5

3. The Provocation

DERIK

I had to stay focused, lead the pack, be the alpha.

All I wanted to do was link to Lorelai like Kai was and make sure we were going to make it in time.

Not being able to link at the same time as him was driving me insane, making me feel out of control, and that was the last thing I wanted to be.

But I had my role. We all did. And we had to work together.

Kai had the strongest mental connection with her, which she needed so she could hold it for longer. Brax could use his shadows to strengthen her and help keep our child alive.

My role was the pack. I had to be the one with the level head, the one who knew where to send the others, the one who could keep everyone in line.

They listened to me and I was glad they did, but I couldn’t help wondering if I was getting the short end of the deal.

They got to feel her, be with her in some way, and it was hard not to take that luxury for myself.

But I would handle it because I had to. It wasn’t safe for her, and by doing what I needed to do for the pack, it meant we were going to be able to find her quicker.

I had to hold on to that.

We raced toward the men’s village in the Grassland area, following the lead from Cain. Brax ran next to me as the pack moved into position and Kai met up with us on the way back from Tabitha’s.

I hated that I had let go of my instincts. I had known something was going on with the men’s village. The reports hadn’t been truthful for months.

I had assumed the human was simply an imbecile, but I had been naive. I wasn’t usually, but I had been living in some kind of blissful ignorance since Lorelai.

I had wanted to believe everything was fine so I didn’t have to deal with it and could spend more time with her, but I shouldn’t have been so irresponsible.

Now she was gone, and it was my fault.

“It is not. We all knew the numbers were fucked. We all should have followed up. And I shouldn’t have left her with the humans,”  Kai growled through our link.  

I shook him free of my head and ran faster, the burn in my bones and the wind in my fur de-stressing me bit by bit. But the tension that stirred in my stomach at finding Lorelai was still there.

I had no idea what state she would be in, and that was the worst of all.

I was hoping being her father’s daughter might give her some protection, but I had lost my faith in humanity a long time ago and was terrified of what that could mean for her.

The men’s village came into view. All three of us came up on it faster than we ever had, a speed the humans had no idea we could reach.

It meant we might have a chance of getting there before they did something about us coming.

“Are you in position?”  I asked Taylor, and a resounding howl ruptured the silence of the day. They were ready.  

I came to a stop, shifting into a human with Kai and Brax, pulling on pants that we were handed by others in our pack before they shifted and ran off to help the rest of the wolves surround the men’s village.

I sauntered forward, my eyes darting everywhere as Kai and Brax flanked me.

We were always equal, but they always flanked me. I was the diplomat, the face of us, and that carried so much weight that sometimes I wondered whether it was worth it.

Then I remembered that Kai was a psycho, and Brax resented the leadership role because of his shadows and history with being a shifter.

Which left me, and I would take that burden on for my brothers. Brothers not by blood but by bond. It was even stronger.

I stepped forward, through the sloppy mud that made up the ground, sniffing, investigating. It was eerily quiet, which had my skin prickling.

Kai growled low, and I knew why. We couldn’t smell her.

“What is she saying?” Derik asked, and Kai huffed.

“She’s weak, trying not to speak down the link too much, but she’s underground. We just have to find the entrance. She’s not the only human down there, but I can’t get anything.”

Kai growled, his anger making the sky thunder. Gray clouds rolled in, deep and dark with thunderous claps and threatening lightning.

“I will tear them apart with my teeth!” he roared, then sauntered forward, his body trembling as he got closer to Lorelai’s father’s hut, his fists clenched, his eyes red.

I grabbed his arm, and he swung to me.

“Let go.”

“The laws forbid it, Kai. We have to do this properly or they have every right to her.”

“Fuck your laws. She is not theirs, and I’ll have a fucking good time proving that to them,” he bit back and yanked his arm out of my hold.

I eyed Brax, who was paler than normal, his shadows taking their toll on him. He wasn’t going to be able to help hold Kai back. If he did, it would take strength from her.

“Let me handle this, Kai. I know you want to go in there and kill them all, but we can’t.

“We have a contract with them. We cannot attack or harm them unless they attack.

If we do, the contract falls apart and everything we have built with them means nothing.

“We can’t risk that, Kai,” I explained, hoping to get through to him.

“I want his head. I want to feel the life leave his body as I squeeze it from him,” Kai glowered, looking over the hut we were surrounding.

“And you will. You know he has been hiding these humans for a reason. He took her for a reason.

“If they attack, so do we. Until then, we find her the right way. If they refuse, then there will be consequences. We can claim provocation,” I said, already having the loophole up my sleeve if I needed.

I hated that we relied on the humans for so much magic. Their souls fed our magic; it took nothing from them, but we felt it.

And we needed it. Otherwise we were just werewolves, capable of nothing but savagery. The magic kept us somewhat human.

I couldn’t risk that being taken away from my pack. The descent into madness was swift, and it would be too late by the time we figured out how to stop it.

Kai stepped back; his lips pursed as he sniffed the air again.

“He’s here. His arrogance is permeating everything,” Kai muttered, rolling his shoulders back.

I frowned. He shouldn’t be arrogant. I would expect some anxiety or something edging toward fear, but if he was arrogant then it meant he thought he had more than just a chance at beating us.

I sniffed the air harder, frowning when a foul scent stung my nose. I coughed and spluttered out the taste, spinning to the others.

“Wolfsbane. They’re growing it,” I bit, anger coiling through me.

That was an act of war. I sniffed warily, inching toward the hut, refusing to touch it if there was wolfsbane in the air.

“And gardenia. A neutralizer of scent. That’s why we can’t get anything on her,”

Brax interrupted.

I frowned, trying to work out what the hell the next move was. I ordered the wolves to step back a little, keep an eye out for the two plants.

The anxiety ran deep inside me from the pack and I tried to soothe them, but I was nervous too. The humans had never been so bold.

The door to the hut creaked open, and all three of us growled, towering above the smirking human who had one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other in his pocket, like this was just another meeting.

Kai roared, and I knew how much control it took for him not to destroy him. I was having to exercise the same control, something I had never had to worry about losing as much as I did in that moment.

“Where is she?” I demanded, and Mr. Valarian shrugged.

“Around.”

“You will give her back.”

He chuckled at that, and I almost shifted. My spine tingled, begging to let the wolf take over.

My eyes had already shifted color, and I didn’t miss the way Valarian registered it before he returned to being a smug prick.

“I don’t think so, wolf.”

“This will be considered provocation. Either you bring her out, or we go hunting,” I growled, not caring anymore that there was a contract.

I had thought he was going to feed us some bullshit about protecting his daughter, but his demeanor said anything but that. He had nothing to redeem himself with over what he’d done.

I was not holding back, and I was not leaving without her.

“Actually, it won’t, and no, you won’t. I’m taking my daughter back, which, under the contract, I have every right to do if I take the compensation accusation off the table.

“Without that, you have no reason to hold her,” Mr. Valarian said sure as anything, his body straight, his eyes meeting mine.

I roared at the intended challenge before stepping forward into his space, staring him down.

He didn’t flinch, and I snarled, my teeth snapping. Maybe there was more Kai in me than I had thought because one wrong move and I was going to kill this human.

“Stop challenging me. Your dominance is irrelevant when it comes to us. You may be the alpha of your humans, but in these lands, you are nothing but a servant,” I spat at him, my voice deep, dominant, alpha-like.

I could feel my pack bowing to me, offering up their surrender to my power. Even Kai was letting me channel him. That was rare, especially since I was connected to the pack.

But it was Brax that broke me. He coughed, falling to his knees, his eyes drooping, breathing hard.

“I couldn’t hold on to it. She passed out again,” Brax breathed, and Kai roared, rushing forward, shoving past me, slamming Valarian into the door.

It broke in half, and Kai stepped over him, pressing his boot onto his chest. Valarian went for his sword and held it up to Kai, narrowing his eyes.

Kai laughed, and I stepped back. Fine, psycho could win. They weren’t going to give her back, and if she was that weak then we had run out of time to do this the nice way.

I stepped forward and slammed my boot on Valarian’s arm, pinning it down and grabbing the sword from him.

I held it at his throat as Kai grinned, a malicious, threatening grin that intimidated the hell out of most people—even me sometimes.

He ran a long black talon down Valarian’s cheek as he smirked.

“I have wolfsbane everywhere. I have arrowheads made of it, I have spears made of it. I have an arsenal that you couldn’t imagine. If you kill me now, I promise you, I will be avenged,” the man promised, and Kai laughed maniacally.

He hauled Valarian up and threw him toward Brax, who yanked him up from the ground and held him there.

I sauntered forward, looking directly into his stubborn gaze. “We know she’s here.

We are linked magically, which is something your stupid human brain could never comprehend.

“Going against us will make that a very steep learning curve for your kind though,”

I warned, knowing they had no idea just how much magic controlled the realm they lived in.

Making the witches angry, upsetting the balance, turning on the wolves, it was all going to lead to the culling of a lot of humans, and I’d bet it wouldn’t even be done by the wolves. It would be forces much bigger than us.

But they could figure that one out on their own. I only wanted Lorelai back.

“We are not your slaves, and we are sick of bowing to you. We will not do it any longer,” Valarian spat back, and I shrugged, not interested in the words of a dead man.

“Taking her signs over your position in our realm. Keeping her from us against her will signs your death warrant. Your choice,” I offered, but I knew what his answer was going to be.

Which is why I was really going to enjoy tearing him apart with my brothers.