Chapter 8 Stop

• WAYLEN
• I fucked up.
• The first mistake was tailing Beth to the club. The second was fucking her. But the worst of all was breaking all the goddamn rules.
• I fucked a human in Indiana.
• What was I thinking? I pushed that image of her out of my mind, putting the anger of that scenario into the current situation. If I had been home, I might have been able to prevent this from happening. But it was too late.
• “Where were you?” I yelled at the man standing a few feet away from me.
• The windows and door shook from the force of my voice. Len, my wolf, was close to the surface and wasn’t as logical or forgiving as I was. I gripped the top of the chair so hard my claws sank into it.
• Silence followed my question, and I cocked my head slightly, giving Jaxon, the bastard assigned to watch my father, a chance to explain before I separated his head from his neck.
• Fear reeked off him like a foul odor, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I stood behind the chair, ignoring the warning look Rey, my best friend and now, beta, sent me.
• “I was with him, but he said…”
• “Choose your next words carefully, Jaxon.”
• Jaxon swallowed. His mindlink was closed, so I couldn’t hear his thoughts, but I had a fair idea what he was thinking, probably thoughts on how I could kill him. And he wouldn’t be wrong. He had one job.
• “We were on our way home, and you-your father asked me to stop the car.” I nodded for Jaxon to continue. He had always doubled as Father’s driver and bodyguard. He stepped back as if fearing my next action, but I hadn’t moved an inch. Not like the distance would be an issue if I wanted to hurt him. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead to his shirt. “We did, and we were attacked, Alpha.”
• An ache started in the side of my head. I rubbed the heel of my palm over the spot, forcing myself to picture Beth’s face when I propositioned her. Doing that helped until I remembered the feel of her palm on my cheek. How she went from this smiling, shy chic to an angry goddess.
• That image sent me over the edge, and Len took over my body.
• It happened in a flash. One second I was behind the chair. The next moment, I had Jaxon pinned against the wall with his feet dangling in the air.
• Father was dead because of his carelessness.
• “If the person you swore to protect is dead, why are you alive?” I spat at him. His head hung low in submission. “Tell me why you should live?”
• My nails grazed his neck, and a trail of blood rolled down my palm. He would have tried to fight if it was another wolf, but he stayed there, gasping for his life while the light in his brown eyes slowly faded.
• “Waylen,” a voice called inside my head. It was Rey, the unfortunate voice of logic. “You will kill him.”
• “I intend to.”
• “The council will exile you,” he reminded me.
• Wolves could not kill each other on pack land except in extreme cases of life and death. This was one such case. All guilty parties would be exiled or cut off from the pack, effectively turning them into rogues.
• “I’ll make it look like self-defense.”
• “No one will believe you,” Rey added.
• Because I was stronger and could easily overpower Jaxon or anyone who came after me. Father could too. He had to have been attacked by someone stronger, more trained, possibly with an M at the beginning of their name.
• The corners of Jaxon’s lips turned blue. I released my grip on his neck, and he crumbled to the floor like a wet rag. My feet connected to his side once, then again.
• The unmistakable sound of ribs breaking was like music to my ears. Blood dripped out of the corners of his lips, but it didn’t satisfy me. I pictured Beth calling me names and kicked him harder. I gave her the best night of her life. Ten-seconds man, who? I saved her from that pitiful Ian. It was a privilege for her to have me as her first.
• If her scent hadn’t been calling out to us, I would have left her alone as soon as she entered that cab. Yeah, right. Like any wolf could resist the smell of his mate. At first, I wasn’t sure why I was insanely attracted to her, a human. But Len put the last piece in the puzzle when he tried to mark her.
• “Stop!”
• This time, Rey didn’t use the mindlink. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off. Eyes closed, I took deep breaths to calm myself. Father would be disappointed in my ways. That was partly why I left for Illinois. Our ways were too different. I opened my eyes to Rey’s worried and disappointed blue ones.
• “What?” I barked.
• Rey said nothing, but his unspoken words had more effect. My father just died. No, not died. He was brutally murdered. I was allowed a little tantrum. Calling one of the guards through the mindlink, I waited until the door opened.
• A dark-skinned man stood at the door in his suit. Jaxon was also in a suit, but you couldn’t tell the color of his shirt because it was tainted red now.
• “Get this piece of shit out of my sight,” I told the guard.
• The door creaked open as the man dragged the worthless creature out of the office. I staggered to the chair my father would have sat in, and my knees buckled.
• Rage built inside me, taking control of every nerve in my body and blinding my vision. I sent the chair flying across the room. The office telephone was next. My hands reached for the next destructible item, but someone stopped me from throwing it. Rey panted as he held onto me, preventing me from bashing the laptop. Being a beta made him stronger than a regular wolf, but his strength couldn’t compare to mine.
• “Put this energy into the ring.”
• The ring was our cover for this place, the best explanation for why a group of ‘humans’ lived together in a giant mansion on the outskirts of town. We provided them with entertainment through pure fighting, and they let us be without disturbance.
• I nodded. “Yeah. I intend to.”
• The unlucky human who would get in the ring with me wasn’t leaving the place alive. That was the fun part about fighting in the ring. It was a match till death. Humans might not be as primal as wolves, but they possessed the same hunger for blood and death.
• Someone knocked. Rey glanced at me in silent consent before opening the door. A maid walked in. She must have sensed the tension in the air because she came in with her head bent and neck exposed to show submission.
• One look at the floor, and she got to work, making sure to stay out of my way as she cleaned up my mess. I collapsed into the chair nearest to me. My elbows dug into the table, and my fingers sank into my hair. If the hunters killed Father, consequences be damned. I would pull out the tongue of every one of them before burning them alive. Whoever did that better run because I was coming for them.
• The door shut after the maid was gone. Rey stayed behind but kept mute. I arranged the sheets on his desk. I had given strict instructions to leave Father’s desk as it was after finding out about his death earlier today. He was a respectable man in the pack and council. The other packs might not agree with his thoughts on the humans, but the laws were crystal clear.
• Do not kill a werewolf.
• Sorting through the pile, my eyes caught on a line circled in black ink. I reread the paragraphs before and after it to try and get the point, but it made less sense than it already did. Rey watched from his position on the couch propped against the window. His foot dangled from the armrest, and a fleeting image of me breaking those legs took over my mind.
• “Prepare for his burial,” I said without looking at him.
• “What?”
• “You heard me.”
• “Without the council?”
• “They will be informed after he’s buried.”
• Rey grumbled. His feet dragged across the floor as he covered the gap between us. From my periphery, I watched him pull the second chair away from me and slump into it, kicking out his legs. Why wasn’t he furious about his godfather’s death? Did he know something I didn’t? He was always available. I only came in two days ago. Was that why Father wanted me home? Did he know something was about to happen?
• I ran a tired hand through my hair as Rey mumbled beside me, “I don’t like that idea.”
• “That’s why you didn’t come up with it,” I replied. I dropped the file on the table and rubbed my hands over my knees to stop the trembling. “Prepare for Father’s burial. You only need a witness for the burial. I’ll suffice for that.”
• “What about me?”
• I rotated my chair so I was facing him. “You can watch from afar.” Rey chuckled. I laughed for the first time since I returned to the mansion. “Fucktard, of course you can come.”
• Patting my shoulder in a show of support, he offered me a tight smile and left the office. The silence wasn’t something I welcomed because my thoughts grew louder. We—mostly Len—had to stay away from Beth. Getting close to her was the reason I couldn’t save Father. Even worse, it could make her a target.
• A phone rang. I welcomed the interruption until I realized it wasn’t my ringtone. I shot to my feet and ransacked Father’s drawer for the phone. Luckily, I found it before it stopped ringing. An unfamiliar name showed up on the screen of Father’s phone.
• Herbert Cohen.
• Did he know something?
• I answered the call but waited for him to speak.
• “Jack,” the voice said from the other end.
• “He’s taking a nap.”
• “Oh, Ezra?” How the fuck did he know my name? I had been gone for so long that it was hard to remember who was who. One thing was sure, Herbert was human. “Where’s your dad?”
• “He’s taking a nap.”
• Herbert laughed. I bet he wouldn’t be laughing if I removed two of his front teeth. He talked about his appointment with Father slated for this evening and rambled some more about things I forgot the moment he mentioned. He must love the sound of his voice.
• “Send the address,” I cut in. “I’ll come in his place.”