I looked back at Remy. “Are you with me or not?”
“I’m always with you,” he replied. “That’s never even a question. But you don’t have to prove anything to us, Skye.”
A soft hand stroked through my hair.
“Are you sure, honey?” Mom asked.
I looked at her. “Are you? We both know what happened there.”
She paused and then slowly, clumsily nodded. “I’m with you.”
Long Mesa’s town wasn’t huge and it only took a few minutes to make it to the fountain. Sure enough, about forty shifters stood at the center, Allan Loomis in the front. I swallowed, spotting Marc a few feet behind him.
“Let’s go,” I murmured, waiting for Remy to get out and then pull me down next to him. In front and behind us, shifters we had brought with us were exiting their cars.
I glanced around, comparing their numbers to ours. If it came down to a fight, I liked our odds.
Allan grinned as we approached, his eyes locked on my mom.
“Welcome home,” he greeted. A ripple of chuckles rose up behind him. A few men even licked their lips, salivating at her return.
“You attacked my pack,” Remy said, coming to a stop several yards away.
Allan glanced around. “Your pack? We retaliated against a pack that has troubled us for years, little Alpha.”
Remy sighed, but didn’t rise to the insult. “Stand down and this ends now.”
Allan raised his brows. “What? No formal challenge? Afraid to take on our Alpha and claim the pack as your own?”
“Hard to challenge a dead man,” Remy answered.
If that wasn’t enough of a statement, Nikolai bent down into the cooler he had brought and lifted Linden’s head before casually tossing it at Allan like a baseball.
Allan jumped out of the way and the head landed with a squelch before rolling awkwardly to the side. Linden’s lifeless eyes stared at his pack.
I hid a smile at the sudden looks of unease on the faces of the men. Marc looked a little green, and he covered his mouth, twisting away from Linden’s head.
Allan moved forward, closing some of the distance. “And who said Linden Markham was our Alpha?”
Remy stepped forward, and I squashed the urge to keep myself glued to his side.
“So, that’s you, I take it? The man who molests a little girl after raping their mother?” Remy’s growl vibrated with rage. He turned his neck, cracking it. “I’m looking forward to kicking your ass.”
Allan’s lips curled into a grin as he rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Nah. I’m not an Alpha, kid. But I hope you enjoy her hot little mouth as much as I did. It was fun being there first.”
I felt Nikolai and my mom move to stand on either side of me. Supporting me. But I didn’t need their support. All I felt was rage and fury as Allan callously reminded us all that he had been my first kiss.
I had been a freaking child and he had stolen that from me.
Allan was baiting Remy, trying to get a reaction, but Remy remained still as a statue as he brushed off Allan’s vile comment with his own barb.
“Well, she had fun being the first person to kill one of your kids.” Remy let a slow smile creep across his lips.
Allan’s face twisted.
“And I had a blast being the one who killed the second,” Remy added with a wink. “I’m wondering if you’ll cry like Preston did before I killed him.”
“I’m going to love watching you die,” Allan spat, his meaty fists balling.
“If you’re not the Alpha,” Remy said softly, his tone lethal, “I’m not sure why the fuck you’re still talking. Unless it’s to buy your Alpha time to run and hide like a little bitch.”
The laugh that cut through the air almost made my knees nearly buckle, and I knew who it belonged to before I even looked.
Of course. Of fucking course.
Cassian stepped out from around the corner, the jagged scar running down his face erasing the boy-next-door looks he had used like a weapon. He was thinner now, the angles of his features sharper.
He looked like the monster I always knew he was.
Larkin and Tate sucked in sharp breaths behind me.
“Can’t this guy fucking die?” Rhodes hissed behind me.
I agreed. Part of me had known. The lack of a body after our fight at Granite Peak had left me wondering, waiting. At least now I knew that I wasn’t crazy for thinking about it all those months.
Cassian was like a cockroach; able to survive under the most of unlikely circumstances.
My eyes darted to Remy, watching as the muscles in his back bunched, his hands forming fists and then relaxing alternately as he watched Cassian approach.
“Guess I get my wish,” Remy murmured for my ears only. “I really wanted to kill this dickhead myself.”
I turned to him, gaping a little when I saw the glint of happiness in his dark eyes.
“You know, I’ve been looking forward to this moment,” Cassian said, walking towards Remy. “Our fight got cut off a little too fast last time.”
“You mean because my girl tackled you off a cliff like you were a pillow?” Remy smirked, but I could see his skin rippling as his wolf pushed for him to change. If he was shocked, he was hiding it well. His mask of calm seemed impenetrable.
Cassian grimaced. “She got lucky. And I don’t see any cliffs around here, do you?”
Nikolai moved to stand beside Remy before I could grab him. “So, this rancid little shit is the Alpha of this hellhole?”
Cassian grinned, tipping his chin up. “You must be Skye’s daddy. Thanks for bringing her home.”
Nikolai ignored him and turned to Remy. “He’s the Alpha?”
“Apparently,” Remy replied coolly, not taking his eye off the undead Cassian.
Nikolai grinned, spreading his arms wide like he welcomed the news. “Wonderful.”
He lunged forward, kicking Allan’s knee with a crack. Allan staggered and went down with a bellow, but Nikolai’s hands were there to cradle his head a brief second before they twisted, wrenching his head to the side.
The second crack that split the air was met with silence.
Allan fell forward limply, his neck broken. He was dead before his cheek hit the dirt.
“Sorry,” Nikolai apologized, almost congenial, before stepping back and away from the two Alphas. He gestured to the space separating them. “Carry on as you were.”
Cassian gaped down at where Allan was slumped.
Remy rubbed his jaw. “I guess now’s a good time to challenge you for your pack.”
Cassian’s head shot up, his eyes narrowing with hate. “Challenge fucking accepted.”
Remy grinned.
44
Remy
“Just so we’re clear,” Lulu said softly as I turned back to the group to get ready for the challenge, “I can totally just suck all the air out of his lungs right now and kill him.”
My eyebrows shot up.
She shrugged at me. “Or set him on fire. Snap his spine. Really, there’s a lot of possibilities.”
“You’ve been hanging out with my mother too much,” Dimitri grumbled, shaking his head.
“I’ve got this,” I assured them, feeling the familiar pull of my wolf as he readied for the challenge.