A Place to Call Home (Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 3) Page 11

  “Whatever,” Corey grumbled. “We won’t be here much longer.”

  “Kannon and I don’t really need to keep going to school,” I said sadly. “Not if we’re going to run and have to get new identities again.”

  “We need to keep up appearances,” Wyatt told me with a frown. “Dr. Green uses your education as a motivator to keep you working with him. He won’t like it if he loses that leverage, and he might look for something else to replace it.”

  “Oh,” I said as my shoulders slumped. The thought of giving up on school was heartbreaking, but we were all going to have to make sacrifices if we wanted this to work. Even if I kept going now, there were no guarantees for the future.

  “And you still need your education,” Grayson told me. “If we get you a new identity with a high school diploma that comes along with it, you need to have the knowledge to back it up.”

  I smiled at Grayson, but I knew it was pointless. Meth dealers and burglars didn’t need high school or college degrees.

  I followed Kannon into the room that we had decided to share, and we got ready for bed in silence. I was feeling so glum that I couldn’t even enjoy the private bathroom with what seemed like limitless hot water. On the outside, it might look like we were moving up in the world with our fancy suite, but it was just a nice-looking prison. It was getting more difficult not to feel hopeless every day.

  I laid down on my side of our bed and stared at the ceiling while I waited for Kannon to finish in the bathroom. What was going to become of us? I couldn’t see how a positive outcome was going to be possible in the situation where we had found ourselves.

  “Hey,” Kannon said softly as he climbed into bed alongside me. “We’ll be okay.”

  I curled on my side so that we were facing each other, our bodies only inches apart. “I think we should just try to enjoy every moment that we still have together,” I whispered. “We can’t be sure what the future holds.”

  “Have faith,” Kannon said quietly. “We’ve gotten too far for us to give up now.”

  I murmured something that might have been an agreement, but I lacked Kannon’s confidence. No rule said everyone got a happy ever after.

  Most people didn’t.

  Chapter 18

  Wyatt

  I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes. My eyes were heavy with exhaustion, but my mind wouldn’t let me relax. I was tense and on edge like a wolf being kept in a small cage. As long as the lamia had one of us trapped in the enemies’ stronghold, they had us all. Lori and Kannon were ‘safe’ at school right now, and Corey was brooding in his room. He was vocal about wanting to leave, but he didn’t have a plan to offer us.

  I groaned at a knock on the door. It was never a good sign when one of the lamia sought us out. Grayson sighed from where he sat across from me and stood to get the door.

  “You don’t think we could get away with ignoring that?” I asked sarcastically with the bond.

  Grayson shot me a resigned look before he opened the door. “Pierce?” he asked. “What brings you here?”

  I got up to my feet and stood behind Grayson to lend my support. Pierce looked just as exhausted as I felt, but he had a determined set to his jaw that let us know there would be no talking our way out of whatever it was he wanted.

  “Follow me,” Pierce said gruffly before turning on his heel and striding away.

  Grayson and I exchanged a glance. “What do you think he wants?” I asked Grayson with the pack bond.

  Grayson shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

  My walk was confident as I followed Pierce and Grayson into the unknown, but I was on edge. Pierce was an enigma, and his motives unclear. There would be moments where he seemed like a friend, and then times when he was clearly on the other side of a great divide. He was difficult to predict because I couldn’t find a pattern behind his decisions. It was frustrating.

  Pierce led us into the gym area that was completely empty of any other lamia. He turned back to toss Grayson a pair of grappling gloves before taking a pair for himself. “Can you ref?” he asked me.

  I shrugged. Grayson had taught me the basics of fighting, but he was lightyears ahead in terms of knowledge and experience. He also had the raw talent that made him stand out from other fighters. I was average at best.

  They both climbed into the ring, and I followed with a sigh. Pierce was one of the few lamia that Grayson didn’t hold back against. They’d probably be pissed if Gray accidentally killed one of their students, but Pierce could hold his own.

  Grayson swung his arms to warm up and bounced on his feet as Pierce paced around the perimeter of the ring. “No holds barred?” Grayson asked.

  Pierce gave him a wary smile. “I’ll trust Wyatt to make the calls and keep score.”

  I gave him a sharp nod after he glanced at me for confirmation. Pierce was making a point that he trusted us, but what game was he really playing?

  Grayson and Pierce exchanged a few blows to feel each other out, and then things got more heated. I called an end to the round as Grayson put Pierce in a hold that forced him to tap out.

  The two fighters retook a position against each other, and I called a start to the next round. They exchanged blows again, but this time Pierce pulled Grayson’s head close. “Don’t let Lori go through with it,” he said under his breath. If I hadn’t had sensitive wolf hearing, I wouldn’t have been able to make out his words.

  Grayson grappled with Pierce as if he hadn’t heard Pierce’s uttered warning. It wasn’t until Grayson slammed him down to the ground that I heard his response. “Why?”

  They wrestled on the ground, and Pierce ended up with the upper hand, allowing him to murmur into Grayson’s ear. “She won’t survive. You need to get her out before the new year.”

  Shit.

  I kept an eye on the fight and went through the motions, but I couldn’t catch anything else Pierce said. My mind ran through all types of scenarios as to why Pierce would tell us something like this. It could be a setup or a trap meant to goad us into action that we would quickly regret. It could be a test meant to see whether or not we’d try to run. Or, the least likely, it could be a genuine warning.

  Grayson and Pierce separated once again, and Pierce climbed out of the ring to get a water bottle. Grayson wiped some sweat off his face. “Pierce said Jade has been draining magic from other shifters in an attempt to pass their abilities onto others,” he told me with our bond. “Every one of the shifters who were drained died. There was one wolf who survived receiving a magical transplant from the others, but Lori’s chances aren’t good. Neither are ours.”

  My body stiffened. “We need to get Lori out of here,” I replied. I tried to appear normal as Pierce tossed Grayson a bottle of water, but I knew I wasn’t successful. Tension thrummed through my body, and I felt the urge to make a run for it tonight. Dr. Green couldn’t be allowed to get his hands on Lori.

  I watched Pierce after the fight that he had staged to pass his warning along. Was he a friend or an enemy? I couldn’t be sure either way. But he was right – we couldn’t stay here. Even if it was a trap, we had to try to escape. If nothing else, we would get Lori and Kannon to safety. They were the ones who had a chance at a bright future. The rest of us were doomed by our past mistakes.

  Chapter 19

  Lori

  A week slipped by faster than I could have anticipated, and I found myself studying for finals with only a week before Christmas. Kannon and I had been alternating between digging up information on other packs, going through the stuff we had stolen off Mr. Reaven's computer, and studying.

  I'd also had to work to avoid Lynn and the other humans who had been at her meeting. Lynn had stopped trying to speak to me, but now watched me with sharp eyes. I was worried I had made her into an enemy, but I didn't know how to fix the situation. I just had to hope she would let it go for now and that I would somehow come up with a miraculous solution that made everyone happy.

  Yeah, right. Wo
uld I let something like that go if I were a human, and my sister was potentially a captive? Nope.

  "Oh, shit," Kannon murmured before looking up at me with wide eyes. His reaction to whatever he was looking at on his computer screen completely pulled me out of my endless cycle of worry, and I focused on him.

  "What?" I asked excitedly. "Did you find anything?" I perched on the arm of the chair where he was sitting so I could see the screen of his laptop.

  Kannon snapped the laptop closed before I could see what surprised him. "Kannon," I warned. "Let me see."

  Kannon swallowed nervously. "It's not what we were looking for," he cautioned. "We just opened up a can of worms that we aren't going to be able to close."

  "Let me see," I demanded as I tried to pull his laptop in my direction.

  Kannon held tight to it. "I didn't look through everything on there," he said with a frown. "I only opened the first video."

  "Now you're worrying me," I told him nervously. What video could have Kannon so worried?

  "Is it of Corey?" I asked in a whisper. Was Corey actually guilty of what everyone had been accusing him of? Did Mr. Reaven have video proof that Corey had set Gus's shop on fire? Was Corey guilty of murder?

  "Not what you're thinking," Kannon said as he put his arm around me and nudged for me to sit on his lap. "This has nothing to do with Corey."

  "Just show me. My imagination is going to make this worse than it is if you drag this out any longer."

  "When we first went through his computer, these files looked like they were just backup videos for his security system," Kannon said nervously. "I didn't want to waste time going through boring footage of his house, but now that we are desperate to find anything, I decided to take a chance."

  Kannon opened up his laptop, and even though it wasn't even thirty seconds before he hit play on the video, it felt like an eternity. My mind was going crazy with a million different scenarios of what this could be, what it would mean for our pack.

  I was shocked to see it was a video of me. I was standing in the storeroom of the ice cream shop, nodding along to something. A moment later, I saw Mr. Reaven step into the frame of the video as I backed up into a shelf to get away from him. The sound was muted, but I already knew what was going to happen.

  "Turn it off," I said in a broken voice. "I don't need to see it."

  That was the day that Mr. Reaven assaulted me and probably would have raped me if I hadn't fought back and hurt him instead.

  Kannon cleared his throat. "I clicked on this one first because it had your name on it, but there's a ton of other videos with other girls' names. They were all hidden in a folder buried within the security files."

  I felt nauseous. I wasn't Mr. Reaven's first victim. How long had he been doing this and getting away with it?

  "Are there any videos dated after that one?" I asked. I was angry that he’d gotten away with this for so long. I intended for this to be the beginning of his downfall and an end to the list of people he’d hurt.

  "No," Kannon said with a shake of his head. "That's the final one." Kannon reached for my hands. “Lori, none of this is your fault. The blame falls completely on the men who committed the crimes, not the victims.”

  I scowled. I didn’t want to think of myself as a victim; I was a survivor and a fighter. “I know,” I answered Kannon. “And this is about finding those men and punishing them. I want to stand up for all the other girls who can’t, and I want to put a stop to this once and for all.”

  He hesitated, and I could see an unasked question in his eyes.

  "What?" I asked softly.

  "I know you told us that he tried something, but seeing it…" Kannon pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me tightly. "It kills me that you were ever in that position. We should have been protecting you from the moment we met."

  I slid my arms around his waist. "Kannon, it's okay. I protected myself and didn't let him get away with anything." I still felt sick when I thought about other girls that might not have been able to fight back.

  "It's not okay," Kannon growled. I could feel his chest vibrate under me, and I picked my head up to look him in the eyes.

  "We're going to stop him," I said confidently. "Let's see what else is on the computer and decide what to take to the police."

  Kannon frowned. "We're at the point now where we need to get the rest of the pack involved."

  I raised an eyebrow at him. "If you show that video to the other guys, you know we're going to have to talk them out of going after Mr. Reaven themselves."

  "Maybe we should act on this ourselves," Kannon said darkly. "What are the human police really going to do about it?"

  "Hey," I said gently. "What's been going on with you lately? You're always so optimistic, but now you seem to have a lot of negative feelings towards humans."

  Kannon sighed. "I'm tired," he admitted. "I don't like being on guard all the time, worried that you're going to get attacked at school or while you're out of sight. Humans haven't been as friendly as I always thought they were. There's darkness and hate inside them."

  "Not all of them," I insisted. "Some are victimized even more than we are. At least we have each other and can stand up for ourselves."

  "I guess," Kannon said doubtfully. "I've been wondering if we'd be better off with our own kind."

  "Another pack?" I asked hesitantly.

  Kannon shrugged. "We would be surrounded by friends instead of enemies, and we wouldn't have to hide. We wouldn't be alone."

  "Leaving your old pack meant leaving your friends and family," I said softly. "You miss them."

  "I miss my old pack before we were taken over," Kannon admitted. "I think you would like being in a good pack. It gives you a sense of belonging, a sense of security."

  "A place to call home, permanently," I added. "That would be nice. But everyone knows that paradise doesn't exist."

  Kannon chuckled. "If we get enough people together who all want the same thing, then we can build it for ourselves."

  I sighed and sat up. "But for now, let's descend back into hell and see if we can vanquish a demon."

  I slid off Kannon's lap so he could focus on his work, but I stayed close so I could hover over his shoulder. Mr. Reaven was into some disgusting things. He had been exchanging rape videos with other men who had the same sickness over the internet. All of the victims were teenagers, some even younger than that.

  "I can't watch this anymore," I choked out as I stood. We hadn't watched any of the videos all the way through, just glanced at the beginning to see it was more of the same. Even so, those girls' faces and terrified eyes were going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Even worse was the evil I had seen in the men's' faces. They had enjoyed what they were doing.

  Mr. Reaven had been in several videos where he had cornered me, but we had been interrupted every time. I realized he had been trying to get an opportunity to play out his fantasies for a while. To my horror, Taylor had also been in three videos with Mr. Reaven. There was no way I could watch them, but I could guess what the contents were. I felt even shittier for the careless comment I had made about her and her uncle.

  The door opened, and Wyatt stepped in with Corey not far behind him. I had been too distraught to sense them coming.

  "What's wrong?" Wyatt asked immediately upon seeing my face.

  I turned away, unwilling to be the one to put the horror I had just seen into words. "Hey, Lori," Wyatt said gently as he turned me back around to face him. "You have tears in your eyes."

  I let Wyatt hug me, but I could see Corey's clenched fists out of the corner of my eye. This wasn't going to go well.

  "Who do we need to kill?" Corey growled in Kannon's direction.

  "Wyatt," I told him with the pack bond. "Don't push this. I don't think Corey can handle it right now." I didn't trust that Corey wouldn't act on his words.

  "You can trust my brother," Wyatt told me out loud. "Whatever this is, we'll deal with it as a pack." Wyatt's
voice turned harder. "And Corey isn't going to go off like a loose cannon. He has enough self-control to handle himself."

  I heard Corey growl in response, but he didn't make any other threats. He surprised me when he circled around to put his hands on my waist and lean his chin on top of my head. This left me sandwiched between the twins, a scenario I'd never thought would happen.

  I sighed and spoke as quickly as I could to get it all out. "Kannon and I broke into Mr. Reaven's house and downloaded the contents of his computer because we thought he was framing Corey, but instead, we found crazy rape porn that he and his friends have been making and trading."

  I had to take a deep breath after that really long run-on sentence, and I could feel the tension in both brothers.

  "Crazy rape porn?" Wyatt asked in disbelief.

  Corey's hands tightened around my waist. "Lori, are you in any videos?"

  The tone in Corey's voice scared me, and I knew I needed to keep him from exploding once he realized what Mr. Reaven had planned for me. "Corey, what's important is that you keep your temper in check right now."

  "Are. You. In. A. Video?" Corey ground the words out, and I could feel his body shaking behind me.

  I let go of Wyatt and whirled to face Corey. "He may have wanted to make one of those videos doing stuff to me, but you know he didn't get far. I already told you what happened that day."

  Rage burned in Corey's eyes, and he stood utterly still, battling something within himself. I cupped his face. "I need you here with me, Corey. Not in jail. Don't make me cry because I have to be without you."

  Corey's eyes focused on me, and he took a ragged breath. "I'll do what the pack decides," he growled. "But, I'd like to rip that asshole to shreds."

  "Now that we have that decided," Wyatt interrupted. "Let's discuss how you and Kannon decided to break into his house and rob him. Didn't the two of you think about the consequences if you got caught? You'd be the ones in jail."

  "We were careful," I said defensively. "We planned everything perfectly so we wouldn't get caught."