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She’s about to give birth. The baby could be hurt, she could be hurt. The woman has been nothing but horrible to me, but I still wouldn’t wish any harm to come to her. It goes against every instinct we have that drives us to protect our own.
Lucia. What kind of wolf blows up their own pack?
“You think I took you out of here first?” Joseph laughs. “Of course, she’s already out. And she’s fine, thanks to you. The nurses are keeping an eye on her.”
Dumping me heavily onto the grass, we both suck in a big lungful of fresh air, flopping on our backs and spreading our arms wide while we catch our breath. Men and women race around, carrying injured people from the building and trying to set up barriers to keep people back from the unstable sections.
“Anderson,” I croak, wincing as my burnt windpipe rubs raw with each attempted word. Rubbing a hand over my face, I can feel scratches and cuts stinging everywhere as my sweat and the dirt covering me get inside them.
“He’ll be fine. We stopped all his medication just after he received the note. He has been improving since then.”
Dragging myself up to sitting, I lean on one elbow and scan the destruction in front of me. The entire front of the pack house is missing, blown away. Piles of rubble, lumps of concrete and broken wood are everywhere. Looking at what remains of the building, the whole place will need to be knocked down and rebuilt. Injured men and women lie scattered on the grass and some have been carried to the training ground; those well enough to help are treating the wounded.
“Any casualties?” Shifters might be stronger than humans and have enhanced healing powers, but we’re far from indestructible. The room where Lucia had me locked-up was right over the entrance, where there’s nothing but a hole now. If I’d still been in that room, I’d be gone.
“Not so far… but there are a few who are pretty banged-up. Doc has them in the infirmary and they’re doing their best.”
Joseph’s expression is grave as he takes in the wreckage that was once his home. “Lucia did this? To us? Her own pack. And her own father?”
The father that she was keeping weak and confused so he couldn’t tell what was going on in his own pack. Joseph looks like he’s just had his heart ripped out. They were friends, working closely together to rebuild the pack – or so he thought. He loves his alpha. It’s a betrayal beyond comprehension.
“Yes. She’s probably putting pressure on the other alphas, as we speak, to immediately release money to help with this emergency.” Sitting fully upright, I brush the front of my jeans, “And somehow, I don’t think she’s coming back to oversee rebuilding.” I wave away the clouds of dust that are floating off my clothes. The wound on my side has stopped bleeding, and the ringing in my ears is subsiding, but my pounding headache lingers. My wolf is working hard to get me back on my feet, to find Belle.
“Why would they do it?” Joseph pauses, thinking, then answers himself, “Because now she looks like the victim.”
Nodding, I roll onto my hands and knees, taking some steadying breaths and shakily getting to my feet. “Exactly. If we’re dead, nobody else will suspect her of blowing up her own pack. At least not before she disappears with the money.”
Wheezing, I thump my chest to dislodge whatever I’ve inhaled and cough hard, feeling like my ribs might crack from the force of it. Joseph watches with disbelief as I straighten to my full height, groaning at the feeling of semi healed skin tearing in my back.
“That’s why she never listened to any of my plans. She didn’t actually care about repairing anything.”
I look around at the mess she’s made. “She only cares about what she can take. Or steal.”
They’re going to need someone with energy and enthusiasm to turn things around here. And they’ll definitely need that money.
Reaching around to feel what’s pulling at my skin, I touch bare flesh and realise I’m missing the back of my t-shirt. That’s not good. Neither are the raised uneven patches of skin and the crispy edges. “Can you freeze the accounts?”
When I press my fingers against the injury, lights dance in front of my eyes and my legs nearly buckle. That’s not good. Extending a hand to Joseph, I wiggle my fingers and he stands, removing his shirt for me to put over the remnants of my clothes. Joseph taps a finger against his lips as he considers my question.
“I can try, but I doubt she’d have the funds sent to the usual pack accounts…” he waves at the destruction around us, “she's way too clever for that.” The harder he thinks about it, the angrier Joseph looks, digging deep in that intelligent mind of his.
Suddenly taking off back towards the crumbling building, he ignores my shouts to stop. I’m helpless to follow, so I take a knee, waiting. When he emerges minutes later with a laptop and begins clicking away. I pull out the indestructible block of a phone that Billy gave me and turn it on. The only upside to having a phone with no smart functions is that it’s not that easy to break.
“I have to leave, Joseph. They have Belle. I have to make sure she’s okay.” Mercifully, the phone turns on, despite a crack on the screen. Joseph throws me his keys, fury and excitement lighting up his eyes as he stares at the laptop screen.
“That bitch. I knew it. Last year, she updated the emergency account details. It wasn’t one of ours, but one that belonged to her and Toby.”
Sitting down cross-legged on the grass, he rests the computer on his knees, fingers flying furiously over the keys. “I’ll try to update it again, but it might be too late.”
Billy’s name flashes on the phone screen and I read the flurry of messages he’s sent in the last hour. Reading through them, a frightening calmness washes over me as I realise Leon already has plans to take care of Lucia. He’s there, at the conference, making sure she gets the blame and not him.
Slipping the phone into my pocket, I gingerly begin to walk away.
“Ethan, fuck, your neck, and arms… You need to see Doc.” Joseph’s face drains of colour and he looks at me wide-eyed. I knew it wasn’t pretty but he looks like he’s about to vomit, and he can only see a small part of the damage.
“No time. Do what you can from here. I’m going to make sure she doesn’t get away with it.”
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