After the Moon Rises (12 page)

If only she’d rescinded the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy. Coulda, woulda, shoulda got one all of nowhere fast.

“What would you like to know?” Good thing Margie had excellent hearing. Landa’s whispered words barely made it across the span of the desk.

“Start at the beginning. And Landa,” the blonde wolf’s gaze flicked to hers, “you are not going with Zane. Do you understand? You. Are not. Going. With him.”

Tears formed in Landa’s eyes and she dashed them away as her gaze dropped to her lap. A deep breath in. And the words tumbled out.

“My pack was overtaken by Sid’s some time ago. When I reached maturity, he saw me and liked what he saw.” She swallowed and touched her neck. “He kept me on a leash attached to a collar. He cast a spell on it so I couldn’t just take it off and leave.”

Margie felt a snarl turn her lip and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself enough to speak. “Then how did you escape?”

The corners of Landa’s lips turned up. “He thought I was stupid so he left his grimoire lying out. When he’d leave the room, I’d study his magic.” Her gaze flicked to Margie’s and held steady. “I learned the counter-spell to release the collar and ran. Kept running until I got here.”

“Your family?”

Landa shuddered, her gaze dropping to her clasped hands. “They’re dead,” she whispered. “He killed them all.”

Margie’s feet hit the floor with a thud and she leaned forward, resting her forearms on the desk. “I’m sorry.”

Landa nodded. Her eyes squeezed shut as air whistled into her lungs. “Thank you. Sid can’t stand to lose. It’s a pride thing. I thought I covered my tracks, but I didn’t have a chance against Zane. I’m so sorry,” her gaze met Margie’s. “I’ve brought trouble upon your pack.”

“Our pack. So tell me about Zane.” The thought that her mate was somehow aligned with a cruel leader didn’t sit well in her gut. Although he had said his sister was being held by Sid. And due to an apparently magical-powered torc, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

What kind of alpha didn’t have a choice in the matter?

And what the hell did that torc have to do with it?

“Zane is one of Sid’s enforcers. I don’t know him well.”

“Why does he wear that torc?”

“Sid weaves magic into those torcs and then he puts them on all the alpha males born in the pack when they reach puberty. It keeps their alpha powers locked.”

Oh, hell no
. She did not just hear that. Her view of Sid hit dirt bottom and kept right on barreling downward.

Her growl was interrupted by footsteps beating a fast rhythm down the hall, pausing outside her office door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Alpha!”

Jace didn’t bother with such niceties as waiting for her to give the okay to open the door. Nope. He burst in like his boots were on fire and the only extinguisher was in her office.

“What’s wrong?”

“There was someone in the woods, where we found that injured wolf last night. He roughed Mike up and said that he was here for the others. We’re takin’ Mike to the infirmary now.”

“What? How roughed up? And what the hell was Mike doing in the woods?”

Mike wasn’t even an enforcer. As a pack member who lived on the dude ranch, his responsibilities involved helping take care of the horses.

“One of the mares took off so he chased her to the fence line. Said that some guy was on the other side of the fence and when he asked him what he was doing, the dude shot something at him. Didn’t physically touch him, but Mike looks like a vampire left out in the sun. It’s bad.”

“Sid,” Landa whispered, eyes gone wide.

“What did he do to Mike?” Margie turned to Landa.

“Sounds like he threw an energy ball. It’s one of his specialties.”

Not for long it wasn’t. Sid had gone from being someone else’s dictator to moving his game into her territory.

And nobody messed with her pack.

So hell yeah, she was going to cast a counter-spell to whatever magic Sid had working in Zane’s torc. He’d brought the fight here, and everything in her cried out to take him down.

He was about to discover how dangerous it was to cross a female alpha.

Chapter Four

Zane paced from one end of his room to the other, his bare feet slapping against the cool tile of linoleum, borrowed scrub bottoms tied around his hips. The janitor had come and gone and the spot on the floor previously covered in soup now gleamed like ice on a sunny day. Allen had left in a hurry what felt like a lifetime ago and Big G stood in the hall, the door wide open.

Not like he could leave. He might not have the white bandage wrapped around his chest, but he still had stitches and an unhealed hole where the bullet went in.

And he wanted to see Margie again.

Even if she was still mad at him.

As if the higher powers heard him and decided to be accommodating for once, Margie put in an appearance, her boots tapping an angry rhythm on the linoleum. She slapped a palm on Big G’s shoulder as she walked into the room.

“Thanks for watching.”

“Anytime, alpha.”

She flicked her wrist and the door closed, shutting them in together. Alone. With his mate. Who looked madder than a bull about to be castrated.

So the higher powers were only partially accommodating.

“I just saw one of my pack members lying in a bed, badly burned due to an energy blast apparently thrown by Sid.”

“Sid’s here?” What? Did the fucker not trust him to bring Landa back? This just proved that Sid was smarter than he seemed.

“You know anyone else that can throw an energy blast? ’Cuz I sure don’t.”

“Can you?”

“Throw energy around?”

He nodded once.

Margie’s lips turned up like she knew a secret and she shrugged. “Tell me about the torc. Landa touched on it, but I want to know exactly what it does.”

Zane stuck his finger under the torc and yanked. Nothing happened except the bite of metal against his neck. “It won’t come off. Sid weaved magic into the metal which...” he paused, not wanting to admit he was weaker than he should be, that his powers were tied and try as he might he could do nothing about it. “Um, it means that he has power over me. Also means he can find whoever’s wearing the damn thing.”

“What kind of power over you?”

Yeah, right, like he wanted to go into that one. Admitting he had no powers was a slap to his pride.

“Look, Zane. If you want me to break the spell, you need to tell me exactly what it does. Skirting around the problem doesn’t work with magic.”

Zane ran a hand through his hair and tilted his head back so he stared at the ceiling. No help from that quarter. If getting free of the torc meant a slap to his pride, it was worth it.

Despite the fact it made him look weak in front of his mate.

“It binds my alpha powers. When an alpha reaches puberty, Sid puts one of these torcs around their necks. We have the strength and scent of an alpha, but none of the powers that go along with it. For all basic purposes we live our lives as betas and become his enforcers.”

Margie snarled.
Snarled
. And damn him, but it was hot as hell to know she was upset over his neckwear.

“Okay, this guy is going down. Why hasn’t any other pack wised up to what he’s been doing?”

“He’s good at hiding his tracks. And we live in an isolated part of South Dakota, so there’s not a lot of interaction with other packs.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“He took over the pack around the time my parents first mated. They said at first it wasn’t so bad, but then he got mixed up with magic and went into dictator mode and after that happened, things went downhill fast. Are you going to help me get rid of this thing?” He did another round of the finger-pulling-the-torc routine.

“He put one of my pack members in the infirmary and we might have to move him to a human hospital. So if you want me to help you kick his ass all the way to the ocean, I’m happy to oblige.”

Nice to know the earlier blow to his pride turned out so well.

“It’s appreciated.”

Margie nodded, the anger in her eyes bleeding to determination. “Landa mentioned a grimoire. Besides tossing energy blasts and binding alpha powers, what other tricks does he have up his sleeves?”

She was actually going to help him. The tightness in his chest relaxed. Sure, the stitches binding the bullet hole together were still there, but the powerlessness he felt over not being able to save his twin eased. Help from one’s mate tended to do that to a wolf.

“I don’t know. He keeps females locked up like dogs. Like he did Landa. Like he is Zenia.” Zane dragged in a breath. “But that magic seems to be similar to the torcs’. He has no problems killing those who get in his way. Usually by blasting them with energy.”

“So, we have an energy blasting dictator who maintains his reign of terror by non-discretionary killing.”

“That pretty much sums it up.”

“Well, a bullet can kill anything. Provided it has a chance.”

“Fairly certain that’s been tried before. It didn’t work.”

“We’ll see. Now let me look at that torc.”

****

Margie walked up to Zane, drinking in the anticipation glowing in his amber eyes. This close she could see the shadow of a beard on his cheeks, smell the scent of evergreens that belonged to him alone. Her skin simmered from the heat of his body, dancing shivers of warmth tracing the veins in her limbs. Her body spoke to his in the most ancient of ways, the calling of alpha-to-alpha, mate-to-mate. She wanted to stretch out on the bed and explore every inch of him.

She needed to find a way to take the torc off his neck.

Damn responsibilities.

Reaching out, she tucked her forefinger under the torc and ran her thumb across the twisted metal, a tremor shooting through her body at the touch. The heat of his skin warmed the back of her hand and instead of focusing on the metal, she turned her attention to his eyes. Amber irises watched her from under lowered lids.

“What do you think?” His breath caressed her cheek and she felt liquid pool between her legs.

That the bed’s three feet away and the door is shut
. “I feel the magical signature, but will need some time to figure out the spell he placed on it.”

“How long? If Sid’s here, he won’t hesitate to attack you.”

“I know. I’m not sure how long it will take. Sit over there.” She took a step back and gestured to the bed.

A smile creaked across his lips. “While I’d love to see you in my bed, I’m not sure now is the time.”

“Oh, I—,” Margie took a deep breath and tried to will away the blush attempting to turn her face a nice shade of tomato. No such luck. “Just sit. So I can look at the torc.”

His smile broadened. “Just for you.” Zane walked to the bed and sat, his gaze never leaving hers.

Ah. Now she liked that picture, hot, shirtless, alpha male on a bed.
Good one, Margie. Your pack is under attack and all you can think about is sex. What the hell is wrong with you?

Throughout her life she’d heard about finding one’s mate and the hormonal shift that occurred, but until she saw Zane, she hadn’t realized how strong the biological urge was. Until last night, she hadn’t even wanted a mate.

But now, within hours of meeting him, she couldn’t imagine life without him. She wanted him in her bed, in her life, in her body. Especially in her body.

Talk about an abrupt shift in thought patterns. Teenagers and menopausal women had nothing on her.

Zane inhaled deeply, his jaw tensing, a blast of heat flowing from him. Great. He must have smelled her arousal. She ventured a gaze down his body. Yep. Definitely smelled her arousal and was reacting accordingly.

Magic, Margie, focus on the magical signature and how to counteract it.

Two steps and she stood in front of him, her fingers locking around the torc. Closing her eyes, she pictured the magical signature that twisted through the metal. Threads of red mixed with strands of silver, woven into the metal like braiding on a sweater. Amazing. And daunting.

For while she had learned magic, she had never seen anything like this. Energy balls, fog, making people do things they wouldn’t normally do, no problem. Imbuing inanimate objects with magical abilities, big problem. Sure, she’d heard of it. But it was a magic she hadn’t bothered to study. What was the point?

As her mother wisely said, just because you can doesn’t always mean you should.

So now she needed to learn how to break the spell on Zane’s torc when she had no previous experience using that type of magic. No one did. No one—

Her eyes popped open. She might not know how to get the damn torc off Zane’s neck, but Landa might. The little wolf had read Sid’s grimoire and freed herself. Landa knew magic too.

“Zane?”

“Mmm?” Lust-riddled eyes met her gaze and heat slammed into her.

“If this torc comes off, what happens to Landa?”

“If you get this torc off, she won’t have to worry about Sid because he’ll be dead. By my hand.”

“And if it doesn’t come off?”

“If you can’t block the magic, then you’ll need to keep me away from the fight. Sid will try to control me if he sees me.”

“Do we need to tie you up?”

“Mmm.” He waggled his brows. “Only if you want to, babe.”

Margie shook her head and sighed with a loud huff. Tease. Her thoughts went careening down a path that had nothing to do with Sid’s impending attack and everything to do with seeing Zane tied to a bed, his body eager for hers.
Head back in the game, Margie.
“When’s the best time to attack? Provided he’s still outside my property.”

“Oh, he’s still there. He has Landa in his sights and he won’t let her go. Assume he didn’t come alone either. He’d have left half his enforcers at home and half of them he’ll have with him.”

“How many?”

“Twelve total. So that means he’ll have six here. Expect a fight.”

“Do the enforcers stay with him because they want to or because they have to?”

“Most don’t want to, but some are like Sid. They’ll follow him willingly.”