Pack Ruin (The Splintered Bond #3)

27. Confessions in the Dark

27

Confessions in the Dark

FLOR

I f I hadn’t immediately known who was coming into my hiding place as I felt them approach, I would have been terrified. But Iknew them all.

Glen and Luke… and Grigor. Glen’s bond was bright and strong, but the odd connection I felt with Luke still buzzed with a draining sensation. And Grigor. His power was dimmed, somehow.

I watched the cover of the storm drain move away with no noise at all, the silence so absolute I recognized it as magical. Then the faint light from outside was obscured by three bodies, dropping one after the other into the tunnel. But I wasn’t afraid. I was grateful.

“Dream Girl?” Glen whispered. “Are you?—”

I scrambled across the damp tunnel floor on my hands and knees, my arms tangling with Glen’s as he caught me. He held me as I cried, murmuring soft words of comfort. I would have stayed there for hours, except a voice filled with a rage so palpable and dark it felt thick in the air distracted me.

“Who has hurt you, little queen? Tell me.”

“Grigor,” I said softly, reaching a hand toward him. I gasped when he took it, that strange surge of wind rushing through me, his eyes sparking fire in the darkness. Touching him, I could sense so much. A connection between him and… “Luke.”

“Flor.” I couldn’t see his face, but his voice was a rasp of pain. “Are you hurt? I smell blood.”

“Not mine,” I replied softly. “I’m not hurt.”My body wasn’t, anyway. My heart, though, ached like a piece of it had been carved away. I kept seeing that young wolf’s eyes as he realized what I’d done. The scent of silver was still in my nose. “I… I killed a wolf on my way here. With silver.”

“The pen from Brand’s grandmother?” Glen asked, one hand in my hair, pushing it behind my ear.

“Yeah.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“Not really. He barely scratched me, tried to do more, but?—”

“Then you did him a kindness,” Grigor said, his other hand wrapping around mine. “I can hear the pain in your voice, but I promise, the death you gave him was far more merciful than what would have happened if he had succeeded in truly harming you.” The tunnel floor trembled around us as he kneeled in front of me in the darkness, his breath warm and rich as he murmured in my ear. “Though I wish you never had to lift a hand to protect yourself, I am proud to have such a fierce and deadly mate.”

“Mate?” I was glad it was dark, since my cheeks were flaming. “Pretty good at counting chickens, ain’t ya?” His laughter was like melted chocolate. It soothed some of the raw places inside me, softened the pain. “What are you doing here, Grigor?”

“That’s not his name,” Glen said for some reason, settling onto the floor next to me. His naked skin was warm, and I ran a quick hand over him. With both males touching me, the invisible wind rushed even harder through me, through us. It was odd, but I could feel something between me and Grigor, and Glen. “His name is Joaquin,” Glen finished.

Huh?

“Pup, you have no reason to fear me.” Grigor’s tone was half exasperated and half amused.

“Said the boogeyman in the dark,” Glen grumbled, but I could tell he was trying to distract me.

I was plenty distracted, but it was by the sound of Luke’s body hitting the ground. Oh shit. Luke.

“I’ve got you, brother,” Glen murmured, shuffling away from my side.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s weak.” Grigor moved away to do something. “Ah, good,” he muttered, before returning. I heard something slosh, and then, “Drink slowly.” I remembered the last time I had hidden here. Grigor had slipped me energy bars and water, and sang songs in Spanish outside to keep me company. I had left some water and an energy bar down here, and when I heard the telltale sound of a wrapper, I knew Grigor had found the remains of that meal.

“What happened?”

“He’s been comatose. Starved. When he didn’t die, that fellow Torran tried to kill him. He was very nearly successful.”

“And you saved me,” Luke rasped. “You… tied us together, didn’t you, Grigor?”

“I did,” Grigor said. “I am as bound as you are, brother.”

“I know. I can feel you inside me.”

It was definitely not the time to laugh. But after a moment of holding it in, Glen and I both let out a long, breathy gasp. Glen’s chuckle bounced around us, like we were sitting inside a bubble.I supposed we were, with Grigor using magic to keep us all safe.

It took me more than a minute to collect myself, and when I finally had my laughter under control, I apologized.

“Your laughter, little queen, is the most beautiful music I can imagine,” Grigor replied. “May I hold you while I explain what has transpired? Touching you gives me more power to conceal us.”

Glen muttered, “Slick move, grandpa,” when Grigor shifted position to pull me onto his lap and wrap his arms around me. He had on pants of some kind. Leather, maybe. I tried not to be disappointed.

But his arms were bare, and his hands. I shivered, but not from the temperature. The feeling of his skin on mine was incredibly distracting, and I had to force myself to pay attention as he sketched out all that had happened.

Grigor had followed Sergeant to Southern, thinking he might be an enemy, then discovered the rogue encampment in the woods. “Of course, they’re not rogues now. Sergeant has the power of your family line, as do you.” Luke made a shocked sound.

“You know about my family? That we came from the Western pack?”

He hummed a yes.

“I’m not sure how Mama ended up here, though.”

“Once the eradication began during the war, I would imagine that all of the shifters who could leave, did. Especially those of the ruling bloodline, like your Sergeant and your mother,” he murmured, his hands gentle in my hair. “That pack’s destruction was a great loss to the world. I’d heard of Occidens—what you call the Western pack—when they formed two hundred… No, three hundred years ago. They were the only shifters who welcomed witches inside their borders. Well, the only wolf shifters.”

“What the fairy tale fuck—” Glen began, but Grigor tsked.

“A sad story for another time. When I arrived, this shifter Torran had taken over, searching for a killer.”

Glen scoffed. “Searching for whoever was slaughtering all the males of the pack.”

“They earned their deaths,” Grigor replied calmly. “My only regret is that I was unable to locate the younger Blackside. And Callaway himself, of course.” Grigor sounded more than pissed about that, and I patted his arm. Shocks of power, like static electricity, ran from his skin to my fingers. “He was also torturing Luke at the request of a female I cannot identify. Someone he spoke to on the phone.”

“Someone from Eastern. Finn’s mother?” Glen breathed.

“I do not know. Now, we need to get water and food for young Luke, and find a way out of the compound before the sun rises.” He went silent, as if he were listening for something. “I am much revived, thank you, my queen. I will go outside and gather provisions.” He pressed a kiss to my hairline that felt more intimate than it should have, and rose. “You could share your energy with Luke, if you feel compassionate. It may give him enough strength to stand on his own.”

Share my what now?

Before I could ask, in a rush, he was gone. All at once, the noises from outside filtered in, though they were still muffled. Shouting, the sounds of running feet and the metallic clank of weapons.

“That is one spooky fucker,” Glen whispered after a moment. “Let’s leave while he’s gone.”

I almost laughed again, but when Luke said, “Can’t. Little shit’s still inside me,” I lost it. Luckily, I slapped a hand over my mouth and kept the sound from traveling. Or at least, I hoped I had.

Glen cleared his throat. “I’ll, ah, go check out the tunnel back here. You two catch up.”

Luke and I let out matching sighs. “So, sharing energy, huh?” I moved toward him, wishing I could see his face, but kind of glad he couldn’t see mine.

“I’m not sure what he meant by that,” Luke murmured as I crouched next to him, and found his arm with my hand. His muscles had atrophied in the months I’d been away, and his arm trembled as I touched him. I slid an arm around his narrow waist, until we were sitting on the hard ground side by side. “You don’t… I can sit on my own.”

“I know you can. And I know what he meant.” I thought I did, anyway. I wasn’t sure how to do it, but I could almost feel some of my strength moving into Luke now. It felt like spitting on desert sand, though. It wasn’t nearly enough. “I should probably tell you everything that’s been going on while you napped. Mind if I rest my head?”

“Please.” He was naked, but I ignored that as best I could, letting my forehead fall against his shoulder as I got ready to tell a long-ass story.

I started at the beginning, with the car ride to Northern, and Vanessa’s welcome. When I got to the part where Brand saved me from dying, I swallowed. “Pretty sure that’s what Grigor meant. About the, ah, compassion or whatever. If we mated?—”

Luke let out a soft curse. “No, Flor. I won’t do that. I won’t allow you to do that.”

For a second, I was offended. “Why not?”

I felt his hand in my hair, stroking it behind one ear. He felt the metal tag and hesitated. My wolf took that moment to rise up just enough to whine.

Luke chuckled almost silently, and kept stroking. “Not because I don’t want you. Or want a bond with you.”

“You do want to be with me, like, ah… even though I’ve got a, a?—”

“A plethora of mates,” Glen muttered loud enough to hear, still moving away. Luke cleared his throat.

I shot the finger in Glen’s direction. “More than my fair share, though if Glen pisses me off anymore, there might be one less by morning.”

Luke’s voice was raw when he answered me. “Yes, Florida Wills, I want to be your mate. I’ve always wanted it. I’ve loved you from the time I was a child myself.”

“I don’t get that,” I admitted. “I heard that before. Brand said it, but wouldn’t tell me the story. What did you mean? That you knew I was your mate.”

“When I was ten…” He told his own story then, of Van Blackside beating me. How Callaway had been late for the pack run, and Van took out his anger on me, then Luke. How Callaway had forced Luke to shift before he bled out.

“I don’t remember any of that,” I whispered. “That’s when you shifted for the first time?”

“Yes. I shifted, and my wolf knew you. I think something happened, when I was trying to protect you that night. Our blood mingled? I’m not sure. But I knew who you would be to me, someday. My wolf was obsessed with protecting you.”

I stiffened. “Not all that obsessed. Where was that protection during the Hunt?”

“Callaway commanded me not to shift for years,” he murmured. “To weaken my wolf. It was only one of hundreds of commands he laid on me, in secret. I wasn’t allowed to shift. I wasn’t allowed to speak to you, unless I was acting as an Enforcer. I wasn’t allowed to step in if you were being punished…”

“Oh.” This was a familiar story.

“My wolf was more dominant than his from the beginning, but he bound it with commands. Not just about you, but all sorts of things. But my wolf resisted the ones that kept us away from you the most. He… gnawed at them over the years, if that makes sense. And when those started to unravel, the Alpha forbade me to shift or run with the pack. I was cut off.”

“He knew we were mates?”

“He may have known all along. But I’m almost certain Van figured it out when you were fifteen. He caught me watching you walking home from school. When he said something about letting Trevor have you when you were older, I shifted without meaning to and attacked him. Even under all the commands. Even though Van was far more powerful than me at that point.”

His next words were quiet, but each one was as heavy as a boulder. “That was when he told my fa… told Callaway that you needed to be the prey in the Hunt. That you needed to be mated to someone, anyone else. To make certain I could never challenge him.”