Page 23 of Pack Ruin
“Patrick, yes. He’s young. He won’t pose much of a problem.” Mother stepped back, her eyes skating over my skin once more. “An hour, hm? Barely time for Finnick to dress for his… date.”
“Our agreement still stands,” I said coldly. “If you want me to use my skills, that is.” I didn’t give specifics aloud, unsure how much Niall knew.
After the first few “assignments” I’d been given to help coax the wives of the corporate giants—and sometimes even the CEOs, on the occasions when they were female—Mother had hinted that Tana could also be used as an enticement for the men.
She’d been twelve.
My wolf had, for the first time in my life, gone nearly feral. I’d killed four of Mother’s favorite Enforcers, as well as the human Chinese textiles dealer who had been the one to suggest the atrocity.
Once she understood she would lose my “skills” as well as the lives of any businessmen who dared touch Tana, we’d negotiated a deal.
Tana was safe until she turned eighteen. That day had not yet arrived, though it was only a few months away. I’d been working on a plan to get her out of our pack, but Flor’s appearance had changed a lot of things.
“We shall see,” Mother said in reply. “Tana has a fiancé now. Young love and all that.”
I bared my teeth, feeling my wolf rise. I was still nowhere near as powerful as her, but I would die to protect my little sister. “If she is even touched before the age of maturity…” My wolf rose inside me, and I felt the unmistakable prickle of fur sprouting on my neck.
Mother hummed. “Our arrangement will stand, as long as you kneel.” She meant it figuratively, but I dropped instantly, the hard stone bruising my knees.“Good. Remember to kneel for—what was her name? Ah, yes—Stella Baranoff, as well. She’ll be in your room within the hour. Keep her occupied until dinnerat nine.” She snapped her fingers. “Niall? Make sure the cell Finnick was in is ready for new occupants, please.”
“Yes, Alpha… Mate.” He bowed and left, my parents following afterward without another word or look at their children. As I staggered back to my wing of the Mansion, Tana helping me to stay upright, I wondered if our situation could get worse.
When I heard the shouts of Bradley and Margarette Hillier ringing in the vaulted ceilings of the foyer, too distant to make out the words, but close enough to hear the anger and mocking tone of my father’s yelling, I realized it already had.
My parents had been waiting for a long time to bring down the Hilliers and take over the North American Council. I hadn’t been certain how far they would be willing to go, but I should have remembered what my father had said, the first time he’d placed a silver blade in my hand and forced me to slowly execute one of our own pack members. “The strength of the shifter isn’t what matters. The number of wolves in a pack is nothing. It’s how far one is willing to go to accomplish a plan… and how patient one is during a long hunt.”
The Long Hunt. That was what I’d overheard my parents calling their secret bid for power. They’d maneuvered the other packs into this untenable place, playing the other members of the Council, while making certain no one suspected our pack was the root of so many of the problems. Southern had made a fantastic scapegoat, but our pack had far greater abuses taking place, and it wasn’t only the unranked who suffered here.
“I tried to get you food, Finny,” Tana whispered as we turned the corner. “But Mother has me on another diet. She’s watching too closely.”
I sighed. Mother was obsessed with appearances, and Tana’s bone structure and build were more like the pictures I’d seen of our father’s parents than Mother’s.
A maid wearing a plain black dress with an apron, her head bowed, opened the heavy door to my wing. Neither one of us thanked her; we’d learned early that to draw any attention to the staff meant punishments for them and us.
And we never knew where or when our parents were watching. I glanced up to the corner of the hall. A small red eye gleamed there. “New addition?” I breathed.
Tana huffed. “They’re in the bathrooms now, too. And our bedrooms.”
“Shit.” Tana was trembling, so I forced myself to smile. “Father selling rights to a reality show or something? Wolves Gone Wild? Shifters After Dark?”
It worked. Tana giggled, the same soft, innocent sound that had driven me to protect her at any cost to myself since I was ten. And I’d protect her now.
I leaned down, pretending to fall, and breathed in her ear, far too quietly for any microphone to pick up. “Your birthday is only a few months away. I have to get you out. I have a plan.” I did. I’d used my time hanging from my wrists in the basement to come up with a desperate one.
“It’s impossible.” She didn’t elaborate. They used locked doors, alarms, and trackers as well as their shifter senses to keep us in place.
“I have liquid cash and more stashed in banks outside the country. I have allies in Europe, and their Alphas have made no pledges to keep you out.”
It would be an act of war,she mouthed.No one will take me.
“If I give them the keys to Mother’s kingdom, they will. You forget, I know where all the bodies are buried.”
She gasped, her green eyes wider than I’d ever seen them. She knew I meant literal bodies. Some of them were shifters, some human. Most of the ones in the well-hidden mass graves behind the Mansion were people who would never be missed.
But Niall, Torran, and Mother had miscalculated after a ball four years before. They’d invited a young male to an after-party that got out of hand, and ended in his death.
He’d been the Heir of a small Italian pack, and Mother had done everything she could to conceal the crime. In the end, she’d ordered me to burn his corpse. I’d buried him instead. I’d dig him up with my claws and teeth if I needed, if it meant Tana would get free.
I kissed Tana’s head and gently shooed her into her room, then went to my own. I ordered some food to be brought up, then ate, showered, and shaved. I’d just pulled on a robe when a knock came at the door, and a brassy, sultry voice called out, “Finnick? Are you decent?”
