Tainted Souls: A Shadow Creek Novel Page 24

  A few hours later, after a meeting with the elders, Christopher sat in the great hall at a table seating twenty. By his side was Cade and Kit, on his other side Theron and Nara. Lakota sat with Theron's son, Oben and daughter, Danae opposite. Rows and rows of tables were set out seating the rest of the community: maternal females, teachers, trainers, pre-transitional youngsters, pups, and soon to be soldiers. At the rear of them all on a platform overlooking the congregation were the elders, the oldest living shifters.

  “Tell me,” Theron said turning to Christopher as he poured the wine with one hand and smoothed his thick beard with the other, “Cade informs me of an imminent threat heading this way.”

  Christopher nodded, his eyes swinging sideways to meet Theron's. “We have maybe three days at most before they get here,” he paused and took a long sip of his wine. The rogue group were easily outnumbered. But the so called Real Freedom Allegiance had a purpose, and he feared casualties, albeit few, and he wasn't prepared to lose anyone. Not on his watch. “They are a rogue group fighting against everything the Society stands for. They are few, but we must not make the mistake of underestimating them.”

  “Very well,” Theron replied with a steel edge to his gruff voice. “I'll have the men double up on patrol's and rotate them more frequently. The security is already good, and the pups will remain close to the maternal females and nursery building.”

  Christopher scanned the faces around the room. Some he recognized. Some he didn't. So many years had escaped him since he'd left this place with his mate, Maria. Her image swam in his mind, the grief of losing her gripping his heart like an iron fist. He had longed for her, yearned for her presence with every part of his being. Her parting all those years ago had ripped his soul in two and left him a shadow of his former self.

  His eyes flicked over Oben's shoulder, across from the maternal females, and up to the table where the elders were sitting. Maria's mother and father were deep in conversation with others at their table, but he knew it wouldn't be long before they would want to speak with him. Maria would still have contact with them and they would know the male sitting beside him was her grandchild.

  “I would like to visit Carolina,” Danae said as she caught his lowering gaze.

  Oben grunted. “Not without me you're not.”

  Theron sighed heavily. “My children want to fly the coop.”

  “I'm—” Danae started, but got a dig in her ribs by her brother's elbow. Throwing him a scornful look she continued, “We're soldiers now and ready to take the pledge.”

  Christopher smiled at her with warm affection. The young female had the same determination in her sharp green eyes as her father. “Is that so?”

  “I hate to say it,” Theron interjected, “But they are ready. To tell you the truth, both Nara and I are looking forward to some peace and quiet.”

  “That is untrue,” Nara said glaring at her mate. “But I cannot deny they are ready to seek out their future.”

  Christopher studied both Danae and Oben. They were equally strong and dominant shifters. While Danae had inherited her father's nordic looks and his temperament, Oben had his mother's mesmerizing features, but a warriors body like his father. He had no doubt they would both be an asset to one of his packs.

  “I'd be foolish not to want you both protecting and serving our people and the Society.”

  The brother and sister looked at one another, excitement and eagerness in their eyes.

  “Well, that's settled then,” Theron said raising his glass. “To new beginnings and old friends.”

  There was a clash of glasses and some spilled wine as they cheered. “To new beginnings and old friends!”

  §

  Aden Black and his pack of rogues were making good progress. The youngsters were fit and needed little rest. Jason, the eldest out of his group had managed to get a hold of the coordinates for the Societies colony of shifters in Alaska. He was impressed with the rogue, getting that sort of information wasn't an easy task, but he'd bribed a female police officer he knew with some sweet talk. Aden wasn't surprised the female had caved: Jason was a looker, no doubt about it.

  It would be another few days before they reached the shifters colony. Avoiding public transport made their journey more difficult. They were traveling in human form and taking routes not overly used by people, adding more miles to their journey. But at the pace they were going, he guessed it would take another three days.

  They had already mapped out the closest point to the colony, giving them as much advantage as possible. Once there, they would take a closer look at the layout of the property, at least, in their wolf form they would blend into the surroundings.

  “We'll stop here for the night,” he said turning to his group as they came into a National forest area somewhere in Denver. “Eat and then sleep. We leave at first light.”

  §

  After their meal, Christopher took to the grounds well aware he was being followed.

  “So, you've finally come back.”

  Christopher didn't need to turn around to know who the voice belonged to. “Hello Otto.” He stopped walking and waited for the elder to catch up to him. “Yes,” he said as the male came level. “I have a task to fulfill and a score to settle.”

  “He is the image of his father. I truly hope you will allow Lara and I to get to know him.”

  The two men stood overlooking the landscape that stretched out before them as the sun began its descent over crimson colored dwarf-birch, blanketing the hills in the distance.

  “It's for Cade to decide. But I have no objections,” Christopher replied. He had kept Cade's heritage a secret for too many years and had lost everything dear to him in the process.

  “Maria would like to see him, Christopher.”

  He heard the sad timbre in Otto's voice and could only imagine the grief he had endured. Seeing his daughter suffer the loss of her only son and how she had pushed her mate away. Christopher nodded. “I know, and she will.” He wasn't about to tell Otto of Maria's involvement with Alex in a plot to overthrow the Society and her estranged mate, he didn't need to know. Her family had suffered enough.

  Otto breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank you, but I have to say… Maria will never forgive you.”

  Christopher felt the air turning crisp against his cheeks as the sun almost disappeared from sight. Turning to Otto, he trapped the man's gaze, Otto's dark eyes reminding him of Maria. “I know,” he said, finding it too painful to hold the stare any longer he looked away, “I can't forgive myself either.”

  Thirty-One

  The pyre had been built in a tranquil spot surrounded by aspen trees with yellow leaves and tall spruces located half an hour from the Silver Skies perimeter. Christopher stood alongside Cade and Theron. Wearing just a linen smock, Alex was brought before Christopher by two of Theron's strongest soldiers.

  The falling sun hid behind thick clouds and the cooling breeze brought a fine mist that ghosted around them as it met the warm earth. It was a fitting scene for someone's death, Christopher thought. As if the forgotten souls had awoken and were rising to receive another.

  “The sentence for your crimes is death,” Christopher began. “Your final words, brother?”

  With a warped smile, Alex's vacant eyes stared back at him over several of Christopher's heartbeats before he spat in his face. “I'll see you in hell!”

  After wiping his face, Christopher held out his hand. Theron placed a heavy axe into his palm, the sharpened blade glimmered as its angle caught a ribbon of light. “Then by the laws I defend, and as Overseer of our race, I take it upon myself to take your life.”

  The two soldiers eased Alex down to his knees before him and he leaned forward. Christopher noticed Alex's body shaking. His own hand trembled. He tried to think past the fact his one and only brother was kneeling before him and about to lose his life. They had never seen eye to eye and had never been close. He and Theron had shared more of a brother's bond than he and Alex ev
er did. Reality struck him then; recalling all the innocent people who had died because of his brother's jealousy and selfish desires.

  As Overseer he had to show the shifting community Alex's betrayal to him and to them, would not be tolerated.

  “Wait!”

  Christopher's head whipped round to find his mother running toward them. Her breath ghosting before her as she breathed hard, her limbs moving with as much speed as she could summon.

  “Mother, you can't be here, not for this,” he said. Looking past her shoulder he could see the shadow of his father in the distance behind her. He moved forward to stop her coming too close. “Mother, please,” he begged. To be witness to such a thing would be too much for her soul to bear.

  “I have to see him. I have to speak to him, Christopher, please,” she pleaded. He stared into eyes that were wet with tears. Her desperation crushed him. How could she, would she ever love him after this?

  Unable to bear it, he allowed her to pass but he couldn't watch. The minutes ebbed away like hours, the length tainting his conscience further.

  He flinched when he felt her hand on his back.

  “Son,” she said, her voice sounding shallow.

  Turning around, he wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. “I'm so sorry, mother. I'm sorry I let all of this happen.”

  “We all make mistakes, Christopher. Flaws are what make us partly human. Each one of us must take the consequences for the decisions we make.”

  He breathed in a lungful of her scent. The sweet, floral scent of Alyssum and warm tones of honey soothed him, just as they did when he was a child. Pulling back, he found the courage to look her in the eye despite wanting to avoid her sympathetic gaze.

  “I need you to know,” she continued, holding his stare as only a mother can do, “I love you both. I love Alex, regardless of his crimes, because a mother's love isn't one that can be swept aside and blown away like dust in the wind.”

  “Even after all those innocent people—”

  “Even then,” she cut him off. “His actions were wrong. And he must pay. But,” she paused and an eery shadow clouded her eyes, “I will always love him. As I do you.” She rose up to kiss his cheek softly. “I forgive you, Christopher,” her voice hitched and her tears fell in silence. She broke away from his arms then and walked slowly back to his father waiting in the distance.

  “Come, let us begin.” Theron's voice brought his head around.

  “May God forgive you, brother,” he whispered as he lifted the ax. Momentarily he faltered. A sudden, un-comprehensible sadness filled his heart. Awash with a guilty feeling that somehow, this was his fault. He'd been blind. Had not been the brother he should've been. His commitment had been to the Society. To follow in their father's footsteps. While Alex lingered in the periphery, watching, resenting all the attention that Christopher had received.

  Alex began to laugh. It was a twisted, mad sound that shook his entire body. Turning his head, Alex stared up at Christopher, the hatred in his eyes so clear and so deep, whatever good Alex ever had, was gone. In its place was a crazed psychopath, and it dawned on Christopher then that Alex would never give up.

  He felt Theron squeeze his shoulder. The fog in his mind gave way to clarity and his hesitation lifted. With a hushed prayer on his lips, Christopher brought the ax down in one powerful blow, striking the target without further deliberation. Alex's body slumped forward as blood sprayed into the mist and stained the woodland earth. His head rolled from the top of his shoulders and landed at Christopher's feet.

  Falling to his knees, Christopher's head hung low onto his chest.

  Theron took the ax and gripped Christopher's shoulder once more. “It's done, my friend.”

  They watched in silence as Alex's body was placed onto the pyre and the smoke began to rise in thick plumes of gray into the early night sky.

  Yes, Christopher thought. It's done.

  §

  Ryker stared at the open road with his foot on the gas as they got closer to Silver Skies. His mind was still back in Charlotte. Their lovemaking hadn't been the hurried, lust filled kind he was growing used to with Gabrielle. It was slow. Caring. Passionate. He had put his heart and all his soul into the act, almost as though it was for the last time.

  Leaving her asleep had been the hardest damn thing. The chill in his chest cut across his lungs like a blade with each breath he took and was only getting worse.

  “Jesus, dude, you've got it bad for that chick.”

  Gunner's voice dragged Ryker's sorry ass out of his reverie. He hadn't even noticed the evening sky had darkened and quickly flicked on the headlamps.

  “Yeah,” he admitted freely. “Shit, yeah, I do.”

  Gunner shook his head, his fiery red hair a shaggy mane around his face. “At the rate it's goin', I'll be the only one left with the brains to stay single.”

  “I never thought it'd happen. But it did. Christ, it did,” his eyes swung sideways to meet Gunner's. “And it gets you when you least expect it.”

  “Great, I look forward to that like a bullet in the head.”

  Ryker laughed. “It kinda feels like a damn bullet to the head.” Turning pensive, Ryker wondered whether to broach the subject of Gunner's non-existent love-life. The shifter was private. More so than anyone else in the pack. Almost everyone knew Gunner was gay… except Gunner. He was deep in denial.

  “Don't,” Gunner spat, obviously picking up on Ryker's trail of thoughts.

  “Listen, man, most of the pack know. We've pretty much always known, and those who don't have their suspicions.” Ryker said, keeping his focus on the road but seeing Gunner squirming uncomfortably in his periphery. “Hey, it's cool.”

  Ryker felt the heat of Gunner's glare turn on him like a blow-torch. “It's cool, huh?” His voice was low and blunt. “You don't know what the fuck you're talking about.”

  “You don't have to hide that you're gay.”

  “I'm not… Fuck… Just stay out of my business.”

  Ryker dropped the subject and an uncomfortable silence filled the space.

  “Let's park by that bridge up ahead,” Gunner said pointing to a low stone bridge over a river running through some woodland further down the road, close to the border. “We'll go on foot from there towards the colony and see if we can pick up a scent.”

  After leaving the SUV out of sight, Ryker and Gunner shifted. They needed to blend in and stay out of sight and the only way to do that was to become part of the natural wildlife. Gunner got busy scenting the air and the ground while Ryker kept his keen eyes sharp and focused on their surroundings as they slipped further into the wilderness.

  §

  Maria's parents had assured her that the Overseer would not intervene the day she would choose to come and see her grandson for the first time. She'd learned that Alex had been executed only a few days ago. Part of her felt relieved she would not have to bind herself to him after all. The other part of her was scared she would endure the same fate. After all, the Society had not fallen, and the Overseer was still alive.

  And yet here she was, back where her journey had begun many moons ago with a dominant shifter she had loved with all her heart. “I'm not that same, naive girl anymore,” she mumbled out loud.

  Maria felt a strange nervousness as she left her parents' cabin on the fringe of the site and made her way to the main building where Cade and his mate were staying. A thousand questions darted through her brain as she crossed the training grounds.

  Entering the building she felt her pulse quicken. She slowly made her way down the corridor and stood outside of their room. Time seemed to stand still. The air was suddenly stifling and the silence deafening.

  Pulling herself together, she knocked on the door.

  “Hello.”

  Maria stared at the beautiful female with the dazzling blue eyes for what seemed an immeasurable amount of time before she could finally speak. “Ah, hello. Kit?”

  Kit smiled and her whol
e face lit up. “Yes, won't you come in?”

  Swallowing her nerves, Maria entered their quarters. Moments later a male entered the room and Maria threw a hand over her mouth to silence her gasp. The resemblance to her son, Stephen, made her stomach plummet and her legs go weak with the shock. “Oh, God.”

  “Here, why don't you sit down?” Kit suggested, pulling out a dining chair.

  Maria sat. And she stared. And then she cried.

  Kit rubbed her back in sympathetic circles. “I'll make us all some tea.”

  Maria studied Cade as he came to sit at the table beside her. “You're… you look just like your father.”

  Cade smiled. “Yeah, everyone tells me that.”

  “Your mate… I mean, Kit, her beauty… she's stunning.” Maria saw the way his eyes glowed at the mention of her name.

  “I'm very lucky, Kit is everything to me.”

  “And so she should be,” Maria replied, feeling an odd shift in her heart. Like the frozen muscle had just cracked and was threatening to shatter into a million pieces.

  “She was human?”

  “Yeah.” He smiled, the similarity to Stephen bringing photographs to the forefront of her mind. “Luckily, it turns out my grandfather's the Overseer,” he chuckled lightly.

  Maria wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. “I imagine he wasn't easily swayed… after what happened with your mother and father.”

  Cade sighed and met her gaze, his silver eyes flaring at the mention of his parents. “No. But even he realized somethings are fated, and no one, not even an Overseer can change fate.”

  “I guess not,” she swallowed, the pain still tight in her chest. “I wished he had seen reason with his own son.”

  Reaching forward, Cade gripped her hand with sympathetic understanding. “There isn't a day that goes by he doesn't regret what he did. He lost everything, too. But what happened to my parents, to me, in that car accident… that wasn't his fault.”

  Maria closed her eyes. It was the truth. She knew that. She'd always known that. But she didn't want to admit it. She had to blame someone.