Wolf Mountain Peak Complete Series, page 116
part #1 of Wolf Mountain Peak Series
“Julia!” She exclaimed, tossing the knife across the table. “Gosh: what a wonderful surprise!”
“Hey, Aunt Madeleine,” Julia returned the smile, moving around the counter that separated them. “How have you been? It’s been a while,” she added, exchanging a cordial hug with her.
“A little too long, dear,” Madeleine said, her voice sounding sweet when she leaned her niece back. “I guess it’s normal, though. I mean, we live six hours away from one another.”
“Make that four,” Eric corrected her. “Our girl’s finally had enough of New York City. She lives in Paxton now.”
“Oh,” a huff of bafflement escaped her aunt and her smile was wiped off of her face.
“Kids, let’s have a seat,” Her uncle suggested, pointing down at the gray couch in the corner, his voice losing cheer and nerve alike. In an instant, Ray sensed that something was wrong. Madeleine’s reaction upon the very mention of his birthplace plus Eric’s sudden seriousness made the back of his neck tighten with tension. Still, he had to be patient. They hadn’t given him any reason to be aggressive towards them. Julia’s uncle seated himself in the armchair across from the couch, while she and her mate obliged him.
“Jules…” Eric started, his gaze settled on his niece. “Right after you, um…” he faltered. “Visited your mom in L.A., she took the next flight out to New York. Man, she was upset. The poor thing was shaking, as if she’d seen a ghost or something. She said you knew what happened to your father, but it wasn’t that particular truth that scared her the most. You had questioned his cause of death, which meant you had information about him that you were never supposed to come by, unless you were involved with someone of his kind. Before you slammed the door in her face that night, you told her he was ‘unusual.’ It wasn’t exactly hard for her to piece it together. Now, you’re saying you live in Paxton. There’s a bunch of old books about that place. I got to read one of them, when I found out about your father’s health issues. It’s titled: ‘Majestic – The union of wolf and man.’ The author claims Paxton to be a shifter town. I take it your boyfriend here is one of them.”
“I am,” Ray admitted while intensifying his stare, comprehending that hiding his identity from someone with extensive knowledge about his kind would be pointless. “I just don’t understand the point of this…” he paused; “long narrative.”
“I’ll get to that,” Eric assured with a nod, shifting his gaze down to Julia. “Your mom was determined to break you guys up. She thought that, sooner or later, Ray wouldn’t be able to control himself, and hurt you, or even kill you. Carrie wanted to drag you out of that town, but she could never figure out how, until she met Patrick Isaacs, He’s CEO to an army contractor, called ‘Hawkwood.’”
“This guy wouldn’t by any chance happen to have a military background, would he?” Julia asked, a smile of bitterness spreading across her face.
“Yeah, he does alright,” Eric affirmed, tightening his jaw. “He used to be a sniper in the war in Afghanistan. He retired back in 2007, and started up his own company.”
“Okay, how long have you known about this?” Julia grumbled, tossing a fierce glare up at him.
“Two days,” He replied, swallowing hard, and averting his eyes from her. “I found out by accident, really. We flew over to L.A. last week. I overheard her talking on the phone with him. So, I snooped around in her bedroom. His service record was in one of the drawers. That’s how I found out about his military background. I yelled at her, and I mean bad. She told me she wasn’t planning on harming you in any way. Carrie just wants to break those shifters’ spirit. She thinks that if you feel unsafe, you’ll leave that place.”
“A sniper almost killed us, two days ago!” she cried, jumping from her seat, her face lighting with rage. Ray dropped his head into his hands. “Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
“I’m sorry, pumpkin,” Eric sighed, dropping his gaze down to the floor. “Your mom threatened to have me and your aunt killed if I told you.”
“Son of a bitch!” snarled Julia, thrusting her arms down. Much to Ray’s astonishment, she grabbed her Uncle by the collar of his sweater, and spun the unsuspecting man around while his wife’s terrified scream resounded through the walls of her kitchen. His heavy body rocked the wall behind him when she slammed him up against the vertical surface.
“How the…”
“Shut up!” she growled, interrupting him and pressing her fingers into the flesh of his neck. “Guess what, you coward! I’m a shifter, too. And believe me, right now, I would just love to shift and tear you to pieces.”
“Jules: enough!” Ray clipped out, rising to his 6’1” stature. However, his mate kept her gaze locked on her uncle’s face. Eric let out a choked out breath; she gripped him even harder. Reaching forward, the young Bradford curled his arm around her stomach, and then flexed his muscles. Julia’s body was pushed backwards as her uncle dropped onto his couch. “Calm down. He’s not our enemy,” Ray pointed out, staring down into her eyes. “He should have warned you, but you can’t take your frustration out on him, do you understand me?”
He might have been waiting for a response with bated breath, but, sadly for him, he did not get any. Julia was breathing in short pants, her chest heaving while she gazed into the void. In truth, she was a nervous wreck. Seeing her like that broke his heart. A huge desire to comfort her spread within him like wildfire. All the same, he could not do so just yet. First and foremost, he had to check whether her uncle had any more information or not.
“What else can you tell me about him?” he asked, looking down at Eric over his shoulder.
“Damn…” the old man coughed, stroking his neck. “What the fuck did you do to my niece, boy?” he groaned, raising his eyes to glare at him. “I’m almost three hundred pounds, and she picked me up like I was a goddamn ragdoll. You take that beast and get the hell out of here, before I call the cops.”
“Beast?” scowled Ray, turning around to face him. “Boy?” he snarled, curling his fingers into fists, another shot of adrenaline rushing through his veins. Throwing his arm, he rotated it in midair, feeling the calling of his beast getting louder by the second. A tremendous blow to the jaw sent Eric flailing across his living room. His agonizing cry filled the air; he landed flat and hard on his chest.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I saved her life,” Ray spoke through gritted teeth, barely resisting the temptation to punish him further for his disrespect. “The next time you talk to your sister, tell her to bring it on. We’ll be waiting for those fucking mercenaries. Tell her to send in a recovery team, too. They’ll need to pick up what’s left of her boy and his men.”
Without much thought, he spun around, and grabbed Julia by the wrist. Staying in the same room with another disrespectful, offensive human made his stomach churn, and tested the limits of his patience. Should Eric call him or his mate any more names, Ray would end him and his wife, right there and then. Nobody was allowed to mock their nature, especially a man who had chosen to leave his flesh and blood in the dark about her mother’s plans. Still, he had dealt with similar humans in the past. It would take him some time to calm his nerves, but, eventually, he would do it. Julia however, was an entirely different matter. While he hated to admit it, Ray had to work really hard to bring back the girl she once was.
Chapter Eleven
Although the names of their adversaries were no longer a secret to him, Ray’s emotional state on the trip back to Paxton was very poor indeed. Julia’s outbursts were a good reason for this, but, unfortunately, they were not the only ones. In essence, he was reliving a situation from the - not so - distant past, when Cliff Daniels was investigating the destruction of the science facility where he had been held prisoner. As an FBI agent back then, calling in tactical teams was within his power, should he discover anything out of the ordinary. That fear loomed over his hometown, until he stated to Helena that he would not do so, because he was too much in love with her to destroy her family. But, that bad feeling was nothing compared to the terror that a freelance army contractor could unleash. The federal agents would not shoot anybody, unless they thought it was absolutely necessary. Their procedures would begin with arresting shifters. “Hawkwood,” on the other hand, were heavily armed mercenaries, with a single goal in mind: to shoot any shifters on sight. They were capable of wreaking havoc upon his birthplace, and causing a massacre beyond his wildest imagination. Even with two, mighty witches, like Helena and Kate, on their side, it would be very difficult for them to defend Paxton. What could two women do against an army of hundreds of well-equipped men? Ray dreaded the answer to that question, because even they would be overwhelmed by their adversaries’ numbers.
The skies over Sutton Valley had opened, when his truck entered the scenic town. It was still 4:30pm, but the light around them was so dim that one could easily mistake this for dusk or dawn. Torrential rain lashed against his windshield, the vehicle rolling to a halt in the driveway, and splashing small quantities of water onto the concrete. A wave of puzzlement washed over him, upon glancing up at his Alpha’s cabin. Raul was standing under the doorframe, beckoning him, with a wily smile on his face. The door of Dean’s adjacent cabin was wide open. Ray could hardly make out Kate’s feminine figure, a few feet behind the entrance.
“It looks like my brother wants me to check something out,” he told Julia, turning towards her. “Why don’t you go over to Dean’s place? I’ll come by later.”
“Fine,” she said on an exhale. With a heavy heart, Ray jumped out of his truck, and started off towards his brother’s home. Whatever Raul wanted to talk to him about, the news he had for Raul was terrible. As his slow footfalls brought him closer to his destination, however, he felt his curiosity peaking. There were two more men at Raul’s kitchen table with a black laptop right in front of them. Dean and James were in the middle of a conversation when he strolled inside.
“Hey, boys,” Ray muttered so low it was almost under his breath. “Don’t tell me you’re going over that audio file again.”
“Nope,” Dean rejected that notion, his lips curling into a broad smile. “Come here. You need to see this.”
Intrigued, Ray took three more steps closer to the table, and moved around his brother’s chair. The screen had been split into four squares. The upper right contained the view from a camera in the ceiling of a warehouse. Dozens of assault rifles were hanging on the walls. The picture right next to that sent chills rippling across his skin. Two, massive helicopters under a hangar, with four, armed men guarding them. The image below that one showed a view from outside the warehouse. Four, large, green trucks were parked on the far wall, whereas two more had just rolled through the gate to the left. The box in the lower right corner contained the view from the camera on that gate, with cars speeding up and down the road in front of it.
“Helena’s flight landed in LAX a little after 1pm, our time,” Dean informed Ray. “She had to go through a hell of a lot of traffic, but she’s been in Carrie’s place for the past hour or so. It looks like your girl’s mom has developed a taste for younger guys lately. She…”
“Yeah, I know about that,” Ray interrupted, taking his eyes off the screen to look down at his brother. “She’s been dating some army contractor CEO. He’s a war veteran. I think he’s the one who’s been targeting us.”
“How did you find out?” Dean squinted up at him.
“Her uncle told us,” Ray sighed, his voice weakening. “What exactly are we looking at here?”
“Helena texted us the addresses of all of his company’s warehouses, forty-five minutes ago,” Dean went on, returning his attention to the screen. “This is the one closest to Paxton. It’s about thirty miles south of here. James’s hacked into the security system.”
“That’s the good news,” James interjected. “The bad news is that they’re bringing in more and more equipment. All six trucks we see over there have arrived in the past half hour.”
“They’re going to attack us,” Ray concluded, his voice picking up speed, glancing up at his Alpha.
“That’s what they think,” Raul winked at him, adding to his confusion.
“Operations like these don’t take place in broad daylight,” James’s words grabbed his attention once more. “Even three of those trucks traveling together could raise questions. ‘Hawkwood’ would be risking its contracts with the government, if a civilian went to the press with that information. They have to wait for the cover of darkness, and I don’t mean six or seven pm. At that time, there are still too many cars out on the road. I don’t think they’ll attempt anything before midnight. We’ll be monitoring the situation though, just in case.”
“Shouldn’t you consider evacuating?” Ray asked, bringing his gaze back up to his brother’s face.
“No,” Raul retorted, shaking his head in disapproval. “The last thing I want is panic in our streets. Ned, James’s supervisor is selling an old Toyota Hilux for just fifteen hundred bucks. It’s in pretty bad shape, but it’s great for what we have in mind. You see, that warehouse is at the end of a downhill road, in the middle of God’s nowhere. Ned’s also got about forty pounds of C4 left from his old job as a miner. We rig the truck, and let chemistry do the rest.”
“That’s a bold plan, big brother,” Ray commented, slipping his hands into his pockets. “How can we be sure it’s going to work?”
“We can’t,” Raul replied, his tone becoming stiff. “If we fail to blow up that warehouse, I’ll evacuate. Dean’s already said it; it’s fifty miles away. We should have enough time to get everybody out, before those bastards arrive. I’ve been thinking about other things we can do, as well, like waiting for them on the road to Shandaken. But, that’s much more dangerous. Jumping onto the trucks, we’ll get them to crash, but we can’t expect many casualties. How many will we take out like that? Five or ten; the rest of them will just jump out and start shooting at us.”
“I suspect we’ll be leaving here soon,” Ray remarked, tossing a quick glance at the clock over the front door. It read 4:45pm. “It’s going to be dark, by the time we get there.”
“Not really,” Raul countered, his voice coming out slowly. “That warehouse is practically empty. We need to wait for those pricks to show up. I’m not sure when we’re moving out, but I don’t think it will be before seven. Go get some rest, kid. How much did you have to drive today?”
“Almost nine hours,” Ray responded, his baritone losing its strength, while he pursed his lips. “Here’s the thing, though. I can’t go to my cabin. I think I’m going to have to crash here.”
“Why?” his Alpha wondered, his face tightening with tension. “What’s the matter?”
“Julia,” Ray croaked, scratching his cheek, another wave of concern washing over his face. “She’s been pretty messed up since last night. I sweet-talked her, right after we got back from Ava’s place, but, this morning, her uncle screwed her up even worse. He knew her mother was trying to attack us. He was in L.A., until two days ago, but he couldn’t tell her, because Carrie threatened to have his wife killed if he did. The minute he admitted it, Julia just…” He faltered; “grabbed him. I swear I thought she was going to rip his throat out, right there and then.”
“Given the circumstances, I can’t say that I blame her,” Raul declared, his voice firm. “I can’t think of anything worse than being betrayed by my own family. I’m actually surprised she didn’t tag along with Helena.”
“She wanted to,” Ray continued, taking a deep breath. “How should I handle this, man? Help me out here.”
“Sweet-talking alone is not going to cut it,” The Alpha stated, speaking his mind, his eyes glinting with mischief and raising an eyebrow. “She’s a girl; girls like to be romanced. Get creative, kid. You don’t need much. You just have to show her you’re there for her.”
An idea flashed through his mind before his brother completed his suggestion. It was simple, but it was precisely what he and his mate needed.
“Hmmm, yeah,” Ray hummed, his lips curving into a wicked smile. “I think I know exactly what to do. Thanks, Raul. I’ve got to run. Give me a call when it’s time. I’ll see you guys later.”
“It’s not much, but it’s a start,” he thought to himself, making his way out of his brother’s cabin. “I’m not going to let you slip away from me, mess. That’s exactly what her mom wants. I’ve missed my wacky girl. Starting tonight, I’m going to do everything I can to bring her back.”
Chapter Twelve
Later that night, and after a long chat with Monica and Kate, Julia returned to the warmth and the coziness of her home. Her closest friends had tried their absolute best to soothe her; yet, they had both failed miserably. Words of comfort had lost their meaning before a treachery of such magnitude. She was still struggling to wrap her head around the fact that her mother and her uncle had become her worst enemies: people that had to be eradicated at all costs. It didn’t matter to her that Carrie had promised to Eric to keep her out of the slaughter she was planning for Paxton. The scene of the shooting was very clear in her mind. The man responsible had opened fire upon Ray and her. Her uncle’s motives might have sounded noble; but, to her, he was nothing more than a coward, who would rather watch an entire town burn to the ground than warn her of the impending disaster.
Mentally drained and disgusted by their tactics, Julia found that her mate had not returned to their cabin, much to her relief. A heated conversation with him, a discussion they had failed to have on their way back from Vermont, was overdue. Its outcome was not hard to predict. Ray would tell her off about her temper. He would do so out of love; however, she would still get defensive; and they would end up arguing. Although she held his feelings for her very dear indeed, fighting with him over her reaction was guaranteed to make her feel worse. Julia’s “pretty boy” - one of the pet names she sometimes called him - was her rock; her shoulder to cry on; the man she loved with everything in her heart. She had already lost her mother and her uncle. Losing him as well was her worst fear, a nightmare that was going to become reality should she continue to argue with him.
