Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
ELEVEN
On Thursday morning, Thanksgiving, because Ondine and Evan had stayed up past midnight and baked with her telling him what to do and him performing all the labor, they were late leaving the house together, to deliver two beautiful-looking pies to the celebration. There was one apple and one pumpkin, along with more oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Evan had called his aunt, explained that he wanted to contribute to the pack’s feast, and asked if that would be okay with her. Narah had apparently broken down sobbing.
Cole was nervous about the challenge, which only made sense, but the truth was, he was the son of the alpha. The chances of his uncle besting him were minute. Alphas were instinctively suited to lead, but they were also bigger and stronger. I was holding out hope that Abel would simply let the entire pack know what he’d done and then yield. But that would have been too easy. As it was, when he won, Cole would announce to the pack precisely what had happened to his father.
As it got later in the day, I called Evan to ask if he and Ondine were going to stay on the pack land or return and walk back down with his brother and me. When he didn’t answer the phone, Cole made a call to Abel, who claimed not to have seen Evan. He checked with Narah while Cole stayed on the phone, but the answer was the same. No sign of Evan.
But that made no sense. It was a direct route from my back door to the pack land, and once you crossed into the large area in front of the main house, it was all cleared land that I had seen had been sectioned off for the challenge and lined with lights. There were tables out there covered in runners, fall decor, and many space heaters, and it all looked very warm and inviting. When Cole, Reggie, Helene, and I walked the same way to reach the pack land that Evan and Ondine would have, nothing at all looked out of the ordinary.
Emerging from the tree line, we were met by Abel and Justin.
“You’re early for the challenge,” Abel told him.
“No,” Cole bit off the word. “Where is Evan?”
Abel appeared stunned. “I have no idea where Evan is.”
Cole shook his head, and I could hear his breath hitching. “Give me my brother.”
“I swear to you,” Abel told him. “Have Merritt search if you don’t believe me. All of us know if Evan’s here, Merritt can find him.”
“Helene and I will help you,” Reggie offered.
We split up. I went to the main house and searched everywhere, then I sat in the basement, quietly, and used all my senses to find either Evan or Ondine. There was no trace of either. What I did smell, upstairs, was blood. When I broke down a locked bathroom door, Fletcher was in the tub, hog-tied, with a gag in his mouth, and he’d been severely beaten. There was dried blood all over him, and there was a deep gash on his forehead. Though I knew, as a shifter, he could heal the damage, it still had to have been painful to endure.
Once I untied him, I helped him downstairs and outside, back to Cole.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked Abel, and as Reggie was there, he took Fletcher from me, leading him over to the chairs where Helene was.
“I’m sorry, Cole. Some of this you’ve brought on yourself.”
I had no idea what that meant until I saw Tuss Haviland and several more men than he’d brought the first time, at least thirty, crossing the field. What was even more concerning was that another man was with them, bigger, taller, and built like a tank, with no discernable neck I could see and musculature that only happened thanks to copious amounts of anabolic steroids, which were terrible for humans and worse for shifters. Last came another man, older, crossing from the other side of the open area where many of the cabins were, almost strutting, carrying clothes with him draped over his right arm.
“The Haviland Pack is here?” I asked Abel. “Our understanding was that you had invited the Danton-Steelwater Pack to share in your Thanksgiving celebration.”
“We did,” Abel said as Justin and Narah joined him. “But when Cole challenged me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make good on my promise to Matthias, so I got in touch with him.”
“Matthias,” Cole said to the older man.
“Cole,” Matthias greeted him, throwing two coats down in front of us. One was Evan’s, the other Ondine’s, and they were both ripped to shreds and covered in blood.
“What did you do?”
Matthias, a big man, as Tuss’s father would have to be, studied Cole. “I need to make a confession to you.”