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Day 159 of the re-emerged Hat Island pack, Wednesday, Nov. 13, Penticton
Benny put the two young men in the back seat. Both of them sullen, and both of them rotating their necks like they hurt. Benny had no sympathy. “Just so you know, the penalty for rape is death,” he said conversationally. “So you might want to consider cooperating fast.”
Duncan glanced at him but didn’t comment. Well, the penalty for rape was death — if Benny was meting out justice. And since he was judge and jury here, that had been a true statement.
“It wasn’t rape!” Clueless said, and he actually sounded horrified. His name, it turned out, was Will. “Bjorn said shifter men were entitled to sex, and we should exert our authority.”
Benny glanced back at him. “And you believed that? Is that how you were raised?”
Both men were silent. “Well?” Benny said. “Where were you raised?”
“Bjorn said we weren’t to talk about anything before we came here,” Will said.
“And I’ve told you repeatedly, Bjorn is dead. Now it’s my rules,” Benny said. “Where are you from?”
“Winnipeg,” Trevor said defiantly.
Benny stared at him. “Did you just try to lie to me?” he asked incredulously. “You should know better than that! You can’t lie to a wolf more dominant than yourself.” Not completely true, but it took a lot more training than either of these young men had. And Trevor was not a good liar.
“But they wanted it,” Will was insisting. “That’s what Bjorn said. He said the protests were for the fun of it. That we needed to take what we wanted.”
Benny looked at him coldly. “You raped those women,” he said. “Every time you had sex with them, you were forcing them against their will. No, they didn’t find it fun. They were kidnapped, forced to live here, forced to have sex against their will. And you just watched a shifter in wolf form rip a woman’s guts out. Did that look like a willing woman to you?”
Will turned white and tried to get out of the moving vehicle. “Let me out,” he said frantically, getting the door open about the time Duncan slammed on the brakes. He started retching, on his hands and knees, in the gravel at the edge of the road.
Benny got out and leaned against the Jeep, watching the young man.
“I didn’t know,” Will said. “Bjorn said shifters ways are different than human ways.”
“And you were raised human,” Benny observed quietly. “Weren’t you?”
Will nodded. “We’re not supposed to talk about it,” he said miserably.
“Don’t say anything!” Trevor said from inside the Jeep. “They’ll kill us all if they know.”
“You’re dead anyway,” Benny said, “unless you tell me enough so that I decide you’re worth something alive.”
There was silence as the two young men considered that.
“Will? How old are you?” Benny asked.
“Seventeen,” Will mumbled.
“Trevor? Age?”
“Twenty-two.”
“No, you’re not,” Benny said with a sigh. “What 21?”
“You’re guessing!” Trevor accused.
“That you’re 21? That’s a guess,” Benny said. “That you’re lying when you say 22? No, I can tell that. You two really don’t know anything about being a shifter. How long ago did someone change you?”
Silence. “Will!” Benny said sharply. “Answer the question!”
“Six months.”
“So you met someone, and then what?” Benny asked. He ignored Trevor’s spluttering and outrage that Will was talking.
It took a bit to get the story out of him. Benny got Will up and sitting in the front seat. He stood outside the Jeep, leaning against the passenger door, and asked questions. Duncan just listened. And Trevor kept interrupting. Finally Benny looked at him. “Shut up,” he said, pushing dominance at him. “Or I’ll kill you here, and stuff you in the back. You need to get this through your head. You’re only worth the answers you give me. No answers? I don’t need you.”
“You won’t kill me,” Trevor sneered.
Benny looked at him steadily. Finally he walked around the other side of the vehicle and pulled him out of the car. And then he administered as thorough a beating as he’d probably ever given. And he’d killed men with his bare hands before. When Trevor was unconscious, Benny tossed him into the back seat.
“You were going to tell me the story,” Benny said calmly. And Will began to talk.
Benny got in the back seat with Trevor’s body, just shoving it aside. He saw Duncan’s concerned look in the rear-view mirror, but he ignored it. Yes, he was barely holding it together, but he was still in control. Barely being the key word. “While Will tells us this story, why don’t you drive by your house?” Benny suggested to Duncan. “I’d like to see what we’re sending the women to.”
Duncan nodded, and he put the Jeep back into gear and pulled back onto the road.
Will couldn’t stop talking once he started. He was raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta, about 600 miles east of Penticton. He’d been about to start his senior year of high school. This man, he’d said his name was Diogenes, Will said, stumbling over the word. “But that wasn’t his real name,” he added.
Benny kept any expression off his face. “No,” he agreed.
Diogenes had watched him at a football practice. Will had thought he might be a recruiter for a college team. They got them now and then.
“How old was he?” Benny asked.
Will shrugged. “He looked like a college student,” he said. “But....” He trailed off. So Will had learned some things since then.
Diogenes said he thought Will had potential. Then one evening after practice, he said, he was hosting a D&D game for some guys. Did he want to come and join? “Dungeon & Dragons?” Will asked, making sure Benny knew what D&D was.
“Go on,” Benny said. The Hat Island pack had speculated that this could work — if you could identify humans with a latent gene and had some kind of gift that allowed you to pull the wolf through to that first shift. Belief would be key, and you’d have to lower the target’s defenses. A good part of why Benny and Ryder — both with human mothers — came through first shift is that they knew about shifters and that they had a wolf. They believed.
“So he ran a marathon D&D game,” Will said with some enthusiasm. “Friday evening, then all day Saturday. But it wasn’t like D&D I’ve played in the past — we were all werewolves almost right away. Diogenes said he could see the wolf in us.”
Saturday night, he’d lit some kind of pipe, and set it in the center of the table.
“Weed?” Benny asked.
Will shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said doubtfully. “I’ve smoked weed. Something else.”
But playing the game with the drug-smoke made the game realer somehow. “And finally Diogenes said, ‘Would you like to see the wolf inside you?’”
They’d all agreed, thinking it was a joke. But then Diogenes stared at each one of them and said, ‘I see you’ and there was a wolf standing there. Then five wolves. And Will was one of them. Will said he passed out, and when he woke up he was human again, in a van, headed here.
“Well, not exactly here,” Will amended. “He took us to some big log cabin the woods north of here.”
Benny saw Duncan flinch. Yeah, that ‘cabin,’ Benny thought sourly. They were sitting on the street in a residential section of Penticton near the Heights. There was a big white house across the road — Duncan’s home, he guessed.
“And we learned to be werewolves — shifters — there,” Will was continuing. “If you passed the basics, you got to come into town, and we were promised we’d go to Vancouver eventually, to fight in the big war that was coming. I thought I might like to see Vancouver.”
He looked anxiously at Trevor. “I know he’s angry and rude,” he said. “But he protected me when I was homesick and the others picked on me. Will he be OK?”
Benny glanced at the big guy filling most the back seat next to him. “Probably,” he said with a sigh. “I haven’t decided yet.” He ignored Duncan’s snort at that.
“They said I could never go home,” Will said. “Were they lying about that too?”
“No, they weren’t lying there,” Benny said. “It’s called the first rule.”
Will nodded. “They told us about that. But my parents must be worried about me. And I worry about them. They’re old, and I’m their only child. What will they do?”
Benny closed his eyes briefly. And this was why this whole situation was so messy. Then he sighed. “When things settle down, you can write them a letter,” he said. “I’ll read it. In fact I will help you write it.” Damned right he would, he thought grimly. “And I’ll have someone keep their eye on them. In turn though, you have to help me figure all of this out. What Diogenes is doing is wrong.”
“He didn’t ask me if I wanted to leave my family,” Will said.
Benny flinched.
“No, he didn’t,” he said steadily. “And that’s wrong.” He considered what other questions he needed to ask.
“Here’s my house,” Duncan said, pointing to a big white house with a large front porch. There was a 6-foot tall wall around the large property. It was hard to tell this time of the year, but Benny thought it probably had a big lawn. In back, nestled against a wooded area, were a series of small cabins.
“Jesus, Duncan,” Benny said. “It’s the size of a hotel!”
Duncan shrugged. “Five bedrooms, three baths. When I was raising Miles and his family, we filled it all — and a couple of the cabins. But I do kind of rattle around in it now. It would be a good place for the women.”
Will looked at it. “It won’t be enough space,” he said doubtfully. “Or are you talking about just Amanda and her friends?”
Benny stilled. The silence in the Jeep seemed so total that even his own breathing was loud. Will was looking at him and then at Duncan anxiously, aware that he’d said something wrong. Benny thought Will might spend a lot of his time wondering what he had said — and done — wrong.
“Are there more women?” Benny asked, keeping his voice calm. “Another house?” Please God, let there be just one more house. Not more.
“Another house,” Will agreed. “Four more women. I was there once. But I liked....” he trailed off. Benny didn’t pursue it. He figured he knew — Will had a crush on one of the women, he probably wove a whole narrative about how they were really boyfriend and girlfriend. And hearing it would just piss Benny off. He was having a hard time keeping control of his temper — and his wolf — as it was.
“There’s another dorm for men too,” Benny said, guessing, but there had been strangers in this mix, and he thought he knew everyone by sight from the door last night.
Will nodded. “By the college. And there’s the cabin in the woods,” he said. “They call it the lodge? There’s lots more men there. They’re training to be soldiers. But I’m not really cut out to be a soldier. So they gave me to Bjorn and said to put me to work here in town.”
The lodge. Benny swallowed his rage.
“Can you show us where the other women live?” he asked gently.
Will nodded, and he pointed back the way they’d come.
Duncan swore under his breath when they arrived at the house Will led them to. “You know this one?” Benny asked.
“The house? No, it’s not on my inventory. But that SUV? It’s one of the packs,” he replied.
Benny frowned. It wasn’t a tan RAV4 like the others. This one was dark green, a larger Ford Expedition. An older model, he thought. “Do you know who usually drives it?”
Duncan glanced at Will, and then met Benny’s eyes in the rearview mirror. Later, he mouthed. Benny nodded. “So someone is here,” Benny said, and that worried him. He pulled out his phone and called Ryder.
“Going to need you, and your guards,” Benny told him. He gave him the address. “We’ve got a second house. Leave those men in Titus’s care, and the women in Doc’s care — and Jessie’s, if she’s OK with staying behind. I checked out Duncan McKenzie’s house — it’s a good place for the women. When Dennis thinks they’re able to go there, we want them there as quickly as possible.”
“Running out of men,” Ryder observed.
“I called Geoff,” Benny replied. “He’s sending up three teams with Michel tomorrow — one for Michel, two for us. We just have to hold out for 24 hours.”
Benny’s ears caught something — so did Duncan’s. A scream, muffled. “Got to go,” Benny said. He shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Will. I want you to get out of the car and lean against the driver’s door as if you’re waiting for someone. You are not to get back inside with Trevor — even if he wakes up and asks. You got that?”
Will nodded and got out of the car. Duncan was already on his way across the street. He handed Benny the key fob. Benny locked the car doors. When he looked back, Will was doing exactly what he’d told him to — arms folded across his chest as if he was impatient.
“Just a big dumb kid,” Duncan muttered.
There was another scream. Not loud enough for neighbors to hear, Benny didn’t think, but for shifters? He looked at Duncan. “Here’s how this goes,” he said rapidly. “You find the women and get them out of there. And you stay out of my way.”
Duncan looked mildly insulted. Benny elaborated, “I mean that physically,” he said, with a wry twist of his lips. “If there’s four like usual, I can take them, but kickboxing takes space.”
Duncan looked amused at that. “Got it.”
Duncan hit the door with his shoulder, not even pausing to see if it was locked. The door popped open, listing as one hinge gave way. Not as subtly done as Ryder’s earlier entry, Benny thought. Duncan might be a bit angry?
The door opened directly into the living room, a lot like the last house. Well, these ranch-style homes from the ‘70s were a lot alike. Benny kept going straight into the men. Duncan turned toward the bedrooms, taking Benny at his word that he could handle the men.
Benny didn’t talk, didn’t tell them to back away, didn’t give them a chance. He was done with this. He chopped the neck-shoulder join of the first man, then leaped to kick the second in the same place. The third man dropped the woman he was holding and squared up to face Benny. Stupid, Benny thought. Made himself a bigger target. Did he think Benny was going to box him by some set of rules? He landed on his pivot foot, letting the kick carry him around and used the momentum to kick the man in the belly. A couple of quick steps and he was on him, pummeling him with his fists.
Damn, it felt good.
Fourth? His wolf said. Benny paused and the man he held dropped. He looked around. The woman was crying silently.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her, gently.
She shook her head. “He was going to kill me,” she whispered. “Said there was a new Alpha, and that they needed to clean up this mission. Kill us and no one would know.”
Benny grimaced. “Is there a fourth?”
She gestured toward the hall Duncan had gone down. “He’s guarding the others. This one?” and she nodded toward the man Benny had just beaten the shit out of. “He said they could take their time, enjoy it.”
Benny’s wolf growled. The woman flinched back, afraid. “No, no,” Benny said, hoarsely, fighting his wolf for control. “My wolf wants to kill them all.”
She smiled a bit. “Don’t let me stop you.”
Benny snorted.
“Problem,” Duncan called. “Incoming.”
Benny looked down the hall. A man was pushing a woman in front of him, a knife held to her throat.
“Linda,” the woman on the floor said with anguish.
Benny watched him come, his eyes narrowed, waiting for his opportunity. There would be one. There always was.
“This is how we’re doing this,” the man growled. “I’m going out that door, and to the car. You back off, and let me go, and I leave the woman behind. You make any aggressive moves, and I’ll drop her with a cut throat. No coming back from that.”
Benny catalogued the man. Older. Pack, he figured. That’s how he knew there was a new Alpha. Not one of the kids who were as much a victim as anything. He didn’t have the same look at the McKenzies — so probably not related. Well, that was good; he hated to kill a man right in front of his family.
“Go then,” Benny said, gesturing with his head toward the broken door. “What’s stopping you?”
The man hesitated, made uncertain by Benny’s relaxed posture. He moved the woman toward the door. Benny kept his eyes focused on the man. He was holding the woman tightly, covering his core. The knife was at an angle that forced the woman’s chin up, exposing her throat, and making the jugular stand out.
The woman was terrified. Benny hoped he would have the pleasure of killing the man for that alone, although she’d probably lived with the terror 24/7 for some time. “Well?” Benny taunted. “Coward that you are, hiding behind a woman, using a human weapon? Run, coward, go! What are you waiting for?”
The man flushed, Benny’s taunt striking home. He pushed her toward the door.
Benny met the woman’s eyes and held them until she was focused on him. Now, he mouthed, bring his head down sharply. She dropped, as Duncan McKenzie rushed the man from behind. McKenzie grabbed the man’s head, ignoring the knife, and twisted. The man slashed once, not at the woman, but at McKenzie. McKenzie kept twisting, until the man’s neck snapped. He dropped him and grabbed his upper arm. “Damn it, he got me.”
Benny coaxed the woman into joining her friend in the living room. He glanced at Duncan’s wound, and saw it wasn’t bad. Benny tore the man’s head off. Dead, and staying that way.
He glanced up to ask Duncan if he knew the man, and saw Duncan McKenzie start to sway. “I don’t feel...,” he said, sounding puzzled. He staggered. Benny grabbed him and eased him to the ground.
Benny took another look at the wound. It was purple and streaking. Poison? Had to be. He pulled out his phone and tossed it to the two women. “Hit redial,” he ordered. “Tell the man who answers we need the Doc here. Now!”
The first woman nodded, and Benny turned back to Duncan McKenzie. He frowned. “Get me a clean knife from the kitchen,” he called out.
The second woman — Linda? — brought him one. A paring knife, short with an non-serrated blade. He slashed the wound like he would a rattlesnake bite. “Water,” he ordered. The woman nodded and went after some. Benny grimaced, sucked on the wound, and spat.
Again.
He rinsed his mouth out with the water Linda brought, and splashed some on the wound. He sucked on it again and spat it out.
He was still doing that when Dennis McKenzie shoved him aside. “Poison?” he said incredulously. He glanced at the dead body and swore.
“I gather you know him,” Benny said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
“Yeah,” Dennis said. He pulled something from a black doctor’s bag and gave Duncan a shot. “His grandfather is one of the old Alpha’s staunchest supporters.”
“He was at the pinochle night?” Benny asked.
Dennis nodded. “He was there, but I don’t think he stayed long. He wasn’t still there when we were eating. I looked,” he said, adding, “It’s just an antihistamine. Surprisingly, young shifters, pre-shift, get stung, bit by snakes, all those things, more often than you think.”
Dennis pulled out a baggie and gingerly scooted the knife into it. “I’m curious what it is.”
“Acted fast,” Benny said. He rinsed his mouth out. “And Doc? If you’ve got a light dose? I wouldn’t mind some.”
Dennis looked at him through narrowed eyes. He reached into the bag and pulled out a strip of small white pills. “Take two. With lots of water,” he ordered. “And keep rinsing and spitting.”
Benny clutched the pills and found the bathroom. He could hear Ryder down the hall talking to the women in the bedroom. He had a headache, too. He rinsed his mouth again and spit.
This shit had to stop.
Ryder found him in the bathroom. “Doc said to check on you,” he said. “Duncan’s going to be fine. Is there a reason why someone is locked in the rig you were in and pounding on the window to get out? And some kid is refusing to let us do anything about it?”
“Will is kind of a literal-minded young man,” Benny said. He started laughing and couldn’t stop. Ryder just shook his head, a half-grin on his own face.
“You OK?” Ryder asked.
Benny nodded. He wiped at his mouth again. “Nasty stuff,” he said. “Dropped Duncan like a he’d been kicked by a mule. My mouth went numb getting it out. Some kind of snake venom I’d guess.”
“Didn’t know anything like that worked on us shifters,” Ryder said, frowning with concern.
“Jedediah Jones and some other Europeans were experimenting with drugs that would work on a shifter,” Benny said, frowning too. What had he heard? Well it would come to him.
Or not.
He hadn’t realized how much he depended upon his memory for stories and information until his memory was no longer reliable. His wolf whined, and Benny reassured him automatically.
“There are more recruits in a house near the college,” Benny told his brother. “And, Will — the clueless one? He told a story of how he got turned — just like we suspected. He says he was taken to a cabin in the woods north of here, to train to be a soldier. But he wasn’t much good at it, so they gave him to Bjorn to put to work here in town. Will says they called the cabin, ‘the lodge.’”
Ryder swore. “Guess it’s better we learned of that today rather than tomorrow when we were going out there for a funeral pyre,” he added sourly.
“Truth,” Benny agreed. “So the dead guy? Dennis said his grandfather was inner circle.” Probably wasn’t what it was called here, he admitted. What was he going to say — one of the Alpha’s pinochle partners?
Ryder grimaced. “So we’ve got one more viper pit to clean out? And we need to get these women to Duncan’s house? Anything else before supper?”
“Supper is at the pack house,” Benny reminded him. “Marta McKenzie is expecting us.”
Ryder just stared at him. “Would you at least give me a running start if I ride out of here?” he demanded.
Benny chuckled. “You’ll find me on your right as we blow past the city limits.”