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.
“I didn’t realize…” Sheriff Bingham put his hand on his gun. “I won’t let them hurt you without cause…”
“Thanks for the thought, Sheriff,” Marcus sneered, “But your gun won’t do a damn bit of good against angry werewolves.”
“Marcus, Julian and Abbey, we are here to bring you in to the council,” A man called from outside. “You can either come willingly or unwillingly.”
“We’ll come willingly,” Julian was surprised to hear Marcus reply, “We have pups in here and we don’t want them harmed.”
“We have no interest in the pups. We’re here for the three of you.”
“Come on then.” Marcus motioned for Abbey and Julian. Julian helped Abbey to stand. Her movements were stiff and jerking.
“Mommy, what’s going on?” Audrey’s voice shook.
“Go to, Sheriff Bingham, and he’ll take you to Marcy.” Abbey urged.
“No!” Audrey and Tanner both exclaimed before wrapping their arms around each of her legs.
Abbey swallowed hard, Julian knew she was fighting tears. She walked to the door and Marcus opened it, shielding Abbey and the pups with his body. Julian stood beside his brother and took in the sight of the eleven Betas.
It was common for each pack to have more than one Beta. Marcus and Julian were lucky that only eleven of them had shown up when there were surely more they could have sent.
“Let’s get in the van,” one of the Beta’s urged, tilting his head toward the black van he wanted the three of them to get into the back of.
Julian heard Abbey telling the pups to go with the Sheriff as the pups cried and clung to her. The tension in the air was palpable and in an instant it imploded.
One of the Beta’s, clearly tired of waiting, grabbed Tanner by the arm and tried to jerk him away from Abbey. Abbey lunged at the man, shifting in mid-air and closing her jaws around his arm, tearing flesh.
The man bellowed with rage, shifted and ripped into Abbey. Bright red blood stained her white fur and splashed across the snow.
Audrey and Tanner screamed, the Sheriff scooped them up. Marcus bellowed with rage and launched himself at the Beta who was still attacking Abbey while Julian went after another that had come to help his fallen comrade. From their scent it appeared they were from the same pack.
Blood lust blinded Julian to all else as he sunk his teeth into the wolf and heard the yelp of pain. No one would harm his mate, his pups or his brother without paying a price! Julian was no Alpha or Beta but he was a rogue and rogues knew a thing or two about fighting for their lives.
A thundering boom cracked in the midday air and Marcus’s yelp of pain was enough to bring Julian out of his blood-lust induced fog.
He shifted back and saw his brother, as a man, stumbling toward a man with a gun. Marcus had a smoking hole in his chest and the acrid scent of silver burned flesh filled Julian’s nostrils.
“Marcus!” Abbey screamed, she too had shifted back and Julian felt his stomach turn at the sight of her torn flesh and the scent of her blood.
“He’s okay,” Julian caught Abbey before she could fling herself at Marcus.
Julian knew that Marcus wouldn’t die from that wound but it was enough to knock him down and leave him there for a while. What kind of werewolf used silver against other werewolves?
Marcus’s shuffling steps and panting breaths stopped all at once and then he fell to the side, unconscious and bleeding upon the snow.
Abbey went wild in Julian’s arms. She tore away from him and went for the man with the gun. Julian saw the gun raise, knew he couldn’t get there in time. The bullet left the gun with a roar and the bullet tore into Abbey’s shoulder. Julian lunged, shifting before the man could aim at him and fell upon him, tearing out his throat in one quick motion.
Abbey’s screams of pain hurt Julian’s ears. He stood over both her and Marcus, who were both laying together upon the snow. Abbey was bleeding profusely and her cries of pain became whimpers which grew more and more quiet. She was losing consciousness as that silver swam in her blood like a cancer.
Julian stood between his brother, his mate and ten angry men with guns and silver bullets. He snarled threateningly, bared his teeth and shook out his thick black fur.
“Let’s kill them and be done with it,” one of the wolves growled.
The one whose arm Abbey had tattered nodded, “I agree. They attacked us first. Let’s send these rogue bastards straight to hell.”
Julian readied himself to strike, though he had no real idea how he’d strike ten men at once. Seconds ticked by and Julian caught the flash of movement as the wolf with the tattered arm prepared to pull the trigger.
Before Julian could strike, something rushed past him. A blur of movement and the alpha with the mangled arm was crying out with pain as his arm bones snapped and the gun fell to the snow.
Julian’s eyes widened with surprise when he saw the Hunter standing there staring down at the whimpering Beta. The Hunter was large, equally as big as Marcus, and he looked very angry.
“What the hell is going on here?” the Hunter demanded, his voice cool and authoritative. Hunters might not have had the power they’d once wielded back when the Hunting Council had been thriving but they were still to be respected simply because they were so deadly.
“We’re carrying out council orders,” one of the remaining Beta’s replied.
“The last I heard the council wanted them brought in alive so they could hear their side of things.” the Hunter countered.
“They attacked us…”
The Hunter shook his head, “I watched the whole thing. You wanted this fight, you goaded them into it by showing up here in such numbers and putting your hand on that child.”
“This is no business of yours, Hunter,” a wolf growled.
“It is. I was called in by one of the council Alpha’s to help bring fugitives to justice, not to go on a Rogue hunting mission just to satisfy some werewolf bloodlust.”
“You better back off, Hunter!” a wolf warned.
“No,” the Hunter snapped. “You better back off. You think I’m the only Hunter? Our council might have been proven to be less than admirable but we are trained to help the innocent. We have kept up with our training and we will come after you if you raise another hand to hurt these wolves until a fair sentence has been handed down.”
Julian was surprised to hear everything this Hunter said. There were more of them? Just how many more? And they still trained and helped the innocent? He’d had no idea. Why was this Hunter helping him and Marcus?
“Are you threatening?”
“I’m promising. I’m promising death to you and anyone else who dares disobey what I’ve ordered.”
“You honestly think they’ll live? The council is going to sentence them to death. You are merely delaying the inevitable.”
“That might be so but at least they’ll have a chance to plead their case.”
Julian watched the stand-off, still fully prepared to defend his mate and brother who were still bleeding and unconscious in the snow.
“Fine then,” one of the Beta’s conceded, holstering his weapon.
If there was one good thing about pack wolves it was that they couldn’t make major decisions for themselves. They didn’t know how. They were so used to having someone to make decisions for them that they took orders from just about anyone that proved they were stronger.
Julian wanted to be relieved by the turn of events but it was hard. For now they were going to live but once the council got a hold of them, saw the damage they’d inflicted on the Beta’s and the fact that Julian had killed one of them…. They weren’t living past today, or at least their odds of doing so were looking slimmer by the moment.
When one of the Beta’s moved toward Abbey to pick her up, Julian snarled as the fur rose on his back.
“I’ll get her,” the Hunter cut in. Julian fought the urge to lunge at him and calmed his breathing before shifting back.
“I’ll get her,” he argued. “You can help Marcus.”
Marcus was beginning to stir as the Hunter hoisted him up and a Beta helped him lead the wolf toward one of the vans.
Julian lifted Abbey into his arms, wished he could say goodbye to the pups and then walked toward the open van door himself. He found that he, his brother, Abbey and the Hunter were alone in the back of the van.
Julian cradled his bleeding mate close as he sat beside his groggy brother and hoped against hope that somehow they’d find a way out of this.
“We…We should have run,” Marcus whispered through labored breaths.
“There was no time to run, Marcus. Nine packs of wolves would have been after us. We’d have never escaped. We had more time than most rogues get.”
“This is why I didn’t want a mate,” Marcus groaned as he sat up straighter, the wound on his chest still smoking and oozing blood. “Look what we’ve done to her. To the pups.”
Julian throat clogged as he gazed down at Abbey’s naked body cradled against him. She was covered in bite wounds and blood. The gunshot wound on her shoulder was black and still oozing dark blood and the exit wound in her back was jagged and ugly.
“I love you, Abbey,” Julian whispered, pressing his lips to her heated brow.
“Goddammit!” Marcus roared. He rose up and threw himself at the van wall as if trying to break through the reinforced steel. Julian felt the van tip dangerously before settling back on four wheels.
“Not the best idea,” the Hunter warned.
“And who the flying fuck are you?” Marcus growled and then he stalked toward the Hunter. “You’re who took our pups!”
“And he saved our butts back there so why don’t you come sit down before you lose consciousness again?” Julian asked as he leaned back against the wall.
“And what are we going to do?!” Marcus demanded as he sat down. “The minute we get there those Alpha’s are going to order us all dead! Even if I tell them I’m the one that killed those bastards they won’t let you and Abbey live--not now!”
“I might be able to help,” the Hunter spoke up again. “First tell me what happened on that mountain.”
Marcus poked at his chest wound and hissed with pain, “I killed two worthless sons of a bitches that were coming to kill my mate and take my pups away.” He looked at Julian, “What kind of wolf shoots another wolf with silver?!”
“My name is William. I believe you both. I believe that those men were a danger to your mate and her children. I believe that her husband beat her and wanted her dead. I believe that had you not killed them they would have eventually come back and been a constant threat if not toward your mate then toward your children. I understand why you did not ask a council member for permission to mate. They would not have given it to you. I did not understand just how deeply the ingrained hatred for rogues went with these Alpha’s but it’s as if they’re blinded by it.”
“One of those fuckin’ council members, the one that your coat smelled like, is the whole reason we’re rogue wolves to begin with,” Marcus informed him.
“I know,” William tipped his head. “I apologize for my involvement. Money is tight for a Hunter to come by these days but even I draw limits. I don’t aid in witch hunts.”
“Bit too late for your sudden growth of conscience now. Look at our mate! Our pups will never get to say goodbye to their mother! They’re probably scared to death!” Marcus scooted closer to Julian and laid tender kisses to Abbey’s hair.
“Maybe not. There is one council member that is not in Crittenden.”
Julian frowned, “Who?”
“One who used to be a rogue wolf himself. One who does not abide by the same rules and hierarchies that the other packs have abided by for centuries.”
Julian and Marcus shared a look and shrugged, “Who?” Julian asked again.
“The alpha responsible for the fall of the Hunting Council.’
“Are you talking about Grange Michaels?” Marcus demanded. “Our father told us stories about him. He’s nothing but a scary fairy tale that wolves tell their kids to make sure they behave.’
William laughed, “No, he’s real. Very real.”
Julian watched William pull out a phone and dial a number. His werewolf senses made the voice on the other end plain to hear when it answered,
“Hello?”
“Brendon?” William asked.
“Yeah. Who is this?”
“This is William. It’s been a long time.”
“Yeah it has! You wanting to come in for a visit? Grange was just throwing one hell of a fit over the crowding of his cabin. It’s the perfect time.”
William laughed lightly, “No, actually I need your Alpha to get here to Crittenden to this council meeting and I need him here now.”
“I don’t think he will….”
“They’re going to murder two rogue wolves just for being rogues, their mate who was just turned and orphan two small children who haven’t done a thing wrong. He needs to hop into one of those many helicopters I know he has and get here. I figure he’s got less than ninety minutes before their blood is on his hands.”
“Well that line of sympathy inducing horseshit won’t work on Grange but it’ll work on Dawn and she’ll work on Grange. Delay as long as possible. We’re coming.”