Dawn (The Dire Wolves Chronicles Book 3) (7 page)

I
hated the tunnels
, and it was with relief that I led Marni up the basement stairs and into the house that would be our home until Levi decided he was done with them. Sometimes the most dangerous places are the most appealing, and that’s exactly what this house was. The Society had spared no expense on the fancy décor and furnishings, but the greater expense was the magically reinforced walls, and impenetrable glass doorways. Even if the Dires could shift, they weren’t getting out. Walking Marni up into the house brought the old Eagles’ song Hotel California into my head. It was the kind of place you could never leave—at least not until the power that be let you.

Marni wasn’t fooled by the pretense. I could tell from the way she eyed the walls and took every step carefully. She was waiting for a trap to spring, but she was already in the trap. Levi had them exactly where he wanted them.

Semi and Chet were standing in the large open living room that none of the Dires would see again anytime soon. Neither man looked happy, and it had a lot to do with the fact that they were being restrained by Pterons. I barely had a hand on Marni, she understood that running would be a mistake. I respected that understanding, and gave her leeway accordingly. Besides, the chains around her ankles would slow her down. My guess was the two males weren’t being as reasonable. Either that or their guards weren’t in the mood to be reasonable.

Marni’s eyes immediately went to Chet’s when we walked in the door. The two were an item. There was no question by the way they found each other immediately. They were sleeping together, but there was something else there. At least I thought there was. I wasn’t exactly an expert at understanding Dire relationships. I didn’t even understand my own.

“Why are we here?” Marni’s eyes were still fixed on Chet, but I knew she wasn’t asking him the question.

I answered before either of my male counterparts could say something stupid. “We’re here because it’s more comfortable then the underground prison.”

“But it’s still a prison.” She wasn’t asking a question.

“Of course it is. You knew you weren’t being released.”

“I preferred the last place,” Semi grumbled. His features were severe, and I wondered if the man ever smiled.

“It doesn’t matter what you prefer.” Josh gritted his teeth. Normally he’d have used more choice words. I assumed Levi had already scolded him about treating these prisoners better. He wanted them to feel respected, even though they weren’t.

“I don’t like games and tricks. This is both.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Josh tightened his hold on Semi. “It doesn’t matter what you think.”

Semi growled.

Josh laughed. “What are you going to do? You know you can’t shift.”

Semi started to struggle against him.

The basement door opened again, and Hunter walked in with Levi behind him.

The other guards and I looked immediately at Levi while the Dires did the same for their Alpha. I couldn’t imagine being in a pack arrangement. It was nothing like how the Pterons did business.

“Wonderful, we’re all together again.” Levi cocked his signature half smirk/half smile.

“Wonderful isn’t the word I’d use.” Marni moved beside me. I was holding on to her arm more for a symbolic purpose than anything else.

“I understand you’d rather be elsewhere, but unfortunately you can’t leave yet.”

“When can we leave?” Chet asked. “We still don’t understand why we’re here at all.”

“Here as in custody or as in inside this house?”

“Custody. It’s already been explained to us that we’re here because it’s more comfortable accommodations.” Chet’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Because I want to get to the bottom of things. The hunt has gone on for long enough.”

“And you care about that because?” Semi’s face fell into an even more serious expression.

“Because it’s time that Hunter and I stop fighting our fathers’ battle.”

“It started long before our fathers.” Hunter’s deep voice filled the room.

“Yes it did.” Levi looked right at me. “But we are always focused on the ones who came just before. Aren’t we?”

He was talking to me, but I didn’t know why. Did he know how messed up my relationship was with my parents? He probably did. He was king, so he probably knew everything that was happening in The Society.

I nodded to let him know I was listening.

He nodded in response. “In a show of good faith, I’ve decided to let one of you go.”

Hunter’s expression didn’t change. He wasn’t surprised. That was interesting. It meant Levi had talked to him about the plan. That had to have been for a reason. The question was what reason.

“Let one of us go?” Marni asked. “If you want to show good faith let us all leave.”

Levi smiled. “Good try.”

“If anyone leaves, it’s Marni. Let her out.” Semi was the one to make that suggestion. I’d have expected it be Chet, but he didn’t say a word. There had to be strategy in that. Either that or he wanted to keep her close.

“I’ve already decided who it is.” Levi looked right at Semi. “Ready for the outside?”

“I already told you who you should pick.”

“I appreciate you making a suggestion, but I have my own.”

“What’s the catch?” Semi, looked at Levi suspiciously. “Why would you let me go? There’s no such thing as good faith.”

“Sure there is. Maybe your kind doesn’t know of it, but we do.”

All four Dires growled.

Levi must have noticed his mistake. “I mean no disrespect.”

Marni snorted. “No disrespect?”

“Fine. What I said was disrespectful, but I believe in showing good faith.”

“Why me?” Semi moved his legs, setting off a clanging of his chains. The Dires were strong.

“You seemed like the best choice.” Levi pulled out his phone to check something, then quickly pocketed it.

“He knew I wouldn’t leave her.” Chet’s eyes set on Levi. “Didn’t you?”

“I made the best choice given the circumstances.” He didn’t respond to Chet’s insinuation, but it was true. He was trying to avoid an unnecessary scene. The only one he really needed was Hunter, but having others gave him leverage. Especially Marni. Having a girl captured might give extra pull. Levi liked to think of himself as a gentleman, at least he seemed to, but that didn’t apply this time. He needed as much leverage as he could muster.

“What if I don’t want to leave without the others?” Semi looked at Hunter. He wasn’t actually asking Levi.

“You have no choice.” Levi ignored that Semi wasn’t addressing him.

“He’s giving you freedom. Take it. Find the others. Tell them we are going to be fine.” Hunter locked eyes with Semi.

“Are you kidding me?” Semi gritted his teeth. But then his face relaxed for the first time since we’d arrived at the house.

Something passed between Hunter and Semi, because Semi nodded. “As you wish.”

“Josh, take him back through to the eastern exit and get him ready for release. I’ll join you shortly.”

Josh nodded.

“See you all soon.” There was a warning in Semi’s words.

Levi merely smiled and turned his back. The door opened again, and Joseph walked in. I groaned to myself. Really? They had to send him back?

“I will be taking my leave as well.” Levi stepped toward the basement door. “You each know your orders. You will find the rooms ready for our guests. I already have the perimeter protected.”

“Your guests.” Marni rolled her eyes. “Right. And why is the perimeter being protected? What happened to good faith?” Marni narrowed her eyes.

“There’s only so far good faith can go.” Levi nodded at us and followed out the way Josh and Semi had just left.

“And then there were three.” Chet let out a loud sigh. “These games are getting old.”

“They are only going to get worse.” Joseph glared at him before turning his attention to me. “All right, you heard the king. Let’s move them.”

“He left ten seconds ago.”

“That’s ten seconds beyond what we were supposed to do.”

I opened my mouth to give a snarky response, but then I shut it. There was no point. I’d just be giving him what he wanted. Attention.

“Come on, Marni. Let me show you to your room.” I led her up the stairs before Joseph could go first.

“Hunter is Alpha, I get to pick his room first.”

“I’m sure both Hunter and Levi would agree that ladies should go first.” I turned over my shoulder to smile. “Wouldn’t you Hunter?”

“Absolutely. I’m in no rush at all.” Hunter smiled at me in a slow and sexy way. I blinked and looked away.

Marni laughed. “Oh yes, Hunter, always the gentleman.”

I shook my head and continued up the stairs with Marni by my side. I didn’t want to give Joseph a chance to argue with us anymore.

The rooms were spaced out exactly equidistant apart on the second floor. They were all far enough away from each other that the prisoners couldn’t communicate with one another, but close enough that a guard could help the others if need be. I selected the middle room for Marni. I did it for my purposes mostly, since it kept me in the middle of things, but also for her benefit so she’d be closer to Chet no matter which room he took. I undid her chains, and gestured for her to enter the room. She did without any trouble.

Joseph pushed past with Hunter. “The Alpha should be in the center room.”

“Too late.” I closed the glass partition.

“Bitch,” he mumbled under his breath.

“There are so many words I could use to describe you, but I’m professional.”

He chortled. “Yeah right.”

Once again I forced myself to ignore him. I refused to play into his hands.

Logan arrived at the top of the stairs with Chet, and got him settled in the remaining room.

“You okay, babe?” Chet called out, and I knew he wasn’t talking to me.

“I’m fabulous.” Marni went heavy on the sarcasm.

“Maybe next time we can book a room together.”

I laughed despite myself. I wasn’t supposed to like these Dires, but they weren’t as foreign as I expected. “Sorry we don’t have any king sized bed rooms.”

“We’d share a double,” Chet muttered.

“Against house rules,” Logan joined in on my joke. Of all the guards, he wasn’t so bad. He was way better than Joseph. At least I got one decent co-worker to spend the next few days with. One out of two would have normally been good odds, but Joseph took horrible to a whole new level.

“Not a bad cell.” Marni sat down on the end of her double bed.

“Better than your last one at least.”

“Different.” She ran her hands over the white quilt.

“I know it’s still a cell, but at least you have a bed and a bathroom.”

“A bathroom without a door.” She craned her neck to look into the small space.

“I’m not going to watch you pee.”

“I wasn’t worried. I spend the majority of my life naked with the pack. I was making a point.”

“Gotcha.” I waited just outside the door.

“Pterons aren’t that way about nudity. You don’t connect to your animal side completely.”

“We connect fine, but we prefer to live a more civilized life.”

She laughed. “Civilized? Is that how you see it?”

“How else should I see it?” I knew the Dires were violent and very animalistic, but beyond that I didn’t know much. I guess from the outside we didn’t seem like true shifters, but we were. We just happened to live a more refined lifestyle.

“You’re not a human. Why do you want to act like one?”

“Just because we like to keep humans alive and we chose to mate with them doesn’t mean we are them.”

“Mate with whoever you want to, but why the city life? Why not live in the country so you can fly freely?”

“I can fly plenty. It’s not hard to leave the city behind.”

“But your home is a place you should be free to be yourself. Don’t you want that?”

“Says the girl locked in a prison cell.”

She shrugged. “I’m merely commenting on your situation.”

“Do you really want me to comment on yours?”

“Not particularly.” She held up her hand. “But I do have a question.”

“What question?”

“Can I have a drink?” She watched me through the glass. “Preferably something strong.”

“I’m not sure if you’re allowed to have alcohol.”

“What’s it going to do? It doesn’t affect me much.”

“Who knows?” I shrugged. “It could interfere with the serum.” Holding the Dires prisoner was much easier when they couldn’t shift. Marni hadn’t taken the shot well, but she’d handled it. She had some self-preservation, and she seemed to have accepted she needed to cooperate if she was going to survive.

“The serum, is that what you’re calling this stuff?” She touched the spot on her upper arm where the shot was given. “It’s inhumane you know.”

“Good thing you’re not human then.” No one in the house was. I knew I was far from human myself, and most of the time that was a good thing.

“You know what I mean.”

“It’s not permanent.” The serum was for everyone’s safety. Theirs, ours, and the entire human race.

“Like you are ever going to let us shift.” She lay back on the bed.

I could no longer see her face, and if she were most prisoners I’d have abandoned the conversation, but if she might be the key to finally getting my spot on the intelligence force. I was going to listen. “Not while you are still dangerous.”

“We’re always going to be dangerous. We’re Dire Wolves.”

“Why do you hate them?” I broke a cardinal rule and asked her a semi-personal question. That made me vulnerable even though I was the one asking the question.

“Hate who?”

“Humans.” It wasn’t as though I loved them. Other than my mother I’d never had a real relationship with one, but Pterons usually mated with humans. We needed them for our bloodlines.

“I don’t hate humans.”

“Yes you do.” The Dires were responsible for thousands of deaths. I’d been taught that from a young age. It was part of why it was so important we stayed in power.

“I don’t.” She sat up. “Neither do any of the members of my pack.”

“Then why do you want to kill them?”

“Uh, I don’t.” She walked toward the glass.