Chapter Nineteen
Time had not been kind to Marcus Sullivan in the years since I’d last seen him. He, like all wolves, was muscular and lean, but age was beginning to show in the worn lines of his face and the smattering of gray in his black hair and beard.
“Marcus,” Lucas shouted above the eruption of uneasy noise from the crowd. “What is this?”
“The end of your reign, pup. I won’t be ruled by a baby-faced millionaire. I’m here to dethrone you. ”
Dominick emerged from the crowd to stand in front of Lucas, and other loyal wolves formed a circle around us. I was being protected by extension, but I saw uncertainty etch across Desmond’s face. He looked at me, then Lucas, as if trying to decide who needed his protection more. He’d been asked to guard me, but his king was also in danger. He stayed next to me, but his gaze constantly darted back to Lucas.
I vowed to never leave my house unarmed ever again. Leave your gun at home for one day and look what happens.
“You’re making a mistake, Marcus. ” Lucas took a step towards the bar, his voice calm and hands up, palms outward, showing he meant no harm. “If you declare yourself as a traitor, you’ll be banished from the pack. You’ll have no one you can turn to. You don’t want that. ”
“Don’t tell me what I want. I know what I want. You dead and me as a leader in your place. ”
“You know the laws of succession. Desmond is next in line for the throne. ”
Desmond and I shared a look. My gaze flicked to the bar, where I could see a clear path between myself and Marcus. Desmond grabbed my arm and pulled me close to his side, shaking his head so his meaning was clear. Don’t try anything.
From the bar, Marcus spoke again. “You lead like a friendly politician, Rain. You kiss all the babies and shake all the right paws. The pack doesn’t need diplomacy, it needs leadership. ”
“Marcus, my family has led for generations. We might not be perfect, but we always do what’s best for the pack. If you’re unhappy, we can discuss it, but not like this. ” Lucas
had stopped advancing. The tension in the room was so thick it was hard to breathe. No one but the two men dared to speak as everyone waited to see what would happen.
Sophia, in spite of what she’d learned about her father’s betrayal, had gone to stand near him and away from the crowd protecting Lucas.
“It’s time for a change. I am not alone. ” And all it took was a glance through the club to realize this was true. Marcus had at least a dozen men in the crowd, not counting his private guards or the men at the door. This was a coup.
“Marcus, don’t be a fool. Think about your family. ” Like an expert police negotiator, Lucas was trying his hardest to defuse the situation without it coming to violence. His voice never rose above a soothing cadence, and his hands were still up.
I didn’t for one second believe it would work. My mind was racing, trying to match this Marcus with the distraught father I’d met in Albany two years earlier. Had all of it been a lie? A ruse to eliminate an undesirable mate from Sophia’s life? None of it was making any sense to me.
Marcus knelt on the bar and stroked Sophia’s hair. She looked up at him with trust shining from her face. Maybe she believed he really had been thinking of her best interests when he had Billy Reilly killed. It can be so easy to lie to yourself when it means you don’t have to accept a hard truth.
“My family. ” Marcus touched Sophia’s cheek and smiled at her the way a doting father should look at his only child. I saw his hand move, but an instant too late, and was screaming “No!” as he snapped her neck and dropped her body to the floor like a sack of garbage.
Desmond was still holding me. I tried to break free, but he held me firm and whispered in my ear, “Not yet. ”
“And her!” Marcus pointed to me. “You would have our queen be a killer for hire? A woman willing to murder her own kind for wealth?”
I’d had just about enough of this crap for one night. Marcus had lost his mind if he was willing to kill a beloved daughter to make a point. He’d successfully proven he had nothing to lose, but it wasn’t worth Sophia Sullivan’s life. I could no longer hold my tongue. Desmond might be able to keep me from attacking, but he couldn’t stop me from speaking up.
“That’s a lie! You hired me under false pretenses to kill an innocent boy. Why should anyone trust a word you say?” I pointed to the heap on the floor that had, until very recently, been a source of irritation to me. “If your own daughter’s life means so little to you, do the lives of your pack mean anything more?”
A few of the dissenting wolves turned to look at Marcus, whose jaw was clenched. I had expected a little more of the B-movie-villain banter he was proving to be so good at, but all I got was quiet rage. Tendons bulged on his neck, and his face reddened. He didn’t say anything else to me and looked back to Lucas instead.
“They’ll need to follow someone when you’re dead. ”
He leaped off the bar into the crowd, and all hell broke loose on the dance floor. Weres, wolves or otherwise, are not the type to succumb to hysterics and make a madcap race for the exits. Nor are they the type to back down from a fight. Instead, men and women, friends and enemies, canine, feline or other, joined in the melee. This was no regular bar brawl, either. Everyone here meant business, making it a real fight to the death. I hadn’t thought a royal uprising among wolves could be solved with polite discussion and treaty signing, but I also hadn’t expected this level of violence to arise so quickly. The sickening sound of ripping flesh echoed through the room as limbs were torn from bodies. Once the smell of blood was in the air the madness really began.
People moved backwards from Lucas and Marcus in a wave, tumbling over one another and launching into attacks wherever they fell. When the floor had cleared around them, the two men stood facing each other. Lucas was rigid, his expression so pained I knew he still hoped for this to end without him fighting.
Desmond snarled as he yanked a man to the ground mid-attack, sending the inert body sliding over the slick marble floor. I doubted nonviolent confrontation was in the cards anymore.
“Marcus. ” Lucas’s voice sounded tired, but there was an angry undertone that gave me a chill. “I’ve known you my whole life. My father trusted you. Please don’t do this. ”
Dominick looked ready to jump in at any moment, but Desmond hadn’t budged from my side. The power radiating off him made my skin tingle. We all watched Marcus to see what he would do.