Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Six

Tyler Trip

“Alpha Tyler Trip,” Moray drawled, causing a stir in the crowd behind him. “I’m glad you’re here. I was curious about how your mate was recovering.”

His smile made me snarl.

“You see,” Moray went on, waving his gun casually, “I was hoping to get to know Caroline better. She was going to help me answer so many questions.”

I bared my teeth.

“It’s such a shame,” Moray sighed, “that you’re in that form. How can we ever hope for diplomacy when all you can do is howl and bark?”

I shifted back into my human form.

Moray grinned. “That’s better. Now we can talk like civilized beings.”

I turned to the men behind Moray. “Whatever your mayor has told you, it’s not true.

“I wasn’t the alpha who ordered the attacks on Mt. Oaks. I banished the man responsible; I punished him for his crimes against your town.”

“Oh, Tyler,” Moray murmured.

Ignoring him, I spoke directly to his people.

“I know that none of us want more bloodshed.” I touched my chest. “We’ll leave, but you need to do to Moray what I did to the previous alpha: banish him.”

A moment of silence followed, and Moray shifted uncomfortably. His laughter broke the tension.

“Alpha,” he said, his tone dripping with condescension, “we’re way past that point. Your wolves killed my people. You broke the treaty first. We have every right to defend ourselves.”

“Do you also have the right to kidnap my mate and experiment on her?” I shot back.

This caused a ripple of unease in Moray’s group. “That’s what you want with her, isn’t it? You want to experiment on her, see what our kind can endure, just like all the Sun Warriors before you.”

Moray spread his arms wide. “Is it so wrong to want to understand your enemy?”

“We don’t have to be enemies!” I burst out. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I have no desire to kill any humans. I have no desire to start another Feral War.

“I want peace. I fought for it before and that’s what I’m fighting for now.”

“Peace?” Moray scoffed. “You dogs just want carnage. You need to feel your teeth tearing into flesh, don’t you, mutts?”

A few of my wolves growled.

“You love the thrill of battle, the anticipation of war, the rush of planning and executing attacks.”

I shook my head. “No,” I insisted. “I love knowing that my pack is safe and thriving. That our young can go to school, find their mates, and find their place within the pack.

“I love knowing that my territory is secure and that I’m providing for my people.”

“Ah,” Moray dismissed, “you only feel this way because you were a soldier. You’ve had your fill of carnage.

“The wolves behind you though? They’re bloodthirsty. It’s obvious.”

“No,” I repeated, “they don’t want to be here any more than I do—”

“Admit it, Tyler, you are animals,” Moray prodded.

“No,” I said, “we are human—”

“Animals, mutts, wild beasts, monsters of the night—”

The growls grew louder until a few wolves were snarling. “Enough,” I commanded.

Moray laughed. “You’re just mindless mutts, eager to fuck anything that moves. Animals driven by instinct, not reason. Just freaks of nature that—”

“No!” I shouted as a few wolves lunged forward. “Damn it,” I growled as the first gunshot echoed.

The trigger-happy human missed their target, but the gunshot sent half of my pack charging toward their enemies.

The more disciplined wolves knew to wait for my signal and watched me anxiously.

Sarah, already shifted and ready, watched the fight with a look that made me wonder if Moray was right. Maybe we did thrive on carnage.

I turned as the fight began. A few wolves crashed into the wall of humans, who loaded their weapons and took aim.

“Fuck,” I growled, running my hands through my hair. This wasn’t how I’d planned for us to fight.

Rowan whined and nudged my arm with questioning eyes.

“Go,” I grunted. There was no other choice now. I couldn’t let half of my wolves attack without backup. “Attack.”

I turned away as the rest of the pack shifted and charged. The sight of the bloodshed made me shudder.

My mind was thrown back to a different time, a different battle. My hands twitched, remembering the first life they had taken.

“Trip?”

I looked up to see Han and snapped back to the present.

I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down, forcing him when he resisted. I pushed him into the trees and held him back when he tried to return to the clearing.

“What the fu—?”

“Stay here,” I said, my heart pounding.

“What? No!” Han pulled away.

I pointed a finger in his face. “Stay here. Hide. Be quiet.”

“I came to fight—” Han protested.

“No,” I countered. “You’re here to hide and keep your fucking mouth shut so you don’t get killed. Do you understand me?”

Han pushed against my chest. “You can’t treat me like this.”

“Yes,” I snarled, “I can. Because I’m your alpha. Because I’m your brother. Because I’m bigger and stronger and because I said so.”

“Did Caroline—?”

“You’re a kid, Han,” I cut him off.

“I’m older than your ~luna~—”

“No,” I growled, “you’re not, not mentally. You’re just a naive kid, Han. You shouldn’t be involved in this. I-I promised your mother… I—”

“This is bullshit,” Han argued. “My brother and father are out there and I should be with them. I ~want~ to be with them.”

I grabbed his collar and shoved him back forcefully, not stopping until his back hit a tree.

“Han, your issue is that you’re itching for a fight. You’re still a kid. Have you ever taken a life?” I asked him.

Han’s mouth opened, but he stuttered, “I-I—”

I gave him a hard shake. “Have you ever killed someone?” I repeated, my words biting.

“No,” he shot back, his eyes locked on mine.

I held up my trembling hands for him to see. “Well, I have. I choked the life out of a kid not much older than me on my first mission in the war. And there were many more after that… I’ve lost count.

“Do you have any idea what that does to a person?” I asked, shaking him again. “Do you get what I’m trying to do for you right now?”

“Yeah, you’re acting like a jerk and—”

“You’re not going to get hurt,” I cut him off. “Caroline wouldn’t be able to handle that.”

“So, this is about Caroline—”

“Stay put, Han,” I ordered. “If I see you out there, I won’t hesitate to break both your legs if it means keeping you alive.”

I turned my back on him, hearing his frustrated grunt and the string of curses that followed.

“You once told me to step up,” Han yelled after me. “You told me to channel my anger into something productive.”

“I was talking about—”

Han cut me off with a glare. “It doesn’t matter what you were talking about. Caroline’s a fighter; Grant’s a fighter. Let me prove that I can be one too.”

“Don’t defy your alpha,” I warned him, before leaping into the trees and shifting.

I landed on all fours, pausing only to shake out my fur, before I dug my claws into the earth and sprinted forward, my injured arm straining with the effort.

I pushed my way through the line of wolves to see the humans nervously brandishing their guns.

My pack members hesitated, snarling and darting forward only to retreat when the humans’ fingers twitched towards their triggers.

Moray caught my eye and smiled before he turned and disappeared into the crowd.

I growled and turned as well, circling the fight while keeping the mayor in my peripheral vision. Moray moved through the deserted town, his gun hanging loosely at his side.

I held back—watching, waiting, unsure if he was leading me into a trap.

The mayor turned back and smiled at me. He nodded before he entered a bar plastered with signs that read: ~NO WEREWOLVES, WOLVES BEWARE, WILL SHOOT WOLVES.~

I lowered my body to the ground and scanned the entire street.

Every window was hidden behind closed curtains, and each door had been barricaded. Everyone was either fighting my pack or hiding from them.

The fur on the back of my neck stood on end. Seeing no other option, I shifted and crossed the street.

I kept a close watch on the windows, knowing that if someone wanted to take a shot at me, now was the time.

“Moray?” I called out, placing one hand on the door of the bar. I eyed the signs warily. “I’m guessing you want to talk?” I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Moray was sitting on a barstool with an amber-colored drink in his gloved hand. A pair of pants was folded neatly on the barstool next to him. His gun was on the bar top.

“What’s your poison, Alpha?” Moray asked.

I stiffened. “There’s a fight—”

Moray took a quick sip. “Let the lesser people sort that out, shall we?”

I bristled. “I fight alongside my pack.”

“Then why are you here?” Moray shot back, casting a sidelong glance my way.

“Because I believe in diplomacy,” I said. “I’d rather find a resolution that doesn’t involve bloodshed. From your speech, I thought you believed that was impossible?”

Moray set his drink down and began to peel off his glove, revealing a hand that was twisted, bruised, and broken.

“One of your wolves did this to me,” Moray said, his voice sharp with lingering anger. “He had white hair and a nasty attitude. I’d like to know where he is.”

I grabbed the pants from the barstool and pulled them on. “You’re better off not knowing where that particular wolf is. The damage he did to your hand is the least of your worries.”

Moray’s smile was icy. “I’ll call off the fight if you tell me where he is.”

“You’d do well to learn forgiveness,” I said.

My shoulders were tensing up and my heart was pounding the longer I stood next to the man who had shot Caroline; who had wanted to experiment on her.

“How can we end this, Moray?”

We both froze at the sound of rapid gunfire.

“Hand over your luna,” he murmured, taking another long drink.

The mayor tried to flex his ruined hand and winced. “She’s a worthy prize. She’s resilient; good for testing. I think we’re owed a high-ranking wolf after you killed so many of ours.”

I laughed harshly. “Absolutely not—”

“What kind of alpha are you,” Moray asked, “unwilling to sacrifice one to save many? One wolf in exchange for your pack, that’s what I’m asking. Didn’t you swear to protect them?”

“I swore to protect her too,” I said, my voice dark, my hands shaking.

“From what I hear, she’s not even your real mate. She’s your second, right? Why not take a third?

“Give me her and your silence; no one has to know we made a deal. I’ll make sure no one from this town ever bothers Mt. Timbre again. Your pack will be safe. We’ll both be happy.”

I was silent.

Moray lifted his drink in a toast. “Come now, Alpha, you’re not a violent man. Your fighting days ended with the war.

“You’ve proven this time and time again by refusing to kill me, just like when you failed to kill Ryan Stellar when he challenged you. This is the peaceful resolution you wanted.”

A chill ran down my spine. “You know Ryan Stellar?”

Moray paused. “I—”

“Of course, you do,” I hissed, remembering Moray as he slit the throat of the shopkeeper. “Isn’t it convenient that you took over for the other mayor?” I asked.

“Especially when Ryan was offing humans and giving a Sun Warrior the perfect chance to brainwash a small town into another Feral War.”

Moray chuckled. “Now, Alpha—”

“You two know each other,” I cut in. “Maybe you were even in league—”

“Absurd,” Moray dismissed.

I paused, thinking. “No. No, Ryan would never team up with you. But you must’ve had a contact in my pack. Someone to feed you names and details. But who?”

“I want Caroline Ryder,” Moray declared, finishing his drink and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “That’s the only deal I’m putting on the table.”

~I did what I had to do to keep the pack safe.~

“Theo,” I pondered, a cruel smile tugging at my lips. “He was your inside man. He was the one feeding you information… The one to—”

“As far as I’m concerned, Theo is the only one who truly gives a damn about your sorry pack. He knew Ryan was crossing a line with the killings, and he knew the old mayor was going to rat out your pack.

“So, when my people put me in charge, he came to me. Gave me what I needed in return for what he needed.”

I shook my head, a growl slipping out.

Moray poured himself another drink. “Which brings me back to Caroline Ryder.”

“What did Theo ask for?”

Moray clicked his tongue. “He wanted me to keep quiet about the killings…and I needed him to off the right people.”

“You had him kill the folks in your town who didn’t want you as mayor,” I guessed.

“More or less,” Moray conceded. “You know how folks feel about Sun Warriors.”

I paused for a moment. “That couldn’t have been all.”

Moray smiled. “Theo was an excellent subject; very willing to subject himself to all sorts of tests—”

Moray sighed. “They weren’t tests usually done on the living, you see, but a corpse among wolves isn’t as common as a corpse among humans.”

I shuddered with revulsion. “You ~tested~ on him?”

“Yes,” Moray snapped, irritated. “And now my subject is gone and my research has hit a wall, I want Caroline Ryder. That’s my offer, Alpha.

“I’m no diplomat, not really. I’m a simple man, driven by the need to protect humans and make them better. I carry on the Sun Warriors’ mission.”

“You’re awfully presumptuous,” I said, snatching the drink from Moray’s hand and downing it. “To think that you can manipulate me. To pretend like you understand a mating bond.”

Moray sniffed. “I do understand,” he said. “I understand that your real mate is dead and that Caroline is a stand-in—”

I smashed the glass. “Caroline is my mate. Caroline is my luna. Caroline is mine. You will never have her. You will never touch her again.”

Moray frowned deeply, picking up the gun in front of him. “Then I’m terribly sorry, Alpha, because I have to kill you and your pack of dogs.”

“It’s awfully presumptuous,” I repeated, watching him aim the gun at my head, “to think you understand me at all.”

Without blinking, I snatched the gun from Moray. It fired, shattering a bottle of rum behind the bar.

Moray yelled as I twisted and broke his wrist, forcing him to drop the gun.

He scrambled to pick it up, but I grabbed him by the throat and shoved him over his stool. All the air left his lungs when he hit the ground and he started gasping.

“Awfully presumptuous to think you can kill me,” I said, yanking him to his feet by the collar. I threw him against the bar.

“Awfully presumptuous to think you had me so engrossed in your conversation; to think that you have the upper hand. Let me remind you that I am stronger, smarter, and faster.

“Let me remind you that I am a predator and you are prey. Let me remind you that you live because I allow it. ~Only~ because I hoped to reach an end that didn’t involve blood.”

“I—”

I clicked my tongue. “No, no,” I mocked, “you’ve said plenty. You’ve said enough to convince me that you will never leave my pack alone, even if I were to give you Caroline.

“Something, by the way, that would only happen if I was dead and buried, along with my entire pack.”

Moray gasped. “I’ll leave.”

“Coward.”

He blinked hard. “I will—”

“I’m terribly sorry,” I whispered into his ear. “I have to kill you.”

With one swift move, Moray was dead.

I sat on the barstool, my shoulders slumped as I tried to figure out my next move. I needed something to end the fighting. Some way to restore peace between Mt. Timbre and Mt. Oak.

I wasn’t naive. I knew there would never be trust again. But I needed something to create a sense of peace.

A blinking light caught my eye and I smiled. As I scanned the bar, I saw security cameras in every corner.

If they didn’t record audio, then they weren’t damning, but Moray had pointed the gun at me first.

I bolted from the bar and sprinted down the deserted streets to where the fighting was still going on.

My steps faltered as I got closer and my ears started to ring when I looked up at Mt. Timbre. Smoke. Billows and billows of smoke.

My throat tightened as I watched the thick smoke rise.

~Gunshots were echoing all around us, bouncing off the trees and earning screams as the wolves fled.~

~My heart stopped when I saw her. Her long honey hair, large soft eyes, and full mouth agape. She was standing in front of me, her satin skin stained with soot and red where the flames had caught her.~

~We locked eyes, and I saw the relief in them before a cloud of smoke stole her from me.~

~Del.~

“No,” I mumbled. ~Not again.~

I looked at where the two groups were fighting and ran forward. “Enough!” I shouted desperately. “Enough! Moray is dead, there’s nothing left to fight for!”

The fight continued so I grabbed the nearest wolf. “Stand down,” I ordered. Movement caught my eye, and I reached out to grab the barrel of the shotgun that was now aimed at me.

I stared into the eyes of the terrified, trembling man. “Back off, we’re done fighting you. We’re heading back to our mountain and we’ll leave you be.”

The man dropped his weapon and bolted, dragging a few of his comrades with him. Once a few started to flee, the rest followed suit.

I turned to face my pack. My gut churned as I saw the smoke billowing from the mountain behind them.

“We need to get back to our territory,” I shouted, locking eyes with Sarah. She let out a sharp howl and the enforcers froze in their tracks.

“Something’s not right and—” My words choked off as a fresh column of smoke billowed up, this one bigger than the rest. I followed its origin and my heart seized in my chest.

~Home.~

~Caroline.~

I shifted into my wolf form and took off, my pack trailing behind me. I felt a brush of fur against mine and saw Rowan running beside me.

My breath came in ragged gasps as I dug my paws into the earth, pushing myself to run faster than I ever had before. I felt no pain in my wounded shoulder, only panic coursing through my veins.

The closer I got, the more I could hear the screams of terror, the growls, the desperate pleas for mercy. I let out a snarl and sprinted ahead, leaving my pack behind.

As we reached Caroline’s family home, I skidded to a stop. My heart pounded as I shifted back and dashed inside. “Caroline!” I yelled. “Caroline!”

“Trip—” Rowan’s voice echoed from the doorway.

This was where Caroline was supposed to be safe.

I stepped into the house and called her name again, her scent lingering in the air. It was stale. “Caroline!” I yelled again. My throat constricted and I struggled to draw breath.

I froze at the sight of the large pool of blood in the hallway. Two streaks of it smeared down the wall.

“Libby!” Mick’s voice rang out as he pushed past me. “Mom?” I turned to see Rick Ryder behind me, his gaze locked on the blood on the floor.

“Mick?” a small voice responded. I let out a breath as Libby slowly emerged, supporting Mrs. Ryder, whose face was swollen and bruised.

I waited for Caroline to follow. My expression fell with each passing second she didn’t appear. “Where’s Caroline?” I demanded.

Libby glanced at me over Mick’s shoulder. He held one hand on her stomach while the other held her close to him.

“She left,” Libby said simply. “She killed the man and she left.”

I felt a buzzing sensation. “What man?”

“He broke into our house and tried to attack us,” Mrs. Ryder explained. “They were after her.”

“Caroline killed him and left. We dragged his body outside, we couldn’t bear to look—”

“A human?” I asked, my voice strained.

Libby shook her head. “Wolf.”

I was fixated on the amount of blood on the floor and smeared down the wall.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The pack was safe from attack. ~We~ were handling the threat. Caroline was supposed to be safe here with her mother.

I spun around and pointed at one of the wolves. “Take care of the body,” I ordered.

Rowan moved to my side, his face tense as he waited for my next command. I looked at him and shifted back into my wolf form, and he did the same.

I threw my head back and let out a mournful howl, then I ran toward the flames.