Moonsong (31 page)

“That’s why I’m sending four of you this time; you will not fail in this task a second time.”

“We didn’t expect her brother to be such a threat after being raised outside the pack. He nearly killed Zeke, and then out of nowhere she pulls that gun and…”

“I’m not interested in your excuses, unless you’d like to pay the price again for your failure?” Pure menace dripped from Adele’s tone and the man fell silent again.

Scarcely aware she’d been holding her breath in shock until her vision began to swim before her, Scarlett backed away from Adele’s door with growing horror, trying to process everything said. It was too awful to think Adele had been behind the murder of her own family. Careful to move as silently as possible for fear of what Adele would do to her if discovered, she made her way to the back stairs, quickly ascending to scratch at Chase’s door. When he didn’t respond, she slipped inside, padding lightly through the darkened room to shake him awake.

Chase made an indistinct sound, somewhere between a complaint and a warning, rolling away from her. Unsure what else to try, Scarlett grabbed a section of the delicate skin at his neck and pinched; hard.

“Ow, what the hell!” Chase slapped away her hand.

“Shhh, they’ll hear you. Chase, we have to help Millie and Cutter before it’s too late,” Scarlett whispered, already pulling the covers back off the bed to try and motivate him to get up.

“What the hell are you talking about? Cutter doesn’t need any help with what he’s doing tonight,” he snorted.

“Chase, listen to me,” Scarlett grabbed his shoulders, claws extending enough to get his attention in her panic. “She’s going to kill him, like she killed the rest of Millie’s family. There’s no time, we have to do something. Maybe if you go and talk to her, try to make her see how crazy this plan is…”

“Are you talking about Gran? What makes you think she had anything to do with the attack on Millie’s family, or she’s planning anything now?”

“I heard her, Chase. I heard her talking to those men, the ones that went to fetch Millie with her and force her into accepting the rites of succession, the ones that have been here watching her every move ever since. You have to stop her; she won’t listen to me, but you…”

Face grim, he shook his head. “She won’t listen to me either…”

* * *

His body shunting all energy towards repairing his wounds, Cutter slept on as the door to his cabin was tried and swung open by silent hands. Beside him Amelia was equally exhausted, not having slept well the past few nights in anticipation of the rites of succession. Oblivious to the world, they slumbered in each other’s arms, clinging to each other even in their unconscious states.

Stealthily, they fanned out into the bedroom, two to each side of the bed, the better to subdue the pair all the quicker. Manny, the self proclaimed leader, gave a signal in the darkness, their enhanced senses easily tracking the movement. Withdrawing a little insurance policy from his pocket, Manny slowly drew the blade out with an audible ‘snick’ as it snapped into the fully extended position.

Cutter’s eyes popped open at the noise, some part of his consciousness recognizing the sound of an opening knife even when his other senses failed to alert him to their presence. Instantly his hand shot out to grasp his attacker’s neck, only stopping from trying his damnedest to crush the guy’s windpipe as he felt the cool bite of the blade at his neck.

“Back off or my friend there sticks your girlfriend,” Manny managed to choked out, giving a little dig with the knife to emphasize his point.

“Amelia…” Cutter wrenched his head the other way, heedless of the slice of pain from the knife at the motion. Desperate to catch sight of her, only to find her staring back wide eyed from where two other goons held her hostage.

Not at all gentle in their handling, her captors had their hands all over her nude form in obvious enjoyment of her predicament, and she struggled to breath with the iron hand clamped over her mouth, partially blocking her nose.

Amelia went to Cutter’s dresser and after a little digging managed to find a t-shirt and some workout shorts. The entire time she dressed, Cutter forced himself to be very still, even though the rage burned just below the surface at seeing those men with their hands all over his mate. Once she was dressed, he decided the odds were as good as they were going to get. Cutter sprang against his attacker, the knife sinking into his own flesh and glancing against his collarbone before he was able to drive him back against the wall. The blade clattered to the floor as the wind rushed out of Manny’s lungs.

Quick to run to his aid, two others leapt into the fray while the last recaptured Millie. Claws raked across his exposed back and Cutter let out a howl of pain but didn’t relax his hold on Manny, trying his level best to choke the life out of the man.

Three on one, they struggled to bring Cutter down, eventually pinning him to the ground. “Get the rope,” Manny croaked, rubbing his throat that was raw and bleeding from the bite of Cutter’s claws.

“Where are you taking us?” Amelia demanded, hands pinned behind her back.

“You are going home; your boyfriend is going for a little drive.” An evil glint lit Manny’s eyes and he delivered a swift kick to Cutter’s midsection.

“You’re taking me… to Adele’s?” Millie stared at him incredulously.

“You didn’t think she’d let you scamper off happily ever after did you?” Manny dissolved into laughter, joined by the other men in a chuckle. “Whatever the lady wants the lady gets. You in particular…” he kicked Cutter again, “…should know that backwards and forwards.”

Cutter struggled at his bonds, the veins standing out in his neck and forehead with the effort to break free, but his body betrayed him, too overextended to lend him the strength to shift.

The screech of tires outside drew all attention, and Manny’s eyes narrowed, motioning for Kane to check it out. “It’s okay, it’s just Chase.”

“Chase is a part of this?” Millie’s voice was barely above a whisper, and Cutter let loose a string of muttered oaths. He should have known the pup would cheat again…

“Yeah, just like last time right?” Chase gave him a mocking grin. “This time I’m here to personally make sure things go down without a hitch.”

“We got him all trussed up like a Christmas goose and she’s coming along real quiet like, no mess ups like last time.” A bit of a servile whine crept into Manny’s voice.

“Mess ups? That’s one way of putting it,” Chase snorted. “You end up leaving the bodies of her parents and brother all sliced up with a shoddy fire for cover up, she gets away and you call that a mess up? What did you call Hurricane Katrina, a little squall?”

“You killed my family?” Millie stared at them in horror, “And you knew about this?”

Cutter fixed Chase with a deadly look, conserving his strength, waiting for that one moment he prayed would come to allow him to strike a blow of revenge for Amelia’s sake, at least before they killed him.

“Well no, not until tonight. It seems Grandmother had a few tricks up her sleeves that none of us knew about. But once I heard all the juicy details, I had to be a part of this, to give you what you deserve,” Chase gave a tight smile to Millie, crouching beside Cutter on the ground with a wince of pain. “So… enough of the suspense, huh? You ready to finally get what you deserve?” he winked at his prone form.

“Go to hell,” Cutter spat out, teeth elongating slightly, but that was as much of a change as he could manage.

“Them first,” Chase winked with his good eye; the other swollen enough that it spoiled the effect and made it appear more of a blink. In the space of a heartbeat his hand shifted to claws, neatly slicing through the rope that bound Cutter’s wrists and continuing in an arc that sank into Manny’s thigh, severing the femoral artery in a great gout of blood.

Cutter, fully prepared to launch himself at Chase within a moment’s notice, took precious seconds for his brain to register what had just happened, but quickly recovered, going for the man who had hold of Amelia. Using her as a human shield, the thug stepped backwards, his shoulders connecting painfully with the wooden mantle over the fireplace. Seizing upon the distraction to his advantage, Cutter reached past his hold on Amelia to slam the man’s head against the sturdy wood.

Amelia scrambled away from his grasp, trying to stay out of the way. Finding a knife in the kitchen, she stood at the ready. The cry of a wolf outside drew her attention, but as soon as she saw the familiar golden coat in the moonlight, Millie breathed a sigh of relief. “Scarlett!”

It was all Millie could do to step out of the way in time as her cousin launched herself at the closest target, neatly hamstringing the one fighting her brother, dropping him with a powerful snap of the jaws. As the odds shifted in their favor, their captors were soon subdued, tossed in a tangled heap in the center of the small living room.

Chest heaving mightily, Chase collapsed onto a chair at the kitchen table, grabbing for the bottle of alcohol and drinking deeply before passing it to Cutter who accepted it and took a healthy swig himself. Amelia came immediately to his side, a dishtowel pressed to the cut at his shoulder but Cutter felt no pain, his relief overwhelming all other senses.

“I’m sorry,” Chase offered, catching his breath. “I had to let you hear it from their mouths directly otherwise it was my word against Adele’s. I’m sorry if I scared you, Millie.”

“We didn’t know,” Scarlett chimed in, once more in human form and emerging from the bedroom where she’d picked up the quilt to wrap around herself. “You know that, right, Millie? We would never be a part of something like that.”

“So, what happens now? We can’t let her get away with this, what do we do, call the cops? And what about these guys?” Millie nudged one of their boots with her big toe.

Cutter shook his head, holding Amelia close. “No, that would open us up to a lot of questions I’d rather not deal with. The local law isn’t such a big problem, they know enough about us to leave things in our hands. Messing around with the police in New Mexico… that’s inviting trouble. No, we’ll handle it our way.”

“As you said, we can’t let her get away with this,” Cutter supplied, his arms tightening around her. “And it definitely looks like she doesn’t intend to support my taking over the leadership of the pack.”

“I know, I meant she should rot in jail, but to kill her?”

“Because of her your parents, your brother… Cutter would have been next,” Chase reminded her gently.

“I know that, you think I don’t know that?” Amelia started to sound panicky and Cutter gathered her close, rubbing her arms soothingly.

“It’ll be alright Amelia; I won’t kill her if it bothers you that much. I’ll take care of it,” he promised.

“Really?”

Adele would be a thorn in his side till the day she died; to leave an enemy at his unprotected back was foolish, but he couldn’t live with knowing he’d killed her last blood relative. “Really.”

One of the henchmen on the ground moaned in pain and Cutter gave him a brief kick to silence him. “So, listen up, here’s what we’re going to do…”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The sun was just beginning to rise when Amelia climbed the front steps of the house with Cutter at her side. If the lights on inside were any indication, it had proven a sleepless night for Adele as well when her minions hadn’t returned with her in tow. Millie could only imagine the ocean of panic that churned through Adele’s mind right about then, and part of her hoped she swam around in it until her fingers got all pruney.

Cutter squeezed her hand as they reached the door, giving her a quick wink. Raising his hand to knock, Millie bypassed the necessity by simply opening the door. “I live here, right?” she shrugged away the need for formally announcing their presence.

“Not anymore.”

The house itself was cool and quiet when they stepped over the threshold, but after a brief moment in the stillness, Cutter steered them unerringly towards Adele’s study.

Without bothering to knock, Amelia pushed open the door to the study. “Not quite what you were expecting?” she gave a sour smile at Adele’s reaction to seeing them together.

“I see I’ve underestimated you again,” Adele stopped her pacing to step behind her desk.

She looks old and tired,
Amelia thought suddenly. Maybe it was the way her shoulders slumped instead of her usual erect carriage. “How could you do it, Adele?” Unable to call her Grandmother any more, she bit out the name.