Chapter 1
Preston
There were times in my life that I never saw coming. Lately, it felt like every day was one. I stood to the side of the bed, watching Mac writhe on top of the covers. She talked to someone, but I had no idea with whom she held that conversation. We were losing her to madness. Every day, it got worse. Or at least, it seemed that way. This was only day two. Perhaps there would come a time when it would stop progressing. We hadn’t hit that day yet.
A man named Ross Morgan was taking her piece by piece, until she’d stop communicating altogether. That was what happened to female werewolves when they became their version of the Loup. They faded into madness in their minds, unable to communicate with the outside world. But we weren’t there yet. Bit by bit, we were losing our mate, and so far, there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it.
Even through the closed windows, I could hear the sounds around me. More werewolves than I’d seen in decades swarmed through my house. They were here, a makeshift pack, to help my family fight this Loup who was after us. All of them had suffered. Yet, I had never loved huge crowds, even if they were pack, and their constant presence grated on my nerves like someone had taken a garlic peeler and tried to use it on my skin.
Beyond them, the sounds from outside warred with the scents I was desperate to get closer to. Forget that, what I really wanted was to scoop my mate off this bed and take her outside to the swamp with me. We were fucking home, but we weren’t home. And all I wanted in the world was to get her to where she could really be home with us.
I stalked to the window, taking a deep breath. This was where my family had always lived, until the Accords screwed everything up. We were meant to be here. I could smell the deer, the raccoons, the alligators, frogs, and turtles. Fuck, I could even smell the snakes. All of it called to my wolf, begging me to shift, but all my wolf wanted was my mate. Healthy. Happy. Here.
The door opened and closed, and my younger brother Jarret entered. Without a word, he walked to the edge of the bed and scooted in next to Mac. Wrapping her in his arms, he held her like he would never let her go.
We all had our ways in life. He wanted to cuddle, to heal. I wanted to rage. But at the end of the day, we were both stuck with no way out of this mess.
The phone rang in my pocket, and I picked it up before it could bother Mac. Although, I would love to see her eyes open. They hadn’t done that yet today.
“Yeah?” Yes, I was answering the phone that way. Anyone who called instead of texted would get that kind of annoyance right now.
“That’s how you say hello?” It was Rainer. I’d never been so happy to hear my big brother’s voice in my life. Truth was, we’d been close most of our lives, until it all fell apart when he went to jail. These days, he was more than my trusted friend and relative, he was my pack leader, and we shared a mate.
He’d been hauled off by the police and worrying about him was my second most concerning thing at the moment. Rainer could handle himself. He wasn’t being attacked psychically by a sick wolf who I might have had sympathy for, if he hadn’t come after what was mine.
“Talk.” I hoped he could hear what he’d certainly smell if he were here. I was the on the edge of losing my mind.
“I’m on my way back. The cops don’t even know why they have me here. Looks like Ross can mind control humans, too.”
I winced. “The hits just keep on coming. So we can’t even be sure the humans we don’t want to deal with in the first place aren’t working for Ross.”
“We kind of knew anyway.” Rainer was quiet for a second. “That’s how he got all of those people to attack us to begin with.”
“Sure.” I lifted my mouth off the phone to speak to Jarret. “Big brother’s okay.”
He held up his thumb in the universal sign for good. It was like he was up-voting us. I swore he spent three times the amount of time online that I did, liking things or whatever. I only cared about social media in as much as it helped with my business. The same job that was probably gone now, since I hadn’t set foot inside the building or seen any of the employees or boats in I didn’t know how long.
Oh well. Starting over would just have to be the name of the game.
“How is she?”
I regarded Mac for a long second before I answered him. “She’s not awake, but she’s not sleeping.” The acrid smell of pain assaulted my nose, as though speaking about her made me even more conscious of the situation. “She’s not doing well.”
Rainer audibly sighed. “As you are the king of underplaying things, I’m going to take that for just as bad as it must be. I’m on my way home. I borrowed this phone from my driver.”
“You’re with a driver, and you’re talking about humans as though you aren’t one?”
He laughed. I was glad one of us still could. “He’s a wolf. I knew him back when I worked as a chef. He was a waiter in the restaurant. Anyway, he’s coming with me. Wants to join the pack. Heard we’re shifting. It’s apparently all anyone is talking about.”
“Interesting.” I actually didn’t care if he brought back hundreds of former waiters turned drivers. I supposed numbers were better than not. Even if I wanted all of them out of my house yesterday. I sighed. No, what got me was that Rainer had just suggested that we had a pack. When had that become something he’d accepted? Last I’d heard, he railed against it.
He said something to the man driving and then back to me. “Tell her I’m coming.”
I shook my head, not that he could see that. “I’m not sure it’ll matter. She can’t hear us right now. Wherever her mind has gone…it’s not here with us.”
“Fuck.”
To say the least. “Yep. See you soon.”
I disconnected the phone. Jarret’s eyes were closed, and he was asleep now, holding her like she was his pillow and he needed her to get through the night. Part of me was willing to climb in next to them and cuddle, too. But that wasn’t how I functioned. Not really. Not when there were things to be done.
Leaving her in Jarret’s loving arms, I exited the room quietly. The dull roar of noise greeted me even stronger, which showed me just how good the doors to my room were at canceling noise. This was an old house. Sometimes, older was just made better.
I took the stairs two at a time, ignoring everyone, even Miranda, who was an Alpha wolf who had saved our asses. I just couldn’t talk. Not to anyone right then.
My mate was slipping through my hands, and I was powerless to help.
I’d even googled Ross Morgan to see if I could come up with anything. He had to be super rich. Surely, there couldn’t be that many Ross Morgans running around who had that kind of power and influence to fund the things he was doing. Nothing.
The building we’d raided in Atlanta, where we’d found everyone, was registered to an LLC that was connected to an offshore account I couldn’t yet infiltrate. This was like super spy shit, and I couldn’t compete. I was a werewolf. A swamp rat. A small business owner. No fucking way was I supposed to be playing at this level.
I knew how to kill. How to protect. I didn’t know how to fix this. How to save her. I was lost.
I’d never been a crier, and I wouldn’t indulge now. Mac deserved better than that from me. Focus.