Chapter 8: Everett

Chapter 8: Everett

I knew from the moment we experienced our Moondream that I would reject Aislin Mundy, but I hadn’t expected it to cause such strife within me. As soon as she left the cabin, the wolf inside me raged against my decision. The connection we shared implored me to seek her presence. My magnetism toward her was inexplicable, but with the finality of my rejection, I hadn’t realized how persuasive that magnetism was until she was suddenly gone.

Gavin’s tension released in a loud sigh. “Damnit, Everett.”

Faint remorse prickled the skin on the back of my neck. I couldn’t help but leer at him. The way he spoke made me feel like I was the bad guy for my decision, but I was only being rational. “You know it couldn’t have worked between us.”

“Fated mates are chosen for a reason,” he said. “I wouldn’t have expected it to work with Billie and I, but look at us now.”

“That’s because you provide each other with something you need. I don’t need anything from Aislin.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I have everything I need,” I said coldly.

“And what about her?”

I hadn’t thought about what she might need before, at least not in a way that inspired sympathy. The inferno that we’d found ourselves trapped in—I thought it was a disaster of her own creation. She was the fire that would burn us both alive, and it was miraculous that she had accepted my help enough for us to run in the dream—but she couldn’t expect me to put out her fires for her. She didn’t need anything except for somebody to bail her out when she got in too deep. Right?

“She’ll be fine,” I decided.

Gavin grunted his disagreement. “You could have at least been kinder to her.”

“I’ve no need to sugar coat my words. She doesn’t seem to find it necessary.”

Perhaps sensing the double standards, Gavin didn’t push further. I understood his disapproval, given that Aislin was his closest friend, but their perception of me had no bearing beyond the feasibility of our alliance, and at this point, I didn’t think Gavin could afford to cut ties with me just because I hadn’t spoken nicely to his crude spitfire of a future Beta.

After some silence, Gavin sighed and spoke again. “I guess we were wrong about David’s motivations.”

“What did you think he was doing this for?”

“We thought he wanted to take over the entire Gunnison area so he could run his illegal shipments without interruption, using the rail line in Eastpeak territory. His reason for wanting to merge Grandbay and Dalesbloom was to get our hunting territory all the way down to the highway, so if he controlled all three territories, he wouldn’t have to explain himself for crossing from the rail yard to the freight center with his loads.”

I curled a lip in annoyance. “This is news to me. I didn’t realize he was running illegal shipments.”

“No?” Gavin rubbed the back of his neck. “He tried to get me involved.”

“What is he running?”

“Guns, as far as I know. He could be running drugs, too.”

That lit me up almost the same way that Aislin did, only against David, I felt no guilt for my anger. How dare he sully our quiet, orderly home with contraband? Sure, I didn’t doubt that there were dumb kids running around selling drugs to one another, but Eastpeak, Grandbay, and Dalesbloom had always been clean in the upper echelons. I knew because I was so heavily involved in our town politics, had anything been passing in and out of Eastpeak through the humans, I would have heard about it.

“Well clearly, that’s not the plan anymore,” Gavin said a moment later.

“No. The plan is for David to join Lothair as a Lycan and wreak havoc on the towns. He’s tired of being stifled by the Mythguard, just like Lothair. He’s done playing by the rules,” I said.

“He wants revenge,” Gavin muttered.

Had David’s plan remained to take control of our three territories, there might have been a way we could slowly deter him or rebuff his attempts. But the only way to stop David from turning Lycan and destroying everything was to keep Muriel away from him.

“Gavin,” I urged, “you must let the Mythguard take Muriel out of here. It’s the only way—”

Gavin bristled and bared his teeth at me. “I already told you that wasn’t happening. If they don’t take Muriel, chances are they’ll find another unicorn. Either way, David’s going to make sure he gets his revenge, and if the Mythguard think the only way they can help is by taking preventative measures, then we’ll take the solution into our own hands.”

“Killing the rest of the Hexens can’t be your solution,” I growled. As messed up as David was, murder would only bring them down to the same level as the Hexens. “If you kill them, the Mythguard will categorize everyone involved as hostile.”

“I already killed Catrina!” Gavin snapped. His surge of emotion warned me of how deeply what he had done affected him. Despite Catrina’s madness, she’d still been his girlfriend for five years—she’d been with him through the death of his parents, and he thought he’d spend the rest of his life with her. She turned Gavin into the enemy, but it was only because Gavin was the one who broke up with her first. I could tell Gavin never wanted to hurt Catrina, and taking her life was only the result of his own uncontrollable anger that he couldn’t tame until he’d been marked by Billie. I held my tongue as Gavin continued. “The only way to keep us safe—to even have a chance at re-establishing the alliances between our three packs—is to kill David and Colt, and find a new Alpha to step in. That’s what we’re doing. I suggest the Mythguard stay out of it and lets us handle this.”

“Denying the aid of the Mythguard makes you just as bad as David,” I warned.

“Maybe he has a fucking point then,” snapped Gavin. “Humans really have no idea what shifters are capable of. We’re wild animals, Everett. They have no place in our business.”

“Don’t,” I shot at Gavin. “I don’t want the Mythguard to consider you a threat, too.”

Gavin snarled. “Fuck the Mythguard.”

I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult for Grandbay to trust them. Everybody seemed more eager to make enemies than compromise.

“Get out of my territory, Everett. If you keep interfering, Grandbay will react with force,” he said.

“Be rational about this.”

“I am being rational. I’m doing what’s best for my pack, so don’t get in our way. Stay away from Aislin. Understand?”

I stepped back from Gavin, narrowing my eyes. If he was truly willing to turn down what assistance Eastpeak and the Mythguard could offer, then there wasn’t anything else I could do. “It pains me to see you condemn yourself to Dalesbloom’s devices. Just… be careful, Gavin.”

“Don’t act like you suddenly give a shit about us,” he rumbled.

Were I not so tired, I would have lingered to correct him further, to let him know that I didcare about Grandbay. But I understood that I had never gone out of my way to prove as much. That was nobody’s fault but my own.

Gavin stared firmly at me and I took that as my cue to leave.

My entire body ached, so much I could barely focus on the drive. I couldn’t even head back home, either. I needed to know if David had found the phone Taylor and I hid in the reeds, so I took a detour back toward Dalesbloom, hoping that nobody would see my Lexus blinking away on the shoulder. With a flashlight on my phone, I stepped into the ditch and searched for the green plastic bag, sighing with relief when I spotted it. Water droplets wobbled on its glossy surface. I plucked up the bag and threw it on my passenger seat, then made my way home.

Nothing felt as good as a hot shower after the mess that was today. I could have stood under that showerhead for hours, losing myself in the steam as blood washed from my wounds and down the drain. Try as I may not to think about everything that happened, I still found my thoughts venturing back to Aislin. It irked me that Gavin told me to stay away from her. Obviously, that had been my plan. I wanted nothing to do with her. And yet the more I thought about her indignation and the tears in her eyes, the more I wondered if keeping my distance was what I really wanted. Yes, I wanted to be alone and sever myself from the reckless idiocy that Aislin was prone to. But as I stood in the shower, aching and exasperated, the thought of letting somebody else clean my wounds suddenly felt sweeter than doing it myself.

I don’t need her, I insisted to myself. But she wasn’t just anyone. She was my fated mate. That had to feel a million times better than letting just anyone be close to me.

Finding myself agitated, I racked my brain for a way to soothe the unrest in my heart as I dressed my injuries and then sat on the edge of my bed. I still wanted to pull the recording off the phone and plant it back in the ditch so I could record tomorrow, but fatigue made my limbs feel heavy. Before long, I realized the distress that anchored me to my bedside was rooted in my decision about Aislin. It had to be. I was in pain and I felt… lonely.

I didn’t regret anything. Logic told me I had done the right thing.

But I needed to do something to relieve the agitation, and all I could think of was to embrace my fated mate in a fantasy. Nobody had to know that I might have really wanted her then. It was only to make myself feel better. Leaning back on the bed, I thought of Aislin and rubbed myself, wondering idly if she’d feel that pleasure, too.

Morning sunshine poured through the windows of my bedroom, burning my eyelids until I groggily blinked awake. I was reclined on my bed with the towel still around my waist, but otherwise naked except for the bandages on my arms, legs, and around my abdomen. Abruptly sitting up, I swore under my breath, realizing I must have fallen asleep last night. Now if I wanted to plant the phone again, I’d have to do it during the daylight, or else risk missing anything important communicated in Hexen Manor. I’d probably already missed something.

It was a Saturday morning, which meant nobody at the lumber mill would need me, at least.

Wincing at the agony in my body, I rolled over and checked my phone. There was the usual text messages and voicemails from my packmates. I imagined I would have just as many on my landline from work. That was the easiest way for me to keep my pack life and work life separated—I only permitted my employees to call me on my landline if it was an emergency, but I was pretty good at keeping everything under control. Perhaps it wasn’t the most efficient way to run my business, but they knew the hard boundaries I set were only because I had to hold everybody at arm’s length for my own sanity.

Then again, doing that had soured my relationships with… everyone, it seemed. But I was too hesitant to make myself constantly available. I didn’t want people to be able to reach me whenever they wanted. It had always worked so well for me.

Was I just fooling myself into thinking I kept everything under control by keeping everyone else at a distance? Or was this social isolation I had formed around myself just sabotaging me?

I’d never had reason to doubt myself before. But my pack affairs had never been so complicated before, either.

With a sigh, I got dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a light sweater, taking care to hide my injuries in case I met with any of my human acquaintances that day. I replied to my packmates, then listened to the three voicemails left on my landline and made a call to the lumber mill. Finally, I sat down in my office and listened to the recording on the phone from the bug in Hexen Manor. It had only recorded from 2 PM to 7 PM before the phone must have died.

For the first couple of hours, there was nothing but silence and footsteps. Mutterings of empty exchanges between David and his packmates, or Lothair and his dragons, each leader sending their subordinates on patrols through Dalesbloom territory. None of that would help me.

It wasn’t until 6 PM on the recording that I heard David command to Colt, “You’re coming with me to meet Everett tonight.”

“Do you think there’s going to be a fight?” asked Colt.

“Doubtful. Everett’s unlikely to turn aggressive. If anything, it’ll be us,” said David.

“Do we need to be prepared to face his packmates, too?”

David scoffed. “Everett’s too loyal to his word to bring others with him. It’s admirable, but stupid. We’re not going to meet him alone.”

“How many wolves will we bring?”

“Not wolves. We’re bringing dragons. Five, maybe ten and have the others hang back just in case.”

I sizzled with anger that David had so blatantly planned to deceive me. He’d gone to that meeting with every intention of roughing me up, and I could have known about it beforehand, had I checked the phone.

“Do we… have to hurt him?” Colt asked suddenly.

I tuned back into the conversation.

David hesitated. I heard the growl brewing in his chest. “I’d kill him if it wouldn’t turn the Mythguard on us immediately.”

Silence permeated the recording between David and Colt before David went on. “Don’t even think of resorting to cowardice. I didn’t raise you to be soft and weak like them,” he scolded. “You know that when I undertake the Lycan ritual, control of Dalesbloom will fall to you. For the sake of our pack’s future, I need you to be as ruthless as I am. Can you do that, Colt?”

The silence continued and I imagined Colt thinking, perhaps lost for words.

David grunted in disgust. “You’ve spent too much time with Billie.”

“I’m sorry,” Colt said softly.

“Don’t say sorry. Being sorry only makes you a disappointment.”

Footsteps shuffled, then Colt uttered a noise like he’d been shoved, or grabbed. David’s voice lowered with ominous warning.

“Be vicious. That’s the only way Dalesbloom will come out of this victorious.”

“Right. Yes,” Colt muttered.

After that, the recording held nothing of interest. No indication of future plans, no more insight into the inner lives of the Hexens. But the conversation between David and Colt was rife with implications. I couldn’t help but wonder if Colt really wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, or if there was a softness within him that could be persuaded to do the right thing.

I set Taylor’s extra phone aside and searched through my desk. I had a newer phone with a battery pack and more space that would hold more recording hours than what we got yesterday. Taking an extra ten minutes, I set the phone up to stream directly to my cloud storage, where I could access the audio on my own phone. Better equipped to listen in on the Hexens, I set out back to Hedge Road, hoping that this time, I would be granted the foresight to avoid getting my ass kicked if I should run into David again.

And despite Gavin’s threat to stay away from Grandbay, I hoped that if Dalesbloom intended to strike any time soon, I’d have the evidence to prepare Gavin for the worst, whether or not he wanted my help.