

“Faith…” Theo tried to hush her.

She raised her hand, silencing him. Carrie raised an eyebrow. The powerful Theo Kane had a good amount of respect for his mate. She couldn’t be surprised. The gods seemed to know what each wolf needed in their partner.

“I want to hear what she has to say. I’ll be able to tell.”

Carrie trudged through the mud. “Ah. I see. You’re powerful. Your wolf magic tells you if I’m lying.”

“Yes.” The woman—Faith, who had a beautiful mane of thick brown hair running down her back—stopped moving and grabbed Carrie’s arm. “Please answer my question.”

“I was here forty years ago. On that night. After a series of events, all of which are a terrible blur, I was forced out with Kendrick to spend the next four decades living in hell.”

Theo snorted. “Convenient.”

“She’s not lying.” Faith started walking again and Malcolm pulled Carrie along to catch up. “At the very least she believes what she says.”

“There could be any number of reasons for that, my love.” Theo shook his head and for the first time Carrie noticed scars on his face. In the distance, they’d not been obvious and even standing close to him she could see they’d faded. But to have permanently scarred a wolf shifter? Something had nearly ended Theo’s life.

Did they not have a healer who could work on him? What did the females they’d mated have in terms of magical powers?

“There.” Theo pointed at a small collection of huts. “Tristan is in there. And if you’re lying to me or if you make any moves that I don’t like toward my Alpha, it’ll be the place where I bury you.”

“You could kill me, Theo. I’m a strong female. I fight well, always have. But if you end me, Gabriel dies. Just so you keep that in mind.”

Chapter 11

Carrie stood looking at Tristan Kane. She’d not seen him in forty years and somehow she suspected that if he knew she thought of him as Gabe’s little brother who still hadn’t found his way in the pack, he’d object to such a description.

She had to readjust her expectations immediately. There was nothing about Tristan Kane that didn’t scream Alpha. His eyes stayed permanently wolf and although he appeared exactly the same age and always would, for at least as long as he remained Alpha, his gaze held a worldliness she’d never seen in him before

Gods, once upon a time I wanted to sleep with him
.

Her wolf laughed.
That was before Gabriel. And if Tristan had ever really been interested you’d have run for the hills. No one compared to our beloved. Ever
.

Her gaze shifted to the person she’d avoided looking at since she’d entered the room. To the right of Tristan stood his mate, staring at her with as much concentration as the Alpha.

Carrie tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “You have Victoria’s eyes.”

Tristan’s mate flinched like she’d been struck. “You claim to have known her?”

“I knew her quite well. My best friend on Westervelt. I never did get to say good-bye. I’m so glad she went on to live a happy life.”

“Summer looks much more her equal than me. But, yes, you’re right. I have her eyes. You’ve either been coached to know that or somehow you know everyone here even as none of us know you.”

Tristan rose. “Do not address my mate again.”

“As you wish.” Her wolf wanted to lower her eyes, her head. They’d not sworn loyalty to Tristan yet. Time would tell if she could count on him as an Alpha. He’d have to wait until then to earn his submission from her. She kept her head up high. Even if it hurt. A lot.

“My pack tells me that you claim to have knowledge of us even though we do not know you, wolf. They also inform me that you are aware of my brother Gabriel and where he has gone.”

It all came down to this. Tristan would either believe her or he wouldn’t.

“Do I have your permission to make a case for myself?” If he just wanted her to beg, she would do that too. Better to know where she stood before she got started.

“You do.” He didn’t move, his gaze making her skin crawl with the need to fall to the floor and whimper.

“I knew a lot of you when you were born.” Her throat threatened to close up. She hadn’t expected the power of her emotions, the years away making her vulnerable. If they rejected her she had nowhere else to go, no one to help her “But most of you are older than me.”

“Go on. I don’t smell deceit on you.” Ashlee spoke out, moving to join her mate where he stood.

“I’m not lying. I won’t ever tell you untruths. This place was heaven; only none of us knew that, right?”

She looked around the crowd. The whole pack had gathered. Cullen Murphy, who had terrified all of them when they were young, stood next to a woman who had to be Summer, Ashlee’s sister. Carrie sucked in her breath. For just a second, it had looked like her old friend stood in the room again. Victoria had risen from the dead to join her in this moment of reckoning.

Azriel, the one Gabriel always worried the most about, stared at her from older eyes. He’d aged and mated. To his left was a face she never expected to see again.

She pointed at the woman with brown hair streaked with every color imaginable. Carrie’s heart flipped. “You’re alive.”

Az’s mate acknowledged her with a nod. “I remember you. Kendrick held you prisoner too. He made you work with us. You did everything you could to save me.”

“I thought you died. All of his creations die.” Tears finally exploded from Carrie’s eyes.
Enough
. “You can’t know how sorry I was. I did everything I could, but I was powerless there. Trapped by a bargain Gabriel made for both of us. His intentions were good. None of us could have known back then just how long this would go on.”

“My name is Leah.” She let go of Az’s hand and stepped forward. “My wolf saved me. It wouldn’t answer Kendrick’s call but it did come for Az and Tristan. I made it.”

Leah embraced Carrie like they’d known one another for years instead of just a brief instant of hell when Kendrick had transformed the other woman into a fake wolf. No, Carrie had to readjust that thought. She’d been a real wolf; Kendrick had tried to make her a fake one. He would have flipped out if he’d known he had a Westervelt unmated female under his thumb all that time. Leah was the daughter of a woman who had escaped Westervelt and mated a human. Kendrick hadn’t known what he had.

Leah pulled back. “She doesn’t lie to you, my Alpha. Kendrick had this woman trapped the entire time I languished there.” Leah returned to Az’s side. Pride swelled Carrie’s chest that she managed to not scream for Leah to please not leave her there alone.

Tristan nodded. “Continue.”

“I knew Gabriel my whole life. He scared me, like you scared me.” She looked straight at Cullen when she said that. Her former teacher scowled before rolling his eyes. “All of you were larger than life. And then one day Gabriel, who had never spoken a word to me other than in instruction, announced that he was my mate. That he’d known for years. It really threw me for a loop.”

“Why can’t we remember this?” Michael, the teacher, the calm one, asked. She’d not noticed him before that. There were too many things in the room, too many forgotten smells, sounds, and sights. This moment couldn’t be more important and yet she found she couldn’t focus as clearly as she needed to.

“Kendrick and Gabriel made a deal to save my life.” She took a deep breath. “In exchange you would all forget me. I would not die. I would stay with Kendrick and Gabriel would feed his father whatever information he needed to stay one step ahead of you.”

The room exploded with noise. Tristan held up a hand and they all silenced. Yes. That was the kind of power an Alpha should have. Absolute authority. But did he wield it kindly, or did the son share more than just his dark good looks with his father?

“Do you mean to imply my brother is a traitor?”

Carrie stood up straighter.
Now or never
.

“No. Kendrick believed he had created a traitor, but he found Gabriel a difficult spy. My beloved never told his father anything he could use. Your father bemoaned it endlessly but he didn’t dare get rid of Gabe. Not when he was being fed small tidbits of things that never added up to much.”

Cullen surged forward to stand next to Tristan. “Like what? What pieces of information did Prince Gabriel feel were worthless enough to feed to our enemy?”

“I’m not sure of all the details. I was a prisoner. Whatever I gleamed was what I overheard from Kendrick and Drea when they weren’t paying attention.”