Cruel Alpha Daddy (Silver Meadows Wolves #4)

Chapter 17 - Rider

I spend the afternoon helping the others repair buildings and furnishing houses. This was a very small mining town, one of many that popped up in the days of the early settlers and was abandoned when the money ran out.

I wonder how many ghost towns there are in these hills. For that matter, I wonder how many ghosts there are.

After the majority of the pack has dinner in the hall, I head home with Fiona. Tobias and his group didn’t join us to eat, and as I leave the hall, I shoot a questioning glance at Ryan. He just shrugs.

It makes me uneasy that we’ve heard nothing from his faction all day. If he knows we’re onto him, he might make his move a lot sooner than I expected.

I wouldn’t put it past him to set the cabins on fire while we’re asleep.

Just as I reach the front door with Fiona, I hear a far-off howl. It chills me right to the bone, making the hair rise on the back of my neck.

“What is that?” Fiona asks, her voice tight with fear.

“Trouble,” I mutter, turning to look up into the hills. I can’t see any lights, but the drumming of paws is easy to hear, along with the gasping breaths of at least ten swiftly running wolves.

I tilt my head back, and I don’t need my wolf senses to taste the blood on the wind.

“Go inside, right now!” I command, shoving Fiona towards the cabin.

She shakes her head. “I will not! What’s going on?”

I grab her shoulders, shaking her a little. “Fiona, something bad is going down. I need you to get inside and stay there. Lock the door. Don’t let anyone in, and don’t come out.”

She glares at me, then looks over my shoulder towards the hall. “The other women are going to the hall. That’s where I should be, too. I’m their luna.”

She sticks her chin out, ready for me to argue with her. As much as I’d like to, I can hear the troop of wolves in the hills getting closer. Their howls sound like a chorus of hellhounds.

“Fine, go,” I finally say. “Get all the women and children into the hall and lock the doors. Don’t let anyone in. But be careful—don’t get trapped in there if a fire starts.”

“Fire?”

“Just be careful! It could be a trap.”

Understanding dawns in her eyes, and she pulls free of my grip to run to the hall. I jog down the street, seeing Donny and Ryan rushing to join me.

“What’s going on?” Donny asks.

I shake my head. “Something bad.”

“It’s got to be Tobias and his gang,” Ryan says. “Everyone else is accounted for.”

“Whoever is coming down those hills, they are not in good shape,” I mutter. The howls I’m hearing are not of triumph or glory—it’s the sound of wolves in horrible pain. The scent of fresh blood gets stronger, and it feels like the air itself is alive with fear.

When we reach the back of the old schoolhouse, I stop and stare. I’ve seen some pretty bad shit in my time, but it feels like I just stumbled into a warzone.

A bright lamp run by a noisy generator is glowing from the tall roof of the old building, showing the scene in shocking detail. Wounded wolves and dying young men—fresh blood pouring from ragged wounds, exposed organs, and broken bones. Some of them yelp and whine in their wolf forms while others scream and cry, stuck in their human shapes.

Donny recovers from the shock of the scene quicker than I do, hurrying across to the nearest boy and assessing his wounds. Ryan runs to get help, and hopefully some medical supplies.

I walk through the hellscape, forcing myself to look at the carnage.

Well, boys, you wanted to follow Tobias. Look where it has led you.

As I get closer to the building, I can see the man himself, sitting with his back propped up against the wall. He has a nasty gash across his stomach and a wound on his leg that looks bone-deep. Gage hands him a bottle of Kentucky bourbon, and Tobias gulps it down gratefully, groaning in pain as Russ puts a tourniquet on his leg.

“Tobias,” I say softly but clearly.

He looks up at me. His slate-blue eyes look dull, yet full of hatred at the same time.

“You,” he grunts, almost choking on his words. “You are the reason this happened.”

Fury burns inside me as I take slow strides towards him. My fingers twitch, desperate to wrap around his throat and squeeze until the last breath leaves his body.

“Ready?” Russ asks, giving Tobias a light slap on the cheek. He takes his attention away from me to nod to his friend. Russ yanks on the edges of the tourniquet, and Tobias screams as it closes off the blood flow. He downs another few gulps of bourbon as he recovers from the pain.

“Just keep pressure on it,” Russ says. “As soon as the bleeding settles down, it will heal. You’ll be on your feet in no time, boss.”

Tobias looks back up at me as Russ leans in to apply pressure against the wound on Tobias’s belly. Behind me, I hear a sharp scream and turn around to see Ryan and Tucker setting the leg of a poor young man.

Most of our men and some of the women have come to help. It looks like Fiona has stayed in the hall with the children and most of the other girls. For that, I’m grateful.

She shouldn’t have to see this. No one should.

Not far away, I see Luke and his mate tending to an injured boy. He turns blue in the face as he tries to draw breath, with Luke desperately trying to stop the bleeding from a wound under the young man’s lungs. While I watch, he struggles, chokes, and dies. His blood soaks the ground in a crimson flood.

Luke swears and then grabs a med pack, running towards the next wounded kid.

“Tobias,” I say, turning back to him, his name on my lips like a curse. “What the fuck have you done?”

“What have I done?!” he yells. “You did this. All of it.”

“I didn’t even know where you were most of today!” I roar, my voice echoing through the clearing. “How is this my fault.?”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Tobias pants, holding his side while his body desperately tries to knit the wound back together. “If you cared about us, about the pack, you would have been with us. None of this had to happen!”

A chill runs up my spine as I realize that because his plan—whatever it was—failed, he’s now going to blame it all on me.

“Explain to me, very carefully, what happened,” I say, standing over him and crossing my arms.

“We wanted to send a message to Bailey,” he growls. “They have had it over us for far too long, and it’s time he knew his place.”

“I did hear a rumor about a very foolish plan you had to kidnap mates from the Silver Meadows Pack.”

“Well, I just couldn’t hold the boys back any longer,” Tobias says, a little grin creeping over his face. “Some of us are real wolves. We need action, and danger.”

“Did you get your share of action today?” I demand, leaning over and grabbing his shirt to shake him. “Did you?”

Tobias grins at me, blood leaking out around his teeth. “Not yet, Alpha,” he whispers. “Not quite yet.”

I stare at him as shock settles into my guts. He doesn’t care about the people who were injured—or killed—today. All he cares about is strategy, and making me look bad.

“What happened?” I roar, shaking him.

“We hit Silver Meadows. I planned to get the mates of all the top wolves—Bailey, Jack, and Kyle’s women. They were out organizing a party at their favorite camp area, and it looked like it would be a cinch. We moved in, caught the beta’s girl—Lena, I think? And we started to retreat. But then Bailey hit us.”

I let go of his shirt and step back. It’s taking all my control to stay still and not kick the living shit out of him the way he deserves.

“He came at you, full force,” I say.

Tobias nods. “I’m not even sure what happened. Suddenly, there were wolves everywhere. We got slaughtered. I don’t know how many we lost, but I struggled to bring home as many of my brothers as I could.”

I can tell by the look on his face he didn’t give a fuck who he left behind. He’d do anything to save his own skin and wouldn’t raise a paw to help a fallen brother.

“If you had been with us, if the pack had been with us, we would have won!” Tobias’ voice is rising as his wounds begin to heal. “We needed you, Alpha!”

“This was a terrible fucking plan!” I hiss at him. “Even if you pulled it off, it just would have made Bailey come after us and slaughter us all.”

Tobias grins, just briefly, and the cold gleam in his eyes makes me sick to my stomach. “All of us knew it was time for action. We can’t be Bailey’s lap dogs forever—we want our glory back! We were proud fighters, wild and savage. We answered to no one! Now that you call yourself alpha, we have no power, no respect. We are weak!”

Tobias leans on the wall and struggles to his feet. All around us, I can see people raising their heads, listening to us fight.

Everyone wants an explanation for how this happened, and they aren’t looking at Tobias. They’re looking at me.

“We thought if we proved ourselves, if we brought honor and blood back to the pack, you would finally listen,” Tobias continues. “That if we dealt Bailey a big enough blow, you would stand behind us, and the entire pack would fight with us!”

I shake my head, astounded that anyone would believe this bullshit. Unfortunately, though, I know some of the pack do believe Tobias and would rather blame me than him.

“So, we ended up alone out there, fighting for our honor. You stripped us of our pride, and when we went to get it back, insult was added to injury. There weren’t enough of us. I knew then that our alpha had betrayed us.”

“You couldn’t have won even if the entire pack was with you, right down to the last pup,” I growl. “This was a fool’s mission, Tobias! Look at what you’ve done!”

“Win or lose, Alpha, this one was always going to go my way.” He chuckles and taps his chest. “What are you going to do, kill me? Go ahead. See what happens.”

Rage burns in my blood as I take a step forward. All I want to do is rip the disgusting traitor to shreds, but Tobias has set me up perfectly.

If I kill him now, I’ll look worse than Jethro. Before a leadership challenge goes down, I need everyone to understand I did not abandon these boys.

“You win this round,” I tell him very quietly. “But it’s a war you’ve started, Tobias, and I don’t think you’ve got what it takes to finish it.”

“Bring it on,” he says, grinning.

I turn and walk away, joining the others in tending the wounded and counting the dead.

It’s been a dark day for the pack—maybe the darkest ever. But I swear, no more will die.

Except for Tobias.