Chapter 7

LUKE

I jolt up in bed. Breathing rapidly. A thin sheen of sweat covers my body.

I had a dream Torrent was alive. I fought him desperately, but I was outnumbered by Lycans. Torrent grabbed me by the head. I see the girl. Her fiery curls framing her face. Her face is filled with anger. Her green eyes glow at me. The full moon behind her head.

"Help me!" I scream at her.

She just smiles and turns as Torrent snaps my neck.

I grasp at my neck in bed. Looking around in a panic. I'm in my room. I draw my knees up putting my head in my hands. Whining out breaths. I look at my nightstand and grab my phone. Its 3am. I need a drink.

I head downstairs. The packhouse is dark. I head to the bar and grab a bottle of whiskey. Still slightly shaking from my dream, I unscrew the cap and swig it back.

"Rough night?" I look up and Terry's walking in. He flicks the lights of the common room.

I lean on the bar with the bottle in one hand. "You could say that." I take another swig.

He stands on the other side. "Wanna talk about it?"

I suck on my top lip and screw the cap back on. "Not really. Why you getting in so late?"

"Just had some intel come in." He took the bottle from me and unscrewed the cap. He swigged it back. "About the Lycans."

I lean my arms on the bar. "You found them."

He nods. "A Porsche was stolen from downtown. GPS tracking had it track to a location an hour outside of town. In the middle of the woods. Flyers came back with the hide out location." He took another swig.

"What's the plan?" I arch a brow,

He ticks his head. "Don't have one. At least, not yet."

"Any ID on the Porche thief" I ask, taking the bottle from him.

He shakes his head. "Nope. But whoever it was, didn't stay long. We tracked the Porsche to a house thirty minutes west of here, but when we got our flyers there, it was gone. We found it in a ditch shortly after that. No fingerprints, no evidence. We don't even know how they took it. This isn't your average criminal."

I bounce my fingertips together. "Anything on the necklace?"

He looks at me and takes a swig. "One thing. It's rare. So rare there's only one. And that's it. The one who had it made? Draco Torrent."

I stand with my mouth small and my eyes concerned.

He screws the cap back on. "Whoever you pulled that off of either stole it from Torrent or was very close to him. Either way. This has Dragon written all over it."

I nod slowly. "Ok. See what else you can find out. Keep it quiet."

"Ok. I'm calling a meeting tomorrow at 9. We'll figure a game plan then." He taps the bar. "Get some sleep."

****

9am. I'm sitting at the conference table with a steaming cup of coffee. I don't really drink the stuff, but the dream last night kept me awake for the rest of the night and I need the caffeine.

I rest my elbow on the table with my head on my fingertips as Terry goes over what he found.

Gavin, Bobby and Evan are sitting with me.

"We'll set up teams here and here. Come at them from both sides...." Terry points to a map on a monitor on the wall.

I sit up. "Is that the best plan of action?" I kind of don't like it. I feel like the thing I'm looking for is there and I don't want my security team to get a hold of her before I do.

Terry arches a brow. "You have a better plan?"

  "Yeah. We go in. Just us. Take them by surprise...."

"Are you insane?" Bobby drops his arm in the table to me. "That's suicide."

"No, we can get a better lay of the land if the place isn't crawling with storm troopers. Take them out systematically instead of barreling in guns blazing." I look at him.

Gavin looked at me. "Um...we could be outnumbered you realize this."

"Yeah. But that's never stopped me before." I smirk.

Terry scratched his forehead. "You're the Alpha. Is this for sure what you want. It carries a huge risk."

I lean on the table and look around the room. "If we take out as many as we can, then the backup will have an easier clean up. But we don't want these guys flying the coup before we kill them. You send in the army; I guarantee half will run before you even hit the door."

Terry tilts his head. "You're call."

I sit up and hit the table. "That's what we do. We leave tonight." I stand and head for the door.

Evan jogs up beside me. "Awesome, I like it. Um....we're just going to like walk in the front door?"

"No." I stop and turn to him. "You're not going. You're too young for a fight like this." I continue walking.

"But I can fight." Evan protests.

"Don't care. I won't be responsible if you die. You stay." I walk into the dining hall for another coffee

"Luke...." He's right behind me.

"Evan....no.....Now, leave me alone." I glare at him.

He hangs his head. "Yes, Alpha."

He probably could fight, but I don't need to be worrying about him while I'm worried about my own ass.

Yeah, I'm crazy. Sure. Having backup is a hundred percent better. But this girl is my focus and I know she's there. If I can get to her before my pack does, maybe I can pull her out of whatever she's mixed-up in.

I know we can do this. I'm sure of it.

****

Around midnight, we roll up on the barn. It seems dark except for a single light.

We climb out of Gavin's truck and crouch up to the barn. I look around and see a loft door open.

I motion to the guys. We scale the wall up to it and climb in.

Carefully crawling to the edge of the loft to look down at the situation.

Ten Lycans. Easy. We can take this.

They're walking around mumbling about some job. I can't quite make it out.

Gavin taps my arm. "What's that?"

I look where he's pointing. I see a shadowed figure crawl through one of the ground floors windows and duck behind on of the haybales. The shadow peeks out and the light hits his face.

"That son of a bitch. It's Evan." My eyes go wide.

The fucking kid. I'm going to kill him.

Terry turns to me. "What do we do?" He whispers.

"Um....let me think." I watch Evan duck behind another set of haybales.

"Ok. You guys go that way...." I point to the stairs.

Bobby looks at me. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, I'm...just gonna...." With that, I run. Pulling out and cocking my gun as I jump off the edge.

I land on my feet on the table top one story down. Surprising the Lycans surrounding me. My heavy boots thudding down. I have my gun pointed down in one hand and a fist in the other.

They all stare at me as a deep Alpha growl escapes my chest. Dust rising around my ankles. I slowly straighten my bent knees and look around the room. I smirk with evil eyes. "Hey, boys. How's it going?"

One tries to grab me and I jump off the table. I fire a shot and they scatter. I rush another guy sending both of us falling into three more. I grab one and head butt him. I grab another and punch him square in the face with the butt end of my gun. I fire three more shots, clipping one the shoulder. One shoots at me as I jump across the table and run for the haybales, but I'm clotheslined and I lose my gun somewhere. I'm picked up and slammed on the table. The dark eyed guy stares at me as his wolf claws dig into my neck. I struggle and choke against his grip. Hitting his arm.

Gavin, Terry and Bobby start fighting through the mess. Guns drawn. They graze the arm of the guy holding me. I was about to rejoin the fight when someone grabs me by the hair and puts the barrel of my gun under my chin.

The room notices and starts to stop. I can see the look on my men's faces. Like they knew this would happen.

"Alpha." He hisses in my ear. "Just the man we need to talk to." He looks at my guys. "If there's silver in this gun, I'd drop those right now."

Terry holds his gun up and throws it. Gavin does the same. Bobby hesitates. Looking at me. I nod. He throws down too.

Another Lycan drags Evan from his hiding spot. "Found this one." He throws Evan to the others.

I wince at the stupidity.

The guy holding my hair grinds in my ear. "Any other idiots we should know about?"

I smile. "Nope. That's all of 'em"

The guy I shot is holding his bleeding shoulder. "Just fucking kill him." He growls.

He looks at me, pulling my hair harder. Jamming the gun under my chin. "Naw. He and the boss have to have a little conversation." He pushes me. I put my hands up. "Let's go."

****

We're taken to the main part of the barn

There's only two lights in the area we're in. They tie us up with silver laced ropes to support beams. Evan's tied to his feet on the floor where I can see him.

My ropes are cinched tight. "Ow." I look over my shoulder.

He smirks. "Too tight, Alpha?"

I look at him as he walks around. "No." I shake my head. "It's just your face is giving me a headache."

His mouth ticks up and he delivers a right fist to my cheek.

I spit blood on the floor. "When I get these ropes off, you're the first to go down."

"We'll see, sweetie." He smacks my cheek. "Let's get the boss." He waves the rest of the Lycans out.

I glare at Evan.

"I'm sorry." He says.

"Sorry?" I struggle with the ropes. "Sorry? When we get home, you won't even begin to know what sorry is!" I spit.

He struggles with his ropes. "Luke, I was just trying to help."

"No! You were fucking stupid and now we're in this mess!" I fight some more.

Bobby rolls his head to me. He's tied up on the other side of the pole I'm tied to. "No. We're in this mess because you wouldn't fucking listen. If we had stuck to the original plan, we wouldn't be tied up right now."

"Shut up." I growl. "It was going good until Captain Idiot showed up."

Gavin looked at me from behind Terry. "Luke, calm down. Give the kid a break."

"No. I won't calm down. If people would just fucking listen......" I'm interrupted by a voice in the darkness of the barn.

"Better listen to him, Luke." I squint in the dark to see who's talking.

"Luke Jackson. As I live and breathe." He steps into the light. Bulky. Blonde hair, half tied back. Tank top with jeans, large boots and.....an eye patch? Can only be one person.......

"Ian Wolfstrike." My eyes turn to slits and my chest puffs out. I feel my wolf rising to the surface.

"You look like shit, friend." He smirks.

I nod to him. "Somethings different about you, Ian. I just can't put my eye on it." I smirk back.

He gives a quick chuckle. Stepping closer and crossing his arms. He stands tall in front of me. "How long has it been? Three, four years?"

I tick my jaw. "Six."

"Six years. Man. Now what would compel you to show your ugly mug back up here?" He paces around.

I shrug. "I heard a new scumbag rolled into town. Should've known it'd be you." I follow him as he walks.

He stops in front of me. "Is that any way to talk to an old friend?"

My voice was deep and serious. "You stopped being my friend when you joined them." I shoot daggers at him and the Lycans behind him.

He turns with his arms out. "Someone has to be on the winning side, my friend." He spins around. "And if you haven't noticed, I'm the one winning."

"Games not over yet." I grit.

He gets up in my space. He stands about four inches taller than me. "I have your pack by the balls, bud. Soon, I'll have your house too."

I look him in the eye. "When did you become such a dick?"

He chuckles again. He turns. Looks at his guys. Then he spins, delivering me a gut shot. I double over, coughing.

"Luke." He grabs my hair. He got really close. "You know, there was a time when I admired you? You were the kid of the Alpha. To be your friend? How cool was that?" He pulled back his head and slammed his head into mine. Making my eyes explode in white light.

I squeeze my eyes shut and open them several times as I can't fucking see.

He looked around the room. "Then I saw just how much of a spoiled, evil, little bastard you were. Showing off, looking down on people. All because your father had power." He turned to me again. I try to focus as the blow to my head starts to fade. I feel blood trickle down my cheek.

"Now, who has the power, dick." He delivered another right hook to my face. I let out a tiny whine from the pain throbbing in my head.

He walks to the table where all our guns are. He picks my gun up and studies it. "Hmph....It's pretty." He lifts it to me. He turns it around in his hand, "Where's the armory?"

I lift my head. It's still throbbing like a bitch. The others look wide eyed at Ian. "What?" I'm confused.

He smiles. "The Armory. Where is it?" He shrugs smugly. He sits with his legs dangling off the table and my gun in his hands between his knees.

"I don't know. I just fucking got here." I whine. My head hurts too much for this bullshit.

He looks down at my gun. He shrugs. "Oh. Ok." He jumps off the table, cocks my gun and fires into the floor in front of Evan.

I almost jump out of my skin as he stares me down. "I don't know!" I shout.

He cocks the gun again and aims it at Evan who's trying to get away, whimpering. "You have five seconds."

"Fuck!" I glare at him. My eyes flick between him and Evan. "I don't fucking know, Ian. As far as I know, we don't have one!"

"Three seconds." He stares me down.

I look to Gavin and Bobby. They both shrug.

"Come, Luke. The kids about to piss himself here. Where is it?!" His brow furrows.

I'm fucking panicking. "I don't know what you're fucking talking about!"

"Bullshit!" He walks up to me and puts the barrel in my chest. "Every fucking Alpha has one. Where is it?!!"

"Enough!!" A voice yells from the darkness.

Ian turns and I look too.

The boots, the long black coat, the hood.

The green eyes.

My eyes widen and my jaw drops.

She takes off her hood and her fire red hair falls around her shoulders. Her eyes meet mine.

"Leave us." She turns to Ian. Glaring at him. He has six inches on her, but he seems scared of her. "Now." She holds out her hand and he places my gun in it.

She watches as the Lycans leave the room.

She turns to me. Staring at me intently. She looks at my gun and gently places it back on the table. She slowly walks over to me.

Pulling out a pair of silver knuckles and putting them on.

"Oh, come on." I roll my head and whine.

"Where....is...the armory?" Her gorgeous eyes pierce my soul as I try to figure out how to get me and her out of here.