"I don't think that should be our focus right now. We seem to have a more pressing concern." He raised his hand to the ceiling to point at her wings.
"My plan requires the flight."
"Really?" His tone of voice changed to a conspirator playfulness. "Do tell."
"We need to get outside and we need to find Tristan and Ashlee right now."
"But what if you fly away?"
"Darling, I would always come back to you. Change into your wolf form and see if you can catch me."
With a wink, she flew from the room, just making it through doorway without banging her head. Maybe she could control this transformation and use it to help them with their traitor problem. Then she'd figure out how to get back on the ground. She hoped.
Chapter Eleven
The woods were quiet. The clearing where Theo stood with Tristan and Ashlee was silent in the way only unused green space could be. It was like nature had decided since they hadn't bothered to take advantage of this particular area in a long time, she was going to go ahead and refurbish it with her bounty. Three deer ran by undisturbed and Theo noted that the Alpha couple stared at them as longingly as he did. When was the last time the pack had simply run together or given their wolves the chance to just be wolves? Theo had no excuse--he'd had a year of it, which was more than enough time even for his furry half, but if they lived through the next couple of weeks he was going to speak to Tristan about giving everyone a little leisure time.
He would kill to be able to communicate with Faith right now. But he could neither reach her telepathically nor call out to her with his own voice. His wolf paced restlessly and Theo clamped down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from shifting so he could join in the sensation. This was Faith's plan. He needed to trust her to do her part to carry it out.
Do you suppose she's ready? I can't even smell her to figure it out. Tristan's voice held strain. His brother never had liked the unknown and today they were counting on it to work.
If you could smell her so could everyone else and then the stealth aspect of this would be for naught.
I know you're right but I--
Hate this?
Yes.
Me too.
Theo stared intently at his brother. The future of the pack hinged on the next few minutes and Tristan looked as cool as he could ever remember seeing him. If everything went according to plan, Cullen and Summer would arrive momentarily in their wolf forms as if they'd just come from a run through the woods.
A rumor, cleverly started by Summer, passed through the pack that Tristan was holding a secret meeting between Theo, Cullen, Summer, Ashlee, and himself to discuss the traitor problem and work out a plan of attack against Kendrick. No one was supposed to know about the so-called meeting except that Summer had accidently broadcast specifics of the meeting meant for Ashlee's ears alone to part of the pack. By now, all of the members should know about it. Word spread fast on Westervelt. On cue, Cullen and Summer arrived, shifting from their wolf forms as they entered the clearing.
Whoever showed up next to spy on the meeting was their traitor.
Tristan had seemed shocked by Faith's deviousness but Theo wasn't. His mate had an incredible brain.
Cullen cleared his throat and Theo realized they were too silent. If they wanted this to look like a meeting, they had to play their parts.
"It distresses me to no end that all of our brothers are not here." Tristan kicked at the ground in front of him and Theo smiled. "What are you grinning at?"
"You have been doing that since we were children. Anytime you get really annoyed by something or distressed you kick at the ground."
"Perhaps we could save the childhood reminiscing for another time." Cullen rolled his eyes and Theo's wolf growled. The older man never had much of a sense of humor.
Summer hummed to herself and rocked back and forth from her heels to her toes.
"Speaking of annoying childhood habits." Ashlee glared daggers at her sister who rolled her eyes.
Clearly there was way too much familial baggage in the pack at the moment. If he got a chance, and the demon left them, he was taking Faith on a long vacation. Silently, he also gave thanks she wasn't someone's sister and he wouldn't have to spend the rest of their lives together listening to her yell at one relation or another.
A sudden thought struck Theo and he reached up to rub his chin. Faith knew nothing about her family. Even being back with the pack, she clearly didn't remember her parents. He must have known them. Who were they?
"Cullen, I have a quick question."
"Yes, Prince Theo?" The older man raised an eyebrow.
The sound of a twig breaking behind them cut off Theo's next statement. Five pairs of eyes turned in the direction and a growl issued from Tristan's throat. No one had expected it to be so fast. Before his eyes, Tristan leapt faster than Theo had thought possible for either shifter or human. He looked like a blur of light as he jumped into the woods, only the reverberation of his angry howl filling the air.
Oomph sounded and Ashlee shouted in horror.
"It's Rex." Her words were barely a breath as she ran after Tristan, shifting into half-wolf, half-human status and followed her mate. Her face and hands looked canine while the rest of her remained human. It was safer for her if she needed to fight.
Rex? Their baby brother? A spy for their dad? Something didn't sit well with Theo and he knew he'd better figure out what it was quickly before a betrayed and outraged Tristan tore Rex to shreds. Raising his eyes to the sky, he looked around vehemently. Where was Faith? She should have landed or been the one to pick up Rex, as the plan had been.
Never one to doubt his instincts, Tristan took off at a run, shifting half way through his first steps.
"Stop him, Theo." Summer's voice caught his attention and he swung his head around to stare at her. She was doubled over on the ground, her right hand covering her forehead while her left one grasped at her pregnant stomach. Cullen gripped her back, holding her to him. Her voice sounded frantic. "This is wrong. This is not as it should be happening."
Cullen raised his eyes to stare at Theo's wolf form. She's having a vision. Stop Tristan before he kills Rex.
Theo turned around, sprinting towards his two fighting brothers. Both in their full animal forms now, Tristan's dark wolf attacked Rex's smaller black one. Relieved to see that Rex barely fought back--Tristan was their Alpha and fighting with him would only enrage him more--Theo jumped into the middle of the fight. It wasn't the first time he'd broken up a fight between his brothers, it was just the first time so much had been on the line.
Tristan's teeth sunk into his neck and Theo screeched. His wolf had gone into high alert and the need to either flee or fight was almost uncontrollable. Inside, Theo roared, demanding he be left in control of their higher senses. Tristan growled and backed off trying once again for Rex who whimpered and clearly bled in several different places, one particularly rough looking wound on his ear that Theo hoped didn't leave a scar.
Theo threw himself between Tristan and Rex. Behind him, he heard a commotion but couldn't take his attention off of his brothers to focus on what caused the hubbub. If he let up for even a second, he wasn't sure Tristan wouldn't kill Rex. They had to at least speak to their younger brother before any more violence took place.
Rex, can you hear me?
What the hell is going on? Even in his wolf state, his brother sounded terrified. Theo couldn't blame him. He'd be terrified too if Tristan turned on him.
Did you betray us, Rex? Is it you?
Ashlee's scream stopped Tristan's assault. Whirling around, Theo saw Faith swoop down from the sky like a hawk capturing a field mouse and within seconds pull someone out of the woods a distance away. Theo narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air. He couldn't make out a scent. His ears flattened on the top of his furry head.
That was the connection he'd missed. When he'd been in the woods, the traitor had been scentless, as whoever Faith had was now. He co
uld smell Rex--who always, even in wolf form, managed to be a combination of the forest and the city, as clearly as he had the day Rex had been born.
Stop, Tristan. It's not Rex.
Theo, out of my way. This is our brother and he has betrayed us in the worst possible way.
It's not him, my Alpha, look behind you. Silently, Theo hoped he reached the part of Tristan that wasn't lost in the animal madness and could still be reasoned with. Otherwise Rex was doomed and they would all have to live with the consequences. Theo wasn't prepared to ask himself how far he would go to protect Rex. There was Faith to consider. If he died, she died too.
Tristan sniffed the air and turned in the direction where Faith held their soon-to-be revealed traitor five feet above the ground. Whoever it was struggled in her grasp and tried to shift. Theo sucked in his breath but his worry was for naught.
Faith simply readjusted her hold and held tighter around the man's neck preventing the shift. He should have known there would be nothing she wouldn't be able to handle.
Tristan called the shift on himself. A warm white light filled Theo's senses and he followed suit, hoping Rex would do the same.
Their Alpha stormed in the direction where Faith held the still-unknown person, giving Theo a moment to regard Rex.
"Randolph, what were you doing here? You could have been killed." Almost no one used Rex's real name and Theo hoped it made an impression.
"Evidently." Rex looked up at the sky and Theo followed his gaze to where Faith set down the man in front of Tristan. He turned back to Rex.
"Answer my question."
Rex shrugged getting up from the ground as if all was well but Theo caught the scent of pain on him and knew whatever casualness he pretended to possess was just an act. It was hard being a wolf-shifter surrounded by wolf-shifters. No one ever let you get away with any bullshit, which was why Theo made the decision not to mention the pain Rex was obviously in but trying to hide.
Theo cleared his throat. "Rex?"
Rex sighed. "Look, I heard you guys were having some sort of secret pow-wow we weren't invited to. It pissed me off. I'm sick of the whole 'we're mated so we're special' vibe Tristan and Cullen have going on around here. As if you can only be trusted if you've been lucky enough to find your love. It's not like the rest of us haven't been looking and now you're part of the 'in' club. It used to be enough to just be a Kane."
Theo rubbed the stubble on his chin as he took in his brother. How was it possible they'd all been through relatively the same traumas and Rex was still so damn young?
"So you thought you'd come and spy, is that it?"
"I thought I should know what was going on." Rex had the good sense to look sheepish looked anywhere but in Theo's eyes and winced as he tried to take a step.
"Do Gabriel, Michael, or Azriel feel this way?"
Rex's eyes flared wolf for a moment before returning to their normal near black. With his long hair down past his shoulders, Rex looked positively wild. Truth was, his wolf was so strong, and always had been, that had he been born before Tristan it was questionable which one of them would have been Alpha.
But as Theo had discovered the day his cheek was burnt off, life had a way of presenting things just the way they were meant to be, even if they were uncomfortable and miserable.
"No, they don't seem to be as bothered. But who the hell knows what goes on with them? Michael's been pretty much a zombie since Kendrick betrayed us and he sucked at being Alpha, Gabriel is all about conducting covert missions and disappears for months at a time, and much as I love him I have no idea what Az is talking about most of the time."
Theo nodded. As the brother chronologically below him in age, he knew better than most how odd Az could be. Brilliant, but odd. He shook his head. They were getting off the point.
"See that?" He turned around to point at Tristan who had the man pinned on the ground as he growled in his face. Ashlee, Summer, and Cullen stood in a circle, the older man in between the two women, a bemused look in his eyes was the only indication he wasn't standing at the beach or in line at the drugstore. Nothing fazed Cullen.
"What is going on? Why is Tristan attacking whoever that is and why did he attack me? He wouldn't even answer me telepathically."
Theo looked up at the sky where Faith hovered. He wished she'd come over to where he stood with Rex but he couldn't reach her telepathically to tell her he needed her help.
"Our brother the Alpha is in a rage. We have a traitor and we just flushed him out. When you showed up, we assumed it was you. That made him more nuts because you're his brother."
Rex's eyes changed to their wolf form. Theo knew when his brother spoke, his intonations would be two tones lower. "He thought I would betray you?" Rex turned his back on Theo and he knew the youngest of the Kane's only had eyes for Tristan.
"It seemed a reasonable thought that whoever was hiding in the bushes was our traitor."
"Reasonable, perhaps." Rex whirled on Theo. "But I'm your brother and all of you--especially him," he pointed at Tristan, "should have known better."
"Because you're family?" Theo couldn't help the laugh that sprung from his mouth. "Little brother, it was our patriarch--the man who sired us--who put us in this position to begin with. The reason Tristan trusts mated men is because unless they're sick and deranged, they won't do anything to harm their mate and therefore are less likely to betray the pack."
"I've had enough of this crap."
Theo shook his head. "What?"
"I don't have to stay here and put up with this anymore." Rex turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction of the group. A screech from Tristan's area caught Theo's attention and he swung around to look.
Summer had hit the ground and was crouched on her knees. "Theo don't let him leave. He's blank now. I can't see, I can't see any of his future."
Theo was confused. Summer saw their futures that clearly?
"Rex, wait a second." Theo called out to him but Rex wouldn't turn around. "Tristan, do you want me to recover Rex?" He really hoped Tristan would take care of it himself. After all, it had been their Alpha who had attacked him.
Tristan shook his head, casting a sympathetic look at Summer. "It's a good thing you can't see it anymore, little sister. Rex's future needed a shake up. He's never left here. He should have known better than to do what he did today. He needs to go--as we all went--to spend time off-island and decide if this is where his future is or if it's time for him to live elsewhere."
Ashlee sucked in her breath. "Tristan, are you sure?"
"He's my brother. He'll always be welcome back home but if he feels he must leave, let him go." Tristan's eyes fell to the man on the ground. "We have a pressing matter to deal with here."
Theo strode forward. "Who is he?"
"Take a look." Cullen still stroked Summer's back as she gripped her pregnant belly but his eyes turned wolf and Theo didn't imagine the bloodthirsty look he saw appear when their father's former advisor stared down at the now restrained traitor on the ground.
Staring down at the scene below him, Theo sucked in his breath. He'd know the traitor anywhere. Hell, they'd been raised together, were practically the same age. Blonde hair, an easy smile, and almost zero need for advancement, Nicholas Rice was the last person he would have suspected of treason. He'd lost both his parents and two brothers to their father's deception. What the hell was he doing and how had he not recognized him immediately?
As if reading his mind, Cullen answered. "We're going to have to figure out how he deceived us for so long and why. My wolf declared this magic and I believe he is right. This is going to fall to you, Ashlee, to decipher."
"You'll never beat him. He is our true leader and where Tristan, the usurper, leads us is down a path to hell." Before looking up, Theo briefly noted the strain in Nicholas' voice made by the presence of Cullen's foot on his neck.
"Before you take him into interrogation, Cullen, you might want to ask him where he was going in that c
anoe. My best guess is that he has one of Kendrick's henchmen on the mainland who he feeds information to." He glanced up at the sky and lifted his hand. "Faith, come down, you need to be part of these discussions."
A sad glimmer in her eye, Faith shook her head. "I'm sorry, my love, I cannot."
What did that mean? "I don't understand."
"It calls to me now like I can only imagine your wolf called to you for so many months. I need to answer it and find my brethren."
"Your what? Faith this is insanity." Theo's pulse sped up. He reached for her telepathically and still found nothing. "It's the demon. It's messing with your head. In no way is what is inside of us our kin. Come down and we'll work out a plan to get the book and then we'll be free of it."
"No, Theo." Faith's voice was resolute. "Don't you understand? You were never meant to be a demon, but clearly I was."
"No." Just out of his jumping range, Theo couldn't reach her. In the long years of his life, he'd never felt so ineffectual and he wanted to roar.
"I grew wings without an ounce of pain, you never did. Don't you see what that means? The power was never at home in your body but it is in mine. I like it."
Tristan grabbed his arm. "This doesn't sound good."
Shrugging off his brother, who didn't say anything he wasn't already aware of, he faced Faith once again. "Please Faith, I can't lose you. Don't disappear into something that we are not meant to be."
"In truth, Theo, I cannot resist." In front of his eyes, she seemed to be changing. Even the contour of her voice and the sound of her diction altered. This couldn't be happening, he wouldn't allow it. "I'm not as strong as you."
Feeling his eyes turn wolf, he stared up at his mate, the woman fate had chosen for him. He would not lose her. "Faith, get down here this instant."
"I cannot obey."
Without a look down again, Faith took off in the sky, flying faster than he'd dreamed imaginable and disappearing from view.
Instantly, Theo changed into his wolf form. Howling once and plowing by his brother and family, he took off at a run. He'd lost Faith, there was nothing left. Pushing his four legs to move faster than they ever had before, he sprinted towards the cliffs unsure of where he went or what he would do when he got there.