Chapter 18 - Grayson

It had been a few hours since Leon's attempted escape and bullshit shenanigans with the Alphas. Forrest, Willow, and Kenzie were still working on creating enough antidote to get the drugged wolves feeling like themselves again, and there was something that was itching under my skin.

My wolf stalked back and forth invisibly since I'd shifted back into human form, and I couldn't get over something that I'd noticed when I'd been a wolf and there with Kenzie.

She smelled… different .

That sounded ridiculous even for a wolf since I couldn't put my finger on what smelled different. It wasn't char or heightened levels because of another heat, which really shouldn't be happening anyway since she'd literally just had it. It wasn't some chemical smell like with the Alphas. It was just…

"Ugh, this is stupid." I shook my head, turning as I walked up to the wall to start my trek to the other side again. "It's probably nothing. You're just imagining things."

I could tell myself that as much as I wanted, apparently, because it was doing nothing to actually convince me. I needed out of my head, and now that the Alphas had been contained in the cells, I could finally have that word with Leon that I was so eager for.

A knock on my door halted my steps, and I hurried over to the thing and flung it open.

"Is he ready?"

The question was out of my mouth before I truly processed who was standing there, and Kaiden rolled his eyes.

"Hello, Grayson. Thanks for asking. I'm feeling fine. And why, yes. Your prisoner has been secured for questioning."

With a sigh, I rolled my gaze to the side and pushed forward out of the room, closing the door behind me.

"Sorry, but you know as much as I do that figuring out what all that shit was about is paramount."

Kaiden was right behind me as I took the long hallway down to the entryway stairs. I could sense the annoyance drifting off him, the subtle charring to his scent. But I also knew how much he wanted Leon to pay. This was far too many times that the asshole had threatened our packs, and Kaiden was as fed up with it as I was.

"Who's down there with him?" I glanced over at Kaiden briefly as we hit the stairs and jogged down.

"Jet. Kenzie is still working with Forrest and Willow to make that antidote, and Senna is resting."

I paused as Kaiden and I reached the last step, gripping the railing as I considered what I was about to walk into.

"The Alphas?"

He nodded, his gesture of understanding, and when he looked up from the floor, Kaiden was deadly serious.

"They've passed out. Too much of a burn for their bodies. They…they need that cure. None of them will last much longer with that shit pumping through their systems."

I scoffed, frustration gnawing at me. "You'd think since they're Alphas, they could handle stuff better."

"On the contrary," Kaiden drawled. "From what Willow can tell, being an Alpha actually puts you at a disadvantage. The drug works on our stronger connection to shifter magic and uses it against us."

"Fuck, really? As if we didn't already have enough to be concerned about with our magic. Now we have a secret weapon to take out Alphas, declining birth rates, and a massive separation between the packs that makes us more susceptible to both those things."

Kaiden put a hand on my shoulder, and as much as I was pissy and upset and wanted to shake off his hand, I appreciated the support of one of my oldest friends, especially since the other one was currently locked behind bars.

"There may actually be some developments regarding all that. Willow was talking to me last night before I turned in. She didn't have the specifics to give me, and she still seemed pretty cagey about the ‘success rate,' but I think there might be some hope on the horizon."

Sighing, I patted Kaiden's hand before taking off for the stairs to the cells. I could really fucking use some hope right about now, so Willow had better be right.

When we arrived in the basement, I was immediately hit by the clogged-up smell of that chemical residue sticking to the walls. The Alphas were still passed out, but their scents were so tainted, and they grumbled in their sleep. At the end of the row of cells was the one where we'd stashed Leon, and I could hear the rattling of chains louder and louder as we drew closer.

I pulled up in front of the cell, and my stomach clenched. Leon was chained down to a wooden chair that had been secured to the floor with ropes and pins that were hammered into the cement floor. Jet stood a few paces away from him in the cell, and the door was closed.

"At last, the master of the house joins us!"

A growl ripped through me as Leon called out, and I stared daggers at him. Jet turned, seeing Kaiden and me there, and walked over to the door. He unlocked it and stepped out. As I moved to go in, he stopped me with a hand on my arm.

"He's off, Gray. Something's wrong about him. I'm not sure how much you're going to be able to get out of him."

Not looking at my previous Alpha, the man who'd helped to raise me when my own father had died, I didn't bother answering. Anger was swirling too high in my blood, and there was little more that I could see around me that wasn't the object of my fury.

Leon was right fucking there, and I was going to get answers—or kill him.

"Hey." Jet pulled on my arm, forcing me to look at him. "I know how upset you are. Hell, I'm just as pissed myself, but we get nothing if you just kill him. Don't lose your head."

I shrugged his hold off me. "I'm fine."

Jet met my eyes hard. "And if you're not, I'll haul your ass out of there myself."

That was about all I needed from the peanut gallery. I pushed forward, taking the keys from Jet and locking the cell closed behind me. I tossed the key back through the bars to Kaiden, and he narrowed his eyes at me as they landed solidly in his palm.

When I turned back to Leon, he was watching the conversation play out between all of us with a rapt, crazed smile plastered all over his face.

"And what are you smiling at, jackass?"

He chuckled, the sound like a fork in a garbage disposal. "Old family squabbles. Nice to see that some things never change, eh, Gray?"

I rushed up to him, gripping the front of his shirt and slamming him back against the chair.

"Don't fucking play with me, Leon. I never liked your dumb ass, so there's no concern on my part about ending a former pack mate."

"Tsk, tsk. So testy."

Shoving him back again, I made sure that his spine landed hard against the back of his chair, and Leon let out a whine of discomfort. This close-up, he wreaked—swampy and muddled with remnants of that drug. I couldn't smell it that strongly, however, and that meant that he wasn't on it.

Just proximity to it, most likely.

He also looked ragged. Leon's pupils were dilated, and his face had hollowed out like he hadn't been eating well these past few months. Memory hit of the vision Senna had warned us of, and I wondered if his rough state had anything to do with the hunters.

"What was your plan, Leon? Just rile up the Alphas and see if you could take a few out? Why come all this way for such a long shot?"

His head wobbled as he circled it around to face me, and when Leon met my eyes, his were somewhat unfocused, a dullness to what should be a shiny sclera.

"You have to admit that it was pretty funny. Seeing them floundering around and then turning all feral. Your loyal subjects are reduced to animals. Ha!"

Using my hold on the front of his shirt to shake him again, I found the hollow of his shoulder with my thumb and dug it into the tendons. Leon hissed, groaning before he tried to squirm away. But I held him easily enough, what with the guy being a fraction of his usual size and strength.

"Why?!" I rattled him again, Leon's head flopping around like a damned ragdoll. "Did Reginald put you up to it? Another rogue wolf?"

"Hahaha! Rogue wolves. You'll be up to your ass in them soon enough, Edwards."

The threat was obvious, but worse, it coincided a bit with what I'd found in Eli's notes. Plus, it also looked like Leon had missed out on the good news.

"I'm not an Edwards anymore, Leon. Not only did Kaiden pass you up for Beta," I turned over my shoulder and smiled at him, looking back to Leon to see his expression go dark, "but he went off and became an Alpha. So, who should step in as Beta but yours truly."

He thrashed in my hold. "What?!"

"Oh, and that's just the start, fuckface. I'm not Beta anymore, either." I leaned in close to his face, gripping his torn, greasy shirt hard enough to make my knuckles go white while I sent out that Alpha power lingering in my blood, "I'm Alpha of the Williams Pack that your buddy Eli died trying to take down with those fucking drugs."

"No! No!"

Leon fought against me in the chair, trying to pull free of his chains, but that was pointless. His eyes flared wide, fury making them bloodshot and wild. Leon's fangs descended into his mouth, and claws sprouted from his nailbeds.

"Now, now. Don't get so upset. You were never going to be Alpha. Or even a Beta, for that matter."

Surging in his chair, Leon tried for a half-shift, but the claws and fangs were all he could manage, and they were already beginning to fade away. He didn't have the strength to keep it up, which was quite telling, wasn't it?

Why was he in such shitty condition?

Grinding my thumb into that hollow spot again, I held Leon facing me. He snapped in my direction, and I was quick to land a punch to his jaw.

"Where's Reginald?! What are your plans for the drugs?!"

Leon snapped and snarled all the more. "You'll all suffer at their hands! There's no use fighting them. No one can face their might!"

I shook him, landing another punch to his face. "Who?! The hunters?! I've read Eli's notes, asshole. Who are they?!"

"They're your doom! All of you filthy wolves!"

The words struck me, and I looked over my shoulder at Jet and Kaiden. Filthy wolves? What the hell is he going on about? What's happened to him?

In the seconds that I turned away, Leon went for my arm, striking out and biting into the space right above my wrist.

"Ahh!" I spun and punched him again before gripping him by the throat. "Fucker! Are the hunters behind all this?! Did they make the drugs for Eli?!"

Leon could barely breathe, but I'd left him enough room to speak a few words. "No. Eli's drugs were Eli's drugs. A tiny ploy where their might is legion!"

I lowered my face right into his, gritting out my words from between my teeth. "Who are they, Leon? Who are these rogue wolves, these hunters?"

But something had snapped. Despite my hold on his throat, the blood rushing down from his forehead, Leon just laughed, the sound manic and discordant.

"Sing a song of sixpence, sing a song of sixes."

He shook with unrestrained laughter, his raspy voice croaking out the lyrics to an off-key tune. I'd heard the rhyme once before. When I was young in Jet's pack, the elderly wolves of the pack would whisper it in warning, a way to keep us from wandering into the woods—for fear of…hunters.

"A bag full of rye," Leon continued, his entire being thrumming with unsettling energy. "Four and twenty naughty wolves baked in a pie."

I backed up from him, a slithering unease building in my blood. As I did, I heard footsteps behind me at the door and then the jingle of keys in the lock.

"When the pie was opened, the wolves were all inside down to the last runt. Isn't that a dandy) dish, the wolves falling to the hunt."

The door opened at my right, and I hurried out of the cell. Kaiden locked the door back up, and Jet came to my side, holding up my arm to inspect it.

"He's lost his damned mind," Jet whispered.

"You think?" I glanced at Kaiden, and his brow was deeply furrowed. "But I know that rhyme."

We all looked at Leon again.

"The hunt was done on the blackest night, and the men tickled funny. The wolves tasted rich and sweet, like eating bread and honey."

Jet shook his head, pulling me down the hallway away from Leon's cell. We hurried toward the exit, but the echoing sound of the last verse hung in the air as we fled the basement.

"And there were then no wolves in the garden nor in the town where the good man goes. All the wolves were vanished, gone where? Nobody knows."