Blue Moon III: Call of the Alpha (34 page)

Alpha walked in and everyone – including him – paused, then did whatever the fuck he said. Metal-tipped axes hit the floor while they watched death himself stalk towards them. When Omega was sure that Call was no longer in danger, he went about assessing the ex-SEAL’s injuries. He had some bruises and contusions and a nasty hole in his calf, but his bones and limbs were still intact. Omega was fast when he broke the tip off the arrow and yanked it out. Call grunted in pain but kept it low. Omega didn’t want to distract Alpha, either. Omega ripped some fabric from his cloak and made a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.

“All targets eliminated,” Hawk voiced. “Navid is on site.”

“Send him in,” Omega answered and ordered Hawk to get back to the jet. The long-range eliminator had completed his part of the mission.

Lion was busy bringing the red assassins to their knees, lining them up in front of Alpha. There’d be no arrest. No trial. Alpha was the jury and the judge, then… their executioner.

Call

He’d been setting the last explosive when he felt the immense burn in the back of his calf. At first, he thought he’d been shot, then he saw the goddamn arrow lodged through his muscle. He went down and managed to limp a few feet before five or six men blocked his path. He fought with everything he had. Snapped one man’s neck and broke one’s arm before he succumbed to the others’ attacks.

The whole time he was being dragged, he fought not to scream for Alpha. He wouldn’t do that to him. He’d heard his heart yell out to him but he didn’t answer. Luckily, Pierce cut his communication because he didn’t think he could stomach Alpha’s cries.

When he was dropped inside the room, he noticed Omega and Lion sitting against a wall with their hands behind their backs. There were more men scattered around, but the men in all red he knew were the leaders, the traitors to the Order.

It wasn’t the plan to tell the rebels who they were, not until right before they killed them. Omega told them who Call was before he could stop him. He knew why Omega had done it. Omega would do anything for his brother, so that meant doing any and everything within his power to save Call’s life. It did. As soon as Alpha’s name was mentioned, men started to abandon the thought of rising against the Order. None of them were true warriors. Not if they tucked balls and ran so effortlessly.

Minutes passed while Call sat there in pain but completely silent. After the first explosions, he knew Alpha was close. The screams of mutilated men made him sure of the proximity of his cherished.

More explosions rocked the structure and a ringing met his ears that made Call fight not to let his mind go back to the many war zones he’d been in. Hawk’s rifle sounded like a cannon firing off a fifty-gun salute.

He slammed his hands over his ears when a body burst through the thin wall separating the rooms and slammed against the hard surface only a few feet away from him. It was gruesome, there was no other description. Only the man’s lower torso was somewhat intact, the upper body nothing more than a shell where internal organs once were. Call turned his head in the other direction. His leg was on fire and his face throbbed and swelled so badly he could only see out of one eye, which was enough. Death wasn’t pretty to look at. It wasn’t as glamorous as Hollywood made it seem. The nauseating smell of blood, bowel, and insides flooded his nostrils and he fought not to gag. The heat from the second blast reached them and sprayed dirt and debris all around them.

When Alpha’s threatening voice reached them, Call didn’t exhale until he looked into Alpha’s eyes. What he saw made him almost choke on his gasp. What he saw was the rare Black Tiger. The devil incarnate, to punish the wicked.

His cherished was focused, but he could still feel his pull to him. The air was hot from the contained explosions, but Alpha took his time, walking around the three kneeling men. Lion yanked their hoods off their heads, there was obviously no reason for anonymity now. Not for them, anyway. The Nigerian who’d done all the talking opened his mouth first.

“Alp—”

Before the traitor could finish the second syllable of Alpha’s name, his cherished pulled his knuckle blade, drew his arm back and slashed the man’s throat so deep his head hung from his body before it dropped to the ground, twitching and shaking.

Fuck!

It all happened so fast, if Call had blinked, he would’ve missed it. Alpha was even faster than Omega. Alpha calmly rose back to his six-foot height, his eyes completely unreadable. Like killing came naturally to him. Lion stood off to the side, not making a sound, also not bothered by the dead man lying in a pool of blood at his feet.

Quickly getting the hint, neither of the other assassins dared to call Alpha’s name. They weren’t worthy.

“Don’t speak unless spoken to,” Lion ordered.

The last two men stayed on their knees, but at least they weren’t groveling and begging for their lives. They knew they were going to die. But Alpha could make it painful or swift.

Call heard the sound of a motor dying down right before one of the tallest men he’d seen yet swept inside elegantly. He was cloaked in black like Alpha but he didn’t have a flak coat, so he had no weapons. Call balked when the man knelt to touch him and the way the man jumped back and held up his hands didn’t make Call let his guard down.

“It’s me, sir. Navid. I was on the jet with you. I’m Master Lion’s squire,” Navid said in his calming voice. “Let me get you to safety, sir.”

“I’m not leaving without him,” Call bit at the slender man.

Navid stood and waited for instruction. Lion nodded his head at Navid and the man stood close to Call but didn’t try to move him again. There was no way in hell Call was missing this. His Alpha in action.

“You have stolen millions from my Order. Have cost your own brethren their lives by your greed. Have cost women and children their lives because you failed to do your duty, broken an oath you swore on with your lives. Disregarded your masters’ teaching, your allegiance.” Alpha’s voice never rose as he spoke. “You deserve a fate worse than death. However, I have one question and one question only. You have three seconds to answer it. If you answer, your death will be swift and your corrupted souls can return to the depths of the Earth where they belong.”

With one hand, Alpha reached behind him and pulled his katana from the sheath strapped to his back. The forty-one inch sword was just as intimidating and dramatic as the man holding it. The metal gleamed even in the dimness of the room, the handle wrapped in a white nylon cord. Alpha’s hands were expertly positioned over the black tiger stitched into the genuine ray skin. “Damascus steel. A blade that’s sharp enough to slice through a falling piece of silk. Strong enough to split concrete.”

Call worked his way to his feet, Navid and Omega providing him with some assistance. He didn’t want to watch this sitting down.

Holding the blade at his side, his body turned just slightly, Alpha asked his one question. “How did you learn of Lion’s location in the States?”

Three, two…,

“Soldier who called himself Viper.”

Call’s eyes widened. His own man.

As promised, Alpha swept his blade into the air and spun his body in a complete three hundred sixty-degree turn, giving his blade enough momentum to sever the first red assassin’s head as well as the one kneeling right beside him in one swing. It was swift and it was merciful from the honorable one. Alpha turned his back before the headless bodies hit the floor, the shocked faces on the heads rolling like bowling balls.

Alpha stood before him and Call yanked him into him. Hugged him hard. He needed Daskshaun back. “Shaun, look at me.”

Call pulled back, waiting for Alpha’s beast to release him. He could only see Alpha’s eyes, but that was all he needed to see. “Shaun!”

Alpha jerked and blinked. His black eyes roaming all over Call’s face. It wasn’t until he saw the tears forming in his lover’s eyes that he released his tight hold.

Alpha’s gloved hand ran down Call’s swollen cheek, whispering painfully, “John.
Nooré cheshm-am.
”

Call didn’t care about the sting in his lip when he smiled. Alpha had called him the light of his eyes. “Let’s go home, Daskshaun.”

Lion

While the pilot navigated the jet to Isfahan International, Lion listened to Hawk and Pierce as they tried to talk him out of taking Viper’s life right then and there.

When they got on the plane, Alpha and Navid immediately tended to Call’s wounds in the bedroom, then gave the commander a sedative to help him rest through the pain. They were going to the Order, not back to the States. Not yet. They had the best doctors in the world at their disposal. Alpha didn’t want to risk any permanent damage to Call’s leg and wanted to be sure there were no internal injuries.

Lion was fine with that plan. They’d be received as royalty. But it’d be disrespectful to bring a dishonorable traitor like Viper into his homeland. “If I hadn’t wounded him on the flight over, all of us might be dead, including your own husband. Who knows what he was working on. We may have been ambushed before we even got to the checkpoint. I changed the coordinates at the last minute. Even wounded, if my squire hadn’t been here, he might’ve tried to take out Pierce and finish the job.” Lion’s anger was spiking the more he thought of the would’ve/could’ves. Praise the gods. He’d rip out Viper’s throat if he brought him up from his confinement right now.

On some level, the seer had to know that Lion was right. Hawk’s hair was a dirty mess from his trek through the woods and his eyes shone in a myriad of colors, the flames now absent. Though the fire didn’t blaze anymore, Hawk’s rage could be felt by all of them. “I never got a vision. I need to speak to him. He was our brother in arms. I have to know why. I have to know why he turned on us. Call would want to know as well. Then....” Hawk sighed, his husband trying hard to console him. “Then he’s yours, Lion.”

“I just… just don’t kill him right here. I have seen enough death tonight to last ten lifetimes. I can’t stand to watch another man die,” Pierce asked respectfully.

Lion nodded. He could honor the sensitive genius’ wishes. He’d been invaluable to their victory, had suffered a great lost. Lion wouldn’t spill blood in front of him out of respect. He stood from one of the large recliners, Omega pulling back the ice pack he had resting on Lion’s cheek. “Navid.”