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“Secret,” I replied, pointing to myself. “McQueen. ”
“The pretender. ”
“Oh for the love of God,” I groaned.
The wolf advanced, trying to punch me again. His strike glanced off my shoulder, and I replied by cold-cocking him with the gun. “Stop that. ”
He was slumped against the brick wall, glaring up at me. His expression said, When I stop being concussed, I’m going to get you really good.
“What bullshit line is she feeding you now to make you believe she’s the rightful queen of anything?”
“Ian, don’t answer her. ” A few feet away a trio of men had arrived to join our party. Awesome, so Mercy had more than one lackey believing her lies now. And me with only the one gun. The three new wolves drew closer, and much to my chagrin I recognized one of them. The scrawny, racist asshole I’d met in Callum’s compound the previous month. I’d enjoyed meeting him so much I’d introduced him to my fist.
“Hank,” I growled.
“Princess. ”
“You in charge of this charade?”
The man in the middle of the group, whose dark hair was pulled into a ponytail and looked like he hadn’t shaved in days, laughed at my question. “We answer to the queen. ”
“I’m no expert in werewolf politics, boys, but I know whose territory you’re in, and the only queen here is not the one giving you orders. ” None of these wolves had been part of Marcus’s hostile takeover attempts, so where were they getting this queen garbage from?
“Our queen has been misplaced from her territory,” Pony-boy replied, casting a glance to Hank. “So she’s looking for a new throne. Yours. ”
“Mine isn’t currently available. ”
“That can be changed. ” Ian, the werewolf I’d knocked to the ground, made a grab for my ankle, and I kicked him in the head.
“Do you understand the hell you’ve just invited on yourselves?” My tone wasn’t threatening, it didn’t need to be. Given my history, they should have known it would take more than a few rogue wolves to get me out of Mercy’s way.
“We’ll see. ”
Between Callum and Lucas, they’d signed their own death warrants. The implication, as I understood it, was that Mercy believed she was the rightful heir to the Southern kingdom. And if Callum wouldn’t give it up to her—which he wouldn’t—she was going to come east and try to lay claim to my pack.
To Lu
cas’s pack.
And she was doing it right when he was at his weakest.
Which meant if Kellen wasn’t sunning herself on a beach somewhere, my mother might be behind her disappearance. The thought that Kellen might be in trouble because of me made me sick. I couldn’t bring this kind of darkness on the people in my life anymore.
At least I knew now what Mercy had been up to since the last time she’d tried to kill me: building her own little werewolf cult.
“She should have told you it wouldn’t be that easy to get rid of me. ”
Pony-boy gave me a wry smile. “She did. ”
“You should have listened. ”
Another figure melted out of the darkness, and I was momentarily worried I might be badly outnumbered until I saw it was Holden. He chose a rather fruitful moment to start taking his job as my bodyguard seriously. “You know dogs, Secret. They never listen to instructions unless you give them a treat. ”
Hank snarled. “Vampire. ”
“Oh, this one speaks,” Holden said, delight painting his words in bright, cheery tones that were sorely out of place in the current circumstances. “Have a cookie. ” He threw a quarter at Hank. The werewolf growled, a purely animal sound.
The last time Holden and I had been outnumbered by werewolves it hadn’t gone well. But this was two on two, and I’d already taken one of them out. I liked our odds here better than I had in Deliverance country.
