Pack Possessed, page 20
part #4 of Thrown to the Wolves Series
The front door opens and shuts while we hold a collective breath, the soft creaking of a floorboard making my skin prickle. Each subsequent step as he walks down the hall makes it worse until by the time I’m watching the doorknob turn, there’s no hiding the sound of my racing heartbeat despite the casual demeanor I’m trying so hard to project.
Appearing in the doorway, Ash’s chestnut hair is windswept, and there are a few faint scratches on his cheek that I hone in on immediately. His healing abilities are second to none, so if they’re still visible, they were either very recent, or he was wrestling a mountain lion that carved his cheek to the bone. Regardless, it proves the one thing that can settle my anxiety better than anything else.
It really is possible to slip past his defenses.
“I’d like to apologize for my previous behavior.” Utter excitement is barely veiled in his soulless eyes, though he keeps his enthusiasm in check, leaning against the doorframe. “I never should have rushed the issue yesterday when you weren’t ready, especially so soon after you went through such an ordeal simply because you were taking the initiative to try to help. You must understand, emotions were running high and I was terrified; not the best combination for a man that’s gone so very long since he felt anything at all. But you-” he chuckles, finally content to showcase the excitement he was already failing to conceal. “You’ve always been the most exciting thing in my life. I’d forgotten what that felt like, and reacted poorly.”
“So!” Clapping his hands together, I’m not the only one that jumps, but he ignores our reaction. “I got you a gift. It took me some time to decide on something appropriate for the occasion, but I think you’ll find it was worth the wait.”
He stares at me expectantly, and I’m at a complete and utter loss of what the right thing to say is. So I focus on my connection to Cinjin, because of all of my mates, he’s the best equipped to smile in the face of terrifying situations, to project enough confidence to choke an elephant. He’s not as good at keeping his reactions on lockdown, but fantastic at spinning them to his benefit, and that’s what I really need right now after my racing heart rate will have given away my nerves.
“My gilded cage could really use something to bring the room together, so color me curious.” Holding out my hands, I wait expectantly.
Pushing off from the doorframe, he grins. “Slip your shoes on and follow me.” He catches my swift glance to the guys and back, rolling his eyes. “Yes, them too. We’re a family, Sabrina, I wouldn’t expect them to miss out on important events you’re involved in. You don’t give me nearly enough credit; have I once taken you away from them? No, because I want to give you everything, to make you happy.” He doesn’t wait for a reply, striding out to the main room to wait for us.
Catching the balled-up pair of socks Damian tosses me, I slip them on and then my tennis shoes. Without knowing what sort of situation we’re about to wind up in, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared to run at a moment’s notice. And seeing as he slipped and admitted his gift was an ‘important event’, making sure I don’t wind up as the chick that sprains her ankle on a root two minutes into her escape attempt is about the best I can do to prepare myself.
After we’re all put together, we follow Ash out of his luxury cabin and through the woods. Wilder pack land definitely got the best of the territorial divide, everything here clinging to life harder than the rest of the mountain. Yet still, it’s clear that recent years have hit hard and as we discovered yesterday, it doesn’t take much more effort to burn than anywhere else in this place.
“Just a little further,” Ash announces.
Boden’s voice drips with sarcasm. “Until we’re left in a pit where you visit on occasion, lowering bottles of lotion in a basket and threatening to turn the hose on us?”
Unperturbed, Ash chuckles, “Close, but no cigar.”
Crossing back into my fathers’ land, we carry on in silence, our imaginations running wild. Around the next bend, I pull to an abrupt stop, Reid crashing into my back and banding a hand around my waist to save me before I catch a mouthful of dirt. And honestly? I think I’d have preferred he let me fall, if only so I could buy myself a few extra seconds before having to accept the scene in front of me.
Once, I thought that tree could become a symbol; dead inside, but still standing. It’s more ironic now that I know it was the location that the demon inside of me damned an entire race. But seeing Annika standing in front of it in the middle of a heated argument with Adrian? I don’t want anything to do with it anymore.
“Now,” Ash declares with a grin, “you can all get closure, and the power boost you need. Win-win scenario.”
As Annika storms aways, Adrian grabs her wrist before she’s made it three steps, tugging her back and hissing something in her ear too faint for the rest of us to hear. The crunching of footsteps has my head whipping to the right, my fathers appearing through the trees.
“Anni?” Leo’s voice is a pained whisper, not able to believe that the sight before him is real.
It’s usually easy for me to stay on the outside looking in, but I’m far too close to this situation to remain impartial. Every bit of pain in his voice I take on as my own, somehow feeling guilty for something I didn’t have a part in, yet bear all of the sins for. It’s been what, twenty-seven years since they’ve seen her? All of that time spent searching to no avail, and honestly, I think it reached a point they were going through the motions because it’s what they were supposed to do. But I’m not sure they ever actually knew what they’d do if they managed to find her, and nothing can really prepare you for getting what you’ve spent a lifetime wishing for.
Eventually, it morphs into a case of chasing down a fantasy, forgetting along the way that no matter how much you want someone to love you, you can’t convince them to. If they wanted to stay, they would have. All you’re left with when it comes to a head is the stark reality that you wasted your life loving someone that would never be able to give you what you wanted or needed.
Annika looks over Sebastian, Leo, and Merrick warily, and when one takes a step in her direction, she matches it with one back, swallowing nervously.
Cutting through the tension as if it doesn’t exist, Ash strides forward, positively beaming. “Annika, it’s been far too long. Life treating you well?”
For all of my disdain, I give her credit for her balls of steel as she flicks her gaze over his face with pure and utter loathing, clinging to the fight he presented as a way to avoid the confrontation with the men she abandoned for as long as possible. “Cut the bullshit. You haven’t let me get a day’s rest since you killed my husband, so save us all the effort and get to the damn point already. What do you want, Wilder?” With a condescending smirk, she asks, “Your puppets not dancing the way you want for your amusement these days? Such a pity.”
If I hadn't spent the last three days hyperaware of the guy’s every move, I might have missed the nearly imperceptible tic next to Ash’s eyebrow. “Maybe I missed your sparkling personality, Anni,” he teases. “If there was ever someone that could break up the monotony of this place, it was you.”
Embodying the arctic, she smiles without a single blip of warmth to be found. “Is that why you set your sights on Sabrina? To lure me back here? I hate to tell you, but sane people simply send an invitation. They don’t go back on their word and sell someone off, kill their husband, chase them across the country, stalk their daughter, then abduct them.”
A genuine look of confusion overtakes his face. “I gave you the greatest gift of all; time with her. And you wasted it. You threw away everything for the sake of some human, turned your backs on all of us.”
“I lost everything because of you!” she screams. “Noah was the only one that actually loved me. He didn’t need me for anything, he wanted me, chose me.” Furious tears leak out of the corner of her eyes. “And he died because you couldn’t let your obsession with Aurelia go, couldn’t let her be happy if it wasn’t with you.” Swiping at her face, she stands her ground, head held high. “You don’t want to save anyone, Ash. You just want us all to be as miserable as you are so you aren’t alone.”
He chuckles, the sound dark and taunting. “On the contrary. Ask Sabrina; I’ve gone above and beyond to make her happy.”
It draws Annika’s attention my way, and she may as well still be looking at Ash based on her expression. “Trust me, I know. Everyone else is simply a stepping stone that brought you closer to having her; we’re all a means to an end to you. Disposable, replaceable, and never enough.” With a cruel grin, she meets his eye unflinchingly. “If you want to use me against her, it’s my pleasure to inform you that you’re a day late and a dollar short. The only person that’s going to walk away from this happy is her, and you have yourself to thank for that. You gambled and lost, Wilder.”
Sebastian inches closer, approaching Annika like she’s a wild animal he’s afraid of spooking. “We would have gone with you, taken you both away from here. Were we really so bad that it was so easy to replace us?”
She cants her head, finally regarding them seriously for the first time. “How can you love someone that’s able to be bought off? You knew what kind of person he was, yet were willing to fall back into line and be good little soldiers in exchange for releasing your wolves and the chance to get your dicks wet?” Gesturing at me, she manages a dry, humorless laugh. “She got her claws into you too, didn’t she?”
Shaking her head in disappointment, she meets my eye. “There has never been a single thing in my life that wasn’t about you in some way. It didn’t matter what I did or where I went, it was ultimately always about you. I really expected more.”
In the blink of an eye, she throws her head back into Adrian’s nose, stealing his gun from his waist and pressing it against her temple. “You want to kill me, Wilder, I’ll save you the trouble. But I’ve already spent my life being used by you; I’m not going to be drained as some sacrifice to fuel your agenda, too. If the only win I get is in death, then so fucking be it.”
Merrick barks, “Annika!” She swiftly glances his way, but keeps the gun steady. “Do you remember the last time we were in a similar position as this? When you wouldn’t let us siphon from you for months, and everything built up to where you couldn’t see another way out then, either?”
A flicker of recognition flashes through her eyes, but she says nothing. Adrian nearly takes a step forward, but Leo shoots him a furious glare, silently pinning him in place.
“It must have been hell,” Merrick continues tentatively. “Sabrina’s wolf too weak to do more than take the edge off all of these years. And then you’ve been on your own for how long? Let us help you, please.”
When she wavers, Sebastian adds, “Remember, it’s Ash that you’re really angry at; not life, not Sabrina, and not us. All of this is because of him, so if you’re going to shoot anybody, shoot that bastard.”
Shrugging a shoulder, Ash splays his arms wide, making himself a broader target. “Won’t kill me, but might make you feel better. Come on, Annika, hurt me. You know you want to.”
With agonizing slowness, she lowers the gun from her temple, pointing it at his chest instead. Despite the angry tears that slip silently down her cheeks, she keeps her arm steady, a myriad of emotions flashing across her face as she stares down the man that ruined her life.
“I really, really do.” Without tearing her gaze from his face, she jerks her arm to the side, aiming at me and firing.
The air’s knocked from my lungs on impact, ears ringing as my head smacks into the ground, yet the expected explosion of pain never comes. Pushing myself upright, I find Bo’s motionless body lying where I was just standing and scramble over.
“No, no, no.” Shoving his bloodied shirt up, I press the wadded-up fabric against the bullet hole in his chest, but it barely slows the bleeding.
Flinching at the next gunshot, I watch from the corner of my eye as Annika’s body falls, Adrian staring down at her for a long moment as a furious Ash gets into a screaming match with the Slaughters that I can’t focus enough on to make out the words. Closing my eyes, I shut out all of the distractions, putting everything I have into my pleading request as I beg my inner demon to work her magic and save him.
The familiar rush of energy floods out of me so forcefully, the ground trembles beneath us. And all the while, I repeat a mental mantra, coaxing his inner wolf to use the energy to heal himself.
“Scoot over.” Damian’s demand has me moving instantly, letting him take over since he has far more experience at this sort of thing. Wrapping a hand around Damian’s wrist, I send all of the energy into him instead, barely able to breathe, let alone get a word out.
When fingers dig into my upper arm and yank me away, my body heats instinctively, but Ash doesn’t so much as flinch. “You’re supposed to be taking energy, not wasting it.”
Pivoting in his grasp, I smack him across the face, leaving a bloody palm print on his cheek. “I’m not wasting anything, you fucking psychopath.” Another tremble rocks the earth, the snarling of wolves in the background white noise that’s far too easy to tune out as my rage gives me single-minded focus. “You keep claiming that you want me to be happy? That all of us are some family in your deluded reality? Then if you can’t pretend to care, at least do us all a favor and leave us the hell alone while we heal him.”
The air takes on a static quality, the faint electric buzzing drowning out the wolves coming out of the woodwork to clash in a mess of teeth and claws, my fathers’ pack recognizing the men they resent as the lesser of two evils in the face of Ash’s pack. The next quake under my feet is followed by the ungodly loud sound of screaming as Leo rips a man’s arm off with his bare hands, the low, ominous rumbling of my mates at my back doing nothing but make Ash’s cruel smile spread.
"If I'd realized this was all it would take, I'd have shot one of them days ago," he declares.
When Hunter shifts, launching himself at the man, the familiar dark haze coats Ash's skin a moment before contact. It sends Hunter crashing into the ground on his side, but he doesn’t give Ash the satisfaction of seeing his pain. He bites back every sound, not even a growl escaping his chest as he rises to his feet, silent, seething hatred shining in his burning gaze. He gives no warning before he surges forward, his teeth clamping around Ash’s forearm. The acidic scent of burning flesh is heavy in the air, but he doesn’t let up until Ash grunts and is forced to release my arm.
Not one to throw away Hunter’s sacrifice, I stumble back, barely avoiding tripping over a wolf that darts behind me. Damian’s still at Bo’s side, the others shifted and forming a loose circle around them to keep the rest of the chaos at bay. When I catch a glimpse of Bo’s chest sucking down a rattling breath and hear his mumbled curses, I nearly fall on my ass, barely staying upright.
“Don’t stop now, darling,” Ash taunts, forcing me to look back to where he’s kneeling on Hunter’s neck, a gun pressed to his head while Hunter vibrates with barely restrained fury. “We’re too close.” Cocking back the hammer, he presses the muzzle of the gun harder against Hunter’s temple. “A bullet to the chest is one thing, but the brain? I don’t think even you’re able to pull off that miracle, Aurelia.”
A crack of thunder proceeds another shake of the earth. “Point made, okay?” Glancing behind me, only Slade’s left to protect Damian now as he works on healing Boden, the rest of my mates swept up in the onslaught of wolves coming at them from all sides. Wetting my lips, I exhale a long, slow breath and face Ash. “No need to shoot him.”
I flinch at the sound of a gunshot he fires into the ground inches away before pressing the muzzle back to his head. “Time will tell, won’t it? But my patience has officially run out.”
Meeting Hunter’s furious, emerald gaze, I latch onto his anger as if it were my own. The helpless frustration, the self-directed loathing, and the burning hatred for the monster that’s tormented all of us; it’s all fuel for the fire, pushing myself farther than I’ve ever tried before.
I don’t worry about losing control, because Slade, Boden, Cinjin, Reid, Damian, Hunter, and Kaige? They were literally made to help me survive this, and I can’t survive without them, so I know that it’s going to be okay. That’s the one truth I can hold onto when everything else is shattering around me.
I exist for a reason, and it isn’t as a reward for someone else’s suffering. It’s to acknowledge that pain when no one else will and help turn it into something easier to live with.
The fine hairs on my arms rise in time with the increasing static charge in the air, and the first strike of lightning sends a nearby tree lighting up like a match. Smoke mingles with the coppery tang of blood and stench of death surrounding us. Another tremor rocks the earth, hard enough to knock a few people off of their feet, sending them frantically scrambling away from the fissures snaking across the ground. It sets off another landslide in the distance, the entire mountain quaking as the fissures split into small canyons too wide for anyone to jump over.
“Sabrina!” Damian’s warning is a faint cry in the distance a split second before a hand covers my mouth and a blade presses into my throat.
A positively livid Acheron demands, “What in the actual fuck do you think you’re doing, Adrian?”
Behind me, Adrian’s voice has a taunting lilt. “You know what they say about when opportunity knocks. Plenty of people out here dying today, and only an idiot would assume it’s not about to get worse. A little insurance can’t hurt.”
“So much for that olive branch. You do realize that I could drain you in seconds, right?”
He chuckles, “But could you pull it off before I slit your throat?”
Ash narrows his eyes on him, the promise of a very painful, drawn-out murder clear as day on his face. “This is an incredibly dangerous, stupid game you’re trying to play, Adrian.”
