Page 50 of Pack Ruin
Delia stopped whimpering. Courtney stifled what might have been a laugh. “She can do it, too,” Iris said behind me. “One winter, my ma was… sick.” Her eyes met mine, and I remembered. Her mother had been mated to one of the low-level Enforcers. He’d cheated on her ma often enough that it had made her take to her bed from the pain, though she hadn’t gone crazy like mine. “Flor snuck over to our place and left a lap blanket she and old Del had stitched together outta rabbit and squirrel fur. It was the softest thing I ever felt. It was the nicest gift Ma had ever got. I always wanted to thank you for that.”
I swallowed hard, holding back a sarcastic retort. I didn’t need thanks; I’d have settled for a scrap of kindness the size of a mouse’s pelt. Instead, I said, “Well, if you let me know who did this to ya, Delia, I’ll skin him and make gloves for all of us.”
Delia’s eyes welled with tears, but her lips trembled into what wanted to be a smile. “You’d do that?”
“Nothing would make me happier,” I promised.
The other girls helped her stand and half-carried her out of the bathroom. No one spoke over a whisper, and from somewhere else in the building, I heard crying and male shouts and laughter. The other girls sat on one of the thin mattresses, and Iris gestured for me to join her, Courtney, and Delia on the one closest to the bathroom.
“Where have you been, Flor?” she asked. “After the… After you killed Van Blackside. Where did you go?”
“Northern,” I said quietly. “And then Mountain.”
Iris craned her head slightly, peering at my neck. “You have a mate?”
Deb let out a soft squeal. “Please say it’s the Alpha Heir from Mountain, please say it’s him!”
I almost laughed. “Yeah. He’s mine. But I have a…” I almost repeated Glen’s joke about having a mate collection, but stopped when Delia let out a sob.“Hey, what do you need, sweetie?”
“I need my brother back,” she said through her tears. “He went out the fence to get some meat for us. It’s just him and me now. Our pa’s been killed. Ma, too. Bo p-promised he was gonna find us some food.”
“Bo. Your brother’s Bo?”
“Was Bo,” Deb said, standing. She padded into the bathroom and brought out the mop, using it to sop up some of the blood spatters that were drying on the cracked linoleum. “Torran’s wolves tear any of us to shreds if we so much as walk in the direction of the back gate.”
“Bo’s dead?” Delia gasped.
I shot Deb a look. “No, he’s not. He’s fine, and he and his friend Leroy are the ones who got me into the compound.”The room exploded into whispered questions. I held up a hand. “They’re living in the woods with an Alpha I met up at Northern. His name is Sergeant.” I decided not to mention my mama, her being the Ghost Lady and all. “They’re fine. There’s a bunch of other shifters?—”
“You mean the rogues?” Iris asked, shocked. “They don’t have an Alpha. They’re feral!”
I shrugged. “They’re not really. The Alpha—he’s not the Alpha from Northern; this one is from the Western pack.”
There was another volley of whispered questions, which ceased abruptly at the sound of hard-heeled footsteps approaching in the hall outside. All the girls scrambled to the floor and kneeled in a line. Deb dropped the mop on the floor with a clatter just as the doorknob turned.
What?I mouthed at Iris, dropping to my own knees beside Deb.
Inspection,she mouthed back.
I wanted to ask who was doing the inspection, but I didn’t have to. I knew the sound of the voice that came from the hall outside, shouting a room number and a command to open up.
Holly Grier.
Ah, snakeshit.She would drag me out of here and get me stuck in the holding cell—if I was lucky—faster than I could spit.
Before I knew what was going on, a piece of cloth that smelled like piss and mop water had landed on my face.What in the chicken-fried fuck, Courtney?I mouthed.
“Wrap!” she hissed back, motioning to my face.
I understood at once. Grabbing the roll of cloth, I unrolled it quickly around my face, covering it like a burn victim. Just as I’d tucked the end behind one ear, Holly opened the door.
“God, this room smells like shit.” She stepped inside, a metal rod the size of a rolling pin in her hand, and the room went utterly silent. She grunted as she moved closer, taking in Delia’s hands. “Stealing, I see. Well, I bet it’s the last time you’ll try that.” She tapped the end of her metal stick on the little girl’s wrist.
Holly looked healthier than she had before I left, her hair shiny and her arms fleshier, like she’d been eating better than ever. Next to the starved children in this room, her obvious health was obscene.
Delia chewed at her lip furiously, clearly trying not to cry. My muscles had tensed, my wolf inside waking up more fully than she ever had before, ready to tear out our enemy’s throat. I flexed my fingers, trying to keep claws from forming, though my nail beds itched as they began to lengthen. Damnit, this was the worst time for my wolf to come out to play.
Holly stopped walking in front of me. “Who the hell is this? Uncover your face.”
