Hierarchy (6 page)

Luke Gray Wolf had been studying the building across the street for hours waiting for an opportunity to confront Tommy Two Horses regarding the disposition of their territories. The street where he waited was, in actuality, supposed to be neutral since it bordered both his own territory and Two Horses’ but Tommy didn’t seem to see it that way. In point of fact, he’d crossed into
his
territory one time too many. One time was too many!

It was a challenge if there ever was one and although they’d managed to keep
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things fairly civil in the city up until recently, war between their clans now seemed inevitable … unless he could nip it the butt here and now by facing off with his rival.

There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Tommy knew he was waiting. He hadn’t actually seen Tommy go inside, but he could smell him and he’d seen a number of Tommy’s pack members strolling casually up and down the opposite side of the street over the past several hours.

What he couldn’t decide was whether Tommy was playing a waiting game with him, or if the fact that Tommy hadn’t come out to counter his challenge meant that Tommy was acknowledging that he’d erred.

Well, he wasn’t taking a no-show as a capitulation, Luke thought angrily. He’d come to teach the bastard a lesson and he had no intention of leaving until he did!

A new scent joined the mingling of scents of his own pack and Tommy’s and Luke’s gaze followed his nose to the source. Near the corner of the block he was guarding, he spotted a man—human—crouching beside a car. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have spared the human more than a glance, but there was just something really weird about the dude. He wasn’t changing, or checking, a tire. For one thing, he wasn’t anywhere near the tires. For another, he kept bobbing up and peering through the window glass at something on the other side.

Curious now, Luke followed the direction of his gaze. He couldn’t see anything.

Whatever it was that held the wormy bastard’s attention was out of his line of sight.

Lifting his head, he tasted the air, figuring it was undoubtedly another human, although he couldn’t fathom what sort of game was in play.

As long as it didn’t interfere with his game he didn’t give a fuck either, but there was a chance it might seeing as how the asshole had chosen his road to play his game and
he
was currently awaiting Tommy Two Horses to accept a challenge.

He didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary—which didn’t particularly surprise him—and he was about to dismiss the humans, whatever it was they were up to, when he caught an exotic scent unlike anything he’d ever smelled before. Instantly intrigued, he began trying to ‘taste’ more of it to identify it.

Whatever it was was coming closer. He dragged in a lungful that nearly sent him reeling. His cock popped to attention and every hackle on him rose as his beast lunged to the forefront, threatening to escape his control.

He tasted magic!

Laced with psychic!

And female!

Tensing all over, his hormones abruptly raging for more than the teasing taste he could pull into his lungs, however hard they labored, he narrowed his eyes expectantly on the corner, waiting for his first sight of the owner of the most exquisite perfume he’d ever smelled. She rounded the building at the end of the street just as his gaze settled there and knocked the breath right out of him. For a time, all he could do was stare at her hungrily, every muscle in his body taut, his dick twitching, and his mouth watering.

It was just as well he was frozen in appreciation of the vision coming toward him.

His beast was threatening to break its leash and hump the fuck out of her and he sure as shit didn’t want to frighten his little angel.

A movement closer to hand finally broke the spell and Luke dragged his hungry gaze from her to look for trouble. He found it. The wormy looking bastard that had been
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acting so weird was shadowing her along his side of the street, popping up from time to time to peer at her—
his
woman—over the hoods of the cars that lined the curb.

What the fuck?

He was on the point of launching himself at the bastard when a very unpleasant scent smacked him so hard it halted him in his tracks—vamp.

He bristled wondering what a vamp was doing so close to
his
territory. He couldn’t abide the cold-blooded, blood sucking, snots!

He didn’t have long to wonder. The vamp reached the same corner where the future mother of his children had appeared, glanced around, spied
his
woman and followed. There was no doubt in his mind that she was the vamp’s target and Luke abruptly decided to ignore the wormy man as of no consequence.

Almost as the woman came even with the building directly across the street, the door opened and Tommy Two Horses stepped out.

Well fuck!
He might have known the bastard’s timing would suck as bad as everything else about him!

It took him two seconds too long to realize that the enticing scent of his angel was probably going to throw Tommy into fuck-fever as fast as it had him.

And it did. Tommy’s attention focused on her instantly. For a heartbeat, he merely stared at her with glazed eyes and then he and the two lieutenants that had followed him from the building leapt the string of stairs that led down to the sidewalk, landing directly in front of her.

Enough was enough! He didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but he’d pegged that woman and no-fucking-body else was going to snatch her out from under him!

* * * *

Bronwyn was so focused on her certainty that she was being followed, her mind was sluggish in assimilating what was happening when the three men—dark, with long black hair—landed around her as if they’d fallen from the sky. She gaped at the man in the forefront, who was breathing as heavily as if he’d just run a mile. His eyes were wild, gleaming in a way that sent a shot of adrenaline rushing through her, spawning the instinct to flee. Every muscle in her body froze instead.

She sucked in a breath to scream.

He bent over and plowed into her like a line-backer, hooking her over one broad shoulder and knocking the air from her lungs. She struggled to catch her breath, to scream, clawing and shoving at his back uselessly.

A loud yipping sound distracted her, made goosebumps leap out all over her, and she glanced quickly toward what sounded like an Indian on the warpath—looked like one, too. His face twisted in a feral snarl, his long, black hair flying in the wind as he raced directly toward her and her assailant, the biggest fucking Indian—Native American—she’d ever seen in her life was charging right toward her.

She managed no more than a glimpse. The cry he’d emitted snagged her captor’s attention, as well, and he whirled to face the wild man racing toward them.

She caught a glimpse of Marco,
also
racing in her direction, as she was whipped around.

Oh god! The poor idiot! He was no match for these brutes!

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A scream tore from her throat of its own accord as the bastard holding her abruptly slung her into the air. Her arms and legs flailing, she struggled to maintain her balance as she flew up and then down toward the pavement. Another man leapt into the air to intercept her—as if the crazy men had decided to play football, with her as the ball!

She slammed into him hard enough it stunned her.

It didn’t seem to stun him. He launched into a run the moment his feet hit the ground. Another man—where the
fuck
did all these Indians come from?—dove at him, knocking his legs out from under him. Bronwyn squeezed her eyes closed as she saw the ground flying toward her. She never struck. Someone caught her and tossed her again.

“I’ll flay every son-of-a-bitching one of you if they make off with her!” someone bellowed.

Bronwyn was grabbed and tossed around so many times that she was completely disoriented, but she realized quickly enough that she was at the center of a mob riot. She was almost too dizzy and battered to feel much fear, however.

* * * *

Luke discovered he was having a hell of a time fighting and keeping an eye on the woman at the same time. The urge to shift and go lethal smote him over and over and each time he fought his beast back, partly because he knew the moment he shifted his entire clan would follow suit, and Tommy and his clan. The woman was liable to be torn to shreds if that happened and he was worried enough about her as it was. Beyond that, he was curbed by the realization that she would be terrified—more terrified—if she discovered what they were. The gods only knew what it would do to her mind to find herself surrounded by, and being fought over, by two warring packs of lycans in half-shift. A surge of rage went through him that almost cost him his control when he saw that Tommy’s men were trying to pass her to the back of the melee where they could make off with her and the gods damned vamp was standing there waiting to catch her.

Bellowing orders to his men not to allow them to make a run with her, he used the surge of fury to beat Tommy down and then bounded toward his objective—his woman.

He managed to wrest her away from the man that had just caught her, slammed his fist into the bastard hard enough he felt the bones in his face shatter, and bounded upward again, kicking the vamp so hard as he soared over him that the bastard flew backwards into a car, caving in the side of it. He landed on the top of the car and sprang forward again, landed in the middle of the street and then launched himself into a run, heading for his own territory.

He was hopeful he’d done enough damage to the vamp to discourage him, but he doubted it and he didn’t slow up until he’d reached the walled cemetery that had been his goal. Bounding over the wall, he landed on the other side with a jarring thud that cut off the screeching the woman had been deafening him with, at least temporarily, and raced for the center. As a general rule, vamps weren’t crazy about consecrated ground, but he knew it wasn’t going to stop the bastard if he really wanted the woman.

And apparently he did. Luke hadn’t gained the ground he was searching for before the vamp confronted him, landing directly in his path. “Let her go!”

“I don’t think so, asshole! She’s mine! I wasn’t about to let Tommy Two Horses claim her and I sure as fuck won’t be handing her to a fucking blood-sucker!”

“My master saw her first. Put her down.”

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“Fuck you
and
your master!” Luke growled.

He did set her down, however. He had no choice. He couldn’t hold her and fight and even if he’d thought he could, he didn’t want her in the line of fire. She would sure as hell get hurt in this battle. He was going to have to shift to take on a vamp, however young and inexperienced this one appeared to be. “Take cover, baby. I’ll take care of this asshole.”

She wilted to the ground the moment he released her and gaped up at him instead.

“I’d like it a hell of a lot better if you’d go hide while I take of this,” Luke murmured coaxingly. “It ain’t gonna be pretty.”

“But … that’s Marco,” she said, obviously too stunned and confused to realize the danger she was in.

“You
know
the vamp?” he demanded, feeling a sudden sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach.

“Vamp?”

“Vampire, baby, or didn’t he bother to tell you that?” Luke said grimly.

She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind and then glanced at the vamp she’d called Marco.

Marco’s eyes narrowed. “He wants you to hide because he doesn’t want you to see what he is.”

Bronwyn blinked at Marco. All she could think for several moments was that he hadn’t bothered to deny what the stranger had said. Because it was too ludicrous to be believed? “What is he?” she asked numbly.

“Lupus—wolf. Or werewolf?”

“You had it right the first time, vamp! I’m Luke Gray Wolf. And you’re standing in
my
territory. You’re outmatched, vamp, and outnumbered. I’m gonna be nice and give you the chance to take your scrawny ass off.”

Uneasiness flickered in Marco’s eyes, but he held his ground. “This is Constantine’s territory. Don’t be a fool.
You
don’t want to tangle with a progenitor.” He flicked a glance at Bronwyn. “Go back to the club, Bronwyn.”

“Don’t!” the man who’d called himself Luke Gray Wolf growled. “Why don’t you give your dad old Connie a call? For that matter, if she’s his, why isn’t he here?”

Marco’s lips tightened, but he said nothing.

Luke grinned at him. “He hasn’t claimed her. If he’d bitten her, he’d know exactly where she was, at all times, and he wouldn’t have his flunkies following her around.”

Marco snorted. “Speaking of flunkies ….”

Luke snarled. “Your mistake,” he said grimly. “I’m lupus. My people were never slaves to the likes of your kind—never slaves to anyone.”

Bronwyn stood up shakily as the two finally stopped trading insults and began to circle one another, searching for an opening to strike. After glancing around the dimly lit cemetery, she began to back away until she came up against a headstone and nearly toppled over it. The near miss sent her heart to racing a little harder. Glancing around for some hope of safety, she saw the winking gleam of dozens of pairs of eyes.

Not human eyes.

Her heart hammering in her ears almost deafeningly, Bronwyn searched the shadows until she found an avenue of possible escape and began moving slowly in that
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direction as she heard the sounds of battle engaged behind her—the snarl of beasts, the meaty thud of flesh impacting flesh. Abruptly, the possessors of the glowing eyes surged forward but, to her relief, they passed her, racing toward the battle between Marco and the stranger who’d called himself Luke Gray Wolf—lupus. They moment they charged past her, she began to move faster toward the streetlight she could see on the other side of the wall that surrounded the cemetery.

In the distance, she could hear sirens as she reached the wall and began to search for a way out. She certainly couldn’t leap over it as the man—wolf—carrying her had.

“Come here! I’ll help you!” a man’s voice called from the other side.

“Oh thank god!” Bronwyn exclaimed. “I can’t find the gate!”

“You’ll have to climb over. I’ve called the police! They’ll be here any minute!”

the stranger assured her. With a good deal of grunting, he managed to climb up on the wall and reached down to her. Bronwyn thought for several heart-stopping moments after she’d taken his hand that she was going to pull him over instead of the other way around. He seemed to be of a like mind. He hesitated, staring with terrified eyes at the melee in the distance, and finally jumped down.

“Put your foot in my hands and I’ll give you a lift up.”

Bronwyn complied and, to her relief, he managed to hoist her high enough to throw herself over the top and scramble down on the other side. She could hear him struggling to climb over the wall again and finally his head and shoulders appeared. He all but fell off, landing on his knees, but he leapt up immediately. “I’ve got a car down the street!” he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and tugging her along behind him at a half run.

“I live just a couple blocks from here,” Bronwyn said breathlessly, tugging at her hand to free herself.

“You’ll never make it! That’s another three blocks at least. They’ll be finished long before then and they’ll come after you! We need to hurry!”

It took several moments before her shocked brain could assimilate what he’d said.

Cold fear surged through her when she did finally grasp it. “How do you know where I live?” she demanded in a voice that cracked with fear.

“What?” he asked, glancing back at her impatiently when she finally managed to drag him to a stop.

“How do you know where I live?”

He looked startled. “I don’t. You said a couple of blocks.”

“But you said three! Who are you?”

He shook his head, surging toward her and grabbing her in a bear hold. “The name’s Bill Duncan. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you even more, but we have to get out of here before they come after you again!”

“But you said the police were on the way!”

“
My god, woman
! Do you think the police can do anything about Vampires and Lycans? You won’t be safe at your apartment either! I can take you to someone who
can
protect you from them … if we hurry.”

“You’re not taking me anywhere until I know what’s going on!
Who
can protect me? How? If it’s true and they’re vampires and werewolves, how can anybody protect me from them?”

“Jesus H. Christ, woman! After what you’ve seen you still don’t think there is
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such a thing? Look … my boss … Lord Westmoreland. He sent me to look for you! He can take care of you. You needn’t doubt that. The whole
lot
of them can’t stand against him, believe me!”

“Sent you to find me? Why? I don’t know him. I’ve never heard of him!”

“The mark on your arm!” he said impatiently. “It’s the prophesy. That’s all I know. For gods sake, woman! Come on before they come after us!”

Bronwyn was about to tell him she wasn’t going anywhere with him when a horrible thing landed on the sidewalk just behind him. She screamed, but it was too late as a warning and the chances were that no warning would’ve saved him. The beast took his head off with one swipe of it’s huge paw. She stared in horror at the startled expression on Bill Duncan’s face as his head rolled and bounced down the sidewalk. A wave of nauseating dizziness washed over her. Ignoring it, she whirled and ran back in the direction she’d come from.

The thing grabbed her flying hair, jerking her off her feet. Before she hit the pavement, a hairy arm snaked around her and she was twirled dizzily. She landed so hard on the thing’s shoulder it knocked the breath from her and she discovered when it began bounding down the sidewalk with her that every effort to catch a breath of air was countered by another hard jolt to her solar plexus. The blackness of imminent unconsciousness swirled through her mind, dimmed her sight. She grasped two fistfuls of the beast’s hair and pulled herself close enough to bite down on his back. He let out a yelp and stumbled—more from surprise, she didn’t doubt, than actual pain.

She was almost more injured in her attempt to free herself of him than she had been before. She hit the pavement almost at the same moment he did and the two of them tumbled over each other as they rolled down the sloping sidewalk. Before he could get on his feet again, another monster landed heavily beside them.

“Get away from her, Tommy Two Horses or I’ll tear your heart out and shove it down your throat!”

“Help!” Bronwyn managed to gasp weakly.

“Just give me a minute, darlin’ while I rip this bastard’s head off!”

The image of the stranger’s head bouncing down the sidewalk instantly popped into her mind and Bronwyn discovered she couldn’t hold the blackness back any longer.

Sight abandoned her, but she could hear the sounds of a fight all too clearly. When they stopped, she opened her eyes to discover a dark face hovering just above hers.

“Don’t start screaming again, baby,” Luke said coaxingly. “We’re about to have way too much company. I need to get you out of here.”

Bronwyn hissed in pain as he scooped her up and he flicked a worried look at her.

“Gods you’re banged up, baby! I knew I should’ve killed that son-of-a-bitch. Just hold on. I’ll get somebody to take a look at you.”

Bronwyn wanted to argue but, before she could say anything, Luke lifted his head and uttered the ‘war cry’ he’s bellowed before when he’d raced to her rescue, or at least something that sounded very much the same to her. The results were different this time, however. The sound at barely stopped echoing when a dark van turned the corner on two wheels, shot toward them, and then screeched to a rocking halt beside them. The van door slid open and Luke leapt inside with her.

It was dark inside the van, but she could tell there were several other people inside. “Is she hurt?”

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“Of course she’s hurt, numbskull! Don’t she look hurt? Let’s get her to the clinic and have Clancy take a look at her.”

“I’m not hurt,” Bronwyn disputed him feebly. “Really. I just want to go home.”

His arms tightened around her briefly and he shifted her more comfortably on his lap. “It’s ok, baby. You don’t need to be afraid. Nobody here is going to hurt you.”

Bronwyn wondered if her brains had been rattled because, oddly enough, she felt completely reassured. Uttering a sigh of relief, she settled her cheek against the hard pec beside her face and relaxed, trying to empty her mind of the terror of the past half hour.

She was successful enough, or traumatized enough, that she dozed off. She woke when she felt the cessation of movement as the van stopped.

She discovered when Luke climbed out with her that they were behind a small, single story building. Several dark figures emerged from the van with them, but they halted at the door as Luke went in with her. The sound of barking dogs assailed her as the light inside blinded her and the smell of a kennel assaulted her nostrils.