Chapter Thirty

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Chapter Thirty:

Julian stood there in the kitchen with his family simply waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring or a knock to come on the door. They’d sent all the hands away for the day and now it was simply a waiting game.

Abbey hadn’t spoken more than three words since they’d left the shack and Julian didn’t blame her. Marcus and he had made her so many promises about what her life would be from now on and not a single one of those was going to turn out to be true. They had let her down.

“The Sheriff is here,” Marcus growled striding back and forth across the kitchen floor like a caged beast.

“Mommy, are we in trouble?” Audrey asked from the table where she was sitting and brushing her dolls hair.

“No, you and Tanner aren’t in any trouble,” Abbey replied, her voice void of any emotion.

“Are you in trouble?” Tanner questioned.

“Of course not,” Julian spoke up. “It’s nothing that you two need to worry yourselves about.”

The knock on the door echoed loudly as Julian walked over and slowly pulled it open, “Hello, Sheriff Bingham.”

“Hello Julian. I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. The council is in town and they’ve requested the presence of you, Abbey and Marcus.”

“They can go fuck themselves!” Marcus growled. “Abbey isn’t going anywhere near those bastards.”

“Come on now, Marcus, they just want to talk to you all. There has been some evidence that one, two or all three of you were involved with what happened on that mountain.”

“You called the council,” Julian shook his head. “After all my brother and I have done for this town and all the people we’ve helped you called that council. We’ve never caused a bit of trouble, Sheriff. We’re good men and you should have left it at that! What happened on that mountain was what needed to happen.”

“No,” Sheriff Bingham snapped, staring Julian down as Marcus simply continued to stalk back and forth, back and forth, and Abbey remained sitting at the table. “You should have come to me if there was an issue with Abbey’s ex .You had no right to take that into your own hands.”

“I was protecting my family,” Marcus slammed his fist into the granite countertop, shattering it and causing dust to fill the air, floating in the rays of the sun streaming through the window. “I’m not afraid to do it again.”

“I’m sure the council will understand that and show some leniency,” Sheriff Bingham replied though Julian noticed that not even the old man seemed to believe what he was saying.

“You signed our death warrants when you picked up that phone.” Julian’s voice was low and even. “They won’t show any leniency. We are rogues. The man who murdered our father and made us rogues is on that council. To that council we are nothing. Do you know that they used to hunt rogues just for sport until a few mortals complained that it was immoral and they had to stop doing it so openly? I hope when you lay your head down at night you can sleep, Sheriff.”

“Julian.. I…’ Sheriff Bingham’s regretful voice was interrupted by more vehicles pulling into the drive.

Marcus roared with rage. “It’s the Betas!”

“I told the council to let me handle things!” Sheriff Bingham exclaimed with anger.

“Like I said,” Julian replied. “Thanks for killing us.”

The scent of eleven wolves filled Julian’s nose. Too many for he and Marcus to hope to take on alone and Abbey was not skilled enough in fighting to be much help. While most packs these days weren’t as focused on fighting and strength has they’d once been, eleven powerful Betas were still plenty more than even the DeLuca brothers could handle.

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