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“They were servants once, weren’t they?” Straker’s voice was so gravelly it was more vibration than audible sound. He wasn’t the smartest of vampires, but he wasverygood to have around in a tight spot. Immensely strong—one of the strongest vampires Greely had ever encountered—they’d quickly recruited him into his role as enforcer once they learned just what he was capable of. The jet-haired, stocky male was perfect for it—dim, ruthless, and utterly unencumbered by anything even resembling a conscience.
“That’s right. But they were always a problem for us, weren’t they? Always had that persistent, tiresome defect of free will, a sense of right and wrong, a need for…freedom.” Greely sneered the last word, grimacing as if the mere taste of it upon his tongue was unpleasant.
The wolves were fools—sentimental creatures hopelessly compromised and weakened by their emotions, forever hamstrung by their passionate, deluded fixation upon things like honor, and love, and sacrifice. All those irrelevant considerations got in the way, prevented them from seeing what was truly important.
Power.
The wolves never understood it, but the vampires did—intimately. And it was the most important reason why the wolves would never truly be able to compete with the vampires. Not really.
They’d been following the wolf for two days. It was risky coming that far north, but once the Circle had learned of Dmitri’s new acquisition, Greely determined there was no choice but to accelerate the timetable. Which brought them there, to that moment, along a lost dirt track in the middle of the forest.
“Are the others ready?” Greely asked.
Straker nodded toward the thick forest opposite them. “About fifty yards down the road, other side. Tree line. They’ll move when we do.”
Unfortunately for the young woman currently entertaining the young wolf—and his dirty cock—in that truck, the remainder of her life was now down to mere minutes.
Wrong place at the wrong time, old girl.
It was nothing personal. Humans were meaningless anyway, at least on an individual level. It was what they could do as acollectivethough that made them so potentially dangerous.
Fortunately, they were generally stupid, fearful, often venal, and almost invariably vulnerable to vice, corruption, and temptation. A truly disciplined human was so rare as to be borderline mythical. But therewerea handful. And when encountered—especially if they were in a leadership position—they could be formidable indeed.
“Now. Move on him now,” Greely muttered, striding out of the trees and down the grade just as the evening stars began to twinkle overhead, a deep purple still suffusing the western sky. Straker was past him in a flash, moving incredibly fast. The two others, handpicked by Greely from the security bureau ranks of the Circle, were trotting down the road, already within twenty paces of the pick-up.
Straker made it to the truck first, tearing the driver’s side door clear from its hinges with a hideousscreeof twisting metal. A woman’s shriek heralded the blonde-haired girl being hauled from the vehicle. She was dumped on the gravel shoulder, breasts and hair bouncing wildly. Her top was missing, and she was wearing nothing but jean cut-offs and one sandal. She hugged her knees to herself as she stared, terrified at what Straker was doing.
By the time Greely reached them, Straker had already pinned the snarling, partially shifted wolf—they had learned his name was Caleb—against the tail gate of the truck, a huge hand wrapped about the wolf’s throat. The wolf’s red and black plaid work shirt was unbuttoned, his dirty jeans down around his thighs, his genitals tangled in his underwear. Caleb’s face was red, eyes bulging, his canines out and clawed hands scrabbling ineffectually at Straker’s grip. Wolves were strong, much,muchstronger than a human, but most of them didn’t hold a candle to the strength of a vampire, especially one possessing the fearsome brawn of Straker.
The other two vampires loomed over the girl. “What do you want us to do with the human?”
Greeley shot the pathetic female a casual glance. “Kill her.” When they moved on her, the female screeching in terror, and Greely held out his hand. “Belay that. I have an idea.” He strolled over to the cringing, petrified half-naked woman. “It’s your lucky day, human. There’s something I want you to witness. You won’t like watching it, but it’s going to save your miserable little life.” He took her by the hair, her feet slipping in the loose gravel as he dragged her over to where Straker had Caleb pinned, his back hard against the steel tailgate.
“Tell them what you see this night,” Greely snarled, forcing her to watch.
There was a flash of Straker’s clawed hand as he struck, Caleb screaming wildly at the first wet, muffled snap of his bones.
CHAPTER13
Dmitri
The lodge in the wan gray light of the morning echoed with the thumps, grunts, and muttered curses of men who’d gotten up early enough to regret their indulgences of the previous night. Dmitri paused at the threshold to the hallway. “You guys gonna hit the south quadrant today?”
Knox was already suited up, the overalls a necessary evil even for wolves when it came to clearing underbrush. The faded blue and black striped flannel stretched at his broad shoulders, the elbows so worn there were holes just beginning to show in the thread.
Ryan was already out with Matthias felling dead trees with several other pack members, but Knox was taking out a crew of humans that morning—the group of men currently grumbling out in the front entry hall.
Which meant his lieutenant would be the one doing most of the heavy lifting.
“Should be mostly along Warner Road, I think. Trying to get it all done this week. Weather holds out, we should be able to do it.”
“You hear back from Caleb yet?”
The young wolf was overdue, nobody seeing hide nor hair from him in more than eighteen hours.
Knox shrugged. “Nope. Probably out getting his dick wet. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Dmitri scowled. “Need you to check on him while you’re out. He’s young and dumb, and the very last thing we need is a Coulee clan lad getting into trouble out here. Maybe his truck just broke down or something, but regardless, find out where he is.”
