Wolf Mountain Peak Complete Series, page 121
part #1 of Wolf Mountain Peak Series
“Pathetic,” Ray scoffed, shaking his head in disgust. “She’s been dating this guy for months, and she still doesn’t know what he’s capable of.”
“He’s good for her ego,” Helena maintained, her shrewd smile somewhat puzzling him as she turned to him. “Patrick Isaacs is sixteen years younger than she is. She doesn’t want to believe he’s evil.”
“Yeah, he makes her feel special, we get that,” Raul groaned. “What about Adkins’s clan? Where are they? I’ve sent Martin and Pete out into the forest, but they haven’t found any traces yet.”
“Well, they’re out there somewhere,” The witch shrugged her shoulders. “There’s one thing about them that doesn’t change: their bloodlust. I believe they’re in the woods, hunting. I would send two more shifters up to Shandaken, just in case they get a craving for human blood. I doubt they’ll attempt that, though. Should they do that, they’ll risk battling with you, long before Isaacs’s troops arrive here.”
“Um, Helena?” called Olivia raised her hand in the air like a timid schoolgirl. “Thanks a lot for the information, but…” she faltered. “That helicopter blew up the diner last night, and we just stood there. Something tells me it’s going to come back. That thing can decimate us; we’re powerless against it. Have you figured out a way to deal with it somehow?”
“I would suggest another rigged pickup truck, but you heard your Alpha,” Helena responded, her voice deeper than usual. “They’ve learned their lesson. They’re expecting us to attempt something similar. You may be powerless against its weapons, but you are not as ignorant as you were last night. You know the direction it’s going to come from. When you hear it, hide in the woods. The trees will protect you. I can deal with it.”
“Be alert, boys and girls,” Raul advised, assuming a businesslike tone. “The minute we hear from them, we gather up out here: Dismissed.”
“Ray, I’m going to need you and Dean tomorrow, after the sun goes down,” Helena uttered, the urgency in her tone tightening the back of his neck. “They probably won’t attack us before midnight, but I can’t know for sure. He is still indecisive. I have tried peering into Isaac’s future three times, and I have seen three different outcomes. In the first, he’s arguing with Carrie over dinner, in the second he is being burnt alive, and in the third, he is, uh…” she paused “being bitten in the neck by Adkins.”
“We’re dead in two out of three,” Dean concluded, stealing a glance down at his brother. “I don’t like those odds.”
“Me neither,” Ray agreed. “You said you know where he lives. Take us there. Let’s kill that son of a bitch.”
“It did cross my mind,” Helena admitted with a swift nod. “But, Isaacs is always carrying, and sleeps with a gun under his pillow. Even if you disarm him, he could neutralize you. Don’t forget he’s a battle-hardened veteran. He’s been trained in hand-to-hand combat. You need your beasts to take him out, and you just can’t shift in a hotel suite, not without waking up the entire floor.”
“Damn it…” Ray let out a huff of frustration, tipping his head back to look up into the sky.
“I’m in,” Dean voiced his intention, his blue eyes darkening with worry. “What do you have in mind?”
“We cannot allow any trucks into Paxton,” Helena assumed an emphatic tone, glancing up at Ray first, and then this brother. “We can’t even begin to imagine the devastation those soldiers will bring. Neither can we stop them on the downhill road. It’s filled with ditches and ridges, places they could use to fire upon us. We only have one option: The main road outside Shandaken. I haven’t thought of the exact spot yet, but it’s flat, away from our town, and we can hide in the bushes,”
“Count me in, too,” Ray murmured, dropping his gaze down to the witch. “I don’t mind the long wait: Better safe than sorry.”
The youngest of the Bradford brothers had managed to keep his tension out of his voice; yet, he could not block Helena’s predictions out of his mind. For the first time ever, his pack had to base their survival on luck. However, he could not let that pessimism affect his confidence. Julia could see straight through him, and she was drowning in sorrow. Any notion of doubt in his behavior could intensify the agony that had been gnawing away at her. Ray had to keep his faith, for both of their sakes.
Chapter Twenty
Later that night, much to his relief, Julia preferred her friends’ company over his, claiming that she had missed Kate, Monica, and baby Helena. Ray was more than willing to act as if everything was fine, but deep down, he knew that sooner or later, something would give him away. The two of them were bound to discuss the possibility of a standoff between Adkins’s clan and their pack. He dreaded that moment, but, happily for him, it never came that night. By the time Julia returned to their cabin, he was fast asleep in their bed.
The following day, it was much easier for him to avoid his mate. A small voice inside, however, didn’t leave him in peace during the long hours at work, telling him that she had to be made aware of Helena’s predictions. She had every right to know about them, even if the truth cut her like a knife. Still, he didn’t have the heart to face her. Julia had no need for any more darkness than the one that had descended upon their town. Such revelation could have catastrophic consequences on her. It wasn’t hard for him to imagine the first thing that she would do, upon learning about those possible outcomes. His mate would storm out of their cabin, and ask Helena about Carrie’s whereabouts. Then, she would do what she had been thinking about for days. Find her mother and take her life, no matter the circumstances. Maybe Julia had a point in insisting so much; after all, Carrie was directly responsible for this situation. Yet, Ray would not let his mate give in to the darkness. To him, this was a duty far more important than disclosing what the witch had seen in her orb.
As daylight faded, it occurred to him that he had to withhold that information yet again. The moment of truth was drawing nearer by the minute, and he couldn’t leave his home without talking to his beloved Julia. With a heavy heart, he dragged his feet across the living room, watching her stir a mug of coffee with a spoon.
“Jules…” he started, taking a deep breath. “I’ve got to go. Helena will be waiting for the humans up on the road outside Shandaken. She wants me and Dean to tag along.”
“Yeah, I know,” Julia said in a calm and steady voice. “I talked about it with Monica and Kate for hours last night. We all tried to guess what kind of trick she’s going to pull on them. We even called her, but she wouldn’t say.”
“I’m going to be gone for a while,” Ray stated, the green in his eyes darkening. He stepped closer to her. “Don’t worry, though. Whatever Helena’s plan is, we’ll try to steer clear of danger.”
“Who are you kidding?” she wondered out loud with a giggle, easing her mug down on the table. “You could get shot at tonight. How exactly are you going to avoid that?” Her question put him in a difficult position. Lowering his gaze, he pondered his response, but, with every passing second, he realized that nothing he could say to her could convince her. “Forget I asked you that,” she murmured, her sweet, feminine voice tearing through the silence. She lifted her hands to his face. “You can’t, pretty boy. But, it’s okay. I made my peace with danger, when I decided to move in with you. Go. Just promise me you’ll take good care of yourself, okay?”
“I promise,” Ray whispered, tilting his head down to lay a soft kiss on her lips. At that very moment, he discovered that no bad predictions whatsoever could destroy his faith. Gazing into the deep brown of her eyes was more than just a confidence booster, it was a promise; a win over their rivals meant that he’d be able to continue to savor the look in those eyes for the rest of his life. That warm look was a greater motivation than words could offer. “Wait for me, mess. I won’t let you down.”
A sweet smile served as Julia’s reply. Turning left, he started towards his front door, feeling his determination to finish this once and for all rise within him.
“It’s time for this unholy alliance between humans and vampires to come to an end,” he thought to himself. “You can bring freaking tanks in for all I care. You’re going down, you bastards.”
The crispness of the wind greeted him when he strode out of his cabin. Dean was already waiting for him in their yard, staring up at the hillside. Intrigued, Ray threw a glance in the same direction, but his gaze was met by darkness. But, before he could voice his confusion, a thin, red glow shooting downward on the top of the hill provided an answer to his question.
“That’s our signal,” Dean said, turning to him. “Don’t tell me we’re walking,”
“Hell, no,” Ray groaned, his heartbeat escalating, upon hearing the call of his inner beast. Two, gunfire-like sounds shattered the stillness of the night as ribs rippled and crackled. Silver and light-gray furs sprouted from their heads, and spread over their bodies, while their hips changed shape. Their legs thinned and shortened, ears grew in size as their faces lengthened to thin muzzles. Ray’s beast let off a tremendous bark, recalling the scene in Eric Whitaker’s house when he exploded forward, with Dean’s wolf right by his side. Spurred on by the exasperation on his mate’s face, and the dreadful feeling that had been threatening to take her from him, he sprinted down his yard, hackles raised, his tail swishing out behind him. In truth, Julia had almost lost herself in this struggle, trying her absolute best to fight off her demons, the sorrow, and the bitterness of her mother’s betrayal. So far, they had both failed to subdue her indomitable spirit; however, even the strongest in this world can break. Determined to send them away, Ray would not hesitate to eliminate anything or anybody that stood in his way.
Sprinting across the street, he kept his gaze locked on the location of the glow. Unfortunately, though, he encountered large bushes, when he began running up the hillside, that joined with the elevation to block it out of his view. Still, it didn’t matter. Even in the dark, locating Helena was easy. He didn’t need to see her. His massive paws tossed dust and gravel across the ground while he hurtled towards his destination. Dean’s brown beast let out a happy yip galloping alongside him. By now, their heartbeats were ringing in his ears, their sheer speed resembling war drums. Looking up ahead, the silver wolf jumped over a sizeable, jagged rock. Dry leaves were squashed underneath his paws. His long strides led him closer to the edge of the hill. Seconds afterwards, the familiar blackness of Helena’s cloak entered his line of sight. She was standing before a large, thorny bush, with her staff in her palm, watching them close in on her.
“Foolish pups…” she hummed, casting a look of scorn down at them. “We could be here for hours. Did it occur to you that I might need someone with which to talk? How am I supposed to pass the time now?”
A sad yip escaped Ray and he tore his gaze away from the witch. Even though he hated to admit it, she had a point. In his eagerness to reach her, he had not considered her at all. Either way, their argument was not allowed to continue. The roar of a powerful car engine tore through the night, compelling him to crane his neck over the bush. A black BMW was racing towards them. Helena spun her head towards the road. The car’s high beams lit up the dark, empty road. The witch thrust her left arm up to cover her eyes from the blinding light. Ray’s beast did not think twice. Unwilling to let any harm befall her, he lowered his head, a ferocious snarl rising up in his throat. Moving around the vegetation, he padded alongside the edge of the road, feeling his adrenaline once again storming through his system. Focusing his attention on the windscreen, he let off one more bark, while he ran towards the vehicle. His menacing growl rose above the roar of the car when he launched into the air. His ears were filled with the loud, thumping of his paws, at the moment he landed on the windscreen. The driver swerved left - the rear tires of the car squealing - causing it to speed towards the rocks. In a quick move, the beast hopped up and onto the roof, just before the BMW left the road altogether. The left side of the vehicle smashed into the rocks, littering the dusty ground with hundreds of shards of glass, its lights shattering. Ray’s wolf jumped off the car, catching a glimpse of Helena running across the road.
“Mindless fools!” she cried, halting beside the passenger door, her staff falling onto the ground. Swinging it open, she bent down, and reached forward. A deep grunt fled her lips when she pulled the driver towards her. “Why am I not surprised?” She wondered, piquing Ray’s curiosity even further. “Carrie Stinson,” Helena moaned, emerging from the vehicle, with her hands under the woman’s armpits. Luckily, she had not suffered a serious injury from crashing her vehicle. She had a large bruise on her forehead, and she was unconscious, but, other than that, she seemed to be in good condition. The witch dragged her body across the road, Ray turning around with her. Without second thought, he headed back to the spot where they had found Helena. Nevertheless, Carrie’s blatant attempt to take out one of his loved ones had infuriated him. His beast was not ruled by logic, but by instinct alone. And, when Helena eased his mate’s mother on the ground, he could only hear a single word in his head.
“Kill.”
“Come on, wake up,” the witch urged, pushing strands of Carrie’s red hair back from her face. Padding closer, Ray stopped over her chest watching her eyelids roll up. Yet another snarl rattled in his throat, while he raised his upper lip, exposing teeth and fangs. “I should kill you right here, right now,” Helena grumbled, tossing a nasty glare down at her. “Or I should let him do it,” she went on, throwing a quick glance over at Ray’s wolf. “Why did you do this? Do you want to get yourself killed?”
“I saw the glow,” Carrie uttered, her voice coming out drowsy. “Patrick’s told me about a witch in Paxton; I figured it was you. I had a gun with me. I wanted to make you lead me to my girl.”
Her confession added to Ray’s frustration, turning the voice inside his head into a deafening cry of rage. Another growl escaped him. He shifted his gaze down to her throat.
“Don’t!” Helena commanded, reaching her arm to his shoulder. “We can use her as leverage.”
At that, the sound that every shifter in his hometown had been dreading for the past two days froze the blood in his veins: the whirring of a helicopter. This time however, he didn’t have to worry about just one. Ray could hear two, massive engines, one audible over the other, and much more powerful. Whirling his head to the left, he spotted four, steady, red lights, and two, white bleeping lights in the horizon, flying close to one another.
“Patrick figured you’d have hacked into his security system,” Carrie smirked. “Your hacker’s been looking at a loop for hours. He’s brought in another chopper.”
“Shut up!” Helena yelled; her face tightening with tension. The silver wolf let his eyes roam over Lockhart forest. The sight that greeted him sent shivers of horror slicing through him, instantly putting the notion of killing Julia’s mother aside: dozens of pairs of eyes, glowing yellow in the darkness. “Oh, my God…” Helena whispered in despair. “Run, boys!” she commanded, her breath heavy. “I’ll be right with you. Run!”
Chapter Twenty One
The two wolves started back down the hill, while Ray still struggled to fathom what had transpired. No trucks were coming. The humans were about to unleash their most devastating weapon upon Paxton. To make matters worse, they were going to attack at the same time as their vampire allies. Still, he couldn’t afford to reflect on the events of the past. There was nothing he could do about them, anyway. His town and his pack needed him.
Striding down the rocks, he chugged the cold air; his Alpha’s howl rose tremendously and reverberated through the night. His lungs were beginning to hurt; yet, his will to provide a helping hand to his brothers in arms was much too great to let this minor detail prevent him from rushing off to their aid. Ray’s fury was blasting through his veins as he sneaked a peek through a bush and a tree, further down the hillside. Three wolves were loping along the main road. He recognized the last one immediately. The small patches of gray on the white fur over her back told him that he was looking at Julia’s beast. Ray let off a frenetic yip, speeding past the white fence of a cabin. A long jump sent him into the road, among his comrades. Still, in a few seconds, he wished that he was back in the undergrowth. The helicopters were hovering over the forest, closing the distance, fast. Just then however, he noticed a dark shape on the roof of the house nearest the blown-out diner. And, when she pulled her hood back from her head, he identified her. It was none other than Helena. Gripping her staff with both hands, she pointed it up at their enemies. Curious as to what she had in mind, he settled his gaze on her. After all, their survival depended upon her actions.
“Gods of war – Forge my path
Bring the humans to my wrath
Heathen kings – Feel my desire
Burn them all in a ring of fire”
A bright, orange beam shot up to the top end of her staff when she completed the incantation. It flew through the air, heading towards the machine on the right. The light struck the windscreen of the helicopter, and then spread around it, engulfing it in flames. Ray’s beast reached Julia’s and they watched the aircraft bank to the left. The loud, hair-raising noise of metal twisting resounded through the wilderness; the two machines made contact with one another. The main rotor of the stricken chopper shattered the glass around the helicopter beside it and they slowly descended behind the trees. Ray felt the ground shake underneath his paws, a split second before a deafening blast rocked the forest. A massive fireball shot up into the sky, sending splinters of wood and chunks of muddy soil hundreds of feet up in the air. The smell of fuel flew through his nostrils, and he watched his Alpha turn right and into the forest. However, the scent that followed afterwards made his heart leap for joy. It was the mercenaries’ burnt flesh. The silver wolf yipped in happiness, bypassing his mate. The flames reflected in his eyes, his quick strides leading him closer to the scene. Raul’s wolf was locked on the remains of the mangled machine, also the center of his brothers’ attention. Happily though, it soon occurred to them that they had no worries with this situation. The forest floor was littered with corpses, body parts, and twisted chunks of aluminum. There was no movement whatsoever. Ray’s beast jumped over the burning tail, eager for the last stage of this war.
