From the Ashes (Force of Nature Book 1) (32 page)

“Take her phone too,” Knox yelled at Foust. “We're going to need it later.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, fear rising within me.

“Precisely what she’d planned to, only we're going to do it just a wee bit earlier.”

Oh my God...

“They'll burn,” I said, breathing the words as though saying them too loudly would make that reality worse somehow.

“They'll get what they deserve, Piper. They betrayed you. They don't get mercy.”

“But—”

“No buts on this one. I don't mean to be an asshole about this, but I have to plan an ambush. I'm going to need you to hang out in your room for a while.”

Before I could argue, he walked inside, presumably to make sure Foust had Kat locked away. The others followed him in, leaving me in the front yard to ponder what in the hell had just happened. My best friend was taken prisoner. My boys had betrayed me, which, if Knox had his way, was going to cost them the ultimate price. And I was likely to face the male who had nearly taken my life. Maybe both of them, for that matter. It was all a lot to absorb.

But worse than that, there was something niggling at the back of my mind. Something that didn't quite add up. I needed answers, and there was only one place I was going to find them.

I walked inside to find the pack embroiled in a discussion regarding strategy, so I took that opportunity to head off toward my room. At the last second possible, I diverted down a different hall. The one that led to the holding cell.

Kat and I had a few things to discuss.

* * *

She was locked up tight when I found her, so there was no need for anyone to stand guard. If I was going to get the answers I wanted, it was now or never.

“Kat,” I whispered as quietly as possible. “Are you okay?”

“My leg feels like it had a date with a wood chipper, but other than that, I'm stellar. You?” she replied, smiling.

“Things are a bit tense at the moment...”

“Interesting friends you have here. Figures that you of all individuals would try to go underground, only to move in next door to an entire pack of werewolves.”

“Who'd have thunk it, right?”

“If I'd have known they were here, it might have been the first place I looked, knowing your luck.” Her jovial expression fell to one of sadness. “Listen, Piper. You have to believe that this isn't what I want.”

“I know that, Kat. I understand the position you're in,” I said, trying to put her at ease. “What I don't understand is why you said the king sent you?”

She paused for a moment.

“Because he did?” she replied, confusion in her tone. “Piper, you know as well as I do that when the king asks you specifically to do something, you don't argue.”

“Right. I know that, but what I don't get is why he wants me found so badly. I knew Merc would be after me. Maybe even the boys because they were worried, but not the king.”

She looked at me strangely.

“He's worried about you being on your own.”

“What?” I asked, not hiding the incredulity from my tone. “Is that what you think or what he said?”

“Not that he stopped to explain himself,” she said dryly, “but yes. He did say that he was concerned for your well-being, knowing your history, and asked that I bring you home safely.”

“He wants to bring me back to the mansion? To Merc?” I nearly shouted before lowering my voice. “He tried to kill me, Kat. Why in God's name would he send me back there? Just because we're bonded?”

Realization dawned on Kat's face.

“Piper, are you working under the presumption that the king knows about the attack? About what Merc did?”

“Um, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?”

Kat leaned against the cell's bars and closed her eyes, exhaling heavily.

“We didn't tell him.”

Holy. Shit.

“What do you mean you 'didn't tell him'?” I repeated, throwing in some air quotes for effect.

“I mean that once you left and the boys got Merc under some semblance of control, they had a little meeting about how to handle things.”

“Who's they?”

“Jase, Dean, Jensen, and Kendrick. They were the first to arrive home from the king's. They're the ones that found you and stopped him from...”

“Smashing me to bits?” I asked sardonically.

She sighed again.

“By the time I got home, Merc was relatively stable. According to Jensen, he sounded nothing like he had when they'd arrived on the scene and found him with you.”

“But why the need for secrecy? Why not report him?”

She looked away from me for a moment before turning her wide eyes back to mine.

“Do you remember what he said that night?”

“Um, he said a whole lot of crazy shit that night, Kat.”

“Jensen said he was enraged, spouting off about the king and you conspiring against him—trying to get him sent away again.”

“And they believed him?”

She shrugged.

“Listen, Merc was sent away before I ever came on the scene, but from what I now gather, he might have been put away for...unfounded reasons. At least that's what Jase and Dean alluded to.”

“So they're willing to risk my life because they
think
he was treated unfairly a bazillion years ago?”

“I don't know what they're thinking, Piper. I already told you that they're all over my ass every night, checking up on my progress. But they're acting weird. Weirder than normal. I don't know what to make of the whole thing,” she said, pushing away from the bars to limp around the cell. “Do I think they're up to something? Maybe. Maybe not. There are too many unknowns in this for me to even begin to sort through, let alone come to a conclusion. All I know is that I jumped at the chance to be the one to look for you because I knew my own intentions, and they're to get you the fuck away from all this as fast as I can.” She turned dead-serious eyes to me. Eyes that glowed a light shade of gold. Wolf eyes that I had never seen before. “But now I can't even do that because Romeo out there has a hard-on for revenge.”

“He's trying to protect me—”

“He's going to get you and everyone else in a five-mile vicinity killed!” she snarled a little too loudly. Footsteps echoed down the hall. Someone was coming.

“What do we do, Kat?” I whispered, panic rising in me as I looked over my shoulder to see who was coming.

“I don't know, Piper. I wish I fucking did.”

“You two having a nice chat? Getting caught up on old times?” Brunton asked as he approached. Of course he'd be the one to see what was going on.

“I just wanted to make sure she's okay,” I said, trying to calm my shaking hands.

“She looks great,” he replied, taking me by my arm to lead me away. “I think Knox asked you to stay in your room until he came for you. In case you've forgotten, that's this way.” He walked me down the hall to where it met another, then turned and escorted me directly to my door. I turned the knob and stepped in, but Brunton's grip on my arm tightened, stopping me. “Piper, I'm not trying to be a dick to you or your friend, but I need you to entertain the idea that nothing is as it seems with your former life, okay? That's all. We all have a lot at stake here, and we can't afford for you to be sentimental and have that cloud your judgment.” His normally harsh expression softened slightly before he continued. “Take it from me. I know a thing or two about that.”

Just as his words registered in my mind, he walked away to rejoin the pack. His sentiment left me with unanswered questions, not the least of which was what exactly had led him and the others to Knox and the middle of nowhere in Alaska. I knew they each had a story to tell; I'd heard most of them on the way to Anchorage. All except Jagger's and Brunton's. But if Brunton could sympathize with me, then things had been bad for him once, that much was clear. Maybe all the wolves had a little more skin in the game than I'd initially thought.

Maybe this war wasn't just about me.

* * *

I must have spent at least a couple of hours in my room just running through various scenarios in my mind. By the time I was done, I was more confused than ever. I walked over to the window to survey the yard, wondering where the boys keeping watch were, and whether or not Grizz and his friends were still patrolling as well.

“Piper?” Foust called, poking his head into my room without knocking. “Hey, Knox needs you. A text just came in on her phone. He wants you to check it.”

My heart dropped into my stomach.

“Okay,” I replied, making my way over to him, fidgeting with the hem of my t-shirt as I walked.

“You need to play this cool, Piper. I think you can appreciate just how precarious this situation is.”

“I know.”

He nodded tightly, his mouth pressed into a thin straight line.

We made our way to the common area in silence, both of us too caught up in the unknowns raging in our minds to bother making chit-chat. By the time we reached the living room, everyone was standing around staring at Knox, who held Kat's phone in his hand, staring at the screen.

“Who's it from?” I asked, approaching him.

“Jase.”

“Let me see it, please.” He offered it to me without question.
What have you found,
it said. “What do we tell him?” I asked.

“That you think you've found her. Be vague, and answer how you think Kat would to avoid suspicion. We don't know everything he knows. We can't afford to fuck this up.”

“They'll come either way,” I said absentmindedly. “If they think something's happened to her, they'll show as soon as they think it's safe.”

I typed in what Knox requested, then stared at the home screen awaiting a response. You could practically feel the tension in the room as if it were an actual being, hovering over my shoulders. The weight of it was hard to bear.

Within minutes, Kat's phone chimed, indicating a text message had been received.

I opened it immediately.

Where are you? Are you still in Alaska?

I typed in my response.

Yes. In the middle of fucking nowhere.

Knox looked it over, then gave the okay for me to send it.

A minute later:
We'll trace your phone once you have her.

I swallowed hard.

I'll let you know the second she's been secured.

Barely seconds after I sent it, Jase's reply came through.

Do that.

There was no “let us know if she's okay,” no “tell her we're coming to help.” Jase's replies were strictly business, as if I were a commodity that he was waiting to have delivered. Maybe I was. I couldn't silence the voice in the back of my mind telling me that, if their goal was to try and keep Merc from being sent back to wherever he'd been, I was little more than a loose end. The piece of the puzzle that could put everything into perspective should the wrong individuals (like the king) find out about what had happened. But without me to confirm that those events had even taken place (because I was conveniently dead), that wouldn't really be an issue. Jase and Dean cared about me, I knew that to be true.

The question that remained was: did they love their brother more?

* * *

Time seemed to crawl yet speed simultaneously, moments of the night drawing on forever, like every time a text from Jensen came in to check in on Kat. Then the rest just flew by. Everything that happened was a blur.

I mainly stood and stared out the westward-facing windows, watching the sun sink lower and lower in the sky while the chaos of planning continued on behind me. I didn't need to be a part of it. I wasn't bait this time around. Actually I was, in a sense. I was the reason they were coming.

I would be the reason why they died.

Knox had it all planned out so beautifully. It was foolproof, really. He could tell by the tone of Jase's texts that they wouldn't waste any time in arriving once Kat gave the go-ahead. I tried to get out of telling him how long it would take them to travel once dematerialized (because I really didn't know exactly), but after a long enough interrogation, he was able to narrow it down to a satisfactory margin based on the truths that I knew.

His lie detector abilities would be the final nail in Jase's and Dean's coffins.

So I waited and prayed and did everything I could think of to try and keep the sun from setting. I'm sure the boys, who could clearly hear me, found me highly entertaining. Or they thought I was crazy. Or worse yet, they thought I was a turncoat. But none of them said a word. They just carried on with the night as though dinner and a movie were the order of the evening.

And the sun just kept falling, despite my efforts to stop it.

When all that was left was an orange glow in the distance, Knox came over to me and handed me Kat's phone.

“It's time, Piper.” He had the decency to look sympathetic toward me, but it didn't help. I took the cell from him while a tear rolled down my cheek. Then another. Then another. I stared down at the innocuous piece of technology as though it were a bomb about to go off.