The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2 Read online

  Grayson wrapped his arms around me and I shuddered in his embrace. “Shhhh,” he whispered into my ear. “I promise you that none of us are going to get hurt tonight. We are going to be very cautious, and if there is even a chance that we’ll be outnumbered in this fight we’ll back off and come up with a new plan of attack.”

  Kannon pressed up behind me and buried his face in my hair. “What happened to your mom wasn’t your fault, it was his.”

  I relaxed into their embrace and tried to calm down. “I hate being weak,” I spat out. “I hate the fact that I’m shaking in fear because of that asshat.”

  “You’re not weak,” Corey murmured as he came closer and laid a hand on my shoulder.

  “Not at all,” Wyatt agreed as he approached from the other side. A slight buzz of energy filled me when he was the fourth member of the pack to touch me. I could feel their affection for me as our connection grew stronger. It felt almost like the first night that we had formed the pack bond together.

  “I like knowing how much we mean to you,” Gray murmured. “But I hate seeing you so upset.”

  “We’re tough,” Wyatt assured me.

  “And it’s going to take more than a crusty old alpha to bring us down,” Corey added.

  My panic and fear faded as I was filled with their confidence and reassurance. I could feel our bond humming with positive energy and I sent a wave of love through the bond in their direction. We stayed still for a moment and I basked in the warmth of our connection. This was what a pack was meant to be. We were more than just a group of outcast wolves who had found each other out in the cold and lonely world. We were on our way to becoming something even more than family. We were forming bonds that could never be broken.

  Chapter 6

  Baracus

  I had watched the evil little bitch earlier today, prancing through the forest with a bunch of humans as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Rage filled me when I saw her smiling at the youngest wolf of her new pack. I wanted to rip everything she loved away from her and leave her desolate and alone.

  I had started to walk towards her with the intention of putting fear inside of her heart. I liked the idea of her knowing I was coming for her, dreading the moment when I would attack, and terrified of not knowing when I would strike. I had hesitated when she had stopped on the trail and had been sniffing around. Maybe it was better if she had no idea what was coming until it was too late.

  The thought of her little pack of wolves threatening me would have made me laugh last year. But now? I clenched my fists tight when I thought about what she had done to me. It was better if I fought this battle from the shadows until I was sure that I would win. I made my way back to where I had parked the shitty truck I was using. I’d come back tonight to clean up my tracks.

  Chapter 7

  Lori

  I fidgeted in the backseat of Gray’s SUV as he drove us back to the school after darkness had settled over Hollow Crest. Because when else would a pack of wolves go hunting for an enemy lurking on their territory?

  Gray pulled into the darkest corner of the parking lot in back of the school and shut off the engine. “Here’s the plan: Corey and Wyatt will shift with me and we’ll circle around the back of the trail. Once we’re all in place we’ll move towards the school and flush out anyone that might be in hiding back there.”

  I chewed on my lip nervously. “And Kannon and I will lie in wait for them?”

  “No.” Gray shot me a hard look but softened his voice. “You and Kannon will wait here and if I tell you to leave, you go home immediately, no questions asked.”

  I opened my mouth to argue but Corey beat me to it. “Why didn’t we just leave them home to begin with?” he asked sarcastically. Wyatt and Grayson both glared at him.

  “We can help,” I said quietly.

  Kannon nodded in agreement. “We’re not a couple of pups who need a sitter.”

  “I need someone here who can warn us about any humans that might wander this way,” Grayson explained. “We’re about to shift way too close to town and I don’t want any high school kids screaming about seeing a wolf in the woods.”

  I crossed my arms across my chest. “You should have led with that.”

  Gray let out an exasperated sigh. “Keep watch here, but I wasn’t joking.” He turned to look both of us in the eyes. “If everything goes to shit I want you back at the firehouse immediately. Kannon knows the plan if we’re ever separated.”

  Kannon nodded. “We got it.” He turned to me and used the pack bond so that only I could hear him. “I’ll explain once we’re alone.”

  I was slightly mollified by the explanation, but I didn’t like the idea of the other guys going into danger while I waited on the sidelines. This was my problem and I wanted to be a part of the solution. “There’s only one problem with the plan,” I told Gray triumphantly. “Only I know the scent of the pack master. How are you going to identify it without me?”

  “It won’t be difficult for us to identify the scent of a male wolf, even if he had stayed in his human form.” Gray opened his door and slid out of his seat. “Once we secure the scene and decide it’s safe I’ll call for you. I’m really hoping we won’t find the scent of more than one wolf.”

  I got a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach with that statement. What if it wasn’t just the pack master here? What if he had brought a group of males with him? What if we were outnumbered?

  Kannon slid closer as if he could hear my heart start to race out of control. “Don’t worry, Lori. This isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with a situation like this.”

  I nodded, but I didn’t want to say what I was thinking. Things hadn’t turned out well for them at all the last time that they had faced down an alpha – they had lost everything.

  The three guys who were shifting went around the back of the SUV and opened the trunk so that they could put their clothes back there before they shifted. I kept my eyes forward and avoided peeking in the mirrors to get any glances of exposed flesh. As tempting as it was, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone peeking at me if the situation was reversed.

  The trunk closed with a slam and three wolves melted into the dark woods. There weren’t any lights out there but the moon and stars were bright enough that they would be able to find their way without any problems. Kannon laughed and turned to me with a grin. “Corey says that if anyone asks what we are doing here, to pretend that we came here to make out like a couple of normal teenagers.”

  I giggled nervously. “Do you think that’s what human teenagers really do? It seems like more of a movie cliché.”

  “Well, yeah,” Kannon said with a grin. “Most human parents are not okay with their teenagers mating when they’re still in high school.”

  I shrugged. “You have a point.” I kicked off my shoes and brought my feet up so I could comfortably curl up on the seat. “What about your parents?” I asked softly. Kannon and the other guys had told me that they had left their families behind in the pack they were kicked out of, but I had never heard Kannon talk about them specifically. I was curious what his life had been like before everything went to shit.

  Kannon smiled but I could see the sadness in his eyes. “My mom died when I was just a pup. She was trying to give birth to my little sister, but…”

  I nodded. I knew just how difficult it was for females to have multiple successful pregnancies.

  “My father got together with Gray’s mom after his dad was killed in a fight with a neighboring pack.” Kannon hesitated. “He hated me at first.”

  “Grayson?” I asked in surprise.

  Kannon nodded. “I was small for a pup my age and his mom adored me.”

  I giggled, picturing Kannon as a cute little pup that wanted to play all the time and a slightly bigger Grayson scowling over him. “Sorry, that’s not really funny.”

  “It kind of is,” Kannon said with a smile. “I think Gray also resented having another male come into his home and have authority
over him.”

  “I can see that,” I admitted. Grayson seemed like the kind of wolf that would be protective of his mom and would not like Kannon’s dad moving in on her. “So you guys really were like brothers.”

  “Yup. Grayson actually punched Wyatt for teasing me when the twins first moved to our pack a couple years later. They shifted to fight and then Corey bit him on the tail. We were friends after that.”

  I laughed out loud. “The twins teamed up against him and you all ended up as friends?”

  “Well, it wasn’t that easy. But yeah. Us males are strange like that.”

  “You can say that again,” I said with a grin.

  Kannon and I froze when we saw the headlights of a car approaching the school. We watched carefully but the car just used the U shaped driveway in front of the school to turn around before heading back towards town.

  I looked nervously at Kannon. I hadn’t picked up on anything from the guys yet, but it would probably take them a little while to circle around the lake. Plus, Kannon would have a better chance than I would of being able to use the pack bond at that distance. He cocked his head to the side as if listening to another conversation.

  “They haven’t found anything yet,” Kannon informed me. “But I reminded them to be careful. I could feel Corey rolling his eyes at me from here.”

  I laughed awkwardly and tried to relax. Waiting here while the guys were heading into possible danger was torture I was eager to have over. “What’s the plan if something goes wrong?” I asked Kannon.

  “The two of us stick together, go back to the firehouse and grab some necessities before we meet the guys on the Northwest side of town,” Kannon told me confidently. “Gray and Wyatt have everything in the safe that we would need to start over somewhere else.”

  “So you guys don’t really trust the lamia?” I asked as I rubbed the goosebumps on my thighs.

  Kannon shrugged. “I think we all know this is temporary. We’re just doing the best we can until we can figure something else out.”

  “Starting a business and building a life here seems pretty permanent. Gray must be thinking you all will be here for at least a few years. Wyatt thinks we might not see a profit for the first two years.”

  Kannon sighed. “Maybe it would have been smarter to take the money from the lamia and use it to live instead of starting a business. But we needed a goal to focus on, a reason to get up in the morning, something to bring us all together, you know?”

  I don’t know why I was so surprised at how perceptive Kannon was. I knew he had to be some kind of genius with how easily programming came to him. I just hadn’t expected him to have so much insight into their group dynamics. “I understand,” I said softly. Helping the guys put together their business and working hard to make it successful took my mind off my own past. I’d rather stay up all night with Wyatt, working on spreadsheets than spend a restless night trapped in nightmares of my mother’s death.

  Kannon sat up straight. “They’re in place and heading back this way. Stay alert.”

  I repositioned myself on my knees on the car seat so that I could press my nose to the glass window and watch for any movement in the forest. I knew that the guys would be too far for me to see anything, but I wanted to be ready if anyone unexpected came out of the woods. It seemed pretty ridiculous to think that Baracus was crouched in the woods outside my school, just waiting in the hopes that I would return. Surely despotic former pack leaders had better things to do with their free time once they were disposed from positions of power?

  I leaned back on my heels once I realized that my breath was fogging up the glass and impairing my vision. Minutes passed and there was still no sign of any movement and no word from any of the guys. “Kannon?” I said softly.

  He glanced over and gave me a reassuring smile. “They’re fine. They haven’t found any signs of anyone yet and they’re almost to the part of the path where you caught the scent.”

  I heard a couple of drops hit the rooftop before a steadier splatter started. “Was it supposed to rain tonight?” I asked Kannon.

  He shrugged. “Maybe?”

  The splattering soon turned into a heavy downpour. “This sucks,” I complained. “We picked the worst time to come out here.”

  “Wyatt’s going to be pissed,” Kannon confirmed. “He hates getting muddy.”

  “I guess we should be grateful they made us wait in the car like misbehaving pups,” I teased Kannon.

  He chuckled. “I bet the other three wish they were us right now.”

  I felt the touch of Gray’s mind before he sent me a message with our bond. “I hate to ask, but I need you out here.”

  “Gray wants us,” I told Kannon in surprise.

  “They wouldn’t call for us unless they were sure it was safe,” Kannon told me. “They probably just want you to confirm something.”

  I nodded and hopped out of the car. Rain pounded down on my head and I didn’t bother to try and hide from it. I was going to be soaked in moments and I was probably going to get my shoes covered in mud, too. Kannon followed close behind me as I trotted down to the trail we used for cross country practice. I wanted to get this over with quickly, but I didn’t want to risk slipping and falling in the mud.

  I slowed as I approached the general area where I had picked up on the scent earlier today and then headed into the woods where I sensed the rest of the pack. Gray melted out of the shadows and stepped into my path. I probably would have been startled at his sudden appearance if I didn’t have the pack bond open and had sensed his presence. I was on the short side for a female wolf at only five foot five, but in his wolf form, Grayson’s head came almost up to my chest. He nudged my hand with his muzzle and I rubbed him affectionately behind the ears. Rain poured down on us and dripped off his fur and down my nose.

  I did my best to sniff around but it was difficult with the rain. I wrinkled my nose when I got close to the spot I was looking for. “What is that?”

  Kannon stopped behind me. “It smells like someone died in an outhouse here.”

  I inched closer until I saw the decaying corpses of two raccoons. Had that been here earlier? I hadn’t actually gone into the woods. Parts of the raccoon were scattered over the trail and entrails had been torn apart, leaving a memorable stench. I wrinkled my nose. Nothing about this scene made sense.

  “There’s a trail of that stench all the way to the parking lot,” Grayson told us with the bond. “It’s possible that someone used this to cover up another scent. But... is it also possible that the smell of death triggered something for you?”

  I let out an annoyed growl. Why had I waited so long to talk to the guys about this? I had given someone an opportunity to hide whatever it was they were doing out here. It could have been my old pack master, but now I could never be sure. I chewed on my lower lip and thought about Gray’s suggestion that the scent had triggered a memory for me. Was it possible?

  Which was more likely? That I had caught the scent of death and had a flashback to the past? Or that my old pack master had come back to life and was hanging out in the woods of my high school, just waiting for me to pass by? Doubt wavered in me.

  “Let’s head back,” Grayson suggested. “There’s no point in lingering out here if we can’t find any other scents under that mess.”

  I trudged back through the mud towards the car and tried not to fall on the slippery trail. A part of me was relieved that we hadn’t run into Baracus or anyone else. I was glad that we were leaving here together without anyone hurt. But I was also frustrated. I still had no idea what was going on and we had wasted our trip here.

  If someone was trying to hide something from us, I had been stupid enough to give them enough time to do it. I hated being the stupid female who was the weak link of the pack. I kicked a rock but only succeeded in stubbing my toe. Now I was the stupid female with a limp. Or was I the stupid female that had dragged her pack out in a downpour to search for an enemy that didn’t exist outside o
f my head?

  Kannon put his arm around me and I took comfort in the warmth of his body pressed against mine. “We’re going to have to race the other guys back to the car,” he told me with the bond. “We only have two towels in the trunk and I don’t want to be the last wolf to get my hands on one.” I giggled but took his hand as we ran back to the SUV.

  Chapter 8

  Lori

  I was still on edge the next few days, just waiting for something terrible to happen. I barely slept at night; my ears were constantly straining for the slightest sound of someone trying to break into our home. During the day I was jumpy and irritable, probably due to lack of sleep. At school, I watched everyone around me suspiciously. Surprisingly, my glares and aggressive attitude were enough to keep everyone at bay. Even the mean girls gave me a wide berth.

  Gray had given the order that none of us were to be alone. If there was someone after us, we weren’t going to give them the chance to attack. But as the days passed and nothing happened, the guys started to relax. I wasn’t sure how to feel. Every day that passed without any sign or scent of my pack master made me doubt myself more. I had been so sure about the scent that I had picked up on at that moment, but it seemed insane to think that Baracus was just wandering around Hollow Crest. If he were here, he would have come after me immediately, right?

  On Saturday, the guys and I had spent the entire day working. Wyatt stayed in the office after we closed for business, getting all the paperwork taken care of and sweating over our financial situation. Corey and Gray stayed in the garage, working on inventorying and cleaning after a busy week and preparing for another busy week to come. After all of our customers were taken care of, I went upstairs with Kannon. We had plenty of work to keep us busy.